Chapter Fourteen #2
I expected that feeling of relief, nostalgia, of home. And while there was familiarity, nothing else came.
The clubhouse was the same unique structure it had always been.
It was a long, low building made out of a mix of wood and metal shipping containers.
Each section was painted different shades: red wood, gray, dark wood, green.
It was something that shouldn’t have worked.
Maybe it wouldn’t have anywhere else. But butted up against all the greenery around it and in the shadow of the mountains, it did.
It looked a little rundown, but warm, almost welcoming.
If you didn’t know about the dozen assholes inside.
Colter moved up behind me, likely looking over my head to see what I was seeing.
Some part of me wanted to know what he was thinking. The other part was way too distracted by the hard lines of him behind me, of the warmth of him slipping in under my skin. Even with my father’s old leather jacket on, it felt chilly out there at night.
That was the only reason I didn’t move away.
The heat.
Nothing else.
Then his arm lifted, going over my shoulder to hold out his phone and snap a few pictures, though I couldn’t imagine they would turn out well without being able to use the flash.
I hoped he was distracted enough not to notice the way I kind of turned in toward his arm a little, feeling myself tucked into the cradle of it and his chest.
Eventually, he stopped taking pictures.
But instead of his arm dropping down at his side, it curled around the upper part of my chest, pulling me flush against him.
I knew I needed to pull away.
Yet all I could do was let myself be held.
His other hand reached up, grabbing the phone and tucking it away before it, too, curled around my stomach.
“I don’t think you’re as okay as you’re trying to seem,” he said, his lips right up against my ear to keep the sound from carrying. It also made his breath tease over me, made his beard tickle my skin.
“I’m fine,” I insisted. There was a hollowness to my voice that betrayed the truth.
“It’s okay to be conflicted,” he said, like he was reading my mind.
“This is my home.”
“This was your home,” he clarified. “But people move all the time, make different choices, forge different paths. You don’t have to stay just because it’s what you’ve always known.”
“It’s not that easy.”
“There are things that need to happen,” he agreed. “But once they do, you have choices. What good does it do to close your mind to them?”
He wasn’t wrong.
Even if I didn’t say that.
I just stood there, just let him keep holding me.
His hand slid up, covering my mouth, and I didn’t know the reason until his hand drifted down from my belly to press between my thighs.
I gasped against his palm, surprised by just how quickly desire spread through me.
His club brothers couldn’t be far away.
A whole clubhouse full of enemies was just a few yards off.
We could be seen, heard, discovered.
I couldn’t care less as his fingers pressed in, the friction of my jeans and panties only managing to drive me up faster.
“Couldn’t think about anything else but getting my hands on you when I saw you on that bike,” he murmured, the words making my chest swoop. “Wanted to climb on with you, turn you around to straddle me, and fuck you until you were screaming.”
I whimpered against his palm at the mental image, at being wrapped around him on my bike, his thick cock buried deep inside of me, and riding him until we were both shattered.
Colter’s face shifted, kissing down my ear, then the side of my neck.
Then, pushing my neckline aside with his chin, his lips sucked near my collarbone. Hard. Throbbing. Marking me. But where no one else would see.
And just like that, the orgasm crashed. I cried out against his palm as the waves moved through me over and over before finally ebbing away.
Little by little, Colter moved his hand, then arms, away.
Before stepping to the side of me.
Like nothing at all had happened.
He reached for his phone and took a couple of pictures as I just stood there, staring at his profile as I tried to get my heartbeat and breath to slow down again.
“Shit,” Colter said.
And there was something fierce in his tone that had me straightening.
“What—” I started.
But then I heard it too.
Barking.
Roach had gotten dogs.
And someone had just pushed them out the door.
Without a leash or fence.
Colter looked at me, face tight.
Then he offered his hand.
I took it.
And we fucking booked it.
“Saint… Syn…” I panted as we ran.
“I saw them running between the trees,” Colter, not at all winded, declared. “If we hear snarling, we can turn back. But they can handle themselves. And they’re armed.”
My stomach lurched, hating the idea of any dog being hurt. But I imagined that if a dog was trying to rip out my throat, I would have to make that awful decision too.
I just hoped it didn’t come to that.
We ran at full tilt, but I got the idea that Colter was pacing himself so he didn’t drag me.
Even so, I struggled to keep up. Little tree branches slapped and scraped at my cheeks.
The ground was uneven under me, making me almost fall twice.
The only reason I stayed upright was Colter’s hand yanking me upright.
We reached the bikes in half the time it took to walk from them, me having to bend forward, panting for breath, my face feeling on fire, my chest tight.
Colter was barely breathing heavy.
“What… if… they’re… lost?” I panted between gasps.
“Then at least they’re safe,” Colter said.
He’d kept his tone casual, but his shoulders were squared as he scanned the trees.
He was the senior brother on this job. He didn’t act like it. He even let Saint kind of take control at times. But it was his ass on the line if something happened to one of the brothers. To any of us. And that was clearly weighing on him.
I understood the weight of the mantle of leadership all too well.
I stepped forward, pressing a hand into his back as he stood watching the woods.
“They’re coming,” I told him, even though we both knew I had no idea.
Colter glanced over. And for a second, there was something so intense in his gaze it almost sent me back a step.
Then his arm went out, scooping around the back of my shoulders, and curling me into him.
What’s more, I let him.
He’d been there for me more than a few times now.
And some part of me really wanted to be there for him while he was stressing out.
Why?
I had no fucking idea.
But I was just rolling with it.
Two minutes turned into five. Then close to ten.
There was nothing but the rush of the wind and the chirps of crickets.
Then, lifting above everything else, a faint few whistled notes. A bit of a song, maybe, but trying not to sound too obvious.
Colter stiffened and whistled the same few notes back.
The next time the sound came, it seemed closer, like they’d turned toward Colter’s whistle.
I straightened, sliding out of Colter’s hold, and reaching for my holster to free my gun.
Maybe it was Saint and Syn.
But I wasn’t taking any chances either.
There was a crunch.
Then shadows moved closer.
“Thank fuck,” Colter said, shoulders dropping the weight they’d been holding up. “You good?”
“Bastard got my pants,” Syn said, gesturing down at his torn pant leg. But there didn’t seem to be any blood.
“Gonna shoot me, babe?” Saint asked, smirking when he eyed the gun in my hand.
“Haven’t decided yet,” I said, but gave him a relieved smile. “Did you lose them?”
“A while back, yeah.”
“What kind of dogs were they?” I asked.
“Hellhounds,” Syn grumbled, inspecting his leg, though I didn’t even see a scratch.
“Rotties,” Colter said.
“They sounded like demons. That rumbling shit they do,” Saint said, shaking his head.
“Do you think any of the guys were alerted?” I asked.
“Nah,” Saint said. “Figure maybe the dogs take off after some prey often enough that they didn’t think anything of all the noise.”
“Poor dogs,” I said, hating the idea of any living creature relying on someone like Roach for survival, let alone anything even close to affection.
“Hey, that poor dog wanted to rip my leg off,” Syn said, holding a grudge.
“If she wanted to, she would have bitten you,” Saint said. “She was close enough.”
“She?” I asked.
“She reared up when Syn waved a stick at her. Think the other was a male.”
“They turned back?” I asked.
“Yeah, they just seemed to lose interest eventually and headed back. Maybe they don’t like straying too far or someone called them or something. No idea.”
“Did you get any cameras up?” Colter asked.
“Any?” Saint asked with a look that said, Seriously, you think that little of me?
“All?” Colter asked.
“We work fast when we need to,” Saint said, shrugging. “You two see anything?”
“I got some pictures, but we didn’t see anyone outside.”
We hadn’t been watching too closely either.
“Well, hopefully the cameras give us something to go on,” Saint said, shrugging it off.
We knew this would be a multi-day job, so there was no reason to be too disappointed about the night being cut short.
“Wanna check on Sugar, then we can get on the road?” Colter asked.
God, he knew me too well already.
I did just that, finding her still lying on her side on the bed, but watching the fish tank on the TV.
“We’re good,” I said, choosing not to wonder why I looked only at him when I said it. “Let’s head out.”
“After you,” Colter said.
I doubted the guys noticed the ghost of a smile toying at the corners of his lips.
Because no one else knew what was on his mind when he said that.
As I climbed on my bike and slipped on my helmet, I swear the little love bite he gave me throbbed.
And with that, I turned over my bike and tore off.