by Leah Wilde
As the wonderfully cool liquid poured down my throat, it soothed what I could best describe as an intense burn. I handed the cup over to Gage gently. I started to ask him what happened, but I caught something in his eyes that reminded me of what happened on Ivan’s yacht, and what happened just before that series of events.
I covered my mouth. I could feel my eyes trying to work up tears, but my body was so dry and brittle that nothing came out.
“Oh God, Gage,” I sobbed. I grabbed him and pulled him back to me, crying tearlessly on his shoulder as I realized how lucky I was to be waking up to his enraptured eyes, the dying golden light of the day, and the strange nurse standing at the end of the bed.
“It’s okay,” he tried to comfort me. “You’re here. You’re awake. You’re back with me.”
I pulled back and looked into his troubled eyes.
“What happened?” I asked. “Tell me everything. My memory’s choppy.”
He looked up at the nurse. “Could you give us a few minutes?” he asked her.
“Sure. Would you like for me to go out and pick you two up anything for dinner? I can get anything you need, and don’t worry about the bill. It’s taken care of.” Her young voice was so sweet and kind.
Gage looked at me, and I suddenly craved a cheeseburger. Or pizza. Chili dogs. Oh God, I wanted junk food. It was all I could think about.
“Chili dogs,” I blurted out. “And fries.”
Gage looked up at the nurse. “Is that okay for someone in her condition?” he asked.
“If her system is used to it, her body will take what it needs and process the rest just like normal.” She turned to me. “Do you eat chili dogs often?”
“Often enough that it’s the first thing I wanted after I don’t know how long I’ve been out,” I said clearly.
“Chili dogs and fries,” Gage agreed, laughing. “I can’t think of anything better to celebrate with,” he added.
“Okay, chili dogs and fries for all. I’ll get something for you to drink to help rehydrate you as well,” the nurse told me before leaving the room.
“What happened?” I asked Gage again. “I remember Dimitri putting a knife to my throat and waking up on the boat. Then, I remember him trying to get inside my head before you and the guys arrived. The last thing I remember is sitting above deck and watching you guys drag up Ivan and another guy, still alive. I remember being impressed that you didn’t kill them.”
“You’ve pretty much got the highlights, I guess,” Gage told me. I could tell he really wasn’t interested in telling me the rest. “I don’t know what all happened in the boat, but the last thing that happened was when Dimitri kicked you over into the water. I shot him in the leg and jumped in after you.”
I remembered the weights on my chair. “No!” My voice cracked as I realized how close I came to losing my life. “Dimitri warned me that I was going to end up like Lisa, and I almost did.”
Gage squeezed my hand. “Listen, Julia, there is a lot that I need to tell you. I’ve tried to protect you from my life by keeping quiet and holding back, but after what happened and what nearly happened on Ivan’s yacht, I see that keeping the truth from you isn’t going to protect you at all.”
“Not now, Gage,” I told him, placing a finger on his lips to shush him.
“No, I need to tell you this first thing now.” He took a deep breath. “What happened to Lisa was my fault, and I have blamed myself for it ever since it happened. The reason I hid things from you and lied to you about Dimitri was so I could keep the same thing from happening to you, and that’s exactly why it almost happened.”
“What actually happened to Lisa?”
“We were tangling with a street gang. These guys were ruthless and violent. They did not give a fuck about anything. Anyway, I was facing off with their leader, and he had a gun to Lisa’s head. He shot her. I shot him. And we ran as their bodies fell to the ground. The rest of the gang opened fire behind us, but they were poorly disciplined street thugs. They couldn’t hit a stationary target at point blank range. After that, they fell apart. They crumbled and disappeared because no one stepped in to fill their leader’s spot. So, we won that fight, but at what cost, you know?”
“I’m sorry, Gage.” I ran a hand over his smooth cheek. “I’m sorry that happened to you, and I’m sorry I believed Dimitri when he told me you had actually killed her to get away in the commotion.”
“Dimitri doesn’t know everything about me,” he said. “He knows my reputation, and that reputation has served me well on the street. Maybe not in the bedroom, but that’s why I’m telling you the truth. You need to know that it’s okay to let people like Dimitri say horrible things about me. You don’t have to believe them, though.”
I blinked, and it lasted a little longer than it should have. I felt myself trying to go back to sleep. I shook my head and forced my eyes back open.
“You don’t have to be awake,” Gage said. “If you feel like you need to sleep, let yourself go to sleep, baby. I’ll still be here when you wake up.”
I hugged him again, pulling him into the bed with me. I wrapped his arms around me and snuggled up against his bare muscular skin. I didn’t know how long I’d been out, but I knew I missed having his body next to mine.
“No more talking,” I told him. “Just hold me. If I fall asleep, wake me up when the chili dogs get here.” I snickered like a school kid. I couldn’t believe that my first meal was going to be chili dogs. That couldn’t have been the best choice, but no one told me not to.
Over the next few days, I realized what I had missed out on while I was out for almost five days. I saw the gifts that had been left by the members of the MC. I learned that Ivan, Dimitri, and another guy were in prison because of what happened on the boat. I called up to the university and told them all that had happened. They were amazed to hear that my research had taken me aboard the yacht that had been on the news and that I was going to be working on a study of the effects of the collapse of the Soviet Union on the Russian underground. I was hooked, I told them. It was a dirty, seedy world, and I wanted to see it. The dean over history and the president of the university both agreed with me that it was a project that needed to be done.
I got stronger as the days passed. The nurse stopped coming by when I was able to get out of the bed and walk around on my own. Soon, life started to get back to normal. After about a week of getting up and walking around, fixing my own food, bathing myself, and doing all the normal daily things I hadn’t been able to do during those first few days, Gage came home from Kings of Hell HQ one day with news.
“Baby, let’s fire up the grill. We’ve got company coming over tonight,” he said as he walked into the kitchen with a bottle of champagne.
“Who are we having over?” I was already in the middle of chopping up vegetables for a salad. I had no idea when he was coming home, so I was planning on eating alone in front of Netflix on the TV.
“Chase, Juarez, and Ricky want to stop by for dinner tonight.”
“Babe,” I started to protest. I wasn’t ready to get mixed in with the Kings of Hell again, not yet. Maybe not ever.
“No, no, listen, these guys are family, baby, and I’ve promised to be completely open with you. If I’m going to completely open myself to you, I need you to accept my family. The Kings are my family. It’s the only family I’ve got.” He stepped up to me and slid an arm around my waist. He pulled me against him, and my body melted into his.
“Besides, they said that since I won’t bring you by HQ, they’re going to come by here.” His voice dripped with honey, thick and sweet. He kissed me, and my body screamed his name in my ear. Every inch of my lit up when our lips met.
He pulled back from the kiss and gave me his award-winning smile.
“Okay, I’ll go fire up the grill,” I told him. “But don’t touch my lettuce, or the next thing that knife is chopping is you.”
I fired up the grill for him, and he threw some thick, juicy steaks on w
hile I prepared vegetables to be grilled. The guys showed up, and we had an amazing night drinking red wine, eating the delicious dinner we created together, and spending time with family. By the time the guys left for the night, I felt like he was right.
The Kings were family, and despite the work they did, the business they handled, they were good people for the most part. Gage’s three closest brothers were definitely good and genuine.
“I’d say tonight was a success,” Gage said as he came up behind me on the balcony after seeing them to the door. I was finishing clearing off the table and the grill. He put his arms around my waist and pulled me back to him, burying his face in my hair. He took a deep breath through his nose, breathing me in.
“Put those down,” he told me. “We’ll get the dishes later.”
I did as he requested, and one of his hands immediately reached up my shirt, cupping my breast while the other hand undid the front of my jeans, sliding gently down between my legs.
I shuddered and gasped. It had been entirely too long since he’d touched me. I tried to grab his arms, but I leaned forward as he spread me open with his fingers. I planted my hands on the table while he pressed the hardening shaft in his jeans against me and slid a thick finger inside me, running between my wet lips and into my opening.
I gasped. “Out here?”
“Why not?” he growled behind me.
You can have me wherever, I wanted to tell him, but I couldn’t make the words come out.
He squeezed my breast in the cup of my bra before moving his hand and sliding it underneath. He wrapped his fingers around the delicate skin and rubbed my nipple. He slid his wet finger up in front of my slit and found the ridge there. He started running it side to side across my clitoris, and my knees almost buckled from the intense wave of pleasure that rushed through me.
“Let me have you,” I told him. “I want you inside me, Gage. Fuck me…and…don’t stop.” Talking started getting difficult as each time he flicked my clit, it stole my breath away. My body jerked uncontrollably as he brought me to orgasm that fast. I felt my pleasure and desire combining to flood the delicate folds of skin between my legs.
I leaned further forward and felt his hands grab my jeans. He pulled them down, exposing me to him from behind. Then, I felt his head brush lightly against my lips.
“Please, Gage,” I begged him. “I need you inside me.” I did need him. My body wanted him to enter me so badly I could feel the ache in my bones.
He grabbed my hips and pulled me gently back against him, sliding himself into me slowly, deeply, penetrating every inch of me with his solid, massive manhood.
“You want me to fuck you out here, baby?” he asked.
“I don’t care where you take me, babe, just take me. I’m yours.” I pushed myself against him, driving him into me and driving home what I’d just told him. I was his. I didn’t belong to anyone else.
He filled me perfectly, and I could feel my muscles tightening around his shaft, fitting themselves to him as I slid back and forth along his length. I rolled my hips so that every time he pushed in, the ridge under his shaft ran across my g-spot.
As he plunged deep into me, Dimitri’s words came back to haunt me, taunting me with his idea of exploring my body and teaching me what we could really do.
“I want you to explore me,” I told Gage. “I want you to know every inch of my body.”
I felt him harden even more inside of me. “Before we’re done, Julia,” he said, “I will own every inch of your body. It will be my property.”
It turned me on insanely when he talked like that, when he talked about me as his property. I wanted to belong to him. I shoved my ass against his hips and held it there.
He grabbed me and pulled me as he pushed deeper into me. I felt his shaft straining inside of me, and I knew it wouldn’t be long before I made my lover come for me.
He groaned as he pulled back and pushed into me again.
Then, he slid out and leaned over on top of me, running his shaft up the crack of my ass so I could feel his muscles jerk while he spilled himself on my back. All the while, he moaned in my ear.
The sound of his satisfaction was music to my ears. It finished me off right there, sending me back across the waves of ecstasy. It was a deeper ecstasy than before, though, because I wasn’t afraid anymore to let the emotions I felt mingle with the incredible physical pleasure he brought me.
Epilogue
It was a year after the day I woke up, and my life was so drastically different.
I sat behind my desk in my office at the university and sorted through reviews of my book The New Russian Underworld. It was the book inspired by the events that had occurred while I had worked with Dimitri for Gage. It included my experiences as well as analysis of news, police, and government reports on recent crime in Russia. It also included interviews with men who had worked for Ivan over the years.
A copy of the book sat on my desk, waiting for me to put it up on the bookshelf in my office. I put a hand on the cover, opened it, and just took a moment to flip through the pages. I did this a couple of times a day, just to remind myself that it was all real.
A knock came at my door, and I looked up to see my young teaching assistant, Kylie, standing in the doorway.
“Yes?”
“There’s a man here to see you, Dr. Danvers. Says his name is Mr. Danvers?” She cocked an eyebrow.
“There’s no Mist…” I started to protest, but I stopped and smiled. “Send him in, Kylie.”
Gage walked in with a bouquet of roses. He wore a black suit that hid all signs of his biker lifestyle.
“Whoa! What’s this?” I asked as I rose from my seat and walked around my desk to greet him and take my roses.
“Well, today is the anniversary of what I think of as my second chance with you,” he said. “I know it’s not a ring, but I figured you wouldn’t say no to roses.”
I smiled and took the roses to an empty vase on the side of my desk. I turned around and walked back to him, embracing my love.
“And look at you,” I said, leaning back to take in the view. “You look amazing! What’s the occasion?”
“I just wanted to try it out,” he said. “Oh, and I wanted to ask you out to dinner tonight.” A devious little smile spread across his face.
“You didn’t have to go through all of this just to ask me to dinner.” We ate together every night now, so it felt odd for him to go out of his way like this to make dinner something special.
I’d been trying to drop hints for a couple of months that I wanted him to buy me a ring and propose to me. I was ready for us to take our relationship to the next level. I’d never felt for anyone else what I felt for Gage. For so much of my life, I had taken pride in being able to stand on my own two feet. With Gage, I felt like I finally had a rock to stand on. And I felt like I could see so much farther from my new perch. I couldn’t imagine life without him anymore, but he always shied away from the topic. His little ring comment caught me off guard. At least he was hearing me.
“Well, I want to make tonight’s dinner special,” he said. “We never have special dinners. It’s always eating at home. We never go out, even though we can both afford it. We can do anything from fast food to the classiest restaurants in town. And tonight, I have reservations at an exclusive five-star hotel restaurant that you’re going to love.”
I narrowed my eyes. “What are you up to?” I asked.
He smirked.
“You know what? Don’t tell me. I don’t need to know. But, yes, I’ll go to dinner with you.”
“Excellent. I will pick you up at seven, here at the university,” he said. He leaned in and gave me a sweet little kiss on my cheek. “Bring your appetite.” His voice lingered, as if there was something else he wanted to say but thought better of it at the last moment.
“Anything else?” I asked.
He winked. “I might have a surprise planned for you. Then again, I might not.”
; He kissed me lightly on my lips.
“For now, I’ll let you get back to work,” he said, and with that, he turned and left my office, just like that. He was gone as quickly as he had come in.
I walked back around my desk and sat down, puzzled. He had a surprise for me? I wondered what kind of surprise he had for me and hoped it would turn out to be a ring.
Gage Noll had changed my life so much over the last year. He bought a house for us to move into together, and the Kings of Hell had helped me move my things into it. They even helped with the unpacking, especially the books.
He paid off my mother’s debts and had her moved to a state-of-the-art facility. He even took over payments so that I didn’t have to worry about her anymore. She was doing better with her new treatments. I didn’t feel guilty every time I visited her anymore. In fact, I visited her more often because we were both doing better.