by A. J. Downey
“Dani!” He came to me, and wrapped me in comfort and stability from behind.
“Ah… she yours?” Cutter asked, and I looked, he was very handsome and his smile made him more so.
“Yes!” I blurted, “I’m Thirteen’s.”
“Nice to meet you, Dani, was it?” I nodded and quickly shook his offered hand. He cocked his head to the side and his warm brown eyes roved my face.
“You’re okay here, Small Fry,” he said, and I made a face.
“Small Fry?”
“Don’t like it?” he asked. I frowned.
“Anything is better than Coon,” I mumbled. His eyebrows went up, amused and he nodded.
“Okay, I’ll remember that, Pretty Girl.” He looked to Thirteen, “Nice to meet you, too, Man, welcome to our little slice of paradise.” He raised a fist and Thirteen knocked it with his own.
“Thanks, Brother. It’s good to be here,” he said, and he kissed me behind my ear where my hair was up out of the way in its messy bun. I couldn’t help myself. I smiled and leaned back against him.
Cutter moved past us into the house and I snuck a look back to Reaver and Hayden, who were kissing passionately now, Reaver’s long fingers smoothing away her tears.
“You okay, Baby?” Thirteen murmured, his lips barely brushing the shell of my ear. I couldn’t help it, the little touch sent shivers down my spine despite the warm temperatures. Thirteen chuckled and kissed the side of my neck.
“Later, that’s a promise.” I turned in his arms and let him kiss me, and I felt stronger for it.
“I’ll hold you to that.”
“Be disappointed if you didn’t. You want to stay out here while I help the rest of the guys, or you want to come back with me?” I gave a sidelong look that was probably full of longing to the sea crashing distant on the shore.
“Say no more, Baby. Relax, enjoy the ocean. Be back before you know it.” He pressed a kiss to my shoulder and nipped it lightly, which made me giggle, before he retreated back into the house.
Hayden had gone quiet, and Reaver simply held her, rocking her slightly to the ebb and flow of the sea. An unconscious gesture. Watching them together, more than anything, told me just how much they loved one another and I couldn’t imagine… I didn’t want to imagine what the last six months had been like for either of them.
A cool, light touch on the back of my shoulder made me jump. I turned, and Revelator’s woman was beaming at me.
“That’s my man’s work, isn’t it?” she asked. I nodded dumbly.
“It’s beautiful. I wish I could draw like him,” her voice was wistful and she held out a glass of iced tea towards me.
“Thank you.” I took it and tentatively took a sip. It was crisp and sweet and the perfect thing after such a long ride.
“My name is Mandy, what’s yours?” she asked.
“Dani, I’m Dani Broussard.” She smiled much bigger and bit her lower lip.
“That’s a beautiful name.”
“Have you decided on a name yet? I mean do you know what you’re having?” I asked and prayed I sounded normal. Mandy seemed sweet. She radiated gentility and calm. She smoothed her hands over her stomach.
“We don’t know, we decided to keep it a surprise,” she gave a gusty sigh, “Zander really likes some of the old works, Dante’s Inferno, Milton’s Paradise Lost, that sort of thing. I’m okay with our son being named Dante, I really am, but if we have a girl he wants to name her Beatrice.” She made this face and crossed her eyes and I burst out laughing.
“You can’t come up with anything else that he likes?” I asked.
“I tried! I really did, I suggested Trinity and he sort of kind of liked it but he really wants it to fall in line with either Dante or Milton and I can’t find anything else.” She gave a gusty sigh and bounced a little on her feet, her face twisting into a bit of a grimace.
“Honestly it’s probably a moot point, this child is all Zander’s and a little slugger. With as much as it punches and kicks, it has to be a boy.”
I cocked my head to the side and considered Mandy, “What about Eden?” I asked.
“Eden?” she echoed.
“Yeah, as in the Garden of Eden from Paradise lost.”
“I could be on board with that.”
We both startled and turned at the same time. Revelator was leaning in the sliding glass doorway.
“Eden. I actually really like that.”
Mandy’s face broke into a beatific smile and she went to her man, leaning against him and twining her arms around his broad shoulders, the white gold ring I’d fashioned for her winking on her finger, sparkling in the sun. That made me smile more than anything.
“See you’ve met Dani, Sugar,” he kissed Mandy’s cheek and Mandy nodded.
“Yep, Zander told me you made our rings. I wanted to say thank you but, silly me, I got sidetracked.”
“It was nothing, really. I like making things and it was more than a fair trade.”
“You’re all probably starving…”
Mandy was a kind and gentle soul. She took me under her wing immediately and I could tell she would make a fine mother. The reunion between the club and the Ol’ Ladies was a happy one. Cutter and some of his men built a bonfire on the beach and fired up the large grill on the back patio.
Meat was grilled, beers were cracked, and a feast commenced with laughing and some singing. Disney was reunited with the love of his life, Aaron, and the two were very openly affectionate. What struck me about it though, was that none of The Sacred Hearts men were the slightest bit phased by it and the few men of The Kraken who were uncomfortable were quickly put in their place by their President, Cutter.
The whole experience was eye-opening to say the least, and now most of the couples were gathered on blankets in the sand around the roaring flames, using rocks and washed up logs as backrests. I sat between Thirteen’s legs, my back resting against his bare chest, and relished the skin on skin contact.
One of the men of The Kraken was clearly drunk and rambling and all of us were stifling our laughter at the outlandish and strange things he was saying.
“Man… I wonder what anal sex is like. I’ve never done it,” he said.
Duracell, who was chilling next to Blue, an arm slung haphazardly over the other man’s shoulders in brotherly affection, barked a laugh.
“I’d imagine it feels like having a dick in your ass,” he said dryly, and the whole fireside erupted into laughter. Even Disney and Aaron laughed.
“No, no, no, no Man!” The Kraken member protested and tried to backpedal.
My laughter was slightly silenced by a slight nip to the side of my neck. I turned, Thirteen’s eyes aglow with more than just firelight. I smiled slightly and he lolled his head in Cutter’s direction, who sat next to Reaver and Hayden. Hayden was curled tightly in Reaver’s lap and he held her as if he would never let her go again, which made me smile.
“Thanks for having us here,” he said quietly, and Cutter nodded.
“No worries, Man. We were glad to help,” but Cutter’s eyes were distant as he stared into the firelight. His words, while meaningful, were hollow and if I had to guess, the reason why was curled tightly in Reaver’s arms. Cutter’s eyes snapped from the flames to mine and I smiled a bit sadly. He gave me a secret smile in return and we shared a silent moment while the festivities continued around us.
“Getting tired?” Thirteen asked. I nodded. Cutter looked us both up and down.
“Space is limited but it’s supposed to be clear and nice tonight. Why don’t you two take the hammock over there?” He gestured with his beer bottle.
“Yeah?” Thirteen asked.
“Sure? Why not? Think Dani likes the idea.” I could hear rather than see his crooked grin. My gaze was out on the vague glimmer of white as the waves rolled onto the shore.
“Sound good to you, Baby?” Thirteen asked, low and careful.
“Sounds perfect,” I whispered.
Chapter 3
3
Red-XII…
We lay swinging gently in the wide, deep blue, canvas hammock. The party had definitely died out but I could tell Dani wasn’t asleep yet. She lay snug against my side, staring sightless at the rolling surf, a lot on her mind.
“Talk to me, Babe. What’s going on in that head of yours?” I asked, low and quiet, pressing a kiss to her forehead.
“I like it,” she said and sounded surprised.
“Like what?” I asked, hoping she would expand on the statement.
“The club, being here with you… it’s so different in so many good ways. The girls are amazing and so loved. Your whole club is based in love and respect and brotherhood. Is this what it was supposed to be?”
I couldn’t stop the grin from overtaking my face if I tried.
“Yeah, Babe. Yeah it is. This is what it’s supposed to be like. Through the bad, through the good, this is it. We protect what’s ours.” ...and you’re mine. I kept the last part silent, for fear it’d be too much.
“I wish Jared had found your club instead,” she whispered finally.
“Me too,” it was only half a lie. I would give anything to spare Dani the pain and sorrow she’d been through but I couldn’t, wouldn’t, wish for any fate that didn’t put her square in my arms like we were now.
“What are you thinking about so hard?” her soft voice interrupted my brooding. Uh oh, busted.
“You. I am so fucking lucky to have you here, like this.”
“You think so?”
“Fuck, Baby, I know so… What are you doing?”
“It’s quiet, no one else is out here anymore,” her hands worked deftly at the button and fly on my cargo shorts. I blinked.
“Here? Now? You sure?” I double checked with her, I knew she was shy about people watching after what happened. We’d been clear for whatever we’d wanted to do at the lake, my dock was shrouded from all the other nearby houses by tall cattails and reeds.
“Yes, now shush and kiss me.”
Well fuck me! I wasn’t about to argue with a command like that. I kissed her, my hands twining in the silken strands, holding them away from her face as her warm fingers wrapped around me. Oh God, that was nice! I groaned into her mouth, past her lips, and it was met with a sultry whimper from her own soul.
I palmed the outside of her thigh and ran my hand up to knead her perfect, tight little ass and she smiled against my mouth. Someday I’d like to take her there but not now, not tonight.
She’d changed in the house into one of my tees and a pair of her boy short panties before coming out to lay under the stars with me. Way too much fabric to just tear off her body, so I shifted to get between her thighs to pull them off.
Big mistake.
Hammocks were made for lounging in. Not for sex. The damned thing tipped violently, Dani shrieked and I put my arms around her and turned with the momentum of the swinging canvas. I landed, hard, on my back in the sand, Dani collapsing on top of me. The wind knocked clean out of me, I tried to pull in a breath but it wasn’t happening for a minute or two. Dani pushed off of me and knelt in the sand by my hip. My shorts were down around my thighs, cock rapidly deflating and waving in the breeze. She blinked at the sour expression on my face.
“Are you okay?” she cried. I wasn’t able to speak just yet so instead I waved her down, trying to signal with my hand that I just had the wind knocked out of me when it happened.
She laughed. The purest, sweetest, most infectious sound, just as I was able to draw breath again, and she kept laughing. She laughed high and wild and free until the tears seeped from the corners of her eyes and she clutched her sides and damn it if it wasn’t so fucking ridiculous and funny that I couldn’t keep from joining in.
So we sat there, sand getting into the crack of my ass, and laughed until she couldn’t breathe and I couldn’t breathe again. The amorous mood destroyed but replaced with something much better in its wake.
Damn, it was good to hear my girl laugh.
Chapter 34
Dani…
I looked out the kitchen window above the sink, out over the stone patio, out over the fine white sand, to the hammock swaying gently back and forth in the light morning breeze. We’d managed to find our way back into it and had resumed lying in each other’s arms. Talking softly late into the night until we fell asleep soundly in one another’s arms. There were no more spills of sexual escapades resulting in disaster. I still couldn’t keep from smiling, a broad dopey grin, every time I thought about it.
“What’s so funny?” Everett asked. I startled.
“You um, you really had to be there…” I hedged. She grinned and laughed lightly and handed me two cups of coffee. I added the requisite amount of cream and sugar to both mine and Thirteen’s liking, and smiled back.
“Okay, I’ll take your word for it.” Everett winked at me, and Ashton and Mandy grinned. I had woken with the dawn and left Thirteen sleeping, coming back into the house to shower and dress for the day. I was surprised that the rest of the women were up too by the time I got out of my shower.
Apparently the plans for the day involved relaxing, and enjoying the sun and the water. I didn’t have a swimsuit but between Ashton and Hayden, they had me covered. Well, Ashton did. Hayden was still secluded with Reaver in the room she shared with Ashton. Ashton and Trigger had stayed on the couch the night before. The big man still slept on in the big living room on the couch that wrapped around and could easily seat a dozen people.
I wore a bikini, the first time I had ever worn one in my life. It was white and held up by strings and I felt truly blessed that it fit me well enough. Ashton even went so far as to lend me a wrap for the bottom so I wouldn’t feel ridiculously exposed. The wrap was bright. Large white flowers with yellow centers on a backdrop of bright green leaves and what could be palm fronds.
The outfit was cute and with the rest of the girls dressed similarly and completely at ease, I felt comfortable enough. I was still nervous about the men of The Kraken and how they might behave but for the first time that I could remember, I felt safe, and so I had some things I wanted to give to show my appreciation and belief in the men of The Sacred Hearts who had spent so much time, effort, and care in looking out for me. I put my hand on the Crown Royal bag hanging out of the waistband of my swimsuit and wrap, and smiled.
“Time to go wake up Sleeping Beauty,” I said, and Mandy laughed. I picked up the two cups of coffee and she held open the slider for me. It was already getting warm outside and promised to be a scorcher.
“Wait!” I turned, and Ashton dashed out onto the back patio, “Put those down really quick and step over here.”
I set the two mugs of coffee down on the glass tabletop. A big square thing under a canopy that easily seated a dozen, just like the living room couch around it. I went over to the small woman. I mean, I was five-foot-five, the same as Thirteen, but Ashton was almost a half a foot shorter than me and so fine boned that she resembled a small child. I didn’t know how her and Trigger matching up was even humanly possible.
She brought out a can of sunscreen from behind her back and grinned impishly. I smiled and held my arms out and, laughing and giggling, she sprayed me down thoroughly.
“Hold out your hands,” she ordered and I did and she sprayed the palms liberally.
“Do your face.”
I scrubbed my palms over my face she nodded and, beaming, handed me the can. I tucked it in the crook of my arm, thanked her, and went back down to where Thirteen still slept in the shade of the two palms the hammock was strung between. I knelt in the sand and tucked the can of sunscreen and the two mugs into it so they wouldn’t spill.
He was beautiful to me, in sleep, awake, it didn’t matter. His face was devoid of its cool assessment and calculation in sleep. The lines of his strong and handsome features slack and relaxed. At peace. Still. Even so, the lines of his body told a different story. Strong and corded with muscle, hands scarred and calloused, even in sleep Thirteen
looked like a dangerous man.
I slipped the black cord over my head and undid the loop I’d made around the ring. I held my breath unconsciously. I wasn’t like my grandfather. He could look at a person’s fingers and instantly know their size. I worried my bottom lip between my teeth and tried Thirteen’s index finger, so very careful. I didn’t want to wake him.
No luck, so I tired his middle finger, again, the ring was too small. I groaned a bit inwardly because it looked like it would fit… the ring finger of his left hand. Which wasn’t my intent. He chuckled and I startled. I looked up into his sea green eyes, his lips curled in a smile that made my heart melt.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I made this for you; I’m just really bad at guessing sizes. I hope you don’t mind. I just really wanted to surprise you.” I sat back on my haunches and felt myself blush at the hungry, heated look he gave me, his eyes travelling slowly up and down my body. His smile grew.
“I’m really liking what I’m seeing, Baby Girl.” His voice was husky, soft, and the look in his eyes filled with such a love and lust. I blushed faintly.
“Um, thank you, but what do you think about the ring?” I asked, suddenly nervous. I hoped against hope that he didn’t hate it.
He lifted his hand, putting it in front of his face, but I could see the effort it took him to tear his eyes off of me. The effort must have been worth it though, because he blinked, and did a double take at the ring.
It wasn’t fancy. Just a simple white gold band set with thirteen rubies around its circumference. I’d used the reddest rubies I could muster out of my collection of stones, cutting some of the larger ones smaller just to get them all sized the same. Thirteen twisted the band around his finger and I could see he was counting. His lips spread into one of the most winning smiles I’d ever seen on him.
“You did this for me?” he asked.
I nodded, mute, and tried to hand him one of the coffees. He took it from me and set it back into the sand.
“Dani, it’s beautiful. You’re beautiful.” He captured my face between his hands and leaned forward precariously to kiss me long and slow.
