by V. Theia
It was bad. But maybe easier at the same time. He’d faced it, even brought Shane up in a conversation around the dinner table, both of his parents looking at him like he’d swallowed a frog before his father cleared his throat and joined in.
It had been bad, but easier.
He’d opened the box, if he wanted to get better for himself, for his lady, he had to face it all, the good, the ugly, the downright painful, he was willing to face it all, to talk about it every fucking day if he had to, just so it didn’t creep up on him in the dark again. A series of dark pulses had gone through Preacher as he’d looked down at the photos of his happy brother, before the army, before the death, he hated regret of any kind, found it wasting most of the time, but this, he was going to have to allow the possibility into his brain that it was only ever going to be regret that he felt and accept it because in this circumstance, unless Ruby’s Jesus was coming to town to perform some resurrections, there was no going back and amending what had gone down. It happened and he would try to accept it. No other choices here. It wasn’t like picking a pizza, he didn’t like peppers so he’d have onions instead. Shane was dead and he couldn’t fix it.
He left his parent's place that day with a little less tightness in his chest.
“Come on, beautiful, let’s hear ‘em.” Leaning into her space, long fingers laced on the table between them, it was late, almost time for her to close the bar and to go home with him. He liked coming to pick her up from work. Not just fuck buddies. Preacher smiled to himself, catching the flavor of what Ruby was avoiding saying. For someone so outspoken as he was getting to know her to be she was awful secretive when it came to her own needs, shrugging her slim shoulders like she didn't have something very precise on her mind.
He wanted to take her mind away from the crap she continually dealt with from her sister, only last night he'd listened to the one-sided argument on the phone, and how exhausted she was once it was finished. He couldn’t take seeing her cry, and he knew she was worried about the kid.
They’d had each other countless times now, a personal record for a man who didn't usually go back for seconds once his zipper was back up. His Ruby was complex and addicting. She was a voracious clawing under his skin and fighting him about it at the same time with her little rules she enforced to the death. Gorgeous contradiction and he was loving their tug of war.
He really hungered for more from her. More than she would probably give but he’d decided to go with Rider’s advice and show her all of him, she could have all of him until she was ready.
"You can't shock me, beautiful if that's what you think. I've heard it all before."
“I just bet you have, perv.” She smirked.
They were talking sexual fantasies over a shared glass of bourbon they were passing between them. His lips touching where hers drank from.
She rose her lashes, those deep-set burnished eyes hitting him in the stomach where the lust lived. It gurgled and came to life.
Fuck, if she wasn't drop dead gorgeous. And mine.
A thousand times between her legs wouldn’t be nearly enough.
Preacher reached out and took her hand, stroked his thumb down her skinny fingers one at a time, brushed over her short neat nails, not like some women who grew claws the size of a bald eagle, her hands were functional, pretty. He traced the lines on her palm, followed up to the paper-thin veins on her inner wrist.
"Should I start? Okay. A fantasy of mine is a woman I am deeply into, like deep, deep, can't get enough of her in my mouth, her taste and flavor, that honey of when she comes for me, yeah her, I want her to tell me her dirtiest fantasy so I can make it happen. Because she knows I will."
Clarity and softness came into Ruby's eyes. He flashed her a toothy smile and arched his brow. Waiting.
"Smooth, Preacher man. Really smooth that." Amused, she dipped her head, did her own stroking on his hand. Their connection strong.
"Are you embarrassed by what you want?"
"No." Her small voice contradicted.
Intrigued. His dirty brain practically licking his chops waiting for her to spill her secrets out on the table.
So was his dick, throbbing behind his zipper, demanding she use those fingers to grind him down and wear him out.
He waited a small amount of time with silence between them, letting her gather the courage, beautiful thing, not wanting to rush her into anything she didn't truly desire, though he felt it in his gut, his tiny dancer was the most sensually erotic woman he'd ever been with, she burned brightly in the height of her pleasure and he suspected she had hidden her true nature from everyone.
Only, he saw.
Now more than ever he was prepared to dig to the depths of Ruby's soul to find her, to know her, to taste that part of herself she didn't tell anyone.
Because knowing she had a secret side turned him the fuck on big time.
"Tell me, beautiful." He urged.
If she took any longer he was just gonna say screw it and fuck her over the table, the pool table or the bar, he was easy and hard up to have her.
Her head came up, eyes pinning him as if to say fuck you, bossy. He grinned from one side of his mouth and sat back in the booth, arm outstretched along the back. "Or we could just go back to my place and fuck," he threw in the suggestion as her out…if she wanted to take it.
"Have you ever been watched?"
His brow lifted. "Gonna need more to go on. Watched doing?"
She huffed and dragged the straw through her drink she hadn’t touched yet, favoring their shared bourbon instead. "When you fuck, screw, bang, hump, Preacher man. Has anyone ever watched you? Besides the poor woman under you, that is."
"Poor woman. Come on now, baby." He laughed since she was the current woman under him and there was nothing poor about her or what they shared together, by his last count she was streets ahead of him in screaming orgasms. "Voyeurism. That's what rings your bell, tiny dancer? If someone's watched me fucking I don't know about it." Besides the old hook-ups at the club, maybe his brothers had seen him get his dick wet a time or two, but it was never deliberately. When Preacher wanted to get off he didn't make a show of it, but now…he leaned in, rested both arms on the table, he grasped his beard with one hand and took her hand with the other. "This is what you want?"
Ruby shrugged, not meeting his eyes, but then a second later she hit him with a stare so heated he was sure his jeans incinerated.
Hot damn.
That's my lady. He thought.
"I don't know. Maybe. Yes. You already know I like it rough ... consensual force. I think it'd be sexy to have someone watch me ... us ... have sex. It doesn't mean I want a threesome if that's what you're into, fine, but I won't sign up for that, Preacher."
Preacher smiled, coasting a hand down his beard, back and forth. Thinking. Already five steps ahead as his mind planned.
"That's not what I want. I never was a good sharer. You about ready to close this joint?"
She nodded and slid out of the booth, collecting her purse and keys from on top of the bar, he caught her around the nape as she walked by, stopping her in her tracks, his lips brushed her forehead, then bent further to find her mouth. "Thank you for telling me, it wasn't so hard now, was it?"
He took her to her place that night and stayed until morning. He even slept a little and no nightmares.
Planning to make Ruby's fantasies come to life.
He found the woman who made his heart thud sat at the bar talking to Jed a couple of nights later after she’d worked a few hours in her tattoo room putting some ink on the silver fox himself, he reached over and slapped palms with the older member who walked off down the other end to pass the time with the club’s Queen, those two were always thick as thieves with the gossiping.
He knocked a hip against Ruby, feeling all kinds of possessive when some of his boys looked over and did that up and down look they did to women.
Little shitheads were about to lose their damn eyeballs if they kept
eye-fucking her.
He glared at the smirking Snake.
That prick was off the fucking list that was for sure. He wasn’t gonna be seeing Ruby naked now or ever. Or Preacher would have to bury his good friend in the mountains. It'd be a real shame since most of the time he liked Snake, good man, handy to have at his back but damn if he'd let that swinging mouse cock drool over his lady.
Territorial as a Jack Russell, he shifted in closer to her, leaned into her ear. "You see those prospects over there?"
"Hm, what about them? Go play pool if you want to. I'm good sitting here with my rum and coke. I’m tired as hell."
"Nah, beautiful, nothing like that. Pick one."
"Pick one?"
He repeated. Voice even deeper. He'd been thinking of what she wanted all day and fuck if it didn't send his dick on a mission to see it happen. "Which one do you find attractive?"
Ruby laughed, assuming he was joking. He was not joking. If she felt attraction for one of the prospects, even just as a woman admiring a good-looking guy, then that bonehead was off the list as well.
"I didn't know you were the new dating app, Preacher man. Well, now, let me think and take a good look at my options, should I swipe right?"
And sure enough, she put down her drink, twirled around on her bar stool, her shoulder resting into his chest, and stared at the boys like she was going to taste test.
Maybe this wasn't such a good idea when jealous thoughts began to swim, and he seriously was going to add more body counts to that shallow grave in the mountains. He could do it, he’d need a club-owned SUV first with a large bed in back for the corpses, but he could do it without anyone knowing a thing.
Preacher nipped her ear, made her laugh again as his hand slid around her waist. Possessively claiming. The feeling electrified him, nuzzling her earlobe, giving it a proprietorial bite. His heart rapidly banging, a sort of fizzle of excitement and apprehension, the feelings unknown to Preacher regarding a woman but he was willing to face them, to see where it took him. Because he wanted her, badly.
When her hand touched his arm, it was feather-light and fire hot. Her own brand.
"That dark haired one with the face fuzz is a cutie-pie. How is he even a prospect for you hard nuts? He looks like he should still be in Kindergarten. Is he even legal?"
Preacher gazed over. Right. Coop was nixed. And he got to live another day. Wasn’t he the lucky one?
"Nothing about those other two?"
"What's this all about, besides you trying to fix me up on a date?" Amusement slicked through her tone, seducing him with the lilt of laughter he wanted to suck off her tongue and make the noise turn into a moan. Preacher had the urge to rub his groin all over her and mark her. No damn dates for you, tiny dancer.
"In about five minutes, I'm going to take you to my private room and I'm going to fuck you," she inhaled and he loved that involuntary breathy sound. Fingers moved from her waist, contact unbroken, slid up the length of her spine, one knobby vertebrae at a time, feeling her ribs inflate with a swift breath, before he cupped her neck under her hair, stroking, owning, holding her steady, a glimpse of what was to come because he was a man hard up to get inside her and fuck until neither could walk afterwards.
"And one of those prospects will be sat like a good little boy, quiet as a fucking voyeur can be and watch while I make you scream,” voice dripping lust, “while I force you to take everything I give you. He'll smell your orgasms when I pin you to the bed, holding you down, Rubes, eyes all over this sin incarnate body while I worship it with my mouth, my dick, and when you beg me, ‘cause I really want you to beg me, and your legs are opened wide, pumping those skinny hips up to take me in, so impatient, you know how you get, hungry little girl, and when I sink in, really dig in, taking you deep, hitting that special place that makes you crazy, you'll know someone else besides me is seeing that, and his mouth is bone dry because you're so fucking beautiful gulping your pleasure he can't stand it."
Feeling a shiver run through her, she gripped the front of his shirt, her head rearing up so far, his fingers held the back of her neck steady. Preacher crowded her against the bar, pressing his groin into her belly, his words hadn't only affected her, he was locked and loaded.
Little by little, he was getting to know his lady, the physical aside, he admired her strength and determination, she had a biting wit under her snark which he saw for the self-preservation to protect herself from the cruelty shithead relatives who didn’t deserve her. Ruby Steele was no pushover, she didn't take his shit, called him out on it more than not, she wasn't prone to sulking or female mind games.
Besides all that, he wanted to spend a week in bed with her until his cock was dry and his voice box gone. It just never quit with wanting her.
Her shallow breaths were an indication of how she was taking the suggestion, she could say no at any time and they’d still have a good time just the two of them. He brushed a thumb over her lips. "Nothing to say, tiny dancer? it's so unlike you," he smirked.
"Are you being serious, you want one of them to...?"
"That's what you wanted, isn't it?"
"Yes. But. Here?"
"Has it made you wet, beautiful? Should I sneak my hand into your jeans and check for myself, let my fingers sink in."
"Asher." Resting her forehead on his chest he grinned, guessing already she was aroused, she got this look in her eyes when she wanted to fuck him.
"It's just a fantasy, beautiful. Don't overthink it. If you changed your mind then we'll go back there alone, just you and me. You tell me what you want."
"No." She spoke fast, paused, her fingers clutching the waist of his jeans, it was as though they were in their own little world, no one mattered in that moment as he waited for her decision. "I want to. But, I meant what I said the other day, I don't want a threesome. Ever. That's not what-----"
He pressed into her so quickly she was forced to bend her neck back to look at Preacher, seriousness across his face, his eyelids dropped to half-mast he made sure Ruby was listening very carefully when he let his head drop on his neck and spoke quietly for her ears alone. "You think I'd share you with anyone, Rube? That I'd idly stand by while someone tasted this beautiful skin, that I'd let someone else bring you to climax with their name ringing the air? No threesomes, ever," And added, "while we have this thing between us, it's just us, remember. I don't fuck anyone else, you don't fuck anyone else, that was your rule, right? I would kill a man who put his dick inside you in front of me." He would kill a man for putting his dick near her, period. But he didn’t say that.
She nodded, dreaminess in her eyes, and he dropped a kiss to her lips, nipping her right there.
Preacher rarely cared for the touchy-feely crap between a man and a woman. Maybe all the sex had muddied his brain. Things had changed between them. Not just fuck buddies but less than … what?
Oh, well. He was about to go in deeper with that shit and he couldn't care less if it screwed his system up, if he didn't get inside Ruby soon he would explode, and that wasn't gonna be pretty.
"Mmhm." She agreed. "Let's go, then. I recall some mouth worshiping being promised." That smile hit him in the dick. He groaned, head dropped to her forehead.
This woman was going to kill him with lust.
Her hand in his, Preacher grabbed the attention of the two prospects by whistling. "Yo, prospect." Voice raised and the one in question pointed to himself. "Yes, get over here a minute."
Ruby's hand tightened in his.
Poor nervous baby. He'd squeeze her ass reassuringly if he could reach around her without dropping her hand.
The kid, probably in his mid-twenties, dark brown shaggy hair held back with a black and white bandana like he was fucking Rambo sauntered over, dressed simply in dark jeans, a fitted t-shirt and the plain black leather vest with Prospect embossed on the back. If he was not mistaken this was one of Grinder's, his boy had sponsored him, so Preacher took that as the kid was solid.
"You
needed me for something, Preacher? I have some time before the boss wants me on a pickup with Lawless."
"Yep. I do. Come with me, prospect."
Glancing sideways at Ruby, making sure his lady was still on the same page, her motherfucking eyes caught him, held, and she smiled that sexy as shit smile she always gave him.
Down the corridor, the prospect trailing behind, he stopped outside of his room, he unlocked the door, gave his eyes to Ruby. "You head on in, beautiful, I won't be a minute." Her gaze flicked to the kid and Preacher swore if she saw a tiny lick of interest in her brown eyes he would have called the whole thing off, but instead it was curiosity, maybe a little shy before she nodded and went in closing the door behind her.
Only then did he speak. "Now I want you to listen and listen up good, Slider." Serious as a goddamn stroke when he got in the kid's space, not menacing, not yet anyway, depending on how this next minute went, he needed the younger man to know where he was at in this. "You see my lady in there?" Not technically his lady, but still, he was having those weird feelings again so he went with it because right now she wasn't belonging to anyone else while she wanted his dick and Preacher was all about the nine-tenths of the law. "She wants something and I want you to help me deliver it."
"Like a gift?" Slider asked. Preacher grinned slickly. Well, he could call his dick a gift, she begged often enough for it, maybe that's what Santa felt like.
