BIKER’S GIFT

by Claire St. Rose

  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 time. 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.

  “Mindy,” he murmured, even his voice tight. “Mindy, beautiful girl. Can you come with me? Can you?”

  She felt her own release on the horizon, and she nodded, finding no words at all. His hands came down on her hips, and he was slamming into her, so hard and fast that she cried out, hard, and the orgasm she’d been feeling in the distance rushed over her, leaving her keening as she tried to keep from screaming. He yanked her down as he kept rolling his hips, capturing his mouth with hers. She could feel him as he tipped over the edge with her, his cock spasming inside of her as he came.

  She collapsed onto his chest and then had to roll off him, cuddling into his side. The weight of her body on top of her belly felt like lying on top of a basketball; awful, uncomfortable, and nothing she wanted to do again.

  “Goddamn,” he murmured into her hair. “I mean. We gotta work on getting to know each other and stuff, and I’m all in for that, but I gotta say, knowing we can connect like that is pretty spectacular too.”

  “Can’t help but agree,” she murmured, leaning up to kiss him again.

  “You want to sleep some more?”

  She shook her head. “I think I’ll shower.”

  “Mmm. I’ll join you.”

  She swatted his belly lightly, and he laughed, curling up as if it actually hurt. “Animal.”

  “No, believe me. I need at least…” He glanced at the clock across the room, then nodded. “Twenty minutes to recover. So, if we shower fast, you’ll be safe from my manly charm.”

  “And if I don’t shower fast?”

  He made a growling sound deep in his throat. “Then I might just decide that you need to be taught a lesson about who is in charge in this relationship.” He twisted her nipple between his fingers, and she couldn’t even pretend to be angry about it. He swatted her on the ass again, where he’d spanked her before, and she hissed. She pushed back from him and giggled as he chased her into the shower.

  This was something she could adjust to.

  Chapter Twenty-Two The next morning, Mindy was just getting out of bed and putting her hair up when there was a knock on the door. Jack had been up for about twenty minutes already, and sat at the small desk in the room, going over some accounting figures someone had emailed to him overnight.

  “Come in,” he said, without looking up from his computer. Mindy sat on the bed and crossed her legs, trying not to feel like an intruder in the room.

  Bodhi came in. If he’d had a hat to clutch in his hands and twist, Mindy was very sure he would have done it.

  “Hey, boss,” he said.

  Jack frowned for just a second; Mindy only saw it because of the angle. When he spun the chair to face Bodhi, his face was calm and neutral. “Hey, Bodhi. What’s up?”

  “Nothing much,” Bodhi replied, twisting that imaginary hat. “Just… some of the patches and the ladies. A bunch of folks were talking. And they—well, we—got to thinking about the situation you—you two—have in front of you.”

  Jack nodded. “Keep talking.”

  Bodhi actually looked slightly relieved. “Anyway. What would you two think about… you know, formalizing things?”

  Jack’s eyes narrowed, which was good because it kept Bodhi’s attention on Jackdaw, and hopefully kept him from noticing that she was terrified and couldn’t breathe all of a sudden. Married? What the hell was the guy talking about? She’d adjusted to the idea of having a father for her baby, like, yesterday, and now they were talking about marriage? She used every ounce of self-control she had ever possessed in her life not to just scream at both of them for talking about this in the first place.

  She waited for Jack to say that this conversation was ridiculous, so when she heard the words, “Tell me more about why people want this,” she thought she would actually explode.

  “Excuse me,” she said before Bodhi could get another word out. Jack, she couldn’t fucking believe him, lifted a hand up to silence her. Even m
ore shocking, she went quiet.

  Bodhi shot her a nervous glance before he continued. “They—okay, we—think that part of the reason the Wardens made a grab for Mindy is that they don’t see you as having claimed her. You’re just, you know, shacking up together. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.” It all came out in a rush. “But they see her as a prize they can steal away from you without provoking much response, but still hurting you plenty.”

  “Whereas if she’s my wife, they know that it will bring hellfire and brimstone down on their heads.”

  “Exactly,” Bodhi said, relief in his voice. Mindy did not feel any such relief. Instead, she felt the urge to tear both men apart with her bare hands. “And, frankly, boss? Some of us are worried that the Wardens will decide that the best way to get what they want is to bring the ceiling of this place right down on our heads. No one wants to see that, you know? We just want to see you, us, and her stay safe.”