Burning Ember (54 page)

“This right here is for me, no one else, Doll.”

I hear only sounds, his rapid breaths, a foil packet being opened, and Mav whisperings, “Damn, I’m gonna miss feelin’ you bare.”

His grip tightening on my hip is my only warning I get. I don’t even have time to take a steadying breath before his erection enters me. In one fierce thrust, he drives himself all the way inside me. Bottoms out. So hard and so deep, I have to push against the wall to not fall forward. I cry out and prepare for more of his assault.

“Jesus Christ,” he hisses and his lips travel up the back of my neck. “Too hard?”

“More . . . Mav . . . more.”

“Luce, baby. That’s who’s fuckin’ you right now.” Drawing slowly back, he pulls nearly out of me. Then though it’s expected, I scream his name as he slams back inside. It’s the last ounce of mercy he gives. From that moment on, he pounds into me ruthlessly, and without restraint.

And yes. I love it. Every. Single. Second. Of. It.

One of his hands fondles my breast and pinches with my nipple and his other pushes on my back to make me go lower. He finds a tight grip on my shoulder. It gives him the leverage he needs to fuck me into oblivion, and oh, my dear God in heaven, he does just that. He dominates me and I savor it.

He’s demolishing my fears of giving up control to another man. Breaking the rules, I thought I needed to be free and safe. There’s pain. But the pleasure is insurmountable and flows with the pain to give me only more pleasure. He’s holding me down. He’s owning my body in every sense of the word, but I’m not scared. This is my Luce. And he’s taking and receiving. He’s falling for me as much as I’m falling for him and I know if I asked him to stop, he would. But this is a part of him just as much as every other side I’ve seen and I can’t love him if I don’t love this part of him too.

This is what he needs. What he craves. And I want to give it to him.

His hand moves to my sex and he strums my clit. My release comes swiftly and steals my breath. A crescendo of tingling sensations that fire rapidly through my core and outwards, pulsing, sparking, setting off my orgasm to mountainous heights. I call out his name once, twice.

He growls and in the next heartbeat his grip tightens, becomes unyielding, and he drives so deep that he’s pierces the very heart of me in all the ways that matter.

“Ember . . . baby . . . fuck.”

I nearly confess right then that I want it all. Every single detail. Except I want it to be my home. My porch swing. My baby’s nursery. And above all, I want Mav to be my man. I want us to be more. I want us to live the dream he imagined.

Am I crazy? Can you really know that in only days? Would he think I was completely nuts if I admitted what I feel in my heart?

My knees wobble and when his weight falls on top of me, we drop to the ground. Mav to his knees. Me to mine. His hands snake under my shirt, crisscross over my chest, and he holds me to him, breathing harshly against my still wet hair.

“Nothin’,” he breathes out. “Nothin’ will be better than this.” He places three kisses on my shoulder, neck, and ear, and then his forehead lays down on top of my shoulder for a few moments while we both try to catch our breath.

I float back to reality and realize we’re on his dirty floor, and Mav’s still inside me. He’s still semi-hard. I tighten my inner muscles around him and I’m rewarded with a laugh as he hugs me close.

“If I didn’t have this meeting, I’d lay you down on this floor, and fuck you for three days straight.”

The thought brings a smile to my face.

He draws away and says, “Hold on a sec.” A moment later something lands in the garbage. The condom. I try to stand, but I have no strength to do so. When Mav comes back, he helps me to my feet, and then just like yesterday, he helps me put my clothes to rights.

His eyes draw up to mine. He stares for a long time studying me like he does. For the first time, I see him vulnerable, afraid, and I’m not sure why.

“Did I fuck up, Doll? Was I too rough with you?”

“No, not too rough. Why? Were you holding back?”

He wraps me up in his arms and brushes my hair out of my eyes. “Not even a little.”

He holds me for a few minutes, but then murmurs that he has to go. Slowly he draws back. “I can have Rigor follow you to Bethany’s if you’d rather shower and get ready there. I know I said I wanted to keep you close, but if you need a break and don’t want to be here while I’m at church—”

I touch his lips. “No, it’s fine. I’ll get ready in your room. Plus Lily already said she’d bring me something to wear.”

“You trust her to pick somethin’ decent out for you?”

“How bad can it be?”

He chuckles while nuzzling my neck. “We are talkin’ about Lil’ Bird, right? You know damn well it’s gonna be bad.”

Yeah, it is. But I’m kind of looking forward to driving Mav a little crazy tonight. I like that dark side of him. I can’t wait to see it again. Giving Lily free reign means I’ll be seeing it in spades tonight, which suits me just fine. I want more of what we just shared.

And yet it scares me how much.

Courage to confess what makes us weak is a strength not many possess.

MAVERICK

The awkward dance Edge, Dozer, and I play around the table upon first walking into church is almost comical. No one knows where the fuck to sit.

Finally, Septic who looks tired as hell after completing a twelve-hour shift watching Cap grumbles, “Just sit the fuck down. Nobody gives a damn where. That’s exactly the shit we’re here to sort out.”

The president chair remains open and everyone takes their normal seats around the table, except Edge. Dozer takes his VP chair, to Cap’s left. I take my usual seat to his right. It’s where I’ve sat since Griz was diagnosed, and became secretary. The brothers move in another chair beside Dozer for Edge.

Ordinarily sitting across the table from D wouldn’t be a problem, but it is today. He’s mad-doggin’ me. The veins on his arms pop with how he’s gripping his chair, as if he’d love nothing better than to duke it out right here and now.

“What?” I bite out and pop my chin at him. “I told you it was done . . . over. Leave her alone and we’re not gonna have a problem.”

“And if I don’t?”

Griz slaps the table. “We’re not here to deal with your bullshit. Both of ya are damn lucky Cap’s not around to see y’all brawlin’ in the yard over a woman. He would‘a kicked both your asses blue.” Griz shakes his head disapprovingly.

Edge turns to Dozer. “What’d I say? We got more important business to discuss than this petty shit goin’ on between you two.” Looking between us he orders, “There’s obviously still some bad blood, but it needs to get sorted. Take it to the ring and put an end to it. Tonight. Clear?”

“Let me just say somethin’.” Griz meets my eyes and then let’s his gaze travel over to D. “Somethin’ you young dumb fuckers need to get through your thick fuckin’ skulls once and for all. We don’t fight over a woman. When brothers do that kind of shit, you rip this club apart. We all agreed to live by a code. This club and everyone in it comes first. United, we live, ride, and fall. We do that, we survive together. We don’t, we fall together. You don’t believe in that no more . . . You don’t want to honor it . . . Then get the fuck out.”

His last words echo in the silence, or at least they do in my mind.

Griz rubs his hand over a couple of his rings and then knocks his knuckles on the table. “One more thing and then I’ll shut my old mouth. I get why you’re angry, brother,” he says to D. “Mav’s stole somethin’ good from us all and took it for his own.” Surprise rockets through me and I stare over at Griz. “So hand his ass to him, settle up in blood, and be done with it. But, brother, it also needs to be said so there’s no miss understandin’. You
are
gonna leave her alone. She’s been claimed. She’s where she wants to be. We all see that. So from now on, she’s off your radar. She belongs to a brother and that’s that. You got me?”

Through the speech, Dozer’s eyes continue to blaze with fury, but the tension slowly drains out of his body. When Griz finishes, and after a moment more of heavy silence, D looks at me. “Tonight, we’ll settle up. You and me. Then it’ll be done.”

I nod. Elation rolls like a cool breeze of wind through my chest. All I can think about is that the club just recognized Ember as my old lady and not one brother had any objection to that. I couldn’t give a fuck that I have to pay for deceiving Dozer in blood. I’d pay any price.

“We got real shit to discuss now. Yes. Because . . . fuck . . . I’m about five minutes from passin’ out on this fuckin’ table,” Septic mutters. He runs his hands vigorously over his face then sweeps them through his dark hair that hits his shoulders.

Clearing my throat, I say, “Then let’s get to it.”

All eyes turn to me. “Checked with Whiz this morning. No hide or hair of our boy Henry since his credit card popped up near that cabin. The guy’s vanished.”

“I still think someone got to him first,” Taz adds.

“One overturned lamp doesn’t mean shit,” Dozer fires back. “Could just be they left in a hurry.”

“Okay, so we got a ghost for a witness who knows how to hide like he’s in witness protection. Sounds fishy to me. What else we got?” Edge asks. “Does the guy have a relative we can push for info? Someone who might know where he is?”

Taz says, “He’s got a sister. That’s whose credit card he was usin’. So we know for sure she knows somethin’s up.”

“Okay,” Edge nudges D. “You and Taz, what do you say you head out in the mornin’ and go pay her a friendly visit? And I do mean friendly. Scare her enough and she’ll probably give him up.” To Taz he asks, “She got kids?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. She has some motivation. Remember . . .” His gaze hardens and narrows on T. “Friendly.”

Taz casts a glance my way and I give him a subtle nod. With there not being an official president leading this club, I don’t question his needing assurance.

“I want to know everything. Everything you couldn’t tell me while on the inside,” Edge addresses the group. “About Cap and that night. About where the club stands. What business we got runnin’ and what we’re pushin’ through.”

Half the table tenses up. There’s another weighty pause. Edge is ballsy, always was. He’s a born leader like Cap, but impatient like me. But for some of these brothers, the newer patch holders, him not being around for five years means they don’t know him and don’t trust him. They’re probably questioning whether we should simply open our mouths and books to him so easily. Our lives, our freedom are at stake. Putting trust in the wrong person in this kind of life is costly.

I can see Stone and Diesel askin’ themselves.
What if his loyalty’s changed while on the inside?

But it hasn’t. Edge is straight up a HOC. He lives and breathes it. He may be a Marine, and patriot, and but not enough to sell us out. He served because that’s what he was raised to do. He was following in his dead father’s footsteps, the same way Dozer followed in Cap’s. Both of them were trying to be the hero Cap was. But truth be told, he’s more Cap’s son than Dozer is. Through and through.

I speak up to lay some of the fears at rest. My gaze circles around the table. “Tell him anything he needs to know about where we stand. Half of you fuckers want him to lead in Cap’s stead. Well, he’s gonna need to know everything in order to do that.”

Griz backs me up. “Agreed.”

Dozer too by moving the conversation on. “We’ve questioned everyone in or around the area where it happened. But all the businesses were closed and not a lot a people are out on that stretch of road at three in the mornin’. Perez gave us any leads he had. Followed them. Trail’s as cold as a witch’s tit. We got nothin’ new besides the tip Mav got on the witness.”

“Where’d it happen?”

“On 314. That stretch of bare land right before the Palace West,” I answer.

“Where was he goin’?” Edge asks.

“Takin’ Becca home, I expect,” Griz states.

“Tell me the rest.” Edge chin lifts to me.

“Shot four times. Once while ridin’. Took one in the shoulder. I assume it distracted him enough he didn’t see spikes laid out on the road. The bike hit ’em, and went down. Turf ate ’em both up. Becca got the worst of it. The side of her skull shattered upon impact. Neither of ’em was wearing a helmet.”

“He crawled to her after,” Griz says gruffly. “Fifteen fuckin’ feet. Shot, and sufferin’ from a broken leg, ribs, and a dislocated shoulder.”

I add, “That’s where he was shot three more times in the chest at close range. EMT’s said he flat-lined twice on the way to the hospital. Doc said he doesn’t understand how he made it. That he’s fuckin’ lucky to be alive.”

Edge has already been updated on Cap’s condition but some of the patch members from the other chapters are still waiting for word, so might as well fill everyone in at once. “His doctor thinks he’s gonna wake up any day now. But it’ll be a long road to recovery. Warned us he may never ride again.” At that, every brother in the room lowers his head out of respect. Septic makes the sign of the cross.

“So someone who wanted him dead knew his route and waited for him on a stretch of desert where no one would hear or see anything?” asks Edge.