by Brook Wilder
Something inside told me this was the right thing to do.
Cora stepped back, reaching her hand toward me. I wrapped my hand around hers and allowed her to lead me into her bedroom before she pushed me down on the bed. “I have to confess,” she said in a small voice, toying with her shirt hem. “I’m not … having a baby has changed my body.”
“For the better,” I said roughly, seeing the insecurity in her expression. “You’re fucking gorgeous, Cora, and you haven’t removed a lick of your clothing.” It was the truth. Her lush body had caught my eye more than once since our time together and my hands were itching to touch those curves without a layer of clothing between us.
She flushed and I stretched my arms behind my head as she pulled her shirt over her head, revealing a black, lacy bra. My cock jumped to attention as she reached behind her back and released her breasts, her dark, dusky nipples puckering in the cool air.
I swallowed as she reached for her jeans, sliding them off as well as her panties until she was naked before me. Sure, her stomach wasn’t flat, but I was more turned on at what I was seeing now than I had ever been with anyone.
Cora seemed to grow bolder now that she was naked and I watched her crawl onto the bed, sliding her body against mine in the slightest brush as she met my lips. I growled as she kissed me hard, opening my mouth so that I could taste her, her tongue stroking mine erotically. Reaching up, I cupped the back of her head and deepened the kiss, devouring her with my mouth, but not touching her in any other way.
This was still her show.
She was the first one to break the kiss, panting slightly. “It’s been a long time.”
“That’s why you are in charge,” I said huskily, nibbling on her jawline. “Whatever you want to do, I’ll do it.”
Cora shuddered and she sat back on her heels, her ass rubbing my cock painfully. Hell, it had been a long time for me too. I had been so busy with the club work lately that I hadn’t had time to enjoy anything personal, not even a quick fuck.
Her hands stroked my chest and over my abdomen, her fingernails gently scraping my skin. “Do you remember anything about that night?”
“No,” I said truthfully. “Too much alcohol.”
She smirked. “I don’t either. Care to try again?”
“Hell, yeah,” I answered, raising my hand. “May I?”
She nodded and I cupped her heavy breast, rubbing the pad of my thumb over her nipple. She bit back a moan as I twisted it lightly, wanting desperately to put it in my mouth. I could feel her wetness on my boxers, knowing that she was torturing herself just as much as she was torturing me and when we did come together, it was going to be fast and furious.
“I need you,” Cora said, rising above me. “Now.”
I scrambled to free my aching cock and she lowered herself on it, her tight wetness causing me to groan aloud. “Damn, you feel good.”
Whimpering, she slid the rest of the way until I was fully sheathed inside her, my hands reaching up to cup her breasts. Her skin was soft and warm against my touch, but I could barely concentrate on anything but her lockdown on my cock.
Damn.
The moment she started to move, I thrust my hips up to meet her, burying myself to the hilt to bring her to a crashing orgasm. Cora’s body trembled as she cried out, clutching at my shoulders to keep from collapsing on me. It wasn’t going to be long for me either, already feeling the pressure building.
“Oh God,” she whispered, looking at me. “I had forgotten.”
“How good it could be?” I finished for her.
She nodded, biting her lower lip, and I groaned. “Damn, you are killing me, woman.”
“We can’t have that,” she said softly, rotating her hips. I gripped the soft flesh of her hips and guided her to her next orgasm, one of my hands sliding down to tease the swollen clit between her wet folds. Cora cried out, cupping her own breasts as she rode me, and I watched in awe, finding nothing sexier than a woman who could take control of her own decisions in bed.
I pumped into her, meeting her thrust for thrust until she screamed my name and then I poured into her with a hoarse shout.
After a few minutes, Cora slid off me and walked into the adjoining bathroom while I lay in her bed, looking up at the ceiling.
I had just had sex with Cora again.
Without protection.
Hell. We both already knew the ramifications of the two of us together.
Would it be a bad thing? For her, maybe, having to go through the whole pregnancy thing again.
But for me, I didn’t know how I felt. I had never pictured myself with kids before.
Cora entered the bedroom and I noticed she had slid on a T-shirt, clearly not one hundred percent comfortable sleeping naked with me.
Yet.
I pulled the covers from under me as she slid into the bed, joining me under the cool sheets. “Well,” she said.
“Well,” I answered, turning to face her. “I don’t think that’s gonna be the last time, Cora.”
She turned in the bed, her eyes searching mine. “I hope not.”
I reached over, brushing her hair out of her face. “We will take it one day at a time.” That’s all I could give her right now.
Cora slid over to me and I scooped her against my chest, noting how good she felt against my shoulder. Something was right about this, about us.
It wasn’t until she was asleep that I started to replay the events back in my thoughts, worried about what I was doing with her and what it would mean about my life. I was a loner. A guy who hadn’t planned on a wife or a kid in the foreseeable future.
Now I was holding a woman in my arms who could give me both. Could I do that? Could I let her into my world?
Hell, she was already there. Somehow Cora had pushed her way past my barriers, and she was knocking on the door to my heart.
Well, shit, I thought as she snuggled against me. I was in trouble then.
Chapter 16
Red
Red O’Neil slid the bar back to watch the video footage again and shook his head, watching as the two cartel members went down at the hands of a Bitch.
He would have thought they could handle a mere Jester asshole, but clearly he had underestimated his lovely bartender.
Red shifted in the chair, feeling the tightness in his pants as he thought about Cora. Damn, that woman had only grown prettier since she gave birth to someone’s bastard.
Too bad it wasn’t his.
Red closed the file and rooted around in the folder for another, a very special one that no one knew he had. Cora’s face came into view and he smirked as he watched her go down on her knees, taking his cock in her hand before sliding those luscious lips over it. He could still feel her caressing him, doing it ten times better than any other woman had ever attempted to do, including his ex-wife.
Hell, he had married the woman for that mouth of hers, but all she had done was whine with it.
But Cora, now that was a woman who knew how to suck.
Red grinned as he watched her work, wondering when he would be able to get her in that position again. If that asshole hadn’t interrupted them the other week, he would have buried himself in her, rutting around like a dog in heat.
And she would have fucking liked it.
They had been interrupted, however, and Red suspected it hadn’t been entirely on accident. Something was fishy there.
Something was fishy, period. His bar didn’t pull in the likes of a Jester or anyone important for that matter. He liked to keep it that way for a reason. Overcharge the tourists, serve the locals, but not draw attention to himself or the bar.
That way he could deal in the other jobs he had coming out of this place. Thanks to the cartel, he had a nice-sized account waiting for him in Jamaica, where he would drink himself into a stupor and fuck everything that walked.
But he had to bide his time, waiting for the right moment to skip town. The problem was the money kept pouring in as long
as he could move the cartel goods from one truck to another. It was far too enticing not to keep up the business.
Red shook his head and closed out the file, opening another to see if he could catch any of his bartenders skimming the cash register. It would give him leverage to make them do what he wanted, though he knew it was going to be harder to get Cora to do so. She had been so biddable the first few times, not wanting him to dock her pay or fire her.
Lately though, she had grown difficult, and Red didn’t know if it was worth the hassle to have her around, especially with the Jester sniffing around her. He had thought he would see more than one by now, wondering if they had gotten wind of what was going out the back door, but this fucker was the only one showing up.
Until tonight, he hadn’t given him much thought, really.
Red frowned as he let the recording play, watching as the Jester sat at the bar, looking like every other patron that wandered into this place. He wasn’t taking any pictures or even texting on his phone, so maybe he really was after Cora.
He looked her way enough.
Well, before tonight. It had been a test to see what the biker would do if Red sent Cora away. He hadn’t reacted as he thought he would, nor had he even looked nervous at what was to come.
In fact, he looked like he had enjoyed the entire gunfight.
Red chuckled, thinking about how he would have liked to have the Jester as part of the team. The man had balls of steel.
But he couldn’t. The cartel would never allow it. The feud between the cartel and the biker club was legendary and the moment he had dropped the hints that he thought he had a Jester in his bar, they had immediately sent the hired hands to take care of him.
Too bad the cartel had underestimated him.
Shaking his head, Red picked another file, watching as his two bartenders worked the bar, his camera positioned directly so that he could see their asses. Both his girls were good workers despite what he did to them and it was gonna be a shame to lose them. He doubted after tonight that Cora would ever come back.
Something on the film caught his eye and he tapped the button, backing it up so he could watch it again. In the frame, Cora was opening the register and in the next second, finding the list he had stuck in there, the list of the deliveries for the fentanyl he was storing in the back of the bar.
Shit. No wonder shipments were being hit. That little bitch had sold him out, to the Jesters no less.
Which meant they were in Mexico.
Picking up his cell, Red scrolled through his contacts until he found the name he was looking for. Nervously, he pressed call, hoping that they wouldn’t hold this betrayal against him, but rather be happy that he had just given them a lead to the Jesters.
If he botched this up, the cartel would skin him alive.
“What?”
“I found a mole,” Red answered, clearing his throat. “One that I think you might be interested in.”
Hector Villareal sighed heavily into the phone. “Why would I fucking care about a mole in your establishment?”
“Because she’s tied to the Jesters,” Red stated. “And I think she can lead you to what you want most. The Jesters on a platter.”
“You think or you know?” Hector asked.
“I know,” Red said confidently. “Besides, she was the one who killed your boys tonight. I got proof.”
Hector was quiet for a moment, making Red start to wonder if he had made a mistake in calling him. What if they took it out on him instead? What if Hector was sending some more goons to kill him for allowing it to happen? Red started to feel uneasy, the silence on the other end of the line deafening.
He didn’t want to die.
“Take care of her and bring me the location of the Jesters.”
Red let out a slow breath. “I can do that.”
“You are going to do it,” Hector said. “Or I will kill you myself.”
Red opened his mouth to retort but was met with a dial tone instead. Well, shit. He wasn’t expecting that.
Freezing the frame, he looked at Cora, now enemy number one in his book, as he thought about his current situation. What a waste of a fine piece of ass. He couldn’t let her live, no matter how much he thought about the things he could do with her, such as keeping her as his personal slave. With the threat of the cartel hanging over his head, he wouldn’t dare.
She definitely wasn’t worth dying over, which meant he had to separate her from her newfound bodyguard. He couldn’t have him sniffing around his business any longer, though Red imagined he had all the info he had come for now.
No, he had to make Cora pay for what she had done to him.
An idea came to mind and Red grinned as he thumbed through his contacts for another number. Sometimes he was too smart for his own good.
Cora would never see this one coming.
Chapter 17
Cora
I tried not to think about last night as I packed some of my clothes in the suitcase, my eyes straying to the still-rumpled bedsheets every once and a while as I did so. Clayton had left the apartment early this morning, his hand gripping my bare hip lightly before he walked out, as if that was his way of telling me that he was coming back.
Sighing, I placed the shirt in the suitcase. Last night, or this morning rather, had been wonderful. I thought I would feel regrets once I woke, but all I felt was a sense of completeness, one that felt like something was going right in my life for once.
It was crazy, with everything that was going on, that I would be able to feel anything right now. My baby was with my sister, who was in the care of a group of bikers that I wasn’t so sure we could completely trust.
I no longer had a job, not that I was complaining, but that meant I didn’t know what I was going to do once this mess was over with.
I hadn’t heard from Siren, so that relationship was still up in the air.
I didn’t know if I was being hunted by the Mexican police for the men I had killed, my hands trembling just a little bit when I thought about what I had done.
And on top of all those things going on, I was conflicted about my feelings for Clayton or even what future we could have.
The only thing I was sure of was that he had been amazing in bed. After letting me take control the first time, he had worshipped my body numerous times until we had both fallen asleep from exhaustion.
But not before he had told me to pack up whatever I could carry, saying that I wouldn’t be in Mexico much longer.
I was glad of it. I wasn’t safe here and neither were Emily or my daughter. I didn’t care where I went, but I couldn’t stay, not with what had happened at the bar. Something was coming. I just didn’t know what.
My doorbell rang and I paused, my eyes flickering to the gun that Clayton had laid on the bedside table before he walked out this morning. He hadn’t said a word, but I knew what it meant. I had to protect myself.
The doorbell rang again, and I grabbed the gun, holding it by my side as I approached the living room. Could I kill again? I wasn’t so sure. I hadn’t hesitated last time, knowing that if I didn’t, Clayton would die.
But now, it was just me.
Who was on the other side of that door?
Peering in the peephole, I saw Amy on the other side of the door. I placed the gun on the entry table and threw the locks, opening the door. “Hey.”
She looked at me nervously, her eyes red-rimmed from crying. “Can I come in?”
“Sure,” I answered, stepping aside so she could step through the doorway. “What’s going on? What’s wrong?”
“Cora, are you okay?”
I shut the door and locked it before turning to face my coworker and literally my only friend here. “I’m fine, why?”
She drew in a breath, handing me an envelope. “Red said to give you this.”
Likely the bill for all the damage I did last night. Swallowing hard, I opened it, pulling out a stack of photos instead. As I flipped through them, I realized t
hey were pictures of me in town, some with Emily, but all including Amelia. I recognized them all from last week, when we had gone to a local outdoor shopping center for some retail therapy and lunch.
Little did we know someone had followed us, snapping pictures of our every move.
Disgusted, I looked at Amy. “Why did he give you these?”
“I-I don’t know,” she stammered. “He called me this morning and told me to come to the bar. It’s trashed, but he wouldn’t tell me what happened.” She then swallowed hard. “He made me … I had to service him.”
