"Don't bring your logic into this," he said with a smile. "I was trying to inform you that anytime you're naked from here on out, I want to be in on it. Also, I like the idea of having kids."
"Good to know," I said with a nod. Meanwhile my ovaries were doing a little happy dance.
We pulled up the road toward the compound a couple minutes later, making me stiffen in my seat and lean forward, trying to get a better look.
But there was no 'getting a better look'.
This was mostly because where there used to just be a high chainlink fence, there was a giant cement wall.
"What..." I started, shaking my head.
"Yeah, we and the Hailstorm people have been busy as fuck," he said as we pulled inside the opening. But he didn't pull into the side field like we used to. We pulled into a giant structure much like the one at Hailstorm that was connected by a (new) hallway to the compound.
And that wasn't the only change.
"What was that on the roof?" I heard myself asking as we got out. Duke came around to me, taking my hand, and pulling me threw a door with a handprint access, and into the hall. The hall led us right into the main area of the club house, right next to the full bar, a few feet from the front door.
It was all different from the last time I saw it. Part of that was because it was just so empty without all the men around. The other part was the fact that they had decorated. I thought, with a heavy heart, that it was probably because everything in the old room had probably had blood on it. The walls were painted a medium gray. The floors were cement like they had been, but painted a darker gray. The couches, chairs, coffee table, TV... it was all new. As was the front and back doors. Where they used to be your standard issue security doors, they were replaced with ones that resembled bank vault doors more than house doors, with just small glass panels to see through.
"Wow," I said, shaking my head. "You guys have been busy."
"Babe..." he said, shaking his head with a smile like I was being silly.
"What?"
"This is nothing compared to the rest," he informed me, pulling me into the hall. Again, new paint everywhere. And all the doors were opened to the bedrooms, all of them repainted and bare, no personal items left. "This way," he said when I automatically went to move toward his room.
He pulled me instead toward the landing to the basement where I found another of those big security doors that he accessed with a code. It opened with a mild groan and we moved down.
Really, I hadn't expected much.
What could be so different about a basement after all?
And while there was still the vault toward the back and the washers and driers against that wall, there were other things too. Like a bunch more bunks, a mini kitchen, and a bunch of storage racks filled with food.
"You made another fallout shelter," I said with a smile, remembering the other one fondly.
"For everyone. There are even blow up mattress in case we have more people here than beds," he said, gesturing to the lower shelf of storage where eight boxes of blow up mattresses were sitting.
"What's that door?" I asked, turning and pointing to where one was situated next to the laundry where it had never been before.
"That's the best part," he said, excited like a kid to show you his Christmas presents.
He walked over to the door, hit another long code in, and pulled the door open.
"It was a fuck of a lot of work dealing with the concrete and trying to dig out the space for this landing," he told me, hitting a light to illuminate the small space that was, indeed, a landing. Meaning it was a space small enough you couldn't even throw your arms out in and a ladder leading up the wall.
"Ah..." I said, shaking my head as I looked up, feeling a bit lightheaded at how steep it looked.
"It looks worse than it is. Go on. I'm right behind you."
Not wanting to be a chicken and maybe trusting my newfound muscles more than my old puny ones, I grabbed the rung right above my shoulders and put my feet on the bottom rung.
I sucked in a deep breath and hauled it. I knew it would only be worse if I took it slowly, let my fear build, and let my arms get weaker. I could hear Duke behind me, but knew better than to look down.
"Ah, Duke..." I said when I hit the top and there was no opening.
"Just push it up," he said, right below me.
"I am so not taking a hand off this ladder," I objected, shaking my head.
"Alright. Hold up," he said, sounding amused.
And then I saw his hands grab the outside of the rungs I was holding as his feet took the rung right below the one my feet were on, making his entire back close me in.
Damn if I didn't immediately feel safer too.
"Here we go," he said, releasing one arm and shoving at the ceiling, opening the attic door. He took that opportunity, too, to lean down and plant a kiss on my neck. "Up you go."
So up I went, sliding against Duke as I went and woefully aware that at some point, my butt was all up in his face.
I stepped up onto the roof. Sort of.
It was the roof, but it wasn't the open roof that it used to be. It was a glass enclosure with metal beams holding it together.
"DARPA-created glass."
"DARPA?" I parroted.
"Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. They create all the fun shit for the DoD."
"DoD?" I asked, feeling like he was suddenly speaking a foreign language.
Duke chuckled, moving toward me and taking my hips and pulling me against him, kissing my forehead. "Department of Defense."
"Oh," I said, feeling stupid. That one was sort-of self-explanatory. I just wasn't used to hearing things like that outside of TV shows.
"Hailstorm has a lot of connections. They hooked us up. The clubhouse is all but impenetrable now. That cement wall?" he started. "It's all but unscalable, but if someone did so happen to get over, there is an eight foot drop at the bottom that they would have to scale again. And then we still have our chainlink fence. Only now its barbed at the top and electrified. There are motion detecters and motion detecter lights. So it's hard as fuck to get in. But lets say they did. In which case, we shuffle everyone down into the basement where they could survive a good, long time if need be. Meanwhile, the men can go up the shoot and come into here to get an eye on things. These," he said, going over to the steel beams and unlocking a small circle that slid open, "are to shoot out of. This glass," he went on, "is blast and bullet proof. Not resistant. Proof. It's rare and expensive as hell, but worth every penny."
"Wow," I said, shaking my head, genuinely impressed. "Wait," I said, moving toward the glass to look out on the yard. "What's that?" I asked, pointing to a square addition off the existing living quarters that hadn't been there before.
"That is a big empty space. We're going to need it."
"Need it for..." I started to ask when, up the ladder Maze's voice called up to us.
"This is so fucking unfair. You didn't have any of this cool shit when I was here. I can't even get my fat, pregnant butt up there."
"Fuck no you can't," Repo agreed, making me smile.
Lo was right; they were all over-protective alpha cavemen.
I never thought I would like that in a man, but I did.
"What?" Duke asked, smiling because I was.
I shrugged a little. "I don't know. It's hard to explain. I just... I know the situation is crazy and nothing like anything I have ever known before, but I really feel like I fit in here. I love each and every one of them," I said, waving my hand to where other voices joined Maze and Repo's down the ladder.
And I did.
Over time, I got to spend a lot of time around Repo and Reign, watching them with their women where they were, in turns, alpha cavemen, but also sweet and soft and loving. I felt my belly flutter the first time I saw Reign crawl into bed where Summer was laying with her feet up, kiss her forehead, then scoot down and rest his head on her round belly.
And when
I heard Repo respond to one of Ferryn's very dramatic fits over some thing or another- his brow raised in pure masculine confusion. "Are you bleeding?" he asked her, to which she sighed and said no. "Then quit the shrieking, would you?" To my utter shock, she did. She, I found, responded best to a firm masculine energy. I figured because her father was like that. "Now, tell me what's up," he said, grabbing his son as he flew past, turning him upside down, and tickling his stomach while somehow seeming to give Ferryn his undivided attention as she rambled on for ten minutes to explain the situation.
Yeah, I loved him then too.
It went without saying that I was in complete friend-love with Maze, Summer, and Lo and that the kids tugged at my heartstrings as well.
"It's crazy how normal everyone is."
Duke shrugged. "We're all just people, Pen. From the outside, it's easy to just see lawless bikers who aren't exactly unfamiliar with violence. But, in these walls, we're just guys. Some are husbands and fathers. All are boyfriends or lovers or in the pursuit of skirts. We all have average, real-life shit going on that is a more prominent part of our lives than club shit. Well... usually," he said, gesturing around. "But I swear to fuck, this isn't normal for us."
"Well, I have to say I'm glad to hear that. Seeing as I plan on sticking around for a while." I slid my hands up his stomach and chest, then his shoulders, folding them behind his neck and pressing us firmly together.
"A while?" he repeated.
"Well, as long as you'll have me, I guess."
"So, forever?" he asked, eyes twinkling as he leaned down and kissed me, slow and deep. Until we were both breathless. Until I felt desire wet my panties. Until I felt his cock press up against me.
"Damn, they stole our makeout spot, doll," Renny's voice said suddenly, making me lurch backward away from Duke, embarrassed for getting so carried away in some DARPA-created glass room where anyone could happen upon us.
Sure enough, when I looked, Renny was already up in the room with us, crouching down and offering his hand to the knockout, exotic, hazel-eyed woman who was climbing in. She released one hand to slap his away.
"And stop calling me 'doll'," she demanded.
"Well, you've already nixed 'baby', 'babe', 'honey', 'sweetheart', 'sweet cheeks', 'darling', and 'sugar'. What's left?" he asked, smiling, completely not phased by the woman's obvious disinterest in him.
"How about my name?" she suggested, inflection and face bland.
"But Mina doesn't denote my deep, heartfelt affection for you," he went on, all charm.
I liked laid-back Renny.
I liked flirtatious Renny.
I wasn't sure I would learn to like the dark, determined, freaky side of him that came out every once in a while.
But, as my grandmother would tell me, you can't love by half. You couldn't just love the good in someone. You had to love their bad as well.
I wasn't there yet.
Neither was Duke.
And maybe Duke would never be.
But I had hopes that I could get there one day.
"In case it wasn't clear from my obvious lack of attraction to him," Mina said, her voice having a smooth, sexy sound to it. Sultry might be the right word. "We did not come up here to makeout." She looked over at Renny, brow raised, tone firm. "And we never will."
Renny turned to me, big smile in place. "I think the lady doth protest too much, don't you?"
"Oh, you pain in the ass, egotistical..." Mina started.
"Oh, yeah, talk dirty to me..." Renny teased, making Mina blow out a huff of a breath.
"Will you just give up already?" she demanded.
"Gee, if you're not careful, I might really start to feel like you're not dying for me to drag you back to my room and show you why having superhuman observational skills really comes in handy between the sheets."
I saw it then.
And if I saw it, with my very average observational skills, then Renny definitely saw it too.
Her eyes flashed.
And her lips parted.
Despite her very cool outward appearance, she totally was harboring, at the very least, a little sexual attraction toward him.
"Superhuman," she scoffed, trying to cover her reaction. "Please. I think we have proved time and again that I have one up on you in the skills department."
"Oh, but I would be all too happy to put that to a test in this particular instance. Between the sheets, that is. To see who has better skills. You know," he said, grinning, tucking his hands into his pockets, making him look boyish, "for science."
"I have to get the hell out of here," Mina said, shaking her head, going back down into the hole and we could hear her going down the ladder.
"I'm wearing her down," Renny told us confidently and I felt myself smile at him. "It's good to see you back, blondie. Look at those muscles too," he said, nodding. "Watch out Rosie the Riveter, there's a new badass in town."
"Wow, those superhuman observation skills are really impressive," I teased and he laughed.
"They gave you some sass up there at Hailstorm, huh? Must be why Mina is so irresistable. Okay, get back to fornicating for all in town to see. I need a smoke."
With that, he was gone, and I let out an embarrassed little laugh.
"Privacy will be hard to come by for a while," Duke informed me. "Might have to start fucking you with your head in a pillow. You scream loud enough to wake the whole compound."
"I do not!" I objected, slapping his chest.
"Babe, fucking all of Hailstorm knew it when I was fucking you," he informed me.
"Oh my God," I groaned, cheeks heating as I face-planted into his chest.
His chest rumbled on a low chuckle as his hands moved up and down my back.
"Why didn't you shush me?" I demanded against his chest.
"I like you screaming. Especially when you're screaming my name with my cock deep inside you as you..."
"Oh my God, stop," I said, shaking my head.
"What's the matter?" he asked, knowing darn well what it was. "Getting all wet just remembering it, aren't you?"
There was a coughing noise from down below us and my stomach clenched as Cash's voice called up the ladder.
"You know that room isn't soundproof, right? And, ah, words are starting to carry. It was getting weird to not say something."
Right then, I was pretty sure my cheeks were positively on fire, they were burning so bad.
Why was it always Cash?
First the incident with the inside out and backward t-shirt and now this?
Duke wasn't embarrassed. No, he was laughing. He gave me a little reassuring squeeze, knowing I most definitely did not think it was funny.
"Come on down here," Cash urged and I was pretty sure I was okay with never, ever going down there ever again. It was cool. I could live in the blast-proof glass room. I could hang some sheets, put in a small bathroom. And never, ever face Cash again. "Lo says you are getting good. You're gonna need to prove that to me before I hire you at the gym."
"Don't listen to him," Lo called. "He can't make that decision on his own. Me, him, and Janie have equal shares in that company. Majority rules on everything, including hiring decisions. And, well, Janie would side with me just to piss off Cash."
I smiled, pulling away from Duke and moving over toward the hole in the floor.
"Ah, yeah. All this fancy stuff you guys put in and an elevator or a proper set of stairs was too much to ask?" I murmured, looking at the ladder and realizing it was somehow even scarier to go down them.
Duke chuckled, moving past me, and lowering himself down first. "Come on, you're a badass now, remember? You got this."
And with that, he went down.
I watched and when he was far enough down for me to start, I took a deep breath and did.
It wasn't as bad as I thought.
But watching the way Cash's eyes danced at us when we walked into the other area of the basement, yeah, that was pretty bad, I'm not gonna lie.
/> "Definitely a pillow," I mumbled, mostly to myself, but Duke heard and he threw his head back and laughed.
That night, we got to sleep in the same bed. Without a time limit on how long we had each other.
We didn't use a pillow.
That was because we fell asleep without having sex for once. Then, when we woke up in the morning, Duke put his "communal shower" idea into use. Sex was had. Wild and hard and slippery, with his hand clamped hard over my mouth, and his lips near my ear, rambling off a dirty monologue that made me come hard enough that the hand-gag really was just for show.
Duke went up to the glass room to meet with the guys while I went into the kitchen where all the women were assembled. The kids were in the living room, making a mess and a racket, as they should.
But the second I walked in, it was clear they were all trying to hold back smiles.
"Shower sex is the best, isn't it?" Summer asked.
"I don't know. Rooftop sex and car sex and in the woods during a rain storm sex are pretty good too," Maze said.
"She and Repo never seem to actually do it in a bed," Lo added.
"Yeah, we do this," Maze said, as if sensing my surprise at the topic. "If we're not talking about the kids or training, we tend to do a lot of sex talk."
"Oh, you know who has some good sex stories?" Summer went on. "Alex. She and Breaker have had some wild times."
"Reign and Summer conceived baby number three," Maze said, motioning to Summer's belly, "in their kitchen pantry."
"We thought we heard Ferryn shuffling around!" Summer laughed, smiling hard at the memory.
"If I recall, it was a tree scratching against the window," Lo added.
"It sounded like her bed creaking," Summer defended.
"Lo and Cash do it everywhere," Maze went on, including her in the sexcapades. "They get the luxury of not having to worry about early risers or midnight snack-seekers."
Lo smiled, obviously not bothered by the mention of her sex life at all. None of them were. I hoped one day I would get that comfortable about it. With them, at least.
"You guys totally did it in the fallout shelter though," Lo said, looking at me. "That's pretty hot."
"Yeah, that's a little tough to beat," Maze nodded. "But as soon as this one is out of me, Repo and I will try our best to claim the grand prize of best sex locale again."
Duke (The Henchmen MC Book 5) Page 22