by Tia Lewis
“Doing well, and you?”
“Just fine. I wondered if you had a minute to talk something over with me. I had an idea I already talked over with Drake, and he suggested that I float it past you.”
“Sounds intriguing. Would you like a drink?” He waved one of the girls over, a cute little blonde in a dress so short and tight that she might as well have been naked. She was exposed and ready for action, just the way that I liked my women.
“Whiskey,” I ordered, watching her walk away. Yeah, I could see myself spending a lot more time there. I kept hearing Drake’s warning not to fuck around with Bobby’s girls, but I felt the urge to get my dick wet, so I chose to ignore it.
“What is it you want to talk about?” Bobby asked, sipping the Scotch that he’d been carrying when he first came over to me. Bobby was a guy who pretended to be refined, but he had been raised in the gutter just like the rest of us.
“Opening another location, to put it bluntly. We’re pleased with the way that things have been going here, and we have the capital on hand to invest in another establishment. That is if you would be interested.”
Bobby smiled. “They always want more once the green starts rolling in,” he murmured like he had expected us to come to him with such an offer.
“You can’t blame us,” I said. “It’s a substantial investment, plus we love what we’ve seen thus far. And between you and me, it’s a hell of a lot safer than some of the other businesses that past Presidents have gotten their clubs into. I don’t have to tell you what I mean.” I refused to elaborate, hoping to intrigue him. He wasn’t an idiot; I knew that he got my drift.
“No, you don’t have to spell it out for me. I understand perfectly. I thought that you boys had absorbed the business left over by the Vipers years ago when they dissolved.”
“We did, but again, we pulled out of our less savory revenue streams. So, when it all balanced out, the numbers didn’t work out in our favor. We have plenty of stockpiled capital, but not enough incoming capital to jumpstart a new enterprise. Drake’s a little worried, I’m not afraid to say.” I accepted my drink, throwing a wink at my waitress. She winked back before going over to a member who had just entered the room.
“I think Drake needs to give himself a little time as the club’s leader before he commits to anything else,” Bobby suggested. “It’s always a little shaky when a new, young President comes into power. He worries that he won’t be able to keep things afloat as his predecessor did. I went through the same thing—as you can see, things turned out pretty well.”
“You’re against building a new location?” I asked for clarification. Shit. This wasn’t going as I planned.
“I didn’t say that. I didn’t say anything like it. I’m a little concerned about whether or not I’ll have the time to manage something new.”
I grinned. Jackpot. “That’s not something you’ll have to worry about.”
Two hours later, I left Bobby’s with the money in the inside pocket of my leather vest and a smile on my face. He’d gone for it. I was on top of the world, feeling great about myself. I had finally, really contributed to the club. Because of me, we were about to make a big move. We only had to iron out the details.
I took the shortest route possible to get back to the clubhouse, even though a long ride on the quiet late-night streets would have been perfect for the mood that I was in. There was nothing like having my bike between my legs, roaring down the road with the sound of a powerful engine in my ear to make me feel good. I loved the free feeling that it gave me; it felt like I was riding high and on top of the world. Nothing else could touch it.
I was whistling to myself as I walked into the clubhouse, ready to give anybody and everybody the good news. Only when I walked in, everybody was gathered in the lounge, and none of the members looked happy.
“What is it?” I asked, looking from one of them to the other. The girls were crying. Drake sat in one of the chairs with Nicole sitting on the arm, her arms around him.
He looked at me with red-rimmed eyes. “We just got the call. Jack passed away tonight.”
All the air went out of me like a deflated balloon. “Oh, shit.” I sat at the bar, Tamara pouring me a drink without me having to ask her for it. We all made a toast to him. It had been inevitable, only a matter of time, but knowing he was on the way out and knowing he was gone were two different things. I felt like all the heart got ripped out of me just then. Funny how things could turn on a dime like that.
“We’ll have a wake, right?” I asked, looking around. Everybody nodded. I heard a sniffle and realized Tamara was crying. For some odd reason, I wished that I could hold her. I knew how much Jack meant to her.
I thought back to the last time that we had been together. We had spent a whole night talking about Jack and how his health could affect us, not long before Drake and Nicole’s wedding.
We had been upstairs in my room after Drake’s bachelor party. She had been lying next to me, one of her legs over both of mine, her head on my chest. We were both a little breathless, a little sweaty and a whole lot of needy.
“Thank you for that,” she’d said in between gasps for air as we came down from our orgasmic high.
“Thank you?” I had snorted incredulously. Like she needed to thank me, ever. Being inside of her was one of the best feelings in the world. It was incredible to think that we had gone so long without being together when it was so mind-blowing when we finally succumbed to the lust and heat that simmered between us.
She had traced random shapes on my chest with her nails. “You wanna go back downstairs?” I’d asked.
“No. It’s all clean-up and stuff. Let Harris take care of it.” She had giggled a little, and I’d laughed with her. Only it didn’t last long. She was too sad to laugh for long.
“What is it?” I was puzzled by her sudden change in mood.
“I can’t stand the thought of Jack going the way that he is. He deserves better, you know? Why do the good men die young and the low down, dirty bastards stick around forever? It doesn’t seem fair.” She had sounded like a little kid at that moment, and my arms had tightened around her. I’d felt the need to take care of her, to protect her when she sounded so vulnerable. Tamara always seemed so strong, the perfect mix of fortitude, sensitivity and delicate beauty that attracted me to her in the first place.
“I don’t think that it works that way,” I’d decided. “I believe that we go the way we’re meant to go. If we’re lucky, we get the chance to say goodbye to the people who meant the most to us, and they get to tell us how they feel before we go. A lot of people don’t get the chance that Jack is getting right now, and I know that’s not a source of comfort, but it’s worth thinking about. Some people go just like that. One moment they are living and breathing, and the next second they are gone in an instant.” I’d snapped my fingers. “And the people who love them unconditionally never get to see them one last time.”
“Yeah. I know how that feels.” She averted her gaze.
“Did you tell him how you felt?” I softly prodded.
She’d nodded against my chest. “I hope that I told Jack every day, in little ways. He was the father that I never had, you know? He accepted me and took care of me. Sometimes I used to wish that he really was my father.”
I’d held her even tighter for a little while. “They were pretty close, weren’t they?”
“So he tells me. But from what I’ve heard from others who knew Clayton, Jack was the better man. And when I first came here, he was nothing but good to me. Maybe he felt responsible for me since my father was dead, I don’t know. And I sure as hell don’t know where I would be without him, without the club. Probably knocked up somewhere, collecting welfare, waiting for my man to come around. And I’d wait and wait for my prince to ride up on his motorcycle and whisk me away, but he never would.”
I’d winced. “Pretty dark stuff rolling around in that beautiful head of yours.” I felt connected to her, and I was thr
iving off the energy that we shared.
“It’s pretty serious stuff. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. I know how it goes.” She had stiffened up like she was talking about something that she didn’t like to remember. I’d started stroking her hair, and caressing her smooth back, as I tried to calm her. She’d relaxed after a little while—then, after a bit more touching, she’d started sighing. The way that she expressed her relief as I supported her told me that she was ready for more. The sound of her breathless exhale seemed to go straight to my cock. I was ready to plunge into her tight, wet heat in a heartbeat.
She’d reached up to kiss me, her soft lips playing against mine. Our tongues had touched gently, sending shivers down my spine until my cock pulsed with the intensity of my need. She’d unbuttoned my jeans, reached into my boxers and pulled out my dick. Tamara touched it, taking it in her hand and stroking the most intimate part of me with a firm grip that nearly made me come on the spot. Her grasp was tight and firm, just the way that I liked it.
I’d fondled her tits, grabbed her ass, and listened to the way that she would moan in pleasure while I did as we fucked harder and harder to reach our pentacle.
The sound of our passion culminating into a hailstorm of physical sensation was unforgettable. It was music to my ears, giving her pleasure like that and hearing her voice break as her body shattered all over my dick.
And that is what I would continue to do: pleasure her until her pussy required my dick like her body needed oxygen. I wasn’t just taking my pleasure, I loved watching her suck my cock and making her cum because it made me feel like a man. Looking at a woman like her dissolve into orgasm was the hottest thing I had ever seen.
She’d climbed on top of me, rubbing her body against mine while we’d kissed. I dug my fingers into her ass, kneaded her soft flesh, and slapped her curves as she rode my dick like her last breath depended on it. She’d squirmed and writhed, desperate for my body to give her the relief that her pussy was craving. When my fingers had found her slit, she was dripping wet and ready for me. It had only taken a second to get a condom ready before she’d slid down my length.
Damn she was tight; her pussy had gripped me, massaging my dick inch by cum inducing inch until I was ready to explode. She was the closest thing to heaven that I could have ever imagined. I’d watched her ride me, grinding her hips onto mine and rubbing her clit against me while she let me fill her with my cock again and again. I’d pulled her down on my length repeatedly until she was about cum all over my dick. Her big, firm tits were in my face, burying me as I licked and sucked her hard, taught nipples. She cried out, slamming herself onto me repeatedly as her first orgasm hit her hard and fast.
While she recovered, slumped over on me, I’d held her hips steady and taken her from below, thrusting upward into her tight, pulsing heat. She’d moaned in my ear, urging me on, begging for more as I took her. Her moans had turned into gasps, whimpers, and desperate pleas for me to take her, fuck her, make her come again. It was almost too much. I could hardly hang on. Then she’d tightened, crying out against my shoulder as she came again and then I’d let go, exploding, emptying my balls until I was half passed out from pleasure and exhaustion. I’d made a promise to myself just then to get back into shape for her. I wanted to be able to fuck for hours and make her come until she passed out. I had wanted to give her everything, all the pleasure she could handle and more.
Only I’d never gotten another chance. That was the last time we were together, that night. Just when I had thought that we were going somewhere. When she had opened up to me, mind, body and soul. She took herself away, removed herself from my life and never looked back. Just like that.
I wished that it could have been different. If Tamara weren’t so damned stubborn, we could be together beyond that night. I could hold her and let her cry it out. But no. And that was her fault.
I could fulfill a promise to myself, though. The reminder of how short life was, with Jack now gone it was a reminder that I needed to get myself in order. I had to get my life together, with or without Tamara.
10
Tamara
The clubhouse was in full party-planning mode. Darcy had come over to finish making food—nothing fancy since we weren’t exactly a fancy crowd, but we were running low on everything that we needed. There would be around fifty or sixty people there, at least. She had Nicole and Violet helping her in the kitchen, and once I was satisfied that we had enough liquor behind the bar I sent Harris to the dishwasher to get all the glasses stocked while I went to help with the food.
The smell of hundreds of hamburger sliders turned my stomach. It was the little bits of sautéed onions that Darcy had used that trigged nausea. Something about the smell of onions made me sick suddenly. One of the many joys of pregnancy. I did what I could to hang in there, but I ended up sitting down with a bottle of ginger ale. Finally, I had to go outside to get some fresh air. Nicole gave me a look that said that she would cover for me. The others were oblivious, too busy getting things ready for Jack’s wake. It would be one hell of a party.
I sat on a bench out back, taking deep breaths of the fresh air. Well, fresh for Queens. Probably not fresh compared to the country or even the suburbs, but it was better than the onions in the kitchen. What other fun little surprises did my body have in store for me? I shuddered to think about what the rest of my pregnancy would do to my body.
I saw Diesel and Phil standing by the shed, one of them working on a bike. They were both smoking, as just about all the guys did. The smell of smoke wafted toward me, and I wrinkled my nose in distaste. The scent of tobacco was another smell that made me feel ill suddenly when it never had affected me before. I used to be a smoker myself, only having quit around eighteen months earlier.
Then it hit me. I hurried back inside, going straight to Drake’s office. He was in there as always, going over some sort of paperwork.
“Can I talk to you for a minute?”
He glanced up. “Sure. Everything okay for tonight?”
“Yeah, all’s well behind the bar. We’ll need another shipment next week, I think. Harris said we’re looking a little low on a few things.”
“I guess that’s to be expected. Thank God we’re working with Bobby now, or else I don’t know where the money would come from. We need another revenue stream.” He put down the papers, rubbing his temples. I felt sorry for him. It was hard enough for him to deal with losing Jack—he’d been just as much of a father to Drake as he had been to me, maybe more—but he had to put his grief aside when he was trying to figure out what to do with the club. I didn’t envy him.
He smiled a little. “What did you need from me?”
I closed the door, hoping that he wouldn’t flip when I asked for this favor. “Tonight. You know how everybody smokes inside? And it gets all smoky and gross, and we have to air the place out for, like, three days afterward?”
He smiled. “Yeah, but what can you do? You know how smokers are. We both used to smoke before we kicked the habit.”
“I know, and you couldn’t have parted me and my smokes for anything, unless you wanted to lose an arm,” I joked.
“Exactly. I remember those days. So, I don’t think that we can ask everybody not to smoke,” Drake said.
“Um, could everybody smoke outside, instead?” I asked.
Drake’s eyebrows shot up. “What? It’s winter!” I might as well have asked for everybody at the party to take their clothes off and run around naked. That was how surprised he looked.
“You heard me. I need everybody to smoke outside, or I can’t work the party. It makes me sick, the smoke.”
“Since when?” he asked, appearing skeptical.
“Since recently, okay? I can’t stand the smell. It chokes me, and it gives me a headache.” I was desperate. I would have said anything to avoid telling him the truth. I could see how surprised he was, how utterly clueless. At least I knew Nicole had kept my secret.
“That’s a lot to ask, Tamara. No
t that I don’t care about you, but you want me to tell four or five dozen people that they can’t smoke in the clubhouse when they do it all the time at parties? That’s a pretty tall order.”
“I’ll do it myself, then. I’ll take the heat. I’m not asking you to stand up for me.”
He folded his arms, smirking a little. “What’s this really all about? I mean, really. You can tell me the truth.”
“I already told you.”
I saw doubt in his eyes. “I know you too well,” he said. “Out with it.”
“Drake, please. I have to ask you to respect my privacy right now.”
“Your privacy? Oh, shit, so there really is something going on.”
“There isn’t.”
“Bullshit, there isn’t! Tell me. You can tell me.” He frowned a little. “Is it because of Jack?”
I hadn’t expected that. “What?”
“Listen, I’ve thought about that, too. I reflect on Jack a lot, and how I can clean up my act, so I don’t end up like him. Sick, you know. Who knows how these things start off? He smoked all the time, he drank, he ate shitty food. He never took care of himself. I get it. I worry about my choices. And God knows my wife does,” he said, rolling his eyes. “She’s always on my case.”
I snickered because I knew how Nicole was when it came to her husband’s health. “Nicole acts like that because she loves your ass.”
“Yeah, I guess. So is that it? I get it. You don’t have to pretend with me.”
I wanted to tell him that it was, but he would only talk me out of it if I did. He would find some way to turn it around and make me sound silly. He was good at that. I knew that I had to tell him. He would know soon enough.
“Nicole really never told you, huh? I’m impressed. I thought husbands and wives told each other everything, especially when they’re as close as you two are.”
