Dakota

by Ami Van

  “And that’s funny?” she asks.

  Dakota shrugs his shoulders.

  “Dick,” Tucker says out loud.

  It was clear Dakota wasn’t going to tell her what the fuss between he and her brother was about. She wasn’t going to push him about it. It didn’t seem important anyway. She turns her attention to the group which took up more than half the restaurant. Though the Knights weren’t rowdy...tonight...they probably gave the normal clientele a scare. There hadn’t been any new patrons walking in through the door since their arrival over an hour ago.

  And what an odd wedding celebration. She liked Penny. But wasn’t it just four nights ago that the girl had been making out with Tristan while Nikki was doing whatever between his legs? And now, she’s married to Otis. She knew club relationships weren’t normal but this...this has got to take the cake. Penny wasn’t wearing a wedding dress. Actually, she wasn’t wearing a dress at all. She was in a white crop top with the word ‘Bride’ imprinted across with a pair of denim cutoffs and black fishnets.

  So maybe city hall didn’t have a dress code after all.

  Their food finally begins to arrive and Bee was yelping with excitement.

  “Wow!” the little girl says in awe. “Mama, can I cut my own steak? Please?”

  “Sure,” Tricia tells her. “How about I show you how to cut it first and then you can take over from there.”

  “Cool! We never get to eat out fancy like this. Well, except that one time Minx took us to Olive Garden. That was awesome!” Bianca exclaims.

  It made her heart ache. This wasn’t actually what a normal person would call a fancy restaurant. She wasn’t even sure if it was rated at two-stars actually. But for Bianca, eating out anywhere would probably be fancy.

  She sees Tucker watching his daughter trying to cut her steak. He’s clenching his jaw and she can see the turmoil in his eyes. As horrible as she feels, Tucker must be feeling ten times shittier about his daughter’s first eight years of her life.

  “We can go back anytime you want, Bee.”

  She reaches over and puts a strand of the little girl’s hair behind her ear.

  “Your boyfriend can come too,” Bianca says.

  The sound of Dakota choking on his food had the table staring at him. She reaches behind him and gives him a couple of hard pats.

  “You okay?” she asks, trying to hold her laugh in.

  “Yeah,” he sputters before taking a big gulp of his beer. “Don’t know if anyone’s called me that since high school.”

  She leans over and whispers to him, “Don’t worry. Bee doesn’t know any better. It doesn’t mean anything,” she tries to reassure him.

  He gives her a look as if he was going to say something but takes another swig of his drink instead.

  “Not worried,” he mumbles before stabbing at his steak as if it’d offended him somehow.

  She cuts a piece of her filet and shoves it in his face with a smile. He cracks and takes it from her fork. “Grumpy old man,” she teases him.

  After dinner, Bianca and Tricia leave since it was getting close to Bee’s bedtime. It was endearing to see Tucker holding onto his daughter so tightly as if he’d rather go with them than stay behind and continue with the festivities.

  Everyone rode down the street to the local bar. The same bar she’d found Tucker and his horde of hooligans in over a month ago. So much has happened in that time. She was currently sitting at the bar, having a beer in between Atticus and Tucker. Dakota was having a round of pool with Kyle and making money from the looks of it.

  “Tell me something, Minx,” Atticus starts. “When you came here looking for Tucker that night, how did you expect things to go down?”

  Tucker turns in his seat and faces her now.

  “I don’t know. I didn’t expect to be so pissed off at the sight of him though,” she answers honestly. “I played it out in my head that he’d see me first and he would swoop me up in his arms like he used to when I was a kid, I guess.”

  “Sorry,” Tucker says. “You didn’t really give me a chance to.”

  “Trust me. I definitely gave you a chance to,” she tells him.

  “Yeah. The few seconds before the bottle flew over your head,” Atticus says to Tucker. “You probably damn near gave Dakota a heart attack with that.”

  She laughs at the memory of the first time Dakota had his huge arms around her, carrying her with her feet completely off the ground and her ass pressed up against him. His bulge rubbing against her ass. She wasn’t going to tell anyone about that though.

  “I really didn’t know how you were going to turn out,” Tucker confesses to her. “I mean, sure we grew up in this life but I thought you might have grown out of it with us out of the picture.”

  “There is no...this...life, Tucker. It’s all just...life,” she tells her big brother.

  Corianne, the bartender, comes and stands in front of her. Setting her elbows on the counter and staring with dreamy eyes. First at Tucker and then over at Atticus.

  “Which one is yours, Minx?” she asks.

  “Neither,” she answers Corianne. “This one’s Tucker,” she points.

  “Ah, the prodigal brother!” Corianne says. “Welcome back!”

  “You know about me?” Tucker asks.

  “Sure. Many a fights in the bar starts with the mention of your name,” Corianne says. “Minx is only allowed in here because Maddox gave the owner a really nice Fat Boy a few years back.”

  “That’s not true,” she tells Tucker. “Corianne exaggerates.”

  “She was defending my name?” Tucker asks Corianne. Her brother pulls her into a hug. A full two-armed embrace.

  “Nah. It’s usually because they’re complimenting you in some way,” Corianne says.

  Atticus bursts into a loud laugh and Tucker shoves her out of his arms.

  “You little shit!” Tucker says before he laughs too.

  “So who’s this one?” Corianne asks, nodding towards Atticus.

  “Atticus,” he answers her. “I’m like Minx’s honorary brother.”

  “Sexy ass name!” Corianne says.

  She turns and sees Atticus blushing red, even through his thick dark beard. She sees Tucker staring at his best friend before her brother looks back at her and then they were both sliding off of their bar stools, leaving Atticus in a silent grinning stare down with Corianne.

  Tucker’s walking next to her, his arm around her shoulder as he puffs on a cigarette. They walk towards the pool game and she’s grinning from ear to ear, trying hard...with everything that she’s got...to hold in the laugh. Once her and Tucker stop next to Kyle with Dakota on the other side of the pool table, she wiggles out of Tucker’s arm, both hands coming up to cover her mouth to try and hold back the laugh that was racking through her body.

  “What?” Tucker and Kyle asks her simultaneously.

  It took her a moment to calm down before she answers.

  “I wonder if I should tell Atticus that Corianne was actually born...Corey,” she whispers.

  Once Tucker looks over at the bar where Atticus and Corianne are ogling each other and what she says sets in, Tucker turns around, facing her. His back at Atticus. She can see his lips tightening and sealing. His face was turning red and he slaps one of his large hands onto her shoulder and she can feel him shaking from holding onto his laughter. There were tears coming out of the sides of his eyes and he’s trying to wipe them away with his other hand.

  Tucker is shaking his head ‘no’ at her.

  Dakota comes to stand next to Kyle and is watching the two of them now.

  “That’s fucking dirty,” Kyle says. Instead of saving his brother, Kyle was turning around to face the wall before he, too, begins shaking from laughter. He turns and speaks to Dakota.

  Dakota walks over to her afterwards, his arm immediately pulling her into him. The shaking of his body causes another fit of laughter to explode through her body.

  She can feel his hands on her as
s, picking her up. Her legs wrap around his torso and she was at eye level with his laughing eyes and his grin. He places her on top of the stool nearby, giving her little pecks to her cheeks before he finds her lips and she takes his bottom one in between her teeth.

  She can feel his growl and grins at him.

  “Those dimples are going to be the death of me,” he says to her.

  She laughs and he surprises her by sticking his tongue right into the dimple of her left cheek.

  “Shit. Why have I never done that before?” he asks her with a boyish grin.

  “Crazy guy,” she tells him.

  “Can I take you home yet?” he asks into her ear. “I’ve got cravings.”

  “Dakota!” she yelps.

  He picks her up off of the table and throws her over his shoulders, caveman style, heading right for the door with his patch brothers whistling and hollering after them.

  CHAPTER 32

  Dakota

  Oh, what a fucking sight.

  Lord have Mercy!

  Laying upside down in bed, head hanging off of it, her legs bent at the knee and completely naked with his dick curved perfectly and nearly to the hilt down her throat, she was a magnificent sight. Fucking sexy minx.

  “Take it easy on me,” he tells her. Except he was still trying to inch the rest of him into her wet mouth and down her throat.

  She hums something in response and it gave him shivers starting from the bottom of his Paul Bunyan-sized feet to the hair standing on his head. A few more strokes in and out of her mouth and he feels her cupping his sack, making him throw his head back in pure bliss.

  “Dammit!” he hisses before deciding to pull himself completely out of her mouth. He sits down on the edge of the bed, breathing heavily, trying to compose himself.

  It only takes another second for her to swing her leg over his, straddling him.

  Her lips were immediately on his, her fingers threading through his beard, one arm wrapped around his neck as she slides onto his already slick and throbbing dick. She breaks their kiss and throws her head back, releasing a fantastic moan.

  “God damn, princess. That’s the sexiest sound I’ve ever fucking heard,” he tells her.

  His lips were on her neck and then licking the bare skin of her shoulder, his hands cupping and kneading her breasts. Full, creamy tits.

  And the way her hips were rocking and grinding on him, nearly had him going insane. She felt so damn good. So damn good that he wraps one arm around her small frame as he tries to screw himself deeper into her.

  “I need you,” she pants as she grinds down harder. Telling him that she needed his help to get her over that edge.

  He takes her queue, placing both of his hands on her small waist, holding her as he begins thrusting and pounding into her until she throws her head back and moans. He goes even harder when he feels her body trembling and bucking in his arms. Her moans louder until they turn into whimpers.

  At what must be the tail end of her orgasm, he flips their position, placing her on the bed on her knees. He takes both of her hands and holds them by the wrists at her back. Her face down in the bed, her glorious ass in perfect view, he slides home into her.

  “Oh god. Dakota!”

  Hearing her say it the way she does had him in a frenzy. He was slamming into her, loving the sound of their skin slapping and colliding against each other. She was definitely going to be more sore than usual but he couldn’t even stop himself if he wanted.

  “OH FUCK!” he growls before he explodes into her with a loud grunt. It felt like every muscle in his body was going into a spasm fit.

  He gives her one last hard thrust in before collapsing on top of her body. Her quick breaths caressing his ear.

  “I think I might be going blind,” he says after a moment.

  Her beautiful laugh had him on his elbows, placing kisses on her cheek, dipping his tongue right into her dimple again. Since when did he start thinking shit like that anyway? Beautiful laugh. What the fuck? But it was true. She has such a damn beautiful laugh. Everything about her is beautiful.

  She wiggles underneath him and for a second, he thought his dick might be ready to go again. And if she wanted to, he wouldn’t deny her. But instead, he pulls out of her and lets her head to the bathroom while he throws the covers back and settles in bed.

  “The house might have heard you,” she teases him when she returns to his side, taking the sheet and pulling it up over her hips.

  “No one’s even back yet,” he mumbles, putting his arm under her head. “Did I hurt you?” he asks, realizing he’d been a brute tonight. He should have been more gentle. She’d just gotten out of the hospital.

  She curls up next to him. He’d missed her body next to him the past few nights. Admitting that made him wonder about the past seven years where he’d fucked and left. He wondered if any of them would have felt like this. Most likely not. Definitely not. His fingers begin tracing up and down her spine.

  “No, you didn’t. I think I needed that,” she tells him softly. “I think I needed to know that you still want me...in that way.”

  “Mercy. I’m not gonna say this just because I’m a guy with an active dick. I want you. I’ve wanted you since the first time I set my eyes on you. I want you more because I love you. Nothing’s changed,” he tells her.

  He knew she was going to require some patience and he was willing to put in the work. She deserves it. Matter of fact, if she had come out of what happened to her just recently unscathed, he might have started questioning her mental stability.

  “Maybe now’s a good time to confess something to you,” he tells her.

  “I don’t know how I feel about you saying you’re going to confess to something.”

  His hand reaches down to smack her ass. She laughs and he pulls her even closer.

  “You know that thing that I do? The thing that you like so much?”

  “There are lots of things that you do that I like,” she answers.

  He picks up her hand from his chest and places a kiss to the inside of her wrist before resting it over his heart and then kissing her forehead.

  “One to the pulse as your heart beats for me. One to your head where your thoughts are of me,” he quotes.

  “That’s so sweet,” she says. She moves and rests her chin on top of her hand that he’d left resting over his heart.

  “Yeah. That thing...” he says. “It’s me tagging you. Laying claim in front of my brothers that you’re my old lady.”

  He couldn’t really make out her expression in the dim light but he can feel her moving off of him and into a sitting position.

  “Dakota! Are you serious? Are you sure? Isn’t that something we should have talked about? I mean...I’ve never even had a boyfriend before. I don’t know how to be in a relationship. And...and...you’re Nomad. You don’t even know how long you’ll be here. And...I’m...I’m so. I’m so damaged.” She says the last part in a whisper.

  He pulls her back down into his arms.

  “Mercy. Listen to me. Whatever you think you are, you don’t see what I see. I see a beautiful woman. You’re resilient. You’re smart and resourceful. You’re brave and you’re strong, baby. You’re so much stronger than you give yourself credit for. You don’t just want to survive; you want to live. I can see it in your eyes. Feel that fire just vibrating off of you.”

  “I love you, Dakota. I’ve never said that to any guy before. And you know I mean it. It’s just...you can have anyone you want. You’re gorgeous. Hot as sin. You have a good heart and you’re a good man. I just don’t want to you to be embarrassed by me...by my past.”

  “I will never be embarrassed to have you as my old lady. Never. And if you say I can have anyone I want then listen to me when I say I want you,” he tells her. “As for the other stuff, we’ll figure it out as we go.” He gives her shoulders a squeeze as if to shake some sense into her. “Okay?” he asks.

  He can feel her heading nodding on his chest. “Okay,
” she whispers.

  “Shiittt. I got me an old lady!” he yelps.

  She pinches his nipples and he was rolling himself on top of her.

  “Ow! You little minx!” he growls at her before he playfully chews on her neck and shoulder.

  ◆◆◆

  He wakes with Minx curled up next to him just like she always did before her hospital stint. He turns to his side and slides an arm over her waist. She hums and pulls in closer.

  “Morning,” she says through her sleepy haze.

  “How do you go to sleep naked and wake up with clothes on?” he asks.

  He slides his hand under his t-shirt that she’s wearing. It was big and long enough on her for it to cover most of her thigh.

  She takes a deep breath and covers her yawn before resting her hand over his heart.

  “When you’re forced to sleep naked for two years in a dog kennel, sleeping with clothes isn’t taken for granted. Given a choice, I think I’ll always sleep with clothes on. Sorry if that’s a turn-off.”

  Shit. He didn’t even think about that. Now he just felt like an asshole. A selfish prick who’d probably keep her naked all day long if it were up to him. She was so fucking beautiful and sexy.

  “Nothing you do can ever be a turn-off,” he tells her. “I didn’t mean to drag up shitty memories.”

  “It’s okay. You didn’t know,” she tells him. “Come on. Let’s get the day started. I have to meet Tricia and Bianca in town at the social services office at 2pm today.”

  “Why?” he asks.

  “The house that they’re staying in is under mine and Maddox’s name. Well, and Austin’s too. Tricia has no income and no job yet so I have to go on record that I’m financially responsible for Bianca’s financial needs and well-being. Tricia won’t be filing for any state assistance which will put a huge smile on the department’s faces. But I have to show proof that I can provide medical insurance and put food on the table.”

  “And you can do that?” he asks.

  “Sure,” she answers. “Maddox swears up and down I don’t ever have to worry about money. All legit. And then he got a business license for my furniture design gig. He’s established other shell corporations too. After our meeting, I’ll sit down with Tricia so she can pick the medical coverage that’s best for her and Bianca. I think Tucker is opening a bank account for her too. I’ll transfer money in and I’ll transfer the college fund account I established for Bee five years ago over to Tricia.”