Jester groaned in satisfaction and flopped to his back, taking Emily with him. She lay sprawled over him, her head nestled in the crook between his neck and shoulder. Legs intertwined, they remained silent for long moments, allowing their breathing to normalize.
The heat of her pussy around his bare cock was incendiary; there was no way in hell he’d ever wear a rubber inside her again. Hours ago they’d had the conversation. Emily was on birth control, and he’d never gone bareback before. The chicks who hung around the club weren’t exactly clean and couldn’t be trusted. The orgasm he had without the rubber nearly melted his brain.
Emily didn’t speak for long enough that Jester assumed she’d fallen asleep. Christ, he liked the feel of her naked body entangled with his. Soft breasts were cushioned against the hard wall of his chest, and her slender, yet strong arms held tight around his body.
She startled him when in a drowsy voice she asked, “Don’t you think it’s about time you told me your real name? And how you got your nickname?” She lifted her head so she could see his face as she spoke and he smiled down at her.
“Hmmm, I’m not sure we know each other well enough yet.” Teasing her was becoming one of his favorite activities.
“Jester, we’ve spent the better part of the last week naked together. I think we know each other well enough.”
He didn’t quite agree. Emily was guarded when it came to sharing information about her life and it didn’t resonate well with him. She’d been introduced to all of the important people in his life, and she hadn’t so much as hinted at a friend or family member on her side.
He’d promised her, and himself, uncomplicated, so he shouldn’t give a shit what she talked about, but he did. “I’ll make you a deal babe. I’ll tell you my name and how I came to be Jester if you answer two questions for me as well.”
Emily stiffened. It was impossible to miss, but it didn’t last long. In two heartbeats time she was back in the game. “Okay, sure, two questions all around. Sounds fair to me.” Her voice wasn’t as confident as the words.
Still looking down at her he grinned his approval. “Let’s see, my name, I need to think about it for a minute. No one’s called me by it in so long I think I forgot it.”
“Come on!” Emily gave him a playful pinch on his stomach. There wasn’t much to grab so it wasn’t very effective and he swore he heard her mutter, “Stupid six-pack,” under her breath.
Chuckling, he conceded. “My name is Mason, Mason Sterling.”
“Mason? Seriously?”
He laughed. “Yes, babe. Seriously.”
“Huh.”
“Huh what?”
She peered up at him with a sheepish look on her face. “Sorry, but there’s no way I could ever call you that. Nothing against the name. Mason is a good name. It is just not at all a name that fits you. It’s not…hmm.” She traced a tattoo on his chest as she thought.
“Crazy enough?” He tugged her hair.
“No, no, it’s not big enough. You are an imposing character, Jester. You’re insanely tall, your personality is substantial, and you have so many giant, hard, sexy muscles that…” She laughed at herself. “Okay, once I started thinking about your muscles I completely forgot the point I was trying to make was.”
She was hilarious. Jester couldn’t believe how much fun he had just talking with Emily. Aside from his friends’ wives, the sum total of his conversations with women usually entailed, “Top or bottom?” With Emily, he not only craved her body, but he found himself eager to be with her at all times. At least ten times a day he made mental notes to remember to share something with her. “You were talking about my giant and hard body parts.”
“Ha, you do have a few of those. I’m done talking. Somewhere in there I was supposed to prove how the name didn’t fit you.”
He nodded. “That’s probably because it’s literally been over ten years since anyone has referred to me as Mason.”
“Where did Jester come from?”
He groaned. “It’s a really dumb story. You know I like to joke around a lot, pull pranks and shit, bag on everybody?”
With exaggerated disbelief Emily gasped and her face took on a feigned look of shock. “You do? I must not be paying enough attention, because I didn’t pick up on that at all.”
“You want to hear the story or not, smartass?” He pinched her on the rear, much more effectively than she’d pinched him, and she yelped out a giggle. He smoothed his hand over the sting, any excuse to get his hand on her luscious ass. “Anyway, I bought this coffee pot after I moved in my then apartment, and the thing didn’t fit under my counter, so I had to return it. I dragged Acer and Hook with me to the store to get my money back. The clerk behind the return counter was this pissed off looking old hag, so I decided to have a little fun with her.” He smirked recalling the day.
“Oh, the poor woman. Please don’t tell me you did anything to scar her for life.”
“Shush, I did no such thing. I made up some elaborate story, to be honest I can’t even remember all the details anymore, maybe Acer does. That guy’s got a memory like a steel trap. I do remember I delivered it with an Oscar quality performance. The story was something about how I had a Great Dane who was the perfect height to turn the machine off, and I could never have a cup of coffee because he turned it off every time I tried to brew some.”
At Emily’s skeptical look Jester laughed. “I told you the story was dumb.”
“You were right.”
“Gee thanks. Anyway the ol’ battle-axe looked me up and down with her stern wrinkly face and disapproving eyes and said, ‘Surely you jest, sonny.’” Jester mimicked an aged female voice. “And that was that. Acer took the story and ran it right back to the club. I was a prospect at the time, and Jester was born.”
“Well, it’s more you than Mason is.” She shook her head. “How did you get involved with the No Prisoners?”
“Uh uh, that’s a third question. You willing to pay the price?”
She hesitated and Jester began to wonder if there was something in her past, or hell maybe in her life now, that was causing her trouble. Maybe something she was ashamed of. Why else would she be so hesitant to share? He’d have to find a way to draw it out of her. “Okay, yes, I am.”
Interesting.
“I moved here with my old man when I was sixteen. My mom passed the year before so it was just us boys. He was a violent, drunken asshole. I’d been obsessed with motorcycles since before I could ride a tricycle, the love of bikes was the one good thing I inherited from my old man. Anyway I started hanging around at the clubhouse, helping with shit, running errands etc. Shiv took pity on me. When I was old enough, I prospected. That’s all she wrote.”
He didn’t bother to tell her that his dad had borrowed money from the club, money he never intended to pay back. He got worked over real good, and sank even further into a drunk and drugged out state, completely unable to care or provide for his teenage son.
They’d never spoken about it, but Jester was pretty sure that was the reason Shiv let him hang around at such a young age. He was beyond grateful. The club had become his family and they had one hundred percent of his loyalty.
“That satisfy your curiosity, baby?”
Emily nodded.
“Good. My turn to ask the questions.” Was it his imagination, or did she tense and shift away from him a fraction of an inch?
~ ~ ~ ~
Emily swallowed down her nerves, praying Jester wouldn’t ask her anything she would have to lie too badly about. The thought of being further dishonest with him made her stomach clench and her head throb. She’d already decided to keep any information she gave him as close to the truth as possible. For one thing, it would be easier to keep her story straight if she wasn’t making up wild tales, and maybe when this was over, he could find some comfort in the knowledge that she told him as much of the truth as she felt she could.
“Well, what would you like to know?” Despite the impending doom of their future, she loved being with him like this, their bodies drained and sated while they quietly spoke well into the night. It was an intimacy she’d never shared with a man before, and she found it both comforting and arousing.
“You never mention any of the people in your life. Do you have family, friends?” The look in his eye was one of genuine interest, not nosy curiosity or mistrust. It helped to relax her. Maybe it would be okay to share a little of the truth with him without putting herself at any further risk.
“My parents died when I was eighteen. Car accident. A drunk driver hit them as they were coming back from some work dinner of my father’s. They were only two miles from our house.” She shook her head and lowered her eyes, a familiar sadness swamping her. It surged whenever she recalled that time in her life, which she tried not to do often.
“Jesus, baby, I’m sorry.” Jester brought his arm up to stroke her hair and down her back, providing more comfort than she’d received from another human being in the eight years since their passing.
“It was a long time ago now, but I do have a brother. He’s five years younger than I am.”
Shit! Why did she say that? She’d meant to leave out any mention of Johnny. When this was over, and she was gone, she didn’t want the No Prisoners to know about him. Jester may be a generous and attentive lover, but he’d make a deadly enemy.
Jester’s powerful hand caressed her bare back and she wanted to purr like a contented kitten. Unfortunately, her racing thoughts won out over her desires.
“Where is he?”
Emily’s mind spun and she shrugged. “Still in…um…Colorado, where I moved from. We’re not that close.” The lie tasted bitter in her mouth. Denying him when he needed her most felt wrong, even if it was to protect him. She wanted to spill every last detail to Jester and beg for his help, but she was too afraid. Johnny wasn’t an innocent victim in all this. He was a prospect for the Grimm Brothers. The risk of coming clean was too high. “So there’s one answer. Next question?”
He was silent for a moment and she held her breath. Did he not believe her?
“Why did you move here?”
This she could handle. This she’d prepared for. “I was spinning my wheels in L—uh, Colorado. The school I worked at underwent major budget cuts, and since I was one of the younger teachers, I was laid off. A college friend of mine grew up around here, and I was always intrigued by what she told me of the desert, so here I am.”
Short, sweet, succinct. Maybe too succinct, if Jester’s raised eyebrow was any indication. Again, he remained silent for a minute. Did he believe a word of it? The story was so flimsy she could tear it in half with her bare hands.
“I know it’s summer, but do you have a job lined up for the fall?”
There it was, a sliver of an opening, a window cracked open just an inch, but it was more than she’d had so far. “I have an offer at an elementary school in Sandy Springs.” She’d taught there since she and Johnny moved to the area. She loved that school and the staff that worked there. “I’d really like to take it, but I’m not sure. I’ve heard the town has some trouble with, uh, well, with their own MC.”
She bit her lip and waited for his reaction. It was swift and fierce. Jester sat straight up and she tumbled off his body. He turned to stare down at her, an angry scowl on his face. “There is no fucking way you’re working in Sandy Springs.”
Ookay…that was not what she expected. “What? Why not?” She sat up as well, not that it put them on an even level; he still towered over her. The sheet fell to her waist and she pulled it back up. Having this discussion naked left her too vulnerable.
Jester placed his hands on the bed, caging her against the headboard, and leaned his face close to hers. “It doesn’t matter why not, it’s just the way it is.” Warmth and teasing were completely absent from his voice.
Despite the ferocious look on his face, Emily laughed out loud. “I’m sorry, what?” She should probably be intimidated by him in this moment, but she found it so ridiculous that he felt he could order her around after knowing her for a week. “If there’s a real reason you think I shouldn’t work there, I’m more than willing to listen, but you’re going to have to do better than ‘because I said so.’”
Some of the tension seeped out of his shoulders and he rested his forehead against hers. “You do realize that most of the MC steers clear of me when I make that face, don’t you?”
“Guess I don’t find you that scary.” She rubbed a hand up his firm inked arm.
Jester snorted and tugged at the sheet covering her breasts. She allowed him to draw it away from her body, and her eyes drifted closed when he traced a thumb around one nipple. It stiffened immediately. She was so easy when it came to him.
“I can’t, and if I’m being honest, won’t, give you details about it, because I don’t want you tainted by that world. Sandy Springs does have problems with their MC. The Grimm Brothers. We hate them as much as they hate us. They are a group of sadistic motherfuckers who wouldn’t blink an eye at harming you if they thought there was a sliver of a chance it would hurt me or the No Prisoners. I wouldn’t be able to function if you were spending all day in Sandy Springs. It’s their turf, we have no power or control there.”
“Jester—”
He cupped her face between his hands and kissed her, hard. “I know it’s crazy, baby. We’ve known each other a week, but I need you to trust me on this. Please don’t take a job in Sandy Springs.”
Her heart ached so bad she almost couldn’t speak. The lies wouldn’t matter. She needed to remember that. In another week she’d never see him again and none of this would matter. Johnny would be safe and that’s what did matter. “Okay, I won’t take the job.”
“Thank you, Em. Lila knows quite a few people on the school board here in Crystal Rock. I bet she could get you an interview, easy.”
“Sure, thank you.” She wanted to cry. Why couldn’t she have met him under different circumstances? Why couldn’t Johnny have stayed away from drugs?
“It’s getting late, let’s just get some sleep. You’ve been wearing me out, I need to recharge.” Jester laid back on the bed, drawing her down next to him.
She forced a laugh and tried to get back to where she’d been before they started talking about her job. “That’s because you’re so much older than I am.”
He scoffed, “No way. I bet I’m not that much older than you.”
She raised an eyebrow at him. “How old are you?”
“Thirty-seven, you?”
“Twenty-six.” She chuckled as his features transformed into a look of astonishment.
“You’re shittin’ me! Eleven years? I’m eleven years older than you? I didn’t realize you were that young. Huh, I’m practically robbing the cradle.”
Emily shoved down the last of her sadness and tweaked his nipple. “How old did you think I was? And I’ll advise you to think before you answer.”
A playful growl erupted from Jester’s massive chest and he rolled her to her back, hovering over her with a hand on each nipple. “That how you want to play, baby?” He pinched her nipples, giving just enough pressure to have electricity shooting directly to her clit.
She gasped and pushed her hips against him as a punch of desire slammed into her. “I’m not playing anything. Oh God.” Her eyes rolled back in her head as he increased the pressure on her nipples. “I’m…just…ah…saying, thatyou’reold!” The last part came out in a rush as he bent his head and lightly raked his teeth over one nipple.
“I’ll show you old, missy.” He rumbled, sliding into her in one fierce thrust.
“Oh!” She cried out, a mixture of shock and pleasure.
“Ain’t nothing old about this, baby.” Jester pulled out and pushed in, starting a heavy rhythm.
Emily gave herself over to the power of their connection. She wanted to forget about dead parents and MCs, drugs and everything she needed to do and hadn’t been able to yet. She wanted to feel peace, even if just for a few minutes.