Game Changer (Hell's Saints Motorcycle Club) (21 page)

Pinky and Dolly visited Glory with us every afternoon after that. Glory didn’t say much and when we asked her if there was anyone we should call she sadly shook her head.

Glory was a mystery that Claire, Pinky, Dolly and I ruminated over and not just a little bit. She was a beauty in the classic sense. Even in her battered state, Glory looked out of place at the MC. Glory had the silky blonde hair, peaches and cream complexion and pale blue eyes of a Ralph Lauren model. She reminded me of the photos I had seen of the ill-fated wife of John Kennedy Jr. Her beauty was classic. We were all dying to know her story but she contributed very little to any conversation that seemed to turn personal, and believe me, we shamelessly tried to steer that conversation towards the personal every chance we got.

Pondering the mystery that was Glory served to keep my mind occupied. It gave me something to think about. It was something I could call up like a talisman to steer my mind from the image of the back of Gino’s head coming apart and landing in bits and pieces onto my bare skin.

Eventually things started to feel better. With the help of Diego’s loving arms around me all night long, it was easier for me to face the day. He chased all my demons away and I loved him for that.
Loved him for that
. This could not be good for me on so many levels. I knew I would be taking a big chance if I took a gamble at love with a man like Diego. But I was beginning to think he might be worth that risk. I wanted to believe he was worth the risk. I wanted him. This man. This rough, tough, flawed, outlaw of a man. I wanted to be his woman.

The first few days after
the event
he had been so worried and loving and attentive. And the attentive part was the best because we had talked. I was pretty sedated but in that place between sleeping and awake we had each other. We started off slowly, tentatively but then we seemed to move a long at a warp speed rate.

Once those gates opened for me, I just didn’t stop. I told Diego things that I had never shared with anyone, some of them not even Claire. I told him about how hard I had worked to get into nursing school and how one sad case then another then another had broken my heart. He got very quiet then and listened hard. At one point the pain etched over his face was so deep I thought it might crack him in half, so I veered away from that subject quickly. I thought he was feeling that for me, that he didn’t want me to relive those days of witnessing the interminable sadness of it all.

So because I was too self -involved, I didn’t ask him about it. I didn’t prod or question or gently lead him to full disclosure. I didn’t ask and I should have. I really really should have. Maybe it would have made a difference. Maybe not. But I wish I had asked.

Diego shared too. Not all of his story, not the whole of it. Not even the most important parts of it, but he shared. He told me that he had first patched in with the Nevada Chapter near Pinky’s house and that is why he had known the brothers up there. He told me some funny stories about Prosper and Pinky’s wedding day and about the shit they put Reno through before patching him in.

But it wasn’t all about the MC.

Diego told me about places he had visited and places he still wanted to see. He talked about the how much he loved being on the open road and his first bike. He said he missed the hot dry heat of the desert and told me about a trip he took once through Mojave National Preserve.

I told him about my obsessive love of maps and all things geographical. How I had gotten a world globe one year for Christmas and had studied it and researched each country one by one until I could name all the countries in Africa and Asia.

Including their capitals.

In alphabetical order.

Then I named them for him. Diego smiled at that and just shook his head.

In between that place of sleeping and waking when everyone else was dreaming, Diego and I became more than lovers. We became friends. Looking back, it’s when I fell in love. Really fell in love. For the first and last time of my life.

Moving day. We were moving in to the mostly finished lake house.

While Claire, Glory and I had spent the last few weeks, recuperating, recovering and regrouping. The brothers had been renovating. They had been clearing out and hammering and nailing and reinforcing and cutting and drilling and notching.

And they were good at it.

Glory had decided to stay. We still knew nothing about her. She never disclosed. She never slipped after a third glass of wine. She never blurted out a name or a place when she had her guard down. Maybe her guard was never down. I didn’t know. I don’t even know if she ever really even made a conscious decision or just rolled with it. There was no discussion. And on our part, we never questioned, we never asked, we never made it hard for her or uncomfortable for her to be with us.

So she just stayed.

Just her, with us.

With the only the clothes on her back. She just stayed.

Like a whisper in the wind, sometimes she was barely there. Her voice hadn’t completely come back yet and maybe never would. The raspy tone of it belied the pedigree that her light complexion and pale blue eyes spoke to. She had beautiful bone structure and her new pixie cut showed it off even more. She was a beauty our Glory. We were learning that her spirit was as lovely as her looks. But she could also get down and dirty if she needed to. Like the way she stepped up to Gino and “oh daddied” him literally to death. Where that came from in her, God only knows. I looked up at her as I was handing her some painting tape and I wondered for the millionth time how she had ended up with Gino. But then again, she probably wondered the exact same thing about me.

We had each picked out a bedroom. The house had been fully furnished but we still needed fresh bedding and some other stuff. Since none of us had felt like venturing forward yet, we bought what we needed on the internet and had had it all shipped. The porch was filled with a litter of boxes from Amazon, Crate and Barrel, and several linen stores.

I felt someone grab me from behind and lift me off my feet.

“Babe.” Diego was nuzzling my hair.

He turned me around in his arms, put his big hands on either side of my face and laid one on me. God I loved his kisses. But Jesus, in front of everybody?

I laughed and tried to push him back, blushing.

“Going pink on me babe is not gonna stop me. Makes me hard” He grinned in my ear.

Then he draped his hand around my shoulder and called out to Reno who was on a ladder hammering.

“Gonna take Raine outta here for a bit. You got this?” It was not a question.

“No problem brother. Where ya going?” Reno whacked at a nail.

“Threw some sandwiches and shit together. Nice day. Thought we’d take the bike out an’ stop somewhere to eat ‘em.”

“Yeah?” Reno was talking around some nails he had placed in his mouth as he hammered. “Go take your woman out on your damn picnic. I’ll be sweating my balls off in here.” He grinned.

“Ain’t no fucking picnic, brother. I don’t do picnics.” Diego grumbled.

“You got food, you got drinks. You taking that shit on the road.” Reno was still hammering.

“Ya, so what? We get off the bike, we grab some chow and eat it.” Diego was frowning.

“You taking a blanket?” Reno hadn’t broken his hammering stride.

“You got to have some shit to sit on.” Diego explained.

“Then it’s a fucking picnic, man.” Reno still hammering.

“Ain’t going on a fucking picnic, I don’t do fucking picnics.” Diego was looking wary.

“Hey, Ma.” Reno called for Dolly.

“Yeah?” Dolly answered from the other room where she was hanging curtains.

“Diego’s taking Raine out on the bike, he packed some food and shit. Is that what you call a picnic?”

“Is he taking a blanket?” Dolly yelled from other room.

Reno stopped hammering and raised his eyebrows. Diego ran his hand through his hair.

“Fuck me.” He said under his breath.

“You tell anybody about this shit I am gonna kill you Reno, you feel me?”

“Secret’s safe with me.” Reno was grinning wide open.

Diego grabbed my hand and said “Come on babe. Let’s go on a fucking picnic.”

I laughed all the way to the bike.

It was another perfect summer day. We rode under an indigo sky dotted with big white frothy clouds suspended in amazingly beautiful formations. The wind whipped through my hair and I had my arms wrapped around my man. Tight.

After a while we pulled into a wooded area. There was a heavy chain across the dirt road and a sign that said “No trespassing.” Diego pulled up next to it, reached in his pocket and produced a key to the huge heavy lock attached to the bulky chain.

I raised my eyebrows at him.

“My land, babe.” He said as explanation.

The road continued for about a quarter mile then turned into a path. After we had cleared the gate the land pretty much was a slow and steady incline with a wooded area all around After a short while we broke into a large clearing. It was beautiful. The land sat on the edge of a rolling hill in a pretty grassy knoll.

I just stood for a minute and took in all the wonder. On the edge of the natural clearing, someone had begun taking down trees. There was a chainsaw case and a felling ax sitting on a pile of freshly chopped wood. The smell of the timber joined with the pitchy smell of sticky pine trees. I could hear the rushing of water coming from somewhere. There was a flurry of startled birds fleeing from the trees.

I turned to Diego. He was pulling the blanket out from the bike.

“It’s beautiful.” I said to him.

“
You’re
beautiful.” He said to me.

Then he grabbed me by the hand and we walked in silence for a little while. I was in awe, taking in all the natural beauty and wondering again at this man beside me.

He stopped by a stream that was flowing fast with cold clear water dancing over smooth river rock.

He spread out the blanket and turned to me. He began to pull my shirt over my head. Suddenly Diego was all hands and mouth.

Broad daylight and he wanted me naked.

He had never seen me buck naked in the blinding light of day
. Blinding light of day.

I stood in front of him with my nipples pushing up past my demi cup bra that was just a little too small for my semi large breasts but it was frothy white lace and I had loved it. Then I covered them.

“Diego…” I began.

“Babe, you gotta stop this shy shit with me. Your mine. I’ve been in you, had my mouth on you. I have tasted every single square inch of your beautiful fucking tits. I know what your ass looks like better than you do. I know that you have three freckles on the back of your left knee and I know that I after I finger fuck you it takes exactly five times of pulling on your clit with my mouth to make you cum and then you spasm so hard all that sweetness sucks my tongue right in.”

“Five times?” I croaked.

“Exactly.” He held my gaze.

“Now get your beautiful hands off those big tits that you know I love and come here.” He stepped into me.

He stood before me and pulled his shirt at the back of the neck to yank it off. I never ever got tired of looking at his body. Diego seeing me in the bright light of day meant that I got to see him too. I drank him in. The way the muscles danced under his skin when he moved. The scars, the large intricate cross tattooed on his chest. The way his hip bones made a v pointing to the area of my greatest pleasure.

I took my hands away, reached back and unhooked my bra. My breasts fell heavy against me and Diego reached in and kneaded them with his beautiful rough hands.

“Pretty bra, babe. But you’re not wearing that shit with me. I want easy access to your tits. I want to feel them soft against me when you’re on the back of my bike. I want to be able to reach over and pull your shirt up and look at them, and lick them and touch them whenever I want. I want to be able to lay my hand on you, skin to skin and feel your heartbeat.”

How could you argue with that?

I reached down and unzipped him. I yanked off his jeans and boxers until they were a pool around his ankles. Then I did the same to mine.

And there we stood. Facing each other in the beautiful brilliant light of day. He dropped me to the blanket and when his body moved to cover mine, I flipped him on his back. He went down with a surprised grunt and I smiled at him. Then I proceeded to cover every inch of his chest with my lips, my tongue and my mouth. I licked and sucked and kissed him until his nipples were puckered and his cock was rock hard Then I straddled him and grinded into to him.

Totally inhibited. I pushed away all thoughts of shyness or risk or fear. It was just him and me and sunshine and light and the perfect sound of clear fresh swiftly running water. I arched my back as I built. I felt myself tighten around him and moved faster. His hands on my hips guided me, pulling me back and forth and tighter to him. I pulled out just a little only to tunnel him deeper inside me. I did that again and again, feeling that sweet tension build. I loved feeling Diego’s thighs rise on my ass and his muscles grow tighter. When I could not hold back any longer, I rose one more time and settled hard on his cock stretching my body. I took all of him inside me then. I arched my back and raised my outstretched arms in welcome to the sun, and the clouds and the love that came radiating down from the heavens and fell in the space between us. And I gave thanks.

We laid totally naked in the warm sunshine wrapped up in each other. Diego was lying on his side with his legs draped over mine. He had one arm wrapped around my waist and the other cradling my head. I was still throbbing from the thrill of having him inside me. Diego had stopped using protection right after the Ellie thing. He had gone for a blood test to make sure she hadn’t “left him with any of her shit” and he had gotten the report he was clean. I hadn’t asked him to do it but was glad he had. I had been on the pill and continued to be on it so we were protected. It was something I was pretty religious about. I may have forgotten a couple of days in between the chaos when the Gino stuff went down but we weren’t really active then anyway.

Diego was a little obsessive about making sure I took it. So obsessive that it kind of hurt my feelings a little bit. I guessed he just didn’t think I was mother material, or didn’t want any kids with me. Or maybe any kids period. Or maybe any permanent me, period.

And I went on like that sometimes.

Because honestly, my biological clock was beginning to tick. I was going to be twenty nine my next birthday and I sometimes looked at mother’s with babies and thought I would like that. But I wasn’t sure Diego was the right baby daddy for that.

Actually, I would probably be crazy to think he would be the right baby daddy for that. He was a Hell’s Saint through and through. No denying that. He was an outlaw man. I knew that the things he did for the club were not legal, or lawful or even moral. I grew up with two hidden loaded guns in my house for Christ sakes and my dad hadn’t even been patched in. But I also knew that Diego was a good man in the way Prosper was a good man. Loyal, dedicated, raw and flawed. After the Ellie thing, Diego only had eyes for me, he never came to me smelling like another woman, and he never came to me drunk or with a raised fist. Yet. Not yet. Time would tell.

So I took my birth control pills and we fucked like rabbits and all was well. Until it wasn’t.