Most of them greet me as they file into the clubhouse.
Cross is waiting for me near the entrance, shadowed by Tank and Ace. I don’t want to wake Brenda, but not speaking to Cross is not an option.
“Wait here,” I whisper to her as she stirs while I’m getting off my bike. She sees where we are, sees Cross, sees the sea of my brothers walking into the building and her eyes are very wide as she silently nods. She has no need to be afraid. I think. I hope.
“Thank you, Cross,” I say as I approach. “You didn’t need to come to help me, but you did. And I’m forever in debt to you now.”
Tank chuckles at my words. “Damn straight, kid.”
Cross just nods at my words. “It was stupid walking in there with no plan and hardly any backup. It’s a good thing Ace called me. As for helping you out, I meant what I said. You and your woman were very valuable to us these last few days, so you’re both one of us, so to speak.”
All I can do is nod like an idiot, while I force myself to not thank him some more like an even worse idiot.
“But I expect you to show better judgment next time something like this occurs to you,” Cross says sternly.
“Although if it was your woman about to get gang-raped by a whole MC, you’d probably not judge things very clearly either,” Tank says, clapping Cross on the back.
I expected Cross to get pissed at that, but instead, he turns to his friend and grins. “Who knows? The main thing is that it's done, and it’s not gonna happen again.”
He looks at me sternly, and I swallow hard and nod.
“Hawk would never forgive me if I squandered you away like this. He says you’re the most observant guy he’s ever met, and certainly the most useful of all of us to him. So he wants you to report to him as soon as you’re back in Pleasantville.”
“Gladly,” I say, not really believing my ears. Is Cross actually praising me? Not that he’s not the type of guy to give credit where it’s due. It’s just that I’m not used to getting any.
“But you can take a couple of days off first,” he adds. “It’s been a long couple of weeks and you’ve earned it. But stay out of sight of the Kings. I don’t want to have to go fish you out of there again.”
“I’ll…we’ll leave Vegas tonight,” I say.
He nods, Tank slaps me on the back, Ace nods at me as they file into the clubhouse.
I have to fight the urge to skip and whoop as walk back to my bike. And Brenda. Brenda, who’s smiling widely at me, her eyes sparkling brighter than the starry sky above us. I can’t believe she’s finally all mine. But we have the rest of our lives to convince me. And I can’t wait to get started.
Brenda
I wake up to birds singing, a faint breeze that smells of roses and the sea on my face, and the softest, most comfortable bed I’ve ever woken up in beneath me. The best part is the kiss that roused me. Soft and deep, slow and sensuous, but on the edges of it is such passion, such desire, that thousands of butterflies are fluttering their tiny wings in my stomach, begging to be released.
I open my eyes to gaze into Colt’s warm face as he breaks away from the kiss.
“How’s your head?” he asks, and there’s concern in his voice, true caring, but also a very clear wish to know whether we can take the kisses to third base or not.
I smile and slide my fingers through his hair, before letting my palm rest on his cheek. “I barely feel it.”
That’s almost the truth. The bump on my forehead still throbs, but not like a serious wound. It’s healing, and I know just the thing to make it heal even faster.
I pull his face down for more kisses, harder and deeper this time, more passionate, less gentle, just the way I love it. The butterfly wings fluttering in my stomach catch fire, sending sparks of desire, need, and lust all through my body. It’s helped along in no small part by his kisses and his roaming hand playing with my nipple, caressing my stomach and hips before finally settling on my clit. I moan and gasp as best I can while his fingers do their thing, caressing my pussy, entering me, bringing me to the very edge of explosive, fiery, sparkling bliss before snatching it away. Then bringing it back. Again and again, until my entire body is fluttering, shaking, from the need to release this pleasure building inside of me.
“Take me,” I whisper as his lips slide down my neck, expertly find all the spots that make me shiver and moan.
“Gladly,” he says and shifts his weight so that he’s on top of me, his rock hard cock throbbing against my pussy.
A tiny wave on the sea of pleasure roiling inside me breaks as he pushes his cock in. I ride it, my body electric as his thrusts take me back out to the deep sea of pleasure, rocking me this way and that, taking me under, but never too deep, letting me float, caressing me inside and out with fingers and kisses of bliss I never want to end.
Many more small waves of pleasure break before his thrusts get deeper and faster and I know he’s ready too, ready to be washed in these wonderful waters of pleasure and bliss that our closeness and our joining creates. So I let go, meet his thrusts, let the waters consume, take me under, drown me in the most overwhelming orgasm I’ve ever felt.
I’m still shaking from it, still trying to see again as he kisses me one last time, then rolls off me to crash down beside me with a groan.
We lay there, holding hands, for a long time, the breeze off the sea making the memory of the pleasure we shared last and last.
I’m the first to recover and I turn to my side and balance on one elbow to look down on his, my hair draped over his stomach like a curtain.
“What were you thinking risking your life like that?” I ask. Not harshly, I’m just so overcome by the soft pleasure of now I can’t imagine it ever not existing.
He grins, kinda sheepishly, and brushes my hair away from my eyes. “It might not have seemed so, but I had a plan. Well, the beginning of one. And the first step was to get closer to you. And the fat man. I couldn’t believe my luck when he just offered to hand me a knife.”
“And then what?” I ask. “You would’ve just dispatched all the Kings with that knife?”
“If I had to,” he says. “For you, I’m pretty sure I could’ve taken all of them and still rode away with you at my back.”
“I believe you,” I say and kiss him lightly. “And I would’ve helped you every step of the way, of course. I’m not really ever a princess in distress that needs saving.”
He grins wider. “Oh, I knew that since the first day I saw met you. And you proved it on the second.”
“And I’ll keep on watching you back for as long as you’ll have me,” I whisper.
“All right, so it’s forever,” he says and grins some more. Kinda sheepishly.
“Forever, then,” I whisper and kiss him, willing him to feel all the happiness, bliss, soft caring warmth him uttering that little word to me created in my chest, my entire body, my soul.
Forever.
It suddenly doesn’t sound long enough.
Epilogue
Three Months Later
Brenda
The front porch of the small house me and Colt share looks out on the small, neat town of Pleasantville on one side, and the lush redwood-covered hills on the other. Sometimes, when the wind blows just right, like today, I can smell the ocean. The house is just big enough for the two of us, but there’s also a lovely guest bedroom where my mom could say. If I knew how to take care of her properly. But these days, she has to be fed too, along with having everything else done for her. I doubt they’re doing all that at that ratty home she’s in. But I have no money of my own. I’ve been looking for work, but I’ve spent most of my life honing only the skills needed to find a guy who’ll give me everything I need, so it’s not exactly been easy finding it.