by Nicole Snow
His cock lit me on fire, searing every nerve. His seed would extinguish it, but only after we'd both been wracked with so much pleasure we were spent.
Completely, unquestionably exhausted.
“Love this beautiful fucking pussy. Love fucking it. Love owning it,” he said, his voice a harsh whisper, growling through his pleasure. “Fuckin' love you.”
That last part set me off all over again. My body milked a few last bursts of pleasure from his cock before I collapsed, wondering if we'd left scorched holes in the fancy silk sheets.
IX: Where There's Smoke (Firefly)
“You gotta be shittin' me. It's raining again?” I climbed out of bed, walking over to the huge French doors leading to the balcony. Took a couple seconds for my legs to limber up after fucking all night. “Day fuckin' ten. Where does the time go?”
“I'll give you three good guesses,” Cora said, sauntering up behind me and placing her soft, sweet hands on my shoulders. Woman rubbed them like a masseuse, using my body to shield her from the chill air.
It had turned damned cold with the rain blowing in from the Smokies the past three days – or was it four?
Hell, we'd both lost track of time, being cooped up here for a solid week. Easy to ignore everything when I'd spent every damned day inside her.
“Gonna have to make a run to town for food soon. We've chewed our way through all the shit here that I know how to pronounce, much less make.” I looked at her and smiled.
She hugged my waist, running her hands over my abs, teasing my cock hard again. “I'd like to come with,” she whispered.
Turning around, I pulled her hands off me, and shot her the look that said bodyguard, not just lover. “No. Rules are rules, Cora. You're staying put, whatever the fuck I do. I really oughta call the prospects to look in on you if I ain't around, but the club's been so damned short handed...”
My brow furrowed. Couldn't even hide it. The constant danger hanging over us was beginning to sting my ass like a swarm of hornets.
At first, it was easy just to settle, to ignore the bullshit. Bringing her off like a goddamned bull in rut every night helped.
A man didn't have to worry when he had the best pussy of his life throttling his dick. All the hell wilted when I threw her legs over my shoulders and slid the fuck into her, making her feel every smack of my balls on her ass.
But every second I wasn't in Cora, wedged between her legs as she thrashed all over my cock, I couldn't stop thinking about the mission.
The Atlanta Torches were coming. Sooner or later, some rat from the Heel would tell them I'd married the chick they were looking for. They'd sweep into Tennessee anytime now.
Searching. Coming for my girl. Coming to raise hell and kick my club's balls off.
Blood? Guaranteed. Shit, mine boiled with the certainty.
“I'm calling Lion and Tin now,” I said, pulling out my phone. “They'll keep an eye on shit here while I make a supply run. Gotta stop by the clubhouse too, make sure everything's still in line.”
No sooner than I hit the button to dial, somebody began banging on the door.
We both almost hit the fucking roof.
“Get down!” I growled, pushing her gently to the floor. I swept my hand across our pile of clothes 'til I found my nine.
If somebody was coming in to fuck with us, they were gonna catch a bullet through the chest.
The double door looked fancy, but the hinges were complete trash. It busted a second later, and I held her down, crouching behind the bed with my gun aimed at the intruder.
My arm wilted in a heartbeat when I saw who it was. I blinked, did a double take like something outta a damned cartoon.
“Prez?! No fuckin' way.”
“Way, asshole.” He stepped in, heading toward me without stopping. Dust had a white band wrapped around his neck, hiding the damage he'd taken from Red Beard. “Took me all damned day to get it outta Joker. Only gonna ask you one time – what the fuck did I tell you, boy?”
He stopped in front of me, drew his blade, and looked at us. Cora whimpered on the ground. I grit my teeth, wondering why the hell we had the worst timing in the world.
“Fuck. You okay, darlin'?”
“Okay?” She sat up, pulling her gown tight, flushing bright red. “Okay?! Jesus, no. I thought he was somebody coming to kill us! Dust, can't you at least knock or yell through the damned door first?”
“Well...” Prez looked at me like she wasn't far from the truth.
She stood up, got in his face. Shit, this was bad. I hopped up too, ready to pull her back. Girl needed a reminder she shouldn't be getting in the middle of club biz like this.
“Leave him alone,” she said harshly. “Firefly's doing everything you told him to do. He's protecting me. He's kept me company. Isn't that enough?”
Prez looked past her, giving me the stink eye. “Motherfucker. You put her up to this, didn't you?”
He blew toward me, put his hands around my throat, and backed us all the way to the wall. We crashed against it, fighting for the upper hand.
Fucking shit! Couldn't bring myself to throw a punch at the Cap'n – not when he'd saved my ass more times than I could count.
Wouldn't have done me a lick of good anyway, after he'd brandished his switchblade near my nose, telling me exactly what would happen if I didn't settle the fuck down.
“Firefly!” Cora split the room in two with her shrill cry. “No!”
“Didn't put her up to shit. She loves me. I love her,” I croaked, fighting for every word through the choke hold the bastard had on my neck. For a man who'd lost a lot of blood, he'd gotten a tiger's strength back.
“You've been down too long, Prez. Know you said you'd take my dick. You do that shit, you'll be making a big fuckin' mistake. I already claimed her. Ain't just for show. She's mine, dammit. I ain't letting go. Not even for you. Mine, mine, mine...”
Oxygen levels shat themselves. My ears hummed, the harder he pushed his fingers against the veins in my neck. Stars in my vision exploded into fireworks, warning me I'd be passing the fuck out in another minute or two.
“Don't make me fight you, Dust,” Cora said behind him. “You couldn't stop daddy from killing himself! I won't let you take the only man who's meant anything since. Back off!”
Dust's cool gray eyes beamed pure death into mine. He shook his head, digging his fingers into my neck, growling like a fucking psychopath.
He didn't believe me. Didn't buy Cora backing me up.
Fuck. He thought I'd walked in when she was broken, warped her mind, taken her like a demon for nothing more than that tight, hot hole between her legs.
Asshole was flat out wrong. So fucking wrong I'd show him how bad he'd fucked up, assuming I managed to walk outta here alive.
“Fuck!” Snarling, the Prez released his grip, and his blade clattered to the floor.
I staggered sideways, clutching my knees, gasping for air. Holding out a hand, I reached for Cora, tried to stop her from rushing between us and picking up his blade.
Shit on a shingle, she'd lost her fuckin' mind!
Dust snorted as she picked it up and pointed it at him. “Already got my throat cut once this season, little girl. You can't scare me.”
“Don't need to,” she said. Her hand trembled as she pointed it at the Prez, but it forced him to keep his distance. “You'll get this back when you accept Firefly and me.”
“Yeah? So I'm just supposed to believe you've suddenly fallen in love with this big, dirty sonofabitch who spent his free time fuckin' and drinkin'? Jimmy raised you better than that. What's he giving you to cook up these damned lies?”
“Better, yeah,” she said, running a tense tongue along her lips. “He raised me well, all right. Then he killed himself. Daddy left me all alone. Firefly saved me. I don't care what you believe. I'm falling for him, and I'm never going back. I'm proud to be his old lady, and soon I'll be his wife.”
Prez's lips twitched. He turned away from her, keeping
the corner of his eye on her hand, steadying the blade.
“This true?” Dust looked at me as I finally got between them, still weak in the head from all the blood rushing to my brain.
“Yeah, Prez. Already told you. Everything between me and this girl, it's real. She ain't just another casual fuck. Believe me, brother, I can get that shit anywhere. You've seen me over the years. I've been a fuck and dump machine. I've been a bastard. I was waiting for the right one to come along. Didn't have a thing to care about except this patch 'til you threw her into my life.”
Dust stroked his chin, rubbing his fingers across the gray slivers in his dark stubble. “Damn, brother. I want to believe you. I really do.”
I held his gaze while I threw my arms around Cora, dragged her tight into my chest. The blade dropped from her hands and hit the floor with a grating crinkle.
Thank fuck. Crisis averted.
“Believe it, Prez. Swear on all my colors, on my oath to this club. If I ever hurt this girl, don't worry about taking off my cock and balls. You can fuckin' gut me. I'll hand you the knife to do it, too.”
I cupped her chin and kissed her. Made sure he was watching every little way I looked at her, feeling the heat in my lips when I crushed them down on hers.
Cora's eyes closed, her lids fluttering, swept up in the raw, wicked storm of the moment. We kissed for a small eternity before I heard him clear his throat.
“Here's what we're gonna do,” he said, waiting 'til I broke the kiss and looked at him. “I'm gonna take you on your word, and hold you to it. You keep her safe, Firefly. Treat her right. You're damned right about this shit being as serious as the oath you swore to your patch. Consequences are just as dire too – you go rat on her, you die.”
We locked eyes. He came closer, stopping a few paces away, serious as a snake eyeballing a rabbit.
“This wouldn't be such a big fucking deal if she were just any pussy. We know damned well she ain't. This girl, she deserves better, more than my buddy gave her before he blew his brains out. You're gonna give it to her, gonna make her smile, or I'll skin you alive from the dick on up.”
Deal. I nodded, loosening my grip, walking over to him. “Hear you loud and clear, Prez. Cora's part of me, ever since I made her my old lady. Gonna make her my wife. Just as soon as she's ready to wear that ring on her finger permanently.”
“Baby, I already am,” she whispered. “It's never coming off.”
My damned head almost did a 360, I whipped it toward her so fast. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. I wasn't last week, but now...it's real. I know it is. When this all blows over, we're going to have a real wedding. We'll be together. Forever, Firefly.”
“You hear that, Prez? I'm gonna be the happiest bastard in the world.”
We kissed again. I could sense the Prez shaking his damned head the entire time. When I finally took my mouth off hers, he picked up his blade and looked at me.
“Get the prospects out here to watch her. Need you to come with me. Intel says the Torches are winding their way through Georgia right now, heading our way. We'll need everything lined up to blow their heads off when they get here. Wouldn't dream of doing it without my Enforcer on the job.”
“Cap'n, you got it. Let's ride.”
* * * *
Hurt like hell saying goodbye. It'd only be for twenty-four hours, maybe several days if Lady Luck decided to be a real bitch to me and the club. Tin and Lion would do great watching the house, yeah, but it should've been me protecting her.
Didn't like turning over control to them. No fuckin' way.
Too bad the Prez and I were the only boys with military combat experience behind us. He'd done his time in the merchant fleet, even fought pirates or some shit before he'd taken the club over when his old man passed the torch.
The Cap'n name stuck around for good reason. I rode behind him, taking the twists and turns through the Smokies in the rain.
Thunder clapped above us. The damned deluge soaked both of us, right through our cuts.
And I loved it. This was the shit I lived for before Cora, and it still got my blood pumping about half as hot as she did.
I'd ride these mountains wild 'til the day I died. Rain, sleet, or even snow. Out here, on the open road, a man was free. His heart strummed along with the engine hurling us through nature. His very life growled in his skin and didn't quit when his bike tore straight over God's green earth.
Speaking of which, everything was becoming a whole lot greener now. Spring was in full swing, making the forests so lush it was almost blinding. Soon, we'd be feeling the humid steam of summer.
Fuck, boy, you'll be a married man by then. Living your first summer as a biker, a bastard, and a husband.
I gripped my bike's handlebars harder as I followed Dust off the curvy exit leading toward Knoxville. Couldn't stop grinning like a goddamned fool, wondering why it had taken this many years to make the future look so bright.
* * * *
“Flash bangs!” I called out.
“Check.”
“Fresh clips?”
“Check.”
“Bayonets mounted on those fuckin' guns?”
“Yeah, Firefly, they're – aw, shit.” Sixty spat at the ground and held his rifle up.
I yanked it outta his hands and saw it was missing the blade on the end. “This is why we drill,” I growled, walking it over to the big storage lockers where we kept our gear.
If my years in Afghanistan taught me anything about war, it was that you could always beat the other bastards if you were better at killing shit than they were. And all too often better meant organized.
I reached for one of the big dagger shaped bayonets and clipped it to the gun. “Never know when you're gonna exhaust your ammo. If some prick gets the jump, you can tear his fuckin' head off before he does it to you first.”
Sixty nodded as I shoved the rifle into his arms. “We're ready, Firefly. Nobody's getting an edge on this club.”
“Correction, nobody's getting an edge on us if we've got one so big and sharp it'll cut their hands off at the fuckin' stumps.”
Next to him, Crawl chuckled, cleaning his gun. I spun around, giving him the same look my old drill sergeant used to give me.
“Keep going, Chuckles. I'll have you cleaning and polishing all this shit if you think this is a damned joke. Get serious.”
Being Enforcer wasn't just about making sure the weapons were lined up and the bikes were tuned to carry us into battle in the blink of an eye. I also made sure these boys remembered what they were getting into, reinforcing the chain of command.
This life wasn't all about riding, brotherhood, and partying. Every man who'd ever worn the one-percenter diamond on his cut knew we earned it down to the last drop of blood, sweat, and tears.
“Listen to the man,” Skin piped up, laying out a group of fresh nines on a cart. “Numbers only go so far here, and he knows the math better than I do when we've got a rival club out for blood.”
I walked over, inspecting the handguns, ready to slap him on the back. He'd been a better brother since I brought Cora into my life.
Shit, I finally understood everything Skinny boy had gone through with Meg. I respected the hell outta that.
Ready for a brotherly slap, my palm stopped in mid-air when I heard Bingo start barking out back. The big dog always let out a few yips when the Veep was around, but this time it sounded urgent, angry, grinding into a growl a second later.
“The fuck?” Skin started moving as quick as me, and soon the others were behind us.
I slammed the door going out back to our makeshift shooting range with both hands. Damned thing blew open, just in time to see Bingo tearing the shit out of some poor motherfucker's leg.
The stranger rolled on the ground, screaming bloody murder, something black and plastic squeezed in his fist. “Get off, off, off, for the love of fuck!”
Veep came rushing out from the opposite direction. I tackled him first, but Joker wasn't far
behind, pulling on his dog's collar to ease him away.
“It's all good, boy. We'll take it from here,” he growled, and then he was next to me, his blade drawn and poised against the bastard's throat.
“How'd you get in here? You with the Torches?” I pulled him by the flannel jacket he had on, shaking the sonofabitch with all my might before I smashed him into the ground again. “Answer me, you piece of shit!”
“What's going on out here?” Prez came walking up a second later, his fists tense at his sides. “Shit,” he said, soon as he saw the shitshow in front of us.
“Don't know, Prez. Bingo caught him wandering in, sneaking around out back. He's got himself a present.” I pried the object outta his hands while Joker put the knife near his wrist, scaring him so shitless he let it go without a fight.
“Christ. It's a fuckin' switch. This motherfucker was rigging up our clubhouse!” I lost my shit.
Coming after Cora, after my brothers, after the place that'd always be home...I pushed him into the dirt and punched his smug face 'til I saw blood smearing my knuckles.
Took the entire crew screaming to make me back off, just short of leaving the bones in his face a broken mess.
“Who. The. Fuck. Sent. You?!” I roared, throwing him into the ground like a goddamned ragdoll, over and over. Didn't stop 'til I heard the fucker trying to gurgle some words through the teeth I'd knocked out.
“Assholesss,” he slurred like a snake. “You're done. All of you.”
“Other way around, shit stain.” Veep pushed his knife against the bastard's belly, and ripped it upward, slicing through the shirt he had on underneath the open jacket.
If he had a Torches tattoo, that shit would be coming off, inch by brutal inch. We'd take ourselves a fuckin' trophy before we put lead in his skull and buried him deep in Smoky Mountain soil.
His chest was clean, except for some shitty looking lantern with a skull inside it, like something a skater kid would wear. I pulled his shaggy blonde hair, jerking his head so hard I could hear his spine creak.