Page 32 of Stoker's Serenity

“Stoker!”Bam! Bam! Bam!

Serenity stirred against my chest and I groaned, looking down at her. She smiled serenely, her chin atop her hand, which rested on my chest as she smiled like the Cheshire cat, her hair mussed, that freshly-fucked look radiating from her, and I felt an echoing glow of pride at having satisfied her so thoroughly.

“Yeah! What?” I yelled back, and the pounding on my door stopped.

“Hurry the fuck up! Captain wants everyone at dinner, sent me to come get you two.”

“What time is it?” I growled.

“Dinner time, now move it!” Lightning called through my closed bedroom door.

Serenity burst into a fit of quiet giggles.

“My suit is out there,” she said in a scandalized whisper.

“I got it,” I said grinning, thinking it was adorable how she was pointedly ignoring the fact that everybody on the beach had known we’d gone off to fuck. It was okay, though. If she needed to preserve some modicum of an illusion that we’d been in here just talking and sipping iced tea, I’d go with that.

I got up and poked my head out my bedroom door and muttered, “Goddammit, Lightning.”

“What is it?” Serenity asked, and she sounded alarmed.

“Nothing, baby. He’s gone, he just left my front door wide open, so stay in there for now.”

I bolted down the hallway and shut the door, then gave her the all clear. She peeked around the edge of my bedroom doorway, clutching my bed’s top sheet around her and I put my hands on my hips, standing there naked as the day I was born. She laughed and turned her face and I etched that moment, the sheer unabashed beauty of the sight in my mind’s eye forever.

“Come on, you’ve gotta be hungry by now,” I said, grinning, and she nodded.

“Starving.”

“Dinner awaits.” I winked at her and she stepped into the hall. I went to her and she turned her face up for a kiss which I granted her gladly. She drifted into the bathroom, picked up my board shorts and tossed them out the door to me. They hit me in the chest and I caught them, she laughed and closed the door behind her, sealing herself from my view, but you know what? We were new and I didn’t need to see her pee.

I got dressed, shrugged my feet into my flip-flops, and my arms into my cut. I had her sheer wrap with the velvet and the fringe at the ready when she stepped out in her suit.

“Oh, thank you!” She turned and I helped her into it, dropping it onto her lean shoulders, slipping my fingers under her hair and unthreading the thick mass from under her collar for her.

She turned and I smiled at her, smoothing my hands over her shoulders.

“Come on, let’s get back to the beach, and get you some food.”

“Okay,” she murmured and stepped into her thongs on the way past them in the hall. I opened the door and she perked up in surprise.

“How late is it?” she asked.

“I think we napped for a good few hours,” I commented.

“Shit, I hope Linny’s not mad at me.” She bit her bottom lip.

Linny was, for sure, nowhere near mad. She greeted us enthusiastically when we hit the stairs leading down to the beach.

“Ren! Hey!”

Ren went to her friend without thinking twice.

Marlin sauntered up to me and raised his eyebrows and I grinned, shaking my head. He nodded, made a look like he was impressed, but stayed silent.

I had to smile as Linny took Serenity aside and both of them spoke quietly and earnestly, their heads together. The smiles said everything was fine, everything was better than fine, and I loved this. That she was here, that she was happy, and that my brothers and sisters of the club were here to see it.

“Hey, we late to the party?” Rory, our drummer, called out. He was coming down the steps with Gideon, our lead singer, a cooler between them that looked on the heavy side.

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