“Something to drink?” she asked, instead of unloading her every thought onto his unprotected head.
“Vodka, neat,” he said, and she poured the shot just like Bodhi had shown her. Jack nodded at her before tossing it back and grinning.
“So, you like me being your woman?”
He went just a little still. “I like it pretty well. Is it all right with you?”
“Yeah,” she murmured. She would have leaned across the bar to kiss him if she were entirely sure she could get there without her belly getting in the way. Instead, she settled for giving him a long, deep smile that was meant to warm him from his head to his toes.
“Have you had anything to eat?”
“A bite here and there.”
He reached out a hand and led her down the line of the bar, lifting their hands over the various folk seated there as they went.
“Bodhi,” he called. “I’m taking my woman for a burger.” She laughed as he put a little more emphasis on ‘woman’ than was strictly needed. Or maybe it was the ‘my’ he was pushing. Either way, it made her feel pretty good.
He took her to a table in the center of the room, away from the bustle, and told her he’d be right back. Mindy sat still, feeling much more on display now than she had a few minutes before. She did her best to roll with the feeling, letting it be just a thing that was happening instead of a thing she needed to worry about. It worked okay, but she was sure it would work better if people, especially the girls, would stop looking at her all the time. The whole thing was just nerve-wracking.
After about ten minutes, Jack returned with a tray loaded with burgers in baskets, and about every burger topping she’d ever heard of or thought of laid out in front of her. Bacon slices, two kinds of cheese, ketchup, two kinds of mustard, lettuce leaves, tomato, half an avocado.
“What’s—Jack, what are you doing?”
“So, I said I’d go get us some burgers. Caitlyn’s cooking tonight, and she’s great on the grill. But I had no idea what you’d want on your burger. So, I just… kind of brought everything.” There was something about a big man covered in tattoos looking sheepish that just made her want to giggle. She assembled her burger—cheese, bacon, avocado—and took a big bite. In the first few months of her pregnancy, she had barely been able to eat meat at all, and then as soon as the all-day nausea faded, all she wanted was the rarest, juiciest burgers she could get her hands on, all day long. This one was gorgeous. She had to move fast to keep her chin from getting wet and dribbling onto her shirt.
“Oh my goodness.” She groaned.
Jack laughed as he assembled a more traditional heartland burger—lettuce, tomato, mustard, and ketchup. He had a double patty, she noticed. She’d have to ask about that next time. “I’m glad you like it.”
There was something about him, different than what she’d noticed before. She finished chewing, then set her burger down. “Is everything okay?”
“Of course,” he said, way too fast. He seemed to realize it too and sighed, took a bite, then chewed. After he swallowed, he said, “Everything’s quiet. It’s really quiet. I know that should be good, but after we’d stopped the Wardens from snatching you, we all assumed they’d come to the clubhouse. Try a frontal assault. And instead, they haven’t done anything. They’re not the type to generally do nothing.” Jack shook his head. “The thing is, the longer they wait, the less leverage they have. So, the only reason to wait is because they’re getting something big ready. And that means we need to prepare. But how can we prepare when we don’t know what we’re preparing for? So, we keep running more and more patrols, which gets everyone more and more riled up. And it all spins around.”
She reached out to touch his hand, and he shook it off. Her upset must have shown on her face because he gave her a quick, soft smile.
“Sorry,” he said, his tone lower. “The patches don’t need to see me being worried. That won’t ease minds.”
“What do they need to see, then?”
He was quiet for a moment. “I don’t know how much I can ask of you.”
“Well, you can start by asking. I’m a big girl, I’ll say no if I don’t feel comfortable with what you say.”
Another half-smile from the man across from her. Mindy had to smile.
“Okay,” he said. “It would be good for the people here to see you as more than just my woman. For them to believe that you’re here because you fit in, and, separately, because you’re with me. There are some who think you might be some kind of spy, others who believe you’ll steal me away from the club in their time of need. People are worried about what’s happening. If you could reassure them about some of that, it would help.”
Mindy nodded. “Tell me how to do that.”
He smiled, and it was the first real smile she’d seen from him since they sat down. “Hang out with the girls, and with the guys. Working the bar tonight was great, do more of that. Ask around and see what you can do to help. Talk to people. Just be yourself, Mindy. You’re—” He paused and laughed. “It’s funny, I guess, because I don’t know your favorite color or what kind of music you like or anything like that, but I feel completely confident that I know you. I know what kind of person you are, and I know what you can do.”
“And what can I do?”
“I think you can help me make this club a family again,” he replied, and something shone in his eyes; they were so bright and hopeful that it made her feel shimmering as well.
“I’ll do everything I can to help,” she said, knowing full well she’d do that and more.
“Alright,” he said.
They ate. Then he took her hand and led her back through the building to his room. She went with him, very willingly, and this time when she caught other women watching her, she gave them the friendliest smiles she could. She got some in return this time, too.
Chapter Twenty
Mindy squeaked as Jack pressed her up against the wall.
“We keep fucking fast,” Jack said, running his hands lightly down her sides in a way that was almost ticklish, but not quite. “I want to fuck you slow. What do you think of that?”
“I think,” Mindy said, losing all sense of what words meant or what order they were supposed to go in as his hands skated over the tips of her breasts, “that I just want you to fuck me, and I’m worried less about the speed.”
Jack laughed, his mouth moving over her neck in light, slow kisses. “Then I don’t think you’ve ever been fucked slow. Not properly anyway. I think it’s time we changed that.”
She was so very hungry for him, and she did her best to express her displeasure with her hands, dipping them down low to cup his erection through his jeans, but he evaded her easily. She kissed him harder, more passionately, but while he met every movement of her mouth, he didn’t let her increase the pace of the kisses. She let out a sad little groan that he met with another soft laugh.
“Mindy,” he murmured against her jaw, leaving a slow line of kisses that traced up to her ear. “Mindy, I have more self-control than I think you realize. Unless you think you can actually overpower me—which I am fairly sure you can’t… unless you have Donnie Yee levels of skill—you can just enjoy this.”
But she wanted him, and she wanted him now. Was that so hard to understand? She bucked her hips against his, and he groaned in response, but nothing he was doing sped up at all. He pinned his hand under her jaw and used it to stretch her neck up, giving himself better access to the delicate underside of her jaw. He didn’t restrict her breathing at all, but even just the knowledge that he could, sent happy little flutters through her. She’d never thought of herself as being into the rougher side of BDSM, but the feelings he sent through her, the way her ass was still happily stingy from the light spanking he’d given her before, the way she wanted him to take her as rough as he could right now… She was starting to think that she had a very different set of preferences from the ones she’d always indulged. Not that this was the right time to figure that
out—and then his hands were skating over her breasts again, and she was arching up into his hand, begging him to tease her nipples, making her pant, making her his.
“You’re so gorgeous, Mindy,” he whispered into her ear. “You look so alive. I hope it doesn’t sound creepy, God, I hope it doesn’t, but this?” He ran his hand over the swell of her stomach, and there was something about the gentle attention paid in his touch that made her press up against him. “This is gorgeous. You were beautiful the first night I met you, and you’re beautiful now. I love the way you move, the way your body looks, the way it feels to touch this and know that, mean to or not, we made this. We started this.”
It was kind of funny, in a way that wasn’t necessarily about humor. She’d never expected a big romantic speech from this man. It wasn’t that she’d thought him incapable, she just hadn’t thought it was a thing he was likely to do. It didn’t mesh with who he seemed to be.
Maybe it was time to expand who she thought he was.
She pushed against him again, but this time it was to get some space between the two of them. He seemed to recognize it for what it was, and gave way, letting her move. She took his hand and drew him towards the bed with her. “Mindy…”
“Trust me, Jack,” she said. She stretched out on her side, pillowing her head on her arm, and patted the space on the bed next to her. He moved slowly, cautiously, and then he laid down next to her. He leaned in to press his lips to hers again, but she stopped him, pressing her finger to his lips for just a moment. “We’ll get back to that.”
He gave her an odd look that was quickly turned into a smile. “All right. What do you have in mind?”
“Do you read?” she asked.
He shrugged. “Some, I guess.”
“What was the last book you read?”
Something she never expected to happen suddenly did. His wind-tanned cheeks reddened, and his eyes darted away from her. He mumbled something into his arm. She laughed and poked him, and he rolled his eyes. “Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton.”
“The one that the musical was based on?”
“Not just that book—Miranda did a ton more research—but yeah, that biography is what got him started. Anyway, it turns out that the guy was completely interesting, and so… yeah. I liked the musical a lot, so I decided to read more about the guy.” He stared at her, his expression smiling, but clearly ready to turn stormy if he didn’t like what he saw next. “Not what you expected a biker to be reading?”
She made her own smile as open and accepting as she could. “Jack Dawson, you keep surprising me, over and over. It’s almost getting to be ordinary.”
The smile turned into that grin that she liked so much. “Well, that’s fine then. Want to answer your own question?”
She laughed a little. “My answer is a little more stereotypical, I guess. I just finished the most recent Alisha Rai book, Hate To Love You.” He clearly didn’t recognize the name or the title. “It’s a steamy romance novel.” She waited for the judgment to enter his eyes, but it wasn’t there.
“Given how you’ve been talking about being completely insatiable since the pregnancy started,” he said, giving her a gentle poke in return, “it makes sense that you’d be reading those sorts of books. Do you enjoy them?”
She nodded. “There are so many where the heroines are these amazing women, in charge of their lives, not taking crap from anyone. They go out, and they get what they want, and they don’t feel like they need to apologize for it. That’s pretty cool, you know? There aren’t a ton of books or movies or anything out there where women get to be like that.”
“Speaking of movies,” he said, getting into the spirit of her ‘get to know you game,’ “what did you see most recently?”
“I actually haven’t been to the movies in years. I might watch a little TV here and there, but I just don’t enjoy video stuff the same way. You?”
“I’m not a movie guy either, but there’s a bunch of TV shows I love. One of the guys here got a Netflix account for the clubhouse on the big TV down in the basement, where the prospects and regular bar patrons aren’t allowed. I’ve been watching a bunch of stuff—The West Wing, Leverage, old Star Trek.”
“Cats or dogs? Dogs for me.”
“Also dogs. Big ones.”
“Good. Chocolate or vanilla?”
“Cookie dough.”
“Ooooh, cheating.”
They went back and forth for a while like that, talking about favorite foods, where they’d grown up, childhood best friends. After a little while, the conversation morphed from a series of back and forth questions to telling each other stories about crazy things that had happened.
Chapter Twenty-One
Jack rolled onto his back to stretch, it made all the sense in the world to curl up on his shoulder, and then when he pulled out the tie that held her braid together and started running his fingers through her hair, everything changed. The mood heated up again at that moment, and she felt the warmth running through her, that deep, intense desire for more contact than she had right now.
She leaned up on her elbow again and then moved to kiss him. He met her this time with the passion she hadn’t felt before.
“I want to give you slow,” she said, “just like you want. But you have to let me lead. Will you?”
He grinned and pulled his shirt over his head, then bent his arms and tucked his hands under the back of his head. “What else do you want me to do?”
She considered. There was only so slow she was willing to go, really and honestly. “Strip for me, Jackdaw. Show me all your ink.”
He raised his eyebrow, grinning as he moved his hands to the button of his jeans. “You’ve seen all of it. I haven’t gotten anything new done since the last time you saw me a couple hours ago.”
“Of all the ways I ever saw you,” Mindy said as she pulled off her own shirt, bra, and leggings, “I’m not sure I ever saw you like this.
His cock was semi-hard, standing up from his groin, wet at the tip already. She’d had different plans before, but this would work.
She took him into her mouth in one smooth motion, letting his groan ripple through her even as she let him go as far down her throat as she could without gagging. He hissed at the sensation, and she felt the glorious sensation of his cock thickening in her mouth, stretching her lips just a little further. She let him slip back for a long moment, enjoying him panting at the sensation, then took him again, bobbing gently on his cock as he groaned. She thought he’d tangle his hands in her hair, but he kept them up, behind his head. Interesting. Very interesting. It didn’t feel like a sub thing, just him enjoying what she was doing for him. That was nice. Very, very nice.
She teased him for several strokes, wrapping her hand around the thick base of him as she suckled his head, listening to his sounds, enjoying the salty wetness of him on her tongue. When his breathing started to pick up the pace, she slowed, looking up at him. His gaze was intense, focused, and yet she wasn’t sure that she was entirely who he was seeing. That was exactly the look she wanted.
She’d felt so shy about her body for the past few weeks. Worried that the stretch marks starting on her belly would make her unappealing, or that the growing swell of her stomach would make her unattractive, but as she sat up, straddling his hips, there was none of that in Jack’s eyes. If anything, he seemed fascinated by her. His hands came out from behind his head to rest on her thighs, stroking them softly as she shifted, positioning his cock at her opening.
She was so wet that she was fairly sure she could have taken him in one long, smooth stroke, but he’d said he wanted to fuck slow. She could give him slow. She took just the head of him at first, teasing her way down his shaft, loving how he gripped her thighs so tight she thought she might bruise, but he let her set the pace she wanted. He trusted her. He believed that she would give him what he wanted. What they both wanted.
She backed off and sank down again, over and over, taking him a little deeper every tim
e. As he got comfortable with her slow, easy rhythm, he started to rise up to meet her, pushing into her as she sank down onto him, until their hips were meeting with every thrust. She felt the urgency starting to build in her, centering around her clit and pressing inside, circling his cock where she opened to meet him. She had to fall forward to keep moving at the speed her body was demanding, and she balanced herself with her hands pressed on either side of Jack’s shoulders. His hands left her thighs, finally, and cupped her breasts again, teasing and twisting at her nipples, driving her pleasure to ever increasing peaks.
At this angle, her clit dragged over his shaft, making her shiver and shake and want him all the more. She could hear his breathing tightening, feel his cock swelling inside of her, and she knew he was very, very close.
BIKER DADDY_The Chain Gang MC Page 9
