“Jesus,” he hissed. “Baby, we’re having dinner with them on Sunday, you’ll get the Wallace fix then.”
“I know. I just wish they were here now,” I admitted.
He smiled gently and made his way to me, wrapping his arms around my waist. “What do you need from me?”
I sighed, dropping my face to his chest. “This.”
He chuckled, sliding his hand to my neck. “I got you, Sunshine.”
“Mummy, are you melting down already?” Poppy asked, and I raised my head.
My daughter stood at the huge metal island looking rested and beautiful, and I missed her, damn it. I hadn’t seen her all week. “You’re late.”
She grinned. “I’m two minutes early.”
Her husband, Devon, walked in a few seconds later, laden with grocery bags, setting them on the island. “Hey,” he said. “You need anything?”
“How are you with a potato peeler?” Hatch asked.
“Bring on the spuds,” Devon replied enthusiastically.
I smiled wide. “My heroes.”
“Where are Jamie and Flash?” Poppy asked.
“I’ve got them doing final inventory for the toy drive,” Hatch said.
“Have you checked to see if they’re out there vaping?” she challenged.
I gasped. “Those little ratbags better not be vaping, Connor.”
“Jesus, Sunshine, they’re not vapin’. They’re kids. Poppy’s just takin’ the mickey outta you.”
Him using one of my favorite British sayings did something gooey to my insides, but I ignored and said, “Please go and make sure our children, my babies, are not vaping, darling, or I’m going to lose my shit.”
“They’re not vaping, Mum,” Poppy piped in. “Liam and Case might be, but they’d never drag the boys into it.”
Liam belonged to Ace and Cassidy, and Case was Hawk and Payton’s. Both in high school, both good kids, so if they were vaping, this was a concern for me.
“Poppy,” Hatch growled, and Poppy gave him a cheeky grin.
“Go and make sure Liam and Case aren’t vaping around our kids, please,” I said. “Actually, make sure they’re not vaping, period. You can tell them their auntie will rain hell down upon their beautiful heads if they are.”
“They’re not even here yet,” Hatch pointed out.
“Unless we just haven’t seen them and they snuck out to vape,” I countered.
“Sunshine, they’re not vaping.”
“They probably aren’t, Mum,” Poppy said. “I really am just messing with you.”
I stared at Hatch.
“I will check anyway,” Hatch grumbled, and turned to our daughter. “And you, baby girl, need to stop fuckin’ with your mother, or else.”
“You don’t scare me, old man,” she retorted.
Hatch dropped his head back to the ceiling and swore, then looked at her again. “You’re lucky you’re cute.”
She snapped in a Z formation and grinned. “I’m all that and a bag of chips.”
“Jesus,” Devon retorted. “You’re feisty today.”
“I’m feisty every day,” she said, and wrapped her arm around his neck. “And don’t you forget it.”
“I wouldn’t dare.” Devon kissed her gently, then went back to peeling potatoes.
Hatch grinned, leaning down to kiss me. “Sparky’s got you covered on the potato front.”
“Thanks, love.”
“Why the hell’s the game not on?” Ace demanded as soon as he walked in, and I rolled my eyes.
“Lemme go deal with that before Ace starts fucking with the TV,” Hatch said, and Devon nodded.
“Lung cancer, Connor. Our babies might have second-hand lung cancer.”
“Jesus,” Hatch said, and laughed. “I’ll check on the boys.”
“Thanks, darling.”
Hatch walked out of the kitchen just as Ace’s wife, Cassidy, walked in, followed by their daughter, Tillie. “We’ve got pies,” Cassidy said, and set them on the counter.
“I love pie,” Devon declared, and Poppy slapped his bum.
“Everyone here is well aware of your pie obsession,” she retorted.
He grinned, flicking water at her, which she managed to avoid with a deftness I found impressive.
Ten minutes later, Hawk and Payton arrived with their two boys and promptly put them to work. Obviously, no one was vaping, which gave me a huge relief.
“What do you need?” Payton asked.
“Devon and I are peeling,” Poppy said. “Case, you want to take over and I’ll help Mum with the veggies?”
“Yeah, sure,” he said. “Hunter can help, too.”
I chuckled. Hunter was currently attempting to sneak out of the room, but he was caught mid-step by his brother.
“I would so appreciate the extra help, Hunter,” I said. “Thanks, darling.”
“Really happy to help, Aunt Maisie,” he said while glaring at his brother.
Hawk smacked him on the back of the head. “Stow it.”
“Jesus, Dad,” he snapped. “I’m helping already!”
“Language,” Hawk returned.
“He’s fine, love,” I said. “As long as he peels, he can swear all he likes.”
“What do you need from me?” Hawk asked.
“If you can organize getting the big tables set up, that would be great. We’ll need about fifty chairs. Hatch and the boys are out back moving things around,” I said, and turned to Payton. “Did you bring centerpieces?”
“I did,” she said. “Maverick and Lily are going to bring them in once they get Charley settled.”
Maverick was Ace and Cassidy’s son and he was married to Lily, Hawk and Payton’s daughter. Their little girl, Charley, was about a year old now and into everything. We had a kids’ room in the back and a couple of the single women were going to help watch them while we set up.
I sighed in relief. “Thank you.”
I began to relax in stages as the rest of the crew filed in. Hatch walked back into the kitchen and leaned down to kiss me gently. “Feeling better?”
“Ask me when it’s over,” I said.
“Don’t worry, babe. You’re doing an amazing job, and everything is going to be great.”
Minus
“This is gonna be a fucking nightmare,” I said as I backed us out of the driveway and onto the road. It would have been the perfect day to ride, but we were loaded up with a bounty of side dishes and a keg of beer, so we took the truck.
“You say the same thing every time we’re going to see Hatch and Maisie,” Cricket said with a chuckle. “In fact, you said it a couple of weeks ago before Thanksgiving dinner.”
“And I’m right every time,” I replied and headed toward our destination
“Maisie isn’t a nightmare,” Cricket protested.
“You know I’m not talking about Maisie. Who could possibly have an issue with that woman?” I pointed out. “I’m talking about your asshole brother.”
“I have four brothers, honey. Three of whom you get together with on a regular basis for beer and wings.”
“Only one of them’s an asshole.”
She rolled her eyes. “I know exactly who you were talking about, and he’s not an asshole.”
“He’s not an asshole to you,” I countered. “You’re his precious baby sister and can do no wrong in his eyes.”
Cricket choked out a laugh. “You have no idea how wrong you are on that one, buddy. I’ve done plenty to piss Hatch off.”
“Like getting together with me.”
“Yeah, that’s probably at the top of the list,” Cricket said plainly.
“I thought you were trying to make me feel better about today.”
“Is that what I was doing?” Cricket asked.
“You’d better do something, because I still feel like the guy hates my guts half of the time.”
She shifted to face me. “And the other half?”
I stopped at a red light and focused on h
er. “I’d describe it as him mildly tolerating my presence.”
“Well, there ya go.” She smiled slowly. “That’s progress.”
“Again, not making me feel any better,” I replied.
“Well, if you really need me to make you feel better, you’re going to need to turn the truck around and head back home.”
“Don’t tempt me, woman,” I replied.
“If I knew turning around wouldn’t make us so late...,” she continued.
“We don’t need to drive back home. Vargas Park is just up ahead and there are plenty of quiet places to park down by the water,” I teased.
I saw Cricket’s thigh muscles tighten underneath the sheer fabric of her skirt as she squeezed her knees together. I was half-joking, but I knew every single one of Cricket’s ‘I’m horny’ tells, and she’d just showed one.
“Dammit, why didn’t you say something when we were back at the house?” I asked.
“What?”
“Don’t you ‘what’ me, Cricket,” I snapped, and took the next right turn.
“Where are you going?”
“You obviously need to be fucked, but you wait ’til we’re in the car and on our way to a club dinner to tell me?”
“What are you talking about? I never said anything about needing to be fucked,” Cricket said before pausing and biting her lip.
Another one of her tells.
“See, I knew it. Why didn’t you say something while we were getting ready?”
She sighed. “I’m sorry, baby, I didn’t really know until now.”
“You were parading around in front of me with your tits out while I was dressing, and my dick’s been like a chunk of granite ever since.”
“I swear I wasn’t in the mood until you started talking about feeling better,” she said. “Are there really secluded places to park around here?”
“I’m sure as hell gonna find one.”
It had been almost a week since Cricket and I’d had sex, and both of us tended to get moody when we were overdue. We’d been like two ships passing in the night, with me dealing with all the club shit currently dragging us down, and her dealing with trying to keep the club coffers full.
We had a strict “no starvation” policy in our relationship and took that shit seriously. To us, sex was as physically essential to our survival as food and water. Plus, today was gonna be stressful enough, without adding unnecessary sexual tension between Cricket and me.
* * *
Cricket
Minus pulled the truck into a shaded area of the park, overlooking the Columbia River, and slid his seat back as far as it would go. I was suddenly glad we were in the huge monstrosity he’d bought last year, instead of on his bike.
Minus unbuckled his belt, unbuttoned his jeans and pushed them down his thighs. His dick was already hard, and my mouth watered to taste him. “Hop on, baby.”
I straddled his lap and he pushed my panties to the side and guided his cock inside of me. I groaned, sliding down his length, relishing the feeling of his girth filling me. “Jesus,” I hissed out.
“Not Jesus, Cricket,” he corrected, sliding my skirt up higher. My knee-high boots squeaked against the leather seat, but I didn’t want to stop to take them off. “Say my name.”
“Would it kill the mood if I said Beyoncé?” I teased before biting his lip.
His hand landed on my ass with a satisfying smack, and I whimpered with need.
I dropped my mouth to his again and ran my tongue across his lips, dipping it between them and kissing him as I raised up and lowered myself again. His hand slid under my sweater, tugging a bra cup down and rolling my nipple between his fingertips. I moaned as he twisted harder, slipping his other hand between our legs and fingering my clit.
“Minus,” I rasped.
“Yeah, baby. I got you. You gonna come for me?” he asked, pinching my nipple, the sensation of beautiful pain radiating directly to my clit. God, I loved this man and what he could do to my body.
I dropped my head back as an orgasm washed over me and Minus gripped my hips, thrusting up into me before wrapping his arms around me and pulling me close. His dick pulsed inside of me and I kissed him, smiling against his mouth as I shifted off of him.
Just as I grabbed the travel-sized tissue pack out of my purse, a knock came at our fogged-up windows.
“Who the hell is that?” I snapped, trying to right my clothes and clean up as quickly as I could. I managed to get my sweater back into place and my skirt down my thighs, but couldn’t fix my bra in time. The cups were still below my breasts and my still-hard nipples were rubbing against the wool.
Minus had just got his jeans dragged back over his hips, so he zipped up and rolled the window down slowly. “Afternoon, officer.”
I snapped my head up and threw my jacket over his lap to hide his half-chub. My man was huge even when he wasn’t hard, and the last thing we needed was an indecent exposure rap.
“May I see your license and registration please, sir?” the officer asked as he leaned closer, removing his sunglasses.
“Sure thing, officer,” Minus replied, coolly, reaching for his wallet.
“Minus?” the officer asked, surprised.
“Oh, hey, Deputy Aiello,” he said when he looked up. “How are you doing?”
“It’s Corporal now,” he replied, proudly pointing to his name tag.
“Congratulations,” Minus smiled.
“Merry Christmas, Ms. Wallace,” Corporal Aiello said with a wave.
“And to you, Corporal.” I must have looked guiltier than most of the actual criminals he faced. I couldn’t believe we were gonna get put on the sex offenders’ registry by an officer we personally knew. To make things worse, Corporal Aiello was as sweet as they came. He was a devoted husband and father of five, and still made time to play bass in a rock group called the Screaming Eyes. “How’s the band?”
“Doing great! Thanks for asking. We have a gig this Saturday night at The Lucky Seven. You should come out,” he replied with an enthusiastic smile.
“We’ll try to do that,” I said through my pasted-on nervous smile.
On one hand, I was extremely happy that we weren’t being interrogated by some random asshole cop. On the other, I was convinced that he knew exactly what Minus and I were doing in here and was going to write our names down in the official book of Portland’s perverts and park sex fiends.
“So, then...” Minus said.
“Oh, right,” Corporal Aiello snapped back to his official duties. “I was just checking you guys out to make sure there wasn’t anything funny going on. Had I known it was you and Ms. Wallace, I wouldn’t have bothered you.”
“No bother at all, Corporal,” Minus said. “We appreciate you keeping Portland safe. We were just about to move along anyway.”
“We’re headed off to our club Christmas dinner. My brother and sister in-law are hosting this year, but not at their place, well sort-of at their place.” I began to ramble nervously. I did the same thing when Hatch would bust me after sneaking out at night. “We’d just stopped to—”
“Look at the view,” Minus said, giving my hand a gentle squeeze.
“Well, you two make sure you don’t stay out here too long or that turkey’s gonna get cold,” he said.
“You bet,” Minus said, with a wave and started the engine, and Corporal Aiello headed back to his cruiser. I slid out of my underwear and righted my bra before buckling my seatbelt.
“Oh, my god, that was close,” I panted out. He’d pulled out of the park and took the freeway entrance while I tried to further clean up. “My heart’s still racing.”
“What did you think he was going to do, baby? Drag us off to sex jail?” he asked as we drove toward the compound.
I shrugged. “Your record isn’t exactly clean, honey, I wasn’t sure what he’d do. But he could have nabbed us for indecent exposure for sure.”
“We weren’t exposed.”
“You weren’t,” I grou
nd out, shifting in my seat. “I’m kind of naked under this skirt.”
“You are?” he asked, his eyes burning with desire again.
“My panties were soaked, Minus. Had to get rid of them.”
“Jesus,” he hissed. The Dogs of Fire compound was located behind Big Ernie’s Body Shop, but you wouldn’t know the mass amount of land by the front of the shop. As we pulled into the lot, Minus asked, “Is there a back entrance—”
“Yeah, you can get into my back entrance anytime,” I interrupted.
“Goddammit, Cricket. Stop. I’m gonna fuckin’ crash.”
“Kind of hard to crash when you’re barely going ten miles an hour, honey, but hurry up and park so you can fuck me again, mmm-k?”
“Where?”
“Oh, you can fuck me anywhere—”
“Where am I parking the truck, Cricket?” he ground out, and I tried not to laugh.
“Park behind the sign. There’s a blind spot where the cameras won’t see us.”
He didn’t say another word as he whipped the truck behind Big Ernie’s sign. Slamming the truck into park, he climbed out and jogged around to my side, helping me down and turning me to face the interior. “Grip the handle, Cricket,” he demanded, lifting my skirt up over my ass and undoing his jeans.
I reached for the oh shit handle and held on tight as he slid his dick inside of me from behind, reaching in front of me to finger my clit while he fucked me from behind. His other hand slid under my sweater, pushing my bra up so he had access to both breasts.
“Hold on, baby,” he directed, and I braced myself against the seat which was at chest level.
Palming my breasts, he slammed into me over and over again, slapping my pussy as his dick pulsed inside of me. I wasn’t far behind him, crying out as my climax hit hard and fast.
Minus pulled out of me, grabbing my tissues and cleaning me up before righting himself. I grabbed my overnight bag and found a clean pair of underwear, shimmying them on then shoving the dirty pair into the bottom of the bag.
I fixed my bra and faced my man. “Thanks, honey.”
He chuckled. “Will that tide you over for a bit?”
The Davenport Christmas Chronicles Page 7
