Lyric

A pounding noise, accompanied by a shout, woke me up with a start. Heavily muscled arms wrapped around me, while a pair of big male hands cradled me close. Tattoos adorned his wrists, beautiful flames full of color and fire. Against the curve of my buttocks, his hard dick pressed into me as he pulled me closer and muttered, “Fuck off.”

Hustler. I was in Hustler’s RV, my pussy sore from being fucked so hard—and so well, my body still boneless from the pleasure. We’d moved to the bedroom at some point and I was wrapped up in hard man and soft sheets. For one brief moment, I got to bask in the feeling of being held in his arms, safe from the world, then reality intruded. Another loud series of bangs on the side of the RV had Hustler growling behind me.

“I’m gonna fuckin’ kill whoever that is. Be right back.”

He cast me a distracted look as he grabbed a pair of jeans and shoved them on. “Get dressed.”

“Um…” I glanced down at my silver dress. “Can I borrow a T-shirt?”

“Sure.” He dug around in his duffle bag before tossing me a black shirt. “I’ll be right back. Wait here.”

“Okay.”

To my shock, he pulled a handgun out from a drawer near the bed and flicked the safety off. Thanks to Mike Anderson, I knew more than a little bit about guns. He’s a weapons dealer and he had included me in the survival lessons he gave Swan. I could take guns apart and put them back together faster than most guys in the military, but I would never fire one at another human being. Target practice was fun, but the thought of killing someone went against everything I believed in.

The dark glare on Hustler’s face alarmed me and a sliver of fear pierced my bubble of willful ignorance. From what I knew of the Iron Horse MC, they’re a brutal bunch, their lives saturated in testosterone and violence. Some of the stories Swan and Sarah had told me made my toes curl, but I never thought of Hustler as being dangerous before this moment.

I blurted out, “I should get going.”

The banging came again and Hustler, still looking pissed, shouted, “Hold the fuck on. I’ll be there in a minute.”

When he turned back to me, I was trying to shimmy into my dress without untangling it first. I got a strap wrapped around my foot and almost fell while hopping around and trying to get everything fixed. The warm scent of Hustler’s body filled my senses as he caught me, then sat back on the bed with me on his lap.

Without saying anything, he helped me get my dress back on, then stood me between his spread thighs and slipped his shirt over my head.

As it came to rest, I glanced down at the white script on the front that said “Support Your Local Iron Horse MC” printed around an almost tribal-looking horse’s head logo.

His hands came to rest on my hips and I nervously bit my lip, then said, “Thanks for the shirt.”

“Love to see it on you.” He searched my face, then slid his hands up to my waist. “Stay with me. I may have to handle some shit, but I want to hang out with you some more before I have to head back to Austin.”

“I have to go home later today after the farewell lunch.”

He grabbed his phone and glanced at it. “It’s eight a.m. Let me get rid of whoever the fuck is at the door, and I’ll spend the rest of the day worshiping you.”

“Worshiping me?”

To my surprise, he flipped me over onto my back, hiked up the skirt of my dress around my hips, and proceeded to aggressively lick my pussy. After I got over the shock, pleasure slammed into me as Hustler moaned against my quickly-warming sex. He used his thumbs to hold my vaginal lips open, then fluttered his tongue over my now-hard bud. My belly clenched and even my lungs froze at the intensity of the arousal he was building within me. Without thought, I arched my back off the bed and pushed my pussy into his eager mouth.

I shouted as I came long and hard, my eyes rolling back in my head. “Hustler!”

The banging at the front door resumed and Hustler grabbed his gun in one hand, wiping my wetness from his face with a positively feral look. “I’ll be right back.”

My whole body tensed, from my toes to the top of my scalp, as I heard a familiar voice yell, “I know she’s back there, you dirty bastard. Open this door right this minute. I told you to keep an eye on her, not put your dick in her! Let me in so I can cut your balls off!”

Oh no, it was Swan.

Hissing, Hustler snarled in the direction of the doorway. “Fucking shit. Swan needs to shut her fuckin’ mouth. No one can know we were fuckin’.”

“What?”

Giving me a look I couldn’t comprehend, he said in a pained voice, “If anyone finds out I fucked you, it would be dangerous for you.”

“Dangerous for me?”

“Yeah. Like the ending-up-dead kind of dangerous.”

My cheeks stung like I’d been slapped, and my heartbeat sped up. “But…why?”

“Hustler,” Swan yelled again. “Open the fucking door or I’m gonna kick it down, and that would really really piss your brother off.”

“Son of a bitch, look, as far as the rest of the world knows, you got wasted and crashed out on the couch.”

“I…I…” My mouth dried out as he gave me an impatient look. “Okay.”

“Good—”

“Wait! I puke when I’m drunk, so you’ll have to tell them that you held my hair back or something. It’s not like I party much. The most I usually do is smoke a joint with Indigo when she’s in town. Last time I got drunk I ended up throwing up for hours, until my stomach hurt like I’d been in a car accident.” I made a sour face and rubbed my belly. “So, if I got that drunk last night, you’d be dealing with a partially passed-out, puking woman. I have no tolerance.”

He took a step closer to me. “It’s strange for me to meet someone as innocent as you, Lyric. In my world, people are hardened, their personalities sharpened into weapons. Your soul is like silk rubbing over me, soothing away the pain.”

More pounding came from the door, but we both ignored it.

“I don’t want you to think I’m naïve or ignorant, I’ve educated myself and I’m aware of the outside world. I just haven’t experienced it yet. You have to understand, I’m dying to do everything the world has to offer. I thirst for the chance to spread my wings. But I’m also afraid of the world outside my cage.”

“Sounds like you’re in jail.”

“Feels like it.”

He dug around in his wallet, then pulled out a card and handed it to me. “Hide that somewhere on you. It has my personal number on it. You’ve got a phone, right?”

“Yes.”

“What’s your number?”

I rattled it off to him

“Call me. Even if I don’t answer, leave me a message. You need anything—anything—you call me or text me. I’ll be up here as quick as I can, or I’ll send help. You want to leave this place? I’ll come pick you up in a limo.”

I took the slip of paper from him and took a shaky breath, my whole body yearning for his kiss. “Okay.”

A man’s voice boomed through the side of the bus. “Hustler, open the fucking door.”

“Beach,” Hustler muttered. “Gotta open the door for my prez. He tends to take it personal when people ignore him. Trust me when I say you don’t want that.”

He left me then, and I tried to put myself to rights as much as I could while my hand shook.

After slipping his card into the front of my dress, my hand rested on the door handle and I took a deep breath to gather my courage. I hated lying, but Hustler had seemed so sincere about me being in danger that I believed him. Which meant I had to try to convince my best friends I hadn’t just experienced the most amazing, confusing, and life-changing night, with a man who was no doubt a criminal, a sinner in the truest sense of the word. But he was so much more than that, and I felt a bond with him I knew was real. Too bad neither of us were free to pursue a relationship, but for vastly different reasons.

I tried to hold my head high as I practically slunk out of Hustler’s room. Swan was at the entrance to the RV, her blonde hair shining in the sunlight pouring in through the open doorway. With her hair back in a ponytail, and no makeup, she was still impossibly beautiful. Behind her, the dark shadow of her scarred husband, Smoke, loomed at her back, massive and foreboding. His gaze was locked on Hustler, and his expression was an odd mixture of exasperated, amused, and pissed.

Hustler, looking sexy in a very relaxed and casual state, closed his eyes and then rubbed his forehead. “Keep your voice down. She’s fine, I promise.”

“I’m not leaving for my honeymoon until I talk to her.”

“Me neither.” Another feminine voice, almost exactly like Swan’s, yelled out.

Crud, Sarah was here as well.

Hustler glanced over at me and his face softened. “Hey.”

Giving him a shy smile, knowing my cheeks were an unflattering shade of red, I licked my lips, then replied, “Hey.”

Shoving Hustler out of the way, Swan moved up the steps with a limp. She’d broken her leg a year ago and it was taking a while to heal. But she didn’t let it slow her down, and when she plowed into me and gave me a big hug, I almost fell over. While I’m just a breath over five feet tall, Swan is all long limbs and muscle. I braced myself and hugged her back, the smell of her fresh perfume surrounding us.

“I had to see you before we left on our honeymoon. Why are you in Hustler’s RV?”

“I drank too much last night. Hustler was nice enough to let me crash here so I didn’t have to deal with Mike and Mimi seeing me wasted.” Suspicion flared to life in her gaze and I quickly added, “He was super nice, held back my hair while I puked and everything.”

She softened a bit, then nodded. “Hustler’s cool like that. He took care of me when I had the flu and Smoke was out of town on a run.”

“Hey, bitch.” Sarah’s familiar voice came from my right. “We’ve been looking everywhere for you. Luckily Vance remembered seeing you leave with Hustler.”

Sarah appeared on my other side, her short blonde hair held back with a stylish teal headband and wearing a cute blue and green sundress. A former Playmate, Sarah was as bold and outgoing as Swan was a quiet introvert. Her energy poured off of her, clean and powerful as a raging river, and I couldn’t help but return her smile.

“Yeah, I drank too much.”

“Considering you’re plastered after two glasses of wine, I’m not surprised.”

“Hustler took care of her,” Swan added.

Wanting the attention off of me—it was a lot harder to lie to Sarah than Swan—I brought up a subject I knew would distract Sarah. “So where are you going on your honeymoon? Did Beach tell you yet or is it still a big secret?”

Her pale eyes flared to life and she jumped up and down, her balance in her heels impressive. “Smoke and Beach are taking us on a yacht on a private Mediterranean cruise! At first, we were going to be there for three weeks, but we switched it to two. We can’t be away from our daughter for that long.”

I grinned at my friend, swallowing back a tiny burning ember of envy over her amazing life. “Kayla is adorable.”

“She is, but she’s too young to travel. She hasn’t had all her immunizations yet and we don’t want to take any chances. So, she’ll be staying first with Beach’s mom for a week, then with Mimi and Dad. They worship her so she’ll be fine. Even Beach, as crazy overprotective as he is, can’t think of a safer place in the world than my dad’s compound. We’re going to be kind of isolated—like the satellite to use our phones is sometimes iffy—but I can’t wait. No drama, no people shooting at us, no—”

“People shooting at you?” I jerked back. “I thought you said that part of your life is over, that you’re safe now?”

The twins exchanged a glance and had a whole silent conversation before turning their attention back to me.

“Of course we are,” Sarah replied in a low voice as she gave me a big, practiced smile that made her pale blue eyes sparkle. “What I’m trying to say is we’re going to have total safety and privacy. You know what that means? We can have sex anywhere we want. Beach has an honest-to-goodness list of places he wants to fuck me.”

Giving her sister a snarky smirk, Swan said, “Does he want to fuck on the beach?”

“Ha ha, butthole. I don’t believe for a second Smoke isn’t going to try and grind some sand into your crack. I overheard your husband talking about it with my husband.”

An unexpected giggle burst out of Swan, giving me a glimpse of the carefree girl she used to be. A wave of nostalgia moved through me, and I yearned for the simpler days. Our biggest worry used to be getting busted sneaking out of Indigo’s house to go party with her friends on the commune. Now I was wondering how my church had been desecrated and turned into a white power cult.

Swan made a gagging sound, snapping me out of my worries. “Just let Smoke know where you’re going to be so I don’t have to stumble onto you and Beach making the beast with two backs.”

We all giggled, and some of the tension inside of me eased as my friends studied me.

“So,” I fiddled with the edge of Hustler’s T-shirt. “Guess you guys should be heading out for your honeymoon. Have a great time, and thank you again for including me in your big day. I had a lovely time.”

“Why are you acting weird?”

The men’s voices came from the other end of the RV, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying.

“I’m not acting weird, I’m fine.”

“Yep,” Sarah said in a firm voice. “Weird.”

“She’s got beard burn on her chin,” Swan said in a low voice to her sister.

“Bet that’s not the only place she’s got beard burn.” Sarah grinned as she said it, but I could feel her sudden tension. “Funny, ’cause I thought she was sick all night.”

“Yeah, funny,” Swan countered in a stern voice and I swallowed hard.

My arm was grabbed, and before I knew it I was back in the bedroom with its torn-apart bed.

“Hustler!” Swan squealed as she gently shook me. “All the eligible guys you could bang and it had to be Hustler? I mean, I was totally onboard for you getting laid, but why did it have to be him?”

My stomach sank to my toes and I stared at her. “What’s wrong with Hustler? You say his name like it’s a curse.”

“Personally, I love the guy, but he is no bueno in the relationship department. He’s a man whore.”

“Hey now,” Sarah cut in, “he is not a man whore. He’s a good guy and he’s your husband’s best friend. Just because you saw him getting a BJ in the parking lot of the clubhouse doesn’t make him a bad person. I’d remind you that Smoke was no angel himself before he hooked up with you.”

My stomach clenched at the thought of some faceless woman doing that to Hustler in such a public setting.

“Don’t remind me,” Swan growled.

“My point is that just because someone had an active sex life, it doesn’t make them morally corrupt.”

Not liking the direction of this conversation, I curled in on myself a little bit and tried one more half-hearted lie. “We didn’t do anything.”

“Liar, liar, pants on fire,” Sarah sang. “You totally got it on with him. I know the look of a well-fucked woman when I see one. And I noticed the way Hustler stared at you. He never looks at anyone like that.”

“Like what?”

“All goo-goo eyes. He couldn’t stop looking at you. And you were the same darn way. Both of you mooning over each other like a couple kids in junior high.”

Knowing I was busted, I sighed in defeat. “Fine, we were intimate, but it was a onetime thing. And he told me no one could know. That it was dangerous if anyone found out that I spent the night with him. That someone was targeting women in his life, that it wasn’t safe. Is that true or is he feeding me a load of donkey droppings?”

The twins exchanged a long look, then Sarah said, “It’s club business. We can’t discuss it.”

Gritting my teeth, I prayed for patience. “For the love of all things holy, if you say that to me one more time I’m going to…I don’t know, but it’ll be bad. Everything is ‘club business’ with you two. I swear if I asked what you had for lunch, you’d tell me it was ‘club business.’”

Giggling, Sarah grabbed me in a hug. “I’m sorry, and I don’t mean to laugh, but it’s funny because I know exactly how you feel.”

“Me, too.” Swan went to sit down on the bed, then glanced at it with a curled lip. “That’s where Hustler had sex. Yuck.”

“Hey!” I whisper-yelled, all too aware of how close the men were to us. “I had sex there, too. It wasn’t yucky, it was amazing.”

“How many times did you come?” Sarah asked without a hint of embarrassment, like it was totally her business.

“Jeez, my sex life is private, thank you very much.”

Sarah shook her head in mock disappointment. “So he sucks in bed. I’m so sorry, honey.”

“He doesn’t suck! He’s amazing, and kinky, and…and I’ve never felt anything like it.”

Grumbling, Swan crossed her arms, “Did not need to know that. Yuck.”

“It wasn’t yucky.”

“Ignore her.” Sarah grasped my arm and turned me to face her, her expression unexpectedly serious. “I’m glad he fucked you well, and I’m super-glad you had a chance to play, but don’t get attached to Hustler. I know how easily you let people into your heart.”

Lying, I said, “I’m not attached.”

“Really?” Swan replied in a voice so sarcastic, it cut through the air like a knife.

“Look, I know this is hard for you to believe, but I’ve got a lot of stress in my life right now, and Hustler helped me forget—just for a little bit—how much I wish I could leave the church.”

“How’s your grandmother doing?” Swan asked in a careful, cool voice.

“The same. Maybe five or ten minutes of lucidity every few hours, then she slips back into a fog. We’re basically doing at-home hospice care with her now. Giving her drugs for her pain and helping her relax.”

“When she’s aware, tell her you want to leave.” Swan gave me pleading eyes. “I know your grandma, she’d want you to go—and so would your grandpa, if he was around. I don’t like you being there anymore. That ass-fuck Pastor Middleton has been giving my dad nothing but grief, and I can see how your life is wearing you down. I don’t like it and it’s starting to give me the creeps. Please, honey, for me, please consider never going back. We’ll give you whatever you need, help set you up with a new identity, school, anything. You’ll never have to work if you don’t want to.”

“I don’t want to be a burden on you.”

“Sometimes I really hate your parents,” Sarah said in a dark voice. “They did a number on you. How many times do I have to tell you, Lyric, you’re a treasure. We love you, we consider you our little sister from another mister, and you need to realize that it’s okay to take help when you need it. And I know I can speak for my sister when I say we can’t wait for you to bust out of that place. And we’ll be super pissed if you don’t call us first.”

“I know, I know. It’s just… I’ve been taught through word and action to only rely on myself. That I’m the only one I can depend on.”

“You can depend on us.”

“I believe you, and I love you for it.”

“Group hug,” Sarah declared, and I found myself once again wrapped in my friends’ arms, drinking up their love and affection.