by Hamel, B. B.
25
Janine
I’d never seen a man get hard again so soon after sex.
Clutch was like someone possessed. One second we were sitting there, breathing deeply and enjoying each other’s company, and the next he was kissing me again, his hands exploring me again.
I didn’t know I was able to get so wet again so fast. I didn’t know I could take his big, thick cock so soon after he fucked me rough and savagely, but I could.
He was insatiable, starving for my body. As soon as I saw his cock getting hard again, and he started talking into my ear, touching my body, I knew I was his, at least for the night. He practically carried me into the bedroom and threw me down onto the pillows. I let him have his way with me, again and again.
Because that was what I wanted. I wanted him to take me, to own me for the night. I wanted to forget about our problems, including the problems between us. We didn’t need to talk about anything, because we let our bodies do all the communicating.
And when the morning came, I woke up slowly, groggy and sore. Clutch was sleeping soundly next to me, his big, muscular chest rising and falling evenly.
I rolled over onto my back and stared up at the ceiling. The early morning light came in softly through my window, and nothing had changed out there, nothing at all. We were still in as much danger as we were before, probably more now that it was becoming clear that I couldn’t keep my hands off him.
But I didn’t care about it all that much. I did, it still mattered, and I was still going to follow through with my plans, but the fear wasn’t there anymore. The fear wasn’t controlling me anymore.
I looked at Clutch again. He was sitting up, waking up slowly.
“Morning,” I said.
“Morning,” he grunted. “Coffee?”
“Go make some.”
“Okay.” He got out of bed, still naked from the night before. His body was so muscular and covered in ink. I felt a thrill run down my spine.
He walked toward my door and then paused and looked back at me.
“What?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Nothing.” He walked on, disappearing out into the kitchen.
I smiled to myself and listened to the noises of him making coffee in the other room. It felt so weird, so domestic. He’d been staying with me for a few days now, but this was the first time he’d slept in my bed with me.
I had no clue how I felt about it, but I wasn’t overthinking it. Not too long later, the smell of coffee wafted into my room, and Clutch returned with two mugs of the steaming stuff.
Still completely naked, of course.
He sat down on the bed and handed me a mug.
“Thanks,” I said, looking away.
“What?”
“You’re naked.”
“You saw plenty of this cock last night,” he said, laughing.
“So, that was last night. This is the morning.”
“Dick shy now?”
I laughed, sipping my coffee. “I’m not dick shy, whatever that means.”
“Good,” he said, standing up. I peeked at his thick cock again and bit my lip when I noticed that it was slightly hard. “I don’t want you shy around my cock.”
I was about to say something, but my phone ringing cut me off. I reached over and grabbed it, checking the caller ID.
I didn’t recognize the number. Frowning, I decided to answer.
“Hello?”
“Hello there, Janine.”
I recognized the voice instantly, though I’d only ever heard it twice before.
It was Jetter.
“Hi,” I said, putting my mug down and sitting up straight. “How’d you get my number?”
“Your daddy gave it to me. How are you today?”
“Fine.” I glanced at Clutch. He was watching me, a curios look on his face.
“Okay then. Let’s skip the bullshit small talk,” Jetter said with a small laugh. “I called for a reason.”
“What do you need?”
“I need you to come visit me today,” he said. “I just bought a new trailer nearby, and I want you to see it.”
I paused, surprised. “Does my dad know?”
“He doesn’t need to know everything between me and you,” he said, annoyed. “You’re claimed by me now, so we might as well act like it.”
“I don’t know,” I said.
“Bring that fucking bodyguard of yours if you want,” he said. “I’m just showing you where we’ll be living.”
I bit my lip. I knew I couldn’t say no. I knew I was going to have to do this stuff eventually. I couldn’t keep running forever.
This morning had to end sometime.
“Fine,” I said. “Text me the address.”
“Okay then, darling,” he said. “Come in a couple hours.”
He hung up the phone.
Clutch drank his coffee. “Who was that?” he asked.
“Jetter,” I said. “We’re going to visit my future home today.”
Clutch laughed and shook his head but didn’t argue. He put down his mug and started getting dressed.
I hated that the morning had to end, but it couldn’t last forever.
* * *
We rode out an hour later and didn’t talk about what had happened. After the call from Jetter, Clutch was suddenly all business.
I didn’t blame him. Getting that call from Jetter just reminded us that the outside world still existed, even if we didn’t want it to.
It wasn’t a long ride out to Jetter’s place, so we stopped off for a quick breakfast. Clutch pulled over at a little food truck and got us both pancakes and more coffee, which was basically fueling my life by that point.
By the time we finished eating and got back onto the bike, we were running right on time. Eating hadn’t been awkward or anything like that, but Clutch didn’t seem too talkative, and I didn’t want to push him too hard. We were both aware of our position in the world.
Jetter’s trailer was set out from the city on a small plot of land. We had to ride down an old dirt track to get there, and I was convinced that Clutch was going the wrong way, but the trailer appeared just beyond a clearing in the trees.
It didn’t look particularly nice, but then again I didn’t know much about trailers. It was white with a double green stripe around the center, like a big striped white whale. It was bulbous at both ends and actually pretty long. Clutch pulled the bike over, and I saw Jetter come out the front door.
He waved as Clutch killed the engine. There were plastic chairs scattered around and a fire pit not too far away. There was a large green awning jutting out over the front door.
“Welcome,” Jetter called out. “This is your future home.”
I climbed off the bike and could have sworn I heard Clutch say something, but when I looked at him, he was already leaning up against the bike like he wasn’t about to move an inch.
I took a step toward Jetter.
“Scream.” It was so soft that I almost didn’t hear it.
“What?” I looked at Clutch.
He was looking away. “If he touches you or something, scream and I’ll be there.”
“You’re not coming?”
He looked at me. “This is something you should do alone.”
I nodded. “Okay.”
“Scream,” he repeated, and then he looked away again.
I took a deep, steadying breath and then walked over toward my future husband and away from the man I really wanted.
Jetter spread his arms wide. “What do you think?”
I shrugged. “It’s nice.”
“Nice?” He laughed. “Don’t be shy. It’s fucking great.”
I smiled weakly. I had no clue what this little visit was about, or why he was trying to impress me. Maybe the reality of our situation was hitting him pretty hard and he was just beginning to realize that he was marrying a stranger.
“It’s great,” I said.
“Come on. I’ll give you the tour.” He disappe
ared inside the door.
I glanced back at Clutch, but he wasn’t watching.
Clutch was right. I had to do this myself. I couldn’t keep relying on that man to keep me safe. I took a step and then another. Then I followed Jetter into the trailer.
It was about what I expected, but a little but nicer. The cabinets were all wood and the countertops were granite. The door led right into the kitchen, and that had a small table and a small couch.
“Kitchen and living room,” he said. He opened up a cabinet and there was a flat screen TV inside. “We got satellite out there. Works pretty good.” He shut it and beckoned for me to follow him.
My heart was beating fast in my chest. “Bathroom,” he said, pointing to a door. I peeked inside, and it wasn’t that bad, although it only had a standing shower.
We moved into the back room, which was the whole end of the trailer. It was the master bedroom, and I had to admit that it was pretty nice. Everything looked new, including the sheets, and the room was fairly large.
“Walk-in closet,” he said, “for all your clothes and such.” He pointed out a few other features like a realtor trying to make a sale. Finally, he sat down on the bed. “What do you think?”
“It’s nice,” I said.
“Liar.” He smirked at me. “I know you’re not used to trailers, but you’ll like it here.”
“Never lived in one,” I said. I leaned up against the wall, keeping distance between us.
“I know you don’t like me, Janine,” he said. “I can’t say I blame you.”
“Why’s that?”
“All the history with me and your old man.”
“You betrayed the club,” I said simply.
He laughed. “Is that all he told you people?”
I raised an eyebrow. “Is there more to the story?”
“Of course there fucking is.”
That surprised me. I always assumed that my father told me everything and didn’t hold anything back. I always assumed that the story about Jetter was entirely true.
“Want to hear the real story?” he asked.
“Is that why you brought me here, to tell me a story?”
He laughed again. “I brought you here because we’re getting married soon. Might as well try and get to know each other before we get hitched.”
I nodded slowly. “Okay. Tell me a story then.”
He grinned. “Happened a while back. The Demons weren’t always as strong as they are now.
“Your daddy was our leader back then like he’s your leader now, but he didn’t have as much strength back then behind him. We were fighting for survival in Austin, fighting with a few other club. The Rebels were one, but there were also the Broken Gates, the Hellfire, and a bunch of other little groups.
“We were fucking young back then. Larkin wanted to grow and wanted to do it aggressively, but we were really nothing. We started by taking on a few of the smallest clubs, absorbing them where we could and taking them by force where we couldn’t. It was bloody war, year after year of it.
“And then I met Jolene. Fuck, Jolene was beautiful. She was hanging around this little club—they were the Black Aces if I remember right. Anyway, we killed off her club, and her and I took to each other. You know how that can be with young people. Fuck, we were in and out of bed. That girl was just too incredible.
“Anyway, I was fucking in love. Me and Jolene, we went everywhere together, did everything together. I couldn’t picture my life without the girl.
“And then your old man met her. I don’t know how or when, but Jolene and Larkin, they started up with each other. You know what I mean, messing around behind my back.”
“I never heard about this person,” I said.
“Of course not,” Jetter said. “You think Larkin wants people to know that he stole a woman from one of his club members?”
“Anyway,” he said, continuing the story, “they got together and that was that. She left me one night, just up and packed her things and moved in with him. Needless to say, I was fucking devastated. Fucking destroyed.
“But I didn’t let it get between me and the club, because that’s how things are. You did what you did for your club and that was the most important thing. We kept fighting, cracking skulls, and we were winning. We were growing.
“We were growing too fast. One of the biggest clubs was called the Gentleman Bastards. For some reason, Larkin thought we were ready to take them on. He picked a fight, started pushing onto their territory, basically got the guys to be real aggressive.
“It worked at first. The Bastards weren’t ready for us to start picking them off, to start killing them. But soon enough that changed. They got wind of what we were doing and started to hit us back.
“Which was when it happened. Back then, we didn’t have all the rules we had now. Larkin went out on a deal—should’ve been a real simple drug deal—and he brought Jolene along. I guess he was trying to impress her or something. I never understood why he’d fucking bring her along.
“I was there that night. I met them in the field where the deal was going down. Jolene never even looked at me. We sat there for fifteen minutes waiting for the dealers to show up to buy our shit, but they never came. Instead, the Bastards came.
“When the bullets started flying, we got out of there as fast as we could. I took a slug in the leg, but that’s wasn’t so fucking bad. As we were getting away, though, I saw something that I have never forgotten to this day.
“It was Jolene’s back, covered in blood.
“We rode for a while to put distance between us and them, and by the time we thought it was safe to stop, Jolene was nearly dead. We got her off the bike and tried to patch her up, but it was too late. She died there on the dusty ground that night, looking up at Larkin like she couldn’t believe it was happening.”
Jetter stopped talking for a second. He went real quiet, and I just stared at him. He took a deep breath, let it out, and then continued.
“I went over to the Rebels after that. I couldn’t look at Larkin anymore. I know he made a mistake, and he knows it too. He made all the rules we have now right after Jolene died. No outsiders on deals, shit like that. But I could never forgive him.”
“What changed?” I asked.
“Time, mostly. Time and I now know that he was a fucking kid; we all were. We all fucked up. Larkin’s been paying for that mistake for a long time.”
I nodded slowly, surprised by the whole thing. “I didn’t know about that,” I said.
“Would you tell people if you were him?”
“No,” I said, “I wouldn’t.”
“Well, now you fucking know. Still think I’m a scumbag?”
I stared at him, wondering that exact same question.
He had a good reason for what he did all those years ago, but that didn’t excuse all the shit he did after that, all the lying and the death that followed. Jetter may have left for noble reasons, or at least he thought they were noble, but in the end Jetter was still just a selfish fuck.
Maybe a selfish fuck with a sad backstory, but still selfish.
“Yeah,” I said, “but maybe a little bit better.”
He laughed and stood up. “Fine. That’s fine,” he said. “Can’t hold that against you.”
“That’s all then?”
He smiled and nodded. “That’s all. You got to know me; you saw the trailer.”
“So I can go now?”
“I’m not holding you against your will, Janine.”
I pushed off the wall and headed back into the main room and toward the front door.
“Janine,” he called, following me. “One more thing.”
I paused and looked at him. “What?”
“This is happening,” he said with a serious look on his face, “whether we want it to or not. Things are moving fast. You’re going to have to come over to my side sooner or later.”
“Maybe,” I said. “We’ll see.”
He stared at me. I turned
and quickly left the trailer, resisting the urge to run as fast as I could.
Clutch was still leaning up against his bike, chewing on a piece of grass. He looked up as I approached. “That was fast,” he said.
“Let’s go.”
“You got it.”
He got onto the bike and I climbed on the back. He kicked it to life and we headed toward home again.
I couldn’t get that story out of my mind. I couldn’t imagine Larkin doing any of the things that Jetter said he did, but why would Jetter lie? It did explain why Jetter would betray the Demons the way he did back then.
But I couldn’t let myself get sucked into his game. I didn’t know why he told me that story or brought me over, but Jetter was a liar and a cheat. We all knew that about him. I couldn’t get blinded by him.
Clutch rode back toward the clubhouse, and I gripped his body, holding tight. Clutch felt like the only stable thing in my fucked-up life.
Even if he wasn’t solid at all.
26
Clutch
I couldn’t stop thinking about the look on her face as she came out of Jetter’s trailer.
She’d looked confused and afraid. She probably wouldn’t admit that shit to me, but it was right there plain as day on her face. I was supposed to pretend like I didn’t see it, act like nothing was happening, but that was getting harder and harder.
I wasn’t the type of man to hold back. I hated not taking what I wanted, even when I had damn good reasons for keeping myself in check. But there was only so much a man could take before he gave in and did exactly what he wanted to do.
Halfway back toward the clubhouse, I pulled off the road. I could feel Janine’s grip tighten on me as I hit a bumpy dirt road, but I ignored it. I was going somewhere on a total whim, not totally sure what my endgame was, but I was at the point where I didn’t care anymore.
We pulled through a short wooded area and I saw the spot up ahead. The building loomed up out of the clearing, old and rusty. It was probably once painted blue, but most of that paint had been worn away over time, and it looked more like a rust-covered steel beam than anything else.
I pulled off to the side and cut the engine.
