by A. J. Downey
His expression said it all, that no, he really didn’t know that and I guess I only had myself to blame. I mean, I was nothing if not predictable and I was gypsy stock. The nomadiest of the nomads, born with wandering souls… except that must have skipped right over me because all I ever wanted was to put down roots. You had roots, you grew strong. I looked up into the trees and wistfully wished we were under our tree. I was half afraid to ask about it, seeing as it's probably been cut down or something.
“Penny for your thoughts?”
“That shit’s at least a nickel now if you account for inflation.”
He snorted, “More like a buck fifty or more.”
I grinned and knocked my shoulder into his, “Doesn’t matter now, just a fleeting one. Can’t even remember what it was,” I lied.
“Uh huh,” he finished off his beer and I did the same with mine.
“Not buying it?”
“Nope. It’s okay, though. You don’t have to tell me everything.”
“That’s what I love about you,” I said. “You make me do what I don’t want to do all the time, but only if it’s good for me.”
“I try,” he said with a shrug.
“No, you do.”
We lapsed into another comfortable silence, turning at the rustle of dried leaves and someone stumbling, a woman’s laugh, and finally, Dani and Thirteen came into view.
“Uh-oh! Looks like our secret hiding place is occupied,” he said affably.
“No, it’s cool,” Kyle said standing up and I did likewise, hastily so I didn’t end up swallowed by the hammock.
“You sure?” Thirteen asked.
“Totally, we were just heading in.”
“We were?” I asked with a shark’s grin.
“We were,” he said firmly and I couldn’t say I wasn’t looking forward to what he clearly had in mind.
“Well, all right then, Y'all have a good night.” Thirteen tipped an imaginary hat and Kyle captured my hand, dragging us away, back towards the club. We ditched our dead soldiers in a bin by the back door that was overflowing with them and passed through the open doorway.
“Sure we aren’t being anti-social?” I asked and he hauled me up against his body.
“Do I look like I give a fuck?” he demanded.
“That’s my line…” I murmured huskily as his lips descended on mine. We made it through his club room’s door and kicked it shut behind us, hands grasping and grabbing, pulling and shoving at clothes in a bid to get them off.
He, of course, got me naked first. He seemed to have a knack for that, drawing his hips away from my fingers which cradled and stroked his thick cock from root to tip, massaging the hard length in a bid to make him feel good and ramp up the excitement. Apparently, I ramped it up a little too high, a little too fast, because he bodily picked my skinny ass up off the floor and tossed me back-first onto the bed. I squealed and laughed and he dove over the top of me, mouth finding mine, kissing down my body, pausing to lavish my small breasts with attention.
“Don’t crack your head this time,” he growled and went in for the kill, sealing his mouth over my sex and sucking my clit, laving it with sure strokes of his tongue.
My cry was strangled and drowned out by a throaty moan and I gripped the bedding in clenched fists. He held my hips in his hands and when I proved I couldn’t hold still against his sweet onslaught, put an arm on them, forcing them down to the bed. He grinned at me from between my thighs, his brown eyes rich like chocolate and holding a dark light as he cracked, “You must be this tall to ride this ride.”
I laughed and again he killed it with the skill of his tongue against the most intimate parts of me, but I couldn’t care. I just tipped my head back and gave myself over to the sensations.
A warm, tingling rush filled my veins and my body grew wet and ready. That heavy, pure weight of desire settled into my core ready for the long haul as Kyle took his time working me up, bringing me so close, to the very brink, before maddeningly backing off just enough so that I wouldn’t come… at least not yet.
He kept me there on the precipice of that warm, sweet abyss for so long I thought I was going to go mad until finally, I started begging. Announcing his name like a plea into the dimly lit room but apparently, he was enjoying himself too much to quit just yet.
I was frustrated, my cunt tight and grasping at nothing, needing just that little bit more to shove me right over the fall, and when I reached the point of aggravation where I was just about to stop him, he slid two fingers inside me and crooked them just right. Instead of shattering, I exploded, the pieces of my being so damn small that I might as well have been dust in the wind.
He didn’t let me come back down, either. Working that bundle of nerves with light, intermittent flicks of his tongue sending shockwaves of electricity through my system, playing finely with the sweet pain of oversensitivity, the man was a master at his craft. He twitched his fingers, licked me slowly and I tightened around him and bucked, but he had me pinned like a fucking butterfly.
“Oh, god! Kyle please!” I gasped bordering on the edge of panic. Never had I ever lost control of my body and heart at the same time or so completely before and it was honestly so nice, cathartic to do so. I didn’t know if I was begging him to stop or to never quit and it was seriously confusing but in all sorts of good ways.
31
Data…
She begged me, begged God, and pleaded for all and nothing both at once, and I felt a savage grin curl my lips. I gave her over-sensitive clit a break and watched her try to writhe. It was hard keeping her pinned down but worth the effort as I teased her pussy into making her sing for me with my index and middle finger. She panted and gasped and watching the silver barbells in her nipples catch and spark what light was in the room was seriously an erotic treat.
I was hard to the point of pain and made swift work of pushing my pants out of the way when she’d come down enough to hold still on her own. I climbed up onto the bed, kicking my jeans off the rest of the way and put myself between her trembling legs. She reached for me, and I loved that she wasn’t shy about tasting herself on my lips. That she wanted to kiss me after I went down on her. Some women were weird about that, and I could respect it, but Mali’s reactions… damn, it was like they were tailor-made for me. Everything she did, every look, movement, touch, glance… all of her just turned me on so hard.
She was my teenage wet dream, my every fantasy made flesh, and I loved her so wholly I would do everything to satisfy her, to make her feel so good, so loved, so protected and safe she could put down the roots that I knew she craved.
For now, though, I had to satisfy a craving of my own because my blood was screaming through my veins demanding a satisfaction of its own. She was my perfect drug, my addiction, and my only cure for the deep sense of aching loss I had been living with, without her here. I slipped inside her, and she was so wet, so ready, that at first I barely felt myself go in. That didn’t last long, though. She clenched around me and I drove deeper, but it wasn’t deep enough. It would never quite be enough for either of us.
I brought her legs up, leaning them against me, hugging them to me, and pressed into her, gauging her expression to make sure it wasn’t too much. She pressed her hands against the headboard and her body down onto mine even tighter. A green light if I had ever seen one. I grunted as she tightened even harder around me and bowed my head, closing my eyes, concentrating on the warm, snug, feel of her around me as I tried like hell not to come from it. I didn’t want to come too soon, I wanted to relish these moments, draw them out as long as possible. The euphoria she caused to swirl through my body was like the elixir of life itself, my own personal fountain of youth, and greedy bastard that I was, I wanted it all. To take every drop of what she was willing to give me.
She panted and moaned beneath me and I could tell she was close, and I wanted it. I wanted her to come around my cock and I wanted to disperse out into the ether right along with her. I was desperate
to take her there and would do anything she asked. She gripped the sheets at her hips and closed her eyes, a look of concentration and pure, seductive surrender flickering across her features before she arched and pure, unadulterated bliss took over the both of us. I let go, balls tightening, spine tingling as I lost focus and everything just fell away.
I came back to myself slowly, lying over the top of Mali, cradling her protectively. Our chests heaved into one another as our panting breaths sawed their way in and out of them and when our eyes met, there were stars in them. We laughed, moved, and filled with joy and groaning, I pushed myself up. My legs trembled with the exertion and my abs screamed a little, but the work-out I’d given them was so worth it.
“We need to remember condoms,” she said with a face.
“Shit, I am so sorry!”
“Don’t be, I didn’t stop you,” she pointed out. “I’m on the implant, it’s just not 100% and I just have no desire…” She trailed off, made a face, and I laughed.
“I know, and you’re right. We should be more careful. It’s your body,” I said leaning forward and kissing her throat. “Your beautiful,” kiss, “sexy,” kiss, “alluring –“ I kissed her again, each kiss in a different spot but she stopped my compliments with an exasperated sound.
“all right! I get it, I get it!” I intentionally kissed her most ticklish spot on her ribs in punishment for stopping me and she jerked in my grasp, laughing. I nipped her there for good measure and rolled her onto her back and started the whole process of making love to her all over again.
Later that night, I slipped out of the room leaving Mali sleeping the sleep of the sated and exhausted. I used the bathroom and came back out, nearly running into Dragon.
“Woah, hey!” he grunted and I put up my hands, just as startled as he was.
“Sorry, man.”
“No worries,” he said and with no further segue asked, “How are things doin’? Better?”
“Ah, yeah,” I nodded casting a furtive look in the direction of my club room door which was open a crack.
“Don’t sound like it,” he observed.
“No, no, things are good!”
“Right now,” he said dryly. He cleared his throat and said, “You don’t mind me sayin’, seems to me you need to remind her why she wanted to come back here in the first place. That there’s a life here, for the both of you. May not be the same, because let’s face it… nothing ever can be, but a life, a good one. An end back at the beginning.”
I stared Dragon in the face and let his profound words of wisdom wash over me. Gooseflesh broke out over my skin; there were times in your life you encountered such power in words that you got the chills, and suddenly everything clicked into place for you. I swallowed hard and nodded slowly, a plan forming in my head.
“Thanks, D.”
“You got it; what’re brothers for?” he asked.
He ducked into the bathroom I’d just come out of and shut the door. I stood in the hall for long minutes and stared at my door. Chewing my lip, I committed to what I wanted to do, a new kind of excitement rising in me. It was a perfect plan…
32
Amalia…
I started working for Kyle’s boys. I knew it was the right thing to do the moment we walked through the shop’s front door. This place was serious business. Right on the strip in Old Town across from The Spot, a bar that’d been popular and a destination dining and watering hole for as long as I could remember.
The place was all black and white checkered tile and a riot of color on the walls. The flash art was serious – all original hand drawn designs by either Trig or Revelator. Some was in the classic Sailor Jerry motif, some clearly geared towards the military, but none of it was out of a book or catalog.
When I stepped up to the counter, my portfolio was already there, except the piece of label tape on its front declaring it Lexi Duran’s work was gone, and instead, there was a much shorter strip that simply read ‘Mali.’
It hit me right in the feels and I don’t know why. It was one of those moments, though. The kind that felt like a gift from the universe and they were so rare, and beautiful, you didn’t reject something like that. So I’d joined up, right there on the spot.
That had been 19 days ago. For some reason, the significance of that number tickled the back of my brain, but I couldn’t for the life of me tell you why. I leaned back from my customer, a guy that was actually one of Trigger’s regulars by the name of Donnie. He had an arctic fox on one shoulder and had wanted some Japanese cherry blossoms and branch work done down his arm to make the shoulder piece into a sleeve.
Trigger had shown him my watercolor style and Donnie had dug it. This was his first appointment with me.
“So I gotta ask, and I’m sure you get asked this all the time but –“
I cut him off, “Am I single?”
“Yeah,” he sounded disappointed, the answer already clear on my face.
“You’re either very brave or very stupid asking me that when I’m grinding ink under your skin,” I said dryly.
He laughed, “Pain is an old friend of mine, gimme your best shot.”
“Famous last words,” I said teasingly, as I dipped more ink, hit my pedal and dug back in.
He chuckled, and said, “He’s a lucky guy.”
“Mm,” was my noncommittal reply; Kyle wasn’t the lucky one. I was… and I knew it.
I ground ink into Donnie’s skin for the better part of two hours before his session was up. He looked down at it, his eyes widening a little, mouth down turning in the classic expression of being rather impressed as he nodded.
“You want a picture or anything?” I asked.
“Nah, I’ll wait ‘til it’s done for that. I don’t like half-finished shit.”
I shrugged and patched him up and launched into the aftercare instructions but he put up a hand, “I know the drill.”
“I’m sure you do, just doing my job.”
He opened his mouth to say something, but Trigger’s deep voice rolled across the shop from his corner, stopping him, “You might want to think about whatever you’re gonna say before you open your mouth, Donnie. Otherwise, that tat is gonna stay just like it is. Mali’s the only one around these parts that can finish that style.”
Donnie stopped, his eyes sparkling with barely suppressed entertainment, and asked me, “When’s our next appointment?”
“That’s all Sunshine…” I muttered and he went up front to pay and book.
I cleaned up my station and went over to where Trigger was working on a girl’s ankle piece.
“Could have handled it,” I said. “Not my first rodeo.”
He looked up at me and winked, “Yeah, but that’s part of doing business under guys like me and Rev; you could have handled it, but in our shop? You don’t have to.”
I nodded and called out to Ashton, “What have I got on deck?”
“You’re good,” she called back, “Unless you want to stay in case of a walk-in.”
“Nope!” Rev called and got up from his station. He snapped off the pair of black nitrile gloves he had on and tossed them in the wastebasket, shaking out his hands. Picking up an envelope on his counter, he came towards me.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“M’ lady, you have a quest…” he said and took a flourishing bow. He held the envelope, which was an odd size, out to me.
I frowned and took it from him. It was white, and the flap was on one of the shorter ends on the back side. I stared at the fancy wax seal, red wax, dusted with gold powder and it almost broke my heart that I was going to have to break it. It was a beautiful large cabbage rose. My middle name…
“What is this?” I asked.
Revelator just winked at me, turned around and walked away whistling. Ashton’s golden eyes were wide and so there was no help there, while all of a sudden Trigger and Disney were way absorbed in their work.
“Ooookay,” I said to no one in particular. I went back to my st
ation and shut out my light. I smoothed the snowy-white, expensive-feeling paper of the envelope between my fingers and sighing, cracked the seal.
It held a single tarot card, not one of mine, but The Fool none the less. Across him, in Kyle’s black printing, it said ‘follow me…’ and nothing else. I turned it over, and on the back, there was an address in silver marker, which showed up much better against the card’s dark background.
“What the hell?” I muttered.
I had full use of his 4Runner now, and he’d bought me a cell phone on his plan. It was nice having the little computer with me. One, I knew he could keep an eye on me and that he did… I was learning just how technologically savvy he’d become and it was holy shit impressive. Two, after having been away for seventeen years, I was finding it hard to remember certain streets and how to get around, especially considering back then it had been all on foot or by virtue of a bicycle. The rules of the road hadn’t exactly applied, and there were streets now that I could have sworn weren’t one-way back then. Not to mention the high yellow curbs in the middle of the road weren’t always there, I mean, were they?
I got into the 4Runner in the lot behind the shop and carefully plugged the address on the back of The Fool into the maps feature. I pressed the screen to have it start my route, and followed the directions carefully.
Twenty minutes later I was on a familiar stretch of highway, perking up a bit when the GPS declared that indeed, my destination was ahead on the left, through the iron gates of the MC’s compound. I drove up into the lot and parked, and went to the front door, hauling it open and going inside.
“About time you figured it out,” Dragon said around the cigarette in his mouth. He sat alone, in the barroom, a bottle of tequila on the table with a glass. An ashtray perched next to it. He folded the paper he’d been squinting at and set it aside. He pulled another of the mysterious envelopes from the inside pocket of his cut and held it up. I watched the envelope rise and fall as he set it on the table and slid it across to rest in front of the empty seat in front of him.