Lion

by Jessie Cooke

  Madison shook her head. “I think he thinks that he’s still protecting Doc’s reputation. Plus, he’s never had a high opinion of himself. Maybe he thinks he deserves all the loathing for something he did do in his life…I’m not sure. He’s a complicated one, and that’s the only fact I really know.”

  Lion stared at the wall for a while and then still not looking at her he said, “When I was a kid, I wanted him to be my dad. Every memory I had since birth had him in it. He taught me how to tie my shoes. He taught me how to piss in a bowl.” He chuckled and said, “I don’t really remember that, but I remember Me Maw telling me that he used fruit loops…and we shot at them.” Madison laughed and simultaneously wiped a tear off her face. “He taught me how to throw and catch…and fight, and when not to fight. He bought me my first Harley, and he taught me how to fix it up. When I was five years old, I blamed him for letting my mother die because he always said he loved us and he’d protect us no matter what…and I thought he’d failed with her. I was so angry…with everyone and everything…and I took it out on him.” Madison reached out for his hand. When he took hers, she pulled him down beside her on the couch.

  “You were a little boy who had lost his mother. I’m sure he understood.”

  Lion’s green eyes were filled with tears too as he said, “I’m sure he did too, or he wouldn’t have stuck around. Mom was dead, Me Maw always needed help with something, and I was a little punk…but he kept coming back. I convinced myself it was because he felt guilty about Mom. I let my guard down some, though, and when I was sixteen, and all of a sudden he said he was leaving, all that anger was unleashed again. I’ve punished him for that all these years.”

  “Lion, you want to know what I’ve figured out about my dad this trip?”

  He wiped his eyes and said, “What’s that?”

  “That for whatever reason he never wanted anyone to know what a good heart he had. Maybe it was self-protection, or maybe like I said before, he feels like he deserves to be punished for something. I’m not sure I’ll ever know the truth. But what I do know is that you being angry with him, and me being halfway across the US, was what was comfortable for him. He watched us and took care of us from afar…and he never wanted any credit…just like he never wanted any credit for what he did for Doc and the Skulls.”

  Lion leaned back into the couch and slid his arm around her shoulders. Madison curled into him again, resting her head on his hard chest…and it was only minutes before her exhaustion caught up to her and she was floating away on a dream.

  22

  Lion let Madison sleep against him for a while. She felt warm and comfortable and he was beginning to realize, each time he saw her, that he already looked forward to the next time. He brushed his lips across her head and leaned back into the couch and closed his eyes. An image of Hawk’s face flooded his thoughts, those intense, black, close-set eyes that people had been terrified of his entire life. Lion smiled. He was never afraid of Hawk, even when he was a tiny little boy. It was funny, because the old man never coddled him. He rarely said anything nice by the time Lion was about ten or twelve years old…but there was always a feeling between them, a bond that Lion thought would never be broken. Then Hawk left, and Lion thought it had all been his own bad choices. He thought that Hawk hadn’t even considered him and that he’d be all alone. If what Madison was telling him was true…and he had no reason to doubt Dax’s words…Hawk had left town to protect them all. Had that war happened, the Skulls would have been wiped out. Everything would be different and so many people would have suffered because of it. For a few seconds Lion let himself feel the seething burn of anger toward Doc. All of this had been his fault…and he’d let Hawk take the fall.

  Lion opened his eyes and looked at Madison and that anger was instantly replaced with that warm feeling of contentment she gave him. He’d never been in love, and the women he had loved…his mother and grandmother…had died when he was so young. But now as he looked at Madison he was sure that was what he was feeling for her. The emotions were so intense and so unexpected that it had taken him a while to sort them out. But now as he looked at her sleeping so peacefully against his chest he knew that if anyone ever hurt her…he’d kill them, as simple as that. He wouldn’t hesitate, and he wouldn’t show any mercy. It made what Doc did make sense to him, and it even made it forgivable…he just wished that Hawk hadn’t been the one to pay for Doc’s sins.

  Madison’s eyes fluttered and then suddenly they were open and locked into his. For that one second, everything stopped. Nothing else mattered but the beautiful, sad woman in his arms and he was driven to do whatever he could to make her feel better. “Hey. I’m sorry, did I wake you up?”

  She smiled and shifted, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. “No. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to fall asleep on you.”

  He chuckled. “You’re exhausted. That was the whole reason for bringing you here, so you could rest.”

  “Oh, I thought you wanted to seduce me.” Her tone was serious, and she wasn’t smiling. Lion was at once offended.

  “What kind of an animal do you think I am?” he asked, pulling his arm out and sitting up.

  Madison laughed then. “I was kidding. I’m sorry. It was a joke.”

  “Oh, sorry. I didn’t get that.”

  Giggling she said, “I appreciate you being here for me, Lion, so much. I was just trying to lighten the mood a bit.”

  “Social skills aren’t really my thing,” he said.

  She laughed again. “You don’t say?”

  Laughing himself then he said, “Okay, smart-ass…since you brought it up, if…you know…seducing you would lighten the mood…”

  She giggled. “You’d do that for me?”

  “Well yeah, but just for you. I’m sure I wouldn’t get anything out of it.”

  “Well, I don’t want you to do it just for me then…” Lion stopped her with his lips. He hadn’t planned on trying to get in her pants that night of all nights, but now that she brought it up…he was ready. She gave him an instant erection, but even as they kissed, he realized he couldn’t turn off his thoughts. He kept thinking about Hawk, and how badly he’d treated him for so many years…and here he was about to fuck his daughter. Pulling out of the kiss, feeling like a real piece of shit, he said, “I’m sorry, Madison, I can’t do this.”

  She stared up at him with a confused look on her face. Her lips were wet and swollen from their kiss and her brown eyes glowed in the dim light. “I don’t understand.”

  “I just can’t stop thinking about…” She put her fingers on his lips.

  “Tomorrow we’ll have to think about it again. Tonight, I just want to forget…everything. Tonight, I don’t want to think, I just want to feel. Can we do that, Lion? Can we stop thinking and just feel, just for a little while?”

  Lion put his hands on the sides of her face and buried his fingers in her hair. He was going to say something, but whatever it was got engulfed by the passion he was feeling. He lowered his lips again and this time the kiss was explosive. Madison’s hands were in his hair too, tugging at it, bringing him in closer, tasting every part of his mouth with her beautiful lips. When she brought her tongue out and let it slide along his lips, his body convulsed, his cock began to ache, and his brain couldn’t find any thought that wasn’t about her and this moment if it wanted to.

  Lion stood up, taking Madison with him, and carried her into the bedroom. He laid her down on the surface, carefully, and then he kissed her again. This time it was slow, and sweet…but the way she arched her back up off the bed, to meet his body with hers, was erotic. His hands found their way under his shirt while they kissed and reluctantly he pulled his lips away, long enough to rip it off over his head. Then he kissed her again…for minutes, he simply let himself get lost in the feelings…those feelings of being connected to someone unlike he’d ever been before. After a few minutes, his hands moved down to the front of her jeans and he stood up then and unbuttoned them, slowly pulling down
the zipper and then sliding them off…watching as each tiny section of her smooth, beautiful skin appeared. He did the same with her blouse next, making himself go slowly, anticipating the beauty of what was underneath as he did. Once she was there in just a simple bra and a slip of fabric that passed as panties, his lips went to work, kissing every exposed part of her body, starting at her neck, and working his way down. Madison writhed against the quilt underneath her and arched her hips up off the bed when his mouth made its way to her upper thighs. Tugging at his hair again, she moaned out his name. It had never sounded sexier. Her hands left his hair and ran up his chest, and then back down to the top of his jeans. “Take them off,” she panted. Lion smiled down at her, but instead of doing what she asked, he hooked his finger underneath the elastic of her panties and made her gasp. He let it play in the moisture there for a few seconds before using it to pull them down to the tops of her thighs. She gasped again when he lowered his face and began to kiss and lick at the inner parts of her thighs. She squirmed and writhed when his tongue made its way to her swollen lips, and she ripped at his hair and scalp when he split her open and finally tasted how sweet she was.

  Lion pulled the panties all the way off of her, pushed her thighs apart, and delved into her most sensitive body part…licking, kissing, sucking, and tasting her. Nothing or no one had ever tasted so sweet and he took his time, making sure not to miss a millimeter of it. When he began to concentrate his attention on her clit, she bucked up off the bed and cried out loudly. It only took him a minute to drive her to the edge once he had it between his lips, and when the orgasm hit her she was panting and gasping for breath and mumbling incoherently. He raised his head up at last and looked down into her eyes. The lust and passion there were enough to drive him wild. His cock was painfully trying to escape its prison when he finally kicked off his boots and slid his pants and shorts off.

  “Fuck,” Madison finally whispered when she caught her breath. “That was incredible…no, it was better than that…Jesus, I have no words.”

  Lion smiled and lifted her up and moved her so that she was on the bed. He climbed up next to her and as he hovered over her, Madison put her hands on his biceps and pushed at him, trying to roll him over. She wasn’t going to be able to accomplish that herself, but he wasn’t going to argue with anything she wanted. He rolled onto his back and she climbed up on top of him, straddling him with her knees on either side of his hips and rubbing her soft, wet pussy against his rock-hard cock. Lion was losing his mind as he reached up and unhooked her bra, finally freeing her gorgeous breasts. He wrapped his hands around them as she lifted up and then slowly slid down on his cock. He squeezed her breasts hard and groaned as she opened up to him and at last he felt himself completely filling her up. Once he did, she leaned forward, resting her forehead against his and just letting them both feel how good it was to be joined for a few seconds.

  Lion was the first to move his hips and once he began to move, Madison did as well. He pulled her down with a hand on her back and sucked one of her breasts and hard nipples into his mouth. He rolled it around on his tongue while she moved up and down, rocking her hips hard into his each time. His hand moved down to her butt and he gripped one cheek in it, using it as leverage to guide her faster. He nibbled at her breasts, hard enough to leave marks, and Madison held one arm underneath his head, pushing him into her chest and egging him on. They were frantic at first, thrusting and arching and slamming into each other, but after a few minutes they found a rhythm…a perfect, sexy rhythm that Lion wished they could dance to forever.

  Madison was the first to reach her orgasm; the second one of the night for her seemed as overwhelming as the first. When he felt the walls of her soaked pussy begin to relax, he rolled them over, so she was on her knees and he was behind her…and gripping her sexy hips, he drilled into her pussy over and over again until he let out a roar that sounded primal even to him…and he had an orgasm that as Madison had said, “there were no words for.”

  They fell into each other’s arms once he finally pulled out of her and lay there with limbs tangled and chests heaving. It got so quiet after a while that Lion thought Madison had fallen asleep, but then he heard her whisper:

  “I think I’m in love with you.” He felt her body stiffen as she said it, as if she was afraid he was about to reject her. He pulled her in tighter and said:

  “Me too.” He felt her press her face into his chest and her body shook with a silent laugh. “You laughing at me?” She shook her head back and forth. His chest felt wet, like she was crying again. “You wiping your boogers on my chest?” Her body shook harder then and he laughed too. Madison finally pulled her face out of his chest and looked up at him. She was smiling, but tears floated in her eyes and stained her cheeks.

  “I know you weren’t looking for anything…”

  “Shh. I’m in love with you, but you talk too much.”

  23

  Luger sat in the basement of his mother’s house and stared at the drawings he had spread out in front of him. He hated to admit it, but Jungle Boy was pretty good. They were all the spitting image of Hawk’s broken condom…that uppity bitch who thought she was better than him, and who was fucking that jungle freak to boot. He picked up his knife and cut a slice off the apple he was eating and then with a smile on his face, he drove it into the center of her face. Bitch. The freak had it bad for her. Lion had gotten a call from Dax on their way back from New York that the old bastard Hawk was in the hospital, and he’d taken off like a bat out of hell to make it back to Boston. Luger knew Lion hated Hawk as much as the rest of them…it was the woman he was anxious to get back to. Now as Luger sat and looked at the knife centered so nicely in the middle of her forehead, he thought about the night the old lady had died. After the fire started, he and Walt had run. They’d run all the way down the hill to where they’d parked their bicycles and then they’d pedaled like the devil himself was chasing them. Walt had gotten home first and after warning him if he ever told anyone what they did that he’d kill him, Luger had left him…but he hadn’t gone home. Instead he’d turned around and gone back out into the country and for a while he sat at the bottom of the hill and watched the flames dancing against the night sky. He kept thinking he should leave before someone showed up and he got caught…and he was about to, when he heard Lion’s bike.

  Instead of leaving, Luger waited until the freak had ridden up to the house and then under the cover of the thick smoke and darkness, he’d gone up closer…so he could see what was happening. He sat, fascinated, in a thicket of trees and listened to the wails of the jungle boy as he called out for his grandmother. Luger had told Walt that the old lady wasn’t home that night…but he’d known all along that she was. He watched as Lion came out of the house with the old woman in his arms. The stupid fuck was crying and saying her name over and over. Luger watched with a smile on his face as the freak finally realized that she wasn’t going to answer him…ever. Ding dong, the witch was dead…

  He stayed as long as he could, almost too long. The fire trucks rushed in not long after Lion got there and Luger finally left when he realized the police were showing up too. The truth was that he’d had Walt light the fire just in case they got caught. He might get in trouble for being there…but technically Walt had killed the old lady. He smiled at that thought. That night had been Walt’s initiation, sort of. He’d been following Luger around since they were kids…but that night was when Luger realized that the fool would literally do anything he told him to do. Walt was six-foot-four and about three hundred pounds. He was an idiot, but his body mass alone made him worth having him in your corner, and the stupidity helped too.

  Luger reached for the knife that was still stuck in Hawk’s bastard daughter’s forehead. He pulled it out and then promptly stuck it into her neck in the next picture; it looked good there too. He imagined the blood gushing from it, and then he smiled again while an image of Lion watching her die appeared in his head as well. That was where he cou
ld hurt the jungle boy in a way he’d never recover from…he could away take the only person on earth that gave a shit about him.

  Luger popped the apple into his mouth just as his mother called down from upstairs. Luger didn’t live on the ranch. Since his father died…so unexpectedly, eleven years before…his mother needed him. She’d been through enough in her life, thanks to her cheating husband…and the witch. “Coming, Ma!” With one last, longing glance at the drawings, Luger pulled himself up off the couch and went to tend to his mother. He was a good son.

  The sun was beginning to peek through the dusty blinds in Lion’s room when he heard Madison’s sleepy voice: “You awake?”

  He breathed in her scent and said, “I am now, thanks.” Her body shook with a laugh and he sucked in another breath as he realized he had his face buried in her soft neck. Her silky hair was in his face and her body was molded to his. He’d lain awake most of the night just savoring it. His arm was underneath her, binding her to him so that she couldn’t get away…and he had to mentally shake his head at himself because suddenly he couldn’t imagine sleeping any other way. She shifted slightly and stretched out her legs, trying to kick the quilt off of them. Lion kept holding on tight, just in case she was planning her escape. “Damn, woman, be still.”

  She laughed again. “It’s hot in here.” She was right, it was hot…but he was burning from the inside out thanks to her naked body pressed into his. He reached over with his free hand and tossed back the quilt.

  “There. Now be still.” He had to open his eyes then and raise his head slightly. The image of her nakedness inside his head wasn’t enough, he had to see her. When he looked at her, and felt her, and tasted her…he couldn’t imagine why he’d tried so hard to resist the pull he felt toward her. She wiggled again, and a surge of electricity raced through his hot body. He felt the firm cheeks of her butt against his already full and aching cock and he sucked a breath in through his teeth. In a sexy, deep, throaty voice she said: