Chapter 12TUCKER
Chapter 12
TUCKER
Patience was laid out halfway across my chest when I heard a knock on the front door. I knew it was Noah bringing me the keys to her Jeep, so I slid out from under her and grabbed my jeans from the floor before quickly pulling them on. I walked into the living room and paused long enough to check the peephole.
Noah was standing there; he took one look at me and knew exactly what happened and who was in my bed. He handed me the keys and gave me a warning, “Don’t hurt her,” before he turned and walked away. Griffin may have been her blood family, but the other two guys were just as fiercely protective of Patience as he was. That knowledge both pleased and annoyed me. When it was time for me to go, she would be protected, but I hated that I wouldn’t be the one doing the protecting.
I closed and locked the door before tossing the keys onto the counter and going into the bathroom. I looked down at my cock and saw the dried blood from where I took her virginity—without a condom. Fuck. I’d never been so careless in my life with a woman. She could end up pregnant, and I was surprised to find myself wanting nothing more than to go back to bed and take her bare again in case the first time didn’t take. I was fucking gone for this girl.
My cock started to expand at the image my mind conjured of Patience with a baby bump. God, I would love to tie her to me forever. I knew I would have to be careful because she’d be sore. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt Patience in any way.
I turned the warm water on and grabbed a washcloth, soaking the terrycloth square to clean myself up. I soaked and rung out the cloth again before I plunged it back into the warm stream of warm water, wetting it. One final time, I twisted the washcloth to drain the excess water out then shut off the faucet before I went back into the bedroom.
Patience was still asleep, so I gently started cleaning up the blood and cum from her thighs. My dick was hard as nails by the time I was done, and Patience was responding in her sleep to my ministrations. I ground my teeth, knowing I couldn’t do anything about it, yet. If I pushed her too much, she wouldn’t be able to walk in the morning.
I finished cleaning her up, and though her body responded and she moaned, she didn’t fully wake. The long day and the emotional roller coaster she had been on wore her out, then if you add sex on top of that; she had every reason to be exhausted.
Quietly, I grabbed the phone hidden in my bag in the closet and shoved it in the back pocket of my jeans. When I went back into the bathroom, I threw the rag into the hamper, and washed my hands before going into the living room to check for any messages.
My body was tense when I saw the missed call showing on the screen. A missed call meant something had developed and I could be heading back to the city. I looked toward the room and sensed no movement, so I hit return call.
“Roth. You okay?”
“Yeah. I’m good.” I kept my voice low.
“They need you to testify against the club.”
“The evidence and affidavit aren’t enough?” I questioned quietly.
“I’m sorry. They want to make sure that these assholes go down for good.”
“If I go back, it’s going to be a death sentence.”
“We’ll guard you.”
I laughed sarcastically. “Guard me like everyone else has been guarded and then died when they were going to testify. You and I both know there’s a leak.”
He sighed heavily. “I know. I hate to ask, but we need you to come back. Hopefully, they won’t need you more than a day.”
“Trials like this don’t work that way. I wouldn’t be that lucky to get in and out in one day. Being on the stand one day for this is a pipedream.”
“I know. I fought them on this, but they want the nail in the coffin, and you are that nail whether we like it or not.”
I tunneled my hand through my hair. Going back meant risking my life. It meant becoming the man I was for eighteen months before I left Seattle. The only problem with that was that man didn’t exist anymore. I looked toward the bedroom and saw Patience standing in the hall with a sheet wrapped around herself.
She looked so damn beautiful and heartbroken.
“After this,” I said into the phone, not taking my eyes from the woman across the room. “I’m out. I’m done. Retired.”
“You’re the best in the business, Roth. Invaluable to our team and the fight on drugs.”
“That may be, but I have something else I’m fighting for these days. I’m out after this.”
He laughed. “What, did you go and fall in love or something?”
“Yes, I did.”
Patience was still standing in the hallway quietly, her eyes glassy with tears. She could only hear my side of the conversation, and all she really knew was that I would have to leave.
“I need to go, sir. When do I need to be there?”
“The day after tomorrow. Nine in the morning, sharp.”
“I’ll be there.” I disconnected the call and sat back on the couch.
Patience cautiously moved into the room. “Who are you?”
“Tucker Roth, but what I am is more important,” I said dryly, gesturing for her to have a seat beside me. I was disappointed that she didn’t join me on the couch, but I understood her need for distance.
“Okay, what are you?” She took the chair across from me, keeping the coffee table between us, and curled into herself with only the sheet covering her naked body from my view. I could all but see her building walls around herself, and it was killing me.
“I think I should start at the beginning,” I said quietly, running my fingers through my hair. I didn’t get nervous. In my line of work, nerves held no place, but I was about to tell her something I hadn’t told anyone.
“I was fifteen when my little sister got sick. She had a rare aggressive form of bone cancer, so she and I spent a lot of time watching movies on the couch while our parents worked. Her favorite movie was Clueless, and we ended up watching it weekly, sometimes more than once a week.” I smiled at the memory of Danielle quoting the movie verbatim. “She wasn’t sick long. The cancer took her about six months after the diagnosis had been made.” Painful memories struck me like dynamite, but I powered through it, knowing that she needed to know the truth.
“My mom escaped the pain of losing her daughter with pills. As mom fell farther into depression and into drugs, my dad took off and started a new family. I’ve pretty much been on my own and taking care of my mom since I was fifteen.”
“Oh God,” she whispered as tears filled her eyes and the pain etched in her face mirrored my own.
“My mom overdosed, ending her pain two years later, and my dad took me in for a year with his new wife and kid until I could graduate high school.”
“I’m so sorry, Tucker.”
“It is what it is.” I shrugged like it didn’t hurt anymore. It did, but I’d dealt with that pain a long time ago. “I promised myself I would never be like that—like them. So, I ran as far in the opposite direction as I could.”
“What did you do?”
I gave her a ghost of a smile. “I enlisted in the Marines. Did my duty and came back home. I went to school for a degree in criminal justice and started working with the DEA. I was na?ve and thought I could help get the streets a little cleaner, and to a point, I did. I started going undercover, infiltrating different drug rings and busting them up from the inside. The last case I was on up in Seattle, I went undercover in a motorcycle club for over a year and a half. I was the perfect candidate to go undercover for a long stretch of time because I didn’t have a family or friends. No attachments has been my motto in life for years. The closest I ever came to having roots after my sister died was when I was in the Core. My mom was dead and my dad forgot he had a son a long time ago. I got the evidence we needed to take the club down, but in the process of getting out, I got this—” I gestured to the gnarly red scar that took up half my damn ribcage on the left side.
Patience shot up out of the chair angrily. “And they want you to go back?” The sheet fluttered down around her feet, leaving her naked and flushed with anger.
I swallowed hard as my cock stirred in my jeans. “Yeah. They want me in court, and I have to go, Patience.”
“You said it’s a death sentence for you to go back.” Patience was pacing angrily now. Her tits were bouncing, and I wasn’t even sure if she was aware that she was walking back and forth across the carpet, naked as the day she was born. It was a view I could definitely get used to.
“It likely is.” I finally spoke up when she looked at me expectantly. “Honey, if you want me to pay attention to this conversation, you need to cover up.”
Patience squeaked and ran for the sheet. When she bent down, her ass in the air, I groaned. My cock that was stirring before was at full mast at the sight of her luscious backside. I leaned back and closed my eyes, counting to ten to try to get some control over my raging libido. Around Patience, control was something I had very little of.
“You can’t go back.” I opened my eyes to see Patience standing over me. Sadness and fear were clearly visible in her eyes.
“I have to, but if I make it out of this alive, I’m coming back for you—to you.”
“You are?”
I pulled her into my lap and held her close, breathing in her scent. “Fuck yes, I am. I want you like I’ve never wanted anyone, Patience. This was never going to be a onetime thing or brief fling for me. If I didn’t have to go, I wouldn’t be.”
“What if you don’t come back to me?” Tears slid down her cheeks.
She hugged me tight, and I could feel the warmth of her tears as they dropped on my bare shoulder. What could I say to her? There was a possibility that I wouldn’t—couldn’t come back. When I took down the MC, a lot of wealthy connected people got taken down with them, including a couple of corrupt politicians. If they wanted to get away with their involvement and crimes, the quickest way to do that was to make me disappear.
These people had the connections to make that happen. They could make it look like I offed myself and nobody would question it, especially since I didn’t have ties to anyone, except Patience. If I died, she would miss me, even if it was only for a little while. Eventually, she would move on and find someone else. Then, I would become a distant memory.
“I’m going to do everything in my power to come back, Patience,” I said, trying to reassure her. “But if I don’t, you can never tell anyone what I told you. Hell, you can’t let anyone know you knew me and who I was. They might think I gave you evidence or information. Promise me.” I lifted her chin and the tears in her eyes ate at my heart.
“I promise.” Her lips trembled with her words.
“I don’t have to go back until the day after tomorrow. We have a little bit of time.” I offered a fake smile that felt forced, even to me, and a light kiss. I was trying to dispel the tenseness of the situation but didn’t even come close.
“It won’t be enough,” she said, resting her forehead against mine as she maneuvered herself in my lap so she could straddle me.
I groaned. “A lifetime wouldn’t be enough, Patience.” I wiped the tears from her face with the pads of my thumb and kissed her gently. When she responded eagerly to my touch and my kiss, I deepened it. Patience might not have experience in bed, but what she lacked in knowledge, she made up for with eager abandon, which was somehow sexier than anything and anyone I had ever been with before.
She ground herself onto my jean clad cock, trying to get herself off. “Baby, I’ll hurt you,” I whispered, trying to dissuade her from taking me again so soon.
She shook her head, her brown tresses swinging around her shoulders. “I don’t care. I want you.”
I kissed her harder and thrust my tongue deep in her mouth as I pushed my hips up to unbutton and slide my jeans down. Because she was in my lap, I could barely get the denim fabric to my upper thighs, but it was enough for my cock to be free. I relaxed back into the couch and pulled her closer, latching onto a nipple as I guided her onto my shaft.
She didn’t take it slow and easy. My Patience had no patience for that, and I loved her for it. Her body stretched around mine, but it was still so fucking tight. I closed my eyes and grunted out her name. “Don’t hurt yourself.” I gripped her hips tightly, trying to slow her down as she tried to cram more of my cock into her tight, wet channel.
“It feels so good.” She groaned, swiveling her hips and pushing down until my cock was all the way inside her. “I never knew this was what I was missing.”
“Sweet Jesus,” I grounded out when she started pulling up slowly, then slammed herself back down onto my shaft as hard as she could. “Fuck, baby.”
She must have liked my response to her movement because she did it again, over and over until we were both sweaty and sated and I emptied another load of cum deep inside her sweet pussy.
My cock was still buried inside her, our breathing was ragged, and I could feel the rippling aftereffects of her orgasm as her pussy continued to milk my softening cock. I shifted us both carefully to where I was lying on my back, and she was stretched out on top of me. The sheet that covered her earlier was on the floor in a rumpled mess. I reached down and grabbed it, tossing the thin covering over us so she didn’t get too cold.
“Tucker?”
I heard her say my name, her voice full of sleep and weariness. “Yeah, baby?”
I closed my eyes and enjoyed the feel of her in my arms. Life didn’t get any better than this, and if I could make it back here alive, I was going to spend the rest of my life loving this woman, if she’d let me.
“When you go, who’s going to take care of Grant?” she asked around a yawn.
“Your cousin and his friends are already planning to rotate shifts at the bar to keep an eye out for him when you’re working.”
“You guys can’t babysit me forever, Tucker,” she mumbled grumpily.
She had a point. We couldn’t always be there, and it wasn’t fair for her to have to live her life scared of that piece of shit. “Get some sleep, baby. We’ll talk more tomorrow.”
Patience wiggled against me to get comfortable. Her movements jostled my dick, and I clenched my teeth to keep from groaning. As soon as she was asleep, I slid out from underneath her and started making plans so that I would make it back home—to Patience.