by Brook Wilder
Junie crawled on top of him, slowly, kissing his pelvis and moving up in soft touches as her fingers traced lines across his muscles. She felt a slight shiver race through him, and smiled to herself, knowing that she was having the same effect on him as he was having on her.
When they were finally face to face, Junie bent down and locked her lips with his, pressing her wetness against him, his cock hard between her legs. She grinded against him, her body shaking with desire, her moans muffled in their kiss. Aiden’s hands grabbed her by the waist. He positioned himself against her and gently pushed her down, sliding inside her. Junie couldn’t help but let out a soft moan as he filled her up, and her nails dug into his shoulders.
She began to move against him, slowly at first, then picking up speed. Goosebumps broke out across her skin, and she could feel her entire body shiver in excitement and pleasure. She could feel Aiden filling every inch of her, deep inside her, touching places she had never known could be touched before. She moved harder against him, more fervently, the heat inside her making her work faster against him. Soon his groans and her moans mixed and echoed off her bedroom walls, and it was all she could do to stop herself from screaming.
When he reached down and pressed his thumb against her clit, she felt her entire body explode into a million pieces. Her nails dug into his chest, and as she shook with her orgasm, she felt him buckling up against her, keeping the pace. She felt him expand inside her, and she knew he was close, she moved in unison with his thrusts, and before she knew it, his hands clamped down on her hips and he pushed even deeper inside her, deeper than she thought he could go.
She felt him explode inside her, his muscles flexed and taut as he came, his hips lifting her up before finally dropping down. Junie collapsed on top of him, her head against his chest, his heartbeats fast and strong. She rested as his chest rose and fell with his breathing, and with the thumping of his heart against her ear, Junie closed her eyes and drifted away.
CHAPTER 12
Junie flinched awake to the sound of birds chirping outside. She had been asleep on her back the entire night, and when she rolled over to look at Aiden, he was asleep on his back, too. She lifted the covers to check his calf, and when she realized that the blood in the gauze had darkened, she breathed a sigh of relief. But she knew she had to get him to a doctor. She didn’t know how he would feel about it, but she decided that, if she cared about him at all, she was going to at least try and talk him into it. Aiden rolled over and opened his eyes.
“Good morning,” he said, smiling. He looked so content, Junie was relieved he didn’t wake up in pain.
“Morning,” she said, turning to face him. She started stroking his face with the back of her hand, running her thumb along his bottom lip. His pearly teeth showed through a rather goofy smile, and Junie mirrored him, realizing how happy she was to wake up next to him. Last night was a blur to her; she remembered nothing but blotches of what went on between her and Aiden. She closed her eyes and started visualizing the way he touched her, the feeling of his hand between her thighs: warm, demanding, full of urgency. It was like she was living it all over again. She wanted to delve into the memory, but then she realized; Aiden was right there next to her. She had him right where she wanted him; nothing could take that away from her. She closed her eyes again, but this time, all she saw was a bullet wound, cloaked and wrapped in gauze. She flinched at the sight, the events of last night up until she and Aiden pulled over in her driveway finding their way back into her memory. Suddenly, she felt uneasy again. She thought about Amy, and that dry phone call they had right before Junie decided she wanted Aiden inside of her. She heard gunshots, echoing all across the depths of her memory. She heard cries, although she was sure that, had any of Aiden’s men died last night, she wouldn’t have heard any.
“Slept well?” Junie snapped out of it. Aiden’s lips were moving, but she couldn’t hear a thing.
“Huh?” she asked, shaking her head. “Sorry, I didn’t quite catch that.”
“What’s wrong?” Aiden asked, his lips curving to a wry smile. “There anything on your mind?”
“Well, of course,” Junie said, massaging her temples with both hands. She felt like her head was going to explode. “I can’t stop thinking about last night.” She wasn’t sure if it was the mission, or her time with Aiden that she was referring to.
“I can’t stop thinking about last night, either,” he admitted. Did he really leave any room for interpretation? “Junie, I can’t thank you enough for what you did. I don’t even know how.”
“You don’t have to thank me,” she said. “I did what I promised… it’s my job, remember?”
“Remember what I told you the first time I met you?” he asked, not waiting for a reply. “I said that one day, you’ll be a hero. And that’s exactly what you were last night.” Junie really wasn’t sure about that. It was true she saved the lives of many of Aiden’s men, but something else was tugging at her, and it was driving her crazy. Did she do all of this for a good cause? Her thoughts kept straying back to Amy, and how disappointed she was in her. Nothing could make up for the looks of disapproval, the folded arms and the clasped hands. There was nothing Junie could say to make it better.
“I’d like to think that,” she said after a long pause. “But I don’t think I’ll ever come to terms with what I did.”
“You mean with Amy?” Aiden asked.
“Yeah,” Junie nodded, turning away. She just wanted to pick up the phone and call her, but she knew she would be sent straight to voicemail. “I don’t think she’ll ever forgive me for what I did.”
Aiden wrapped his arms around her. “You did it for a good cause, you did it because you and I share a common purpose,” he said.
Suddenly it dawned on Junie that she and Aiden didn’t share a common purpose, after all. Aiden just wanted to do what was best for his own clan, to preserve his own career and his own future. And Junie, all she wanted was to protect her son. In a way, she knew she was doing what was best for Matt, but she wasn’t going to lie to herself; she and Aiden didn’t share a “common purpose”, not one bit.
“I just want Matt to be safe,” she said. “But right now I feel lost… I don’t know if I stretched myself too thin. I don’t know anything.”
“Junie, you and I, we both know what it’s like to be scared. We know what it’s like to fear for our lives… and the lives of those who mean the world to us,” he said, brushing his fingers through her hair. “We both did what we thought was best for them, and for ourselves.”
“Yeah,” she said, her voice trailing off. She wanted to believe him, to try and convince herself that she wasn’t a horrible person, after all. But at the back of her mind the image of her sister lingered, staring at her through heavy-lidded eyes, judging her. She didn’t know how she was going to confront her ever again. “And what about Amy?” she asked, her hand flying to her mouth. “What am I going to do about her? How will I look her in the eye after I left her with a strange man?”
“Junie, look at me,” Aiden said, brushing his hand under her chin. She raised her eyes to him, but she knew what he was going to say. “I want you to go over there and talk to Amy… I’ll even go with you,” he said. “Just sit her down and talk to her. I’m sure she’s going to want to hear what you have to say.”
Junie nodded. She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could say anything, Aiden’s phone started ringing.
“Hello?” he said in a raspy voice. He sat up in bed, squinting as he tried to process what was being said to him. “So they didn’t find him? Are you sure?” There was a pause. “Alright, I’ll be right there.”
“What’s wrong?” Junie asked, getting up on her elbows.
Aiden looked away, his eyes darting back and forth frantically. “I just got a call that the operation was unsuccessful,” he said, freezing in one position. For a while he didn’t move, and Junie was too apprehensive to even talk to him. “They didn’t find Lee.”
&n
bsp; “What, what do you mean?” Junie asked, throwing her feet off the side of the bed. “I thought they found him?”
“I never got the confirmation that they did,” he said. “I just got the news right now.” Junie really didn’t know what to say to him. All her hopes, all her dreams of crushing the Mercenaries came crashing down all of a sudden, and she was left with nothing but false expectations. Was she stupid to think that all of this could’ve been fixed overnight? She cursed herself for being so gullible, for thinking that a bunch of men barging in on a bar was enough to terminate an entire biker gang. She didn’t know how this whole thing worked, and she wasn’t going to pretend to. But a part of her felt like it was too late; she was already too deep into it. She felt like she was drowning, like there was no way she was going to get out of this, even if she wanted to. “I don’t know what to say,” she said, her voice boiling down to a hoarse whisper. “What are we going to do now?”
“I don’t know,” Aiden said. “I just really, really don’t know.”
Junie wished she knew the right words to say. The truth was, she felt sorry for Aiden, and for all the men who risked their lives trying to get to that one thing. Lee was an illusion, something that came and went like a faraway dream. Aiden had no chance of getting to him, not right now. She realized that Lee probably knew about this plan before it even came to exist; the man had eyes everywhere. “You know I really wish I could make this better,” she breathed, lying back down next to him. “I wish I could help you in some way.”
“You’ve done all you could,” Aiden said. “And besides, you didn’t do this for me. Why are you acting like you are? You did this for Matt, your son.”
For some reason, Junie felt uneasy. She didn’t know why she was acting like all of this was just a favor. A million thoughts were zapping through her mind, but she didn’t want to let herself slip into this confusion. She just wanted to be there for Aiden, and for Matt. And for Amy. Whenever she thought about her sister, she could feel an undeniable chill running down her spine.
“I think I need to go now,” Aiden said again, getting up and dusting himself off. He threw on his shirt, Isabel bouncing off the bed and buttoning it up for him. She folded his collar back, her eyes roaming his face and neck. She admitted to herself that she loved this man, that she would sacrifice anything for him. His brows were knitted together, and she could feel it in her bones that this time, he wasn’t confident at all.
“I want you to be careful,” she said. “I don’t want anything happening to you.”
“I don’t want anything happening to me, either… not with you around,” he said.
“Where are you heading right now?” she asked, smoothing her hands over his chest.
“I’m going to head over to T’s for some advice on how to fix this,” Aiden said, picking his phone off the bedside table and stuffing it into his pocket. “Besides, I’m going to get out of here before Matty wakes up… I don’t want to freak him out.”
“He loves you, don’t say that,” Junie said. But deep down, she knew Aiden was right. She didn’t want her son’s mind to wander far. She couldn’t replace his father, and she knew she never would, not in a million years. But she needed someone to rely on; that, she knew. “Take care of yourself, okay?” she said, walking Aiden to the door.
“I’m going to call you when I’m done,” he said, planting a kiss on her forehead. “But meanwhile, I’m going to need you to do me a favor.”
“And what is that?” she asked.
“I want you to promise that, by the time I get back, you will have called your sister, sat down with her and hatched things out,” he said with a smirk on his face.
Junie felt her heart drop to her knees, but she knew it was the right thing to do. Her relationship with Amy was at stake here; there was no way she could risk that. “I promise,” she said finally. She watched as Aiden marched across the yard, not wanting to take her eyes off him. She prayed that he would get home safe, but until then, she knew what she had to do. She took out her phone and dialed Amy’s number. For a while, she didn’t pick up. In fact, she didn’t pick up until the line went dead. Junie called her number again.
“Hello?” Amy’s voice came through the other end. Junie could clearly tell she was agitated.
“Hello? Amy, I need to talk to you,” she said hastily. There was silence. For a second Junie thought Amy would hang up. “I know you’re still there, I can hear you breathing,” she said again.
“That’s pretty creepy of you,” Amy said.
“Please, just come over,” Junie said, bending her knees as she spoke. She knew Amy was stubborn, but, given the circumstances, she had every right to turn Junie down if she wanted to. The guilt was eating her alive, swallowing her whole. She knew she couldn’t live with that if Amy refused her completely.
“I don’t know, Junie,” she said, her voice trailing off. “I don’t know what to make of what happened the other day… I don’t know where you’ve been or what you’ve been up to lately. I don’t know anything.”
“Well, I want to fill you in, on everything,” Junie said.
“Alright, you know what, let’s do it right now. Come over, Junie, fill me in.”
Junie hung up. She couldn’t take this anymore. She ran up to Matt’s room and told him she’ll be gone for a little while. And then she took her car and took off. A couple of minutes later, Amy heard a knock at her door.
“Well, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t see this coming,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“Amy, I did this for Matt. I swear to you, I did it all for him,” Junie said, barging in and slamming the door behind her. “I was scared those bastards would end up hurting him,” she continued.
“So you decided to take matters into your own hands instead of letting the police handle it?” Amy asked.
“The police?” There was a pause. “The police didn’t do shit when my own husband died at the hands of those people! And now you’re telling me to go to the police?!”
“I just think you’re handling this the wrong way,” Amy said, folding both arms across her chest and peering down at the floor tiles. But the truth was, she really didn’t know what to say to Junie. She knew she would bring up what happened to her husband; Amy couldn’t argue with that. To this day, Junie was still hurting; it was just one of those things that she knew would never go away from her completely. She would learn how to live with them, but they were here to stay.
“And how do you think I should’ve handled it?” Junie asked, cocking her head to the side. There was silence. “That’s right, you have no answer. Amy, I’m not saying this to spite you. I just need you to understand why I did all of this in the first place.” Her lips were trembling; she was trying so hard to prove something she knew she couldn’t. Amy saw the spark in her sister’s eyes when she talked about vengeance on the very people that took her husband away from her, and as much as she admired her strength, nothing hurt more than having to witness such desperate attempts to reach the unattainable.
“I hate to see you struggle like that,” Amy said finally. “You have no idea how much it hurts seeing you like this.”
“I don’t want you to feel sorry for me,” Junie said. “I just want you to forgive me… I’ve done you wrong. I’ve left you all alone with a strange man, I kept you out of the loop for so long… I don’t know how I’ll ever make it up to you.”
She paused. Amy knew her sister more than she knew anyone. She just wanted to go up and hug her, to squeeze her tight. She had all these contradicting feelings about Junie’s life and what had become of it lately. Something was off, in fact, everything was. She still didn’t trust Aiden, and neither did she know what kind of an impact he had on her sister. “I’m not going to stay mad at you forever,” she said finally. “I just find it funny how you yourself are dating a biker, when I know for a fact that you’re against everything they stand for.”
“Aiden isn’t a part of the Mercenaries, he’s one of the Rebel’s
Disciples… I think I’ve told you this various times,” Junie said, shaking her head frantically. “You keep going back to this, even though I’ve made it clear that he’s not a part of the enemy.”
“They all are,” Amy said. “How do you know for a fact that the Mercenaries were responsible for all of this? How do you know the Rebel’s Disciplines, or Disciples, whatever you wanna call them… how do you know they’re not responsible for what happened to Steve?”
“Don’t you read the news?” Junie asked, rather sarcastically.
“My point is… you don’t know exactly what happened. Those communities are intertwined, Junie, and I don’t want you thinking they’re just separate entities fighting each other and that’s it.”
“I get what you’re trying to say, but for once, Amy… just once, I want you to trust me.”
