Chapter Sixteen
Eliana
Who was this bold woman and what in the hell was she doing on her knees in broad daylight holding the most beautiful cock she’d ever seen in her hands? It couldn’t be me because I didn’t do things like this and certainly not when the sun was shining outside.
“Oh fuck!” he gasped, running his fingers through my hair while I took him deep.
His scent had me drunk on him and the heaviness on my tongue was so hot I felt my arousal dripping down my legs.
I risked a look up and what I saw shocked me.
His gaze seared through me, white-hot, intense, and filled with longing.
The softness in his gaze only made me want to give him more and that’s just what I did, taking him to the back of my throat over and over until his thigh muscles shook and his hips bucked up.
“Eliana, babe, oh fuck!” He tried to pull back, growling when I squeezed the back of his legs to keep him right where he was. “Eliana,” he warned again.
I felt his cock stiffen in my mouth and I smiled, pulling back.
“On the couch. Now.” His jaw was clenched tight, his gaze was dark and intense, full of hunger.
I was so turned on my body vibrated with it as I climbed onto the sofa on my knees, gripping the back and arching my back. When I looked at him over my shoulder, the look he hit me with made my pussy pulse with need. “Please.”
He stroked his cock with one hand, smacking my ass with the other as he lined up and slid deep in one long stroke. “Fuck, you feel so good.”
“You feel even better,” I whispered, holding my breath while I adjusted to his size.
I arched my back and braced my arms on the back of the sofa, pushing back until I met him stroke for stroke.
“Sledge, yes!” My whole body was on fire, ecstasy filled me up until I was ready to burst with it.
I felt wild with need, my craving so intense I couldn’t control my body. “Sledge!” I cried out again.
He smacked my ass again, growling when I pulsed around him. “Another thing you like,” he grunted and did it again and again. “Fuck, your pussy was made just for me. Feel how she grips me, like she can’t get enough?”
“She can’t,” I replied. “More.”
Sledge’s control snapped and he gripped my hips so hard I knew I’d have bruises tomorrow, but I didn’t care, not when he pounded into me so deep, hitting that spot that pushed me closer and closer to total bliss.
“Eliana, I want you to come for me, babe. Right. Fucking. Now.” He punctuated the last word with another ass slap that pushed me off the cliff.
“Sledge, yes!” I was free falling. Limbs flailing, heart pounding, body shaking violently, I leaned into the fall, letting euphoria overtake me. “Oh, god. Yes!” The orgasm was explosive, going on and on as he continued his hard, punishing strokes.
“Eli!” That was all he said. My name over and over as his cock exploded inside of me, long, hot spurts filling me up until his body went completely still. “Oh, fuck,” he growled, body still trembling from the force of his pleasure.
Suddenly his lips were on the back of my neck and my body shivered, pulsing around him as if this wasn’t over but just beginning. “That kinda came out of nowhere.”
He chuckled, kissing his way down my spine until his cock slipped free of my body. “Did it? You mean you haven’t been thinking about it since last time?”
“Yeah, but it wasn’t anything like this.
” This was so much hotter than I could’ve imagined.
The word still felt as if it was spinning but eventually, I caught my breath.
My pulse throbbed in every inch of my body, and my heart?
Well, that particular organ was doing something I didn’t want to examine too closely.
Because whatever this was between us?
It was more than attraction.
More than a professional relationship.
More than orgasms so intense they blanked out cohesive thoughts.
It was the kind of connection that made a girl lose sight of her plans, of her future.
It was the kind of connection that posed structural risk to my carefully erected boundaries.
I wasn’t sure if any of this meant anything other than a few good fucks to Sledge and I was too scared to ask, so I settled into the silence between us.
It wasn’t awkward just… heavy. “I think I know who the smoke man is,” he said abruptly, breaking the calm.
The words hit hard, like reality often did and my stomach dropped, turning over with anxiety. “You do?” My voice came out barely above a whisper, as if any louder and the boogeyman would reveal himself.
Sledge nodded once, his jaw clenched tight. “That’s what I was doing last night. Slate, our IT guy, was checking into Trish. The man is called Dave Crow. He lived with Trish for most of Zoya’s life. And they just got married.”
“That’s what the call was about?” I asked.
He nodded.
My hand flew to my mouth. “They want her back.”
He gave another tight nod. “That’s my guess. But that ain’t happening. Period.”
Fear and fury coiled together inside me.
Fear for Zoya and fury for what she’d lived through. What she’d seen.
And beneath that? A red hot, murderous rage at whoever had taken her voice away.
“What are you going to do?” I asked, though every part of me already knew the answer.
His gaze hardened. “I’m going to handle it.”
I didn’t ask what handle it meant because I wasn’t sure that I actually wanted the details. Would they beat him to a pulp or just kill him? I had no clue and what scared me most was that I didn’t care. I wanted that man to hurt because he’d hurt Zoya and stole her voice.
***
By the time we made it back to the clubhouse, my mind was full, and my stomach was in knots. Whatever was happening, it was serious and I couldn’t wrap my head around it.
Not yet.
Instead of dwelling, I found Zoya still smiling at the energetic kids while they laughed at the bulldog’s antics. The sketchbook was open on her lap. Charcoal smudged her fingers and when she saw me, she brightened.
I took the seat beside her and when she leaned against my side, I melted. “Having fun?”
She nodded, still smiling at the kids but occasionally she turned back to the sketchpad, adding darker clouds or slashes of red to the paper. When she was done, she handed me the pad, staring at me with those big, bottomless eyes.
“This is intense,” I whispered, taking in the details that had started to coalesce into something I understood. The smoke man was obviously the man who was now married to her mother. He’d done something violent based on the red slashes, and she’d been a witness. “Are you scared, Z?”
She looked to me, nibbled her bottom lip and nodded.
“Yeah, me too. But we have each other, so we’ll be okay.” I wrapped an arm around her and held her close. “And your dad will never let anyone hurt you.”
She nodded, accepting my words as gospel.
“You know what you have to do now, don’t you?”
She shook her head.
“To get away from the fear, you have to draw something light and good, something that makes you smile. It’s a rule or something.”
She smiled, but I didn’t get the laugh I hoped for. But she grabbed the yellow colored pencil and started to draw something brighter.
I took advantage of her distraction, pulling out more research for my dissertation, reading the articles while highlighting important parts and writing notes.
The sunlight energized me and for the next hour, I worked while Zoya’s slight weight leaned against me and the kids’ laughter provided the soundtrack.
Zoya tapped my knee hesitantly before sliding me another drawing, this one with a bright shining sun, Hoppy and me twirling a rope while Zoya jumped in the center.
I smiled. “You want to jump rope with me and Hoppy? I think we can arrange that,” I promised, closing one journal and picking up another.
“What is this?” I asked no one in particular when a stack of envelopes fell onto my lap.
I must have picked up the mail when I grabbed stuff off the kitchen island.
Most of it was junk mail, catalogs, and motorcycle magazines but there was an official looking envelope at the bottom and when I saw the sender, I froze.
My skin chilled instantly and I was on my feet just as fast.
Zoya looked up with a question in her eyes.
“I just need to give your dad this, it might be important.”
It had to be important, that’s what I told myself as I marched to the office and knocked hesitantly.
I knocked.
Nobody answered.
I knocked again, louder.
The door yanked open and a massive biker with dark, shoulder-length hair glowered down at me. “We’re holdin’ church.”
The tone made every ounce of courage I built up just to knock waver. My throat tightened. But I held up the envelope anyway.
“This was mixed in with some of my things,” I said, forcing my voice not to shake. “And I think Sledge should see it immediately.”
“Mail,” he scoffed. “You interrupted for mail?”
Before my temper could flare, Sledge’s voice cut through the room like a blade. “Rebel, stop fuckin’ with her.”
I lifted the envelope higher, almost shoving it in the man’s face. “It’s from the family court. And after everything you said about Trish and the phone call, I figured—” a sigh escaped and the rest of the words died in my throat.
A new voice, deep and somber, spoke from the other side of the door. “Let her in.”
Rebel stepped aside and motioned for me to enter with an exaggerated flourish.
I stepped inside and looked around. The office was nothing like I expected.
It wasn’t dark or grim or covered in leather and bullets.
It was like any other office, stocked with three high-quality monitors that hung on the wall, several more sat on a table in front of an ergonomic keyboard with multicolored lights.
My hand shook when I handed Sledge the envelope, hoping it didn’t reveal what I suspected it did.
He tore it open and I held my breath.
“No fucking way!” he spat out seconds later, confirming my suspicions. “Trish and her new husband have filed for custody of Zoya.” The room fell silent, adding more gravity to his heavy words. Seconds passed and the room remained silent as if any disturbance might make those words real.
“That’s impossible, right?” I asked. “I mean she’s in prison for years so it’s off the table.” I looked around in search of any hint of agreement, but they all remained shockingly silent.
Rebel scoffed and I prepared myself for his biting refusal. “No,” he growled, shaking his head. “She’s right. This isn’t actually about custody. Even though Crow has no outstanding charges against him, no judge is gonna give him custody.”
“Then what the fuck is it about?” Sledge snapped, his patience and fear for Zoya making him short-tempered.
My heart raced and a memory came back to me. “It’s a trap,” I blurted out, earning me the attention of more than a dozen sets of eyes.
“A trap?” Rebel sounded skeptical but I wasn’t deterred by him.
“Yeah,” I nodded, my gaze focused only on Sledge.
“After my brother…” I stammered, swallowed, and started again.
“I had to go to court about what I saw that night, and they brought me in through tunnels underneath the courthouse. I was a kid and I thought it was just something cool that everyone did. My parents kept the threats from me, considering everything else. But later the detective told me they’d done it because there were gang members in front of the courthouse waiting for me.
” I looked away and swiped at a tear, hating the memories but grateful they were useful now.
For Zoya.
“Zoya doesn’t leave the house much, hardly ever. And chances are slim she’ll leave the clubhouse until this trouble is behind us. If someone wanted access to her, a court date would require her presence.” At least I thought so.
“Shit.” The tall, dark-haired man stood and raked his fingers through hist hair.
Another man, impossibly handsome with sparkling brown eyes, also stood, nodding with a slow grin.
“It’s a good point,” he began. “If this asshole thinks he can lure Zoya out, we’ll use that.
We’ll set our own fucking trap and see who shows up, follow them back to where this Crow fucker is hiding out. ” He gave me a wink. “Good job.”
Heat rose to my cheeks. “Thank you.” I appreciated the praise but all I wanted was to get back to Zoya, to make sure she was okay.
I left them to discuss what they were going to do and found Zoya still bent over her sketchbook, pressing the charcoal so hard into the paper I knew it would leave dips in the pages beneath it.
My heart ached for this little girl who’d already seen so much, endured so much and now she was in danger. Again.
I would do my part to keep her safe, but I knew without a doubt that Sledge would torch it all to keep her safe.