Revolution (The Lone Riders MC Series Book 1) (5 page)

Burying her fingers in his hair she threw back her head as he gave one last thrust, his body stiffening as he got ready to explode inside her, and she clung on tighter as she felt him come. Felt a torrent of heat, a rush so strong tearing through her she couldn’t stop the cries from escaping, animalistic yells echoing around the room as his cries merged with hers. She pushed herself forward, grinding her body against his until she felt her own release begin its journey, flooding over her in one quick, hurried wave, engulfing her in a cocoon of hope and peace and calm she knew was temporary, but it felt so good.

She waited a few seconds, letting her breathing return to normal before she opened her eyes and looked at him, her fingers still buried in his hair, his body still inside hers. ‘What did we just do, Jesse Jackson?’

‘We just said hello, Lexi. That’s all. Lone Riders style.’

She couldn’t help smiling. And as his mouth closed in on hers, every memory of how his kiss made her feel came rushing forward at a rate that was breathtaking, like a metaphorical punch to the solar plexus. The familiar scratch of his beard against her skin, the smell of cigarettes mixed with beer and engine oil that was like the most beautiful of colognes. The movement of his lips against hers, the way his tongue pushed gently inside her mouth, exploring, dancing alongside hers in a way so at odds with the persona he liked to give off – the rough-edged biker with the shady past and a present she didn’t always like to think about. But to her, that’s what made him so hot. That’s what made him so dangerous. That’s what made him someone she should really leave alone.

‘Deena’s gone, baby. She’s gone,’ Jesse whispered, finally pulling out of her. Lexi unwrapped her legs from around his hips and he lowered her down, his arms still holding on to her, and she was in no hurry to go anywhere.

‘Jesus, Jesse…’ She threw her head back, sighing heavily. ‘Why? Me and you…’

‘I know, okay? I know you can’t make any promises, and I know we have no idea what’s gonna happen, but… it wasn’t going anywhere, Lexi. Me and Deena. It really wasn’t.’

‘Shit!’

‘Stay here tonight, baby. Stay here, at the clubhouse. With me. No strings, I promise.’

She looked at him, right into those beautiful, kind eyes. ‘I don’t know…’

‘Please, Lexi. I know what I’m doing, okay?’

Did
she
, though? Did she have any idea what she was really doing here? Because if he thought they could ever get back what they’d used to have, he was wrong. So wrong. It was never going to happen. Not now. It couldn’t. She’d made sure of that.

Six

‘Cut her some slack, Kip. For me, brother. Please.’

‘What the fuck are you doing, man? She’s only gonna hurt you again, you know that, don’t you?’

‘She won’t,’ Jesse said, taking another beer from the ice barrel outside the clubhouse door. Loud rock music filled the closed compound, the orange glow of a fire and the bulbs strewn from the canopy above them lighting the yard as Kel’s welcome home party got underway. Blake and Cain had gone to pick him up from
Hilton
State
penitentiary and bring him home to his favourite beer and a heap of barbecued burgers that were waiting for him on his arrival.

‘She won’t,’ Kip repeated dryly, taking a long drink of beer. ‘So, you’re quite happy to just fuck her every now and again and walk away when she’s done with you, is that it? You’re really okay with that?’

‘It wasn’t
her
who wanted sex, all right? That was all on me. I’m the one who made her do it, the one who suggested it. And if I want to go there then that’s
my
call, you got that?’

Kip shrugged. ‘Hey, you want to fuck up your life a second time, be my guest. You do whatever it is you have to do, but I think you’re making a big mistake. You let her in, you give her all that room, and she is gonna kill you, Jesse. She’s gonna rip your fucking heart out all over again.’

‘And I can handle it, okay?’ Jesse looked over at Lexi. She was sitting between Luca and Walt, both of them looking incredibly pleased with themselves as they leaned in towards her, each of them with a hand on one of her knees.

‘You can handle it, can you?’ Kip asked, raising an eyebrow. ‘You see what she is, brother? Do you see that?’

‘Just keep out of it, Kip.’

‘She’s my sister, Jesse.’

‘Then stop talking about her as though she’s nothing but some low down mama. Treat her with some fucking respect.’

‘Like she did with you, huh?’

Jesse ignored Kip, his eyes back on Lexi. It really was like she’d never been away, but that shouldn’t have been a surprise, the way she just slotted back into life here. Just like him, it was all she knew. Any other kind of life was alien to her. ‘I loved her, okay? I loved her so fucking much, and I can’t just switch that off.’

‘You managed it for eight years.’

‘I didn’t, though, Kip. I just pretended it wasn’t there. Do you understand?’

‘No.’ Kip took another long drink before setting his empty bottle down on the table beside them. ‘Not really.’ He noticed Lexi walking towards them, all long legs and biker-chick beautiful in tiny denim cut-offs and a figure-hugging, open-necked shirt, her mane of blonde hair falling loose around her shoulders. He couldn’t deny his sister was one scarily hot woman. If he wasn’t her brother he’d be thinking about going there himself, so in reality he couldn’t really blame Jesse for still feeling the way he did. ‘I’ll leave you guys to it,’ he said, walking away just as Lexi approached.

‘Something I said?’ she asked, sliding her hands into the back pockets of her shorts.

‘Leave him,’ Jesse muttered. ‘He’s being a dick.’

‘Tell me something I don’t know,’ she sighed.

‘Hey, guys! They’re here!’ Coby yelled from the other end of the compound as he manually hauled open the gate to let the club’s huge black pick-up truck drive through.

‘Kel’s home,’ Lexi whispered, a smile spreading across her face. She couldn’t believe how ridiculously excited she felt at seeing him again, after all this time.

‘And he is gonna be so pleased to see his favourite girl back where she belongs.’ Jesse smiled, holding out his hand, and she took it, letting him lead her over to the crowd gathered around the truck, watching as Blake and Cain jumped out first before Kel finally made his appearance. And he was just as Lexi remembered him, all big and bold with the same mass of grey hair and that beard that always looked as though it needed some attention. The same friendly, welcoming face.

She let him say his hellos, let everyone have their reunion, including Jesse, letting go of his hand so he could get to Kel. She didn’t want to make her presence felt straightaway. It didn’t feel right. So she stood back from the group, watching as Kel hugged everybody, and another pang of regret for everything she’d missed, everything she’d messed up, shot through her.
This
was her family.
Paradise
was her home. She adored her father – Charlie was her idol, he’d made her who she was, and the eight years she’d spent with the Lone Riders over in England had been full of happy times, despite the fact she’d spent the first couple of years missing Paradise and everything – every
one
– she’d left behind with a pain so raw she had no idea how she’d lasted so long without running back. Because
this
was where she belonged. She knew that now.

‘Well, who do we have here?’

She looked up at the sound of his voice – that warm, soft, comforting voice. And she couldn’t help but let the biggest smile take over as she ran towards Kel’s open arms, throwing herself at him, wrapping her legs around his ample waist as he hugged her tight.

‘Hey! My favourite girl’s back in town! And, baby, your timing is just perfect! I couldn’t have wished for a better welcome home present.’

She held on to him, breathing in that same smell they all seemed to share – that smell of beer and cigarettes, and she could also detect a faint hint of weed on Kel, something she suspected he’d smoked in the truck on the way home, courtesy of Blake and Cain.

‘How beautiful did you get?’ Kel smiled, putting her down and stroking her hair back off her face. ‘How grown-up you’ve become.’ He didn’t have any idea just how grown-up she’d had to be these past few years. She could barely get her head around it herself. ‘We’re sorry, baby. Okay?’ His voice lowered a touch as he looked into her eyes. ‘For what happened.’

‘I know.’ She returned his smile, putting her hand over his, curling her fingers around it, letting him pull her in for a quick kiss.

‘All forgotten now, sweetheart. Okay?’

She nodded.

‘Good girl.’ Kel turned around, looking for Jesse who was leaning against his bike, a cigarette in one hand, a beer in the other. ‘We all right there?’

‘I don’t know yet,’ she whispered.

Kel squeezed her hand. ‘You need to talk, you come to me, okay?’

She smiled again, leaning in to kiss his cheek. ‘Okay.’

‘Go on, go enjoy yourself. Get reacquainted with this bunch of losers. That’s what I’m gonna do. I’ll see you later.’

She watched as he made his way over to Coby, enveloping him in a huge bear hug.

‘You know Kel’s gonna want to talk to you, don’t you?’ Jesse said, walking over to her, taking one last drag on his cigarette before throwing it down on the ground, stubbing it out with the heel of his heavy black boot. ‘Make sure you’re really all right.’

‘He knows I’m fine. He’ll just want to catch up, see how Charlie’s doing.’

‘And how
is
Charlie doing?’ Jesse asked, sitting down on one of the tables outside the clubhouse.

‘He’s good. He’s running the Mother Chapter better than ever before. Those guys have got so much respect for him.’

‘Yeah, well, he’s a good guy, your dad. My old man always had a lot of time for Charlie Hart.’

‘The only blip came when Shane died.’ The
only
blip? Lexi’s gaze lowered again, her eyes down on the ground. ‘The suspicions, the whispering, the jumping to conclusions – everyone had their own opinion of what happened.’ Her eyes met Jesse’s again. ‘Things went a bit sour for a while. My dad lost a little bit of control because he will do anything –
anything
– to stop the name of this club his father created from being blackened in any way. And some of them… some of them really did try to do that, for a while.’

Jesse handed her his beer, watching as she took a long drink. ‘Things were that bad, huh?’

She shrugged, handing him back the beer, half wishing she hadn’t started this conversation. She wasn’t anywhere near ready for where it could lead just yet. For where it
had
to lead – eventually. ‘There was just a lot of talk, a lot of speculation, that’s all. And my dad, he... it was a tough time for him. But he handled it. You know Charlie – he doesn’t let anything get him down for long. He knows how to deal with situations. In his own way.’

It was Jesse’s turn to look away. ‘What happened to Shane, it was a tragic accident, Lexi.’ He slowly turned his head to meet her gaze again, holding it steady.

‘Yeah. I guess it was.’ She stepped back from him, hooking her thumbs into the belt loops of her denim shorts. ‘I’m gonna go see if the food’s ready. I’m starving.’

‘Lexi?’

She turned back around to face him. ‘Yeah?’

‘You sure you’re okay?’

If she was being honest, she didn’t really know. But that was something she didn’t want to get into just yet. ‘I’m fine.’

She wandered back inside the clubhouse where the music was just as loud and the party carried on undercover. Various women unfamiliar to her were in differing states of undress, draped over club members she couldn’t identify due to their current positions, while the Prospects ran around trying to make sure everybody was happy. And for a second she stood completely still, as if something had just stopped working inside her, rendering her unable to move anywhere.

‘Need one of these?’

She turned to see
Tay
standing by the bar, holding out a tumbler of what she suspected was whisky. She knew he had a fondness for it, just as her dad did. It was something the one-time best friends had shared, a love of whisky. And motorbikes. And Angie.

She walked over to him, taking the tumbler and leaning in to kiss his cheek. ‘Thanks.’

‘Get wasted tonight, Lexi.’

‘Is that an order?’

‘I’m
the President of this club so, yeah. I guess it is.’

‘But I’m not a member,
Tay
. I’m not even an old lady anymore.’

He smiled, chuckling quietly as he looked at her. ‘You’re Angie’s girl all right. You got that same spunk, that same attitude. That same beauty.’

Lexi downed the whisky, slamming the glass back on to the counter.

Tay
threw her an appreciative look, raising an eyebrow. ‘The same ability to down a double shot in one go. That’s impressive.’

‘Fuck off,’ she laughed, turning away from him and heading off into the kitchen. Coby was in there, his head bent as he examined something bubbling away in a large pot on the stove. ‘Since when did you become chef around here?’ Lexi asked, leaning back against the wall. ‘I thought you always made sure at least one of the Prospects could cook, so none of you lot had to.’

He put the lid back on the pot and turned around, his eyes scanning the length of her body from her biker boots to her considerable cleavage, which was having a little bit of help tonight, thanks to one hell of a push-up bra.

‘Loving the just-got-out-of-bed look,’ he said quietly, referring to her messed-up hair. ‘But I’m guessing that wasn’t deliberate, considering we could all hear what our boy Jesse was doing to you back there earlier.’

She walked over to him, placing a hand lightly on his hip, leaning in towards him, her mouth almost touching his as she spoke. ‘What’s the matter, Vice President? Did you want to watch?’

He grabbed her wrist, clutching it tightly, his eyes boring deep into hers. ‘Enough, Lexi.’

She yanked her arm free, stepping back from him, their eyes still locked together. ‘I haven’t even started, Coby. I haven’t even fucking started.’

‘You still have no idea how to play fair, darlin’.’

‘Who said anything about playing fair?’

He moved closer, and she made no attempt to back any further away, holding his gaze as he invaded her space, his hand on her cheek, his mouth closing in on hers. ‘You didn’t think to tell me you were coming home? You didn’t think
I
deserved to know that? Before anyone else?’

‘Forgive me, Coby, if I assumed you didn’t give a shit.’

He let go of her, stepping back, but his eyes never left hers.

‘Get out of here,’ he whispered, finally turning away from her. ‘Before I do something I might regret.’

Lexi stayed where she was, staring at his back for what felt like an eternity, but it was really only a few seconds, before she finally turned around and walked out. But walking away – that was another matter.

***

Tay
watched the scene in the kitchen play out. He watched as his stepdaughter pressed herself up against his VP, a slight smile on her beautiful face as her mouth almost touched Coby’s. Tay could feel his own rather inappropriate hard-on pushing against the denim of his jeans so God only knew what Coby must be feeling, having her so close to him with those impressive tits of hers pushed right up against him.

He watched as Coby grabbed her wrist before she stepped away from him, and he watched as his VP moved closer, touching her face like a man who’d been there before.
Had
he been there before? Because what was happening there in front of him, it was clear
something
was going on between the two of them.
Tay
could see that. But he was absolutely positive nobody was supposed to.