Jack finally looked over at Mindy. His expression was still carefully neutral, but he nodded slowly.
“Start making preparations,” he said. “The lady and I need to have a conversation, I think.”
Bodhi’s expression shifted to nervousness again, but he nodded fast and hard and backed out of the room, not taking his eyes off either one of them just in case something got thrown at the wall and he needed to dodge.
Mindy managed to wait until the door closed, very softly, before she turned to Jack. “What are you even thinking?”
He wasn’t quite looking at her. “It makes a kind of sense, Mindy.”
“Nothing about any part of this situation makes any kind of sense, and I’m not marrying you.”
“Let’s talk about this.”
“There’s nothing to talk about! We don’t know anything about each other, and this is the most ridiculous suggestion I’ve ever heard in my life. I’m never getting married!”
“And you’re never having a baby, and you’re never staying in the same town for more than six months, and you’re never going to care about anyone. Am I right?”
Mindy went silent in shock.
He nodded. “I’ve been there, okay? I get it. I had some rough things happen when I was a kid, and I was convinced that the only way to get through it all was to start running and never stop. So, I ran, I ran hard and fast, and I didn’t stop. Until I ran into a brick wall, and I was lucky. When I fell, the Chain Gang was here to pick me up. To help me build a new kind of family.” Jack paused, running his hand through his hair, and then finally looking right into her face. “The fact that they’re suggesting this, instead of trying to throw you out, or tell me to take you to some hotel in the city, is a testament to them loving me and having a good feeling about you. I promise, Mindy. They want to bring you into the fold, and this is how they know how to do it.”
She sighed, scrubbing her hands over her face. “There’s probably not an option where we teach them a new way, is there?”
He shook his head slowly.
“So, it’s this, or you have to try and hide me somewhere, or I stay here and live in fear of that monster of a man grabbing me again, and know that I’m putting you and your people at risk.”
He winced. “It’s not exactly that stark, but… yeah. That is probably the cliff notes version.” He took a long breath, and then let it out in a rush. “Look, if it would help… we could make sure it’s a marriage in name only. That we don’t… you know, consummate it. And then, after, we could try and get it annulled. Or I’d give you a divorce and let you go on your way. Once things are settled with the Wardens, we can play this any way you want. I just want you to be happy. I want you and the baby to be safe. So, if you can tell me how to do that, I’ll make it happen.”
“A marriage in name—you mean, stay here with you, sleep in this bed with you, but not have sex with you?”
He nodded, and she had to laugh at the misery she could see on his face.
“Come on, Jack. This hour might be the longest stretch we’ve ever gone without falling straight into each other. Let’s get real; that won’t ever work. Right?”
He offered a rueful grin. “I felt like I needed to offer.”
She got up off the bed and went to where he was trying to look relaxed in his chair. “That’s very sweet of you.” She slid her legs on either side of him, straddling his lap, and letting him feel her weight. He let out a soft mmmm of desire as his hands cupped her ass, lifting her just a little so that her groin rubbed against his hardening cock. “I’ll say yes. But you need to ask me properly.”
“Do you want me down on one knee?”
“That would require me moving. I don’t want to move. I just want to hear you say it.”
He slid her against him faster, his eyes going dark as the lust increased between them. Neither one of them was going to orgasm like this, but goddamn it did feel good.
“Mindy,” he whispered, his gaze locked on hers. “Will you marry me, pretty girl?”
“Yes, Jack Dawson,” she said, watching the heat in his eyes increase. “Yes, I absolutely will.”
A curl of fear went through her as she spoke the words, but she pushed it away as hard as she could. It didn’t have to be forever, not if she didn’t want it to be. But right now, Jack said it was the best way to protect her and the baby. She trusted him. The decision was actually easy. As long as she trusted him.
And she did trust him. Didn’t she?
Chapter Twenty-Three In theory, Mindy knew she should have had a birth certificate and other documentation in order to get the marriage license, but Bodhi simply said that he’d take care of it. Meanwhile, a woman named Liz decided that she would take Mindy shopping for something to wear that would be just right for the occasion, while others of the club said they’d get the main room set for the ceremony. All in all, Mindy was surprised at how excited everyone was. She’d assumed they would just sign the license at the town hall, once she managed to get a copy of her birth certificate. Instead, they were treating this like… well, like an actual wedding. She kept waiting for the burst of nerves, but they didn’t happen.
Liz piled her into a car, an older model sports car that roared when Liz hit the gas and still had a stick shift. Mindy didn’t know enough about cars to name the make and model of this one, but she knew power when she heard it.
“Where did you find this beauty?” Mindy asked, ready to make conversation.
Liz gave her a sideways grin. “Rebuilt it myself. You like?”
“I don’t know much about cars,” Mindy admitted.
Liz’s grin spread. “I didn’t either when I first started spending time here. Don’t worry. You’ll pick it up soon enough. We all do, at least the basics.” She was quiet for a while; the town of Providence didn’t have much to it, so Liz was heading north on the Interstate, heading towards the bigger town up that way. Mindy hadn’t ever noticed a bridal shop there, but maybe Liz had a different plan? Didn’t it take weeks to order a wedding dress, anyway? She shrugged off the concern. Liz seemed to know exactly what she was doing. Maybe she was like the club version of a wedding planner. She took care of all the wayward women who needed not-quite-shotgun weddings. That made Mindy smile, too.
After the silence had stretched a while—comfortably, there was something peaceful and relaxing about it, somehow—Liz spoke again. “So, you and Jackdaw. How’s that going?”
Mindy smiled. “So far so good. He seems to be a really good guy.”
Liz nodded. “He is. He really is. He saved us, you know? When Grim went bad, and some of the guys followed him down that path, things got dark for a while. Real dark. For the girls, especially. Grim wouldn’t patch women, you know, so it was just the girls who hung around who… took the brunt of some of the stuff that happened. We tried to protect the younger ones when we could, but there were so many of them, and they were…” She shook her head, shaking the old memory loose. Mindy was very familiar with that moment; it was interesting seeing it from the outside.
“I’m glad he did that,” Mindy said.
Liz managed a wan smile. “Us too. The point is, though, that he means something to us. We’re glad he’s happy, and we want to see him stay that way. I just… want to make sure you’re in this.”
Mindy nodded slowly. “To tell you the absolute truth? I’m scared out of my mind. There’s not a day I don’t wake up and wonder how the hell I got into this. Well, clearly, I know, but you know what I mean. But I’m committed. I’m going to do everything I can to make this work. To make him happy, make me happy, and protect my baby.”
“Good,” Liz said, as much to herself as to Mindy. “Good. I’m glad.”
They drove into town, but instead of looking for a bridal shop, Liz pulled the car into a parking space across from a store that sold a wide variety of different things—earrings, body jewelry, pins, and magnets. They did have a selection of clothes, Mindy saw once they walked inside—soft dresses and skirts wi
th fluted bottoms and sparkling mirrors sewn over the fabric, with bright embroidery throughout the designs. All of the items were solid colors, and so pretty.
“Do you want to go traditional with white?” Liz asked, rifling through the rack.
“That seems a little hypocritical, don’t you think?” Mindy gestured at her belly bump.
Liz waved a hand dismissively. “No one follows that old rule anymore, or no one would get married in white ever. You can do what you want. Especially with us. What do you think?” She pulled out a white dress with narrow shoulder straps and soft purple-gray embroidery over the bodice and down the skirt.
“That’s really pretty.”
“Come here then.”
Mindy went and, when directed, lifted her arms up over her head. Liz pulled the dress down over Mindy’s head, pulling and tugging the dress in a bunch of directions. Finally, she nodded. “Yup, I can make this look good by this evening. Let’s go.”
Mindy’s heart started to pound. “This evening?”
“Yes. And then we’ll send a bunch of the guys out to the local bars to toast your nuptials, or whatever. They’ll spread the word around. Hopefully, that’ll be enough to take you off the Wardens’ radar permanently. It’s one thing to mess with some girl Jack was screwing, even one he knocked up, but touching his wife, he’d cut off a hand for that. And he wouldn’t feel bad about it at all.”
There was something chilling in the statement, but it felt good and protective and safe at the same time. Good and powerful. Mindy was a person who mattered. A person who would be protected. Cared for. That sounded… really pretty good.
“I like this plan,” she said, smoothing her hands over her hips before lifting the dress back over her head. “I like this plan a lot.”
Chapter Twenty-Four When they got back to the clubhouse, Mindy was quietly shocked at the transformation. The tables had been pushed back, and the pool tables had been covered with tablecloths and laid out with food. There were flowers decorating the pillars around the room. The bar had been looped with tinsel. It didn’t look like a church, but it did look fancy. And to be entirely fair, Mindy had never really thought of herself as getting married in a church anyway. She’d never thought of getting married, period.
The butterflies started up in her belly again. How was she going to survive this? How was she going to say that she’d promise herself to Jack forever? He said it didn’t have to stick once the Wardens were dealt with, but what if he changed his mind? What if he tried to take the Bean once it was born, and get away from her? What if, what if, what if?
She wasn’t sure if Liz saw the panic spreading through her or was just in a hurry, but she hooked her hand under Mindy’s elbow and tugged her gently away from the decorated room. They went down a hall, a different one from where Jack’s room was located, and then through a door. Mindy had a feeling right away that this was Liz’s room. There was something soft about it, the edges just a little more blurred and less Spartan than the ones in Jack’s room, even though his had more stuff in it.
“Alright,” Liz said, maneuvering Mindy to where she wanted her. She handed Mindy the bag that had the pretty white dress in it. “Change,” she said.
It took Mindy a moment to understand, and when she realized that was what Liz meant, immediately, her heart started to thrum a little faster. But she kept her body moving, shucking off her clothes and slipping the white dress over her head. She’d worn a light-colored bra and panties today, which was good; the dress wasn’t sheer, but it wasn’t thick enough to hide a black thong either.
Right away, Liz went to work, pulling the skirt in various directions, doing weird things with hair ties and safety pins and other stuff that Mindy couldn’t see from where she stood. Every time she twisted around to try and look, Liz poked her shoulder and said, “Eyes front, soldier,” with a little laugh. Mindy resisted the urge to giggle, too. She wasn’t a schoolgirl, and even if she was getting married in a couple hours, that just wasn’t the point.
Eventually, Liz stopped fussing with the dress and started fussing with Mindy’s hair. She tried piling it all up on top of Mindy’s head and then shook it down. After a couple more tries, she settled for piling half of it up and letting the rest fall down. She attacked with pins and a curling iron, and then she brought out a basket full of makeup. She closed Mindy’s eyes and opened them, made her look in all kinds of directions, never with more than a quickly spoken, “Up. Left. Closed. Open again.”
But when she finished, and she placed Mindy in front of the full-length mirror, placed on the back of the door, with a long crack running down the left side, Mindy was astonished at what she saw. Instead of hiding her bump, Liz had carefully highlighted it, drawing the dress tight over her breasts but leaving it loose over the swell of her belly. Her hair looked artfully tousled instead of a big mess or a boring ponytail, and the makeup Liz had applied left her positively glowing.
“Oh wow,” Mindy said. It wasn’t like some kind of movie magic transformation; she still looked very much like herself, just a version of herself that had been neatly and carefully considered. Refined.
“I do good work,” Liz said, clearly proud of herself. “Come on. Jackdaw should be ready by now.”
“Why do you all call him that? Just because of his name?”
Liz smiled. “It was a pretty obvious nickname, because of that, but in symbolism terms? Jackdaws are like crows and ravens. They’re messengers, and they are bringers of death. But they also bring rebirth. And he brought the Chain Gang back to what it used to be. So. Jackdaw.”
“It suits him.”
“Doesn’t it? Come on, though.”
Mindy followed Liz out of the room and back down the hallway. She expected to hear the wedding march start playing somewhere, but that was a silly fantasy. This was her real life. And her palms weren’t sweating, or her hands shaking, or her heart pounding anymore. She just walked, proud and confident and ready to see what happened next.
Folks were milling around the room, dressed in all sorts of clothes. She saw the same leathers she’d seen before all this happened to short, sexy dresses to suits and ties and more formal wear. But as she looked around the room, there was only one face she wanted to see. Jack stood near the bar, talking to Bodhi. Bodhi saw her first, and a grin spread across his face. He elbowed Jack and pointed. Jack turned, his expression still distracted, but when his gaze locked on Mindy, everything else seemed to fall away. She saw his lips open and close—wow, he’d said—and then he was moving towards her, very fast, almost running. When he got to her, his hands went around her waist, and he lifted her up and swung her in a circle while she shrieked. When she was back on her feet, he pulled her into a deep, intense kiss. Only when Liz started making frustrated sounds about her lipstick did Jack pull away. He put his forehead against Mindy’s and smiled and said, “Mine. All mine.”
“Yours,” she said, suddenly sure she meant it.
He took her hand and led her to the man she could only presume was the justice of the peace. He was big, burly, with a beard that came halfway down his chest and a bald head. They said their vows—she learned that Jack’s middle name was Aaron—and they were married. It took a little more than ten minutes.
And then they were celebrated by the club. Bodhi made her a bunch of different virgin cocktails while the others in the clubhouse got well and truly hammered. Except for Jack. He nursed a beer for a long time, his eyes taking in her body over and over again.
When the assigned groups headed out into the night, to spread the word that Jack’s “woman” had become his wife, Jack finally stood, leading her back to the room by the hand. She almost wished that he was going to take her to some swanky hotel, but then, at the same time, she didn’t want to wait that long.
As soon as they were in the room, she reached for the back of the dress, meaning to step out of it as gracefully as she could, but he stilled her hands. His eyes were so big and dark, and she got lost in his gaze. Her hands went su
bmissive in his as he slowly, gently, brought them behind her back.
“Leave it on,” he said.
“Okay.” There wasn’t anything else to say, was there? Just the feel of his gaze wandering over her body, taking her in, smiling as he explored her with his eyes. God, that was lovely. It felt so good to be watched, to be cared for by him.
He lifted her skirt, hooked his fingers around her panties, and tugged them slowly down. She expected him to stand again, kissing her or stroking her with his fingers, but instead, he nudged her knees apart as he knelt on the floor. She understood what he was about to do only a moment before he did it; his tongue parted her inner lips and found her clit. Her knees went weak, and she clutched at his hair, doing her best to hold herself up. He let out a low, throaty growl and licked her harder, closing his teeth around her clit as his fingers stroked her opening, teasing up into her softer than his cock ever had. She felt wild, hungry for him, and she ground down onto his face and his fingers, desperate for whatever he wanted to give her. The white skirt of her dress falling in folds around his face was nearly enough to do her in. She was all the best kinds of slutty, fucking him in her wedding dress, just like this.
BIKER’S GIFT Page 59
