by Jessie Cooke
“Shit, that was, what? Ten years ago?”
“Twelve,” Beck said, with a little smile in Bruf’s direction. Bruf wasn’t smiling. His green eyes looked almost pained. Wolf was starting to think he was going to have to separate them to get any answers from either. “We going to talk about me saving your life?” Beck asked.
“You saved my life?” Wolf wasn’t being an asshole. When all the shooting took place, he was slamming Alex into the concrete. He had no idea yet who shot whom.
“She shot the guy that was about to shoot you, Boss,” Jace said. Wolf had just assumed Jace and Bruf had shot them.
“Where were you?” he asked Beck.
“I drove up out front when all the shit was going down. I saw that guy about to ambush you and I took care of him. For a second, while you were on the floor, I thought you were Coyote. You look a lot like him.” Something about the way she talked about Coyote was much fonder and more familiar than most people. Wolf’s father hadn’t been blessed with many social skills, so he wasn’t always everyone’s favorite person. He wanted to know what it was about Coyote this girl liked so much...but first, he wanted to talk to Bruf, alone.
“Well, thanks,” he said to Beck. She rolled her eyes. Wolf was pretty sure he didn’t like this woman already. She was beautiful...gorgeous, as a matter of fact. Her hair was like white gold and in crazy ringlets all over her head. Her eyes were light blue, almost translucent. Her skin was flawless and she wasn’t wearing a stitch of makeup. She had big, full lips and high cheekbones. But she also seemed to be carrying a chip on her shoulder for some reason, and he got the feeling she expected something in return for “saving his life.” “Jace, why don’t you go get some rest?” he said to the big man. Jace looked dead on his feet.
“You mind if I work a little longer, Boss? I want that bike ready in time for the party tomorrow. You think it’s okay to use the shop?”
“The police cleared it to be used. And no, I don’t mind. But you look exhausted, so make sure you get some rest.” Jace nodded at him and before he left, Wolf said, “Hey, Jace, thanks for having our backs out there.” Beck rolled her eyes again. Wolf could see her out of the corner of his. He tried to ignore her and keep his focus on Jace, who nodded again and said:
“Of course, Boss. Good night.” Once he was gone, Wolf focused his dark eyes back on Beck. He wasn’t sure what to do with her. He wanted her close, to keep an eye on her, and at the same time, he wanted her far enough away so that the mischief he could see in her eyes wasn’t going to spill out all over his club.
“You live around here?”
“No.” He waited and when she didn’t go on he said:
“Where do you live?”
“Arizona, I suppose. At least, that’s where I’m from, Phoenix. I haven’t been home in a few years.”
“You have a place to stay, tonight?”
“Nope, but I can find one.” She looked at Bruf, like a cat looking at a big, fat, juicy canary. Wolf was glad once again that his sister wasn’t there. Sabrina would kill a woman for looking at Bruf like that. In hand-to-hand combat with this one, she’d lose, he was sure...but Sabrina would be smart enough to be armed. Wolf couldn’t go to bed and sleep that night until he at least knew what that shit was about.
“I’ve got a room upstairs you’re welcome to use for tonight,” he said. As much as he was sure he didn’t like her, she had helped him out, and it was late.
She stood up and for the first time Wolf noticed that even through her jeans and t-shirt he could see how hard her body was. She had biceps and even her forearms looked tight. She was definitely interesting...if nothing else. “I’ll take it,” she said. “Point me in the direction. I’d like to take a shower.”
“Up the stairs, first door on the right. It should be unlocked.”
“Thanks.” She looked at Bruf again and winked. “See ya later, soldier.” Like a soldier, Bruf stared straight ahead and didn’t even blink. Wolf wondered if that was it. Does Bruf know her from the army? He said he met her when he was riding with Coyote, but they seemed awfully familiar for one meeting. “By the way,” she said, before walking out the door, “I had some business I came to discuss with Coyote. You have some time in the morning when you and I can talk?”
Wolf cringed at the thought of what business she and Coyote might have had, but he did want a chance to talk to her in private. He nodded and said, “Here, at nine.” She gave him a thumbs up, and left. As soon as she was gone, Bruf dropped down into the chair behind him, like all his strength was suddenly gone. He leaned forward and ran a hand through his hair with his good arm and Wolf could see the other one shaking. He hadn’t seen anything ruffle Bruf like this since he had to admit his ties to the white supremacist organization that his brother ran. “Talk to me. What’s going on between the two of you?”
Bruf looked up at him. His green eyes were wide. “Nothing, Wolf, there’s nothing going on between us. You have to believe that. I’m crazy about Sabrina. I’d never cheat on her. I’d never hurt her.”
“I know that,” Wolf said, “but there’s something between the two of you, or there was at some time, am I right?”
Bruf sighed. “Yeah, Boss, you’re right. I met Beck, like I told you, on that ride with Coyote to Boston. We stopped in Phoenix and Coyote told me that when he was on his way out to California, before you were born and before this club was even started, he ran into a pregnant lady on the side of the road. He delivered that girl, Wolf. Coyote brought that little wildcat into the world.”
“Fuck. Coyote? He delivered a fucking baby?”
Bruf nodded. He looked like it was as hard for him to imagine as for Wolf but he said, “I saw them together. Coyote and her mom and she had this crazy bond.”
“And you?”
He rubbed his face with his hand, hard. “That day...she was coming on to me strong. I was young, horny all the fucking time, and she was hot as hell. We fucked in the backyard, in a shed. Coyote caught us...”
“Son of a bitch. That’s why you showed back up here with the shit beaten out of you?”
“Yeah. Coyote fucked me up.”
“But you’re sure she’s not his kid?”
“Yeah, pretty sure. That’s the story I got, from all of them. Her real dad was killed in the war. She never met him. She seemed to like her stepdad, but Coyote...she had this hero worship for him. And he had this crazy kind of visible love for her. He even let her talk about getting patched into the club someday without shutting her down.” Wolf cocked an eyebrow and Bruf said, “I know, crazy, right? She was in the navy then and she wanted to be a SEAL. I don’t know what happened with that. As far as I know, they still don’t let women into Special Forces.”
“She’s not in the navy any longer?”
Bruf shook his head. “I don’t know. The last time I heard from her was in 2009. I got a letter from her...a three-year-old letter.” Again, he put his head down into his hands. Wolf had a feeling that Bruf wasn’t finished with the story and he’d saved the worst for last.
“Bruf...I need you to be straight with me.”
Bruf nodded, rubbed his chin, and said, “That day I fucked her, she says the condom broke.”
“Oh, fuck no.”
Bruf was nodding. Wolf felt sick to his stomach. Sabrina...fuck. “She told me she gave the baby up for adoption. I never heard from her again after that...until today.”
4
Jace was covered with sweat again by the time he finished the bike, but working on it had calmed him down, considerably. This was where he was in his element, in the shop, building or customizing a bike. This one was different than anything he’d ever done, and he hoped that Wolf would be happy with the finished project.
Jace had been in the middle of customizing a bike for a collector in Connecticut when Wolf called him this time. When Wolf told him what he needed, he handed the job over to his best employee, packed his saddlebags, and headed for California. One of Wolf’s men, a guy they called Che
ney, had a boy named Nathan. Nathan was turning thirteen and his biggest wish in life was to have a Harley like his dad and all the men he looked up to. The problem with that was, Nathan was autistic. He had Asperger’s, which Wolf took the time to explain to Jace when he called. What Jace didn’t tell Wolf was that he didn’t need an explanation. Jace knew all too well what Asperger’s was. He had a sister on the spectrum. She was twenty-one now, but she functioned socially on the level of a ten-year-old. Cognitively, however, she blew them all out of the water. She was a genius, and Jace had been in awe of her almost since the day she was born. So, even though he had never met Nate, he couldn’t wait to see the boy’s face when he saw his Harley.
Jace had Wolf buy a toy motorcycle before he got there. It was one of those you buy your kids and they drive around on it at 2-3 miles per hour and you plug it in and recharge it at night. Jace took it completely apart and began building on the frame. He kept it battery-powered but he had souped it up so that it would top out at 10 mph. He installed gears similar to those on a real bike, but much easier to use. He put a chrome “gas” tank on it that he made himself and custom painted. The saddlebags were also exactly the same as Nate’s dad’s. The leather was pressed and stamped with the Skulls’ emblem. Leatherwork was new for Jace, but he was proud of how it had come out. He asked Wolf to get the kid’s measurements, arm and leg length, so he’d be absolutely certain it would all fit him. He put ape hangars on, much lighter than his dad’s of course, but an exact replica. The completed bike, once he’d put real tires on it and chrome pipes, was a much smaller twin of the Softail Harley Cheney rode and Nathan coveted. With a surprisingly gentle touch, Jace took a soft cloth and polished his fingerprints and grease off the bike. Once it was shining, he stood back and took one last look at it. He was proud of what he’d accomplished and finally, at almost four in the morning, he went back to the clubhouse and up the stairs as quietly as he could.
Jace was letting himself into the room that Wolf always assigned him to, when he heard a door open behind him. “Thought you might be Bruf.” Jace turned, intending to tell the woman, Beck, that Bruf was probably home in bed with his old lady, but the words stuck in his throat. She had been incredibly hot in her jeans and t-shirt earlier and Jace hadn’t failed to notice. But now she was dressed only in a white t-shirt that came to the tops of her thighs. Maybe she had panties on underneath, but Jace would rather imagine that she didn’t. She definitely wasn’t wearing a bra. The large, dark nipples pressing into the front of the white t-shirt told that story and made his cock twitch in his jeans. Her hair was a mess, but it was sexy and after she spoke, she brought the bottle of whiskey she had in her hand up to her blow-me lips and wrapped them around it. God...if he could only have an hour with a woman like that, just once in his life, he’d die a happy man.
“Nope,” he said. “Sorry.” He turned his back to her, in as much as he would have loved to keep his eyes on those long, toned, tanned legs, and slid his key in the lock.
“You wanna have a drink with me?”
Everything inside of Jace froze in time. He would swear that his heart stopped beating. His lungs stopped taking in air. His stomach stopped churning. He was like a fucking statue. Jace knew he wasn’t attractive to women. They were afraid of him, mostly. He was scarred from head to toe and his eyes had been likened to those of the devil by more than one woman. He’d given up even trying with the pretty ones a long time ago. He’d learned to settle for the women the other men overlooked. He took the leftovers, and he learned to live with it. Even those women weren’t looking for anything permanent, a relationship, with the big, scary, quiet, private man. His life was a series of one-night-stands, and even a drink with a woman like the one standing behind him would be more than he could ever hope for. But she’d just asked him if he wanted to have a drink. Fuck. What should I do? Finally able to take a breath, he turned back around. She’d crossed one leg over the other. She had on a pair of fuzzy socks and for some reason he found that extremely sexy as well.
“I need a shower,” he said.
She took another drink of the whiskey and he couldn’t help but wish the neck of that bottle was his half-hard cock. When she finished her drink she said, “I’ll wait.” She had already killed half the bottle, so he doubted that she’d wait...but maybe she was talking about something else? No. No fucking way. He rarely showed any emotion when people were around, but this time when he sucked in a breath, even he heard the way it shook as he pulled it in.
“Okay.”
She raised her bottle to him, smiled, and turned her back. He wasn’t sure if he could see the cheeks of her sexy ass, or if his imagination was running wild, but there was no “half-hard” about his cock any longer. It was like a long, hard rod in his jeans and it was uncomfortable as hell. Looking back over her shoulder she batted her long eyelashes and said, “Just come on over when you’re done. What’s your name again?”
“Jace.” The sound of her calling him an “ape” earlier tried to permeate...but he snuffed it out.
“Okay, Jace, don’t worry about dressing for me. Dressing up, I mean,” she said with a wicked grin, before kicking the door closed with her foot. Jace reached for his own doorknob. His hand was shaking and so slick with sweat that he could hardly turn the knob. Once he was inside he had to lean against the door and catch his breath. This girl was playing with him, he was sure of it...but what did he really have to lose?
Once he could move again, Jace took a record fast shower, threw on a clean t-shirt and a pair of sweats, and then picked up his comb and looked at himself in the mirror. He curled his lip and wondered for the first time why God couldn’t have blessed him with at least one attractive feature. He brought his hand up and touched the thick, rope-like scar on his neck and traced his fingers up along his jawline, where under the stubble were more scars, smaller and less noticeable, but they were there. For a while he had worn a beard that covered those and the one on his neck. But when he had gone to visit his little sister, she screamed and ran from him. It took him and the nurses some time to figure it out, but they finally realized it was the beard she was terrified of. So, he had shaved it and hadn’t let it grow back. Frowning at himself again, he ran the comb through his short, dark hair and brushed his teeth and with one more shaky breath, he forced himself out the door and across the hall before he changed his mind.
Beck was at the door again before he even knocked. Fuck, he wanted to touch her. She looked up at him from underneath her long eyelashes and smiled again. She was flirting with him. Why? Who the fuck cares? “Well, hello there, Jace. Come on in.” She stepped out of the way and let him inside. The room smelled like coconut oil and Jace decided suddenly that was his favorite new smell. “Have a seat,” she said, waving her arm at the bed. There were two chairs in the room, but he took a seat on the bed like she told him to. She picked up the bottle of whiskey off the nightstand and said, “Sorry. I picked up the bottle downstairs but I don’t have any glasses.”
“I don’t mind.”
She smiled and handed him the bottle. Their fingers brushed as he took it and that almost made his heart explode...but when she sat down next to him with her bare thigh brushing against him and the t-shirt riding up...he felt like his death was imminent. But what a way to go. He took a big gulp of the whiskey out of the bottle and handed it back to her. She sat it on the dresser and said.
“Cigarette?”
“Nah, I’m good.”
“I’d offer you a joint but I don’t have any. Do you?”
“’Fraid not.”
“It’s okay. You wanna fuck?”
Jace felt like he was having a heart attack. He felt like if he lifted his hands up off his thighs, the sweat would roll off his palms. He could hear his own ragged breaths inside his head, and thanks to most of the blood in his body rushing to his cock at the mention of fucking this incredible woman, he could barely think clearly enough to form a sentence. So, he didn’t even try. Instead, he just said:
“Yep.” And that seemed to be enough. Beck stood up in front of him and he watched, wide-eyed and shaking inside and out, as she reached down and slowly pulled up the t-shirt. As she did, her white lace panties came into view. They were tiny and they barely covered her pussy, but they were there and Jace’s eyes were focused on them. His gaze was glued to that “V” between her thighs, right up until he heard her clear her throat. He looked up and his eyes froze on the most gorgeous pair of full, firm breasts and big, dark nipples that he’d ever imagined, much less been lucky enough to see. “Jesus,” he whispered, without even realizing he was speaking. Beck smiled and turned her back to him. He groaned when he saw that the panties were a thong, and a thin strap of lace around her slim hips was all he could see of them. The rest of her was completely and gloriously naked. He watched with a dry mouth and rapidly beating heart while she hooked her thumbs in the sides of them and bent forward slightly...shimmying them down, shaking her ass and making him groan out loud again.
When she turned back around to face him she said, “Don’t you want to touch me, Jace?” God, did he ever. He wanted to touch her worse than he ever wanted to do anything in his life, at least that he could remember. His hands were so rough, though, and she looked so smooth. He was almost afraid that his touch would be like sandpaper on her skin. She lowered her sexy voice, though, and said, “Touch me. Feel me.” He could feel sweat forming around his hairline as he lifted his hands, in slow motion, and put them on her breasts. She let out a little sigh that, again, almost killed him and with every ounce of self-control he had, he forced all his doubts and his ideas that she was way too fucking hot for him away...and it was on.
5
Jace moved his hands up to her face and pulled her down to his mouth. He suddenly had to taste those lips. At first she seemed almost resistant to the kiss, but once Jace had his tongue in her mouth, she began to relax into it...and then to return the kiss with a passion that Jace felt was devouring his very soul. He pulled her down so she was in his lap, and she pushed him back and lay on top of him. He couldn’t believe this perfect, sexy, naked woman was on top of him. He couldn’t believe he was kissing this hot girl. He pulled her against him tighter and his cock throbbed harder and he realized at that moment that he had never, ever wanted anyone the way he wanted her. Somehow, something inside of him was screaming that going any further with her would be life altering and possibly earth-shattering. He felt her delicate fingers reach up and tangle through his hair and realized that he didn’t care...about anything else at that moment but her. The kiss only grew hotter as she squirmed around on top of him, pulling his hair and scratching at his scalp. It was a fierce kiss, wild and untamed and hungry. So fucking hot. Her tongue flicked against his, tangled up with it, wrestled with it, and there wasn’t a part of his mouth that didn’t feel it...there wasn’t a part of his body that didn’t feel it, and greedily want to feel more.