Chapter 15
Letty lifted her eyebrows, Dominic's words echoing in her mind. Go get your car.
No fucking problem. That much, she could do. She turned on her heel and went to her vehicle, climbing into the front seat, looking out at Dominic through the windshield, questioningly, as if to say, "What now?" He pointed down with his index finger, and she frowned, not understanding. He sighed and mouthed,
"Under the seat."
Letty nodded and looked underneath the front seat, moving her legs from one side to the other and trying to find what he was talking about. She didn't see anything, so she reached down with her right hand, feeling around on the mat and beneath the lip of the front seat. At first, there was nothing, but then her fingertips brushed it. Rough paper. Familiar feel, nothing like it. Money. She tugged it out of its stash between the racing seat and the floorboard, a thick wadded roll. Keeping her eyes and hands in her lap, she counted it. Two thousand dollars.
"Damn," she said softly to herself. Her mouth was suddenly dry, and she nodded, fumbling for her key and turning it in the ignition. The car's stick shifter clicked eagerly into gear and she tapped her foot on the gas, alerting the gathered crowd to the fact that she was going to pull out. They moved, parted like the proverbial sea, a hundred eyes raking the beautiful body of her beast, wondering, no doubt, where she'd gotten it. If she'd paid for it. If she'd put in any of the wrench time. If her man had footed the bill for it, put his bitch in a bangin' ride and thrown her to the wolves.
And so fuckin' what if he had? She was ready. She'd been ready for this since she was ten fucking years old. It was about time. Her body hummed with adrenaline, so acutely that she was trembling and the hard nipples and goosebumps were back. The rumbling vibration of her engine in combination with the tightness of her thong and the smoothness of the leather steering wheel beneath her hand made for a heated wetness between her thighs, rush arousal combating her nervousness and struggling to take her over.
Ever since Letty had gone through puberty, racing had had this effect on her. The thrill. The elevated pulse, the hard nipples, the dry mouth, the wet crotch. It was a wet-dream come true, this car, this crowd, this crew, and as she pulled up to the starting point and passed her buy-in out the driver's side window, she gave silent thanks and praise to God. One race. One race to end all others, and she was going to kick some motherfucking ass.
Her black eyes squinted, she examined her competitors. Isaiah. Blue. Vince? Fuck. Yeah, that was Vince. Oh well.
"All's fair in love and war, V, even if you are family," she murmured, drawing and releasing deep, calming breaths.
Her confidence was not bravado. She'd been waiting all her life for this first victory, and with God as her witness, she was gonna make it worth all the work. All those years in that greasy ass garage, all the sweat, blood and tears, all the heartache that came along with being Dom Toretto's girl, all the blowjobs, all the 18-hour days and emergency over-nighters. All the beatings at Quino's hands for coming home late. All the times she'd let Ruben down to finish shit up at the shop. All the manuals she'd read, all the oil changes she'd done, all the rims and details she'd put on, all the Japanese body-kits, rims, exhausts she'd taken out of their packaging, all the cuts, scrapes, bruises and burns she'd suffered in the name of automotive beauty. It was all coming together tonight. Right here. The next fifteen-or-so seconds. She was ready.
It showed.
It was a bloodbath. A breathtaking helter-skelter, quarter-mile crash course. Letty was all instinct and adrenaline and no fear, light and color blurring as the needle on her speedometer climbed...climbed...climbed, the ecstatic roar of her engine damn near deafening. She was quick off the mark and had staying power, and when the azure gleam of Vince's nose crept up in her side-view, she hit one of the tabs on her steering wheel with her thumb. Her tires squealed and she was tossed back against her seat like a lifeless doll as her Silvia tore a hellified hole in the asphalt.
And then it was over.
Letty was a little breathless and disoriented as she put on her brakes and brought her Silvia to a standstill, chest heaving with each breath she drew, and she sat there, panting, for several moments. Only when she heard the others pulling their U-turns behind her did she realize she may have won.
"Fuck," she whispered, taking her foot off the brake and putting both hands on the wheel, turning cleanly and driving on stunned autopilot back toward the starting line, where Dominic stood, and it was when she got close enough to read his expression that she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she had won. He was grinning from ear to ear and waving a fistful of money in the air, and as soon as she came to a complete stop and put her car in park, he opened her door and virtually dragged her out into his arms, growling into her throat.
"You did it. Hardass lil ruca, you did it."
Letty could feel tears burning behind her eyes, but that's as far as they got. She wasn't going to cry. Not tonight. She wrapped her arms around his neck and yielded herself to his enthusiastic kiss and embrace.
"I won," she stated incredulously, and his big body shook with laughter.
"Damn right, you won. How's it feel? You like it?" He pulled back. "Lemme look at you." His smiling ebony eyes swept her face and he beamed. "Hell yeah. You loved it. Popped your cherry now, didn't you? No lookin' back."
"Damn right," she whispered. "Claro."
And for one long, glorious moment, their eyes were locked, both of them grinning like a couple of idiots, drunk with the elation of her first win. She could see it all in his face. Love. Pride. Joy. This was the man she wanted to spend every morning, noon and night with, as long as she lived. And it was so fucking excellent to see so plainly on his face that he felt the same way about her.
The moment was truncated when Leon's Skyline rolled up alongside them and he hung out the open window, shouting one word as he passed, "Cops, cops, cops."
"Fuck," Dom said, kissing Letty's mouth quickly and giving her a gentle shove back toward her still-open car door before turning and sprinting back to his MR-2. She was a little stunned at first, but her killer cold overtook her in no time and she beat hell out of that place, weaving around her fellow lawbreakers and their vehicles. Tunnel vision with the Toretto fort at the end of it served her well. As usual, there weren't enough cops on the scene to pursue more than three or four of the cars, but she had to take a detour due to another racer pulled over on the main route, and even though it wasn't a real close call, she still heaved a sigh of relief when she pulled up to the curb and shut off her engine. It would be just her luck to lose her car on the first night she raced it.
Pocketing her keys, she headed into the house, and it was already jumping. Dominic had made it back, and Leon, and Vince...Isaiah gave her a short, congratulatory hug as soon as she made it into the living room.
"I'ma get you next time," he said, with a smile she wasn't sure was sincere.
"Yeah, aright. You can try, little man," Letty quipped cockily, and Shadie cracked up, holding up a hand for a high-five. Letty gave it to her, also grinning, and continued through the room to where Dominic was dancing with Mia, a cup of frothy beer in each hand and a bottle of Corona sticking out of his pocket.
"Eyyy, there she is," he growled, abandoning Mia and putting his arms around Letty instead. She grinned.
"Getting started?"
"Oh, fuck yes."
"Looks like it. Baby, you got the eyes of Bob Marley."
"Lit."
"Yes, I can see that." Letty stood on the balls of her feet and pressed her mouth to his. It was meant to be a quick kiss of greeting, but he rapidly turned it into more, latching onto her mouth hungrily and pressing his tongue between her lips. She welcomed it greedily, suckling it and then letting her own dance against it. This was bliss. This was what it meant to be on Dominic's good side.
"Mmmmm," he purred against her lips, and the vibration tickled. She wrinkled her nose and smiled into his kiss, rocking her hips smoothly against his. "Mmmmmm...Letty, fuck."
"What, already?" She pulled out of the kiss and spoke against his throat, pulling a bit of the skin there into her mouth and suckling it. The front door opened behind them and she turned just in time to see the influx, six people storming their living room bearing gifts of booze and God knows what else. Dominic kissed her cheek and greeted each of them with a smile and a few friendly words, divulging the whereabouts of the coolers, the kitchen, and the can. When they had thanked him and merged with the rest of the crowd, he returned his attention to her.
"So I'm gonna get some later, right?" His lids were heavy from the bud and his voice was thick from his comically obvious erection. She grinned.
"I think it might be a possibility."
"Go go, speed racer girl."
"God damn right." Her cheeks were hurting from smiling so hard.
"Come on, have a little mercy. Take pity on your man. Don't let your publicity go to your head."
"Oh, I got publicity now?" Letty arched and eyebrow.
"Could be."
"In that case, I'll fuck you, but you can't tell the papers." She slid her fingertips up underneath the hemline of his wifebeater and tickled his belly with them. His skin was so warm and soft that she wanted to tear the garment off of him and devour him, right then and there in the middle of all their guests. She could still feel the dull ache of their earlier coupling, and yet she wanted more. More and more and more of him.
"Deal." His voice was so low that she could feel the word in the base of her belly. There was an itch her car had caused that was going to need scratching sometime relatively smooth. But not yet. For now, the house was full of their people. The DT family, huge, booming, on its way toward streetrace superstardom, relied on him. On them, probably. King and Queen of the whole damn operation. And schmoozing came with the territory.
The music moved in Letty, and she draped one arm over Dominic's shoulder and took one of his beers in her other hand, downing it without bothering to stop for breath. They took advantage of the good music and the conciliatory crowd, grinding and drinking, getting good and plastered and coming as close to fucking as was humanly possible without disrobing. His body was hot and hard against her through their clothes, big and well-muscled, and his hands were hungry, all over her. The other couples dancing in the room backed off away from them and watched Dom and Letty while they danced. Between songs, he murmured promises in her ear. Things he had rarely if ever said before.
"Gonna make you my wife."
"That so?" Her voice was quiet and full of awe.
"Tha's right. Ain' nothin' ever gonna take this down." His words were slurred and he was drunk and high, but that didn't matter to her. Her heart was soaring, high above the house somewhere between heaven and the stars. She drank in the sentiment behind what he was saying, moved so much that she was in some sort of dazed, drunken stupor.
"Can't wear Dickies to our wedding, Dominic," she joked, quietly.
"Says who? I'm the King of the Street. I can wear wh'ever I wanna."
She chuckled, gently, one arm wrapped tightly around his middle, other hand holding her fourth beer. "Aright. At least make sure you zip your fly."
"Sure thing, mami."
Letty smiled and rubbed her face between his pecs, swallowing the lump in her throat. She wasn't going to think about what their marriage would mean to Rube, and she wasn't going to ask Dominic when he was planning on bringing all of this about. She wasn't going to pry too deep into what he had in mind, because she didn't want to spoil the moment with technicalities, and if he was too drunk to mean what he was saying, she didn't want to know. She wanted to believe those beautiful words, have them and hold them to her core until they were either proven false or ended up coming true.
"What about babies?" Dominic asked, after a few moments of buzzed, blitzed silence.
"What about 'em?" She pulled back away from him, just far enough so that she could see his face. His dark eyes were quiet and relaxed, and yet she knew there was that same hungry intensity sleeping just beneath the surface.
"Ever think about 'em?"
"I don't know. I guess I've thought about it before." She spoke cautiously, not sure which answer he wanted and afraid to give the wrong one. Letty had always seen herself having kids somewhere way down the line, but if he didn't want them, if that was a condition of their wedding, it was something she'd be willing to give up on. "You ever think about 'em?"
"Yeah, I think I wanna son."
"A son would be cool." Now her voice sounded a little strangled. It was getting harder and harder not to bitch up and cry. She kissed his cheek, whisper-soft.
"Maybe lil girl too."
"Yeah, maybe."
"Later," he said, with a slow yawn. He wrapped both arms around her and hugged her in close against him, his body curled over hers, cheek against her shoulder. Letty closed her eyes and rubbed his back, a slow up-and-down stroke with her free hand, bringing her beer to her lips and drinking the rest of it so she could toss the empty plastic cup on the floor.
"Yeah, later." She didn't know how much later, and she didn't care. She also didn't know if he'd even remember saying any of this in the morning. If he didn't, so be it. She was riding this feeling out for all it was worth.
Letty and Dominic danced until she had to pee so bad she could taste it. She ignored it as long as she could, but it eventually became intolerable, what with all the beer in her system, and she gave him a light tap.
"I have to pee, Dom."
"Yeah?" He didn't move.
"Yeah, so you're gonna have to stand up."
"Okay." He still didn't move. She laughed silently, shoulders shaking. He very rarely got fucked up like this. Putting both hands on his upper arms, she gave him a smooth, gentle push back away from him, so that he was upright.
"I have to go upstairs and pee. You gonna be aright down here?"
"Yeah. You coming back?" He rubbed his eyes with the heels of giant hands, the bling of his rings catching the light and glinting.
"Yeah, I'll be right back."
"Okay. I'm gonna get a sandwich in the kitchen."
"Good idea," said Letty. "Sober up so you can get that piece you wanted."
He grinned, an endearing, inebriated laziness. "Aright."
Letty reached up and rubbed the soft scratchiness of the top of his head, then turned and worked her way up the crowded staircase toward the bathroom, her bladder screaming for release. She could have cried as she saw the line outside the bathroom door, some six or seven partygoers standing impatiently against the wall. Just as she was bitching under her breath and heading for the end of the line, Susana approached her. She was made up, ghetto fabulous and stunning as usual, hair in a maze of wicked braids, clothes top-of-the-line and making Letty feel frumpy and tomboyish as usual.
"Ey," Susana greeted her. "Your girl is trippin'."
"Which one?"
"Mo. She smoked a bowl and-"
"Mo doesn't toke up," Letty interrupted.
"Exactly. It was good shit, too. And now she's locked in the bathroom. She won't come out."
Letty sighed heavily and made her way to the bathroom door, shoving the other people back. She lifted her fist and pounded on the door.
"Mo, it's me. Come out of there."
The tiny, high-pitched voice from behind the barrier was shaken and distorted, but still unmistakable. "Ohhh no. No way. Don't think I don't know."
"Don't know what?" Letty frowned.
"I know they're out there with you, Letty. You traitor. I thought you were my friend."
"Who? Who's out here with me?" Inside Letty's brain, the song lyrics paranoia, paranoia, everybody's comin' to get me were on repeat. There was no answer. "Come on, open the door." Still more silence. "Mo?"
"Did you come alone?"
"Of course I came alone."
"You weren't followed?"
"Hell no, I wasn't followed. Open the goddamn door. I have to piss."
"How do I know this isn't some ploy?"
"What's a ploy? Look, I just have to pee, Mo, pleeease."
"You swear you're out there alone?"
"I swear."
Finally the door creaked open, just a crack, and one wide, frightened brown eye appeared in the small opening between the door and the frame. Letty lunged forward and plastered her own eyeball right against the outer side of the opening Mo had allotted. Milissa shrieked and jumped back, trembling and hysterical.
"Open the motherfucking door!"
"Okay, okay." Mo opened the door a bit more and Letty forced her way into the bathroom, shoving down her clothes and sitting down on the toilet with orgasmic relief.
"Head case, I fuckin' swear. What were you doing smokin' weed?" she asked Mo, who looked like she'd been through a hurricane on a life raft. Hair all over the place, mascara-induced black circles under black eyes, her normal hyperactive, hypersensitive vibe kicked up ten fold by what she'd inhaled.
"I got it from Susana."
"You don't need any more. Who the hell you think is following you?" Letty asked, wiping and flushing.
"What are you talking about?" Mo looked at her like she'd lost her mind. "I'm starving. God, all of a sudden. Starvation. I'm going to make English muffin pizzas." And without anything further, she opened the door and left Letty standing there completely exposed, disappearing around the corner and down the hall. Letty growled and stood up, pulling her skirt and thong up and over her ass, giving the laughing people outside the bird.
Dominic snagged Letty just as she was coming out of the bathroom, grabbed her by the upper arm and pulled her body up against his. "Where'd you go?"
"Pee. Mo had a crisis."
"Yeah, I saw her on the stairs. She was tryna get V to slide down the banister and he's thinkin' it o'er. Come to the bedroom with me." He was grinning, goofy and sheepish, and his hands dropped to her ass, giving her light smacks and urging her down the hallway in front of him.
Letty's amused laughter was lost to the din of the pounding music from downstairs, and she crawled up onto the bed on all fours. Even before she had a chance to roll over onto her back and open her legs from him, he was up on the bed and behind her, tugging at the waistline of her skirt and her underwear. If he wanted her on all fours, that was fine, too. His impatience was flattering. She loved it when he wanted her, and even though she probably couldn't come like this, it was the closeness she wanted, anyway.
Still smiling, she yielded to him and allowed him to drag it down and off of her, laughing with her head hanging forward as he wrestled with her boots.
He went in easy and she moaned, brow furrowing as she pressed back against the delicious invasion, dropping her chest and cheek to the mattress, hands fisting in the comforter as he commenced a slow, barely-moving-at-all rocking. He braced himself with his hands on top of hers, and his thrusts were erratic and very deep, his hips pressed right against her buttocks, and the pressure was intense due to the depth of penetration. Felt like he was all the way in her stomach, and there was no rhythm whatsoever, almost as if he were trying to play leap frog but couldn’t quite get over the top of her. Dominic was tired and shitfaced.
He pressed his cheek against her hair while he pumped, his hot, damp chest heavy against the back of her shoulders, and he went slower, more and more infrequently, until it stopped altogether for a long moment. She waited for a bit before speaking, hoping he'd get on with it on his own, because she knew he hadn't come. The party was still jumping downstairs; she could hear it. She cleared her throat, finally, trying not to laugh, and said,
"If you pass out up there, Dominic, I am going to be seriously pissed off because I do not want to spend the rest of the night pinned like this, and you know I won't be able to move your big ass."
He jolted a little, mumbled an apology, and raised up on his knees rather than on all fours, taking her hips in his hands. His strokes became determined and measured, then. Long and smooth, and as his breathing picked up, he reached around the front of her and found her clit with the tips of two fingers, rubbing it with a deliberate frenzy. Her body was shocked awake but he suddenness of the sensation and a short, husky cry left her throat.
Letty pulled her upper lip into her mouth and bit it as all the sexual tension that had accumulated since the race overwhelmed her, dragging her under into a silvery, liquidfire explosion so powerful that it caused her entire body to clench and tremble. Dominic was coming, too, bucking jerkily and gulping great lungfuls of air. Her heart was beating a chaotic riot against her ribs as he finished and rolled over off of her onto his back, and she stretched out on her belly with a low moan. She barely recognized her voice as her own as she croaked,
"I love you."
"Mmmm..." Dom draped a leaden arm over her body and dragged her up against him. He would crash now, she knew it. All that booze and the weed besides. She'd wanted to party more, but what the fuck? She was feeling satiated too, a contented weariness taking her over, sensibility drowning in the fog of her post orgasmic intoxication. As he whispered, "I love you, too," the corners of Letty's lips lifted in a sleepy smile and she surrendered coherence for the colorless security of oblivion in his arms.