Talon

by Savannah Rylan

  “Ah, he’ll be fine. Just got a wild dick up his ass,” Mac said.

  “Sorry. Don’t feel like dying tonight,” I said.

  “You talk to that woman?” he asked.

  I raised up and looked around, noting there was no one else in the clubhouse except for him and me. So, I shut the fridge door behind me and leaned back against it.

  “Yeah. Says the Saints are conducting a witch hunt in their own club right now. The President’s squeamish about the fact that someone’s ratting them out.”

  “So they suspect outsiders were involved,” he said.

  “Not the way she made it sound. She said they were still just interrogating people in the club. Told her it was best to stay away from me for now. Just gotta do the hacking’ you asked for, and if there’s shit in there that worries me, I’ll go back and talk to her.”

  “You think the DEA suspects anything?” he asked.

  “I don’t fucking know. I had to order pizza and put up beer on the night I was gonna do it,” I said.

  “Well, you’ll be too busy fuckin’ Gemma now.”

  “Mac. Seriously? Talking’ about Gemma like that.”

  “I know how much you like her. Always have. We’ll get Snake off your back. It’s time the two of you ponied up to your lust.”

  “The fuck?” I asked.

  “You’re an idiot if you can’t see the way she looks at you.”

  I furrowed my brow as Mac slapped me on the back. We locked up the clubhouse behind us before starting for the bar, but all I could think about was what he’d said. There was a way Gemma was staring at me? Really? Was he just yanking my chain to get me in trouble with Snake, or was he seriously about to distract the only thing that was standing between my dreams and her body?

  We pulled up to the bar and parked our bikes in the only available parking slots left. I walked in behind Mac and was instantly handed a beer, and before I knew it my eyes were scanning for her. She was sitting on a pool table, her long legs swinging in the breeze while Fox and Hawk talked with her.

  But then Snake came up to Hawk and whispered into his ear before the two of them took off.

  “Doesn’t look like he knows you’re here yet,” Mac said.

  “‘Kay.”

  “Quit being stupid and go talk to her,” he said.

  “He’ll eventually come back,” I said.

  “Not if I got anything to do with it.”

  Mac smirked at me before he pushed his way through the crowd. He threw himself into the door Hawk and Snake had disappeared behind, and that’s when I felt it. This burning sensation on the side of my cheek. It was like someone was staring at me and my body was already aware of what was going on.

  So when I turned my head and saw Gemma looking at me with a smile on her face, I couldn’t help but smile back.

  She looked back over at the door her brother disappeared into while some other younger guys in the club talked with her. They were trying to get her attention, standing a little closer than I was okay with. That was so fucking messed up. Snake was all right with these little wannabes hanging all over his sister, but a decent fucking man like myself couldn’t even look her way without a death threat sliding from his lips.

  That was some fucked up shit right there.

  By the time I came to, Gemma was standing right in front of me. Her bright blue eyes were looking up at me, taking me in while I grinned down at her. This was the closest I’d ever been to her, and I tipped my beer up and chugged it while I took in her scent. She smelled of cotton in the breeze and the slightest twinge of sweat. I could see a droplet of alcohol still dancing on her lips, and before I knew what I was doing, I raised my thumb to wipe it off.

  The way she sighed against my skin prickled the skin on the back of my neck.

  “You look good, Gemma,” I said.

  Her eyes widened again with that same youthful and innocent stare as I smiled at her.

  “You, too, Talon,” she said breathlessly. “You look… very different.”

  “A bit more muscle than you’re probably used to,” I said.

  “That’s one of them, yes.”

  “So, what brings you back into town?” I asked.

  “Graduation. I’m officially done with college. For now,” she said.

  “So, you’re gonna be here for a bit?”

  “Seems to be the plan.”

  “I see you’re wearing the same cut Jace is.”

  “Jace?” Who the fuck was Jace?

  “Yikes. Um… Snake,” she said. “My brother.”

  “Jace,” I said, grinning. “I’ll have to remember that.” Since we were both prospects, I had only known him as Snake. Hell, I wasn’t even sure if anyone knew my real name.

  “He’s gonna know you’re talking with me if you call him that,” she said.

  “Might come in handy someday anyway,” I said. “And yes, I am.”

  “So, you’re a member now as well?”

  “I am. Road captain as well.”

  “Road captain?” she asked.

  “Yep. I oversee the safety of the crew whenever we go on trips. I also work closely with Snake to plan them out, since he’s Secretary.”

  “So, you and my brother are close?” she asked.

  I thought back to that night all those years ago. That night when the Devil Saints made their mark on our crew forever. I could still hear the rumbling of the bikes as the sound shook the ground we were all standing on. I could still remember Syd’s father taking the first bullet, his chest pouring with blood while Syd skidded over to him. I could still see Hawk’s father down on the ground, writhing and shaking while a young Hawk tried his best to stop the bleeding.

  And I could remember Snake, his body throwing itself over mine while I scrambled for my mother lying dead in the dirt.

  “Yeah,” I said. “I guess you could say that.”

  My eyes looked back up to the door they’d all escaped through, and I still couldn’t see any sign of Snake. Talking to Gemma was relaxing, but the smell of her perfume was driving me wild. The way her voice lilted in my ears and the way I could feel her body heat pulsing against my body. It took everything inside of me not to pin her to the wall and show her the kind of man she deserved.

  A man that would fall to his knees just to lap at her pussy until she came for the entire world to hear.

  “Maybe that means you’ll be over at the house a bit?” she asked.

  “Honestly? Never been there,” I said.

  “Oh,” she said.

  And I could’ve sworn the thing that rolled behind her eyes was disappointment.

  “A degree looks good on you,” I said. “What’d you get it in?”

  In an instant, her eyes lit back up.

  “Music,” she said.

  “Music? I didn’t know you were that type of musician. Or a musician at all, really.”

  “Yep,” she said. “I play the cello.”

  “I bet it sings beautifully when you finger it,” I said, grinning.

  I watched a small little flush taper along her cheeks before it cascaded down her long, languid neck. I wanted to trace the flush with my fingers. I wanted to tug that red all the way down her body. It complimented the tint of her skin nicely and sparkled her light blue eyes even more than they did. She licked her lips, a mating call to my cock as it began to rise against my pants, and I took deep breaths to try and keep myself in check while I watched her tongue slowly pull her bottom lip between her teeth.

  Without thinking, I rose my thumb to her lip and pulled it from between her teeth. I ran my skin across her lip, watching her smile just before my palm cupped her cheek. She was so warm underneath my touch, and I cursed myself for never reaching out for her sooner.

  I could've had the comfort of her skin during a time in my life when I’d needed it the most.

  Chapter 6

  Gemma

  The way his skin felt against mine was undeniably beautiful. His skin was soft, which was uncanny g
iven some of the men I’d already met. Jace’s hands were calloused and rugged. Constantly dinged and nicked. His knuckles were currently bruised, though the yellow on his skin told me they had been there awhile. My brother was known for his temper and his protective nature, but one thing he was not known for was his violence.

  I had a feeling that was the ‘gift’ The Road Rebels bestowed upon him.

  Part of me wanted to kiss his finger. I felt my knees growing weak as we stood in the corner of that bar. We were near the exit door and far away from where my brother was, and I felt the wild wind that had blown through my hair sneak up underneath my arm. I wrapped my hand around Talon’s wrist, watching his gaze as it slowly drifted over to our connection point. His fingertips fell from my lips as I slowly lowered his hand, but then I stepped around him and pulled him towards the exit.

  His eyes began to sparkle with danger, and it lit a fire inside of me I’d never felt before.

  I pulled him out into the parking lot before he took the lead. He wrapped us around the building while we ran, my lips trying to stifle my giggles as a shed came into view. He barreled us towards it, my legs running as fast as I could. But when I knew I could no longer keep up with the long strides his legs were making, I tugged at him to stop.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  While panting for the very breath his voice rid me of, I jumped onto his back. I giggled into his neck while his arms wrapped around my legs, and he jumped to hike me further up onto his back. Feeling his body against mine was intoxicating as I breathed in the leather of his jacket, and by the time I was done reveling in the strength of his muscles my legs were wrapped around he was sitting me on the edge of a box.

  The storage shed was musty, to say the least. Dust was flying around, and its walls were stacked to the brim. It was dark, and there was no light to turn on, but at that moment I didn’t care. All I was knew was that I was here with Talon, the one man my mind always fled to whenever someone hit on me in college.

  I did my fair share of experimentation. Guys. Girls. Threesomes. Orgies. I quickly found out that schools who were known for their academics were also known for their parties. And without my overbearing brother, I was free to do what I wanted. I drank, and I explored. I experienced my first orgasm in a broom closet at a guy’s house whose name I still don’t know.

  But there was no one who set aflame the feeling Talon did by just looking at me. My encounters were temporary and lifeless, lit by a spark of electricity that was fueled by alcohol. I got mine, I gave them theirs, and I allowed myself to expand my mind to the pleasure the world had to offer. I’d experienced enough of its horror and its anger and its frustration.

  I promised myself that when I left for school, I’d come back with positive memories that I could fill the corners of my life with.

  “Whatcha thinking’ about?” Talon asked.

  “College,” I said.

  “What about it?”

  I felt his hands slowly grazing up my legs, pushing up the fabric of my skirt while his fingertips left their searing marks against my skin.

  The feeling of his fingernails against my body was too much to bear.

  “How… um… how I never felt… like this with anyone.”

  In an instant, he dug his nails into the swell of my thighs, and I had to choke back my howl of shock.

  “With anyone,” he said.

  “You didn’t think I was a virgin, did you?” I asked, giggling.

  But when he didn’t respond, I felt something akin to shame drift over my body.

  “Talon, I-... I didn’t realize-”

  “Did they make you feel good?” he asked.

  His hands didn’t move, but they didn’t pull away from me either.

  “Most of them did, yes,” I said.

  “But some of them didn’t?”

  I had no idea where this conversation was going, but I didn’t like it one bit. I didn’t enjoy remembering that night. How contorted my body had been. I didn’t like remembering all the needles that sank into my skin and the beeping from the monitors while I sat alone in that hospital bed. I didn’t enjoy the absurd reality check I had that night, realizing I had friends but no family. I didn’t like remembering the fact that people only wanted to hang out with me because I was the ‘fun girl’ who ‘got the real party started.’

  I didn’t enjoy the fact that none of the guys who were so anxious to give me their numbers suddenly didn’t want to answer their phone for the poor girl who was in the hospital.

  I didn’t enjoy remembering the fact that my own brother shot that fucking call to voicemail himself.

  “It’s funny, I couldn’t get you to say a word to me in high school, and now you want to know all of my-”

  “Did someone hurt you, Gemma?” he asked.

  His question froze me right in my place. He released my thighs from the confines of his fingernails, and I could feel the crescents throbbing. His hands slid up to my hips, cupping them tenderly while his thumbs danced along my exposed hip bones. I could feel his fingertips tracing the hem of my panties, and I could feel his eyes burning a hole into the top of my skull.

  “What would prompt such a question?” I asked breathlessly.

  “I’m quiet, but not stupid,” he said.

  “I never assumed you were,” I said.

  Suddenly, he pulled a hand from underneath my skirt. I wanted him to go back. I wanted to feel the spread of his hands against my skin. I wanted him to dig his nails into me and mark me with the fury I felt radiating from his body. There was something desperate in me. Something that wanted him to claim me unlike any other man or woman ever had. My eyes trailed up to where I thought his would be while his hand drifted up my back, and in an instant, I knew where he was headed.

  “Don’t,” I said darkly.

  But all he did was stop at the base of my neck, cradling it lightly before his forehead connected with mine.

  “Trust me,” he said, whispering.

  Then, I felt his fingertips slowly reach up to the beginning of my hairline.

  He traced his fingers around my face, clocking the light scarring that outlined the whole of my head. My jaw trembled, and my legs weakened, and in that instant, I was glad he’d picked me up and placed me on something. His fingertips traced the entity of my thick hairline before he threaded his hands into my hair, and the moment he ran across it, he paused.

  The light bump underneath my skin that signaled the screws that peppered the back of my head.

  One by one, he found them all. One by one, his fingertips circled them, reminding me of the painful experience I’d endured. One by one, he placed kisses on my forehead with every screw he found, wetting my forehead with his warmth as tears cascaded down my cheeks.

  I hated that he was making me remember. I hated that he was forcing me to expose myself. I hated the fact that this man, who didn’t say a fucking word to me all those years ago, was somehow now pushing past all the boundaries I’d thrown up after that night.

  The night I realized I truly had no one.

  “How in the hell did you see those?” I asked breathlessly.

  “I don’t talk much, but I see a great deal,” he said.

  “You couldn’t have possibly seen those screws,” I said.

  “So that’s what they are.”

  “Wait… what?”

  “I thought you were talking about the scarring around your hairline,” he said.

  “Yes… I mean, wait… what?”

  I was trembling on top of the box as Talon’s knee trapped me there. I felt him press it against me, the warmth from my pussy drenching his kneecap. I simultaneously wanted to push him away and grind down onto it. I felt my entire body rising to meet his challenge while he cradled me like a child needing to suckle from the breast of its mother. I felt like I couldn't breathe and yet was somehow floating in the very air I was gasping for. Like I’d been wholly exposed with the swoop of someone’s arm. Like some magic trick had vanished me int
o thin air before pulling me back to reality without my clothes on.

  I felt Talon’s hands cup my cheeks, the wetness of my tears drenching his skin as he pulled my gaze up to where his would’ve been could I fucking see anything.

  But even if the lights had been on… even if the sun had been drenching his skin… the globule tears rising up in my eyes would’ve skewed anything I could’ve tried to lock onto.

  How my life had forever changed just from that one incident.

  “What happened, and does Snake know?” he asked.

  “No, he doesn’t,” I said.

  “What. Happened?” he asked again.

  “It was just… a stupid party,” I said.

  His thumbs wiped at the tears spilling down my face as his chest pressed closer into me.

  “Who hurt you?” he asked.

  “It was stupid. We were drunk, and things got out of hand-”

  “How did a drunken party end up putting screws in your skull?” he asked.

  “If you’d shut up, I’d tell you,” I said.

  Had I been able to see him, I could’ve sworn he was smirking at me.

  “The police busted the party, and we ran. This guy I was with took my hand, and we ran through the woods back towards campus. We were crossing the road, and this car was just barreling at us. High speed, like they weren’t even driving through the middle of a campus. Apparently, the driver had fallen asleep behind the wheel of the car, and the car catapulted me into the air. No one intentionally hurt me, Talon.”

  “You said he was holding your hand. Was he not hit, too?”

  I felt my body clench as I swallowed deeply.

  “He was. I-I-I mean, we were. He just… got spooked was all. Let go of my hand and got out of the way of the car.

  “He let go of your hand.”

  “Yes,” I said.

  “He didn’t pull you out of the way, or take you with him when he jumped.”

  “No,” I said. “But I could’ve just as easily followed him. I just wasn’t moving fast enough. I was just shocked. Like he was. His reaction was different from mine. That’s all.”

  “Gemma, I want you to listen to me, and I want you to listen to me good.”

  His lips floated over to the shell of my ear, raising goosebumps upon my shaking form as I felt the whole of his strong, rippling arms encompass me.