by Nicole Fox
Maybe it was the way he'd stood up for me against this guy, protected me. Or, maybe it was the way he'd done it so efficiently. Or it was maybe even the way he'd called me his woman while he was doing it. Whatever the reason was, I just let him slump back down over me, his knuckles now bloody and bruised, the smell of fight-sweat filling my nose, exciting me.
And that was when I realized just how much I cared for this man.
“Gonna be able to ride?” Fed asked as we pushed out into the back parking lot, the bright light of day shining down on our faces like a flare. We blinked at the sudden brightness and looked around the lot, but it was more or less empty of people.
Koen righted himself, as if on cue. He put all his weight on both feet like nothing had happened, and his eyes somehow refocused like he hadn't had any beer that day. “I'm fine,” he assured his buddy. “Meet you at the crib later?”
“Absolutely, man,” Fed said with a nod.
It was actually kind of astonishing, to be honest. This whole time he'd just been playing opossum, letting Happy look like the complete victor. I should've known something was up with the way he moved on that guy, but he'd slipped back into character so fast I thought it had just been his instincts kicking in for a moment.
Together, we walked over to his bike. “You sure you're okay?” I asked. “We can call a cab, you know.”
“Am I okay?” he asked, then laughed and spit some blood off to the side. “Nothing but a flesh wound. Happy went easy on me, like we planned. He was damn good in there though, wasn't he?” he said with a hint of admiration in his voice as he climbed on his bike.
“He was good?” I asked, laughing as I climbed up behind him. “You deserve a damn Emmy.”
“Was thinking more Oscar,” Koen said. “But, I guess everyone's a critic these days.”
He kicked the bike alive, and its engine rumbled and vibrated its way through my body. We tore off, out of the parking lot, and headed for chez Koen's.
The ride was short and uneventful. No one had followed us, no one was waiting for us. It seemed that Koen's exit had been performed well enough, and Happy was keeping everyone in line.
We headed inside from the garage and he slumped back into one his customary chair at the dining room table. I slapped a bag of frozen peas I'd grabbed from the freezer down in front of him, along with a beer for the pain.
“Thanks,” he mumbled.
“Welcome,” I said and slumped down with my own beer next to him. “Well, looks like we're in it, now.”
“Yep,” he agreed, closing his eyes.
We stayed like that for a while, just quiet. After the ruckus of the day, and all the pounding music and beer-drunk bikers, the silence was nice. Nice enough to the point that neither of us wanted to be the one responsible for breaking it.
A short while later, a yellow cab pulled up in front of the house. Soon after, Benji was knocking at the front door.
“Hey girl,” she squeaked as I let her in and led her to the dining room. “Koen doing okay?”
I gave a snort of laughter. “Oh, he's doing fine,” I said. “He was just putting on a show for all of us, apparently.”
“Thought we weren't supposed to contact each other for a while?” Koen asked as we entered the dining room.
“I know, I know. But, there's been a change of plans, or situation, I guess. Happy heard that some of the Thunder Riders are taking over security for Aleksey when he comes into town, something about him wanting to keep his hands clean.”
Shit.
I'd figured there'd be security when we met him, but just one or two guys. Not a whole gang of ornery, unemployed bikers who were gunning for Koen. This could upset my plans, maybe, make it more difficult for me to make my move on Aleksey.
“Security, huh?” Koen asked, taking a drink off his beer. He and I exchanged a glance. “Thanks. That's good to know.”
“What're they doing that for anyways?” Benji asked. “I mean, they're just bikers like you guys, right? They ain't security or nothing.”
“Nah,” Koen agreed. “But, I might've informed on them a little while ago. Most of their upper officers are sitting in Orleans Parish Prison right now because of me.” He grinned and set his empty beer down.
“We should probably let Claire know about the change,” I said.
“Yeah,” Koen agreed with a groan, shifting the bag of nearly thawed peas on his head. “Lemme grab another ice pack, and I'll give her a call.”
He heaved himself up from the dining room table and stalked into the kitchen, bag of half-frozen vegetables dangling from one hand and an empty beer bottle from the other. “You doing alright?” Benji asked, raising an eyebrow at me.
“Fine,” I said. “Why wouldn't I be?”
“Well, Fed told me you were going to the meeting with Koen, and that it was your idea.”
“Yeah,” I said carefully, suddenly very aware of where my eyes were and what my hands were doing.
“Why?” she asked simply, her voice low enough that Koen wouldn't hear in the kitchen while he was on the phone with Agent McKesson. “And don't fucking lie to me, girl.”
I sighed. I didn't want to tell her the truth. She'd pitch a fit louder than the whole biker rally earlier today. But, I couldn't outright lie to her, either. Benji knew me too damned well for that to fly. “Look,” I finally said. “I just want to look that fucker in the eyes. Just once, okay?”
Benji watched me carefully as I spoke, her unflinching gaze taking everything in.
I nearly held my breath as she scanned my face for any sign of a fib.
Finally, she nodded, accepting my answer as honest. “Sorry I doubted you,” she said. “I just, after all this shit that's been going on, I want you to be done with all this shit. You and Koen seem like you could be happy together, you know? You make a cute couple, at least.”
She was right. We could be. And we did. I hated to admit it, especially with what I was going to do with him. I smiled a little, trying to mask the pain I was feeling, and turned away from her. “Alright,” I said, waving her off. “Tell me what's going on with you since I haven't been around as much.”
We spent the next few minutes just chatting about how her life had changed, how much she was enjoying working at Club Hellfire. Happy had given her the day off for the rally, even though he shouldn't have. But, he knew they might need a go-between no one would suspect.
But, overall, Benji liked her new life. She was even thriving for the first time in all these years. Which was a damned good thing. I was happy for her, that she could move on from our shit past so easily. I wished with all my heart that I could, too, even though I knew it was impossible for someone like me who had gone through what I'd gone through.
Koen came back into the room a little while later, while we were in the middle of Benji talking about a cute biker she'd just met. Her eyes were lit up for the first time in years, and I hated to have to turn back to this shitty business.
“Alright,” Koen said as he turned his phone off. “Claire's dropping some files here in a little bit, pictures of all the surveillance they've got on the Thunder Riders. We can look them over and be able to spot them in a crowd.”
“Sounds good,” I said, nodding.
And, it was good news. Damn good, even. This way I'd know where the first bullet was coming from before I pulled the trigger on Aleksey.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Koen
The next several days passed in a blur of glossy photos and manila folders as Jace and I pored over the information Agent McKesson had dropped off for me the first night of the rally. Finally, though, we were almost there. One more night together for me and Jace, then we were off to our meeting in the afternoon.
I was a bundle of nerves. Both about the fact that I hadn't really left the house, even to ride my bike, in a few days. And also about the meeting itself, and the fact that I was bringing Jace along.
I slid into bed at the end of the night, nude and freshly showered,
pictures of Thunder Riders flashing in my mind. Rodeo, Sidewinder, Skip, Paul, Hash. All of them just a quick cross-section of the men who might be gunning for me tomorrow if things went tits up on arrival.
Then, there was Jace. Some of the questions she'd asked had gotten me thinking. I was worried she'd go for Aleksey again. Even in our few moments when we didn't have the dossiers in front of us, and I'd mention what the future would hold, she'd dance around the subject and try to change it.
It was like she wasn't planning for the day after tomorrow. Instead, she was entirely focused on our meeting in the park like it was the last thing we'd do.
Of course, that might be true. But not to care about the future at all? Something just didn't seem right.
The cool sheets were a godsend, and they soothed me as I tried to close my eyes for just a moment. Maybe the darkness behind my eyelids would somehow wipe clear my mind of all those rival bikers glaring me down.
Jace crawled into bed a few minutes later, slid her long arms over my broad chest and curled up into me. I sighed at her touch, realizing just how much I'd come to crave it after such a short time. I wrapped my arm around her tiny waist and pulled her closer against my side. I needed the feel of her skin on mine.
“What're you thinking about?” she whispered in the dark, her words like a soft breeze.
“Tomorrow. What else is there to think about?”
“Not much, I guess,” she said.
I took a breath. “I don't think you should come tomorrow.”
She didn't respond at first, but I felt her try to pull away, to try and avoid the argument. I kept my arm firm, though, and didn't give an inch. She didn't struggle, though, just settled into it.
“I understand how you feel,” she said, her words carefully measured, “but I need to be there. Benji is with the club and wouldn't be able to help, anyway, and Fed is working with Claire and the others. You told him you'd be bringing someone else, and I'm the only one that works to keep the plan going.”
I knew she was right, but I still couldn't shake that feeling that she was going to try something. She was too invested in this meeting and wouldn't take no for an answer, or accept any other reason. I turned a little on my side. Now that my eyes had adjusted to the darkness, I could see make out the shadowy silhouette of her body. The rise of her hip beneath the sheets, the way it covered up past her waist and her smallish breasts. I reached up, touched her face, her skin so smooth beneath my hands she could have been fashioned from silk.
“I know you're worried,” she said, “but things will be okay.”
“There's going to be children there, Jace. Families, innocents. Kids not much younger than Tomlin. People could get hurt, babe, if someone does something stupid. And that includes you and me.”
The room was so quiet I could hear her lick her lips as she nodded. “I know. I know it'll be dangerous, no matter how things turn out.”
“I'm just worried about you,” I said, my words trailing off.
“What?” she asked, her words soft and light. “You can tell me.”
I felt like I had to say it. I needed to tell her how I felt. Maybe that would shake her out of any stupid plans she had. She might reconsider if she knew the whole truth, everything that I was holding inside of me.
“I . . . I love you, Jace. And I'll love you till the stars burn out, and the world is nothing but darkness.”
She didn't say anything, but I saw her smile genuinely, her perfect teeth a slash of white in the darkness. She trailed her hand down my chest, and I felt her wrap around my soft cock as she leaned forward to kiss me.
Her lips were like rose petals as they brushed over mine, and I heard myself groan as she began to stroke me.
“This might be our last night together,” she whispered.
“Don't say that,” I said. Despite the yelling Fed had done a week or so earlier, and the changes in the plan, and the increased security, and my concerns about Jace, I was still pretty confident that we'd be able to take down Aleksey. I didn't want to think about not seeing her again after tomorrow, didn't want to think about working towards this future we said we wanted to build together.
“But, still,” she said, kissing me again between words, her hand still soft and sure on my stiffening manhood, “we never know what the future will hold.”
I closed my eyes, my mind focused on her hand and what it was doing beneath the sheets. My hips began to move against my will as her thumb circled the head of my cock, sending tremors through my body.
She bit my lower lip. “Do you love me for what I do?” she asked, her hand moving faster now. “Or who I am?”
“Oh God,” I groaned, my eyes rolling back in my head as she continued to circle the crown, the pleasure seeming to turn my body to Jell-O. “Both,” I said, my breath coming shorter as I leaned into kiss her, as my hands roamed over her body. “And because you belong to me.”
“I'm your woman, Koen Baldwin,” she whispered in a throaty voice as my hands brushed over her nipples, as my lips found her neck. “I belong to you, just like I said I did.”
Despite all my confidence in the plan, the idea that this actually might be our last night together filled my mind. I didn't want it to just be a stroke beneath the covers, then for me to get on top of her and pump till I was done. I needed to have her be my everything, to fill my world so big and bright that her mere presence pushed the darkness of my worries away.
Anything less, and I knew I'd somehow regret it.
I began to slide down her body, my cock coming out of her grasp as my lips trailed down her form. Over her neck, her collar bone, brushing over her sensitive, perfect breasts.
The covers slid off of us both as I moved down, bunching up around my waist. She arched into my mouth, moaning as I passed over her stomach, her groans filling my ears as my hot breath finally found her sex.
This wasn't just love, I realized. I needed her like I needed water or air.
# # #
Jace
Koen's breath felt hot on the inside of my thighs as he pushed them farther apart. A big hand covered my breast, teasing my nipple as he his tongue found the spot just above my clit, just where I liked it, and began to pleasure me.
All the worries I'd had about not being able to tell him I loved him too had been pushed from my mind the moment I'd kissed him. Even though I knew what I had to do tomorrow, I still wanted to be with him. Every fiber of my being knew it, from my body to my soul.
And that was what mattered right now. The intention.
Pleasure continued to flood my body as I writhed on the sheets beneath his touch. I reached down, grabbed the back of his head, grasped him tightly and urged him deeper and faster. My hips ground themselves into that perfect tongue and mouth of his, one leg coming up and draping itself over his shoulder so I could pull him close like I'd never let him go.
I was already so close. Maybe it was how desperate this all felt, like we'd never see each other again. Whatever it was, I was already wordlessly moaning out to Koen, goading him on as I already started to approach my first orgasm.
He locked his lips around my clit and gently sucked as he slid two fingers inside me, found my special spot. My eyes flew wide and my hips bucked as I felt a supernova pleasure shred my body, my body trembling and shaking as I rose up off the bed, nearly screaming. I gripped him more tightly, my whole body shuddering as he continued working on me, continued sending me into the stratosphere.
“Oh baby, oh fuck,” I groaned, one hand flying over the back of his head, the other gripping at the sheets desperately.
I glanced down, still in the throes of pleasure, and I could see that wicked gleam in his eyes. He knew exactly what he was doing when it came to pleasuring me, and he loved to do it, loved to break down my defenses and make me melt into a puddle.
“Oh, shit,” I groaned again, another orgasm ripping through me like a bullet, “oh fuck, Koen. P-please stop, I can't handle any more.”
He pulled his lips
back from my pussy, giving me one last lick right across my clit before he did.
It felt like a jolt of electricity shot through my body, and I bucked my hips one more time as he got up from between my thighs. I reached out for him, to pull him up to me.
He brushed my hands aside and grabbed me by the hips. “I want you from behind,” he growled. “Now.”
I nodded. “Yes, sir,” I said quickly, that submissive part of me that seemed to exist only for him kicking in. I let him flip me over, then I climbed to my knees.
He got up behind me, his hands tight on my hips.
I felt his cock at my slick entrance, tracing up and down my begging lips. I reached under me and back between my legs. I slid my hand over my smooth sex, felt his hard and ready cock. God, I wanted him so badly, and I was wet enough to more than prove it. I parted my lips with two fingers, inviting him in.