by Brook Wilder
I wanted to be the man she deserved, however broken and old I was.
“You alright?” She asked, taking a bite of her sandwich. “You have a funny look on your face.”
Well, now was as good a time as any. I angled the wheelchair toward her, grabbing her hand in mine. “You know I am grateful for everything you have done for me over these past few months. I don’t deserve to have you here, by my side, taking care of my shit when I can’t.”
Her expression softened and she squeezed my hand. “There’s nowhere else I would rather be, Damian. You know that.”
“I was kinda hoping you would say that,” I said, swallowing the emotion lodged in my throat. “Will you move in with me?”
Her eyes widened. “Are you sure? I mean, I practically live here now anyway, but I- are you sure you are ready for this?”
I reached into my pocket, pulling out the ring I had slid in there this morning. “I’m one hundred percent ready.”
Tears glistened in her eyes when she saw the diamond I held between my fingers, and she let out a little gasp.
“Marry me,” I said, my voice full of emotion. I loved her more than life itself. It was Elisa I wanted to wake up next to every morning, Elisa I wanted to bear our future children.
It was Elisa I wanted to fill this big house full of love and laughter with, giving me the life I thought I would never have.
And it was going to be Elisa’s name on my tongue, in my heart when I took my last breath, hopefully a long time from now. Now I understood what Chains and Crankshaft went through with their women. I understood why Chuckler had given up the club he loved to follow his wife and go domesticated.
I understood and I wanted to be part of that club.
“Oh Damian,” she said, tears streaming down her face. “Yes. Yes, I will marry you.”
Something broke free from my soul and I grinned, sliding the ring on her finger. “I love you.”
She leaned over, burying her face in my shoulder. “I love you, too. Oh my God, we’re engaged.”
Elisa seemed more shocked about it than I thought she would be.
“Wasn’t that your plan all along?” I teased.
She leaned back, arching a brow. “Are you saying I had you in my sights all along, Damian Gibson?”
“Yes ma’am,” I answered, wiping the tears from her cheeks. “And I am a better man for it.”
“My parents are going to be so surprised,” she whispered as I pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I mean, I just told them we were dating and now, I can’t believe this.”
Yeah, I couldn’t either, but it was what I wanted for the rest of my life. “Maybe they will like me again.” The first meeting with her parents after ten years had been awkward and I could see the hurt in their eyes for me abandoning them and Elisa when they needed comforting the most. I was going to make it up to them, to be that surrogate son I had been all those years ago.
Well, now I would be their son-in-law and the father of their future grandchildren. She was right, they were going to flip the fuck out.
But I wasn’t done. “I also want you to go back to work.”
Her mouth formed an ‘o.’ “W-what?”
“It’s wrong for me to hold you here,” I answered, finding the words coming out easier than I had estimated. “You love nursing. Whatever you decide to do, I’ve got your back one hundred percent.” If she decided to work across the border, I would be a madman, but I didn’t want to hold her back from her dream. Chains had been right. It was about compromise and trusting in your partner and I was going to trust in Elisa.
She swallowed. “Wow. I thought you would never say that. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” I answered, giving her a half smile. “But if you can, wait until I can get out of this damn wheelchair. I don’t want Chains washing my back and shit.”
Elisa shook her head, her eyes shining with happiness. “I’m not going back across the border. I don’t want to risk my life and lose this, lose you, so I will go back into the hospital and work there.”
Her words were like music to my ears. “Are you sure?” I asked.
She nodded, looking at the ring on her finger. “Especially now. I mean, I can’t plan a wedding from Mexico, can I?”
A weight lifted off my shoulders as I pulled her into my lap, pressing a kiss to her lips. “You know, you make me so fucking happy.”
Elisa slid off my lap, giving me a dirty look. “Now you know you can’t have any pressure on that leg! Damian, I swear.”
I grinned at her. “Alright, I know. I just can’t wait until we can get back to doing things the right way.” Of course, we hadn’t waited to pleasure one another in other ways, but sex was completely out of the question given my injury.
Two weeks. I had two weeks before he would cut me loose. “I hope you will be ready, love.”
“And I hope you know we will be taking it easy for the first couple of times,” she added, blowing me a kiss. “Eat your sandwich. I’ve got to go call Sabrina.”
I watched her nearly skip out of the room, happy she was happy with someone like me. After everything that we had been through, we still hadn’t completely given up on one another.
I planned to never do it again.
Chapter 25
Elisa
One Month Later
I held Damian’s hand as we sat in the waiting room along with half a dozen other club members from both parties, wondering how much longer it would be. When Damian had gotten the call this morning from Chains stating that Rivet, a woman in the Hell’s Bitches, had gone into labor, he had wasted no time getting us to the hospital.
It seemed they truly were a family and I was just learning about how tightly knit these guys were.
That and how much I loved the man next to me. Now that the wheelchair was gone, I was having a devil of a time keeping him still, reminding him to take it easy. His leg still bothered him, and he had a slight limp that would likely be permanent, but he was alive and whole.
That was all I could have ever hoped for.
The door opened and Ironsides stepped in, a big smile on his face. “It’s a baby.”
“No shit, sherlock,” Widow Maker muttered. “What kind of baby?”
“A girl,” he said proudly. “A healthy baby girl.”
The room erupted in cheers and congratulations, everyone crowding around the proud new father. I walked up with Damian as he slapped Ironsides on the back, a grin on his face as well.
“Well now, your sperm does produce girls after all.”
Ironsides burst into laughter, grabbing him up in a hug. “And the dead do walk. Thanks, man. I never thought I could be this fucking happy.”
“Congratulations,” I offered.
He released Damian, eyeing the ring on my finger. “Looks like someone else needs to get busy as well. How the hell did I get to be the first father out of all you fuckers?”
“It’s not from a lack of trying,” Damian grinned, wrapping his arm around my waist. I blushed, still not used to the crude ways they carried on sometimes. They had no filter and the longer I hung out around the club, the more I learned about these hardened bikers.
They weren’t so hardened after all.
“Come on,” Damian said, pushing me toward the door as Ironsides accepted another congratulatory hug. “Let’s get out of here.”
We walked out of the hospital and into the sunshine. A nice fall day in the heart of Texas. Instead of the truck, Damian had wanted to ride the bike though I was scared to death to let him do just that. It was the first time since his injury, and while the doctor had turned him loose, I still had my reservations.
That and I would probably have to listen to him complain tonight about how sore his leg was, prompting another massage.
“Want to ride?” he asked as I grabbed the helmet. “It’s a great day.”
“Sure,” I said, fastening the strap under my chin. A little sunshine would do us some good.
We cl
imbed on and he took off, my arms wrapped around his waist tightly as he zoomed toward the highway. While I had gotten somewhat used to the bike, it still scared me when he took off like that, feeling as if I was going to become a grease spot on the road at any moment.
Damian sped out of town and toward the mountains, giving me a chance to really enjoy the breeze on my face. I was unbelievably happy. I thought having my career, helping others in need, had been enough, but since Damian had come barreling back into my life, I realized I had a void there.
He had filled that void and I was looking forward to our time together, our future we would build. I had kept the promise to him about my job as well, taking up a PRN nursing job until I was sure he would be good on his own. It wasn’t about showing him I could do it. I knew I could go back to work.
It was about me maintaining a piece of myself I had worked so hard for. He had the club and I had my career.
All was good in the house.
After some miles, Damian pulled off a gravel path and I grinned when I realized where we were going. I hadn’t been this way in years and the last time I had come, it had been with him and Will. They were forever trying to find good watering holes to fish, and we had come across this one accidently one day while out on a joy ride. We’d spent that afternoon by the pond, me lazing around in my bathing suit while they attempted to fish.
It was a good memory.
Damian pulled the bike to a halt and shut off the engine. “It’s still here.”
I breathed in the clean air of the small oasis, taking in the crystal pond and grassy bank with its overhanging trees. “Yeah it is.”
He swung off and I climbed down, unhooking my helmet and leaving it on the seat. “It’s far too cold to swim.”
“Says who?” he grinned already removing his boots. “Come on. Live a little, Elisa.”
“You’re joking, right?” I asked as he stripped off his shirt, revealing the body I knew so well. “Damian that water has got to be in the sixties.”
“So?” he challenged, reaching for his jeans. “I’ll keep you warm.”
I just shook my head as his bare ass came into view, the only part on him that wasn’t tanned to perfection before he high tailed it down to the bank, sliding into the water. “Shit, it is cold.”
“I told you,” I said smugly, walking down to the bank still clothed. “One day you are going to listen to me.”
“One day,” he answered before grabbing my ankle and tugging. “You are going to learn not to come so close.”
I screamed his name as he pulled me into the pond, the cold water like a wall as I went under before coming up sputtering. “Oh my God, I am going to kill you!” I shouted, splashing water his way.
He swam around me, gliding through the water lazily. “Take your clothes off. They will dry before we have to go back.”
Angrily, I stripped off my clothes, mourning the waterlogged boots that would not be ready by the time we headed back, and spread them in the sunshine the best I could, ignoring my fiancée. “Next time, I am going to leave you.”
“You don’t know how to drive the bike,” he countered, coming up behind me and nibbling on my neck.
“I can learn,” I said stubbornly, my stomach turning into molten lava as he cupped my breasts with his hands.
He chuckled against my shoulder. “I’ll teach you then. We’ll get matching ones.”
Some of my anger dissolved as I felt him push on my bottom, sparks of anticipation spreading through my limbs. I couldn’t stay mad at him for long, especially when his hand was sliding down my side and touching the already aching center.
“Shit,” he growled, nipping at my shoulder. “What you do to me, Elisa, I can’t explain it.”
I bumped against him, whimpering when his fingers found my clit. I couldn’t either. It was like we were drawn to each other constantly and whenever we were apart, I longed for him.
We could be across the room and one heated look would send my heart racing, my body wilting with need for him.
It would always be him.
He slid inside me roughly from behind, his fingers still working on my clit as I realized my breasts were above the water line. If someone chose this very moment to come down that path, I would be on full display.
And I didn’t care.
“Come for me,” Damian said softly, moving in and out of me.
I bit my lip as the pressure rose inside of my body, the water splashing around us as he drove into me faster. Damian always took my body to the next level with each session we had, bringing me back to the brink more than once.
But today, I wanted to let go. I screamed his name as my body convulsed around his cock, feeling him stiffen in response, our bodies slapping together in some weird movement that was solely us. Damian gripped my hips and bent me closer to the water, driving into me with such fury that I came again, my knees nearly buckling.
“Shit,” he growled, stiffening against me as he poured into me with a groan. “Damn, that was good.”
I kept my face above the water, panting as he finished, the languid feeling already seeping through my bones. “That was crazy.”
He pulled me close as he slid out of me, pressing a kiss to my neck. “That was fucking awesome and I am going to pay for it dearly tonight with this damn leg of mine.”
I rotated in his arms until we were nose to nose. “You only did it so I could massage you.”
He kissed my nose, a grin on his handsome face. “No, I didn’t, but what a great fucking suggestion on your part, love.”
I laughed, wrapping my arms around his neck and holding him close, the water settling in around us. “Do you even know how much I love you?”
“Just as much as I love you,” he said against my ear. “And just think, we have probably two more hours until your clothes are dry.”
Epilogue
Eileen “Siren” Vaughn
I walked into Widow Maker’s office, surprised to see her here after such a long day. Rivet giving birth to her little daughter had been the highlight and the clubs were already starting to ramp up the partying that would carry long into the night.
Most nights, we were on our own. As the road captain for the Hell’s Bitches, I was in charge of watching out for the club, ensuring the women were ready at a moment’s notice.
Tonight wouldn’t be one of those nights. “You wanted to see me?”
“Come on in, Siren,” Widow Maker said, waving me to the chair in front of her desk. While most of the time she was over at the Jester’s club, I was glad to see her here. Many of us didn’t know how it was going to work when she and Chains got married, if the clubs would maintain their own independence, but so far, we had managed to do so.
Well, when the cartel wasn’t breathing down our necks.
Widow Maker collapsed into the chair, rubbing her forehead. “Damn, I have a horrible headache.”
“Your husband or the club?” I asked, my lips splitting into a smile.
She smiled as well, though hers was tinged with exhaustion. “Maybe a little of both. Sabrina was able to trace the source of the shell companies today.”
That was big news. The computer genius had been working on cracking the source for weeks now, with help from her father, and once we knew the source, it would give us an upper hand on the cartel. “Wow.”
“Yeah, wow,” she said. “It’s our own fucking government.”
“Our own government?” I asked, shocked.
Widow Maker nodded. “That was not the answer I ever thought I’d hear. That means this shit is bigger than we thought, and Voodoo played us.”
I frowned. Though I never truly met the undercover agent, I had heard how he’d nearly gotten Machine Gun killed with his missions, putting the Jesters in danger and trying to blackmail people to cater to his whim.
And now learning about this, it was going to blow the lid off any thoughts we had to the cartel only being responsible for these accounts, for the deaths of the villagers
in Mexico.
For everything. There was only one person who could likely tell us the truth and I had no interest in meeting him.
I would likely kill him for what he did to us.
“What are we going to do?” I asked instead.
“I don’t know,” Widow Maker admitted, blowing out a breath. “But I have a job for you, if you are up to it.”
“Sure,” I said immediately, feeling that familiar bubble of excitement well up in my chest. Lately the club had seemed full of relationships and babies. I hadn’t signed up for that shit. “Anything to get out of here for a while.”
