“Before you say anything, I’m staying right here,” Stevie says firmly.
She can’t see him nod, but I do. “Words,” I remind him.
“Stevie. I, I’m so sorry. You should have been safe.”
“You found your mole yet?”
“With a little help, yes.” The way he grimaces suggests it was probably Mouse working with Cad and Cara who’d ferreted out the traitor, and not one of his own. “Not saying anything your guys don’t already know, but she was a cousin of one of the Warped Jokers. Wanted to make sure family stayed out of jail. A long-term employee, her original record was clean, but her cousin patched in only a year ago.”
I huff but keep quiet. Fucker patched into the wrong club.
Stevie’s agitated by my side. “What, what happened to Marshal Handson? Is he alive? There was a shot…”
Lennox eyes meet mine.
He doesn’t know how to break it to her, so I say it for him, “Babe, I’m sorry. He’s dead.”
She turns her face into my shoulder.
“Stevie’s safe now, then? The leak’s been stopped?” Giving her a moment, I continue to question him.
“Yeah. Though I don’t know how wise it is for her to stay here.”
“As the lady said, she’s not going anywhere. I’ve got a whole club to keep her safe. Unfortunately, your marshal couldn’t.”
Again his face twists, and I wonder if he was friends with the marshal who died. “I can only suggest, not demand. It’s up to Stevie if she gives evidence. Our offer to give her protection until she does, and beyond that if she needs it. If she refuses to accept our assistance, there’s no pressure I can bring to bear to make her.”
“I’m still going to give testimony,” Stevie speaks up, a little tersely as though annoyed he’s been talking about her as if she wasn’t there. “But I’m putting my protection in the hands of the Devils,” her fingers squeeze my arm, “the Devils' security business.”
A quick grin comes to my face.
He nods, then remembers. “Yes. But I’ll stay in touch. Please use our expertise to get you to court. That’s something we’ve got experience in, and with the hole plugged, I assure you, no one will get to know any of the arrangements.”
“I’d accept that, Beef. We’ll still be there, but as Lennox has said, the marshals have the knowhow,” Demon, still hovering, butts in.
“I accept,” Stevie states. “It’s my decision after all.”
Lennox nods. “I’ll be in touch then. Goodbye for now, Ms Nichols.”
When he leaves, Pyro comes into view. He’s carrying something which he takes out of the bag once he reaches Stevie.
“Thought you’d like this. James told us what to get.”
Stevie feels the object he’s given her, and I mirror the smile that splits her face. It’s a new Service Dog harness for Max. She heaves a sigh full of relief. “He okay to wear this now?”
“Yup. He may get stiff at times, and shouldn’t go for long runs, James said, but he’s ready to do his duty again.”
Kneeling, Stevie calls Max to her. The dog seems to still as his working harness is slipped onto him, going instantly into work mode. I realise it’s the first time I’ve properly seen dog and handler together, that split second as the car was hurtling toward them doesn’t count.
It’s an ideal opportunity to take her outside and show her the new yard. I watch with interest as Max leads her around obstacles and stops at the steps we had to leave in place. Although the turf has yet to settle in, she notices the new soft grass under her feet immediately.
“You’ve made some changes here,” she observes.
“A yard. Grass, flowerbeds too. Flattened it all out.”
“For me?”
Yeah. “It needed doing,” is all that I tell her. “Theo’s going to be able to crawl around in the sun without getting hurt. And the furnace pit has been fenced in so there’s no danger to you or to him.”
“I’ve put you to a lot of trouble.”
“Want the truth? I needed something to occupy me, a hope to hang onto that you’d come back.”
Her hand fumbles for mine, I help her find it. “I was hanging onto the hope that I’d be back too, Beef. I couldn’t have stayed away. I kept telling myself, just until I testify, then I’d make contact again. I didn’t realise how hard it was going to be to leave you behind. Even worse than it had been leaving my family.”
We’re both silent, each deep in our thoughts. I hate knowing we’d both been as lonely as the other, but know it’s a good sign for our future.
A raindrop falls, hitting the ground with a splatter.
“Think that’s our cue to go inside.”
At her nod, I let Max lead her back into the clubhouse, watching as he accurately meanders his way around tables and chairs. Then I apply my hand to the small of her back.
“Come up to the room.” I want to say our room, but wonder if that’s presumptuous, wondering whether she needs more time.
“I’ll look after Max,” Ink offers with such an exaggerated wink, for once I’m pleased she can’t see.
Leaving the dog downstairs, we go to the bedroom. I’m touching her all the way, partly to guide her and partly as I don’t want to lose contact.
“Has anything changed?” she asks on the threshold.
Hastily I push past her and slide my rucksack under the bed. “Nope.”
She confidently steps around me and goes to the bed, sliding herself onto it and up until she’s resting against the pillows. Patting the sheet beside her, she requests, “Come here, Beef.”
She doesn’t need to ask twice. Kicking off my riding boots, I walk around the other side, and stretch myself out. “Christ, I’ve missed you babe.”
“Missed you more.”
Impossible. I slip my arm under her head and pull her toward me. We lie in comfortable silence for a few minutes.
“Beef,” she starts hesitantly. “What’s the matter? Don’t you want me anymore?”
“Fuck babe. What are you saying?”
Her voice is uncertain. “I thought, I hoped, you wanted, more. They didn’t get to do more than touch me, Beef. But has that turned you off?”
“Darlin’, how can you think that?”
She huffs a laugh. “You’re lying in bed next to me. You’ve not made a move on me.”
“I was giving you time. Fuck, babe. I don’t know what’s going on in that head of yours. You’ve been pawed by men who wanted to use you, and I don’t want you to think I’m the same.”
Her mouth forms an O. “You didn’t think I wanted you to touch me? You didn’t think I wanted to feel your cock inside me, to know it was the man I love making love to me, rather than strangers who’d threatened to use me for their own selfish pleasure? Didn’t you consider I need you to take all the bad memories away?”
“Babe…”
“Beef, I need you.”
“You’re mine, Stevie,” I growl as I sit up, ripping my tee over my head as I do so. My cock has gone from zero to sixty in one second flat. Her permission sending blood south so fast it almost makes me dizzy. “You want me? You got me.”
Chapter Forty-One
Standing, I take a fraction of a moment to strip out of my jeans, then I’m crawling up the bed, leaning over her, my lips crashing down on hers as I take her hand and lead it to my now rock-hard cock. With my palm I encourage her fingers to encircle as much of my girth as she can, then prompt her to start a pumping motion.
All the time my tongue is thrusting in and out of her mouth, mimicking the action my dick will soon be undertaking.
Raising my head slightly, I gasp, “That feel like I don’t want you, babe?” Christ, the feeling of her hand on my cock is making me feel like a naïve schoolboy, unable to last. Urgently I pull her hand away before I disgrace myself.
She pouts as if I’ve taken her favourite toy. “I want to taste you, Beef?”
“Yeah? You want me in your mouth?”
She
nods.
“Then let’s get you out of these clothes.” I lean back on my haunches and lift her into a sitting position.
She shrugs me away as she disposes of her clothes in a time to rival mine. She’s naked and glorious, and I take too long to admire her.
“Well?”
“Fucking perfect, babe. Lie back.” I ease her into the position I want after ripping the top pillow away. Then I turn. That amazing perfume from her sex that I’ll never tire of hits my nostrils and I can’t wait, my mouth zeroing in on her cunt.
Her hands find my cock and lead it to her mouth. I go still. The only mouth that’s ever been around my cock has been that of a club whore. The feeling of it being in hers is fucking incredible. It’s not a job, it’s something she wants. The difference is stunning. As her tongue swirls and explores, I almost stop breathing.
Until she pulls away and whines, “Beef…”
It’s a prompt that this is reciprocal. I fasten my lips around her clit while the fingers of the hand not holding my weight off of her dip inside her cunt, the dual sensations make her gyrate her hips as she tries to get the right pressure in just the right spot.
And all the time her fingers are pumping the length of my shaft she can’t get into her mouth.
Fuckin’ hell that’s good.
The sounds we’re both making are brutal. Slurping, sucking, lips smacking. Groans, moans, pleas leaving our mouths. Despite the intense pleasure I’m feeling and that she’s brought me quickly to the edge, I’m determined to keep control and not go over. I have to start envisioning all the nuts and bolts on my bike, what parts they screw into. This goes here, that goes there…
Then, as her muscles clench and tighten, her thighs start to quiver and shake, her efforts on my dick are more frantic. She comes.
“Babe, let me go…” I try to warn her.
But she takes me in further and swallows.
Fuck. I’m a man who prides himself on iron control. Unfortunately, I’ve lost it with her. Weeks of pent up frustration flood her mouth as I involuntarily let go. She keeps sucking, licking, and swallowing.
I lose all ability to think, becoming nothing more than an organism who feels.
“Babe.” I draw away when I’ve finished, and embarrassed lift my head, raise my body, and pull myself out of her mouth. “I’m sorry.”
Turning, so I can look down at her, I see her wiping up the cum that’s dribbled out of the side of her mouth and sucking the drop off her finger. What a fuckin’ sight. Best thing I’ve seen in my life.
“First time I’ve done that. Did I do it right?”
There are a few ways I could answer that. I settle for, “Think you could do with a bit more practice.”
“Hmm,” she answers lazily. “Think your skills are a bit rusty too.”
Her impudent response stuns me. I slap the side of her butt cheek. “The devil they are. Not had any complaints before.”
She’s giggling so hard it’s making her perfect tits wobble. I let my eyes feast for a second, realising, even though I came hard just moments before, I’m ready to go again now.
“Want your biker, do you, babe?”
“So soon?”
For a reply, I lift her up, turn her, and place her on her knees, then push her forward. Taking her hands, I place them on the headboard, warning her, “Hold on tight for the ride.”
Taking hold of her hips, I position my cock against her glistening, slippery cunt and push inside, struggling to get my big dick into her tight hole. Then I’m all the way home. My finger rims her asshole. “Ever had a cock in there, babe?”
“No.” The word is part nervous, part uncertain, but there’s a tinge of curiosity too.
“One day, I’m going to take you there.”
Her skin flushes red, which I hope is anticipation and excitement. Certainly wouldn’t be my first time even if it’s hers.
“Hmm,” I pump in, “a nice big dildo in your cunt, and me in your ass. Think you could take that, babe?”
She pushes back against me. Yeah, I reckon this woman of mine will give it a try.
“Oh, fuck, Beef. Condom.”
Shit! “Stay there.” I was so damn close to forgetting. “You need to go on the pill or something, Stevie. Or I’ll get the snip. Want to feel you skin on skin as soon as possible,” I tell her, reaching over her and opening a drawer. As I cover myself, I continue, “Never ever forgot before, but you make me forget my fuckin’ name, babe. Now, where was I?”
I’m back inside her with just one thrust. I’m fucking her, fondling her tits which are dangling down. She’s every bit as into it as I am, giving as good as I take, proving yet again she’s the right woman for me.
Having already come once, I can take my time. I give myself over to the feeling of being inside her, learning the sensations we both like the best, trying out different speeds and rhythms. It’s her third orgasm that takes me over with her. As I roar out my release, she’s still hanging onto that headboard as if her life depended on it.
Pumping the last few drops into the condom, I relax my hold on her hips. “You can let go now.”
She giggles. “I can’t move. I think you’ve killed me, Beef. Can you give me a while to recover before the next round?”
Removing the condom and tying it, I leave it on the floor to deal with later and flop down beside her. “Think I’m going to need more than a minute myself, love.”
“Old man,” she teases.
“Watch out. Else I’ll show you just exactly what this old man can do.”
That threat seems to work as she snuggles in under my arm.
“I’m going to put my patch on you. Marry you too. Tie you to me in every way possible. Never letting you go again, babe.”
She’s quiet. After a moment, I get worried. “That alright with you?” Didn’t she realise I meant this was forever?
“Alright? It’s perfect.” Her brow creases. “I know leaving you was the wrong thing to do, Beef, but it made me realise that if I ever got the chance, I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
They say bad things happen for a reason. Any lingering discomfort at the thought she hadn’t trusted me enough to keep her safe flee at her declaration. She’d thought she was doing the right thing to keep me safe, but distance had given her the clarity that she’d needed.
Leaning over, I kiss her until we’re both breathless, then lay back and haul her into my arms once again.
“Will you want me to get a tattoo? Vi said it’s in the club’s rules or something.”
The thought of fucking her with my name on her? That might just have made my over-worked cock twitch again. “That’s Colorado rules, not Tucson’s.”
“Oh.”
Is that disappointment I hear? I test her. “I’ve got no objections—none at all. If you’re okay with getting a tat, I’d love to see my name on you.”
Another moment of silence, then, “I’d like that, Beef.”
I feel like pumping my fist in the air. “There’s one other thing. For now, until this business is over.” I pause, thinking I’m starting at the wrong end. “When Vi was abducted, Demon had a tracker on her.” Not that it helped in the end, but the idea is a good one. “It was in a necklace she wore. I’m going to ask Cad to do something similar for you. I’m going to be looking out for you every step of the way, Stevie. If I can’t be with you, I’ll have another brother or a prospect with you. But this is just an extra bit of security.”
She laughs out loud. Not the reaction I expected. “Like Max’s tag? You’re tagging me like a dog.”
“It’s…” not the same thing I start to tell her, then stop. Now I’m laughing too. She’s got a point.
Her mirth dies away. “Anything, Beef. Tell me what to do and I’ll do it. Get Max a tag too. I know the risk I’m taking, the danger that I’m in. I’ll do anything to stay with you. But Beef, are you sure about this? You really want to marry me?”
“That’s secondary babe. Just to make it
legal in the citizen world. I’m claimin’ you. And that, to a biker, has more meaning than a marriage license. So yes, I’m fuckin’ serious. I’ve never been more certain about anything in my life.”
“Stevie can’t marry you.”
What the fuck? Can’t marry you is all I heard. I rear up. “Why the fuck not? You already hitched? You’ve got a man in the wings waiting? You engaged or something?” Fuck, I never dreamed… I thought she might have a life to return to, I never thought about her having a man. Not that he’d be worthy of the name if he let her go off alone. “You…”
“No.” She replies emphatically, sitting up, drawing up her knees and wrapping her arms around them. “No Beef. I just don’t want you to call me that anymore. That’s not me, no need for pretence between us. I’m Stephanie, okay? Steph. Stevie doesn’t exist. Stevie is somebody different.”
“Stephanie?”
“Or Steph. That’s what my family calls me. Stephanie North.”
“Stephanie Carson,” I try it out. “It has a nice ring to it.”
“The marshals suggested I use a name close to my own so I wouldn’t ignore anyone calling me it. But I long to hear my old one again.”
“Steph,” I try it out. Then do it properly. “Stephanie North. Will you be my old lady and marry me?”
“Yes.”
Round three, it seems, isn’t delayed as long as either of us had expected it to be.
Chapter Forty-Two
“You sure you’re okay with this, Steph?”
“No.” Her bottom lip quivers. “But the time has come when I need to do what I have to. Lennox has explained how this is going to play out. But you’ve got to stay back, Beef. Let them do their job.”
The marshals, it seems, are experts at getting witnesses to court and have come up with a number of ways to get them there unseen. Stevie is going to be hidden in a catering truck, the one that normally goes to the courthouse, so it won’t stand out. Another car, a decoy, and escort will be going by a different route.
I pace the room, while trying to bring myself under control. We’ve had no trouble in the last few weeks, which leads me to think it’s today when an attempt will be made on her life. I’ve been trying hard to stay positive for Stevie and not let her in on my concerns; she’s sufficiently aware of the risk herself that she’s worried enough. If I let on how anxious I am too, it won’t help her at all.
Devil's Due: Satan's Devils MC Colorado Chapter #3 Page 34