by Aiden Bates
I arched my back, trying to get deeper, but Blade simply flattened his hand on my abs and pushed me down. The pleasure of it was excruciating, a rich coiling heat in my gut, a toe-curling shockwave down my body. Then he began to move, very slowly sliding his mouth up my cock until it was just his lips pursed gently around the tip of it. When our eyes met, I dropped my head backward, eyes closed, afraid I’d come before he allowed.
Time melted away. The world melted away, until it was just us together.
He blew me until I was incoherent and thrashing. Heat built slowly until it was like a firecracker deep inside me, the fuse lit and burning fast.
“I’m close,” I warned him, and he let my cock slide out of his mouth with an obscene, wet pop.
“You kept your hands in place,” he said, sounding slightly awed. His mouth was pink and swollen, and he jerked me loosely and slowly. “Good boy.”
“You told me to,” I said. Like I’d do anything else.
“I know.” He stood up and shucked off his own jeans, then stood over me, gloriously naked, his cock huge and so hard it was almost purple. My need to suck him off was bone-deep, primitive, something I didn’t fully understand. I had to taste him. Had to feel him in my throat.
“Let me,” I said. I scooted toward the edge of the bed and reached for him.
Blade gripped the back of my neck. “No,” he said, with a smirk, which was both thrilling and anticipatory. “I’m taking care of you tonight.”
“By fucking me, I hope.”
“God, you’re mouthy,” Blade said affectionately, and then he crawled onto the bed before pulling me on top of him.
“You like it,” I said.
I kissed him, thrusting my tongue deep into his mouth like I could taste myself there. Blade ran his hands all over my body, over my shoulders and upper arms then across my back. He gripped my ass hard and kneaded the muscles. He rutted against me, the strength of his hips and legs apparent in the motion, the slide of our cocks against each other lubricated by the blowjob.
“Yeah,” Blade said, suddenly soft. “I do.” Then he flipped us, so I was on my back, and reached over me. He rooted around in the nightstand until he found a bottle of lube.
“You just stash those in every room?”
“Pretty much, yeah.”
Blade propped himself up on one elbow then kissed me. He slid his other hand, slick with lube, behind my balls and stroked firmly across my hole. It’d been a long time since I’d been fucked. I panted into the kiss, pushing my hips down toward his hand, silently begging for more. He didn’t make me wait. He slid one thick finger into me, then another, fucking me slow and deep.
“Come on.” I spoke the words into his mouth as he continued to kiss me. “I’m not gonna break.”
“Maybe I like hearing you ask me,” Blade said, shoving his fingers deep.
I gasped. “Fuck me, then.”
“Ask nicely.”
“Please, Blade.”
He pulled out his fingers and I whined at the loss. Quickly, he rolled on a condom, then lifted my hips and gripped the base of his own cock with the other.
The head of his cock nudging my hole sent a spark of electricity through me, and as he pushed inside me in one long, slow thrust, I groaned.
As I tipped my head back against the bed, I cradled his head into the crook of my neck. Being filled with his cock, combined with the weight of his body pressing me down, had me shivering with pleasure.
Then he began to move, pulling out almost entirely and slamming the full length of his cock back into me. It was rough, but not painful, and each strong thrust sent a wave of pleasure coursing through me. All I could think of was Blade inside me, Blade’s body protecting mine, Blade’s breath huffing in my ear, Blade’s sweat on my tongue.
He reached between our bodies and gripped my cock hard. I cried out.
“I want you to come while I’m fucking you,” Blade growled in my ear. His thrusts sped up but didn’t relent in depth, and I distantly heard the bed frame knocking against the wall.
“Yes,” I said, which was the only word I could say.
Blade tilted his head down and kissed my collarbone, before biting down with his teeth, hard, and I knew he was leaving a mark on purpose. Claiming me.
I was his. At least for now.
I groaned and lifted my hips to match Blade’s thrusts, trying to take him even deeper. Then with his hand on me and the sweet sharp pain of his teeth on my chest, my orgasm built on the wave of pleasure, closer and closer and closer until it crashed over me. My muscles tensed as I repeated his name like a mantra, and then came on both our chests.
“Good boy.” Blade grabbed my hips in both hands and it was just a few more deep, fast thrusts until he was shuddering above me, sweat dripping from his brow, eyes closed and mouth open. I felt him spill hot into the condom, and I wished suddenly and viciously that the barrier wasn’t there.
After we haphazardly cleaned up, Blade tugged me back into the bed and pulled me into his chest. He ran a hand through my hair. “Sleep.”
I nodded.
Blade was asleep in seconds. The seriousness of his face smoothed out into a younger-looking, peaceful expression.
I was still reeling. He’d treated me gently but not like I was breakable porcelain. He was rough and strong but he cared—he wanted me to feel good first. My needs before his own.
I closed my eyes against the hot prickling of tears threatening to form. This night would haunt my memory, surely. Once Blade found out my truth, he’d kick me out. He’d hate me. And that would hurt more than anything my father could throw at me. I was an idiot to think I could spend the night with him, no strings attached. This was just a fling; it could never last long-term. But I was falling for him. And I was falling hard.
13
Blade
It’d been two days, but whenever I closed my eyes, I saw Logan. I saw him lying on the bed with his arms over his head, I saw his eyes wide with disbelief when I caressed his scars, I saw his face scrunched in pleasure when he came with my cock inside him. And he’d felt good, so fucking tight around me, so eager for me to fuck him hard, wiggling those slim hips to get closer, deeper—
“Blade!”
I snapped out of my daydream. A pang of guilt struck me. Logan and I had only had one night together and already he was distracting me from my duties as president even more than he had been when we’d just been getting breakfasts together. And between the odd phone call, and the scars, and the way relief had emanated from him when I’d told him we didn’t have to talk, it was clear he was hiding something. But if there were secrets between us, I could handle that—I could wait for him to be ready.
In the meantime, though, I couldn’t let whatever had happened between us distract me from the club, and handling the drugs and the problem of the Vipers.
The senior members of Hell’s Ankhor were gathered around the kitchen island of the clubhouse for a church meeting. It was mid-morning and we were well into a third pot of coffee; the monthly meeting was nearly finished.
“All right.” Priest gave me a stern look, then adjusted his reading glasses to review his notes. “To recap: Finances are looking good. Sales at Ballast are up with a higher rate of citizen traffic. Lots more out-of-town riders coming through and looking interested, so we’re expecting more prospects than usual this coming fall. As for Ankhor Works—”
“Fuck yeah, Mav!” Coop hollered and smacked his hand on the table. “Killing it!”
Maverick flicked Coop on the side of the head. Coop made a wounded face.
“—the shop has been written up in the LA Times as the number one place for motorcycle repairs in the state. Thank you, and congrats, Maverick.”
“I’m in the business of fixin’, and business is a-booming.” Maverick grinned.
“You have the floor, Raven,” Priest said.
“As Priest noted, we have a slight increase in our profit margins across the board.” Raven laced his fingers to
gether and rested his elbows on the kitchen island. He had his laptop open at his side as he did every church meeting, following the notes and numbers to ensure everything was correct. He was no longer the odd, gangly teenager I met all those years ago. I hadn’t even realized the financial opportunities we were missing until Raven took over as treasurer. His keen tech skills and business sense were taking the club to the next stage of its existence.
I wished Ankh was here to see it.
“I’ve got a few more projects in the works to further diversify our income stream,” Raven said “So, I'd like to propose that next year we work with Las Vegas Technical College and create a motorcycle repair trade education scholarship in Ankh’s honor.”
Shouts of agreement came from every seat at the island. Priest’s smile could charge a car battery with its energy.
I nudged Gunnar with my shoulder. “Kid’s grown up, huh?”
Gunnar grunted.
Raven had showed his face more at Ballast in the past week with Logan than he had in the past few months. They were good for each other – kindred souls. I added that to my mental list of proposed reasons for Logan to stick around.
Logan would be picking up his car today. Every time I recalled that, it was like a stone in my belly.
“Great,” Priest said. “Since all are in favor, I’ll leave Raven to begin researching the details, and he will propose a plan at the next church meeting. Next order of business?”
Coop stood up and cleared his throat.
Tex grabbed Coop by the sleeve of his jacket and pulled him back into his seat.
“Aw, come on, Texy.”
“There’s been more overdoses reported in the clubs,” Tex said. “Looks like the same dirty drugs that we’ve seen before. We’ve been waiting for a new batch to show up. This suggests it wasn’t just one bad batch, but someone is intentionally dealing these laced drugs.”
“Then we need to act immediately,” Siren said. “We were too obvious last time. I propose I go alone. I have a better chance of fitting in at the clubs and finding the dealers.”
“Once you find the on-site dealer, the rest of the enforcers can be waiting in a different location to act as backup,” Tex said.
Siren nodded. “First intel gathering. But once we find out who’s doing this, we’ll take them down.”
“On a similar sketchy note,” Gunnar said. “Anyone hear from Jed?”
“No,” Priest said. “He hasn’t shown his face since he attacked Blade.”
All the senior members’ attention landed on me. “Jed always had a problem with me,” I said. “Ever since I was chosen as Ankh’s successor instead of him. He kept calling Logan an outsider, saying I was ruining the club by interacting too closely with outsiders. But remember, Logan saved Heath’s ass, so I think that upgrades him from outsider to citizen.”
“He is still technically an out-of-towner,” Gunnar said.
I shrugged. “If we’re lucky, Jed’s just drying out in a jail cell in Vegas. But I don’t think he’s gone forever.”
“Should we be worried?” Coop asked.
“Keep an ear to the ground. He won’t want to come back on our terms. But he’ll come back.”
Priest adjourned the meeting. But as always, no one left immediately, choosing instead to drink another cup of coffee or two and shoot the shit.
Maverick pulled me aside. “You know he’s picking up the car today, right?”
“Yeah, I know.” I rubbed at my chin. “Thanks for padding out the repair time for me.”
“Only for you,” Maverick groused. “I wasn’t fucking around though; the head gasket really was blown. Fixed that, replaced his coolant tubes, then went ahead and replaced all the fluids while I was in there. Engine should run like new. Everything else looked all right, considering how old and shitty that car is. He’s taken good care of it. Looks like he’s done quite a few repairs himself, too.”
“Doesn’t surprise me,” I said. “He’s not the type to ask for help.”
“But he is the type to jump in and save us, huh?” Maverick grinned. “Yes, I finally got the blood stains off the concrete, thanks for asking.”
We needed someone with Logan’s skills around the club. There were always injuries to be tended to—not just bar fights, but minor motorcycle accidents, or drunken party mishaps. And Logan needed protection, even if he couldn’t ask for it. Even if he wouldn’t tell me what he needed protecting from. The scars slashed across his abdomen spoke that need clearer than words.
Maverick gripped my shoulder and gave it a rough squeeze. “I’m not charging him for the repair,” he said. “Even though it took a few days. Just so you know.”
“Thanks, Mav.”
“Speaking of getting attacked by Jed,” Coop called from across the clubhouse. “How was the rest of your night, Blade?”
“Did you have a nice sleepover?” Siren asked.
“Paint each others’ nails and tell secrets?” Raven asked.
“Come on now, kids.” Priest waved a hand through the air like he was clearing away a bad smell. “Let’s leave our president with some dignity, huh?” Priest winked at me.
Only Gunnar didn’t look amused by the ribbing. He wrenched open the fridge and pulled out a light beer, despite the fact that it wasn’t even noon.
“Damn,” Coop said. “At least throw some orange juice in that, man.”
Gunnar motioned with his head for me to follow him out onto the clubhouse porch.
“I need to talk to you about Logan,” Gunnar said without preamble. “I know you like him.”
“But?” I crossed my arms over my chest.
“You really haven’t noticed anything weird?” Gunnar took a long drink of his beer.
“Not really, no,” I said. “I did notice how he was the one who stopped Jed from attacking me. And how he kept Heath from bleeding out after he got gutted by a rogue Viper in our territory.”
“What are you saying?”
“Maybe you have bigger fish to fry than trying to drive Logan away for no reason!”
Gunnar stepped close to me, his blue eyes flashing with anger. “Something is going on around Elkin Lake,” he said. “We have bad drugs in our territory, Vipers sniffing around the borders, and members turning on each other. And amidst all this, a drifter shows up whose car conveniently breaks down just outside of town?”
“You’re fucking paranoid,” I said. “You’re being a mother hen. Those are the problems you and the enforcers need to be prioritizing. The drugs. The Viper activity. Logan doesn’t need any of us breathing down his neck, acting like we don’t trust him after he saved two of our lives. He’s been hurt enough as it is.”
“How?” Gunnar stabbed my chest roughly with his forefinger. “You don’t know his story at all! He’s not telling us anything! He’s familiar with club structures, and he’s generally unfazed by us in general. You really don’t think there might be some club history there he’s not telling you? Or some other connection?”
“You don’t know him.”
“Neither do you.”
I turned away and braced my hands on the railing of the front porch.
“You know I’m right,” Gunnar said. “You’re just blind to it because you like him. This is why Hell’s Ankhor is structured the way it is. Checks and balances. I’m your fucking sergeant-at-arms, Blade. And I’m your friend.”
Logan’s voice echoed in my mind: “I have to tell you something.” Was I being stupid? Was I putting the club in danger because I couldn’t see past my attraction to Logan? There was a connection between us. That much I knew. But—he was keeping secrets. Gunnar was right. Before Logan, I’d never let an outsider get so close so quickly. And never one whose behavior my sergeant-at-arms considered suspicious.
“I’m just trying to cover all our bases,” Gunnar said.
“Fine.” I faced him again. “Have Raven run a background check on Logan. Don’t tell anyone else you’re doing it. Start with that—and only that—and w
e’ll go from there.” It didn’t sit right with me, but this was the best decision for the club. If Logan wouldn’t tell me his past, the least I could do for my family was ensure his background was clean. It wasn’t any more than I’d do for a club prospect.
Gunnar nodded. “I’ll run the check myself.”
“No, yours would be rudimentary. Get Raven to do one of his fancy ones. I don’t want to risk Logan finding out that we’re poking into his past.”
“Come on.” Gunnar scrubbed one hand roughly over his short blond hair. “You know I can’t deal with that kid.”
“Aren’t you my sergeant-at-arms?” I asked, a little more lighthearted now. Gunnar pissed me off, sure, but his fears weren’t entirely off-base. We argued hard, but it ended with a solution, which always renewed my confidence in our brotherhood. “Why are you being such a bitch?”
“He’s fuckin’ annoying,” Gunnar grumbled unconvincingly. I laughed as he shuffled back inside, cursing under his breath.
14
Logan
“And here she is,” Maverick said with a dramatic sweep of his arm.
The Sundance. Purple, rusted, boxy, beat-up, and mine.
I was embarrassingly close to tears.
Maverick wiped his hands on his oil rag and tucked it into the back pocket of his khaki coveralls. “All right, let me pop the hood and show you what we’ve done for her. I gotta say, kid, I can tell you’ve done quite a bit of work on this engine, and it all looks good.”
“Thanks,” I said quietly, still gazing at my car. The moment I’d been waiting for all this time was here: Freedom. Los Angeles. Huevos rancheros. Then a new life, far away from all this motorcycle club activity.
Maverick popped the hood, and then walked me through the repairs. As promised, the head gasket was replaced, and as Mav had rebuilt the engine he’d replaced a lot of smaller, older parts, refreshed all the fluids, and done a general maintenance cleaning.
“She’ll purr like a kitten.” He closed the hood and then ran a hand across it. “Gotta tell you, it was a fun project.”
