by A. J. Downey
“What? No! Thirteen, you gave me the courage to get out. You’ve protected me, cared for me, saved my life in more than one way, how is that a failure?” her brow creased in worry, concern radiating from her beautiful face.
“Babe, I haven’t told you shit. Shit you should probably know. I haven’t taught you what it is to be a part of an MC. A real MC. I just kind of dragged you right along with me into my club and didn’t give you any cues to go off of, an’ expected you to just sort of know how things are really supposed to go. That was setting you up for big time failure and I am so sorry.”
Dani chewed her bottom lip and I suppressed a groan. She had no idea how hot that was but now wasn’t the time for any of that. Finally she looked up at me and huffed out a frustrated sigh.
“Okay, you have my attention… Crash course. What do I need to know? What did The Suicide Kings have wrong? What makes The Sacred Hearts different?” She stared at me plaintively and I blinked. I hadn’t expected the direct approach and fuck if that didn’t make her like a million times hotter in my book.
“Okay, no bullshit, The Suicide Kings were a bunch of misogynistic douche bags, for one. Sacred Hearts has it written in our fucking bylaws. No women and no children, meaning that if or when the shit gets heavy, if we got a beef with a dude or another club or whatever, we keep the women and children out of it. You’re a person, Baby, not a bargaining chip, not some kind of money making factory. We got respect for the fairer sex. That’s just a fact.” I trailed gentle fingertips along the side of Dani’s face.
“Nothing they did to you would ever happen with any of my brothers. No one gets held against their will, no one does anything they don’t want to do… We protect our own, Baby, and you’re one of ours now.” I pulled her gently so her forehead met mine.
“You’re safe, Baby Girl. That fat, nasty fuck never should have gotten by. He never should have gotten to you. We got cocky. Not a damned one of us ever thought that he would jump the fucking fence and come on to our turf solo like that. I’m so fucking sorry.”
She sniffed, nodded, and pressed her lips, which were salty sweet and damp with her tears, to mine. I held her face between my hands and drew back to look her in the eyes.
“I mean it, Babe; you’re safe, you’re free, and - as much as it fucking kills me - if you ever want to go, I’d let you go… I want you to be happy.”
She threw her arms around me, buried her face in the crook between my neck and shoulder, and let loose with a few broken sobs.
“Please don’t,” she sniffed and I smiled and cuddled her close. I knew what she meant but I think I needed to hear it anyways, so I asked her…
“Please don’t what?”
“Please don’t ever let me go!” she cried, and I let her have her tears. Didn’t ask her to stop, just made soothing noises and let her have a good, strong cry. It was what my mom always used to do for my sister, and my sister always bounced back better than ever, so what did I have to lose?
I held Dani while we soaked in the last of the warmth of the setting sun and continued to hold her as the lightning bugs began their lazy dance in the air around us. Dani’s sobs tapered off into the odd sniff, until finally she lay against me, calm and quiet.
“Better?” I asked.
She nodded against my chest, “How did you know?”
“Had a sister.”
“Had?”
“My family and me, we don’t talk anymore. I’m the black sheep.” I smiled in spite of this, and Dani chuckled.
“If only they knew their black sheep was really one serious white knight.”
I laughed, how could I not? White Knight? Yeah, not on your life. If only Dani knew the things I’d done, the lives I’d taken and the wrongs I’d committed.
I shook my head, “Asshole, aluminum foil, remember?”
“Thirteen, I’m serious!” she cried and pushed off of me to look at me through the dark, but that’s when she saw them, the lightning bugs, swirling and twirling in their lazy dance along the edges of the lake. She gasped, her eyes transfixed, and I smiled. I could watch her watch those little flickering bugs by the light of the moon for hours, if not days.
“It’s so beautiful…” she murmured, her voice soft and demure with wonder.
“Not half so beautiful as what I’m looking at,” my voice was rough with just too much emotion as I stared at her beautiful face, artfully sculpted by God himself. She turned and startled when she realized what I meant.
“Just tell me we’re okay, Baby Girl,” I said, and she swallowed hard.
“Of course we are, Chris.” I sort of loved that she used my real name, but didn’t have time to really soak it in because she wasn’t done.
“I love you. I mean, it was crazy how we met, and everything that happened, but you… You’re… I don’t even have the words. You mean so incredibly much to me. You make me laugh, you make me smile; you hold me when I’m scared, set my body, heart and mind on fire… You’re my friend as much as my lover and I haven’t had a friend in so very long. You’re so very precious to me.” She turned her face into the light touch I laid against it. I couldn’t stop touching her if I wanted to. Her words made my heart swell to something like a million times its original size, and I couldn’t help but swell elsewhere too.
“God, Dani, the things you do to me,” I whispered, and I knew my voice had gone low, husky with a mixture of love and desire. She leaned her whole body against mine and kissed me, and my cock got real uncomfortable in the prison of my jeans.
“Make love to me,” she breathed.
I made to pick her up and she looked around. The nearest house was some distance across the water, the light from the windows barely visible through the tall rushes and grass around the lakeshore.
“Here,” she murmured, and I paused.
“You sure?” I asked.
“It’s secluded enough, isn’t it?” her voice was breathy, a mixture of desire and a little fear.
“Yeah, Baby. Yeah it is… I’d love to love you out here; I just want you to be comfortable.” My lips traced hers as I spoke gently against her mouth.
Her arms twined around my neck and she buried her fingers in the back of my hair, dragging my lips the rest of that tiny distance to hers. She was straddling my hips now, and I didn’t remember that happening.
My jeans were really pinching now and with a soft groan, I kept kissing her but let my hands drift off her trim waist to fumble at my button and fly in an effort to relieve some of the pressure. Dani pressed her slender body right up against mine and I got my jeans down off my hips.
Her hands left the back of my hair to gather the back of my shirt. I raised my arms and let her drag it over the top of my head. She spared a glance before dropping it off to the side of the wooden chaise, to the dock, keeping it out of our earlier beer spill.
The slightly damp but still warm summer air slid across my shoulders and back, but Dani kept my chest warm, her body pressing right up against mine the second my shirt was off. She rose up on her knees to either side of my hips to give me room to adjust and as soon as I was set, I let my hands go to her hips.
She’d changed into this short, black summer dress when we’d gotten here, in an effort to beat back some of the summer heat. Her long, gorgeous hair an artful tangle held by a hairband at the back of her head, tendrils loose and curling. The beautiful mess made more so by my constant touching and playing with the dark strands.
I loved the feel of her hair. I loved the feel of her skin on mine and right now her panties, delicate lace that they were, were in my fucking way. I gripped them tightly in my fist.
“Gonna rip these,” I growled before giving them a rough jerk. I was glad she wore string thongs. She gasped, her arms tightening around me, which was fine by me. It just shoved my face into her tits. I discarded the scrap of offending fabric and nuzzled between her breasts, kissing and nipping along her skin.
Dani threw her head back and gave this throaty gasp, and my coc
k throbbed with a very definite need to be inside her. I began to unbutton her dress, the straps holding it up on her shoulders. I needed more skin. I loosed button after button as swiftly as my thick fingers could get them through the holes and trailed my mouth behind them over her silky skin.
She smelled phenomenal, her sex lightly perfuming the air with its musky, sweet scent. I cried out when she reached down between us and rose up higher to get me inside her. She sank down on me slowly, carefully, and it took everything I had in me not to surge up to meet her downward progress.
“Oh God, fuck, Babe, you’re killing me,” I squeezed out between gritted teeth. I let my hands smooth over all that fine pale skin, left bare by her open dress, and watched them. God–fucking-damnit, there was something extremely erotic about the sight of my work-rough hands on all of that pale perfection. Cupping those gorgeous tits, the pads of my thumbs teasing her pert nipples as she sank ever so slowly, hot and wet and perfect over my cock.
“Mmm! Chris!” she gasped and gave a little wiggle of her hips. I closed my eyes and turned my head and tried to get it together before I came like some half-assed teenager in the first thirty seconds of his first time ever.
“You good, Babe?” I questioned, voice straining almost as much as my cock.
She looked down at me, her eyes hooded with desire, and rolled her hips in answer. I about fucking died. I grasped her hips, her body framed by the black material of her dress, glowing in the moonlight. She was so fucking beautiful. My very own Lady of the Lake. My personal Goddess, my sorrowful angel.
“God, Dani, I fucking love you,” I grated and sucked in a deep breath. A tremulous smile touched her lips and her head tipped back, her hair tumbling loose down her back. I reached up and smoothed the thin dress off of her shoulders and she let it fall.
So. Fucking. Perfect.
“Ride me, Baby,” I urged her, and that smile was back on her lips and she did just that, rode me, and I couldn’t do anything but lay back and enjoy as I let her take her pleasure, her way.
I was so incredibly grateful that I didn’t have to let her go. That she wanted to stay, had agreed to stay…
I teased her clit with my thumb, gently massaging the little kernel of flesh, and didn’t bother holding back when she came. I would follow her anywhere, through anything. My brave and perfect girl.
My woman…
Chapter 32
Dani…
The heat and humidity was oppressive. The long ride had been exhilarating for the first half but had become butt numbing and weary the further south we’d travelled and the hotter it had gotten. I was sweating beneath my jacket and I could see that it wasn’t only me. The guys were all just as road weary as I was. However, they were perking up some as soon as we made our way through the little beachside town of Ft. Royal, and even more so now that we were slipping down a residential street, a line of houses with the beach beyond them off to our left.
Dragon hung a left into a tree-lined drive and everyone fell in behind him. My heart was suddenly in my throat. This was it. I would be meeting the women who went with some of these men and I felt my heart rate pick up a little. I was both excited and terribly nervous.
The house was grand. Tall and ornate, something straight out of the Victorian era with a very modern front step. Four women stood on the broad, sweeping stone steps. One of them very pregnant with fiery red hair in a long, light, summer dress that fit her pregnant form perfectly. She was radiant with how she glowed and her radiance went up about ten notches as soon as she spotted Revelator backing his big, custom chopper into line.
Another woman, the one next to Revelator’s ‘Red’, bounced lightly on her feet in her excitement. She wore cut off shorts and a tank top, her long, graceful legs tanned to perfection and her wheat-gold hair in a braid over her shoulder. Her hands were clasped together in front of her mouth and it looked like it was taking every ounce of her restraint not to go bounding down the steps and run to whoever she was waiting for.
There was a tiny woman with long, auburn hair, who was smiling and clapping and bouncing just as much as the taller woman beside her, but I knew who she was, I had seen her picture. She was Trigger’s Sunshine girl, but I couldn’t see her eyes from here to see if the pictures did her eyes any justice, if they were really a true golden hue.
The last woman was as tall as the bouncy one beside Red. Her platinum hair in a short pixie cut, her expression pinched with impatience, and my heart ached for her. I knew who she was instantly and I knew what had happened to her. What Sparks had done. She was looking for Ghost and when she saw him, her face broke into a smile, but the smile froze on her face when Thirteen tapped my hands to jump off.
I did so gladly so he could back the bike in, and I stood by and watched as the small woman with the auburn hair launched herself at Trigger. He swept her up and kissed her and held her tight while the bouncy woman went for Dray. Revelator went to his Red and dropped to one knee in front of her, placing a reverent kiss on her swollen belly.
A sharp cry brought my attention back to Sunshine. Trigger set her on her feet and she reached for and went to Reaver, breaking into giant, wracking sobs. Reaver knelt with a sad little smile and took her into his arms in a sweet and careful hug. He laid his cheek on the top of her head while she sobbed into the side of his neck and my heart lightened.
I’d forgotten. The women thought Reaver was dead and gone for these long months. I bit my bottom lip and watched as he passed the small woman back to his best friend and went up to the platinum blonde. Their eyes were a perfect match for each other’s but while Reaver’s were somber, Shelly, his cousin’s sparked sapphire flames.
“Hey, Baby Cuz…” he said gently, and Shelly did something unprecedented. She hauled off and cold-cocked her cousin right in the mouth with her closed fist. Reaver’s head snapped to the side and Ghost reached for her.
“Don’t touch me!” she snapped and, shaking her man off, stalked for the open door to the house. Reaver touched his face and worked his jaw back and forth while Ghost went after his woman. I blinked. There was no screaming, there was no violence toward her, just Ghost trotting after her begging her to stop and talk to him. I was transfixed for a moment but Sunshine had already moved in and was hugging Reaver around his waist before I could ask if he was okay.
“You okay, Babe?” Thirteen asked from beside the bike.
“Yeah, uh… I’m just melting and need to use the bathroom really bad.” Which I did. Revelator called out from where he held his woman in his arms.
“Through the front door all the way straight back. Only door past the stairs, right before the kitchen and dining room.”
“Thanks.” I crept through the bedlam of the guys unloading bikes and the like and, with a fortifying smile from Thirteen, I handed him my helmet and went and found the bathroom.
It felt like heaven getting out of the jacket. I was in a light halter top underneath. Something nice without being super flashy. A simple black, held-by–strings, bathing suit style at the neck and around the back with a scooped neckline. The material a light, fluttery silk. It went well with my jeans and motorcycle boots.
I splashed cold water on my face and dried it and stepped out into the quiet of the house when movement caught my eye. I turned my head to look out the sliding glass door and my breath caught in my throat. I was drawn out the back slider, which was open to the breeze, and stopped short at the cement railing to the large stone back patio.
The water was beautiful. Out quite a ways, I could still hear it crashing on the shore. Two people were walking slowly, hand in hand, towards the house. One, a man, with long brown hair, wearing a cut over his bare chest. The other, a small woman with short dark hair… Reaver’s wife. I startled as the man himself stopped next to me. He looked over and down at me.
“Can I leave these with you?” he asked, plucking at the front of his white tee shirt. I nodded mutely. He stripped his cut off and hung it on the railing before stripping his tee ov
er his head. The scars from where he’d been shot were stark and bright pink against his pale skin in the bright sunlight. He put his cut back on but stripped off his shoes and socks and left them at the bottom of the rail near my feet. I put my hand on the soft cotton of his tee where he slung it over the rail, and he smiled at me after rolling up the cuffs on his jeans.
“Good luck,” I said softly, the display with his cousin still fresh in my mind. He gave me a sad smile.
“First time in a long time I’ve ever been scared,” he admitted; I nodded.
“I’m sorry she had such a bad reaction.”
“Shelly? Nah. I expected that from her.” He gave me a wild, rakish grin, and I laughed, and then he was bounding down the stairs and striding across the sand. The man saw him first. He stopped cold and a grin spread across his face from ear to ear. The small woman, Hayden, looked up at the man questioningly and the man had to point for her to take her eyes off him.
The wind carried her short scream to my ears and she startled so hard I thought she was going to fall for a moment. I prayed then, really hard, for Reaver, that this would be a happy reunion, and I couldn’t help but smile as the woman, who was crying now, launched herself at him. They crashed into each other and she sobbed into his chest.
He lowered them both into the sand and he held her, rocking her gently while she came apart in his arms, clinging to him with every ounce of strength her small frame possessed. So enraptured was I by their reunion, I missed the other man, who had passed them and was coming up the back step. He stopped beside me and looked down at me and I swallowed hard, making every attempt not to make eye contact with him. Instead I fixed my gaze on the name flash on his cut.
Cutter.
Below that, President.
“And who might you belong to?” he asked, and I let my gaze travel upward by just a bit. He had a neat, trim beard and a full mouth that smiled broadly. His teeth were even and straight and blindingly white against his very tan skin. I swallowed hard and tried not to shake. I opened my mouth to speak when Thirteen saved me again.