Shattered Grace

by Brook Wilder

  I was going to enjoy this. “Shh,” I said, gripping him. “Let me taste you.”

  “Jill,” he groaned as I touched my lips to him, encircling his head with my tongue. “Damn, that feels good.”

  I was far from done. I worked until I could get him in my mouth, sucking ever so slightly, rewarded with a groan each time. His hands found my hair, but he didn’t force the issue, allowing me to take the lead in whatever I wanted to do.

  I fell just a little bit more for Keith at that moment.

  Finally, he forced me away carefully, a shaky laugh leaving him. “I sure was enjoying that, but I’d much rather be buried in you, Jill.”

  I wasn’t going to disagree. He helped me off the floor and started to divest me of my clothing. First my shirt came over my head and I worked on the bra as he worked on my pants, until I was naked and wet before him. “Damn,” he said, his eyes roving over my body. “You’re fucking gorgeous.”

  I flushed, unable to help it, but a moment later his lips were on mine and he was pushing me against the wall, his hands cupping my breasts. I arched my back as his lips traveled down my jawline, finding my sensitive nipple, sucking like I had sucked on his cock. The sensation spiraled straight to my aching center and I pressed against him insistently. “Fuck me, Keith,” I whispered against his shoulder.

  He gripped my hips, picking me up so I could wrap my legs around his waist. I felt his cock probing at my entrance and moaned loudly. This was it.

  I wanted this.

  When he slid into me, I screamed his name, the force of the waiting orgasm scaring even me. He buried his face into my shoulder as he let himself rest there for a moment, our breathing harsh in the quiet room. I knew he had to be close and I wasn’t expecting an all-nighter, but I was expecting this to happen again.

  Numerous times, in fact.

  “Damn, you are so fucking wet,” he growled, pulling back. “Can’t you feel it?”

  I clenched at his shoulders as he rammed into me again, a sob escaping. “Yes,” I cried. “More.”

  He didn’t disappoint and before long, the pictures on the wall near me were rattling with the frenzied movement of our bodies together.

  ***

  Keith’s fingers traced over my back lightly as I curled up next to him, my body sated from the powerful sex against the wall. After his release, he had allowed me to clean up in his bathroom before joining him in the massive king-sized bed in the bedroom, the ceiling fan spinning lazily overhead as we both attempted to recover.

  Even now I could feel the faint sheen of sweat under my hand on his abdomen, though his breathing had returned to normal.

  I didn’t think mine ever would.

  I really didn’t know what to say to him or even how to describe my jumbled-up emotions presently. I had anticipated sex tonight. I just hadn’t with Keith.

  Now I wasn’t just looking at random hook-up sex. I was feeling, which was a serious concern for me.

  “Can I ask you a question?”

  I rested my chin on his chest so that I could meet his gaze. “Sure.”

  “How did you get involved in that website?”

  I traced the outline of his abdomen with my finger, feeling him shudder under my touch. “I needed a job and they were hiring.” It really was as simple as that. I hadn’t chosen them for a reason, nor had I wanted to choose them, really.

  The problem was, my choices had been severely limited, and anyone I had dreamed about working for wasn’t even returning my emails, much less my calls.

  “I read some of your work,” he stated. “You’re good, Jill, real good.”

  My heart bloomed with his praise. “Really?”

  His lips upturned into a smile. “You don’t believe me?”

  I fumbled to find the right words to explain how much that meant to me, even if we didn’t know each other all that well. “I just, it’s a struggle to know if what you are doing, what you are writing, is something people want to read. I’m surprised you read any of it.”

  He arched a brow, his hand stilling on my back. “Because I’m a dumb biker?”

  I laughed, swatting at his stomach. “No, silly, because it’s not that interesting.” I didn’t think he was dumb at all. There was always a spark of intelligence in Keith’s eyes, one that I had seen more than once in our run-ins together, and now that I had seen his computers, it didn’t surprise me at all that he was a hell of a lot smarter than I was.

  He looked at me for a moment longer. “It was to me.”

  I sighed inwardly, tamping down that nervous, excited feeling of belonging. I didn’t belong here. We had just had sex against his wall, and I was lying in his bed, but that did not mean that I was looking at a relationship with Keith. I wasn’t even from this area. My entire future rode on the story that I was trying to write and break on his club, his family, his friends.

  We were far from two people that should have a relationship together.

  But it just felt right, this being here like we were right now.

  “I couldn’t get anything else,” I blurted out, embarrassed. I wanted to tell him the entire story that he probably already knew, but I didn’t want to see the look on his face when I told him what I had done and how I had been so gullible to believe that I was getting my happily-ever-after with a man twice my age. “I tried. I sent I don’t know how many emails, called all sorts of papers, magazines, even the occasional small-town paper. This was the only job that called me back.” Even when I said it out loud, I felt the desperation of that period of time, the one that had me crying at night, praying for a miracle so that I wouldn’t have to feel the pain I was feeling.

  His arm tightened around me, hauling me against his chest. I rested my head on his shoulder, biting my lip. “Don’t pity me.”

  “I don’t pity you,” he bit out. “You are a strong-ass woman, Jill, to go through what you went through. I’m just trying to figure out who to fucking kill first for putting you through this.”

  Oh God, he was trying to be my savior now.

  There were no more questions after his declaration, and after a little while, I felt him ease into sleep, his arm still around me. It was then that I let the tears flow, keeping my sobs to a minimum as I released the tension that I had stored up for a long time. What had Keith done to me?

  Why was he being so nice? I deduced that was probably Keith as a person. He was far different than I had expected, far different than his counterparts.

  And I never wanted him to change.

  Could I keep him? The thought crossed my mind before I rapidly dismissed it, wiping my tears from my cheeks. I couldn’t keep him. This wasn’t a finders-keepers’ game. This was just a hook-up.

  But oh, I wanted to.

  Just before the sun rose, Keith woke me up by kissing the length of my body, his fingers working magic on my clit until I cried out his name. There were no words, but when he entered me, I clung to him like he was my lifeline. We had slow sex, savoring each and every touch until neither of us could take it anymore.

  I then watched him dress, propping up on my elbow to trace the outline of his body with my eyes. Once he was done, he came and sat on the bed, his hand resting on my hip. “Stay as long as you like,” he said, his voice still rough from sleep. “I’ve got coffee going and there’s bagels in the fridge.”

  I found it hard to look at him and not want to pull him back into bed. “Thanks for everything.”

  He nodded, his thumb brushing over my hipbone. “I’ll be your contact for any information about the club. Please, Jill, just wait for me and don’t go snooping around yourself. If there’s something you want to know, I’ll find out if I can tell you.”

  “All right,” I said, knowing full well I had just lied to him. I was a journalist first, and if last night’s information was any indication of what they would feed me, I would be starving by the end of the week.

  The look on Keith’s face told me that he didn’t believe me either, but he didn’t press the issue
, bending down to brush his lips over mine. “My number will be by the coffee machine. I’ll see you later.”

  Emotion clogged my throat, so I just nodded, and he walked out of the room, leaving me to pull the covers over my naked body.

  I wasn’t so sure I could do this.

  Chapter 14

  Wires

  I grinned all the way to the clubhouse.

  I had fucked Jill last night and then again this morning, and it was more than I had anticipated. Even now I wanted to turn the car around and head back to my apartment, where I knew she was lounging in my bed.

  Naked.

  “Damn,” I said, feeling my cock tighten in response. She was doing a number on me and I was scared shitless that maybe we shouldn’t have crossed that line.

  Because now I wanted to protect her. The hell with the fact that Jill was trying to bring down the club and expose all of its secrets. I wanted to hold her close, chase those shadows away that still lingered in her eyes, and tell her that it was all gonna work out.

  Even if I didn’t believe it myself.

  I parked my car and walked up to the clubhouse, nodding to those that were already moving about. While I would have liked to stay in bed all day with Jill, there was a meeting this morning, likely to talk about what the next steps were going to be for the club since Sabs and I had turned over the information to Alisha. There was still very much a threat hanging over us, one that had nothing to do with the journalist in my bed.

  Sabrina was in our war room when I entered, spinning her chair around. “Coffee? For me?”

  I handed her a cup. “Just like you like it.”

  She breathed in the scent. “Thanks. I really need it this morning. I guess you got the memo about the meeting?”

  I nodded. “So I assume Alisha has made up her mind?”

  “She has,” Sabrina answered, looking at me curiously. “What’s up with you?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re grinning more than usual,” she answered, tapping her finger against the cup.

  Swallowing, I wondered if she could smell Jill’s scent on me. I could, but it was more than her scent that had me tied up in knots. “No, I’m not.”

  “Did you go to the bar?”

  I deliberately took a gulp of my coffee before answering. “Jill was there.”

  Her eyes widened and she nearly dropped her cup. “Journalist Jill?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well look at that,” Sabrina breathed. “Our little Wires is all grown up. You slept with her, didn’t you?”

  I wisely kept my mouth shut, neither confirming nor denying it. Sabrina was smart; she could read between the lines.

  “Wow,” she said a moment later. “Well, good for you, Keith. I just hope you know what you are doing.”

  I didn’t, that was the problem. “I got it.”

  Sabrina didn’t get a chance to answer for the call was made and we were pushing our way into the council room a moment later. Both councils—well, what was left of them—were present, along with Widow Maker, Chains, and Alisha. I noted that Seth, her husband, was lounging against the far wall, clearly ready to defend his wife if need be. Though he had been out of the game for nearly a year, he still looked like he belonged there. Chains could have banned him from the room, but the look on his face told me that he had more pressing things to worry about.

  At least Widow Maker had some color in her cheeks today, no signs of ill effects from her pregnancy this go around.

  I was glad. If anyone deserved something good, it was her.

  Sabrina and I took a seat and Chains rapped on the table to get everyone’s attention. “We are here to listen to Alisha and get her take on the evidence that was found by Sabs and Wires. Alisha, floor’s all yours.”

  Alisha stood, her eyes finding her husband’s before her mouth lifted into a grin. “Well, I reviewed everything and have given it a long, hard thought. The evidence is pretty substantial, but I’m not one hundred percent sure it’s ironclad.”

  “Concerns?” Widow Maker asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

  “For one,” Alisha started. “This is the CIA, not another club. This will cause a shitstorm in the CIA and the Feds when it’s leaked. We have to make sure that we have our house in order for whatever hell it might bring. Not just to the clubs, but to the town.”

  “I think we can handle it,” Chains offered up, looking at those present. “It won’t be easy. I think we have come to that conclusion ourselves, but this shit has got to stop.”

  “I agree,” Alisha stated. “I just think we need to have a credible witness, someone that isn’t directly associated with the clubs.”

  “What about Voodoo?” Crankshaft asked. “He used to be one of theirs. Surely they would believe him.”

  “Or kill him to keep him quiet.” Sabrina muttered.

  I couldn’t help but agree. Voodoo was on the run for abandoning his undercover job and moving to Mexico with Siren. I doubted that the CIA would welcome him back with open arms.

  “He is the closest thing to them besides me,” Alisha sighed. “There’s already chatter happening in some of the circles I know about. They’re saying that he might be returning to the States. I think they are worried he will spill their secrets already.”

  “Voodoo is safe and in hiding,” Widow Maker added. “He will come out when he’s ready and not before then.”

  “I want double protection on the clubhouse,” Chains finally said, looking at me and Sabs. “And I want you two to keep working. Find us some concrete evidence in case Voodoo decides he wants to head back to Mexico. The last thing I want to do is spend time in prison, and we can’t release any of this shit until we are sure that’s not on the table.”

  “I agree,” Widow Maker answered, nodding at her husband. “I want this story to be airtight and there’s not a thought to where there’s a weakness. Make it happen.”

  Chains rapped on the table again and we exited the room. “Well,” Sabrina said as we headed back to our lair. “No pressure.”

  I cracked my knuckles, my night’s activities now only a distant memory. The clubs were counting on us to find something to aid them in the war against the CIA. We had to find something.

  Sabs and I worked for a little while, both furiously typing away on our computers as I looked into known government message boards, attempting to see if I could find anything that would tie the government and the cartel together. We had the accounts, but we needed a hell of a lot more than that.

  Finally, Sabs declared a break and I pulled a soda out of the fridge that we kept in our room, unscrewing the cap. “So,” Sabrina said as she took a bite of her energy bar. “Did you corroborate any of Jill’s story with her or just fuck her?”

  I nearly choked on my soda. “Dammit, Sabs. It’s not like that.”

  She shrugged. “I mean, you did have sex with her, right? I don’t think you would be doing a lot of talking then.”

  I took a few more swallows of my soda, searching for the right words. “She was blacklisted on all the good jobs. The website she’s working for was the only one that would hire her.”

  Sabrina shook her head. “That’s horrible. See? I told you something was fishy about all that mess. It doesn’t sound right.”

  It wasn’t enough for me to make a decision yet. While I had enjoyed my time with Jill and felt bad about how I had treated her up until then, I wasn’t sold on the fact that she hadn’t done the things that they accused her of doing. A woman scorned could do some crazy shit, and she had stated that this story was for retribution.

  “She’s looking to stick it to the journalism world,” I answered. “She said that this story is her retribution.”

  Sabrina slumped in her chair. “That’s not good then. I don’t like the idea of the club being her gleeful moment when she brings it all to light.”

  Yeah, I didn’t either. That was what sucked about the entire situation. “I fed her some info, not enough to have her
running to the press just yet.”

  “I would keep doing that,” Sabrina said wearily. “Just keep it to a minimum and whatever you do, don’t mention Brad Walker or anyone involved with that whole shit. That would be a huge mistake.”

  “I’m not as dumb as you think I am, Sabs.” I answered, feeling like I couldn’t think straight. I didn’t want to lie to Jill, but not telling the entire truth was a lie. She knew I was holding back, and for a damn good reason on top of it. “I’ll take her to dinner tonight.”

  Sabrina nodded, biting her lower lip. “I’ll update Widow Maker, but for her sake and mine, I’ll leave out the fact that you slept with Jill.”