Broken & Burned

by A. J. Downey

  He felt so damned good! Touching and stroking the most intimate parts of me, bringing me up to a fevered pitch. Our breaths came in clashing ragged gasps as he took me higher and higher into the clouds. He grinned savagely and hooked one of his arms beneath my leg. I uncrossed my ankles and he folded me upward, resting my leg along his lean muscular torso and oh my god he was going so deep inside of me! I was amazed at this new dimension of feeling, had never felt anything like it before!

  I cried out in pure bliss and he took it for an invitation and thrust harder, which felt so damned good it almost left pleasure behind to become pain. I loved it! Riding that razor thin edge between the two he upped the ante when he pressed his thumb over my clit. I came apart and was vaguely aware of screaming his name while I did it. He thrust into me a few more times and stilled, letting my leg down he kissed me. Sweet and slow, languorously and it dawned on me that he’d had his release right along with mine.

  I’d never shared that level of intimacy with Jerry. Never. I wrapped my arms around Dray and kissed him back gently, saying thank you silently with my body. He reached between us and held the condom on while he slipped from me and I made a little sound and sucked in a breath. Still sensitive. He smiled crookedly at me, that delicious little boyish grin that made my heart go soft and melt around the edges.

  “You feel incredible.” He growled.

  I was speechless. Utterly speechless. He disposed of the condom in the trash beside the bedside table and moved out from between my legs to lay alongside me. He propped his head in his hand and trailed his fingertips along my body in a light touch that raised goose bumps in their wake. My heart slowly ceased its pounding and I turned onto my side to face him, and let my fingers do some walking of their own over his heated skin.

  “Next time I’m taking my time with you.” He said and I felt a thrill that there would be a next time. That he wanted that with me… The burning look he gave me in addition to his words warmed me to my toes and wrapped me in security. I closed my eyes and nodded, still robbed of speech. When I opened them he was smiling and reaching for me. He laid down and pulled me against him.

  “Sleep,” he ordered gently, then, “I’m making you mine again in the morning if I can.” I shivered and looked up at him.

  “Keep looking at me like that and I’m going to have you again right now.” He warned and I smiled, but I didn’t take my eyes off of him. Something flashed in his deep dark eyes and he rolled lightning fast and pinned me beneath him, one of his knees sliding between my thighs, opening me for him. Challenge accepted!

  Chapter 10

  Dray…

  I think Em and I both slogged through the next day, neither one of us exactly knowing how we pulled it off. I picked her up from her coffee stand, drove us home and we pretty much both collapsed fully clothed into bed. We napped from around one until her phone shattered the calm. She groped across my body and snatched the offending thing off the nightstand.

  “Hello?” she asked sleepily, then, “Oh sorry, I forgot all about it.” She sighed.

  “I don’t know, let me ask.” She looked at me, “Shelly wants to know if we’re going to the club house tonight.” I grunted. Unfortunately I had to. Church meeting tonight to decide the direction of the club. Membership had been dropping off, mostly due to retiring members or members who were patching over into chapters in other states since we’d taken a lower profile. I nodded and Everett snuggled in closer to my side and said into the phone, “He says yes.” The voice, indistinct on the other end squawked out another question.

  “I don’t know what time is it now?” Em asked. I raised an eyebrow and she looked at me.

  “Seven?” she said a little surprised. I frowned.

  “She wants to know what time we’ll be there.” Everett closed her eyes and rested the ear that wasn’t on the phone above my heart. She relaxed and I smiled, tangling my fingers in her silky hair and massaged the nape of her neck.

  “We’ll get there when we get there.” I said gently.

  “She heard you.” She said, her eyes had drifted shut and I swear if the girl were a cat she’d be purring.

  “Hang up the phone.” I said, voice low and controlled.

  “Shelly I’ve got to go. See you when we get there.” Em pulled the phone from her ear and touched the screen to end the call. I smiled.

  “I suppose we should get ready to go out.” She murmured.

  “Mmm.” Was my non-committal reply.

  Church was at eight. I wanted Everett under me again something fierce but unfortunately it was going to have to wait. I looked her over and came to a decision.

  “Pack a change of clothes for tomorrow and bring your dance stuff. We’re staying the night at the club house.” I told her.

  “Are we now?” she said with a smile and I could see the sleep had done her good. She had a feisty sparkle in her steely baby blues.

  “Yep. We are. I have club business, then we’re fucking.” I spanked her jean clad ass as a loud peal of her musical laughter split the dense air. My room was stuffy.

  “Well when you put it that way!” She exclaimed. I smiled.

  “I’m such a romantic. I know.” I said and smiled at her, sitting up. Her expression softened and she leaned forward and touched her lips to mine. My eyebrows went up and I couldn’t help but kiss her and spend a long minute doing it. She drew back and I let her, searching her face.

  “What was that for?” I asked gruffly.

  “You’re more of a romantic than I think you give yourself credit for.” She said, voice husky with the promise of things yet to come. My cock stood at attention in my jeans and I cleared my throat.

  “Yeah, well. Don’t tell anybody. Might ruin my badass image.” I said and she scoffed and got up. I couldn’t help but smile as I watched her go, she had this perfect ass, high and tight and fucking gorgeous like the rest of her. I got up and pulled on a clean shirt that was a little less wrinkled than what I had on. Everett returned from the bathroom and picked through her pile of clothes, glancing at me.

  “Just wear something comfortable. You aren’t going to be in it for very long anyways.” I shrugged and pulled on my motorcycle boots. Em rolled her eyes at me but did what I asked, pulling out fresh underthings and a comfortable looking tee and hooded sweatshirt. I went out into the kitchen and started a pot of coffee. She came out a minute later looking a little fresher, her hair brushed out and shining around her face, some gloss on her lips that drew my eyes directly to them. She wrinkled her nose and shot a dirty look at the coffee pot and I laughed a little.

  “Look little miss coffee snob…” I started and she came up to me, her blue eyes bright with laughter. She wound her arms around my shoulders and neck and my voice died in my throat. I looked at her, really looked at her, drinking her in and she blushed faintly.

  “What?” she asked a little self-consciously.

  “That’s one of the things that gets me about you.” I said, pulling her tight up against me, my hands smoothing down her silhouette, coming to rest on her hips.

  “What?” she asked, genuinely curious now.

  “You really have no idea just how fucking beautiful you are to me.” She gave a little gasp of surprise and I kissed her roughly. I meant to take my time with her tonight. Last night I’d lost control, the need to be inside of her, one with her, overriding my better judgment. I wanted to take my time tonight, do things right, leave her exhausted from feeling good instead of being exhausted from too much work, school, stress and whatever else she’d had piled on her plate.

  I drew back a little reluctantly to look at her beautiful face and smiled at what I saw there. She glowed from the pleasure of my mouth on hers, my hands on her… from me and that in turn made me feel on top of the world. It was sort of a new concept. I was used to taking from girls what I needed to feel good, I’d never felt good from giving before and I realized now that that was a sad fact. Not something to be proud of, not a mark of what a badass I was. I sighed.
I’d been angry at the world for a long time. Intent on burning the whole motherfucker down around me, and with it, everyone stupid enough to stick around me. For a long time I just hurt so much that I wanted everyone to hurt right along with me.

  “Dray what’s wrong?” Everett asked me softly. I looked down into her blue eyes which had become deep pools of concern.

  “Nothing, just some old ghosts and memories.” I smiled and I knew it was sad. Maybe that was my ‘connect’ with Everett… Pretty had gotten me interested but really, she’d lost her dad around the same age I’d lost my mom, only a few years’ difference really, and from everything I could see, he was her everything growing up, a lot like my mom had been to me.

  “Hey stop,” she said gently, her hands cupped my face and I blinked and looked down into her glorious blue eyes.

  “Stop what?” I asked.

  “Whatever it is you’re thinking that’s making you look so distant and sad.” She said. I nodded and jerked my head towards the door.

  “Come on, I’ve got club business and I’m the VP, it’ll be my ass if I’m late.” I changed the subject. Something flashed in Em’s eyes that told me I would have some questions to answer before she nodded. I picked up her bag of dance stuff which had lightened some and I raised an eyebrow.

  “Took some of the costumes out. Just the basics in there now.” She said and shouldered my battered old back pack.

  “Plan on studying?” I asked as I herded her out the door.

  “Shelly said she would help me,” she shrugged a shoulder, “Besides, I don’t have a purse.” I barked a laugh.

  “What woman doesn’t have a purse?” I asked.

  “Apparently yours!” she shot back and stuck her tongue out at me over her shoulder. I felt a zing of electricity race through me at her words. Teasing or not, the idea appealed to me. I watched her step lightly down the cement steps leading up to my door in the dark and made the decision that I liked the sound of that so much it was pretty much a done deal.

  “What are you smiling at?” she asked teasing and I looked at her over the roof of my car.

  “You have no idea how much what you just said appeals to me Em.” I told her and she watched me, expression closed, considering... I threw her bag into the back seat over the headrests, she got into the car and shut the door the same time I did.

  “I don’t know what I’m doing.” She confessed softly.

  “Neither do I,” I let her know, “But whatever it is, it’s comfortable and I like it.” Which was true. I didn’t generally do anything I didn’t want to do or didn’t like unless it was for the club or the good of my brothers in it.

  “It is, isn’t it?” she asked and her smile put her past beautiful into a sphere all her own. I started the car and put it in reverse.

  “I aim to keep it that way too.” I told her with a rakish grin.

  “Oh and how do you plan to do that?” she asked.

  By being the man my mother had hoped I would be. By serving my club to the best of my ability. By growing the fuck up and owning my past mistakes; atoning for them… and most of all by trying to be the kind of man a woman like Everett Mary Moran deserved. I didn’t say any of this out loud. I didn’t want to freak her out. A lot of the shit I was feeling for her was quick, out of the blue and way fucking fast to be feeling after just a week but the weird thing was it wasn’t freaking me out. Instead of saying any of this to her I looked her over quickly before turning my attention back to the road.

  “You’ll see.” I told her with a false sense of bravado. Truth was I was playing this whole thing by ear and I had no idea how I was going to keep it comfortable. I damn sure was going to try though. I liked Everett, more than I’ve ever liked or been attracted to any other woman I’d ever laid eyes on and I didn’t just want to keep her, I wanted her to want to stay. That was a stunner and one I pretty much brooded on the rest of the way to the club.

  I pulled her bag out of the back seat and handed it to her, intent on fucking with Loyal, our latest, and pretty much only, prospect. He needed a little bit of a reminder that he was low man on the totem pole. We’d been going easy on him lately for no particular reason.

  “Hey Em.” I said softly and she paused.

  “Yeah?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.

  I don’t know why I felt the need to warn her but I didn’t want her thinking badly of me about anything. That, along with my other introspective revelations, shook me up even more than I had been when I realized how much I wanted to keep her around after only a week of knowing her, insane attraction aside…

  “We’ve got a prospect in there. You know what that is?” I asked. She shook her head.

  “Means he’s interested in becoming a patched member of the club, to do that you go through a probationary period of a year or more to prove yourself.” She tipped her head to the side.

  “Let me guess? Sort of like a pledge to a frat house? You guys do and say stupid shit to him and expect him to jump through a bunch of retarded hoops to prove himself?” she smiled at me and I felt an answering one of my own.

  “Smart girl.” I commented.

  “Would you do any other kind?” she asked and abruptly held up her hand. “Wait! Don’t answer that.” She laughed a little and I shook my head. She was definitely feeling better. I opened the clubhouse door and yelled…

  “Prospect!” at the top of my lungs. Em blinked an amused little smile on her lush mouth.

  “Yeah VP!?” Derek, better known to a lot of us as Loyal, jogged up from behind the bar.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you man!? Can’t you see I’m with a lady?” I asked. Loyal looked confused and I fought not to grin. I crossed my arms and put on my best pissed off face and glowered at him. “Well don’t just stand there! Take her bags!” I barked. Loyal jumped like it hadn’t even dawned on him and he reached out.

  “Of course ma’am. Sorry, ma’am, let me get those for you.” He reached out and took Everett’s bags and she smiled sweetly at him.

  “Thank you…” She said and raised her eyebrows, “Do you have a name or am I supposed to call you ‘prospect’ like he does?” she asked. Loyal smiled at her and took her bags from her.

  “Name is Derek, most people around here call me Loyal though. I’m fine with either.” He shrugged and hoisted the strap to her gym bag over his shoulder.

  “Nice to meet you Derek, I’m Everett but most people call me Ev or Evy.” She let him take her bags and smiled brightly and it made her eyes seem brighter.

  “If you’re done hitting on my girl there Prospect, you can go ahead and put her bags in my room.” I said ominously but shot a wink and a smile at Em when he wasn’t looking. Em did her best to look solemn but the mischievous glint in her eyes gave her away.

  “I wasn’t..! I didn’t mean to..!” Loyal was so damned gullible. He looked like he was about to piss himself until he caught site of Em and then his shoulders dropped and I laughed at him a little. I gripped his shoulders and shook him.

  “You gotta toughen up man.” I told him and slapped him on his raw cut. He had the rockers stating the club’s name and location but he didn’t have the colors yet. The black leather below the name rocker, and above the locale rocker smooth and blank and waiting for the Sacred Heart’s emblem.

  He was being sponsored by his Marine Corps buddy and our Sergeant of Arms, Trigger. With everything he’d displayed so far it looked like he might make it but he still had a long way to go. Prospects typically stayed prospects for a year sometimes more… on the rare occasion sometimes less but a man really had to prove himself for that. I kissed Em soundly and turned her loose at the table full of women and Old Ladies and sauntered into the chapel. I dropped into the seat at my dad’s right hand and propped a boot on the table. Trigger and Reaver were there, we were just waiting on Doc who came in and shut the door.

  “Alright,” my dad said and let out a sigh, “Membership is dropping off. What’re we going to do about it?” He look
ed at each of us in turn.

  “Chuckie didn’t end up making the cut, nobody’s seen him since a few weeks after I brought my Sunshine girl in. Derek looks like he’s going to make it at some point. Zander’s expressed some interest and so has Squick in becoming hang-‘rounds.” Trigger rattled off.

  “Yeah that’s my fault about Chuckie,” Doc said ruefully, “I’m afraid I’m not a very good sponsor. Kid dropped off the radar with me and I didn’t exactly bother lookin’. He took up with some other club that he said had more time for him.” Doc grimaced and there was a moment of silence.

  “Don’t worry ‘bout it too much Doc. Out of all of us you’re the busiest between the club and the hospital. I wasn’t too keen on the kid anyways.” My dad said, I was more interested in one of the guys Trigger mentioned.

  “Squick even got a bike?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “No shit, he just picked himself up a 1970 BMW 75/5!” Trig answered grinning. Laughter tittered around the table. I shrugged a shoulder. It wasn’t exactly a biker’s motorcycle but it fit the lanky tattoo artist’s style.

  “Those fuckers are a rat bike if I’ve ever seen one.” Reaver said grinning, he used the affectionate term for a motorcycle that didn’t look like much, but like a rat, just kept going and going… Rat bikes were nigh impossible to kill just like the critter they were named after.

  “Doesn’t look like a rat bike.” Trigger said dryly and he was smiling like some kind of proud papa.

  “Oh?” Doc asked leaning in.

  “Naw he restored it to perfection before bringing it out where anyone could see it. Did a great job on it too, looks like it just rolled off the showroom floor. He’s bringing it in tonight, Zander’s coming in on his custom. Thought they might like to join the party.” Trigger flashed a triumphant grin in Dragon’s direction. My dad shook his head, smiling.