Chapter 39 Sandra
SANDRA
When we return to the club, Natalie is waiting for us.
I borrowed Piston's phone to call her before we left, but she insisted on meeting me here.
She bowls me over the moment I get off Beast's bike, throwing herself at me, wrapping me up in her arms and sob-laughing into my neck as she hugs me like she's trying to make my brain pop out through my ears.
"You're safe."
"I'm safe," I repeat and squeeze her back.
An hour or so ago, I was sure I'd never see her again.
Now I've got her in my arms and I don't want to let go.
That we were arguing just a few days ago just feels like the dumbest thing ever.
Maybe I just need to get kidnapped every once in a while so that we manage to get things back in perspective. I'd rather not, though.
Something bumps against my leg. Looking down, I find Junkyard, her tail wagging all over the place and obviously eager for attention.
I press a kiss into Nat's hair, then disengage so I can crouch down and give Junkyard a hug too.
I get a faceful of tongue for my effort.
Nat laughs at me. "I suppose everyone deserves their turn at showing they've missed you. "
Between my first time around, and then this week, I've seen enough death to last me a lifetime.
I'm not going to mourn Kozlov's death, obviously, but I hope that's the last killing I'm going to have to witness…
well, ever. I just know that life around here can get kind of crazy, so there's never a guarantee.
The important thing is grabbing opportunity when it comes.
Or let opportunity grab me so I come. Or something.
I glance over at the guys who are waiting for me, surprisingly patient, with how I suggested that I might need another distraction when we get back.
What can I say, my men being fiercely protective and aggressively heroic is growing on me.
Nat looks at me, looks at the guys, then back at me. Then she sighs. "I was going to invite you over for cake and other goodies, but I've seen that look on my guys before, and assuming yours are roughly the same breed, I think I know exactly what it means.
"What? We're just—"
"Stop!" She holds a hand out with her fingers up and her palm facing me, like a school crossing guard.
"I love you more than anything, but there are things about my little sister I do not ever want to see, hear about, even consider the possibility of, and I've already heard enough on the grapevine to know that it might be best we don't attend club parties together from now on. Just in case."
Oh. Oh no. Based on the heat radiating from my face right now, I could probably be used as one of the beacons on top of the Blackworth skyscrapers to warn planes off at night. How did I never… "Right. Sounds uh… good."
"Exactly. Call me when you're up for coming over. I have no plans tonight." She glances over at the guys again. "No plans for the next couple of days." She gives me another tight hug that says more than a few moments of awkwardness ever will. "Love you, Sandra."
"Love you too."
Based on Zero's count, which I suspect is very accurate, it takes roughly forty-nine seconds before we're back in Beast's room. He does have the biggest bed, after all, though if this is going to last, maybe it's time we find somewhere where we can live together.
Just maybe in a different neighborhood than Nat's.
The door slams shut behind us, kind of frantically. "Bedroom?" I ask, adrenaline spiking at the thought of getting… distracted.
"Nope." Beast pulls me into a bear hug that has me pressed up against his broad chest, smelling that by now familiar body wash he keeps in the shower.
He squeezes me like he's going to break me.
"Fuck, baby, we coulda lost you." He presses a hard kiss onto the top of my head and runs his big hands up and down my back like he has to make sure that I'm still alive, still in one piece. "Fuck," he whispers.
When he finally lets me take a step back up, I find him with my eyes, craning my neck to look up at him, losing myself in his mossy green gaze as he leans in to kiss me.
The kind of kiss that makes me tingle all the way out to my toes and has my belly roiling like a volcano preparing to erupt.
His soft lips are pressed so hard against me, I think I might bruise.
Eventually, I have to breathe. I get roughly a microsecond to do so, before Piston takes his turn, yanking me close and taking possession of my mouth.
He captures the back of my head in his hand and holds us close together while our tongues play tag and we're breathing each other's air.
God, he's so good at that. My insides are going to be mush before we even make it to the bed.
The moment Piston lets go, Zero buries his fingers in my hair and makes a fist for a grip strong enough to turn me towards him.
"Don't you ever fucking scare us like that again.
Got it? Never again." His grip is so tight it makes my scalp ache, but it only adds to his intensity.
He gives me a moment to absorb his words, and then we're together, kissing like we need the other to breathe.
He doesn't relax his grip for a moment, not until we finally separate.
I draw a deep breath, willing my heart to slow down a little, before it just pops out of my chest and runs away. "Wow." I wet my lips. "You guys… I'm okay. Thanks to you guys, but I'm okay."
Beast snorts. "I'm one for living in the moment, but there's no way I'm gonna accept that the woman I love runs off and gets herself captured by baddies. You're starting to develop a fucking history, baby, and—"
My brain short circuits a moment. "Wait, hold it. What did you just say?"
Beast looks at me like I'm slow. "You're starting to develop a—"
"No, before that."
Catching on, he grins. "What, about the woman I love?"
Something melts inside me, making my eyes sting.
It's been a short time since we met, but if there's anything I've learned about bikers, is that they love fast and hard, and don't mess around when they've found their woman.
The club is full of women who've found that out. And now it's my turn. "You love me."
"Of course I fucking love you. We all do."
"But you've never said it."
Piston spins me to face him so I can see his sexy smile. "That's because you're always off getting captured by assholes out there. We can't tell you we love you, when we're constantly fighting them off."
"How about now?" I smile right back, waiting eagerly.
He laughs. "I love you. I fucking love you. How's that."
"Fucking perfect." And it is. I spin to face Zero, who hasn't said it yet.
And he doesn't. "I owe you a spanking," he says instead. "Gotta clear your debts before we go there."
I blink at him. "I thought you were kidding."
"Do I look like a man who jokes?" He's completely deadpan.
"I… um, how do we do this, then? Should I—"
"Clothes off and over my lap." Taking my wrist, he pulls me with him over to the couch, and sits himself down, right in the middle. "Strip." His demeanor softens, just for a moment. "Let me see how fucking sexy you look."
My skin tingles, goosebumps rising at his hard, dominant tone.
It's a voice that doesn't even entertain the notion of not being obeyed.
And it's got me so wet that I'm surprised it's not leaking down my leg.
"Yes, Sir," I reply, then cross my arms over my chest to pull my shirt up over my head.
I throw it at him, and he takes it and presses it against his nose, inhaling my scent without losing eye contact for a moment.
I don't know exactly how he plans to play this out, but I'm so eager to find out that the rest of my clothes follow suit, until I'm completely naked and exposed to him.
I cross my arms over my breasts by instinct, but he interrupts.
"Hands off. Never fucking hide what's mine.
You're so fucking pretty that it's a crime to cover that body up.
Come here." He sounds a million percent serious.
I get on the couch next to him. The power imbalance of all three of them still being fully dressed while I don't have a stitch on excites me.
The way they appreciate me makes me want to be naked for them, to know that they're obsessing over my body, that they want nothing more than to touch it, to kiss it, to put themselves inside it. Inside me.
Zero pats his lap. "Come on, lie across it."
I crawl onto him, letting him position me until my waist is over his lap, my butt up in the air and my face down on the couch. He puts his strong hand onto one of my ass cheeks like a declaration of intent. The other arm rests over my shoulder blades, keeping me in place.
"What are you getting punished for, baby girl?"
Oh God. "For getting myself into trouble?"
"Like…"
"For going to the dog breeder without one of you. For going to the gala without telling you. And for going to help Carl without telling you." Maybe there's more, but that's all I can think of.
Zero caresses my ass with the flat of his palm. My whole body is wired, knowing that it might happen any moment, and not sure what it's going to be like. Part of me is terrified, the other part wants to rip his pants open and impale myself on the hard cock I know is inside them.
"There's a pattern here. What's the pattern?"
"To always tell you when going somewhere dangerous?"
He chuckles. "Close enough." He pulls back suddenly and then smacks his hand into my ass. I squeal out loud, though once I take stock, I think I was more surprised than hurt. It stung, but not too hard. He caresses my cheeks again. "Fuck, your ass is fantastic."
"Thanks?"
Smack! I suck in a sharp gasp of air and swallow nervously.
"Thank you, what?" he says in the tone Nat would use when I was younger and forgot to say please.
"Thank you, Sir?"