Outlaw Road (A MC Romance) (25 page)

“Yeah, but part of this clusterfuck was my fault. Despite my many, many virtues, I do have a few vices. If not for my pride, you'd have found your sister much sooner.”

“Even if you hadn't dragged me out of that brothel... I don't think I'd have made it. I wasn't thinking clearly. Everything was just so fucked up that I had to do something, even if I had no damn clue what that
something
was!”

“Flora...”

“No! I don't deserve to be let off the hook. All those people back there...” Flora bit her lip, sinking into the sadness. “All the people that died in that mansion. Your brothers, the girls, all those bodies. Part of that was my fault. So much death, I didn't want any of that! I just wanted my sister. I just wanted—”

Flora covered her eyes, finally breaking down. With a soul that heavy, it was admirable that she'd made it that far. “I'm so, so sorry.” She wiped at her eyes, gathering herself.

I walked back over with a cloth for her. When she was finished wiping her nose and mouth, I pulled her head into my stomach. I was going to speak, but held my tongue. I knew she wasn't done. She needed to get it all out. It was the only way back up from something as heavy as what went down today.

When she felt my arms around her, she immediately resumed sobbing. I held her and just let her cry. Flora hugged me tighter and tighter like she was trying to squeeze the guilt out of herself. We stayed like that for as long as she needed.

When she was done, my shirt stained with tears, I squatted down so we were at the same eye level. “A lot of good men and women died today.” I watched her eye's drift low, her face growing even more pained with the hard truth. “Look at me.” She did. “But they didn't die for you, Flora, and they didn't die in vain. All you were was a long, overdue catalyst. Dozens of girls would've been sold into a very short, violent life, if it weren't for you and the suicidal love you have for your sister.

Smiling tenderly, I said, “You helped topple one of the biggest human traffic rings on the east coast. Think of the hundreds or even thousands of
Claudines
that will never be abducted by scum like the Knights, now.” I lifted her chin carefully, wanting her to look at me straight on. “Maybe you still had some saintly things to do too.”

Flora managed a weak smile. She breathed a little easier, but she was still hurting. I could feel it. It was a pain far deeper than any bullet wound.

“That's very kind, but what I did to you,” she started to say. Her eyes drifted to the floor. I went to speak, but she beat me to it. “Your club, everything, all gone because I dragged you into my craziness.”

Seeing her this distraught made my heart ache. I opened my mouth, but again, she was faster. “And your bike! I'm so sorry for stealing your bike! And your gun, I'm sorry for that too. After seeing those guys at the gas station almost kill you, I just didn't want you to get hurt anymore. I'd always planned to get that back to you, somehow, when this was all over. I really wanted to, at least.” Shaking her head, Flora let her hair fall into her eyes. “How could you possibly forgive me?”

“Forgive? I should thank you.”

“What?” Flora was startled off guard. I didn't know what she expected to hear, but it wasn't that.

“It was only a bike and a gun. You didn't have to save me from those guys at the gas station to steal my bike. Flora, I'm a nomad. People fuck me over all the time and if I'm honest, most times I deserved it.” I chuckled.

I had her attention, and I resisted the urge to taste her red lips. Would they be salty from her tears? I forced myself to keep talking. “Ever since I got back from Afghanistan, there's been this fucking
chasm
in my soul that couldn't be filled with all the distractions in the world. Then I met you. I thought your singular focus was insane.” I remembered how she'd pleaded with me to go back to the Knights. “But your courage and selflessness reminded me of the man I was when I served. A better man. A man I desperately wanted to be again.”

I stood up, then helped her to her feet as well, making sure that her leg could hold her. She winced, but she stood under her own power just fine.

“I don't feel that emptiness when I'm around you, Flora. I can finally see the truth. You're my only chance of being that man again.” Unable to hold back, I kissed her sweetly. It was brief, too brief. “Without you...” Words that, up until that moment I wasn't capable of saying, came to my mouth like the bursting of a dam.

Words that even death couldn't steal from me.

“I love you.”

Stunned, Flora just stared at me like she'd forgotten how to speak. For a moment, I was more terrified than I'd ever been in my entire life.

“I'm—You too.” She revealed the biggest, most innocent smile I'd seen on her yet. “I mean, I'm sorry. I'm a fucking mess right now!” She breathed in until her chest swelled, taking a moment to calm herself. Finally, she brushed her fingers into mine, her voice firm as steel. “I love you too, Connor.”

My name never sounded so good. It was the first time Flora had said my name without it slipping out accidentally, or being used as a warning. The name Ronin was given to me just after I'd been patched in and made a full member. I'd immediately asked to go Nomad. The name was synonyms for wanderer and loner. I was a warrior who'd lost his way.

Flora hugged me. I didn't feel so lost anymore.

Eventually, she peeled herself off me. “Ugh, I am so damn filthy!” She laughed. “I need to go take a shower. You better not leave. If I slip and crack my head open, that's on you.”

“Scouts' honor.” I put up the three-finger boy scout salute, then helped her to the bathroom. I kept the door open a crack so I could actually hear if she did fall over, not that I thought she would, but at this point I'd lost track of the karma I'd stored up. I didn't want to take any chances.

It was twelve agonizing minutes later that she called for me. It was difficult knowing she was wet and naked and so near. There wasn't any pain in her voice, so I knew it wasn't a call of distress. My concerns alleviated, I opened the door. Steam billowed out and obscured my vision. “You alright?” I asked carefully.

“Yes, I just...” Flora folded back the curtain enough to pop her head out. Once she cleaned the shampoo out of her eyes, she looked at me with eyebrows upturned. “I have to hold on to the wall because of my stupid leg. I was wondering, would you mind, well.” A slightly nervous smile parted her lips. “Washing my back?”

I didn't bother hiding the smirk that crawled across my face. I couldn't think of a better way to spend a morning. “It'd be my pleasure,” I replied, watching her head fade back beneath the steam and semi-opaque curtain.

I pulled the barrier to the side. Flora had her naked back to me. The harsh, bluish bathroom light couldn't rob the beauty of her every tight curve. Her slick body shimmered, daring me to touch her.

I resisted, at least long enough to grab the bar of soap and lather my hands. I started at her shoulders. They were supple, her skin yielding to my grip. I massaged the soap into her back. Slowly I moved downward, sliding my thumbs on either side of her spine and letting my fingers caress each rib.

I slipped a hand around to her stomach. “Just for support,” I cooed softly. We both accepted it for the lie that it was.

“Of course,” Flora agreed, breathing in deeply. Yearning radiated from her.

My other hand washed over each hip in turn, then lingered just above the swell of her ass. She arched forward, the water running down her back and collecting over my hand. My eyes traced their path over her thighs and between her legs.

And then my hand followed.

I stopped, inches away from her pussy. Flora mewled, wiggling against me. The emanating heat that bathed my fingers was maddening, but I wanted to hear her beg me for it.

“It's not nice to tease a wounded girl,” she said.

I let go of her thigh altogether. “Do I strike you as the
nice
type?” Flora groaned in disappointment. Her whole body tensed in fleeting protest.

I flexed my fingertips into deep lines across her stomach, pulling her against my chest. My cock dug into her flesh, both of us hissing.

I kissed and bit her; at the back of her neck, at her collar bone, at everything I could. I barely noticed that her water slicked skin had soaked through the front of my shirt and pants. I certainly didn't care.

“Connor.” Her voice was so lustfully liquid that I tried to drink it through the nape of her neck. Her fingers crept along the back of my head, intertwining with my hair, her nails dragging along my scalp. “I need to feel you.”

One of my hands drifted up past her belly button to graze gently between her breasts, while the other dragged down through the nook of her hips. Every touch and scrape doubled my desire for her, it became suffocating. “How badly?”

I let my fingertip slip over her pussy, flicking gently inward. “More, please.” Flora's voice was distant but eager. Her tone alone hardened me. My erection cried out in my soaked denim. I couldn't take it anymore.

I turned flora around to face me. She winced from the pain in her leg.

“Are you—” I started to say.

She cut me off by kissing me and pulling me deeper into the shower with her. Her back slapped against the tile, if it hurt she didn't acknowledge it. The water cascaded down my back, I was soaked, but all that mattered was Flora's lips. They pressed against me both fast and violently while still maintaining an earnest tenderness.

“Fuck me,” she begged, tearing at my shirt. I leaned back and tore it off.

She kissed at my chest and popped the button on my jeans. I took over, sliding them down and tossing them onto the opposite sink. They landed with a heavy slap.

Flora's hand reached into my skin-clinging boxers and grabbed my rock hard cock. She was ravenous, but then, so was I. My shaft flexed in her small hand. “Squeeze,” I ordered. She did, the pressure felt wonderful.

I plunged two fingers into her mouth, then watched her eyes light up when I slid two more into her pussy. She smiled, sucking on my fingers while sliding her fist back and forth down my shaft. I let my fingers drag out of her mouth, then down her bottom lip and chin. I kissed her again.

“Do you have any condoms left?” she asked between bursts of passionate kisses.

I reeled my jeans in, searching for my wallet. Spotting it on the floor I grabbed it, pulling out a recently bought condom. I tore at the packaging with my teeth.

I handed it to her, then flung the leather wallet across the room to hopefully somewhere dry. “I want to see you do it this time.”

Flora smiled, pinched the latex before pulling the ribbed circlet over my cock's fat head. She then rolled it down the length, all the way to the stem. I swiveled the shower head straight down, off of us. Water, although fun for foreplay, makes a terrible lubricant.

I dropped my boxers the rest of the way and pushed her against the wall, taking the stress off her wounded leg. Brushing the matted hair from her eyes, I gazed at her. Rivulets of water from her hairline traced the subtle beauty of her face. I couldn't help but lose myself in it, she was truly stunning. Full of life and hope and passion. I could hardly believe that after everything I'd done, that I'd end up with someone as special as Flora.

“What?” She smiled, getting a little self-conscious.

“Nothing,” I said, kissing her chin. I let my grin turn mischievous, working my way down her neck. Gripping my cock, I dragged the tip of it along her clit before plunging into the warm opening I'd been yearning for. She took every inch, crushing me from the inside through pulses and waves. I felt her pussy's every involuntary ripple.

I rode her rhythm, watching her chest rise and fall, feeling the way she counter moved with each of my thrusts. I listened. I touched her where and how her body demanded. I played Flora's gasps and whimpers, grunts and screams like a delicious orchestra, getting high on her every note.

With a hand squeezing her ass, I rocked my cock back and forth. I fucked her dirty and raw. My cock throbbed the closer she got to coming. When she straddled the cusp, I leaned her over and pressed small, rapid circles into her clit with my thumb.

Her hips bucked, nipples turning to diamond. As Flora screamed, I sped up and thrust harder. “Oh God, oh God!” Words escaped her in a jumbled, incoherent mess. Her whole body jerked in spasms. Her cunt strangled me.

Sweet ecstasy moaned through her lips. The way her smooth body pushed into me and quivered made me explode. I'd needed to feel her come, to feel her vibrate with pleasure, to get off. Her tight pussy milked me until my balls ached. All my strength drained away.

I braced myself against the shower wall with my forearm and fist. Flora wrapped her arms around me, like she never wanted to let go. My convulsions finally slowing, I embraced her back. Flora was incredible, I couldn't recall any girl that matched her.

Pulling out, I tossed the condom in the toilet and turned the shower back on us. The water temperature had cooled, but we both welcomed the chance to wash off the glistening sweat.

“How're you feeling?” I asked, nuzzling her throat.

“I'm fine, I feel wonderful.” Flora kissed me, our tongues curling in a slow dance. She grabbed a towel for each of us. “I am a little exhausted, though.” Between the emotional and physical exertion, the meds and the sex, she was visibly beginning to power down.

I dried off, then flicked my eyes down her body. “And the rest of you?”

She blushed, laughing until her teeth flashed. “You're awful.”

Once we were both dry enough, I picked her up and carried her to bed. After a quick bandage change, we laid together in an actual bed for the first time and drifted to sleep as one.

****

T
here was a knock on the door.

I'd woken up before Flora. Part of that was because I was terrified she'd be gone when I opened my eyes. The way her head rested on my shoulder, though, I knew that wasn't a valid fear any longer.

I'd laid in bed for a while, just listening to her breathe. I thought back to that first night in Roach's place when I'd done the same, but while on the floor. I'd dreamed of what it would be like to be where I was now.