by Ami Van
“Have mercy on me, baby girl.” He growls even through his gritted teeth and she kept working him and working him.
He had one hand in a fist full of her hair. Holding her still each time it got damn near unbearable to hold back. And she fought him each time. Swallowing and constricting her throat, her hands a firm grip around his base, twisting and fisting him in the fucking perfect rhythm.
“Fuck yes. Fuck!”
His balls were tightening and he was trying to pull her off of him but she wasn’t having that. It puts a huge fucking grin on his face right before his mind goes blank and he was pumping down her throat.
“OH FUCK!” he growls, holding her head in place, thrusting himself even deeper. He wasn’t even sure if she was swallowing or if she was gagging at this point but it felt too fucking amazing to stop and ask.
She took every last drop and instead of depleting him of his energy, he was more invigorated.
“Oh, you fucking little minx,” he says to her.
He pulls her up to her feet where he then pulls her into a quick kiss before tossing her onto the bed.
“You sound mad,” she teases him.
“Why get mad when I can get even?” he replies.
His hands are spreading her legs apart. And before she can say a word, he was on her, burying his tongue deep in her. His fingers were pinching her tight clit before they were inside her as he laps up every delicious drop of her like the damn dog that he is.
Her moans were getting louder before they turned into begging whimpers.
“Say ‘mercy’,” he teases her.
“Mercy....fuck! Mercy!” she says.
Fine by him. He wanted her orgasm to be covering his dick anyway.
“Sounds fucking good to me,” he says.
She gasps in surprise as he slides in bed next to her, reaching an arm over to her waist and then pulling her right on top of him.
“Oh,” she says.
“Fuck. Mercy,” he tells her with an ear to ear grin.
She smacks his chest and laughs before she backs up. His dick was fucking hard and ready when she slides onto it. Didn’t he just drain himself ten minutes ago?
“Oh...fuucckkk, Mercy.”
His eyes roll up in the back of his head. His hands were on her hips, probably leaving marks. He actually needed a moment to catch his breath. But the fucking minx that she is takes that moment away from him when she starts rocking her hips. Taking him deeper and deeper until the sound of her ass slapping on the top of his thighs were as loud as the sound of her moaning and his groaning.
She was riding him hard. Fast.
“Just like that, baby girl. Just...like...that,” he grits out as he thrusts up to meet her coming down on him each time.
He can see the sheen on her body by the moonlight spilling in through the window. His body was slick of sweat too. A deep breath fills his nostrils with the scent of sex.
She moves one of her hands off his chest and watches her touch her clit with her fingers as her hips start grinding on him. His full length completely in her so deep he thought he might split her in half.
“Oh shit. Oh sht. Oh shit,” she kept chanting, before she throws herself forward, laying on top of him, relinquishing control and needing him to make her come.
He takes her by the hips, holding her still and was pounding upwards until her pleas turned into screams as she erupts what felt like lava all over him. Within another second, he flips her onto her back as he begins screwing her until he throws his head back, letting out a loud feral groan, filling the room the same time he was spilling into her.
He stays inside her, on top of her, his head sunken in the pillow, softly kissing her shoulder while they both try to catch their breaths.
“Fuck, Mercy,” he says through the loud pounding of his heart. He rises to his elbows, pinning her in between his forearms and looking down into her dark eyes. “What we have, it’s so fucking perfect and intense. I fucking love it. This. I fucking love this. Just like I fucking love you.”
Not the most romantic time. They’d just fuck each other’s brains out. Maybe he should have waited to tell her when they made love.
“You...love me?” she asks quietly. Like it was so unbelievable.
“Of course. How could you not know?” he asks with a grin. Yeah. Yeah. He wasn’t the most forward person at showing his feelings. “Wait. Let me guess. Shit didn’t happen like this in one of those books with the sexy ass, abs of steel, biker posers you read about.”
She smacks his arm and laughs. “You jerk.”
He bends his head and kisses her. Softly. Gently. Taking his time to show her he meant what he said. Giving her a semblance of the romance that she wanted. When he was done, her eyes were glossed over, her lips looked swollen.
“I love you, Dakota. I don’t know how or why you’d love me, but thank you and I think I love you even more for it.”
“Oh, I know. I heard you a couple of nights ago,” he teases her. He can see her flush from pink to red and laughs.
“Ugh! By the way, you’re just as sexy...probably even more sexy than the books. And you have abs on abs on abs too.”
CHAPTER 21
Minx
“Austin would be choking on his morning coffee right now if he knew I was up this early,” she tells Dakota.
They’d been awake for the past twenty minutes. She had snuggled up closer to him where he’d put his large arm under her head, sifting his fingers through her hair quietly.
“I’m sure he still might be,” Dakota says.
“Can you come with me?” she asks.
The plan was for her, Tucker, and Maddox to get to the church an hour before services starts so she can have some time...with Austin.
Church. She hadn’t been inside a church since she was ten. That too was for a funeral. Her mother’s funeral. Her father's funeral came almost two years after but that wasn't at a funeral home.
It’d surprised her that Maddox had told her services would be at a church rather than a funeral home. But it felt right. Austin would have wanted that. He wasn’t religiously... religious...but he believed.
“If you need me to go with you then we better get out of bed now and get ready so I can help get things in order for his last ride,” Dakota tells her. “You should get a bite in your stomach too. You haven’t been eating and it’ll be a long ride.”
She’d seen many last rides when she was a kid. This would be the first one she’d be participating in and already, she didn’t want to. She’d be riding up front with Maddox. Austin, laying behind them. Laying...not riding.
They would be taking the route from the church and heading west towards the next county line where Hellhounds that aren’t attending the service would be joining them. About 30 more crotch rocket enthusiasts that her and Austin had hung out with would be riding with her too. These guys had been the first friends that her and Austin had made when they moved here. They were stunters though so her and Austin didn’t really ride out with them all that much. But Austin did love watching. The ride will run past Austin’s lake and then past their home where finally, they’ll all be pulling through the gates of Gregoria Cemetery for his brief and final graveside goodbye.
“Will it be against any bylaws for the MC to ride with someone that isn’t part of the MC? Austin isn’t really a hang-around either. Technically, the MC is hanging around us being that it’s our place.”
“It won’t be anything formal. It’ll be a ride to show respect for a friend.” He places a soft kiss on her head and then he was slipping out of bed.
“Has there been any word at all about what happened?” she asks, not for the first or tenth time.
“Mercy, you have something more important to think about right now.”
“I just want to know. I want to know who did this. It’s been a week and no one’s told me anything,” she says, frustrated.
She slips out of bed and follows him into the bathroom where he’d already had the showe
r running.
“And there’s something that you’re not telling me. Maddox and Tucker too. It only confirms what I think. Reapers did this. Because I’ve managed to piss Diaz off somehow. He won’t even answer my messages about the time I earned to see Tricia and Bee.”
“Mercy, not today okay?” He was brushing her off and pulling her in the shower with him.
She should have known better.
Dakota was the club enforcer. If this was club business, he wouldn’t be opening his mouth and spilling it to someone outside of the club. It didn’t matter who she is to him.
An hour later, they were both walking down to the clubhouse. The main house smelled of coffee but no one else was in sight when her and Dakota had walked downstairs.
The clubhouse was hustling and bustling. It wasn’t necessarily noisy as it was just...busy. Busy with people getting ready. Busy with breakfast and then lunch preparations. She was grateful for the old ladies, both Knights’ and Hellhounds’. They did a phenomenal job of keeping everyone fed. A few of the club sluts even pitched in to help in the kitchen and in keeping the clubhouse clean.
A few club members were giving her words of encouragement as she makes her way by them. Dakota holding her hand right next to her, taking her towards the spread of food. She wasn’t even hungry. But he was right. She should have something in her stomach.
“At least have some fruits,” he says.
He brings her hand to his lips, kissing the inside of her wrist before bending and kissing the top of her head. She smiles at him, wondering if he’d read her mind about her hesitation at the food.
Someone clears their throat from behind them. She looks past Dakota to see Tristan and Kyle standing behind him, looking up at Dakota and then down to her.
“Yeah,” Dakota says to them. And again, they look from him and then down to her.
“Did that shit just happen?” Kyle asks.
“What?” she asks him, not understanding.
“Nothing,” Dakota tells her. “Grab a bite while I go talk to my brothers.”
“I’ll make you an omelet at the omelet station,” she says.
“Sounds good.”
◆◆◆
Why did it feel like everything had moved in slow motion and now that she was getting off of her bike in front of the church, it felt like things were moving too fast? Within the blink of an eye, she was already walking in through the doorway.
Tucker and Maddox were in the office of the Pastor who’ll be presiding over the services. Pastor Trent knew Austin from the handful of services that Austin had attended each year. They were in the back of the church where there were many offices and empty rooms. Dakota was sitting with her on a bench just right outside of the office Maddox and Tucker had walked into.
“I’m right here,” Dakota tells her. He pats her hand and brings it up to his lips, brushing lightly over her knuckles. “You can do this.”
She nods her head. If words were used to answer him, she wasn’t sure she’d be telling him the truth. He pulls her to him, letting her rest her head on his shoulder.
“You look great today...everyday too,” he tells her. She sees one of his large fingers twirling the end of her braid around.
“I don’t feel like it,” she admits to him.
“It’s time, Mercy.”
She looks up and sees Tucker and Maddox waiting for her with Pastor Trent. Dakota was helping her stand and she felt like she was completely leaning on him with all her weight as they walk towards a set of double stained-glass doors.
Pastor Trent leads the way in after opening the door.
Her feet felt like lead. Dakota’s arms were still holding her up, Maddox standing next to her, holding her hand. She feels him rubbing his thumb over her knuckles and the back of her hand, just like he and Austin had when they’d first pulled her off that stage at Reaper Asylum.
As they approach the beautiful pearl coffin surrounded by the most gorgeous arrangements of white roses and lilies she’s ever seen, she tries to choke back the sob that had built in the pit of her stomach and was now trying to escape from her throat. It came out as a small, long squeak anyway when her vision clears and she sees Austin in his favorite riding jacket.
Her free hand immediately slaps over her mouth, trying to cover up the squeal escaping. And when they were right in front of the coffin, she was trembling so hard and found it useless to try to stifle her tears and sobs. Her hand leaves her mouth to reach for him. It was trembling uncontrollable, hovering just right above his cheek but she couldn’t get herself to touch him.
“No,” she whispers, afraid to touch him and feel that his warmth no longer exists. Then, she’d have no choice but to accept it. “No,” she repeats.
“Mercy,” Maddox speaks from next to her. “It’s time to let him go.”
One moment Dakota was holding her and the next, she was on her knees in front of the coffin. Both of her hands were now trembling and hovering over his face. And when she finally manages to get herself to touch his face, her wails surprise even herself.
He was cold to the touch. His coloring wasn’t even his own.
She didn’t have to let him go. He was already gone. Something truer than that was that he didn’t leave by choice. Someone took him away. And slowly but surely, the little anger bugs were crawling in and settling down.
◆◆◆
Everything happened both in slow motion and in hyper speed at the same time after her last hour with Austin. The service was beautiful and the church was packed to capacity. Austin was such a kind soul that never judged a book by its cover. Everyone had a place with him. Everyone except Reapers. Because they were the scum of all scum.
After the first hour of watching people shed a few tears and then stopping by to speak their condolences to her and Maddox sitting in the front pew, things became...numb. She’d only managed to nod, Maddox did all the talking after that.
Dakota sat next to her. And when he had to get up and go take care of stuff, Tucker had taken his place until he came back. “You’re doing good,” he would tell her every now and then.
At the end of the service, Maddox leaves her side. He was one of the six pallbearers. Tucker, Kyle, and Atticus made four. The mechanic that he’d worked for in town made five and one of the stunt riders made the sixth. If she had the strength, she would have demanded to be one of them, carrying her brother out from the church to the custom trailer hitched to Maddox’s Sportster for Austin’s last ride.
She walked out right behind them though. The first, with Dakota and Tristan walking next to each other, right behind her. As she waits for the coffin to take the steps down, she looks around at the number of bikes up and down the road and in the lot. Lined up and ready to escort him onto the next leg of his journey. He would have been happy. Smiling from ear to ear. This was what he would have wanted.
At Maddox’s nod, she was at his side. With one hand linked to each other, their other hand placed on top of Austin’s pearl coffin, Maddox says a small prayer. Just like Austin used to.
“Dear Father, we ask for you to watch over us as we ride to escort our beloved brother on his journey so that he may rest and find peace within the comfort of your light. Help all other motorists to see us clearly and help us to stay out of their way. Bring us back home in one-piece, dear God, these things I pray. Amen.”
“Amen,” she repeats. Both her and Maddox fist bump each other and then the coffin.
She moves over to her Fat Boy and puts on her helmet, taking a deep breath. Once she was on, Maddox starts his engine. She starts up her own and it took only a second before the afternoon air fills up with the sounds and roars of bike engines.
Maddox rolls out and she was there, right on the other side of Austin. It didn’t matter that there were over 100 riders behind them. Maybe even more. All that matters? Her, Austin, and Maddox were doing this together.
CHAPTER 22
Minx
The week and then the whole day lead up to
this moment. The moment when the last mourner had finished laying the last white rose atop his casket. The moment when the wheels begin turning and the casket begins lowering. The service, the ride...it was all supposed to prepare her for this. It didn’t.
What made her feel better was a gust of wind that passes through, rustling the leaves. Carrying the scent of oil and leather. Austin’s favorite smell. It was like he was there, telling her that he might not be there physically anymore but he was okay with that.
Maddox stood beside her until the last minute.
“We’ll take it from here,” one of the groundskeepers says. “We can have the wreaths delivered to you if you’d like.”
“No,” she answers without asking Maddox. “All the flowers should stay here with him.”
The sounds of choppers and hogs roaring down the road can be heard echoing through the cemetery. People were leaving, going on their merry way and finishing out the rest of their day with their families. Others would be heading back to the clubhouse for a gathering. Most of the Knights, Hellhounds, and the women had already headed back.
“Tucker,” she hears Dakota speak. Though he was calling out for her brother, she feels his hand pulling her closer to him at the same time she hears the sounds of familiar engines rolling closer.
She looks up in time to see five Reapers parking their bikes and a Cadillac SUV stopping on the street where their bikes were still lined up.
Dom Diaz steps out of the SUV. Castro, his VP, stepping out behind him with Travis holding up the end, holding a wreath made of bright red roses.
“Motherfucker,” she says.
“Minx!” Dakota whisper-growls at her. She can tell it was his first and final warning.