“What are you doing?”
“Getting you undressed for your nap,” he says kissing a path up my leg.
“We…I thought we were fighting?”
“We’re having words Nicole. I might be pissed, and you might be pissed but, Mama, get this straight…You’re
my
woman and there is
no ending this
, or
time away
from us. You feel me?”
My heart stutters. I didn’t mean the words when I said them. I’m scared, worn out, and terrified for Dani. I shouldn’t have laid into Dragon like I did. I might be pissed off because it seems like a double standard, but in truth, I don’t even disagree with him.
“I feel you,” I whisper as his hands reach under my dress and pull down my panties. I shift so he can take them off. He throws them to the corner once they clear my legs.
He raises up and reaches out his hands to me, “Stand up, Mama.”
I let his hands envelop mine and he pulls me up. My eyes stay locked on his as he slides the straps of my dress off my shoulders, and further still, until it pools at my feet.
“You’re fucking beautiful, Mama.”
“I’m as big as a house,” I argue and being over six months pregnant, it’s totally true. The only thing saving me from looking like a blimp in my wedding dress is the forgiving layers the designer fixed around the waist.
He bends down and flattens his tongue out against one of my nipples, licking it and then sucking it into his mouth. My head goes back as I moan. He slowly releases and does the next one the same way.
“Turn around.”
His words shock and excite me. Since Dragon found out I was pregnant he has always been so careful with me. During sex, he makes sure I am in a positon where he controls the intensity of everything. Don’t get me wrong, anyway we make love is good, but there are times I miss the down and dirty Dragon I fell in love with.
I do as he orders and my body shudders when his hands move up my breasts and pulls so my back is tight against him.
“Spread your legs out to make room for me Mama and bend over on the bed slowly,” he whispers in my ear, his hot breath sending goosebumps over my skin.
I swallow, so fucking turned on I can feel the wetness gathering between my legs. I do as he says and smile when he reaches around and drags two pillows under me. I lean on them so I’m higher than the bed will allow and it makes it infinitely easier for me. The bed is tall, but as big as I am, it’s hard to bend over these days.
His hand slides along my ass, his fingers pushing between the cheeks, teasing my opening. I bite my lip to keep from crying out in excitement. It seems like forever since he’s played with me this way. His fingers move farther down sliding between the lips of my pussy, playing and exploring but never entering inside of me. One finger grazes over my clit before going back to play in the creamy wetness he has created.
“Fuck Mama, you’re soaked for me. You need my cock?”
“Always. I need you to fuck me.”
He tortures my clit and then goes back and plays with more of my juices. It’s a sweet, torturing refrain that has me on the verge of climaxing in minutes.
“Who owns this pussy, Nicole?” He growls, continuing his movements in slow, methodical thrusts that have me ready to scream. When I push my ass against him he stills it by taking his other hand and clamping down on my side.
“You do, Dragon. It’s yours. I’m yours,” I acknowledge, as finally he slides two fingers inside of me, not going as deep as I want him to, but still it’s more than he has allowed.
“Who owns your fucking body, Nicole?”
“You do. I told you, I’m yours.” I whimper half out of my mind.
His thumb moves out to push on my clit while his fingers tease inside of me, stretching my opening. He keeps thrusting them in and out, giving me a taste of what my body is craving, but never going deep enough to fully satisfy.
“You think you can live without my touch, Mama? You think this body can go without me?”
“No, I… fuck, Dragon, it was stupid. I shouldn’t have said it. I love you sweetheart, I couldn’t live without you. Please… Oh fuck!” I growl out when I feel his free hand come down and smack my ass hard while his fingers are still inside of me.
“We will never be done, Nicole,” he growls, smacking my ass again this time with the hand that was in my pussy. The sticky wetness slides against the heat of the last blow. It feels so fucking good. He knows I love it when he plays me like this.
“Dragon…sweetheart…,” my voice is dark and full of need.
“We are getting married, Nicole. You are wearing my fucking ring. You will keep wearing a cut that says you’re my old lady and you will fucking be in my damned bed every fucking night, begging for my cock. You feel me, woman?” He orders, his hand connecting with my ass again.
I’m so wet it’s sliding down my legs now. If he doesn’t give me his cock soon, I’m going to come without him.
“Dragon…damn it…”
“We are forever, Mama, say it,” he demands as once again, he delivers another blow.
The bite of pain and then the teasing he gives me after, work to send me into another zone and I can barely hold on.
“Yes,” I cry out feeling the fluttering of my inner walls, so close to an orgasm.
So close
.
“Say it, Mama!” He growls again and I can hear the sound of his zipper sliding down behind me.
“Forever Dragon, we’re forever.”
He grunts in agreement, then all at once he’s on the bed—naked, gloriously naked. He’s lying down and pulls me on top of him. I straddle him immediately, even as I wish he had taken me like we were.
“
Dragon
.”
“Shh…Mama, grab my cock and take me inside. I love when you ride me.”
“But, I want you like we were.”
“Just take me until it feels good, Mama. Give me this. I love seeing you riding me, your hair sliding against your skin, your body swollen with my baby. Fuck, you have no idea, woman.”
“I’m huge,” I protest, but give in. I slide down on his cock because, even though I may want the other position, I will never pass on having Dragon inside of me.
He reaches up and pinches one of my swollen nipples in punishment. I cry out as the pain runs through me. His hands move to palm each side of my stomach, where he strokes it gently, his eyes are glued there, seemingly enraptured. Slowly he looks up and his eyes hold mine. The inky chocolate depths are so deep, I lose myself.
“I’ve never seen anything more beautiful in my fucking life, Nicole. Never.”
I close my eyes and replay his words. My man. God, this man has a way of shattering whatever self-doubt I have and making me feel like I am the most beautiful woman in the world. He manages to heal the wounds left by my parents and numerous other idiots that have passed through in my life, and I don’t even think he
tries
. He just does it. He believes it, believes in me. He makes
me
believe it, too.
Those are the last thoughts I manage to grasp before I pick up speed in my ride and focus on doing nothing but bringing us pleasure. He grips my hips, helping to support me as I slide down on his cock, over and over, doing my best to clench tight around him.
“That’s it, Mama. Give it to me.”
I can’t maneuver like I once did; I am not flexible, nor agile. I’ve worried that Dragon would notice the difference and miss it. I worried for no reason. I see that in the look in his eyes, the way his hands move over my body, and more importantly, by the way my climax triggers his. I fracture into a million pieces, pleasure rocking me to my core, but he is right there with me. I hear him call out my name and feel his release.
Minutes later I’m lying on my side. Dragon has fixed it so we’re now at the head of the bed and I’m using his chest as my pillow. It’s still early in the evening, too early to be in bed, I guess. I don’t care.
“Tell me about Dani, Mama,” Dragon says and I wish I didn’t have to.
“She’s not from Kentucky and we didn’t go to high school together.”
Dragon’s body tightens against mine and I feel shame for lying to him. He doesn’t say anything though and he doesn’t push me away, so I soldier on.
“I told you my parents insisted I go to college to find a suitable husband, but I refused; though not at first. I went for one semester. They sent me to Three Oaks Academy in Maryland. It was
the
premiere private college where trophy wives-in-training go.”
Dragon kisses the top of my head and squeezes me to him. I take this as a good sign.
“That’s where I sort of met Dani.”
“Sort of?”
“Dani is a name she picked out of a Red Hot Chili Pepper’s song. Her real name is Melinda Marinetti.”
“Fuck me…”
“Of the Marinetti shipping…”
“I know the name, Nicole,” Dragon replies and his voice is not happy. I take a breath and dive back in.
“Her father had just died. She had no one but him since her mom died when Dani was…”
“Melinda.”
“She’s Dani to me, she always will be,” I try to explain and I can hear how upset he is, but I figure at this point in for penny, in for a pound—or whatever. “Anyways, when the will was read her father made it a stipulation that Dani would marry Michael or she would not inherit anything.”
“Jesus.”
“Pretty much. Michael was nice to Dani. He held her hand through the funeral, helped make the arrangements, and became her support system in a way. She thought he was perfect.”
“He wasn’t?”
“He wasn’t happy she came to school. The will stipulated that Dani finish so many hours of college and other weird shit though, so he didn’t stop her. After they married, that’s when he changed.”
“Changed?”
“Controlling, beatings…and more, but those things are Dani’s alone to know, Dragon.”
“Why didn’t she leave?”
“Hard to leave a man who has that much power. She was young, terrified. There were a lot of reasons.”
“She reached out to you?”
“I hated Three Oaks, one semester was all I could handle. I came back home and moved in with Roy’s parents.”
“Roy?” Dragon asks and his voice takes on that extra-growly texture to it.
“Cool your jets, sweetheart. Roy is like a brother to me and gay—very happily gay.”
“Dani’s brother?”
“He’s not actually. We met him in Maryland and just clicked, though he and Dani have always been super close. When things got really bad Dani had nowhere else to go, she called me and Roy arranged to go get her. He was dating a man who could help her start a new life. With his help, Melinda died and Danielle Grant was born.”
Dragon had shifted where he was on his side while we talked. When I finished he rolled over on his back and stared up at the ceiling. I lie there, not talking. Even remembering this story, totally glossing over the ugliness, exhausts me. I’ve told Dragon, but he has no idea, really. He couldn’t. Dragon isn’t a man who would ever hurt a woman—let alone hurt her in ways she’d never recover from and take joy from it.
“This is a fucked up mess, Mama.”
“Yeah.”
“You should have come to me. You should have trusted me with this so I could protect you and Dani.”
His words hurt, I knew, of course, how he’d feel, but hearing it spoken out-loud and in his voice, a voice I love,
wounds me
. I shift to my side and prop my head on my arm. I would have liked to roll over on top of him, but our child prevents me. Instead, I take my free hand and exert enough pressure on the side of his face that he turns and looks at me. My thumb grazes over his strong chin. I try to will everything I feel for this man into my eyes. I want him to see how much I truly love him. I know I’ve done damage by keeping Dani’s secrets, but it’s important he sees it has hurt me too.
“Dragon, I love Dani. Until you and your club, she was the only family I ever had. I kept her secrets out of loyalty, because she asked me.”
“Nicole…”
“But even after I agreed to keep them Dragon, I was still planning on telling you. I just couldn’t right away. Dani has had so much betrayal. If I had betrayed her, I don’t think she would have survived.”
“Damn it. Mama, I can’t keep you safe if you don’t tell me. I can’t keep her safe! Nicole, she’s out there alone with no protection. That is
not
alright. You needed to let me in and trust that I can handle this shit.”
“I do! It’s not about if I trusted you. It never was! Dani didn’t want you involved. She didn’t want the club involved. You keep preaching, club business is club business. How you need to keep me safe. You should understand more than anyone that Dani felt this was
her
business, and she wanted to try and keep us all safe.”
“Running away won’t do it though. This psycho won’t stop until he has Dani, and now that he knows she’s been alive all this time and living off his money? He’ll want revenge and he’ll want it ugly.”
My stomach clenches and this sick feeling explodes inside of me. Realistically, he’s only telling me the truth, but I was trying to pretend differently.
“Maybe Dani’s right and now that she’s left, he’ll give up. Maybe he’ll grow tired when he can’t find her.”
“No, he’ll find her and he’ll use any means to achieve that.”
“What do we do?’ I whisper, because I know I was stupidly convincing myself that Dani was right. Hearing Dragon and the certainty in his voice, I’m terrified.
“Call your girl and get her to come home.”
“I can’t.”
“Why can’t you…”
“She said it was safer if I didn’t know anything. She’s going to contact me once she gets settled, through a prepaid phone she purchased when we were in town for the fitting. There’s nothing I can do until then.”
Dragon sighs, turning his head away from me and stares back at the ceiling.
“Then we wait, Mama. It’s all we can do.” The words echo into the heavy silence that has filled the room. They do nothing to assuage the fear that has taken root inside of me and the dark truth that echoes in my mind. By trying to protect my relationship and loyalty to Dani, I may have only succeeded in hurting her, or worse, getting her killed….
“Dragon,” I break off in a cry of anguish as the tears over this whole thing finally break to the surface.