by Anna Lewis
Her tears came faster and she couldn’t look at him. She heard Julian’s deep breath as he pushed himself off the cushion. She could feel his anger bubbling, “You should have told me. You should have told me before you left! I had to hear about that Marco shit in front of the club. In front of everybody! Whitney, I can’t believe you. After everything, from our parents? I would never keep something like that from you. Tara was fucked up for that, but I deserved more from you. I thought you cared about me, Whit.”
“Julian, I do,” she cried. “I just didn’t have the heart to tell you. I couldn’t tell you that it was my fault you weren’t going to be a father.”
“That’s not your fault! The events leading up to that—at the very least you should have told me about Marco. And then you bolted. I think you should go.” He took a deep breath trying to rein in his temper.
“But Julian…” She made every attempt to stop herself from blubbering. But the look in his eyes, so full of pain and anger, wouldn’t let her stay where she was. There was nothing else for her to say other than a quiet, “I’m sorry.”
She got dressed and left Julian’s house with tears burning down her cheeks. They’d waited for so long to be together, and now Whitney was certain she’d messed that up for good.
***
The sun shining so brightly mocked Whitney’s mood in the days that followed. It had been over a week and Julian still refused to speak to her. The guys at the bar all gave her knowing looks, but she attributed that to her paranoia. They didn’t care about her secrets. The only thing she wanted to know was how to make things right again.
The sound of her phone ringing brought her out of her funk. Ben was on the other end, wondering where she was. “You alright, Whit?”
“You haven’t spoken to Jules?” she questioned.
“Of course I have, he’s not mad at me,” he joked.
“Not funny!”
Ben laughed anyway. “Sure it is, but just give him some time and it will pass. There’s no way what Tara did, or what happened to her after, was your fault. He knows that and just needs some time to cool off. He cares about you, kiddo. He’ll come ‘round.”
“Can you talk to him for me and help move that part along?” she wondered.
“Absolutely not!” he asserted. “Ya can’t tell people how or what to feel, let alone when to tell ‘em to stop feeling it. Everything will work out on its own time. Speaking of time, you think you’ll be in any time soon? They got some kinda meeting going on down here, and we can use the extra hands.”
“Yeah, I’m on my way.”
***
Stepping inside The Shock Bar wasn’t as devastating as she expected. As a matter of fact, her mother was there, standing alongside Duke and Marco, speaking to the large group of bikers. Whitney passed by Julian, who was still icing her out. She stood as far away from him as possible as her mother, Molly, spoke, “Thank you all for coming out this early in the morning for this meeting of the Shadows. As you all know, my Paw owned this bar and a few other properties around town. I know that you all wanted me to sign it over to Duke and the club so that it could stay in the Shadows, but I had to figure it out for myself if that was the best thing to do. I’ve had my darling Whitney running the place and even though you fellas gave her one hell of a time, she hit the ground running and has done a good job keeping this place in order. With that being said, I’m happy to announce that I’ve come to the decision to sign the place over to Duke.”
“You can’t do that!” Whitney shouted from the back of the room. All eyes turned to her as she shook her head in disbelief. “I can’t believe you’re doing this! You always let him manipulate you. I’m done!”
Whitney bolted through the doors toward the car. She folded her arms across her chest, wondering how in the hell Duke was able to talk her mother into that decision, when she was sure her mother could sell the place for a pretty penny.
Julian wasn’t far behind her. He ran his fingers through his loose black hair, flopping it over to the side.
Even with their rift, it seemed that Julian was more than aware of how hard Whitney had been working to run the bar. Everyone saw it.
“I need to get out of here,” she whispered to Julian while fighting back her tears. But before they could leave, both Duke and Molly came out of the club. She glared at them with red eyes, wondering how her mother could betray her.
“I don’t want to hear anything you have to say. I’m done. I’m done trying to help. I’m done trying to prove that I’m not going to run away from the family. I’m over it. Do what you want, I’m going back to school.”
“Of course you are,” Molly said sweetly, irritating her. Molly sighed and stepped closer to her. Julian moved out of the way and Molly stood eye to eye with Whitney. “Whit, I’m sorry if this wasn’t the decision you thought I was going to make, but please believe me when I say that I made it all on my own with no convincing from Duke whatsoever.”
“Forgive me if I find that hard to believe,” Whitney scoffed and turned away.
Molly pulled her daughter around to face her again, “Think about it. How often do I do anything I don’t want to do? Where do you think you get that temper from girl?”
Whitney actually did run through all of the times her mother complained about Duke, and what he wanted. There wasn’t any time in particular where she could remember her mother being outsmarted or forced into doing anything she didn’t already want. She shrugged.
“Exactly,” Molly smiled, kissing her cheek.
“Besides, you left quicker than a priest getting caught in a whorehouse. You missed the part about you staying on to run the place weekends when you are home from school.” Duke chimed in.
“What?” Whitney’s eyes darted back and forth between them. Molly smiled and nudged Duke.
He sighed and rolled his eyes as if being nice was hard work. “Yeah, so I want to apologize for that first day when I had the guys walk out on ya. I will admit that was a bit childish of me, and could have ruined things because I wasn’t seeing the bigger picture. You did good taking control of the situation and getting them day workers to come in to help you out. You got all the walkouts jealous enough to come back without having me tell ‘em to. You really showed that you can handle this place. And you won’t get any more trouble outta me.”
“Thank you Duke,” Whitney said, pulling the tall biker in for a hug. It was awkward but still felt like the right thing to do. He deserved to be hugged. “I’ll try not to be such a pain in the ass when I come home too.”
“Appreciated,” he said pulling away. “Enough of this mushy crap. Last thing I need is the fellas coming out here thinking I’m being soft and what not.”
The three of them watched Duke walk back into the bar. Whitney couldn’t help but smile as her anger subsided. She stared at her mother wondering what was next, “So what happens when I go back to school?”
“That’s exactly why I opted to do things this way. Paw had a few other houses that he owned and I want to rent them out. So, dealing with that whole process along with running the bar seemed like it would be too much for me to take on. Duke and the club can have my share. Ben will keep things going during the week and if you’re serious about sticking around, I expect to see you down here on weekends, picking up your shifts.”
“Yes ma’am,” Whitney said.
Molly smiled and glanced down at Whitney’s hand, wrapped around Julian’s. Whitney didn’t even remember taking it. He was just there by her side. Mad or not, he was showing that he was going to be there for her while she faced her mother.
“Yeah about that, you two,” Molly began.
Julian cut her off. “Now we don’t want you to feel weird about it or anything.”
Whitney jumped in. “And it’s not like we never dated before you and Duke got married.”
“And we don’t care what anyone has to say. We’re gonna keep seeing each other no matter what.” Julian stated firmly.
“We are?
” she smiled innocently and looked up to him.
Julian sighed, and kissed her temple, “We got some things to work out, but yeah.”
Molly laughed. “I ain’t gonna stop two adults from seeing each other. What I was gonna tell you is you don’t have to sneak around about it. Everybody knows and nobody cares. Well, Tara kind of cares, but she’s a loose cannon about everything. Have fun. Live your life. You ain’t gonna hear no complaints from me.”
Whitney hugged her mother and stood there with Julian as she went back inside the club. There was no telling what to expect, but when Julian offered to go back inside, hand in hand, Whitney thought it would be the perfect time to gauge everyone’s reactions.
It was just as her mother had said, nobody cared. There weren’t any scathing remarks from anyone. They all spoke to them as if walking hand in hand was a normal occurrence. The relief from that burden alone was enough to make Whitney wish she’d never left the way she did.
With her head resting on Julian’s shoulder, they stood by the bar, watching the goings on. There was one person whose reaction they didn’t see.
“Have you seen Tara?” Whitney asked? He shook his head. Ben walked over and told them she’d went to the back.
Whitney was certain that she needed to be the one to tell Tara that they were going to be an item and that she’d told Julian the truth. Nothing was going to stop her from burying this mental tug of war between them. Julian no longer belonged to Tara and she was going to make sure Tara knew that.
***
With their fingers laced together, Whitney and Julian made their way behind the bar toward the back office of The Shock Bar. Her heart was thumping in her chest. She had no idea what kind of reaction she’d get out of Tara. She was hoping for defeat, but wouldn’t bet against blind rage. Tara had a knack for throwing adult tantrums and getting her way. But this was going to be different.
The voices of Marco and Tara carried down the hall like leaves on a breeze. Whitney felt Julian’s hand push gently against her stomach, stopping her from walking forward and interrupting their conversation. They listened in waiting for the opportune time to interrupt.
“You really need to do something about getting Whitney out of here, Marco! She doesn’t like me because of our relationship. I really think she’s just using her brother to get closer to you,” Tara was heard saying.
“Don’t be so fucking dramatic. Do you hear how ridiculous you sound?” Marco chastised her.
“I’m serious, baby, she hates me. She’ll probably poison one of my drinks or something! And let’s not forget that she’s reason why I lost our baby in the first place.”
Whitney and Julian exchanged a glance, but Marco cleared it up with his outburst. “Stop bringing that up! You ain’t ever had no kid of mine in ya! And I know that girl wasn’t the reason. Your last trip to the clinic was far more educational than I’m sure you wished it to be.”
“What are you talking about? The doctors had to cut that baby out of me because she pushed me into those bikes!”
“No!” Marco was heard flinging a chair across the room. “You told them to get rid of it. Ain’t no bruised ribs and broken arm reason enough to end a pregnancy. I ain’t as stupid as you think. And your doctor told me to look into some facility to get you checked out since all three of your abortions were voluntary. He thought you was crazy and didn’t know what kind of cunt you really are. But I don’t like them damn head doctors so I let you stay around here. I figure if you keep busy enough you won’t let that crazy shit out of ya. But if you talk about killing my babies one more time, I’m liable to knock every single one of your teeth out. I don’t give a fuck no more.”
Whitney thought now was as good a time as any for them to burst in. With Julian close behind, they saw Marco with his hand gripping Tara’s neck so tight her face was almost as bright a red as her hair. He let her go and she dropped to the ground. Marco stormed out of the office without an apology or an explanation.
“You okay?” Julian asked, but there was a coldness in his voice, she hadn’t expected.
“Fine,” Tara, huffed picking herself up and straightening out her clothes. “So how much of that did you hear?”
“Enough” Whitney said. “Do you know what you did to me?”
“I don’t care. And that will always be the difference between you and me, Whit. You care far too much about what other people think about you.”
“Well at least I have people that care about me,” she shot back. “You’ve isolated the one guy you always wanted to be with, and for what?”
“So he couldn’t love anyone more than me,” she snarled. “All Marco talks about is not wanting babies, but it seems like I’m the only one he can get pregnant round here. Don’t you dare feel sorry for me. I’ll be alright and I’ll calm him down. You just stay the fuck away from us!” Tara screamed and stormed out.
“Wow,” Julian shook his head.
“Don’t act all surprised now, you’re the one who slept with her.” Whitney joked.
“Yeah but that was before the…you know,” he crossed his eyes and twirled his index finger in a lock of her hair. “She’s really out there, huh?”
“Yeah,” Whitney said, suddenly feeling bad for her. She didn’t care what Tara said, she couldn’t help but pity her. Tara was only a year or two older than she was, but had already bound herself to Cedar Breeze. Marco would go crazy and kill her one of these days, or maybe that’s how their relationship worked. It no longer mattered to her that she knew she was in a relationship with Julian. It appeared as if she had some bigger issues to deal with.
“So, I’m guessing you’re not mad at me anymore?" she asked.
Julian shook his head, “I’m a little upset with you, but I realized I’m madder at myself for letting Tara manipulate me, and you, the way she did. She’d told me before she only wanted to be with me cuz she thought I was gonna hold a position in the club, and I should have believed her. She tried changing me to be the next Marco, but when she saw that wasn’t happening, she moved on to the real thing.”
“Well I’m kind of glad she did,” she giggled.
“Me too,” Julian told her. “Just promise me you’ll be completely honest with me from now on.”
“You have my promise, and my heart.”
The way his lips pressed against hers, sent a shiver down her spine. Their tongues tasted each other, making up for time lost. Julian stopped for a moment, staring into her eyes, “So how about we go back to my place and pick up from where we left off last night?”
Whitney wanted nothing more as they left the bikers to their business. Julian and Whitney headed back to his house where they ended up in bed together. Clothes off and bodies pressing together, Whitney kissed Julian like they never kissed before. Everything was out in the open. Her inhibitions were banished.
The feeling of his hand gripping her neck, tilting her head up, so he could plunge his tongue deep into her mouth sent chills down her spine.
The noises of their bodies coming together as they rolled around his mattress, filled the air. But there was no way she was going to let him take charge this time.
Whitney pushed Julian back onto the bed. Landing on his forearms, he propped himself up and she spread his knees wide so her eyes could take in every inch of him. He was long and wide. Taking him in her hands, Whitney began to stroke Julian so that he’d reveal his full erection. The moans and groans escaping his lips let her know she was doing a great job.
Her hands travelled up and down his cock slowly before she brought her mouth to the very tip and flicked her tongue across it. The smoothness of his head was inviting as she circled her lips around the tip. She worked her tongue over his cock. She flicked and sucked until Julian was grabbing at the sheets, flexing his legs, and curling his toes. She knew he’d be doing everything in his power not to come before he’d had a chance to get inside of her.
One day she’d use her mouth to make him come before he could feel the soft sensa
tions of her walls. But today, she wouldn’t play. Instead, she lowered her mouth all the way down to the base before pulling back slowly, letting her tongue curve around the vein running underneath his shaft. He closed his eyes and let her do as she pleased.
With a loud slurp and pop, she pulled back and began positioning herself on top of him. She grasped his shoulders, while Julian held her hips steady. Sliding down onto his throbbing cock felt like home to her. There was no other place she’d rather be.
Once she could feel every inch of him buried inside of her she began to rotate her hips. Slowly but surely working up her walls moistness. It didn’t take long before Julian’s eyes zeroed in on her juices, her sweet nectar coating his length as she slid up and down.
He grabbed her hips and then moved his hands down to palm her ass cheeks, spreading them so he had more room to move into her. He thrust his hips up while she pushed down. They met in the middle for her first orgasm of the day.
Trembling, Whitney blew out a deep breath as he rolled her over onto her back. She watched him pull his cock out of her, undoubtedly to give himself enough time to prevent him coming sooner than he wanted. Without hesitation, Julian buried his face between her thighs. She came all over his tongue while he suckled on her clit. His tongue traced the creases between her folds before diving into her slit. He tasted her juices coating his tongue. He tasted every ounce of her pleasure spilling onto his mouth. Her fingers grazed his scalp and locked onto his hair as he moved his face up and down, side to side, against her pussy. There was no relief for Whitney as he worked his mouth in similar fashion to the way she worked hers. Maybe he was playing the game and she didn’t realize it. If he was, she would have lost by now.