Unbelievable: A Biker Motorcycle Club Romance (Iron Cobras MC - Book #3) Read online

  Her lips quirked up to one side. “Honestly, it doesn’t feel like I have a husband at this point. Ryder and I were married for only a year when he got locked up. We were still in that phase where we were finding ourselves swept up by lust, I think. We didn’t think about much, didn’t work on our house, didn’t talk about our ideas for the future. Sex pretty much took over every other thing we attempted to do.”

  “I think that’s common in new marriages.” I smiled at her as I tried not to picture her stripping away her clothes as she ran down my hallway.

  “I think so too.” For a second she looked only at her plate, then her eyes came up to mine. “I’ve only been with Ryder a couple of times since he’s been in prison. When I came back last month, I went to see him twice to have conjugal visits. It wasn’t the same. Mostly, I think because I was nervous, and I didn’t like the fact that everyone knew what we were in there doing. I’m not an exhibitionist and having sex with people doing the same thing on either side of thin walls and others standing guard outside the door felt wrong.”

  “I can see that.” There had to be more bothering her. “And how about not getting to talk to your husband much? How is that affecting you?”

  “It’s made me feel lonely.” She took a drink of the wine. “I mean, I can’t talk to my mother about the same kinds of things I talked to Ryder about. And when I do get to talk to him, I know someone is listening in on all of our conversations so I can’t even say things that I want to. I had this idea that we would get closer while he was in there because we could talk more, instead of having sex. We could learn more about each other. Only that isn’t how it happened at all.”

  Nodding, I knew what she was talking about. “So, you must be feeling as if you and Ryder are on hold.”

  “Yes!” She smiled as if I’d hit the nail on the head. “That is exactly what it feels like. My life has kept moving. I’ve found work. I’ve done some decorating at our home. I’ve worked on the yard there too. My life has been progressing. It’s my marriage that has frozen in place. And what’s worse is that I feel like it’s not only frozen but sort of decomposing as well. But I can’t let that happen. I made vows that I intend to keep. I won’t let what’s happened to Ryder end our marriage.”

  “Is that only because you know he was innocent of this crime?” She had to know that he could one day be caught in a real crime that he had committed. “What if he had been running those drugs? Would you still be holding on to those vows if he was guilty?”

  “You make a valid point, Lucas.” Tapping her long pink nail against the wine glass, she considered the thought. “If I am to be the wife of a man who belongs to a club that might be into things of an illegal nature, then I have to stand by him even when he has done wrong, don’t I?”

  She seemed to be understanding how things in the MC world worked. “Yes. But there’s more to that, Hailey. See, in our world, we take care of our own. And that means when one of our men has to be away from a while, then what is his to care for becomes ours to care for. One or more of the men in our club takes over while his MC brother is away. He will take over the care of his woman and children if he has any. Hell, even his pets if need be.”

  “That’s a pretty big chore to take on for a man who hadn’t planned that for his life, don’t you think?” She stabbed a piece of broccoli as she waited for my answer.

  “We all know what it means to become a member of our organization, Hailey. It means that we take on the commitments made by our MC brothers if need be.” She needed to know what she had in me while her husband was detained. “What I’m saying to you is that your husband asked me to take care of you and that’s what I will do. I know we don’t really know one another, but for all purposes, you are to think of me as your old man – or in your case – husband. And I will treat you as such as well.”

  Looking a little confused, she asked, “Lucas, are you telling me that you guys have sex with each other’s women?”

  “Not in that way, no. But we do if we’ve taken over for one of our brothers and his woman wants that. It’s considered taking care of their human needs.” I thought she should know something about life in prison. “This might not be a thing that you want to even think about, but while a man is behind those iron gates, he too partakes in activities to deal with his sexual needs. And sometimes that means having sex with someone else.”

  Blinking, she seemed a bit revolted. “You mean with other men?”

  I didn’t want to sully her idea of what a man should be. “I mean other people. There are plenty of female guards who watch over the men.”

  “So, Ryder has been having sex in there while I’ve been on the longest dry spell of my mature life?” Her eyes went to a deep shade of blue. “And if I want, then you can fulfill my needs? And there will be no repercussions for cheating on my husband?”

  “It’s not considered cheating in our way of life. And there are no secrets between MC brothers either. It would be common knowledge among our group.” I figured that she might as well know everything about our situation. “Even if we never do a thing, the others will think that we are anyway. It’s almost as if it’s expected. There’re three of our brothers out right now. I can show you proof of what I’m saying if you want to take a ride down to our MC headquarters later.”

  “So, what you’re saying is that there are currently three other couples in your group who aren’t real couples?” She looked more intrigued than disgusted which I found promising. “And when their men return, those women will leave the man they’re currently with to go back to the man they were with before? And no one gets angry about anything that happened?”

  “That’s right.” Leaning back in the chair, I felt like she understood MC life a bit better than she had before. “Seeing that you don’t come from this background, you’ve got a lot to learn. So far though, how do you like the life of a biker’s old lady?”

  “I like the open road. I like the freedom of riding behind my man. I like the way Ryder handles me – like I won’t break if he gets rough. He’s shown me a way of life that I had never seen before. Passion is a big part of that life. A passion for bikes. A passion to live life to the fullest. A passion for the woman in his arms. These are all things Ryder has shown me.” Nodding, she went on, “Yeah, I like what I’ve married into more than I knew I would. And the fact that I had just begun to live that life when it was ripped away from me hasn’t felt right at all. From what you’re telling me, most women in my situation have felt the same way I have.”

  “That’s right. And people who live the way we do came up with a way to deal with that kind of pain. Ryder thought that since you had no real idea what it meant to be a biker’s woman, that leaving you with us wouldn’t be the right thing to do for you. That’s why he sent you back to your family before he even got locked up. He wasn’t sure how you would handle one of his MC brothers taking you over.”

  “Is that what you’re doing - taking me over?” A sparkle bounced around her pretty eyes.

  “I am taking over the care of you, Hailey. It’s up to you what else you need to me take over for you.” There was much to teach the woman about the life of a biker’s wife. But there was no one better than me to teach this particular female about it.

  Chapter Four

  Hailey

  It would be a lie to say that I hadn’t been thinking about all the things Lucas had told me were at my disposal. But I hadn’t been brought up to believe that having sex with anyone else after marriage was okay. So as a part of me fantasized a little about having sex with Lucas, the rest of me refused to entertain the thought.

  Lucas’ tough exterior appearance was far from his intellectual interior. Years of riding motorcycles had done things to his body that it does to anyone who has ridden excessively outdoors.

  Weathered skin on the riders was one of the things I’d noticed the most when I started seeing Ryder and he took me along on his club runs. Lucas’ rugged good looks came in part because of the way the win
d had whipped at his skin. He kept his dark hair shortly cropped, so it didn’t have that dried out characteristic that the men with long hair could get. His beard was kept neatly trimmed and it too didn’t bear the dryness of long beards.

  Being that I was on the tall side for a woman at five-nine, one of the first things I liked about Ryder was his over six feet height. Lucas too was over six feet and extremely muscular, just like Ryder. After I knew I could have sex with Lucas if I wanted to, I did wonder if it would be possible for me to forget who I was really with and pretend I was with Ryder.

  But just as the idea came to me, my deep moral compass had tossed it out. I’d had the idea that time would have me feeling more comfortable with the life of a biker’s wife. But I hadn’t been given much time thus far to get used to it. Maybe Lucas could help me.

  He’d asked me if I wanted to go down to the Iron Cobra’s headquarters which was really just a large metal building with a bar in the front of it where the members and their ladies hung out. I wasn’t up for that just yet and had asked him if I could make dinner for us and if we could stay home. I just wanted to chill out and find my bearings with everything.

  Being the perfect gentleman that he was, he let me have my way. So, we’d stayed in and I had made a pot roast with mashed potatoes and green beans. And I’m made him let me clean up after dinner too.

  He was adamant about helping though and kept coming back into the kitchen as I washed the dishes. “I found a movie on Netflix that we can watch. But you’ll have to get done with this, so I’m done not helping.” He picked up the dishes I’d already washed and begun drying them then putting them away.

  I knew when I’d been beaten. “Okay then.” There were things I wanted to know about Lucas anyway and now seemed like the perfect time to get nosy. “So, if you don’t mind me asking, why is it that you don’t have your own old lady,” I sort of hated that term and couldn’t let it stand, “or woman in your life?”

  With a heavy sigh, he let me know the reason, “I’ve never clicked that way with any woman I’ve been with. Not enough to merit making her my own anyway.” As he came up beside me to take some more clean dishes, he bumped my shoulder and I found a grin on his face. “I’m not quite too old to eventually find someone though. I am only thirty-five.”

  “You’ve managed to mature a lot more than other men your age.” I pointed out. “What has you being such an empathetic man?”

  “Well, it’s a little complicated.” He leaned back against the counter, crossing his arms in front of him. “My mother was narcissistic. That meant that my siblings and I had to develop the ability to sense her emotions so we could act accordingly. When you have to learn such a thing as that from literally the moment your brain has developed enough for cognitive thought it gives you enormous empathy.”

  “That seems like a horrible childhood.” I couldn’t imagine living that way.

  “It was at times. But not all the time. And my father was around. Sometimes he even intervened. Not often, mind you, but sometimes he did try to put our mother in her place.” He laughed. “Not that it ever lasted. She was a force to be reckoned with. I truly believe that is what put them both in early graves.”

  “So, you have no parents?” I couldn’t believe a man that young had no parents.

  “I’ve dealt with that. They died ten years ago. And after their deaths which came only weeks apart, I delved into psychology.” How he wore a smile was lost on me. “My mother spoke so harshly to my father. And she complained about him, told lies about him, and it seemed like she tried her best to keep him down while making sure he did all he could for his family. We all had to appear perfect to the outside world. But when Dad died, Mom became a shell of a person. She stayed in her room all the time and the doctors told us when we found her unresponsive that she’d died from dehydration and starvation. She literally quit doing the basic things to survive. And she’d pushed my siblings and me away so hard that we hadn’t dared to bother her to know what she was doing.”

  I had to point out an odd fact about that. “Yet, you’re telling me this with a smile on your face, Lucas.”

  “Yeah, well, that’s because it was the way she’d acted and the way she’d died that led me to psychology. I found so much in that field to not only interest me, but I found things to help myself and others. It was a godsend in my opinion. So, I can’t help but smile when I think about it. I know it seems odd, but there’re reasons behind most oddities.”

  Finishing the last dish, I handed it to him to dry. “You are an interesting person, Lucas Hoss.”

  “Thank you.” Putting the dish away, he held out his arm for me to take. “Now, shall we adjourn to the media room to watch that movie? I’ve already started the popcorn machine and brought in a pitcher of beer for us.”

  “You’ve thought of everything.” I looped my arm through his. “So, what kind of movie are we going to watch?”

  “What other kinds of movies are there, Hailey?” His deep chuckle reminded me of the purely male way Ryder laughed. “An action movie of course.”

  “Of course.” Lucas made it easy to be with him somehow.

  We hadn’t ever said more than a few words to each other and that had been almost two years earlier. But he made me feel as if we were old friends. And I had to admit to myself that being with him felt normal.

  For what had seemed like forever, nothing had felt normal to me. Living back home with my parents hadn’t felt normal even though I had been right back in the bedroom I’d grown up in. Coming back to Baltimore and staying in the house Ryder and I had moved into together also didn’t feel normal. But this did.

  Lucas had a small theater-like room with a television that took up one entire wall. Three rows of recliners sat in front of the T.V. so I went to take one up front and in the middle as he went to get a bucket a popcorn and filled two icy mugs with beer.

  The recliners all had cup holders in the arms of them and as I pushed the button to make my chair recline, I found other buttons on the side of the chair too. Hitting one of them, I felt warmth spread across my back. “Heated seats, huh? You are fancy, aren’t ya?”

  “I suppose I am.” He took the seat next to mine, placing the mug of beer into the drink holder where it fit perfectly. Reclining his chair too, he put the bucket of popcorn between us. “I hope you like The Rock.”

  “Dwayne Johnson?” I asked with a smile. “Yep.”

  “Cool.” He started the movie and I saw one of my all-time favorites come up on the screen. “If I start saying the lines before they do, just tell me to shut up.”

  I had to laugh. “Then you and I will be fighting to see who can say them first. I’ve got that issue too.”

  It would be nice to have someone to watch shows with who didn’t look at me like I was annoying when I spouted movie lines before the actors onscreen did.

  As we watched the show and laughed, I got the feeling that most people went on their first date to a movie just so they could share an experience that would start the bond between them.

  Lucas and I were laughing and grabbing each other’s arms when we pointed something out to the other. And I kept feeling more and more comfortable with the man I barely knew.

  With no idea of what was really happening inside of me, I felt something blossoming inside of my body. And at the core of that blossom was Lucas. If it was loneliness, then it was whatever it was, but I began feeling a yearning desire for the man who sat next to me and laughed with me. And not even a little part of me felt like I was wrong for feeling that way.

  When we both went to get some popcorn, our fingers touched. “Sorry.” Lucas pulled his hand out of the bucket.

  My heart pounded. I hadn’t ever done anything so aggressive in my entire life. “Don’t be.” My hand ran up his arm, then over his shoulder before it got to his cheek. “Can I kiss you?”

  The way his blue eyes sparkled made my panties go damp. “Yes, you can.”

  So, I did it. I leaned in as he did, an
d our lips met.

  Who am I?

  Chapter Five

  Lucas

  Her lips quivered as she kissed mine. I could literally feel the loneliness coursing through her body. She’d been alone for such a long time and now she knew I could be what she needed. But I knew this wasn’t the type of thing she’d ever seen herself doing.

  It almost seemed like something that someone who was afraid to jump off a high cliff into deep water might feel. No reason to wait, just jump and go for it. So, she did what felt right. It felt right to me too.

  Moving the things that separated us to the side, I pulled her onto my lap, stroking her hair as I pulled it out of the clasp she’d used to hold it back. Silky smoothness moved between my fingers as the action sent the honeysuckle aroma into the air.

  The movie played in the background as she melted into my arms, moaning softly as I moved my tongue past her lips, into her mouth. Even such a small thing sent her nails into my back as her body heated.

  Slipping my hand underneath the back of her shirt, the feel of her soft skin under my rough palm made a shudder run through me. It hadn’t been two years without sex for me, but it had been a month. And it now seemed like I shouldn’t have let that amount of time pass as I was a bit too eager for this to happen.

  My cock thumped inside my jeans as Hailey moved to straddle me, sitting back down, her now hot mound pressing against my wanting cock. Her tits pressed against my chest as she began letting herself get all the way into what we were doing.

  Moving her body in soft waves, she mimicked actual sex and I began to need some of that actual action. Moving one hand between us, I pushed her jeans down to run my fingers through her moist folds.

  The glow from the big-screen television had the room well-lit, a thing I was afraid would eventually get to her if she could see it was me she was with and not Ryder. Getting up, I carried her with me as I headed to my bedroom. It was clear to me what she needed. I wasn’t going to start her brain to working by asking her if that’s what she wanted.