That admission was hot. Knowing just how strong he was and how tight he kept hold of himself told her just how close he was to blowing his top. Opening the condom she’d brought, she pushed it down onto the length of him.
Bringing her knee up on the bed, she straddled his waist. “This is how I want to do this the first time,” she told him, her mind completely made up.
“Whatever you need.”
She brought her hands up to his and pushed them back against the softness of the bed in order to stabilize herself. He gripped her fingers harder than he would have liked to keep himself under control. As she rose and sank down on his length, they both moaned.
“You okay?” he asked her as she stilled for a moment, closing her eyes.
She nodded. The feelings welling up inside her were numerous. She had known this would bring a lot of them to surface and possibly bring memories that she wasn’t ready for. It was a surprise when all she could think about was how good and right she felt with him inside her body.
“I’m good,” she told him, a smile on her face.
Tentatively, she began to rock against him, raising and lowering herself in a rhythm that only the two of them knew.
“I’ll try not to embarrass myself,” he told her, only half joking.
When they got their rhythm down, she let go of his hands, using his chest to brace herself. That allowed his hands freedom to roam, and she shivered as he ran them all over her body. Nothing went untouched by him, her legs, her thighs, her stomach, her back, her face, her breasts. They were all caressed softly as he let her take the lead.
Sweat poured from his brow, and she knew that he was holding back for her. She knew that this pace wasn’t enough to get her there, but she just enjoyed it.
“I’ve never been a more than one time kinda girl,” she told him as he closed his eyes.
“With me, one time isn’t going to cut it,” he promised her.
Just like before, he brought his finger to the core of her body and began rubbing consistently. Not letting up, even when the canting of her hips increased. Her fingers on his pecks flexed and her nails bit into his skin.
“Fuck,” he growled, wanting to flip her over and follow the instincts of his body. But with her, this time, he knew he couldn’t. “Come for me,” he coaxed her.
She really thought that she couldn’t. She never had before, especially not with penetration. She just wasn’t ‘one of those’ girls. The orgasm hit her out of left field, and she gasped loudly, digging her fingers into his skin.
“Yeah,” he encouraged her. “That’s what I want.”
When she let out a deep breath, trying to control the beating of her heart, he took it as his cue. Gripping his hands tightly around her hips, he held her in place as he pushed himself deeply into her core at a much faster pace than what she had set.
She wished she could tell him the things that he told her, that she could talk him through it, like he had her. The fact of the matter was though, she had no experience with that.
“Do you want me to come?” he asked her, looking into her eyes.
His were wild, much like she imagined his ancestors were. “Yes,” she nodded. “I do.”
His body tightened and he pushed his head back, slamming his eyes shut. “Meredith,” he breathed, and she felt the surge of his hardness inside of her. She felt the tension leave his body even when he continued to thrust inside her, almost like he couldn’t stop.
When he finally did, he gave a soft sigh and opened his arms for her. In a completely comfortable silence, he lay her beside his body and stroked her back until they both fell asleep.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Meredith was running through a dark alley. The ground wet with a recent rain, the smell of garbage pungent in her nose. She didn’t know where she was going, she only felt an urgency that she had to get there quickly. Footsteps were coming up behind her, but she didn’t know if they were friend or foe. Turning her head to the side, she tried to see behind her, but all she saw was darkness. The feeling of panic began to overtake her. She could feel the person gaining on her, causing her to break into a full-on run. Her arms pumped at her sides, her hamstrings and calves screamed as she pushed herself to go even faster. She looked around everywhere in this never ending alley, trying to find a door to go into. Just as she saw one up ahead, a hand clamped down on her shoulder and she screamed.
“Mer? It’s me, you’re okay,” Tyler cooed to the woman in his arms.
She had awakened him moments before while thrashing against the sheets, her arms and legs moving like she was running from someone. He saw her eyes widen as she tried to acclimate herself to her surroundings. Breath gushed from her mouth as she tried to slow her breathing to normal.
“It’s been awhile since I had one of those,” she gasped, hand at her chest over her heart.
“Was it the usual?” he asked, keeping a respectful distance in the bed, just in case this sent her on a downward spiral.
“No,’ she shook her head. ‘This is nothing at all like any nightmare I’ve had before. This one almost made me feel like prey to a hunter. Someone was running after me in a dark alley, and I couldn’t see them, but I couldn’t get away either.”
“Do you think it had to do with what we did here tonight?” he asked.
She thought for a moment and then shook her head. “No, I don’t. I think it had to do with what I wanted to talk to you about earlier.”
“Which was?”
Getting out of the bed, she padded over to where she had put the manila envelopes. It was chilly in the room, so she grabbed the thermal shirt she had taken off of him and put it over her naked body. Walking back over to the bed, she hopped back in and began opening the packages, dumping the pictures all out.
“See, these have pictures in them, and there was one that was sent to my house. It was in storage and I found it when we started going through all that stuff. There are a ton of pictures. Of me, of you, of the club, of Denise, the kids, everyone.”
She spread them out between them on the bed and watched as his eyebrows drew together in what looked like anger.
“The fuck? Whoever took the time to do this sure was around a lot. How did we not notice someone following us with a camera?”
This made him uneasy. What else was going on that they didn’t know about? Was this someone inside the club? That pissed him off.
“I see you already jumping to conclusions, Tyler. Let’s just see if we can find a clue here. Maybe if we can figure out who did this, we can figure out why.”
She was right, his anger would get them nowhere. That didn’t change the fact that he wanted an explanation and he wanted it yesterday.
For hours they poured over the hundreds of pictures that had been sent to her. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to them. The only thing that could really be gathered was that someone had unprecedented access to the club and no one had noticed.
“Let’s think,” Meredith said, putting her reporter cap on. “Who could have done this?”
“I really hate that someone I think of as family did this, but it’s kind of lookin’ that way isn’t it?”
She felt horrible for him. He obviously was not taking this well. “If there’s one thing I learned in all my years as a reporter and a journalist – it’s that not everything is always as it seems. Don’t think you’ve been betrayed by someone you love, let’s look at this from all angles. Okay?”
Tyler knew she was right again. Evidence could be made to appear one way when in reality it was a completely different way. It just mattered how one looked at it.
“Do you have a notebook around?” she surprised him by asking.
“A notebook?”
Her smile was saucy. “Yeah, you know one of those old-fashioned things we used to use in school? It’s got a wire spiral on the side and these things called lines on the paper.”
“When did you become such a smartass?” He didn’t skip a beat as he got out of the bed
and walked out of the room.
She giggled as she enjoyed the view he presented, both coming and going. Within minutes he walked back into the room, a notebook and a pen in his large hand.
“To answer your question, I think I’ve always been a bit of a smartass. It’s just who I am,” she winked.
He leaned over and gave her a lingering kiss on the lips. There was nothing sexual in it, just two people who were comfortable with one another enjoying a private moment.
“We’re going to make a list. Ya know, of who could do this. It might be uncomfortable, but we have to know who hangs around this club and had the opportunity to do it.”
“As far as hangers-on? All the girls that throw their panties at the guys, especially at Jagger.”
She raised an eyebrow in interest. She’d heard Jagger sing here and there every once in a while and he sounded good, but she’d heard that sometimes he went to Wet Wanda’s and actually put on a show.
“Does he have that many women?”
“Yeah,” Tyler nodded his head. “If that boy wanted, he could have a different lady every night of the week.”
Curiosity got the better of her. “Does he want one every night?”
Nah, there’s this chick at Wet Wanda’s, but they officially met at the drags in October. She was on the back of a pickup truck where there was a stripper pole. The truck hit a hole, and she bounced out. Apparently Jagger caught her, tits and all. He’s been pining after her ever since.”
“And you bitched him out, thinking he was after me today? That’s just wrong.”
“I got my point across though. Didn’t I?” he glared at her, not backing down from that argument.
“Anyway,” she told him, not wanting to get into it again. “Who else?”
“There’s Layne. He started prospecting the same time as Jagger. Jagger’s fixing to get a patch, but Layne is further away. There’s opportunity there. He’s everywhere we are.”
With her lip between her teeth, she wrote down the name, along with a couple of the more ardent Jagger Stone fangirls.
“Who else?” she tapped her finger to her chin.
“Everyone else is in these fucking photos.”
“Maybe that’s it,” she stopped shuffling through them. “Maybe they’ve placed themselves into certain situations so that they’ll never be suspected.”
“Okay then, who do you think would do something like that?” Tyler asked, almost afraid of what her answer would be. She was way too smart for her own good.
She swallowed hard. This would be suicide if she was wrong. “What about William or Lauren?”
“As in my president?”
“One in the same.” Even though he always presented himself in the manner of someone who had nothing to hide, she had a feeling that if she had kept digging, she would have found a whole graveyard full of bones and that graveyard would be owned by William Walker.
Shock registered on his face. This just couldn’t be true.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“How have you been since our last session?”
Meredith sat forward in her seat, a huge smile on her face. She had never been this excited to talk to Doc Jones.
“Tyler is no longer sleeping on the floor.”
Doc Jones clapped her hands together, excited for her patient. “That’s a huge step. How have you been handling it?”
“Not too bad if I do say so myself. I had a nightmare last night, but I don’t think it was necessarily because we had sexual intercourse. I think it was something else.”
“Define something else.”
“I recently decided I want to find out who did this to me.”
That was a bomb if Doc Jones had ever heard one. The progress Meredith had made was substantial, but this was more than she’d ever hoped for.
“Are you really sure you’re ready for this?”
Meredith nodded, crossing her legs. “I’m as sure as I can be. I’m sick of living with this hanging over my head. Tyler has promised to help me, and together we’re doing this.”
Carefully, Doc Jones sat forward. “I caution you again. Do not confuse the feelings you have about your recovery with the feelings you have for Tyler.”
She had known this was coming. “I understand where you’re coming from, and I can honestly tell you that you’re wrong. Even if I never got well, I’d still feel this way about Tyler, and I think he would feel this way about me.”
“Is he out there waiting on you?” she asked, pointing outside.
“Yeah.”
“Do you mind if we bring him into a session?”
Meredith thought about it for a moment. “No, I don’t. Whatever you feel is best. I don’t think we have anything to hide from one another. He’s already seen me at my worst.”
“Tyler, I’d like for you to come in here for a few minutes.”
He looked up from where he’d been texting on his phone. It struck him as odd that the doctor would request his presence, but if that’s what needed to happen for Meredith, he’d do it. Ambling his way into the office, he had a look at the both of them.
“Please have a seat.”
Carefully, he had a seat next to Meredith, afraid that his large frame would break the couch she sat on. “Is this safe,” he mumbled to her.
She did her best to withhold a giggle, but it escaped on its own. “Yeah, I think it’s okay.”
“The reason I invited you into this session, Tyler, is to see where the two of you are with one another. Meredith is very upfront and honest with me, I want to make sure you understand what you’re dealing with when it comes to her.”
This pissed him off. He saw red and did his best to keep his temper in check. “With all due respect, Doc,” he spat the term out like it was a bad piece of food. “I think I’m probably the only one who understands how to deal with her. I was the one who found her that night. It was me who took care of her, who held her when she cried, woke her up when she couldn’t wake up from her nightmares, and it’s me who’s promised to avenge her. That’s between the two of us, it doesn’t have to be approved by you.”
Meredith was taken aback by the passion with which he spoke his words. She knew how he felt about her, but to see the way he spoke about it, the way he defended his feelings. It warmed her heart even more.
“I agree with what he said. I don’t feel like I have to explain anything. I never set out for any of this to happen. It just did.”
Doc Jones smiled. “That’s what I wanted to hear. I wanted honest answers, not ones that you had time to cultivate and make sure were just right. I honestly think you’re in a good place here and I think he brings out the best in you.”
Letting out a breath, Meredith felt like they had passed a test of some sort.
“I do, however, caution you. The closer you get to the answers you seek, the more your memories may flare. You may need to go back to journaling regularly and taking your light sleeping pills. It affects everyone differently. Just be aware of what your body and mind are telling you.”
Tyler appreciated the doctor’s honesty as much as she’d appreciated his. “Should she come for more sessions? I can make sure she gets here if she needs to.”
“That’s up to her,” Doc Jones smiled. “At this point in time, I think we can move these down to monthly. Unless you have an episode. You seem to be handling yourself rather well.”
That meant the world to her. Whether she wanted to admit it or not.
As they approached the clubhouse on the way back, Tyler pulled off to the side of the road and shut the bike down.
“I’m going to take you over to Liam and Denise’s. She just got home from the hospital, and I want you to visit with her for a while.”
Meredith didn’t like what Tyler wasn’t saying. “What are you going to do while I’m there?”
He shrugged his shoulder. “Just look around. See what we’ve got goin’ on in the clubhouse. Somebody took those pictures, and I’m going to find out who it was.”<
br />
She sighed. His mind was made up, and this is what he was going to do. It would do no good to tell him that she didn’t think it was a good idea.
“I just want you out of there while I do it.”
“Can you at least tell me what you’re going to search?” she asked.
He tried his best not to roll his eyes, but sometimes her need to know everything wore on him. “I’m going to try and see if Layne has anything right now. Like I said, I don’t suspect Jagger. I’ll still take a look at all his stuff, but today I want to rule the two of them out.”
“You’re scared it’s William, aren’t you?” she asked, her eyes searching his.
He leaned down, kissing her softly on the lips. “So are you.”
She couldn’t deny it. He had the power to destroy her, and he’d wanted to before. When she laid out the pros and cons of all the people they suspected, he was at the top of the list. If anyone had a hell of a motive for setting her up and wanting her gone, it was him. He had always thought and assumed she had the power to bring the club down, and maybe she did, but whatever she had – she didn’t know it. It was something that he only knew the truth about. Unless he spelled it out for her, she wasn’t sure she’d ever know just what she held in her hands.
“You know if it’s true, it’s going to kill Liam,” she fretted.
“Hey,” he grasped her around the neck. “If there’s one thing I know about Liam, it’s that he doesn’t stand for lying or women being hurt. If his dad did this, he would want to know.”
She did her best to give him a smile, to show him that she believed what he said, but it fell short.
“Let’s get you to Denise’s. That way if something does go down, you at least have an alibi.”
She did not like the sound of that at all.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“Not that I’m not happy to have you here, but what the hell is goin’ on with you?”
Meredith looked up from her phone, not sure how long she had been staring at it. Obviously a long time since Denise looked seriously pissed. What Tyler had thought would be an amazing idea had really started to backfire on her.
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