Taming Crow (Hells Saints Motorcycle Club) (11 page)

Crow sat on the edge of the bed with his head bent and his hands on his knees. He was waiting for Melissa to come out of the damn bathroom. The minute that Crow had heard that first catch of ragged breath pour out of Melissa he knew it was over.

It was just too fucking good to be true.

Even he knew it was happening too fast for her. It had taken everything he had not to pull her back from her quick retreat and drive into her ready or not. Because as much as he hated to think of his brother right now, Jules had been right. Melissa unwrapped…a damn wet dream.

Absolutely perfect.

It took all he had not to go break down the damn bathroom door and finish what they had started.

He scrubbed a hand over his face and glanced at the clock. She had been in there for a while. When Crow had rapped on the door a few minutes ago he had expected to hear remnants of a crying jag. But when Melissa answered in a resounding “I’m okay,” her voice sounded surprisingly strong and steady and not in the least like a woman on the verge of hysteria.

Thank God.

Crow looked up when he heard the door squeak open. He saw Melissa’s small shadow hit the wall as she headed down the hallway. She was wrapped up in a white fluffy bathrobe and her bare feet stopped right outside the bedroom door. Wide golden-flecked eyes stared back at him, while small, white teeth bit down on lips that were swollen and pink. Her hair curled wildly around her. Crow kept his eyes glued to Melissa and he noticed that when she moved into the room she stayed against the wall.

“Wow,” she whispered to him. Melissa hugged herself as if trying to contain the pulsing nerve endings that were still raging through her body.

Crow was up on his feet the minute that she opened her mouth. He didn’t touch her, but he braced his hand on the wall beside her head. Then Crow leaned in until Melissa was caged by the muscular frame of his body.

“Jesus. Melissa. You want to tell me what the fuck just happened here?” His eyes mirrored her confusion.

“Crow. I’m so sorry, but I’m not sure myself.”

“Baby, you gotta give me something.”

He ran a hand through his hair.

“I thought I just did.” She looked at him from beneath wet lashes and a small dimple popped out from her smooth cheek.

And there it was.

The quiet calm and sense of humor that he loved about her.

That he loved about her?

“Melissa…” Crow began.

“It’s been a while,” Melissa interrupted him. Her smile was gone now and replaced with something Crow couldn’t quite define.

He leaned back away from her then. Their eyes locked as her words hung in the air and then settled down soft between them.

“A while?” He arched a brow.

“A while,” she confirmed.

Crow’s eyes darkened and hit her mouth again. His hand moved to pull the lapels of her robe tighter around her. His palms trailed down her covered arms to her bare wrists where he took her small, cold, hands in his.

“How much time is
a
while
?”

She couldn’t possibly mean what he thought she meant.

Melissa took a deep breath.

“I’m not really sure. Since Jesse died and before then it was a while since we had really... ”

Crow pulled himself away . He looked at her with what appeared to be a mixture of shock and surprise.

“I’m not talking about fuc…having a man take you to his bed. When was the last time you were kissed, touched?” Crow asked. A sudden burning need to know filled him.

“I know what you meant.” Melissa blushed the color of a ripe watermelon.

Crow took a step back and scrubbed a hand over his face.

“So this was the …?” he asked.

I was the…?
Crow thought.

“Yes, it was.” Her eyes wide and cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

Yes. I. Was.
Crow fought the almost irrepressible urge to grin, fist pound the air and shout out a rebel yell.

But he calmed his ass down, kept his face blank and breathed in the charged air that circled around them.

Melissa was the first to break that spell.

“Did you get what you came for?” She looked shyly at him.

“What?” Crow shook his head, confused.

“The measurements.”

Melissa began toying furiously with the chain again.

“Did you get the measurements? Did you get what you needed?” she repeated.

Crow simply looked at her.

She shifted on her feet.

Then he smiled.

“I got exactly what I needed.” 

“Crow…” Melissa began helplessly.

“Shh, baby. Everything is going to be all right.” Crow pulled her tight against him.

He felt her whole body relax against him then and he held her for a long time. When Melissa finally pulled away from him, Crow didn’t want to let her go. But he let himself be led down the little hallway, to the stairs, and through the kitchen to the back door, where golden eyes met green ones and melted into a pool of heated confusion.

Then he walked out the door to the driveway that separated their two lives.

Blue. Balls.

Crow swung his leg painfully over his bike and hit full throttle. It took a good ten miles before he felt the throbbing in his dick ease up. He looked up at the sky to see the sun still shining brightly over his path through the goddamn sleepy little town of Havengate. How was it possible that life went on totally unaware that all hell had just broken loose at the house on Primrose Ave?

What the fuck was that?

Mousy Melissa unleashed.

Crow shook his head, trying to erase the picture of that hair, those eyes. Images of her swollen pouty mouth as she offered it all up to him on a silver goddamn platter danced through his mind. She was right there with him, all the way until that shit she carried weighed her down and got in the way. But for a while he had had her. And he would have her again. And again and again. It was just a matter of time.

He grinned.

Crow could still taste her on his tongue. Melissa’s skin reminded him of the lemon slices drowned in sugar that he used to like as a kid.

He could still feel that long soft wild mane of curls brushing against his body, could still smell the light flowery scent that being with her had left on his chest and arms. At the memory of the way she opened to him when he touched her, Crow felt his dick start to throb. He could almost feel her small perfect tits as they pushed against him. He groaned as his body reacted to the memory of her nipples swelling and hardening underneath his hands. Jesus, she had pushed her tight little body into him so close that he had felt the heat of her radiating through her jeans.

How wet and ready she was when his fingers dipped into her. She had finally opened completely for him and that was the sweetest part of all. Jesus. He couldn’t stop thinking about her perfect ass, her big wide eyes, her…

The horn of an eighteen wheeler rig blared long and loud and split through the air as it swerved furiously past Crow and threw him out of his reverie. Crow looked to his left to see the driver give him the finger just before the truck swerved again into the next lane to avoid hitting the guard rail.

Fucker wouldn’t have flipped that goddamn bird if I had been wearing my cut.
The thought made Crow clamp down on his back teeth. He pulled his bandana over his face to shield his mouth from the dust the semi kicked up. Nothing worse than getting road dirt ground into your teeth and down your damn throat. Crow thought about racing the sonofabitch down, pulling him out of that goddamn truck and beating him bloody just to shed some of the excess testosterone raging through his system.

He looked at the license plate of the retreating rig and thought about placing one phone call just to make the driver’s life miserable. Lucky for the fucker, getting pissed off just seemed like too much of an effort right now. So instead of putting a call into his brothers to register the plate for a later beatdown, Crow pulled the bike over, stood beside it and lit up a smoke.

Because really, he was in a good fucking mood.

The way he saw it, this thing with Melissa could go a few ways and all of those ways involved burying himself deep inside of her.

No question.

Crow wanted more of her. He wanted to hear his name breathed through those pink lips of hers, he wanted to feel her small body writhe beneath him, he wanted to bury his fingers in her hair and stretch her out wet and wide. He wanted to lay her down, open her up and feed on her.

Yeah, the big bad cat wanted to corner the little mouse and play with her for a while.

A small voice of reason slipped into the thoughts of all the ways Crow wanted to play with the little widow next door—Melissa was not something to be toyed with.

Just then his cell rang.

“Where are you?” Jury snarled.

“Fuck,” Crow muttered.
He had forgotten about the meet.

“Fuck? Hey, asshole, I’m gonna save your life right now by assuming that you did not recognize my goddamn voice before you led with that,” Jury snarled louder.

“Yeah. Apologies, man.” Crow grimaced, straightened up and stomped out his smoke.

“Prosper said you still had his proxy. Your president’s been calling you since noon. Might be a good idea to pick up your goddamn phone once in a while. I got three boys heading to your house right now to make sure you ain’t lying in a pool of your own blood. You want to keep that patch, you touch base.”

Then Jury hung up.

Crow looked at his cell then…five goddamn missed calls in the last couple of hours from the clubhouse.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Prosper picked up on the first ring.

“You better be calling from a goddamn hospital.” Prosper waited maybe a half a second. “No? Love to fucking hear what was so important you couldn’t answer your phone
all fucking
day
. But lucky for you I don’t actually give a damn. You just make sure that you get your ass over to Fallsview tonight. To-fucking-night, you hear me? I want to make it clear to Jury that Crownsmount's got a stake in the shit happening there. You get back to me the minute that vote goes down. Not in a goddamn mood for an all-out, I’ll tell you that. I need Jules here, so you’re on your own. You got that? You make it clear to the table that when shit comes down Crownsmount falls on the side of the Aces. Wouldn’t hurt to remind them of our recent troubles with the Colombians. You understand what I am telling you?” Prosper ranted.

“Yeah. Yeah. No worries, boss. I’m on my way now,” Crow said.

“I’d be there myself, but Raine…” Prosper’s voice trailed off.

“Raine what?” Crow felt a sense of dread coming on him.

Silence.

“Raine fucking
what,
boss?” Crow snarled into the phone.

“Jesus. Don’t scare the boy.” Crow heard Pinky’s exasperated voice.

“Hi sweetheart.” She had taken the phone away from her husband.

“Don’t bullshit me, Pinky,” Crow ground out.

“Watch the way you talk to the woman who raised you, you ungrateful sonofa…” Prosper voice threatened him from the background.

“Oh hush, Prosper.” Pinky sounded tired. “Raine’s okay, honey. She is. She's in the hospital and they are monitoring her carefully…”

Crow managed one word. “Jules.”

“Yeah, honey. Call him. With his medical training he can explain everything to you better than I can,” Pinky suggested gently.

Crow almost crushed the phone in his hand before hitting the send button.

“Motherfucker,” Crow said when Jules picked up.

“So I’m guessing by that happy hello you heard about Raine and the baby?” Jules asked.

“Yeah, I fucking heard it, but only after getting my ass chewed out about the damn proxy vote. What I want to know is why I didn’t hear it from you?” Crow snapped.

“Really, this shit again from you? You gonna make me ask again? You her man? Father of that baby? Or just some sonofabitch who got it all wrong? Because, Brother or not, you know that’s the way Diego sees the thing between you and his woman. I know she’s the reason you left, man, and I get it. But I’m telling you that you got no place here in this right now. So if you get it in your head to venture on up here, take a minute to think. In the state that D’s in, you showing up here now would do nobody any good, Brother. You got something started there. You fucking stay there until it’s finished this time.” Jules paused and drew deep on whatever he was smoking.

“Just tell me,” Crow managed.

“Preeclampsia,” Jules said. Then he went on to explain to Crow what that meant for Raine and her baby.

“D?” Crow asked.

“Like I said, he’s a fucking mess. Reno and Claire have Willow most of the time. D won’t leave Raine’s side. She snuck the phone away from him yesterday while he was passed out in a chair and sent out an all-call to the club begging someone to drag his ass home for a hot meal and a shower. I could be wrong, but I think him hovering like that is making it that much worse for her. But no one dares to say shit to him. Not even Prosper. Claire tried to reason with him, but he went off on her and made her cry. Reno went at him right in the goddamn hospital and Riker had to pull them apart. If Raine had heard him yell at her sister, you know she’d have jumped in too. Trust me, Brother. You do not want to be here,” Jules said.

Crow lit up another smoke and drew deep. If Raine was feeling well enough to complain, then she was probably doing okay. He breathed a sigh of relief. When it came down to it, Crow knew Jules was right. Him being there could only make matters worse. Sounded like a goddamn circus.

“Yeah. I hear ya. But you let me know if anything comes up you need me for,” Crow said.

“No question, Brother. I’m not in the business of keeping shit from you, you know that. Hey, I was gonna call and ask you something anyway. You sticking around there for a while after the Fallsview thing? If Raine’s symptoms don’t ease up, they are talking about taking the baby early and I want to be around for that. But after it’s all good, I was thinkin’ ‘bout putting my ass on the bike and headin’ up your way. Figure I’d help out with the house. You good with that?” Jules asked.

What the fuck was this about?

“Yeah, Brother, I’m good with that. Be good to see you. You sure I don’t need to be there?” Crow answered.

“Already asked and answered. Anything comes up I think you need to be here for, I’ll call.” Then Jules hung up.

Crow revved up the bike and headed towards the Fallsview clubhouse. As he drove along Crow thought about Raine and Diego. He hated to think of her sitting in that hospital sick and scared. Crow’s first instinct was to go to her and protect her from the worry that seeing Diego crazed must be causing her.

But Crow also knew that Jules was right.

Just like Prosper had been right.

Raine wasn’t his woman. She belonged to his brother. And after all the bullshit had been settled between the two of them anybody could see how good Raine and Diego were together. Yeah, no question about it, Diego Montesalto had his faults, but who the hell didn’t? And Crow had to admit that when it came down to what mattered, Diego was all about Raine and his kids—their daughter, Willow and the child that Raine carried inside of her now meant everything to Diego.

Time and distance had given Crow a much needed new perspective. He recognized now that he just didn't feel the same way about things anymore. And he knew that it was a good thing. A damn good thing. Because with that new perspective came a kind of freedom—and a measure of peace and contentment that he had never thought was possible.

Feeling strangely relieved, Crow pulled into the next rest stop, took a piss, bought a pack of smokes and filled up the bike. While he was settling up at the cash register, Crow noticed a kid's toy tool belt kit for sale in a cardboard display next to the counter. The set contained a child-sized hammer, a screwdriver and some other stuff actually made of metal and not that cheap plastic shit. Crow thought of Jett and threw one on the counter. The kid would like it. Maybe they could do another little project together.

Thinking of Jett made Crow think of Melissa again and that made him grin. So before he headed out from the rest stop, he sent a text to her cell saying that he'd be gone for a few days and for her to reach out if she needed anything.

Then Crow got back on the bike and rode on to Fallsview, hoping to hell that Melissa would be needing something.