by Ryan Michele
I followed along as Stiff began walking with his hand still latched in mine. Sure enough, he walked us right to the dock and began to walk on it.
I pulled back, and his head snapped toward me.
“That doesn’t look safe,” I said, and his brow lifted.
He leveled his intense gaze on me. “You think I’m gonna let anything happen to you?”
I exhaled. “No.” That word was the honest to God truth. I didn’t think for a second he would let anything happen to me. I felt it in my gut and down to my bones.
“Right, come on.”
The wood creaked under our steps. It was only about five feet across, and as Stiff plopped down on the edge, bringing me down with him, I braced for water impact. When it didn’t come, relief hit me. I could swim, but I just wasn’t in the mood to test out the water.
Stiff swung his beefy legs over the side, and I was surprised he didn’t touch the water. I followed suit.
Without a word, we sat.
And sat.
And sat.
Stiff remained quiet, and I took that as he didn’t want to talk. Maybe he needed this break from all the shit going down, some solitude. If I could help him with that, I had no problem doing it.
I took off my jacket and rolled my jeans up. It was warm, but not so hot that I wanted to jump into the water. I listened to the birds calling each other in a musical dance just like in Mockingjay, along with others who squawked once and disappeared. Frogs or toads croaked as a breeze fell over me.
“Guess you figured out my mom’s a bitch.” He broke the silence after a very long time.
“I got that.”
“Yeah, she’s tied up with Gonzo, too, and I don’t trust her.”
My gut twisted as I recalled her words about someone hurting her. She might be a bitch, but she was still his mom, and I hated thinking that Stiff had thrown his mom out, only for her to get hurt.
“Gonna tell you some shit. It stays between us. I’m trustin’ that you’ll keep it that way.” He turned his head to look at me.
“Of course,” I answered without missing a beat. I could give him that.
“Didn’t put her out. Locked her up in the clubhouse. It won’t be pretty, but gonna have Needles do whatever the fuck he does, and maybe he can get her clean. If not, then not.”
I reached over to Stiff’s hand resting on the edge of the dock and laid mine on his. He took it a step further and entwined our fingers then lifted our connected hands to his mouth, kissing the back of my hand before putting it down again.
My heart fluttered. It was such a simple gesture, but so much was packed behind it. It would be one of those moments I would never lose.
“Why did you do it?” He sighed, and I went on. “You seemed as if you wanted her to leave.”
“Xander. He didn’t need that on him. You saw what they did to your sister, an innocent. Our mom’s anything but.” He shook his head, letting out a deep breath. “Couldn’t do that to him. She’s a bitch, and I fuckin’ hate her, but I couldn’t deal with seeing the look on Xander’s face when she came to us in a body bag.”
“Why did you change your mind?”
He looked at me. “Seein’ you with your mom.” My heart squeezed. “You had it good with her. Xander and I never had that. Xander always had hope, and I didn’t wanna be the one to kill it.”
I squeezed his hand, but what I really wanted to do was wrap my arms around this man and hold him. However, he wasn’t done talking, and I wanted him to continue. If he needed to get this out, then I wanted to give him that chance.
“Always had his back except when he was overseas. That I couldn’t control, but other than that, always.”
“Do you think it’s a bad thing?”
His eyes came to mine again as he shrugged. “Don’t know.”
“We can only do what we can, Stiff.”
“Yeah, babe, I know.” He turned back to stare at the water, going quiet on me again.
I decided to fill the silence. “My mom’s great, but my dad, not so much.” I let the memories of my childhood fill me. “Not all the time, though. There was a time when he was around, and he played board games with us. I remember Chutes and Ladders because I always landed on the damn chutes.” I gave a little chuckle. “Mom always worked. My dad couldn’t keep a steady job to save his life. He was fired from McDonalds and Burger King. He had a job in a factory once, but that didn’t last long, either. Then, one day, he changed, stopped trying. Started lyin’ on the couch, clicking through the television.
“I’d run up to him and try to get him to play, but he always told me ‘later.’ It was always later. Then later became days, weeks, months … until I didn’t ask anymore and got my sister to stop, too.”
Stiff let go of my hand and wrapped his arm around my shoulders, pulling me against him. I loved feeling the hardness of him, so strong, protective.
I continued, “He became really moody, and nothing my sister, mother, or I could do was right. He yelled a couple of times; he threw things. When he picked up the television like he was the damn Hulk or something and heaved it across the room, shattering it into a million pieces, was the day my mom put him out. Well, she waited for him to go out then changed the locks on the trailer.”
I shook my head, remembering the sounds of him yelling through the door invaded me. “He pounded on the door and yelled. Mom called the cops. Then it got so bad we moved to a different trailer. It didn’t take Dad long to find us there, so we moved again. Six times, we moved everything we owned. The last place was Grams’ house.”
“Why’d you wait to go there?”
I chuckled. “Mom’s stubborn.”
He shook me a bit. “Go figure.”
I looked up at him, smiling. I knew I was like my mom, and I was proud of it.
“Grams hated Dad. She got out her shotgun and told him, if he came around again, she’d put a bullet in his chest.”
Stiff grinned. “Remind me not to fuck with her.”
“Yeah, she’s of the mindset to shoot first, ask questions later.”
“Yep, me and your grams will get along perfectly.”
It made me warm inside that he was thinking about further on, not the here and now.
“Jenn and I didn’t see him, but I guess Mom did. She protected us from that. Grams protected us from that, or so they thought. With the credit cards and now with Jenn, I just wish he’d go away,” I confided.
“I’ve got boys lookin’ for him.”
I turned toward him quickly. “You do?”
He leaned over and kissed my forehead, another one of those moments that I locked down in my memory bank. “Yeah, Fire, I do. He’s underground, so Spook’s callin’ in some other guys he knows who can hunt him out. We’ll get him.”
“What are you gonna do with him?”
I hated him for what he’d done to my sister, my mom, and me. I knew I’d said I wanted him dead, but could I really live with that on my conscience? Not that Stiff would do it, but it was the first thing that flitted into my head.
“Don’t know yet. Figure that out once we find him.”
Conflicting feelings hit me, but I would have to stash away those thoughts until it became my reality. Right now, it was just a possibility.
“You good with that?” he asked.
“Don’t know. Kinda up in the air about it,” I answered.
He pulled me to him more tightly, and I reached around his body. This was the hug I’d wanted to give him, and he was giving it to me, instead.
I felt the warmth, the fluttering of my heart, and wetness want to spring from my eyes. Damn, I loved his strong arms holding me.
When he pulled away, part of me wanted to grip him and tell him not to go, but we were right next to each other, and I was too rational.
“I’ve gotta ask you something,” I told him.
“Shoot.”
“Your mother is in with Gonzo and so is my father. Did you get with me just because of that?”
I hated that my voice went had gone soft, but if he answered this question a certain way, I knew I’d be crushed.
“That was luck, Fire. One good thing out of this fucked up mess. I’m with you because I want to be, not because of anything else; know that. Having you entangled in this shit wasn’t the way I’d like it to happen, but it is what it is, and we move on.”
I liked that answer. I felt good with it.
“Okay,” I said quietly.
“What do ya think of this place?” he asked, holding my hand again.
I looked back out at the water, the sun dancing off its surface. “Beautiful.”
“Yeah. I used to bring my brother here.”
This revelation caught me off guard. “Really? Do you know who owns it?”
“Then, nope. Now, me.”
My breath caught, and unable to prop my knee up because we were too close, I turned as much as possible toward him. “You’re kidding me.”
He turned to me and gave me the sexiest smile I’d seen on him yet. “Nope.” He accentuated the ‘P’ with a pop of his lips, and even that was sexy. Then he turned back toward the water.
“Are you gonna live here?” I asked.
The house needed so much work, but I could envision what it could be, given the right TLC.
His eyes bore into mine like drills trying to find oil. “Didn’t. Plans have a funny way of changin’, though.”
I felt the blush, but this time, not only did it hit my cheeks, it hit every part of my body. My heart thumped so damn hard I swore it would come out of my chest.
Needing his lips on mine, I quickly moved to where I was straddling Stiff and pressed his back down to the wood. Then I crashed my lips to his, and he brought his arms around me firmly. He could, of course, have stopped me, but he didn’t, thank God.
Long and deep, I kissed him, letting every emotion I felt pour through my lips. He met me at every move, and I felt like a teenager getting kissed for the first time.
Amazing how I’d kissed him several times, but this one felt different—closer, intimate.
I drew it out until my breath failed, and I gasped for air. Then I opened my eyes, looking at this gorgeous man below me, and my heart expanded.
FUCK ME. BEING WITH Chelsea was like a drug, and I was so damn high on it I never wanted to climb down. I almost understood what addicts felt like.
Me, Stiff, biker, man, supervising mechanic, kissing a woman stupid for a fucking hour on a dock. The same dock I used to bring my brother to when we needed to escape. This place held so many different memories for me; some good and some not.
Chelsea had single-handedly wiped all the bad away, only giving me good.
Then, riding with her hot pussy against my back, her arms around me and hands stretched across my abs—fucking heaven. I never really believed in all that before.
The life I grew up in had made it hard to think there was a higher power at work, but something had to be there for Chelsea to have been put in my life.
Damn, I sounded like a fucking Hallmark card. It was the truth, though. She’d helped me turn a shitty day into a great one just by being her.
Once we got back, I showered while she went to see her family out and check on Jenn. My dick throbbed with the need to be inside of her, to take her and make her mine.
Chelsea strutted through the door, confidence beaming in her eyes, and then she shut the door behind her. She reached for the hem of her shirt and pulled it off in a whoosh then reached behind her and tugged off her bra. Fuck, her tits bounced, and her nipples were ripe.
She moved her mouth as if she were sucking on something. Surely, she wasn’t eating. She had my dick’s attention, and he was ready to play.
I lay in bed, the sheet tenting from my massive erection, just watching her. I got off on her taking the wheel. What I liked better was we weren’t fucking high on emotion. For this, we could take our time.
“Whatcha got?” I asked, and she smiled coyly, not answering. Instead, she unbuttoned her pants then shimmied them down her legs along with her underwear, displaying her ripe pussy for me.
Wanting to move, I kept still, wanting to see what she had up her sleeve.
At the end of the bed, she crawled up until she reached my tented sheet. Fucking hot didn’t even cut it. The way her tits jiggled was amazing. The best part was the fire burning in her eyes. She had a mission, and I was going to let her achieve it.
She pulled the sheet down my legs, my cock mere inches from her lips. She sucked again on whatever was in her mouth.
“May wanna spit that out,” I told her.
She shook her head. “You don’t want me to.”
That was when she opened her mouth and took me fully inside her. But this wasn’t like the last time. Oh, no. This time, my cock was burning hot, not in pain but aroused to the point I wasn’t going to last a minute with my cock inside her mouth.
“What’s in your mouth?” I groaned as she sucked me in farther, the spike of my orgasm right there on the brink.
She popped up. “Your cock.”
“You little smartass.”
She moved her mouth back around my cock, not letting me get out another syllable. The burn was like nothing I’d ever experienced.
Sucking hard and fierce, she then rolled my balls gently with her hand.
I felt it, couldn’t stop it—the roll in my spine down to my groin.
“Oh, fuck, baby,” I called out, giving no warning as I burst inside of her mouth.
She milked me, sucking me down until my dick began to soften. Then she licked me clean before pulling her eyes up to mine. She stuck out a small piece of something red.
“Cinnamon Fire Jolly Rancher.”
“You little minx!” I said, grabbing her then flipping her so her pussy was at my mouth. Then I ate until she screamed my name.
“GOT IT ALL SET UP. She’s good to go back to work. Talked to Charlie, and he’s gonna make sure he’s there on her shifts. He’s a former Marine, so I know he’ll kick ass and protect hers,” Spook assured.
This would be good news for her, but I was a selfish bastard and didn’t want her leaving. The past three days since our visit to the lake had been kickass, but Chelsea had been practically vibrating to get back to work. The shit was so ingrained in her it was almost like a physical restraint to keep her from going in.
“Charlie said she can start tomorrow with the lunch shift. Said she’d know what time.”
I didn’t like it, but I’d do it for her.
“Got it.”
“You takin’ her, or do I need to rearrange shit?” Spook asked.
“I’m takin’ her. I’ll work it out at the shop. What about Jenn?”
“Needles said she can go to the mother’s. Everything else now is just healing time. There isn’t much for him to monitor anymore. And since we already have eyes on Jannie and Bee, we’ll have them on Jenn, too.”
“Thanks, brother.” The words didn’t feel like enough, but they were all I had at the moment.
That was the reason I’d wanted to be a Viper all those years ago. Brotherhood—a family I could depend on no matter what I needed. Fuck, he’d taken on my mother, and now he’d busted his ass to get all of this ready for Chelsea—for me. Spook was a good man. None better than him.
“Anytime.” He looked down at his desk then back up at me. “Your momma’s havin’ a hard time. Needles had to give her some shit—”
I held my hand up, halting him. “I get it, man. I do, but I can’t go there. She’s safe, and Needles or whoever he needs to can take care of her. Straight out to you, brother, I did that shit for Xander and Xander only. Don’t need to hear about it.”
Spook nodded in understanding. His mother was a handful, too, and he’d had to deal with her.
“Gotta split and tell Chelsea.”
“You need anything, let me know.” Spook rose from the chair as I did. He stepped around and held out his hand to me. I shook it then went on the search for Chelsea.<
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“THERE YOU ARE, young man,” Bee commented from my couch with a cup of tea in her right hand. “Been waitin’ for you to come around.”
Why she was waiting for me was anyone’s guess, but I liked the woman. Loved her quirkiness.
“Yes, ma’am.” I smiled, turning to Jannie and greeting her then Jenn and Chelsea.
“Talked to Spook,” I announced.
Chelsea looked around the room at her family, and I smiled. I loved how she was thinking, giving me the ‘in front of my family’ sign. She’d caught on quickly to the biker way of life. I fucking loved that.
“You can go to work tomorrow.”
She hopped up from her spot on the couch and ran into my arms. If I’d had any doubts of how important this was to her and not a way to get away from me, I knew it was shit now.
She wrapped herself around me securely, and I did the same before kissing the top of her head.
She looked up at me. “Really? It’s safe?”
“We’re workin’ it out.” I then nodded over to Jenn. “She can go to Bee and Jannie’s.”
“Thank God,” Jenn said, giving out a deep sigh.
I turned toward her. “Not enjoyin’ it here?”
“Don’t get me wrong, big man; the views are great, but I want some familiarity.” She smiled big. “Not to mention, you two need privacy because, Chels, you’re loud.”
Bee coughed on her tea, and Chelsea broke from my hold and ran over to her.
“Grams, you okay?”
“Fine, fine. At least someone is gettin’ something.”
It was my turn to burst out laughing.
Chelsea’s eyes turned to me, something working behind them. Tentatively, she asked, “This mean I can go back home?”
“As long as my ass is next to ya in your bed.”
“Stiff, I highly doubt you and I are gonna fit comfortably in my double bed.” Her cheeks stained pink in that sexy-ass way she did when she was embarrassed. Fucking adorable.
“Then we stay here.” It was better for me, anyway. “I take you to work, pick you up, and we sleep here.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as Jannie ping-ponged back and forth between us, her eyes alert. I didn’t have a clue if Chelsea had talked to them about us. Hell, we were having a hard enough time with it. But I didn’t give a shit, either. I was who I was and would be who I was with Chelsea, family there or not.