He didn’t nod. Just stared at me, then Flick, something like fear paired with anger encased in his eyes.
“Don’t get your panties in a bunch, kid,” Flick told him, moving to wrap his arm around my shoulder. I stiffened. “I just need to talk to the girl, is all.”
Once they were gone, it was only Flick and me. The rest of the bikers got up to leave, none of them sparing us a glance as they did.
“Sit, girl.” Flick pointed to the chair I’d been sitting in earlier.
I handed him back his phone and did as he asked. If I wanted to go back to Rockford with Archer, then I needed Flick’s forgiveness for what I had done. Not only for running off, but for talking to my mom without telling anyone.
“Listen,” I said as we sat down, one chair between us. “I don’t expect your forgiveness, but I need you to know how sorry I am about the letters—”
“Don’t give two shits about some letters. I knew where Pops was all along.”
My eyes widened. “You what?”
“You gonna rat me out to my boys?” He arched an eyebrow, looking like it didn’t matter what my answer was. “You’re not exactly their favorite person right now.”
“I… I don’t…” He knew? All this time?
He leaned forward onto his knees and grunted. “Looks like we’ve got ourselves a quandary, huh?”
If I wasn’t so angry, I’d have laughed at that big word coming out of his dirty, filthy, bearded mouth. “So, what, are you, like, blackmailing me?”
He shrugged. “Maybe.”
“Why tell me at all, then?”
Slowly, he pulled something out from the inside of his cut. An envelope the size of the ones my mom had been sending. I recognized the handwriting instantly.
“Damn conscience, that’s why.”
I blinked, mouth opening, then shutting, then opening once more as I asked, “Is that…?”
“Yeah.” He chuckled a little, but his face didn’t display the humor. “Started getting them in Texas. Thought it was a fluke. Had some guys check it out.”
“And…?”
“Not a fluke, girl. Your mom was writing to me too.”
My eyes burned with tears. All this time, I’d held onto the secret, fearing what would happen if someone from the Red Dragons found out I was in contact with my mom, yet the president of that very same motorcycle club had been getting letters too.
“What did she say to you?”
He handed over the letter then ran a hand down his long beard. Flick looked the epitome of casual and calm, though a tiny shake seemed to take over his left hand as he rubbed it up and down his jeans.
“Read it. Find out for yourself.” He stood then, not looking back as he hollered at me, “See ya in Rockford… daughter.”
My jaw dropped.
And then he left.
Without hesitating, I opened the letter, spreading it out onto my lap as if it was made of silk. It was crinkled at the corners, and there were tiny holes in the middle, as if he’d stubbed a cigarette out on it a time or two. The ink was smudged in many places as well, as though he had run his fingers over certain words. I could bet he’d balled this up, thrown it away, only to reopen it more than once. I’d done that with the first letter I’d gotten.
The tears came the second I started to read, and by the time I reached the second line, my bottom lip was all out shaking. Covering my mouth with a hand, I read the words, sometimes twice, only for them to make less and less sense. Soon, I wasn’t just crying. I was sobbing, the letter like a dagger in my back, my chest, my lungs too. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. And I also didn’t understand.
This letter.
This truth.
Pops wasn’t my father.
Flick was.
Thirty-Three
Archer
“Turn the damn lights off, would ya?” My head hurt like it did that time I drank a fifth of my favorite whiskey, all in one afternoon. Only this time when I swallowed, it tasted like chemicals instead.
A soft sigh sounded from my right as the lights flickered off. Then I felt her hands on one of mine a second later when she sat back down beside me.
“Are you always this crabby when you wake up?”
I smirked, then winced from the pain of doing so. “Don’t make me laugh.” I breathed through my nose, and it felt like a thousand needles were prickling the inside. “Shit hurts.”
Lips pressed against the back of my arm, my hand, whispered words softly against my skin as she spoke. “I’m sorry this happened to you.”
“Me too.” I cleared my throat. “You good?”
“Now that you’re awake and out of surgery I am.”
I smiled. That didn’t hurt at least.
“I’ve been sitting here for an hour trying to figure some stuff out though.” She moved onto the bed beside me, laying her head on my chest. She was so little I barely felt the pressure of her against me.
I wrapped my arm around her waist and kissed her temple, more than thankful to have her here, safe in my arms. “Your brain hurting again?”
“I wish it was. Then maybe I’d stop thinking so much.”
I didn’t wanna say it out loud. Fresh wounds like that were shit to bring up. But maybe she was waiting for me to ask. “You thinking about your mom?”
She nodded. “Among other things.”
“What other things?” I shut my eyes, worried she was second-guessing us… me as a whole. We hadn’t been able to figure out what this thing was between us. No time, no real knowledge either.
“What other things am I thinking about?” she asked.
“Yeah. Tell me.”
At first, she was quiet, and I thought maybe she’d changed her mind about talking at all. But then she asked me something so easily remedied, I knew she’d be saving the tough shit for the end.
“What does JP stand for?”
I grinned, but it hurt and I could only do it halfway. “You really wanna know?”
Her warm breath grazed my neck as she put her chin on my chest. “Yes. It’s been driving me nuts.”
I sighed. So much for never telling her. “It stands for ‘junk puncher’.”
I waited for her to yell at me. Call me a pig, or tell me I was an ass. Lo and behold, she did none of those things and started laughing instead.
“You think that’s funny?” Hearing her laugh like that was something I didn’t think I’d ever hear again. So even though my gut hurt, I couldn’t help but laugh with her. The pain was well worth the pleasure.
“I mean, it’s original.” She snorted. Actually fucking snorted.
“And you’re damn good at it, too.”
Tears dripped from her eyes from laughing, and I couldn’t stop from reaching up and wiping them away. Thankfully my pain meds were awesome because I couldn’t feel nothing in my broken collarbone.
“From the moment I met you, Archer Benedict—”
“Pulling out the full name now, are ya?” I poked her in the ribs and she jerked, her thigh falling over mine.
“Let me finish.” She rolled her eyes.
“Go for it. Nobody’s stopping you.”
She groaned and set her forehead on the center of my chest. “As I was saying,” she drew the word out. “From the moment I met you, you’ve done nothing but fluster me or anger me, or make me feel… alive. Even all those years back when I came to the club with my mom, I used to watch you. And I hated the fact that out of all the men there, you were the one that intrigued me the most. I’d been taught never to want the bad things in life, you know.”
“I should probably be offended, huh?”
“Nah. It’s a good thing.” She shrugged. “Besides, I see the real you now, Archer.”
“And what’s the real me like, huh?”
She laid her ear back against my chest, but not before I noticed the smirk. “Strong-willed. Still too cocky. But you’re brave, and caring, and you sacrifice yourself for the people you love. You’re nothing like
I once thought you were.”
“Hmm.” I grinned a little, desperate to stroke the back of her long hair.
“The point I’m trying to make is, I think that there was a reason I was drawn to you, even though I never actually liked you back then. Like, maybe all those years ago, I knew that somehow our lives were… you know.”
She rubbed a slow circle over my sternum. That soft movement alone had my cock jumping under my hospital gown, and damn if I wasn’t happy that he was still alive and ready. Because as far as I was concerned, he and the space between Emily’s legs had only just gotten acquainted.
“Spit it out. Everything in that mouth of yours. I wanna hear it, JP.”
“Fine. The truth is, I’m in love with you. And before you start telling me that you don’t do love, that it’s a curse, let me just point something out first.”
My heart jumped into my throat as I stared down at her red cheeks, those brown eyes so sincere and honest that I wanted to fucking live in them.
“I’m listening,” I whispered, running my fingers over her cheek, her eyes, her nose, her lips, all while she told me her truth.
“Statistics show that people who go through trauma together, and fall in love while they’re at it, don’t always last. But sometimes they do, and I’m banking on that with you, because as much as I once thought running away was the answer, I know the truth now. Even if my mom had made it…” She paused. I saw the tears there and lifted a thumb to the corner of her eye to catch them when they fell. “Even if she had,” she continued, “I would have come back.”
“For Summer, right? And Hawk and the baby?”
“No, Archer. Because being away from you? It would’ve killed me.” Emily lowered her forehead to mine, breathing me in like I did her. “I want you, Archer. I want you for as long as you’ll let me have you.”
Despite the fact that I was all messed up from the meds, my cock reacted to those words like she’d just put her lips around it. I couldn’t help it. I was wired one way, so being trained to be the man Em deserved was gonna take some time.
“Got a hypothetical question for you first.” I ran my hand down her cheek, tucking some hair behind her ear. “Say you get an inkling to leave the club again—would you? Because I’m all in with this thing, but if you leave me, I need time to prep.”
She shook her head, tears falling from her eyes. “You’d leave your club? For me?”
“I would.” In a heartbeat. I loved my brothers. But I loved her more.
“I wouldn’t ask you to do that. Not ever. They’re your family and… I want them to be my family now too.”
I blew out a low breath, chuckling a little with relief. Leaving the RDs would hurt, yeah, but losing Em would hurt more.
“I get it now.”
She frowned. “What do you get?”
“The reason you ran was the same reason I ran with you.”
She blinked then laid her head back on my chest again. “We protect who we love, right?”
“Always, Em. Always.” And though her ma hadn’t made it, I was determined to help her find a new family in the one she left back in Rockford. With me and Hawk and all the brothers. She belonged there. With me.
I lowered my hand to her hip then slid it up to her waist. She arched her hips over me, a tiny gasp leaving her mouth as I squeezed. Pushing her forehead up with mine this time, I looked her in the eyes and said, “You gonna kiss me again, or what?”
Her grin grew impossibly wide as she raised her lips and hovered over my mouth. “Soon.” She winked. “We got lots of time for lip kisses. But I’m thinking right now, I want to kiss you somewhere else first.”
“No shit?” I smirked.
She nodded, slowly lowering her body over mine, kissing my neck, the middle of my throat, tugging my hospital gown up just enough to get lips on my stomach. I flinched, but not from pain; her hot breath over my skin was full-on pleasure.
And then she gave me that curse-sealing kiss—the best kind a man could ever ask for—in the form of her perfect lips wrapped tightly around my cock.
When she was done, and I was panting and pulling her hair and dying from how good her mouth felt on me, I finally yanked her right back up my body and sealed the deal between us with her mouth connected to mine.
Epilogue
Emily
One year later
“Oh, good Christ, babe. Feels so damn…” His words turned into a low moan as I rubbed and pushed my thumbs deeper into his skin.
“You like that?” I settled my mouth to his ear, grinning as I kissed the lobe. His hair had grown out, not long but enough to where I could run my hands through it and it tickle my palm when I did.
“Fuck yeah. Don’t stop. God, don’t ever—”
“The hell’s going on in here?” Flick yanked open my car door, his eyes latching onto me… straddling Archer’s lap.
“Fuck you, cock-blocker,” Archer moaned, laying his head back against the seat. His eyes were so narrowed I thought for sure he’d give himself another headache.
We were completely dressed.
There was no sex happening either.
Just me, being a good little girlfriend, giving my boyfriend a massage outside the club, in a very compromising position. Archer, though, must’ve thought this was about to be something entirely different.
“Hawk’s running all over trying to find your ass. The guys are getting ready to leave, for fuck’s sake.”
Leaning back against the steering wheel, I stared at my, um, father, wondering if I’d ever get used to the fact that a man who I barely knew was suddenly trying to be a man he should’ve been years ago.
My mom’s letter had shaken me to the core.
Flick was my father.
Flick also hadn’t known that he was my father.
Mom, feeling guilty during her months of chasing Pops across the country, must’ve grown a small conscience over time which had then inspired her to admit the truth.
Flick wasn’t an ideal dad in the least. And I wasn’t sure if I’d ever call him the d-word. But over the last year, we’d talked a little. Spent some time together too, where he’d told me about him and my mom, their relationship, and how he’d wanted to protect her. He’d been willing, at one point, to go against his president to make it happen, he’d said. But my mom had been too scared, dumb, and clueless about loyalty and what mattered and didn’t. In turn, she’d nearly ruined everything in my life because of it. But you know what they say about things happening for a reason.
Still, Flick did what he could, even trying to help me revamp my mom’s wedding-planning business, only for me to decide after one wedding that I absolutely hated that job.
“He’ll be there in a second.” I smiled down at Archer, tracing the small scar by his left eye.
He narrowed his eyes up at me, squeezing my hips just beneath my crinkly dress. “Yeah, sure we will.”
“Do not make me fucking remind you, asshole, that this is my daughter you’re with now.” Flick slammed the door shut at that, leaving us alone, only for the two of us to burst out laughing with our heads pressed together when he was gone.
A few seconds later, when I was sure my mascara wasn’t dripping down my cheeks from cry-laughing so hard, Archer buried his nose against my hair.
“Yeah, and I’m gonna make his daughter scream real good when I get her under me tonight.”
My giggles turned into moans and I shut my eyes at the feel of his teeth nipping my neck. “That a promise?”
“Fuck yeah it is.” He bucked his hips up, the hard erection beneath the zipper of his dark jeans rubbing at my wet center. My panties were soaked from massaging his shoulders alone, so much so I feared a person might see it.
Regardless, I’d really missed this between us.
“You’re home, then?” I gasped. “For good now, right?”
He nodded, lifting his hands out from under my dress and grazing both thumbs against the bottom of my breasts. “You miss me, JP?�
�
“Terribly.” I pulled back, cupping his cheeks in my hands. Then I did what we’d gotten amazing at, kissing him so softly, so lightly, that my head began to spin.
For the past month, he’d been in Ireland with his mom and Angel. They’d planned the trip after Anne had found out her aunt was still alive. More than anything, she’d wanted Archer and Angel to meet the woman, and Archer, who’d developed quite an attachment to his little brother, had eagerly gone along in hopes of getting to know the quiet, protective boy who’d saved us both. At seventeen, Angel, who Archer had affectionately nicknamed Casper, had truly come into his own. He’d begun prospecting under the Red Dragons three months ago, and would soon be a full-fledged brother of the club. I was protective of the boy myself, mostly because he was still so quiet, but I also knew he was in good hands when it came to his brother, and the rest of the men here.
Who would have thought that a lifestyle I had once hated would become a lifestyle I now reveled in?
Archer’s tongue slid expertly between my lips, soft and smooth, if not a little overeager. Fingers skimmed higher up my thigh, toying with my panties, and I sighed, completely content with it all. Yes, I would’ve loved it if he’d slipped a finger beneath the elastic, but after nearly losing him and after what we’d gone through? I’d learned to appreciate the little things in life, like a make-out session in my car, ten minutes before our best friends were set to get married.
The mint of his breath rushed through me and I shivered when he dragged his dull nails down to my knees. I smiled, loving the taste of him, feeling so much like a teenage girl it wasn’t even funny.
“Love you.” He breathed the words like he always did, leaning back to look up at me. Sometimes I wondered if he even knew he was saying it at all, but I felt it. So much so. Always. Archer loved like he’d never done it at all: expressive and tender, rough and real. I was determined to make him my forever.
“I love you too.” I kissed his nose, grinning, feeling my nerves kick up when it hit me all at once—that feeling, that question…
Her Hot Ride: A gripping and sexy biker mc romantic suspense novel Page 24