I trailed my hand up over my stomach and cupped my breast. Bono rested against the wall with a smile on his face and watched me. I brushed my thumb over my nipple and relished the flip-flopping of the butterflies in my belly. I did what I’d done countless times before and imagined Bono’s touch.
“Not a single orgasm I’ve brought myself to over the years could be done without imagining it was your touch I felt instead of my own.”
Bono’s eyes drifted between my legs and I spread them wider for him to see. I stroked and teased my clit for a while circling the nub before pushing my finger inside. “Every single time, I touch myself I think of you.”
I focused on Bono’s face as my fingers plunged in and out of my core. His eyes twinkled with mischief in the fire light.
“Who did you think about when you were with other men?” Bono asked, his voice teasing.
“I only ever think of you,” I said, choosing not to take the question to heart and allow it to spoil the mood. I wasn’t going to lie and say there had been no other men. When I’d first left, I thought I could lose myself in sex, that I could find someone who did to me all that Bono did. But that fantasy soon fled. “Your hands on my skin, your mouth sucking my nipples, your cock buried dead inside me.” I moaned, wishing for all those things to happen now, knowing that they could.
Bono shifted forward. His hand rested on mine before pinching my clit while I continued to finger-fuck myself. I nearly lost it when he pressed his finger tight against mine and joined me.
“Was this your fantasy?” he asked.
“No,” I growled and looked in his eyes. “I always wanted more.”
“Was that a request?” he asked and moved his head between my legs. “I thought you were mine to command.”
Without saying another word, he withdrew my fingers and lifted them to his mouth, sucking off my wetness.
I jolted when he circled his fingers around my throbbing bud and arched my back into the sensation.
Still holding my hand, he pushed it behind my back, making me arch further. Holding it in place, he teased my nipple with his tongue, sucking it in before nipping it, all while his fingers teased my clit and slid deep into my core.
I yelped when he gave my nipple a quick, sharp bite. He shifted and took my clit into his mouth, sucking and nipping at the hard bud. He licked my slit and delved inside with his tongue before returning his focus to my clit.
My breath became fast and labored. My hips rocked in time to his penetrating fingers. Sensations bloomed within me. “Oh, fuck, Bono.”
My core clenched and spasmed around his fingers. He let go of my hand and cupped my breast, groping as my wetness streamed around his fingers and into his mouth. He welcomed it, and I moaned deeply as he licked and sucked me dry.
“Oh, fuck, is right,” he said, but he didn’t stop. He swirled his tongue over my clit and pounded me with his fingers until he made me come apart all over again.
“Fuck, Bono. I-I can’t,” I said, doing my best not to scream.
While I was still shuddering with my climax, he guided his big, thick cock to my sopping entrance and pushed inside. My legs wrapped around him as if they had a mind of their own and were never going to let him go.
“Was this your fantasy?” he asked again.
I laughed between desperate gasps. “I... oh, fuck... I’ll always want more.”
I bit my lip and moaned as he fulfilled my wishes, thrusting deeper and deeper inside me, filling me up and taking my breath away.
Chapter Nine
Bono
We lay in the warmth of our hidey-hole and talked about events that we’d missed in each other’s lives over the years.
“Did you ever go to college?”
“Hope Fisher never got to go,” she said as I glanced at the sky lightening through the opening that led outside. “But Hope Francois managed to stay in one place long enough to gain a marketing degree. Not that she ever got to use it, that honor was passed on to Hope Fox.”
“Hope Fox. I like that, though it doesn’t sound as good as Hope Travers.” My voice trailed at the end when Hope shifted beside me, and I remembered our engagement and all the plans we’d made for our wedding. “Did you always get to keep your first name?” I asked to shift the focus of our conversation somewhere else.
“They said that keeping the same name helps people to adjust better to their new life. If someone called out Hope and I reacted, it would be a little awkward if that wasn’t my first name in whatever identity I had taken on.”
I stroked her hair behind her ear and breathed deeply, wondering how difficult things must have been, but more so, how complicated I had made them now. It was just, being with her, and seeing the Hope I remembered shining through, had taken me back to old times. To a time when it was just me and Hope, and the rest of the world didn’t matter. I guess that time was my Forever Midnight. My moment of happiness and peace, and I wanted to go back there. A part of me wanted to stay in the shelter of these boulders forever. At least then, we could pretend that we were back where we used to be instead of two lost souls who’d found each other for a moment’s respite. “Why the same initials?” I asked, realizing that each of her surnames had stated with the letter ‘F’, in the same way hers had.
“That’s in case you find yourself signing your old name somewhere. Having the same last initial gives you a little time to catch your mistake and remedy it before completing the signature.”
I smiled. “They think of everything.”
Hope sighed at this and propped herself up on her elbow to look at me. “Do they? I was thinking about what you said earlier about all my identities being compromised. You know, when I saw Dolmilo—” she sucked in a breath and shook her head “—as well as feeling sheer terror, I initially dismissed calling the Marshals as they were the only people who could have given away my location to Dolmilo. I can’t help but think that was the case each and every time.”
“If that were the case, one of his men would have tried to kill you before now. Plus, why would the Marshals have been so quick to relocate you the other times?”
Hope scoffed. “Maybe he wants to kill me himself. I cost him ten years of his life. I’m pretty pissed at him for costing me ten years of mine.” With that, she laced her fingers between mine and put her head back down. “I’m not saying that everyone at WITSEC is on his payroll, but all it takes is one bad egg.”
I nodded and was about to say that Rex and possibly Jameson with his contacts would be able to find out when the faint rumbling of bikes filled the air.
Hope instantly stiffened, jumping up, and coming to attention as though ready to bolt.
I smiled at her naked perfection but sighed inwardly that our time in this bubble had come to an end. “It’s fine. I told you we’d hear when Forever Midnight arrived.”
Hope visibly relaxed, grabbed my clothes, and threw them at me, and then tugged on her own. “Thank fuck, they’re dry,” she said. “I was so not looking forward to putting them on damp.
We emerged into the bright sunlight a few seconds later. The motorcycles had come to a stop a fair distance up the road. I could just make out Cane amongst the twenty plus riders who’d come to find us.
As we moved closer, I noted Caleb standing by the broken guardrail, pointing down to the car. Lucky jumped out of his jeep and started hauling rope from the back. They must have been planning on climbing down to try and find us. Cane spotted me and Hope walking down the road. He called to the others and every head turned our way.
Hope fidgeted uncomfortably beside me, and I couldn’t help but chuckle. “They’re not as bad as they look,” I said.
She smiled and cast them another wary glance, but she stopped fidgeting.
“How the fuck did you two walk away from that?” Cane said as soon as we were within earshot while pointing down to the wreckage of our rental car. “You’re like a cat with nine lives.”
I looked at Hope and considered how lucky she especially
was to be alive. “Let’s hope so,” I said. “We’d better get this car moved before the police find it and start asking questions. We’ll need to report the damage to the rental company too.”
“I’ll take care of that,” Lucky said. “You’d all better get back on the road and somewhere safe.”
Caleb agreed. Lucky handed Cane the keys to his jeep, and Cane gave him the keys to his bike. I guessed that meant the three of us would be traveling back to Castle Rock together.
“You sure you should be out here?” I asked Cane when he started the engine and we headed toward home. I sat up front with him while Hope opted to sit alone in the back. She’d barely said a word since my brothers had arrived, and only nodded in greeting when I’d introduced them. “What time is Thea due home?”
“Not until later this afternoon,” Cane responded.
I glanced in the visor mirror and saw Hope staring out the window. She seemed to be assessing everything we passed as though looking for any threats that may be following outside, and I wondered if this was a trait she’d picked up over the last ten years. Rightly so, given that Dolmilo was out there searching for a way to end her at this very moment.
Chapter Ten
Hope
I was exhausted by the time we arrived at the Forever Midnight clubhouse, as Bono called it. It looked like a warehouse-style building. It had security gates and a large lot with more motorcycles than I’d ever seen in one place. The ones accompanying our jeep only added to that number.
It had been strange listening to Bono and his friend Cane talk on the journey, but I was beginning to see why Bono would refer to him as his brother. The banter they shared and their obvious concern for one another had brought the years between us crashing back down. When we were alone, I could pretend that life was the way it used to be. Now, surrounded by strangers who were as close to Bono as I had ever been made me feel depressingly alone.
It was something of a relief when the clubhouse door opened, and a blonde woman ran outside with a little girl of around three or four. The intimidation factor of all the bikers surrounding me dropped a little. They headed straight for the man Bono had introduced as Cane’s blood-brother and gave him a quick hug before turning their attention to me.
“Daddy said you were in a terrible car accident,” the little girl said when she reached me. It took a moment for me to process her words given the background voices and the fact that they were spoken at the speed of light. “Your clothes are dirty, but you don’t look like you’ve been in an accident.” With that she put her hands on her hips and pouted while giving me an assessing stare.
I glanced down at my mud and dust-covered clothes and crouched to her level. “We were. Bono and me. But we’re both fine thanks to your daddy and everyone else coming to help us.”
“Charlie,” the blonde woman said. “Let Uncle Bono’s friend settle in before you ask her a million questions.” She placed her hand on Charlie’s shoulder and smiled at me. “It’s nice to meet you,” she said. “I’m Amber, and you might have guessed, this is Charlie. You must be Hope.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Amber.”
She sighed and looked at the clubhouse. “You must be exhausted. I wasn’t sure about your size, but I put a few clothes in one of the spare rooms for you to try out, and now that I’ve seen you, I can grab you some more clothes for later.”
“Thank you, that’s really too much.”
“Not at all.”
I glanced at Bono who was talking with Cane and his brother. Another man had joined them. I studied Bono’s face and saw how at ease he was in their company, although he seemed most at ease with Cane.
He was always the most ruggedly handsome man I’d ever seen, and that hadn’t changed even with him surrounded by his none-too-shabby biker friends — seriously, it should be illegal for so many gorgeous men to be stood so close together. If they took their shirts off, I’d think I’d gone to watch Magic Mike with Danielle again, but with way more tattoos.
Bono caught me looking and gave me a nod and a smile that I knew he meant to be reassuring. But the truth was, now that I was here, surrounded by strangers, I felt anything but reassured. I had no idea where we went from here. It was not that I expected to be whisked back to Bono’s place and spend the entire time alone with him. Hell, for all I knew, this was where Bono lived. I just couldn’t help but think whatever we’d found in the nook was gone.
“Let’s go inside,” Amber said, bringing me out of my thoughts. “I’ll show you to the room so you can get some rest. You must be exhausted.”
“I am. But I have to be honest, I’m not sure I could sleep without some food. I don’t suppose there’s a kitchen in there where I can grab a bite to eat.”
“Of course, there is, silly,” Charlie said grabbing my hand, dragging me into the building, and bringing a smile to my face.
She led me through a large open area with what looked like a bar at one end and to a kitchen in the back. She took great joy in sitting me on a bar stool while she went to the fridge. Amber motioned for the few men inside to leave.
Only when Charlie pulled out a bottle of beer did Amber step in. “That is not food, no matter what Daddy pretends.” She grabbed the bottle and put it back.
I glanced at the clock on the wall and noted it was only nine-thirty in the morning. If it wasn’t for that fact, truth be told, a cold beer wouldn’t have gone amiss. Although on my empty stomach, it would have hit me harder than I would have liked.
“Will bacon and eggs be okay?” she asked. “They don’t tend to keep anything healthy in here.”
“Sounds great,” I replied. “So, um... you’re Caleb’s wife, have I got that right?”
Amber froze in front of the fridge with a pack of bacon in her hands. “Caleb’s wife. I don’t think I’ll ever stop smiling when people call me that,” she said. “It’s only been two weeks since we married in a small ceremony.”
Charlie scrambled onto the stool next to mine. “We live with Daddy now. He lets me sit on his motorcycle, and I have a new bedroom with dolphins on the wall.”
“Well that all sounds very exciting,” I said, drawn in by her enthusiasm.
“And Uncle Cane and Aunt Thea had a baby girl. And they’re going to name her Buttons.”
“Charlie-baby, we’ve been through this. They are not going to name their baby Buttons, so I don’t want you to be too disappointed when it doesn’t happen.”
“I don’t know.” I laughed. “I think Buttons is a fab name.”
Charlie leaned in close and whispered, covering her mouth to make sure her Mom couldn’t see her lips. “Uncle Cane said to pretend Buttons because Daddy’ll get me a puppy.” She pulled back sharply and cast Amber a nervous glance, before drawing her hands onto her lap and giggling.
I laughed again. “That sounds like a very good plan,” I whispered back.
Before I had the chance to say anything else the door opened, and Bono walked in with Cane, Caleb, and a man they introduced as Rex.
“Nice to meet you,” Rex said and pulled me in for a big hug.
Bono pulled a strained face, and I smiled inwardly that he still had a possessive side toward me.
“Bono, how about some bacon and eggs?” Amber asked while flashing me a knowing look.
“Sounds great. I’m famished.” He walked over to the coffee machine and offered everyone a cup. Even Charlie said yes until her Mom put a stop to it and poured her a glass of milk instead. “We’re gonna need to talk a bit in Caleb’s office before we get some shut-eye,” he said, by way of explanation for the coffee.
I looked around the room and shrank into my stool a little. “I am sorry to cause you so much trouble,” I said.
Amber plated up the eggs and bacon and gave one of the servings to me along with a knife and fork. She smiled. “They’re used to it. I have no idea what it is about these men, but trust me when I say that they have a pathological need to rescue women in distress.” She wrapped her arm around
Caleb. “It feeds their hero complex.”
“Is that what we’re calling it now,” he said and kissed her on the forehead.
“That was what Thea said, and she would know, she’s learning all about these mental disorders.”
“So, it’s a mental disorder now, too,” he said, pulling back and giving her a mock stern look.
“As long as you’re my hero first and foremost, does it matter?” she asked.
He kissed her again and I glanced at Bono. He’d finished giving everyone a coffee and was delving into the second plate of bacon and eggs. I swallowed a mouthful of my own food, wishing for all the world, I had twice as much more. It felt like an age since we’d grabbed a burger. But with the food settling into my stomach, washed down by the coffee, I was beginning to take more note of my dirty clothes.
Bono must have sensed my discomfort, as he quickly finished his food. “Hope and I are going up to my room to freshen up.” He stood and held out his hand to me. “Leave the dishes and I’ll clean them later.”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got them,” Amber said. “I’ve taken the day off work and it will be nice to keep busy.”
Bono nodded his thanks to her and told the others we’d see them in Caleb’s office in twenty minutes.
Chapter Eleven
Bono
“How you doing?” I asked as I practically dragged Hope from the kitchen and up the stairs. I hated to think of her here in the room I’d shared with too many dolly girls to count but she’d started to go pale in the kitchen and I sensed she needed to get away from everyone for a little while. I took some small comfort in the fact that none of my encounters in the room had been recent and the covers were fresh and clean, and also that the club was under strict rules. No dolly girls were permitted to come around during the day. Not since Caleb had taken to bringing Charlie here on days Amber had to work.
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