Nickel (Fallen Lords M.C. Book 1)

by Winter Travers

  It was huge. The condom stretched, forming to his cock, contouring to every bulging, throbbing vein. “Oh my,” I mumbled as he stroked it.

  Nickel burst out laughing, his dick bobbing up and down. I refocused my gaze on his face, realizing this man was even more handsome when he laughed. “I hope ‘oh my’ is a good thing.”

  “It is, I think.” I blushed. He leaned down, caging me in with his arms.

  “Well, why don’t we find out?” He reached down, grabbed his dick, and stroked it again.

  “Are we sure that will fit?” I wasn’t a virgin, but I sure felt like one looking at Nickel.

  “I’m pretty sure we were made for each other, baby. It just took us a little bit to find each other.” He guided his cock into my tight hole, slowly pushing in. I bore down on my feet, spreading my legs further, trying to relax as he filled me.

  “Fuck,” he hissed when he was fully in. He looked up, his eyes connecting with mine. “Mine.” He slowly drew out, and it felt like I was losing a part of myself with every inch. I reached up, threading my fingers through his hair, praying he wouldn’t pull all the way out.

  “You okay, baby?” he asked when just the tip was still in.

  I nodded, unable to speak. He plunged back in, taking me by surprise, and I moaned loudly, pleasure overtaking my body. “Faster,” I pleaded with each thrust of his hips. He leaned down, devouring my lips. I ran my hands over his body, trying to remember every plane and valley.

  “Say my name,” he ordered, driving even faster.

  “Nickel,” I whispered, tossing my head back, arching my back. I was on the brink of ecstasy, and it would be only a matter of seconds before I tipped over the edge.

  “Louder,” he growled, slamming into me. He leaned down, sucking my nipple into his mouth, and I moaned, loud. This man knew exactly what to do to drive me insane.

  “Nickel!” I screamed as he nipped the side of my breast.

  “You’re mine, Karmen. I can’t go back,” he vowed. He reached down, sliding his hand in between us. He stroked my clit, rolling in between his fingers, and the slow burn he was building inside me detonated, stars exploding behind my eyes.

  “Nickel,” I yelled, sure the neighbors could hear everything.

  He kept thrusting, sealing his lips with mine. I sucked on his bottom lip, biting it, and he groaned low in his throat before he exploded inside me. He buried his head in my neck, slowly thrusting in and out, his breathing labored and short. I wrapped my arms around him, not wanting to let go.

  “I don’t want to move,” he mumbled. He pressed a kiss to my throat and looked up at me. “What the hell did you do to me, Karmen?”

  “I’m asking myself the same question.” I laughed.

  He rolled off of me, pulling me into his side. “Round two, ten minutes,” he promised.

  “Hmm, I feel like one of those ring girls from wrestling are going to walk through the bedroom with a round two sign any second.”

  Nickel laughed, his eyes shining at me. “You’re the only girl I want in this bedroom, baby.”

  “Good, although I’m pretty sure after round two, I might need a nap.”

  “Round two and then sleep.” He winked at me, pressing a kiss to my forehead. “I’ll be right back, baby.” Nickel rolled out of bed and rummaged around on the floor.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, leaning over the edge of the bed, watching him. The span of his shoulders was tattooed with the patch of the club, and his arms were covered in thick, black tribal tattoos.

  “Looking for my boxers,” he mumbled, grabbing his pants and tossing them over by the door.

  “You were tossing everything around; I have no idea where they sailed off to,” I laughed, looking around the room.

  “Fuck it, I was trying to be a gentleman, but I can’t find the fucking things.” He stood up and stretched his arms over his head.

  “Hmm, I’m okay with you not being a gentleman if this is the show I get.” I propped my head on my hand as Nickel winked over his shoulder at me.

  “Be right back, baby, round two in five minutes.” He walked out the door, his perfect ass tempting me to follow.

  I flopped back on the pillow and ran my fingers through my hair. Gah, what the hell just happened? I had finally let go and gone with my gut. Nickel could hurt me, but he could also make me the happiest I had ever been.

  My phone dinged from the living room. I slipped out of bed, pulled Nickel’s t-shirt over my head, and padded down the hall. I grabbed my phone and saw I had a new voicemail from a number I didn’t know. I grabbed our abandoned cups of coffee and dumped them in the sink.

  “Baby?” I heard Nickel call.

  “Kitchen.” Just as I was about to hit send to listen to the voicemail, the number called again.

  “Who the hell is calling you so late?” Nickel asked, appearing in the kitchen. He had his boxers on, so he must have detoured to the bedroom before walking out here.

  “I don’t know.” I swiped left to answer it. “Hello?” Nickel slid his arms around me.

  “Hello, Karmen.” My blood ran cold and the phone slipped from my fingertips.

  Holy shit.

  **********

  Nickel

  Karmen’s body tightened in my arms, and the phone fell to the floor. “Baby?” I spun her around and examined her pale face.

  Her fingers shakily touched her lips, and she shook her head. “It can’t be,” she whispered.

  “What? What can’t be?”

  “I don’t know how he found me. My number isn’t listed. I’ve moved since he last knew where I was. He’s not supposed to find me,” she rambled.

  I brushed her hair out of her face. “Karmen, you need to tell me what the hell is going on, baby girl.”

  She shook her head and slipped through my arms, dropping to the floor. “I need to turn my phone off. I need to get a new number. This can’t be happening.” She crawled on the floor, scrambling to find her phone.

  I spotted it under the kitchen table and nabbed it before Karmen’s fingers grasped it. I scrolled through her call log and put her phone to my ear after connecting the call. “You have reached Winchester Prison after hours. To be connected to—” I hung up and shoved her phone in my pocket. “Who’s calling you from the prison, Karmen?” I was ninety percent sure I knew who it was, unless Karmen knew more than one person in prison.

  She sat back on her ass and looked up at me. “I made him promise he would never contact me. I did everything I could to disappear. I should have left town, but I couldn’t leave the only place I’ve known.” Her eyes were bloodshot from crying so hard, and her cheeks were stained with tears. The woman who I had shared the best sex of my life with was gone and was replaced with a terrified girl.

  I scooped her up in my arms and carried her back to the bedroom. “We need to talk, baby girl.”

  She laid her head on my shoulder and sighed. “I’d rather just sleep.”

  I bumped the lights off with my elbow and laid her in the middle of the bed. “As soon as we talk, then you can sleep.”

  She rolled over on her side and bunched up the pillow under her head. “Once we talk, you’re going to want to leave.”

  I fell into bed next to her and pulled the pillow out from under her head.

  “Hey,” she protested.

  With the pillow folded in half under my head, I gathered her in my arms, and she rested her head on my shoulder. “Talk,” I ordered.

  A small grunt came from her mouth, but she didn’t talk.

  “Karmen, you can’t freak out the way you did in the kitchen and not think that I’m going to ask questions. Tell me who was on the phone,” I demanded.

  “My father,” she mumbled.

  “Your father in prison.”

  A sigh escaped her lips, and she nodded against my shoulder. “Yes, we’ve already gone over my crappy childhood.”

  This shit was going to be like pulling teeth with her. “You’re going to have to give me m
ore.”

  “I told you he killed someone, right? Well, his luck ran out on driving drunk, and he managed to smash into a mother and three kids.”

  My arm flexed around her. “None of them made it?”

  “Only one kid lived. His mom and siblings were gone in an instant because my father didn’t want to walk home in the rain. Killing three people was better than getting a little wet.” She sniffled and buried her face in my neck. “I haven’t talked to him since I was eighteen. I tried to forget everything he had done, but I couldn’t. I told him I never wanted to talk to him again. He was always good at making promises, but the man never kept one”

  “So why is he calling you now?” I asked.

  “He’s probably up for parole and is looking for me to help him get released early.”

  “How long is he locked up for?”

  “Thirty-five years. My hands sifted through hair. “Baby girl, that doesn’t make sense.” I had been around guys in and out of prison my whole life. Hell, I had done a stint in jail for six months when I had first joined the Fallen Lords. You didn’t get to make phone calls after midnight to ask your kid to come to a parole hearing. They sent letters in the mail for that shit.

  “I’m not going to help that man get out of prison, Nickel. He deserves to be there.”

  I pulled her up my side ‘til we were face to face and looked her in the eye. “I’m not disagreeing with you. What I’m saying is, he shouldn’t be calling you after midnight when he’s in prison. They have certain hours they can make calls at, and midnight is not one of them.”

  “Oh,” she whispered. “Then how did he call me?”

  “He must have pulled some strings, or he has someone in his pocket who was able to connect him to you after hours. He hasn’t tried to make contact with you at all in four years?” Something wasn’t adding up.

  She shook her head. “No, I swear. And before that, it was three years.”

  I sat up, pulled her over my body to straddle my waist, and leaned against the headboard. “Then there must be something that he needs to tell you if he is calling you after visiting hours.”

  “But there isn’t anything he needs to tell me. Even if he had managed to get paroled early, he knows that I don’t want to talk to him. My dad messed up my life, and I know if I let him back in, he is just going to do the same thing again. I’m at least old enough this time to tell him no.”

  “So what are you going to do if he calls again?”

  She scoffed and rested her hands on my shoulders. “Not answer.”

  I brushed her hair back from her face. “I don’t think that is going to help this go away.”

  “Well, what is going to do the trick, then?”

  “Let me help you. I’ll find out what is going on with your dad, and you won’t have to deal with him.”

  She cradled my cheek with her hand, and her eyes watered. “Why are you so nice to me?”

  “It's not nice. It’s called taking care of you.”

  “No one has ever done that before.” Her voice was quiet, and her eyes were focused on me, but I could tell she was far away. “Even when I went to live with my grandma, she didn’t want me. She said I was old enough to take care of myself. Hell,” she laughed hollowly, “even my mom didn’t want me. She left before I could even remember her.”

  My anger boiled knowing that Karmen had that in her life. “Right now, we’re dealing with your dad. Later, we’ll deal with what your messed up past has done to you.”

  “Hey,” she protested, “I happen to think I’ve turned out pretty decent.”

  “More than decent, baby girl. But it’s twisted the way you see things.”

  She laid her head on my shoulder and curled up next to me. “I’m sorry,” fell from her lips.

  What the hell did she have to be sorry for? Was it her fault she had a shit childhood with even shitter parents? Hell no. I ignored her unnecessary apology. She was fading fast on me. “I need to know his name.”

  She looked up at me, her cheeks tear-stained. “What, why?”

  “So I can find out what is going on. Just give me his name.” The phone call already told me what prison he was in, so his name was the last thing I needed.

  “Fritz Handel. But what are you going to do, Nickel? I don’t want you to get into trouble for me.”

  Karmen had no idea of the shit I was in with the Fallen Lords. Looking in on a deadbeat in prison was going to be a walk in the park. “Don’t worry about me. Your father isn’t going to hurt you or me.” I brushed her hair from her face and pressed a kiss to her lips. “I just got you, I’m not going to let you go anytime soon.”

  She huffed and shook her head. “I think we might need to get your head checked.”

  A grin spread across my lips. “And why would you say that?”

  “Because you are in bed with one of the most boring people you will ever know.”

  “Well, I know you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, and tonight was one of the best nights I’ve had in a hell of a long time.”

  She crawled into my lap and straddled my hips. “Oh my God, Nickel, I think we need to get you to the eye doctor immediately. I think you might be going blind.” Her hands cradled my face, and she had a sly smile on her face.

  I wrapped my arms around her waist and flipped her over, my body covering her. “Then it’s a good thing you’re a nurse. I guess I’m going to need some personal care.”

  Giggles bubbled from her lips as my hands ran over her body, and my lips blazed a trail of kisses up her neck. “Nickel, you’re so corny,” she gasped.

  “You bring it out in me, Karmen. It’s all your fault.” It was all her fault. I would never act like this in front of the club. Hell, it was rare for me to even crack a smile when I was at the clubhouse anymore.

  She wound her arms around my neck and pulled me closer. “I guess I can take the blame for that,” she whispered against my lips. “Thank you for helping with my dad.”

  “You’re gonna find out there isn’t much I wouldn’t do for you, baby girl.”

  Her eyes closed, and she sighed deeply.

  I meant it when I had told her nothing was going to touch her. Starting tomorrow, I was going to find out what her dad wanted and do my best to keep her safe.

  **********

  Karmen

  “Shut up.”

  I shook my head and grabbed the next chart off of the cart.

  “You didn’t.”

  Honestly, I was in shock as much as she was, but I was also slightly offended that she was so surprised. “Pick your jaw up off the floor, Nikki, and try not to act like Nickel and me together is so crazy. You were the one who encouraged me to go out with him last night.”

  She grabbed my arm and spun me around to look at her. “No! That’s not why I’m so shocked. I knew that man was head over heels in lust with you, I just didn’t know if you were going to actually do anything about it or get caught up in your head like you normally do.”

  “Well, Nickel was good at keeping me from thinking.” I didn’t think about anything ‘til he left, and the weight of everything that had happened last night and early in the morning had come crashing down on me.

  Not only did I have to deal with the fact that my quiet little world was blown to smithereens by Nickel, but I was also now worried about why my dad was trying to call me.

  “So, when are you going to see him again?” Nikki asked eagerly.

  I sighed deeply and tried to push all thoughts of my dad out of my head. There wasn’t much I could do about him while I was at work. Thankfully, I only worked a six-hour shift today, and it was already more than half over.

  “Hello, earth to Karmen.” Nikki waved her hand in my face. “When are you going to see him again?”

  “Um, I think he said he had some stuff to take care of today and he would come over when he was done.” Part of me hoped he would, but the other half of me wished he wouldn’t.

  You know those tiny little boxes w
here I put my problems? Well, for the past four hours, I had been trying to shove Nickel into one, and it just wasn’t working. He pushed past every barrier and wall that I had built up around myself, and that was only after spending one night with him. I was terrified of what would happen when we spent more time together. He was liable to blow my whole world apart, and I wouldn’t be able to put it back together.

  “Stop.”

  I looked up from the floor and tilted my head. “Stop what?”

  “Stop wrinkling your nose and trying to talk yourself out of being with Nickel.” She grabbed the chart out of my hand and walked into the empty room that we were prepping for a new resident. “You are one of the smartest people I know, Karmen, but that always isn’t good. You could talk yourself out of winning the lottery if you put your mind to it.”

  “Nickel and the lottery are complete opposites.”

  Nikki scoffed and dropped down onto the empty bed. “They are one in the same. Both things that are good for you and could change your life. Besides, I’m sure that man knows his way between the sheets.”

  My cheeks heated at her words, and I subtly fanned myself. She was not wrong about that. Nickel had made me feel things that I didn’t think were possible last night, and I’m sure there was more he could show me. “I wouldn’t kick him out of bed,” I mumbled.

  Nikki smiled slyly. “Just remember that whenever you start thinking of all the bullshit reasons to run.” She wiggled her eyebrows and jumped up. “Maybe you could hook me up with one of his buddies.”

  I thought of the guys that I had met at Shake the Lake, and couldn’t picture Nikki with any of them. Hell, I couldn’t even picture myself with Nickel, but he seemed interested in me. “I only met some of them for a few minutes. I’m not sure any of them would work.”

  She scoffed and wrinkled her brow. “Did they have names like Meat and Death? I don’t think I could handle introducing them to my grandma if that were the case. At least with Nickel’s name, it’s not horrible. Did he tell you what his real name was?”