“Fuck me, Lochlan Abbott,” Indigo demanded, making me grin.
“Yes, ma’am,” I said in smug satisfaction. I reached over toward my nightstand for a condom when Indi put her palm on my chest.
“I, um—I mean… Lennon took me to this clinic a month or so ago. A lady clinic. I’m clean, so if you want to…” She blushed scarlet as her words petered off. I raised an eyebrow in surprise, taken a bit off guard. I’d never gone bare before.
“Umm…I’m clean too. I always use protection and get tested once a year just in case.” My eyes searched her face, trying to decipher her expression and figure out what was going on inside her quirky mind. “Are you on birth control?” I asked. Indigo’s blush faded a bit as she swallowed.
“I’m covered on my end,” she said with a nod.
“Are you sure, angel?” I asked. This was a big deal—for her and for me. The trust she was showing in me, the man who’d been so distrustful of her at the start, absolutely floored me.
Indigo kissed me, tangling her tongue with mine until we were both breathless. Breaking away for air, I shuddered as pleasure zipped down my spine at the feeling of my girl wet and writhing for me. “I’m sure. I don’t know what this is exactly, or how to describe what I’m feeling properly right now, but I do know that it absolutely isn’tcasualfor me either. Just be patient with me, please. I’m learning as I go. But I want this. With you.” Indigo reached her free hand between our bodies and lined me up with her entrance. Unable (and unwilling) to deny her, I buried myself inside the woman I’d fallen in love with in a single stroke. Indi clenched her thighs around my hips as I pumped in and out of her leisurely, allowing her to adjust to my size.
Good goddamn, this had to be what heaven felt like. Unable to withdraw for very long without my hips snapping forward to meet hers, my thrusts began to gain speed. A hazed frenzy seemed to settle over us as a sense of age-old primal instinct drove us to rut against each other in a savage claiming. I’d never felt anything like it in my life, but I knew I never ever wanted it to stop.
Panting and covered in a sheen of sweat, I released Indigo’s hand above her head and sat up on my knees, pulling Indi’s hips up to meet my thrusts. From this position, I could see every glorious inch of my girl as I drove into her. Tits bouncing and eyes bright with need, my angel gripped the headboard above her and met me thrust for thrust. My muscles became rigid as I started to get close.
“Angel, are you sure you want this?” I gritted out in a voice gone low with desperation.
“Lochlan, please. I trust you. Iwant you—”
I got impossibly harder, and one hand lowered to roll Indigo’s clit between my fingers while the other gripped her hip. “Oh fuck, I need you to come for me, Indi. Please, angel.” Green eyes gone dark with desire met mine, the same desperate need echoed in their depths that I knew were mirrored in mine. “Oh…yes, yes,yes! Lochlan!”
I felt it the moment Indigo fell, coming with a breathy moan, her head thrown back against my pillow. I was helpless to do anything other than follow her over the edge of oblivion, pumping everything I had deep inside her. I collapsed on top of my angel, my face buried in her neck so I could take gasping breaths laced with her scent as my heart beat a fierce rhythm. We lay there, intertwined with each other, unwilling to break the intimate spell we’d woven with our early morning lovemaking. Because that was what this was. It was never just fucking, just fooling around, with Indigo. I was in love with this girl, even if I hadn’t found the right time to say the words. She was dealing with so much and still finding her feet in her new life. I didn’t want to overwhelm her with my feelings while she was still learning to process her own.
Indigo said she wanted to go back to her room to shower and get dressed, and I suspected she needed a few moments alone to process everything. I took a quick shower and pulled on a pair of black tactical pants and a long-sleeved black Henley. I threw on my LCMC cut and laced up my boots before grabbing a white paper bag from my mini-fridge. Placing the bag in front of Indi’s door, I smiled when I thought of her enjoying the apple strudel I’d asked my ma to make. When I told her about my secret gifts, Ma had been more than happy to help me find new offerings to tempt my angel. Some of the other ole ladies, Susanne and Rose particularly, had also offered to help once Ma filled them in on what I’d been doing. I wondered if Indigo had figured out that it was me leaving her something sweet every day, or if she suspected someone else was behind it. She had to know by now that it was me, right?
A few minutes after I’d poured two mugs of coffee and brought them out to the bar, Indigo was tromping down the clubhouse stairs, licking powdered sugar and flakes of pastry from her lips. A few of my brothers were milling around the clubhouse now, grabbing coffee or a quick bite to eat before we set off to bring the fight to the Iron Raiders’ front door. Cricket, who happened to share a wall with me, came down the stairs moments after I’d handed Indigo her coffee with a glare in my direction. He was dressed similarly to me but looked much grumpier than I felt this morning.
“You’re a right prick, you know that, Priest?” he asked, swiping Indi’s mug out of her hand and taking a sip while his other arm wrapped around her shoulders. “The general noise of the clubhouse drowned out whatever sounds you made last night, but this morning was just plainrude. Who shags before seven o’clock? It’s madness.” Cricket’s glaremelted away as he looked down at Indi. “Did Priest take care of you, love? If he didn’t, just say the word, and I’ll kick his arse. It’d be my brotherly honor.”
Indi’s face took on a rosy glow as she smiled up at Cricket’s irritated expression. “Noarsekicking necessary, conscious. Our first date was perfect, even with some jerk scratching Sheila’s bumper. Priest was… sweet.” She grinned at me shyly and made grabby hands for my untouched mug of coffee, which I gave her with a smug smirk. Snatching her mug back from Cricket, Indigo shot us both a beaming smile and went upstairs, presumably to wake Lennon. Cricket and I got new mugs filled to the brim with strong, dark coffee and settled in for church before we rode out.
“You look…happy,” Cricket said, settling into his chair. “Definitely better than you usually do after a hookup lately. You’ve lost that grumpy, twatty little crease between your eyes.” Gray eyes met mine from across the table, lacking their usual mischievous twinkle. Cricket and I didn’t usually talk about our feelings because we weren’t adolescent girls, but if he wanted to get something off his chest, it was best we do it before our attack on the Raiders. We all needed clear heads and laser focus if we were going to survive this.
“It wasn’t a hookup,” I said after taking a sip of my coffee, “but yeah, I guess I am feeling pretty fucking good this morning. You got a problem with that?”
Cricket snickered. “Not at all, brother. It took you bloody long enough to pull your head out of your arse, but I’m glad you got there in the end.”
Duke and the rest of the Crows trickled into church, with Bones being the last one to arrive. His arm was still in a soft brace, and I could tell being left behind today rankled him. Knuckles, Blaze, and Thor were also staying behind to protect the compound and keep an eye on our businesses here. “Alright, I spoke with the other LC presidents, our contacts with the bratva, and the Frozen Furies. Everything is set. Crows from the chapters further away have already left, so we can all be in position at the right time. Bear, Sticks, Tank, and Ratched, you’re with me. We’ll be hittin’ the Bakersfield chapter. Rook, Cricket, and Bard, you’ll be with Priest. Y’all will hit the clubhouse outside of Chico. Myteam will leave first since we have farther to ride. Get to the meeting point and rendezvous with Petrov’s people and the Furies. Once you get a text from me, it’ll be time to execute. Any questions?”
We’d all been over the plan, so we all knew who we’d be working with, but Duke seemed to need this last chance to make sure everyone understood the assignment. The last time we’d had more than a petty squabble with the Iron Raiders MC was in the early 1980s when we’d gone to war. Duke had been eleven or twelve when it all went down, and he remembered when his father, Gavin, struggled to hold the Crows together and get them through it alive. Duke never wanted to see another war in his lifetime, but the Iron Raiders wouldn’t stop until they’d gotten Indigo and used their new Irish allies to destroy our club and everything we’d built. This was a necessary evil.
“Alright,” Duke continued when no one had a question to ask. “These motherfuckers think they can come into Los Cuervos territory, bend us over, and fuck us. The Iron Raiders want to destroy what we’ve built, what we’ve earned, what we’vebled for. They’ll spread like a plague if we let ’em. Are we gonna let ’em?” A chorus ofno’smixed with various curse words answered all of Duke’s questions in one syllable. “Crows never forget. We’re gonna make them pay, and end this threat once and for all. And if you see Pyro’s rat bastard face, put a bullet in it. He doesn’t get to see the next sunrise.”
Everyone went their separate ways to get ready—the married brothers off to kiss their ole ladies goodbye and the rest of us to suit up and arm ourselves. I was already dressed, but I went back to my room to get my Smith and Wesson nine millimeter, two extra magazines, and tucked a knife into the holster I wore at the small of my back. My cut hid my weapons, but I did an extra check in the mirror just to make sure I wasn’t accidentally flashing my gun. Didn’t want some Karen to see a biker with a pistol and call the cops. It wasn’t good for the brand.
Satisfied I had everything I needed, I turned toward the door when something on my bed caught my eye. A flash of white in a sea of blue sheets, like a cloud in the sky. I walked over to the bed, still rumpled from my night with Indigo. Propped on my pillow was a piece of paper, its edges jagged as if it had been ripped hastily. Scrawled across the scrap of paper was the outline of a love heart, drawn in purple ink overan oil-speckled background. I picked the note up and slid it into its new home in my wallet. It still smelled of apples.
Chapter 25
Lennon
Indigo pulled Sheila into the private parking area of The Goldfinch, refusing to allow the valet driver to park her. She looked good—no, more than good. Indigo looked genuinelyhappy.And I don’t just mean the freshly fucked kind of happy, though that was definitely a part of it. She just looked…like she was thriving for the very first time in her life. She glowed. The clothes I’d ordered for Indi looked amazing on her now that she’d put on some weight and was no longer malnourished. I knew she was embarrassed about accepting handouts when she first arrived, so I told her a teensy little white lie that made it easier for Indi to accept my additions to her wardrobe. She thought that Amazon sent me incorrect sizes, when, in reality, I was her secret shopper and overall fashion fairy godmother.
Her amazing indigo hair was piled up on top of her head. I’d refreshed her color earlier in the day shortly after the guys left. Two space buns were wound on top of her head with wispy tendrils framing her face. Indigo pushed her heart-shaped sunglasses up her nose and took a noisy slurp of her strawberry shortcake milkshake. She’d spent the afternoon dissecting her time with Priest, and I’d done my best not to gag or heave when she told me about theirintimateactivities. As her bestie, I was thrilled she was getting the good D, but as Priest’s quasi-sibling and Ellis’s best friend, I was nauseated at the idea of him in any sexual capacity.
I sipped my chocolate-banana milkshake and pondered what Ellis would have thought about her brother being in a relationship with Indigo. I think she would have liked Indi. They both were fierce, hardheaded, and vivacious. Ellis wasn’t as savage as Indigo, but then again, she hadn’t needed to be. Until she did. I’d probably never stop mourning my friend, but meeting Indigo had reminded me that there was more to life than what we were born into. Before we lost Ellis, I had dreams. We’d talked about opening a spa together one day. I’d handle the beauty treatments and the books, while Ellis became a licensed masseuse and handled our aesthetic and social media presence. The plans we made went up in smoke the day she died, and the haze of grief that surrounded me for the following two years left me feeling lost.
