by Jamie Begley
“Oceane must have been high on pain meds when she said that.” Skeptical, he didn’t think his mother-in-law would ever give Dalton the go-ahead to remarry unless she had been stoned out of her mind.
“She wasn’t. She told me when they found the breast cancer and she had been taken off the transplant list. Then she told me again two days before she died.”
He paused, reaching for a spear of strawberries and pineapple. “Did you tell your dad?”
“Not yet. She gave me a letter to give to him when he remarried. I gave it to T.A. this morning to give to him tomorrow. Today should be about them.”
“You learn something new every day. That Oceane gave her approval for Dalton to get remarried blows my fucking mind.”
“She didn’t give her approval. My mother was too jealous and possessive of Dad to do that. She told him that she loves him and that she still expects him to be buried next to her. That his new wife can be buried on the other side. She had Dax buy the cemetery lots before she passed away.”
“That’s the Oceane I knew.”
The introspective look on her face told him that she hadn’t told him what else had been in the letter. Ice didn’t press her, getting the impression that she was leaving something out that she didn’t want to discuss.
“You go take a warm bath, and I’ll get our clothes packed.”
Graced nodded going to the bedroom as he finished the skewer of fruit, giving her a few minutes alone.
Ice knew how close she had been to her mother and, despite how much she had come to love T.A., she still missed Oceane.
Walking into the bedroom, he saw Grace sitting on the bed with a jewelry box in her hands. Sensing he was there, she tore her eyes from the striking bracelet in her hands.
“It’s beautiful.” Her voice wobbled as she held out her hand for him to put it on. “When did you have time to get it?”
“I’ve had it for a couple of weeks. Dalton’s been keeping it for me. I didn’t want a repeat of Christmas. You’re terrible about opening your presents.”
During Christmas, he caught her rewrapping a present that he had wrapped and put under the Christmas tree. She was worse than a child when it came to presents. She couldn’t resist the temptation.
“I can’t help it.”
“I know.” Fastening the bracelet, he knew he had chosen well. The dainty jewelry came alive against her skin. The gold metal gleamed with the small, jeweled hearts flashing fire, catching the light as she raised her hand to stare down at it.
“It’s beautiful. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“I have a present for you, too.” Going to the closet, she took out her suitcase. Unzipping the compartment in the front, she took out an envelope and hesitantly gave it to him.
Opening the envelope, Ice took out a Valentine’s Day card. Inside was a receipt.
“I bought you a bike like Colton’s.”
“I asked him to sell me one. Now I see why he wouldn’t.”
She gave a sigh of relief. “I knew you needed another bike. Colton said he would refund the money if you had another you wanted more.”
“Are you kidding me? That bike is kick-ass. Shade was trying to buy one off him, too, when we were outside.”
“So, you’re happy?”
Ice looked up from the receipt. The unsureness in his wife’s face had him reaching for her. “I was happy before you gave me the bike.”
She nuzzled the side of his throat poignantly, burying her face in the crook of his neck. “You were?”
“I am,” he assured her.
Turning her toward the bathroom, he swatted her on the ass to get her moving. “Go take your bath, and I’ll get everything packed so we can enjoy the rest of the evening.”
“Yes, sir,” she mocked.
“Damn, that sounds good. You should ask Lily for a few of those less—Ouch!” Ice dodged the empty jewelry box still in her hand.
“You know that’s not going to happen.”
“Babe, let a man dream.”
“Okay, you can dream about it when I’m in the bath, but when I come out, you better be back in reality.”
Positioning Grace’s suitcase on the end of the bed, he started working on packing their clothes as the sound of running water came from the bathroom. Confident that Grace was occupied, he took out his cell phone, making sure there weren’t any missed calls. There weren’t any, but without a doubt, Shade would be shooting him one when he wasn’t occupied.
The Last Rider wouldn’t give a fuck that he had been seen doing his wife, but what the brother would care about was Lily never finding out.
Finishing the one suitcase, he pulled the smaller one out of the closet, filling it with his things. He was lifting it from the bed when he heard Grace getting out of the tub.
Shoving the two suitcases back in the closet, he was thinking of lying down and stretching out on the bed when the door opened and Grace came out with a towel wrapped around her.
“Your turn,” she said, running a smaller towel through her hair. “I’ll heat us up something while you take your bath.”
Determining that once he lay down, he would be out for the count, he nodded tiredly, then went around her and into the bathroom. He preferred taking a shower, but Grace had already drained the tub and was refilling it for him. Taking his clothes off, he sank down in the warm water. She had even laid out a washcloth.
Washing off, he then relaxed, resting the nape of his neck on the end of the tub, too lazy to get out. He promised himself that he would get out in a minute.
“Ice.” He was so tired that he hadn’t heard Grace come into the room. His eyes landed on her, startled to find her kneeling by the tub.
“I’m coming. I dozed off.”
He brought his hand to the side of the tub to pull himself out of the water, but she pressed him back down with a firm hand on his shoulder before reaching for something by her side.
“Stay still.”
Curious, he took the champagne glass she handed him then watched as she reached down again before placing a plump strawberry at his lips. He took a bite as she deliberately ran a hand down from his shoulder to his chest.
“When we married, I swore I would never be the type of wife that would make excuses for not making love.”
“Grace, it’s not a big deal,” he tried reassuring her, setting the glass on the other side of the tub.
Caressing his chest, her eyes dismally collided with his. “I don’t know which is worse: that you think it’s not a big deal, or that you didn’t call me out on it.”
He nearly knocked the glass off with his elbow as he raised up in the tub. “I haven’t been fucking around on you.”
She continued stroking his chest as if he hadn’t said anything. “How could I blame you if you had? I’ve certainly not been there for you the last few weeks. Honestly, I haven’t been there for you since I lost Mom and the baby.”
Her forthright admission had him snaking his hand out to wrap around the back of her neck.
“Look at me. You think I don’t know that? You didn’t even have your balance back before you were knocked down again. You weren’t the only one who lost the baby. I lost him, too. I never planned to have kids—it’s not like I have any redeeming qualities to pass on—but I convinced myself that, with you in the picture, he might have a chance of having a normal life.”
“Except he didn’t.”
Ice could tell she was trying hard not to cry.
She lifted her chin and gave him an inviting smile as she reached for another strawberry. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore tonight. The rest of the night is just going to be about you.”
Chewing on the strawberry as she shrugged out of her robe, he forced himself to swallow the berry. Then she leaned over the edge of the tub to glide her hand under the water before wrapping her hand around his cock.
“Anything you want tonight is yours for the taking.”
“Uh… How
many glasses of champagne did you have while I was napping?”
“I’m not drunk. I sobered up when you reminded me that it’s been three weeks since we had sex.”
“I don’t want to fuck just because you’re feeling guilty.”
“I’m not feeling guilty. I’m horny.”
He wasn’t stupid enough to keep arguing, especially when her hand was wrapped around his cock like a fist. How could he be sweating while sitting in a tub of lukewarm water? He’d had more pussy than most men had in their whole lifetime.
When he fucked a slut at the Predators’ clubhouse to prove a point to the brothers when their relationship had first begun, he lost Grace. The only way he had gotten her back was to swear never to do it again. He kept his word.
One thing that fucking Brandy had done for him was to show him that no snatch was worth losing Grace over. There was always fresh pussy that the brothers kept around to relieve their itches with, but he was never tempted, despite them making their eagerness known.
One in particular was beginning to be a pain in his ass. He hadn’t paid any attention to Porsche when Lizard introduced her to the club, and he still didn’t. But the more he ignored her, the more she was determined to capture his attention. He told Lizard before he had left for Kentucky that the woman was on borrowed time.
The morning he and Grace were leaving for Kentucky, he stopped by the club to make sure there was enough money for Jackal for emergencies while he was gone. When he went into the office, Porsche was sitting behind his desk with only a tiny pair of shorts on and a bra that her huge tits were pouring out of.
Swinging the chair to the side, he told her to get the fuck out, but instead of running scared, she brought her hands to his belt buckle. “You look like you’re in a bad mood. Let me suck your cock.” Pouting up at him, she ran her tongue suggestively over her lips. “Come on, baby. I can make you feel so good,” she crooned.
He stared icily down at her, his eyes narrowed. “I bet you could.” He clasped her chin so hard that her skin whitened under his fingertips. The bitch didn’t even realize how close she was to him strangling her. “But so could any other bitch in the other room. You’re like a two-dollar bottle of cheap wine that I can have anytime I want. When I want it, I take it. There isn’t anything about you that I want to fuck. Not that mouth or that pussy you’ve been begging me to take.”
Sliding his hand to her neck, he tugged her out of his chair then forced her toward the door. “Open it,” he snarled.
Whimpering, the woman opened the door.
When he tossed her out of his office, she had to catch herself on the wall in the hallway.
“The only thing I want from you is to tell Lizard to get his ass in here.”
Slamming the door on her, he went back to the desk to take care of the business he had come for.
It didn’t take long before he had a knock on the door.
“That bitch is trouble.” Ice made no bones about voicing his displeasure.
“Which one?”
“Don’t play fucking stupid. You know who I’m talking about.”
“She has a thing for you—”
“She doesn’t have a thing for me. She wants to get to Desmond. She just wants to use my dick as an introduction like she used yours to get to me.”
“She’ll be gone before you get back,” Lizard said, turning to leave.
“She better be, or when I throw her ass out, yours will be right behind hers.”
CHAPTER 8
Grace saw the conflicting expressions chase across her husband’s face. Had she waited too long to try to save her marriage? She didn’t have to be told she had taken Ice for granted, lost in her own pain. Every time she tried to find her way out, it returned like a boomerang, driving her farther and farther away from Ice.
“Anything?” he asked huskily.
“Anything but me kneeling down to you, which is never going to happen.”
She teasingly pressed a kiss to his lips, then removed her hand from his cock to stand. Taking a towel from the towel rack, she held it open for him.
The sight of him rising from the water had heat rising between her thighs. His body was gorgeous. Even Killyama’s mother, Peyton, had asked her if she thought he would model for her. T.A. told her that she was a gifted artist, but as much as she liked the woman, she didn’t want Ice to modeling. She didn’t want anyone but her seeing the body that promised sensual pleasure just in the way he walked across a room.
His brown hair was shorter than when they first met. His compelling gaze made you feel as if he was aware of the indecent fantasies you were imagining, even in broad daylight. Sinful, dark passions lurked just beneath those ice-blue eyes. Sexually, he was a magnet for any woman, much less the women who had no hesitation in going for what they wanted.
She wanted to scream at herself. If she lost him, she would have no one to blame but herself.
She didn’t wrap the towel around him and let him dry himself. Instead, she attentively dried him off herself. Starting at his shoulders, she rubbed the towel over his body, taking extra care at his chest then his waist before sliding it down to the nest of curly hair above his thighs. Going lower, she dried the cock that was swelling upward, smiling when she heard him hiss.
Moving on, she slid the towel down his legs, soaking up the droplets of water, then moving to his feet before standing. Going behind him, she dried his back, intermittently placing kisses on each of his shoulder blades then trailing down his spine. She appreciatively dried off his ass before returning to his legs.
Satisfied that he was dry, she walked around him to face him again, noticing his cock was so hard that she could see the veins through the thin skin.
“Who needs a towel warmer when I have you?”
“You like?” Amusement filled her at Ice’s reaction. “Any time you want, I’m at your service. I enjoyed it, too,” she admitted thickly.
Dropping the towel over the side of the tub, she showered Ice’s chest with the same attention she had his back. Pursing her lips on one of his nipples, she laved at the sunken nipple until it rose into a tiny bud. Then she slid her tongue across his chest and did the same to the other one.
“I can be or do anything you want, Ice,” she murmured against his skin.
“Shut the fuck up,” he rasped out as he tunneled his hand through her hair. “All I’ve ever wanted was you, even before I met you.” He roughly enclosed her in his arms, tilting her head back by her hair, forcing her to meet his eyes. “Rainbows are beautiful while they last. I was fucking lucky to catch you before you found out what kind of man I was. I fucked up and almost lost you. I am never going to put myself in that position again.”
Tipping her nose upward, she bravely didn’t try to pull away from the hand pulling at her hair.
Ice wasn’t the only one aroused. Being in such contact with her husband had her hands going to his shoulders, her nails unknowingly leaving half-moon prints in his flesh. Her nipples beaded as heat flared in her center, coiling tighter when she saw the reciprocal passion in his gaze.
Ice was experienced enough to know she wanted him that it wasn’t just make-up sex; the desire, banked with grief of losing her mother and baby, was still there, waiting to flare out of control again.
Ice slid his free hand down to her bottom, kneading her buttock with his rough palm, insinuating his fingers between her cleft.
“I might be taking you up on that offer of doing what I want.”
Grace gulped at the image of Ice the Predator being given free reign.
“Are you going to take it back?” he asked, raising a brow at her, giving her the chance to rethink her offer.
Feeling frantic, she thought about the way he was looking at her, only the yearning within her own body wouldn’t let her. She wanted him as much as he wanted her. She had been trying to put restraints on Ice for so long that it had nearly destroyed their marriage. She was done with that. Limits sucked.
Ice was a bik
er used to breaching the speed limits. Striving to tame the thing she loved most about him, she tried to turn him into a four-door sedan.
She wanted her biker back. She wanted him back badly.
“Ice, fuck me.”
Bracing herself for what her husband would do next, she stood there gaping when he released her butt and strode out of the bathroom.
“What are you…?” Grace started to ask, coming to the doorway, then wished she hadn’t. She should have used the opportunity to lock herself inside.
She would never describe Ice as a playful lover. He had never wanted to play games like most couples do to spice up their sex life. The only spice he needed to get him hard was a sultry look. She hadn’t need it either, because Ice did two things really, really well: riding a motorcycle and having sex. Tonight, though, it appeared that Ice wanted to play. The problem was that she felt like a lamb and he was the big bad wolf.
He was pulling the shades down and drawing the thick drapes closed. Then he went to nightstand that was closest to him and turned the light off. The way he stalked around the bed to the other lamp had her shivering.
“Ice, when I said anything, I really didn’t mean anything.”
“Trust me; come here.”
Unexpectedly, she felt herself growing slick as she walked across the bedroom floor to him.
“Turn around.”
Turning around, she complied to his thick voice, hearing that Ice was getting excited about what he had planned.
“Shouldn’t we have some kind of safe… word?” she asked haltingly.
“You know the word stop, don’t you?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Then we’re good.”
She laughed nervously, turning her head to look over her shoulder, wanting to see what Ice was doing.
“Don’t look at me and close your eyes tight.”
Turning her face back around, she closed her eyes tightly.
“Keep them closed.” Taking her hand, she could feel him tugging her somewhere in the room. “Keep them closed,” he repeated., stopping her.
Staying still, she waited for what he would do next. The sound of the lamp being switched off had her nervously shifting back and forth on the balls of her feet. She wasn’t afraid, just curious about what he was going to do.