“I didn’t understand that concept before. I have it with Zeke and Sul, but I didn’t think anyone else could get under my skin in that way.”
“I’ll stand by you if that’s what you want,” she told me, though her voice was low and she wouldn’t meet my eyes with her own.
“Gretchen, it’s more than that. If I patch in tonight, it’s not just me patching in. I’ll have a property patch for you to wear too.”
“What?” The one word was screeched out. “I can’t do that.”
“Why not?” She didn’t answer and just stared at me. It wasn’t like she was looking at me though, more that she was seeing through me and right into her past. “You said yourself that Toby vouched for most of the guys. You know why I’m doing this.”
“Look what happened to Ever,” she told me. “What if that happens again, only it’s me they’re after this time?”
“Do you honestly think I’d allow that to happen?”
She hesitated just long enough to make me wonder how she saw me, or our relationship. “It’s not that I don’t trust you. I just can’t wrap my head around having to be involved with people that I’ve blamed for the loss of my baby and for Toby all this time.”
“You need time?”
“Yes. No.” She shook her head then. “No, I don’t. I know what I need to do for you.”
“Nope. Take me out of the equation. What do you need to do for you, G?”
“I need to run away from this town and never look back,” she commented then sputtered out a half-assed laugh. “That’s what I want to do every time I have a tough decision to make though. I want to be by your side and help you figure out who was behind everything.” I started to argue that she would not be doing that, but she cut me off before I could get a single word out. “Don’t worry, I know you won’t allow it and that I won’t be able to know about club business enough to be of any help anyway. I still want to be there to support you while you do it though. It’s important to both of us and to Ever, even though she doesn’t know that’s what you’re up to.”
“So, you’ll go tonight and accept my patch?”
Gretchen sighed deeply and almost sarcastically. “I’ll go. Wearing your patch won’t be too much of a hardship, I suppose.”
“Do you think Ever and Anna will be here?” Gretchen asked as we pulled up to the clubhouse.
“No way of knowing, G. I promise, we won’t stay long if you’re uncomfortable here.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. This is your special night with the club. We’ll stay as long as we need to.”
“I love you, G.” I leaned down and took her lips with my own, stamping my love there so she wouldn’t forget as she was forced to face a place she had turned into a monster inside of her own mind. Not that I could blame her for doing so, with all things considered. I was hoping the evil element had already been taken care of with Crow’s forced move to Florida, but that remained to be seen for now. The parking lot was thick with bikes and a few cars and trucks meaning we were probably among the last people to arrive. I tucked Gretchen in my arm and started walking her toward the door. “Let’s go ahead on in and get this over with.”
She huffed out a laugh. “I’m pretty sure that’s not supposed to be the attitude of a prospect who might be made full member.”
“Pretty sure most prospects don’t already have the woman of their dreams waiting to be taken home and ravished.”
Gretchen came to a full stop. “Ravished, you say?” The playful gleam in her eyes made my chest squeeze. “Maybe we should just call it good now and head back.” She turned on her heel like she was about to leave, but I grabbed her up around the waist and started digging my fingers in, tickling the shit out of her. The peels of laughter that came from her were worth everything.
“You two going to keep this shit up out here or get your asses inside?” Merc called from the door. “Pretty sure your attendance is required inside Prospect!” He didn’t wait for our response, instead he turned and walked back inside.
Gretchen’s laughter died off then. “Well that sounded ominous.”
I just grinned. “He’s just doing his damn job. Let’s go, babe.” The minute our feet passed over the threshold, loud and raucous cheering rang out around the room. It was a late night event and clearly the men had organized for dancers from some of the club’s establishments to be on hand for the night.
“I’m guess that’ll be a ‘no’ to Anna being here with the baby then,” Gretchen whisper-hissed into my ear. Damn. I’d like to know who thought it would be a good idea to have dancers. They weren’t exactly in the club whore territory, but seeing them through G’s eyes, it still didn’t sit right with me. Merc came over immediately and, without a whole fuck load of pomp and circumstance, turned me around, took the prospect kutte I’d been wearing from my shoulders and placed a new one on me. I glanced down to see the road name I’d been given. Irons. Well, at least it was fitting, but not ridiculous. Once the new kutte was in place, Merc turned me back around and punched the shit out of my chest, right over where I’d just been admiring my road name.
“Welcome our newest brother to the fold, Irons!” His voice carried across the crowd and was greeted with a riotous round of my new name being echoed throughout. Merc stepped aside and was quickly replaced by the chapter Vice President, Sandman, who punched the same spot on my chest. Damn, I was beginning to understand what was happening. They were each going to get their hit in, pounding my name into the flesh to seal the deal. By the time I felt the fifth jab of the night, it occurred to me that I didn’t feel Gretchen’s warmth by my side any longer. I glanced around in a damn panic until I spotted her sitting between Merc and his woman. He tipped his head to me and I let out the breath I’d been holding since I realized she wasn’t there. He had protected my woman from the chaos he knew was coming my way, and I owed him for that.
Once every brother from the local chapter, along with a few visiting members, got their hits in, I was swarmed by the dancers. That shit was not happening though. “NO!” I bellowed out when several of them moved in and started touching me. They all immediately backed off. “You do not get to touch me, ever!” I warned them all. Someone turned the music off at that point. “Gretchen?” I called out and watched as her eyes rounded out in surprise. “Come on, sweetheart, get over here.” She slipped off the stool she had been perched on and the sea of people between us parted for her to get through. Once she was standing in front of me, I turned her so that she faced out towards my new brothers, the dancers, and any hang arounds that were in the clubhouse.
“This is my woman. She is the only female who gets to put her hands on me. You disrespect her by doing it, you disrespect me, and I don’t care if I was just patched in, it won’t be tolerated. She is my woman, that means she’s also claimed and off limits.”
“Better patch her up, because that is one fine piece of ass,” some idiot called from the back. For the most part, I ignored it, because Merc was standing before us with another, much smaller, kutte waiting to be placed on my woman. I grabbed it from him and did just that. I’d asked him to have it ready for her since I didn’t know what the fucker was going to give me as a road name I wasn’t able to get her property patch ready myself.
“I’ll take care of the asshole who just disrespected your woman,” Merc said to me before walking away after handing me the kutte that would go on Gretchen.
“Babe, this is it. When I said you were mine, I meant it.” The whispered words in her ear and against her neck as I slid her kutte into place sent a shiver down her body and raised goosebumps across her peaches and cream flesh. “Love you, G.” I leaned over to whisper in the other ear. Her eyes were shiny when she turned to look up at me. I don’t know what she was thinking in that moment, but my thoughts ran to Toby. This is what he should have done for her from the beginning. Had he claimed his woman properly, maybe the rest would have been easier to deal with, and the puppet master pulling the strings behind the scenes wouldn’
t have had such a foothold.
Gretchen turned and wrapped her arms around me. She didn’t punch me in the spot where my road name lingered over my chest. Instead, she placed a hand there, reverently as she looked me in the eye. “Always, Irons.” If I hadn’t already given this woman my heart, it would have been hers for the taking right then as she not only pledged her forever to me, but her acceptance of who I was now. It was only then that I noticed the name Merc had put on her kutte for me. Sweet G. How fucking fitting!
We stuck around for the party because it would have been a shit thing to do to just grab my place in the club and go. That didn’t mean I wasn’t wishing every single minute away until I could have Gretchen to myself. That also didn’t mean my woman didn’t use her time wisely. She found Joker and made sure that we could stop by the next day for some baby cuddles. I supposed that meant I had plans the following night. Despite being hounded by some of the older men in the club, I didn’t drink. There was never a reason for me to take a room at the clubhouse since I had my own place, and I didn’t plan on spending the night there. That meant I had to get my woman home in one piece and drinking was off the table for me. Honestly, the happier I was in my life, the less I felt I needed to drink. I didn’t need my perception fucked with to have a good time or be happy. There wasn’t a fucking substance on the Earth that could have made me feel better than having G in my arms, or seeing that Sully and Zeke had been invited to see me patched in as well.
There were no hangovers to contend with in the morning. The sole reason I couldn’t be bothered to drag myself out of bed was the woman lying in it beside me. “Come on, Kane!” She whined to me so sweetly, she didn’t realize she was causing the delay all by herself.
“Sweet G,” I called her, causing her to flush. “There’s no way I can hold a tiny little baby girl with this going on.” I threw the covers back and showed her my hard as fuck cock to drill home the point. “You’re going to have to help me out here if you want to motivate me to get up and go.”
“Mmm,” she moaned, her voice still having that sexy, sleepy edge to it. “What do you think I should do to help you out?”
I just waggled my eyebrows at her and glanced down at my throbbing dick. “Babe, someone has to relieve this pressure.”
Gretchen laughed before taking a hold of me stroking leisurely up and down my shaft a few times. “Is this working for you?” Her words were as much of a tease as the loose grip she had on me.
“Woman, if you don’t get serious about it, I’m gonna have to take control.”
“Who says I’m not serious?” She pouted before tightening her grip on me and stroking harder. My Sweet G had me growling out in ecstasy moments later as she leaned over and took me with her mouth.
“Jesus, fuck! So goddamn good,” I hissed out as she took my length as far to the back of her throat as she could get. Then she hollowed her cheeks out, swallowed, and hummed. It seemed like it all happened simultaneously even though I knew better. What it did was leave me feeling like a pre-teen kid about to blow too quickly. I couldn’t have that so I yanked her up off my dick, tossed her down on her back, and dove between her legs. “Let’s see how you like being tormented.”
“You’re putting your mouth on me. I think I’ll like that just fiiiiine!” The last word was drawn out on a long hiss as I clamped down firmly on her clit. Then as soon as her hips were moving and Gretchen was trying to chase down her release I let off and kissed down her thigh before switching to the other leg.
“Kane!” She was begging, the whiny tone of voice not missed by me.
“See how it feels to be teased, sweetheart?”
She laughed at me then as I sheathed myself in a rubber. There was no more playing around. I needed to get off and I was going to take her with me. Sinking inside of Gretchen felt just like coming home. “So fucking perfect, G.”
“Yeah, you are,” she confirmed in a dreamy, breathy tone as her hips came up to meet mine on the downstroke. “Harder, baby!” There was never a doubt that I would oblige her request. Instead, I reached beneath my woman, tilting her hips up just enough so that I was hitting her spot with every hard thrust in and every dragging, slow pull back out.
“Need you to touch yourself, G. I’m so close. You have to get there.”
“I’m, oh,” that was all she managed to get out before throwing her head back on a long moan. I felt Gretchen’s walls clamp down tightly on me, release, and clamp down all over again as her orgasm took over and milked my release straight from my body.
It took a little while for both of us to come back from the blissed out state we were left in, but then her sweet voice was in my ear. “I want to always wake up like that,” she demanded.
“We’ll make that happen then.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that, Sweet G.” She giggled at the use of her own road name.
“Can I admit something?”
“You know you can always be honest with me.”
“I kind of love that I have a new name too.”
“I kind of love you,” I told her in response.
“Just kind of?”
“You know better!” I rolled away from her and smacked her beautiful ass when she too tried to roll to the opposite side of the bed. “Now, you better go get ready if you want to see Anna and the baby this morning before we have to get to work.”
“Yes sir!”
“Oh honey, I’m gonna make you scream that for me later!”
“Maybe we should call in sick today?”
We both laughed, knowing that wasn’t possible since someone would come upstairs to hound us if we tried it. I know I wished like hell we could stay there all day just wrapped up in one another though.
Joker and I stood by the island counter in the kitchen, each of us watching the women sitting there talking in his living room. “She looks like a natural.”
He didn’t need to say what I could already see. Gretchen was fawning over the tiny baby girl and cooing at her so sweetly. Once again, I felt my chest tightened uncomfortably as I thought about standing in a house of our own while watching my woman with our child. “I want that.” I hadn’t meant to say the words out loud, but it happened anyway.
Joker clapped a hand down on my shoulder and turned me so that I was paying attention to him instead of the women and his daughter. “Have you thought about what you’ll do if that’s not possible?”
“What do you mean?”
He stared at me long and hard for a while. “The accident with T-Bone,” he stated as if that should mean something. Gretchen had already worked through her guilt and was moving on with me. We were happy. As far as I was concerned, there was nothing left to worry over. When I didn’t say anything, Joker sighed. “You know she lost her baby,” he whispered quietly, making sure not to be overheard. I nodded my head. “Has she mentioned whether there was any lasting damage from what happened to her? Physical damage on the inside that maybe you can’t see?” I turned my head quickly, taking in everything about the woman I was completely fucking lost for. I imagined, for just a moment, her telling me that she was no longer able to have kids. Even hearing her say that in my head didn’t factor in. I would still want her as mine. She was still my heart. There were other ways to make a family with her, and making it together in whatever way we needed to was good enough for me. I just needed Gretchen to be there by my side as we did that.
“It won’t matter,” I finally told Joker. “She’s everything. The rest will come in whatever way we need it to.”
Chapter 20
Always There
Gretchen
We had officially been together for seven months. Every single day, Kane and I found something new to enjoy, explore, or just appreciate. As corny as that sounded, it was true. He knew how I viewed life, and how quickly it could be gone, so he helped me embrace every moment we could. That was why, when he suggested taking a quick trip to Vegas, I didn’t bat an eyelash.
“Why
would we spend a weekend in Vegas?”
“Life is nothing more than the stories we leave behind with someone else. We’re going to make the best stories, and have the absolute best start with ‘this one time in Vegas…”
I laughed at him. You watched those stupid movies with Joker again, didn’t you?”
“What movies?” He asked innocently as I rolled my eyes. It wasn’t until I turned around to face him that I realized what this had all really been about. Kane was before me, on bended freaking knee, while wearing nothing but a smile and holding a little black box out toward me. I sucked in an audible gasp just as the sparkling from the opened box caught my eye. “I lied a minute ago,” he told me as I stood there speechless, watching the man I loved as he awkwardly attempted to propose to me while we were both still very much without clothing. Yes, that was an important detail because one day, I’d have to tell this story to my grandkids. I would be absolutely scandalized, and yet that didn’t stop the elation I felt in my heart.
“The truth is, the very best stories start with, ‘And then we got married in Vegas!’” He grinned at me as I kneeled down in front of him and clasped both my hands around the one he had held out with the ring. “What do you say, Sweet G? Will you marry me in Vegas this weekend?”
“I do!” I shrieked out as Kane laughed at me.
“Babe, I think you’re jumping the gun a little there. That’s what you need to say in Vegas. Right now, I’m looking for one three-letter word.”
“Yes!” My hands trembled as he took the ring from the box and slid it onto my finger. I don’t know how he managed, but it was a perfect fit. The platinum band felt as though it belonged on my finger from the start. A large marquise cut diamond sat pride of place in the middle of the ring with sapphires interspersed throughout an infinity vine pattern around the band. “It’s absolutely gorgeous,” I whispered, in awe of the perfect ring now adorning my finger.
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