The sound of Mikey coming into the room at 6am wakes me and I sit up and blink at him. I worked until midnight in the club last night, same as I did the night before. It has felt good to be able to do something. Even if I do suspect it was something that someone else usually does for Conor anyway, but I appreciate him finding me something to do to help me feel useful.
I don’t take as many pain meds now and I’m no longer sleeping for sixteen hours a day. It means I’m recovering, but it also means I have much more time on my hands. I’m not a big reader, and I think I have watched every good program Netflix has to offer. And now that Shane is back, and Conor isn’t working so much, I no longer have my hot nurse mostly to myself to spend the whole day and night with me. I miss waking up with her next to me.
Mikey flops into bed with exhaustion while I suddenly am wide awake. I climb out of bed and wander down the quiet hallway. Everyone is sleeping and I feel a sense of loneliness being the only person up and about.
I make my way to the stairway leading to the roof and head up to the terrace. It’s a beautiful space, and we don’t use it nearly often enough. The morning is warm and the sun is coming up. I tilt my face toward it and let the sunlight warm my skin. The sound of the street below reminds me I am not alone. Despite the occupants of our apartment sleeping, the city is very much awake.
I lean on the railing, looking at the streets coming to life below and have no idea how long I stay there before I hear footsteps behind me. Turning around, I see Jessie walking toward me.
“Good morning. You’re up early,” she says with a smile as she reaches me and slides her warm arm around my waist.
“I couldn’t sleep.” I kiss her head and wrap my arm around her shoulder. “How did you know I was up here?”
“I came to see if you needed anything and you weren’t in bed. And you weren’t in the apartment, and I saw the door to the roof open.”
“You should be a detective,” I chuckle, and she rolls her eyes and smiles up at me.
“This is some view,” she says as she peers over the railing.
“Sure is.”
“You feel cold.”
“I’m fine,” I say with a sigh.
“I’m not nagging you,” she whispers. “I just worry about you.”
“I know, baby. But I promise, I’m fine. It’s nice to get some fresh air. Are you cold?”
“A little,” she shivers.
I turn around and wrap my arms around her. “Come with me and I’ll keep you warm,” I whisper in her ear before we walk to the pool and the sun loungers. We have towels in a locker up here, and I take one out and wrap it around her shoulders.
“Thank…” she starts to say, but then she looks over my shoulder and her flushed cheeks suddenly turn pale.
I turn around to see what it is that has spooked her.
“What’s that in the pool, Liam?” she whispers.
I blink at the small, dark mass in the pool. We usually have it covered, but I’ve been swimming up here the past few days because it’s good for my recovery. “It’s a dead bird, baby. That’s all. I’ll fish it out later.”
“Is it a Blue Jay?” she asks with a tremor in her voice.
I release her from my embrace and walk closer to the pool and she follows a few steps behind me. “I think so. Why?”
“There’s blood.”
“Yeah,” I agree as a small pool of blood surrounds the bird. “We’ll get the pool cleaned.” I turn to her and frown and her entire body is trembling from head to toe and she is so pale, I’m worried she’s going to pass out.
“Jessie.” I walk back to her, wrapping her in my arms again and holding her close to me. “What is it, baby?”
“Do you get many Blue Jays dead on your roof?”
I look down at her. “Not really. But this is New York. There are birds everywhere. I’m pretty sure we’ve had a few dead ones up here before. It probably drowned in the pool or something.”
“But it was bleeding.” She shivers in my arms.
“So?”
“So, like someone hurt it. And then they put it here.”
“We’re ten floors up, Jessie. It fell out of the sky. Maybe someone shot it and it flew away?” I look down at her and the sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach begins to grow. This isn’t about a dead bird.
I walk us over to a sun lounger and sit down, pulling her onto my lap. I brush the hair back from her pale face. “What is it? It’s just a bird.”
“No. It’s a Blue Jay,” she stammers.
I frown at her as she stares into the distance.
“Jessie. I need you to tell me what’s going on, baby. Because you’re freaking me out.”
She turns and looks at me. “Sorry,” she says with a shake of her head, as though she has come back to reality.
“Don’t be sorry. Just tell me what’s wrong?”
She swallows hard and nods her head, but it’s a few seconds before she speaks. “When the Wolf kept me prisoner, I had no-one to talk to. I never saw another living soul the whole time I was there. He didn’t like animals, and he used to shoot the raccoons or the birds that came into the yard. It was like a sport. He would lie on the roof with his sniper rifle and pick them off,” she shudders and I pull her closer. “One day, I found an injured Blue Jay. I made it a nest from branches and leaves and I nursed it back to health. I understood that as soon as it could fly, it would leave the yard, and I wanted it to, because he would have shot it anyway. So, I knew that I was never going to keep it. But for two weeks, I cared for it every day and I lived for my hour outside where I could check on it and make sure it was okay. It was so nice just to have another heartbeat around, you know?” She wipes a tear from her eye and I swear my heart is about to break into pieces. “It was doing really well. It was almost ready to fly, and then one morning I woke up and it was on the pillow next to me.”
“Jessie.” I squeeze her tighter.
“He had sliced off its head, and left it there with blood dripping onto my sheets.” She wipes her cheeks again as the tears run down them.
I pull her against my chest, and she sobs in my arms. While I hold her there, I look at the bird in the pool. It still has its head. No doubt, it was shot or injured and it flew up here and died. But my girl is spooked and I can’t blame her after what she just told me.
When she stops crying, she looks up at me and I wipe the tears from her face with the towel. “You okay?”
“Yes,” she nods. “You think it did just fly up here and die, Liam?”
“Yes. New York is full of Blue Jays, baby.”
“I know,” she sniffs.
“I’ll get Mikey to fish it out and we’ll bury it somewhere. Okay?”
“Okay,” she says as she lays back against me. “I’m sorry for being such a crazy person.”
“You are not crazy. Not even a little bit,” I assure her. “I’m sorry for everything he did to you, Jessie. If I ever meet him, I will happily cut his head off for you.”
“Thank you,” she says and I see the hint of a smile on her lips before she cuddles closer to my chest.
I wince instinctively as she shifts her position and she gasps out loud, sitting up quickly. “I’m sorry, Liam. Your ribs.” She bites her lip.
“My ribs are good. Come back here.” I hold my arms out. “Now!”
“When did you boys all get so bossy?” she says as she leans back against me.
I cup her chin in my hand and tilt her face up so I can look into her bright blue eyes. “You haven’t even seen me bossy yet,” I grin at her and she smiles back up at me so fucking genuinely that it makes me want to bury myself in her. I lean down and kiss her softly and she melts into me, deepening our kiss and allowing me to slide my tongue into her mouth. She tastes of peppermint and coffee and I have to hold myself back from flipping her over and nailing her to this sun lounger because she just damn near passed out from terror at the sight of a dead bird and the memories it triggered.
But she slides her hand from beneath the towel and onto my bare stomach, trailing it down to the band of my sweatpants before slipping her hand inside and squeezing my cock, which was already stiffening and it completely hardens in her hand.
“You want that, baby?” I ask her as she squeezes harder.
“Yes,” she pants.
I pull her up and she swings her legs around until she is straddling me. “Show me,” I groan as I press soft kisses against the sweet smelling skin on her throat. She works my pants down so my cock is free and rubs the pad of her thumb across the tip, making my balls draw up into my stomach.
My hands dip beneath her t-shirt until I find her panties, pushing my hand inside until my fingers slide over her wet clit and her soft moan rumbles in her throat. She works my cock, pumping the shaft as I slide my fingers lower until I find her slick heat and push two fingers deep inside her and she coats me in her juices.
“You’re so fucking wet, baby,” I growl in her ear and she lets go of my cock, wrapping her arms around my neck instead, she whimpers as I fuck her with my fingers until her cum is running down my hand and onto my wrist.
“God, Liam,” she groans and my dick throbs at the sound as her walls squeeze around me. She rocks her hips as she presses her face against my neck and comes hard for me.
When she’s stopped trembling, I pull my fingers out of her and tug her panties to the side. “Slide that hot pussy onto my cock, Jessie.”
She looks at me as she does as she’s told, licking her lips as she lowers herself onto me. Her eyes roll when she is all the way down and I pull her deeper as her pussy clenches and releases around me. “You’re so hot and tight, baby,” I hiss as she drives me crazy with her hungry squeezes. “Do you have any idea how much I missed this pussy when you left us?”
“Liam.” Her cheeks flush pink and she buries her head in my neck again as I wrap my arms around her and hold her to me while she rides my cock like a pro.
“You’ll never keep it from me again, will you?” I growl in her ear as I get so close to the edge, I’m about to fall into oblivion with her. This girl is my whole fucking world.
“No,” she breathes as she holds onto me and I come inside her with a roar that I’m pretty sure could be heard on the street below. I slip my hand between us and rub her clit as she keeps on rolling her hips over my cock, chasing her second orgasm, which hits a few seconds later.
I press my forehead against hers. “That is the most fun I have ever had on this rooftop,” I grin at her.
“It’s the most fun I’ve ever had on any rooftop,” she giggles, slightly breathless from our exertions. I brush the hair back from her face, glad to see her happy again and recovered from the whole Blue Jay incident. But that doesn’t mean I’m still not freaked out, and will be speaking to my brothers about it as soon as I get the chance.
