Page 36 of Freak
His expression turned sheepish, and he shrugged.
“Is Autumn coming in for the weekend?” she asked. Autumn lived in St. Louis, where her Indiana-based company had recently opened a satellite office.
“Yeah,” He went into the clubhouse without another word, closing the topic by walking away.
Following Shannon in, Mel laughed and gave Abigail a wink. “That’s all the conversation you’re gonna get outta Cox. He got himself a woman, Abs. He didn’t get a personality transplant.”
Not yet, she thought as she followed him in and let the door close behind her.
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~oOo~
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Once inside, Abigaildrew up short again. It wasn’t particularly loud, likely because no music was yet playing, but the Hall was already more crowded and bustling than she’d ever seen it. A couple dozen—maybe more!—men in leather milled about, playing pool, drinking at the bar, standing or sitting in small groups, everybody talking and laughing. Another couple dozen women wended around the men, serving drinks to them, or keeping them company, or trying to get work done despite them.
“You okay, Abs?” Mel asked, wrinkling his brow at her.
She smoothed her expression and smiled up at him. “Sure I am!”
His brow did not smooth. He opened his mouth—
“MEL!” shouted Shannon from halfway through the Hall. “Come bring all that to the kitchen!”
“ON IT, ONE SEC!” he called back. Then, after a glance around the leather-packed room, he set the boxes on the end of the bar and turned to Abigail.
“You look worried, and you don’t need to be. But I’m gonna do somethin’ right now that you might think is a little ... I don’t know, ape-like. Just go with it, okay? It’s for you—and yeah, for me, too.”
Without the even a hair of a notion what he planned, but in full faith that he wouldn’t do anything to hurt or embarrass her, she nodded.
Grinning, he took her hand and led her more deeply into the room, stopping at a support post near the pool table. Still holding her hand, he turned to her and pulled her close, bringing their bodies firmly together. He did the maneuver like a little dance move, spinning toward her, pulling her to him, sweeping one arm around her and brushing the other hand along the side of her face, sinking his fingers into her hair.
“You are totally fucking gorgeous,” he whispered at her cheek. “I love your hair down long like this, I love the way the colors you’re wearing make your eyes like a kaleidoscope. I’m gonna kiss your knees weak now.”
Right there in the middle of the Night Horde Hall, surrounded on all sides by tough men in leather, many she’d never met, Mel kissed her like he’d never yet kissed her, like she’d never been kissed by anyone ever. He held her so strongly she had to lean back, as if he’d draped her over his arm. His hand in her hair became a fist; the fingers of his hand at her back sank into her flesh, through her clothes. His tongue searched her whole mouth and rolled and twisted with her tongue.
And oh, he smelled so good, felt so good, tasted do good,soundedso good. So warm and strong, so ...oh.
Her knees absolutely went weak. Stars exploded and comets flew through her head, air seemed both too thin and too rich all at once, and she thought her heart might climb straight up and fly from her mouth. Something that had lain quiet, sleeping deep inside her, something that had been stirring for the past month or so, woke fully, stretched, and roared.
Abigail knew it at once as desire—deep, visceral, earthy physical need. All at once, surrounded by people, she was horny for this man. And she had never in her life felt it like this, not even in her dating days had she had more than the gentlest inkling of this kind of want.
Goodness, if she’d ever felt this as a young woman, she might not have thought her life alone so complete. This feeling was something she’d miss.
When he finally tipped his head back and ended the kiss, Abigail forced her eyelids up and found him looking down at her, his eyes wide under a lightly furrowed brow.
“Jesus,” he muttered.
Unbidden and unexpected, a giggle trilled from her mouth. He smiled at the sound, and she lifted her hand to set her fingers on his lips. They were still hot and slick from the kiss.
When he stood fully and steadied her on her feet, Abigail noticed that the room had gone quiet. Not silent, a low hum of mingling voices continued, but a fair number of people had stopped to watch the show. Abigail’s whole face went hot, but she held her head up. She had nothing at all to be embarrassed of. In fact, she was proud.
Taking her hand again, Mel led her to a small cluster of men standing near the hallway to the dorm. Badger and Double A were talking to two men she didn’t recognize, but they were in Montana kuttes so she checked the patches on their chests.
One of the men was tall and thin, and had long, ruler-straight black hair. He seemed a little younger than her. The flashes on the right side of his kutte readNacto, which she assumed was his name, andSergeant at Arms. The other was considerably older, with longish, steel-grey hair and beard that reminded her at once of latter-day Jeff Bridges. His flashes told her his name was Rhett, and he was the president of the Montana charter.
“’Scuse me for interrupting here, brothers,” Mel said, hooking his arm around Abigail’s shoulders. “I’m gonna help Abigail get her amazing pies and cookies back to the kitchen, and then I’m down to take your money from you at the pool table, Nac. Since you think you’re all that—oh, and before I get my ass beat for not bein’ a gentleman, Rhett Mackie and Nacto Washington, this is my old lady, Abigail Freeman.”
