Fractured & Formidable: The Sacred Hearts MC Book V

by Downey, A. J.

  “Sugar, you ain’t got a damn thing to worry about. I love you, and I don’t want anybody else but you. Sure it may be fun to look at but the only body I want moving under mine is yours.” Tension smoothed out of her posture and I reached down and shut off the shower.

  “Sometimes I’m afraid I’m not quite… adequate. That my inexperience can be a turn off or…” I laughed outright I couldn’t help it.

  “Baby, I’m one seriously possessive prick underneath it all. You have no fucking idea just how hot I think it is that I’m your only one,” I sniffed and handed her a towel, rubbing myself down as we talked, mostly because if I touched her now we’d never make it to the bedroom. The hot shower had limbered me up some. My hands weren’t quite so stiff and my shoulders were a bit more relaxed. I had every intention of taking her one more time before bed, and figured since we were talking insecurities…

  “Ask you something?” I considered her carefully.

  “Anything,” she uttered as she wrapped herself in the towel I’d given her and stepped out of the tub.

  “I didn’t scare you back there, in the locker room, taking you hard like that, did I?” Her fall colored eyes roamed my face and her voice when it came was soft,

  “A little bit,” she murmured. I hung my head and heaved a sigh.

  “I just reminded myself that it was you though, and that you weren’t going to hurt me…” I looked up sharply.

  “Never,” I vowed, she smiled and it was just like Trigger had explained Ashton’s smile to me once, as if the sun had come out from behind the clouds. The grace and beauty of the smile my Red turned on me, warmed me all the way through.

  “Sometimes when we’re together I feel like you’re holding back,” she admitted gently.

  “Sometimes I do,” I confessed.

  “Don’t next time, okay?”

  “You sure you know what you’re asking?” I searched her face and she smiled and it was a little sad this time.

  “No, but I am sure that we can talk about it and I’m sure that if I ask you to slow down or go easy that you will.”

  “How did you get to be so pragmatic?” I asked. She laughed and gave this little endearing shrug that made me smile.

  “Come on,” she held out her hand to me and I took it.

  “I meant it when I said, we were doin’ it one more time tonight.”

  “You sure you didn’t get knocked in the head too hard? I mean I know the fight was in a high school, but ‘doin’ it’? Really? Who says that any-!” she shrieked and laughed as I picked her up over my shoulder, grinning. I swatted her on the ass and she yelped indignant as I flipped out the bathroom light and carried her across the hall in to my bedroom.

  “Zander put me down!” she cried and I laughed, tossing her gently into the center of the bed. She landed giggling and I lost the towel. Her giggle ended on a gasp as she looked at me, fully engorged and got up on her knees. She handed me her towel and I dropped it to the floor. No need for that anymore.

  I got up onto the bed and knelt across from her, kissing her, my hands cupping her face and sucked in a hard breath when her fingers tentatively wrapped around me, stroking. Shit that felt good!

  “Lie back?” she asked and it was shy, but not, at the same time. Like she was working up the nerve to try something and damn, I wasn’t about to deny my angel a damned thing so I did what she asked.

  In all the weeks we’d been together and with all the sex we’d had so far, there were still several things we hadn’t gotten around to. Her mouth on my cock being one of them. Seemed that she was in the mood to rectify that now. God it felt good. Her tongue gliding along the underside of my length, velvety soft, her mouth hot and slick and perfect. No, it felt amazing but I was just one of those guys, you know? Felt good but it didn’t really get me going, great foreplay but not once had I ever come from a woman’s mouth on my dick. Still, I lay back and let her do her thing until I was so damned worked up I couldn’t stand it anymore.

  “God Red, stop!” I cried arching off the bed a little. “I need you up here! Now,” I said before she could get any ideas that she’d screwed up or done something wrong. She crawled up my body and kissed all along the way and that heated my blood almost more than her sucking my dick.

  I groped at the bedside table for a condom but her warmth settling above me and her gentle voice, “Stop,” stilled my movements.

  “Just stop, not tonight,” she murmured and slipped me inside her and holy motherfucking Jesus! That felt good. She rode me gently, hands caressing my chest and stomach and it just came popping out of my mouth,

  “God, Sugar! If this is what I get, I need to get in to more fights!” her laugh was high and sweet, musical to the ear. I let my hands hold her hips and smoothed them up and over her silky skin to cup her breasts. Soon I was lifting my hips to meet her downward momentum, and our breaths were coming so ragged and uneven there was no more room for talking.

  She was so fucking beautiful and she worked me so damned good, so sweet and fucking innocent and for such a long time, building me up slowly until I couldn’t stand it anymore. I saw stars when I came, these white flashbulbs going off at the edges of my vision so bright, so white hot, and I was vaguely aware of her crying out in purest fucking pleasure, such a sweet clear sound… This was perfect. She was my perfect, and God damn it I loved her so.

  Chapter 20

  Mandy…

  About a week or so after the fight, just after the New Year celebration at the club, Everett stuck her head into Soul Fuel’s kitchen and asked me, “Do you know who was supposed to be here today?”

  “It’s Tuesday, so Grinder isn’t it?” Everett made a face.

  “He’s not here yet and I’m wondering if I should call Dray.” She looked thoughtful for a moment or two. I sighed and set down the piping bag full of French Silk icing. I’d been decorating one of my mom’s decadent chocolate cakes, a recipe I unabashedly stolen from her recipe book for the shop, and it was no surprise; we sold the cakes whole and by the slice almost faster than I could keep them in the refrigerated display case.

  I considered my childhood friend for a long minute and words need not be spoken for each of us to understand the other’s reluctance to call either of our men. Grinder may make us uncomfortable with his overly flirtatious nature and close proximity, but he wasn’t necessarily a bad guy. Involving Dray or Zander would make them upset with him, but not involving them may make them upset with us…

  “Give him like ten or fifteen more minutes?” I hazarded.

  Everett gave me a pained look, “He’s already an hour late. He was supposed to be here when we got here… Hell, before we got here.”

  I bit my lower lip, “What if something happened to him?” I asked and Everett came more fully in to the kitchen. Lexie having it handled out front as far as I could tell.

  “That was what I was thinking,” my friend admitted and her phone appeared out of her apron pocket. She dialed and put it on speaker, sliding it onto the counter between us. It went without saying that if we were delivering bad or worrisome news that we would do it together.

  “Baby what’s wrong?” Dray answered his phone by way of greeting.

  “We aren’t sure,” Everett hedged.

  “Grinder isn’t here, we’re hoping he overslept or that you’d heard from him?” I posed the last as a question and Everett and I looked at each other, each visibly holding our breath. Dray swore, low and vehement away from the phone.

  “No, haven’t heard shit. Is there someone there causing you problems?” he demanded.

  “No! No! Nothing like that,” Everett assured him, “We were just worried about him is all, it’s not like any of the guys to just not show up. At first we thought he was just running a bit late but, um, it’s been like an hour, hour and a half…” she trailed off.

  “Dray we really don’t want him to be in trouble,” I said softly.

  He scoffed, “Grinder may be a pain in the ass sometimes but he’s a reli
able stand up dude. Look, call Rev, have him come in if he can, or find someone else who can. I need to touch base with Trig and Dragon. I’ll talk to you later,” and he hung up. No goodbye, just silence through the phone and the screen flashing, noting the call had been disconnected.

  Everett and I looked at each other, she tapped across her phone’s screen and Zander answered on the second ring, obviously winded and his music blaring in the background.

  “Just a sec.” He huffed into the phone. The music stopped.

  “Everett what’s up, my Red okay?” he asked and I smiled, blushing faintly.

  “I’m fine, but Grinder didn’t show this morning, Dray asked us to call you and see if you could come baby sit, and if you couldn’t, to see if you could find someone who could.”

  Zander blazed out a gusty sigh and was silent for a heartbeat then two.

  “Shop busy?”

  “Very,” Everett stated dryly and she and I exchanged a look of pride.

  “Good, if it’s busy and one of those cockbites is around, they’ll think twice before causing trouble in front of a bunch of witnesses. If it drops off and I’m not there, call me. I’m going to finish this set, grab a shower and I’ll be on my way.”

  Noises of agreement were exchanged and like Dray he hung up without saying goodbye, which oddly, made me smile. Mostly because I knew that meant he was driven, focused on getting through his weight lifting and out of the shower so that he could get down here. I looked a little forlornly at my cake. Everett rolled her eyes but she was smiling.

  “Better hurry up and finish getting that thing decorated. You’re going to be all but useless when Rev shows up.” I smacked her in the chest lightly with my dishtowel that was over my shoulder.

  “Oh like you can get anything accomplished with Dray here! Last time he was in the shop you were all but dry humping in the office.” I stuck my tongue out at her. Evy scoffed and with a wicked gleam in her eye, deposited her phone in the pocket of her apron.

  “Had a skirt on and I can tell you, there wasn’t anything dry about it.”

  “Everett Mary Moran!” I screeched and she pushed out of the kitchen door laughing her head off at me. I stood there red as a beet and prayed that she was just trying to get my goat and she hadn’t really had sex in our office, which was at least, thankfully, well away from any foodstuffs.

  I finished placing the line of frilly decorating around the top and bottom of the cake and with a sly smile, brought out the thin but solid chocolate ivy leaves arranging them artfully on the top. I picked up the piping bag with its liner tip and piped out vines in a dark chocolate fudge icing, adding thin curls of chocolate as the vine’s little curling offshoots near the leaves. A fine dusting of some silver leaf on the leaves to give them the appearance of frost and the cake was perfection. I brought it out front and was sliding it into the refrigerated case when movement on the opposite side of the glass caught my attention.

  I looked up smiling at whatever potential customer was standing there but the smile softened and turned to something much more intimate when I met Zander’s devilish grin, warmth and love radiating from his chocolate caramel eyes.

  “Hey Sugar,” he murmured, and I could see that he was touched by the decorating job on the cake which had most definitely been inspired by him.

  “Hi, come on back if you’d like,” I invited.

  “Sounds good.”

  He followed me back in to my kitchen and no sooner had the door shut behind us, closing out the front of the shop, he was pulling me back into his arms. He tucked his nose behind my ear standing on his toes to do it and breathed in deeply.

  “God you smell so fucking good,” he growled.

  “I missed you too,” I said softly with an edge of laughter. We’d just been together the night before, although I had left his house in favor of going back to Evy and Dray’s, so that I could be up, showered, and have all of my things at my disposal to get ready for my work week on Tuesday.

  “I should let you work, huh?” He pressed a reverent kiss to the skin behind my ear in that way that always made me shiver. I felt his lips curve into a smile before he pulled away, going flat on his feet, his arms reluctantly sliding from my waist as he let me go.

  “Might be a good idea,” I conceded. “Still have to make a living.” I turned and smiled at him.

  “So what’cha making today?” he asked, slipping up onto the vacant stool.

  “Just finished a cake, the baked goods case is looking a little barren so I was about to start in on some cupcakes, then I’ll get to work finishing up some truffles…” we chatted amicably about chocolate and I loved that Zander not only listened to me but was genuinely interested. He sat at the counter and asked questions as I moved about the kitchen and plied my craft, a smile cementing itself to my lips. I felt warm and safe and happy and I really liked that Zander expressed interest; that he cared about not just me, but what I did, what made me happy.

  Eventually there was a comfortable lull in the conversation, and he picked up a mostly empty backpack that he had stowed near his feet. I didn’t even know he’d had it with him. I worked diligently, folding the vanilla batter in my industrial mixing bowl as I prepared to transfer it into my batter dispenser for nice, neat, even pours into my cupcake liners, all the while paying attention to what he was doing, curious.

  “Thought if things got quiet I would draw a little while you worked. Get some work done of my own,” he commented, withdrawing a box of paper and a kit of art pencils from the bag. He laid out a clean sheet of white paper onto the countertop and opened up the pencil kit which held an array of drawing, shading and colored pencils of some very high quality.

  “I love to watch you draw,” I confessed and he grinned at me.

  “Yeah?” he asked, then voice pitched lower, “Need to draw on you again?” I blushed and he laughed.

  “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  I moved about my kitchen and poured about five baker’s dozen cupcakes, sliding them neatly into the industrial ovens and setting the timer for them. I sighed and washed up my bowls, measuring cups and spoons and the batter dispenser in the industrial sink before setting to work on the chocolate icing.

  I was just pulling the cakes out of the oven and Zander was just starting to add detail to his drawing, when Trigger poked his big blonde head into the kitchen.

  “Figured you were in here,” he grunted and pushed his way in, Dray followed and was scowling, his look as dark as the rest of him, eyes snapping with impatience.

  “The fuck Rev? You’re supposed to be looking out for my girls,” Dray griped.

  “He is, Dray.” Everett said from behind him, “The kitchen is the best place for the guys on watch, out of sight of the straight-laced customers, out of mind… Just because we love you and understand, doesn’t mean the rest of the world doesn’t judge and it’s the best you’re going to get. Mandy and I need to make this shop work.”

  My best friend crossed her arms and I sighed, taking the last of the cakes out of the oven to cool. She and Dray didn’t disagree often but when they did… oh boy. I wiped my hands on my apron from where they were slightly damp from sweating inside the oven mitts.

  “Our business, our rules,” I said firmly and Dray and Evy both looked at me surprised. I didn’t put my foot down often, but when I did, Dray generally backed off and respected my wish on the matter. Likely because I asked for so very little. Trigger and Zander watched the entire exchange with amused smiles and glints in their eyes.

  “Whatever, we’ll talk about it later back at the house,” Dray grumbled and Everett and I smiled because generally that meant we’d won our way. Not always, but generally.

  “What’s up VP? Partner?” Zander asked leaning back on his stool, pencil forgotten on the counter besides his drawing and in danger of falling onto the floor.

  “Got someplace private we can talk?” Trigger looked from me to Ev apologetically, “Club business.”

  Everett snorted and
I gave her a sharp look. She was irritated easily by secrets, which after Jerry, didn’t surprise me. Still, I was well aware there were certain things we simply should not know for our own safety and wellbeing.

  I gestured to the office, “A bit cramped but Shelly’s not in today, she does most of her work from home now. Feel free. Can’t hear a thing when the door is shut.”

  “Thanks Red,” Trigger said softly and the three leather and denim clad men ducked into the back office shutting the door behind them. Everett gave me a dirty look.

  “Go wash your face!” I exclaimed and made a shooing motion with my hands, which made her smile and shake her head.

  “It’s not like I would ever say anything.” She rolled her eyes.

  “I know, but did you ever stop to think that Dray isn’t so much worried about that, as he is about you going through the stress of potentially being grilled? Sometimes it really is best if you don’t know, then when you’re asked you won’t be lying.”

  Everett sighed, “Scares me too sometimes,” she confessed, “The idea of him possibly going to jail, to prison, all because he was trying to protect one of us, stop us from getting hurt before it happened.” She scrubbed her face with her hands and gave me a look, one that I shared, bleak and frightened.

  The police couldn’t do anything until an actual crime was committed, so there wasn’t really any help there. I nodded solemnly and Everett and I shared a quick hug before she went back out front to rescue Lexie from having to wash windows. It was the slow time of day.

  The three men didn’t stay in the office for very long. Fifteen minutes to a half an hour. When they emerged, their faces were carefully schooled into lines of neutrality which told me that whatever it was, it wasn’t good.