Dark Paths: Apocalypse Riders (20 page)

“You’re okay? How are your bruises?” she asked.

“Not bad enough to keep me from having you.” He kissed her below her ear, softly, his lips caressing the soft skin.

“I missed you,” she sighed, then turned within his arms. She gripped the collar of his vest. “I want you,” she whispered.

A smile broke across his tired face before he squeezed her tighter. “Maybe we can sneak out of here right now.”

She laughed and pushed him away with a hand on his chest. “No way. This is pretty important, from what I gather. Here.” She pressed a jar of moonshine into his hands. “Go on,” she said, “I’ll be right here all night.”

“Try not to drink the whole jug,” he said with a wink. He dodged and strode away before her playfully swung fist could make contact.

She was afraid the night would crawl on slowly. She couldn’t wait to get him alone - even if only to fall asleep together, though she had other things in mind.
I’m ready,
she reminded herself as the thought made her tremble.
I was ready before and I’m even more ready now.

The party passed quickly, though - too quickly. She hadn’t realized how much she’d come to care about so many people on the compound - May and her small band of gardeners, Ripp, the few other bikers she’d gotten to know. Lark introduced her to his “city-girl,” as he called her, a dark-haired suspicious-eyed woman named Josie.

“She’s looking for some shooting lessons if you have some free time,” he explained.

“I’d be happy to,” Lia said, finally earning a tight-lipped smile from the girl.

Lia spent the remained of the evening sharing drinks with Sunny and taking turns with her dancing with Preacher. He spun her until she was dizzy and laughing amongst a sea of other dancers. It was all so heartbreakingly
normal.
She half-wished Call would step in, but instead he interrupted the musicians for the evening’s toast to the fallen.

“Glasses up, everyone,” Sheedy called from his seat. His knee was still wrapped, and the poor man was barely able to stand on it - he needed a surgeon. He needed modern medicine. But that wasn’t going to happen. “We’re gonna keep this brief.”

“A toast,” Call announced, “To our fallen brothers. To Frankie, the king of finding trouble where there wasn’t even any trouble to be found. To Gull, and the boat gang he was ready to form for biker gang retirees. To Ron, the only man I’ve ever seen play a harmonica while riding. To Dray, the strongest, toughest motherfucker any of us have ever known.” A cheer went up amongst the crowd.

“They put their kickstands up and rode out knowing that some, perhaps many would not be returning. They spent their lives risking their own hides to save others. To benefit this compound. They pulled my dumb ass from the fire, this time and many times before it. So. To them and to their hogs - may we all ride together again soon. But not too soon.”

“Not too soon!” the crowd shouted. Back behind the crowd near the gates, the Prospects revved the engines of their bikes. Lia sipped from her jar as she wiped her eyes. She hadn’t known the deceased well. She’d met Dray once, the night on the farm when Call had pulled her from the sea of corpses. But they were Call’s brothers, and good men, and therefore not strangers. She shed tears for them with their friends and drank to their names.

And then Call was sweeping her away. “That’s all I’ve got, I’m through,” he told her, “Let’s get out of here.” Some of his men hooted towards them as they passed on their way back to his building but otherwise no one stopped him now.

As soon as they were inside her pressed her up against the closer door and covered her mouth with his, unable to wait even another moment. She felt the same, overwhelmed with emotions and unable to keep her hands off him, tracing the hard planes of his chest and tangling in his hair. Just kissing him, just being alone together made her chest swell with more happiness than she could bear.

“Make love to me, Call,” she breathed against his ear. She could hardly believe how much had changed since they’d first met - how much
she’d
changed. The old Lia was terrified of just kissing at all.

“Take your clothes off,” he growled, tearing at the button of her pants.

“You first,” she said, attacking his. They left clothes scattered from the door to the bed, tearing at each other, tripping and nearly falling in their desperation.

“I want you so bad, I don’t think I’ll be able to stop,” he groaned, “Are you sure about this?”

She pushed him playfully back onto the bed and stood naked before him. “Do I look unsure?”

He licked his lips. “No.”

She crawled over him, placing a knee to either side of his thighs. He lay back and looked up at her, his green eyes dark with hunger, and creased with concern. And the words just fell out of her. “I love you.” She hadn’t meant to say it. She didn’t want him to think she was so needy, didn’t want him to be distracted, and she especially didn’t want to scare him away. But after spending so much time apart and with so much uncertainty in their world, she couldn’t hold them back any longer. What if she never got to say them at all? “I’m sorry.” She looked away.

He didn’t seem like he wanted to recoil or escape, though. He blinked for a moment, then drew her down to him for a gentle kiss. “I love you,” he said, trapping her face between his hands. “So much is fucking hurts sometimes.”

“I don’t want to distract you. I know-”

“Shh,” he said, pressing a finger to her lips and chuckling. “I don’t want to think about anything that ain’t in this room right this minute, and I don’t want you to either, got it?”

She nodded. Then she reached behind her and found his erection with her fingertips. “This is in the room right this minute,” she said.

He nodded slowly. “I don’t want to hurt you,” he said, then with a sheepish grin, “But I don’t think I’ll be able to help myself if I get on top of you right now.”

“Okay,” she said, understanding that he wanted her to take control for the moment.
Another thing the old Lia would never do. Take control. Take charge.
She lifted herself over his thick and iron-hard member. She slid against his hot shaft, feeling it against her slick folds, and she gasped. Her desire became a flame so bright, it blinded her to anything but him. She couldn’t deny her need to have him inside her any longer.

“Slow,” he said as she positioned the tip of his cock against her entrance and eased herself onto it. She’d gotten to know it up close and personal once, but it felt even bigger when pressing inside her, stretching her wide open as she lowered herself down. Her virgin barrier - the part of her that had earned her a place on the minister’s farm, that had dictated her value to him and his family for so long - finally tore.
No regret at all. I’m not theirs anymore. I belong with Call.
He watched her face with a rapt expression. The sharp sting made her flinch, but it wasn’t nearly as painful as she’d been taught. “You okay?”

“Yes,” she hissed, lowering herself further, and further still, taking him all the way inside her an inch at a time. The pain was a distant thing. She could deal with pain; it was no stranger to her. The pleasure, though, made her gasp and pause before finally settling back against him.

“There you go, baby,” he murmured, his hands rubbing her back soothingly.

She couldn’t resist taking a look between them - his entire length had disappear inside her. The sight was more erotic than anything she’d seen.
God, this feels so… right.
He filled her in a way she’d never experienced before. She rolled her hips experimentally, grinding against him.

He groaned. “So fucking beautiful,” he said, “And so tight.” He gripped her hips tight and thrust up into her then, unable to resist. It sent a spike of pure pleasure down her spine. Slowly at first, he slid in and out of her as her walls gripped him tight. He guided their rhythm with steady hands on her hips, drawing her upwards, then down, as she stared into his eyes.

What was I so afraid of?
It didn’t really hurt; it didn’t feel sinful or wrong. She’d told him that she loved him with her words, but now she could show him with their body as they joined, as they became one.

She wiggled and moaned, all eager hunger now, needing more,
more.
He teased her with slow, shallow thrusts, holding her hips in place and pushing up into her until suddenly, finally, he moved deeper and harder. She moaned an animal sound she’d never heard herself make before.

The world spun as he rolled them, putting her on her back, resting his full weight on top of her. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close as he paused, his hardness poised just at her entrance, breathing hard. Her whole body buzzed as she waited; she pressed herself upwards at him, trying to urge him on, and his eyelids fluttered.

He started again with deep, fluid strokes, grinding against her as he filled her over and over. He found just the right spots, making her toes curl and her lips part as she breathed with him. Little by little she felt pieces of herself crumbling away as she gave herself to him. He wore a small smile as she lost herself completely, as he pushed her closer to the edge, slowly but surely.

Her back arched as he gave her just a little more; a little faster, a little harder, breathing louder, in increments that she herself could not measure, but her body could. He gave her her orgasm like a gift. It crashed over her, swirled through her with a hurricane force, breaking every last boundary between them as her clenching walls dragged him with her, as they lost sight and awareness of anything else in the world but each other. Like one heaving, trembling organism, they gave themselves over to the overwhelming sensations they’d created together.

It took several long, steadying breaths for her to come back to the earth and back to the little apartment. Call hovered heavy-lidded above her, head hanging as he recovered. Her heart swelled for him again, as it seemed to do every time she saw him now, hell, every time she thought about him.

A tear leaked from the corner of her eye, making him grin down at her. He brushed it away with his thumb. “You okay?”

“That was really intense,” she breathed. “Wow.” He rolled onto his side with a groan, finally freeing his softening member from her heat and letting the cooler air of the room wash over them. She sighed with relief.

“I don’t ever want to leave here,” he said, tracing her jaw with his thumb.

“Don’t,” she said, smiling, “We’ll barricade ourselves in. Let them try to break down the doors.”

“I wish. It sounds perfect.” He rolled onto his back as he lost himself in his thoughts again.

“Hey,” she said, propping herself up on his chest. “What did you say to me before? Don’t think about anything that ain’t in this room right this minute, right?”

He chuckled. “I did say that.”

“Well that rule applies for the rest of the night. I’m here. And I love you. And everything else can wait for the morning.”

He groaned. “That means I’m gonna have to fuck you again.”

She laughed as he flipped her back over onto her back and attacked her neck with his mouth. “Must you be so crass?”

“Caress. Taste. Ravage.” He lowered himself and sank his teeth into the soft flesh of her breast. “Mark. Pleasure. Devour.”

“Mmm. I think I like all those words.”

He looked up at her with more life in his eyes than she’d seen in weeks. “Cherish,” he said, tracing a line between the valley of her breasts, down to her navel. “Love.”

“Yes, Call,” she sighed as the fires within her reignited. He grew hard for her once more, pressing against her thigh. “Make love to me again.” She could have thought about how lucky they were and how grateful they ought to be to have each other for any nights at all. She could have considered how the odds of their survival plummeted every day. Or about how they might not have a chance like this again for a long time.

But she pushed those thoughts away. They’d set the rules for the night and she was determined to see them followed. As he slid inside her, as they moved together and found a slow rhythm that would take them where they needed to go with no rushing, no racing, she didn’t think that forgetting the outside for a time would be a problem at all.

Not for the first time, Call looked back at her over his shoulder. She offered a reassuring grin from the front seat of the jeep. Not that the president of the Devil’s Ashes needed anyone’s approval or was unsure of himself in the least. He just needed to know she was there, as she’d promised she would be.
Always.
He revved his engine. The caravan’s afternoon rest was over. It was time to hit the road once more.