by V. Theia
Sir, please help. Please help me.
He’d still be hearing that pain when he closed his eyes tonight, that much he knew.
With no idea what would happen to her, he hoped tomorrow and the days to come would be a better life for her. She stirred for a second but didn’t wake.
What the fuck were they even making in that place, snuff movies?
Tag looking down at her, he felt a kick of sympathy for what she’d endured already. “You’ll be okay now, darling.”
Then he did something that took him by surprise. There was a piece of paper on the bedside table, he wrote his phone number and added, “If you need help with anything, give me a call. – Tag, the guy who carried you out.”
He left Marianna asleep and sauntered back to Rider’s room.
What a fucking day, he thought.
It was even more eventful than one of his cage fights.
But at least today turned out okay
* * *
Zara was crying softly into Rider’s chest when he woke up.
He soothed her as her biker-man always did by palming the back of her head.
“I’m good, Icy. Stop crying.”
“You got shot. That is the opposite of being good. Let me cry a second.”
He chuckled and rubbed her hair. “Okay, baby.”
“You cannot do that again. I swear to God, I will lose my mind if you do that again.”
After a minute, he said. “Made…. world safer…for my family.”
She lifted her head to look into his sleep filled eyes and began to bawl again because she knew whatever danger he’d been in, and he’d tell her later, probably at home where there was no chance of being overheard, that he’d had their family in mind and Zara just lost it.
Everything became clear.
Not that it was a surprise that she absolutely loved him, worshipped him, adored every protective inch. But the love right then felt enormous and it became clear to the point she was a wreck for all the lost time she could have wasted if things today had gone a whole other grim way.
“Why haven’t I married you already?” She sobbed into his shoulder, soaking her man. “Why have I been so stupid all this time when I should be your wife already. Your wife. Rider’s wife.”
“Icy, baby.”
Her hiccups became worse. “Marry me, Rider. You have to marry me.”
Rider, when she looked at him was rolling his blue eyes. “Dammit, Icy. It takes me getting shot for you to want my ring on your finger?” Laughter in his tone.
“Yes,” she cried again and only stopped when Rider’s fingers stroked through her hair and lifted her head. “Are you going to marry me, Ambrosio?”
Even in a hospital bed with wires attached to him and a fresh bullet wound, he was still bossy and she almost split her face from smiling so hard. “Goddammit, Icy. I’ve been asking for years; you don’t get to take this shit from me.”
She blinked, wiping her wet nose on the sleeve of her shirt, it happened to be Rider’s shirt she’d slipped on that morning to do her housework.
“Are you saying no?”
What the hell.
He’d been asking her nearly once a month, and now he had the audacity to say no? She’d punch his lights out if he wasn’t already laid out.
“You’re lucky you’re in this bed, because I’m about to bruise you.”
Her tears dried up.
His lips split in a smirk.
“I get to ask you.”
Oh, well then. Good.
“Okay, fine. Ask me.”
“Not like this. Not now. But swear to Christ, Icy, I ask, you better say yes.”
“I will,” the water started leaking from her eyes again. Slower this time, with love and relief. “I will say yes. When will you ask me?”
“You’ll just have to be patient.”
“Rider…you got shot. Time is precious. Ask me.”
He rolled his oh-so-pretty eyes and she found herself laughing.
Her life was rich and full because of him. Every road and brick led to and from her Rider.
“I can’t believe this shit, now she wants to marry me. I should have got shot years ago.”
“No,” she breathed, their foreheads together. Loving him. Relishing that he was here being his big bad biker-man bossy self.
“Don’t ever get shot again, I mean it. I love you.”
“Love you, Icy. Where’s my babies?”
“They’re outside with your parents having something to eat.”
“Go get them, want my babies close.”
She smiled into his lips and kissed him softly. “Love you,” she repeated.
Loving a MC prez came with fraught days like this. Hopefully few and far between, but they weathered, they got through and once she got him home and their lives fell back into their blissful normalcy, she’d be at peace that her man, whatever he’d done for them and the club, he’d made the world better. “Love you so much.”
She slipped off the bed and was at the door.
“Icy baby?” She turned to find those incredible eyes of his on her.
“Yeah, honey?”
“You gonna marry my ass then?”
Nothing would stop her laughter or the way she whooped loudly and bound back over to him.
Of course he wouldn’t do the whole romantic schtick, but that wasn’t Rider and it wasn’t her. He did romance in his own biker-man way and she freaking loved it.
“Yes, yes, yes, yes.”
He grinned and held the back of her head while she kissed over his face.
That’s how the whole MC group found them when they’d come running at her shriek.
It was left to Rider who told them proudly.
“Only had to get shot for Icy to marry me.”
The room erupted in cheers.
Of course the nurses warned them to be quiet, but nothing was stopping their revelry right then.
Her biker-man love of her life was alive and they were going to tie the knot.
Life had a weird way of working out.
Zara knew that more than most and look what she got out of it.
She kissed him again and then went to get their babies for him.
THIRTY-TWO
“In love with Picasso.” - Poppy
Poppy hoped Tait didn’t notice how burned the apartment smelled.
She’d tried to air out the cookies for the last hour.
He was home later than usual and she’d been ready to call him when she heard his feet on the stairs and then his key in the door.
The happiness to see him step through the door came from all corners and she abandoned the fresh tray of not burned cookies she’d taken from the oven and slid across the floor in her socks to jump into his arms.
This was made so much better when he lifted his head and grinned right before she went full launch.
“Damn, Poppy,” he laughed when she started kissing over his face.
“I missed you all day,” she declared, uncaring if she sounded needy and clingy. She was both for him. “I text you earlier. I’ve been baking. I’ll warn you, they’re not all fantastic.” Her grin soon turned down her lips because the way Tait was staring at her, at her mouth, made her stomach drop and heat swarm like soldiers on a mission through her body.
She recognized that look now.
Their kiss started slow.
A mere brush of two lips together, sharing the same air.
Tait held the back of her head while she angled up for him.
This feeling inside consumed her, set her alight, made every nerve begin to hum.
It was as though she woke up with a brand new body when she entered Tait’s life with its new sensations, curves begging to be touched and tasted.
A new body that was constantly hungry for the attention of one man.
It’s a stupid feeling to be twenty-six and only just realizing what her body was capable of feeling but how was she to know the depth of desire that was inside of
her if she’d never felt it before for anyone?
She wasn’t about quantity.
Her lack of numbers never bothered her, she’d always figured she’d get sex over with one day, to see what the fuss was about, expecting it would be subpar on the enjoyment scale.
Sex was never high on her to-do list, case in point, having three fiancé’s and not wanting to sleep with any of them. The sex drive all her friends talked about was just never there for Poppy, so she never focused on it.
That was in her old body, the one which didn’t come alive for anyone but her trusted vibrators.
This new incarnation of her body, the one she felt beautiful and sexy in when his eyes landed on her, this body was more than willing to enjoy sex every hour of the day.
When she was sated and sore, she was soon hungry again.
It never quit.
She was starting to believe she was turning into a sex addict.
A Tait addict at the very least.
“What are you thinking?” Arms wrapped around his neck; she lovingly brushed her lips over his face.
He sounded so hoarse and sexy when he answered.
“I was thinking how I want to fuck your mouth right now with my tongue.”
“Tait.” She breathed in lust soaked gasps.
To be desired by this kind of man was a gift she wanted to tear into and make a wholly mess on the floor.
“What, too indecent for you, baby? My mouth is good for telling lies and fucking you.”
“Your mouth is beautiful. Put it on mine quickly, please.”
His eyes smoldered and when he swooped down to tap her lips to his, it was a kiss she’d waited her whole life for.
She traced both of her hands over the hills of his strong shoulders as she fought to gain some height to better reach him so she stood on his toes and stretched up until he laughed into her mouth.
“Someone is impatient.”
No secret there.
Whenever she was around Tait, she wanted him on her, near her, inside her.
His eyes changed; her body responded as it always did to the slightest move from him.
It was ridiculously beautiful really.
Then they dropped to her mouth and she licked her lips
“When I see you dying for my fuck but you’re too flustered to ask for it, do you know what that does to me, Poppy? My gut gets tight, my cock is so hard it’s hurting me. It’s all I can do not to take you against a wall, push you over the coffee table, down on the floor mounted behind you and just hammer into your tight unused body. It drives me crazy how bad I want you.”
Feelings flooded her. Unreal and true feelings.
All of them hummed in accordance to the heat of Tait’s stare and the feel of his forehead pressed to hers.
“I like looking at you, Tait.”
Yeah, she said that.
Poppy literally had zero dirty talk game.
But she could always give him the truth of how she felt about him.
He’d lost so many people from his life recently and she felt his sadness for it and wanted desperately to make him feel whole again by always letting him know he was wanted.
He smirked and she beamed back.
“You’re such a good man.”
A dirty man, and she loved that about him.
How he didn’t treat her with princess gloves.
She strived for his mouth again, his head dropped giving her another inch as his hands palmed her butt and squeezed so inappropriately lovely.
“I want you, Tait. Right now would be a good time, and if it’s alright… I want you in my mouth.” She rushed that last part; sure her head would explode from over blushing.
He took a fast kiss from her, just spiked his tongue into her mouth. His kiss wasn’t gentle, it was greedy, demanding and then he pulled back. “You think I’m noble enough to tell you no? I’ve thought of nothing else but you wrapping me in those pink lips and sucking me until you can’t breathe. If you want it so badly, suck it, Poppy. Suck it. Lick it the same way you were licking your lips a minute ago when you were trying to distract me.”
Poppy’s pulse beat madly, she felt it in her chest, radiating everywhere.
The way he spoke, like he didn’t care to ease her into it, just said whatever he wanted, affected her in ways she didn’t think possible.
She wanted all his dirty words, wanted to keep them and remember them on nights she was alone. She felt real and alive when he spoke his mind, as if he didn’t care about shocking her.
She wanted that. She needed to feel real to him.
All her innocent childhood feelings for the boy she had adored were back again, but different now, those feelings were bigger in her belly, nothing innocent about Tait or how her heart spoke to her.
“Go ahead and ask for it then.” he told her stepping back, he took her over to the couch where he sat on the arm and started to unbuckle his belt, unable to drag her eyes from the way he reached in and grabbed his dick.
“Say, please, Tait, fuck my mouth, I want you to own it.”
She didn’t hesitate to get on her knees between his spread legs to swirl her tongue around the swollen leaking tip, his harsh desperately spoken words searing her with desire. She licked and licked, sucking the very tip.
“Please, Tait, fuck my mouth, I want you to own it.”
He grunted. “Get your fill of that cock, little girl, because as soon as you’ve had a number of deep sucks, I’m going to fuck you.”
“Yay,” she exclaimed, so excited. And then she got her fill.
Until Tait groaned, cursed and gripped her head, then drove his cock deep into her throat, hissing out how hard for her to suck and to use her hands too.
Making her gag a few times with his depth into her throat, but it felt good at the same time.
He didn’t let her make him come but he was panting out of sorts when he pulled her up from the floor.
“I’m sorry… I… I’ll get better at that, Tait.”
He blinked and rushed a hand into the back of her hair. “You think I mind that I told you how to move, so you’d feel me in your throat because I’m a filthy bastard to want to make you sore tomorrow every time you swallow. Baby, knowing you haven’t had that with anyone else brings out a side of me I never knew I could feel. It’s like you gave me the fucking sun. I’m burning for you.”
Oh. Well. She grinned and fisted his hair too.
“I like instructing you, Poppy. That won’t stop. I want to put you in a lot of positions and get off that way and feel you shudder around my cock. I like talking through sex, I like noise and mess. Nothing you do is the wrong thing to do. You just have to relax and go with what you’re feeling.”
“So I… I didn’t do it wrong?”
“Didn’t you feel me swell in your mouth? See this hard dick right now between us? It wants you, desperately. I want to spend a millennium watching you blow me. You want to bite and claw me up. You want to scream and shout cuss words, you want to dirty talk like a whore, do it, Poppy, nothing you do is wrong.”
Her whole face beamed cerise.
He was so sweet and dirty; Poppy nearly lost her balance as she swayed with joy and braced both of her hands on his upper arms.
Tait’s hissing meant Poppy stalled and glanced at his pained face.
“What… what’s wrong?”
“Nothing, time to get your clothes off, little girl. I have a hunger.”
With a hunch, she pressed lightly on his arm again and he flinched.
“That’s not nothing, are you hurt?”
“I’m fine, baby. Bring that mouth here.” He all but growled but she held him off.
“Take the jacket off, Tait. Let me see what’s not hurting you.”
He sighed but he slid it off and she saw the bandage around the top of his arm.
Instantly alarmed, she demanded to know what happened.
“No lies, remember,” she reminded him.
He told her every frightening,
terrifying detail and the more she heard, the greater her belly tightened to know how much danger he’d faced.
Unsure if she’d taken a breath in the last few minutes, she cupped the sides of his neck just to stop her fingers from shaking.
“Are you in trouble with the police?”
“Unsure. I gave them a statement.”
“Oh, Tait. I could have lost you.”
Tears came.
A lot of tears.
He held her on his lap while she cried and thought of this new life of hers without this wonderful man in it.
“No more guns,” she declared in between wiping her nose and Tait brushing her tears away. “No more heroics, you leave that to the police, Tait. I mean it, you can only be my hero.”
He grinned and her heart swelled.
He was here and he was safe.
He would be able to eat her burned cookies.
She wanted to cry again just from how close she came to losing him but his mouth stopped her by kissing her hard.
“Bed, Poppy. Your hero needs to fuck you now.”
Poppy would worry later; she’d worry her freaking socks off because people getting shot at and injured just wasn’t something she was used to.
But her man needed her and there was nowhere else, nothing more important than that.
She felt Tait’s mouth on her neck the next morning, and his hand sliding into the front of her panties even before she was fully awake.
They’d had each other in desperate ways all night long in between quiet face to face talking. So much talking and sharing secrets.
She’d even broached the one she most dreaded.
“Why Addison?” She’d asked.
He’d taken a while to answer. “That was a long time ago.”
“You don’t want her?”
“No.”
“Not even if she wasn’t Malachai’s wife?”
“Not even then.”
She trusted his word so she buried her own insecurities where Addison was concerned because it was Poppy in Tait’s bed. It was Poppy who was brought from sleep by a hungry man.
“Lie there, baby. Let me do all the work,” he rasped and he took his fingers in deep until he made Poppy’s back arch and her cry blistered the air with how good his long fingers felt.