Chapter Ten #3
And from the corners of the room, an older Cottonmouth spoke, low but certain. “Never thought I’d be proud to wear this patch again.”
A new era for the Cottonmouths of Oak Grove began.
* * *
Dylan
Dylan stood on the front porch of the Hound clubhouse sometime after midnight.
Her arms were crossed over her chest as she waited each painful minute for the outcome.
Margot stood nearby, feeling obliged to protect her if she was going to insist on waiting on the porch.
Jade waited just inside the door, pretending she wasn’t watching out the window.
Ryder had gone quiet an hour ago, and Dylan hoped that wasn’t a bad sign.
Deva walked back out with a fresh glass of water, moving like the entire affair was over and her side had won. Dylan wished she had that kind of confidence tonight instead of standing there saying every prayer she ever knew that Vendetta and everyone else came back in one piece.
The roar of bikes signaled their return before she saw them.
And then in the darkness, headlights broke through the trees.
One after another, the Hounds rolled in, all bruised, bloodied, but victorious.
Frantically, she watched for him to roll in with them.
Her breath caught when she finally spotted him.
Josh.
He pulled off his helmet and parked his bike, and her world narrowed. Everything else fell away. Josh was alive. He’d come back for her.
Josh moved straight toward her with no hesitation. She launched off the porch steps and into his arms before he could say a word. He caught her with a grunt and held on like she was the only thing anchoring him to the earth.
“You’re back,” she whispered against his neck, feeling the tears falling but not caring.
“I told you I would be.”
She pulled back just enough to look at him. “Are you okay?”
His dark-eyed gaze searched hers. “I am now.”
She looked him over for wounds, noting the fresh scrape across his temple, the dried blood on the knuckles of his hands. “You don’t look okay.”
“I’m not gonna lie,” Josh said, brushing a thumb across her cheek. “It got ugly. But we won, Dylan. Eli’s gone. The Cottonmouths aren’t his anymore.”
She wasn’t sure she’d heard right. Dead? How much did she want to know? She asked, carefully, “Gone?”
“Eli’s not gonna hurt you again,” he said gently. “Or anyone else. It’s over.”
She let out a shaky breath and leaned her forehead against his. “Thank God.”
Dylan wasn’t happy that Eli was dead. She hated that it had come to that, hated that blood had to be spilled for her to finally be free. But the truth settled over her, a heavy, quiet relief. She didn’t have to be afraid anymore. No more running.
And no more girls would be passed around like property. No more secret shipments, or silenced cries in the dark. The pipeline Eli helped build had been severed. Shut down. Maybe now, someone else would be free too.
For the first time in days, Dylan could breathe. And she was breathing him in.
“Don’t breathe too easy just yet, sweetheart.”
Her brows knit. “Why?”
“Eli’s gone,” Josh said, voice low and steady, “but Sinister Skin’s still out there. And they’ve got long memories. If they think you’re a liability, they’ll come looking.”
Her heart stumbled in her chest. “So what now?”
“Now,” he said, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her close, “you let me worry about that. You’re not running anymore, Dylan. You’re coming home with me.”
“Home?” She honestly didn’t care where. She just heard the words “with me.”
Josh stopped to cradle her face in both hands. “Wherever I am, that’s where you belong now. And for a while, we’re going to be living at the compound until I can be sure you’re safe.”
“The what?”
He smiled. “Yeah, it’s like the Hounds’ clubhouse, only more like a fortress.”
She nodded. “Okay.”
He pressed his forehead to hers. “I didn’t fight my way back just to lose you again.”
Behind them, engines cooled, and voices carried, but for a moment, there was nothing but the two of them.
It was over.
The door creaked open, and the warmth of the clubhouse wrapped around them like a worn leather jacket, smoke-tinged, familiar, and alive with murmured voices.
Dylan walked beside Josh, his hand on the small of her back.
She didn’t say anything until they reached the room she’d been staying in.
Once the door closed behind them, she glanced up at him.
“The compound,” she said quietly. “Does that mean you’re… a Cottonmouth again?”
He looked down at her, lips twitching into something between a smirk and a sigh. “Not just a Cottonmouth,” he said. “They voted me in as the new president.”
Her eyes widened. “Wow.”
“Yeah,” he nodded. “Ripper’s my VP. And Shade… You’ll meet them. Several of the Cottonmouths sided with us. It’s a good place to start. But we’ve got a lot of rebuilding to do.”
“Good,” she said. “And I’m glad you’re taking his place. You can make sure nothing like this ever happens again.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“But, Josh… doesn’t that put an even bigger target on your back?” Dylan folded her arms, concern clouding her expression.
He leaned in, pressing a kiss to her temple. “Probably.”
Dylan cut him a look.
“But,” he added with a grin, “I’m not planning on dying again anytime soon.”
She wanted to laugh, to cry, maybe both. Instead, she looped her arms around his waist and leaned into his chest. “Good. Because I just got you back. I’m not letting you go this time.”
Josh held her close, voice low and sure. “You won’t have to.”
They hadn’t stood there for long when his hands started wandering, over her back, her ass.
When she gazed up at him, he claimed her mouth in a heated kiss that had her heart flying.
His grip tightened on her, pressing her close enough to feel every hard line of his body.
The heated length of him under the rough denim of his jeans let her know that he wasn’t ready to sleep just yet.
When she finally broke the kiss, her breath came in a rush. “Don’t you want to wash up first?”
“No, I want you first,” Josh whispered hotly.
Dylan thought he meant to shove her back onto the bed, but her back met the wall next to it.
Then Josh was all over her. While his heated kisses scorched her lips, his hands moved roughly over her breasts, down to her hips.
He wasn’t gentle when he pulled open the front of her jeans, yanking them down her legs.
Her sandals came off too as he pulled each ankle free of denim.
Her panties came off with a quiet rip just a beat before he pulled one of her legs over his shoulder.
Josh buried his face between her legs after that, working her with lips and tongue.
Not that he needed to. She wanted to feel him close, inside her.
Her thighs trembled around his face as she grabbed handfuls of his dark hair, clutching at it as his tongue twisting in her folds made her senseless.
When the tip of his tongue zeroed in on her clit, Dylan wasn’t sure how long she could remain upright.
Sensual pressure built in her body, driving her insane.
When he slid one finger inside her, Dylan gasped. When he slid the second one in, she was right there on the edge of release…
Josh grinned at the low whine that escaped her lips when he stopped.
The bastard winked at her as he rose then, allowing her leg to slide down so he could work his belt open and pushed his own jeans down just enough to free his cock.
She watched it bob as he moved back to her.
It was easy enough for him to grab her hips, push her up the wall.
His powerful body pinned hers to its surface as he slid his cock inside her in one quick thrust that took her breath away.
Dylan’s heart was racing when he started moving inside her.
Josh dropped kisses over her face and chest, then caught her lips in a dirty kiss that was all teeth and tongue as he rocked her.
All Dylan could do was hang on, grabbing at his shoulders and his hair as he fucked her hard and fast. Her legs were wrapped around his waist, encouraging him. Letting him know she needed more.
“You’re all mine,” he whispered against her lips. “My Dylan.”
“Yours,” she managed weakly. But it wasn’t just her body he’d claimed.
Dylan had never had any man make her feel like she was more than a fun time here and there.
Josh kissed her like he needed it to live, loved her like it was his life’s mission.
There, trapped between his driving body and the wall, she didn’t need anyone or anything else. Just him, to be loved by him.
In no time, he had her body fighting for its release.
Lust like lava ran through her veins as he fucked her against the wall, his movements faster and harder.
When she came, her pussy clamped around him and she buried her cries in his shoulder.
The rest of the world was lost to her as she mindlessly hung on, letting the orgasm shake her fiercely.
His hold on her tightened, almost painfully.
He pumped into her wildly, dragging out her release as he came.
Josh shook as he fucked her, Dylan entirely wrapped around him, their hearts pounding furiously.
Seeming to be in no hurry to move, he kissed her, slow and sweet.
“I doubt the tub in the bathroom is big enough for two,” he said.
“But I’ll bet we can make the shower work. ”
Dylan smiled. “Round two then?”
“Round two,” he said, pulling her into his arms like it was nothing, and carrying her into the bathroom. Tomorrow would be soon enough to figure out their future.