Chapter Twenty-Five
Iactually felt a little lighter inside after my scrap with Grease.
I’d been hating on him for so long, and I think it was literally down to the fact that I felt like he threw my friendship back in my face.
We’d hung out for months, and yet, when it came to it, he couldn’t trust me with his secret.
The thing is, he was right not to. Not because I’d have betrayed him, but because back then, nobody knew who was attacking the club, and I was suspected a few times.
Telling me could have been what got him killed.
I guess it just took me a while to fully accept that.
I’d seen him as this asshole who’d swanned in, pretended his ass off, lied to us all, and then buggered off back to his plush life until the next little stint at the club.
I could see it in his eyes tonight though.
He meant what he said. Club life was as important to him as it was to me.
I wasn’t about to buy him a beer anytime soon, but some of the aggression was gone.
Maybe over time we’d eventually be able to hang around and not bait each other. Maybe not.
“Come on, dickhead. That grumpy doc guy said you should use this ice pack, dammit.”
I grinned at V, who was sitting beside me in the lounge, while I watched Stag try to beat Harley at pool.
Caroline was seated close to her cousin, with Nixie in her lap.
Dogs were good at calming people, so maybe that was why I’d connected with the pup so fast. I’d needed that.
I’d needed companionship and trust. Dogs give that and so much more, but it’s important to give it right back.
They always deserve more than we can give them.
“I’m okay, babe. I’d say keep it for your pussy later, because I’m gonna give it such a pounding, but-”
I stopped abruptly as she dropped the damn ice pack right in my lap, as in right on my fucking junk. Fuck me. I leapt out of the seat, dropping the ice pack, and cupping myself to try and warm it the fuck back up.
“ROCKET!”
“What? She iced my balls, man!”
“Harsh.”
V gestured to Caroline, who was blushing brighter than a nicely smacked ass, and I realised she was trying to get me to tone it down.
“Harley never dirty talks to you? I know he does, Caroline, sitting there all innocent like that.”
She gasped, her eyes shooting to mine as Harley took a step in our direction, but then she started giggling, the tension leaving her shoulders, and Nixie yapping with surprise.
“You dodged a bullet there,” Harley pointed out, jabbing a finger at me as he turned back to watch his woman for a moment.
“Sit your ass down,” V hissed at me, and fuck me, was she trying to give my poor cold dick a boner?
“Not next to you, woman. You just attacked your favourite part of me!”
I dropped down beside her though, because the adrenaline was gone, and I was starting to ache in places that I knew were bruised. Grease had given me a fairly good beatdown, not that I didn’t do the same to him, but knowing what his background was, it could have been far worse.
“Did the doc leave painkillers for me?” I murmured to V, who groaned and stood up.
“I’m taking you to bed now.” She groaned as a few people oooohed at us, flipping them off. She was perfect for a club girlfriend, because she didn’t let any of them intimidate her. She just bantered with them like I would.
“What about Nixie?” Caroline asked, cuddling my baby closer, like she was about to refuse to give her up.
“Give us an hour to fuck, and we can come get her.”
“An hour, he says. More like five minutes.” Stag laughed when I glared at him, but seriously, I wasn’t sure I could even fuck her tonight. I was starting to feel like I’d been hit by a fucking car.
We made it back to my room and I dropped down on my bed, trying to drag V down with me, but she was resisting, because why would she just fucking go with me on this?
“Babe, please.”
She focused on getting my boots off and, whoa, she was getting me all naked, and I liked it. I helped her help me out of my clothes, until I lay there in just my boxers, and that’s when she joined me, dragging the bedding over me as she did.
“Babe, thought you were gonna get on my cock.”
V fussed around, passing me some painkillers and water, and then she flipped the TV on, and found the series of Friends we’d been streaming.
“V…”
“You’re not up to babymaking right now, idiot. Even I know pain kills a boner.”
Fuck me, she just said boner. Why was that so hot?
“Fine. One episode, then I’ll be up for it.”
V
He made it halfway through the first episode, and he was snoring beside me.
I don’t think he was that badly hurt, but I think tonight’s little fight had maybe relieved some shit that had been weighing on him.
He seemed more at peace after, like it’d rid him of a burden he’d been carrying.
My phone dinged with a message, and I slid carefully off the bed, keeping an eye on Rocket as I headed for the door and met Caroline outside to collect Nixie.
“Is he okay?” She tried to peer past me, but I blocked him from her sight. I was feeling oddly protective of him, and his privacy, even from her.
“He will be. Thanks for looking after her.”
Caroline offered me a wry smile. “We both know she was the one looking after me, cuz. She’s very good at it.”
“You’re doing way better around all these people, C. You should be proud. Where’s Harley?”
She sighed, pointing outside. “He’s waiting. He uh… wanted to come with me, like he’s being possessive or something, because I’m going to another man’s room. Are all men like this?”
I shook my head, catching sight of Harley peeking in the door behind Caroline.
“I wish. Maybe we had to wait for the right ones, huh?”
Her eyes widened. “So you… you and he are… I mean-”
“I don’t know. Maybe.” I glanced behind me at the sleeping man I was going back to. “I think I want to be.”
Caroline hesitated, then reached out and patted my arm, a soft smile on her face.
“I think you’re really good for each other. I think you’ve both been waiting to find somewhere to belong, and maybe this is it, right? You just might complete each other.”
I waved her off, and took Nixie back inside, checking Rocket’s feeding schedule for her, and topping her up with a little of the milk substitute, and a little soft food. She was doing so well, and that had so much to do with that battered, bruised man sleeping a few feet away from me.
I sat beside Nixie on the floor, and watched Rocket sleep. Caroline’s words kept coming back to me, reminding me of all the things that just might be in reach. ‘You just might complete each other’. Might we? Could we? Beyond all of that, should we?
Was that what we were both even looking for?
He’d come here to escape a bad relationship, and hadn’t I too?
Weren’t we both running from heartbreak?
It was probably too soon for either of us to be thinking about getting together, but then we’d foolishly decided to continue with my quest for a baby.
Rocket’s baby. What if I really got pregnant at last?
He’d be a father. Could I really enter into such an arrangement, when we were both still trying to stitch our hearts and souls back together?
And what if I got pregnant, and he realised he just wanted to be the sperm donor and nothing more?
He probably didn’t really want to be a father, he just liked the idea of knocking a woman up, right?
Only, as I sat there and watched him twitch briefly in his sleep, before a smile lifted his lips, I realised he didn’t have it in him to be that callous and cold.
He might hide it well from his club brothers, but he was all heart. All sweetness. Protective and supportive. He was the kind of man a woman could fall for, so was that what I was doing?
Rocket groaned, and I shifted my focus from my conflicted thoughts to the man who was now peering drowsily at me from his bed.
“Is there some reason you’re in the dog’s bed, babe? Do I snore or something?”
I smiled, checking on Nixie one last time before I got up and moved over to sit on the bed beside Rocket.
“I mean, if you snore, it’d hardly be any better over there.”
He chuckled, wincing and pressing a hand against his bruised face.
“Careful.”
His eyes narrowed at me.
“No, seriously. Why aren’t you in bed with me? Are you mad at me or something?”
I checked my watch, to see if he could have more painkillers yet, but he misunderstood the gesture.
“Oh. You have somewhere to be. I get it. Go do what you need to, I’ll be okay.”
He didn’t look like he believed that, but was it the out I needed, to take time to work through my concerns about getting too close?
“I’ve been smacked around before, babe. I know how to take painkillers and sleep them off. Only…” he glanced at Nixie and sighed, “maybe she should stay with you, so she’s getting looked after if I’m out for the count?”
I shook my head, decision made. “Nope. I’m staying, so shut up and accept it. I’m going to see if I can find some coffee somewhere, because I really bloody need it. It’s like two in the bloody morning, Rocket.”
He grinned, grabbing my arm and dragging me down on him, a soft grunt the only sign that I’d landed hard on his bruised body.
“Shut up and get some sleep, woman. Unless you wanna ride my cock?”
Typical. He’s beaten and bruised, but thinks he’s capable of sex.
“Like you could get it up right now, idiot. Just rest.”
Rocket grabbed my chin and pulled my face close to his.
“You think I ever don’t have a boner around you? Feel around and find what I’ve got waiting for you… you know… if you think you can take it.”
“I know I can take it, damn you. I just don’t think it’s a good idea right now. For you.”
Rocket guided my hand between us, and sure enough, despite his pain and painkillers, there it was. A rigid dick in his boxers.
“He wants to be inside you, babe. Are you gonna say no to him right now? We ache.”
I giggled, rolling my eyes at him. At the ridiculousness of this moment, and that pouty face of his.
“I’m wearing too many clothes,” I protested, glancing over at Nixie as I sat up. As much as I mocked him for caring about shagging in front of the puppy, it’d been a him problem back then. But this time she’d be watching me instead. It was weirder than I’d expected it to be.
Rocket was already pulling at my jeans, so I let him help me out of them, all the while worrying about corrupting the poor puppy with what she was about to see.
He guided me down onto his thick cock, and we both sucked in ragged breaths as I sank down fully, and enveloped all of him inside me. My god, I knew he was big but this angle made me feel like he’d grown bigger just for this moment.
“Fuck, babe. You’re like a warm wet heaven for my dick.”
I rested a palm over his mouth.
“Shut up, idiot. That’s ridiculous.”
I could see his smile in his eyes, as much as I could feel it against my palm.
“Fuck me,” his muffled voice demanded beneath my fingers, before his hands settled on my hips and started guiding me up and down.
It felt so good. It felt like the perfect touch stroking me from the inside, but that nagging voice in my mind was saying, there’s a tiny pair of eyes watching your naked ass bob up and down on him.
Rocket moved my hand from his mouth, and gripped it tightly.
“Why the hell are you in your head right now? Is my cock not fucking doing it for you?”
If I’d thought he really meant that the way it sounded, I’d have smacked his chest and told him to get fucked, but I knew his words came from a place of, maybe not fear, exactly, but concern.
Worry. He genuinely believed this beautiful dick of his wasn’t getting the job done, or that he wasn’t enough.
“Nixie,” I gasped out, as he ground me down against his pelvis, and rubbed me in all the right places, all at once.
He hesitated, bursting out into laughter. “Nobody’s ever called me that while I’m fucking them…”
I slapped his chest, then pointed behind me. “She can see us!”
Rocket grinned. “What was it you said last time? Something like shut up and fuck me?”