Elvira dipped her head to whisper to Asher, “Mommy’s silly.”
Tess joined our party at this juncture, sitting at my feet on the bench seat of the picnic table.
“Hey girls,” she greeted.
She got greetings back from Gwen and Elvira with Elvira waving Asher’s little baby hand at her for good measure.
“Thanks for bringing that cake. It was awesome,” I told her.
“No problem,” she murmured, smiling at me.
“Yeah, well, you would know,” Elvira muttered. “Others of us not fast enough or experienced enough with the brethren didn’t get our asses in there to get our piece before the bikers fell on that shit like vultures. You would think those scary biker dudes never had a slice of cake in their lives. By the time I got there, not a crumb left. Not even a swipe of frosting on the plate.” She looked at Tess. “Means you owe me, girl.”
“Honey, I own two bakeries. You can walk in any time and get your fix,” Tess replied.
“Freebie?” Elvira asked.
“You’re the one who always insists on paying,” Tess said by way of answer.
“Well, you got mini-hot guys to raise. I don’t want to be the one who keeps you from keepin’ them clothed. ‘Specially now, seein’ as they’re of the datin’ age.”
Tess closed her eyes in despair at this thought and I knew why. Joel was already dating and Tess was already living her version of the threat of fights, blood, drunkenness, puke and pregnancy scares.
Elvira’s eyes drifted to the congregation in the direction of Joel and Rex who were both standing with Hawk, my Uncle Marsh and Aunt Bette, the visit of the latter two being why we were throwing this barbeque. “Shee-it, they’re growin’ like weeds. I reckon both ‘a them are gonna be taller than their Daddy. And it’s stamped all over them they’re gonna be just as hot.”
“Tell me about it,” Tess murmured, her eyes also on her boys.
I watched Brock walk to that particular huddle and when he got there, he lifted both hands, wrapped them around the backs of both his boys’ necks and, I suspected, he gave them a squeeze before he dropped his hands. After this move, both boys shifted slightly closer to their Dad, not close-close, but the invisible bond had tightened.
Then I watched Brock’s eyes scan the crowd and find Tess. He gave her a sexy smile before he turned away and gave his full attention to the huddle.
Watching this, my belly warmed.
Tack was a good Dad, a good man and a great husband.
I had that, what Tess had. And my kid would have that, what Brock gave his boys.
And I liked that.
Then it penetrated that something was happening. Bikers were moving, a word was drifting through then all the males were shifting toward the open tarmac. I spied Mitch carrying one of those big, long baseball bags, Bud striding beside him, Leo, Camille’s husband, next to Bud, Derek, LaTanya’s boyfriend, next to Mitch.
Holy crap.
Were bikers going to play a game of baseball?
Mara came in from the opposite side to where I was looking, sat on the bench seat by Elvira’s fuck-me shoes as her girl Billie climbed up behind her, got on her knees on the table and peered over Elvira’s shoulder to coo at Asher. At the same Tess’s best friend Martha came to stand beside Gwen.
“Mitch and Bud have struck up a game of baseball,” Mara announced and she smiled up at Gwen, “Not a surprise.”
Holy crap!
I stared as the men congregated.
Bikers were going to play a game of baseball.
“Does Bud sleep with a mitt on his hand?” Tess asked Mara.
“Close enough,” Mara answered.
I watched Mitch turn his head from the huddle and look toward Mara. Then I watched as he gave her a sexy grin too.
Well, I supposed if commandos and police detectives could show at a biker barbeque then bikers could play baseball.
My eyes drifted from Mitch to Brock to Hawk to Tack.
In the beginning, the woman posse took me under their wing.
But now, we were all family. And this wasn’t because Elvira was rabidly friendly.
No, it was because Hawk, Brock and Mitch stormed that house at Tack’s side. This meant, to Tack, they were different kinds of brothers. Not of blood. Not of the cut. But that bond was unshakable all the same.
It was on the more than occasional basis that I was out shopping, having coffee, drinks or dinner with one, several or all of the girls.
It was only occasional but not unheard of that Hawk, Brock and/or Mitch was sitting in the Compound having a beer.
Tack had made his statement. There was no going back now.
Not that I would want to.
Aunt Bette, Meredith, Roberta, Tabby, LaTanya, Tracy and Camille joined our klatch as did Sheila, Mitzi and the other old ladies.
“I take it this is the cheering section,” Aunt Bette noted.
“Seems to be,” Martha murmured.
“Right, before we gotta figure out who we’re cheering for, how ‘bout we get the important stuff outta the way?” Elvira suggested, I looked to her to see her eyes on me and she asked, “When you due?”
My body locked.
“Pardon?”
“Girl,” she said softly, “you’re surrounded by your girls. Do not think that contentment in your eyes is lost on us. The sun is shining. The food is good. The vibe is happy. But that look on your face don’t say sun, food and good company. It also don’t say you got yourself some. It says something a whole lot bigger. Make that vibe happier. When you due?”
I felt eyes hitting me from all around, primarily Aunt Bette’s and Tabby’s.
But Elvira was wrong. I had gotten myself some. I didn’t share that primarily because of Aunt Bette and Tabby.
Not surprisingly, Aunt Bette and Uncle Marsh had outwardly accepted Tack, his kids and my biker babe lifestyle. Though, considering shortly after I entered that world I’d been kidnapped and, later, stabbed five times, I didn’t know what they thought of it.
Nor did I know what they’d think of this added evidence that I was happily mired deep in it.
Still, because Elvira was nosy but she also was right, my girls were around me and outside of Tack (and his badass brothers) there was no safer place to be, I answered, “January.”
“Yee ha!” Elvira hooted, Asher jumping in her arms then his rosy baby lips gave a baby smile as all the women surrounding me cheered, whooped and I got hug after hug.
Tabby’s included her body giving a slight jerk as her breath gave a slight hitch and my arms giving her a not-so-slight squeeze.
My girl was happy she was getting a baby brother or sister. Or, maybe, it was just that my girl was happy for her Dad and me. Or, maybe, both.
My last hug was from Aunt Bette. It lasted the longest and it was the tightest.
“Sometimes it happens in weird ways,” she whispered before she let me go, “but dreams come true.”
Boy, Aunt Bette paid attention to e-mails.
I felt the sting of tears in my eyes and she let me go, looking away quickly and I gave her that play.
Okay, so, I guess Aunt Bette inwardly accepted Tack, his kids and my biker babe lifestyle too.
Good to know.
My dampening eyes found my old man’s.
He was standing, one arm thrown around Rush’s shoulders, but his attention was all on me and he was grinning his sexy grin at me.
Yes, I thought, sitting in the sun, my girls around me, holding his gaze, taking in his smile and carrying his child, Aunt Bette was absolutely right.
Sometimes it happens in weird ways that included fights, blood, drunkenness, kidnappings and pregnancies.
But dreams came true.
* * * * *
“It was good form, your brothers not pulling knives or shooting anyone when Mitch, Brock and Hawk’s team beat your team in baseball,” I noted, lying cuddled naked in bed with a naked Tack in his room in the Compound.
It was late
. The barbeque was over. Aunt Bette and Uncle Marsh were at their hotel. Tab and Rush were at home. And Tack and I decided to keep partying in private.
“Lawson didn’t tell me he had a secret weapon,” Tack mumbled. “Fuck, you see that kid hit?”
“Yep.”
“Jesus,” Tack muttered. “Got an arm on him too. He’s only eleven.”
“I noticed that too.”
“And Lucas’s boys weren’t far behind him. Older, fuckin’ powerhouses.”
“Yep.”
“We didn’t stand a chance.”
“Nope.”
Tack fell silent.
I did too.
Then I broke it with, “Rush make his decision?”
Rush had graduated high school and Rush told his father he was thinking of joining Chaos. I was surprised this wasn’t a given but, for some reason, it wasn’t.
“Not yet.”
“What’s holding him back?”
“I don’t know, maybe our shit gettin’ a woman he cares about stabbed five times?”
My head popped up from his shoulder and I looked through the dark at his shadowed face.
“Me?”
“Only some shit you can shield your kids from, darlin’, my kids ain’t dumb and their mother had a big mouth that also was loud, both of those making it harder to shield them at all. They heard me and Naomi fightin’. They heard what it was about. Hard as I tried, bitch wouldn’t shut up. This only led to what happened to you. And, babe, you know Pipe went down.”
Only weeks after my drama, Naomi’s old man had gotten into his car, started it and got blown to smithereens. Lescheva might have been out but the Russians kept good books. They knew who owed them a debt and those kinds of debts got paid.
Elliott paid it.
Pipe Dahl paid it too.
Naomi didn’t waste time moving onto her next victim. She shacked up three months later with a biker in Boulder.
Rush saw her occasionally.
Tabby, never.
As for me, even though I never saw her, Boulder wasn’t far enough away. But it was something.
“Rush isn’t all fired up about Chaos,” Tack finished.
“But you’re not on that path anymore,” I pointed out.
“Darlin’, you got stabbed five times and his stepdad got dead.”
“Pipe dying had nothing to do with Chaos.”
“Not sure Rush sees it that way.”
“He couldn’t do better than the Club,” I announced heatedly and the air in the room went still but I ignored it and kept talking, “What’s he going to do? He loves cars. He’s great with them. You got him that bike for Christmas and every good day with clear roads we’ve had since then, he’s been on it. He knows everything about cars and bikes. And –”
“He couldn’t do better than the Club?” Tack cut me off to ask.
“Well, yeah. Brothers and blood. What’s more important than a lifetime of loyalty to both?”
“Jesus,” Tack murmured.
“What?” I asked.
“Jesus,” Tack repeated.
“What?” I repeated too and his hand came up and cupped my jaw.
“Your what is that those layers keep strippin’ off, baby. And sometimes, when they do, what’s uncovered shines out so bright, it takes the wind out of me.”
His words took the wind out of me.
Tack went on, “This mornin’, you gave me one of the most precious gifts a woman can give her man. And now, you just gave me another one.”
What did I do?
“I…” I faltered then asked, “How did I do that?”
“I claimed you into my world and then you gave me you. But, Red, me claimin’ you and you existing in my world is one thing. You accepting it is another.”
Oh, that’s what I did.
My body relaxed into his and his hand slid from my jaw into my hair as I pointed out, “I took my place in it a long time ago, honey.”
“You love me, you love my kids, you feel deep for my brothers but until now, I didn’t know you also loved the life.” His hand in my hair pulled me close so he could touch my mouth to his before he let me back an inch and finished, “And that’s a gift, baby. One that means the world to me. Thank you.”
Ohmigod!
I was thinking I just heard Tack say, “thank you”.
“Did you just say ‘thank you’?” I asked in order to confirm.
“Spoke English, babe.”
“You just said ‘thank you’.”
A pause before he muttered, “Now she’s bustin’ my balls.”
“I am not!” I snapped.
“Now she’s servin’ up attitude.”
Well, I was doing that.
“Give me a break, handsome, I’ve been with you just shy of a year and in that time I’ve been kidnapped, I kicked ass twice, I was stabbed, got married and you got me pregnant. Through all that, you’ve not once said ‘thank you’ to me. Even when I got that mammoth parts order right without having to ask you a single question. Let me savor the moment.”
“Yeah, I was savoring that moment too and that moment was tender until you got feisty.”
“Uh… you pledged your troth to me, Tack. It’s not like you don’t know I get feisty.”
“I pledged my troth,” Tack repeated.
“Yeah.”
“You just said I pledged my troth.”
“Yes, that’s what I just said.”
“What’s a troth?”
“I don’t know, I just know you pledged it.”
I heard and saw Tack shake his head on his pillow then he stated, “Babe, advice. A man expresses his gratitude, you do not throw attitude. You kiss him and, maybe, suck his dick to show your appreciation.”
Okay, now we were back to the Tack I knew.
“I think I’ve already cemented my biker bitch status, Tack, this very conversation being evidence of that. Lessons are no longer necessary.”
“Right, then, how about you get busy suckin’ my dick ‘cause I want you to?”
That went through me like a hot knife through butter and my legs shifted.
“Always greedy,” he muttered.
“Like you don’t like it,” I muttered back.
“Hard to talk, you got a mouth full of my cock,” Tack remarked.
That went through me too.
“Quit turning me on when I’m feeling feisty,” I snapped.
“Red, best time to turn you on is when you’re feeling feisty.”
This was true.
“Babe,” he prompted when I made no move then, “Tyra,” he prompted again when I still made no move.
“Oh, all right. I’ll get busy.”
“Obliged,” he muttered, a smile in his voice but his hand didn’t leave my hair to let me get down to business. It pulled me close so my mouth was touching his. “Think about this, darlin’, before you go down on me and brace, baby, ‘cause I’m about to get sweet and you need to process it fast so you can move on to suckin’ me off, not fast.”
As requested, I braced but I also held my breath.
Tack didn’t delay in trumping the best sweet he’d ever given me. Something he did often. Something his words proved I’d never get used to.
“I thank you for helpin’ me make that baby inside you. I thank you for takin’ your place in my world and likin’ it. I thank you for bein’ a good stepmom to my kids and givin’ Tab what she needed and never had. And I thank you most of all for bein’ you, givin’ as good as you get in all the ways you can, makin’ sure my life is never boring and makin’ sure I go to bed content and wake up happy to face the coming day.”
My throat closed because my heart swelled so big it took up my entire chest but I didn’t get a chance to start crying because Tack kissed me. I did give a little sob into his mouth before I got over it and decided to concentrate on kissing him back.
After that, I got down to business.
* * * * *
Tack
Tyra wa
s out, her body heavy against his when Tack gently rolled her to her back.
He rolled into her and, as he’d done countless times since that day, his hand moved over her skin.
The scars were gone but their memory remained. He knew each location where the knife plunged into her flesh and he ran his fingers across the skin he’d paid a fucking mint to make smooth again.
And, as always, he ended the journey of his hand at her throat.
Resting lightly there so as not to wake her, he let her pulse beat into his fingers and he did it until it washed the memories away.
But this night and the ones to follow for the next seven months, the path of his hand didn’t end there as it usually did.
It moved down to her belly.
And into the darkness, to his sleeping woman, he whispered, “You don’t know this, baby, but some men have dream women too.”
Since she was asleep, for once, Tyra Allen had no reply.
Palm flat against his woman’s warm, soft skin, Kane Allen settled into his wife in the bed in the room where they started and he fell asleep.
* * * * *
Seven months later, Rider Allen was born.
And the first thing Tack did was wrap two fingers around his throat.
The Dream Man Series ends with this story of Tack and Tyra.
The Chaos Series will begin with the story of Tabitha and Shy.
####
About the Author
Kristen Ashley grew up in Brownsburg, Indiana but has lived in Denver, Colorado and the West Country of England. Thus she has been blessed to have friends and family around the globe. Her posse is loopy (to say the least) but loopy is good when you want to write.
Kristen was raised in a house with a large and multi-generational family. They lived on a very small farm in a small town in the heartland and existed amongst the strains of Glenn Miller, The Everly Brothers, REO Speedwagon and Whitesnake (and the wardrobes that matched).
Needless to say, growing up in a house full of music, clothes and love was a good way to grow up.
And as she keeps growing up, it keeps getting better.
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