“Yeah, that is what Devon keeps telling me. It will happen when it happens, but fuck me! When will that be?” Gabe growled in frustration.
Slapping him on the shoulder, I laughed at my CO.
“When your boys get a clue where the finishing line is,” I quipped, then jumped from the stool quickly to avoid the fist that came flying at my face.
“You’re getting slow in your old age, Gabe. Too many late nights in bed with your woman and not enough on the course.”
“I can kick your arse any day of the week, 2nd Lt,” Gabe muttered, “fucking prick.”
“Whatever helps you sleep at night, mate,” I threw over my shoulder, walking off to find Oaklee with the intention of stealing her off Mum for a few minutes. I needed my girl’s lips and maybe cop a feel of her luscious arse for a minute or two. I still had to report to my old man’s custom bike shop for an hour or so before finishing for the day. Gabe and I spent all morning and afternoon at the gun range, preparing the ground for a new concrete wall to be installed at the far end of the property to act as a bullet trap. Booth wanted to extend the outdoor range and had plans for a bigger and better trap than the one currently in place. His idea was to install two ten feet slab walls one foot apart and fill in the middle with a special rubber compound, kind of like a sandwich made up of concrete with a bullet stopping filling. It was an ingenious idea and would save on replacing the concrete walls so often. The work was backbreaking but fucking rewarding as hell, but I needed some time with my Temptress to get me through the next couple of hours.
Searching the room, I found Oaklee still with my mum, but Dad and Doc had joined them.
There was nothing wrong with walking over and seeing what is going on, I thought to myself as I made my way past the pool table where a fierce game was playing out between Mannix and one of the new prospects. I didn’t know any of the new guys, didn’t have the time to sit and talk with them. It wasn’t my business who the Club recruited, but now that Oaklee and I were together, and she spent time here and would be when I deployed, maybe it was time I took more of a vested interest in the new members. Oaklee was mine, so I have every right to know who would be around her.
Getting closer to the small group, the hairs on the back of my neck pricked, my spidey senses coming to life. Walking at a faster pace, I approached just as my father reached out to shake Doc’s hand.
“Appreciate you taking her for me, Doc.”
“No worries, Creed, as long as Oaklee doesn’t mind being on a bike, that is?” Doc answered, looking down at my girl, waiting for her answer.
“Nope, I don’t mind at all,” Oaklee replied happily, her innocent reply making my blood boil.
“What’s going on?” I stepped forward, checking my tone for my father’s benefit, but there was no controlling my jaw from grinding.
Dad turned to look at me, his eyes zeroing in on my tightening jaw with more interest than I was comfortable with.
“Your mum needs some artwork from the tattoo shop Doc has been working on. Oaklee here is going with him to pick out the one that is to be sent to the formatter for Mum’s next book.”
“Doesn’t Mum already know what she wants? Why is it necessary for Oaklee to go with Doc?” My question was too much, but fuck it. Oaklee riding on the back of someone else’s bike was a bad fucking idea. Bad because she was mine.
My dick, my bike, my everything.
My fucking heart.
“Because it is,” Dad clipped, his black eyes narrowing at me, “why is this any of your business, Cole?”
Clenching my fists, I avoided looking at Oaklee for more than a second, but I didn’t miss the nervous lip biting or the way she was looking at everything around us but me.
Yeah, she knows what she did wrong.
Agreeing to get on the back of another man’s bike wasn’t just exclusive to patched members, and I was guessing she remembered what I said to her back when she got on my bike the first time.
Without causing a scene, there was no way for her to back out or for me to insist I take her or Doc take one of the Club’s vehicles. The man never drove a car as far as I knew, so asking him to drive rather than ride was going to cause more suspicion from my old man.
Lifting my chin, I stared at my father, holding his intense glare with one of my own.
“It’s not,” I clipped, hating the words, hating the meaning behind them. This fucking game of secrecy suddenly backfiring on me. This scenario never entered my mind when Oaklee and I agreed to lay low, and now I was getting burned. Badly.
“I see,” Dad smirked, practically dismissing me, to walk off with Doc, speaking to him in a low voice, leaving Oaklee and me alone.
“I didn’t think,” Oaklee whispered hurriedly, sounding contrite and worried.
“Obviously, Temptress.” My reply stern, forgetting who was around us for a brief second and using her nickname.
“Want me to back out?”
“Too late for that now, baby.”
“Cole, please, I am sorry,” Oaklee hissed, twisting her hands in front of her, keeping them from reaching out to me.
All I wanted to do was take her into my arms and assure myself she was mine, but doing that would only bring trouble for Oaklee. Taking off for the base tomorrow meant she would be here to fend off my parents on her own and I would never do that to her.
“I don’t like this anymore, Oaklee, it is getting too hard,” I growled, meaning the sneaking around behind my family’s back. Even Gabe and the guys didn’t like that they knew but couldn’t say anything, had to be careful around the rest of the Club.
“Cole,” Oaklee croaked, then tensed when Doc yelled out to her.
“You ready, sweetheart?”
I wanted to rip the man’s throat out for daring to call my girl the endearment, bleach my ears from hearing another man calling Oaklee something that was my right and my right only. She was mine, mine to touch, mine to call sweetheart, but for my stupidity to think it would be a great idea to keep our relationship hidden.
I could feel Oaklee looking at me, hear her silent begs to look at her and fuck did I want to, but the sounds of Doc’s heavy boots coming our way meant I would have to wait to have my girl in my arms.
“I will see you at your place later, Oaklee.” Turning away from her, I stood rooted to the floor, my feet feeling like the slabs of concrete delivered to the range today.
“Let’s get moving, sweet thing, I’m going to give you the best ride of your life,” Doc sprouted as he passed me, his smirk and wink pissing me off.
“Fucked if I can watch you get on that bike with him,” I groaned painfully between clenched teeth. “Fucking can’t.”
Forcing myself to move, I walked away before I beat the shit out of the Wounded Souls’ Road Captain and laid claim to my Temptress right there. Fucking shout it from the rooftop that Oaklee was my forever and defy my father to disagree.
Oaklee wasn’t ready for that yet.
Was she?
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
OAKLEE
Pulling into my driveway, I nearly broke down and cried when I saw Cole’s Harley sitting in the same spot he’d parked every night for the last three weeks.
Over the past three hours, I had suffered every gut-wrenching emotion in the book, and I had to suffer through them with a smile pasted on my face while inside I was dying.
My heart crumbled when Cole said those horrible words, his voice as broken as I felt when he said them.
I don’t like this anymore, Oaklee, it’s getting too hard.
How did my day go from euphoric after waking up in Cole’s arms and making love slowly with the man I loved above everyone else to this soul-destroying fear that I was going to lose him?
Agreeing to go with Doc to his studio didn’t seem like a big deal; at least for me, it didn’t. On the other hand, Cole’s reaction made me rethink my choice enough that I worked myself up into a frenzy. Suddenly, I was overthinking his every facial tick, the low timbre of
his growls, and why he walked away from me.
Once he said to me that it was his bike and his bike only I would ever be on. I agreed because that was what I wanted too, but Doc was … well, Doc. Yeah, he was tall, dark and handsome, but my interest never peaked above zero on the interest scale. Ever. Surely Cole doesn’t think I would ever stray? The very thought was preposterous and truthfully a little sickening.
Another man’s hands on me? Spew!
The light in the loungeroom was dull, which meant Cole had the small table lamp on.
Mood lighting? That was a good sign.
I hated this sudden insecure dread looming inside me; second-guessing my decision no matter how innocent it had been at the time took me back to some of the worst times of my life. I was always believing I was to blame for my parents’ inability to get their acts together and keeping my grandparents from their scheduled world trip because they had to take custody of me every six months from their son.
“You’re a pain in my arse sometimes, Oaklee,” my mum would say to me when she missed out on a party because I had a cold or because she didn’t have the money to spend on alcohol or for a new dress. All because I needed school books, and my grandpa wouldn’t give them the money to try and get them to learn responsibility.
Parenting one-o-one, don’t have the kid if you don’t want the kid.
Inhaling deeply, I cut off the engine, turned off the lights and reached for my handbag.
There are no bones sticking ou; your face is not gaunt, your skin is not sagging. You ate breakfast today and didn’t throw it up.
I didn’t need to be looking at myself in the mirror to repeat my silly mantra. Sometimes I said it to myself as I walked past a woman skinnier than me or seeing a mother and daughter taking a shopping trip. This was the first time I had to use it concerning a man, though.
A part of me thought the whole thing silly. Me getting on the back of Doc’s bike seemed like a harmless act, and Cole should trust me not to be tempted by another man.
The other part of me completely understood why Cole got so pissed that he couldn’t stay and watch me settle on the back of Doc’s bike like I did when I was with Cole. I shimmied, moved around to get my butt in the right spot on the seat, something Cole rather enjoyed, and sometimes I made a show of wiggling my front against his back, just so I could hear his aroused moans, and finally, him growling his nickname for me when he’d reached his limit. Cole did not like riding with a hard-on.
Oh shit, did he think that Doc would get the same reaction with me on the back of his bike?
Ewww. Doc was so not my type; even if I wasn’t with Cole, that would still be the case.
I understood Cole hated that he had not been able to lay claim, as he put it, on me officially as yet. Hanging down at the beach with his team and their wives, my new friends, were the only times when he and I could walk around as a couple, other than at my house. And up until today, our interaction at the Club has been drama-free and kind of fun. Our secret flirting was fun, and I had to admit, I loved seeing him there and knowing he was mine. The way the pulse in his neck sped up when he clocked me in the main room at the compound. His reaction empowered me, giving me the confidence in myself I lacked for so long.
Having this time to get to know each other without the pressure of people watching us has been great. But when bumps in the road appear, like today, having to wait for hours to talk about it gave me pause that maybe it was time for Cole to speak to his father and me to come clean to my boss.
Today was the first time I regretted our secrecy. The first time being in the same room as Cole was uncomfortable. The first time I realised I still had a lot I didn’t know about the man who shared my bed and owned my heart.
My way was to nip problems in the bud before they festered too far, three hours later, and that problem was now a boil that needed lancing.
I was with Cole one hundred percent, but he needed to be more specific when it came to the ‘rules’ of being a girlfriend. Rules as in getting on the bike of the Club’s road captain and why it was taboo. It wasn’t like Doc was on the prowl for sex, I spent enough time at the Club to see the way his brown eyes narrowed, and his jaw ticked when a certain Club daughter sashayed past him, tossing her blonde hair over her shoulder and practically drooling over him.
Did the no bike rule apply to the likes of Creed or the other married members? Buggered if I knew, so Cole was going to sit down and explain it without a single chin lift, grunt or growl. Plain and simple English, please, for the love of God.
Walking up my new path, absently smiling at the new flower beds and how well they were taking hold, I barely reached the first step before the front door was yanked open and Cole stood there dressed only in black jeans. Open at the waist, unbuttoned and unzipped, giving me a mouth-watering glimpse at the happy trail that started just above his belly button and disappeared into the place I liked to call my orgasmic happy place.
Cole’s dick was a masterful piece of anatomy and I loved it so.
“Eyes are up here, Temptress,” Cole said dryly. Narrowing my eyes, I travelled up his bare torso, taking my sweet arse time as I counted the ridges that made up his ridiculous chest. The large pecs that he loved me touching, his thick neck that I spent an enormous amount of time sucking on, and finally reaching his handsome, rugged face.
“Hmmm, Hmmm, Hmmm,” I hummed, barely managing to stop myself from rubbing my thighs together. “That is the perfect way to start mending a shitty last few hours.”
I meant it as a joke, to lighten the mood and to remove the scowl from Cole’s face.
It didn’t.
Cole watched me in that way that made you want to squirm and ask if you had food on your face. He looked defeated, ashamed, and pissed all at the same time.
Well, at least he is calling me Temptress! I assured myself that much had not changed.
Slipping the strap of my bag off my shoulder, I let it fall to the ground.
“Honey,” I sighed, perking up more, seeing his onyx orbs shining at hearing the endearment.
“I did not ask or want to get on the back of Doc’s bike. I was talking to your mum, and the subject of being a pillion passenger came up when Booth and Stella came into the main room saying they were going off for a ride.”
“Once I said yes, I have been on a bike as a passenger, your dad appeared out of nowhere and started organising for Doc to take me to the tattoo shop. It all happened so fast, in between panicking and my head spinning, he had it planned and set. Getting on the back didn’t occur that it was a bad thing if the man was not available,” I explained as calmly as I could manage with a heartbeat over one sixty beats per minute.
Cole looked down at his feet, his hands fisted on his sexy hips.
“I didn’t like it,” he murmured darkly.
“I picked that up, honey.” A small nervous laugh bubbling up from my throat.
“It’s not the done thing, your woman riding with another man, no matter who he is.”
“And now that I know that, it won’t happen again,” I readily agreed, happy only to be wrapped around Cole.
“That image, even though I didn’t stick around to see you getting on the bike, tormented me the whole time you were gone. Fucking hated that I could even conjure up something so fucked up,” Cole spat out, still not looking at me. “That I had no control to stop it happening.”
“I get that,” nodding at him, willing him to lift his head and give me his eyes.
“I know that I would be destroyed if another woman was to put her hands on you, let alone sit behind you,” I admitted, understanding dawning. It wasn’t that I went with Doc and he visualised it so much as it was the fact he had his hands tied because of our subterfuge.
“It was bullshit that Dad insisted on your going with Doc like he was testing me or some shit,” Cole muttered, and I couldn’t help wonder if he was onto something, or more to the point if Creed was onto us.
“You think he knows?”
/> Cole finally looked up at me, his face grim.
“Has he ever asked you to ride on the back of a member’s bike before today?”
“Never,” I confirmed immediately, “not even offered himself.”
“Well, that will never happen,” Cole scoffed, but there was no heat or judgement from him, just sadness.
“Dad’s first wife was killed when she was a pillion on the back of his bike. They got hit from behind, and she died pretty well instantly. They found out earlier that day they were expecting their first child. He hasn’t had a passenger since, not even Mum.”
“And that was your mum’s sister, right?” Cole’s surprised reaction to my knowledge of his aunt brought a soft smile to my lips. “Your mum explained a few things about your dad today. That part she didn’t get to, though.”
Running frustrated fingers through his hair, Cole let out a growl that had it been when his face was shoved deep between my legs would not have been so scary.
“This sneaking around is done, Oaklee. Today I should have been allowed to tell Doc and my dad to fuck off, that it would be me taking you. Had I claimed you, the old man would never have suggested another bloke ride with the woman I love,” he ranted, throwing his hands in the air. My mind, however, was stuck on that one joyous word.
Love.
Cole loves me, holy fucking shit.
“Instead,” he continued, completely oblivious that he totally just shook my world to the core. “I spent the afternoon visualising your arms around that cocksucker’s waist, your fucking glorious thighs around him and your—my pussy pressed into him.”
Smirking at his claim on my vagina, because let’s face it, the man worked it like he had a degree in orgasms, I let him go on but inside I was performing a fist bump to end all fist bumps.
“You can’t do that to me again, baby, Doc’s life depends on it.” Cole stopped, looking at me with a ‘well, what are you waiting for’ expression, one hand coming off his hip making a come-on motion.
Cole: The Wounded Sons Page 15
