Dex ARe (16 page)

I heard her sigh but she didn’t argue. Someday soon, I knew she might, but not today.

***

Billy and Sly got back just as I pulled into the Den parking lot with Ava. Their timing couldn’t have been worse. She wouldn’t give me details but I knew she’d had an exhausting shift and something or someone had put extra lines of worry under her eyes.

I shot a look to Sly but he kept his face neutral. Ava looked at each of us in turn as we walked into the bar together. I put a steadying hand at the small of her back. Billy wouldn’t meet my eyes and that told me most of what I needed to know.

Shit.

“Come on,” I whispered against Ava’s ear and it thrilled me how my breath raised gooseflesh along the back of her neck. Exhausted as she was, I knew she wouldn’t be able to resist giving herself to me if I asked. But I saw a flicker in Sly’s eyes before he turned to head into his office. Business would have to come first.

Ava practically crumpled to the bed when I got her upstairs. The hollow expression in her face tugged at my heart. I loved what she did and hated it too. She was physically and emotionally spent after whatever death and destruction had rolled into Green Bluff General’s E.R. last night.

She let me undress her. Her eyelids hung heavy, her limbs practically boneless.

“Mmm.” She purred when I pressed a thumb into the arch of her foot and massaged her there. “You’re going to give me a footgasm if you keep that up.” She rolled to her stomach and the sight of her luscious ass was almost more than I could take. She climbed further up the bed and folded a pillow under her head. She lay on her stomach with her left leg bent. My beautiful angel. I ran my hand along the slope of her breast where it pressed against the mattress, down her rib cage making her twitch where she was slightly ticklish, then rested my palm against her round ass.

“Get some sleep, baby,” I said, proud of my Herculean self-control.

“Mmm.” She purred again and yawned, already half asleep. A line of worry still furrowed her brow. I leaned down, brushing her hair aside so I could kiss the nape of her neck; the downy blonde hairs there tickled my upper lip. She shuddered from my touch then settled back against the pillows. Then I pulled the sheets up to cover her as she started to snore.

Careful not to disturb her, I lifted myself off the bed and quietly closed the door behind me.

***

When I walked downstairs, Billy was nowhere to be found and the bar was dark and empty. I went to Sly’s office and found him leaning against the window sill, staring out into the parking lot. I came to stand beside him.

“I take it things with Billy went about as bad as I feared.”

Sly chewed his bottom lip but kept staring straight ahead. “I don’t know how Blackie and your dad dealt with this shit sometimes. Who’d have fucking figured that dragging us out of the one percenter hell they did would make some things so complicated. Sometimes I feel like I’m running a damn sorority with all the backbiting, gossip and hurt feelings. Nobody fucking goes to prison anymore so maybe they don’t get how this shit is supposed to work.”

I took a breath, mostly to keep from smashing something. I think if Billy had been standing in front of me, it would have been his face.

“We vote the day after tomorrow,” he said. “I laid everything out for him. He’s being a little bitch about it.”

I nodded. “I wish I could say I didn’t see this coming.”

“He’s too damn stubborn or stupid or both to see what’s best for him. Goddammit, Dex, Billy
hates
half of the shit he’s got to deal with as V.P. I’m giving him the chance to focus on what he loves the best and you’d think I was telling him we were planning on cutting his balls off tomorrow.”

Sly finally turned to look at me. “Hey, I trust you. I’ve said that a million times. But this
stuff
with Billy is nothing but a distraction we don’t need. I’ll play it however you want it. What I need to know, if it comes to a vote, do you think Billy’s got any support?”

Sly shook his head. “You know he doesn’t. But that fucker is going to make me humiliate him in front of the whole club. It doesn’t have to be like this.”

“I think it’s time for Billy and me to have a little heart to heart,” I said. Ava’s thoughts on the matter had been bothering me more than I liked. She thought Sly was too close to Billy to see his naked ambition for what it was. I wasn’t.

“At this point, I don’t see the harm in trying. He’s heading to Sacramento tomorrow. There’s a fight venue I need him to check out. But he’ll be back by morning.”

I nodded. I hated the fact that it would cut into the two days I’d planned to spend with Ava, but the Billy situation needed to be handled once and for all. “I’ll try to talk sense into him. He needs to understand what I’ve given up for this club. Once upon a time we were close. I can remind him of that in a way maybe you can’t. Then, the day after tomorrow, you put it to the members. If that’s the way he wants this to go down, then so be it. At least you and I have done every damn thing possible to make it easier for him.”

Sly slapped me on the back and some of the lightness came back into his eyes. It was good. It was how things were supposed to be. Sly and I were meant to shoulder the burdens of the club together. I had no idea whether I could manage Billy any better than he did, but I agreed club harmony meant I had to try.

Chapter Seventeen

Ava

Dex woke me up with slow kisses as I nuzzled against his broad chest. We spent the day in bed and I was positively saddle sore but deeply sated. He looked down at me with such tenderness I thought my heart might burst. But I couldn’t help but notice something else flicker behind his eyes and I knew it could only mean trouble.

“Did you tell Sly what I had to say on the subject of Billy?”

Dex evaded the question by kissing me on the nose.

“It’s okay,” I said, leaning up on one elbow. “God knows I bore you enough with my work stuff.” The sheet slipped and exposed my breasts. Dex reached out with a languid hand and fingered each of my nipples, his eyes flashing with desire. I felt an answering heat in my core. He took my hand in his and brought it to his lips.

“What was it like over there?” he asked and I stiffened. Since our first conversation about my life during his absence, he hadn’t asked me many questions. I think he sensed it was something I preferred to leave in the past. But it was part of me and he knew that. I shifted my weight so I lay on my back staring at the ceiling. Dex threaded his fingers through mine and brought my hand to rest against his chest. I could feel the strong, steady beat of his heart.

“Hot. Sticky. It smelled bad. I could never go more than a quarter mile in any direction unless I was riding in an armed transport. And I met some of the best people I’ve ever known in my life. I don’t regret going, not for a single second. But I never want to go back.”

“I’m sorry,” he said. He ran his fingers along the inside of my arm, sending a shiver of pleasure up my spine. “I wish I’d known when you were there.”

I shrugged. “It wouldn’t have changed anything. I had enough people worrying about me. Plus, you had plenty of things to deal with where you were.”

He nodded and stared at a point on the wall. “What about you?” I said. “What was it like for you in there?” I hadn’t asked him many questions about his time either. In some ways, I sensed his way of handling it was much like what it was for me. Live in the now. Don’t dwell on the past.

He raised a brow and met my eyes before he answered. “Hot. Sticky. It smelled bad. And I could never go more than a quarter mile in any direction unless I was riding in an armed transport. And I met some of the worst people I’ve ever known in my life. I regret every second that I wasn’t here with you but there’s no point in looking back.”

I wanted to say
I love you.
But for the thousandth time, I stopped myself. It was something neither of us had been ready to bring ourselves to say to each other. I knew Dex was scared of spooking me and was at least partially justified. I could handle things if we lived in the moment. Things were still new between us. He was still firmly entrenched in club drama and I knew what that brought with it. It had nearly killed him and tore our world apart the last time around. I would never ask him to leave it behind for me. But I also didn’t know if I could stay in that world with him for the rest of my life. So we didn’t talk about it. We used sex to avoid it.

I looked at the clock. My shift started in an hour and I knew Dex wanted to catch Billy alone when he came back from wherever Sly had sent him for the day. Dex sighed as he realized the time too. Groaning, he stood and tugged at my arm.

“I need to grab a shower,” he said and he practically dragged me out of the bed.

“What does that have to do with me?” I teased. I hadn’t been able to take a solo shower in weeks except for the ones I took at the hospital. I knew if Dex could figure out a way to crash those too, he would.

“You’re coming with me, woman. I need you to make sure I clean all those hard-to-reach places.”

Then Dex picked me up in his strong arms as if I weighed nothing. He heaved me over his shoulder caveman style and smacked my bare ass for good measure. I squealed and made a show of struggling against him, but he only needed to dip one finger between my legs and he could tell it was all for show. He had me. He owned me. I craved him.

He carried me to the bathroom, reached in and turned on the shower jets. His lips and hands were everywhere as he set me down. I reached up and ran my hands along his broad chest. I loved the feel of the wiry curls along his solid abs. He was already huge and hard. His erection bobbed in front of him, inviting me to do something about it.

And so I did.

As we waited for the water to warm, I sank down to my knees in front of him, shooting him a sly smile. His eyes darkened with lust and I kept eye contact as I slid my lips around his turgid cock. My Dex was so big I had to stretch my mouth wide to take all of him in. He shuddered in my mouth as I set a rhythm I knew he couldn’t resist. I took him all the way down to the root, gagging a little as his hair tickled my nose. I sucked hard, keeping him right where I wanted with a strong grip on his ass.

“Ava,” he gasped as I swirled my tongue around his shaft and sank even lower down. I felt the muscles of his hamstrings twitch and knew he exercised powerful restraint to keep from taking over the pace from me. He would hold on as long as he could before he would need to grab my hair and fuck my mouth. The thought of it thrilled me. Heat grew between my legs as I lavished Dex with my lips and tongue, seeing how far I could take him before he lost himself in me.

“Fuck,” he whispered as I took a long, slow suck up the shaft of his cock, pulling off with a pop. And that’s what finally did him in. “I can’t stop.”

I smiled up at him; his eyes fluttered and practically rolled into the back of his head. Then I opened wide as Dex hooked his fingers around the back of my head and brought me down on him. I sucked him through every pulse of his orgasm, taking every drop he had to give me. Toward the end, his knees buckled and he had to reach back and steady himself by grabbing the bathroom counter. Finally, he sank down and knelt in front of me. The shower ran hot beside us, filling the room with steam. Dex kissed me slow and deep and we helped each other up and stepped over the side of the tub.

He turned me away from the water and bent me forward with a strong hand at the center of my back. I angled my ass up for him, my muscles clenched and ached, waiting for Dex to fill me. The power of my need had me quaking. Dex plunged deep in me, his dick still rock hard even though he’d already spent himself. He fucked me hard and I braced my hands against the shower walls. While still inside me, Dex reached back and pulled the shower sprayer off its holster. I gasped when I realized what he was about to do. Dex adjusted the nozzle and brought it around. With Dex hard, thick and deep within me, he reached around and worked me with the shower nozzle, letting the jets hit me in my most sensitive spots.

The sensations were so intense, I felt like my skin couldn’t contain them. The gentle spray struck my swollen clit like a thousand probing fingers, sending an electrical current through my whole body. I came almost instantly. It was my turn for my knees to buckle and Dex brought his other arm around to keep me in position. All the while, he kept the nozzle steady, rendering me helpless against the relentless jets. I came in wave after deep wave of pleasure. Just when I thought I was cresting down, desire built again and Dex coaxed another orgasm out of me. I wriggled and squirmed, trying to turn away or control the sensation but Dex held me firm, controlling my pleasure and making me ride each new wave as it came.
With his cock, his hands, and that shower nozzle he claimed me, owned me, made me his again and again.

Finally, I sank against him unable to take it anymore. If Dex came again, I didn’t even know. I felt numb and sated, barely able to hold myself. A slow, satisfied grin came over Dex’s face as he turned me around to face him. He holstered the shower nozzle and grabbed a fresh wash cloth from the basket next to the tub. He took his time lathering me and himself with soap. I leaned against the wall, and let him tend to me. I could hardly feel my arms and legs. When he finished, he helped me out of the tub and sat me down on the vanity chair so he could help me dry.

“I think I like you like this,” he said. “I’ve finally found a way to fuck you senseless.”

I smiled, leaned down and kissed the top of his head as he knelt before me and toweled off my feet. He kissed each of the arches, sending a fresh tingle through my whole body.

“I’m not going to be able to move for about an hour, much less lift patients.”

Dex seemed immune to my protests as he dragged me to my feet again and helped me stagger back out into the bedroom. “Now, I’ve just got to figure out a way to tie you down so you don’t squirm so much the next time we do that.”

I shuddered. He’d found the perfect blend of torture and pleasure and I’d be lying if said I didn’t hope he could find a way to do just what he said. “Next time! It’s going to take me a week to recover from
this
time.”