She was deeply excited when Cole asked Brian's thoughts on running to New Orleans. That Cole was thinking of getting her out of Chicago and coming with her felt wonderful. But with the outriders riding through the city right now, tearing up Gabriel's little world, the war had begun and Cole was too loyal to his club -- his family -- to leave them under these conditions.
Much of what he would be trying to protect with a move would still be threated by the same source with an equal amount of violence. So he wasn't going to run with her. He was going to stay. He would get her into a safe, hidden environment, and then he would turn his bike around and he would fight.
She snuggled closer to him. She couldn't ask him not to fight. The reasons he would ride into this war were the same strong qualities she loved about him. She couldn't and wouldn't change him. She may discover some things about him as they grew closer that she didn't like -- no man was perfect -- but these qualities were very dear to her. They saved her from a life of servitude and deep-current fear so powerful it blinded her. Now she had new fears created by love rather than despair.
When she woke, the sun outside was glowing along the edges of the thick hotel curtains and Cole was talking to someone named Rat on his cellphone.
"Again, man, sorry to wake you so early. See you at noon," Cole said after many short, unconnected things she couldn't make sense of. Cole set his phone down on the nightstand and slid onto bed beside her, "Hey, lover. Did you sleep well?"
"I'll let you know after you give me a kiss," she murmured.
"I have to earn your answer to a simple greeting?" he asked amused.
"Yes, before coffee, yes," she pouted. "Who is Rat? Is that his real name?"
"His real name is Rafael, but he refuses to answer to it. There are some seriously deep hate-currents between him and his family. So, now he is Rat. I asked him to let you stay at his house for a few weeks and he talked to his wife, Angie. They both agreed they can help us out."
"You're not going to be there?" she asked, feeling suddenly a little afraid.
"I'll be there, but with everything that is going on, there's a lot I'll need to pitch in with, too. So will Rat and everyone else in the brotherhood. Once we take care of this, though, we can get back home and try this again," he promised.
She nodded, but was unwilling to express agreement with words. He's found someplace safe and now he's already turning his bike around to ride into war. She knew it was coming; she was aware this was coming last night, but now that it was here, it hurt her in ways she didn't know she could hurt. Wrapping her arms around him, she clung to him with sudden desperation. "Don't die. I won't live if you aren't here with me."
He petted her like she was a great cat and his most precious possession, "While I don't have the pure conviction that Gabriel is thought to have about being bullet proof, I do have a strong sense of self-preservation. I promise not to get into anything I can't see my way out of, all right?"
She nodded into his chest, surprised that she got that much. She was expecting something along the lines of 'a man's got to do what a man's got to do', which she would have slapped him for. Then, after he fell asleep tonight, she would have put a pin in his butt just so he would remember that she was very upset. "Can't you guys just snipe him or something?" she asked, amazed that she suddenly felt gunning someone down was reasonable.
"If it gets to that point and we have a shot, I'm sure we'll take it," Cole told her, still petting her. "Things have rarely been that easy in my life, however. Have you ever had good things fall in your lap like that?" Cole asked her.
"You, but before that, no," she admitted.
"I believe on our first date, I was in a gun fight, so I can't agree that it has been all that simple for us to get together."
She nodded against him and then kissed his left nipple. "No, it really hasn't been all that simple, has it? Have you thought that I might not be worth all this … all of this?"
"Not once. Not even once," he told her.
CHAPTER TWELVE
He untangled himself from her and then got under the covers and wrapped her back up, kissing her with deep passion. Then his hands began to explore her body and fondle her ass.
"Cole, are you trying to seduce me? Because it's working wonderfully if you are, but it would be an unforgivable tease if you aren't," she sighed with breathless moans as he suckled and pulled at her nipples.
He didn't answer, though she thought she felt a chuckle of pleasure thrum in his chest. Her breasts were hot and her nipples were painfully aroused by the time he began to kiss his way down her abs, going lower with each kiss. Was he going to…?
He did continue all the way down, between her thighs, which were now spread, and shaking with micro-vibrations of anticipation, wanting very much for his tongue to perform what no one has done for a very long time. It had been so long, she considered once taking on female clients just to get some head every once in a while, but couldn't visualize making the leap.
The heat and smoothness of his tongue on her arched her breasts to the ceiling and expelled a hot gasp of pleasure from her lungs. "Oh, sweet mercy, yes, oh yes please," she moaned and curled her fingers into the sheets, gripping them, as he explored her pussy with lavish attention. He wasn't bad. In fact, the sweet sensations radiating through her were telling her that he was very good, so very, very good.
When he came up to her clitoris, she was on the verge of enraptured adoration for him. When he focused all of his attention to her heated nub, she crossed that line with reckless abandon. Those first sweet, golden sensations soon beautified into eager yearnings and she ran her hands over her body, loving every moment of being a woman and having a body that was so responsive.
She was, of course, aware that her body attracted most men's attentions, which she would freely admit was a blessing of DNA and the lucky coalescence of cells. But having a body that generated such glowing wonder from those attentions was a gift from the Almighty and she gave praise again and again as yearnings evolved into urges and needs.
She knew that the more the body's arousal level refined, the more it hungered for greater levels of arousal. Those hungers, when Cole brought her to the breach of climax, were sweet, fully developed agonies, which clutched and curled her abs, forcing her hands to knead her breasts with fervent passion. She came to the mental and spiritual place of offering -- the climax's closeness compelling her to do whatever it took to keep him doing what he was so good at doing. "Yes, Cole, yes, please don't stop, please. I'll do anything you want, baby. Please. Oh shit, I'm going to come! Oh, please don't stop now. I'm fucking going to come!"
She promised him pleasure, servitude, and fulfillments only gods could claim, all with urgent assurances that she would not only perform these fantasies for him, but would love doing them. Not in so many words did she make these offerings, because during those moments her vocabulary seemed to be crippled, but she was sure the areas lacking in her words were being soundly communicated by the lustful, surging seductions of her body.