****
Shades looked down at Skylar.
His fingers threaded through her hair as she worked him. She looked so beautiful, her mouth worshipping him, taking him. He thought back to the events of the day, the DKs showing up at the gate. He knew she wanted to run. It was always her first response, her mode of operation. She got scared or nervous and bam—she took off. But not this time. This time he wouldn’t give her a chance to get skittish. This time he’d make sure she didn’t run.
His eyes slid closed as she worked her magic, and he relaxed back, letting go of all the problems weighing down on both of them, and he rode the high, stroke after stroke, until his jaw clenched, he growled and exploded into ecstasy.
When he slid back to earth, and she slid up to lay on his chest, his arms wrapped around her, rough palms stroking her satin skin, he murmured in her ear, “It’s all gonna be all right, Sky.”
“You don’t know that,” came her soft response.
One hand slid into her silken hair, fisting gently at the back of her head. His arms tightened. “Baby, you gotta have some faith in me.”
“I’m scared I’m going to lose you,” she murmured into his chest.
He pulled her head back to search her eyes. “No one and nothing is going to get in our way or pull us apart again. Do you understand me?”
She nodded.
“I love you, Sky.”
“I love you, too, Shades. I always have.”
He pulled her mouth down to his, his tongue delving inside for a long tender kiss. Then he pulled her close, her head tucking under his chin.
“Sleep, my baby. I’ve got you.”
And she did, at least she tried, for a few minutes.
“Shades, you awake?” she whispered.
“Hmm?”
“You awake?”
“I am now.”
She propped up on one elbow and looked down at him, running her fingers absently across his abs and over his chest. “Can I ask you something?”
He cocked one eye open to look at her, questioningly.
“Do you bring women here?”
A smile pulled at his mouth. “Nope.”
“I’m the first?”
“You’re the first.”
She smiled.
“I see you like that.”
“I do like that.”
“Go to sleep,” he ordered, his eyes already closed.
A moment later, “Hey, honey?”
“Yeah, babe.”
“Where’s the bathroom?”
“Gotta pee?”
“Uh, yeah.”
He grinned, his eyes still closed. “Sucks for you, then, babe, ‘cause it’s downstairs, behind the kitchen.”
“Damn.”
He chuckled.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Skylar lie awake in Shades big king size bed. The window was open and she could hear the early morning sounds coming through it. A bird call echoing across the water. The quiet trolling motor of an early rising fisherman setting out at dawn.
She sat up and looked out the wall of windows that faced the lake. In the early morning mist, with just the pale gray light of dawn before sunrise, she could see the small boat moving slowly across the glass-like stillness of the water, broken only by the small trail of ripples left in the boat’s wake.
She felt a strong arm lock around her waist as Shades pulled her back down to her back. He was on his stomach, facing away from her, the sheet riding low on his ass. His head turned on the pillow, and he cracked one eye to look at her.
“Goin’ somewhere?”
She smiled, twisting in the bed to her side facing him and ran her palm lightly over the smooth bronze skin of his back, her eyes moving over him, following the track of her hand.
“Just looking at the water,” she replied lazily and watched his eyes slide closed again.
“It still there?” he asked, his sleepy voice muffled by the pillow, and she saw a small smile pull at the corner of his mouth.
She grinned. “Yeah, it’s still there.”
“Funny how that works.”
Her fingers trailed up his spine to his neck and over to his ear to toy with the curls there.
“My baby want to play?” he asked in a deep, growly voice, his eyes still closed.
“Maybe.” She leaned down to press a line of kisses down his temple, his cheekbone, his jaw, his neck.
“Mmm. Feels good,” he murmured with a moan. “Keep goin’.”
She kept going, trailing soft brushes of her mouth across his shoulder to between his shoulder blades and then her mouth began a descent down his spine, one slow soft kiss at a time. She didn’t miss a vertebrae.
“You get low enough I’m gonna roll over,” he warned.
She rose up and smiled down at him, her hand running over his ass, pushing the sheet down with it. “Sounds like a workable plan.”
Her palm stroked over his firm buttocks, her eyes taking it in. He had the best looking ass she’d ever seen.
“You likin’ what you see, pretty girl?”
“You have a beautiful backside.”
He rolled over with a grin. “And how do you like the flip side?”
She grinned back, her hand stroking over him. “Impressive.”
“Damn straight,” he insisted, his brows raised and his teeth flashing.
Her mouth came down on his nipple, and she drew hard on it. His hand fisted in her hair, and his dick bobbed in reaction. “Babe.”
She trailed a line of kisses down his abs, pausing to dip in his bellybutton with her tongue and then lower, following the sexy trail of hair down, down. She kissed his erection from root to tip. She pushed his hands down on the bed, and he fisted them in the sheets.
“You gonna tease and torment me, babe?”
She grinned up at him. “Maybe I’ll give you a hickey?” she teased with a wink.
“Ouch.” He grinned.
“Payback’s a bitch, honey.”
“Baby, have mercy.”
Her mouth moved to his inner thigh and she clamped down, sucking hard.
“Ummm,” he groaned. Then he sat up, grabbed her legs, yanked her around on top of him and clamped his mouth on her inner thigh, giving her one right back.
“Hey, no fair. You already gave me one.”
“Then you better find a better use for that mouth of yours,” he warned with a brow raised and a smile.
So she did.
****
Several hours later, the midmorning sun had risen in the sky, its heat having burned off any lingering morning mist.
Skylar could feel the warmth of the sun coming in through the window, heating her skin. It was such a delicious feeling, she didn’t want to open her eyes. Apparently, neither did Shades, as he hadn’t moved an inch from where he’d collapsed after their last bout of amazing morning sex.
She smiled, recalling it.
The distant rumble of a set of motorcycle pipes broke through her quiet meditations. She tilted her head up, the crown of her head burying into the pillow as she looked out the window behind the bed. She paused and listened.
Yep. A motorcycle. Coming this way.
“Fuck. Not again,” she heard Shades growl into the pillow. He was flat on his stomach again, his face in the pillow, facing away from her.
She laughed. “You realize the only place this doesn’t happen is at my place.”
“Yeah, babe, cause they don’t know where you live yet. Give it time. It’ll happen.”
“Oh, no, it won’t. I’m never telling them where I live. Besides, the entrance is gated.”
“Did that stop me?”
“No. I guess not. Damn.”
The motorcycle sound got closer, and she went up on an elbow, twisting to peer out the window to the drive below and the gravel road beyond.
“Just one bike,” she announced.
“Yeah, babe. I know. That was obvious by the sound of only one set of pipes.”
“Oh.”
“I’m guessing it’s Ghost.”
“Yep,” she confirmed as the bike pulled right up to the cabin, and she got a good look at the rider. When Shades just continued to lay there, she asked, “Does he do this often?”
“No, not really. Not this early.”
“Does that mean there’s trouble?”
He rolled over and looked at her, chuckling. “Yeah, and I’m lookin’ at it. You’re the only trouble around here, baby.”
She wacked him with her pillow.
He grabbed it out of her hands, threw it on the floor, hooked his hand to the back of her neck and pulled her down for a kiss. One kiss turned into two, then three, until she finally pushed against his chest and rose up to look down at him.
“Go greet your guest.”
“You gonna wait for me naked in my bed till I run him off and come back up here?”
“Yeah, that worked out so well the last time.”
He laughed as he swung out of bed and pulled his jeans on.
“One of these days, babe.” He leaned down and kissed her. “That’s what I want. To come home and find you naked in my bed waiting for me.” He kissed her again, then pulled back an inch to look down into her eyes. His crinkled at the corners with his smile. “Fucking heaven, all laid out and waiting for me.”
“Baby,” she murmured softly, touched by his words.
His hands cupped her face and pulled her up to her knees, facing him. He gave her another long kiss, her naked body pulled flush against his jean clad one. When he broke the kiss, he reached down with one hand, and his palm cracked against her ass as he grinned, “Better get dressed, pretty girl.”
“Oww,” she whined with a grin.
The back door opened, and Ghost’s voice could be heard.
“Who wants coffee?”
“Me!” Skylar shouted back down.
“Then get your sweet butt down here and make us some, Sugar.”
She laughed and rolled her eyes.
“I got it, babe,” Shades said, kissing her again and then bounding down the stairs.
How did that man have so much energy this morning, especially after all the sex they had last night, and then again this morning?
And then she smiled. Maybe that’s what gave him all that energy.
****
When Skylar came downstairs, Shades was in the kitchen making coffee. She wandered up behind him and gave him a kiss on the neck. “Need any help.”
“No, I got this. It’ll be ready in a minute. Why don’t you go keep our visitor company?” He nodded toward the deck.
Skylar turned to follow his eyes and spotted Ghost out on the deck, leaning his elbows on the railing, taking in the lake and smoking a cigarette. She wandered outside.
Ghost turned his head to look over his shoulder when he heard the sound of the sliding glass door opening and closing.
“Hey, Hotrod,” he greeted her.
“Hotrod?” She frowned questioningly. “Why Hotrod?”
Ghost grinned. “Saw you do that little burnout in that cute little sports car of yours the other day when you pulled away from the clubhouse. Spinnin’ tires and throwin’ gravel, girl.”
“Right.” Skylar grinned as she came to stand next to him, her eyes taking in the lake.
“Mind if I smoke?” he asked, turning the hand that held his cigarette palm up, showing it to her.
“No. Go right ahead.” She leaned on her elbows, like he was.
He took a drag, blew the smoke up, and then looked at her. “You doing okay today?”
“I’m fine.”
“You weren’t yesterday. You were a borderline basket case.”
“Yes, I suppose I was.” She looked out at the lake, and then met his eyes again. “Every time I think everything is going along fine, life always finds a way to knock me back down.”
“Well, darlin’ you know what I always say? When life gives you lemons—squeeze them in people’s eyes.”
He made her laugh. “Are you ever serious?”
“Try not to be.”
She grinned. Then her face sobered. “You don’t have anything to say? I mean, about yesterday and well, everything.”
He grinned and shook his head. “Oh, darlin’, I have a lot to say, but I’ll keep my mouth shut because I’ve learned that anything that starts with the phrase, ‘don’t take this the wrong way’ has a zero percent success rate.”
She tried to hold back a grin. “I appreciate that.”
“I will say this, though. You mean something to him. I don’t know the story of whatever went on between you years ago. He won’t talk about it. But I do know he’s happy you’re givin’ him another chance.”
“Thanks for telling me that.”
Then Ghost leaned closer, bumping shoulders with her and teased, “So, when he did you last night, I hope he showed you just how really, really grateful he was.”
She blushed, and he turned back to the lake, taking another hit off his smoke.
“I should be the one that’s grateful. I’ve caused him so much trouble. I never meant to bring my problems to him. He was so angry yesterday.”
Ghost turned to look at her. “Maybe Shades isn’t the most subtle guy, maybe he can be a little demanding…
“A little?” She laughed.
“And maybe he doesn’t have my awesome sense of humor…” he paused to smile at her, but then he got serious, his eyes capturing hers. “But if your life’s in danger…he’s your guy.”
Skylar thought about his words as Ghost went back to quietly smoking and studying the lake. Her life was in danger, and there was no one she trusted to protect her more than Shades. My guy. That’s what she wanted, she realized, more than anything.
“Ghost?”
“Yeah, darlin’?” He turned back to her.
“What do you know about Ashley?”
He let out a huff. “Ashley, what a waste of boobs.”
Skylar couldn’t hold back the giggle this time. “That so?”
He looked over at her. “Just sayin’, she’s not just crazy, she’s bat-shit crazy. She’s beyond bat-shit crazy, something’s not right in that girl’s head.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, if she were a guy, I’d be wondering if there wasn’t someone locked in her basement. That kind of crazy.”
“Eeww.” Skylar made a face.
“Exactly.”
“So why do you guys let her come around?”
“She’s got a rockin’ body. It’s not any more complicated than that, darlin’. Guys take a taste and throw her back. Eventually, that’ll get old, and we’ll run her ass off.”
“God, that sounds cold.”
He shrugged. “Way of the world.”
She huffed out a laugh. “No, it’s not.”
He grinned. “Correction. Way of the MC world.”
“That’s pretty jaded. Don’t you ever think about these girls’ feelings?”
“Nope.”
“Nope?”
“They know what they’re signin’ up for comin’ around the club. Nobody’s forcing ‘em. They come of their own free will. They party. They have some fun with a brother. No harm in that.”
“How did you manage to get this far in life without some woman driving a stake through your head?”
He grinned big. “Never said they haven’t tried.”
Shades walked out with three mugs of coffee and set them on the glass table. They all sat down.
“You’re out early,” Shades said to Ghost over the rim of his mug. “Know this ain’t no social call, so spill.”
“Butcher sent me out. Wants you to come in and talk to him.”
Shades stared at Ghost. “What, a phone call couldn’t have done that?”
Ghost shrugged. “No clue. I do what I’m told.”
“Something you’re not tellin’ me, Brother?”
Ghost’s eyes moved from Shades to Skylar and back, and she suddenly felt like they needed privacy. She started t
o push her chair back. “I’ll leave you two to your business.”
“Not necessary, darlin’,” Ghost insisted. Then he looked at Shades. “I’ve got nothing I can tell you, Brother. I just need to make sure you show up. Maybe he thought you and Skylar might slip town.”
Shades stared at Ghost, and then took a sip of his coffee. He looked calm, but Skylar noticed his jaw tighten. Something was up, and he knew it. Apparently, he was letting it slide that his brother wasn’t being more forthcoming.
“What time’s he expecting us?”
Ghost lifted his chin toward the mug in Shades hand and grinned. “You got time to drink your coffee.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” Ghost replied, still grinning.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Shades walked into Butcher’s office.
Butcher looked up. “Sit down.”
Shades frowned at his gruff tone. He closed the door and sat down.
“This about the DKs?”
“This is about a lot of shit.” Butcher paused to light up a cigarette, then he tossed his silver Zippo lighter on the desk with a clatter. His eyes met Shades’ through the smoke. “You plan on makin’ Skylar your ol’ lady?”
Shades didn’t hesitate. “Absolutely.”
Butcher took a deep irritated breath. “I get it, Brother. I do. She’s beautiful. Fuckin’ gorgeous, and we all love her. But she’s comin’ with a shit ton of baggage. You sure you want to sign on for that?”
Shades ran a frustrated hand down his face and blew out a breath. “I know what kind of shit storm this is bringing down on the club. The DKs showin’ at the gate yesterday and—”
“This ain’t about that. The fuckin’ DKs I can deal with.”
“Then what’s this about?” Shades frowned in confusion. What the hell else could it be about?
Butcher hollered out, “Ghost, get in here!”
The door opened immediately, as if Ghost had been waiting right outside the door. Waiting to be called in here. What the fuck was going on?
“You get it?” Butcher snapped.
Shades watched Ghost’s eyes flick to him, and then he was reaching inside his vest. He pulled out a small rectangular paper and slid it across the desk to Butcher. Then he looked up at Shades and said, “Sorry, Brother. Boss’s orders.”
SHADES: An Evil Dead MC Story (The Outlaw Series Book 3) Page 18