CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
With the wedding so close to Christmas, and the whole town in attendance, the Horde decided to forgo the traditional clubhouse Christmas party. On Christmas Day, members and their families met at Isaac and Lilli’s house for a more subdued day.
Badger and Adrienne were the last to arrive—mainly because waking up next to his wife every day made him twice as horny in the morning as he’d already been. His wife. Adrienne was his wife. Holy fuck. Before he’d even open his eyes, he could feel her next to him, usually tucked snugly against him, and then he’d open his eyes and see his Granny Elma’s ring on her finger, and there was no way either of them was getting out of bed right away.
She still wasn’t pregnant. He hadn’t put a condom on since the day they’d come home from their fight with the Perros, which was more than two months ago. Almost three months. He wasn’t sure whether it was time to start worrying about that, but Adrienne didn’t seem to be stressing, so he set any worry aside. It would happen. Maybe next year, they’d be buying Christmas gifts for their own little rugrat.
For now, though, they pulled gifts for Gia, Bo, Loki, Joey, and Millie out of Adrienne’s new car and bobbled their way through the fresh snowfall to the house, buried under packages Adrienne had wrapped with an obsessive artistry, despite the reality that the young children who would open them could not have cared less about the pretty bows and sparkles.
He’d wanted her to get a truck or an SUV like Lilli’s or Shannon’s, but she wouldn’t hear of it. She’d wanted another ancient Beetle, and he wouldn’t hear of that—it was the wrong vehicle for where they lived. It just was. Four-wheel drive was better. Plus, if she went around a curve on one of these back roads at the wrong time and came up on some asshole thinking he owned the road, a shitty little insect of a car would lose that faceoff every time.
Then she’d wanted a new import, and that was just not gonna fly anywhere in or around the Horde.
They’d gone around and around for fucking months. She threatened to just go and buy one on her own, and he’d asked how she thought she’d get there without him. He threatened to buy one for her on his own. It had been one of their more heated fights, right in the middle of planning the wedding. Finally, she’d seen a bright red Chevy compact SUV on the road and had said it was cute. He’d literally turned his truck around and headed to the nearest Chevy dealer and bought her one of her own.
Isaac and Lilli’s house was crowded and chaotic. Gia and Bo careened through the rooms, weaving in and out of their uncles’ legs, and Loki toddled behind them, squealing happily and trying to keep up. The women were nowhere to be seen at first, but after Adrienne tucked their presents under the huge tree in front of the window, she kissed his cheek and disappeared into the kitchen. Of course.
Iris and Rose had come in the day before to spend the holiday week with Show and Shannon. Both teenagers, they had managed to avoid the feminine pull of the kitchen and were sitting on the stairs with their phones in their hands. As Badger watched, Nolan came up the hallway from the bathroom, and Rose turned her head and eyed him through the staircase railing, her sparkly pink phone forgotten. Badger realized that they were about the same age—almost exactly the same age, in fact. Seventeen. Nolan saw her and smiled a little as he walked up and looked over at her through the railing. “Hey.”
Rose took an earbud out of her ear. “Hey.” Playing a game on her phone, earbuds in, Iris was oblivious to the pheromone dance behind her.
“What ya doin’?”
“Nothing. Music.”
“Anything good?”
She shrugged and handed her loose earbud through the railing. Grinning hugely, Badger turned before they’d noticed him watching, and saw that somebody else was watching, too. Unhappily. He crossed the room to Show.
“You okay, brother?”
“I got no control over my girls. None. That over there is not a good thing. My Rosie cries over every little thing. She needs a different life from this one.”
Badger shrugged. “Relax, Show. They’re just dancing around each other. Not picking china patterns.”
Show cocked an ironic eyebrow at him. “Like you’re an expert on teen mating rituals?”
“I ended up doin’ okay.”
“Yeah, you did. Good you know that. After I beat some fuckin’ sense into you.”
~oOo~
The women came out to corral the kids for gifts. After they’d opened all their presents and the living room was a knee-deep ocean of crumpled paper and shiny ribbon, the adults sat for a while and watched the commotion. Bo enlisted Dom and Nolan in building a pirate ship. Gia, Tasha and Len played with her new Breyer stable and horses. Adrienne and Shannon sat, with Millie and Joey in their bouncy cars, and chatted with Rose and Iris. And Cory followed Loki around as he learned to push his new riding motorcycle—a gift from Badger and Adrienne. With every thrust of his little legs, he yelled “VROOM!”
Isaac sat in a big leather and wood chair, Lilli on his lap, her head on his shoulder. Badger could see the edge of melancholy as they smiled and watched their children playing on Christmas morning. Isaac’s last Christmas with his wife and children for years.
A lump rising in his throat at the thought, Badger made his way through the crowd and clutter and went out on the front porch for some fresh air. The day was overcast and cold. About three inches of snow had fallen early in the morning, and the sky seemed to threaten more. Badge hadn’t checked a weather report to know for sure, but he could smell snow in the air. The house behind him smelled of the feast the women had been preparing, and sounded of a family’s holiday joy. A perfect Christmas day.
He thought about the Christmas before, when he’d been clutching at the slick sides of his Oxy chasm, fighting pain so deep and constant he’d lost the memory of what it was like not to have it. It had taken all his energy, every day, to cope with that pain and hold his life together, finding some semblance of a normal face to present to his brothers, his parents, so that they would not know the extent of his weakness.
He had been the only person in his life who’d thought him weak. Now, he almost never thought of the bliss of the high. And he was married to a woman he’d loved for years. There was fight and loss yet before them, but Badger felt a hope he’d thought was dead.
As the snow started again, and he was getting cold enough to think about heading back in, a truck came over the rise on Isaac’s gravel drive. It took Badger a beat to recognize it, probably because it was about the last truck he’d expect to see coming toward the home of the Horde President on Christmas Day. But then he saw the A/M Farms magnet on the door, and two passengers in the cab. He turned quickly and went inside.
“Isaac!”
In the living room, Isaac was setting Lilli off his lap and standing behind her. “What’s up?”
“Hav’s folks are coming up.”
“Fuck. Lilli, take the women and kids into the kitchen.”
“No way, Is—”
Before Lilli could finish his name, Isaac grabbed her arms. “Just fuckin’ listen, woman.” Badger saw Lilli’s grey eyes go glassy with cold fire. Isaac gentled but stayed firm. “Baby, listen. I need you safe.”
She stared a moment longer, then nodded curtly. The women gathered up the children and went back to the kitchen. Nolan stayed with the men. Cory had tried to get him to go back, but when he’d refused, she nodded and, with a glance at Isaac, went to the kitchen with Loki struggling in her arms.
Isaac went to the front door, but Show pulled him back before he opened it. “You don’t know what you’re going out to.”
“I’m not pulling a gun on Hav’s father, Show.”
“No. But don’t go out there alone.”
The Horde were standing in the front hall. When Isaac looked around at his brothers, they all nodded. “Okay. I’ll leave the door open. Len, you come out with me.” Len stepped forward, and Isaac opened the door.
But it wasn’t Don Mariano walking up to the porch. It was Hav’s mother, June, carrying three wrapped packages in her arms.
Isaac stepped out, and Badger saw him cast a scanning glance around. “June. Merry Christmas.”
She nodded. “Thank you. And to you. I’m sorry to bother you on a family day, but I was hoping I could leave these for Cory and the boys?”
Isaac turned back to the men in the hallway. “Nolan. Get your mom.” Everybody relaxed about halfway. Don was still unaccounted for, but June seemed harmless. “Sure, June. Here, let me take those.”
As Isaac carried the presents into the house, and June waited on the porch with Len, Cory came in from the kitchen. Isaac gestured to the gifts he’d just laid at the foot of the tree. “It’s up to you, sweetheart. What do you want to do?”
Cory went to the front door. “Hi, June.”
Her eyes red and brimming, June smiled. “Cory. Honey, hi. Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas.” Cory breathed a thoughtful sigh. “Would you like to come in and sit with Loki while he opens his present?”
“Oh, mercy. Oh, Cory,” June was all but sobbing now. “Yes. Yes, thank you.” She looked over her shoulder and then back. “Thank you. What a gift.” When Cory stepped back, June crossed the threshold and passed a row of large, suspicious men.
Isaac went back onto the porch and looked around. “He’s still in the truck. I’m gonna go talk to him.”
“Dammit, boss,” Len muttered. “So he can shoot you through the window? If he wanted to talk to you, he’d be here with his wife. I’ll watch him. But you know you should leave him be. There’s mending fences and there’s asking to get shot again.”
“Maybe he’s not coming up because he’s worried what we’d do to him. He did shoot me the last time we were really face to face.”
“Exactly. So he’s a threat. And if he’s not, these aren’t the conditions to find that out. Even if you go out there with your piece drawn, you can’t see what he’s doing. And that’s not the way to start a productive conversation, regardless.”
Isaac glared at Len, then nodded and went back into his house.
~oOo~
June stayed for an hour, holding Loki on her lap most of the time, brushing her fingers through his dark curls. He was a good-natured kid, boisterous and unhappy to be restrained, but friendly with everyone. When June had helped him open the fairly large package and he’d seen the photo on the outside of the box, he’d clapped giddily, opened his eyes wide, and pursed his lips to say “OOOOH!” It was a little plastic tool bench with a set of little plastic tools.
Cory smiled as she helped him open the box and pull his new toy out. “Like your daddy, Loki. Your daddy had tools just like this.”
He nodded seriously. “Like Daddy.”
As Badger watched that sweet and sad moment play out, Adrienne came up to him and circled his waist with her arms. “Do you think they’re making up?”
He shook his head, hooking his arm around her and pulling her close. “I don’t know, babe. Mr. Mariano is sitting outside in his truck, probably freezing his ass off out there rather than come in with us. I don’t think there’s a way to make up if he doesn’t want it.”
“Makes me sad. She looks like she’d be a good grandma. I miss my grandma.”
She used to talk about her grandmother in Jamaica a lot. “You could call her.”
“No. I lost her when my dad drove away.”
He didn’t agree, but it wasn’t his call to make. So he just held her close. The Horde family could fill a lot of gaps. They could fill the gaps in Adrienne’s life. He thought that, for the most part, they already had.
~oOo~
Time was short after Christmas. Isaac and Len were surrendering themselves two days into the new year. So the day after Christmas, the Horde met in the Keep for Isaac’s final meeting as President. He’d taken the gavel eighteen years ago, at the age of twenty-seven.
With a strike of the gavel on the ebony table he’d made with his own hands, Isaac called the meeting to order. The room was already silent, so it was a formality. The mood on this day was somber.
“You know the main business of this meeting. We’ll end with that. I have some news and a couple of things to talk about before we get to it. First, you all know that with the mother charter of the Scorpions busted, there’s been some discord with the charters since then. Over the past couple of months, they’ve had a full-club leadership meeting, and they’ve given all the charters the chance to reaffirm their patch or go out on their own, no harm, no foul. Hoosier and the LA crew were on their way out already, and even with Sam gone, they don’t want to stick with the Scorps.”
He leaned forward, his elbows on the table. He had new ink on the inside his massive right forearm: words arranged in a circle, with the names ‘Lilli,’ ‘Gia,’ and ‘Bo’ inside, one on top of the other. The words of the circle were in another language. Badger had asked about it. It was Italian, and it had something to do with love and sun and stars. He didn’t remember exactly, but he knew that Isaac had wanted his family with him wherever he was.
There was something almost like excitement in Isaac’s voice when he spoke. “Here’s where it gets real interesting. They’d been talking about starting fresh, their own charter, whole new club. But I got a Christmas night call from Bart, and then another from Hoosier. They’re flying an idea past us. Night Horde Southern California charter.”
Badger whistled. That would make Bart Horde again. But Len was shaking his head.
“Why? What’s the upside for either of us?”
“It helps them start up their bike business again. It turns my stomach to say it, but as Bart explained it, we have a ‘brand’ in LA. Name recognition. The Scorpions had it, because they’re the Scorpions. We have it because of that movie. They can use the name to get whole again. And Bart also wants it for the reason I think most of the people at this table can understand. To make him Horde again.”
Show cut in. “He’ll be Hoosier’s VP, whether they’re Horde or start something new.”
“I thought we were out of the outlaw business.” Badger hated to say it, because he liked the idea of a second charter. And he was impressed that Bart had risen to the rank of VP.
“So are they. With the Perros crushed and the Scorps a mess, they don’t have any relationships that would keep them from going legit, too. That bike business was pulling in big bucks on its own. We’d get a cut of that, as mother charter—that’s our upside.” He leaned back. “It’s a lot to take in. Dom can get some intel, run some numbers, and bring it to the table next meeting. While we’re away, Show has my proxy, and Badge has Len’s.”
There was a heavy, solemn pause as the table was reminded of Isaac and Len’s future. Isaac broke it. “Next up. Leon Seaver, private citizen. He’s off our backs. Question is: do we count that as full payment? He burned the B&B and killed Beth. Hurt Adrienne. Is that debt paid by losing his job?”
“We don’t have proof that he arranged the explosion.” Show said that slowly, as if he was fighting the responsibility of uttering them.
“No, we don’t,” Isaac agreed. “But I think everybody around this table knows it’s true.”
Everyone nodded. Badger believed it absolutely. But even if they had proof, was it right to take Seaver’s life—because that was what they were talking about. He had killed Beth and maimed Adrienne. Horde justice would demand his life. Most likely by fire.
“We call it paid.” He’d spoken before he’d fully thought the idea through, but now he had the attention of table, so he went on. “Not because he doesn’t deserve to die. He made that fire happen, and he slowed four of us—all firefighters—down on our way to it. He killed Beth, and he hurt my old lady. He deserves to die. But damn, there’s a lot of blood on our road. So much blood. It gets even deeper when we go out to avenge a wrong—when we’re most right, we pay dearest. It’s got to stop. Our best guess is that Seaver climbed up our ass because we leaned so hard on his cousin. Who deserved everything he got. Hav is dead because we avenged his sister’s murder. She was killed because we avenged Daisy’s. We’re losing Isaac and Len for years because of all this shit. It has to stop.”
He’d straightened his spine and risen tall in his seat as he’d spoken; now, seeing the eyes of his brothers on him, steady and silent, he slouched, sure that he’d said too much.
But Isaac turned to his Vice President. “Show?”
Show’s eyes didn’t leave Badger. His look was not, in Badger’s estimation, appreciably softer than the look he’d given him months ago, when he’d sat across from him at a small table in the Hall and heard Badger tell him that he wanted to be with Adrienne.
Who was now his wife. He held his gaze on Show.
“Badge’s right. We keep an eye on him, make sure he doesn’t get into more mischief. But we can’t start this new peace off with blood.”
“Vote it.” Len’s voice was gruff.
“Len and I vote last. We won’t be here to take our share of any burden, so we vote after those who will.”
Show shook his head. “You’re taking on more than your share of the burden.”
“Be that as it may. Len and I vote last. On the question of whether Seaver’s debt is paid. ‘Aye’ says it is.”
Show, Badger, Dom, Tommy, Zeke, and Double A all voted ‘Aye.’ Then Len and Isaac did the same.
“Okay, brothers. We got one last piece of business. It’s time for me to step down. Len, too. We can’t hold our offices from inside a prison three hundred miles away. We’ll be gone too long for this to be an interim change. I am handing over the gavel today. Show is my choice for successor.” His grin was sardonic and sad. “Had to beat him unconscious to get him to agree. But it needs a vote. First, we should hear Show’s choice for officers to sit with him.”
Show nodded. “Gotta admit, I’ve been remiss. I don’t want this office. I don’t like the reason I would take it. So I haven’t asked anyone to sit up here with me. But I’ve thought about who I’d want. And if they’ll sit with me, I think we can manage not to fuck up what we helped Isaac build all these years. Tommy—I’d like you to have my back as SAA.”
Badger thought Tommy was a good pick. He was bull strong and watchful. He wasn’t a big thinker, but he paid attention to his surroundings, and he was damn good in a fight. Tommy was clearly surprised, but he nodded. “Yeah, Show. I got your back.”
Zeke was the right choice for VP, and Badger waited to hear his name. He was quiet, and Badger couldn’t see Show and him having the easy rhythm Show and Isaac had always had, but he had thirty or more years of experience. And he was smart and steady.
But Show turned to Badger. “Badge. Be my VP.”
“What?” Despite all the talk in the past several months about him being ‘the future of the Horde,’ Badger hadn’t expected anything like an officer position for years. He was the ‘little brother.’ Even now, with Double A the youngest patch and Dom the smallest, he was still ‘little brother.’
Isaac answered. “It’s a good choice. You’re smart, Badge. You think far, play things out. You’ve got a good heart. And you’re tough. You’ve been through the shit, and you came through it strong. You’re a lot like Show.”
Show laughed. “I was gonna tell him his was a lot like you.”
Badger remained speechless, managing only, “But…”
“I was twenty-seven when I took this gavel. Double A’s age when I took the VP patch. You’re the right choice, Badge. I told you I think you’re destined for this seat. This is a step on that path. I’d feel good knowing you and Show were at the head.”
“Show?”
“Wouldn’t’ve asked if I wasn’t sure, brother. You’re my choice.”
“Okay. Okay.”
Isaac grinned sadly. “Let’s vote it, then. All those in favor of Show taking the gavel and becoming the official third President of the Night Horde Motorcycle Club of Missouri.”
Unanimous.
Isaac stood and took his kutte off. Laying it on the table, he pulled his blade and sliced the threads that had bound the President patch to his chest. Len stood and did the same to his Sergeant at Arms patch. Badger and all his brothers looked on sadly.
When Isaac’s patch was free, the tatters of threads making a frail fringe around its blood-red border, he laid it on the gavel, shrugged his now lighter kutte back on, and stepped away from the seat at the head of the table he’d built.
~oOo~
The second day of January was clear and bitter cold. A hard frost was still on the ground, glazing the remnants of the Christmas snow into a crisp, glassy crust. The whole Horde family stood on the clubhouse lot, saying goodbye to two of their own.
What they were doing had saved the Horde, and probably Signal Bend, too. They were free of the blood and death, of the danger and fear for their loved ones. Isaac and Len had offered themselves up as a kind of penance for mistakes and deeds for which they were all responsible. They had tried to make something good from something bad. Because Isaac and Len were going away, they had succeeded. But the cost was high.
Badger, wearing his new Vice President patch and feeling it like a searing ache in his chest, stood back a bit with his arm around Adrienne’s shoulders. He’d said his goodbye to his President and to his mentor. Show was in the van, the engine running, waiting to drive them to St. Louis, where they would surrender at least six years of their freedom.
Isaac and Len were saying goodbye to their most intimate family—their old ladies, Isaac’s children. Len and Tasha were standing at the side of the van, wrapped up so tightly that, were it not for Tasha’s ginger hair, it would be hard to see where one started and the other ended.
Isaac squatted in his odd way near the passenger door, both of his children in his arms. Bo was only three and did not understand. He’d given his father a cursory hug and now was trying to extricate himself from Isaac’s arms.
Gia was five and smarter than her age. While she might not have understood all of it, she clearly understood enough. She’d laid her head on Isaac’s shoulder and would not let go. When Isaac finally went to stand, Bo skipped away, relieved, but Gia had to be pried away, crying, “No, Daddy! No! No!”
Lilli stood there with her head down. Shannon came and collected a wailing Gia. She kissed Isaac’s cheek and led his daughter inside, grabbing Bo’s hand as she went and taking him along, too. Isaac watched them go until the clubhouse door closed between him and his children.
Next to Badger, Adrienne sobbed. Just once, but he looked down to see her face wet with tears. “This is awful,” she whispered when she saw him looking.
“I know.”
“Why are we watching? We shouldn’t be watching.”
“They don’t leave this lot alone. We see them off. We don’t turn our backs until they’re out of sight.”
With a sad nod of understanding, she took a breath and turned back to the scene.
Isaac put his hands on Lilli’s hips and drew her near. She seemed to come reluctantly, her head still down. She hit his chest with the side of her fist, once. Twice. And then she was beating him with her balled fists. Isaac withstood the assault and then overpowered her, pulling her hard against his chest, yanking her ponytail until her head came up, and kissing her fiercely. It was brutal and loving and passionate and completely fucking devastating, and Badger had to drop his eyes. He’d never seen Lilli give in to any weakness before, and he understood the depth of pain she must be feeling. She wasn’t fighting Isaac; she was fighting the loss of him.
“I can’t stand this.” Adrienne barely whispered the words.
“You don’t have to stay, babe,” he answered without opening his eyes. “The Horde stays. But if you need to go in, it’s okay.”
“No. I…I’m with you.”
He squeezed her tighter and lifted his eyes again. Len was climbing into the side door of the van, and Tasha had walked back to the loose line everyone else had formed. Isaac stepped back from Lilli and cupped his hand over her cheek. He leaned in and kissed her forehead, then turned to his brothers. He nodded, then got into the van and closed the door.
When the van was out of sight, Lilli dropped to her knees on the gravel lot. She didn’t cry or yell or anything. She just knelt there. The Horde stayed where they were. Badger figured they all felt like he did—unsure what to do. Then Cory, the only old lady who knew for a fact she would never see her old man again, went to Lilli and got her to stand.
They walked into the clubhouse together, and the rest of the Horde family followed.
~oOo~
Later that night, Badger came home to find Adrienne behind their little rented house, standing on the porch in her bare feet, wearing only her old sweater over one of his flannel shirts, which skimmed her mid-thigh. She was watching Hector root around in the yard. He and all his littermates were smart pups. They’d all been housebroken within a couple of weeks, and they were learning commands. At about five months old, they were already big dogs. Delia had estimated that all but Len and Tasha’s runt girl would clear a hundred pounds. Kodi, Isaac and Lilli’s dog, was already almost seventy pounds. At five months old.
Hector was more than fifty pounds. He was a good boy and devoted to Adrienne in a way that sometimes made Badger a little jealous—stupid, but true. He obeyed Badger’s commands, but it was clear that he was only doing so to please his mistress. Hector thought Badger was in his way. The pup was too big to sleep in bed with them anymore, so he had his own memory foam dog bed on the floor near Adrienne’s side of the bed. Every night, he sat staring forlornly at their bed, then, eventually, huffed, puffing his jowls in misery, and dropped himself on his pad.
Drama queen.
Badger went out onto the porch now. Adrienne turned her head at the squeak of the screen door and smiled when he put his hands on her hips, standing behind her and looking over her head at the goofy dog snuffling through the little bit of snow left like a pig looking for truffles.
“It’s cold out here, babe. You’re gonna catch your death, out here in that ratty sweater and your feet bare.”
“You sound like an old lady. ‘Catch your death.’ Really?”
He laughed. Come inside, Adrienne. He’s not doing what he’s supposed to be.”
“Oh, he did his business already. I was just…I don’t know. Stuck, I guess. I keep zoning out. I can’t get Isaac and Lilli and Len and Tasha out of my head. I don’t know how they’re going to do this. Six years? At least? I don’t know how I’d make it if you went away like that.”
Turning her in his arms so that she faced him, he lifted her chin and beamed a promise into her blue eyes. “I’m not. I won’t. We’re out of that business. Lilli and Tash will get through with our help. We’ll stand with them and give them whatever help we can—what they need to hold on. It’s what we do. If something ever did happen to me, they’d hold you up, too.”
“I missed my period today.”
It took him a minute to catch up with the sharp turn the conversation had taken. “What?”
“I was supposed to get my period today. It didn’t come.”
“Did you do a test?”
She shook her head. “Today was…busy. My head was elsewhere.”
“Can we do one now?”
“I don’t have one.”
He grinned, feeling an electric zing in his blood at the thought. “I will ride all the way to Springfield and back to find an all-night drugstore if you want me to.” Holy fuck—she could be pregnant. With his kid!
“I don’t. I don’t want to know either way yet. I don’t want to be sad if I’m not, and I don’t want to start thinking about babies tonight if I am. I need all your attention tonight.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know how sex makes the noise in your head get quiet? It calms you down?”
“Yeah.” He still felt guilty about that sometimes, that he could get so avid with need that he almost—almost—forgot about everything but sating that need.
“My head is noisy. I still hurt so bad from this morning.” She started to cry, and he pulled her tight to his chest. She was freezing. “I didn’t even lose you. I get to keep you, but I feel this hole inside. I don’t understand it, and it scares me. Please don’t leave me alone, Badge. Please don’t. Please don’t.”
“I’m not, babe. I’m here. I’m staying here and loving you. We’re gonna get old and crabby together.”
With her face tucked against his hoodie, she whimpered, “I need you to fuck me tonight, Badge.”
He lifted her up, and she wrapped her legs around his hips. He whistled quietly, and Hector came running back to the house, ears flopping. Badger took his family back into the house.
When they got into the bedroom, Adrienne dropped her legs from around his hips, and he set her on the floor. She went for the bottom of his hoodie right away, and he raised his arms and helped her pull it and the t-shirt under it up and over his head. Then she wrapped her little hands around his neck and pulled his head down. Their lips met, and she kissed him, her mouth open and moving on his with a savagery that was new for her.
Sliding his fingers into her thick mane of fiery curls, he curled his hands into fists and held her tightly, meeting her ferocity with his own. Her arms hooked eagerly around his neck, and he released his hold on her hair to take the bottom of his shirt, pulling it and her sweater off of her lithe, beautiful body without bothering with the buttons. Their kiss broke just long enough for her clothes to move free of her head and arms, and then she was back, seeming to be trying to climb his body. He lifted her again and carried her to their bed.
He set her down and stood straight to kick off his boots and open his jeans. As he undressed, she wiggled out of her little pink panties, and then she scooted up to lean against the headboard. Damn, she was pretty, her lightly freckled, little breasts tipped up slightly by her position, and her flat belly leading downward to that tiny triangle between her thighs. Badger never even saw her scars anymore. Or maybe that wasn’t right. He saw them. But they were part of her, and he loved them for it. In that way, they were beautiful.
After he kicked his jeans out of the way, he moved to climb over her, but she surprised him by grabbing his cock and sitting up. She kissed him, biting down on his lower lip as she squeezed his cock until he groaned. She tipped her head back then, smiling up at him. The look in her eyes was…sultry. Pushing on his shoulder with her free hand, not letting go of his straining cock, she whispered, “Lie down, Badge. I changed my mind. I want to fuck you.”
He did as she asked with a grin, and she rolled smoothly and straddled him, her hand still snug around him as she slid down his shaft. Fuck, fuck. She felt so good. Hot, slippery-wet, and…thick was the only word he could thing of. She’d surrounded him with padded silk, and the thrill of it coiled in his belly and slithered through his blood. He made a low, long groan, deep in his throat, and she smiled down at him, purring like a cat in a sunbeam. She swiveled her hips, her muscles tensing and relaxing around his cock, and he groaned again.
“Fuck, babe.”
As Adrienne had gained experience with their sex, she had begun to take initiative more. He’d found it interesting, since she had been forward with him from the day they’d met, years ago, that once they’d finally gotten together, she had back off quite a bit and let him lead her. He liked it; he enjoyed her trust in him and her willingness to be shown. It made him feel experienced in a way he hadn’t realized he’d been.
But he knew, too, that sometimes, when his brain buzzed frantically and he just needed her, he could be too rough. She took what he gave her at those times almost always without complaint—more than that, she encouraged him, brought him to her and opened herself to let him take from her what would calm him. He supposed she was taking charge in those moments, too.
He was brought from those thoughts when she bent over him and tucked her face under his beard, kissing and nipping at his throat. Except for that one hip-swivel, she had not yet moved on him. He was so fucking hot for her that he could feel his cock pulsing inside her. Feeling her tongue and teeth on his skin, moving down, over his collarbone and onto his scarred chest, he had a moment of discomfort. He knew she didn’t mind the way he looked. In fact, he knew she loved his scars the way he loved hers, but he had not yet been able to shake completely the dull unease of her hands and mouth there so intimately. Maybe that was because it felt so odd, like a secondhand feeling. The only thing he could feel over most of his chest was pressure. And pain, especially along the edges of the scar, where the skin still pulled awkwardly and always would. But Adrienne’s dancing fingertips and swirling tongue made something like an out-of-body experience. He turned his head down to watch and could see her paying loving attention to the ridges and gouges that were his torso, and he could certainly feel when her hips began to mirror the rhythm of her mouth and hands, making a powerfully arousing connection between the intense sensitivity of his cock and the eerie numbness of his chest.
He wrapped his hands around her hips tightly enough to feel her hipbones digging into his palms. He thrust up into her, feeling impatient suddenly to have her writhing and gasping. He wanted to fuck her. But she lifted away from his chest, her hands flat over where his nipples should have been, and shook her head.
“Babe, please. I want to watch you come.”
With a pert little nod of her head, she cupped her breasts in her own hands and began to move on him with real intent. After a few minutes, he realized that she was moving on him to maximize her own pleasure, almost using him, writhing and twisting to keep him hitting her g-spot over and over, finding the rhythm that suited her. It was in her eyes that he knew—they were closed, but her brows were expressively mobile, lifting sexily every time she made him hit the right spot.
She was kind of using him to get herself off. And it was hot as all fuck. Seriously. He was getting too damn close, but he resisted the urge to take over, and let himself feel the fantastic agony that was holding off as long as he needed to. When she approached her peak, and her hips began to rocket and surge on him without control, he closed his eyes and bit his lip, still clasping her hips in his hands, and let her ride him until he felt her body close hard around him, her wet releasing over him, and she arched back with a cry. He felt her hair swaying over his bare legs and almost came right then.
But he held on, and when Adrienne relaxed and looked down at him, he rolled them over. She’d fucked him; now he was going to fuck her. That was what she’d said she wanted. As they rolled, she grabbed his shoulders and laughed. Her laugh was like music, or maybe birdsong—or maybe those words were too sappy and lame. He loved the sweet, light sound and the way her deep blue eyes gleamed.
Now that their positions were reversed, she coiled her legs around his waist and canted her hips so he could reach her deepest depths. He was too close to start easy, too close to go long. Wrapping his hands over the firm, small curves of her ass, he held her tight and chased his own release.
Though he hadn’t expected to last long enough for Adrienne to go twice, he felt her climb again, her muscles flexing around him. He kissed her, tasting her tongue, smelling the fruity fragrance of her shampoo, and he brought one hand around from her ass to slide between them. His hand spread over her belly and his thumb on her clit, working it hard, trying to get her up as high as he was before he lost it altogether, she finally clamped down with a surprised squeal, and he let himself go, pounding and groaning, his vision going to sparks behind his eyelids.
He relaxed on her, then remembered that she might have his baby inside her and lifted back up quickly. He pulled out and moved to his side next to her.
Her hair was sweaty and stuck to her face. He pulled it away, feeling her soft skin under his hard fingertips. “You feel better, babe?”
She turned her head, still gasping quietly, and smiled. “I do.”