16.

E LIZABETH

I woke up when the blanket moved over my shoulders and then sighed when I felt Dub’s cool chest hit my back.

“Did the guys get settled in?” I asked without opening my eyes.

“They did.”

“Do they still insist they’ll be fine sleeping outside?”

Dub chuckled before he said, “Two of them didn’t have much choice since that’s where they passed out after the last round of tequila shots.”

“And the others?”

“Well, your friends from Rojo went back to wherever they’re staying.” Dub felt me tense and was quick to say, “Two beautiful women showed up in big black SUVs and swept them away as if they were royalty.”

I laughed softly before I asked, “How much did they grumble about having to leave their bikes here?”

“Not nearly as much as the women grumbled about having to get out of bed to come pick up a group of men who were too drunk to ride.”

“Do you know which women came to get them?”

“One was named Kim and the other was a woman named Jenna.”

“Clem and Fain’s wives. Did you know that Fain is Sin and Freya’s brother?”

“I realized that just from how much he resembles Thorn and Wrath.”

“They do look alike.”

“Fain called them to come over, and Rooster joked that we were having a full Viking invasion in the middle of Colorado.”

“It’s the hair.”

“A few of the other guys who weren’t drinking rode back with the SUVs.”

“Daughtry and Bear?”

“There was one named Tucker too. He showed up with the other Tempest brothers after you went to bed.”

“I was tired,” I said with a yawn.

“I figured you just wanted to let the menfolk have some time to burp and scratch while we bonded over engine talk.”

“That too.”

“One more thing to add to the list of your perfect woman attributes.”

“Is that so? What else is on the list?”

Dub’s hand moved up my side and cupped my breast. As he ran his thumb back and forth over my nipple, he said, “This is one, and there’s a duplicate next to it.”

I couldn’t help but wiggle my naked ass against his erection because I knew exactly what reaction that would get, but I still asked, “Anything else on the list?”

Dub’s hand trailed over my stomach, one of my least favorite attributes, and rested between my legs. He kissed my shoulder and moved his lips up my neck until they were touching my ear when he said, “I have to say this is one of my favorite physical attributes of yours.”

“I thought you liked my ass.”

“Oh, I enjoy looking at that, but I love licking this,” Dub said as he used the pad of his finger to gently rub my clit. As he slowly pushed a finger deep inside me, he said, “And sinking my cock deep into this piece of heaven.”

“Are there men sleeping in my house?”

“Why do you ask?”

“I’m just wondering how quiet I need to be.”

“Okie is asleep on the couch, Sarge is in the recliner, and Rooster took the guest room.

“Dice and Trout were sleeping out in the yard.”

“You were serious? You can’t leave them . . .”

“Nah. Bear and Tucker helped me drag them inside so they’re on the floor in the hallway.”

“My home has become a biker haven, so I guess I should make sure I’m quiet.”

“I’m going to take that as a personal challenge,” Dub promised as he slowly pulled his fingers out of me and then lifted my leg up and held it there. His cock slid between my legs, rubbing back and forth against my clit a few times before he let out a frustrated groan. “Help me out, babe.”

“I like what you’re doing,” I mumbled, but I moved my hand down between my legs to grasp him anyway. After a few strokes, which I made sure helped rub the head of his cock against me, I notched him at my entrance. I pressed the heel of my palm against my clit as I used my fingers to circle his dick as he slowly pushed into me. I hissed at the burn his thick cock caused as my body stretched to adjust to him. Even after a month together, I was still surprised at how full he made me feel.

“I could fuck you for hours just like this,” Dub mumbled as he slowly pulled out and then pushed in again.

I squeezed him with my inner muscles and challenged, “We’ll see how long you can last.”

“You think I’ll go before you?”

I gave a nonchalant shrug and said, “Maybe.”

“Oh, hell no.” Dub suddenly pushed up with his free arm and straddled my lower leg, giving him a much deeper angle that touched all the right spots. When he started moving, I knew there was no chance I’d be able to hold out longer than him. Especially when he said, “Challenge accepted.”

◆◆◆

DUB

I woke up to the tantalizing smell of bacon and opened my eyes when I reached over and only found cold sheets. Of course Elizabeth wouldn’t stay in bed and have that leisurely morning sex I loved so much when she had a house full of people to take care of. I knew that she was in her element, and I didn’t fault her for that. Instead, I got up and showered.

I knew we’d be riding, so I put on my boots and jeans, but when I sorted through the duffle bag I’d been using, I couldn’t find a clean shirt. I happened to look up and caught sight of one of my T-shirts hanging in the closet, so I walked over and was surprised to find all of my T-shirts hanging on the right side of Elizabeth’s closet.

I glanced over at the corner next to my side of the bed where I’d been piling my dirty clothes and found it empty. I shook my head when I realized that she’d been hard at work, and I’d never even noticed. I opened the top drawer of the dresser and found a myriad of scarves and beanies, but when I opened the second drawer, I found all of my underwear neatly folded next to my socks that were matched and folded in pairs.

“That woman is spoiling me,” I muttered as I pulled a shirt off its hanger. I put it on as I walked around the bed but stopped right before I got to the doorway. I turned around and looked at the bed - which was always perfectly made when we crawled into it at night. Right now, it was a tangled mess after last night’s antics, and I knew I couldn’t leave it that way because that would just be one more thing on Elizabeth’s to-do list.

Once I’d made the bed and arranged the colorful pillows she had to remove every night before we laid down, I left the bedroom and followed the tantalizing smells toward the kitchen where I heard my friends laughing.

Elizabeth’s voice broke through their laughter when she said, “I swear the man should be an investigator or something. Every time I lose my 10mm, he finds it almost instantly. You know those things disappear like mist.”

“A 10mm is like scissors. You can never find them when you need them,” Sarge agreed. “I wonder how he finds them so easily.”

“Why don’t you just get one out of the box out there?” Rooster asked.

“What box?”

“There’s an Amazon box full of 10mms on the shelf near the doorway. I was glad I found it because Sarge lost one while we were working, and I replaced it with one from the box.”

“Maybe he puts them up there when he finds them so he can easily grab one while I rant and rave about losing the latest one I bought.” Elizabeth sensed me in the doorway and turned to smile at me. “Good morning, handsome. Are you hungry?”

“Always,” I said with a grin as I made my way over to her. I pulled her into my arms and laid a long kiss on her lips before I hugged her tightly and then let her get back to cooking. I looked at my friends and smiled before I said, “Morning, ladies. How’d you sleep?”

“Hey! Do you put the sockets you find in a box out in the garage?”

“No.”

“But they said there’s a box of them out there and . . .”

“They’re all in plastic baggies like they’re new,” Okie tattled.

“How did . . . Where did they . . .” When I pulled my hand out of my pocket and handed her a shiny 10mm socket, Elizabeth gasped. “You keep one in your pocket?”

“I carry it around with me because you’ll inevitably misplace yours.”

“I don’t misplace it. There’s a little garage fairy that eats them to restock her magical powers.”

Sarge burst out laughing before he said, “I always thought there was some sort of magnetic black hole that beamed them up through my skylight, but the fairy theory sounds plausible too.”

“You have a skylight in your garage?”

“My garage doesn’t have walls yet, but I’m working on it,” Sarge explained.

“Hold on a minute. You said the box of sockets was from Amazon?” Elizabeth asked Okie as she flipped the pancakes on the electric griddle in front of her. When Okie nodded, she asked, “Did you buy a box of sockets for me?”

When I nodded, Rooster laughed. “Dude, that’s gotta be the best gift you can give a mechanic. Good job.”

“I’m not a mechanic,” Elizabeth argued as she pulled clean plates out of the cabinet. As she turned to pass them out to the men seated around the island, she said, “I’m just learning.”

“The guys from Texas told us that you bought that truck as a shell from a junkyard and have done all the work yourself. As far as I’m concerned, that makes you a mechanic,” Dice argued.

“What made you decide to learn to work on engines?” Trout asked conversationally as he walked over to refill his coffee mug.

Elizabeth cleared her throat and then there was an awkward silence before she answered, “When I was younger, I was staying at a cabin out in the woods and didn’t have a working vehicle to . . . um . . . go into town, but there was a broken-down car in this shed at the edge of the property. I wanted more than anything to get it in working condition so I could use it, but I didn’t know the first thing about engines, so there was nothing I could do.”

“Well, if you’re ever stranded again, you’ll be able to fix whatever’s close by,” Sarge assured her, somehow sensing her discomfort. Suddenly, he changed the subject and asked, “So, what kind of party is this going to be today?”

“Today? Oh! We’ve got plans to go into . . .”

“Your friends invited them to the party,” I interrupted.

“If it’s okay with you, we thought we’d camp out here for a day or two before we get back on the road. The rally doesn’t start until the first of the month, so we’ll have plenty of time to get there,” Rooster explained.

“We’ll set up outside so we don’t take up too much space,” Sarge assured her.

“Nonsense. You’ll stay here. There’s a pull-out couch in my office, a bunk in the kennel, and the girls can stay in our room so you can use their bedrooms. That still leaves whoever draws the short straw on the couch, but I’m sure if I ask around I can find someone with a blow-up mattress or . . .”

“We’ve all slept in much more uncomfortable places than your puffy couch, sweetheart,” Trout assured her. “That thing looks like a cloud.”

“Feels like one,” Okie said knowingly. “Her couch is more comfortable than my bed at home.”

“It’s settled then. You’ll stay until you’re ready to go, and I expect to see you again on your way back home.”

“Yes, ma’am. We’ll make sure of it,” Sarge assured her with a mock salute.

Elizabeth smiled as she stacked the pancakes onto her spatula and then set them on the serving plate next to the griddle. “Good.”

◆◆◆

“How’s our girl doing?”

I looked over my shoulder and saw Elizabeth’s friend Bear. He was an older man who reminded me a lot of the television character Grizzly Adams, although I could tell just by the few conversations we’d had that looks were the only thing alike about the two.

“She seems to be in her element,” I admitted. “When I met her, I thought she was a loner. Turns out that all of her friends just live in another state.”

“Looks like she’s made a few new ones from your club,” Bear said as he sat down next to me on the bench I’d chosen due to it being in the shade and out of the middle of the party chaos.

“She won them over the second she offered to let them use her tools and garage to work on Sarge’s bike. Then they saw the garage and her collection of tools and gadgets and drew straws on which one got to try and kill me first to see if they could win a chance with her.”

“She might just kill them right back,” Bear said with a deep laugh. “That girl’s a fighter, but she’s careful too.”

“I’ve noticed.”

“I heard you’re bringing trouble to her door.”

“I didn’t plan on it, but she insists she wants to be right in the middle, watching out for Laura and Mary.”

“And you’re going to watch out for her?”

“Of course.”

“Even if that means going against your own mother?”

“Let’s just say I’d sell my mother for whatever chewing gum you can find stuck under this bench.”

Bear laughed again before he ran his hand down his long beard. “Sounds like your priorities are in line then.”

“She said you taught her to survive in the forest.”

“I taught her the basics, and then once her teeth were set in the task, there was no stopping her. She tends to be like that with things that interest her.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah. She jumps in feet first and swims like an Olympian. Look at what she’s interested in - working on that damn truck of hers, teaching those dogs to behave better than most humans . . .”

“Me and my sisters,” I interrupted.

“Seems so.” We were both quiet for a few minutes, but then I felt Bear staring at me, so I turned to look at him. “If you need a place to hide those girls, I’ve got a canyon that will work. There’s not a soul that will be able to uproot them from it.”

“That’s a very generous offer, and I might take you up on it if I can’t get my mother to settle on a price.”

“A price?”

“To give me legal custody of the girls. Permanently.”

“Just so you know, son, there’s a lot of wildlife in my canyon, and most of them aren’t very discerning about what they eat. If you ever have a snack you want to drop off for them, just give me a call.”

“Sounds like you’re about as fond of my mother as I am.”

“I had a mother who gave her life trying to save mine. Every child deserves love like that.”

“I can tell that’s exactly what they’ll get with Elizabeth.”

“Damn right, they will.”