Chapter Eighteen
Kori existed in a heavenly state somewhere between arousal and delicious lassitude. Masculine, work-roughened hands coasted up her arms, down her sweat-dotted back and over her ass, again and again, inducing a sort of hypnotic state of pleasure. Everywhere he touched, small ripples of electricity shot along her skin, prolonging her orgasmic bliss.
It took a few minutes for her brain to catch up with the fact that Lucky had stopped talking and now wore an unreadable, but not satisfied expression. An almost…lost and shattered look had entered his eyes and while it appeared he was staring at her, she was sure he wasn’t actually seeing anything.
“Hey.” She scraped a thumbnail over his flat masculine nipple, eliciting a jolt from him. After a few blinks, his dark gaze seemed to come back into focus. “I think I lost you for a second there. Where’d you go?”
“Sorry, baby.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Just thinking about some club issues.”
“So all that wasn’t enough to relax your mind?”
He snorted. “Babe, that was enough to melt my mind. I’m sorry.” A heavy sigh escaped. “There’s just a bit of troubling shit going down now and it snuck in for a moment. Nothing for you to be worried about though, okay?”
No, not okay, but she didn’t say that. She’d need to learn to be okay with it. A few minutes ago she’d agreed to move in with the man. This was how MC life worked. Club business stayed within the club whether she liked it or not. Hopefully, he’d come to her in his own time if he needed a sounding board. She had to trust in that. In the meantime, there were plenty of other things she still needed to learn about him. “So, how did you get involved with the club?”
“Oh, Christ.” While he spoke, he rolled to his back and propped his head on a few pillows, taking her with him. As though she weighed nothing, he positioned her across his warm chest. She settled in with her legs between his and her chin resting on her stacked palms. It gave her the perfect view of his face as he shared his story.
“We had a typical low income, shitty without being traumatizing upbringing. Mom died young; dad didn’t give a rat’s ass about much more than hitting the slots and poker tables. That left me plenty of unsupervised time to get into trouble.”
“We?” she asked.
He played with the long strands of her hair, running his fingers from her scalp to the ends repeatedly. God, she loved how he was always touching her. It seemed so much more significant than just physical touching, like he couldn’t stand a break in their connection. Whether that was in her mind or not remained to be seen, but the thought thrilled her.
“Yeah. I had a sister. Melissa. I called her Missy. She was five years younger.” His voice grew sad as he spoke her name. “She called me Ty. My real name’s Tyler.”
Had? Called? Was? All past tense. Had something happened to Missy? Kori was dying to ask but assumed he’d get to that part of the story soon enough. No need to rush it. “I like it. It’s a good name.”
“Thanks.” He smoothed a thumb across her lips and she snuck her tongue out for a taste. A smile curved his lips and she felt victorious. To be able to make him smile when recalling obviously painful memories was priceless.
“Anyway, I was always a little shit and fell in with a pretty rough crowd during my late teen years. Grand theft auto was our specialty. We’d jack cars for a local chop shop. They threw us a decent cut. For a kid with no money, I thought I was living the high life. I quit busing tables for Rosita and spent all my free time with a bunch of low-life car thieves.” He let out a humorless chuckle. “Am I scaring you off yet?”
Because of a sordid past? That she could handle. The present was far more important. “No. From what I’ve seen of the No Prisoners so far, the club I knew back in FL was involved in much worse stuff than yours is here. Not too much shocks me anymore.”
His face clouded for a minute. What was that about? What the hell was going on with the club? She needed to pay better attention when she was at the clubhouse. Maybe she could pick up on something without Lucky having to break any club code of silence.
“Huh, well I got cocky and tried to steal some off-the-chain Ferrari. Got popped and landed my ass in lock up. Unfortunately, I’d turned eighteen three days prior.” He shrugged. “You know the story. Judge gave me a choice. Enlist in the service or prison. Easy choice. So I joined up.”
“You were in the Army?” Wow. Her respect for him tripled. She held those who served in the highest regard.
“Marine Corp. Four years as a sniper.”
“Holy shit.”
He chuckled, the vibrations jostling her on his chest. “You ain’t kidding. About killed me in the beginning. To go from drinking, smoking, lazing around to boot camp was quite the shocker. I had my ass handed to me a million times before I started to get with the program. Once I got on board, my competitive side kicked in and I wanted to be the best. That’s where sniper school came in.”
She smiled, imagining a young, stubborn-as-hell Lucky being reamed by a drill sergeant. “How does this lead to the club?”
He resumed playing with her hair and she almost purred like a spoiled cat. “I’m getting there. I’ll skip the grisly details, but after I left home, Missy spiraled out of control. Sex, drugs, you name it, she did it. Anyway, I was twenty-two and in Afghanistan when I learned she overdosed and was in a coma. Getting sent home from deployment is nearly impossible and by the time I got here—” Bone deep remorse filled his voice and she almost told him to stop. She could guess the rest, no need to relive it. But he seemed lost in the story now.
Her heart cracked and bled for the younger Lucky. What was coming was pretty obvious, but she waited for his next words to confirm her fears.
Was there a link between his past and his present? Did this sad story have anything to do with Lucky’s issues with the club now?
~ ~ ~ ~
Dredging up memories of Missy all these years later hurt like fresh pain. Kori had opened up to him. Shared fears, past hurts. He owed her the same. Amazingly, he wanted to tell her. Wanted her to know what made him who he was today. Good and bad. “By the time I got here, she’d died.”
“God, Lucky, I’m so sorry. I can’t even imagine how difficult that must have been for you.” She dropped a kiss on his chest. Her willingness to listen without judgment and her comforting touch were the only things that kept him going with the story. Very few people had heard it. Voicing it was just too damn painful.
And then there were the months after her death. God, he’d been a fucking mess. “Yeah, the time that followed wasn’t the best of my life.” Understatement of the century. “I left the Marines and went off the rails a bit. After I dealt with the asshole who’d been pimping her out and supplying her with drugs, I had nothing left to fill my days. So, I traveled around on my Harley looking for a purpose. When I was at a bar in a tiny town in Arizona, I met a few guys from the No Prisoners chapter down there.”
He’d befriended Acer, a contradiction of biker and rich kid, on sight. Acer had introduced him around to some other MC members, and that weekend had been the one thing to end his slippery slope into a severe depression and self-destruction. God knows where he’d be right now if he’d never met those guys. Actually, he had a pretty good idea he’d be six feet under.
“You want to stop?” Her soft voice pulled him back to the moment. The silken strands of her hair slid through his fingers like a platinum waterfall. So beautiful.
“No, sorry, just got lost in my head. I spent a week with those guys and was hooked. Their sense of brotherhood, family, loyalty was just what I was looking for. I had all those things in the Marines and had missed them. Anyway, I came home and prospected. Rest is history.”
A frown marred her pretty face. “If you hit it off so well with the Arizona guys, why didn’t you stay down there?”
Fuck, he sure as hell wished he had now. He wouldn’t be in this fucking mess with Rebel. Though he also wouldn’t have met Kori. “This is home. This is where my sister is buried. And my mom was alive until a little over two years ago. Sometimes I think about patching over to their chapter.”
Shit, he hadn’t meant to let that slip. It wasn’t a sometimes thought anymore. It was pretty much a daily thought for the past five weeks. And something that would have to be acted on soon. What a shitty time to be entering his first—and if he had his way, only—serious relationship.
“Hmm.” Kori sat up, her legs straddling his torso and rubbed her hands along his chest. “Just so you know, for future reference, I’m not married to this area. I’m not dropping hints or telling you how to live your life. Just something to file away for…whenever.”
Christ, she was amazing. So giving. Basically, she was telling him she’d be willing to move with him if he deemed it best. “But your father is here.”
With a smile, she walked her fingers up his chest, stopping at his neck then leaned forward. His hands cupped her ass and pulled her close, grinding her clit into his stomach. Arousal sparked between them as need for her flared strong, as though he hadn’t had her and come so hard he nearly passed out less than a half hour ago.
“Mmm,” she moaned, reaching for a condom on the nightstand. “I know he’s here. We’re learning each other, forming a sort of bond. If I’m fully honest, I don’t see us having a super close relationship. Just a feeling.” As she spoke, she wiggled her way down his body until she was positioned over his erection. “I’m just saying I don’t need to live so close to him to be happy. Arizona’s not far, anyway.”
Their gazes met and she fisted him in her hand. With heat in her gaze, she rolled the latex over his oversensitive flesh. When she lowered herself, encasing him in the searing wet heat of her pussy, the room blurred. “Good to know,” he ground out.
Damn, she looked magnificent astride his hips with her tits swaying and hair flowing around her shoulders. Her smile was radiant as she rocked against him, the illusion of control making her bold. In reality, he could take over whenever he damn well pleased, but he let her have this because she loved riding his cock as much as he loved watching it.
This…happiness he found with Kori could be his. For the rest of his life if he played his cards right. Just one obstacle stood in their way.
Unfortunately, it was an obstacle the size of a fucking mountain and had the power to wreak more havoc that just ending their relationship.