“The hell I can’t!” I argue with a shout, standing to my full height, towering over her. She glares up at me and I meet her stare with my own frustrated glower. She never speaks out or tells me no about shit. To be honest, I’m feeling a bit like I’m throwing a temper tantrum in front of everyone, but a man can only take so much teasing and tormenting before he bursts.
Grizzly asks the brothers sitting around the table, watching everything unfold if they should step in to separate us. I don’t address him, because if I do, I’ll end up killing him tonight. My temper’s far too gone, ready to do serious damage and I doubt Vike would appreciate me starting a war with another club.
“You’re a jerk!” Cherry scowls and I nearly break into a grin.
The bitch going crazy makes me want to smile so damn big. It’s not normal. I shouldn’t enjoy being able to push her this far. It’s about damn time though. She’s always so blasé about everything and I want her furious about tonight. She ought to be downright protesting fucking another man. The guy’s not even a member for fuck’s sake! Not only that, but I’ve been sinking into her pussy every single night for a year straight—minus when I’m out on a run—butit’s the same damn difference.
I open my mouth to tell her that I know she loves it when I’m a jerk and she stomps off. “Oh no, you’re not walking out on this shit right now.” My hand captures her bicep, twisting her around and my head snaps to the side. There’s a loud crack as her palm meets the skin on my cheek. Frankly, it stuns the ever-living shit out of me, to the point that I’m speechless and gaping at her outburst. I think it probably shocks everyone. Cherry is the calmest, most easygoing female we’ve had at the club and for her to outright slap me in front of all the members is saying a lot.
I hear Viking chuckling behind me. I don’t address it. He’s got a warped sense of humor, so this is likely the highlight of his day.
Chaos rounds the bar, the older brother on a mission to be captain save a ho, but it’s not happening on my watch. My muscles tighten up, preparing just in case I need to knock him the fuck out. My finger points his way in warning as I ground out a firm, “No! Stop right there! This is my bitch, motherfucker.”
His mouth drops and during it all, I must’ve let Cherry’s arm go as well because she runs from the room. She’s not quick enough to hide her emotions, however, and I catch a glimpse of her tearstained face. One look at her like that and my heart is crumbling, crushed to pieces in my chest cavity. The last thing I want to see is her tears because my dumb ass hurt her in some way. I’m such an idiot sometimes; too stubborn for my own good.
I don’t understand. Was I too rough? Did I physically hurt her in some way? I’m so used to slinging her around and moving her how I want to, that it didn’t even cross my mind that I’d physically hurt her somehow. Or could it have been from embarrassment? Was it because I decided to make my displeasure known and put it on display for everyone else as well? Like I said before, Cherry’s a good girl. She doesn’t cause drama and I just kicked up a shitshow in front of the members, some of their ol’ ladies, Nomads, prospects, hang arounds, and this asshat Grizzly.
“You gonna stand there with your dick out, kid? If she’s yours, well go fucking get her,” Chaos growls and I take off in her wake. I’m too concerned about Cherry to pause and tell Chaos to fuck off as I would if she weren’t currently crying. My only concern is the woman who I made cry, no one else matters now but her. I have to get to her and fix this screw-up of mine. I have to make her smile again.
I’m not certain what the hell to say to her—or do—but I’ll figure something out, I’m sure. I have to.
Slamming through the bathroom door in the hallway, I poke my head in to discover it empty. Of course, it wouldn’t be that easy that she’d be in the first spot I checked. Next, I hightail it to check the kitchen, but that’s no use either. Eventually, I find her holed up in the bathroom that’s attached to her own room, the space she shares with Honey. “Cherry?” I holler, needing to hear her voice.
Her tear-filled eyes meet my own in the mirror above her sink. She’s been attempting to wash the sadness away, but the drops haven’t stopped falling from her beautiful, sad irises, telling on her emotions. “What do you want, Odin?” she chokes out brokenly, her lower lip wobbling. It’s a habit I’ve noticed that only shows up whenever she’s really upset but attempting to hold it back.
“Why are you crying? Did I hurt you when I’d taken hold of your arm or something?”
“You couldn’t tell by now? Not even a little?” she sulks, confusing me further.
“Of course not. I’m always rough with you so it didn’t cross my mind that grabbing you would make you cry. Did I leave a bruise or anything? I’m telling you, it wasn’t my intent whatsoever.”
“My arm’s fine.” She turns around to meet my gaze, no longer scrutinizing me from the mirror. “What was your intention then?”
“Never to inflict enough pain on your body to make you cry, unless it’s tears from me making you feel really good.”
She huffs, using the back of her hand to wipe away fresh tears. “It’s always about sex when it comes to you, huh?”
“You’re gonna have to clue me in here, just a bit, beautiful. I’m not good at this shit.”
“Fine, you want me to clue you in?” she retorts with a touch of wounded determination and sarcasm mixed all in together. “How’s this, you clueless biker? You hurt my heart, Odin, my arm is perfectly fine!”
Swallowing, I look her over, my tongue suddenly feeling a bit too thick in my mouth. “I hurt your heart...” My throat grows dry at the words, at their implications. Me an’ Cherry…we don’t do feelings. At least not out in the open like normal folks do. We hold it all back, pretending there’s nothing between us and then we fuck like it’s the end of the world. That’s how it’s always been and I assumed it’d be that way until we’d grown tired of one another, only we still haven’t reached that point. Not even close. If anything, I want her more now than I ever had in the past.
Another thing is I don’t want anyone else to have her, and I no longer think it’s okay to share her. She’s mine; she always was. I was just too damn dumb to see it all for what it is.
She nods. “You can’t say stuff like that; not in front of them, especially.” She means the brothers and everyone out in the bar at this very moment, but she’s wrong. I can say whatever the hell I want when I feel like it. I’m the motherfucking vice president of this chapter.
“The hell I can’t. I don’t want you with that new guy or any other fucker for that matter. And damn right I’m going to say something. You’re lucky I’ve held back for this long. Usually I would’ve set shit straight by now.”
“This…” She gestures between us; her face screwing up in heartache as she whispers on a sob, “Hurts me.” Her face drops, her gaze peering at my chest. “This...I can’t do this.”
Taking the final few steps between us, I stand right in front of her. I’m close enough, that if I lean forward, our bodies will touch. “I don’t want to hurt you,” I admitted softly, my hands coming up to gently cup her jaw on both sides. My hands wrap over her jaw and part of her neck as I hold her still, staring deeply into her eyes, wanting her to hear me.
“I can’t do this anymore.” She sniffs, a sob breaking free from her trembling lips and my stomach cramps so harshly that I nearly choke on my breath. I never imagined not having her in my life, not having her right here, being able to touch, smell or feel whenever I wanted.
“Excuse me?” I hold her in place, not ready to let go. I’m loyal and stubborn; a man like me doesn’t just throw up their hands and give right up.
“This thing between us.” Her finger points back and forth, gesturing between our bodies. “I can’t be with you anymore. I care too much, and it’s starting to hurt inside far too badly.”
“The fuck you can’t. You’ll stay in my bed because I fucking care too much.” Leaning down, I rest my forehead to hers, our noses bar
ely grazing, and our mouths so damn close. I want to kiss her but refrain from moving from this spot right here.
More tears fall. “They’ll make me leave,” she whispers, a plea entwined with her admission. She doesn’t want to stop what’s between us, and there’s no way I’m letting her give in. I’ll be tenacious enough for both of us.
“I won’t let them, babe.” My lips embellish the promise with a tender press of my mouth to hers. I want her to feel the promise; not just hear me say it.
“I don’t want to lose you,” she breathes, and the answer has never been clearer in my mind.
“You’re mine, Cherry.”
Her body pushes up against my frame as she nods, giving in to her heart.
“You always have been,” I say, finally realizing the pure truth of the statement. I should’ve told her before; hell, I should’ve realized it sooner myself. This all could’ve been avoided if I’d opened my eyes.
“Always.” She kisses me this time and I twist our tongues together, wanting more, never having enough when it comes to this amazing woman.
Pulling back from her mouth, our breaths mingle. Mine still tasting of the whiskey I’d downed in a fury and hers of tequila. “I’m not fucking around.” She needs to realize that I mean what I say, and I one hundred percent mean this right now. I’m making her my woman.
“I believe you, Odin, but the brothers will kick me out. I’m breaking a club rule by falling for you.”
“No, you aren’t.”
“What do you mean? Of course, I am. Everyone has a decent idea of how I feel about you. That scene back in the bar pretty much summed it up and confirmed their suspicions.”
Staring deeply into her eyes, I say the words I never thought would come from my mouth. “I’m claiming you, woman. You’re mine, Cherry. I won’t put up with this bullshit any longer, wondering if another brother’s gonna touch you. It’s driving me mad inside. I want you in my room, in my bed, every single night. I wanna wake up to your beautiful face, perfect tits and kind heart every morning. So help me, if another man touches what’s mine, I’m gonna take off their fucking hand at this point.”
Her lip trembles again, only this time a sweet smile follows it as she gazes back at me like I’m the most important thing in the world to her. She is to me. “Wait…you’re claiming me?”
“I am,” I agree with a nod, tucking a wayward hair behind her ear and smooth some of the tears away with my thumb. “I will bring it up for a vote as soon as possible. This circumstance between us is a bit different. If you were just a civilian, I’d claim you and say fuck everyone, but you’re not.”
“I-I’m a club whore,” she admits, seemingly not proud of the fact. It’s never appeared to bother her in the past, it was what it was, but now, she seems a bit embarrassed to utter the title.
“That doesn’t matter. What I mean is that you’re essentially club property right now. I need to let the brothers know that I plan on claiming you, so they’ll leave you the hell alone. Next, the members will have to vote on the change, and then it’ll be set in stone.”
“What if they don’t agree?” Her palms come to rest on my chest, and the muscles puff up under her hands. I want to be her everything—a big, strong protector to offer her comfort in all times. That’s a bit juvenile of me, but I can’t help my inner nature from coming out and showing itself.
“They will. You relax and let me worry about it all. I’ll handle it.” I offer her my usual confident smile, in hopes it’ll comfort her.
I have no doubt that the brothers wouldn’t give a shit if I made it official. I already have her in my bed nightly. There’s still that what if though, and that’s what I need to be able to avoid. I’d hate to kill a brother because he was following along with club law and touched Cherry, while I was overly jealous and hadn’t laid down my public claim. It could happen.
What if they do vote no and then Cherry does get kicked out instead of welcomed into the fold as an ol’ lady? I can’t let her be given the boot. Not only would it tear me in two, but she wouldn’t know what the hell to do with herself. I’d have to leave, my family, my club...because when it all bottles down to it, I don’t want to spend my life without her.
I wrap my arms around her frame while my hands rest on her ass, squeezing the globes and pulling her body closer into mine. In the next breath, my mouth takes hers in a sweltering kiss, not meant to tease in the slightest but to stake my ownership of her heart and her of mine. This woman belongs to me, and it’s time she felt it from me as much as she’s recently heard it.
Leading her to the bed, I begin to strip her free of the constricting outfit. Piece by piece her clothes are thrown off to the floor. Once she’s completely bare before me, I lie her down gently. She expects me to go ham and fuck her ferociously, but I do the complete opposite instead. I’ve already shown her body who the absolute best is, who the fucking alpha is when it comes to bringing her pleasure and taking control. This time I want her to feel me cherish her and remember me loving her with every beat of my heart.
My fingers rub over the side of her face, tracing her lips and moving lower. She’s so goddamn beautiful. An stunning sight laid out before me, waiting for whatever I want to do to her.
“Odin,” she murmurs, and I peel my clothes off eagerly, tossing them to join hers at our feet. We need to wear less clothing around each other so we can speed things up every time I see her. I just want to sink inside her warmth. In the next beat, I’m moving back to her side. Running my hands over every inch of her flesh, I worship her as she deserves. How was I so blind before, to not grasp what was right in front of me this entire time?
“I want you Cherry,” I confess on an excited exhale.
“I’m yours.”
“Yes, babe, you are.”
I tuck my arms under her, warming her smaller frame with my body, encompassing her in my heat. With a soft thrust, my cock’s sliding through her dripping wetness, plunging deeply into her opening. She gasps, and I swallow her sweet surprise with my mouth. My tongue glides with hers, our tongues mingling in their mating.
I’ve never cared for a woman like I do Cherry. You may wonder what was wrong with Mercy or what happened that led me to fall for a club whore? Loyalty above all. A person’s character is what matters the most to me, not her round ass or perky tits or tight pussy. Sure those things all help when you’re a man, but in the end, it’s her character. Mercy could be the most beautiful woman in the world, but to me, she’s not. She didn’t have a good heart, and Cherry does.
Cherry’s soul calls to mine; she cares about me on a deeper level than I can never remember another woman showing me. She didn’t do it with words, but actions. I could spout off I wanted a cake or something just as ridiculous, and she’d go out of her way to make me happy. She’d fall to her knees to make my body feel good. She’d sleep in my bed at night and let me hold her, all while pretending it didn’t happen. She’d suck up every intimate feeling she had to make sure I was comfortable. And last, but not least, she stayed through it all with me.
Despite my many personal flaws, she noticed something in me and that right there makes me want to be a better man for her. I want to show her I am who she believes me to be. She deserves to be treated the same way she always has done with me: with respect and devotion, love and care. And it’s my mission to repay her loyalty with my own. I plan to make her body feel good again and again. When the time comes, and she spouts something ridiculous, I won’t shun her or ignore her request; I’ll go out of my way as she’s always done for me. That’s the least that she deserves.
I was selfish in the past when it came to us, but no more. That’s not how a partnership works—one person giving a hundred and ten percent while the other tosses in forty percent whenever they feel like it. Hell no! Each partner needs to be piling on one hundred and ten percent for the other person all the time. I’m going to do just that, shower her with everything I’ve been keeping locked up inside. Cherry will never have to qu
estion my intentions or feelings when it comes to her. She has no reason to. I’m committing to her, claiming her. She’s no longer just Cherry. She’s Odin’s woman, Odin’s ol’ lady and I fucking love the sound of that.
We may have started off tumbling into my bed last night, but we ended up in his soon afterward and that’s exactly where we woke up as well. I’ve fallen asleep in his bed many, many times. At first, it bothered him, and I wouldn’t get to see him again for a few days, then he got used to it. Not necessarily admitting he enjoyed it, but after a while, he started taking advantage of having me in his bed when he first woke up, and I realized that he was harder than steel. I started finding him holding me sometimes when I’d wake up before him. Not sure when it all began, but it did. I never took it for more than him holding me because I was the one in his bed.
I was too afraid to hope that the man I’d dreamed of for years had developed real feelings for me. I’m the club whore, and everyone knows the VP doesn’t fall for the whore. Not only that, but I’m nearly fifteen years older than him. It's not something that is as practical as an older man and younger woman being together are. I almost felt like what I was doing was wrong. As if I was being a cougar or something similar, but that’s not the case at all. I was falling for him more and more with each day over the years until finally, I’d gotten so far below, there was pretty much no way out. I’d fallen completely in love with the stubborn, young biker.
Waking up in Odin’s arms today was different; he didn’t let me go. He tucked me into his body even tighter, asking me not to leave just yet. So I stayed. I held him and dozed a bit, before waking up to kisses being peppered all over me. It wasn’t so much sexual as it was a show of contentment and happiness. He was showing me true affection. Of course, one thing progressed to another, but what matters is how it all began. I’ve never felt smitten with a man before, but today, I felt like it was Christmas morning. Not the disappointing holidays I woke up to as a kid, but the ones you see in a movie filled with snowy, star-filled wonder. That’s exactly how I feel wrapped in Odin’s arms and knowing that I’m his.
Cherry: Oath Keepers MC Page 14