Release

by Jade Chandler

  “I love you.” He buried his face in my neck.

  “I see you and it’s fucking glorious not shameful. It pisses me off to know you feel that way, because despite what you just said, the shame is still there.”

  I hugged him tight as he held on to me. I hoped he’d see the same man I saw. Slowly tension left him and he kissed my neck until he reached my ear.

  “What turns you on most of the things we’ve done?” He spoke low with a sexy rumble.

  “That night at the club, the way you absolutely commanded me—the hottest. I like you all commanding and bossy in bed.”

  He shivered and his lips twisted up in a sexy smile.

  “Your turn to tell me.”

  “When I fucked you while Marr caned me, I’ve never come so intensely. I had no idea. I mean I’d...” He stopped speaking a moment. “It hadn’t appealed to me until you, I could never have asked you, but you did anyway.”

  “I liked that so much.” I sucked in his bottom lip.

  He returned my kiss, hot and needy. He tasted like the spice of whiskey and I wanted to get drunk on his kisses.

  “Let’s go inside.” He leaned back. I untangled myself from him and stood. Rock put the lid on the fire, extinguishing it before we went inside.

  He smacked my ass as we entered the living room. “I want you naked.”

  “Now you’re talking my language.” I was ready for some more naked fun times.

  I stripped and lay on the couch. “Your turn.”

  I frowned as he grabbed remotes and fiddled with them until a dark screen appeared and then the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lion roared before the Three Stooges screen came up. I glanced at the smug look on my biker’s face.

  “Now will you get naked?”

  “In time, just be still, and trust me.”

  Three Stooges music accompanied the start of the show.

  Tense and not in the mood to laugh, I couldn’t figure out how we were having sexy times with me on one end of the couch while he was at the other end. Besides I was self-conscious being the only naked one. I reached up and drug down a throw he had on the back of his couch.

  He frowned when I covered up, then pulled off the cover and threw it on the floor away from me. “I like you naked.”

  Rock picked up my foot and massaged the arch. As he dug thumbs into the soles of my feet, I sighed and couldn’t think anymore—the pleasure shooting up from my feet dominated my mind.

  His deep laugh brought me back to the now, I cracked my eye open to see Moe smacking Larry and Curly before getting hit in the head with the flying bucket Curly had tossed when he’d been hit. I snorted and shifted toward the screen. Soon we both laughed at the antics of the Stooges, but he never stopped massaging my feet and calves, turning me into a content Avery puddle. His hands moved up to my thighs, digging into all the tight spots before caressing my inner thighs with seductive swirls.

  “Mmmm,” I sighed, too relaxed to form words. He shifted and positioned his head between my thighs, moving down between my legs. Pleasure erupted in me, flowing free from top to bottom. I loved the way he touched me, took me, never got tired of making me fly. I ran my fingers over his short stubbled hair, and the sensation sent a tickling pleasure up my arms and down my back all the way to my toes. Every sensation stoked my desire, my hips rocked, my body an instrument Rock played perfectly.

  “I love you.” I let my body float free raising higher and higher with each stroke of his talented tongue until finally I climaxed, sending me soaring high. As I came back, Rock picked me up and took me to bed. That was a good thing because I didn’t think I could walk.

  Chapter Twenty

  Rock

  I woke up the next morning with Avery’s mouth on my cock—the best way to wake up ever. I pushed up and she hummed, sending sharp arrows of pleasure straight through me. She swallowed me deep and stayed there, bobbing in the perfect way. Damn.

  “Almita, I’ll come.”

  She grinned up and nipped my tip, shit that drove me nuts. And I thrust up, needing deeper, more of her now. She massaged my sac, and played with my tip at the same time. My body tightened and I needed, her, her body, and mine inside hers.

  “Please, almita, fuck me,” I begged. My chest was so tight I couldn’t focus on anything but the stroke that would bring me home, but she held me right there on the edge of the cliff. Talented but demented she grinned up at me, knowing how she teased me.

  Unable to stop moving, I fucked her mouth. She tortured me with pleasure. Squeezing my balls tight, she swallowed me deep, letting me thrust against her softest flesh.

  I stared at her unable to find my breath, lost in the explosion of sensations going off inside me. Feelings, emotions ricocheted through me leaving joy everywhere. I almost burst from the way everything was so full, crowded and tight. I saw spots when I came but didn’t care. I only cared about the way she made me feel. The sensations faded but didn’t go away, that might have been the most intense orgasm I’d ever experienced and she’d done it with her mouth, that sweet, sexy mouth.

  “I’m the fucking luckiest guy in the world.” I kissed her. “I love you.”

  “Back at ya, I’m the luckiest girl to have you love me.” She snaked arms around my neck and pressed into me. I held tight. She was never leaving now, no I’d keep her no matter what.

  My phone rang and with her held tight I rolled over to grab it. She squealed and I laughed. When I saw it was Jericho, I let her go and went to the other room to take the call. After Jericho told me we were going to the lake, I needed her to go, I just hoped she could close the shop for that long.

  When I opened the bedroom door to tell her, I heard the shower, so I moved back down the hall to the downstairs shower.

  When I came upstairs, Avery dressed.

  She turned to look my way, a sassy grin on her face. “I can make omelets. You did cook dinner last night, so you get light duty this morning—toast.”

  Following her to the kitchen, I kissed her cheek then leaned against the counter watching her ass as she bent over to search for ingredients in my fridge. Her ass was perfect, one globe fit in the palm of my hand.

  She had hands full with eggs, cheese, peppers and sausage. “Grab an onion for me.”

  I went to the pantry and snagged the onion. She’d pulled out a small skillet and crumbled the sausage into it. I set the onion beside her and pinched her ass.

  “Hey,” she jumped, turning to give me a half-hearted frown. I pulled out a cutting board from above my sink and slid it next to her.

  “Thanks.” She began chopping with the chef’s knife while I emptied the dishwasher, setting out plates, forks and glasses for breakfast.

  “You know of any good rentals around?” She chopped up the sweet pepper.

  I froze. What was she talking about? “Why?”

  “After Glory leaves next weekend, I won’t be able to afford the house.”

  My heart stopped then started double-time. I hadn’t given it any thought until now, but I absolutely one hundred percent wanted her to move in with me. It made all the sense in the world. She was here almost every night, and I loved her here, but I wasn’t sure she’d go for it. In the past few days we’d been moving in fast forward with our relationship. But she said she loved me and I wanted her here.

  “You should move in with me. No rent here.”

  She stopped cracking eggs to turn and stare at me, face blank. “Did I hear you right? You want me to live with you? Here?”

  That wasn’t the reaction I’d expected. Maybe some excitement, but instead I had this blank Avery who I couldn’t read. “It’s an idea.” I shoved hands in my pockets, hoping I hadn’t pissed her off.

  “Look at me.” She closed the space between us.

  I met her gaze still unable to tell what she
thought of the idea, my gut twisted. Didn’t she want to be with me?

  “You want me to live here? Or are you being my protector? There is a big difference for me.”

  “I want you here, it just came to me. I mean you’re mine, I love you, and you’re here all the time anyway, so why not live here,” I admitted and hoped she didn’t brain me with the frying pan.

  Her expression softened like when she’d told me she loved me. “I’d love to live with you.”

  “Hell yeah,” I whooped. She would be here with me where I could watch over her, protect her, do wicked things with her. Nothing had ever been more right in my life. She belonged with me and I wasn’t waiting. “Tomorrow the recruits are moving you to my place. Furniture?”

  A pan sizzled behind us. “Shit, the sausage.” She ran back over to the skillet and flipped the crumbles adding in the onion and peppers. “Too bad we don’t have tomato.”

  “I’m not a tomato fan,” I grumbled.

  “No pineapple or tomato. That’s criminal.” She whisked the eggs together. “What did you ask me?”

  “How much furniture to move?”

  “Except my bed and TV it all stays. The place was furnished when we moved in.” She turned off the burner and slid back the small skillet bringing out my biggest one. “Time to start the toast.” She grinned. “I can’t believe it. I’ll be living here tomorrow.”

  To hell with the toast. I closed the distance between us and hugged her from behind. “All mine all the time.”

  She squeaked as she dumped the eggs into the skillet. “Shoo, this is the delicate part of omeletting.” She swatted at me and I retreated to my toaster, popping in four slices of wheat bread. Once they popped out, I buttered each of them and my job was done. I grabbed the OJ from the fridge and poured two glasses.

  “Plate,” she ordered just a moment later. She slid a perfect omelet out of the pan onto the plate. “Ta da. One down and one to go.”

  “You look good enough to eat.” I nibbled her neck.

  “Later. I’m eating food first.” She poured the rest of the egg mixture into the skillet.

  “Spoil sport.”

  “Horny hound,” she shot back.

  I laughed. Life couldn’t get much better than this. As soon as the second one was finished we took our plates outside to the patio table. The day was clear and sunny, a perfect day.

  I forked up a bite of omelet. It melted in my mouth, full of cheeses and meat with the zing of hot pepper. “This is delicious.”

  “Be warned, it’s one of five things I cook well, the rest is kind of mediocre to bad.” She grimaced.

  “I love to cook, so I think we’ll survive,” I teased her. Then I remembered the lake. The club was spending a week at the lake, and I wanted her to have time to spend around my brothers, to get to know them. I was sure she’d feel more comfortable then. They were just people, my people and she was my woman. “Could you take a week off?”

  She frowned and bit her upper lip before she met my gaze. “Why?”

  “Can you?” I grinned at her.

  “Yeah, shouldn’t be a big deal, just need to figure out internet orders, but I’ll work it out.” She tapped fingers on the table staring off into the middle distance.

  “You sure?” I didn’t want her business to suffer.

  “Positive. Now spill it, why am I taking off a week?”

  “Jericho wants to head to the lake, and we always have a blast there.”

  Her smile dropped from her face. “Oh, the club. That didn’t go so well last time. Maybe I should come down later—”

  “Almita, you and me, we’re together in this. The lake is low key until the big party on Saturday. It’s the perfect way to get to know my brothers. There will be people to avoid, but I want you with me.” I didn’t know how to make it clearer.

  “Sure.” She kissed my cheek. “A week with you sounds like my kind of fun. I’m in.” She kissed me again and that led to more kissing and lots of other very fun things.

  * * *

  Once Avery left for her store, I called Dare. “Hey, you busy?”

  “Not so much.”

  “I’m feeling some ink, need it on my chest, you got a few hours to ink me? Or Jericho, either of you.”

  “He’s in Ardmore again, but I’d be honored, let’s say an hour?”

  “Thanks, brother.” I hung up and got ready to head to the clubhouse. Then I sat down and closed my eyes trying to see what I wanted to capture on my skin. I folded my arms over my eyes and tried to blank my mind.

  But the last time I spoke to my dad spun to the front of my brain.

  He lay on our nasty couch in a wife beater he’d worn for more than a week with baggy ass jeans. The idiot had become his own best customer and the meth was eating his body. My brother, Ramon, had encouraged him to fall into the meth so he could run the business.

  “Dad, I’m going to Barden, gonna join the Brotherhood.”

  He’d been friends with the old man years ago. He stared at me a long while with dead, bloodshot eyes. “Go, you’re worthless, wish you’d run down ya mama’s leg.” He cackled and grabbed for his stash.

  I left and ran smack into Ramon.

  “Where you going, bro? I need you here watchin’ that piece of shit, being my dutiful mule.” He butted my chest, like he could take me.

  I stood taller and already had more muscles in my arms than his whole body. “You ain’t got shit you can do.”

  He reached down and my fist connected with his jaw. I knocked him back off the porch and he hit the ground, unconscious. The gun he’d reached for fell to the ground beside him.

  My fucking older brother was going to shoot me? Threaten me? I left without looking back, totally at peace with the idea I’d never see them again.

  And that made me think of Avery with her family. When she didn’t think anyone watched her, I saw the haunting sadness that flicked through her eyes.

  I rustled through the end table and found a black pen and pad of paper. Without thinking, I started to draw just letting the ideas flow. I stared down at five drawings of winged nymphs. All of the nymphs had aspects of Avery’s face, but in each one I’d drawn her going free in a different way—cage, bars, ropes, chains and a shackle that let her fly but only so far—the length of her leash.

  I began again with the sprite with the chain attached to the ground she flew up until the chain was extended with the shackle broken. I’d drawn joy on her face, just to remind myself of how happy she always was. I stared at the drawing and it was right. No one should ever be chained down, and together we’d severed so many chains that held us down.

  Drawing folded in my pocket, I rode to Marked Man. Dare waited for me in the work room.

  “You ready?” Dare asked.

  “Yeah.” I gave him the nod. “Thanks I—”

  A smack to my head. “Damn it’ll be good getting my hands on the ink gun again.”

  “Whatcha getting?” Zero butted in and Mark looked on from his place by the wall. Angie wouldn’t be in until three today.

  I couldn’t imagine a life without the ink, and I never planned to have to live that way.

  “Here’s what I want, right here.” I pointed to my left pec and handed him the paper.

  “Nice.” Dare nodded. “I’ll make the transfer.”

  I sat in his barber chair and waited. Tattoos meant a lot to me—maybe they were even my religion. They marked my dreams, showed my heritage, and sometimes reminded me of the lessons I’d learned. Today Dare would carve in one particular lesson—risks were worth the reward. Avery was worth anything, and together we’d released each other from the chains that held us down.

  I glanced around the gleaming work room. We never skimped on the safety. No one would ever be infected because of our work.
Dare had beaten that into my skull when he trained me. Now, I trained Mark the same way Dare taught me.

  In minutes, Dare returned with all the inks and the instruments. He cleaned the area with antiseptic before he placed the transfer on my pec then peeled it off, leaving the design.

  The needle bit my skin, but it gave me little relief. I wanted more pain. Dare worked three hours on the art, and when I saw it finished, I felt free. While I’d drawn Avery as the nymph, the piece was both of us released from our past. She’d accepted me—pain, protectiveness, club and all. I understood the depth of her gift and wanted it on my body. We were good for each other—to me that meant as much, maybe more, than the love. Love was a feeling and I’d seen it go both ways in my life—cause joy and pain. But knowing we were better together, we loved each other, that was heavy shit. Now I had the art to remind me.

  With a bandage over my new work, Dare nodded and went out the back.

  Mark came back to tell me Chuck was out front.

  “Man am I glad to see you.” He clasped my arm.

  “You too. Give me about five minutes and then come on back. I pointed to my chest. “Dare just added some art for me and I’m running behind, but I’m ready to color in that bad-ass cobra.” I hurried down the hall to the supply room to grab my gear.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Avery

  Around four I put the Be Back Soon sign on the door and locked up so I could go visit my man, maybe steal him for a quick dinner. I walked into Marked Man and Mark greeted me with a huge smile.

  “I like you better here than in my shop,” I told him.

  “Me too.” He glanced around then held his hand up to his mouth blocking his words. “So fucking boring I almost gouged my eyes out for fun.” He spoke in a fake whisper.

  “I love you too.” I patted his cheek. “Where’s my man?”

  He pointed his thumb back to the workroom. “With a client.”