by Tia Lewis
When I pulled it out, my stomach turned in panic. It was one of those notes made up out of cut-up letters from magazines.
“WATCH YOUR WOMAN. IT WOULD BE A SHAME IF ANYTHING HAPPENED TO HER.”
I dropped the sheet of paper on the desk, my hands shaking a little. More from rage than fear. Nobody could scare me—except when they threatened Nicole. She was all I really cared about in this world.
And somebody knew that and wanted to use her against me.
Son of a bitch. Just when I thought everything was going well, too.
10
Nicole
By the end of the week, I couldn’t ignore the sort of distant way Drake was behaving toward me. It was more evident all the time. He’d be talking to somebody, but the conversation would end when I entered the room. Or he’d be in the middle of the room, with laughter going on all around him, and he’d look like he was a million miles away. It took people waving their hands in front of his face to get his attention when he zoned out that way. I wondered what was going on in his head.
“He’s just as bad as Jack,” I complained to Tamara and Violet one day, sitting at the bar while working on my laptop. The girls sat on the couch, a daytime TV show playing as background noise.
“What do you mean?” Violet asked. She was painting her nails a pretty shell pink which I thought might look nice on my nails. I joined her, intent on painting when she was finished.
“I mean he complains about Jack being closed-off, impossible to read. Then he shuts me out.” I sat cross-legged on the floor, laptop in front of me on the coffee table.
“I wouldn’t take it so personally, honey,” Tamara said.
“No?”
“Not at all. He’s a closed book a lot of the time. All the men are around here. But it doesn’t mean he doesn’t love you.”
“I don’t wonder if he loves me,” I said, feeling defensive.
“Oh, no?” She squinted at me. “It looks that way from here.”
“Then you need glasses,” I sniffed. She and Violet broke up in laughter, and I eventually had to join them. “Honestly, though, I don’t think he doesn’t love me. I just think, well…”
“Well?”
“I wonder if he isn’t second-guessing his proposal, is all.” I looked down at the shiny ring on my left hand. I loved that ring. I was very proud of it. The symbolism behind it meant more to me than anything in the world. I would hate to think that Drake regretted giving it to me.
“Oh, sweetie. Don’t even say that.” Violet shook her head, black curls bouncing.
“For real. He was the happiest man on Earth when you said yes. I know it’s a stupid cliché, but it’s the truth.” Tamara stretched out, her feet in Violet’s lap. “It made me a little jealous, to be honest with you.”
“It did?” I felt guilty all of a sudden. I didn’t want to make anybody feel jealous.
“Me, too,” Violet admitted. “You’ve gotta understand what it means to us girls that somebody like Drake finally settled down. It gives us hope…”
“…and makes us wonder what’s so bad about us that one of them doesn’t wanna settle down with us,” Tamara finished. From the way they sounded, I could tell they’d had that conversation before. I felt worse than ever.
“I’m sorry, guys. Your time will come, I know it.” It sounded so lame and half-hearted, but I meant it. I wanted them to be happy the way I was. I didn’t know two more deserving people in the world.
“Yoo hoo! Anybody home?” The three of us looked up to find Darcy walking through the door. We jumped to our feet, throwing our arms around her. Hard to believe I’d ended up being such good friends with her when she’d hated me after I first met Drake.
“What are you doing here? Don’t you have class during the day?” I asked. She was in her last semester of culinary school and kicking ass. I was proud of her, and the work she’d done.
“Class was canceled for the rest of the day. The health inspector showed up to take a look around. I’m free!” She grinned, flopping down into a chair. “So, what did I miss?”
“Nothing much. I’m just sitting here, questioning my entire existence,” I joked.
“Oh, so nothing’s really new. Good stuff.” I took a swipe at her legs, which she deftly pulled up out of my reach.
“What about you? How’s school going?” Violet asked.
“Oh, great. I’m looking forward to it being over, of course. If there’s one thing the club taught me, it was how to deal with being the only woman in a room full of men.” Darcy replied.
“You’re still the only woman?” Tamara asked.
“One of three,” Darcy explained. “I swear, you would think more women would go to culinary school, right? We’re the ones who cook at home. But no, the men treat professional kitchens like their domain.” She rolled her eyes.
“But you’re showing them who’s boss, right?” Violet asked, continuing her manicure.
“Oh, sure thing.” She held up her arm, where there was a nasty looking burn. “It looked much worse when I first did it,” she said, shrugging.
“Holy shit. What was that? How did that happen?” I asked.
“Grease spatter. But I took it like a man.” She laughed it off. I gave her a lot of credit for taking shit the way she did—I had the feeling she didn’t relate half of what she went through. She was just that type of person, preferring to gloss over the worst of things.
“In honor of me being free all day, I think we should have a family dinner.” No sooner had she sat down than she was back up on her feet. “Come to the store with me,” she said, tugging on my arm. I couldn’t say no—besides, I needed to get out of there. I still couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something wrong with Drake.
Hours later, the girls and I were busy putting the finishing touches on a massive dish of Beef Bourguignon. Darcy had come up in the world since starting school. We’d spent hours browning meat, adding flour, salt, and pepper, browning it again, adding vegetables and wine. My arms were tired from stirring the massive pot of stew again and again. Darcy, meanwhile, browned mushrooms in butter, olive oil, and thyme. In another pan, she braised pearl onions in beef stock and wine. The smells coming from the kitchen were heavenly. We had to shoo the guys out of the kitchen nearly nonstop as they all checked in to see the progress we were making.
“What am I missing around here?” Darcy asked.
“Not much. Oh, we’re having a retirement party for Jack. Soon.” I saw the look Tamara and Darcy exchanged. Darcy’s face fell.
“Oh.” That was all she would say.
“I’ll let you know when it is,” Tamara offered.
“Yeah, do that. Thanks.” A cloud seemed to pass over the kitchen after that. Nobody wanted to talk about what was happening to Jack, but everybody felt it acutely. There was no way to avoid it. He was dying. Nobody wanted to acknowledge it, but that didn’t change what was happening. I hated to see the club go through so much pain as a result. I hoped they knew they had a good leader in Drake. He would take care of them.
Soon, it was clear that if we didn’t serve dinner soon, we’d end up with mutiny on our hands. Darcy boiled up a large batch of egg noodles to serve the stew over and showed us how to brown butter to toss the noodles in after cooking them. I could almost feel my thighs expanding as she demonstrated.
“Careful, now,” Tamara advised with a smirk. “You have to fit into a wedding gown soon.”
“How soon?” Darcy asked. “You haven’t said anything about a date yet.”
“Mainly because we still haven’t set a date,” I admitted. Another thing for me to fret about. The more time that passed, the less certain I was that Drake really wanted to marry me. It was eating me up inside, the thought that he might regret asking me.
The girls looked at each other. “I’m sure it doesn’t mean anything. He has a lot on his mind with Jack being so sick,” Darcy offered.
“Yeah, that was his excuse the last time I asked about a date,
” I said. I busied myself with ladling stew into serving pans and handing them off to the girls. When we were alone, just Darcy and me, she took my hand.
“Hey. Don’t worry about it. He’s crazy about you. I know it. And he’ll get his head out of his ass soon enough. I know that, too.” She winked before the girls came back in, and I did feel a bit better. He loved me. I was sure of that.
It was time to get dinner on, and we braced ourselves for the stampede when Darcy announced that it was ready. I would have thought none of them had ever eaten before. “It’s been torture, sitting out there waiting on you ladies,” Creed grumbled as he hurried into the room.
“You could always come in and help us, you know,” Darcy smirked, smacking him on the butt with a wooden spoon.
“Now, baby, you know I like it rough.” Darcy giggled as Creed grabbed her by the waist. I couldn’t help noticing that Tamara didn’t look happy and filed the thought away for future reference.
I waited until most of the men had gotten their food before even bothering to get in line—it was a free-for-all I didn’t want to be a part of. I sat with my plate at the “girls” table with Tamara and Violet while Darcy got her food. Funny how the people who did all the work were the last ones to enjoy the fruits of their labor.
One bite and I was in Heaven. “Oh, my God. This is off the hook. That girl needs to open her own restaurant.” I looked around the room, and it was clear everyone else felt the same—the only reason it was taking Darcy so long to get to the table was the congratulations and compliments she was getting from everyone she passed. And the club was not exactly full of men who were used to throwing compliments around.
I looked across the room to where Drake stood, talking to a young boy. The new prospect, Harris. He looked younger than he was, I knew. He swore up and down that he was sixteen, and the guys seemed willing enough to believe him, but I had to wonder if was totally truthful. Either that or he had a very youthful face that would serve him well as he got older. No, scratch that—only women benefitted from looking young as they got older. The kid might have a hard time being taken seriously with a baby face like his. I felt sorry for him.
I could tell he was in awe of Drake—I wondered if Drake knew that he was. I loved Drake, but in some ways, he could be a typical man. A little slow on the uptake at times, especially when it came to matters of the heart. He wouldn’t be the first person to notice that a kid had adopted a hero worship of him.
They talked together, laughing occasionally. Tamara and Violet saw me smile. “He’s great with Harris, isn’t he?” Violet asked.
Tamara nodded. “Yeah, I think he feels sort of shitty over the way he sometimes treated…well, you know.” Yes, I knew. Poor Richie. Drake was never very nice to him, and I knew the way the others did that he wanted to make up for that with Harris. If there was one good thing to come out of Richie’s death, it was that. I shivered at little, as memories of Richie sometimes made me do.
“Where’d he come from, this kid? Does anybody know?” I’d seen him around over the last few months but had never given him much attention. I’d been too busy learning the bookkeeping.
“I don’t think anybody knows, now that you mention it. Where do any of these guys come from?” Tamara asked. “Everybody’s an orphan, or staying with their aunt or uncle, or living on their own, or with their mom in some hovel. That’s just how it goes.”
I shook my head at that. “I wonder about him. What makes a kid want to join a club?”
“Oh, you’re not starting with this again, are you?” Darcy sat down beside me, grinning. I smirked at her.
“Starting what again?” I asked.
“Wondering about the nature of club life and what would inspire a person to want anything to do with it?” she said with a wink.
“Okay, maybe I was. But not the way I used to. Not as an outsider.”
Darcy nodded, chewing her food. “I mean, you wanted to get out of here, right?” I asked.
“Sure, because I had another dream. Some people? This is their dream. They have to belong somewhere. I bet there’s somebody in that kid’s family who was in a club. I would bet anything on that, actually. People don’t just come up with the idea on their own,” she said, nodding sagely.
“You’re probably right,” I mused, watching the kid with my fiancé. I loved seeing the way Drake seemed to take him under his wing without being told to do it. Purely a matter of instinct. I wondered if he knew how paternal he could be.
Paternal. There was a word, and not one I had ever connected with Drake. Would he want to be a father? We’d never talked about it in so many words, but we’d never ruled out the possibility, either. I wondered…
11
Drake
“You like that? Huh?” I slid in and out in a smooth, steady rhythm as I fucked Nicole from behind. She leaned against our bed, pushing back against me to match my movements.
“Yes!” She threw her head back, a curtain of dark hair swinging. I caught some of it and pulled, making her groan and pulse around me. It was so good, being home with her at the end of the day. Always something to look forward to. Some nights we were sweet and romantic. Some nights we were a little kinky. Other nights we were full-on wild, screaming animals. This was one of those nights. I used my free hand to slap her ass until it glowed red, and still she thrusted onto me. Even harder, actually. I loved hearing her grunt when I did it just right.
She whimpered when I slid out, but I wasn’t finished. I flipped her over and pulled her toward me by her hips until her ass was at the edge of the bed. I slid back into her and placed her legs on my chest, then leaned forward on my hands and fucked her just as mercilessly as I had before. She was screaming, wailing, scratching me with her nails. She began thrusting upward, toward me, matching my efforts. We were both crying out by the time she came again, closing all around me. I felt her muscles trying to milk my cock as I moved.
I was closer than ever before, so I slowed down. She moved her legs, wrapping them around my hips to pull me further inside. I began sliding in and out in a slower, more sensual rhythm, grinding my hips as I did. She whimpered, using her legs to guide my pace. Taking me the way she wanted me to take her.
“Greedy,” I whispered with a chuckle. “You want me to fuck you hard again?”
“Mmm-hmm,” she whimpered. “Give it to me hard, baby. Please. I need it.”
“Too bad.” No matter how she begged, I kept my slow pace. It was Heaven, this blissful feeling of losing myself in her wet pussy. It was just enough stimulation to stay hard, and I drank in every last sound she made. She whimpered, she moaned, she sighed. She begged me to take her hard, to make her come with my cock. She knew just what to say, especially when she was desperate for a good fucking. I held back, though. I wouldn’t let her call the shots.
My body was a different story, and it responded to hers with growing need. I felt the familiar pressure building in my balls and knew I’d need to come soon. I wanted to watch her ride me before I did, so I slid out and laid down on the bed. “Your turn. Let me watch you,” I said.
She eagerly climbed on top of me as she’d been minutes earlier and settled herself over me. First, she kissed me, and our tongues wrestled as her heat hovered over my cock. It was sweet torture, her hovering there, me waiting for her to give me what I wanted. She knew how to play games, too. She would make me wait for it. I held her head close, covering her mouth with mine, plunging my tongue in and out. She whimpered desperately, and I knew she was ready for more.
She broke the kiss and sat up, taking me by the erect shaft to guide me. I watched as I slid back into her pussy and sighed deeply when she reached the base.
She leaned back, her hands on my calves, and began rocking back and forth. I watched her tits slowly bouncing up and down in time with her thrusts, watched myself disappear into her again and again, feeling her envelop my cock with her wet pussy. Her eyes were closed, her head thrown to the side. She was completely lost in pleasure, and
all I could do was hold on as she took us both to the edge and beyond.
“Oh, Drake!” she cried out, and humped harder as her climax approached. I reached down and rubbed her clit, wanting to watch her explode just as I did. She shrieked when her final orgasm washed over her, and I felt myself lose control seconds later. I exploded into her depths, crying out her name. Both of us were totally spent, sated for the time being. I felt every muscle melt in pleasure.
She fell to the side, groaning, her eyes closed. I closed my eyes, panting for air. The cool breeze coming through the half-open windows made me shiver as it hit the sweat on my skin. If I was chilled, she had to be freezing. I got up to close them before we both got sick.
Nicole was smiling by the time I got back into bed, almost laughing at me. “What?” I asked.
“I was just thinking how sweet and caring you are,” she whispered.
“Because I closed a window?” I asked, chuckling.
“No. Because you thought to do it in the first place. You always think about everybody else, what’s best for the group. That’s a rare quality.”
I couldn’t help grinning as she stroked my ego. “That’s true. I guess it’s why I’m club president, baby—or just as good as.”
She chuckled. “You’re special,” she whispered. “You don’t know how special you are.” I held an arm out to her, and she rested her head on my chest. I heard her contented sigh.
“What brought all this on?” I asked. “It can’t all be the afterglow.”
She laughed. “Maybe it is, I don’t know. Don’t make fun of me.”
“I didn’t mean to make fun. For real. I’m sorry it if seemed like I was.”
She nodded. “I just … well, I saw you with that Harris kid earlier tonight. At dinner, I mean. He seems like a nice kid.”
“I think he is,” I said. “He wants to be a man, but he’s not yet. He will be one day, and I think he’ll be a club member by then.”