Completely sated and never more comfortable, I laid lifeless on the bed as Luke dressed me, then carried me into the living room and laid down on the couch with me on top of him.
“Comfortable?” he asked. I slid my body in front of his and he flipped on his side and pulled my back to his chest. I laid my head on his arm and snuggled into him, giving him absolutely no room; he didn’t seem to mind.
“What do you want to watch?” he asked, placing a kiss on the side of my head.
“A comedy,” I said yawning.
“Still tired?”
“Uh-huh,” my eyelids were becoming heavy. I waited for a smart-ass remark that never came. Luke pulled a blanket from the back of the couch and draped it over us. He slid his hand under my shirt and splayed it across my stomach like he had done so many times before. I found a little more room between us and pushed closer. He chuckled in my ear. I closed my eyes and although I was tired, I couldn’t fall asleep. I listened throughout the movie as Luke’s breathing slowed and within an hour, he was sleeping soundly.
I finished the movie, wide awake and even watched the credits. I was becoming restless. I didn’t want to do anything, but I was tired of just laying here and my eyes were beginning to hurt from watching the T.V. at a side angle.
I slid from the couch, careful not to disturb Luke, and wandered into the kitchen. The cold popcorn was still on the bar. I grabbed the jug of milk out of the refrigerator and headed down the hall to the Harley Room. The large bike was centered in the room, as always, and I walked around surveying everything about it. Just like a child in a toy aisle at Wal-Mart, the urge to climb on it was just too much. I sat the milk down on the tool box and slid on the seat, praying it wouldn’t turn over.
Before long, noises that resembled a sport bike, definitely not a Harley, were coming from my mouth. My mind took a trip back in time to when I was a child and my cousin, Mikey, and I would race imaginary cars under my grandmother’s carport. I wondered where Mikey was now. I should definitely give him a call.
I decided that I had played enough and slid off the motorcycle, grabbing my jug of milk and taking a huge gulp. I leaned up against the tool box, thoughts of Luke fucking me on the bike, wearing nothing but his vest, running through my head. I felt something move and noticed that the tool box had wheels on it. Curious, I looked down and saw a seam in the floor that wasn’t visible until the box moved. I couldn’t help it. I moved the tool box a few inches further and found a latch to what I guessed was a trap door. What if he had bodies down there? Or maybe he ran a sex slave operation. I bet it housed millions of dollars’ worth of cash and cocaine, along with guns. I could picture Mexican women, dressed in nothing but lingerie, wearing face masks while cutting the dope for him.
I knelt down running my hand back and forth across the latch. This was wrong. I shouldn’t do this. I was invading Luke’s privacy. I made a split decision that whatever was under there would stay unknown to me, as I quickly pulled the tool box back and grabbed my milk. I turned to get the hell out of there and ran right into Luke, who was standing in the doorway.
His arms were stretched above his head and he was hanging onto the door frame, looking like he was posing for the cover of GQ magazine. His face had that damn smirk on it and he was slightly amused. I was red with embarrassment. He had caught me snooping. Fuck, Dallas!
“Hey baby!” I said my voice coming out too high pitched, a sure sign of guilt.
“Find something?” he asked eyeing me warily. Shit. What was I gonna say? I could lie… yes, I would lie.
“I dropped my, um-” Fuck it. “Yes. I did. I was leaning up against the tool box looking at the motorcycle, and it moved and I found your secret hiding place,” I said hanging my head in shame like a scolded child.
“Secret hiding place?” he asked biting his lip to hide his smile.
“Yeah, but I didn’t look. I swear,” I said trying to convey my innocence. How old was I, twelve?
“I know. I have been watching you for some time.” Oh shit. “I went to grab some milk and it seems that it was missing.”
I handed him the jug quickly and he took it, raising an eyebrow. “I live alone, so I always drink out of the jug. Sorry. Sometimes, I forget how to act.” Why was I acting like this? Because you just made an ass of yourself, you idiot.
He stood there staring at me, his face in an amused smile. He put the jug to his lips and took a big swallow.
“It tastes better now, anyway,” he said replacing the cap and reaching for my hand. “Do you want to see what’s inside?” he asked leading me to the trap door.
“No.” Yes.
He pushed the tool box out of the way and knelt down on one knee in front of the latch. “You sure? I can put your little curious mind at ease.”
I shook my head at him. Shit, this was humiliating. Why not just scream at me, give me a punishment fuck, then let me be on my way? He turned the latch and pulled the door open. I peeked inside and half expected to hear loud music and see smoke boiling out of the top, but instead I saw the top of a hot water heater. I was actually a little disappointed that it wasn’t some underground drug operation. The disappointment must have been evident on my face.
“Surprised, are we?” Luke asked laughing. I just stood there speechless. A hot water heater. A fucking hot water heater. “When I built the house, I decided to add this room at the last minute, so I had to put this thing somewhere, and I told the builders that helped me to just figure something out. I took one day off, one day, and I come back to find that they couldn’t find anywhere in the plans to put it and make it look right, so they put it here.”
“I thought you were running an underground sex slave trade,” I said- out loud.
He threw his head back, laughing. “No, baby. The only person that I want to make a sex slave out of is you.” He walked up to me and kissed me on my head. “Let’s grab some supper, and then I want to show you something, if you are up to it.”
“I would love that,” I said still reeling from my embarrassment.
“Well, come on, nosey rosy,” he said laughing and pulling me into the kitchen. Asshole.
“What are we eating?” I asked trying to change the subject and hoping I could do something to make him forget what just happened.
“My specialty!” Luke said excitedly.
Hmm, his specialty. I was thinking something on the grill-a steak or some kind of chicken or maybe even a smoked tender-loin. “Sounds delicious! What is it?” I asked enthusiastically. I really didn’t care, but I was so anxious to move on to something other than my previous escapade, that I would have agreed to anything.
“Ham sandwiches with potato chips,” he said laughing.
I didn’t have an appetite any more. I just wanted to crawl in a hole and die, but I forced a smile and decided to try and choke down a sandwich. Luke was in a really good mood and I wondered what had made him so happy. “You sure are in a good mood,” I said taking a seat at the bar and digging into my sandwich.
“I’m just happy that you’re here,” he said smiling and taking a seat next to me. I knew there was something else, but I figured it was some kind of inside joke and I wasn’t too interested anyway.
“I’m happy, too.” I leaned over and gave him a peck on his cheek and was rewarded with his gorgeous smile and a heart flutter.
We continued to make small talk, mostly about his business, and I was surprised to find out that he owned The Country Tavern. “Some of my security guys were out of town for a bachelor party, so I brought the club in to help out.”
“Is that why you were in your truck?” I asked, wondering why I had not thought of that before.
“Yeah, I wore my cut because just the image it gives makes people think twice before they do something stupid,” he said standing and clearing the bar of my plate and his. That made sense. Had he seen me in there before the incident with the cowboy? I wanted to ask, but it sounded stupid in my head, so I kept my mouth shut.
“So
, what did you want to show me?” I asked standing and walking around the bar so that I could be in his arms. I thought he would hug me, but instead, he lifted me onto the counter so we were face to face.
“Do you like to stargaze?” he asked kissing my nose, my cheek, and my neck. My breathing became shallow and my insides tightened.
“Yes.” I could barely speak. It had only been a matter of hours, yet I wanted to feel him inside me again.
“Good, because I have something I want to show you.”
Lifting me into his arms, Luke carried me out the front door and across the driveway. My first thought was that we were going to lie down in the driveway, but he continued on and into the woods. The trail started out narrow, but widened the further we walked. I wasn’t sure how far we had gone. He couldn’t have been walking more than two minutes when suddenly, we were in a clearing.
What I recognized as a shooting house sat in the middle of a pipeline clearing. Luke sat me down and held his finger up to me in a hold on gesture. Then, he opened the door and went inside, leaving me to fend for myself against wild animals.
I was starting to get a little nervous, but in less than a minute he was standing at the door holding his hand out to me.
“This is where I hunt when deer season is in, but any other time, it serves as a great thinking spot when I’m struggling with something. Whether it is with the club or my family or my job, I can always come here and clear my head.”
Luke the redneck, another personality to add to his many.
Inside the small shooting house lay an air mattress that took up most of the floor space. Windows were cut out on the side, but had been covered with plastic to keep the insects out. I watched Luke as he climbed onto a chair, undoing several latches and pushing the roof back to reveal the sky. I jumped at the sound of the metal roof hitting the building.
“I made a door out of the roof. Pretty cool, huh?” Luke asked smiling at me. I laughed and nodded my head in agreement.
“Yes, pretty cool.” I didn’t really think so until Luke pulled me down onto the air mattress beside him, and I looked up at the sky above me. Thousands of stars littered the black, velvety sky and the moon shone bright giving me a full view of everything around me.
“Wow,” I said gaping with my mouth open.
“The only problem is you don’t get to see all of the stars. Your view is limited because of the walls,” Luke said from beside me.
“I think it’s great. You know Lindsey has this in a bedroom.”
“A door for a roof?” Luke asked turning his head towards me.
“No, I mean she has this lighting system above her bed. You look up and there are hundreds of stars on her ceiling,” I said, still in awe of the view I had. Lindsey’s room was great, but this was amazing.
“You like it?” Luke asked rolling on his side and propping his head up on his elbow.
“What?”
“The stars at Lindsey’s.”
I turned to look at Luke and saw him smiling like he had some big secret. “Yes,” I said cautiously.
“I’ll put that in my bedroom if you want.” He sure was being cheesy tonight.
“I like this better,” I said honestly.
Luke rolled back over on his back and we laid there for what seemed like hours looking up at the stars. My eyes were getting heavy, but I wasn’t ready for this night to end.
“Tell me more about the club,” I said breaking the silence.
“What do you want to know?” Luke asked not looking at me.
I wasn’t sure what I really wanted to know, but as of now, I didn’t really know anything, yet I had been in the middle of it ever since I had met Luke. “Why do people do it? I mean, I know why you did it, but why does anyone want to go through that?”
He turned his head and raised an eyebrow at me. “Go through what?” he asked curiously.
“The prospecting thingy.” Relief flooded his face as soon as the words left my mouth. If I didn’t know any better, I would assume that he thought I knew something that I shouldn’t.
“Thingy?” he asked laughing.
“You know what I mean,” I answered a little embarrassed. I never spoke like that and now that I had, I felt like an idiot. He must have felt the heat from my cheeks radiating around me and took mercy on me.
“Everyone wants to be a part of something, to belong to a group or a society or an organization. Our club is no harder to get into than the Hattiesburg Country Club,” he said smirking. “The difference between us and a country club, though, is we don’t want you to try and be something you’re not. If you belong in this world then you know it. You can feel it in your heart. If you don’t, well, you just don’t.” He was now staring at me as if it was me that he was talking about and not a prospect.
“And how does someone know if they don’t belong?” I asked almost in a whisper. I couldn’t take my eyes off of Luke’s. It was as if I was in a trance. Luke rolled over on top of me, snaking his legs through mine and bringing his arms up next to my face.
“They can feel it.” Luke broke eye contact with me and started planting feather like kisses all over my face. “Every time they come around, every nerve in their body screams to them that this isn’t right.” I tilted my head back so he had access to my neck. “They feel like an outsider. They often ask themselves ‘why did I get myself into this?’” His knee was now between my legs rubbing softly.
“Well, how do they get out when they realize they don’t belong?” I asked breathless.
“They leave before they know too much,” Luke was now looking at me. His expression was impassive; his breathing heavy and his knee had come to a complete stop. I knew Luke was warning me. I knew he was hoping to scare me into rethinking what I was getting into.
The problem was- I did belong. I could feel it in my heart. It was not just my love for him that kept me here. There was something else. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but whatever it was had me convinced that I would give my life for any of them. I had never felt more a part of something than I did when I was with them.
“I’m not going anywhere. I love you, Luke, and I love the club and everyone in it. I belong here,” I said searching his eyes for some sort of clue as to what he was thinking.
“There is a lot you don’t know, things I can’t tell you because it’s not my story to tell. I’m not a good person, Dallas. I work very hard to separate the two lifestyles that I live. Dragging you into the middle of this is really going to complicate things. There are a lot of people who don’t like me and to get to me they could go through you. That’s why I have never really had anyone in my life like you. I just don’t want to take that chance, but on the other hand; I can’t let you go,” he exclaimed frustrated.
It seemed that Luke was fighting an internal battle and was losing. He climbed off of me, but pulled me to him once he was beside me again.
“Luke, I’m a big girl. I have dealt with a lot of shit in my life. I can assure you that I can handle anything you throw at me. I already told you that I don’t want to know what’s going on and besides, I’m in love,” I said with a reassuring smile.
“Well, that makes two of us, darlin’.” Luke’s kisses are powerful, better than anything I have ever felt. But this kiss was different. It was passionate, but firm. It felt like a kiss of warning, but also reassurance. There was nothing out here but us and the stars. I felt small in his arms, but like I could face anything with him at my side. He was my protector, my rock, my best friend, my Luke.
“It’s getting late,” Luke said pulling away from me.
I didn’t want to sleep. I didn’t want to go back to the house. I could stay with him in this shooting house forever, just the two of us. He stood up with ease and held his hands out to me. I let him pull me to my feet and he planted a swift kiss to my cheek before letting me go so he could close his “roof door.”
We walked back to the house hand in hand, him lifting me across the gravel road. A million thi
ngs were going on in my head, but my biggest question was if everyone knew who Luke was, then why did society accept him? He seemed to be a hit at the engagement party, and even the Mayor had spoken fondly of him and said he owed him a favor.
I didn’t want to upset Luke anymore with my questions. It seemed like he was having a hard enough time convincing himself that it was okay to keep me in his life. I would ask Red sometime this week when Luke was not around.
As we walked up the driveway, I could hear music coming from the clubhouse. It seemed that Tiny and the others were having a pretty good time in there, but I was certain that somewhere there was someone sober; watching to make ensure Luke was protected.
“You tired?” Luke asked me, once we were inside.
“Yes, very,” I answered not realizing until that moment how true those words were. I didn’t think I could make it to the bed. Fatigue seemed to have taken over and I walked like a zombie until I was curled under the covers in the bed. I couldn’t remember closing my eyes.
Chapter 23
For the next several days, Luke and I lived our lives like a normal couple. We ate junk food, watched movies, played with Neo, took showers, but the one thing that was lacking was the sex. It seemed like ever since that night under the stars, Luke was afraid to touch me.
He kept me busy during the day, making sure not to make any moves that would lead me to thinking he wanted something more. It couldn’t be because I was sick, since we had made love the first night that I was home. I also noticed that he had been on his phone a lot, and when someone called, he left the room. I kept telling myself that I wouldn’t push him. I was sure that something was going on that was keeping his mind occupied and if he wasn’t touching me, then he had a good reason.
By Friday, I had cabin fever. I was going to go crazy if I didn’t get the hell out of the house. Luke had been shady all morning and I had decided that after lunch, I was going to seduce him whether he wanted it or not.
While Luke was out at the clubhouse with Tiny, who had still not left, I decided to put makeup on for the first time in over a week. I applied some mascara, blush and lip gloss to my pale skin. This weekend, we would be spending a day at my house so I could lay out by the pool. Luke didn’t know that yet, but I was sure that I could persuade him. I put on the red dress that he had brought for me and I had yet to wear. I let my long, straight hair down; relieving it from the ponytail it had been in for days. My legs were shaved, my face was pretty and my dress was short. There was absolutely no way I was going to let Luke deny me.
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