“You two kids have fun,” Rose called back and I shot her a look.
We headed outside, away from the noise and the crowds, and into the humid September evening air. The sun was setting, casting an orange glow over everything, and little insects were buzzing around. I walked us over to the trees to the left of the clubhouse, intending to sit down at one of the small picnic tables we’d set up earlier that year, but when we got there Laney reached down and took my hand before leading us further away and out of sight.
Her hand in mine felt like fuckin’ heaven, her grip both soft yet strong. And goddamn, being this close to her I could smell whatever shampoo she used and I’d be damned if she didn’t smell like strawberries. Strawberries and cream, goddamn. My jeans grew tighter, and while still holding my beer, I reached down and rearranged myself.
The music faded the further away we walked, until it felt like we were the only two people left in the world. I smiled, knowing that I wouldn’t have minded that for one minute.
“What’s the smile for?” she asked.
I turned to her, sucking in my bottom lip and letting it out again. “I was just thinking about what it would be like if we were the only two people left on earth. Think I’d like that.”
“Well, aren’t you the poet?” She smiled and nudged my shoulder.
I pulled her to a stop and looked down at her. Goddamn, she was turning into something spectacular. She had always been sexy as hell, but she was a beautiful fucking woman now, and one that I wanted. Didn’t matter how many women I fucked, my mind always strayed back to Laney. My hands weren’t on those other women’s hips and my dick wasn’t ramming into their bodies. It was always her and her beautiful body that I felt wrapped around me. Her that made me come so hard my knees fucking shook.
It was always her.
I’d nailed so many women in an attempt to try to forget about her, but it wasn’t working. Not even a little bit. I knew it was wrong; she deserved better than me. Ain’t nothing that I could give her that would be good, but there was only so much one man could take before he cracked. And I had reached my limit.
I leaned over and kissed her hard, my teeth nipping at her lips before my tongue slid into her mouth and claimed it for my own. I was hard in my jeans, so hard I was sure I was going to poke a fucking hole through them any minute.
We were by one of the back walls of the clubhouse and I pushed Laney up against it, and tilted her face upwards so I could kiss across her neck and down to her breasts. She moaned and rolled her hips as I pressed my body against hers, grinding against her hard enough to hurt, but all she did was sigh.
I pulled out of the kiss and pressed my forehead to hers. “I’m no good,” I said. “I need you to know that right from the start, because there’s no going back after tonight. There’s only so much one man can take before he just takes what he wants.”
Her pupils dilated and her breathing hitched. “And what is it that you want, Jesse?”
“You,” I growled out, swiveling my hips and grinding myself against her. “I want you.”
Chapter twelve:
1990
Laney
“I want you,” he said, his voice thick and full of untamed hunger.
I nodded, ignoring the flutter in my stomach as I held on tighter to him, letting him know that it was what I wanted too. Jesse leaned in and kissed me almost desperately, as if both of our lives depended on it. He stole me with that kiss, stole every part of who I was with every roll of his tongue and every nip of his teeth on my bottom lip. I would never be the same woman after a kiss like that. How could I be? The kiss was an all-devouring promise.
And it was just a taste of what was to come.
His pelvis ground harder against mine and I arched my back to meet each roll of his hips with my own, my mind reeling with what was happening. He reached up and untied my hair, letting g it fall about my shoulders and then he shoved both of his hands were wrapped in my hair and he pulled almost painfully on it. But it was a good pain, the sort that reminded you that you were alive and this was what your body needed.
That he was what my body needed.
My hands slid from his shoulders, moving down his back to where his T-shirt had come loose, and I pushed my hands underneath it, needing to touch his heated skin beneath. A spark of electricity hit me as my fingers touched him and he stilled momentarily, feeling it too. I slid my hands up his back and then his own hands were out of my hair and moving over my body and gliding down to the slope of my breasts. He pulled at the thin straps on my dress, pushing them down my arms until he could see my bra, and then he was pulling my breasts free of their confines and rolling my nipples between his fingers and making me whimper and sigh in pleasure.
I arched my back and groaned and he pulled his mouth away from mine, his possessive kiss leaving my lips to trail his tongue down toward my right breast. He sucked my hard nipple into his mouth, one hand kneading the other breast, while the other held me firmly by the waist, his hips still grinding and rolling against me until I felt the pleasure I was searching for, just out of reach, begin to move toward the horizon.
His was rock hard between my legs, his length pressing against the part where I needed him the most and grinding against my body to give me the friction that I so desperately wanted. With every thrust he gave me I thrust back against him until our bodies were in sync, and my back arched as pleasure rolled through me, pushing me over to the other side as I called out my release with a drawn-out cry, stars exploding behind my eyes.
He didn’t stop. Instead he continued to press against me harder and harder, rolling his hips against me, hips that knew exactly what they wanted and how to get it, and taking what they demanded as he chased his own release, which came in the form of him grunting and holding my hips so tightly I knew I’d be bruised from his touch. I felt him pulsing against me as he ground his hips against mine in one long, torturous move that must have been shown to him by the devil himself because that last movement sent me over the edge once more and I clung to him, crying out as bright flashes of pleasure flashed behind my eyes once again.
“Fuck, Laney,” he called out against my mouth, absorbing my cry.
He took my pleasure, swallowing it down as he kissed me, holding me close. And then he stilled me against him, slowly lowering me back down to the ground. We both opened our eyes at the same time, sharing the same expression on our faces. His gaze dipped lower, to my chest, and a moment of sexual hunger sparked in his eyes when he saw my naked breasts. His left hand came to trail down between my two peaks, making me shiver once more and my nipples go even harder.
I realized then, as Jesse looked down at me with both wonder and lust in his eyes, I realized that this would never be enough. I wanted more, and from the looks in his eyes, so did he.
“Are you okay?” he asked me, his voice like rough gravel.
I nodded, “Yeah.”
My heart was still pounding in my chest, and I was unable to tear my gaze away from his. I was more than okay, but couldn’t find my voice to put it into words just yet. I’d had orgasms before, but they were nothing compared to this, and it only made me greedy for the knowledge of what it would be like to actually have sex with him. When no clothes were separating our bodies and his body was sliding into mine, over and over again. I gulped, my body clenching at the thought.
Jesse reached over and pushed my long hair behind my ears, his fingers getting tangled once more in the thick strands. He dropped it, the hair floating down over my shoulders and collarbone and making me shiver and my nipples peak so hard that they were painful. His tongue darted out, wetting his lips, and then he leaned over to kiss me again, taking my mouth softly.
The kiss was gentle this time, but still filled with the hunger that seemed to accompany all of his kisses. I opened my mouth and let him in, taking his tongue and letting it move against mine as I nibbled at his lower lip, enjoying the feeling in my stomach like I was slowly unraveling. His muscled chest pressed
against mine as he covered my body with his, and I let myself get lost in his kiss…
In his arms. ..
In his scent…
In him.
When I couldn’t take any more, when I thought I might combust if he didn’t take me right there and then—tear my panties off and slide himself deep inside me in one swift move—he pulled out of the kiss and pressed his forehead to mine, both of us panting in need and desire.
We stayed that way for several minutes and then he pulled away, kissing me once more, softer that time, less urgently, as if he’d found some self-control from somewhere, his thumbs trailing down the sides of my face.
The kiss ended, like all great kisses end, slowly and smoothly. Jesse looked at me, the hard angles of his face seemed softer somehow, even though I knew that was impossible. I smiled up at him, my cheeks feeling hot, and he smiled back. There were no words to describe what had just happened, no feelings to explain how my body called for him, and how his called to me. Or how, like magnets, we kept colliding no matter how hard we tried to pull apart.
There was no need for anything right then but the comfort of each other’s arms wrapped around one another, and the realization that things had changed. After that night, nothing would ever be the same again.
Chapter Thirteen:
1990
Jesse
H-o-l-y fuck!
What the actual fuck was that? I looked down at Laney, her cheeks flushed and her eyes bright, watching as she opened her mouth to say something but then closed it again as if lost for words.
“Are you okay?” I asked, my words coming out heavy and thick, and meaning a hell of a lot more than are you okay.
“Yeah,” she replied, her own voice breathy. She swallowed, her tongue darting out to lick along her lower lip, and I felt myself hardening in my jeans again as if I hadn’t just fucked her through my jeans once already.
What the fuck was happening to me? She was driving me insane; that was it. This woman with her goddamned perfect body and dirty mouth was driving me insane. Her gaze was full of an almost insatiable hunger, her body and mind clearly wanting what I wanted.
Her dark hair was lying across her pale shoulders and I reached over and to tuck it behind her ear, but instead of letting go I watched her body shiver under my touch and I groaned at the sight of her full lips opening to release a small sigh. I hardened even more, painfully so, and I let her hair fall from my hand and gently fall back to her skin. I could make out her hard nipples beneath the thin material of her bra and dress since she’d covered herself back up, the little peaks begging to be licked and sucked on. I leaned over her, wrapping my fingers in her hair, and I pulled her in for a deep kiss.
I kissed her softly at first, but it didn’t last long before I was kissing her hard, my tongue moving against hers, enjoying every nibble on my lips and her groans of need in my mouth. My pants were too tight, and I wanted inside her, no questions asked. I wanted to take what was mine, right there and then. Because there was no doubt in my mind that this woman was mine now. I was claiming her, and fuck Gauge and fuck Hardy and fuck anyone who tried to get in my way. I’d put a bullet in the skull of any man who tried to keep me away from her now.
I’d been the good guy. I’d left her alone, but time and time again we were drawn back to one another. So fuck that now. Fuck all of it.
This woman was mine.
I was claiming her right the fuck now.
“You’re mine now, you hear me?” I said, pulling out of the kiss and pressing my forehead against hers.
She nodded beneath me, her fingers digging into my waist. “Okay,” she whispered breathlessly.
I reached down between us and placed my hand between her legs, feeling her soaked panties and growling territorially. “And this is definitely mine and no one goes near it—or you—but me. You got it?”
She nodded again and I sighed with relief. There was never any question after that night of her not being mine, but the realization that she wouldn’t fight me on it, that she wanted me as much as I wanted her, soothed me. No, not wanted, needed. I fucking needed her like I needed air. I needed her kisses as much as I needed to eat and to drink and to breathe.
Laney was life, and from that moment on, she would be my life.
I pressed a hungry kiss to her lips again, wanting to take her right there, because I desperately needed to feel her sweetness wrapped around me, but I also wanted more for her than this. She deserved more. I pulled out of the kiss, knowing that if I didn’t there would be no stopping me, or her. I pulled her down to the ground and we both lay back on the grass. I tucked her body tightly against mine, fighting my urges every step of the way.
We lay back and looked up at the stars, my heart hammering against my ribs and my cock aching something fierce in my jeans. Her breaths slowly evened out, and when I looked down at her, her eyes were closed, her face calm and serene.
Goddamn, but she was beautiful. The most beautiful fucking woman I had ever laid eyes on. From day one of seeing her, I had known there was something about her that was made just for me, but now I had the proof. Her slender body fitted in effortlessly next to my bulky frame, and her full lips connected with mine perfectly.
And that fierce mind and dirty mouth of hers were just the icing on the cake.
Laney was perfection and she was all fucking mine now.
Chapter Fourteen:
present
Jesse
The West Side Bangers clubhouse was lit up like the fucking Fourth of July when we pulled up outside.
The music was obnoxiously loud, and bikes were riding up and down the street outside with bikers and women standing around drinking beer from bottles and generally not giving a shit what kind of noise they made. Their clubhouse was in downtown Atlanta, in a real shitty neighborhood, to say the least, but at least their neighbors knew to keep their noses out of other people’s business, and by the looks of things they weren’t the sort to call the cops at every small opportunity. Good to know.
The party was in full swing as we parked our bikes in a long row next to the other thirty that were already there and duck-walked them into position. We eyed the prospects in charge of guarding them as we walked by, giving them a small nod. Women were huddled in groups, giggling and jutting out their chests as we passed through the main doorway, their long-nailed fingers grazing my bare arms as they rubbed against us like cats in heat.
“Hey,” a little blond thing said as we walked inside and I looked her up and down, noting her tiny waist and even tinier shorts barely covering her pert little ass.
“Hey,” I replied, walking away. Sure as shit had enough women drama for one day.
Beefcake stood up and walked toward us and pulled me in for a hug, patting me on the back before pulling back to look at me, a wide smile on his fat face. Beefcake was a big man in both height and weight, easily passing six feet and two hundred and fifty pounds of pure flab. His hair was long and dark and always pulled back into a long braid down his back. But the fat fucker never had a problem getting a woman on his arm.
“Welcome, Jesse.” He nodded to my brothers. “Make yourselves at home, brothers, mi casa es su casa.”
I nodded to my brothers, setting them free to party for a couple of hours while I dealt with the shit that had just gone down. Dom eyed me warily before nodding and heading to one of the kegs to grab himself a beer. Man just seemed worn out those days—never smiled, never laughed, just constantly brooded about life and the universe or some shit. And though he was still a part of the club, he’d taken a step back from most dealings. I was lucky that he’d even come tonight.
Casa stayed behind with me, and I was grateful for his presence.
“Let’s talk,” Beefcake said, and put his hand on my arm and started guiding us across the room.
He led us through the center of the party, passing bikers and bitches who all turned to stare at us.
Beefcake waved them all off with a wave of his fat hand. �
��Don’t mind them. Think they’re still in shock from everything and wanting to pay their respects at some point. Told them to give you time to settle in before they spoke to you about it all.” He pushed open the door to his office and we stepped inside
“Appreciate that,” I replied.
“No problem.” He pulled out a chair behind his desk and sat down, gesturing for me and Casa to sit opposite. “So what’s this shit going down in my charter you were talking about?” He steepled his fingers together and waited for me to speak, and I glanced across at Casa before replying.
“You ever heard of the Razorbacks MC?” I asked, feeling him out for information first.
His look turned serious. “Heard whispers about them—nothing set in stone, though. They seem more like ghosts than anything else. No one has seen them or spoken to them, but we’ve seen their tags. Why? What’s going on, Jesse?”
“There was a business meeting tonight, seems that the Highwaymen weren’t invited.” I watched Beefcake’s face to see if he looked surprised or not by that. He did, which was good for him and his club. “In fact, there were orders to keep us out completely. And we got given this,” I said, fishing the note out of my pocket and handing it to Beefcake.
He took it and opened it up, reading it quickly before placing it down on the desk in front of him. If his look had been serious before, it was nothing compared to now. Beefcake stood up and walked to the door before opening it and calling outside for Bridge, his VP.
A few moments later Bridge came in and the door was shut again. Beefcake went and sat back down and Bridge stood next to him, looking expectantly at his pres.
“Looks like the Highwaymen are going to war,” Beefcake said, looking across at us and nodding before looking back to Bridge. “Club called the Razorbacks are trying to cut them out of their own business. Shit won’t stand when Hardy finds out, that’s for damn sure. Need to make sure it’s clear what side the Bangers are on.” Beefcake looked over to me and nodded respectfully. “We clear?” he asked.
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