WIFE FOR A PRICE

by Kathryn Thomas

Just as I suspected, the parking lot for the Sunset is already packed with bikes with our patches along with a few stragglers and riders from other clubs. The noise of the jukebox playing old Johnny Cash songs, along with the voices of men shouting wildly, fills the late night air. The bar seems to be electric tonight, as if it knows it’s about to be the center of my universe.

  I walk in quickly, taking the backdoor and doing my best not to be spotted. I head straight toward the end room where the door is closed tight. We used to use that room for meetings years ago when the club was just about thirty or forty of us. It wasn’t until after the recession hit, when men started to get desperate enough to ride with patch holders, that the Bloody Pagans burst at its seams. The room back at the Sunset was still Pagan property; it was to be used for smaller meetings or retirement parties. But tonight, the doors are locked up tight, and from the crack in the door, it looked like there wasn’t even a light on inside.

  I head out towards the front of the bar where my men are already gathered around, waiting for me to buy the first round. A loud shout goes out as Thad spots me. “Our man, the buyer of beers!” he screams joyously. I nod an acknowledgement at him before heading to the bar.

  The old and gray bartender, Silva, is already prepared: he has seven large pitchers and a row of whiskey shots on trays. As soon as I give him a quick click of my head, he brings them to the five or six tables our men are occupying. He’ll keep them coming the rest of the night until I say stop, which could mean hell for my wallet. But tonight, it’s worth them being distracted for as long as possible with free booze.

  “Drinks are on me, boys!” I yell, trying my hardest not to look suspicious. “I’ll be back soon. Gotta take care of some, uh, business. Save a shot for me in the meantime.” To my luck, no one is even paying attention to me. They’re all focused on getting the first few pours. The men are served by rank with the oldest runners getting first dibs while the newbies wait their turn with mouths wide open.

  While Silva isn’t looking, I walk over to the back of the bar and grab the key hanging from a hook under the swinging service door. No one seems to notice as I walk quickly back to the room, its key pocketed in my hand. That is, until someone in a black hoodie grabs me around by the arm.

  One look into her eyes, and I say hushed, “Vanessa Barber, what the fuck are you doing here?”

  CHAPTER 10 Before I can answer Gavin’s question, he has his large hand wrapped around my mouth and another arm against my hips. He drags me down to the room I told him to meet me at and unlocks it quickly. As he pushes me inside gently, he turns and looks back at the bar suspiciously, as if we’re being followed.

  Despite the darkness of the room, he finds me. A hand wraps around the back of my neck and pulls me in close to him. Though I can only make out the powerful shape of him, I can feel the enveloping warmth of his body just inches from mine. Suddenly, it feels like I can’t breathe.

  “Vanessa—” he starts.

  I cut him off, unafraid of what I need to say, “I had to see you. I’m sorry. I know this is dangerous, but I couldn’t not see you.”

  He whispers lowly, “You don’t know what you’re asking me to do, Vanessa. Your father and brother already have it out for me for some reason. This is just giving them more reason. Your brother jumped me at today’s meeting and then threatened to have me killed if he caught us. This is serious shit.”

  I want to fall apart as he explains. I should have known that what happened in the dining room wasn’t over. Nothing with my brother or my dad is ever over…not until they get complete and utter satisfaction. And for my sadistic dick of a brother, that meant Gavin Wren’s head on a platter.

  Gavin continues, “You know that your brother, maybe even your dad, are coming here tonight? I invited them as a peace offering.”

  “I…I…I didn’t know. Alice told me that you go out drinking with the rest of your guys. I didn’t think that would include them.” Fear is washing over me the deeper we get into this. When I arrived all cloaked and hooded with Alice hiding me at a corner booth, every bit of me was fired up and ready for whatever may come. And while I don’t regret doing this, I, too, am wondering if it’s going to be worth the risk.

  “I know you didn’t. But you can’t be that stupid anymore. You’re Barber’s daughter. We can’t keep doing this.” The tone of his voice sounds unsure, even disbelieving. He may be saying one thing, but I know another larger part is saying something else.

  “Doing what?” I ask as innocently as possible. I place a hand on his rock-hard chest, the lines of his muscular abs making an indent through the thin t-shirt. I run my fingertips up the line of his sternum towards his neck, my nails slightly pushing into his flesh as I make a ring around his neck and up towards his the line of his hair.

  “Vanessa…” He goes quiet as my other hand places itself low along his hips. A fingertip slips under the waist of his jeans and tugs slightly to pull him closer to me. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”

  My voice lowers, deep and thick. “I know what I am doing. I know what I want. And it’s you.”

  “I’m not going to be a gentleman or some fucking knight in shining armor.” His arm wraps around my hips and lifts strongly around my ass. My feet and legs go up and around his hips as he hoists me off of the ground. “You sure you want this?”

  I swallow hard as I answer, “Yes, Gavin.”

  Our lips meet first, both of us grasping for the other. His taste is sweet and sour, almost dry, but I love it even more because it’s him. No dream could make this kiss more real or precious to me. And as we dive in—head first—I can feel our bodies synch up. He pushes forward, and I move back, I’m still grasping onto him, holding on with all my might, but he never lets go, never adjusts his hold on me. We just remain locked, our lips and mouths doing all the work.

  Eventually, he moves farther into the room. He navigates it expertly—without even having to break or look up. I see his eyes blink open for a second, as he lifts a hand out to find the tall end of a wooden bar. Rocking me backwards, he lowers me down slowly onto the high tabletop so I am level with him.

  He stands back for a moment to admire me, and I watch as his chest caves in and out as if he can’t catch his breath. A hand reaches out and finds the zipper on my hoodie. It lowers slowly, revealing the tight, black tank top with the lace edge along the low-cut neckline. I shimmy out of the sweatshirt before making my intentions to him clear. Slowly, letting him see every centimeter of my skin, I inch the tank top up my torso, past my bare breasts, and above my head so that I am completely and totally exposed to him.

  He follows my lead, taking off of his shirt. And just how I imagined him in my dreams, the first thing I notice in the slight light of a shuttered window behind the bar is those tattoos. But they aren’t black and white, but a vibrant tapestry covering every inch of his skin from the sunrise on his lower abs to the Bloody Pagan’s crest upon his chest. I reach out and touch my hand to it, covering it up.

  Gavin is quick to grab my wrist and bring it to his mouth. He plants a small kiss on the sensitive skin and then another and another until his mouth and head begin to travel the length of my thin arms. When he reaches the curve between my arm and chest, I feel him inhale my scent, taking in the natural parts of me. The nuzzle of his scratchy face against my skin, so close to my breasts, sends me reeling.

  He only lingers a second before moving up to the base of my neck. Little, light kisses spin around me, as I cock my head back to give him even more of me. But he’s already lowering his head down the centerline of my body towards my chest. Before I can have a second thought about what we are about to do, he touches me where no one else has. Two strong, large hands push at the C-shape sides of my breasts. The mounds push together around his face as again I feel his breath suck in the smell and feel of me.

  With his head still in place, the hands begin to gently massage. The sensation is almost comforting or relaxing, as I lose all sense of myself. His fingers trav
el down towards my nipples as he goes, brushing over them as they alternate. When he gets to his pointer fingers, they curl around the bare tip and slightly pull. Immediately, my body responds by pushing towards him, begging him for more.

  He moves his hands to focus just on my nipples. One finger becomes two while he tweaks gently at the center of my pink nipples. They are already hard, but they become tiny mounds under his care, and I find myself wanting that gentle pain that comes from him touching me.

  While Gavin works at my chest, my hands have wandered towards his loose jeans. I place a hand inside his pocket to feel his hips against me. But by doing so, I brush up against his package. It’s thick and stiff, and I know from just a touch that it’s primed. My finger slithers up the base through the thin fabric, tentatively exploring what he has to work with.

  But it never ends. I can’t seem to find where it starts and finishes. So I do something I thought I never would. I grab at his belt, pulling him forward into me. He stops his work and looks down as I unhook his belt buckle. The button and zipper come undone easily so that his pants practically slide down his legs. Before I lose my confidence, I pull the fabric of his dark-colored boxers down as well so that his cock comes in full view.

  I haven’t seen many dicks in my life…I’ll admit that. But as a teenager, I couldn’t help but be a bit curious of what I was missing out on, so I would occasionally sneak on my brother’s computer to see a few of his saved “special” videos. The men in those movies had pretty average-sized penises…nothing to write home about.

  Gavin, however, was different. His physical size translated to a cock so long and meaty that I actually became a bit afraid. If we were going to do what I knew we were going to do, how was this going to work?

  In awe, I place a hand around the shaft, my hand circling him so that my small fingers don’t even touch one another. I move it slowly up the long shaft till I hit the already-damp tip.

  My eyes fly up to his darkened face. He stares down at me in shock, as if he can’t believe I’m doing what I am doing. I continue the motion, this time going back down as slowly as possible till he lets out a moan unlike any sound I’ve ever heard before.

  When I reach the bottom again, he places a hand on mine to stop me. “Like this,” he whispers. “Do it like this.” The master teaches me, as he guides my hand quickly up his member. At the top, he shows me how to just slightly circle around the head before cascading down again. He shows me again and again until he pulls away, letting me take over. I lean over to speed myself up, my head is just inches from his cock. In a moment of complete insanity, I give in and kiss at the small slit where I feel the moisture oozing out of him.

  As soon as my lips touch his skin, I feel him leaning backwards, taking it all in. This is what he wants and likes, but can I really give him this? I do it again, this time opening my mouth a bit wider so that about a centimeter or two of his cock is in. My tongue flickers against his skin, and again, I feel him lose control. I may be the virgin in this, but I have just as much power as he does!

  “Vanessa...,” he calls out softly, as I feel a hand run through my hair. It tangles into a ponytail for him to hold onto while I work my mouth over him. With slight pressure, he pushes my mouth even further onto his cock until I’ve practically taken half of him. I try to choke back the taste of him, but the farther I get, the more I like it. His skin isn’t metallic or dank, as I had imagined it to be, but it was earthy and even a bit meaty

  My hand remains at the base, still following the motion that he had taught me just minutes ago, but I replace the long stroke with my mouth instead. At the top, I use my tongue to do that little twist, and with each tiny circle of the tongue, he exhales loudly and forcefully.

  I love the sounds of his body, the rocking towards and away from me. But I especially love how he uses my hair to show me what he wants. A pull back and I’m to go up faster, a push down and I am to take even more of him in. It’s forceful, direct, and exactly what I need to build up some confidence. Eventually, I take over completely. I open my jaw as wide as I can go to take as much of him as possible, and I feel his cock press up against the roof of my mouth as I pull him in.

  He becomes more frantic as I speed up. His hands move to my shoulders for balance, and I lose track of his breath. I can smell and feel his sticky sweet sweat break through his skin as he’s overcome. Even his nails dig into me. And with a deep growl, he gives me a warning, “I’m going to come, Vanessa!” He pulls my hair back, springing me up and off his cock just seconds before his hands take over. He catches most the drip of his cum in his palm, but some of the lukewarm liquid manages to spray onto my bare chest and neck.

  I watch on, fascinated by it all. I have never seen a guy go to completion, even on the porn episodes I’ve watched. I just could never get that far. But I don’t feel disgusted or dirty being a voyeur with Gavin. In fact, I feel proud and damn sexy. I want it to be my turn to breathe deeply and release it all like that. I want that same wicked smile he has on face.

  I pull myself off the bar and grab the sweatshirt off of the floor to throw it on over my shoulders. I leave it open as I wrap my arms around his waist to kiss the line of tattoos that marks his spine. I whisper in complete satisfaction and joy, “I have to clean myself up. I’m just going to sneak out for a second. Okay?”

  He turns back towards me so that he spins within my arms. A cold hand zips up my sweatshirt and places the hood upon my head so that it covers my eyes. With a kiss to the top my head, he says softly, “Be careful. Don’t get yourself in trouble. And come right back here. We’ve got more to do.”

  I break free and move towards where the door is letting in a little bit of light from the crack at the very bottom. I slowly open it—just slightly—so that a sliver of the noisy, rowdy bar fills our private sanctuary. With no one around, I quickly walk out and over towards the bathrooms a few feet down. I quickly clean myself up in the sink with one eye fixed on the mirror in front of me in case someone popped into the bathroom and caught me. But I’m in the clear. I even have time to take out my lipstick and apply another coat before heading back out there.

  This time I don’t check before I walk out the door. And within about two feet from the bathroom’s darkened corner, two large hands come flying at me. They curl around my neck, choking the breath out of me. The pressure against my windpipe caves in around my skin, as one of my hands weakens as it tries to yank away the fingers.

  I hear the crystal clear voice of my dad drunkenly stammer, “Vanessa Barber! What the fuck are you doing here?” And as I look up at his dark eyes, full of hate and disgust, I know that there’s no chance in hell I’m going to make it back to Gavin alive.

  CHAPTER 11 “How in the world did I manage to raise such a fucking disobedient brat? Did I not hit you enough?” I can feel my father’s steamy breath against my face as he leans over me. The hand around my neck tightens, as I feel his stubbly beard brush against my face. “Did I not teach you to fear me?” he demands.

  I want to cry out. I want to fight back. I want to do something—anything. But I can just barely get my hands up around the large fingers holding me in place, to say nothing of making them move. My eyes flash up to his, as they beg him to have mercy on me. I don’t know much about my father, but I do know that there’s love deep down in that blackened pit of hatred.

  Somewhere.

  His wide nose curls and flares; I can tell he’s beginning to break. He has never been violent with me—ever. Not once. I was always his little princess, the little girl he would always love and cherish. As I go in and out of consciousness, my mind even flashes back to the man tossing me a softball as I swing at it from a distance with a red plastic whiffle bat. And then there’s the time he was too drunk to protest me painting his fingernails with my mom’s nail polish.

  Surely, he was seeing those memories, too, even while doing his best to choke the life out of me. Something softens within him. A finger lets up, and then another one. My feet that we
re previously dangling over the mustard-yellow bathroom tiles slowly fall back to the ground. And then there’s the final release, as he pushes me into the wall one last time before looking at me with complete and utter disgust.

  When he turns his back, his hands running over his forehead, I finally take in a long, deep breath. It’s jagged and painful, feeling like glass in my lungs. I take in a few more deep sucks, which lead to hard, gritty coughs. My mouth tastes like sand, and that combined with the echo of his hands around my throat makes swallowing an almost impossible task. As I feel the color come back to my face and the pins and needles disappear from my hands and wrists, I place my palms on my knees as I continue to grasp at the foul bathroom air.

  I only get a moment to relax before he comes back for more. This time, he grabs a hold of my hair in a rough ponytail and drags me to the ground. My hands instinctively cover my head as I cry out, “Daddy! Please! I’m sorry! Just don’t hurt me!”

  “You did this to yourself, Vanessa!” There’s a large thud as he kicks my arm out from under me and I slam down into the tile so that I am looking up at him. He kneels over me, his hands curled at his side. “What makes you think that you could get away with disobeying my orders? You think you’re better than us because you’re in a fancy school? You think you can just sneak out of the house I pay for like a little whore just asking for it? I won’t have it!”