Reinventing Mel: A Hellion MC Novel (31 page)

"Are you asking me to move…"

"Yep.  I am, precious.  I know it's only been a little bit but I know what I want.  And I want you, Lulu.  I want to take care of you and have you near me all the time."  His face was serious, so very serious and totally backed up his words.  "Maybe just until you're better or maybe forever, but I'd like to explore this thing we've got going if it's okay with you."

I'd wanted to have 'the conversation' with him to define what kind of relationship we had but I never,
ever
, expected him to say he wanted me to move in.  That he wanted me around all the time.  "Mel.  We don't know each other very well and I'm not even sure how you feel about me, baby."

He had the grace to look embarrassed, his cheeks taking on a pinkish hue as he stared deeply into my eyes.  "'Cause I can't say those kind of words yet, Lulu.  They're there, deep inside me.  But I just can't say them yet.  Not until I'm sure they're real and true."

I stared at him allowing his words to make their way inside, deep inside where they floated before settling.

"I'm twenty-five" I blurted.  If he wanted real and true then I was going to give it to him.  I'd fudged a lot when we'd talked and felt like it was important to tell him the truth.  If we were going to be roommates or more and all.

He pulled back and looked at me with a canted eyebrow and a twist to his mouth.  "And that means what?"

"I come from a rich family.  My natural hair color is dishwater blonde and I had to leave Albuquerque to get away from my dad and Jon," I confessed on a rush.  "I tend to fudge the truth.  Like, I knew you were pretty…uhm, inexperienced the first time we got together.  And I hated you because you told the managers about my girlie parts."

I could see he was trying not to outright laugh by the way he'd tucked his lips between his teeth.  "But telling everyone I think you're hot was the god's honest
truth
!"

At his canted eyebrow, his disbelieving look, I just had to explain.  "I love muscles.  I love the way even your muscles have muscles.  Of how your face looks so sweet and innocent on top of all that hella hotness and makes my knees grow weak…"

What I'd confessed to at the last had him laughing so hard his hand was gently tapping the bed next to my side but I couldn't understand why.  Most times in my life when I'd confessed to fudging, people got angry or frustrated with my little twists of the truth.  No one had ever found it funny, for goodness sakes!

"Oh, shit," he said finally when he was down to chortles.  "Jay-sus, precious.  Never a dull moment with you, is there?"

Perhaps it was because of the drugs or maybe even because he'd laughed when I'd offered up my confessions, but his words ticked me off.  "I wouldn't want to
bore
you, Mr. Davis," I mumbled trying to inject as much venom into my speech as possible.

His lips came back to mine, gently stroking, his tongue slipping between my lips to caress their insides since he was unable to fully play as we liked to do.  "Do you know how often I stroked myself to the remembered sound of you calling me 'Mr. Davis'.  How fucking hot it was to even watch your pretty mouth form those words?"

Oh, my!  From ticked off to going up in flames in less than six seconds!

"Just for the record, Miss Palmer, y'all can call me
Mr. Davis
any ol' time," he whispered, moving his mouth to the unhurt side of my face.  "Any time at all."

As his lips hit my collar bone exposed at the bottom of the velcroed neck brace , I felt his hand capture my breast, his thumb zeroing in on my nipple that had already plumped and was waiting to be enjoyed.  I moaned, which was just enough sound to help bring me up from the fever he was causing.  "There's no lock on the door, Mel," I cautioned.

His mouth continued as he caught the edge of my gown with his teeth and moved it out of the way.

"Anyone could walk in and see us," I explained, only by then my voice was a breathy lament between us.

"Don't want that," he mumbled as his hand slid down my waist and underneath the covers.  I felt his fingers begin ruching the hospital johnny up until my entire hip was exposed to his explorations.  And just as his hand had shifted to the sensitive skin of my lower belly, there was a hard knock on the door.

Oh, golly.  Saved by the whoever it was waiting on the other side.

Chapter Thirty One

Sitting up, Mel straightened my covers before calling, "come in,". 

"Hey, beautiful.  Hey, Hardwood," Bishop cried, the other managers falling in behind him as the handsome, long-haired biker walked to my bed.  "How you doin', babe?"

"Okay," I mumbled using my new way of speaking which involved only my lips.  I cast my eyes around the group that had surrounded me.  "Bet you guys set the nurse's station on fire with all your combined Hellion hotness."

"Well, you know," Dare declared with a wink.  "As the saying goes, if you got it, flaunt it!"

"When are they letting you go, Lu?"  Trey called from down by my feet.

"This afternoon if all the tests come back okay."

"Have they said when you can come back to us, princess?"  Silo's look and deep, grumbley voice were as soft as I'd ever experienced.

"Next week, if that's okay with you guys."

"It'll have to be, pretty girl.  Although, you'll be fuckin' missed.  The suppliers are complaining when we put a goddamn recruit on the phones," Huff said with a frown.

"You will be staying with Mel, yes?  The reason I ask is that Reese dropped off an industrial blender this morning at his place after reading you must sip your food through a straw until your jaw is healed."  Brand's beautiful citrine eyes were on me as he spoke.

"W-we were just talking about that," I replied glancing at Mel, who's face held a soft smile as he looked back at me.

"Sssuuurrreee, you were.  Uh-huh.  That's what you were doing when we walked in.  Yep.  Just a little fuckin' convo between friends about living arrangements."  Dare didn't even try to control the disbelief in his tone nor his laughter.  His voice dropped as he leaned in.  "If you want us to believe that, beautiful, you shoulda retied your gown."

I raised a hand quickly to the neckline of what I was wearing as Mel shot the edge of my sheet and blanket to my neck brace. 

Which had everyone but the two of us laughing.

Mel's look that he sent me was one of apology.

"Just to let you know, the cops said the guy you fucking nailed in the nuts had to have surgery.  Seems you ruptured him with the stunt you pulled."  Did Trey's voice reflect pride in what I'd done or was it censure?  "Though it was a stupid move, Lucille and one that could've seen you taking a bullet."

"I just…I just need him to let me go," I mumbled.  "And I couldn't think of any other way to do it."

I felt Mel's hand on my shoulder and turned carefully to look up at him and took comfort in his warm approval.

"Yay!  You're all here!" Julie exclaimed as she ran through the doorway.  Pulling her oldest brother away, she crawled back up to my side and again pressed her face into my chest.  I couldn't help my arm as it draped over her back to rub and pat.  After a moment of giving and receiving warm, sincere greetings from the big, bad-ass men I worked for, Julie raised her head and twisted her upper body to the group still in a circle around us.  

"I already told uncle Trey, but Lulu and I just want to thank y'all for coming to our rescue.  I wasn't sure but Lu kept telling me y'all would come.  That we would be safe."  She turned her face to mine as if to ask if she'd forgotten anything.  She hadn't but I had words to add of my own.

"I just want to say how very thankful I am to have you,
all
of you, in my life."

The men faces seem to point different directions, some at their boots, others at different corners around my room.  I even heard a couple of them clear their throats after I spoke.

"Yeah, well.  We're kinda glad to have you, too."  Bishop's voice sounded funny.  Kind of high and tight like he was holding something inside that he didn't want to escape.

Spying my sister who was lingering in the doorway, I waved her over.  "This is Shelly, my sister from Albuquerque."

She came to stand next to me and I watched as her eyes moved from man to man as I made introductions, starting with Bishop and ending with Silo.  Her mouth was open and her eyes rounded and wide when her face finally came back to mine.

"It's a p-pleasure to m-meet you," she stammered.  My dear, darling,
verbose
sibling was obviously overcome by all the testosterone in the room.

"The pleasure is all ours, beautiful lady," Silo rumbled as he reached across the width of my bed to shake my sister's hand.  I saw her blush as their fingers made contact and couldn't help my grin.

Oh, yeah.  I worked for a group of smokin' hot, bad-ass bikers and I knew it.  Was darn proud of it, too.

"Got shi…ah,
stuff
to do, boys.  Let's leave them to it,"  Trey announced.  "Take care of yourself, Lucille.  Dallas and I will stop by Hardwood's later this week to see how you're getting on."

The men had just cleared the door when the hive of Honeys arrived with flowers and fun conversation.  Mel leaned down to softly kiss me before murmuring, "I'll let you be with your girls, Lu.  But I'll be back later without the kids to take you home."

"Okay, baby," I mumbled letting my eyes roam over his face while shifting so he could ease Julie off of me.  "Give us a smooch, pretty girl.  I'll see you later, alright?"

I turned my eyes to the teenager who was edging out the door.  "Stay out of trouble, Saggy."

"You too, Fancy," he called back with a warm grin.

I turned to introduce my sister to the Honeys but saw she was already knee-deep in conversation.  So I just let myself drift, letting my mind absorb the different pieces of the girlie talk around me and only adding my two-cents in order to get my fellow women to giggle.

Chapter Thirty Two

(four weeks later)

"And that's the last one, Miss Palmer," Dr. Wells said as he turned and handed the tool and the metal pieces to Karen, his nurse.  "Let's see how far you can open your mouth."

I was over the moon at having the wires off which had held my jaw still as it healed.  Without thinking twice about it, I tried stretching my mouth as wide as it would go. 

"Oww," I yelped, quickly closing my lips.

"You went a bit fast there which is probably why you had pain.  Let's try it again a little slower," the doctor advised with a small grin.  "Remember, you've had your lower jaw in one position for a long time.  You're going to have to exercise it in order to obtain full mobility."

I opened and closed my mouth a few times trying to push through the discomfort. 

"You'll need to make an appointment with your dentist," Karen advised after Dr. Wells had left the exam room.  "Just to make sure your teeth are aligned properly and to give them a good cleaning."  I knew exactly what she meant.  I hadn't been able to brush the back side of my teeth in a long time and my mouth tasted terrible. 

I shoved a piece of gum in my mouth as soon as I was back in my car.  In my mind it would help with the bad taste and in exercising my jaw.  Otherwise, I was afraid I'd embarrass myself by driving back to the compound making fish-mouth movements.  But it was important that I get back as much mobility as possible before Mel returned from Idaho later that afternoon.

We'd planned, schemed and (I for one!) craved the day the wires came off.   Not just so I could eat solid food but mainly so I could kiss Mel.  As in
really
kiss him.  Not being able to do much more than press our lips together had gotten old two days into my four week sentence.  Especially because, for us, the making out portion had become step one in our foreplay.  Without step one, the other moves took on more importance and had us experimenting with other things, exciting things.  But both of us still missed french kissing.

Mel never complained though.  Except for my weight loss.  There was no scale at the house but I could tell I'd lost weight by the way my clothes didn't fit.  They were too loose at my waist and hips. 

"You're losing your ass, darlin'," he'd murmured at one particular poignant moment when my face was in the mattress and the subject of his sentence was pointed upward towards him.  His hands had circled my cheeks tenderly as if to take the sting out of his words.  "We're gonna have to chubby you up when the wires come off."

That expression, the 'when the wires come off', had been said a lot and had become a milestone in the house.  Just like the one we'd used for when Derek left, which had only been two days after I'd moved in to recuperate.

It had been a sad day but one that all of us tried to cover up with jokes and forced laughter as the teen had packed his bag and stored some of his other things in boxes.  The run to the airport that would take him away from us was a quiet one almost like we'd used up all the jocularity we had for the day and were now facing the reality of Derek leaving.

"I'll be back at Christmas, y'all," Der had said at one point.  "But not if we're gonna have a freakin' funeral every time I go back!"

"I don't care what's doing," Mel had growled from behind the wheel of the Cutlass as the heater blasted on high.  "Your ass is back for Christmas with no ifs, ands or buts, little bro'.  You get me?"

I'd heard a huge sigh come from Derek in reply which I couldn't blame him for.  Mel, I knew, was taking his leaving a lot harder than the rest of us which was coming out in scowls, growls and over-sensitivity to anything Der said.  And by the time we left him at the airport the mood between all of us was somber and sad.  Julie and I couldn't help our tears and even Mel seemed to swallow a lot as we drove away.

Which was the complete opposite of when I'd taken Shelly to the airport the day after I'd been released from the hospital.  She'd shown up at Mel's on the back of Silo's bike, her overnight bag slung across her back and a wide smile on her face.  I'd let the two of them in, confused as heck on how they'd gotten together enough for him to have given her a ride at eight in the morning.  And my confusion shot straight to you've-got-to-be-kidding when she'd pulled him into the dining room and laid a deep, long kiss on him before they whispered together.  It was quite a sight to see my tall, tall manager curved around my much shorter sibling, smiling and hugging.

"Got shit to do," he'd grumbled as he passed by my shocked as heck form.  "See you next week, princess."

"Yeah, uhm.  See you, Si," I mumbled.  Or at least I thought I did, but my mind was still on the little scene I'd witness between them.

Shelly made her way to me with a soft expression as she wiped her mouth.  Catching my eyes, she held up her hand.  "Don't ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies."

At my canted eyebrow, she changed subjects.  "Daddy was arrested last night on conspiracy to kidnap charges."

If she wanted to distract me in a big way, those were
definitely
the words to use.

"I got a call this morning from Ms. Feldman that the officers from RICO arrived at daddy's office with search warrants based on suspicion of racketeering.  I need to get back to Albuquerque as fast as I can."

"How…I mean, when…" I started and had to remind myself to blink.

"Is your condo in your name or the company's?" she asked, digging through her huge purse before bringing out a pen and a small notebook.  "I don't think they can touch our bank accounts but I'll be meeting with an outside attorney so we'll know what accounts and assets will be frozen and what we'll still have access to.  I don't trust old Billings as far as I can throw him."

I'd never seen this side of Shelly before, this professional woman who was speaking of accounts and assets like they were something we talked together about every day.  Cheese and rice, I didn't even think she'd known about that kind of crap. 

"The condo is in my name, purchased with Grandmother Palmer's trust.  I'll get the bank info to you after I go to my apartment.  But what do you mean about the accounts being frozen, Shelly?"

"You know that stuff you saw?  The Milosevic accounts that had you storming into daddy's office?  He's been under surveillance for more than a few months because of it.  Since he was arrested with the other charges, the RICO team decided to up their game and move in.  According to Mr. Billings, when the feds make their move then all company and personal assets are frozen as they complete their research and build their case."  Her eyes on me were almost cold as she explained.  "So if you or I have anything tied to the company there's a chance we'd be dragged into this mess.  We need to dump whatever we're holding or get our names removed as fast as possible."

"I-I think I'm off all the records.  I d-did that before I left," I mumbled as my mind raced. 

"And I only have two that I know of, but both of them are charities," she replied, again writing on her small pad of paper.  She raised her head and looked at me.  "I thought you were really dumb for leaving but now I'm wondering why we both didn't cut and run years ago."

 "Are you going to see about getting dad out, you know with bail and what not?"

She stared at me like I'd lost my mind.  "Why?  Why would you ask that, Lulu?  The man hired the people that broke your jaw, for god's sake! 
Our father
hired men to take you in order to drag you back to Albuquerque for no other reason than to ensure you didn't tell anyone about the accounts you'd found!"

She had a point.  While we knew dad cared about us, she and I had figured out pretty young that our father didn't have the capacity for deep, abiding love.

"I won't do anything to help him, Lu, and so help me god, if you do, I'll beat the ever loving crap out of you!"  These were strong, strong words coming from my sister and I took them seriously.  "Now, get yourself together and take me to the airport.  We'll stay in touch but you'll need a laptop and a computer connection since there may be forms and stuff I'll need you to fill out."

I nodded and turned to go get dressed but found my movements were halting and jerky.  Shelly's words had scared me and made me realize that dad would blame me for his legal issues, especially that he'd been arrested. 

On the drive to the airport Shelly had started laughing and laughed so hard her eyes began to tear.  As soon as she was able, as soon as she could take a deep enough breath, she turned to me and said in a voice two octaves lower than her own, "hoisted by his own petard." 

Which had me laughing as well to the point I had to pull over onto the shoulder until I'd gotten it all out of my system.

*.*.*.*.*

"Yeah, darlin'.  Two hours out," Mel said into the phone.  "Can't wait.  I'm picking up the new truck, then Julie after I meet with Trey.  Don't forget we've got reservations for seven.  Uh-huh.  Me too, precious.  Yeah.  Later."

"Aw, is daddy excited about seeing mama?"  Dare asked with a laugh from behind the wheel of his Chevy Silverado High Country, tricked out with every bell and whistle available.  It had made for a sweet ride for a two-day winter run to Sheridan to collect another past due account.

"You would be too if you'd been sleeping next to the piece of sweet I've had in my bed every night," Mel shot back. 

"Maybe.  Maybe not.  Don't know that I'm the one-woman kind of fucker."

"That makes it sound like it's your decision, asshole.  According to the Honeys you need to work on your cuddling and sweet talk afterwards," Huff joined in with a snort from the back seat.

"What?  A pat on the ass and a 'that was good, babe,' isn't enough?"  Transport added.  "Geesh, bitches are fuckin' picky."

The entire carload of men laughed at the conversation but Mel had caught the looks Dare didn't seem to be able to hide when some of the Honeys were with their men.  It was an expression that he thought was both wistful and envious.  Plus Dare teased the men mercilessly about being a part of a pair, which was a sure sign the big biker wasn't as immune as he liked to think he was.

Mel settled back into his heated seat and turned his face to the window as the miles churned underneath the big wheels.  Using Dare's truck to make the run had been perfect.  It eliminated the problems with the Black Czar's since the Hellions were able to blow through without having to obtain permission.  It eliminated the problem with the Big Horn County Sheriff's department and kept all of them safe, warm and dry.

While Mel loved to ride and would even admit to loving his machine almost as much as Lu and his family, making a run in the snow was torture.  Just wearing a helmet, a necessity when the wind chill brought the Montana temperatures down so low, severely restricted his vision and his hearing.  Something a biker needed in order to protect himself and the other civilians on the road.  Then there were the gloves, layers upon layers of clothes and the studded tires.  All things that only restricted the rider's movements in a way that made him feel unsafe and took away from the beauty of becoming one with his motorcycle.

"Is today the day the wires come off?" Huff asked from behind.

Mel half turned in the seat in order to shoot the big blonde a grin.  "Yeah.  She just had them removed a while ago."

"Fuck.  A whole fuckin' month of getting no head.  You gotta be gagging, man."  Dare's tone more than conveyed what he thought of the 'no oral sex for Mel' situation.  "See?  Now that right there is why I can't fuckin' tie myself down.  If one of the damn Honeys is outta commish, there's another pretty one to take her fuckin' place.  I think you fuckers are crazy as hell for wearing goddamn leashes."

"Are you saying your repertoire's so limited that you couldn't go a month without a BJ?" Transport asked incredulously.

Glancing in the rearview mirror, Dare frowned at the tall man sitting behind him.  "What I'm saying, bro', is that I don't have to if I don't want to.  You're the ones that can't be fuckin' partaking of all the different varieties of pink at the clubhouse and beyond.  How does that fuckin' work anyway?  Do you fuckin' hand them your cocks in the morning and get them back when you go home?"