~ ~ ~
I opened the door and hurried to shut it behind me. Tripp splashed water on his face and turned, looking surprised.
I locked the door and walked right to him. My hands went for his jeans, grabbing at his belt, opening it. I’d officially lost my damn mind. I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Christ,” Tripp whispered. He grabbed at my hips, pushing me back. “What are you doing here?”
“Shut up,” I said. “I can’t take it anymore. They fucking set you up out there, Tripp.”
“I know, darling,” he said. He touched my face with his bloody hand. “I know. It’s okay. I knew it was coming. Sometimes in life you have to take a hit or two.”
I swallowed hard.
This guy wasn’t just hot, he was romantic. Edgy, gritty, sure, but behind those dark and wild eyes, there was a man with a big heart.
I lifted my right hand to his face and rubbed at the corner of his lip. I touched his cut. “Does it hurt?”
“Everything hurts,” Tripp said. “You just have to accept the pain. Move on. Let go.”
I leaned forward and pressed my lips to the cut. I kissed once, twice, inched my lips to the left so our lips pressed together. I opened my mouth, wanting to taste his tongue again. Tripp kissed me back, setting my body on fire.
My other hand slipped into his open jeans.
As if the guy couldn’t get any sexier, he wasn’t wearing anything but jeans.
My fingertips felt a thatch of hair and then the thick root of his dick. I slipped my palm down along his shaft, trying to find the head of his cock. It seemed like I never would, that he was forever long. When my fingertips felt his thick and fleshy tip, I turned my hand and curled my fingers. I jerked him, my hand shaking with anticipation, my mind racing, body aching, already wondering how he was going to fit inside me.
Tripp groaned as we kissed. I slipped my hand down his face to his chest. I traced the lines of muscle, all the way down to his stomach. The ripples of his abs were hard ridges. No wonder the guy could take a punch and just keep going. He was built to fight.
With his cock in my hand… I knew he was also built to fuck.
He was against the sink, his hands at my waist, struggling between holding me close and pushing me away.
He broke the kiss, my mouth open, my tongue still searching for his mouth.
“Darling,” he whispered. “You don’t know what it’s like after a fight.” He pushed me away a little. “The fucking anger. The fucking rage. My blood pumping a million times over.”
I nodded. I was burning from the inside out. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” Tripp said. His lip snarled at me. “But when I touch you, it’s ten times that feeling. If you don’t take your hand off my dick…”
I squeezed tighter at him. My other hand moved from his stomach to his jeans and pushed them down. His cock popped free and I ran my fingertips down his shaft.
Tripp gritted his teeth and brought his hands to the front of my pants.
Before I knew it… it was all happening.
Tripp opened my pants and pushed them down, panties too. Down to my knees and he stepped forward, tearing them down to my ankles. I hurried to step out of them, fighting with damn shoes, trying my best not to look like a fool.
His hands came up my legs and around to my ass. He squeezed tight and lifted me. I threw my legs around his body and was eye level with him. We started to kiss. The hottest and sloppiest kiss of my entire life. Our tongues fought, battling, rolling back and forth. I groaned into his mouth and he growled back at me.
Tripp slowly turned, putting me against the sink.
He kissed down my neck and ran his teeth along the other side of my neck.
His right hand moved between our bodies and he touched between my legs. His thick fingers touched my pussy, opening me. Two fingers darted inside and he groaned.
“Fuck, darling,” he said. “You’re so tight for me.”
“Open me then,” I said. I was desperate. I couldn’t remember being so turned on before. “Hurry. Now, Tripp. Please.”
He grinned.
He enjoyed me begging.
His fingers left my body and the feel was replaced by his cock. When he touched me, I gasped. I lost my breath, breaking our kiss, looking down. I watched his cock press at me, tearing me open, filling me in a way I knew never existed.
Just halfway inside me, I was holding onto his shirt for dear life, seeking relief. But I wanted more. My body craved more. Everything about it was so fucking wrong. Being in the bathroom in the clubhouse of the Red Aces MC. Tripp was supposed to be protecting me. It was all too risky, but so well worth it.
Tripp pulled back and then thrust at me, burying deep inside me.
I felt a tearing feeling that sent a rush of pain. I threw my head back, crying out, the pain quickly becoming a warm pleasure. My head smacked the mirror with a hard thud. I felt my hair pull a little and knew we had broken the mirror.
Seven years bad luck? If it was with Tripp and his cock, it was worth it.
Tripp started to pump at me, fucking me hard, making my body accept him as fast as he wanted to go.
It felt so good. There was so much pressure. Each time I thought my insides were going to explode there was a fresh wave of pleasure to overtake the pressure and pain. My legs were wrapped tight around Tripp’s body, my ankles locked. I held his shirt at the sides, shaking as I pulled, wanting him more and more.
Our mouths and tongue flirted, randomly touching as we breathed heavy at each other. Our eyes were open, staring at each other. I couldn’t remember ever feeling so controlled before. Just staring in his eyes as he fucked me… it was like it was changing me.
His thrusts grew harder and deeper. He grunted each time he came forward, filling me. I licked at his top lip, my bottom lip quivering. His mouth then came over my bottom lip, sucking for a second, then overtaking my mouth completely. I hurried to move a hand to the back of his head.
We kissed and kissed as he sped up. I could actually feel his cock getting thicker, ready to let go. I dug my ankles into his back, pulling, wanting it. His tongue sought out my neck again, going down to the top of my shirt. Yeah, maybe this wasn’t the romantic, making love dream that I had locked somewhere in the back of my mind.
But what was wrong with a good, hard fuck?
Nothing.
I looked down and forced Tripp to kiss me again. His tongue explored my mouth, his mouth opening wider as he groaned. His cock started to pulse, releasing as he thrust deep and held there. His hands grabbed my ass, his fingers digging so tight, it hurt. Yet again, another good hurt.
His lower half flexed hard with each push and release of his cock. He filled me, leaving me almost breathless as our kiss broke for the last time. My mouth was open, my body bouncing gently with each thrust he offered, taking good care of my insides. I couldn’t tell where my own pleasure began and ended. It was like a constant orgasm.
Tripp slowed and finally stopped. He was still inside me. His hands opened and ran up my body to my face. I was used to it being long over by now. Never anything that lingered like this. Never anything that felt like it could have meaning.
“Fuck, darling,” Tripp said. “We’re in deep shit. Such deep, deep shit.”
“I know. It’s worth it. Right?”
Tripp gently kissed me. “Come on, we have to get moving.”
He pulled from me with a warm gush that left my body paralyzed. I gripped the edge of the sink as my lower half tingled. It took me a good minute to regain composure and get dressed.
When I turned around, sure enough, the mirror was broken.
Whoops.
Tripp put his hand to my lower back and opened the bathroom door.
Stoney stood there, arms crossed. “Finished?”
“Jesus,” I said.
Stoney nodded to Tripp. “You and I need to have a talk. Right now.”
15.
(Tripp)
/> We were outside.
The clubhouse was behind us, lots of noise and partying going on inside. My car was parked at the end of the lot, Winter waiting there. As long as I could see her, I felt comfortable.
I made fists and looked at my knuckles. Freshly cut, damp with blood.
A little regret surged through my body.
I shouldn’t have fucked Winter. I mean, realistically it did no good for anyone in any situation. Except it felt really good. And she really liked it. She begged for it.
The biggest problem?
I wanted to do it again. And again. And again.
Stoney sat next to me, smoking a cigar and drinking a bottle of whiskey. He offered it to me and I shook my head. I had to drive. I had to protect Winter. Christ, what was I thinking? I could barely protect her from myself.
Even if she had been the one to burst into the bathroom and come after me. I should have kept her at arm’s length. Shit, I could have just touched her again. Gotten her off and kept her away from me.
“Hope there’s no hard feelings,” Stoney finally spoke. “I mean, what happened there.”
“Your guys holding me and letting Harlan get a couple shots. It’s good. I get it. Pride.”
“Yeah.”
“My guys are rattled,” Stoney said. “Hard times for the MC. I don’t want to send them out there starting wars. Then you show up and have control. We don’t share kindly.”
I looked at Stoney. “Winter?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “She should have been kept close to the club. I thought Aldo was going to send down some thugs to guard her door. Nothing else. Give me a chance to regroup. You have to be careful where you’re stepping now, Tripp. You’re in deep water.”
“I know how to swim,” I said.
Stoney laughed. “You’d do great in a leather cut, my friend.”
“I’m nobody’s bitch.”
“Except Aldo’s.”
I gritted my teeth. “Yeah. I guess.”
“Look, I’m going to tell you something. Do what you want with it.”
“Okay.”
“There’s a crew up north called Skull X. They’re real bad guys.”
“There’s bad guys everywhere.”
“No,” Stoney said. “These are… bad guys. Take anything you think about bad people and double it, easily. They can’t be controlled, just contained.”
“You’re telling me this why?”
Stoney sucked on his cigar. He blew out smoke. “They took down Rocky.”
“You know this?”
“Yeah.”
“How long have you known this?”
“Since it happened,” Stoney said.
“And you don’t have your boys up there tearing them apart?”
“That’s not how they work,” Stoney said. “If we rolled up, they’d destroy us. They’re powerful. They’re not as much of a MC as they are an underground fighting ring. They see everything. They know everything. Far beyond anything I could imagine.”
“So you’re afraid of these guys,” I said.
“Not a thing I like to admit, Tripp. I’m telling you because I appreciate your guts. You’ve got some serious balls. And if you know what you’re against… I don’t know, maybe Aldo…”
I stood up and turned to face Stoney. “You expect me to ask Aldo to help you? Fuck you, Stoney. You want help, then ask. If you know who did this, then why am I here? If they wanted Rocky, they got him. Why bother with Winter?”
Stoney took his cigar out of his mouth and rolled it between his fingers. “You know what they’d do to her? I mean, I have no love for Winter. She’s an old lady. A dime a dozen, Tripp. But if Skull X got her.” He shook his head. “I thought if Aldo sent some muscle, it could end a little easier. But one guy? That won’t cut it.”
I backed up a little. “Try me then. I’m here to protect her and that’s what I’m going to do. You waited until now to tell me this? After her car was rigged with a bomb?”
“It wasn’t Skull X,” Stoney said. “And it wasn’t anything that would have killed her.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I had my guys do it,” Stoney admitted. “Thought if I rattled you enough, Aldo would send more help.”
“You fucking put her life in danger…”
I moved at Stoney and he pulled out a gun. “Deep water, Tripp. Deep fucking water. I’m the President of the Red Aces MC. That might not mean much to you, but just know, in this clubhouse, this compound, there are eyes watching. You raise a fist at me, you’ll eat a bullet.”
I faced Stoney and his gun. I wasn’t afraid of dying. But I was afraid of leaving Winter alone. With Stoney. With the Red Aces. And with whatever the hell the Skull X guys were.
“Think about what you just said to me,” I said.
“You think about what I just said to you,” Stoney said. He stood up and tucked his gun away. He stuck his cigar in his mouth and said in a choppy voice, “Now take Winter and get the fuck out of here. I’ve said more than enough.”
I turned and started to walk away.
“Tripp,” Stoney’s voice yelled.
I looked back. “Yeah?”
“Not many people get to walk out of here twice standing. Consider yourself lucky.”
The truth of it?
I only considered myself lucky when I looked at Winter.
16.
(Winter)
I was sick of the hideout motel life.
Of course, Tripp slept on the floor again. After all we’d been through he still chose the floor over the bed. Wild bathroom sex aside, it didn’t make sense that he wouldn’t climb into bed with me.
He got more food, more beer, and another day passed by.
It was close to dusk when I stood on the balcony, looking out at the water yet again. It was tiresome to watch people come and go. Normal people with normal lives. Even if they didn’t like their lives completely, they had some kind of freedom.
Tripp wouldn’t tell me what he and Stoney talked about after the fight, but it bothered him. He wasn’t the same. He was taken back, angry, and he seemed paranoid.
I turned just in time to catch him walking from the bathroom in nothing but a white towel that covered up just the lower half of his body. He was beautiful. In my life, I’d never seen a man put together like Tripp. Even clean, he had a grungy look to him. And it drove me wild.
I chose looking at him over looking at the beach. Any sane woman would.
He grabbed jeans and went back into the bathroom.
Just jeans.
A few seconds later he came back out in his jeans. He grabbed a t-shirt and walked to the door.
“Food?” he asked.
“Beach.”
“What?”
“You said we could go for a walk.”
“Ah, darling,” he said. “I don’t know.”
“Tripp, please. I’m almost to the point that I’d rather get out there and get shot than hide out here any longer. This doesn’t make any sense to me.”
“You don’t get it,” Tripp said. “What’s out there.”
“Then tell me. Tell me what happened with Stoney. What I should be…”
A ball was suddenly in my throat. I had no idea why, but I was ready to burst into tears. I lowered my head and shook it.
A second later arms were around my body. Tripp’s clean, manly smell overtook my nose and it made me want to cry even more. I put my hands around his body and gripped his back. I dug into his muscles.
“Hey, it’s going to be okay,” he said. “I… I promise you, Winter. It’s going to be okay. Let me figure something out.”
I slowly looked up at him. “Am I really in danger?”
Tripp gritted his teeth. “At first, I wasn’t sure what the point was. But now? Yeah. You’re in trouble. But not when I’m with you, okay?” He wiped a tear off my cheek. “I’m here.”
“Can we go for a walk on the beach?”
“Ye
ah. Let’s go.”
I just wanted to feel normal. I just wanted to hold his hand, open my heart a little more.
But what I had hidden… no. I couldn’t even think about it.