8. Chapter Eight
Chapter Eight
SHERIDAN
S hona was cleaning the bar when I woke up alone the next day and the clubhouse was nearly empty. He’d gone off without saying goodbye to me…again.
I was going to have to have a word with him about that shit.
“Don’t worry,” Shona smiled over at me. “They’re just in church.”
I nodded, remembering what that meant. Moving over to the bar, I sat down on a stool.
“Juice?”
I shook my head at her. “No, thank you. I haven’t asked before, but I see the ring on your finger. I don’t think I know which one you’re married to.”
Shona stopped cleaning and leaned against the back of the bar, sighing. “I suppose I should take this damn thing off.”
She was looking down at the ring on her finger, a wave of emotions clear on her face.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” she said, but her smile was tight. “I’m widowed.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” I replied. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“It’s okay,” she shrugged her shoulders as if it didn’t mean anything, but I could see that it did. “He betrayed the club, I’m lucky they didn’t excommunicate me too.”
“These guys love you, Shona. You are part of the family. I’m sorry about your husband.”
She nodded, hiding her eyes. Even if he’d betrayed the club, she still fell in love with him. She lost her husband. She was allowed to feel bad about it.
“When you say he betrayed the club...you mean they killed him?”
I knew how it went. No one talked about the clubs’ dealings or what happened between closed doors, but that was pretty much the only rule, other than refusing to listen to your president.
“No,” she replied. “He was killed by the O’Farrell’s for trying to kill a witness who could rat him out for burning down one of their businesses.”
“Wow,” I said. “Those guys who were here earlier?”
She nodded. “Yeah, it was their brother, actually. Lorcan. He’s a good guy. He made sure I was okay after he found out who I was, offered me protection, and his woman checks in on me constantly.”
“And I just let my daughters go off to their place.”
“Oh, honey, Ace would never have left them in Conor’s care if he didn’t trust them implicitly. Dog did the wrong thing, he burned down one of their businesses, and he tried to kill the only witness. That witness is now Lorcan’s woman, by the way. Being in this club is the best thing that ever happened to me. I was furious with my husband for what he did, but he had someone in his ear, turning him against Ace.”
“Who?”
“Snake,” she replied quickly. “He’s no longer a problem, though.”
I nodded, and looked over at the woman who appeared to be staring daggers at me. I’d never met her before so I wasn’t sure why she would be looking at me like that.
“Don’t worry about her,” Shona said, seeming to read my mind. “She’s come back here after being with the Nomads for too long.”
“Who is she?”
“Her name is Amanda, but she goes by Mana mostly. She had a thing for Ace for a long time, but he wasn’t interested.”
Suddenly, I realised why she’d hate me. I’d come in, an outsider, and taken the one she wanted. I couldn’t blame her, really. Cooper was everything you could want in a man, but he was mine.
I’d fight her to the death for him.
That thought surprised me. When had I become one of them? When had I immediately gone straight to violence rather than my peace loving self?
“Is she going to be a problem?”
“No,” Shona said. “She’s harmless, but just make sure you show her that you ain’t going anywhere.”
Amanda finally looked away, and started talking to some of the other bunnies. I talked with Shona some more until I saw a familiar face come through the doors. Her look of relief told me I’d been a really shitty friend and not told her I was okay.
“Orla.”
“Bitch, you ever try and die on me again, I’ll fucking finish the job, you hear me?”
I laughed as she hugged me tight, my ribs pulling in pain a little, but I didn’t dare pull away first. Orla sat down next to me at the bar and motioned for Shona to get her a shot.
“Orla, it’s ten in the morning.”
“Are you judging me?” she hit me back, just as I saw the door to church open. The members piled out, Hawk winking at me as he moved past and out the door. Cooper sidled up to me.
“Hey,” he said, sounding like he was tired already. I hated that he was under pressure and it was because of me. Amanda’s eyes were on us as he moved beside me, his hand on my waist. I looked behind him to see her looking over at us with a keen eye to see what happened.
I moved my hand up to slide back into his hair and pulled his face down to mine. His lips found mine and I opened my mouth and kissed him passionately right here in the middle of the clubhouse. His arms wound around me, holding me tight, telling me just how much he wanted me. Just like I did him.
He moaned into my mouth as he deepened the kiss, sweeping me off my feet, well he would have had I been on my feet. Heat blossomed between us, a promise of what this could lead to if I didn’t pull back. My eyes immediately went behind him to see Amanda storming past us.
Orla let out a holler of approval, saying, “Awww, little baby lost her binky,” when Amanda stormed out of the clubhouse with a huff.
Cooper watched the interaction, a slow smile making its way onto his handsome face. “That’s my girl.”
I loved it when he said that to me, realizing I was fast developing a praise kink with him.
“She needed to know who you belonged to,” I said with a smirk.
Shona and Orla were both watching us as if we were the last episode of their favourite TV show. Cooper wiped his hand over his head, and sighed. “I wish I could take you back home and have you tied to my bed right now.”
Heat whipped through me so fast I felt as if I would pass out. Cooper, tying me to his bed, as he worshipped my body? Goddamn. The thought alone had my pussy weeping with joy.
“So why don’t you?” I whispered in his ear, biting his earlobe.
He let out a low groan, his hands going to the sides of my face, holding me there as he weighed his options right now.
“I gotta go with the boys,” he said. “Stay with Shona and Orla, though. I’ll be back later, and I promise I’ll be delivering for you tonight.”
He kissed me on the lips quickly before I could pull him back into a deep and languorous kiss. He stepped out of the clubhouse, ordering the girls to watch over me and not let me out of their sight.
“Maree and Butch are on their way back, too,” he told Shona. “Might take them a couple of days though.”
Shona nodded. “I’ll make sure they receive a very warm welcome.”
He gave them a wave before he left the clubhouse. I turned to Shona, waiting for her to spill on who Maree and Butch were.
“Butch is the chaplain for the club. He used to be one of the enforcers, but he had a bad accident a while back and couldn’t ride for a while. He ended up taking over as the chaplain to keep active in the club. Maree is his wife and the baddest bitch you’ll ever meet.”
“Oh, I can’t wait to meet her.”
“She’s going to love you, especially when I tell her about what you just did to Amanda right now,” Shona laughed. “Think we’re rubbing off on you.”
“Oh, Shona, if only you saw our little Sheri in high school. She was the baddest bitch in the school,” Orla piped up. “Had chicks shaking in their boots.”
“No!”
Shona was surprised, but I didn’t like having that moniker back then. I had been cruel to some of the girls, making them feel like shit just because they wanted to hang out with Cooper. I’d not even been his girlfriend then, and no one was allowed to talk to him.
It’s not exactly something I had been proud of.
“That’s not the same, Orla.”
“Oh please,” she shrugged her shoulders. “Anyone came near Cooper and she had her claws in them even though she didn’t break up with her own boyfriend to date him, no matter how badly he wanted her.”
Shona gasped. “I thought you two hooked up back then.”
I shook my head. “No. Almost, but sadly, never quite worked out.”
“Because you didn’t break up with fuckface until after he left.”
“No…there was a moment…but it didn’t happen.”
Orla rolled her eyes. She knew I’d let him ride away, that I hadn’t told him how much I had loved him. It had taken her years before she had forgiven me for that. She’d lost her friends too, deciding instead of following them to stay here with me.
And I was thankful for it. She’d saved me on more than one occasion since then, especially when Neal had turned nasty.
“Well, it’s happening now and that’s all that matters,” she continued, reading how miserable I felt.
“What happens now? I just sit around and wait for them to return?”
Shona nodded. “You can, you can sleep, you can fix yourself something to eat, or there’s a big TV behind the wall over there. The guys watch it while they play pool.”
I knew the bunnies were all congregating over there, and they’d just seen me piss one of their own off. I didn’t exactly want to go hang out with them right now.
The door to church opened up and I saw Bear come out. We all frowned as we looked over at him.
“Jesus, did you just stumble out of hibernation?” Orla shot over at him. I rolled my eyes at her constant jibing of him. It had been non-stop since we were all kids. They’d had something serious back then, too serious for their age, but it had all blown to pieces when Orla fucked things up. She never forgave herself for that, and yet when they’d returned, she continued to play with him as if we didn’t all see what she was doing. She wanted him, but he was a different person now. Not the Alex she fell in love with. It hurt to see the way she was playing up to everyone else to make him jealous. I wanted her to just come out and say it. Tell him how she was feeling, maybe then we’d all have a happy ever after.
One day.
I knew one day, they’d end up realising how perfect they were for each other.
Bear winked at me as he passed by me and joined the boys outside. The rumble of the engines was loud, it would be deafening if I was down near where they kept them lined up in a row. I watched as Ace peeled out of the compound first, followed by Hawk and Bear, and then the others behind them. I wondered what they were doing, but part of me didn’t want to know. I just wanted them all to come home in one piece. There was something about watching him on the bike, riding with his crew, that got me hot and bothered. I remembered the first time I had been on the back of his bike, feeling the deep hum between my thighs had been a sensation I’d never felt before, and even now I still loved it.
My phone rang and I saw that it was Shauna. I hit the green phone button and answered her. Her face appeared on the screen and made me feel ten times better than I had been in a while.
“How are you?”
“Good,” she said. “This place is epic, it’s like a castle.”
“Really?”
Shauna moved the phone around to show me a modern type mansion that had sandstone large bricks on the outside with a large fountain in the middle of the driveway.
“That’s nice,” I said. “Have you two eaten?”
“Yes, ma,” Shauna rolled her eyes. “Have you?”
“I’m the mother,” I said, knowing I hadn’t eaten near enough to sustain myself. “I get to ask the painful questions. Where’s your sister?”
Shauna shrugged. “She and the woman called Sloane are hanging out. I like Teeghan, she’s sassy and pregnant, and she just bosses Conor around, it’s great.”
I rolled my eyes, but I was glad they were having a good time, away from the stress of this place.
“That’s good that you found them nice,” I said. “I’m hoping it’s not for long. You can call me or Cooper any time. Be good.”
“I know, Ma,” she said. “Stay safe.”
She told me she loved me before I could and hung up. Bloody teenagers, but there was a side of her she’d shown unwittingly. She was worried, and it killed me that I couldn’t reassure her that everything was going to be okay. That her asshole dad wouldn’t be coming for her again.
I put my phone away and looked over at Orla.
“What are we going to do?” I asked her. “I can’t sit around like a bruised petal all night, waiting for news.”
Orla shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know, but we could cause a little mischief.”
“Like what?”
“Figure out which bunnies like which bikers and try a little game of matchmaking, only to the wrong biker.”
“You’re evil.”
She shrugged again. “I know, but when they don’t let us have any fun, we make our own fun.”
Chuckling, I sat down next to her with a perfect view of the bunnies on the other side of the clubhouse. “First, you need to tell me who each of them are.”
Orla had always been friends with the club, even after I stopped coming, and the boys left. I couldn’t count the amount of times she tried to bring me to the parties, but I swore I’d never step foot in here unless Cooper was back and Donald was gone.
Now, I was with Cooper.
And his dad was dead.
Finally.
Sometimes, you had to walk through fire to find your water.
Orla pointed to one of the girls with brown hair and as many tattoos as Orla. “See her.”
I nodded.
“That’s Keira. She has a thing for Bear.”
I looked at the way Orla said that, almost as if she were jealous.
“Has Bear ever done anything with her?”
“Probably, but no one would know. Bear doesn’t brag about his shit. He’s subtle about his women.”
I looked over at Keira and noticed how she looked at us at the bar, a shy smile making its way on her face before she went back to her game of pool. She looked just like Orla did when we were younger. I wondered if Bear was flirting with her because of that. This was the version of Orla he could actually have.
It was still a theory but if anything, I was good at figuring out the truth, and then I could get them together. The inner matchmaker was jumping for victory already.
ACE
“What’s the source?” Hawk asked me as I checked my gun was loaded and primed before I got off my bike.
“Killian’s buddy staked them out. He owns this building, has an operation here. If we take this place down, it’ll draw him out.”
“And if he attacks the clubhouse again?”
“We rebuild, Hawk. Would you prefer Sheridan and the girls be constantly under threat?”
I was getting annoyed with his constant reasoning. There had been a time when he would have walked through those doors without doubting me.
“Of course not, but he’s not going to be here. I want to go up to him and beat the ever loving crap out of him, punish him.”
“I do too, but we need to draw him out. Killian said he may not even be in Kilkenny right now. He lost his job as police chief. Brogan told us that they couldn’t sweep the corruption under the rug anymore, they needed a fall guy. He’s unemployed, and only has this to work out for him.”
“He’s losing everything,” Bear piped up. “That doesn’t bode well. He’s going to try and do everything in his power to destroy this town. He’ll get desperate.”
“Conor and Lorcan have the girls on lockdown at their place. Killian is on his way to the clubhouse to protect them there. We have one shot. Let’s make it count,” I told them. Bear nodded.
“I’m ready to take this fucker out.”
Hawk nodded. “More than ready.”
We caught up with the rest of the boys and marched toward the warehouse. The lights were on in the warehouse, and I could hear machines whirring behind the doors. Hawk, Bear and I stood at the front. Viper, Savage, Razor and Chains were scattering around to the other exits. I wasn’t going to leave this place until I’d burned this fucking place down. We each breached our doors at the same time. Screams and yelling exploded everywhere. I took in the scene in front of me. It was a counterfeit running operation, a storage container at the back of the warehouse, the side of it opened to show crates of guns just sitting there.
This fucker had been taking our business off us. No wonder our funds were down.
“Spread the fuck out,” I called out to Bear and Hawk, taking the first guy coming at me with a punch to the face. My knuckles ached instantly from the impact, but I was so hopped up on adrenaline that it was barely a tingle. I ran through the warehouse, hunting down the workers and finding every fucking thing I could that would fuck him the most.
I was going to draw this fucker out and kill him quickly, not that he deserved it. He deserved to suffer just like he’d tried to do to his children, to my Sheridan.
I shot at the machines, causing them to hiss and spit sparks when the power was cut. The smell of smoke was strong from machines burning up as I ran through the warehouse and sought out anyone I could use for more information. Chains and Razor had someone on his knees in the office. He was sobbing and pleading for his life as I got there.
“This fucker was shredding shit.”
I looked over at the shredder which was halfway through shredding a document before one of the boys had yanked the power cord out of the wall. I went over to it, grabbing the paper sticking out of it and ripping it out. I looked over the paperwork, seeing that it was a real estate deal.
Nothing out of the normal there, so it was surprising that he would choose to shred that paper when we burst in.
Then I looked lower, just before the paper had been cut off, I recognised the address and the name on the paper.
“Fuck.”
“What is it?” Chains asked me. I handed him in the paper, looking down at the mess of a man that Razor held onto.
“Where is he?” I asked him. He shook his head in fear. He knew it was death either way.
“This can’t be real,” Chains said, holding the paper out.
“Why would he shred it when we burst in?” I shot back. “Pocket it and take the papers on the desk. Whatever they are. Take them back to the clubhouse. This goes deeper than I could have imagined.”
Chains nodded and grabbed the papers. Razor joined him as I stood over the weakened mess of a man who had been managing things for Neal.
“Please, don’t,” he begged me. I felt nothing for the man now pissing his own pants. I looked down at his wet pants in disgust.
“You picked the wrong side,” I said, stepping back and shooting him between the eyes. He fell backward with a thud. Razor and Chains were making their way back to their bikes with the paperwork. Savage and Viper, along with Kendrick and Kirby, were running around the perimeter, dousing the area in petrol. I grabbed Hawk on my way through. He was taking care of the last person I saw in the warehouse.
“Drugs?”
“No,” Bear yelled over at me from the door. “They’d need more room. It has to be another warehouse.”
I nodded, running up to him with Hawk and heading out, just as I saw Kendrick and Kirby run out the other exit. Savage and Viper were flipping for who got the honours as I pushed the boys out of the warehouse and toward our bikes.
“What’s up?” Bear asked me as we got on our bikes and put our helmets on. Savage ran toward his bike, obviously the loser of the coin flip. We waited for Viper to come running before we took off.
“Looks like we got a rat.”
His lip curled up in anger. If there was anyone who couldn’t stand betrayal, it was Bear. My chest was hurting at the deceit, but they were hidden in plain sight. It made sense how Neal could gather so much intel on us, and to take our businesses from us.
Viper came bolting out of the warehouse, straight to his bike. He threw his helmet on, and we took off just as the sound of the warehouse exploding into the night could be heard behind us.
Pulling into the compound, I was fired up from what we’d done and what we still had to do.
“Get him,” I called over to Chains who nodded and ran off with Razor. I moved forward with Hawk and Bear at my side. They didn’t say a word, so they must have known how serious I was.
We moved off to the shed, where we did our dirty work. I didn’t want to worry the girls. Our prospects had been told to go inside and look after them, keeping them from coming outside. I could hear the music pumping inside, meaning they had already given them the news that we were back and unharmed. I didn’t want Sheridan to come and see what I was about to do to someone I had trusted implicitly.
“What the hell is this?” I heard the old man grumble as Bear pushed him into the garage, closing the steel roller door behind him. We all stood around him, all of us aware of his deceit, and what he had been planning to do.
No wonder he hadn’t stuck with us when we partied, or why he never came into the clubhouse.
“You know.”
I nodded. “Yeah, pretty fucking stupid to pretend to be one of us all this time.”
“This was never anything to do with you, Cooper. I made that deal long before you boys came home. You see, with Donald gone, we weren’t making money. I had to do something. Neal promised to let us stay here, to keep running our drugs, but a few weeks after you returned, he reneged. I hadn’t read the contract properly.”
“You should have come to me,” I said, my voice eerily level and distant.
“You are too much like Donald,” he said. “You would have thought I’d been a rat.”
“You are,” Bear said, his anger evident. He’d thought of Eagle as a father figure, especially when his own disowned him once he patched in. The comparison to my father was one that I hated, especially with what I knew about him and what he did to Sheridan. I hated him.
He knew it too.
“I’m nothing like the old man, Findlay. He would have let you live.”
Realisation dawned on him as he looked me in the eye, but he never faltered.
“What made you think you could sign over our land, our clubhouse, everything we owned? “
“Donald left everything to me,” he said. “He didn’t know if you were to come back, you never returned his calls in the lead up to his death. He changed his will.”
“No, he didn’t,” I heard someone say from behind us. I turned around to see Shona standing there, her arms crossed over her chest. She’d come through the old entrance door to the shed, so we hadn’t heard her approaching.
“Whore,” Findlay spat at her. Savage kicked out at the old man’s knees, and knocked him to the ground.
“Don’t you speak about her like that,” he bit out, angrily. I was just as angry he would turn on her. She’d been through enough.
“What do you mean, Shona?”
“You don’t know about certain things, Ace. The last few months, especially when you were on runs, I…I did everything to keep my place here.”
Her eyes were watering, tears flowing down her cheeks. I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like what I was about to hear.
“You always had a place here,” Hawk said. “No matter what Dog did to us, you are a part of our family.”
“He said I was lucky that you guys hadn’t thrown me out, that I was on thin ice. I believed him. He made me do things for him, saying he would keep me around, give me a job no one could take. Because of that, I learned things about what he was doing,” she said.
“Stupid bitch, I’ll kill you,” Findlay swore, trying to lunge up off the floor, but he was too old and fat to get up without Savage kicking him back down.
“Shona, why didn’t you come to me?”
“I kept the change of will from being filed,” she said. “Legally, this place isn’t his to sell to Foley. It’s yours.”
“Savage, take Shona inside,” I told him. He nodded without hesitation and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, leading her out of the garage. I turned back to Eagle, the man I had once thought of as a father, and saw only a selfish bastard who had nothing left.
“Any last words?” Hawk asked him, the humour gone from his tone.
“For your tombstone,” Bear’s vicious words were felt throughout the entire garage.
“No need,” I stepped forward, grabbing my blade from my ankle. “He’ll not have one. We bury him in an unmarked grave on the side of the fucking highway.”
Eagle spat at my feet, his saliva landing on my boots. Hawk lunged forward, his blade going into Eagle’s neck at an angle. When he pulled back, Eagle reached for the blade, managing to get a hold of Hawk’s wrist, spinning it and stabbing him in the leg with it. Hawk let out a roar of pain as he pulled the blade free before whipping his hand across Eagle’s face. Eagle spluttered, clutching at his cheek before Hawk stumbled back. Blood spewed out of Eagle’s wound, as he clutched at it to stop the flow. It was no use. He’d be dead soon.
I lunged forward and stuck the blade in his heart, because he’d done the same, metaphorically to me. My heart was breaking right now as I watched this man who I trusted bleed out in front of me. Bear was next, stabbing him in the back. I felt like that was his point. Bear didn’t trust easily so this wouldn’t help with that, I’m sure of it. Chains and Razor took their turns with him, a chain wrapping around his arms, so he couldn’t clutch at the wounds bleeding out. Razor took his blade to the back of his head and cut around his neck, nicks meant to make him bleed out faster. He was a master at it. Viper was next, grabbing a steel pipe and pounding down onto his body. Eagle wasn’t moving anymore, pools of blood spilled out around his lifeless form. I felt the rage inside of me well up, wanting to break free.
“Viper, Razor,” I called to them. “Take him, bury him.”
They nodded, picking him up and taking him toward the back door to load him into a van. Hawk and Bear both took a moment to breathe before they pulled open the roller door. They all piled out as I followed them out, closing the door so no one saw the evidence of what had happened until the prospects cleaned it up tomorrow.
Hawk stumbled along with Bear and the others as they all went inside. I couldn’t bring myself to do it yet. I couldn’t go, my feet unable to move, my body tensing up as I felt everything pour out of me in the form of a scream into the air. I vented my frustration in the only way I knew how. I slammed my fist into the side of the garage, making the sound bounce around loudly. I clutched at my fist, feeling the agony rip through my muscles.
Fuck.
Moments later, I felt her hand on my shoulder, squeezing. Turning to face her, I felt the anguish inside of me push out and I tried to push her away so I didn’t hurt her. I needed space.
“Please, Cooper,” she said, her voice full of sympathy and love for me.
“Don’t look at me,” I said, turning my back to her. “I’m no better than my father.”
“No,” she said, firmly, turning me to look at her. Sheridan’s hand was on the side of my face, smoothing my hair that had fallen out of my hair tie behind my ear. The softness of her touch had me crumbling. Tears rolling down my cheeks, unable to tear myself away from her, and feeling like I couldn’t break, not here, not now, and not with her. “You will never be him.”
I couldn’t help but feel completely broken in front of her. She loved me completely for me, for the person I was and not who’s son I happened to be. Sheridan had always been it for me, I’d known it back then and I knew it now.
I grabbed her neck, pulling her to me, my lips finding hers in a searing kiss that pushed aside all the pain I was feeling, and instead I focused on just her. She whimpered into my mouth as I pushed her up against the garage, needing to feel her, to be inside of her, to be a part of her. She jumped up, wrapping her legs around my waist as she ground against me. I groaned into her mouth, working at my jeans to pull them down. Her mini skirt was above her hips, her panties pushed to the side before I felt myself push into her. She moaned into my mouth as I pushed all the way in, slamming her against the shed. Our kiss was a sloppy mess as I tried to keep her from calling out and alerting everyone to what we were doing out here. I just needed to be a part of her more than I knew what to deal with, I needed it more than I needed air in my lungs.
I pulled out of her, and pushed back in just as hard. She bucked against me, pulling my cock into her deeper than I had been. My balls were wet from her juices as I fucked her as hard as I could, her arms around my neck as I groaned into her mouth.
How had I gone this long without her?
It seemed ridiculous that I’d had a life without her, it was almost as if no time had gone by at all. As I felt her pussy grab my cock, squeezing it to within an inch of its life, I pummeled into her and as her orgasm hit, so did mine. Our releases blended together in an explosive act that sealed our fate.
There was no fucking way in hell I would ever walk away again. Sheridan was mine, and I was hers, whether she wanted to be my old lady or not. “I can’t move,” I whispered into her ear, leaning against the shed, my breathing coming in short, sharp rasps.
“We don’t have anywhere to be,” she whispered back. “I like it when you stay inside of me.”
Growling, I bit into her neck, my cock jumping to attention at her little moan of pleasure. I felt the need to mark her. Even though everyone in that clubhouse knew she was mine, I needed to see my mark on her. I’d have Orla tattoo it onto her neck tomorrow.
The sound of a car driving down the driveway had me pulling from her, blocking her from view as I pulled my jeans up. She got her skirt down from her hips and I looked over at the familiar face of the woman getting out.
“Morena?” Sheridan called out. The girl’s smile lit up the night around us.
“Hey, Sheridan,” she said. “Uh, Hawk called me. Said he may need some stitches and didn’t want to go into the hospital.”
Fuck, I’d forgotten he’d gotten stabbed by Eagle.
“He needs stitches?” she asked, turning to me.
“Yeah, he may have copped a blade to the thigh,” I said, to her shock. “Come on.”
Morena followed us inside.
Bear pointed down the hall.
“Come on,” I told her, leading her down the hallway and toward the rooms where I heard Hawk moaning in pain. I opened the door to see he’d removed his jeans and was sitting on his bed naked, clutching at the wound. It looked angry.
“Jesus,” I swore. “Why did you get naked?”
“I was getting into something easier for her to help me with but the fucking thing started hurting like a motherfucker so I laid down.”
He was in pain, I could hear it in his voice.
“It’s okay,” Morena said, pushing into the room, pulling her bag up onto the bed. “I’m a nurse. I see penises all day long.”
“None as pretty as mine though, right?” Hawk joked.
I rolled my eyes, as did Morena.
“Yes, Mr. Byrne, it is a very pretty cock,” she said, pulling out a bottle and spraying clear liquid onto his wound. He screamed out in pain, as I saw the blood trail down his thigh. His muscle contracted, tensing on the bed as he called out in agony.
“Sorry,” she said. “I need to clean the wound to see what we’re working with here. If it helps, you can look down at your very pretty cock to distract yourself from the pain.”
“Okay, I’m out,” I said, pushing out of the room and leaving the nurse with Hawk, howling in pain. Sheridan’s eyes were wide with every scream she heard.
“Relax,” I told her, pulling her into my arms. “Morena has a good handle on the sex god. I kinda like that she has him on his ass.”
Sheridan chuckled into my chest. “Take me to bed, Coop.”
I didn’t need to be asked twice as I signalled to Bear that I was out. He nodded and assumed responsibility while both me and Hawk were out. I slung my arm around Sheridan’s shoulders, and pulled her in to place a kiss on her temple before I locked her in our room at the clubhouse, pulling her clothes off before she’d even gotten to the bed.
SHERIDAN
“What’s this one?” I heard his grumbly voice ask as he traced the tattoo on my side. I looked down and saw the tattoo he was looking at.
“Leopard,” I said, smiling. “I just thought it was cool and wanted to cover a scar.”
He pushed his fingers over it more to find it, and then his eyebrows furrowed. “What’s that from?”
“I don’t really remember. It was back when I was drinking heaps.”
He looked into my eyes to see if I was lying, but I wasn’t. I would never lie to him. I’d been a wreck back then, regretting my life choices and knowing I was stuck in Kilkenny, married to an asshole, with two girls to look after.
It had been too much.
“What about the one on your leg?”
“You know what it is.”
“But I want to know why you got it.”
“Orla told me your name was Ace,” I said. “I wanted a piece of you on me that Neal wasn’t going to know about.”
His mouth crashed over mine and I moaned into his kiss. His hands travelled down my thigh, eliciting a very visceral reaction in me as he continued his featherlight touches until he pulled my leg up. Finally, he broke from my mouth, leaving me a little breathless, and took in the tattoo on my inner ankle of two Ace playing cards.
“It’s an older tatt.”
“I got it when I was 21,” I smiled down at him as he placed a kiss on my ankle, moving his way up between my legs. I bit my bottom lip as I watched him make his way up to my pussy. He pushed my thighs apart, his mouth over it. I grabbed his hair, twisting my fingers through it as I relished the feel of his tongue diving between my folds, licking a pathway up to my clit. Cooper moved his arms under my thighs and lifted me up off the bed a little.
My head was pushed further into the pillow as he lavished me with his attention. Would I ever tire of this? Hell fucking no. My hips began to buck against him as my clit throbbed with my oncoming release. He slipped two fingers into my core. I let out a deep moan that I knew they would have heard out in the clubhouse, but I didn’t care.
“Fuck, Sher,” he groaned into my thigh as he slid another finger into me. “You’re killing me.”
“Need you,” I grunted. “Now, fuck me, Cooper.”
He didn’t need any more prompting, kneeling between my legs and positioning his hard cock at my entrance, he pushed into me with one thrust.
My eyes rolled into the back of my skull as the feel of him stretching me had my body screaming for release. I fisted the pillows beside my head as he moved in and out of me excruciatingly slowly.
“Cooper, I swear to god if you don’t make me cum in the next five seconds, I’m going to flip you under me and ride you like a damn cowgirl.”
He chuckled at my impatience as I tried to move up to meet his thrusts but he edged just out of the way, like this was a damn game. The frustration was next level, which made no sense since we’d been having non-stop sex.
“I’d like to see that,” he said, his voice a touch deeper.
I groaned, twisting my legs around the backs of his thighs and somehow, I managed to get him on his back on the bed. I moved down his body, my hair splaying out over his chest as I took his cock into my mouth. I tasted myself on him, moaning as I took him until his head hit the back of my throat. I kept him there until my gag reflex dissipated, and I began to stroke his cock with my mouth.
“Fuck,” he grunted, his hips moving to meet my face. His fingers tangled in my hair, pulling it up as a makeshift hair tie so he could watch me suck his cock. I’d always hated doing this to Neal. He had been so forceful, always making me gag and choke on him. He didn’t have the length or girth that Cooper did, and yet Cooper made me want to do this. He gave me the gentle guidance and encouragement that I was doing it right to make him crumble, while also letting me go at my pace. He appreciated what I was doing rather than using my mouth as another hole to fill.
“Sheridan,” he groaned. “As much as I want you to keep going, I need you on top of me.”
I gave his cock one last suck and moved up his chest, straddling his hips as I grabbed his well lubricated cock and slid down onto it with precision. It almost felt like he was bigger as I slid down from above him, sitting there, unmoving for a moment until I felt I could move again.
“Jesus,” he swore under his breath. His hands moved to my breasts, tweaking my nipples as I began to ride him slowly, his cock hitting places I didn’t even know existed inside of me. I placed my hands on his pecs, leaning on his chest as I moved my ass up and down his cock. His hands moved to my hips, one hand moving up and spanking my ass. The sting had me crying out as new waves of pleasure rolled through me.
“Again,” I begged him.
He did it, again, and then on the other ass cheek. One hand held my hip, his fingers burying into my flesh as his other hand moved to my clit. I screamed out in pleasure as my pussy took on a mind of its own, my hips bucking against him. His finger didn’t relent on my clit as I dug my nails into his chest. My orgasm ripped through my body, my hips bucking out, wave after wave. My head swirled as the blood rushed out of it, my eyes blurring at the intensity of my orgasm. Cooper took over as I felt my legs slowly start to work again. He moved out of me, his cock still hard as stone, and positioned me on the bed laying face down. His hands moved to my back, pushing into my muscles, and I moaned so deeply, I was sure they heard me in Australia. His hands moved down to my ass, spanking me. The loud crack against my skin had me arching my back, my ass tingling from the contact. Moaning into his quilt, I squirmed beneath him. He used his foot to kick out my ankles, widening my legs before he picked up my hips, and pushed into me from behind.
Oh sweet fucking Lord in heaven.
The grunt I heard from behind me told me he was feeling the same way I was. One hand snaked around to my throat and he lifted me up so I was pulled back against his chest. His hips moved slowly at first, until I could feel my feet again. He squeezed my throat lightly, and I felt my eyes roll into the back of my head as he pushed his cock so deep into me that I felt his balls push at my entrance.
“I could do this all day, every day with you, Sher,” he whispered in my ear. His breath was on the side of my face, in my hair, his fingers firm on my throat, as I felt his cock deep inside of me.
I was his.
The very idea of being Cooper Malone’s was enticing enough as it was, but to actually be his, it was something more intense. God, it had my pussy throbbing, desperate for more. His other hand moved around to my clit and began to lavish me with small, soft and slow circles over my engorged bud. My legs shuddered as he picked up his pace, his cock slamming into me from behind. I leaned over on the bed, holding myself up with my arms as he powered into me.
I felt when his cock got thicker right before I felt his hand come to my hip, digging his fingertips into my flesh and pumping into me, filling me from behind.
We fell onto the bed together, completely spent. Our breathing was the only sound in the room, as he pulled me onto him, my head resting on his chest.
I kissed his chest, looking over at his almost completely tattooed chest and seeing something that caught my eye. My head shot up and I looked down at the tattoo just over his heart.
Sheridan .
“You have my name tattooed on you.”
He smiled, closing his eyes, and leaning his head on his hand, as if he had no other place to be but here.
“I know.”
“Why didn’t you tell me before?”
“Why?” he asked me. “You don’t like it?”
“Of course I like it,” I said. “When did you get it?”
His smile disappeared and he hesitated before he said, “About a week after I left.”
I placed a kiss on it, realising that we’d been destined to be since we were kids. Why hadn’t I had the strength to tell him back then?
“We’re together now,” he said, almost as if he were reading my mind. “Soon, your ex will be a distant memory. You, Ryleigh and Shauna will be happy, and safe, and we’ll live as if it was but a minor blip in history.”
I cuddled into his side, feeling safer than I had ever been in my entire life.