by E. C. Land
Who knows, maybe I can convince him further about what I think would be a good idea.
Chapter Nine
Fuse
Staring after my brother as he carries his ol’ lady from the main room, I contemplate what I overheard her saying about Burner and Ally. I know my brother and I know what he’d been confiding in me and some of our brothers before Tricks came over and started talking.
Out of all the strays, she’s one of the ones who don’t push for shit. In all honesty, she’s happy simply working here at the clubhouse. I don’t even think she’s slept with any of the guys. Otherwise, they’d be talking about it.
After seeing the look on Nora’s face, the one of hurt, when she’d first walked in to see Breaker laughing at Tricks’ comment about one of the other strays needing to get her ass in gear and start helping with some of the chores that she and one of the others were doing while she stood there watching them. What got him laughing along with a few of us is the fact she threatened to shave the bitch’s head in her sleep.
Nora has a point about what she said, and I also get my brother’s reasons. He’s right in the fact we don’t like involving outsiders in our business, but in this instance, I think we might need to have at least Ally come talk with her.
I don’t think the boys at the tattoo shop would appreciate someone they claim as their family getting a tattoo from someone else. However, I think if anyone could get her something to help the healing, it would be Noé who can do it. Rumor is his grandmother used to have a setup in the French Quarter where she read cards and shit.
I might need to talk to him.
I also should talk to my woman. Since the day before she’d gotten her cast off, she’s spoken more freely with me and some of the brothers though she doesn’t speak to anyone else about what happened to her besides with me or Tyres. She feels because of her protecting Wren the way she did that they have somewhat of a connection. I don’t understand it, but I know my brother and he knows Lyrica is mine.
Turning my focus back to what we’d all been doing before Tricks interrupted us, I go back to telling my brothers about the fight I’m in tonight. It’s against a new guy that’s come to town and, according to Patton, has a beef against one of my cousins. Not that I’m fans of them either, but they’re still family.
“Are you all coming tonight?” I ask, pushing everything else out of my head for the time being.
“Who wouldn’t be coming?” Brake chuckles. “You’re fuckin’ undefeated and this is gonna be entertaining.”
Of course, it was gonna be fuckin’ entertaining. It was me doing the damn thing. Grinning, I sit back and drink some more water while they drink their beers. I’ll have one later after my match. Until then, I’m staying sober.
“You gonna bring Ly with you this time?” Chains asks, sitting forward and bracing his hands on the table.
“Don’t think that’s a good idea,” I mutter, and I didn’t. She’d been through enough hell.
“I don’t know, brother; I think it might help her loosen up some. I get where Nora’s coming from with her suggestion to Breaker and it’s a good idea, but before even thinking it, you should try it. It might help her feel alive by watching you fight. Shit, we’ll all be there, so she’s protected by us,” Tyres says, holding the beer bottle in front of his lips.
He’s got a point. It’s best we try first. If she seems to start freaking out, one of the guys can bring her home.
“Alright, I’ll talk to her,” I say with a jerk of my chin. Pulling out my phone, I check the time to see how much longer I have until I need to get going. Patton likes everyone to be in the building early enough, so if there’s a change in the night’s fights, he can make them ahead of time.
Seeing I had time to go talk with Lyrica, I stand and head to the door. “I’ll let you all know what she says later on. I’ll be heading out in about three hours.”
“Got it, brother,” Brake yells out, and some of them chuckle. They know these fights are my way of releasing pent-up energy that I could easily work off by fuckin’. Too bad that won’t happen until my woman is ready.
Making my way from the clubhouse to mine and Ly’s, I glance to the front of the house to find her not sitting in the bay window as normal. Frowning, I pick up speed to get inside and see what she’s up to.
It’s not that I don’t trust her, she’s come a long way in the last month since she started talking more, but it doesn’t mean she doesn’t still scrub her skin raw or anything else like that. I try to make sure I’m home when she’s gotta take a shower. I’ve learned if I’m home with her, she won’t do it. She doesn’t want anyone to be around when she does it. I know why this is. Because she doesn’t want anyone to hear her cries of pain.
Stepping into the house, I shut the door, lock it, and stand there listening for sounds throughout the house. I don’t hear the water running. This I take as a good sign then again; she could have just finished. Walking through the house, I come to a stop in the doorway of my room.
Oh, fuck me.
Lying across my bed with her legs open, her hand between them, my woman is pleasuring herself in a way that I’ve craved doing for a long fuckin’ time.
I remember the one and only time I’d gotten to have a taste of her, I’d been out of it. I couldn’t stand pushing her away that night. I needed her and I fuckin’ took it. I didn’t fuck her like I wanted, but I sure as fuck ate her pussy. That was the last one I ever put my mouth on.
My hands clench into fists at my sides as I do my best not to stalk over there and take what I want.
Lyrica moans as her hand brushes across her clit and fuck me, when the hell did she get her clit pierced. I’m surprised with all the shit she’s been through she didn’t have it ripped out or some sick shit. Maybe they gave it to her. The thought pisses me off that she could have received the damn thing against her will.
Unable to stop myself, I move closer to her. In the throes of her own body, Ly doesn’t hear or see my approach. I’m not gonna do anything else but help my woman find what she’s looking for. Slowly I slide up the bed and edge my way between her legs. As I get within a hair’s breadth away, she finally notices and gasps my name.
“Ma douce, your moans are music to my ears. Tell me you don’t want me to help you find your release and I’ll back away, but I gotta say I’m looking forward to another taste of your beautiful pussy,” I growl and slip my tongue out to slide through her pussy for a quick swipe.
“Fuse,” she murmurs.
“That’s not the name you call me when you want something, baby,” I tell her, knowing there’s no way in hell she’s forgotten my real name.
“Philip,” she whispers this time on a breath that gives me the answer I need.
Diving in, I immediately bring her into the throes of bliss. She must have been at it for a bit as she came nearly instantly on my tongue.
She cries out my name, her hands digging into my hair, holding me to her.
Fuck yeah. I love it when she does this. This right here is the first sign of my woman being back to her old self and I fuckin’ love it.
I don’t take it any further than giving her a simple pleasure she’d been seeking. Right now isn’t about me getting off. It’s about connecting with Lyrica in what she feels comfortable with.
I pull back away enough to slip from between her legs and move to lie next to her on the bed. I roll her onto her side ignoring my cock pressing against the zipper demanding release from its confines. Instead, I press my forehead to hers and run my fingers along her spine.
Neither of us speaking a word as we lay silently together. Ly’s shaking hands reach out to touch me and I don’t move. I give her this moment. To know I’m not forcing her to do anything she doesn’t want to do.
“Philip,” she murmurs my name.
I lift my head from her forehead and lean back just enough to meet her gaze. For an instant, I thought I’d see terror in her eyes, but that’s not what I see. No instead, w
hat I see through the tears shining is what I’d like to think of as hope. She’s clutching on to me, holding me close as I hold her. Seeing this in her, I know what I just did with her wasn’t only something I wanted to do with her, but it’s something she needed.
And it’s something I look forward to doing again.
Chapter Ten
Lyrica
“I want you to come with me tonight,” Fuse announces a while later, after him giving me something I’d been envisioning him doing but he’d done so without me having to give him anything in return. Does this make me a horrible person to take but not give back in return?
Now instead of him asking me or wanting me to do something for him and he’s held me in his arms, he’s telling me to go somewhere with him tonight.
Panic starts to seep in, but then I think about the fact he’s gone out nearly every night this past month. My mind would wander to what he could be doing. The worst thought that kept coming to me is him going out to get laid. But each night, he came home sweating without smelling of sex, so I couldn’t be sure. And he wants me to go with him this time.
“Um, where?” I ask cautiously.
“To the fights, I have a match tonight and I want you there,” he murmurs, brushing his fingers along my spine. “You’ll be protected there with all the brothers with you.”
Furrowing my brow, I wonder if all the other women will be there. So I voice my thought to Fuse.
“They weren’t invited to the fight. I’ve seen you still keeping your distance from them. I don’t know why; I’m not goin’ to force them on you. What I will say is, I hope you’ll soon change that.” My heart flutters in my chest at the thoughtful words.
“But wouldn’t they want to come too?” I utter my question.
“Next time, ma douce, if you want them there and you enjoy tonight, then they can come. However you go tonight, you put on something I’ve been waiting to give you,” he says and climbs out of bed. I pull the throw blanket over my chest as I watch him move to the closet.
Glancing around the room quickly, I spy one of Fuse’s shirts still sitting on the top of his dresser. Quickly I slip out of bed and snag it and throw it on. It falls almost to my knees, dwarfing me.
When I’d been taken, I’d lost a lot of weight due to malnutrition and I’ve not regained my weight back yet to what I should be. It’s hard when you’re not used to eating very much to want to consume a whole meal at one time.
As I stand here dwarfed in Fuse’s shirt, I become even more aware of how much taller and bigger he is than me. Built with muscles that, when he puts this shirt on, conforms to said muscles. His hair, I’d noticed he’d changed up shaving underneath and keeping the length he had up top where he puts it into a bun. Then, of course, he’d grown out his beard over the months I’d been away and had yet to shave it. In fact, if he does, I think it might upset me as it’s something I like to look at as well as have become accustomed to stroking my fingers through when I’m lying with him in bed falling asleep.
I turn to face him as he comes back out of the closet, holding a box in his hands. Placing box on the end of the bed, he opens lid and tears well in my eyes at what he pulls out. “I’d had this made a while back when I’d still been an asshole who couldn’t see clearly. I always knew you were mine, Ly, so will you take what belongs to you and wear it for me?” In front of me is Fuse holds a property cut with my name on the front of it.
If my jaw could have dropped to the floor at that moment, I know it would be lying on the carpet of his room rather than be attached to my face. The serious yet affectionate look on Fuse’s face says it all. The way he didn’t try to take from me after he’d caught me in the middle of trying to find a release but instead gave me what I needed. I’ve been in love with him from the first day I saw him. Hell, I’d slept in the same bed with him at that rinky-dink motel when Faith and I went looking for Axel after finding him again.
Pulling my bottom lip in between my teeth, I slowly nod my head.
“Need you to use words, ma douce,” he murmurs.
Suckin’ in a breath, I give him what he needs. “Yes,” I whisper.
“Then come here,” he commands gently, and I go to him.
My leg is still somewhat sore and I need to put on the boot. Fuse must see me wince because the instant I’m in his arms, he lifts me clear off my feet and sits down on the bed, cradling my entire body to him.
“You my woman?” he rasps.
This I’ve wanted for a long time.
“I want to be,” I say honestly.
“You’re my woman,” he declares.
“But . . . I’m damaged. They . . . they made sure of that.” I’m unable to keep the tears from choking me as the damn things start to fill my eyes because of my freaking emotions going into override mode.
“Lyrica, baby, you are anything but damaged. I’m not gonna have you thinking that shit about yourself. I don’t see you that way. Neither do any of my brothers. Those fuckers may have hurt you, but they sure as fuck didn’t do a damn fuckin’ thing but see to their own demise coming their way very soon,” Fuse sneers.
Oh My.
Um.
Wow.
I can’t argue with him on this, considering the tone of his voice says it all. He’s not going to allow me to think badly of myself.
Hell, the man seems to always know when I’m going to take a shower and I can’t do as I normally would and scrub my skin raw. Then he’d see this. I’m betting he knows about it. That’s why he’s always here when it’s that time for me. That and when I seem to start falling down that hole into dark thoughts. Either him, Tyres, or even Brake are here to talk to me and help me work through the darkness.
Sighing, I give Fuse a nod of my head.
“Ly, you know I want the words. A nod can mean fuckin’ anything, but the tone of your voice says it all for me.” Of course, he’d say something like this he’s smart as hell on top of being extremely muscular.
“I believe you,” I mutter, leaning into him more, giving him my weight.
“Good, now let’s get you dressed, fed, and on the way. Soon as the boot comes off your leg, I’ll take you out on the bike.” At this, I perk up. I love being on his bike. I thought of getting one for myself and that it would be fun. “Oh, and just to let you know, baby, afterward we’re gonna go visit Noé and the others.”
Damn.
I love the guys at the tattoo shop, but I’d yet to go back there or even see them.
I’m not sure this is gonna be a good idea, but I trust Fuse to not let anything happen and, in an extension, his brothers.
“Watch, babe, he’s about to knock the fucker out,” Pipe mutters from one side of me.
We’d been at the fights for a while and I’m bouncing in my seat watching the two contenders go at each other. Fuse’s match is up next, and he was getting ready with the help of Breaker and Pitch Black.
While he did that, I got to stand between Pipe and Tyres. Brake stood behind me and several of the others stood surrounding us. Chains stood on the other side of Tyres, the two of them speaking about something I can’t hear. Not that I’m even listening. The crowd is loud as the one beefy-looking dude does exactly what Pipe said would happen. He knocked his opponent clear the fuck out.
A man climbs in the ring, raises the hand of the winner, and that’s the end of that as the crowd screams even louder.
I’d been weary when we’d first gotten here, considering I was dressed in a hoodie, jeans, and had the damn boot on my foot. I could at least be grateful I’m not on crutches anymore. However, seeing the way most of the women here were scantily clad with barely anything being left to the imagination, I felt way overdressed.
Fuse, of course, being intuitive to my emotions or whatnot, told me straight up those bitches are nothing but pussy to be used up by the men here if that’s what the men wanted. I wasn’t here to be any of those things. I was here to watch my man as he put it beat the hell out of someone and win his fight.<
br />
I didn’t know all he meant, but as I watch this match, I got it. Pipe explained some of it to me.
The crowd didn’t have to wait long before the next match started as the man in the ring announces Fuse’s opponent. My heart begins beating wildly at the sight of the massive man. But it’s not the size of him that freaks me out, it’s who he is.
Reaching out for Tyres’ arm, I tap him without taking my eyes off the guy and the fact he’s giving me a deadly look.
“Babe, what is it?” Tyres asks, wrapping an arm over my shoulders to speak in my ear where I could hear him.
Breaking my gaze from the guy in the ring, I stare at Tyres with wide eyes. “He. . . He. . . I, um, that man. He’s . . . He’s one of them,” I stammer.
Tyres furrows his brow and glances at the ring coming back to me. His gaze goes from me to look over his shoulder to Chains, says something, and the two of them go completely alert. Chains then goes to say something to each of his brothers.
“You don’t move from my side, Ly. You stay with me until Fuse gets out of that ring,” Tyres mutters right as Fuse comes into the room and stalks to the ring. His eyes void of emotion. “Don’t get upset if he doesn’t look this way, babe. He’s shut down for the moment to keep himself in check. Fucker is in for a rude awakening when it comes to your man. He’s not gonna let this motherfucker beat him in a fight. When it’s over, we’ll take care of the rest.”
I nod my head, unsure of any of what he said. All I can see is one of Leonard’s men, who took great pleasure in nearly beating me to death after raping me, is standing in the ring with Fuse.
My stomach churns and I feel as if I were gonna throw up. Only I keep myself in check, not wanting to miss Fuse’s fight. He’d wanted me here for this and I’m not going to miss it. Me being here means something to him and I’m not taking that from him.
The fight begins and Leonard’s man must have said something to him because Fuse’s eyes flared for a split second before he shut it down again.
