Chapter Sixteen

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Jade

The biker clubhouse was very… normal.

Sure, there was a big fence, an oversized driveway full of motorcycles, cars, and one really fancy sports car.

But other than that, it was just, you know, a house.

A big one, sure, but a house nonetheless. There were even flowers in beds out front that had been lovingly cared for. Including some massive red, pink, and yellow hibiscus flowers.

I pulled in and parked, drawing in a steadying breath, knowing I was going to be lying to the face of a man I was really starting to like, and hating everything about that. Just not enough to delve into the truth.

I could tell by the look on his face that he didn’t believe my lie, but he was gracious enough to let me have it, to invite me into his world, into his life without an issue.

And, well, it was exactly what I needed.

His club brothers and the girls all also avoided bringing up my face and just let me have fun with them.

Between the tequila, the conversation, the pool games, the food, and the sex, I could almost forget anything had even happened to me.

As the tequila wore off later that night, though, the pain was really starting to come back. It was a little duller than when it had been fresh, but it was a constant reminder of why I was with Levee.

Not just to enjoy time with a man I cared for. But to get away from my life.

I’d snuck out of bed at the crack of dawn after fitful, restless sleep.

Levee was still out cold, his arm falling lazily off of me as I slid away.

I’d fallen into bed still wearing the yellow bikini from the night before, so I stole one of Levee’s shirts to slip over the bathing suit, then made my way downstairs.

There were the low sounds of TVs or music on in the other bedrooms, but the house was otherwise quiet.

“Fuck you, Benny,” Mackie grumbled at me as he plucked at the bars of his cage.

“Good morning to you too, Mackie,” I said as I moved over to his cage. “I don’t know if I’m supposed to do this, but you look unhappy,” I said, pushing the unlock button, then pulling the door open.

He swung out with it, climbing to the top with his feet and beak, then looking at me expectantly.

“Okay. Well, I don’t know a lot about parrot diets,” I told him, walking over toward the counter. “But I did see Kylo feed you bread last night,” I went on, getting a tortilla, then cutting one up in pieces to give to him.

“There you go,” I said as he took it in his giant foot and started to bite demure little pieces off. “You probably just suckered me into that, right?” I asked as the back door opened, making my heart shoot up into my throat.

My fears worried it might be one of the bad guys from my building. Logic quickly followed, making me think it was one of the bikers.

I was pleasantly surprised to see a woman instead.

A black-haired, tattooed beauty wearing all black, her keen eyes taking in my face.

“Hope you put a bullet in his head,” she said, exhaling hard.

“I walked into a wall,” I said, voice sounding robotic even to my own ears.

“Yeah? What kind of wall has five fingers?” she asked as she passed behind me, making my hand fly to the back of my neck. “Thought so. Is one of the guys handling it?” she asked, beelining for the coffee machine.

“Ah, no. It’s not… like that.”

“Are you a new club girl?” she asked as she started to make a fresh pot.

“What? No. I’m, uh, a friend of Levee.”

“A naked friend?” she asked, glancing down at my legs with a smirk. “Don’t tell me he fell for the walked into a wall thing,” she said, shaking her head. “I will have to lose a lot of respect for him if that’s the case. Which would be really unfortunate since he’s my man’s best friend.”

“Oh, you’re with Cato?” I asked.

“Yeah. Rynn,” she said, giving me a nod.

“I’m Jade,” I told her.

“Well, Jade, I know it’s none of my fucking business,” Rynn started, “but if you have shit going on, you can trust Levee to help you with it. And now, we will move on because I’m not going to harp on shit that you clearly don’t want to talk about. Instead, I’ll ask your opinion on Halloween,” she said.

“Halloween? Uh, I like all holidays. Little kids in costumes? Can you get any cuter? I’m actually excited to live in a building full of kids this year.”

“Jade?” Levee’s voice called, sounding still sleepy but a little panicked. Like he was worried I might have taken off without saying anything.

“She’s in here,” Rynn called back just as Levee came into the kitchen, his shirt around his neck, but still trying to get his arms in.

“Oh, hey,” he said, body relaxing as he looked at me.

“Hey,” I said, giving him a small smile. “I let out Mackie,” I told him, waving at the bird who was finished with his tortilla and now steadily preening his feathers.

“Yeah, whoever is up first usually does,” he said, looking awkward, like he wasn’t sure if he should come over and kiss me good morning or not.

I went ahead and made that choice for him, walking over, pressing a hand to the center of his chest, then leaning up to press a quick kiss to his lips.

He hooked an arm around me after as he turned to look at Rynn. “What are you doing here this early?”

“I was hoping to catch some breakfast,” she admitted, smiling. “But I even beat Eddie here.”

“Where’s Cato?”

“He was still in bed with the cats when I left,” Rynn admitted. “But I left a note. He’ll be around eventually. Did Eddie say what he was making this morning? I have my heart set on French toast.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s all you need to tell Eddie to get exactly that,” I admitted. “I let it slip that I love creamy mushroom stroganoff. And we’re now having that for lunch today. I mean, you know, if you don’t have other plans,” I was quick to add, not wanting to overstay my welcome. But also really, really wanting to stay.

“Got nothing going on today but hanging with you,” Levee said, fingers digging a little possessively into my hip.

“Well, looks like I’m late this morning,” Eddie said as he came in the back door, his arms full of grocery bags. “Rynn, you feeling French toast, aren’t you?”

“How’d you know?”

“‘Cause that’s the only time you’re here this early,” he said, giving her a smile.

“Can I ask for hash browns too, or am I being too greedy?”

“I could go for hash browns,” I said, getting a smile from Rynn.

“I can’t let my girls down,” Eddie said, puffing up at getting to cook us what we wanted. Which was maybe the sweetest thing I’d ever seen. “Besides, it was already in the plans,” he added, pulling a bag of potatoes out.

“Can we help you with anything?” I asked.

“Your girl cooks?” Eddie asked, looking at Levee.

“I’m not like you by any means,” I said. “But I keep myself fed.” Though the soup ingredients I’d bought over a week ago rotting in my crisper spoke of a different story right then.

“Love the offer, but I wanna cook for you. Go hang with Levee.”

“Yeah, come hang with Levee,” Levee said, eyes bright.

“I can help cook,” Rynn offered.

“You will sit and keep me company,” Eddie said, clearly not wanting her help for some reason, but being as nice as possible about it.

Levee pulled me back up the stairs with him, his hand not too subtly sliding under the tee to squeeze my nearly-bare ass.

I was one step in the bedroom when his lips were on mine. He kept his head tilted to the side, careful to avoid hitting my nose with his.

My hands started to roam as his tongue toyed with mine, his minty toothpaste mixing with the cinnamon-flavored one I’d found to use in the hall closet.

My fingers found their way under his shirt, feeling the warm skin of his back, then slipping down further to slip into his pants, finding his firm ass and giving it a squeeze.

A rumble moved through him at that as he backed me against the door, grinding his hard cock into me.

I lifted my leg, hooking it around his hip, then writhing myself against his hardness as his teeth nipped my lower lip hard enough to drag a moan out of me.

Levee’s hands slipped under my shirt, teasing up my front, and slipping under the cups of my bathing suit top, cupping my breasts.

The need and impatience grew. My hands yanked at his pants, pulling them down off of his hips, then reaching to wrap my hand around his cock.

Levee’s lips pulled from mine, burying in my neck as I started to work him with my hand.

After a moment, his own hand found its way into my panties, finding me already soaked for him.

His thumb moved up to my clit as two of his fingers slipped inside of me, thrusting lazily, driving me up achingly slowly.

“Levee,” I whimpered, desperate for more, for the fullness of him inside of me.

His approving sound vibrated into my chest as he pulled back to watch my face as he worked me for a moment.

Then his fingers were sliding out of me, and we were moving until we were at the side of the bed.

Reaching out, he pulled off my shirt. Then in two quick movements, my bikini top and bottoms were on the floor too.

I moved up onto the bed, shamelessly watching as he removed his shirt and pants, giving me a glorious view of his perfect body, of his thick, straining need.

My own need coiled tighter in my core as he reached down, stroking himself twice as he reached with his free hand into the drawer to grab a condom.

His gaze was on me as he slid it on, the heat in his eyes enough to set the sheets on fire.

I moved flat, then lifted one of my legs, placing my foot on his stomach.

He reached for it, pulling it up straight, and pressing a kiss to the inside of my ankle before placing my foot up on his shoulder.

When I placed the other foot on his stomach, he repeated the motion before reaching down for my hips, dragging me closer to the edge of the bed.

When he slid inside of me, it was leisurely. Like we had all the time in the world. Like my body wasn’t crying out for hard and fast to get me to the edge as quickly as possible.

But the intensity in Levee’s eyes had me holding back my pleading for that.

Instead, I sank into the moment, savored the growing intensity, the surprising emotion that grew, spread, made me almost feel weepy as he continued to rock inside of me, his gaze holding mine.

I slid my legs down from his shoulders, wrapping them around his waist, and reached up for him.

Following my silent instructions, he lowered down on top of me, letting me pull and hold him close.

His lips found mine as we moved together.

The journey may have been slower, but the connection made it all the sweeter as, eventually, my moans started to grow as Levee pushed me right to that edge.

He pulled back as my walls tightened around him, as my body tensed, watching me as the orgasm crested. A slow, deep throbbing pleasure that spread until it overtook me completely.

Levee kept moving through it, dragging it out, even leaning down to press a kiss to the edge of my eye where a single tear slid free before he surged deep and came with me.

He rolled off of me afterward, took care of the condom, then reached to pull me up onto his chest, his arms going around me, keeping me there. As if I had any intention of moving.

“I’m glad you didn’t leave,” he said, breaking a long, but pleasant, silence as his fingers grazed lazily up and down my spine and mine traced across a scar on his arm.

“Me too,” I agreed. Leaving off the fact that I never wanted to leave, that I wanted to stay right here like this forever.

“You have to at least hang ’til lunch,” he said.

“I’m not missing out on that mushroom stroganoff,” I assured him.

“He’ll probably make tacos for dinner too,” Levee said.

I pushed up, looking down at him. “Is that an invitation?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said. No hesitation. “In fact, I feel like you should stay the night.”

“Okay,” I agreed, snuggling back down on his chest.

I couldn’t push it past that.

The goldfish weren’t exactly high-maintenance pets, but they did need to eat. They were older, more sedentary fish, so they didn’t need to eat twice or three times a day like they used to when they were young and active. And I’d fed them before the gallery.

So if I stayed just one more night, they would only be a little late for a meal. I would just make sure to get moving early in the morning.

That was probably for the best anyway, since going back to my apartment in the broad daylight felt a lot safer than going back at night.

“Then I think we should meet up at your place sometime this week. Order in some food. I can do some nude poses for you,” he teased, getting a little laugh out of me.

“That sounds like a good idea,” I agreed.

Maybe this was exactly what I needed. To get a damn life. To stop hyper fixating on the life, or death, of a neighbor I didn’t even know.

If I stopped looking into it, maybe the threats would stop too.

That, at least, was a shred of hope to cling to, right?

There was a knock at the door a few minutes later, then Rynn’s voice calling through the door, “If you guys are done fucking, the food is done.”

A little giggle bubbled up and burst out of me as I rolled off of Levee, smiling as he smirked down at me, realizing I hadn’t been this carefree, this happy, in what felt like ages.

“Better go get some hash browns before she eats them all,” Levee said, climbing off of the bed.

He kept his back to me as he found and slid on his pants, and I enjoyed the view of his ass for a second before unfolding and finding my bikini and his tee again, my heart set on a little swim again after breakfast.

“You have to let me meet the tortoise today too,” I reminded him as we made our way down to the kitchen.

“You can collect some flowers and feed him if you want.”

“Flowers?” I asked.

“He eats most of the ones we have growing around here. That’s really the only reason anyone tends to the gardens. To feed him.”

“He eats the hibiscus?” I asked.

“His favorite,” Levee confirmed as we made it into the kitchen. “York, wait,” he called, eyeing the man reaching for a big tray. “Jade wants to feed him after breakfast.”

York nodded, reaching instead for a plate and starting to load it up with French toast, scrambled eggs, hash browns, and sausage.

Rynn, sitting with her legs draped over the man who had to be Cato, was already plowing through her mound of French toast.

Coast was sitting with a full plate, but cradling his coffee like a lifeline. He looked hungover and exhausted. And why wouldn’t he be? I was pretty sure he brought three girls to his bed the night before.

At the end of the table, Kylo was holding a piece of French toast up toward Mackie, who took it and started to eat with gusto.

Eddie was singing along to something on the radio, the Spanish not familiar to me, but it sounded happy, as he beamed at everyone eating the food he’d lovingly prepared.

It was all so… domestic.

I glanced over at Levee, who was talking to Cato, and I was struck with how they’d both grown up in my building, how they’d both come from rough upbringings with no familial support. And, somehow, they found their way to this.

It was an unconventional one, sure, but there was no denying that this was absolutely a family.

I had my own family. I loved them dearly. But I still found myself longing to be a real fixture in this one as well.

It was too early for thoughts like that, for hopes that big.

But as Coast said something that made Levee throw his head back and laugh, there was this tightening sensation in my chest that said that while this might be new, my heart was already rushing forward into those hopes.

I grabbed a notepad on the counter that seemed to mostly be a running grocery list for Eddie, drawing the quick, sweeping lines of the room, the faces, trying to capture them all before they got up.

“Wow,” a voice said, interrupting my concentration, making me jolt and look up to find most of my subjects had started to move around. And that a few other people had shown up.

Including the woman at my side with electric-blue hair.

“Any chance you do family portraits?” she asked, looking from the sketch to the people gathered around.

“Yes, definitely,” I said, giving her a smile. “For your family?” I asked.

“Yeah, though I think getting my husband to actually sit for it would be a nightmare,” she admitted.

“This is Harmon,” Levee said, rubbing a hand across my shoulders. “She’s our president, Huck’s, wife.”

“Well, luckily for Huck, I can do it off of a portrait if you have one you like.”

“Hey, why don’t I have a face?” Levee asked as he looked down at my sketch.

“Because I don’t need a subject to draw your face,” I admitted. Or any other part of his body, for that matter. I had a sudden urge to draw his naked backside. Those thick muscles of his shoulders, the slope downward toward his waist. The firm, high ass. The trunk-like thighs.

“Aw,” Harmon said, giving us a knowing smile. “Levee can hook me up with contact information?” Harmon asked, going back to loading up several plates with breakfast. For her kids, I assumed.

“He can,” I confirmed, giving her a smile.

“Then I will be in touch in a day or two,” she said, giving me a smile before heading out.

“The club should commission you to do a full group painting,” Levee said, leaning down to press a kiss to my neck.

“I’d do it for free,” I said, smiling as Kylo slipped Mackie one last treat before making his way out of the room as Coast pulled one of the club girls into his lap, then reached up to rub her temples as everything about her face said she had a hangover from hell.

“I would just need to meet everyone first,” I added.

“In due time,” Levee said, making my belly wobble. “Ready to go feed the tortoise?” he asked.

“Oh, yes,” I beamed, excited at the prospect.

By the time we finished gathering flowers to place with the greens, then fed and watched the massive Sulcata tortoise eat, and then made our way back to the kitchen, the mess had been cleaned up, everyone was gone, and someone had pinned my sketch to the fridge. Right there along with little kid crayon sketches.

God, I never wanted to leave.