Call Me...Vengeance: Book 1 in the Vengeance MC Series (19 page)

In the weeks after she was discharged, Laura kept her distance, emotionally and physically. I’d tried to get out to see her as much as I could, but each time I did it only made her more unstable to the point she was coming unglued. Seeing me was a reminder of everything she’d lost, so I made the choice to stop going. I didn’t do it lightly and it wasn’t what I wanted, but it was better for Laura and that was all that mattered.

It took years, but eventually she got to a place where she could sit down and talk to me. We were never going to be an us again, neither of us wants that, but we did hash out the shit that she’d kept festering inside.

Now, we talk a couple of times a week. We’re not close, but we’re solid. I’m a sounding board for her, and she’s a friend. A lot of the brothers don’t get why I’d keep her as a fixture in my life, and in the beginning neither did I. I do now, though. It all boils down to her being the last living I have to Georgia. And I wouldn’t give that up for anything.

Which brings us to now, and what the fuck I’m going to do about juggling Beth and Laura.

*****

Standing out the back of Hounds, I looked at the men who made up Vengeance’s inner sanctum. Fury, Sly, Jump, Gage, Cash, and Deke. Diesel was missing, but since as he was seeing to Cami, I’d give him a pass on this one.

“You’re gonna have to take a hard line on this, Boss,” Gage advised. “What happened tonight wasn’t anything other than him needing to make a statement. Nix wouldn’t bother putting on a show if he didn’t want to force a reaction from us.”

“He’s not wrong,” Deke interjects. “Stupid motherfucker didn’t think it out all that well, but he knew Diesel would step up and get in his face about how he was treating his woman. Knew what it would lead to too.”

Gage lets out a bark of laughter, stating,

“You’re giving the asshole too much credit. He didn’t know shit. He hoped, but he didn’t fucking know. Not sure what his game plan is, but forcing our hand, declaring war like this wasn’t only stupid, it was fucking dangerous.”

“For who, brother?” Cash asks. “Not us, that’s for sure. Even if they don’t know who we’ve got taking our back, they’ve got to know Vengeance isn’t light on brothers or resources. What the fuck would he get out of pushing for war?”

“What he’ll get and what he hopes to get are two different things, Cash,” Gage volleys. “Don’t underestimate the power of stupidity, though, brother. Stupid means volatile, and unforeseen situations that we can’t plan for. All we’ve got now are threats and a whole fuckload of nothing.”

“Enough,” I rumble in the darkness. “There’s no point going over what we don’t have and can’t know until it presents itself. We’ve got to be smart, keep watch, and plan for the worst. It’s what we’ve always done, and what we’ll continue to do.”

“What does that mean for security?” Sly asks gruffly.

Lifting a hand to the back of my neck, I rub at the tension forming there wishing I was back inside pressed up against the gorgeous woman waiting for me. Instead, I’m out here in a dank alley, communing with my brothers over shit that shouldn’t be happening.

“We go on soft lockdown,” I answer shortly.

Soft lockdown refers to when only patch-wearing members, their old ladies, girlfriends, and their kids, all of whom are required to remain at the clubhouse, without exception. Patched brothers who don’t hold a seat at the table, their families, prospects, hang around’s, and club whores are free to come and go but not without someone accompanying them. We set prospects up to watch over the club whores and hang around's, patched members will take care for their own, and the unattached brothers get allotted the family that’s left.

“Who’re we calling in?” Comes from Jump.

“Need you to round up Emily, put Sarge on her,” I order, which is met with chuckles all round. I have to admit to holding back my own grin at that instruction. To say Emily and Sarge are oil and water would be a fucking huge understatement.

They’ve been at each other’s throats for years. I’d go as far as to say, they act a lot like the brother who are skirting around claiming a woman, but Emily would kick my ass for suggesting that. To her, Sarge is a cantankerous bastard with too much time on his hands to annoy her. And to him, Emily is a woman he takes great pleasure in pissing off every chance he gets. So I say let them have it. Better them than me having to deal with either of them.

“That’ll go down well,” Jump grimaces.

“It’ll go as expected. Just make sure we’ve got spare body bags and they’ll be fine,” I quip.

“And the rest?” Fury snaps tersely.

Sighing heavily because I know he’s not going to like this, I force out,

“Jump’s going to be a floater,” turning to Jump I add, “Keep track of who’s on who. Report back if you get short.” Addressing the group, I go on to say, “Gage is on Jay and his family. All except, Bella. Deke, you’ve got her. Sly, you’ve got extra eyes on Maddox’s kids. Lonnie is due to pop any day and he can’t he in two place at once. Cash, eyes where they’re needed. Sort it out with, Jump. He’ll tell you who needs watching. Get word to the others and let them know they’re up, but to keep it quiet. We don’t need their women and kids scared, just vigilant. Fury,” I say staring him down, warning him to keep his shit together. “She gets in first thing in the morning.”

“Oh, fuck no,” he snarls.

“Not up for discussion, brother,” I shoot back. “She’s Devil’s Spawn, Fury. You know what that means. And you know what’ll happen if anyone harms a hair on her head. I’m not saying one of the other boys wouldn’t be capable of keeping her safe, just that you’re up.”

“Got all the love in the world for you, Boss. You’ve got my respect too but put Deke on her. I’ll take Bella,” he offers sharply.

“Don’t know if you heard me or not, but I said this isn’t up for discussion,” I repeat. “Her Dad’s trusting us to keep his girl safe. I gave my word when he agreed we’d do that. I’m not going back on that because you’ve got taken issue with her. Pull your shit together. Watch her. And make sure she stays put. Avery won’t be leaving the clubhouse anyway, so she’s not going to be a problem that can’t be contained.”

“That’s what you fucking think,” he mutters brusquely.

“Right, that’s done,” I end abruptly. “Deke, I need you to get Beth, take her back to the clubhouse and keep her there. I’ve got somewhere to be. Make it known she’s off-limits. I don’t give a shit how you get that message across, but do it so it can’t be mistaken,” I demand.

“Need a second rider, Boss?” Jump enquires. Before I can answer him his guesses, “My guess is, you’re bringing Laura in too. I don’t know how she’s gonna take that, but I’m figuring you’re gonna need a hand corralling her ass into your truck.”

And that’s no joke.

Laura has only been locked down once in the time I’ve known her, and that didn’t go well. Getting her here when that was at one time the only thing she’d wanted was like pulling teeth, and she made it clear the entire time she was at the clubhouse she wasn’t happy about it.

She doesn’t get a say in the matter, though. Not when anyone of us could be a potential target for Hells Riders.

“She’s got no choice, brother. I’m going to head home and switch my bike out for the truck and head out. She’ll take it better if it’s just me who shows, but keep your burner on you just in case I need backup.”

“Got it,” he confirms.

Orders issued, my brothers disperse heading home or back to the clubhouse, and I make the almost three-hour drive to Cheyenne.

Laura took it better than I’d hoped, only bitching at me for the first hour and a half of the trip back, along with the forty minutes it took for her to pack a bag. Her position was that no one knew about her. Hence, she couldn’t be used as leverage. I disagreed. The fact is, anyone worth their leather would be able to trace me to her. It doesn’t take a genius to check phone records if you’ve got the number the calls originated from. And if they did, they’d see a fuck ton of calls between us over the years. Something I wasn’t willing to risk because it might make her feel uncomfortable. Better that than dead, I figured.

Settling Laura in one of the spare rooms we keep for out of town visitors, at the opposite end of the clubhouse from those occupied by brothers, I downed two shots of Jack and scooped up Beth.

That brings us current. Before being pulled under into the peace unconsciousness brings, I kiss the back of Beth’s neck, inhaling her sweetness, praying that tomorrow isn’t the beginning of the end of us.

“Don’t confuse your path with your destination.

Just because it’s stormy now

doesn’t mean you aren’t headed for the sunshine.”

-
       
Unknown

A body shifting restlessly against me roused me from sleep before I was ready. It might have taken me a second to remember who was currently laying pressed tightly o my side, but as soon as I did, I couldn’t help the wicked smile that spread across my face. A smile I’m sure would have scared her if she was facing me to see it.

Sometime during the night, Beth had entwined our legs, one of hers hooked between both of mine, the other thrown over my thighs. She’d flung her left arm across my middle, hand to hip, fingers curled into the flesh just south of it like she’d been worried I’d shift her away. With her head laying on my chest, her gorgeous hair spread out around her, some brushing my jaw giving me teasers of her scent as I breathed deep dreaming, I realized this was how I wanted to wake up every day.

Pinned to the bed by a woman who embodied everything I’d been looking for, but never knew I wanted.

Inching backward, far enough away to be able to look down the long length of her body, watch it curve, flaring at her hip, I take the tip of my finger, skimming it down the pale skin of her side. Beth shivered, goose flesh breaking out everywhere I touched, only making me want more. To taste. Lick. Use my tongue to elicit the same reaction.

Deciding to see how far I could take this before she woke up and experienced everything her body was feeling, I flattened my hand, dragging it from her upper thigh to the top of her rib cage just beneath her breast. Her shirt didn’t put up much resistance, shifting higher with each pass, exposing the dark green lace of her bra.

A cute moan slid up her throat, escaping her lips at my latest pass which included a swipe of her nipple. The nipple that had puckered into a hard, tight bud awaiting my mouth. I wanted that, my mouth on her, almost as much I wanted my cock buried inside her, my hands gripping her sweet ass as I pounded inside of her.

When I said, there’s not a lot a man like me hasn’t done I meant it. I’ve fucked slow, hard, easy, and punishing. I’ve taken my time building it in a woman, delaying her pleasure, stringing it out. But none of the ways I’ve made a woman come for me, had her begging and writhing beneath me have been for any other reason than because I wanted it. Until now. Now, I wanted to focus on Beth. Make this all about her and all the ways I could have her screaming my name. And while it’d be a lie to say I didn’t want to come with her wrapped around me, taking my cock deep, I wanted to see the ecstasy on her face as she shattered for me more.

Covering her breast with my hand, the other fisting her hair, tilting her head back, I slammed my mouth down over hers and kissed her. It wasn’t a sweet, slow kiss that burned through you leaving nothing but a sinfully sweet burn in its wake. It was my teeth nipping at her plump lips, my tongue prying them open, and my hands moving over her body as if I already owned it. It was a kiss that by the end of which, had Beth wide awake and panting. Her arms were thrown around my neck, fingers grazing the skin at my nape with one hand, and stroking short passes across my shoulders with the other.

Beth’s cheeks are flushed, her eyes glazed, and her mouth wet and swollen. Averting her gaze, Beth pulls her eyes from their study of my mouth, trying to remove herself from my grasp. But I’m not having any of it. Tightening one arm around her, I use the other to strip off her shirt and set about unhooking her bra.

Once her gorgeous, full tits are bared to me, I don’t waste any time in worshipping them. Peppering open-mouthed kissed down her neck, I set myself on a course straight for the cotton candy pink nipples begging me to pay attention to them.

Sucking one first, and then the other, alternating my devotion between them, I drag my tongue around the outside of the peak, teasing her areolas into tight, puckered circles. Laving, nipping, grazing with the edge of my teeth, Beth squirms as I roll her until she flat on her back. Her struggles have subsided leaving behind a woman who knows the pleasure I’m offering, and accepts it widening her legs to cradle my hips.

Using my decent to remove my boxers, I make my way down Beth’s body taking note of every spot that makes her sigh, and the ones that cause a rush of wetness to flood her core. I can smell it. I
could
feel it before she’d even opened her eyes. But now, I want to taste it, have her honey coating my tongue as I turn her whispers into harsh demands for more.

“You gonna open your beautiful legs for me, Beth,” I growl, sucking at the skin just above the line of her panties.

Hooded eyes watch me, but the look in them isn’t only one of desire and longing, but of uncertainty.

I tease her clit through the matching lace, causing her hips to buck, but she still doesn’t answer. Prompting further, I demand,

“I need the words, sweetheart. I need you tell me you want what I’m going to give you, and you can start by opening yourself up for me, baby.”

Drawing in a ragged breath, Beth’s legs part almost hesitantly, her eyes leaving mine and the flush that had been coloring her cheeks travels down the column of her chest to reach her clavicle.

“Good girl,” I murmur against the new skin I exposed at the top of her mound.

Then in a whispered voice I’d have missed if I wasn’t absorbing everything that is her, she says,

“What are we doing here, Jackson?” Sucking in another lung-full of air, she asks, “I barely know you and you definitely don’t know me, so what’s going on?”

“If you don’t know then you’ve been living under a rock, sweetheart,” I growl against her sensitive skin. “This is me getting to know you. And after I’m done, you’re gonna get to know me too.”

Rising to my knees, I strip her panties down her shapely legs not waiting to see if she’s going to stop me. If I said I hadn’t expected her to put the brakes on that’d be a lie. I was fully prepared to have to talk her into taking what I’m offering. I was primed up to do just that. It wasn’t necessary, though. The second I threw the scrap of green lace over my shoulder, I saw the light in her eyes had changed. Deepened. Her eyes had gone liquid. She wants this just as much as I do.

Dipping my head, I inhale her sweet, musky scent and take my first taste of her. I lap at her slit, kissing the inside of her thighs nipping at the soft, creamy skin there. It doesn’t take long for Beth the spear her hands into my hair and start writhing beneath me. Her thighs clamped tightly to the side of my head, I throw her legs over my shoulders driving my tongue deeper inside her already drenched pussy.

“Oh god, Jackson. More,” she moans desperately.

That’s when I consume her. Eating, feasting, drinking Beth in, I take everything she has to give and push her to give me more. Drowning in her, I take my hands, grab her ass, and tilt her hips until my face is buried so deep between her thighs I can’t see, feel, smell anything but her.

When I feel her getting close, I growl against her clit, tear my mouth from her while unwrapping her legs from my back rising up until we’re face-to-face. Hovering above her, I fist my cock and rub it up the length of her pussy covering myself in her wetness.

Staring into her eyes, my forehead touching hers, I whisper,

“You ready to get to know me now, sweetheart?”

Gripping my hair, Beth pulls my mouth to hers. She doesn’t kiss me, though. Instead, she searches my face looking for something. Finding it, she murmurs,

“If you’re ready to show me then, yes.”

I kiss her thoroughly, wet and deep until she incapable of stringing a sentence two words together. Snaking my arm around her waist, I pull her to me erasing the last inch of space between us. I guide her hand and wrap it around my cock, demanding,

“Guide me inside you, baby. And do it slowly.”

Beth complies with my direction immediately. Wrapping one smooth hand around my shaft, she lines the head of my cock up with her entrance. Pushing inside her, I feel her muscles tense, contracting around me like a vice.

“Relax, sweetheart,” I growl. “Relax and open for me.”

Beth’s hand fly to my shoulders, digging her nails into my flesh. After a few teasing strokes, pushing in and out until the tension dissipates, I begin fucking her in earnest.

My hand leaves her waist traveling down the length of her side, plunging between her legs, I work her clit in tight circles.

“Wrap your legs around me, gorgeous. I want to be wrapped up in you when you come for me.”

Her legs instantly find my hips, ankles digging into the base of my spine as she breathes,

“Oh. My. God.”

“Tip your hips for me, sweetheart. I want to go deeper,” I groan as she begins to shake in my arms.

Panting into the side of my neck, Beth traces it with the tip of her tongue. Her hands grip my ass as she grinds against me driving me so close to the edge I can almost taste it.

“Fucking hell. Jesus, Beth,” I rumble as she rotates her hips again shuddering against me.

Knowing her orgasm was as close as my own, I slam into her planting myself deep before withdrawing and doing it again. Over and over, I fuck her. Almost ruthlessly my cock pounds into her tight flesh, my finger manipulating her clit as she whimpers for more.

“Harder. Harder, Jackson.” Begging she pants, “Oh my God. Don’t stop. Please, don’t stop.”

Pausing, with only the head of my dick inside her, I drop my head and bite the sensitive skin where her throat meets her shoulder. Sucking deep, I mark her. Brand her as mine. My teeth leave indents in her
flesh, not breaking the skin but enough to know that they’ll be visible for a few days at least.

Looking down at my mark, noticing the way her eyes have glazed over, I begin to move again. Harder like she requested. The flush coloring her cheeks, her beaded nipples rasping against my chest, and the feeling of her pussy as it spasms around my cock has me groaning in ecstasy.

  “Not gonna be able to hold back if you keep squeezing me like that, sweetheart.” Tweaking her nipple, I command, “Need you to come for me, baby. Now.”

At my words, Beth’s muscles clenched, her back bowed off the bed, and her eyes drift shut.

“Eye’s on me, baby. The whole time I’m fucking you, I want your eyes on me.”

Her eyes snap open just as her mouth does. A long, throaty moan leaves her throat at the same time her body strings tight and she jerks in my arms.

“Jackson. Yes, God yes.”

Slamming into her once, twice, a third and then a fourth and final time, I plant myself to the root and come deep and hard.

Careful not to give her too much of my weight, I drop to an elbow and run my tongue over the mark I gave her. I’ve never done that before. Never felt the need to brand a woman, but when it comes to Beth, I’m learning everything about her is different. That includes how I feel about her. What I want to do to her. And what I’ve got the overwhelming need to
make
her feel.

The smile on Beth’s face is shy but brilliant when I allow my eyes to leave where we’re connected and look up at her. Continuing to stroke gently, my cock absorbing the aftershocks of her orgasm, I ask,

“You okay, sweetheart?” At her nod, I go on to ask, “I didn’t hurt you? Do anything you didn’t like, weren’t into?”

“Um, no,” she replies hesitantly. “I, um, I really enjoyed…” shaking her head, Beth blushes furiously letting her sentence trail off.

Smirking at her, I drop a soft kiss on her lips.

“I’ll take that as you liked it, baby.” Blushing again, she bites the inside of her cheek and nods.

As much as I’d like to stay in the now, feel her warmth underneath me, her legs cradling my hips, and my cock softening but still buried inside of her, we’ve got to talk. And now as good a time as any.

Rolling to my side shifting her with my so that she’s curled into my side, I kiss the top of her head and tighten my arm around her waist.

“Are you good with keeping me inside you while we talk, sweetheart, or do wanna go clean up first?”

And yeah, I realize what I did. I didn’t plan on doing it, but now that I have, I can’t bring myself to be pissed about it.

I’ve never had a woman bare before. I’ve never gotten so caught up in the moment that I haven’t had the good sense to use a condom. But like I said, Beth’s different. And after having her this way, I know I won’t be down with having any barriers between us. That doesn’t only apply to fucking latex either.