Tempered Steel (Steel Riders MC Book 2) (10 page)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Monday morning, Cyn woke up entangled with Daphne, which felt good and warm.

Daphne’s eyes opened and looked at her across the pillow. “Hey,” she greeted Cyn.

“Hey,” Cyn returned with a smile.

“You should go see Hank today if he is around,” Daphne told her.

Cyn didn’t bother with questions like “hy.” She was so brutally in need, it had to be pulsing above her in neon: “Fuck me, Fuck me.”

“You wouldn’t mind? Maybe someone like Sally could come over this afternoon.”

“I think I can manage. Being with you helped a lot. It took a lot of the fear out of it for me.”

“Fear of being alone?”

“Fear of
always
being alone. Fear of never finding love again. That with Derrick gone, my chances were over for things like kids, or a real house or any of that stuff. Things I always thought I would have with Derrick, but always seemed to be further away the longer we were together.”

“Being with me did that? Baby—”

“I’m not getting all lezzy with you,” Daphne laughed. “It’s just, well, you aren’t into it, but you love me enough to give what you can, and Cyn, that’s more than enough. It’s like mainlining
hope
. The fear is just not there anymore. I can feel that someday, probably not soon, but someday, someone will love me again, and I’ll be able to love them.”

Cyn nodded. “Good. That’s real good, because it is so fucking true. Seriously, if I was going to lez-out, it would be with you or no one.”

“But you’re not,” Daphne said with a heavy sigh, “because you love Hank’s cock too much.”

“Brat!”

“Slut!”

Cyn kissed her nose. “But you’re right. He really does do it for me. So, how do you feel about me taking you up to the club? It might be good just to be out with friends again,” Cyn suggested.

“The wake was good,” Daphne mused. “It really was. Have you talked much to Boston?”

“I know who he is, but no, not really. Hank seemed to like him after talking to him once.”

“He’s … refreshing,” Daphne said.

“Not exactly a Greek god,” Cyn teased.

“No,” Daphne said seriously, “but a real man, though. I think if I wasn’t in so much pain at the time, and trying to hide it, I might have wound up necking with him in the parking lot.”

“Really!” Cyn said with surprise.

Daphne nodded seriously. “I don’t know how or why, but he cut through all the pain and hurt and fear and that whole tarball of black emotions. He cut through all that and gave me glimpses of daylight. Blue sky.”

“He was trying to pick up on you at the wake?” Cyn asked.

“No, no, nothing like that. In fact, he probably didn’t feel the connection at all, not like I did. It certainly was confusing for me, because, well, shit, I’m at Derrick’s wake for crying out loud, and feeling this connection with Boston? But no, he was a perfect gentleman. He talked about his sister, and his mom back in Arkansas. Said he was going to ride back there next month to visit with them. He talked about getting back in shape, and his depression after coming back from the war.”

“Doesn’t sound like upbeat subjects to me,” Cyn said.

Daphne rolled back onto her back and looked up at the ceiling. “That’s just it. They weren’t, really, but
he
was so upbeat, it didn’t matter. I couldn’t quite put together him and his depression. It was like he was describing a completely different man. And his energy was contagious.”

“Maybe I
should
get to know him,” Cyn mused.

“Do anything more than that with him, and I’ll stick you with a pin,” Daphne said with a smile.

“Wow, jealously already?”

“Terrible, isn’t it?” she laughed. “I’m such a bitch. I just know some little flossy is going to snatch him up before I can get my shit together enough to even date him,” Daphne said. She tried to make it a joke, but Cyn saw it wasn’t a joke at all.

“Kinda young, though, isn’t he?”

“He’s something like twenty-seven or twenty-eight. I’m only thirty! I’m not an old hag.”

“Damn straight you aren’t,” thirty-year-old Cyn agreed.

When she called, Hank said he was at home all day and was dying to see her. He hadn’t called yesterday because of the funeral. He figured she would be mother-hening Daphne all day. He was right about that, though wasn’t sure “mother-hening” was the right term for what they were doing together. But Hank didn’t need to be burdened with that sort of information — she wasn’t sharing him with any other woman, either. She and Daphne were perfectly in tune with each other on that subject.

So at noon, Cyn gave Daphne a $100 in fun money, forbidding any argument about it, and then added three hundred for rent and food. “We’re roomies, and I’m guessing that Derrick didn’t leave you with much.”

She nodded and looked at her hands. “Nothing, in fact. I think we have like forty in the bank, nothing in savings. He owned half the shop, but we weren’t legally married, so I doubt I’ll see anything from that.”

“You were with him for over ten years, Daphne. I’ll bet common law would say you were his legal wife. Let’s call Larry,” Cyn said.

Larry agreed. He said he would meet Daphne up at the club around four, have dinner with her, and then go over her story. But yes, common law should provide her with the rights to his estate if he didn’t have a will, which Daphne was sure he didn’t.

“He could have had something in his filing shit boxes, but I doubt it.” Daphne sighed.

Cyn gave her a hug and said, “Well, bottom line, for the next couple of months money isn’t an issue for you, alright? Seriously. I have savings and good money coming in, and I really am all fucked up about sleeping at my house right now. Maybe you could help me clean it up and set it right again someday.”

“You know I will,” Daphne told her. “Any day you are ready, just tell me that’s what we’re doing and that’s what we’re doing.”

Cyn smiled, kissed her, and grabbed her ass. “You would make a damn good wife,” she told her, giving her lusty eyes.

“Damn straight I would,” Daphne agreed, then they both giggled and got themselves ready to go.

After dropping Daphne off at the club close to one o’clock, Cyn headed straight to Hank’s house, only giving her own house a glance as she passed by.

She ran up the stairs and nearly collided with Hank. He whisked her up into the air and spun her around, her legs flying out behind her.

Her first kiss was greedy and needy, and Hank poured the same right back into her. She felt his hunger for her, and it felt so good. “I’m going to be naked the entire time I’m here,” she informed him as he led her inside.

“Then I’m a blessed man,” he said with a smile as she shrugged off her jacket and hung it on a peg beside the door. “But before you get completely naked, here, put this in your saddle bags so you don’t forget it.”

He handed her a black case. It was close to lunch box size and looked similar to a gun case.

“What’s this?”

“Twenty grand. I want you to dole that out to Daphne as she needs it. Maybe get her a new car or something so she can get around. Let her think she can pay you back some day if that makes it easier for her to accept,” he said.

“Wow, Hank. Um, this is a lot of money,” she said, looking at the stacks of bills inside.

“A bonus I got on Friday for giving him two ideas on how to better launder his money,” he explained.

“I know that the club took up a collection for her at the wake,” Cyn told him. “She doesn’t know about that yet. They’re going to give it to her tomorrow night, after the business meeting. I’m sure it will be at least a couple grand. Maybe it would be better if we just added this to that money, and then she could take it guilt free.”

“Yes, that’s a really good idea. Take it with you when you go to pick her up and get that to Knight then, or Ben, or whoever is collecting the funds.”

“I think James got tasked with holding the money, but I’ll get it to him,” she agreed.

“Speaking of James, how was your time with him?”

“Hold that thought, I’m going to take this out so I can start getting naked,” she giggled.

“Just mention the man’s name and you’re ripping your clothes off,” Hank teased.

She stuck her tongue out at him over her shoulder as she hurried back out to her bike.

Back in the kitchen with him, she started with her shirt. “You know what? It really does feel very natural to strip while thinking about him.”

“I’ll tickle you until you pee if you don’t stop,” he warned.

“Oh, well, just saying,” she offered humbly. “Anyway, I kicked his ass for almost an hour before he started getting the hang of knife fighting with me.”

“What?”

“Yeah! It was so fucking great. And you should have seen the look on his face every time I killed him. It was so innocent and confused and vulnerable. Fucking adorable is what it was, and just made me want to kill him again.”

Hank lifted an eyebrow. “That was probably the most bloodthirsty statement I’ve ever heard in my life, darling.”

She slapped playfully at his arm. “Stop it.” She started pulling off her boots. “Though he did mention that he had never been killed so many times on the mats in one session before. He was quite happy about it, too.”

“I didn’t know you were going to spar with him. That must have been quite a treat, and certainly the first time I’ve heard of him doing something like that. He does workouts and training with the rough riders, of course, but I didn’t think he did one-on-one stuff. How was the range?”

She pulled off her pants and then wiggled out of her panties. “Awesome. And yes, he really is that good. Fuck!” Fully naked, she put her clothes on a chair by the door and said, “Now, if you don’t fuck me soon, I’m going to be very miffed.”

Hank came at her so boldly and with such determination and strength in his eyes, she felt an adrenaline rush of fear and was ready to bolt. Before she could, he caught her, turned her, and pressed her face-first into the wall behind her. “Hank?!” she whimpered.

Then his pants came undone and, faster than she could believe, she felt his cock spreading her opening. “Oh, fuck yes. Do it, fucking do it,” she urged, and she lifted her ass to give him better access.

He entered her with a powerful thrust. She gasped and twisted, trying to allow him inside, but it took three full thrusts to stretch her open. Each was a surge of pleasure spiked with pain.

“God yes, fuck yes, fuck me Hank. I need you so fucking bad.”

“Thinking about you is never enough,” he growled in her ear. He took his hand off her shoulder and filled it with her hair, then pulled her back, exposing her neck to his mouth and teeth.

“Oh, fucking hell!” she screamed as her first orgasm rushed through her like a freight train.

She might not have been into sex with Daphne, but it was certainly a hell of a foreplay for her.

Her knees buckled and she clawed at the wall, trying to hold herself up as the orgasm thrashed through her. Hank took a hold of her ass with his left hand and lifted, pressing her harder into the wall and keeping her ass where it was, despite her failing legs.

God, he’s in complete Neanderthal mode!

Again that feeling of being helpless and owned welled up in her, and she didn’t fight it. It was alright. He could own her and use her however he wanted, because at the core of it glowed a deep and warm connection with her. She was far more than a body to him. She meant a great deal to him, and she was truly respected by him. Touching that core with her heart, she climaxed with deep, almost frightening convulsions as he pounded his own climax into her.