Root (Band Nerd Book 2)

by Danica Avet

  The look he sends me is pure Rien. Arrogant, disdainful, and amused. “I was in Dallas when you called. And pigs aren’t my favorite people, kid. Even those of the mall cop variety.” He hikes his thumb over his shoulder. “I came in the back way.”

  I swipe my face with my free hand, releasing an exhausted, exasperated sigh. “Rien, this is my friend’s place. A friend who’s letting us stay here without asking for anything in return. Can’t just break in because you don’t want to leave your name with the guard.”

  He shrugs, his gaze going over my shoulder. “This your bitch?”

  Lena lets out a shocked gasp and I close my eyes.

  Being away from the life we led in Otterberg, it’s been easy to forget how we were raised. Women, regardless if they were saints, sinners, or somewhere in between, are bitches. On the rare occasion one of the men hooked up with a woman permanently, she was an old lady, or property. If she’s like our mom, then she’s a club whore. At least that’s how it is in Rien’s world, but that isn’t my world anymore.

  I turn and hold my hand out for Lena, who’s standing behind me with wide eyes, flushed cheeks, and her clothes in place. I mourn the interruption of our fun times, but this is an introduction that can’t wait.

  For a moment, I think she’s just going to stay rooted in place. But she’s changed since we’ve been together. She fought my attempts at being gallant and leaving her. She’s willing to fight Nathan to keep those videos off the internet and from ruining our lives. And Lena’s bravery is evident as she straightens her shoulders, reaching out to take my hand. Her fingers are cool in mine, but they warm up as I tug her to my side, releasing her only to slide my arm around her waist.

  “This is my girl, Lena Leblanc,” I say, practically bursting with pride. “Lena, this is my big brother, Rien Beringer.”

  Having the two people I love most in one place, even with the awkwardness of Rien calling her a bitch, is more than I could’ve ever asked for. Of course, neither of them seem as happy as I am, eyeing each other like a couple of boxers. Well, Lena doesn’t give off quite the same vibe of animosity as Rien does, so it’s more like a puppy eyeballing a tiger.

  And my girl shows that while she might be wary of my brother, she isn’t going to back down by holding out her hand for him to shake. “Hi, it’s nice to meet you,” she says with a small smile.

  Rien looks down at her hand, his lips quirking just a little before he shakes it, engulfing it in his. “Wish I could say the same, babe, but my brother’s in a tight fucking spot because of you and your old man.” He drops her hand and crosses his arms again. “What’s your cut?”

  “What?” she asks in a shocked whisper.

  He smirks. “Your cut, babe. How much are you gettin’ for fucking my brother on video?”

  “Rien,” I say warningly, not wanting to go against my brother, but I will because he’s wrong. So fucking wrong. “It isn’t like that.”

  He snorts. “Bitch like this? Legs like that? Let me guess, she told you she was a virgin, pretended she never had dick before.” He drops his arms and shakes his head, shooting a look of disappointment at me. “Kid, I told you, you can’t put pussy on a pedestal, but you went ahead and did it anyway. And now look what kind of trouble you found yourself in.”

  “Shut the fuck up, Rien,” I rasp, my temper escalating quickly. “I won’t have you talking about her like that. Ever.”

  His face hardens and he takes a step forward. “You called me for help and the best fucking help I can give you is tell you to drop this bitch like a bad habit.” Rien’s intense gaze goes to Lena. “Dunno what kind of pussy magic you put on my brother, but I see right through that shit and I’m telling you now, you picked the wrong motherfuckers. You got it? I won’t let anyone ruin his future, even you.”

  I finally let her go, but only so I can put her behind me, shielding her from Rien’s wrath. “Back the fuck up, Rien,” I growl. “You think you’re protecting me? You’re just pissing me off. That girl you’re insulting? Calling a bitch? Threatening? That’s my girl. My girl. The one who’s made my life better since she came into it. The girl I fucking love.” I didn’t realize I was advancing on him until we were nose-to-nose glaring at each other. But I didn’t stop. “You got a chip on your shoulder? That’s fine, but don’t bring that shit here. Don’t put that on her because she’s the best thing to ever happen to me.”

  His gaze darts between my eyes and I let him read my intentions. If he wants to push this, I have no problem teaching him a lesson with my fists. Violence isn’t second nature to me the way it is for him and he’d probably wipe the floor with me solely based on the amount of experience he has, but I’ll still do it.

  Rien’s eyebrows meet over his nose, confusion darkening his gaze. In all my twenty years, I’ve never gone head-to-head with him. I never had to, because I needed his protection back home and he needed to give it to me, to have control over something. Ironically, it was his protection that allowed me to understand not everyone’s bad. Although Rien might be a hot-headed criminal, he’s not a hundred percent evil. No one really is. That knowledge has allowed me to form true friendships without wondering what the other person really wants.

  Now though, he’s trying to control something he can’t. My love for Lena. Maybe if it had been anyone else, his accusations might have held water. But I know her. And, if we don’t end up destroying our family bond tonight, once he gets to know her, he’ll understand how much shit he’s spewing.

  “Anders,” Lena says softly, her hand coming to rest in the center of my back. “Don’t. He’s your brother.” Her voice is strained as though the words are hard to say. “It’s a perfectly logical assumption, okay? Ignorant, but logical to a degree.” She steps around me to face Rien head on. “You’re not giving Anders enough credit. He’s the smartest person I’ve ever met. Don’t you think he’d be able to spot a manipulative witch a mile away?”

  Rien’s eyebrow goes up. “Witch?”

  Her cheeks pinken, but she doesn’t back down. “You know what I mean,” she mutters. “I love him with all of my heart, so I understand why you feel you need to protect him. I feel the same way. The last thing I ever want to happen is for him to lose his scholarships, to lose his dreams. So you and I? We’re on the same team. Team Anders.” She clears her throat. “Now that’s out of the way, I’ll leave y’all to catch up.”

  Turning to me, she kisses my chin, giving me a tremulous smile as though wondering if she stepped out of her bounds or not. Lena just doesn’t get it. There are no boundaries between us. And there’s no way in hell she’s going to bed without me giving her a little something to look forward to when I get there.

  I ignore my brother watching us like a hawk, wrapping my arms around my girl and kissing her with all the pent up passion and love I have for her. At first she’s stiff and unresponsive, her innate shyness preventing her from opening up to me. But, as happens every time I touch her, soon she melts, her lips parting with a soft sigh and her hands snaking around my neck to hold on tight. I kiss her like I’m not crawling into bed with her tonight. I kiss her as though I’ll never see her again. And she’s just as desperate, just as hungry.

  I forget all about Rien. Swear to god I do, because anytime I have Lena in my arms, everything else fades away. It’s only when he mutters something like, “Get a fucking room,” that I pull away from the haven of her lips. Her face is flushed, her heavy-lidded eyes starry with desire, and I want nothing more than to sweep her up in my arms and carry her to our room. But she’s right. Rien and I need a few minutes to get to know each other again.

  Instead of acting on my more primitive instincts, I press a much more chaste kiss on her lips and step back. “I’ll join you later.”

  Lena nods, nibbling on her bottom lip as she stares at my mouth before she glances at Rien and turns beet red. “Have a good night. It was nice to meet you,” she whispers shyly. Her gaze, when it comes back to me is coquettish and makes it hard to let her go. “
I’ll wait up.”

  She leaves the room, disappearing around the corner before I can respond. Once she’s out of sight, I turn to see Rien watching me, eyes narrowed on me in a way I recall from many big brother scoldings. I don’t like it. I especially don’t like how he treated Lena, made her feel as though she had to defend herself.

  But as I open my mouth to give him a piece of my mind, he jerks his head to the side. “Let’s step outside. I need a fucking smoke,” he mutters under his breath and leads the way out of the cottage.

  Lena

  Two hours later, after moments of silence, growled shouts, and more swearing than I’ve ever heard in my life, the bed dips as Anders climbs in beside me. He smells like traces of cigarette smoke, musk, and the unique scent that belongs to him. I don’t say anything because, while I’d claimed I understood his brother’s reaction to our situation, it doesn’t mean I enjoyed the way he talked about me. In fact, while I lay in bed, listening to them argue, I had to fight the urge to bawl.

  Anders’ arm wraps around my waist, pulling me into the comforting curve of his body. His lips brush the side of my neck, sending an all-too familiar tingle down my spine.

  “He’s ten years older than me,” he whispers into the darkness.

  Darnit. He knows I’m upset. I take a breath, ready to lie my butt off, but he squeezes me gently.

  “I’m not making excuses for him. Trust me, he left here knowing I won’t let anyone, not even him, talk shit about my girl. I’m just explaining why he is the way he is, okay?” He kisses my shoulder, exposed by the strap of my tank top. “He’s ten years older. I don’t talk to anyone but him. Our mom… She’s fucked up. Rien’s old man is a biker, member of a club back home, and our mom liked the lifestyle, a lot. Parties, fucking, drinking, drugs, you name it, she was for it.

  “Grifter never made her an Old Lady, so she sort of…” He pauses and clears his throat, his arm tightening around my waist until I almost can’t breathe. “She’s kind of a club whore, but she was one of his favorites. She had Rien, thought that’d get her a ‘property of patch’, but it never did. Instead, Grifter picked some woman over in Minneney to be his Old Lady, and Ma became...bitter. Fucked any of the club members who wanted her, brought ’em back to the house, and Rien was there to see it all. Not that being married to that woman stopped his dad from coming ’round, to fuck, to fight, whatever.”

  We’re both silent a few minutes while I digest that information, my heart softening toward the surly biker. I know what it was like when Mom started dating Nathan. They didn’t do drugs or anything in front of me, but he treated her like crap and she just took it, as though she didn’t care as long as she had a man in her bed. And he was in her bed almost as soon as they started seeing each other. Trying to imagine that happening over and over again with different men is hard, but I guess I could see why Rien’s not exactly a fan of women if his mother is his basis for comparison.

  “Even when she took up with my old man, a Nomad from the same chapter, she never stopped fucking around. Only difference is, my dad spent time with Rien when he was in town, almost acted like a father to him, but…” He pauses to let out a humorless laugh. “My old man wouldn’t exactly win any awards, you know? He beat on Ma when he was home, was in and out of prison, lived and breathed for that club. He was Rien’s role model. When I was six, he was arrested for dealing and got sent up for twenty years, but before he left he made Rien swear to watch out for me.” I feel him shrug behind me. “Probably the only good thing that fucker ever did in his life. Think he had some idea that Rien and I would patch in with Dead Legion, follow in his footsteps, but neither of us did.

  “Rien wanted something more than what we grew up with for me.” He’s quiet for so long, I think he’s finished, but right when I’m about to turn around, he speaks again. “He’s more of a parent than the ones I had, made sure I was fed, clothed, had whatever I needed for school, and when Ma or any of her men gave me shit about studying, he shut them down. He was at every football game he could make. Told me to get the fuck out of there, never look back, not even for him. He wanted better for me, wanted more than he had. And he made sure I got it.”

  “He’s your dad and your brother,” I say into the quiet of the room, lacing my fingers with his.

  He clears his throat again. “Yeah.”

  “I’m not saying it’s okay,” I tell him softly.

  “Lena—”

  “Let me finish?” I ask, with a squeeze of his hand. He huffs, but stays quiet. “I’m not saying the way he talked to me, or what he thinks about me is okay because it isn’t. I-It hurt my feelings. He’s your brother, the only person from home you talk about, so I know how important he is to you, how much you love him, and it’s important to me, that he and I get along.” I suck in a breath to get myself under control. “But I won’t be so polite next time if he says something like that again.” Yeah, I’ll just tear him a new butthole with my sharp wits and biting sarcasm. Puh-leeze.

  “He won’t,” Anders says quickly. He uses his hold on my waist to roll me onto my back, his shadowy features right above me. “I swear it, babe. He understands how much you mean to me.” Cupping my cheek in his hand, he strokes the skin with his thumb. “He knows I love you with all of my fucking heart. That what hurts you, hurts me, that an insult to you is an insult to me.”

  My eyes water. Weird how I could hold it together in the face of Rien’s mean comments about me, but the minute Anders turns on the sweetness, I fall to pieces. Maybe it’s because I’ve been exposed to Nathan’s nastiness for so long that when Anders shows me his tender side, it’s so unexpected, so touching, I go soft. But whatever the reason, he touches my very soul and I don’t think I could love anyone more.

  “I love you,” I manage to choke out, sounding like a complete idiot, but I can’t seem to help myself.

  “Aw, babe,” he whispers, his thumb catching a stray tear. “I love you, too. So fucking much, it hurts, but it’s the kind of hurt I want to feel again and again.”

  His lips are on mine before I can blubber any more, kissing me like he’ll never get enough of me. Returning it just as desperately, his flavor exploding across my taste buds, I furrow my hands through his thick hair. His weight pins me to the bed, heavy and safe, his scent surrounds me, forcing the doubt and confusion away.

  The straps of my tank top sort of fall away, unable to hold up against his strength as he works to get me naked. I don’t mind. My hands are just as busy, dragging his shirt up until it’s caught under his arms. Frustrated with my lack of progress, I start working on the waistband of his shorts just as his hand cups my breast. The pinch he gives my nipple has me shuddering with want, my legs clamping around the one he has between them.

  I’m so wet, I’m pretty sure he can feel me through my pajama shorts and panties. Then I know for certain he does because he nudges the apex of my thighs with his leg, the seam of the shorts rubbing against my clit. I break away from the kiss with a gasp, my fingers digging into his tight butt.

  “Love this,” he growls against my lips, his fingers rolling my nipple between them. “You’re so soft and wet.” His mouth starts trailing down my throat, the stubble scraping over my skin, making me squirm. “So sweet,” he whispers as he captures my hard nipple between his lips.

  “Anders,” I cry out, arching my back, squeezing his thigh between both of mine to alleviate some of the ache.

  He scrapes the sensitive tip with his teeth, making me cry out again, writhe with desire. I don’t know if sex is like this for everyone, or if it’s Anders, but I could orgasm just from him playing with my nipples, something he knows very well, as he tortures me relentlessly. My sweet boyfriend swamping me in so much pleasure, all I can do is accept it.

  My Anders is a force of nature. Not wild like a hurricane or a tornado, but like a tsunami that starts off as a ripple that builds and builds until it crashes over you, overwhelming you with its power. He’d probably laugh at me if he knew that’s how I see
him, so I don’t plan on ever telling him. Instead, I just hold on and go along for the ride.

  Like now, my inner muscles quivering, flexing as the heaviness in my womb deepens. I’m going to come without him doing more than rubbing his leg against my sex and sucking and pinching my nipples.

  “I’m gonna,” I pant, my fingernails scraping up and down his back, making him shudder against me. “Anders, I’m gonna come.”

  I feel the need to warn him for some reason, but he knows because he orders in a near growl, “Come, Lena. Get that pussy wet and slick.” He blows a draft of cool air over my nipple. “Gonna bury my face in that sweet cunt, lick you ’til you’re dry and get you wet all over again before I fuck you.”

  “Ahh!” I scream, the image his words conjure too much for me to handle, my hips rocking to rub that seam along my slit again and again, my body clamping down on nothing.

  It feels good. Orgasms feel good period, but it isn’t the best kind. The kind that has Anders buried deep inside me, thrusting hard and fast, moving me where he wants, his penis touching all those tiny nerve endings inside my vagina, making me orgasm so hard I’m half-afraid I’ll go blind. I want more. I want him inside me, coming with me and I could almost whine at the unfairness. At least until he makes a groaning sound, his hips bucking against mine and warmth spreads across the front of his shorts that I realize my orgasm triggered his.

  “Fuck,” he mutters, his face resting on my boob, the nipple less than an inch away, crinkling from my orgasm and his breath washing over it. “Didn’t mean to do that.”

  My chest rises and falls rapidly. Even though it wasn’t a monster orgasm, it still has the power to knock me for a loop. I manage to pry my fingernails from his back, rubbing my hands over the abused skin.

  “You should probably get out of those shorts,” I suggest, glad the room’s dark so he can’t see the blush I feel staining my cheeks.

  His chuckle is soft. “Are you trying to get me naked?” he teases, his tongue flicking at my nipple. “Because all you have to do is ask.”