CROWS MC SET-TO LOAD

by Bloom, Cassandra

  I was struggling not to burst out into laughter as we rode off.

  ****

  “I AM SORRY ABOUT THAT,” Jace called back over the roar of the engine as we rode through the city. “I FIGURED YOU WERE WORRIED ABOUT BEING SEEN BY SOMEONE WITH THE CREW AND THOUGHT THAT MIGHT MAKE IT EASIER.”

  “YOU WERE VERY CONVINCING,” I shouted back. “NOW CAN I GIVE YOU YOUR MONEY BACK?”

  Jace’s shoulders rolled with laughter and he shook his head. “NO! YOU’RE GONNA BE THE ONE TO PAY FOR THIS DATE, SO YOU’D BETTER KEEP IT!”

  I gave him a gentle slap on the back. “THEN IT’S STILL YOU PAYING!”

  “I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT,” he called back, taking a turn and rolling with laughter again.

  “FINE,” I submitted, rolling my eyes. “WHATEVER! SO WHERE AM I TAKING YOU THEN?”

  “YOU HAVE VERY GENEROUSLY OFFERED TO PAY MY ADMISSION FOR AN AMAZING HISTORY MUSEUM,” he informed me. “AND THEN YOU SAID YOU’D EVEN GO SO FAR AS TO BUY ME DINNER, WHICH WAS PARTICULARLY KIND SINCE I AM FAMISHED!”

  I bit my lip at that, confused. As far as I could tell there was no museum in this city. Not a history museum, at least. There was a smaller, more local art gallery that called itself a museum, but nothing that anyone would be so bold as to call historic.

  “BUT THERE IS NO HISTORY MUSEUM IN THIS CITY,” I finally called up to him, relatively certain I wasn’t about to embarrass myself and wind up just not knowing.

  “I know,” he answered, able to lower his voice as he rolled to a stop at a red light—the engine’s roar calming for a moment to a light purr. “It’s outside the city. I thought maybe you’d like to get out of this place for a bit, right?”

  My eyes widened and filled with tears at the prospect of actually putting the entire city behind us. My secure hold on his waist tightened as it evolved into a full hug. “THAT SOUNDS AMAZING!” I cried out, once again shouting, but not because of the motorcycle’s engine. Then, seeing that the crosswalk had only just begun its fifteen second countdown and realizing I had a little bit of time before the light would change again, I leaned forward until my helmeted face was all-but pressed to Jace’s ear. “By the way,” I cooed, hoping he could hear, “I was able to get the full night off again.”

  I couldn’t be certain whether Jace caught on to the seductive effort I was putting into the statement, but I felt a tremor of what I hoped was excitement roll up his back and a familiar tightness seize his lower stomach, just below where my hands held him.

  “That’s good to know,” he managed to call back, his voice hoarse, before the light changed and we were roaring off again.

  ****

  It was nearly a forty-five minute ride out of the city and into the next. Most of that, I was thrilled to discover, took us across the Interstate route. So for nearly a half-hour, before reaching our exit and being forced to slow for city traffic, Jace got to “open up”—as he put it—the motorcycle and bring us up to over eighty miles-per-hour.

  The thrill…!

  For nearly thirty minutes I got to feel like I was flying.

  Not even Julia Roberts got that, I boasted to myself.

  Before long, we had made it to the city and Jace found a spot in the museum’s lot. After parking, he moved off the bike and helped me down. I smiled, taking his hand and nodding in thanks. I pulled the helmet off and began to follow after, once again Jace offered his arm for me to hold. I smiled appreciatively, taking the proffered arm and heading inside with him.

  “Have you been here before then?” I tilted my head towards the massive building.

  He shook his head, “No, but I’ve heard good things.”

  “From who?” I glanced over.

  He frowned at the question and then offered a dismissive shrug. “Honestly, I can’t remember.”

  He was lying, but I decided I wouldn’t push the subject. I wanted to enjoy the day and bringing up subjects of the past on either of our sides wasn’t a good way to do it. It’s not like I was telling him everything either. I frowned, knowing that both of us keeping things from one another was a remedy for disaster.

  But as soon as I walked into the museum, I forgot everything that I was thinking.

  “Wow,” I gaped. “This place is huge!”

  Jace grinned over at me and nodded. “Right? Look at the list of exhibits! Glad we left as early when we did.”

  I nodded and said, “I wonder if we will be able to see everything.”

  “Well, if we don’t, I guess we’ll just have to come back,” he grinned and winked.

  I blushed at that, feeling a sense of comfort and joy in knowing that he was already making future plans with such a casual tone. I watched as he stepped forward and bought two tickets and I pouted, stepping up beside him.

  “I thought I was supposed to be buying!” I growled at him.

  He looked shocked, like he’d suddenly forgotten, and knocked his forehead with the heel of his palm. “Oh yeah! Well…” he shrugged, taking the two passes as well as the map and various brochures and fliers that apparently got shoveled over with a purchase. “I guess you’ll have more to cover my dinner then.”

  I furrowed my brow at him. Pointing an accusatory finger at him I said, “And what happens when you ‘forget’ not to pay for that, too?”

  He actually smirked at the question and shrugged. “When that happens”—he made no effort to hide that it was his plan—“then I suppose comes the part when you try to give the money back again.”

  I placed my hands on my hips and opened my mouth to protest. Before I could, however, he smirked and placed one of the passes—mine, I decided—over my mouth and leaned down towards my ear. What I at first assumed would be a whispered line justifying his money game instead wound up being a light nip at my earlobe. I gasped and shuddered, feeling the tip of his tongue trace the apparently very sensitive skin at the base of my ear before casually straightening and offering an innocent smile as a finale. I stared, my mind suddenly feeling like my phone when it started updating—all blank-screen and spinning animations—and tried to tell myself that the tickle in my lower belly was just hunger.

  It wasn’t.

  I hadn’t even known that I could find something like that pleasurable.

  But Jace, apparently, knew just how to touch me.

  He smirked in satisfaction, probably reading my thoughts.

  I groaned and shook my head, looking up at him. “That wasn’t fair!” I declared once my brain had finished rebooting.

  “All’s fair in love and war, babe,” he jabbed, still grinning.

  My breath caught and I nearly swooned. The “L”-word had already made an appearance… and he’d called me “babe.” That meant something, right? It had to mean something!

  I was sure it meant something.

  Then I paused, certain I was supposed to be mad at him about something…

  All my thoughts offered up then, though, was “love” and “babe.” That, and that thing he’d just done to my ear.

  Damn! That had been nice.

  Well, I thought, two can play at that game.

  I grinned, sauntering off down the hall, making a show of wiggling my hips as I walked. Though I wasn’t about to go crediting the shitty path my life had taken for anything good, I had learned how to shake my ass in a way that, to my credit, had actually been enough to make a first-time John “finish” in his pants. It had ultimately been a lost sale, but Candy and I had been too busy laughing about it after the guy had sauntered off to mind that. So when I heard the sharp gasp from behind me as I worked the display, I knew I hadn’t lost my touch.

  To Jace’s credit, he hadn’t “finished” in his pants, at least.

  I smirked, deciding that this was just the beginning of getting back at him.

  As we walked through the museum, stopping at various exhibits that interested either one of us, I began to make subtle moves to tease him. A simple brush against his thigh to pressing my chest up against his arm. I
smirked as I saw just how tense he’d become from my teasing. This, I decided, was fun.

  And that’s how the Erotic War at the Museum of History began.

  As we worked our way through the exhibits, genuinely taking time to appreciate what was on display in between “play,” we’d do whatever we could to make the other shiver. A subtle-yet-effective brushing of hand-to-whatever here—just moving to get a better view of this piece, pardon me—or an accidental dropping of this flyer or that brochure to “accidentally” expose more cleavage than one might naturally like there; it was, after all, as Jace put it: all fair.

  Because this was love, and this was war.

  “This is fun for you, huh?” Jace finally accused me with a tell-all smirk; he paused to look around the room before adjusting his pants which, I realized, did look somewhat tighter all of a sudden.

  I grinned and gave a coy shrug. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I teased.

  “Then it makes sense that you wouldn’t know that your left nipple slipped out of your top about two ‘oops, dropped my ticket’-bend overs ago and has been exposed ever since?” he prodded.

  I gasped and moved to cover myself, working to tuck everything back…

  Only to find that everything was already where it was meant to be.

  “What are you—” I began.

  And then Jace all-but tackled me, pinning me to one of the empty room’s support pillars, and slammed his lips against mine in a surprise attack of a kiss that had me ready to surrender and become his loyal prisoner. I gasped at the sensation of his lips and arched back into him, enjoying the feeling. I wrapped my arms around his neck as he continued to kiss me. I struggled to maintain my grip on him, maintain a semblance of control.

  I was lost the moment his lips touched mine…

  I shivered, arching against him, begging for him to control me. All at once, I lost control. I forgot who I was, what I was doing, where I was…everything became a blur and the only thing I knew was how much I wanted his kiss. How desperate I was to feel this connection that I only had with this man. Jace must’ve understood too as he was just as fervent with his kiss, just as passionate about not letting me go.

  The sounds of footsteps coming closer brought me back to the present. All at once I knew who I was, what I was doing, and especially where I was. We moved apart, catching our breath while struggling not to make it obvious what we were doing. A group of teenagers passed us, the boys all grinning at Jace while the girls rolled their eyes. I would’ve been embarrassed had I not seen the look Jace was giving me. His eyes were filled with desire and need as if he hadn’t even noticed the teenagers.

  “Wow,” I gasped.

  He grinned at me and nodded. “This mean I win?”

  “The battle, at least,” I offered. “But the war shall wage on.”

  “Perfect,” he grinned.

  “So…” I whispered. “Should we go to the next exhibit?”

  He nodded, “Probably a good idea.”

  ****

  We had spent nearly five hours at the museum and by the time we stepped out, the sun was already setting. I was surprised just how easy everything was with Jace. We didn’t need to fill the silence at any point and seemed to just understand the other’s needs. I wasn’t used to feeling this way and I had no idea what to do next. As we left the museum, Jace began to look down the streets.

  “You hungry?” he smiled over at me.

  I nodded and bit my lip, “But I don’t want to sit down anywhere.”

  “Why’s that?” he asked, sounding more worried than upset.

  I paused for a moment, not wanting to admit that food wasn’t the only thing on my mind—and also not wanting to confess that all our sexy play in the museum had “awoken” a response I’d since thought impossible—and I finally just said, “I guess I’m just sort of ‘peopled’-out. I’d just like to be alone with you.”

  Considering this, and doing his best to once more adjust his pants without making it obvious that he was adjusting his pants, he seemed quick to agree. “Alright, why don’t we go back to my place and order in?” he asked with a smile. “If I order now it’ll probably be waiting for us by the time we get there.”

  I raised an eyebrow at that. “You gonna have the security guard run your food upstairs for you?” I asked.

  He shrugged. “He gets fifty bucks every time he does, so I think everybody wins in that case.”

  “Fifty bucks?” I gasped. “Shit, I’m in the wrong line of work.”

  “Then quit,” Jace said. “Pardon me for saying so, but I don’t think you owe your brother any favors, especially if this is the way you have to do it.”

  I bit my lip at that. “Is that what you want? For me to quit?” I asked, wondering if he’d changed his mind about his stance on things.

  “What I want,” he said, leading me back to his motorcycle, “is for you to be safe and happy.” He paused and looked back, his face stern. “Are you safe? Happy?” he asked.

  I shivered and looked down.

  Jace let the unspoken answer hang between us—hand-in-hand with the silence—for a short time longer before he finally reached out with both of his hands to take both of mine. “I know this is only date number two,” he said in a low voice, “but I don’t think what I feel between us is one-sided.”

  “It’s not,” I admitted.

  He nodded, smiling at that. “Then I want you to know that this isn’t the only way, okay? I don’t care if you choose to stick with this; if helping your brother means that much to you then I’m not going to force you to stop.”

  “And you don’t mind sharing me with other men?” I asked, terrified of the answer.

  He scoffed and shook his head, releasing one of my hands to caress the side of my face. “Do they pay you to talk to them? To get to know them? To get to know you? Or to go to museums and have meals and watch movies with you?”

  I blushed and shook my head. “N-no,” I admitted.

  He cupped my cheek with his hand.

  I leaned into the warmth of it.

  “Then I’m not sharing you with anybody,” he said matter-of-factly. “You’re giving them this,” he said, rubbing the pad of his opposite thumb against the back of my hand, “while you’re giving me this,” he gently moved his other thumb up to draw a small semicircle at my temple. Moving in, he brushed a feather-light kiss across my trembling lips before whispering, “Those poor bastards don’t know what they’re missing, and I’m not sharing this with anybody.”

  He kissed me again.

  “Jace…” I whispered.

  My lower belly tickled again, and I felt a sense of relief that we’d already decided against sitting at a restaurant.

  The ride back on the motorcycle was going to be torture enough already.

  But we needed to get back to his place.

  NOW!

  I didn’t want to wait any more. Fuck if Candy hadn’t been absolutely right. The entire “war” in the museum had had me creeping nearer and nearer to a physical response to simple brushes and whispers—I had very nearly been the first-time John “finishing” in my pants on several occasions back there—and there was no denying the simple truth: I needed to be with Jace; I needed to see just how far this connection of ours went. If this was what he could do to me with just a little bit of public naughtiness, then what could possibly be awaiting me behind the vail of privacy?

  I remembered when my friends would talk about the difference between sex and making love, and I wondered if I’d finally be able to see the difference for myself. College had offered me a fair amount of decent sex; admittedly not lots, but, respectfully, not a little, either. I hadn’t been the sort on campus to have a reputation—the boys who were straight-up desperate to get laid knew better than to go to me for a quick fix—but it was generally understood that, if you took Mia Chobavich out, showed her a nice time and didn’t behave like an absolute jerk, then you weren’t totally unreasonable in thinking that the night wo
uld likely end nicely for you.

  All of that, however, had just been sex. We’d have a decent time, maybe go on a few more dates, realize that our schedules just weren’t meshing enough for us and that there wasn’t enough of a connection to really keep things going, and that would be the end of it. No hearts broken, no love lost. I’d certainly never gotten any notion of what this “making love”-business was, and the number of genuine orgasms that I’d achieved from sex was something I could have counted on my fingers and toes.

  But I loved Jace. I wasn’t sure I was ready to say it aloud—even though a part of me already ached to—but I knew it to be true at my core. What I’d already come to experience from him transcended what I’d ever felt for anybody before in ways that seemed biblical by comparison. I loved Jace, and he’d nearly had me orgasming better than I ever had before without even undressing; without even really touching me!

  So who the hell could blame me for being eager to get back to his place and see what this “making love”-business was all about?

  “You okay?” he smiled. “You look… well, you look like you are thinking about something.”

  “And if I am?” I said, forcing a coy grin and hoping I sounded sultry.

  ****

  Jace ordered for delivery while stopping for gas. As he did, I excused myself to go inside and duck away to the restroom, hoping to dry things off enough to manage the rest of the ride home.

  I paused at that, realizing I’d just considered Jace’s place “home.”

  I couldn’t bring myself to disapprove of the thought.

  Heading back out, I saw that he was already straddling the motorcycle. He smiled as I approached, and my lower belly tickled again.

  So much for drying off, I thought-muttered before asking, “Did you already make the order?”

  “Yeah. Nothing fancy. Just a few pizzas,” he answered.

  “A few pizzas?” I gaped.

  “Not enough?” he joked, nodding as he did. “I was afraid of that.”

  “You know what I mean!” I groaned, sliding into place behind him and pulling on the helmet.