6. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Davina - Two months later

"No, no, no!"

The stupid test had to be wrong. I grabbed the next one and looked at the results.

"No, dammit!" I yelled again at the stupid stick. There was no use in denying it. That was the third one today, the sixth since I took the first test yesterday. The first had been a fluke, or so I thought. The test had come from under the bathroom sink, where one of the other club girls left what remained of a combo pack. When that was positive, I went to the store and bought five more. I took two more that same day.

Then, because I was too stubborn to accept the truth, I took the other three this morning when I woke up. The tests stated that first morning pee was the most accurate. I thought there was still a chance that the others had been wrong. Unfortunately, six positive tests were hard to dispute.

"I can't believe I'm pregnant," I mumbled to myself. Then I glanced around the dingy bathroom, as if seeing the space for the first time. It hadn't been scrubbed clean – truly clean – in ages. The once white grout had turned black in spots and yellowed in others. There were odd stains on the floor that I didn't even want to guess the origins of. This was just the bathroom. One bathroom.

The rest of the clubhouse wasn't much better. Everything looked okay on the surface, but the minute you focused on anything too long, it became obvious that there were problems hiding under the surface, or even at surface level. It went a bit deeper than dirty couches and people fucking out in the open.

The brothers were nice enough. Some were rougher than others, and while they'd all been relatively good to me, there were only a few who would make decent father material. It was doubtful that the few that could be good would be the one to father my child. That was the biggest problem of all.

If there was a way to know for certain that it was Tripp's baby, I'd stick around. He may have only used me the once, but the soft spot I had for him had warmed even further into a full-blown crush on the man. Not that he'd noticed. He still pined over his long-gone wife. To hear the others tell it, Kim had been the love of his life. According to those same stories, she was a tough act for any woman to follow. As in, an impossible act to follow if you happened to be a club whore.

I closed my eyes and brought up the memory of my night with Tripp again. It wasn't the first time and most likely wouldn't be the last. Along with the memory came the wish in my heart that nine years without his wife had been enough to open his heart to someone else – even if that someone was a club whore.

Two months earlier

I glanced up through my lashes from across the room and tracked the club's president as he moved behind the bar to grab a bottle. Something was bothering him today and to anyone paying attention, it showed. To me, it definitely showed because I was always paying attention.

He started to head back to the hallway that would lead him back to his office, or maybe his bunk room as it was on the opposite end of the clubhouse to most of the others. When his gaze swept across the room, I lifted my head to make it known that I was not only watching him but waiting for him to take advantage of my services.

Tripp had never done so in the past, so there wasn't really a good chance he would take me up on the silent offer, but as his eyes locked with mine, hope grew in my chest. My heart ticked up a few beats per minute and before I could suffer another let down, Tripp crooked his finger at me.

I stood and my feet glided across the space between us as if being pulled by a magnetic force. When I made my way to within an inch of the man, he reached out and tugged me firmly to his side.

"You okay with this?" He asked.

"Of course," I insisted.

Tripp nodded before he quietly guided me back to his room located at the end of a lonely hall full of offices and storage spaces.

"Last chance to back out," Tripp stated as we reached his bedroom door.

"Why on earth would I do that?"

He shrugged. "Never had you back here before." It was a mumbled line, but I heard it plain as day. What he really meant was that he'd never had me before. Not once. I would catch him watching me from time-to-time because my eyes would always drift to him if he was in a room. There was interest there between the two of us, but it seemed to be a fascination he was not inclined to act on until this moment.

Once the door was shut behind us, I turned and ran my hands up his arms and gently traced over his shoulders until my fingers managed to tunnel into his hair at the nape of his neck. Tripp's head tipped back as an inadvertent moan slipped free from his lips. "Feels really good, sweetheart."

"Why don't you make yourself comfortable and let me take care of you. You're always so tense with the weight of the club on your shoulders. Let me make it better for you tonight." What I really wanted to say was, ‘Let me make it better for you forever.' That wasn't a sentiment that would fly with the club brothers though unless they were the one to claim you as their woman first.

"How are you planning on doing that, Vina?"

"I'm going to start out with giving you the best damn massage you ever had. We need to work out all this muscle tension and once your body is feeling good and loose, I'll help you work out your other frustrations any way you choose."

"Your first priority is taking care of me and making sure I'm not riddled with tension?"

"Yes."

"Is that something you do for all my brothers?" He asked while staring me in the eye and all but daring me to lie to him.

"No, it's not. You look like you need it though."

"It's not required."

My shoulders bounced as I offered up a smile. "It was just an offer. You're free to say, "No".

In answer, he started to pull his cut off and then lifted his shirt over his head and placed them both on what looked like an unused desk against the wall. His boots, jeans, and everything else were next. While he took care of himself, I stripped down to my bra and panties and then made my way to his ensuite.

"You have any lotion, oil, or lubricant in here?"

"Medicine cabinet."

There was a bottle of unopened massage oil with the seal still on it. He had at least been thinking about doing this with someone, at some point recently. I was happy to see the seal had never been cracked though. It would have sucked to know that I wasn't the only one who offered this up to him. It might not have been possible to tell him how I felt about the man who starred in most of my dreams, but I wanted to show him in some way that he mattered to me.

This little thing, giving him comfort, was the only way I had to do that. All the other girls would jump right into sex, thinking that was the only thing that made them worth the time the men spent with them. In most instances, that was probably true.

Tripp was laid face down on the bed when I returned with the oil. His face was cocked to the side, so he could see me when I walked back in the room. He smiled but otherwise didn't make a move. I sauntered over to the bed and then climbed on top and maneuvered myself so that my legs straddled his upper thighs.

"I'm going to start with your neck and shoulders because that is where your muscles look like they're nothing but hard knots." I trailed my fingers down his back gently, which caused an explosion of goosebumps to break out across his body. As I did, the other tense muscles also made themselves known.

"You have to take better care of yourself, Tripp. This is kind of ridiculous."

He grinned. "Not every day someone offers to give me a massage around here."

"Well, consider it an open invitation. If you need to relax, I don't mind helping you out." I wanted to add in any and every capacity but didn't want to sound like one of the desperate whores who were always trying to land a patch.

"I'll keep that in mind."

Before I poured the oil into my hands, I ran my fingertips over Tripp's scalp and gave his head a little massage. He groaned through it and more gooseflesh bloomed across his skin to let me know there were no pretenses in the noises he made.

As much as I would have loved to do that for him all night, there was more he needed from me. Despite the pleasure he took in those simple touches, his muscles were bunched into tight, hard balls of stress. I opened the massage oil and poured a generous amount into my hands and rubbed them together to warm the liquid before applying it to his skin.

I used my thumbs to kneed the muscles along his neck while my fingers dug in and vigorously worked the muscles of his shoulders and lower neck. "Fuck, that hurts so good," he muttered into the pillow.

"Shh," I whispered. "Just lie there and enjoy it. Relax. You're not the president in here. You're a man enjoying his night." That earned me another smile.

Over the next hour, I worked his entire neck, back, shoulders, arms, and even his ass and thighs before Tripp finally called the massage done. "Sweetheart, as much as I love your hands on me like that, because they're fuckin' magic, I think it's about time I showed my appreciation."

"I didn't do this for what I could get in return."

"Didn't say you did, Vina. Now come over here," he added ass he turned underneath me and crooked his finger again. "Get up here and let me show you how to relax, too."

I crawled forward awkwardly.

One thing I could say for most of the men in the club was that they were all about getting theirs and not a whole lot else. Maybe they were different with their old ladies when they took one, but with the club girls, the men rarely worried about whether we got off. Some of them would have us put on a show to get each other off, but I tried to steer clear of those situations because being with another woman wasn't something I enjoyed.

When I was hovering somewhere between Tripp's neck and chin, he reached up and grabbed my hips to pull me forward. It was only then that he realized I was still partially clothed, but he didn't bother to remedy that situation. Instead, he simply pulled my panties to the side and licked straight up my pussy lips before nibbling them at the top. He didn't attempt to part them and tease my clit yet. It's like the man wanted to taste me from the outside in.

I reached out and placed my palms on the wall behind the bed as he moved my body into the best position before he truly dove in and ate my pussy like it was his last meal and it was exactly what he ordered.

"Why does that feel so good?" I moaned the words, not expecting an answer, which was good because Tripp didn't give me one. Instead, he continued to lick, suck, and nibble my entire pussy from clit to taint and back again before dipping his tongue inside me and then starting over. Eventually, he latched onto my clit and sucked until zinging little electrical pulses shot from my sex and brought my muscles clamping down on the fingers Tripp had added to the action.

As the orgasm burned through me, Tripp flipped me over and pulled me down so that my head was the one resting on the pillow instead. He made quick work of getting my bra and panties off my body and then, before I could even blink, he was fully seated inside me and our eyes met.

"Perfection."

I couldn't have heard that right. Tripp just told me it felt like perfection to be inside me. The nerves I'd been stewing in the whole time I'd been with him suddenly dissipated as the butterflies inside my belly swarmed and went wild. Maybe my infatuation with the man wasn't as one-sided as I'd always believed it to be.

His eyes stayed connected with mine as he thrust deep again only to slowly scrape his cock against my inner walls as he pulled back all the way to the tip. "Fuck, you feel so damn good, sweetheart."

I was speechless in my own little world of bliss as each thrust brought me closer to the edge again. "Tripp. God. So good," I mumbled into his shoulder as he began to pump harder. My arms wrapped around his upper body while I planted my feet firmly on the bed on either side of his legs to get leverage. Then, I managed to tilt my hips up to meet his thrusts that were coming more aggressively with each pump of his hips.

"Yes, baby. That's it, fuck me back," he demanded. I clutched onto his shoulders harder as we both pushed our bodies into attack mode. There wasn't a time in my past when I remembered fucking a man back so hard from the bottom. Just as the thought pinged around my brain, Tripp pulled out and flipped over so that he was on his back again and I was in the air before I realized what happened. He had me straddling his hips as he lined his cock up with my pussy and then yanked my hips down.

"Ahhh!" His cock sank deep in one solid thrust of his hips, and he pulled me down at the same time. Then, he stilled and waited until my eyes met his. The smile he gave me would have melted my panties right off had I still been wearing them.

"Ride me, sweetheart. Wanna see those tits sway as you bounce on my dick."

I followed directions well, though Tripp didn't watch my breasts bounce for him long before he reached up and started massaging the flesh and pulling at my nipples. With every pinch and tug the sensation felt as though it a line straight to the nerves in my pussy. My muscles clenched tight around Tripp's cock, and he hissed out a harsh breath.

"Fuck, baby, you keep doing that and I'm going to blow my load before you get off again."

"You keep doing what you're doing, and I'll get off again before you do." I promised him as my hips undulated harder as I angled just right to have him hit my most sensitive spot with each downthrust I made. "I'm…" The words were lost on me as he tugged hard on both my nipples at once just as he thrust up and I came down hard on his cock. My head fell back as I shouted out my release and took Tripp over the edge with me.

As the euphoric feeling began to fade, I leaned forward and crashed against Tripp's chest. To my complete surprise, he didn't push me off or attempt to crawl out from underneath me. Instead, he rubbed his hands up and down my back and kissed the top of my head.

"You doing all right?" He asked.

"Mhm," I murmured. "Just basking in the afterglow. I can move." When my muscles flinched in preparation for me to remove my body from its perch on top of Tripp, he stopped tracing up and down my spine and held firmly to my hips.

"Don't want you to move. Stay like this, unless you're ready to leave."

"Not in any hurry to be anywhere else."

"Good." It was only then, after he stated that one word with authority, that we finally moved. He pulled me down off his chest and to his side before he snuggled in behind me. When those strong arms of Tripp's wrapped around my body, it felt like heaven. Not only was a club girl getting off not a priority for most of the brothers, but there wasn't a single one of them who offered to cuddle me after sex. This was all new to me and for a brief moment, I wondered if this was the norm for Tripp. None of the other women talked about being with him, and to my knowledge, he had never taken one back to his room, but then again the way he pulled me in was done subtle and quiet-like.

Chances were, I would get the "keep this quiet" speech he must have given the others whenever he was done snuggling.

That was a cynical thought, but it was necessary to keep me from losing myself to a fantasy that only existed in my head. If only Tripp returned my longing to be with him.

As we laid there snuggled up with me as the little spoon to his big, he caressed my side and thighs in long, slow motions. "Do you dream about a life away from the club?"

"You kicking me out?" I teased.

"Nah, just wondering what kind of future you dream about, sweetheart. This life doesn't feel like a fit for you. Not as a club girl, anyway."

My heart ticked up a beat as hope pinged stupidly from the useless organ in my chest. My heart thought maybe he wanted me as his old lady, but my brain knew better.

"I had a shitty upbringing like most of the girls here. The club saved me when I needed saving and I'm here to do whatever I can to return the favor."

"You're not indebted to us, Vina. You know that right? You're free to go find whatever happiness you can at any time."

I nodded, but kept my face turned away from Tripp. No, there definitely wouldn't be ink and a patch in my future from him. He was all but pushing me out the door to go find someone outside the club.

"I'm a little confused. Do you not want me here?" I finally asked while trying to hide the hurt in my voice.

Tripp squeezed my hip and pulled me back into his body before wrapping me up in his arms again. "Nah, sweetheart. You always seem a little lost out there, like your head is anywhere but here. I wonder from time-to-time what you're thinking and if you wish you could be somewhere else."

"I'm perfectly content right here, right now," I told him. There was no way for him to know that I meant that in the most literal sense. It would remain my secret because Tripp wasn't like the other guys. He had an old lady once and knew how important it was to have a good woman at his side.

There was no way the club president would think having a club whore as his old lady would ever be a good idea, especially since I was only a few years older than his own kids. Maybe my age was why he was suddenly curious about my future plans.

I'd already tipped over the big three-oh and didn't miss the fact that most of the club girls were five to ten years younger than me. It made sense that people would start wondering about what my plans were. If we all blinked too long, I'd end up ringing in the big four-oh as a washed-up club girl as well. If nothing else came from this little tryst with the club president, it was the notion that I needed to start preparing for a different future because it was going to come for me sooner than later. And there was no way that the future I hoped for would come to pass, with me at the president's side.

It wasn't just about him being the president either. I was the furthest thing from a patch chaser you could get. Tripp did it for me. It was in his kind and thoughtful nature. He could be a vicious son of a bitch when crossed, but for those he cared about, he went the extra mile. I'd be a fool not to want someone like that who would respect our relationship, care for me, protect what's his, and do it all while looking dead sexy.

It was hard to shake those thoughts off as Tripp turned me to face him and leaned forward to nibble my bottom lip playfully.

"You were thinking too hard over there."

"Sorry."

He chuckled. "Don't apologize. If you don't want to share your future plans, you don't have to. It's not a requirement that you tell me all about how you're going to dominate in the world one day."

It was my turn to laugh. "You think a little too highly of me."

"If not taking over the world, what is your biggest goal?"

"Honestly?"

"Yeah, of course. No point in lying about what you want."

"I want a family."

"A family?" He questioned as his finger traced over my slightly furrowed brow. "That's it?"

"That's everything. I want a family who can count on me and who I can count on right back. I want to love and be loved and raise happy, healthy, well-adjusted children who will one day give me grandbabies to spoil." I shrugged my shoulders as if to brush off the serious wish with a bit of indifference. "That's been my dream since I was a little girl and it never changed."

"Well, hell, sweetheart, it doesn't take much to please you, does it?"

"I guess not, but to me it is everything. Maybe to someone else it doesn't sound like much," I argued in a much quieter voice.

"Aw, I didn't mean to offend you. Of course it's everything. Not enough people want to focus on family anymore. It's tough when most families need two incomes to make it. I was lucky that Kim was home with our kids most of their young lives until she was taken from us. They turned out pretty decent because their mom was always there for them. Don't think I'm making light of your dream. It was just shocking to hear."

"Because I'm a club girl?"

"Nah, just haven't heard someone share that dream in a really long time."

He didn't give me a chance to respond as his lips came down on mine. Something changed in the way he kissed me. It wasn't rough and needy like before. There was a gentler ease to the way he possessed my mouth, caressed my body, and then took me that second time. If I didn't know any better, I'd describe what Tripp and I did then as making love. It was sensual, slow, and full of beautiful touches and sweet kisses.

Every time our eyes met, I would have sworn he was feeling the connection between us too. People couldn't just fake the intensity that brewed between us. Then again, when I woke the next morning, I was alone. There weren't any sweet notes telling me to wait for him to come back with breakfast and coffee. There weren't any texts or phone messages about needing to handle club business. He was simply gone, and I was left to go back to my life as a club whore. Only now, I'd had a taste of what being with a man who wasn't completely selfish felt like and it would be damn hard to go back to living the lie that I was happy as a club girl. The truth was, I was safe, and that lent to a certain feeling of contentment. I was far from happy though.

Thankfully, our conversation made me realize it was time to start saving for the future instead of squandering what I had.

I snapped out of the memory with a pitiful sigh. If only I knew for sure that Tripp was the father of this baby. Unfortunately, there was the horrible possibility that the baby belonged to Tripp's son, Kip. What a mess. Despite knowing how it would hurt Scout, his ex-girlfriend, and another club girl, I would stick around if it was his, too. There were no romantic feelings about starting a relationship with the man. I knew his heart belonged to someone else and she was very much alive and in our faces. Still, he would make a good father, and we could raise our child as coparents easily enough.

I might have been tempted to stick around if there was a way to guarantee either one of the Martin men had fathered my baby. The sad truth was that it could be Bagger, Breakneck, or a few other members. None of them were ready to be parents. A few wouldn't step up even if the proof was shoved in their faces. I had to be around two months pregnant or so, if my periods-or lack of-was anything to go by.

It was the end of December. That put me possibly getting pregnant back in October. It was hard to say when exactly that happened, and I wish that I knew, because it would make all the difference in figuring out who the potential father might be.

The new year was three days away, and the club was holding their annual blowout party later, since the new year would fall on a weekday. That meant I had to get packed and get gone before anyone found out. They couldn't know because I couldn't have my child tied to the club forever when their father would probably never claim me. It would ruin my chances of finding someone who might one day love me.

I knew what I needed to do, and oddly enough, it was the club's own princess who inspired me. Her father – The Savage Viper's President – talked about her often enough, as did her uncle – SVMC's Vice President. They were proud as hell of Star Martin. She left this club, thwarted their efforts to keep a tail on her, and she ended up super successful all on her own. That was what I would have to do for my baby. I'd prove to myself, my child, and anyone else who cared that I could do it on my own. It wasn't like I was really breaking a rule. I didn't know who the father of my baby was, so there was no one to tell.

I just finished tossing all of my clothes and toiletries into my bags when someone knocked on my door. "Vina?"

Shit. It was Tripp, the club's president. He'd never been mean to me or anything, and we had only slept together that one time, but I worried what he would do when he realized I was going to bolt.

"Yeah?"

He opened the door and his eyes immediately traveled to my bags. "Well, I was going to ask if you were okay to handle brothers from our other chapters on New Year's, but it looks like you have other plans."

"I was going to come tell you." It was a lie and we both knew it.

"You don't owe anyone here any explanations, Vina. You're here because you want to be. When that time ends, it does. You're one of the good ones, so I'm guessing the brothers are going to be sad to see you go, but no one here will stop you."

"Thanks. Can we not make a big deal of it? I'd like to just leave quietly."

"Where are you going?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "I want to go to school and see if I can get a career for myself." I chuckled. "I'm thirty-years-old and not getting any younger. Besides, one day, I want to have a family of my own. Can't do that when I belong to everyone and no one all at once."

Tripp nodded his head. "Understandable. Are you sure you're good to go and able to get yourself started off?"

I wasn't, but he didn't need to know that. I'd figure things out. The club paid us a weekly stipend for helping out around the clubhouse. They couldn't and wouldn't pay us for sexual favors, but those of us who cooked or cleaned received a weekly salary. I wasn't a fool and took the chance to earn extra money just in case something ever happened. Still, I'd also stupidly spent a lot of what I made on clothes and other useless things. I had $2,000 saved and wasn't dumb enough to think that would last very long.

"Take this, and if you need help, don't hesitate to call me," Tripp said as he handed me a wad of cash. "The side door is your best bet to avoid a scene with your bags. We have a few members due back in about an hour, then it will start getting crowded, so…"

"I'll be gone in five minutes," I promised. The promise was to myself, but Tripp nodded his head and left my room without even glancing back. I didn't bother looking at the cash he'd put in my hand until he left. There was $2,500 in the wad he'd placed in my hand. Tripp didn't know it, but he'd just handed me a lifeline. It would cover a nice one-bedroom apartment until I could find a job to help cover the monthly expenses.

I glanced into the slightly warped mirror hanging on the back of the door to the bedroom I'd occupied for a little over a year. "Well, baby," I said to my still flat tummy, "it's just the two of us now. Don't worry, I'm going to take the best care of you. I promise."

I glanced back at the clubhouse one more time as I left in my beat-up old Chevy pickup truck. It was another worry I'd have for some time in the near future, because the thing had been on its last leg for a while. Kip promised to have a look at it for me, but never got around to it, thanks to club business and heartbreak over his recent breakup with Scout keeping him busy.

"I wish Tripp was the one," I lamented again as I blew out a quick breath and then left the clubhouse for the last time. There was no use in looking back in the rear-view mirror. My past would stay right where it was, and no one would miss another club girl who disappeared on a whim. Not even the man I'd stupidly grown feelings for.