13. Chapter 13
BONER
I’d spent years watchin’ soulmates find each other, and I’d never once thought’a findin’ that for myself.
It just seemed too good for the likes’a my luck and my life.
Findin’ the club had been my once-in-a-lifetime miracle, so was it really fair to give a man more than that?
I hadn’t thought so.
But now, leanin’ against the first booth inside Eugene’s Bar watchin’ Blue serve her customers, I couldn’t help but think she was made for me. Maybe it had nothin’ to do with fairness, or maybe it did. Perhaps we’d both lived through our own trials and fuckin’ horrible tribulations as some kinda payment for the wealth’a happiness that was comin’ to us.
Would I change anythin’ if it meant I got the chance to meet Blue that night at Evergreen Gas? The chance to have someone for my own again after years of loneliness?
The ache’a missin’ Elsa would never cease, but she was safe, at least. Hidden from the triad, livin’ life on her terms. I had to find comfort in that, even if it meant we couldn’t have a normal siblin’ relationship. Even if it hurt like pressure on an old bruise to see King and Harleigh Rose fuckin’ around and laughin’, Dane and Lila spendin’ quiet moments together out in nature slowly reconnectin’ after years apart.
Curtains wasn’t blood, but he was my brother, my best friend, a different kinda soulmate.
And if Elsa hadn’t been taken by Seven Song, I’d never’a met Curtains or the club.
So even though it fucked with my head, I stood there watchin’ this girl I wanted down to my bones and found some kinda peace for all the chaos’a my life, believin’ it had led me to these people and this moment.
This girl with the ocean eyes and cornflower-blue hair and curves like some pagan fertility goddess. This girl whose spirit had weathered the worst kinda storms and emerged somehow still sweet with an edge of sass and independence that made my dick hard and my breath thin inside my lungs.
As if sensin’ my gaze, she turned from deliverin’ drinks to a table’a women and looked directly at me. The smile that claimed her full mouth was brighter than any’a the ones she’d been dolin’ out around the bar.
And it was all for me.
I waited for her to sauntered over to me on her high heels, hips swayin’ enough to hypnotize, just so I could relish the sight’a her comin’ toward me. When she stopped a foot away, head tipped back to maintain our gaze, I had to blink away the sun spots at the dazzle’a that sweet-lipped expression.
“Hey, Trouble,” she teased, pokin’ me in the chest over The Fallen patch on my cut.
“Hey, pretty Blue,” I returned, achin’ to pull her in for a kiss and resistin’ only ’cause it was a busy weekend night at the bar and more than just The Fallen found refuge at Eugene’s.
“I wasn’t expecting you tonight.”
“Couldn’t stay away,” I admitted with a little shrug. “’S been two full days since I saw you, and that’s too fuckin’ long.”
Her entire face softened with awe, and fuck, it felt good to be on the receivin’ end’a somethin’ like that.
“Has anyone ever told you that you’re really very lovely?” she asked, steppin’ just a little closer as if she couldn’t help herself.
“Nah, but I don’t give a fuck what anyone else thinks’a me.”
“You really don’t, do you?”
“Care about my Prez, my club and their families, but outside that, hell no. You gotta earn my care.”
She tipped her head coquettishly. “And what did I do to earn yours?”
I took a risk and glided my hand nearest to the booth around her hip, needin’ to feel the soft heat’a her skin. “You were more brave and beautiful than anyone I’d ever seen.”
She swallowed thickly, somehow shocked. “I…I always try to be brave. It’s cool you saw that in me. Sometimes, I’m worried it’s a lost cause.”
“You’re here, aren’t you? Survivin’ and thrivin’ as much as you can even livin’ caged.” I bent closer. “I’ll find the key to get you out, baby. Just like I got you outta that cage at Evergreen, yeah? I’m workin’ on it.”
And I was.
After the shit show in Vancouver yesterday, I’d spent the entire day at the clubhouse with Z and the brothers, figurin’ out a game plan.
We knew where most of the fuckers lived or spent their time. Out at that farmhouse near Furry Creek. The advantage to them choosin’ such a rural location meant we could take them out without havin’ to worry about drawin’ too much attention. Lion had shown up midday with a strange look on his face and offered some’a his own intel on the White Raiders, claimin’ they had a party every Thursday night where all twenty-three men in the club should be present.
So we’d hit them next week with the full weight’a The Fallen and crush them for good.
“You could still leave now,” I reminded her.
“No, I told you, they wouldn’t rest until I was found, especially if they knew I’d run to you . And I can’t risk Grouch.”
Understandin’ clicked into place. “That’s why you went back to them.”
She bit her upper lip but nodded. “They took him, and when I made the exchange, I swore a blood oath that I wouldn’t run again.”
“Fine,” I said, spittin’ it like a curse. “You won’t run. We’ll make them do the runnin’ if they’re lucky enough to get away alive.”
“Blue,” one of the other servers called, indicatin’ some’a her tables. “Stop flirting with Boner and get to work.”
“Cindy,” I hollered back. “Don’t be jealous just ’cause Blue’s the prettiest girl here tonight. I know you’re used to ownin’ that title.”
Cindy rolled her eyes and waggled her finger at me. She was forty-five and gorgeous, but after a brutal divorce, she’d been feelin’ like shit for the past few months, so I’d made a point to flirt with her and shoot the shit after her shift to keep her company.
“He’s dangerous,” she told Blue as she passed by to the other side’a the bar where a country rock band was settin’ up on stage. “Silver-tongued devil.”
Blue laughed that pretty, chimin’ laugh and beamed up at me as she said, “Good thing I’m not easily charmed.”
“Ah, well, I brought somethin’ I’m hopin’ will change that,” I offered, pullin’ the ungainly brown-wrapped package out from under my arm.
“What is it?” she asked, a little suspicious but mostly excited, rockin’ forward on her toes as she touched her fingers to the paper.
I grinned. “Bought you flowers.”
“Uh, I hate to break it to you, but you should not wrap flowers in brown paper. They should be in water in like…a vase.”
I laughed, pushin’ her forward by the hip. “Take your break now, and I’ll show you what kinda flowers remind me’a you.”
“My break’s not for another hour,” she argued, diggin’ in her heels as I ushered her toward the bar and the door leadin’ to the back rooms.
“Eugene, Blue’s takin’ her break,” I shouted to him where he was slingin’ beers behind the bar.
He only shot me a warnin’ look. “Don’t have sex in my office.”
“Wouldn’t dream’a it,” I promised ’fore we disappeared through the door into the hallway.
“Aaron! You can’t speak to my boss like that.”
I shrugged, haltin’ at the break room when I heard the sound’a women’s voices inside and turnin’ instead to open the door to the storage room. It smelled like beer and damp wood inside, an oddly pleasant combination especially underscored by the sweetness’a Blue’s perfume.
“Why are we in here?” she asked.
“Privacy,” I said a moment ’fore I crowded her into the wall and claimed that pink mouth the way I’d been hankerin’ to since the first moment I saw her that night.
She tasted like bubble gum, the cool metal’a her Medusa piercin’ a sexy contrast to the warmth of her slick tongue. Her surprised reluctance melted in a moment, her tray clatterin’ to the ground at our feet so she could sink both hands in my hair and pull me even deeper into the kiss.
It took all my willpower to break our mouths apart and even then, I dragged my lips down her throat to her collarbone, nippin’ at the skin there in a way that made her nipples bead behind the thin cotton’a her shirt.
A groan worked its way outta my throat, but I was too excited to see her unwrap her present to give in to lust first.
“Open your gift,” I told her, still placin’ open-mouthed kisses along her throat.
I could feel the vibration’a her laughter beneath her skin. “I will if you stop kissing me, but I don’t really want you to stop.”
“Greedy girl,” I teased, palmin’ one’a her heavy breasts to feel the hard peak’a her nipple and tweak it between two fingers. “Be good and open your present, Blue, and I’ll be sure to give you another after you do.”
Her eyes were blown straight to black beneath that long fringe’a lashes when I stepped back to hand her the three-foot package I’d leaned against the door. My heart fuckin’ ached to see the way she stared down at it, a kid on Christmas who’d never been given any gifts ’til now.
Suddenly, I was fuckin’ nervous, and I was never nervous.
The gift felt silly, really, not real art, not real expression like a poem or a paintin’, but it was all I had to give. All I was really good at besides fixin’ up a bike or car, or talkin’ my way into people’s lives or makin’ someone laugh.
And I wanted her to have this ’cause what gift could I get a girl who couldn’t show she was startin’ to become mine?
The rush’a blood in my ears was almost loud enough to drown out her sweet little gasp as she tore open the paper and revealed the bouquet’a flowers I’d made for her.
Bunches’a blue and pink flowers tied with a bow all in neon coloured tubin’ against a clear acrylic base.
“Aaron?” she breathed, lookin’ from the sign up at me.
Wordlessly, I took it from her and plugged it into an outlet near the door, restin’ it atop one’a the many kegs’a beer in the store room. With a flick’a the light switch, the room plummeted into darkness lit only by the pinks and blues’a the neon sign.
I walked back over to Blue, where she stood frozen against the wall, starin’ at the sign with her hand in front’a her parted mouth, eyes made neon by the lights I’d bent into shape for her. I pushed a lock’a electric blue hair from her cheek so I could palm it, tiltin’ her head up for a small kiss.
“Wanted to buy you flowers, but I knew you couldn’t take them home with you, so I figured this would have to do,” I explained.
“They’re so beautiful,” she whispered thickly, damp eyes reflectin’ the shape’a the flowers in the dark as they stared up at me almost helplessly. Her fingers reached up to cling to the shirt beneath my cut. “No one’s ever made me something before. Let alone something so lovely.”
Somethin’ unlocked inside my chest like I’d been given access to a previously closed chamber of my heart. At that moment, I would’ve reached inside my own chest to gift that to her if it meant keepin’ that soft look’a reverent joy on her face.
“I’m glad you like them,” I said a little awkwardly ’cause there was this strange heat in my cheeks and angst in my bones that seemed like…bashfulness, and I wasn’t used to it.
“I love them,” she corrected, gettin’ on her tiptoes so she could haul me down for a kiss. “Prettiest flowers I’ve ever seen. Where did you get them?”
The back’a my neck itched with heat, so I scrubbed at it as I pulled away. “Uh, I made ’em.”
She blinked. “You actually made that? Like with your hands?”
The chuckle dissolved the last’a my uncharacteristic shyness. “Yeah, Blue. It’s a hobby’a mine, I guess you could say. Makin’ neon art. Eugene was actually the one to teach me. Half the shit on the walls in the bar is mine.”
“Wow.” She looked over at the sign and back at me. “Oh my gosh, you must have made the sign at my station at Lin’s, too? You’re amazing, Aaron. You’ll have to tell me how you do it someday.”
“Yeah?” God, I felt like a kid, giddy bubbles in my gut, warmth bloomin’ in my chest.
“Yeah,” she said firmly. “But not now, I only get fifteen minutes for my break, and I can think of better things to do.”
“Oh, yeah?” My voice dropped three octaves, gravelly from bein’ pulled up from my gut.
Her wicked grin flashed neon bright ’fore she dropped to her knees and went for my belt. My breath shuddered outta me when her nimble fingers made quick work’a the clasp and zipper, openin’ my jeans to slip a hand into my boxers and pull out my rapidly hardenin’ cock.
She hummed with pleasure at the sight’a me in her grip, lickin’ her lips unconsciously as she stared at me.
“I love that you’re pierced,” she groaned before liftin’ my cock to lick over the ladder’a metal rungs on the underside’a my shaft.
I shivered at the pleasure, shoulders rattlin’.
“I don’t know if I can even fit my mouth around you,” Blue admitted, settlin’ more comfortably onto her knees and raisin’ her other hand to wrap it alongside the first on my length. “But I’m going to love trying.”
“Shit,” I hissed as she opened that pink mouth around my tip and sucked me inside.
She couldn’t fit much’a me inside, and the frown’a frustration on her face shouldn’t’a been so hot, but my girl wasn’t a quitter. She pulled off, lookin’ up at me while she spat on my cock once, twice, and then slicked me up with a twist of both fists ’til I was totally slick with spit and precum. Rock hard now, she could barely fit me in her small hands, and the sight’a that was hot enough to make my spine tingle with electric heat.
“Fuck,” I ground out as she bent her mouth to my head again, suckin’ hard as she twisted her grip on my dick, each hand in a different direction.
My head thunked against the wall, hands flyin’ to her head to bury in that thick, silken cobalt-coloured hair to hang on for dear fuckin’ life as she threatened to suck my life force through my cock.
It was wet and messy, spit smeared over her chin, pantin’ around my tip while she squeezed precum onto her tongue before sinkin’ back down just a little too far to test her gag reflex ’fore pullin’ up and wringin’ me with her dexterous hands.
Every inch’a my flesh was on fire, my very fuckin’ bones rattlin’ with the pleasure she was sendin’ like shock waves through my core. In the dark, only the light’a my neon flowers to guide us, it felt like we were alone in the world, absconded in a den a pleasure and safe to indulge in the furious need we’d been harbourin’ for weeks now.
It’d been too long, and my patience was beyond frayed.
So I wasn’t surprised when her wet fingers brushed low over my piercings, my balls, and pressed into that sensitive span’a skin behind them that my control ripped to shreds with an almost audible tear.
I swallowed half the roar that rose in my throat and bent double, pullin’ her up by the armpits so she was suddenly in my arms. I was already walkin’ to the back’a the small room, her full, sweet ass in my hands, her wet, gaspin’ mouth against mine as I lowered her onto the shallow metal rim’a a beer keg. She clasped the edges to balance as I reached between us to push up her denim miniskirt and pull down her panties in two quick moves. Her pussy was already slick, pink and prettier than any art I could ever make for her.
When I told her that, she hauled me in close with one hand fisted in my shirt while the other grasped my cock, bringin’ it tight to her hot cunt.
“You’re not ready for me, baby,” I warned her between suckin’, luscious kisses. “Be patient.”
“Fuck patience.” She bit at my lower lip with sharp teeth. “I’ve waited weeks to feel you stretch me open on this big cock, and I’m not waiting any longer.”
A red mist of pleasure blurred my reality and the edges’a my usual control. The heat and slick’a her pussy against the head’a my cock seared through me, tuggin’ me by the balls to bury myself inside her even though I knew she was too tight to take me like that.
But when I reached down to slide a finger inside her, she hissed and snapped her teeth at me. It was feral, animalistic, her eyes black as she leaned back to bare her little teeth at me.
“Fuck me, Boner,” she demanded.
And the shreds’a my control vanished in the echo’a my club name in her mouth.
I pressed inside slow but unyieldin’, conquerin’ her inch by intractable inch. She shivered and shook in my arms as I held her by the round curves of her ass, pullin’ her down on my shaft as I thrust deeper and deeper.
“Boner, Boner, Boner,” she slurred, lost to the sensation’a bein’ overfull as I worked myself to the hilt inside her. “God, yes. You were meant to fill me up like this.”
“Fuck yeah, baby,” I grunted as I ground into her, the piercings at the base’a my shaft lightin’ up with pleasure so bright it left white spots in my vision and made Blue keen in my ear. “You’re on birth control, yeah?”
She unlocked her teeth from the side’a my throat to gasp, “Ah! Yeah.”
“Good,” I growled, pullin’ her slowly off my cock ’til only the bulbous head remained inside her, the pink clasp’a her pussy so pretty around my blood-dark shaft. When I snapped my hips forward, her head fell back between her shoulders bonelessly. “’Cause I’m gonna fuck you hard and fill you up with cum knowin’ you’ll spend the rest’a your shift with my seed leakin’ outta your swollen pussy.”
She convulsed in my arms, limbs tightenin’ to vices around my torso, teeth scrappin’ over my pec through my shirt. “Jesus, Bones, yes! Please. I wanna feel like I’m yours.”
“You are mine,” I grunted, movin’ a hand from her ass to her hair, wrappin’ it up tight in my fist so I could cant her head back and her lust-dazed eyes were pinned on mine. “Now in the dark, tomorrow in the light. Painted in neons or sunlight or starlight, you’re mine, Blue. You get me?”
I wished I could fuck her hard enough to brand my possession into every inch’a her, inside and out.
“Are you sure?” she asked on a breathy hiccup, clingin’ so tight, her pussy a hot clutch around me that threatened to steal my sanity, that for one moment, I almost didn’t hear the heartbreakin’ uncertainty.
I gave her every last inch’a my cock, grindin’ her down on me ’til she was impaled, and then loosened my hold on her hair to wrap my hand gently around her throat. The bruises Rooster had left were gone, but I knew she understood my gesture by the flutter’a her lids and the little whimper that leaked from her throat.
Holdin’ her like that, inside her and around her and balancin’ her completely in my arms, I tried to convey just how fuckin’ safe she was with me. How I’d protect her and cherish her with my body. Instinctually, I curved around her further, like a shield against the world.
“Never been so sure’a anythin’ in my whole fuckin’ life,” I whispered like a confession ’cause it felt holy holdin’ her here in the dark with only my neon light to guide us. “You give me a chance, I’ll show you just how fuckin’ wonderful you are, Blue, and I think I’d be happy to spend my whole life doin’ it.”
“Don’t make me fall in love with you,” she begged, but she was only holdin’ me closer. “I won’t be able to handle it if I lose you.”
“Won’t promise not to love you and definitely won’t promise not try my fuckin’ damnedest to make you love me, but I fuckin’ swear it, Blue,” I promised, solemnly. “You won’t lose me if you don’t wanna.”
“I don’t wanna,” she echoed after a moment. “I want to be yours more than anything. And I want you to be mine.”
“I already am,” I said, startin’ to fuck into her again, slow and steady, a meetin’a the ocean lappin’ at the shoreline. “Feel like I was born with your name written on my bones, and I was just waitin’ to find ya.”
“Bones,” she gasped, and the transformation’a my nickname felt right in her mouth.
So I kissed it off her tongue and increased my tempo, just long, smooth strokes in and outta her greedy pussy, a grind at the base so she could feel the effect on her clit and the ridges’a my piercings inside’a her. And every time she gasped my name, I swallowed it down my throat like a drug. It sent me higher and higher ’til finally, the hiss’a my name streamed through her lips, and she imploded around my cock, shockin’ pulses that milked me so hard I had no choice but to come too. The deeply coiled pleasure at my spine sprang loose, and I jerked as I spilled inside her, comin’ so hard all I could see behind my squeezed shut lids was neon blue.
My neon Blue.
I pumped her full’a cum like I’d promised, wringin’ the last’a her orgasm from her in little jerks and shudders. And when we were finished, I collected her up into my arms, still connected, and hugged her close. She buried her head in my neck, pantin’ softly against my rapid pulse, and dug her nails into my back.
We stood like that a long time, and that quiet intimacy, almost more than the bone-brandin’ sex, meant everythin’ to me.
’Cause it was peace.
And my girl hadn’t had a lotta that in her life.
So it felt fuckin’ brilliant to be the one to shelter her.
“I’m heavy,” she protested after a while.
“Nah, you feel just right.”
“I have to go back to work, then,” she said on an unhappy sigh.
I made an unhappy sound in my throat, but she was right so I carefully pulled her off me and settled her on her feet, bracin’ her arms as her knees wobbled. She laughed at my cocky grin. When I bent to pull her panties up, I pressed my lips to her mound in a little kiss and then pulled her skirt down.
“There, presentable again even though my cum’s gonna be leakin’ outta ya all night,” I proclaimed.
I wished fiercely I could bottle her laughter.
“I like it,” she admitted, bitin’ into her lip.
“Me too.” I reached beneath her skirt to pat her pussy, already moistenin’ her underwear. “Gonna be hard again when I climb into bed thinkin’a ya. Be a good girl and send me a photo’a your puffy, cum-wet pussy ’fore you clean yourself up, yeah?”
A little shiver made her teeth click together. “Yeah, I can do that.”
“You okay?” I checked, bendin’ at the knee to bring me closer to eye level. “You seem shaky.”
A huff’a air through parted lips. “I feel shaky, honestly. Probably because you’re changing my whole world.”
“For the better,” I agreed.
“Yeah,” she said softly, movin’ her hand to palm my neck the way I’d done to her, fingers brushin’ the wings’a the owl tattooed there. “Why the owl?”
I could feel the grin hangin’ crooked on my face. “Figured I could use a little wisdom in my life.” When she only narrowed her eyes at me, I gave in with a shrug. “It’s a symbol’a self-actualization. I wanted to be courageous and insightful enough to create a good life for myself despite my circumstances. First tatt I ever got.”
“It suits you,” she complimented.
“Why the bluebird?” I asked ’cause I’d been wonderin’, too.
It took place’a prominence on her left deltoid, surrounded by leaves and flowers.
“Bluebird,” she said with a small, wistful smile. “My mum called me that when I was little before she left. It’s why I first dyed my hair and got this tattoo. They’re symbols of hope and good news arriving soon.”
I smoothed her hair away from her face to kiss her forehead, her pierced nose, her sweet mouth. Empathy for her made pain pulse through me like a wound carved outta my centre.
“It’s okay,” she whispered, soothin’ me even though she was the one needin’ it. “I have a feeling it’s finally arrived.”
And when she tugged my ears down to kiss my mouth, I knew there was nothin’ in this world I wouldn’t do to make that hope for joy a reality.