by V. Theia
He didn’t so much as show a facial flicker.
“Grasping now, Sofia. Give some thought to what I said. Unlike you, I don’t throw out veiled threats.”
Kicking off the stand, he moved his bike forward, forcing her to move, or he’d go right over her.
She was a problem he was going to have to plug up.
But that wasn’t his only thought today.
Not when he laid eyes on Marianna as she pulled open the door even before he reached the top step to her apartment.
Like last night, she came into his arms, and all was fucking right again.
“Ah, darlin’. You missed me?”
“So much,” she whispered into his chest.
How could he not make his kiss so spectacularly hot to knock her socks off after that. When he pulled his lips back, he saw how glazed her eyes were.
Mission accomplished.
* * *
Oh, god.
Stars flashed behind her eyes.
Hungry and reaching for his lips.
He pressed his pelvis tightly against her, caging her in with his arms braced either side of her. His mouth dipped to her shoulder. It wasn’t hard to feel him, eh... hard. It swept all thoughts from her rampant mind.
“It is not fair to bring a weapon into the kitchen, Luke.” She chastised, pressing back on him.
He groaned, driving his hips into her ass. “I promise it has nothing but good intentions.”
Oh, she’d wager it didn’t.
There’d been no need to worry about how today would go.
The moment Tag stepped into her house, he’d put everyone at ease.
The children most of all.
It took no time at all for Lily. She climbed off Marianna’s lap and shyly made her way over to Tag sitting on the floor flipping through the stack of new books he’d brought for them. After thirty minutes, she was sitting on his lap giggling at all the voices he made as he read aloud.
It took Pasha longer. Throughout dinner he listened, as her boy was prone to do. He still wasn’t talking to her. Only to his sister. But Marianna noted how interested in Tag he was, especially when Tag dropped in how he’d take them to play in his gym.
Galina was in love with him.
He took it all in his stride.
Sending her saucy, lovely winks whenever their eyes met.
Now they were alone in the kitchen while she packed up the leftovers of his favorite shoofly pie for him to take home. “Trying to seduce me, darlin’? ‘Cause it’s working.”
“Oh, yeah?” Turning in his arms, rubbing against his hardness, he grunted a sexy noise. Offering her thumb up to his mouth, coated in pie cream.
It was a mistake because his suck was felt in her pussy. It was Marianna this time who moaned quietly as he cleaned her thumb with slow sucks.
“Baby boy…” she whimpered her sexual despair.
They were combustible energy, dying to come together in an almighty detonation.
He knocked her with his pelvis and her moan was turbo charged. Needy.
The counter was a good height for this; she thought. He could lift her onto the edge and pull open her legs. She could reach down for his belt, have it open in seconds, feel his solid length for herself. She loved swallowing his unrestrained moans.
She knew he loved when she got worked up and used clumsy, desperate hands on him.
Another slow hip thrust that drove them both crazy. “Feed me again,” Tag grunted. She didn’t hesitate. Dragging two fingers through the pie leftovers, she offered them up to Tag, brushing cream over his bottom lip. He took them into his waiting mouth, wrapping his tongue around them with a long suck.
Oh, god. She swore in Russian and he chuckled his amusement. Sucking harder. His eyes on fire as they watched each other keenly.
The dirty pull was felt everywhere.
In her organs, her mind, her thudding heart.
No warning. His mouth came down on hers.
The way he kissed her got her every time, his lips so full of desire it felt like a first kiss over and over. The biker knew how to send her mind reeling. A reckless kiss. A forgot-her-own-name kiss, all rolled up into a flawless configuration of outrageous happiness.
Each organ and molecule in Marianna’s body stretched to be part of him, aching to be joined as close as she could get.
Nothing was holding her back anymore.
She didn’t know how she existed without him or this feeling boiling through her system.
“Sweet, sweet girl.” He murmured, the compliment vibrating her lips.
He wrapped his arms around her, holding her as if he couldn’t ever fathom letting her go, never. She was so okay with that. Keep me forever, Luke.
Clutching him as hard, falling into the daze of his drugging Prince Charming kiss, a peace like sensation streamed through her veins.
Once she’d let all her feelings free the past few days, it was easy to admit her desires were solely in his captivity. Happily so.
There was no threshold to what she would give him.
His dominance continually drew her to him.
Tag was the sun, and she was Icarus, drawn by design and an unwillingness to not turn away.
She reached out, flattening a hand in the center of his chest—a jerk went through him, like a sensual electrocution. “Luke,” she exhaled. “Is all that thunder for me?”
She would swear she felt his shaft twitch against her stomach. “Yes.”
Marianna made an appreciative hum.
This between them wasn’t mental or sexual. It was chemical. Coming at them from all corners.
“Growing up, I only wished to be a mother.” She confessed in his arms.
“You are, darlin’. The best mom.”
She told him a secret, one that made her vulnerable. “And I wanted to be loved.”
With richness to his tone, and his head hanging low so she could see the blueness of his eyes, he said. “You are, darlin’. So fucking loved.” dropping a kiss to her nose, he took her breath. “You don’t have to be strong anymore. You don’t have to be the sole provider of taking care of yourself, that’s no longer your job, you leave it to me, you understand me?”
Her eyes filled with sudden tears right to the brim.
She’d unlocked all the doors and invited Tag in.
“There’s no need for you to go it alone anymore, for anything. You got a problem? I’ll deal with it. Someone is giving you shit? You tell me and I’ll handle it. You need something, you want something, you let me know. You want me? I’ll be there to fuck you to sleep. If there are difficulties, you and me, Anna, we ride it out together because when you love someone you hang in there, you make it right. You don’t need to do anything alone because you have me here.”
It was everything she’d wanted to hear. She rested her forehead to his chest and soaked every inch of him in.
It seemed unfeasible to ask for everything months ago.
Get her family back and keep the boy.
Now though? It was within her grasp. Everything she needed was right here. Marianna didn’t know whether to laugh with joy or bawl her eyes out.
Fingers toyed in her hair, his voice so deep.
“I wouldn’t give you up for anything, Marianna. Because when you find a love like this, you hold on tight to it. You do whatever you can to make it work. Make us a family, Anna. Give a worthless biker everything he never thought he wanted. I won’t quit. I won’t give up on us. I will love you enough for us both, so don’t worry about that. And when you let go, Anna, I’m gonna be here to catch you. That’s what a man so fucking crazy in love with you does.”
There were times in life, a woman knew how lucky she was.
Giving birth to two perfectly healthy babies.
Hearing mama for the first time.
Standing in front of a wonderful man while he declared his love in an open, honest way.
Stick a fork in her potato, Marianna was about to burst.
“Luk
e,” she exhaled his name, breathing in his cologne scent through his cotton shirt. She set her eyes up, ready to confess every feeling she had.
The moment wasn’t so much ruined as Galina interrupted it, calling out she was putting the kids to bed.
They laughed together, and he dropped a kiss to her nose. “Go tuck the kids in, I’ll clean up in here.”
In the doorway, she turned to see him stacking clean dishes, ready to put away. A wash of feeling for him almost tackled her by the knees.
In her home language she said, “you mean more to me than any man ever has or will. You are loved beyond reason, the man who has put fire back in my heart.”
The moment she started speaking, he swerved his head.
She watched his eyes darkening.
“Anna…” he rumbled in warning. Hot and sexy. She grinned at him, lighter than ever.
“Get back over here and tell me again in English.”
“Don’t forget to dry the cups, baby boy,” she said, blowing him a kiss. His hot, hot, hot growl following her out while she went to read a bedtime story.
* * *
Waiting until she locked up behind him, Tag hopped down the stairs with a big ass grin on his face.
He never stood a chance.
It was as though every fiber of his being was tied to hers.
She made him feel like he’d spent a lifetime deprived.
A poor motherfucker starved for her and didn’t even know it.
Talk about killing him, he’d sent her to bed after she’d yawned into his mouth. He wanted to be in bed beside her, rocking her wet girl world. He wanted to wring love out of her until she cried it into his mouth.
Instead, he was climbing onto his bike, hard as a rock.
Happier than ever.
To preserve that happiness, he had to make sure the Sofia irritation was not gonna snowball.
Tag roared his bike to life, gave a last look to his woman’s window, knowing soon they’d share the same bedroom, if he had anything to do with it.
A family.
They were his.
He didn’t know how or why.
But he’d die with the knowledge they were his to protect and provide for.
Turning toward the club, he headed to the place where they weren’t blood, but they were his family.
No other people he’d turn to when he needed help.
THIRTY-FOUR
“The ghost of uncovering secrets.” – Reaper
Days later, he got answers.
None that he liked.
“A fucking shrine?”
“Capone was with me, ask him.” Reaper, the usually quiet biker, hadn’t stopped bleating since he walked through the club doors. Hilarity in his New Zealand accent. Capone in tow, equally amused. “The chick has a shrine of you in her bedroom.”
“Photos.” Capone supplied, his lips twitching.
“We never took photos together.” Tag scowled.
He’d asked for a recon from the Reaper, he was good blending in sightless.
Tag wanted to know if there was any proof of her corruption with the mayor. Rider backed the idea, seeing as they were always looking for ways to have shit on the crooked city official.
“Well, she has plenty of you, hermano.” Sliding his phone from his pocket, Capone handed it over.
They were candid shots taken when he didn’t know.
Most from the gym. Some on his Harley. A couple were of him sleeping.
Fucking hell.
“Our Prince Charming got himself a Bonafide Glenn Close. That’s a bunny boiler for you young’uns who have no good taste in movies.” Preacher directed to the prospects.
“It’s lucky the Prince doesn’t have a pet.” Cackled Grinder.
“You found nothing else?”
“Didn’t have time to get into her laptop, she had it password protected. I was gonna try I heart Tag.” Smirked Reaper. Even Tag laughed. Asshole.
“You had a lucky escape, bro.” chimed Arson. He’d turned up this morning for work and looked okay. For how long, Tag didn’t know.
“Having proof she’s nuts doesn’t help me if she puts doubt about Marianna’s legal citizenship into question with immigration.”
“The passport and social security not gonna hold up?”
“They got her family here, but I don’t want to test it out if she’s put through checks to prove authenticity.”
“Blackmail.”
They turned to Arson.
“Blackmail always keeps people like her in check. You find something on her she doesn’t want uncovered.”
That’s what Tag had been trying to do by finding connections of corruption between Sofia and the higher ups. Nothing had rung true so far.
“Chicks always have a closet, bro. Dirty little bad girl secrets they don’t want their peers to know.” Arson shrugged, grabbed a bottle of water, and strode back out toward the shop.
It gave him something to think about for the rest of the day.
Blackmail.
If the worst happened and she opened her trap and ratted out her suspicions about Marianna, Tag wouldn’t have no ceiling on what he’d do to stop it. He’d put the bitch in a shallow grave.
He’d blackmail the only good sheriff the city had ever had and use Charlie Timmons to make the investigation disappear if he had to.
Crazy to think his dick could solve the problem if he were willing to fuck the woman and keep her mouth shut that way.
He’d rather put his dick in a cheese grater.
THIRTY-FIVE
“Do you swear fealty to the girl squad oath?” – Zara
Marianna knew it was going to be a good night when her girl Lana Del Rey was playing as their group piled into the bar.
There was no chance of her hanging back, maybe sitting in the corner. Not when Zara hooked her arm through Marianna’s and led her through the bar like royalty. Many people gave them a wide berth. She realized it was because they knew the women as biker women. Her now too. Little yay.
Zara, who’d called days ago to persuade her into a girl’s night out, said. “Ignore the stares. We always get it.”
“It’s because of my huge pregnancy tits.” Luxe commented, sliding into the booth. She had the cutest, tiniest little baby bump in her velvet dress and leather jacket.
“It can’t be my tits,” pregnant Roux butted in, sitting opposite in jeans and a silver shirt slashed in a V down the front. “Mine haven’t grown at all. Tad was so upset.”
Both of the girls only had a couple of weeks left to go.
Seats chosen. Drinks ordered.
The first hour went by fast.
She relaxed as they shared stories of their first times going to the clubhouse.
“I thought I’d wandered into a sex club.” Joked Zara, ice white curls bouncing around her face.
“Now look at you, you run that place.”
“Only the man in charge of it.” She beamed.
“Gia, did you ever make a play for Hawk at any of the parties?”
The dark-haired woman sitting beside Winter scoffed into her red cocktail, answering Ruby. “God, no. The moment dad got wind that Hawk had looked at me, he rushed us back to Austin. When I visited my brother, he wouldn’t let me go to the parties.”
“Frightened all those biker dicks would scare you.” Snorted Roux, who grew up in another MC. Marianna was learning so much. She laughed right along with them.
“What about you, Marianna, how did you rope Tag in?”
“Rope him?” She frowned, trying to translate it. “I haven’t tied him up yet.”
Everyone cracked up chuckling. “We have a kinky bitch among us, girls.”
“Roux is being nosy, she wants to know how you and Tag got together.” Zara helped her.
“Oh, that. Well, he gave me a job and an apartment. And then he just… didn’t let me forget he existed.”
“Sneaky Prince Charming,” laughed one.
“How could you? He’s so
pretty.” This from the youngest of the group, Angela. Marianna grinned at her. She was not wrong at all. He was the prettiest man she’d ever seen.
“Did you know TAG stands for That’s All Good? I bet he is.”
Mmm, yes.
“What happened to your baby daddy, is he still in the picture?”
Marianna was unsurprised by the question, even more so she didn’t mind sharing. “No. He’s dead.”
“Oh, shit.” Replied Roux. They all gave her looks of sympathy.
Marianna chuckled and their eyebrows shot up. “I am not sad about it. I’m glad he’s dead, he was, how do you say? A conniving dickhead.”
“Then good fucking riddance.” As a cackling group, she felt she could come to like them very much. They all lifted their glasses and toasted.
Hour two passed as quickly.
More drinks.
Lots of laughter and sharing.
She liked these women a lot.
“Don’t be afraid of this blonde monster,” Warned Gia, nudging her sister-in-law. “She gets a sniff of a new biker old lady and she recruits them into her girl squad. Get good at saying no to her. She doesn’t listen, but it feels good to pretend you have some say in the squad.”
She’d love to be in their squad.
“I think I’m ready to have sex.” Angela announced, sipping her alcohol-free cocktail. Marianna didn’t know the girl, so she didn’t understand the shock waves going around the table. They turned their heads cartoon fast.
“Oh, sweetie.” Zara frowned.
“Get on the pill.” Advised Roux. “And buy lots of condoms, don’t assume he’ll have them. College guys are dirty pigs. And if he says he can’t wear them or he’s too big, tell him to fuck off. Always use condoms, girlie.”
“I thought you weren’t dating Josh anymore.” Zara asked, who she now knew was like a second mom to Angela.
“I’m not. He went to UCLA. We talk sometimes, but I wasn’t interested in having sex with him when we did date.”
Marianna knew from the earlier introduction she was in her first year at Denver college. She didn’t know the girl and didn’t feel it was her right to have an input. But Marianna was a mom, and she’d want another mom to give her Lily-pad advice in this situation too.