Melody would be out soon, but I may have broken more than I could fix.
But I would try. God, I would try. I didn’t want her to think she could ever get away from me. So I waited.
Three fucking months.
I spent the time away from her—the weeks, minutes, and hours raging together as I sank into business. Lana took her home, and, even without contact in the department, I knew the detectives would watch her. She’d embarrassed them when she didn’t give into their demands, and Lana had cleared her. Jasmin had disappeared, and they couldn’t get in touch with their “witness”.
To protect Melody, I’d kept her away. I cleaned house and tightened up ship. Prospects who deserved to be brought over were, and others were cut loose before they even realized I was President. The Honeys who’d proven themselves got picked up. Lana left, and I understood why she did. I couldn’t give her what she wanted, never could, but when it counted she took care of me.
And I took care of her.
Her new firm was put on Diamond Eater retainer, and the move gave her enough pull to make junior partner. The ink wasn’t quite dry on the deal, but I made sure I gave her my appreciation for taking care of Melody. Rex helped me clear up the outdated bylaws. They stayed in a tome, now displayed in my old room converted for club history. The Diamond Eaters were once more the group my father visualized, and I sat at their helm. The home of my childhood memories was gutted, redesigned to fit what I wanted in my future.
The last thing I did not have was her. My queen.
Her bed didn’t feel good as I sat on it. I stayed still as possible, worried I’d crash to the floor. She may as well have been sleeping on a damn cot. The twin mattress was pitiful and thin, the coils pressing into my ass. Her night table bore scars in the white paint, exposing dried wood. A glass filled with tepid water sat next to a big-face alarm clock. She didn’t live here. The studio apartment didn’t have her touch on it. White walls, ugly tan carpet, and minimal furniture. I wondered if she even did anything other than eat and sleep here.
It wouldn’t matter after today.
It took a bit of coercion, but this was my city. Her landlady allowed for the lease to be broken, and I paid her required sum. She could sell this place furnished, for all I cared. The only thing that would leave this apartment with me was Melody. Cars honked outside, and the city lights filtered into the room as the day turned to night. I didn’t move. My guys were all over the city, and they’d find her soon enough.
“Speak of the devil,” I said aloud when my phone rang. “Where is she, Lance?”
“She’s been picked up on her way from work and is en route now.”
“She wasn’t heading here?”
“No, looks like maybe she was heading toward Felthill.”
“I’m waiting,” I said, disconnecting the call.
To Felthill, where we met, where she looked for rough, hard sex because the pain inside was too much. I’d done that to her, sent her spiraling. But I couldn’t bring her back until the case was dropped, my house cleared, and I could give her what she deserved. A few minutes later, the door crashed opened and I heard her screech.
“You are out of you damn mind Gary. Let me go.”
“Can’t do that just yet, First Lady. Bear with me.
“First Lady? I’m not … just go away.”
The catch in her voice made me close my eyes and my heart trip. It still hurt her, thinking of me, what we shared, and who she was to the DE. But when Gary put her on her feet and spun her around, my heart sped up for a different reason. She was so fucking beautiful. Her dark hair fanned around her shoulders in a layered mane. She’d put highlights in it since I’d last seen her. The touches of red suited her and those soulful eyes. Her pouty lips trembled as she scrunched her nose. Dark, crescent eyelashes stuck together with mascara made her eyes larger in her small face. And she’d put makeup on today, in that pretty dark-brown-to-black way I still couldn’t understand how she achieved, but it made her eyes luminous. And she’d left her lips nude. Skinny black jeans covered her legs and a white tank top barely contained her full breasts. But what stood out the most, what made me fall back to the bed and buckle until my knees hit the floor, was the slight bump in her stomach.
“No way a man should get news like that over the phone,” Gary mumbled as he backpedaled out of the room.
“Were you going to tell me?” I asked, my voice breaking. Pregnant. My Melody was pregnant. I reached for her, but she cringed. I didn’t let her get away from me. Instead, I pulled her into my arms and kissed her stomach.
“It could be someone else’s,” she bit at me. She wanted to hurt me, I knew it, but it didn’t stop me from wanting to show her how stupid she sounded.
“It could, hmm?”
I stood and lifted her into my arms, looking at her couch to gauge if it was a better surface than her bed. No way was my pregnant First Lady going to lay on that again.
“Jack, put me down.”
“When I’m ready.” I gripped her to my chest and let her legs dangle before I worked at her jeans.
“No, leave it alone. I can’t do this. Not anymore, Jack.”
“I won’t. You can, and you will for the rest of your fucking life, Melody.”
I placed her on her couch, using my arm as a pillow under her head as I kept her tucked against me. She gripped my other wrist in her hand as I unbuttoned her jeans.
“Please,” she begged.
“Please, what? Find out how wet you are for me? Show you how I know for certain no other man has touched you? Or put us both out of our misery and show you just how much a fucking stupid man can love a woman so wrong for all the right reasons?”
Her hands trembled as she let me go, and black streaks of tears drizzled from her eyes. I smoothed her jeans out of my path and tucked my hand into her panties. Her soft hair tickled my palm.
“I can’t shave … anymore. The baby—”
“You think I care if you’re trimmed or not? Do you think I cared if you couldn’t walk anymore, or got sick? I am happier to have you back in my arms,” I whispered against her lips.
“But you left me.”
I did. I swallowed her cry and slid my finger inside of her. Like coming home, her wetness wrapped me in warm silk. Her inner walls met me with resistance and give at once. The way she would grip my cock would be heaven, if I could even get inside. I groaned into her mouth and moved my finger inside, making lazy circles on her clit with my palm.
“I won’t leave you again, I swear to God. It broke me to be without you, but I built you an empire,” I said against her lips. “I didn’t care about revenge or power. I could grasp those with my bare hands and walk away. I wanted somewhere you could feel safe, somewhere you could hold your head high, and no one would dare to look down on you because of your past.”
She arched her back, pressing her pussy down on my finger.
“I made a place where you will have the power to take a man’s life should he dare even look at you wrong, because while I may be the king, you are the goddess I worship, and I’ll make the fucking ground you walk on your altar.”
It had to be enough. Had to. I brought her pleasure, moving against her body and tossing her to new heights. And I gave her my pain, the salt of my tears seasoning our kisses as I begged her, pleaded with her silently to let me back in.
And, God have mercy, if she didn’t, I’d just take her anyway.
21
Melody
Jack didn’t let me go as he called for a pickup. I sat in his lap, still shaken from his confession and his touch as Lance, Rex, Gary, and Sloan packed my meager belongings into boxes and hauled them out. I left my keys on the living room coffee table and let Jack carry me out of my old life. I sat in the backseat of a BMW, courtesy of the former President, with Jack by my side. Chicago looked different to me. The night was warm, the city a priceless gem waiting for me to put it on. Lights dazzled downtown, and suburbia faded into open land as we traveled past
the clubhouse.
Jack never said a word, just kept my hand in his and caressed it with his thumb. We pulled up in front of a two-story brick house with a ton of bikes parked in a large cement driveway off to the left. Three grills were going, and music poured through large speakers in front of the house. I inhaled the scents I remembered so clearly, and used them to wash away the loneliness of the last three months. These were my people, drinking beer, Honeys laughing at some of their jokes, and Old Ladies sitting on their biker’s laps. Rex opened the door for me and I took his hand to get out the car. The crowd erupted, and my heart felt light.
“Welcome back,” Rex whispered, and I couldn’t contain my smile.
Jack never looked as good as he did at that moment as he stepped around the front of the car and came to my side. His jeans hung low on his hips, and a white t-shirt was under his cut—one that read “President” for all to see. His blond hair was slicked back from his face, and he’d grown a shadow of a beard along his strong jawline. In his hands, he carried a familiar cut I’d left behind when the cops had taken me, and I hadn’t been able to retrieve it when Lana had brought me home after I got out of jail.
“Stay home until he comes,” she’d told me.
I just didn’t think he ever would.
“Ready?” he asked.
I nodded, and he switched places with Rex to help me into my jacket. The supple leather rested heavy on my shoulders, a reminder of what I’d fought for and what I’d gotten in return.
“I’m not in the mood for a party,” Jack whispered in my ear.
“Neither am I.”
He lifted me into his arms and stalked through the house. People clapped Jack’s back as we passed, but he didn’t stop. I didn’t care about the décor, or what house this was. It didn’t make any difference where we were, as long as he found a bed and got in it with me. The second floor of the house was quieter as Jack headed straight back to a wide double door at the end of the hallway. He adjusted me to open the door and then carried me in before letting me down on my feet.
“Where—”
The room took my breath away. A large four-poster bed rose up in the center of the room, and sheer curtains draped down, enclosing the space. I stepped forward, drawn to the vision before me, the deep-red covers matching the Cherrywood. But the walls brought the room to life. I didn’t have any idea how he’d done it, but the four walls were covered with our story. In black paint, blocked off like a comic book, I relived where we’d started in that abandoned house, the gun in his hand and me on my knees. I traced over his bike as he brought me back to the clubhouse the first time. Every memory was there—The Gauntlet, the time in the woods, the cops taking me way, and a lonely strip of road I didn’t recognize. I frowned as I got closer to it.
“Samuel and Jasmin,” Jack said as I touched the wall. The end of our pain, the hell looking for our destruction. And on the bottom right a blank white space.
“What is this one for?”
“Another memory,” he said. I watched in shock as he sank to one knee and produced a black velvet box. When he opened it, a rose gold snake coiled in a circle and held a canary diamond in its fangs.
“Jack.”
“Say yes, Melody. Say you’ll save me from ever falling into the darkness again. Say you’ll save me from myself.”
“How did you do all this? I don’t understand.”
“I knew I’d come after you. I just needed to get things right so it would be free and clear when you came. If I reached out to you, the cops would know something was up. Once the case dropped, I came.”
“And this?” I asked, pointing to the walls.
“One of the guys is an artist, and we had your picture from the newscast. I explained everything to him, told him our story. He turned it into this.”
“I …don’t know what to say.”
“I’ve given you the answer, Firecracker. Just repeat it.”
That lopsided grin did it. How could I not say yes when he’d poured his heart out to me and I never wanted to be without him again? I couldn’t live another three minutes like I had the last three months.
“Yes.”
I giggled as he whooped and jumped to his feet. When he slid the engagement ring on my finger, the world clicked into the right space; I settled inside. No more fear. No more wondering if I would ever have a life worth living. With Jack, and the child I carried under my heart, I’d have everything I ever wanted.
“You know you’ll have a junior running around in about five months?”
“Junior? It’s a boy?”
I nodded my head and he swung me into his arms. So many times in my life I’d wondered why I didn’t die. Why, somehow, between drugs and the streets, I never gave up. As Jack stripped me of my clothes and followed suit, I knew. Because of this moment. My ring glittered in the light as I ran my hands up his arms and he settled between my legs. His full lips glided against mine, seeking entry, and I opened for him. Wet and moist, his tongued slid against mine and touched every dark hollow it could reach. I inhaled his breath, and he sucked back mine.
“I need you,” he whispered. “So much.”
My skin tightened and my toes curled. His lips teased along my neck and over my collarbone. There had been so many changes in my body since the pregnancy. I’d noticed more sensitivity and stronger urges. When Jack sucked one engorged nipple into his mouth, I gasped.
“You’re darker here,” he said around my flesh.
I couldn’t do more than nod. Jack rubbed his hands down my sides and over my legs. He massaged my muscles as he drew on my nipple, prolonging the pleasure, and yet it was soft, profound. We didn’t come together in a rush of violence and darkness, but with a sense of wonder, a heated wave crashing over my nerve endings. Desire built slowly through my system, leaking out of my body in a wet slide. He traded one nipple for another as I arched my back into him. The cool strands of his hair provided sharp contrast to the heat of his mouth as I gripped his head.
“More,” I begged.
He let my nipple go with a pop. “I’m not finished yet.”
The air kissed my damp nipples as he slid down my body.
“A future, our future, right here.”
His reverently whispered words broke my heart.
“You’ll be a great father, Jack. I know it.”
He knew what it was like to grow up without one, to be confused as to why he was left behind in the first place, never truly getting answers. I knew Jack wouldn’t do the same to our child, and I pitied the fool who thought he’d ever harm what belonged to us. Jack would turn the world red before he let a hair on either of our heads be harmed. I believed that with everything inside of me.
Tears trickled from my eyes as he kissed the soul we’d created in a line down over my belly. He nuzzled my flesh and whispered words I couldn’t understand as he went. And then his broad shoulders wedged between my legs, his hot breath skating over my pussy, and I couldn’t think anymore. He licked me from root to tip, swirling his tongue around my clit for added measure. I spiraled beneath him. Every swipe of his tongue pushed me faster. The scent of sex and need filled the room.
This was what I’d missed when I was separated from him. No other man in my life knew me the way he did, could read the signs of my body and give me my heart’s desire without even asking me. When Jack touched me, the world faded and the only thing that mattered was him. I twisted my fingers in his hair, pulling. I needed to give him something back. I need to taste him, memorize him, and assure myself he still belonged to me.
“Please.”
My broken plea made him lift his head. I watched as he licked my juices from lips and groaned.
“I’m still hungry.”
“I need you in my mouth, across my tongue.”
He froze for a heartbeat and then lifted to his knees. Agile as a panther, he crawled over my body until he straddled my chest. A white pearl of pre-cum hung on the tip of his cock, and I stuck my tongue out to catch it
.
“You’re going to drive me insane, you know that?”
“You won’t regret a minute of it,” I said with a smile.
Then I sucked the head of his cock into my mouth. hard velvet, that’s what Jack felt like against my tongue. His girth stretched my lips until they itched. All I could do was grip the covers as he helped me suck him, his abs clenching as he pushed back and forth. With each glide, he sank into my mouth deeper and deeper until he kissed the back of my throat and rested there. I knew what came next, the way his cock would cut off my oxygen as he ground against me. That high where I craved my next breath but I needed to taste the salt of his cum more.
But he pulled away.
“No.”
“I can’t, Melody. The baby—”
“Will be okay. I trust you to watch. I know you won’t hurt him.”
“What if I do?”
His worried gaze met mine and I slid out from under him. There was no way I wanted to go through five more months without Jack’s control. I needed that edge as much as anything. We both knew it. Using my body weight, I pushed him back on the bed until he sprawled on his ass. As I swallowed his cock back down, he tried to fight me off, but his hands were unsure, and I used it against him. I didn’t go easy as I bobbed up and down on him.
“Fuck, baby.”
Jack and I would never be normal, and it didn’t matter. I didn’t need him to make love to me to prove he cared. He’d killed for me, taken over a club when he hadn’t thought he’d ever step out of line because I’d asked him to. He may have believed he was nothing more than a monster, but I loved him that way. I’d never turn my back on him because he had blood on his hands.
Saliva poured out of my mouth as I slipped over his cock, making it easier to take him into my throat. When his fingers pulled my hair until my scalp ached, I knew I had him. His hips jack-knifed and he pushed my nose into his groin. I moaned, my throat vibrating with pleasure as he ground his cock against the walls of my throat.
“No more than that.”
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