Blaze: Kings of Hell MC (21 page)

As I reached for the door, there was a dainty little knock.

“Are you going to be much longer, Mr. Noll?” came the nurse’s muffled voice from the other side.

“No, I’m done,” I said as I opened the door. I watched her eyes as my exposed chest and stomach registered and distracted her.

“Good,” she said, still not looking me in the eye. Her eyes settled on my hips, where my pants were hanging loose, showing her I wasn’t wearing anything underneath.

“What’s up?” I asked her, content to stand like that all day and let her look at me.

Her eyes jerked back up to my face, and she blushed slightly.

“I’m sorry,” she excused herself.

“Don’t be. I like knowing I’m attractive. It’s flattering.” I gave her a little wink.

“Well, come in here, Mr. Noll. I think she’s about to wake up, and I figured you wanted to be here when she does.” She stepped back and started to walk over by the bed, where I could hear Julia starting to groan.

Her eyelids fluttered as her eyes tried to open. She made a couple more groaning noises and reached for me. I took her hand in mine.

“I’m here,” I said as I kneeled down next to the bed. “I’m here, Julia. It’s okay.”

She squeezed my hand and pulled me closer.

I looked at the nurse, who just nodded. I took that as an indication that these were promising signs.

Julia

When I opened my eyes, I didn’t know it had been almost five days since the incident on Ivan’s yacht. I didn’t even remember what had happened, at least not right away. When I opened my eyes for the first time, I felt like I was waking up from a good night’s rest with long, strange, spiraling dreams.

I knew something was wrong when I saw Gage’s face almost right in front of mine. He was kneeling down next to the bed, and he glowed. He radiated hope, joy, relief, and the look of someone who felt their prayers had finally been answered. The kind of exultant joy I saw in his eyes didn’t come without some kind of trouble.

Golden afternoon light spilled into this bedroom. It wasn’t morning. I hadn’t been asleep for the night. And there was a nurse standing in front of him near the end of the bed. I felt my brow furrow.

“What’s she doing here?” I barely mumbled.

Gage laughed and embraced me.

“You’re back,” he said enthusiastically.

“And I need something to drink,” I told him. “My throat is parched.” My words barely came out as more than groans. I felt them rattle deep down in my chest.

“Here you are, dear.” The nurse handed me a cup of water almost right away.

As the wonderfully cool liquid poured down my throat, it soothed what I could best describe as an intense burn. I handed the cup over to Gage gently. I started to ask him what happened, but I caught something in his eyes that reminded me of what happened on Ivan’s yacht, and what happened just before that series of events.

I covered my mouth. I could feel my eyes trying to work up tears, but my body was so dry and brittle that nothing came out.

“Oh God, Gage,” I sobbed. I grabbed him and pulled him back to me, crying tearlessly on his shoulder as I realized how lucky I was to be waking up to his enraptured eyes, the dying golden light of the day, and the strange nurse standing at the end of the bed.

“It’s okay,” he tried to comfort me. “You’re here. You’re awake. You’re back with me.”

I pulled back and looked into his troubled eyes.

“What happened?” I asked. “Tell me everything. My memory’s choppy.”

He looked up at the nurse. “Could you give us a few minutes?” he asked her.

“Sure. Would you like for me to go out and pick you two up anything for dinner? I can get anything you need, and don’t worry about the bill. It’s taken care of.” Her young voice was so sweet and kind.

Gage looked at me, and I suddenly craved a cheeseburger. Or pizza. Chili dogs. Oh God, I wanted junk food. It was all I could think about.

“Chili dogs,” I blurted out. “And fries.”

Gage looked up at the nurse. “Is that okay for someone in her condition?” he asked.

“If her system is used to it, her body will take what it needs and process the rest just like normal.” She turned to me. “Do you eat chili dogs often?”

“Often enough that it’s the first thing I wanted after I don’t know how long I’ve been out,” I said clearly.

“Chili dogs and fries,” Gage agreed, laughing. “I can’t think of anything better to celebrate with,” he added.

“Okay, chili dogs and fries for all. I’ll get something for you to drink to help rehydrate you as well,” the nurse told me before leaving the room.

“What happened?” I asked Gage again. “I remember Dimitri putting a knife to my throat and waking up on the boat. Then, I remember him trying to get inside my head before you and the guys arrived. The last thing I remember is sitting above deck and watching you guys drag up Ivan and another guy, still alive. I remember being impressed that you didn’t kill them.”

“You’ve pretty much got the highlights, I guess,” Gage told me. I could tell he really wasn’t interested in telling me the rest. “I don’t know what all happened
in
the boat, but the last thing that happened was when Dimitri kicked you over into the water. I shot him in the leg and jumped in after you.”

I remembered the weights on my chair. “No!” My voice cracked as I realized how close I came to losing my life. “Dimitri warned me that I was going to end up like Lisa, and I almost did.”

Gage squeezed my hand. “Listen, Julia, there is a lot that I need to tell you. I’ve tried to protect you from my life by keeping quiet and holding back, but after what happened and what nearly happened on Ivan’s yacht, I see that keeping the truth from you isn’t going to protect you at all.”

“Not now, Gage,” I told him, placing a finger on his lips to shush him.

“No, I need to tell you this first thing now.” He took a deep breath. “What happened to Lisa was my fault, and I have blamed myself for it ever since it happened. The reason I hid things from you and lied to you about Dimitri was so I could keep the same thing from happening to you, and that’s exactly why it almost happened.”

“What actually happened to Lisa?”

“We were tangling with a street gang. These guys were ruthless and violent. They did not give a fuck about anything. Anyway, I was facing off with their leader, and he had a gun to Lisa’s head. He shot her. I shot him. And we ran as their bodies fell to the ground. The rest of the gang opened fire behind us, but they were poorly disciplined street thugs. They couldn’t hit a stationary target at point blank range. After that, they fell apart. They crumbled and disappeared because no one stepped in to fill their leader’s spot. So, we won that fight, but at what cost, you know?”

“I’m sorry, Gage.” I ran a hand over his smooth cheek. “I’m sorry that happened to you, and I’m sorry I believed Dimitri when he told me you had actually killed her to get away in the commotion.”

“Dimitri doesn’t know everything about me,” he said. “He knows my reputation, and that reputation has served me well on the street. Maybe not in the bedroom, but that’s why I’m telling you the truth. You need to know that it’s okay to let people like Dimitri say horrible things about me. You don’t have to believe them, though.”

I blinked, and it lasted a little longer than it should have. I felt myself trying to go back to sleep. I shook my head and forced my eyes back open.

“You don’t have to be awake,” Gage said. “If you feel like you need to sleep, let yourself go to sleep, baby. I’ll still be here when you wake up.”

I hugged him again, pulling him into the bed with me. I wrapped his arms around me and snuggled up against his bare muscular skin. I didn’t know how long I’d been out, but I knew I missed having his body next to mine.

“No more talking,” I told him. “Just hold me. If I fall asleep, wake me up when the chili dogs get here.” I snickered like a school kid. I couldn’t believe that my first meal was going to be chili dogs. That couldn’t have been the best choice, but no one told me not to.

Over the next few days, I realized what I had missed out on while I was out for almost five days. I saw the gifts that had been left by the members of the MC. I learned that Ivan, Dimitri, and another guy were in prison because of what happened on the boat. I called up to the university and told them all that had happened. They were amazed to hear that my research had taken me aboard the yacht that had been on the news and that I was going to be working on a study of the effects of the collapse of the Soviet Union on the Russian underground. I was hooked, I told them. It was a dirty, seedy world, and I wanted to see it. The dean over history and the president of the university both agreed with me that it was a project that needed to be done.

I got stronger as the days passed. The nurse stopped coming by when I was able to get out of the bed and walk around on my own. Soon, life started to get back to normal. After about a week of getting up and walking around, fixing my own food, bathing myself, and doing all the normal daily things I hadn’t been able to do during those first few days, Gage came home from Kings of Hell HQ one day with news.

“Baby, let’s fire up the grill. We’ve got company coming over tonight,” he said as he walked into the kitchen with a bottle of champagne.

“Who are we having over?” I was already in the middle of chopping up vegetables for a salad. I had no idea when he was coming home, so I was planning on eating alone in front of Netflix on the TV.

“Chase, Juarez, and Ricky want to stop by for dinner tonight.”

“Babe,” I started to protest. I wasn’t ready to get mixed in with the Kings of Hell again, not yet. Maybe not ever.

“No, no, listen, these guys are family, baby, and I’ve promised to be completely open with you. If I’m going to completely open myself to you, I need you to accept my family. The Kings are my family. It’s the only family I’ve got.” He stepped up to me and slid an arm around my waist. He pulled me against him, and my body melted into his.

“Besides, they said that since I won’t bring you by HQ, they’re going to come by here.” His voice dripped with honey, thick and sweet. He kissed me, and my body screamed his name in my ear. Every inch of my lit up when our lips met.

He pulled back from the kiss and gave me his award-winning smile.

“Okay, I’ll go fire up the grill,” I told him. “But don’t touch my lettuce, or the next thing that knife is chopping is you.”

I fired up the grill for him, and he threw some thick, juicy steaks on while I prepared vegetables to be grilled. The guys showed up, and we had an amazing night drinking red wine, eating the delicious dinner we created together, and spending time with family. By the time the guys left for the night, I felt like he was right.

The Kings were family, and despite the work they did, the
business
they handled, they were good people for the most part. Gage’s three closest brothers were definitely good and genuine.

“I’d say tonight was a success,” Gage said as he came up behind me on the balcony after seeing them to the door. I was finishing clearing off the table and the grill. He put his arms around my waist and pulled me back to him, burying his face in my hair. He took a deep breath through his nose, breathing me in.

“Put those down,” he told me. “We’ll get the dishes later.”

I did as he requested, and one of his hands immediately reached up my shirt, cupping my breast while the other hand undid the front of my jeans, sliding gently down between my legs.

I shuddered and gasped. It had been entirely too long since he’d touched me. I tried to grab his arms, but I leaned forward as he spread me open with his fingers. I planted my hands on the table while he pressed the hardening shaft in his jeans against me and slid a thick finger inside me, running between my wet lips and into my opening.

I gasped. “Out here?”

“Why not?” he growled behind me.

You can have me wherever
, I wanted to tell him, but I couldn’t make the words come out.

He squeezed my breast in the cup of my bra before moving his hand and sliding it underneath. He wrapped his fingers around the delicate skin and rubbed my nipple. He slid his wet finger up in front of my slit and found the ridge there. He started running it side to side across my clitoris, and my knees almost buckled from the intense wave of pleasure that rushed through me.

“Let me have you,” I told him. “I want you inside me, Gage. Fuck me…and…don’t stop.” Talking started getting difficult as each time he flicked my clit, it stole my breath away. My body jerked uncontrollably as he brought me to orgasm that fast. I felt my pleasure and desire combining to flood the delicate folds of skin between my legs.

I leaned further forward and felt his hands grab my jeans. He pulled them down, exposing me to him from behind. Then, I felt his head brush lightly against my lips.

“Please, Gage,” I begged him. “I need you inside me.” I did need him. My body wanted him to enter me so badly I could feel the ache in my bones.

He grabbed my hips and pulled me gently back against him, sliding himself into me slowly, deeply, penetrating every inch of me with his solid, massive manhood.