Chapter 9

Mandy

I had everything I needed for the four plus hour drive to San Diego. I made éclairs last night for the road, packed my bags and woke up in plenty of time to pack and be gone a full hour before Savior darkened my doorstep. I hadn’t planned on spending the entire weekend with the Reckless Bastards, since they weren’t really my friends, but I knew Savior would show up today and force the issue, so I had to get up and get that worm before he swooped in and stole it from me. It was ten minutes to eight and everything was all set. I pulled the door open, arms laden with snacks and my purse, and slammed into a tall, blue-eyed biker wearing a smug grin offering me coffee and a grease-stained bag of pastries.

“Trying to sneak off to San Diego without me?” He shocked the hell out of me and moved inside, kicking the door shut before I could recover my senses.

But with his man-scent enveloping me in the tiny apartment, that was harder to do.

“I wasn’t sneaking anywhere, just leaving. For my trip. To San Diego.”

I could admit, only to myself, that I was impressed he’d caught on to my plan and foiled it, but I wasn’t happy.

“At least I got a cronut out of the deal,” I told him, picking out the sweet pastry from the selection in the bag before taking a less than ladylike bite. It was from my favorite bakery. Was he a mind reader, too? “It’s a little sweet for my taste but it’ll give me the energy rush I need for the drive ahead of me.”

He smirked. “It’s not that long, especially since I’m driving. Both of us.”

“If you mean you and your gigantic ego, then I agree. But if I’m part of that equation, you should probably stop smoking crack.”

His laugh boomed loud in the quiet room so early in the morning.

“Why are you being so stubborn when we both know I could convince you? Easily.”

I laughed to hide the truth. He could convince me if he set his mind to it, but I wouldn’t let it get that far. I hoped I wouldn’t.

“Look Savior, I appreciate the pastry but I’m full up on bossy men, so I’ll see you around. Hey, what the hell are you doing?”

He stole my cronut and tossed it back in the bag and set it on the table next to my purse and the coffee he’d brought.

“I’m going to convince you that we could be the perfect road trip buddies.” He’d tossed me over his shoulder, and I heard the mischief and desire in the playful nature of his voice. I yelped when he smacked my ass, biting my lip to keep the moan from escaping.

He tossed me on the bed with a dark, hungry look I chose to ignore for the sake of my sanity.

“I don’t need convincing Savior and I damn sure don’t need you to watch over me.”

He peeled my sneakers off, letting his hands glide up the legs I’d chosen to keep bare in a lightweight cotton dress for the long, hot drive.

“Mandy, sweetheart, I ain’t trying to watch over you.”

His fingertips kneaded my thighs, gliding up until his thumbs brushed where I was already drenched and throbbing. For him.

“I’m trying to watch you come. You look so fucking hot when you come.”

He didn’t wait for my acquiescence or my submission, he just stared for a long tense moment and then it was like someone flipped a switch because he moved like a tornado, taking off my panties, my dress and my bra.

“So goddamn delicious!”

I shivered at his words, at the hungry look in his eyes and the possessive way he touched me. It was hard not to feel special, desired when a man like Savior looked at me like that.

And then his mouth was on my neck, the weight of his body pressed into mine, so wicked and so hot. His mouth moved with the precision of a skilled lover across my neck, scraping against my collarbone before he moved down to the valley between my breasts.

He nibbled at the soft flesh around my nipples before sucking it deep into his mouth, making me tremble at the hot friction between them.

“Savior.”

His name escaped, unbidden as the pressure building deep inside me.

He said nothing, just savored my breasts, licking and sucking, nibbling and biting. The switch from rough to gentle, soft to hard, it was too much. He’d barely touched me and I could already feel my orgasm building. When his hand slid down my belly and two thick fingers slipped inside me just as he blew against my aching nipple before wrapping his mouth around it, I fell apart with his name on my tongue. Again.

“Shit babe, you’re so wet.”

“Your handiwork,” I told him with a lazy chuckle.

“Now I need to see how sweet you taste, how thick that sweet cream of yours is on my tongue.”

I didn’t know how he said the dirty things he did with such ease, but his words never failed to get a rise out of me.

“Unless you’re convinced?”

I shrugged. “I’m totally convinced that I’m driving my car to San Diego,” I told him with a laugh but his tongue slipped between my pussy lips, licking me from the bottom of my opening all the way up to my swollen clit.

“Fuck, Savior, yes.”

I gripped his thick brown hair around my fingers and arched into him as his tongue devoured me. He grunted and growled, animalistic in his desire for me and I knew, this wasn’t about convincing me to ride with him to San Diego. This was about him and me.

I couldn’t be mad at him or his controlling alpha ways, not when he had me flat on my back with his face buried between my legs like his only goal in life was to make me come. The rough friction of his beard against my thighs added a tantalizing sensation that was hard to describe. To make my pussy so drenched, so tight and greedy that I couldn’t get close enough, couldn’t feel enough of him. I don’t think any of the men I’d been with had ever paid such close attention to me or my pleasure, not the way Savior just stayed down there, noting every little reaction from me, adjusting his movements to maximize my pleasure.

“Savior,” I warned him as my body clenched tight. His tongue went wild, sliding figure eights around my clit as his thumb slipped just inside me and flung me off the edge of the proverbial cliff and right into some headlong, dizzying pleasure that I could barely stand.

“Oh fuck! Shit . . . yes!”

My body trembled and convulsed as his tongue slowed, carrying me over the edge and keeping me hovering over the ground for so long, a thin sheen of sweat dotted my skin.

“Damn,” he whispered as he smacked his lip. “You taste like berries.”

His lips closed around my clit and he kissed me, pulling another long aftershock from me.

“That . . . those were amazing, but now I need you to fill me up, Savior. Right. Fucking. Now.”

His grin turned dark, salacious as his hand cupped my pussy, making me pulse and leak some more.

“Since you asked so nicely.”

His words were gravelly, thick with hunger as he stroked his cock, giving me the first real look at the long, hard piece of meat. He looked even thicker than he felt as he slid closer, sliding the tip of his cock through my slick lips.

“Fuck, girl. You’re so hot and so fucking tight. Shit!”

I smiled as my body pulsed around him, flooded until the friction was so delightful so all-consuming that the only thing that existed was our bodies, sliding against one another in the never-ending pursuit of pleasure. His hips picked up speed, pounding and thrusting feverishly as though he couldn’t get deep enough. It was an intoxicating feeling that set my skin —hell, my soul – on fire.

“Savior, fuck. Don’t stop.”

He grinned that dark, mischievous grin of his that made his blue eyes look like they had an actual twinkle in them, held my inner thighs wide open and pounded into me until both of us were covered in sweat, panting as we grabbed at each other, desperate to find something concrete to hold on to. Pleasure sending us drifting into an abyss, lost to everything but each other and our pleasure. He was close. I felt the way his cock thickened and hardened inside me and that was all it took for me to slingshot off that ledge once more, completely sated.

Boneless.

Spineless.

Damn near lethargic.

When Savior came, it was long and forceful, barreling out of him so hard, his face twisted in an animalistic pleasure that was so captivating, I couldn’t look away.

“Fuck . . . Mandy!”

When his big body collapsed on me, his tongue licking at the tendon between my neck and shoulder, I shivered as aftershocks rocked my overheated body.

“Okay, fine. You’ve convinced me to let you drive. But only because I am entirely too worn out to do anything.”

His deep chuckle was the only response.

***

“Damn Mandy! Who knew you had all that underneath those jeans and tees you wear?”

Teddy basically catcalled me as I drew closer to where she and Jana sat on the area reserved for the pre-wedding beach barbecue.

I looked down at the silky green halter dress I grabbed because Teddy had insisted it made my eyes pop and would highlight the slope of my neck, because apparently that was something that required highlighting.

“It’s just a dress. You both look great.”

They were both glowing the luminescent look of women in love and bringing life to the world. I’d seen it plenty, that look pregnant women had. People always talked about the glow, but I was convinced it all came from the eyes.

“Thanks,” Jana said with a pout, rubbing her swollen bump. “But we look like fatties in fine textiles, especially compared to you. If I didn’t like you so much, I’d probably hate you.”

I laughed. “Thanks, I think.”

“Don’t mind her, Mandy. Jana’s just upset she’s so big she can only get it doggy style now.”

I frowned. “That doesn’t sound like a problem to me.” Hell, I’d always thought it was the best way to have sex because then you didn’t have to look your partner in the face and remember it later. Nope. Just the memory of the cock, not the man.

“Yeah well, maybe you don’t have a man as sexy and handsome as mine,” she said with that dreamy look on her face single women loathed.

“Since I don’t have a man at all, that’s probably accurate,” I said casually.

Besides, I’d never been so smitten with anyone like that. No man had ever made me smile that way or said such cheesy things to me.

“Besides, you have to say that since you’re marrying him.”

They both laughed at my words, giving me that “wait ‘til it happens to you” look.

“Did you really ride here with Savior?”

Both women leaned forward as much as they could, given their considerable baby bumps, eager to hear any gossip.

“I did.”

I gave them a quick rundown of his behavior lately. “He beat me at my own game and then gave me three orgasms this morning until I submitted.”

“All right!” Jana and Teddy high fived each other like boys in a locker room.

“Settle down, baby mamas, it was just a little harmless sex. Nothing to go nuts over.”

“Ha!” Teddy tilted her head back and laughed. “Everyone who believes that, raise your hand.”

I raised mine and she smacked it down with more force than a pregnant woman should be allowed to have.

“That’s how it was with me and Max and now we’re here for our wedding.” Jana gazed down at her wedding bling with a loopy smile on her face.

“Yep, me too. Tate and I were fuck buddies only and now look at us.” She wore the same goofy look Jana had, which I guessed was love. They both looked happy and that was what mattered.

“Clearly you both were looking for that. I’m clearly not.”

I’d spend the next few days enjoying Savior’s hard body and the orgasms he gave me but as soon as we got back to Vegas, I’d keep my distance. There was something in the water in Mayhem and in Vegas and I didn’t want any part of it.

“Thanks for inviting me, I’ve never been to California.”

“I’m glad you came,” Jana insisted with a genuine smile. “You are part of our group now. Of course you’re invited. I just hope you know you can call either of us, just to talk or hang out.”

I nodded, hearing what they were both saying.

“I haven’t had any real friends in a long time,” I told them but the truth was I didn’t know if I’d ever had any real friends. Krissy was the closest thing to a friend I’d ever had and she was a user. “It’ll take some getting used to, but I’ll try my best.”

They both smiled but soon the men joined us and both Max and Tate whisked their women off, leaving me on my own. Again. The ocean called to me, as it always did. In New York I spent plenty of time just looking out at the Hudson River and if I could swing it, I’d get out to watch the dark blue waters of the Atlantic. The water here was lighter, cold, but not quite as icy.

The air was salty with a hint of the fishiness that gave many of the people in town their livelihood. Seeing the water, so vast and never ending, made me think of impossible things, like who I would’ve been if I hadn’t lost everyone that mattered to me. It was such a foreign thought, I never got further than simple family dinners with Mom, Dad and Ammo.

“Penny for your thoughts.” Savior’s deep voice startled me but I didn’t turn to look at him, I couldn’t. I didn’t want him to see what was on my mind.

“My thoughts are too dark for pennies, got any drachmas?” I laughed but he didn’t, a sure sign he wasn’t buying my attempt at levity. Savior grabbed my hand, and we walked along the water, the music from the party growing more distant with every step.

“No drachmas, but I’ve got a strong stomach.”

I was sure he did, considering what he’d probably seen as a solider and then a Reckless Bastard. But I still didn’t want to share my dreams with anyone. “What’s your real name?”

“Vick.”

“Not quite as cool as Savior, but very hot.”

I would’ve guessed something regular like Mike or Nick, but Vick was the name of a man. A big strong man with a manly ass beard.

“I like it.”

He smirked. “Thanks.”

“So, how’d you get a name like Savior?”

He snorted. “Some stupid shit before basic.”

I smiled and looked up at him. “So tell me. Sound’s fun.”

“Fun? I wouldn’t call anything I did in—or before—the service fun.” He stopped and looked out at the water. “Okay, so before I enlisted, I wanted to become a priest. I was—”

“—a priest? Seriously? I didn’t realize you had that much Jesus in you.” I laughed a little. A priest. Vick looked nothing like a priest and acted like one even less.

“If you’re gonna tease, then I’ll shut up.” He faked a pout.

“No! I want to hear the story. Seriously.”

“Okay then, don’t laugh. Before I’d ever thought about enlisting, I was a church going man. Priesthood was something I aspired to do. Then after 9/11, I enlisted. Thought I could serve my country. You know, be a good American and all. Well, I may have mentioned it in a conversation in boot camp, you know getting to know the other newbies, and every one of those motherfuckers started calling me Savior. As a joke.

Then, when we made it to the sandbox, shit got real. Shit I don’t ever want to see or do again. I saved quite a few men out there, but not all. Unfortunately, we had to send a few soldiers home in body bags, but the name stuck.” He breathed in and let it out slowly. “So, there ya go.”

We walked in silence for a while before he said anything else. “Do you miss New York?”

“Some days I miss it so much I can hardly stand it but this is where my family is so it’s where I am. Even if it turns out to be a really bad idea.”

“I won’t let it,” he said confidently, and I didn’t bother to correct him, because it would be pointless. “At least not before you’ve had a chance to make me your favorite dessert.”

I laughed. “Yeah and what is my favorite?”

He shrugged and swung our arms between us. “I don’t know, but I loved those strawberry orange cookies you sent in one of your care packages. They were fucking delicious.”

I laughed, feeling heat blossom at the memory. “Ammo said you guys were like vultures with those cookies. Told me to only send chocolate chip or peanut butter so you didn’t lose your minds.

He laughed at the memory too. “Yeah, I think I ate at least half of them.”

Savior leaned close, brushing his lips against the shell of my ear as he spoke.

“Speaking of, it’s time for me to get turned on watching you lick barbecue sauce from your fingers.”

He pulled me back toward the music and the group of bikers celebrating their friends entering into wedded bliss.

His words were so fucking dirty, so wicked that I felt like I was constantly turned on when he was around. Even when he was doing his best to piss me off.