Clementine
I was on cloud nine. No one had ever touched me the way Falcon did. I had never felt another man’s fingers against the tender places he had gone the night before at the bar. And, certainly, no one else had ever made me come like that besides myself. Hell, I was willing to admit that even I wasn’t as good at it as Falcon. He made me feel something I didn’t know was even possible, and in public no less!
My thighs were still quivering with ecstasy when I woke up the next morning. I didn’t get out of bed immediately. Instead, I lay there, staring at the way the light from the windows in my living room played on the ceiling in my bedroom as it came through the doorway to wake me up. I didn’t want to get out of bed in case it had all just been a dream.
I wanted to go back and let him do it again. I wanted to feel his fingers against my flesh. I wanted him inside of me. If he could take me ecstasy with his fingers, I wondered what he could do with that massive piece between his legs.
I checked my phone to see if there were any messages or missed calls, always hopeful he would call or text me in the middle of the night after our date to tell me he regretted not coming upstairs to give himself to me. That call never happened, though.
I debated calling him before I got out of bed, though. I wanted to ask him to come over and wake me up the right way. I couldn’t believe I was so ready to give myself to this man, but I was. I wanted to call him over so he could take me any way he wanted me. I wanted him to take my virginity. I’d finally found a man I really felt comfortable with and really felt I could trust physically as well as emotionally.
We had connected on a deeper level than just physically, I felt, when he touched me. I ached for him. I wanted his touch again, his kiss, his embrace. I wanted to fall asleep in his arms and wake up with my face buried in his firm chest. I wanted to be his, all his. It was all I could think about all day.
I got up and went to work, holding up the counter at the card shop. I counted the hours until closing time, when I shut up the store and went home. I hadn’t heard from Falcon all day, and I was excited to get out of the store so I could call him.
I imagined going home, grabbing a glass of wine, lighting a few candles, and calling him over to find me in just a nightgown without any underwear. If he didn’t accept my offer of myself to him, I was going to make him take me. I was going to make him want me so much that he couldn’t resist or do the right thing any longer.
I felt pretty confident in my plan. I knew it would work. But when I came home around ten-thirty, I found my apartment door cracked. I pulled out my phone and grabbed the little can of pepper spray on my keychain. Whoever was inside my apartment was not going to like me.
I pushed the door open, and sitting in the middle of my couch with two men in black suits and shades standing on either side, was none other than my older brother, Leo.
“Clementine!” he called, welcoming me. He gestured for me to come on into the apartment.
“What’s with the security detail?” I asked him as I sat down next to him cautiously.
“Just trying out a new service my firm is providing. We offer Secret Service style security for professionals and celebrities. I’m just enjoying some of the perks of owning the business for the night,” he explained. “Where’s my hug?”
I leaned over and hugged my brother. I tried to be convincing in the way I hugged him, but I was still suspicious of what he was doing there. He usually didn’t let himself into my apartment, and he usually called before he showed up. I’d certainly never seen security detail before, but maybe he was telling the truth about the new service his firm offered.
“So, what’s this I hear about you seeing someone?” he asked me, sitting back against the couch with his arms spread out. He didn’t sound too happy about it.
“It’s this guy I met in the store a week or so back,” I told him, unable to contain my excitement. “He’s great, Leo. I want you to meet him as soon as you can. In fact, I was going to call him over tonight. I think he might be the one.” I immediately wanted to kick myself for saying that, but it was really how I felt.
“Who is he?” Leo asked me, interrupting me, stopping me dead in my tracks.
“He’s a biker. His name is Jackson, but everyone calls him Falcon,” I told him. The look in his face while I talked told me that maybe I’d been in too big of a hurry to brag about my new boyfriend.
“He wear a vest that says Rogue Demons on the back?” Leo asked. I could already see and hear his anger rising.
“Yeah, why? What’s up?” I asked. I got up from the couch and kicked my shoes off by the front door, pretending I wasn’t trying to run from his wrath.
“I forbid you to see him,” Leo said. “He’s no good, Clementine.” When I expected anger and rage to spew forth from his mouth, his calm, commanding tone wasn’t good enough. It was infuriatingly disappointing, in fact.
“Leo, I’m twenty-three now. I’m an adult. You can’t forbid anything,” I argued.
“You may think you’re an adult, but I’m still paying your bills. As long as I take care of you, you have to respect my wishes, and I’m telling you, you are not going to see Falcon anymore,” he responded, keeping his tone even.
“Leo, you haven’t even met him. What the hell?” I was starting to get agitated with him. He wasn’t giving me a reason not to continue to see Falcon. Instead, he was just telling me he didn’t want me to have a boyfriend.
“He’s bad news, Clementine. He’s just using you,” he insisted.
“How is he using me? We haven’t slept together or anything! How do you know what he’s doing anyway?” I raised my voice with him.
“He’s doing it to get to me, Clementine. He’s going to use you somehow to get closer to me,” he finally explained.
“You’re just being paranoid, Leo.” I shook my head and started toward my kitchen.
“Clementine, I’m not just being paranoid,” he insisted behind me.
“Sure, sure. Why don’t you just go home, Leo? It was good to see you. Come back around when you can actually be happy for me.”
“Clementine, I don’t care if I have to post one of my men here day and night to keep him away from you. If that’s what it takes to keep you from seeing him, that’s what I’ll do.” He stood in the entryway to my kitchen with his arms crossed.
“Now you’re just being ridiculous, Leo,” I told him. “You’re not going to post a security guard at my door all hours of the day and night.”
I never noticed how tall and broad my brother was. Maybe it was because I was comparing everyone to Falcon, but I noticed for the first time how big he was. He wore a business suit and kept his golden brown hair closely cropped. We had the same blue eyes, but Leo’s seemed harder than mine. He was a very competitive businessman, so I always chalked the stern look in his eyes up to that.
“I promise you, Clementine,” he said as I passed him on my way out of the kitchen, “he’s not being honest with you. You are nothing more to him than a target.”
“Why the hell would he want to use me to get to you, Leo?” I asked. “Is there some kind of business rivalry here? Is his motorcycle club trying to offer the same type of protection you’re offering people?”
“So, he’s told you about Rogue Demons. Has he told you about what they do? No, Clementine, they don’t offer the same type of protection we do. Rogue Demons are what some people would call one percenters,” he said.
“One percenters? What does that mean?”
“It means they are part of the one percent of bikers who are still considered outlaws. Rogue Demons definitely qualify as a motorcycle gang more than a club, Clementine. They are violent criminals, and Falcon is probably the worst of them. He’s a loose cannon, and he thinks I may have wronged him in the past. Let’s just say we had a misunderstanding, so I’m afraid he’s using you in an effort to get back at me for this imagined slight,” Leo explained.
I started to say something else, to argue with my brother even more, but I couldn’t think of anything he hadn’t already refuted. Falcon never seemed all that violent with me. He was kind and caring. He was gentle, even though I could tell he was used to faster women. But all those things could be explained if he were simply treating our relationship as a job he was doing for the MC. Nothing I could say would convince my brother otherwise.
“You don’t have to set guards at my door,” I told him in a defeated tone. I tried to hold on to my conviction that Falcon really was being genuine with me, but I could feel my shoulders slumping as doubt weighed on me. I wanted to convince Leo that I wasn’t going to see Falcon anymore so I could dig a little deeper into this myself. It just seemed incredibly unlikely that my brother, a successful and reputable businessman, would have a rivalry like he described with a biker like Falcon.
“Good,” he said, satisfied with himself. He jerked his head towards the door and sent his security detail out of the room.
We watched as they left, and I wondered what my brother was about to tell me that they weren’t supposed to be privy to.
“It’s good to see you again, sis,” he said, giving me a real hug this time.
“You, too, Leo,” I told him, and I meant it. Despite his reaction to news of mine and Falcon’s budding relationship, it really was good to see my brother again. He was all I had, and I knew that no matter what I thought, he was just trying to look out for me. Someone had to, right?
“If he comes around, you call me,” he told me, looking dead in my eyes. “Do not let him in your apartment. I don’t know what his game is, though I’m fairly certain he’s going to try to get you to sleep with him, but whatever he’s trying to do, he’s going to hurt you if you let him.”
“Got it,” I told him.
He kissed my forehead and walked out behind his security detail. They closed the door, and he was gone.
I fell back into my couch. I didn’t want to believe my brother, but I couldn’t deny that I really didn’t know that much about Falcon. Leo seemed to know more about him than I did. For all I knew, he could have been telling the truth. Falcon could have been after him, as unlikely as it seemed.
I pulled out my phone. No missed calls. No texts. He never called just to talk. He only called when it was time for us to go out on another date. Things weren’t looking too good for us. I thought about calling him and letting him know my brother had stopped by with this big outlandish story. I wanted to hear what he had to say about it, especially since he hadn’t reacted at all when we talked about my brother.
I decided to wait and see if he would call me first this time. I hoped my brother was wrong.