by Franca Storm
He doesn’t give me the chance to recover, before he’s jumping to his feet, gathering me in his arms and carrying me back to the Hummer. He puts me down, flips me around and bends me over the truck hood.
He kicks my legs apart, making me spread wide, as he presses down on my back, forcing me to bend over with my ass in the air.
He thrusts deep inside me.
“Ah!” I scream out, because it feels so much deeper in this position. So much so, I’m not sure if I can take it.
“Stop me!” he screams at me as he pumps in and out of me wildly. “Stop me, Sarah! Tell me it’s not for you. I’m not for you. Too dirty. Too fucked up. Say it! Tell me to stop! Leave me! Tell me I ain’t no good!”
His thrusts start to slow with every word he utters in a pained groan of devastation. He’s in so much pain. And it cuts into me. That and the intensity of what we’re doing has me tearing up. I can’t stop it. It overwhelms me and I sob, “I can’t leave you! I can’t!”
“Why?” he whispers sadly, in my ear.
“Because…I love you.”
He stops moving for a second.
And then his arms wrap around me. I feel him rest his head gently on my back. He starts thrusting in and out of me slowly then.
I hear him grunt and I feel his dick jerk inside me.
But he doesn’t pull out now he’s done.
Instead, his arms tighten around me. His right around my waist and his left across my shoulders.
“Sarah,” he croaks in a pained whisper.
“Yes, Zeb?”
“Need you.”
“I know. I need you.”
“Yeah?”
I nod.
His right hand comes up and strokes my mussed up hair. “You’re mine. You know that? Mine, Sarah.”
I crane my neck to look at him and smile. “I do now.”
He smiles too and it fills me with a huge sense of relief that I’m able to draw that out of him. He pulls out and turns me in his arms, gently this time, and I gasp as he presses his hand to my pussy. “Need to get you cleaned up. I dirtied you up real good. Wanna take a shower with me, sweet angel?”
I’m blushing beet-red from his words and I can’t speak. I just manage a nod.
“Aww…still so shy, even after that.”
I bring my hand to my face, to hide it.
He releases me and the next thing I know, he’s snatching up my clothes from the floor and dressing me, before I can even stop him. I’m in too much of a daze to do much of anything anyway. That was intense and it’s taking me a while to come down from it.
He’s dressed me before I know it. He puts his own clothes back on quickly then.
“It’s okay,” he breathes in my ear as he wraps his arm around me and walks us over to the door that leads back into the clubhouse.
As soon as he opens it, he curses.
My eyes dart in front of us and I see why.
A bunch of the boys are gathered down the corridor, eyeing us. Ax is grinning with amusement in the middle of them all and Smiter’s beside him.
“Perverts,” Runner grunts at them.
Oh my God. They heard us? Oh no! They heard us!
My gaze snaps to Zeb’s. He’s able to read my expression right away and he scoops me up in his arms and presses his hand to the back of my head, hiding my face in his chest as he carries me past the guys gawking at us.
“Fuck off. Don’t say a goddamn word. That shit were private,” I hear him say.
“First time for everything,” someone responds.
“Hot damn,” another says.
I hear Ax chuckling then, but he doesn’t say anything.
The voices fade away soon enough and I chance lifting my head up.
Zeb’s smiling down at me. “We’re past ‘em,” he tells me. “All good now. They’re just being nosey dickheads. Don’t worry ‘bout it, yeah?”
“But, I—”
He shifts me in his arms and frees one of his hands so he can press his finger to my lips. “Uh uh. No worrying.”
He moves his finger away and immediately, I blurt out in a panicked rush, “Zeb, I can’t just…that was embarrassing and I—”
He covers my mouth with his hand. “I love you.”
What?
I can’t speak, because his hand is stopping me. Instead, my eyes widen in shock. He does?
“Yeah. I love you, woman. Okay? You’re mine. End of story now. That okay by you?”
He pulls his hand away and I’m grinning like an idiot at him. “Yes,” I breathe. “Yes, it’s okay by me.”
He grins, too. “Good. Glad we cleared that shit up.”
Chapter 20
~Runner~
Holy fucking shit.
I love you.
Those three words I thought I’d be taking to my grave without me ever saying ‘em to no woman.
And there they were, ‘bout twenty minutes ago, coming right outta my mouth without a second thought.
No second thoughts, cuz it were her I said ‘em to.
Sarah. My angel.
It’s been pretty damn clear for a while that she were meaning something to me. Just didn’t know ‘til what went down in the garage how goddamn deep it ran for me. But what she did for me in there…fuck…how could I not love her? Ain’t talking ‘bout the fucking. Nah, it just hit me…she’s my light. I need her. That’s it now. I just know I can’t go back to a life without her in it. No way.
I can’t wrap my head ‘round what she does to me.
Even with all this shit that’s been weighing me down to the point of crippling me and damn near suffocating me, somehow she broke through all of that, just being there with me. She’s the only person I’ve ever known who can calm me down when I lose it. And I had lost it in there. I were outta my mind. And she…soothed me. Yeah, that’s it. She soothes me.
But…damn…taking her like that? I ain’t felt guilty ‘bout getting rough before with no woman. Sarah’s different, though. She’s so pure and me taking her like a maniac don’t sit right with me. She coulda stopped me. Hell, I begged her to. But she didn’t. Problem is, I dunno if that were cuz she were tryin’ to please me, or if she really were liking it the way I were giving it to her.
I gotta have it out with her.
I knock on the bathroom door. She’s been holed up in there since I brought her up here to my room. Said she needed to “freshen up”. Weird thing ‘bout that is we came up here to take a shower. I thought, maybe, she really needed to take a piss, but didn’t wanna say it. She’s so proper and shy like that. But I ain’t heard the toilet flush and it’s been twenty minutes.
“Sarah?” I call, getting worried now.
“I’m fine,” she calls back.
“Ready then? Can I come in and take that shower with you?”
“Uh…I’m kind of tired now…one of those sex comas, I think.”
Bullshit. But I know she’s locked the door, so I gotta play along ‘til she opens it. “Yeah, darlin’. Getting tired, too.”
I hear her soft footsteps on the tile approaching the door.
“So, you’re going to go straight to sleep, too?”
“Yeah. Can you come outta there so I can take you back downstairs to your room and then get my beauty sleep in?”
“Oh my God. Of course. I’m so sorry!” she cries.
A second later, the lock clangs and she opens the door real slow. As soon as the gap’s wide enough to get my fingers between it and the doorframe, I lunge for it and push it all the way open. It smacks against the wall and she shrieks in surprise.
I block the doorway with my body and fold my arms across my chest as I glare at her and shake my head. “Sex coma, huh?”
She blushes and can’t look me in the eye. “Uh…yeah.”
“Come here,” I tell her softly.
She shakes her head and starts doing that nervous foot tapping thing of hers.
“Sarah,” I press. “Come here, yeah?”
She walks to me
slowly, nervously.
“Close your eyes, darlin’.”
“What? Why?” she cries, her eyes wide and fearful.
“Cuz I know what this is all ‘bout and I’m gonna fix it.”
She shakes her head and tries to move away, but I grab her wrist, stopping her. “You helped me downstairs. Let me help you now.”
“Zeb, I can’t.”
“Please, Sarah.”
She draws in a breath and squeezes her eyes shut.
I step into her and carefully reach for her jeans. I hear her gasp as I unclasp her belt and then start pulling ‘em slowly down her legs. But she don’t stop me. I get ‘em all the way off and toss ‘em off to the side.
The black long-sleeve blouse she’s wearing is another deal altogether. It’s buttoned all the way up to her neck, as usual, so nobody can see the scar on her tit. As soon as I touch the top button she whimpers, not liking it.
“Feel my fingers on you, Sarah. Don’t think on nothing. Just feel.”
That has her relaxing a bit and I manage to open the shirt. She’s wearing a sexy, lacy, low-cut tank underneath. Hot damn, it really makes her big tits pop.
I lean in and kiss the scar right there.
“Zeb,” she murmurs.
“You like my mouth on you, yeah?”
“Yes, but—”
“But nothing,” I say, as I hook my fingers in the hem of her tank and pull it up. She really starts whimpering then. But I don’t stop. She needs me to do this. “Raise your arms, my sweet angel,” I breathe, leaning in and kissing the side of her neck.
“Zeb, please. I can’t do this.”
“You need to, Sarah.”
She opens her eyes and shakes her head at me. Tears are trickling down her cheeks now. Fucking hell. That’s it. It’s like one of ‘em Band-Aid situations: rip it off real fast. I shoulda done that in the beginning, instead of tryin’ to do it slow with her. I went with slow, cuz I didn’t wanna scare her. But that ain’t working here.
I ease her arms up myself and in the next second, I’ve got her tank over her head and her bra off her, all in a couple of real quick moves. I drop to my knees then and take off her shoes and socks.
Her eyes are wide as she realizes she’s naked now. I see her body trembling as I look up at her.
I take in the delicious sight of her. Jesus Christ. She ain’t got no idea what a knock out she really is. Well, she’s gonna.
I slide my hands up her right leg and over the bullet scar there.
“Zeb,” she cries, making a move to step back.
I press my lips to it and kiss along the length of it.
She gasps then as I use my tongue, licking it all over.
After a while, her cries turn to little moans.
“You got no idea how beautiful you really are, Sarah.”
“No,” she argues. “Not like this.”
“Naked?”
She nods. “It’s all ugly.”
“You’re so wrong ‘bout that,” I tell her, just before I start licking the worst and most obvious scarred area over her stomach. She shivers and her hands delve into my hair. I groan as she starts massaging my scalp. It starts turning me on real quick. It’s the first time I’ve ever got off on a woman just touching my hair, but everything with Sarah is new to me. Ain’t complaining neither. She’s got a touch that’s outta this world.
I trail lower, between her legs and drag my tongue through her pussy. Mmm…she’s wet for me. I pull back and lick my lips, savoring the taste of her.
And then I lunge at her and pick her up in my arms. I carry her over to my shower and switch it on. I place her inside and quickly rip off my own clothes.
As I join her, she eyes me warily.
But there’s one major change: she ain’t covering herself. None of her scars.
“They’re just like tats, if you think ‘bout it,” I tell her.
She seems surprised by my words. She frowns, looking like she’s thinking it over. A cute little grin spreads over her face and she says, “Really? That’s how you see them?”
“Pretty much. Ain’t that different, are they?” I say, pointing to one of my tats. The one on my right shoulder.
She steps up to me and her fingers brush it as she studies it closely. Guess she ain’t had the opportunity before, cuz whenever we been this close, we been in a frenzy of fucking. No time to really stop and take nothing in. ‘Til now.
“STATE OF MIND,” she says, reading the words arcing ‘round the image. “It’s a bike.”
“My bike,” I tell her with a wink. “Harley V-Rod Muscle.”
She grins. “That’s really cool.”
She moves to my left arm then and studies the phoenix there. It’s real striking—bright reds and oranges of the bird rising from the black ashes beneath it.
“What’s the meaning behind this one?” she asks, looking between me and the tat.
“Me getting clean twenty years back.”
As I say the words, it churns my stomach.
I look away and take a step back. “Jesus,” I mutter under my breath. “Don’t mean shit now.”
She hears me and cries, “Of course it does! One setback that wasn’t even your fault doesn’t take away from that. Don’t talk like that, Zeb.”
I shake my head. “Sarah, don’t.”
I know she’s just tryin’ to help me. But she don’t get it. There ain’t no way she can neither. She ain’t been where I been to be able to understand it. Don’t matter who shot me up. Don’t matter that it weren’t actually me who did it to myself. It still happened. And I still…I still can’t shake it.
I feel her lips suddenly on my chest, kissing my club tat.
I cup the back of her head, holding her against me as I gently stroke her soft, golden hair.
“How’d you do that?”
“Do what?” she asks, her voice muffled against my skin.
“Take it all away.”
She wraps her arms ‘round me and squeezes me tight. “What, Zeb?”
“The…the hurt, darlin’.”
She pulls back and gazes up at me. Her eyes are intense as she tells me, “I love you. That’s how.”
“Why?”
“What?”
“How the hell can you love a screwed up bastard like me, Sarah?”
She frowns, not liking what I’m saying. “You’re not screwed up. Don’t say that. What happened wasn’t your fault.”
“But what happened downstairs in the garage were. I lost control. I’m sorry.”
She shakes her head at me. “It’s okay.”
I release her and step back, eyeing her closely. “Is it?”
She shrugs. “If I’d wanted you to stop, I would’ve made you.”
“Sarah—”
“No, Zeb. I know with you that the second I would’ve said the word, you would’ve stopped. Yeah, it was intense. But….” A sexy little smirk plays on her face. “It was also really hot.”
Before I can get a word out, she breathes, “I mean really.”
I chuckle at the look of awe on her face. “So…for real…you liked it? Cuz, darlin’, that were some rough shit. I gotta know the truth here. You like me fucking you that way?”
She blushes at my words. Probably me saying fucking. So cute. She hangs her head and murmurs, all embarrassed, “Yeah. I like you…uh…doing it…like that.” She comes to me then, wrapping her arms ‘round me. She stretches up and whispers in my ear, “You’re good at it.”
Had a lot of practice. Thankfully, my brain filters that thought real quick and I don’t say it out loud. Jesus. Being with Sarah is real different than just screwing ‘round with a random chick. Can’t be treating her the same way I’d treat one of those throwaway fucks. I actually surprised myself with her, cuz that normal instinct to cut and run after getting it on ain’t been there since we slept together. Been the opposite, like me wanting to be ‘round her more and more. Who knew? But I’m liking it a hell of a lot. I just regret keeping away fr
om her these last few days, cuz of all the shit messing with my head after what Jase did to me.
But I were protecting her.
It were bad enough she had to see me going through that detox bullshit.
After that, I didn’t want her seeing nothing more. I didn’t wanna be ‘round her too much ‘til I had my head straight. But her coming into the garage and busting my balls like that and basically giving herself over to me the way she did, sent all that straight to hell. No way I coulda turned her away and continued keeping my distance after that.
She drove it home to me then. I need her. Fucking hell, I need her.
She shivers in my arms and I gently ease her backwards into the warm stream of water from the shower. She smiles up at me. “You’re so sweet.”
“Ain’t never heard those words outta no woman’s mouth before, that’s for damn sure.”
She giggles. “You are.”
“Just with you, darlin’.”
She frowns then and I can see the wheels turning. It takes her a moment and then she says, “So…we’re…Smiter said you claimed me and then you said…am I your…Old Lady?”
I can’t help laughing. It’s hilarious that the one woman I end up claiming—me, the guy who’s more club than anybody, even our damn Prez—don’t know shit ‘bout club life. “Basically, yeah.”
“Basically?”
“Claiming you means nobody here’s gonna touch you. They know it’s hands off. But you gotta make a choice on your own, too. I am and I’ll always be club, Sarah. I ain’t never gonna leave. I’ll run with Thorns ‘til the day I die.”
I ain’t Ax. When him and Rox hooked up, he were willing to walk for her, partly cuz she didn’t like club life. Real ironic considering her old man were our club Prez a ways’ back. Him being willing to do that really pissed me off. I’ve made my peace with it now and he didn’t leave in the end, but it took me a long time to get past it. I ain’t him. I am Thorns. Have been for the last twenty years and that ain’t never gonna change.
“Yeah, I get that,” she says.
Ain’t sure she does. I gotta make it damn clear. I shoulda done it before I told her I loved her, but I ain’t exactly been at my best lately. My head’s been messed.
I lift her chin gently, coaxing her to look at me as I tell her, “The club and the man are one, Sarah.”