Between Brothers: The Sacred Brotherhood Book IV

by A. J. Downey

  “Dad!” I scoffed. “It’s only been a few weeks!”

  “Right, well, it was nice to meet you Joseph. You take care of my little girl.”

  “Likewise, sir, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  I felt like I’d missed something, like some sort of esoteric caveman conversation had happened in the twenty minutes I’d been away to shower and dress. I rolled my eyes but Blue followed me back to my car and insisted on opening up the door for me, handing me the keys he’d hung onto. I adjusted the seat and mirrors while he fired up his motorcycle and put on his helmet and protective eyewear.

  He followed me back to the club and when we got there, had me park over with a bunch of other cars, pointing where he needed me to go. I pulled in and he backed his motorcycle into line with the rest in front of the club.

  He met me half way across the lot with Cell at his side. Kissing me quickly, he said “Back in a few hours.”

  Cell leaned down and kissed me much the same and winked at me. “Go on inside where it’s warm.”

  I smiled at them and called lightly, “Be careful,” before I went inside.

  “Oh my god, she’s here! Hayley!” Melody called and it was all excitement. I laughed and smiled as she came running up and hugged me tight, dragging me along to the circle of women sitting around in chairs that had been moved to make one in front of the air hockey table against the wall.

  The toddlers and babies played on blankets on the floor, or napped and I was a bit taken aback when Mel pressed a glass of wine into my hand.

  “It’s eleven o’clock in the morning!” I cried.

  “It’s noon somewhere, and for those of you that can drink, please do!” Everett said.

  I looked across at Shelly who held her new baby boy and said, “And you?”

  She shook her head and wrinkled her nose, “Pregnant again.”

  “What!?” You just had him!

  “Big families require commitment, a lot of fucking, and sometimes getting pregnant back to back,” she said but she glowed with happiness.

  “Aww, he’s so beautiful,” I said when she leaned forward so I could see him. Eldritch James Pauley was barely ten weeks old.

  “My doctor told me to wait at least eighteen months before getting pregnant again,” Mandy said and Shelly sighed.

  “Believe me, I wanted to, this wasn’t planned at all. Neither was Eldritch,” Shelly said with a gusty sigh.

  “At least you waited longer between Harmony and Eldritch,” Everett said.

  “That was a birth control failure, this was a total we didn’t use any because we were too drunk failure…” Shelly looked up at me and said, “Harmony had some kind of allergy to breastmilk and was a formula baby. We went straight formula with Eldritch, we didn’t want to risk it, so please don’t think I was drinking and breastfeeding!”

  I shook my head and took a sip of the blush in my glass and asked, “Why would that be any of my business?”

  “Oh, girl!” Everett said, rolling her eyes, “Women are so out of bounds when you’re pregnant or have a new born. Always getting into your business trying to touch your stomach – ”

  “Always with the unsolicited advice,” Mandy agreed. “I was once standing in the aisle comparing diapers and a woman walked up and told me that I was basically doing it wrong by even considering store-bought diapers. That I should be using cloth and a laundry service.”

  “I remember that! That was with Eden, wasn’t it?” Shelly asked.

  “Yes!”

  I listened politely and waited for the inevitable question of when I was planning on having kids, but surprisingly it never came. They traded funny and sometimes horrifying stories of people’s rudeness and laughed about much of it, but not one asked about it.

  Hayden and Ashton both expressed their desire for children, though while Hayden had pretty much come to grips with not having any children of her own and just having her stepson Connor to dote on, Ashton still seemed deeply saddened by the prospect of never having one of her own.

  The topics shifted after that and within the hour, Aaron, Disney’s boyfriend came through the door with an armload of gifts.

  “Truck’s here!” Shelly declared and the women rose. I pitched in and helped, bringing packages and gifts in from the back of the box truck to those with children nearby so they could keep an eye on their kids while things moved to and fro.

  I helped wrap the first wave, but being around so many people, while it was nice, I needed time to myself before my shift the next morning. That, and, I wanted to spend some time in my studio; at least begin the drawing for the latest window I was supposed to be doing.

  I looked up into a pair of sparkling blue eyes framed by jet black hair when I went to call to Mel that I should get going. I stopped and kind of shyly smiled back at Dani.

  “Hi,” she said and I licked my lips.

  “Hi.”

  “I just wanted to tell you that I think he’s the happiest I’ve ever seen him.”

  “Which one,” I asked quietly, blushing furiously.

  “Blue, but Cell too, in a way.” Her words were frank, no judgment and no recriminations. I looked up sharply from organizing the table I had been wrapping at.

  “Thanks.”

  “Don’t mention it,” she said and then, “I totally get the over stimulation… I’ll totally let Blue know they were taking too long and that you had to go.”

  “Oh, no, it’s not that,” I said, lying through my teeth, sure, but it sounded so rude to bail out before my boyfriends got back. “I just have a side job that I need to work on a little bit tonight, and I have a really early morning.”

  Dani smiled brightly and said, “Sure, we’ll go with that, but Hayley, you don’t have to explain anything to us or worry that we’re judging you for anything or anything like that… We’re a family, and you being with Blue… and Cell, makes you part of that family.”

  “Um, thank you…” I didn’t know how to feel about that. I really didn’t.

  “I can see that right this second, I’m just making things worse.”

  “Oh, no! I don’t want you to feel that way at all!”

  “That’s no reflection on you,” she said with a wink and touched my arm over my sweater.

  “I just really wanted to say thank you for making Blue happy. He’s like my best friend and he deserves it.”

  “I didn’t really do anything, though…”

  “You did enough by just being you.”

  With that she smiled, turned, and stepped back through the chaos of gifts being wrapped and those wrapped packages going back into the club somewhere to be stored. I couldn’t help but smile, too.

  Blue had said she was insightful on one of our dates and he hadn’t been lying. I went and found Melody and told her I needed to go. She was gracious about it, as were the rest of the wives and girlfriends of the club members. Thanking me and hugging me with cheerful and glad cries of ‘see you later.’

  I slipped out into the gathering dusk and took a deep, cleansing breath letting it plume the air. I zipped up my coat and went to my car and made a clean getaway after that, though I was a little sad that I didn’t get to see them or say a proper goodbye for the night.

  I went home and up to my room, hanging up my clothes and changing into some comfy sweats. I took my phone with me, which also doubled as my alarm clock for the morning to the studio with me and about a half hour to forty-five minutes after my arrival home, and a good ways into my drawing for this latest window, it rang.

  ‘Blue’ flashed across the screen and I swiped where indicated to answer, excited.

  I put the phone to my ear and said, “Hello?”

  “Hey, little one.”

  “Hi.”

  “I am so sorry it took us so long to get back…”

  “It’s no problem. What happened, though?”

  “One of the bikes broke down and it took longer than we expected to do the shopping. Cell’s disappointed, too.”r />
  “Aw, well tell him I miss you both.”

  “I heard that!” Cell called out in the background and I laughed. The phone changed hands and he said, “Sucks you aren’t here, darlin’. I could really use a round like last night.”

  “Yeah, me too.”

  “I gotta grab a shower so I’ll give you back to Blue. See you tomorrow maybe?”

  “First day back on days… hopefully the new night girl works out. If she doesn’t, my dad is switching shifts with me for a while.”

  “Okay, well, sleep good.”

  “Thanks.”

  The phone changed hands again and Blue came back on. “I know I won’t. Not without you here.”

  “Friday can’t come soon enough.”

  “It’s Cell’s week this week,” he reminded me and I giggled.

  “Mm, so it is.”

  “How are you feeling about things? Still good?”

  “Yeah. Yeah, I think so.”

  “Good. Like Cell said, sleep well… I’m glad I get to see you tomorrow at least.”

  “Me, too.”

  “G’night.”

  “Good night, Blue.”

  The line went dead and my music resumed through the wireless speakers. I worked for a while longer before climbing up into the loft, plugging in my phone, and laying down.

  Friday really couldn’t come soon enough. I was curious about Cell and what things would be like, just me and him. The ice had been broken, but he was still who he was. An unknown quantity in a lot of ways. Closed off, mysterious, and unreadable.

  I stared up at the dangling, folded works of paper art and smiled. Blue was right about one thing when it came to Cell. I felt safe around him, and he felt like a man that god help you if you ever crossed him. I knew I never would.

  Chapter 18

  Blue

  I ended the call with Hayley and felt a little hollow; a little empty. The room was a little sadder without her in it. I missed her. Didn’t help that the bedsheets still smelled like her. I set the phone on the bedside table with the condoms and lube and dragged my shirt over my head. I’d stripped down to boxers when Cell came back into the room with just the towel around his waist.

  “Lose those, too. I feel like fuckin’.” He shut the door behind him and twisted the lock and when he turned around, he wasn’t joking, towel tenting out in front.

  “Miss her?” I asked.

  “Kind of do. She had some grade ‘A’ pussy. I ain’t been gripped like that in a while.”

  I stood up and lost the boxers, my own cock starting to get hard. I wrapped it in my fist and stroked.

  “How do you want me?”

  “Silent and on your fuckin’ knees, how do you think?”

  I got up onto the bed and got on my knees. I heard the towel drop and Cell stood behind me. He at least had the courtesy to use the fuckin’ lube. Opening up the top with that flip top plastic creak and crack.

  “Face down, ass up, that’s the way I like to fuck,” he recited and he teased my asshole with a finger full of lube.

  “Being gentle for you,” I remarked.

  “Yeah, well, practice makes perfect. Pretty sure she’s never been fucked in the ass and I totally plan on popping that cherry.”

  Him and his damn thing for defiling the innocent… Well, not so much defiling as corrupting. He loved that. I think he got off on the fact that I took his cock where I never would have before. Wasn’t my thing back then, as much as it wasn’t his… It was an acquired taste, for sure.

  “Here we go,” he warned and I liked him when he was like this. When he wasn’t being a total asshole.

  He pushed in, pressing carefully and I groaned, burying my face in the pillow I dragged from the top of the bed, biting it as he eased all the way in.

  I pushed one of my hands down so I could grip my own dick again, the grunts and sounds of pleasure he was making turning me on. He fucked me, working his way in and out of my body in a pace that was sedate for him and I could tell, this was going to be one of those long-haul fucks. One that took a couple of hours rather than a couple of minutes, which if I were being honest, he never really went that fast.

  I let him have me, concentrating on the feeling of his hands gripping my hips, on the sounds he made, and the impassioned panting.

  “Oh, god yeah…” I uttered and he punched me in the back.

  “Shut up.”

  I sometimes wondered if he imagined he were fucking a woman when he did this, and that he didn’t want any reminders it was me. Then he would say shit like he did then, in the heat of the moment, an hour or more into this when both of us were flying high.

  “Oh, fuck, Blue… I’m gonna.”

  I closed my eyes, and relaxed, my own release happening into the palm of my hand which I was trying to keep off the damn bedding. I didn’t want to wash anything that smelled like her. I pressed back onto Cell’s dick and he groaned, grunting, and shoved in deeper. I felt him twitching inside as he blew his load and as soon as he pulled out, I stood up. Grabbing my discarded shirt that needed to be washed to clean up and checking the bed. I hadn’t fucked it up… good.

  “I’m sleepin’ in here tonight,” he said and I nodded.

  “I’m grabbing a shower.”

  “Bring me a wet washcloth and turn out the light,” he grunted, settling into my bed and I nodded, switching out the lamp on the bedside table as he tried to clean himself up with the towel he’d worn in.

  “Bring one back with me.”

  And that was the extent of our pillow talk.

  I really missed Hayley.

  Chapter 19

  Hayley

  Cell looked at me from across the table, back against the window, ankle perched on one knee, foot bouncing impatiently. I smiled and shook my head, blushing furiously at what he’d just asked me. He grinned and asked, “What?”

  I picked up my drink and sipped, hiding behind my glass. It was a simple question, but one I didn’t really have an answer for.

  “I wish I could tell you, but I… I’m afraid I’m not experienced enough to answer.”

  “You don’t know what you like?”

  I pursed my lips and shook my head and he shook his incredulously.

  “Does this mean I can take you back to my place an educate you?”

  I laughed. “That’s an interesting way of putting it.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah. I mean, do you know what I like?”

  He raised an eyebrow and looked me over intently saying, “I have a few ideas, and the rest we can probably explore some.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Why does that prospect, coming from you, scare me a little?”

  “Well, if you were a smart girl, it would scare you a lot,” he winked at me despite how serious his expression and I scoffed and threw a fry at him. He laughed and put up his hands in defense.

  “Seriously, though… what is there to be afraid of?” I asked and he sat up and faced me, suddenly very serious.

  “I’m not always gentle like Blue. I like it rough, and I like some kinky shit.” I sobered some and paid attention, licking suddenly dry lips.

  “Rough like how?”

  “Like hold you down, pound the shit out of that hot little pussy and no skin off my nose if you start to cry or anything.”

  “That sounds like rape…”

  “Not quite. We’ll pick a word other than ‘no’ you need to tap out, you use that word and it stops. The club frowns on rape.”

  I swallowed hard, suitably unnerved. The club frowns on rape… not I’m not into rape but the club frowns on it. The choice of words wasn’t lost on me, but then again, Blue had talked with me the middle of this week about some of the things that Cell did. Warning me, after a fashion. I was actually a bit surprised by how open and upfront he was being. Blue had opened up, had been afraid that he would surprise me with his proclivities and that it would scare me away from both of them.

  “So, um
, what word would we use?”

  “I’ll leave that up to you, just don’t pick something stupid like ‘lollipop’ or some shit.”

  I laughed again, and shook my head. “So something not absurd, even though it’s totally absurd I have to pick something more…” I trailed off looking for the right word and he accidentally supplied one for me.

  “Badass?”

  “Sure, we’ll go with that.”

  He shrugged and then blinked and caught on. “Oh! Oh, shit. You mean ‘badass’ is what you’re going with.”

  I stuck out my tongue and said, “Who’s the dumb one now?” in a teasing tone.

  He grinned and said, “Oh, I’m definitely taking you back to my place now.”

  I smiled around my straw and sipped some more of my cocktail. He finished off his beer and he paid our tab.

  He’d taken me out to a bar to play darts and have a drink to loosen me up. It was a Friday night, and had been a long week and I, admittedly, was somewhat of a lightweight. One drink had been all it’d taken to loosen me up. The second drink had put me into the land of drunk, but the fries had been perfect to bring me back squarely into the middle of a pleasant buzz.

  It was cold out there, and we’d ridden here. Cell staunchly against anything that rolled that wasn’t a motorcycle. My car remained at home.

  Blue had picked me up to cover me with my dad and had dropped me off safely with Cell here at the bar, but I would be riding back to the club with Cell which I was certain would sober me up completely. Duracell rode like a maniac on a good day, and it wasn’t a good day out there. It was icy, winter setting in, and Thanksgiving was just next week.

  Cell and I stood by the bike and pulled on gloves and helmets. He’d brought me a pair of the clear safety glasses as a present today, to keep the wind out of my eyes and I thought it’d been sweet. He eyed me over the sleek machine and asked me, “So, am I taking you home or back to my place?”

  “I believe I am willing to take the chance… Your place, if you please.”

  He got onto the bike and turned the key, starting it up. I got on behind him and held onto him for dear life and he took us out of the back angle park job he’d done against the curb and into the flow of traffic.