...or something: Ronacks Motorcycle Club (13 page)

"Why would you lie?"

He laid his hand on her leg. "Until I know who shot at you, there's not much to go on."

"That doesn't make sense." She leaned over and put her head on his chest. "Why would someone want to kill me?"

Battery pulled away from her. Her head came off him, and he stood from the bed. The last thing she needed was more fear and upset.

"Battery?" she said.

He latched his hands behind his head and stretched. "I don't know why it happened."

"You don't know what is going on, or you don't know who shot a gun at me and luckily hit the door instead of my head?"

"Fuck," he muttered, thinking her medication must be wearing off, and while she was ready with questions, he wasn't ready to answer. "We couldn't find anyone, carny-girl. The men swept the whole area and even went into Haugan. I don't have any answers for you."

"Did you call the sheriff?"

He shook his head and put his arms down. To call the authorities, he'd need to come clean on what he knew. The men who were responsible would stop at nothing to get to her, and he couldn't trust the sheriff's office. He already knew what organization put a hit on Bree, and they had people inside law enforcement that would only bring more trouble. Until he could figure out how to take out the threat, he couldn’t tell anyone, and neither could Bree.

"You're going to have to trust me to protect you and stop anyone who wants to hurt you." He sat down on the bed again. "Give me a couple of days to find out who is behind this. Can you do that for me?"

She gazed into his eyes and nodded.

He exhaled softly. "You'll be on lockdown. No going outside. No phone calls. No talking to anyone outside the club."

"Is that necessary?" She frowned. "I can't go to the pond?"

"You can't swim with your arm wounded."

"I know, but..." She closed her eyes an extra beat. "Okay. I'll stay inside. I'm not real big on going outside when I know someone is out there with a gun anyway."

He leaned over, kissed her forehead, and said, "I'll let you get some sleep."

She grabbed his wrist with the hand on her good side. "Don't leave me."

"You need to rest."

"I won't be able to sleep. Not without you." She inhaled. "Please, Batt. Just for tonight, can you forget what happened between us and what I said to you before all this happened."

Her admittance pained him. He had to accept how much damage he'd caused her. 

She loved him. He damn well knew she had loved him for a long time.

T
wo weeks later, Bree sat on the pool table where her nightmare started and reached for Battery's hand.

Swiss lifted a pair of curved scissors toward her arm. She let go of Battery and waved her hand in front of Swiss. "Wait. I'm not ready."

"You've said that three times, darling." Swiss squinted up at her. "Removing six stitches is not going to hurt you. You won't even feel what I'm doing because your arm is all healed."

She covered her upper arm with her hand. "I don't like blood."

Battery hefted his body up on the pool table, lifted her onto his lap, and widened his thighs, planting her directly in front of him. He grabbed her wrists and crossed her arms in front of her before she figured out what he was doing.

"Come on, Battery. Don't do this to me." She pressed the back of her head against his upper chest. "It's going to pop open again."

"It's healed." Battery tightened his hold. "Do it, Swiss."

Swiss raised the scissors again. Bree pressed back into Battery and couldn't move. Her chest constricted, and she failed to draw air into her lungs.

"I can't breathe." She panted. "I'm going to pass out."

"Good." Battery spoke into her ear. "It'll make Swiss's job easier, now hold still."

"Shit," she muttered, stiffening at the first pinch. "That hurts."

"That's one down," said Swiss. "I'm almost done. Just a little bit longer and it'll be all over."

She groaned. "Shutup."

Another pinch, that one more painful.

"Ouch," she said.

"Two down."

"Fuck you, Swiss." She gritted her teeth.

"Oh, she does have a nasty mouth." Swiss raised his gaze and grinned at Battery. "I always liked a girl who talked dirty."

"Go to hell," she muttered, not finding any part of getting stitches removed funny or entertaining.

Lightheaded, she squeezed her eyes shut. She never got hurt. No broken bones, no busted lip, and no stitches. Until now.

She held her breath. Battery kissed her head. He'd been kissing her a lot and sleeping with her since the shooting.

"All done, darling," said Swiss.

She opened her eyes and peered down at her arm. The skin firmly held together on its own without the help of stitches.

"It's not bleeding." She raised her gaze and smiled at Swiss. "Thank you."

Swiss patted her cheek. "Do me a favor and stay out of trouble. You're the worst patient in all of Ronacks."

She sobered. "I will."

Battery let go of her wrists. She rubbed her arm, amazed that everything was back to being how it was before the wood went into her skin, albeit the slight pink line.

"I'll have a scar," she said.

Battery lifted her arm. "Nah, it'll fade. You won't even notice it this time next year."

He continued to rub the pad of his thumb over her arm. Aware of his touch, she held perfectly still, not wanting to break the moment if Battery wanted to stay with her and not pull away. He'd been careful with her. Too careful.

After demanding that she sleep with him. It was only in bed, in the dark, he held her as if he'd never let her go. Reluctant to ask him about their change in rules, she took his comfort without question.

"Been thinking," he said.

She moistened her lips. "About?"

"You." His chest expanded, and he lowered his head until he rested his lips in her hair. "Me."

She stared straight ahead. Over the last two years, she'd fallen into a pattern of keeping her distance from him. Already on tender ground with his negative reaction to them having sex and the shooting, she refused to accept anything but all of him—no other women, no casual sex, no half and half, no going back and forth between caring and not caring.

"What about us?" she whispered.

He slid his hands under her armpits, lifted, and put her sideways on his lap. Forced to look at him, she stiffened as her stomach fluttered. He gave no indications if what he had to talk about was good or bad. When it came to Battery, she always prepared for the worst.

"I was an asshole after we had sex the first time." He gazed down at her hands in her lap.

"That was two years ago, Battery," she stated.

His mouth tightened. "Never meant for you to see me or hear me after I left the bed."

"Battery, that doesn't make it right even if I'm not there to witness how you act or overhear how you feel about me," she said.

"That's what I'm trying to tell you." He shifted, took a cigarette out of his pocket, and tucked the smoke behind his ear. "You knocked me on my ass, carny-girl. In one night, I went from your guardian to a man inside of you. The little girl I knew and the woman you are don't always mesh in my head. I forget that you're nineteen years younger than me. I've been raising you, taking care of you, looking out for you. Now you're...you're all grown up, and you've been grown up for a few years."

"Age shouldn't matter," she said.

"Age does matter." He exhaled loudly. "I come with shit that you'll never understand. I've seen things, done things, and can't outrun my mistakes. You have your whole life ahead of you, and I don't want you to screw that up by throwing it away on me."

"It's too late," she whispered. "What do you think I've been doing since I came to Montana to live with you? Six years with you and this connection I have with you continues to grow and consume me. My feelings might not be returned to me, and I get that. But, Battery, the night we had sex, you gave me my feelings back. You were right there with me, experiencing a wonderful thing. I don't understand how you can deny yourself when you know we're only happy when we're together. And, you're more than a guardian to me, and you know it. You've always known it. I'm not a child. I know how you feel toward me and have lived through the changes when you stopped viewing me as too young and started fighting your attraction to me and wanting more."

"You done?" He slid his hand under her hair and cupped her neck.

She widened her eyes in defiance. "For now."

"What I'm getting at is it's taken me awhile to figure out how our relationship has changed. Maybe you getting hurt and having to put you in lockdown has made me see you for who you are now. A brave, strong, beautiful woman." He turned her by the back of the neck. "A woman who I'd rather spend my time every night having sex with than pretending I don't love you back."

She leaned closer to him. "You love me?"

"There was never any question about loving you, carny-girl." He pressed his forehead against hers. "Loved you before we had sex, and if shit falls apart, I'll still love you. What I need from you might not be what you want."

"God, Batt. Whatever you want, I want, too."

His mouth softened. "Hear me out."

She nodded.

"You're not
other
women to me. If you're in my bed, and I'm in your body, you're mine. You take over the responsibilities that come with being my woman with the club and that's going to be a rough role. Most of the women who belong to the members are older than you. They've already decided who runs things. They're going to push you around until you earn your place. They know you as Bree, who I'm raising. They've never met Bree, who belongs to me."

She turned and put her hands on his chest. "Time will solve any problems the club has with me."

"Right." His hold on her grew tense. "Trained you without you knowing, Bree. Every step of the way, I brought you up to know what I need and what I want. The whole time, I thought if I kept how I felt away from you and the club, I wasn't doing anything wrong. I kept how I felt about you in my head where nobody could see." He kissed her lips.

She cupped his face and softened his worry lines around his eyes until they were both out of breath. "No other women, Battery. You want me. That's the only thing I need in return, besides your love."

"I don't need them. I need you," whispered Battery, going in for another kiss.

Stunned with excitement over Battery coming through, fighting for what they both couldn't deny, and loving her, she wrapped her arms around his neck. He chuckled, and she absorbed the rare sound in her mouth. Rolling her onto her back, he separated her legs with his knee and settled in. She pushed his chest, needing one more look before she completely lost her mind with happiness.

And, he gave her what she was looking for. The warmth shining in his eyes that he only gave to her.

"You're not going to walk out afterward, right?" she asked.

He always frightened her a bit with the intensity in how he dealt with her. Only lately, that same force fed a part of her that wanted to temp danger to see how far he'd take her.

"Never would've let you go, even if you wanted to keep things the way they were, carny-girl. You're a part of me in ways you'll never understand." He raised up onto his knees and dragged her shorts and panties off. "Only difference is I'm not going to let you leave me. You're staying. In my house. In my bed. In my life. Won't let nothing else happen to change that."

She stretched her arms above her head and watched him roll on a condom from his wallet. "You're beautiful," she blurted.

He caught her eye, and she gained his approval.

That part of her that always wanted to please him and never disappoint him sent her damp pussy clenching in anticipation.

Battery lifted her legs and dragged her ass onto his thighs until she was propped up, head down, in front of him. Her body open to his view, she could only lay there and let him do whatever he wanted to her, and she liked being at his mercy.

He rubbed the head of his cock along her sex. His broad, strong hand fisted his hardness, directing it to her. He rubbed over her clit. She trembled at the contact.

Her stomach warmed with each swipe until her bottom lifted and her back arched even more.

She felt her dampness spread over the condom. Her breath came faster, and she lowered her hands to her breasts, squeezing her nipples.

Battery's gaze swept up her body and he watched her, his knuckles white from the grip he had on his cock as he continued to rub against her.

"Ready for me?" he asked.

She pried her tongue from the roof of her mouth and said, "Yes."

He straightened on his knees, letting her down on the green felt of the pool table gently. She reached for him as he came down on one hand over her and slowly glided into her pussy. The fullness no less than the first time they'd made love, but the initial discomfort was gone, and already her body relaxed and accepted his size.

She wrapped her legs around his hips and ran her hands up his chest to his neck, under his beard where she could feel his bare skin.

He pumped in a slow rhythm, studying her closely. She smiled up into his face. He no longer had to be careful. His attention to her comfort only excited her more, and she used her feet on the back his thighs to pull him down harder.

He went faster.

She held on tighter.

Her rapid breathing fanned his face, and each of his grunts sent a tiny shiver of pleasure to gather lower in her stomach, building and building. Then he gave her his hot, hungry gaze. Her body catapulted into one orgasm that gripped her whole body and she strained against the release, trying to put it off because she wanted it to go on forever, but she was too weak. The pleasure too powerful.

Her upper body came off the table, and she plastered herself to Battery. He grabbed her ass and straightened his upper body, putting all his weight on his knees, holding her, cradling her, and came inside her as her sex squeezed with each jolt of his pleasure.

Weakness hit her sharply, and she laid her head on his shoulder, unable to support herself. His hand found the back of her head and held her tight.