Page 14 of Big Timber

“Yes, yes. Oh, God, harder, please!” she cries out, but that isn’t good enough for me, so I smack her ass cheeks, one at a time, and she looks back at me in surprise.

“I belong to you, Tarak,” she agrees, her eyes glued to mine.

I nod and deeply exhale, unwilling to admit how badly I needed to hear those words. With a smile, I continue my thrusts, plunging deeper and deeper into her until we’re both screaming out nonsensical words and I collapse on top of her before rolling to my side and pulling her into my arms.

*

“Can you grab my shirt for me, please?” she asks after I finish up in the bathroom hours after we first entered the room.

“Nah. I like you naked,” I growl back to her, trying to ignore her pout. “Don’t get shy with me.”

“It’s not that, it’s just—”

“Why do I feel a regulation coming on?”

“It’s not a regulation, smart ass,” she says, trying to slide over me to reach for the T-shirt on the floor. “If there’s a fire, I will lose time getting out if I have to stop to get dressed.”

“How many times has your house caught fire?” I try my damnedest to sound serious, but as I’ve pinned her against my chest, she undoubtedly feels my stomach bouncing with laughter.

“First of all, I have seen my fair share of naked people wrapped in blankets at house fires,” she indignantly replies, until her face softens a bit. “And my dad is worried aboutthingswith you staying here.”

I suppose that was the nicest possible way to remind me that a man I’m associated with was just burned alive.

“I’m sorry, Tarak,” she says, shimming up along my body to kiss my chin. “Besides, I ordered a pizza while you were in the bathroom, and I’m not opening the door without clothes on.”

“You could have led with that,” I grumble, riled up over her constant need to do thingsjust so.

“I could have. Except, I kind of like it when you get all growly,” the little minx says, sliding off my body.

She grabs her clothes from the floor and slips them on, her eyes running along my chest as I tentatively flex my ankles.

“Dinner in bed, I think. What do you want to drink?”

“Do you have any more of that root beer from earlier?” I ask in return and she nods, tossing me the remote control for the huge TV before setting us up for the evening.

Declan

“What do you mean, he can’t take my call?” I ask, rage flowing through my body.

It’s been four days since Parker King was burned alive outside our clubhouse and I can’t get one of my oldest friends to call me back?

The only person who’s possibly more pissed off is sitting directly across from me. Axel cracks his knuckles, showing his impatience.

“There’re a lot of things going down right now.”

Holding the handset away from my ear, I squeeze my hand until I hear the plastic start to give in, then I slam it down.

My vice president and I sit there as the minutes tick by, each knowing what the other is thinking.

“We’re going to need a vote,” Axel says.

“We’ll lose a few,” I respond, knowing there are some I can’t afford to lose, not with what’s coming at us. “I’ll talk to Jasper tomorrow, feel him out. I’d rather go independent than walk into another situation like this.”

“We’ll need Big Timber more than ever before.” He bitterly laughs as he rubs the ink on his arm, but he’s not simply talking about Timber’s chosen profession. Neither one of us has any doubt that Wolfman will stay with us, and I like to think Big Timber will also—he just hasn’t been here that long.

“He seemed pretty wrapped up with that firefighter,” I say, nodding to myself as I open the file that Diesel gave me on her and her family first thing this morning.

“Does that help or hurt us?”

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