Full Circle

CHAPTER ONE

Addison Murphy feigned sleep as her husband, Lincoln, rose from their bed and headed into the bathroom. She waited for only a minute after she heard the shower come on. She threw the covers back, jumped out of bed, stripped naked, and hurried into the bathroom. She opened the door to the shower and sucked in her breath at the sight of her husband’s naked back. She reached up and ran her hands down his strong muscles and down to cup his ass.

“Morning,” Link said, with his back still to her. He suddenly turned and backed her up against the wall. He leaned down and kissed her as he lifted her, and as soon as her legs wrapped around his waist, his engorged cock sank into her.

“Mmm,” Addy murmured against his lips. “I missed you last night.” Several minutes later she sighed, and said softly, “Lincoln, I love you so much.”

“Not as much as I love you,” he said, and kissed her deeper. The next several minutes left them too busy for talking. Twenty minutes later, when the hot water began to cool, they quickly finished washing and stepped out. As they dried off and went back into the bedroom to dress, Link looked at his wife and smiled.

“Thank you for that.” He pointed at the bathroom.

“No problem. Never a hardship to make love with my husband,” she said as she dressed in a skirt and blouse. As she put on her heels she sighed as she looked over at him as he dressed in a pair of well-worn jeans and t-shirt. “I wish I could go to work dressed like that.”

Link grinned at her. “Come work for me and you can.”

“Like I know anything about engines.” She laughed as she finished her makeup. “Oh, hey, don’t forget I have that thing tonight.”

“Thing?”

“The Andersons’ anniversary party.”

“Oh, so you won’t be at the clubhouse?”

“Probably not. Then I have the Maddison wedding tomorrow,” she said as she finished dressing, and together they went to the kitchen and Link started the coffee. Addy owned a party planning business and seemed to always have a thing. No matter how many times Lincoln listened to her, he could never grasp the concept of what she tried to tell him she did for a living. It took a few years to get her name out there, but in the last six months it seemed to take off.

Link owned the local garage and was a member of the local motorcycle club and he employed quite a few club members. “So you won’t be there tomorrow for the pig roast?”

“What time is it?”

“Starts around six at night. Tonight we’re going over the last-minute details. So tonight’s not really important for you to be there.”

“You sure? I could help with the planning.”

“Addy, you plan other people’s parties every day of the week. The club doesn’t expect you to plan ours,” Link said as he handed her a cup of coffee. “More importantly, I don’t expect you to plan anything for the club. When you’re there, I want you there to relax.” He didn’t think his statement was harsh, but he frowned at her expression after he told her about not planning for the club.

“Oh,” Addy said, and sighed. They had dated for two years, and had been married for five years now, and she still didn’t feel like she was accepted by the other members of the club and their wives or girlfriends. Sure, she was friends with them, but she didn’t feel accepted.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Addison?” he asked sternly.

At his tone, she deflated. “I’m sorry. I still don’t feel accepted by the women at the club. We’ve been married for five years, dated two years before the wedding, that’s seven years we’ve been together, and you’ve been in the club for eight. It’s not that they slight me, or ignore me, but I don’t feel accepted. I’m not trying to be whiny here, but that’s how I feel whenever I’m at the clubhouse.” She paused and then walked up and hugged him tightly. “That’s what I love about you. You know when I’m feeling off or unsure. You get me. I love you for that, and the fact that we can talk about anything, no matter how busy our lives get.”

“I feel the same way, Addy. But I don’t know what to tell you about the ladies in the club.” Link sighed as he hugged her, then took the plate of bacon and eggs she handed him. “I know they always ask about you when you’re not there, so do the guys. I know they like you.”

“Oh,” she said as they ate their breakfast, then cleaned up the kitchen together. “I’ll be home late tonight. The anniversary party starts at six. Tomorrow the wedding starts at two. I might be able to get away around eight, nine at the latest.”

“Don’t kill yourself to make it,” Link said as he kissed the side of her head. “I know you have your thing, I don’t know exactly what it is, but I know it’s for your job. If you make it, you make it, if not...” He shrugged and then grabbed his leather jacket with his vest of colors and a couple minutes later Addy heard his Harley start up then leave.

“Damn it,” Addy said, and sighed as she finished up her coffee. “How the hell am I going to feel accepted if you don’t care whether I show up or not?” she asked the empty kitchen. She continued talking to the empty room. She had this habit of talking to herself to try to convince herself that she had the confidence to do something when her gut screamed that she couldn’t do it. “You’re a good person, Addy. Just show up and start talking to them. They’ll eventually accept you. You got this. I’m your husband, I’ll be there to support you.” She snorted and actually jumped when her phone rang, then as she answered, she put her personal phobias away and got down to business.

Several hours later, Link walked into the clubhouse, and the first thing he did was go to the bar and get a beer. He’d had a hard day at work, the parts he’d been promised hadn’t arrived, and he spent several hours on the phone trying to track them down. That put his project back a couple days and the customer was calling, demanding his car back.

“Link.” Mary, the president’s wife who was tending bar, acknowledged him. “Addy with you?”

“No, she had a thing,” he said, and studied the woman’s face and saw disapproval in her expression. He noted that she didn’t ask what kind of thing. As he studied the other woman, he realized that whenever Lincoln would tell anyone at the clubhouse that Addy had a thing, they never, ever questioned him on what it was. He wondered if his wife might not be as paranoid as he thought she was.

“You sure?” came a voice from his side, and he looked over and saw Stephanie standing there. The chick had tried to get in his pants on several occasions, but Link was happily married and wasn’t interested. She was one of the women that hung around and slept with any single patch holder that crooked their finger. Not his style.

“Don’t start trouble, Steph.” Mary frowned at her.

“It’s just that I saw his wife meet several men at the hotel downtown in the last couple of weeks. Seems funny that she has time to spend all day in a hotel with other men and Link works hard all day.”

Link actually laughed. “Probably her clients. And believe me, she makes more money than I do. If it wasn’t for her job, my shop would have closed down a long time ago.”

“What type of clients?” Steph asked as she saddled up to him and rubbed her breasts against his arm and he immediately stepped away. “You must be a strong man to allow your wife to meet strange men in a hotel all day every day.” He didn’t like what she was implying and scowled hard at her.

“Yep. And you know why? Because I know she comes home to me every night,” he said, and stepped away from her. He looked at Mary and rolled his eyes. “Your old man around?”

“Out back with the pig cooker.”

Link grabbed his beer and left them. Steph sat down and sighed. “Why doesn’t he see that his wife’s cheating on him? If I was married to him, I’d scratch anyone’s eyes out for just looking at him. Someone has to have him take his blinders off when it comes to that woman. Bet her clients are there for sex.”

“Stephanie Gibson!” Mary said sternly. “Watch your tongue, if Lincoln hears you talk about his wife like that, he’d ban you from the clubhouse. She’s just at a point in her business that she’s busy. The summer is the busiest time for her.”

“What type of business? Prostitution?” Steph asked snidely.

Lincoln had left the bar, but he stopped in the shadows and wanted to hear what Steph would say about him or his wife behind his back. He trusted his wife with his life. There would be no way she would cheat on him. No way. But a tiny seed of doubt had been planted, as to why would she meet men at a hotel when she had an office? That was the burning question. He put it to the back of his mind and went to find the president of the club. They conducted their meeting while trying to repair the pig cooker. He enjoyed himself with his brothers and left the clubhouse shortly before one in the morning.

As he approached his house, he slowed, and smiled when he saw a car come from the other direction and beat him to the driveway so that when he pulled in, the garage door was up and he pulled in beside his wife as she parked her car.

Link shut his bike down and watched as his wife exited her car. “You look exhausted,” he said.

“I am. How was your night?”

“Good, we had a problem with the pig cooker, but we got it fixed. Yours?” One thing he loved about his wife, she always asked and wanted to know about his day first.

“How about work? Get your parts?”

“No.” He sighed. “But I made a few calls and put the fear of god in some people.” He grinned when she laughed. “Should have them bright and early Monday morning.”

“Good. Now to answer your question. My day was good. I met with three new clients, and if they get back to me like they said they would, that’s three more things I’ll be working on, and the anniversary was a success.” They made their way into the house and because of the late hour, they each grabbed a bottle of water and headed up to bed. Once they were settled in, Link reached for her and was surprised when she was already asleep. He lay there for a long time trying to get the image that Steph planted in his head out. He finally fell asleep with the notion of checking out that hotel in the days to come.

The next morning, Addy was already up and dressed when he came downstairs. When she saw him, she jumped up and poured him a cup of coffee. “I have a lot to do today before the wedding. First thing is to stop at the bank, do you have anything that needs to be done there?”

“No, I went after work yesterday.” He kissed the top of her head and glanced at the paperwork before her. When he spotted a check he whistled. He reached down and picked it up. “Damn, woman, what kind of services do you provide for your clients?” he asked jokingly as he frowned at the amount. The conversation with Steph instantly came back to his mind.

“I make my clients dreams come true,” Addy said, but she didn’t look at him when she said it. What bothered him the most about her statement was that she said it with a shrug and with not a care in the world. Normally he’d feel the same way, but this time, he began to doubt.

“What kind of dreams?” He refilled their coffee cups and sat down across from her.

“Whatever they want. The couple from last night’s anniversary party wanted to recreate their original wedding. That was hard, since they had been married for sixty years. I was able to work with the couple’s children and through pictures and memories of the guests, I recreated it.” She indicated the check he held. “The clients were so happy, that they gave me a bonus with the final payment.”

“So you meet clients at your office, right?”

“Yes, or wherever they want to meet,” she answered distractedly. Five minutes later she gathered her papers, and after filling a travel mug, gave him a quick kiss and left. Link shook off his funk and saw that he had to get to his own business, and decided to stop on the way to get breakfast. Maybe on Sunday he could sit down with his wife and have a heart to heart. Since her business took off, it seemed like they were like two ships passing in the night. As much as he enjoyed the shower sex, he didn’t want to feel like they only had time for one another as they passed the other.

*****

On Wednesday of the following week, Link found himself downtown towing a vehicle for the police. He looked across the street and frowned. He was across from the Remington Hotel, a posh, slick hotel that he’d never step foot in. He stared as he saw his wife approach, call out to someone, but he couldn’t hear what she said. And she sure as hell didn’t call out to him. What surprised the fuck out of him was when two men met her and actually kissed her while they hugged her and damn if she didn’t kiss them back. Granted it was only on the cheek, but still. He watched as one of the men offered to take her briefcase and then the three of them turned to enter the hotel, and both men had a hand on the small of her back.

He finished loading the car onto his flatbed and because of where they were located, he had to get it off the street, as it was, he was blocking traffic. He decided to come back after he was done and see if he could catch Addy leave the hotel.

He didn’t catch her later that day, but because he was the boss and owner of his shop, he left the others in charge and actually staked out the hotel for a solid week. He came to the conclusion that his wife was having not one, but several affairs with numerous men. He finally woke up and smelled the coffee when he realized that his wife was meeting different men, on different days at a hotel and that was why she was too tired to have sex with him at night.

With that thought in his head, on the following Saturday he was ready to head to the clubhouse for the night. He found his wife in her office and leaned against the door. After what he saw this past week, he actually felt sick to his stomach as he looked at her. “You coming tonight?”

Addy looked up and smiled at him and it took everything in him not to throw up. “Can I meet you there around eight? I’m expecting a call from a client.”

Link looked at his watch and saw it was only six thirty. “Sure, see you then.” He didn’t even enter the office to give her a kiss. Addy frowned at his abrupt behavior. He had been acting cold and distant to her all week. As she waited for her call, she pictured in her head how she would get him to talk to her. The last time they’d had sex was when she’d attacked him in the shower a couple weeks ago and she was about due. She finished her paperwork for the stop at the bank on Monday morning and picked up the phone when it rang.