Once the men were out of the way, at least for the moment, Cheery turned and followed the girls as they moved in a confused mass towards the open doors of the barn. Before their arrival, Cheery had at least thought ahead enough to turn up the lights, so at least the rather homey interior looked somewhat welcoming.
It took some time to get the girls all settled down, but fortunately few of them appeared willing to put up any sort of argument. Cheery made sure that they had plenty of water, and Jenna even managed to salvage some snacks from the aftermath of the party inside the main house, despite the destruction of the kitchen.
By the time that the Iron Skull officers returned with the extra clothes, most of the girls were already bedded down, and Cheery could see drooping eyes everywhere. She chose to take the clothes off of the men and distribute them between the rows of sleeping girls, figuring that they'd find the new clothing when they awoke.
Only once she'd checked on each girl, making sure that they were sleeping peacefully and they didn't appear to be in any pain or discomfort, Cheery finally extinguished most of the lamps and followed Jenna out of the barn, pausing only to pull the barn doors shut behind her. Once outside, she turned around - and then saw Jenna watching her closely.
"You were nice to them," Jenna said, jumping straight to the point.
Cheery nodded, feeling as though the girl's eyes could see much deeper into her inner motives than the older woman would prefer. "It isn't fair, what they've had to put up with," she hedged. "I just wanted to make sure that they were treated fairly, that they at least got some kindness."
But the other woman was already shaking her head. "You know what I went through," she said softly, stepping forward towards Cheery. "You know that they've been through just as much."
After a moment, Cheery gave in and nodded. "I haven't told them," she said, not needing to specify that she was talking about the bikers.
"I know," Jenna replied. "They would treat me differently - and I don't want that. I'll tell them when I'm ready."
The girl shook her head, reaching up and rubbing at her wrists where she'd been tied to a chair just a couple of hours earlier. "But these girls - and me - we won't be safe, not until this whole thing is over," she said, looking off into the distance beyond Cheery. "I've heard the men talk about how much money they made. Mr. Archon, and everyone else who's at the top of this whole thing, they won't just let it all go and give it up. They'll keep trying to recapture us, to restart the whole business, until they succeed. It's too much money for them to ever think about stopping."
Cheery stepped forward, reaching out. The older woman hesitated for just a minute, but then went ahead and put her hand on Jenna's shoulder in a comforting gesture. Jenna tensed for a fraction of a second, but she didn't pull away, and then relaxed.
"There's one thing that you're forgetting about, hon," Cheery said, her tone soft and soothing.
"What's that?"
When Jenna turned to look into the whore's face, she was surprised by the savage grin she saw looking back at her. "You're forgetting about just how bone-headed and stubborn these bikers can be," Cheery told her.
Jenna shook her head. "What do you-"
Cheery spread her arms around, taking in the whole house and the dozens of motorcycles still parked around. "These men, why do they come out here and make such fools of themselves? What drives them to turn their backs on society and instead come run with these gangs?" she asked.
"It's because they have ideals, ideals too strong to ever bend knee to how polite society functions."
When Jenna still looked a little confused, Cheery sighed. "If you can convince these men to fight for a cause, they'll never give up," she said slowly. "When they disagree with something, they'll move hell or high water to fight against it. And when they support someone or something, they're even willing to lay down their lives for it."
"Hell, that's how they got me out here in the first place," the whore sighed after a second, lowering her head and shaking it ruefully. "When I was younger, I swore that I was always my own woman, that I'd never have any sort of allegiance to any man or cause."
"And then what happened?" Jenna asked, wide-eyed.
"And then I met the Iron Skulls," Cheery said simply. "I helped them, and they decided that I was one of them. And from that point onward, they did everything they could to help and protect me. Without any hesitation or second thoughts. If I needed help, they helped."
"One day, I belonged to no one but myself. The next day, I was one of them, and I owed the Iron Skulls everything. It was as simple as that."
After a moment, Cheery looked back up from her internal musings, smiling at Jenna. "And if I'm not mistaken," she finished, "you're one of us now, too."
Cheery pretended not to see the tears in the corners of the younger woman's eyes before she turned and headed back into the house.
Chapter twenty-eight
Cain was nearly asleep when he heard the door to his bedroom slowly open.
The big man carefully held himself still, not giving any indication that he was still awake. His eyes remained closed - but his ears were on high alert, craning to capture every little sound in the quiet of his bedroom.
He heard the creaking of the bedroom door continue for a moment longer, and then stop. Whoever was entering was either in socks or bare feet, but he caught the ever so slight little creaks of the floorboards as they moved in closer to his bed.
Cain waited until they were no more than a foot or two away - and then he lunged, rolling over and popping up in a single motion, his hands flying out to grab onto the intruder.
He saw through wide eyes that his hands had just closed on Jenna - just a moment before he nearly bore them both down onto the floor.
The biker staggered as he let go of the woman, but he collided with the dresser before he could catch himself and keep on his feet. "Jenna! What the hell are you doing here?" he gasped out in a strangled, pain-filled whisper as he grabbed at where one of the drawer handles had stabbed into his shoulder.
The girl blinked back at him with her mouth hanging open for a moment before she managed to reply. "I thought you were asleep," she stammered out.
Realizing that he was probably acting like a fool, Cain landed heavily back on the bed, ignoring the wince from his shoulder. He'd probably have a lovely bruise in the morning, he knew. "I guess I was just thinking about everything that's happened tonight," he said after a moment. "And the last twenty-four hours or so, for that matter."
Jenna slowly moved over towards him. Cain shuffled over on the bed to make room for her to sit down beside him. "It's been pretty wild, hasn't it," she agreed, looking down at her hands in her lap. "I just wanted to come see how you were handling it all."
"Still trying to adapt," he admitted. "I mean, I was expecting a party tonight, but even I wasn't ready for my kitchen to explode, and to find myself playing host to two dozen new women out in my barn."
"It was nice of you to agree to put them up, even if just for tonight," Jenna said, glancing up at him shyly.
Cain shrugged his shoulders, feeling on the spot. "Hell, what else could I have done?" he said awkwardly, wishing that the girl would drop the topic.
But Jenna didn't give up. "You could have turned away, could have left them behind," she insisted. "You could have called the police, or just dumped them all at the nearest hospital. You didn't have to get involved."
Cain opened his mouth, but Jenna kept talking. "But you did," she went on, and the biker suddenly saw that her eyes were sparkling. "Just like how you didn't hesitate to drop everything and come rescue me."
Staring down at his hands as if wishing that they could speak for him, Cain fumbled for words. "It was the only thing to do," he said, even though he felt these weren't the right words.
They didn't seem to bother Jenna. "It was the right thing to do," she corrected gently, leaning in against him. "And I owe you my life because of it."
Cain opened his mouth once mor
e, trying to find a way to explain how his actions weren't anything special, but Jenna reached out and pressed her finger impulsively against his lips, cutting him off.
"No arguing," the woman whispered, as she crawled into his arms, holding her face inches from his.
A moment later, they both toppled backwards onto the bed. Cain landed on his back, with Jenna reclining on top of him, her chest pressed up against abdomen, her legs straddling one of his big thighs, and her chin resting on the curve of his chest. When he looked down, he could see her big, glowing eyes staring up at him, a catlike little smile on her face.
"What are you laughing about?" he asked gruffly, even as he did his best to not move or do anything that might dislodge her from her warm position on top of him.
Jenna giggled, the sound pure and sweet, before replying. "I've only known you for a day or so," she whispered to him.
Cain swallowed as he felt thin, agile fingers creeping up his side, up to rest ever so gently against his cheek. "So?"
"Cheery told me about how she joined you, how sudden it was," Cheery replied, smiling down at him as she traced the curve of his lips. "One day, she was her own person. The next day, she knew that she belonged to you."
"Jenna, no one belongs to another person-"
This time, Cheery silenced the big biker beneath her by leaning in to kiss him on the lips. Her feather-light touch felt like a thread of silk drawn across Cain's lips.
"No one owns my body, or my soul," she whispered once Cain had fallen silent again, staring into her eyes. "But I know that my heart is no longer my own."
She kissed him again, this time pushing down a little more strongly, crawling up a little on top of his body to center her face on his. Her hand squeezed against his cheek, keeping his head tilted up towards hers.
"Such a mysterious thing," she whispered, after this kiss. Cain could feel her breathing a little more heavily, now, could feel her chest rising and falling as it pushed against his. "One day, my heart was a shriveled little thing that I thought would never be used. And then, the next day..."
She kissed him a third time, and this time Cain felt his arms rise up to wrap around her. Of their own accord, his hands squeezed her back, pressing her up against him, feeling her radiating warmth.
"And then what?" he asked, after this kiss ended.
They were both breathing a bit harder, now, still staring into each other's eyes. "And then, the very next day, I realized that my heart had been stolen away by a man who rescued me," Jenna finished.
"He sure sounds like a hero, this man."
That comment made Jenna tilt back her head and laugh, a tinkling peal. "As if! He's a ruffian, an older biker who's grumpy and disagreeable and totally wrong for me. He's rude, harsh, and he's even killed people, right in front of my eyes."
"So he doesn't deserve your heart?"
Jenna shrugged, and Cain tried not to notice how that delightful little movement made her whole body shimmy on top of him. "Who knows what he deserves?" she asked rhetorically. "But I love him, and he's a hero to me.
"I don't need to know anything more than that."
For a moment, Jenna kept on looking down at him, her face still lit with a wide smile. Her hand had settled beneath Cain's neck, wrapping around the back of his head, nestled into his hair at the back of his neck.
Cain tried hard to think. He stared back up at this little slip of a girl on top of him, trying to work through his tangle of feelings. Many of these feelings felt almost foreign, he was so unfamiliar with them.
But he couldn't deny the facts of his actions. When she'd been kidnapped, he hadn't hesitated to drop everything and race after her. He had killed for her, and he remembered how his heart leapt when he saw her, strapped to that chair - and how red-hot rage had rushed through his very soul when he realized what that bulldog-looking asshole planned to do with her.
He couldn't have backed away from that situation if his life had depended on it.
Did he love Jenna? To think so, after barely a day of knowing her, seemed insane on the face of things. But when he considered those words, they somehow just felt right in his head, as crazy as the concept seemed when examined intellectually.
Throughout his time with the Iron Skulls, Cain had always prided himself on thinking with his head, not his heart. But in this decision, it finally seemed as though his heart had caught up and passed his brain. By the time he was now thinking about the question, he already knew the answer.
He loved her, plain and true.
Jenna was still looking down at him, waiting for an answer but trusting in what he'd reply. Cain opened his mouth, but closed it a second later as he realized that he'd never have the right words to express the feelings rushing through him.
So instead, he just tightened his arms around her, kissing her back and pouring all of his emotion out through his lips.
Chapter twenty-nine
Jenna felt the man suddenly tighten his muscles beneath her - and then he was pulling her down tighter on top of him, his mouth finding hers in a kiss with more passion than anything else they'd shared so far.
At first, as she kissed him, Jenna's lips quirked up in a smile - and then she opened up her mouth to him, letting their tongues explore each other's teeth and mouths.
"I knew it," she gasped, when they finally broke apart. She couldn't seem to stop grinning, beaming stupidly down at this big man beneath her in the darkness.
It looked as though Cain wanted to say something else, but Jenna kissed him again before he could form the words. After all, kissing definitely felt like a better use of their lips and tongues than talking!
Cain's hands still wrapped around her, but now they finally started moving, sliding up and down her back, feeling the curve of her spine. Jenna wriggled a little in excitement as he touched her, and those hands picked up on her eager enthusiasm. They ducked beneath the edges of her clothing, and she couldn't hold back a little moan as one hand slipped beneath the hem of her shorts and underwear to press down against the small of her back.
Last time they'd kissed, it had been in the room that he had given to her, across the hall, and they had torn feverishly at each other's clothing as if starving for the contact between bare skin. This time, however, they moved a little more slowly, although with no less passion.
Cain's hands pushed Jenna's blouse up to above her breasts, bunching it up just beneath her armpits. The girl crawled forward, planting her hips on the man's big chest as she stretched her arms straight up, pulling the blouse up over her head. She felt Cain's hands slide down across her stomach, wrapping briefly around her waist before busying themselves in popping the button on her shorts.
"Your turn," she gasped out as the man wiggled her out of her jean shorts, leaving her in just her underwear. "Can't focus on just me!"
Obligingly, Cain sat up and pulled his shirt up off of his body. As he did so, he felt Jenna's hands dive down into his crotch, stripping off his pajama bottoms and revealing his boxers. He felt himself spring up into fully erect hardness as her hands brushed against his shaft through the thin fabric of his boxers.
The darkness kept him from making out Jenna's exact expression, but he heard her murmur in excitement as he flexed and grew hard. "I remember this, now," she purred, as her fingertips dipped in through his fly and brushed against his shaft. "Does someone want to come out and play?"
Jenna slipped one hand in through the slit in the man's boxers - but before she could draw out his cock, she felt him sit up and grab her around the waist, pulling her back up on top of him but turning her around so that her ass faced towards him! What in the world was the man doing?
A moment later, that question was answered for her when she felt a finger twitch aside the bottom of her panties - and then warm breath blew against her crotch! Jenna gasped, but didn't pull away, and a moment later something warm and wet pushed in against her!
It took her a second before she realized what Cain was doing. The biker had pulled aside
her panties and had just kissed her in between her thighs! Even as she made the connection, she felt his tongue lap out again, rubbing against her most sensitive areas, exploring and tasting.
The man's crotch still sat right in front of her, and once she got over the surprise of feeling his tongue licking against her inner thighs and labia, Jenna felt determined to return the favor! She tugged Cain's boxers down until his cock came springing free. She wrapped her hand around his thick base, directing him up towards her open and waiting mouth.
As she sucked on him, spreading her mouth wide to fit his big girth in past her lips, Cain resumed his efforts between her legs! This time, the man centered in on her clit, pulling that hard little nub into his mouth and massaging it with both his lips and tongue.
The pleasure made it difficult for Jenna to focus, but she exulted in it, doing her best to return it all in her own treatment of his dick. She did her best, however, dropping her hand down to fondle his balls even as she sucked him off. As she kept going, pushing herself, she felt her throat open up, letting her take more of his length with longer strokes. She challenged herself to see how far down on his length she could get her lips.
After another minute, however, she had to pull up, sucking in air as her entire body shuddered with Cain's actions. The man had found just the right spot to send waves of pleasure shooting up through her spine to the base of her brain, and he wasn't letting up! Even as she tried to squirm away, his arms tightened around her thighs, holding her in place for him to continue eating her out.
"Oh god, Cain, I'm about to-" Jenna burst out, but she never even got to finish the sentence.
Like a wave of wet liquid that flowed through all of her veins and arteries, Jenna felt pleasure flood her brain and body. She sagged down on top of Cain even as the man kept on eating her out, all of her muscles going limp and refusing to do anything but quiver slightly in response to her commands. She felt her head land right up against the man's rock-hard erection, but she couldn't manage to do anything but pant and gasp for air.
CHAINED: A Motorcycle Club Romance Page 13