There was no denying it anymore.
I wasn't teetering on the edge anymore.
Somewhere between seeing him in the storage container and realizing how much faith he had in me, I had fallen.
It was that fast.
That simple.
That uncontrollable.
And, somehow, it wasn't scary.
It just felt right.
I wasn't stupid; I knew it wasn't always going to be easy. I knew that our relationship, starting so crazy and fast, was bound to go through growing pains. We would have to find our groove, our normal in the midst of a crazy lifestyle. But somehow, I wasn't afraid of it. We would figure it out. We had nothing but time.
I hoped.
That was still not guaranteed.
Even with the weeks in between, it seemed that no one was any closer to finding the people responsible for completely decimating The Henchmen numbers. But there was one thing that was for sure, that everyone was in agreement with- it wasn't over.
No way had someone done one shootout, a drive-by, and a complicated infiltration of the compound to only take out the lower men on the totem pole.
Reign was a prime target.
So was Cash.
And Repo.
And Renny.
And, I thought with a gut-punch sensation, Duke.
They wouldn't stop until there was no one left that could rise up and take control of the operation. Someone wanted the arms trade and they would take out every bit of competition to take it over.
"Stiffened up on me," Duke said, hand moving softly up and down my spine. "What's the matter?"
"Nothing," I said, shaking my head and trying to shake the dark mood.
"Don't lie."
I exhaled hard. "I don't think it's safe for you to come here again."
"Worried about me," he said, sounding pleased with the idea.
"Of course I'm worried about you," I said, pushing up on his chest to look down at him.
He reached up immediately to tuck my hair behind my ears, running a finger down my jaw to my chin before falling away. "Once you see the compound, you'll see why you don't need to worry."
"But that only means you're safe at the compound."
"Wouldn't keep you here if it wasn't safe for us here too."
"Right, but there is a big, high hill and a long, long road between here and there."
His lips curled upward. "Reign and Lo tracked down some bullet-resistant SUVs, babe. So far, there's only one. So when I, or any of the guys, are here, no one else can do anything. The others are coming. But I'm as safe as it is possible to be on that long, long road with the big, high hill."
A small amount of relief coursed through me at that information. Even though I knew bullet-resistant did not mean bullet-proof. But he was right; it was as safe as you could get.
"How much longer until the compound is finished?"
"Got a fucking shitton of people working on it day and night. I'd say we maybe have another week."
"Maybe, just to be safe, you should just stay there until it's done though."
His smile went warm, the skin beside his eyes crinkling. "I like that you worry about me, Pen. But there's no way after tonight that I'm going to be able to stay away like I have been. Even if I just get an hour to myself, I am spending it here with you. Maybe your stomach will be twisted up while you wait for me, but I can take your mind off of it as soon as I get here," he said, eyes wicked, as his hands moved down my back to squeeze my ass.
"You know, it's usually not the guy using sex for a bargaining chip."
"Gotta shake up those gender norms," he shot back, his hand sliding lower then... inward.
"Nuh-uh," I said, laughing as I put my forehead to his chest. "I can't."
"I bet you can," he countered, fingers tracing my lips and damn if I didn't feel a fizzle of desire building. "Don't worry. I'll give it to you slow and deep and easy," he said, rolling us back onto our sides, reaching down to cock my leg over his hip as he reached to the nightstand drawer where he pulled out a box of condoms.
A box.
He really had come prepared.
"And you don't have to do a damn thing," he told me, reaching between us to slide the condom on. His hand stayed there, holding his cock as he shifted his hips forward and slid inside me so slowly that, by the time he was fully inside me, I felt like I was already half way there.
Then he did as he promised.
He gave me slow and deep and easy.
I didn't have to do a damn thing but hold on and let him give me what I swore I wasn't capable of again.
Afterward, we scooted under the blankets and he asked me things. Silly, little things. Like about life at Hailstorm, how I was handling training, how my grandmother was doing, if there was anything I needed.
Like yarn.
I laughed at that and slapped his arm, finding myself completely comfortable with the teasing. Which was new for me too.
"One of these days, I am going to figure out something embarrassing about you and I am never going to let you live it down," I said, small-eying him.
"Looking forward to it."
"You would."
"Penny, you digging up that kinda dirt means you stuck around long enough to do so. So yeah, I'm fucking looking forward to that. Now get some sleep because I need you rested up for when I fuck you again."
He kissed me slow and deep, but without too much heat lest we start up again.
Then we slept.
And when I woke up, I realized he was right. I needed the rest because he found himself in abundance of positions he wanted to try out. These included, but were not limited to: lotus, standing from behind, standing with legs around him against a wall, and something he called X-Marks-The-Spot in which I was on the bed sideways, butt at the edge, and he was kneeling at the edge with my legs crossed at the ankles under his chin.
And, well, let me tell you... X definitely marked the spot.
"Coffee," I grumbled when he grabbed my arms and pulled me off the bed.
"Sure thing. But I'm not sure you should head into the kitchen like this. Every time the guys see you, they'll be thinking of your tits and ass."
"Fiiiine," I said dramatically, reaching for my clothes and slowly getting dressed, managing to only stumble twice.
"Ready?" he asked, fully dressed and somehow wide awake, meanwhile I felt like my body had just gone through an eight-hour training session and all I wanted to do was crawl back into bed.
But he held his hand out to me and took mine, interlocking our fingers and giving me a squeeze.
"Yeah," I said, smiling up at him.
He brought us to the kitchen, finding it effortlessly which I found both impressive and annoying seeing as it took me days to get it right. He pushed me toward the couch and got us coffee and bagels from the supply in a giant brown bag on the counter.
That was another perk about Hailstorm. There were so many people who came and went that someone, inevitably, always brought something back for everyone else.
Then, despite there being more than enough room for both of us on the couch, he dragged me over to him, sticking me in the space between him and the arm of the couch, my legs over his. Then he handed me my coffee that I stuck between my legs so I could pick apart my bagel and eat it.
I had a feeling that the repositioning was equal parts sweetness and wanting to be near me and a show of claim, of possession as the other men milled in and out, getting food or coffee.
I found myself oddly comforted by the fact too.
I liked that he thought enough about me that he wanted to make sure that others knew I was taken. Though I knew that everyone already did since Lo would snap "She belongs to a Henchmen too," when she caught someone looking my way.
I found I liked being 'claimed'. Which, well, was a little regressive of me I guessed, but I couldn't help it. It was nice to know that the man you cared for, cared for you enough as well to show all the other men around you that you w
ere taken.
One of the guys, who I knew only as L, came in a while later to grab coffee that he drank out of what was the coffee mug equivalent of a Big Gulp. He was in his mid-twenties, stupidly good-looking, and so smart that it was actually incredibly intimidating. And, well, he had no filter.
"You gonna pee on her too? We get it; she's yours."
With that, he left, rolling his eyes as he did.
"What?" Duke asked and I realized I was smiling.
"Nothing," I started to cover, then shook my head and looked up with him and gave him the truth. "I'm happy," I said and it sounded a little silly, a little childish even, but it was true. I was happy. I wasn't sure how long it had been since I truly felt that way. Contented? Sure. Comfortable? Usually. But not truly happy.
The look he gave me then made my belly turn and twist deliciously. It was something like how I was sure I looked at him.
Maybe, just maybe, it was love there.
"Don't deserve someone as clean as you..."
"Clean? I still don't think I understand what that means."
"Clean. Good. Untouched by all the ugly shit life has to offer."
Oh.
Well, that was really sweet in a way. But I was no pretty virginal girl to be put up on a pedestal either.
"Well, I don't know about that. I've been kidnapped and beaten. Been around a shoot-out and a drive-by. I've been questioned by police and had to hide out in a fallout shelter and a survivalist camp. I think I might have a little dirt on me now." He looked a little pained at that and I knew it was because he felt responsible for it all. "Plus, I am going to teach girls how to beat the ever loving hell out of other people for a living. So I think we should be just fine."
"Seem pretty sure of yourself," he said, losing the darkness and running his fingers up my thigh.
"Uh huh," I agreed, putting my coffee on the table and leaning my head on his shoulder. He curled and got rid of his too, wrapping me up.
"I have to leave in about ten. Reign and Repo want to come up and see their women and kids so I have to get the SUV back to them."
I nodded at that, both understanding and disappointed.
Understanding because I had come to really like Maze and Summer and it was clear that they were struggling with being away from their husbands so much. Especially, I felt, when they were both pregnant. That was something they wanted to be able to share with them.
But disappointed because it wasn't enough.
One night just made me want him all the more.
But it wasn't forever.
He said he was going to visit.
And the compound would be done soon.
Everything was going to work out.
NINETEEN
Penny
I woke up the next night to a hand over my mouth.
And, well, most of my days being as full of training as they were, I reacted before my eyes even opened.
The room was the kind of dark that came from a room being windowless, meaning pitch, so I couldn't see anything as I struck out at the body beside my bed, trying to knock it off balance.
I reached my arm across my body, grabbing the wrist of the hand at my mouth, knowing my arm was stronger when used to pull across my body than away from it, and I managed to yank the arm free.
I was no hero.
Lo taught me better than that.
As soon as my mouth was free, I sucked in air to scream.
"Penny, sh," Duke's quiet whisper said, stilling me.
"Duke?" I gasped, my hand going to my heart where it was trying to burst from my chest.
"That wasn't the smoothest of moves, Ace," Maze said quietly, making me stiffen. What the hell was she still doing awake?
"I don't know. Fear can make for a pretty good aphrodisiac," Summer piped in.
"What are you guys doing awake?" I whispered back. "Isn't pregnancy supposed to make you tired?"
"It does. First thing in the morning when you have to get out of bed. Then during the afternoon. All evening. But never when it is actually bed time because that's when the little devils like to move, kick, squish your bladder, and otherwise make you miserable," Maze informed me.
"Hey Maze. Summer," Duke said, his loud voice not really capable of being completely quite and I cringed at the idea of him waking one of the kids up. Especially Ferryn who was the worst to try to get to bed at night, despite being the oldest.
"Go on. Take her away," Maze said. "Have the wild, sweaty kind of fun I miss."
"I know, right?" Summer added. "Reign seems to think I will break now so when we..."
"Okay, a little bit too much information about my brothers," Duke said, but sounded amused as I felt his hand close over my wrist and pull me to my feet. "Get some sleep, guys. Reign and Repo will be up in the morning to spend some time with you."
So then we went to our special room.
And Duke gave me wild and sweaty.
Then, right before morning, slow and sweet.
He didn't make it every single night. Two days, I didn't see him at all. But he came as much as possible. Sometimes to sleep with me, sometimes to just have coffee in the morning. Once, he came for the sole purpose of watching me train. It did, of course, make me horribly self-conscious because there was nothing pretty about being covered in sweat and dirt and, too a much smaller extent, blood.
"Duke," Lo had called out suddenly, making both of us start. "Come over here and attack Penny."
"Fuck no." That was Duke's immediate, knee-jerk reaction.
"She only ever trains with me and while I'm taller than her, our weight isn't that different. She needs to practice trying to take down someone as big as you."
"You got guys here..." he kept trying to object.
"Oh, stop being a pussy and try to tackle your girlfriend to the ground."
Eventually, as she almost always did, Lo won out.
Then I tried to attack Duke.
Which was very much like trying to attack a brick wall.
Even though it was clear he was holding back a lot, he still got me on the ground more times than I could count and the most I managed was a solid crack to his jaw that made him grunt.
"Hmm," Lo said, shaking her head as Duke pulled me onto my feet and kissed my temple in apology for my obvious defeat. "I think you should work with her when she gets back to the compound. She'll still come up here for training and I'll have her start working with people other than me. But you're a lot bigger than most of my guys so you'll give her another leg up."
It was agreed upon and I was actually pretty excited about the idea.
"It makes for great foreplay too," Lo informed me as I watched Duke leave.
It was the ninth day, two days longer than we originally thought, when a caravan of black SUVs with blackout windows came pulling up to the compound.
When I saw Reign and Repo hop out, I didn't think anything of it. They came all the time to see their families. And I stopped being envious of that and was happy for Maze and Summer. They put on brave faces and did their best to be both parents to all the kids, but it was obvious they missed their husbands, especially with pregnancy really starting to weigh on the almost-eight month along Summer.
But when the third SUV opened up and I saw Duke, I knew.
The compound was done.
We were going back.
And as much as I had come to be comfortable at Hailstorm and even form friendships with some of them, especially Lo, Malcolm, and L, I always knew it was temporary. It wasn't home. I still felt a small pang of sadness at leaving.
That being said, that pang was completely smothered by the overwhelming excitement and happiness at being able to see Duke anytime I wanted, not having to sneak hours when we could manage it.
As such, I dropped the knife I was holding and I flew across the field to where Duke had paused, arms wide, waiting for me to throw myself into them.
And I did, the smile big enough to hurt.
And he wrapped me up tight, lift
ed me off my feet, and spun me in a circle.
Reign and Repo went inside to fetch their women and kids and, after some hurried packing, we were all on our way back to the compound, Lo in tow so she could see Cash.
"Happy," Duke said, eyes moving over to me for a second. Likely because I had been staring at his profile and smiling like an idiot since we left.
"Yeah," I agreed and his hand landed on my thigh, squeezed, then stayed there.
"Me too," he agreed.
"Is everyone moving in?" I asked. "Summer and Maze and the kids?"
"Yeah. Until we can figure out and get rid of the threat, it's better for no one to go home. Reign and Repo have pretty safe places, but they are having Hailstorm go over and make them even safer for the future. For now, though, it is about to get a fuckuva lot more PG over at the compound."
"They're good kids," I defended, knowing full-well that they were all a handful thanks to a more hands-off approach to parenting that The Henchmen preferred, letting the kids get into trouble and scratched up and bloodied and bruised, and only stepping in when things seemed like they might damage property or end up with a broken neck. And I'm not exaggerating. The kids were fearless. I'd seen some of the guys at Hailstorm have to climb trees to get them down before they went through with their plans to jump out of the trees and onto a small workout trampoline to "bounce" into a pile of pillows they stole from all the barracks beds.
Duke gave me a knowing smile. "They're hellions. But that's how they're supposed to be."
"You like kids," I said, more of a statement than a question.
But he answered anyway. "Yeah. Grew up around a lot of them. Having them around feels natural." He paused, looking over at me as my eyes went out the windshield. "You?"
"I never really spent any time around kids until I went to Hailstorm. But, yeah, I like them. They cause a good kind of stress. If that makes any sense. Though, the not being able to shower alone thing is a bit rough."
"Don't worry about that," Duke said, his hand sliding up my thigh a little. "I'll get you used to the communal shower thing. Then, by the time you got kids trying to break in on you, it won't even phase you."
"You do realize those are two completely different..."
Duke (The Henchmen MC Book 5) Page 21
