by Laura Day
He slowly let off the pressure on her breast and slipped his fingers out of her, dragging them up to her face. She caught his eyes and reached out lazily, pulling his hand to her and suckling her own moisture off his fingers. HIs eyes widened, his pupils swelling dark and full, and he was shucking his jeans and his boxers off as fast as he could.
“Condoms,” he said again, and she gestured at the nightstand, still too boneless to help him.
And then he was pressing into her, pulling her legs up around him again, and he’d opened her so well with his fingers that he slid to the end of her in one smooth motion. She lifted her hips for him, and he tugged her into the angle that he liked best. There was no real preamble; she could feel his hips shaking already, the muscles of his fine ass trembling against her legs as he slammed into her, his eyes half closed. He bent down over her, kissing her fiercely, and then rolled them, pulling her on top. His hands on her hips urged her into the rhythm he wanted, and she balanced over him, her hands by his shoulders. He reached up and unhooked her bra, pulling it down off her arms, then reaching up for her breasts, rolling the nipples between his fingers as she rode him, hard and fast.
He groaned as his body started to tense, and she caught his hands, leaning down and pinning them above his head. That put her breasts within easy reach of his mouth, and he caught her nipple in his teeth again. He couldn’t keep his focus, though, his head tossing as his hips started to go wild beneath her, thrusting up into her. He shoved her hands up, hard, then caught her hips in his hand, holding her still as he fucked her hard, deep inside of her as he closed in on his own release. She slipped one hand between them and stroked her clit, finding just enough extra pressure to come with him again, choking back her scream as she pulsed around him, and he forced her hips down onto him, spasming and rolling inside of her with each wave of pleasure.
Danni sagged against him as she came to her senses. Thank God he’d mentioned the condom; she’d been so boneless with pleasure that she might not have remembered it, and then where would she have been?
***
After he’d tossed the condom in the trash can by the bed, Derek wrapped his arms around the goddess above him and kissed her softly below the ear. Who the hell was this woman, this incredibly sexual, shockingly hot woman who had just gotten him off harder than he’d ever come in his life? When she’d stripped off her little uniform, she’d stood in front of him, so proud, as if waiting for him to make a comment so she could send him packing. He’d wanted to explain that no, she wasn’t a model, but that wasn’t his type anyway. He liked a woman who knew how to eat, who had something in her head other than what superstar was screwing which rockstar, and who had the guts to stand naked in front of her man and dare him to tell her that she was anything less than amazing.
His blood ran cold at the thought; he’d met her about an hour and twenty minutes ago, and here he was thinking of himself as her man. That was not going to work out. They were in town for a few days while Walt saw to his kid, and then they would be gone. Maybe he’d stay with her for those days, instead of at the camp, if she’d have him, but he wasn’t going to break his streak. No matter how bronzed her sweaty skin looked in the dying afternoon sunlight, or the way she’d never bothered to fix her hair after she’d taken off the helmet, or the brass tacks look she was giving him now, her chin propped up on her hand.
“You’re quite something, you know that?” he said to her.
Danni smiled. “You’re pretty decent yourself, you know?”
“Pretty decent!” He rolled them again, pinning her down as she laughed. “Give me half an hour, Danni, and I’ll show you better than pretty decent.”
She stroked her hips up against him, and his wilting cock sprang back to life. “A real man could show me now. If his dick was tired, he’d use his mouth.”
Her cheeks were flushed; she was never this brazen, this direct, but she’d also never come that hard in her life, not with Mickey, not with any of the handful of men she’d been with since. Maybe it was just a fluke, just a random occurrence, since it’d been so long. But there was something about this guy, something that was digging through her armor and making her want to hold him close while he fell asleep.
She had to put a stop to that. She had Cole to think about, she couldn’t let another biker sweep her off her feet and off into the sunset, just to leave her flat and alone in a week, or two, or a month. He could make her come all night long, she told herself firmly as he dragged his tongue down her body and latched his mouth onto her sensitive clit, but in the morning, he’d have to go.
***
The sun was down when they both finally admitted exhaustion. Besides, Danni was down to one condom in the nightstand, and she had it in mind to wake him up by going down on him, and then riding him again through the sunrise. He circled her in his arms again, soft and gentle, and kissed her hair. She let him, let him rock her softly, let him stroke her back as she drifted peacefully to sleep.
CHAPTER FOUR
The banging on her door woke her. Danni glanced at the clock; 2am. Derek had sprung awake too, and he slid out from underneath Danni’s arm, quiet and soft. He motioned her to be quiet, and picked up the baseball bat Danni kept behind the bedroom door. How he’d known it was there, she wasn’t sure. He was a sight, strutting naked through her hallway, cock swinging, baseball bat at the ready, and she would have given anything to see what happened, but before he could pull the door open, a voice called out, “Danni? It’s Sarah. Please can you let me in? Please?”
Derek glanced back at her; Danni was already pulling herself out of bed and shrugging her robe on. “The other waitress from the diner,” Danni said. “Her boyfriend’s an ass, but she’s cool. Go find pants, Lancelot, we’re good here.”
Derek disappeared into the bedroom while Danni opened the door for a hysterical Sarah, who was now sporting a hell of a shiner on her left eye. Her normally pale skin was ashen, and she was limping.
“Hell, Sarah, what did he do this time?”
Sarah shut the door behind her, locked it, and after a moment, grabbed a chair and stuffed it under the door handle. Danni’d gotten the chair for a couple bucks at the thrift store, and doubted it would stand up to much, but it let Sarah’s shoulders come down a notch. She curled into the corner of the couch, her sobs all the more horrible for being almost silent.
Derek had pulled his jeans on, took one look at Sarah, and ducked into Danni’s kitchen. He came back with an ice pack wrapped in a dish towel, then mouthed the word “coffee” at Danni, who nodded. He made himself scarce while Sarah poured out the same old story about her boyfriend Ryan. They’d gone out; he’d taken her to a dive bar out of town. He had had too much to drink, had decided she was flirting with the bartender, so he’d busted her lip. Only this time, she told him it was too much, and she was leaving, so he’d got her eye and hit her twice with a chair before she could get out the door.
Danni thanked her lucky stars that Cole was upstairs with Mrs. Clark. “Sarah, we should call the police. He needs to be stopped.”
Sarah snorted. “You know it’s not that easy. They’d never believe that the high- powered lawyer was cheating on his wife with a waitress. I don’t have any proof. No one ever sees us together. No one respectable anyway. They’d just say I deserve it.”
“He barely qualifies as an ambulance chaser, Sarah, it’s not like he’s a priest or a saint.”
“No, Danni. No cops.”
She sighed. “You can’t go back to him, Sarah. You can’t. No matter what he says.”
“He’s a good guy when he’s not drunk.”
“And one of these days, he’s going to kill you.”
“It’ll never get that far. I just need to steer clear of him when he’s been drinking.”
It was an old argument, and one that Danni hadn’t managed to win yet. She could smell coffee in the kitchen, and damn but she needed it, if she was going to stay awake at all.
“I just want to sleep on the c
ouch, Danni, and then I’ll get out of your hair, okay? I promise. I won’t cause you any trouble.”
In the kitchen, Derek stopped her before she could lift the coffee pot. “You go back to bed and rest. It’s probably for the best that I’m not here in the morning, after all.”
She stared at him blankly, and he pointed at the refrigerator, where several of Cole’s drawings were proudly displayed. For a moment, she wanted to curl in on herself, hating that he was done with her because of her boy, and then remembering that being done with him had been the goal. Just, maybe not quite so fast. “He’s five,” she said. “His name is Cole, and he’s the love of my life.”
He smiled at her, with more respect in the expression than she’d thought she’d see. “That’s great,” he said. “I’m glad he has you.” He pointed with his chin at the couch. “What’s Ryan the dirtbag’s last name?”
“You go after all the guys in the world who beat on their women? You’re gonna be busy for the rest of your life.”
“What’s his name?”
“I don’t know why it matters. Sarah’s never going to admit that he did anything to her. Her husband beat on her, too, and convinced her it was her fault. If he hadn’t killed himself crashing their car into a tree when he was drunk, he would’ve been hitting her tonight, instead of her jerk boyfriend.”
“I’m not going to involve the cops. I just want to have a conversation with him.”
She stared at him for a long moment, and then the penny dropped. “Was it your mother or your sister?”
He looked like he might try and tell her she was wrong for a moment, and she gave him that same eyebrow-up look that had caught his attention before. He sighed and smiled a little to himself. “My sister. She did finally leave the bastard, but it took seven broken bones and two concussions. So I do what I can. It’s not much, but it’s something.”
“It won’t change anything.”
“Not doing it will change me.”
The electrical surge through her thighs surprised her. How many times could one person be aroused in a twenty four hour period? Surely at some point you’d go mad.
“Mahoney,” she said, finally. “He has an office downtown. But I don’t think that you punching him is going to change anything. You’d be better off leaving it alone. I don’t want you--” She cut herself off before she said that she didn’t want him to get hurt. He didn’t matter to her. It was great, if unnecessary, that he was being protective of Sarah. But he was nothing to Danni but a great orgasm.
“Thank you,” he said, and whether it was to the information or what she hadn’t said, she wasn’t sure. “Do you have a mug I can put this in?”
She gestured at the cupboard over the stove, and he pulled down a travel mug, filled it to the brim, and then reached out for her again, pulling her tight against him. He nipped her earlobe and traced her jawline with kisses until he got to her mouth. By their earlier standards, this kiss was entirely chaste, but it still left her burning. “Can I see you again tonight?”
No, her brain said. Yes, her body said. “Please?” said her mouth, without consulting anyone.
***
Derek pulled his helmet on and kicked his bike into gear. He had every intention of finding this Ryan Mahoney character and having a conversation about how a man treated a woman, but first, he needed to just get some fresh air and clear his head. Danni was doing something strange to him, making him dizzy, making him pay attention to her in a way no other woman had.
He drove out to the camp, set up around Walt’s house. His kid’s house, now, although maybe it was going to be Walt’s house again. Most of the guys fit inside, but some had been overseas, and didn’t sleep under roofs any more. He picked his way carefully into the house. Walt was up; Derek had figured he would be. He sat in the living room, in an easy chair, the TV on, but no sound. Walt was staring at the screen, the light reflecting on the streaks of tears down his face.
“How’s your boy?” Derek asked, sitting down in the second easy chair.
Walt shrugged. “Worse than the doctors said. He just lies there, doesn’t speak, doesn’t react. They don’t know if he’ll be like that for a day or a week or forever. I mean, I guess they said, but I didn’t understand.” He sighed, rubbing at his eyes. “How was your lady friend?”
Derek turned the question over in his mind, not sure what to say. “We were sleeping, after. And her friend came over, beaten all to hell by the man she’s seeing. And I left to go take care of him.”
“She ask you to?”
“Nope.”
“Why’d you do it?”
“Because that just--it’s not right.”
Walt nodded. “Yeah. You thinking about staying here?”
Derek started. “Are you kidding? I met this lady, what, ten hours ago? And she’s got a kid.”
The old man shook his head. “I’m too old to be cruising around the country pretending to be an outlaw when the worst I’ve ever done is steal a pack of gum when I was eight. I run a clean club, no drugs, no crime, none of that crap. And I’m thinking that maybe I want to stay put a while. My boy hardly knows me, and maybe it’s too late now, but maybe it’s not.” He looked at Derek, his eyes seeing so much despite the dark. “I ain’t saying you have to stay here with me. If you go, some will go with you, and some will stay, but they’ll make you boss, and I know how much you’ll love that.”
Derek nodded ruefully. His total refusal to take any official position in the club had been a thorn in Walt’s side for a year.
“You like this lady?”
Derek nodded.
“We planned to stick in town for a few days, at the least. Get to know her a bit. See if maybe she’s worth sticking to.”
“Wise words from a wise old man,” Derek said, letting his tone slide into mocking to hide the emotion he felt.
“Stick around long enough, I’ll break wind, you can bottle that and sell it for gold.”
“I think I’ll pass.”
They laughed together, and Derek went to find a corner to curl up in and get some rest before going looking for Mahoney. He thought of going back to Danni’s, but he hoped like hell she’d gotten some sleep.
CHAPTER FIVE
Danni had one hell of a night. She curled up on the mismatched loveseat in the living room and slept for about an hour before Sarah woke up screaming, seeing monsters that weren’t there. Once she got Sarah settled again, she knew she was up for good; her nerves were screaming, and she was painfully on edge. When the sun rose, she ran herself through the shower, remembering ruefully the plan to wake Derek up and use up that last condom. She ached between her thighs, but it was the ache of muscles well used, not pain. Not any kind of proper hurt.
Why had she agreed to have dinner with him? Because he’d gone charging off like a white knight to deal with Ryan? Because he’d given her the kind of orgasm she read about in books but never ever experienced? Because she was a goddamned idiot?
She turned the water temp over to ice cold and tried to clear her head from the dizzy wanting that was flipping her inside out. He was a nice guy, sure, but he was a biker. You didn’t choose that life because you were the type to settle down and make nice with a family. She was not going to get messed up by that again, and God forbid get left behind with a second kid to support. She loved Cole, she wouldn’t trade him for anything, but if she had the chance to do it over again, would she make all the same choices?
She shook the water out of her curls and banished the thought. This was her life, and she was doing the best she could with the hand she’d been dealt. How many of the girls she’d grown up with could say that, really? She had her pride, and it was cold comfort some days, but some days--some days it was a lot more than that.
When she was dressed, her hair scrunched up in a towel to dry, she went back out to the living room. Sarah was awake now, and curled up on the couch, her knees to her chest.
“I should go,” Sarah said before Danni could open her mouth.
“I need to get in touch with Ryan. I need to apologize for threatening to leave. We have a good thing going, and I was wrong to …” she trailed off, staring at the wall. Danni took the opportunity to sit down and take Sarah’s hands in hers.
“Sweetie, he beat you up.” Sarah’s eyes didn’t shift, but her head made a microscopic shift, up and down. “This isn’t the first time.” Danni said it like it was a fact, though she didn’t know it for sure until that same up and down motion was visible. “There’s no way in the world that it was your fault he hit you. He’s a grown man. He gets to be responsible for his own actions.”