Apex Of The Curve (Sacred Hearts MC Pacific Northwest Book 3)

by A. J. Downey

  “Edibles sometimes,” she said with a shrug. “Helps when my back is all tight.”

  “Good to know,” I said with a bit of a smile. “I’d like to get you buzzed and fuck you slow.”

  She blushed and murmured, “I think I’d be down to try that.”

  “Not outside your comfort zone?” I asked while studying her face.

  Yeah, it was, but I could see it before she said it. “It is, but the more I think about it, the more I could come around.”

  I chuckled and kissed her temple. “I got a better adventure in store for you tomorrow that doesn’t involve mind-altering substances.”

  “Oh yeah?” she quirked an eyebrow. “Where we going?”

  “That’s for me to know and for you to find out.” I gave her gorgeous ass a little swat and sent her in the direction of her Prius.

  “Meet you back at my place,” I said. “I’m right behind you.”

  “Okay,” she agreed softly.

  We went back to my place, my pops coming back to the house from the barn calling out to me as I shut off the bike. “Hey, what you two got planned for tonight?”

  “Quiet one in,” I called back, and he nodded.

  “Good deal, you got the place to yourself,” he said.

  “Aw yeah? How’s that?”

  “Headed out to the cabin with Mitch for some fishin’ at the lake.”

  “Alright, good deal.” I nodded.

  “How you doin’, Aspen?” he called out to my girl, and I felt my eyebrows go up. He never gave a fuck about any of the women I’d brought around before.

  “I’m good, Vyking. How about you?”

  “Doin’ alright.”

  They chatted, and I stood kind of gobsmacked, lookin’ at my dad like he’d grown some kind of second head. Aspen shouldered her purse and her briefcase and came around her car. She and my pops went back and forth amicably for a moment and I watched the exchange, curious.

  My old man was a mystery sometimes, and this was one of them. Like, hadn’t he just been the one warning my ass off of her? What the fuck?

  I held out my hand to my woman at a natural break in the conversation and she came to me, slipping her hand into mine.

  “Well, have fun at the cabin,” she said with a laugh.

  “Not as much as you two are plannin’ to do,” my dad said with a lecherous wink which sent Aspen into a slightly uncomfortable giggle, her face flushing pink.

  “Why you always gotta be a creepy asshole?” I muttered, and my dad laughed.

  “Just remember, boy, you’re a chip off the ol’ block.”

  I rolled my eyes and shot back, “I think I got enough of Mom in me to balance me out.” His face fell into a bit of a glower.

  “You sure about that?” he asked as I led Aspen through the back door in front of me.

  “Maybe not as much as I’d like,” I conceded. That’d been a low fuckin’ blow even for me, but he’d made my girl uncomfortable, even if he didn’t mean shit by it. I think I’d given him a sharp enough reminder to stay in his own fuckin’ lane. We made eye contact, and he gave me a nod.

  We were cool, he knew and could accept what I was puttin’ down, picking it up just fuckin’ fine.

  “Sorry about him,” I said as I shut the door behind us. “Sometimes he gets too familiar, too quick.”

  “Oh, it’s fine,” Aspen declared.

  “No, it wasn’t, and it won’t happen again,” I promised.

  “You don’t need to talk to him about it or anything,” she said soothingly, and I grinned at her.

  “You’re cute,” I told her. “I just did. My dad and I have a long history of fuckin’ with each other. Doesn’t mean he gets to mess with you, not until you’re ready. The thing to know is you gotta dish it right back. You can’t let him roll you. He’ll lose respect, quick.”

  She nodded and considered me a moment then said, “Your family has some strange ways.”

  I chuckled. “Ain’t nothing to do with family. My dad was in prison for a lot of mine and my sister’s childhood. We’re more club brothers than father and son in a lot of ways.”

  “Oh, that’s right, I’m sorry,” she murmured.

  “Nothing to apologize for, baby. Just explains a few things, yeah?”

  She smiled and nodded then said, “Let me put this upstairs and then, I guess it’s all down to what are we watching?”

  “What are you hungry for?” I asked, and she twisted her lips back and forth in indecision. “What don’t you like?” I asked finally.

  “Not a big fan of green peppers,” she said honestly, but I could tell she was drawing a blank otherwise.

  “I’ll order a pizza, no green peppers. Mushrooms and olives okay?”

  “Yeah, those are good.”

  “Okay, go do your thing and meet me back down here,” I said, divesting myself of my jacket and cut, hanging them by the back door.

  “Okay,” she said with a smile and went upstairs.

  I pulled my phone out of my pants pocket and pulled up the food delivery app, placing my usual order just no green peppers.

  We ate, we talked, shared some laughs and I realized that Aspen was incredibly easy to talk to. Not only that, we enjoyed enough of the same things that the conversation never really strayed into territory that made either of us uncomfortable.

  I too, realized, that she was incredibly laid back – like on a deep level – none of this surface fake ass shit that women liked to pretend to be. Oh, I’m so laid back! Until you realized that no, no they weren’t. Of course, Aspen didn’t really feel the need to talk herself up in that regard. She just was, and it made her even more beautiful to me.

  “What do you want to watch?” I asked her and I genuinely didn’t know what to expect her to say.

  “You pick first,” she said. “I’m horribly indecisive and if you leave it to me, we’re going to spend all night trying to find something to do.”

  “Oh, I’m going to have no trouble at all finding something to do when it comes to you,” I said with a wink.

  She blushed and laughed and threw a balled-up napkin at me, hitting me in the arm.

  I laughed with her, but I had something in mind. Something I’d seen probably a thousand times, enjoyed, but it would let me focus on the woman I intended to have in my arms for the whole show.

  “You ever read any Michael Crichton?” I asked.

  “What, like Jurassic Park?” she asked, taking a bite of her pizza.

  “Well, yeah, that’s what he’s most known for but I mean like Timeline, or The 13th Warrior.”

  “Mm-mm,” she hummed as she chewed, shaking her head.

  “Have you ever seen The 13th Warrior?” I asked.

  “Mm.” She nodded, swallowed, and said, “A long time ago. Isn’t that the one with Antonio Banderas?”

  “The one and the same,” I answered. “It was based on the book The Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton, but in actuality, the first three chapters of that book are based on the actual Arab dude’s journal. Like he was real, and actually alive and traveled with these Viking dudes.”

  “And the rest?” she asked, genuinely interested.

  “Loosely based on Beowulf,” I answered.

  “It’s been so long since I’ve seen it,” she said. “I don’t really remember it. I think it sounds great, though.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah!”

  “Awesome, go on upstairs and find some comfortable clothes. I’ll clean up down here, get things cued up on the big screen, and then do the same and we’ll settle in for the night. Sound good?”

  “Sounds great,” she agreed.

  “Go team,” I joked, and she laughed and got up.

  She went upstairs, I cleaned up, and found the DVD among the racks against the one living room wall and got things ready. She was brushing her teeth in her adorable country nightgown when I went up to change myself.

  “All good?” I asked, and she smiled shyly around her toothbrush and no
dded.

  I would keep her here forever if I could. It was nice having a woman here. Someone to come home to. Someone to hold and to wake up in the middle of the night with, her cuddled into my side, holding me.

  I was going to miss this when she went back to Tacoma.

  I was hoping that we could keep something going. That she would want that with me.

  I went into my bedroom and changed into a pair of flannel pajama bottoms and a thermal shirt. It was getting colder at night, the autumn rains rolling in. The chill and the damp rolling in could sometimes permeate the house and I didn’t want to turn on the heat, not yet. I wanted Aspen close and cozy, so I split the difference and pulled a warm, microfiber blanket, down from the top of my closet.

  “Here, take this down for me,” I murmured and passed it to her in the hallway. “I’ll be down in a minute.”

  “Okay.” she smiled and hugged the blanket to her and disappeared down the stairs.

  I rushed through brushing my own teeth and with a sigh, looked at myself in the mirror above the bathroom sink.

  Not for the first time I asked myself, was this fair to her? Getting involved like this? I wouldn’t typically describe myself as a particularly insecure man, but she brought it out in me somehow. Like, I genuinely worried about disappointing her. About letting her down. About doing to her what my dad did to my mom.

  I mean, he knew… but he hadn’t been there to actually see it. I had – the weeping, the longing, the loneliness and waiting. The guilt when she couldn’t do it. When she couldn’t go on that way, and finally the anger and bitter resentment for my pops having put her through it.

  I could handle a lot of shit, but I don’t know if I would be able to handle my woman looking at me the way my mom looked at my dad on the last visit she ever took me and Lacy on to see him when he’d been locked up.

  How she’d sent us to stand in the corner to talk to him alone. How his expression had iced over and how he’d looked at our mother with a calculated and almost murderous stare when she told him she was moving on without him, and not only that, how she was taking us kids along for that particular ride.

  My dad had lost his whole family that day and that shit had been fucked. I don’t know if I was willing to repeat history. You know?

  So, don’t get caught, a deriding voice from within said.

  If only it were that easy.

  I mean, Aspen had already caught me, thoroughly entangling me in her web, and I couldn’t for one second say I was sorry for myself on that score.

  It just remained to be seen if I would be sorry for her.

  I pushed off the counter and left the bathroom, switching out the light. With a determined sigh at not being caught out over my inner dilemma, I went down to the waiting woman in my living room, to hold her, to love her like she asked, and to cement the good memories in place before it all went to hell and the good times were a thing of the past.

  It wasn’t exactly pessimism. It was how the life went. You seized the good times while you had them because the bad times were always on your tail.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Aspen…

  I smiled up at Fenris as he came around the corner from the stairwell. He smiled back at me and I edged down the couch to make room for him, the blanket clutched to me.

  “Let me get this going. You alright with lying down so I can spoon you?” he asked.

  “That actually sounds really great,” I murmured.

  It took us a minute to get situated, but once we were? Pure and epic bliss. I can’t tell you how much I loved being cuddled by Fenris. How safe, warm, and appreciated I felt. How utterly and thoroughly I felt spoiled by his affections.

  “This is nice,” I murmured, burrowed back into the warmth of his body, the warmth of mine reflected back at me from the cozy blanket over the top of us.

  “Have to agree, babe. I have to agree,” he said and pressed a kiss to where my neck sloped into my shoulder. I sighed in contentment and he started the movie.

  God, we were like a pair of teenagers. The movie played, but it was really just background noise when the light touching began – a soundtrack to my whimpering moans and desire for more as that light touching turned to heavy petting.

  Fen gathered the skirt of my nightgown, rucking it up with one fist, pulling it away from my pussy before cupping it with his big hand, grinding fingertips against my clit as he used his other hand to tip my chin and claim my mouth with his.

  I was stretched taut, arched back, as he played with my pussy and stroked his tongue against mine. I gripped a fistful of his pajama pant in one hand, the other forgotten and useless as I gave myself over completely to his touch.

  He moaned appreciatively into my mouth and I groaned into his sweet surrender. I didn’t care. He could do whatever he wanted to me; I would submit happily to whatever he wanted me to do so long as he kept on making me feel this way.

  He broke our kiss and sucked in a breath between his teeth as I ground my ass back against his erection.

  “Oh, baby girl,” he moaned coarsely. “You keep doing that and I’m going to take you right on this couch.”

  “Mmm.” I moaned the imagery decadent, and with a slow sexy smile made my move.

  “Not if I take you first,” I said, and he chuckled darkly and sat up as I got up. I gripped his waistband in both hands and he lifted his hips so I could free his waiting cock. A low thrum of excitement coursed through me and I already knew that I was more than wet enough to take him. He had that effect on me.

  I rucked my nightgown up and mounted him, a knee to either side of his hips and he helped me, pushing his cock down so it jutted at the right angle between us.

  His aim was perfect. The head of his cock sinking into my pussy like he was meant to fucking be there and I can’t tell you how much I loved that.

  “Oh, fuck, Aspen,” he moaned, voice deep with wonder and that oh-so-sexy growl of his. “Just like that, baby.” He slapped my ass, the mark stinging and sweet. “Ride me, baby girl. Ride me and fucking touch yourself while you do it. I want to watch you.”

  I would do anything for him, and what he asked of me was definitely no hardship. I held my nightgown out of my way with one hand and pressed fingertips from my other against my clit, rubbing delicious circles as I rose and fell along his shaft. God, I was so wet, he was so hard, and we were so perfect for one another.

  He fit me as though it were meant to be, as if we were two halves of the same whole, and I never wanted anyone or anything different again with how good he felt.

  I kissed him, holding his face between my hands as I rocked my hips and ground myself against him and oh, God, the delicious sensations that came from that! It was a wonderful, beautiful, sharing and I didn’t fight him when he whisked my nightgown off over the top of my head and tossed it aside. He did the same with his long-sleeved shirt that clung to his upper body showcasing just a hint of his fantastic physique. God, when that physique was revealed to my eyes, covered in his beautiful tattoos, I felt my pussy throb of its own accord in delight.

  This man was so wonderful, so gorgeous to my eyes, I almost couldn’t stand it. He was that kind of man most women would stop mid-sentence and stare at from across the room. He had that bad boy appeal that drove most women nuts and had them seriously fantasizing inside three minutes, and here I was with him inside me, and I swear, he looked at me almost the same way.

  I kissed him, not knowing or wanting to take anything for granted, but finding myself wishing anyway that this could and would last.

  “Lean back, baby. I’ve got you.” I did as I was told, trusting him, and he did indeed, have me. His broad hands at my lower back arms at my hips, held me up as I arched back, and he adjusted his sitting position.

  Oh, my God.

  I’d never felt anything like it as he moved inside of me, his cock hitting that spot that sent shivers out from my center, the tingling energy building in such a way, I almost swore I could come from it and it alone.


  I’d never been able to do that before. I always had to get my clit involved to orgasm, but in Fenris’ grasp, I was absolutely willing to believe anything was possible and it was as though he were a man possessed, determined to prove anything were possible.

  He drove himself up inside me with these short little strokes, agitating that secret place inside of me that sent stardust through my veins and took me to such unearthly heights. Higher and higher we climbed, and I gasped in rhythmic splendor at the sensations he wrought throughout my body.

  All the while he loved me like this, he whispered encouraging things, telling me I was beautiful, how good I felt, how sexy I was, all of these things that were almost impossible to believe, I mean, me? Surely, all of those things couldn’t be true about me. Yet with every thrust, every grunt, through every groan of pleasure he took in me? He edged me not only closer to my own orgasm, but closer and closer still toward believing, which was almost more pleasurable and wonderful than I could take.

  “Oh, God, oh, God, Fenris, I’m going to come!” I cried and his hold tightened on me even as I tightened around him just that last little bit. It took only one or two final jerking little thrusts to run himself over my G-spot and I came completely undone. The feral sound of my pleasure climbed from my throat and spilled out of my mouth in a veritable wolf’s howl of pleasure directed toward the ceiling, as he cried out himself and lost all semblance of rhythm, plunging into the warm bathwater abyss of afterglow sensation with me.

  We came back to one another almost too quickly, both panting, both shattered and still on the mend. It felt like Kintsugi to me. The artform out of Japan of mending broken things with gold at the seams. A beautiful way of recognizing the history of the object in question. I smiled down at Fenris and kissed him softly with gratitude – for mending me so beautifully, and for becoming a part of my history; that no matter what happened from here on out would always remain a treasured memory.

  I felt a deep awakening of emotion in that moment, frightening in its intensity. As he looked into my eyes, I saw it reflected in his, but also something deep and unspoken on his side – something akin to fear.