Nina Levine - Storm

I felt a little self conscious with him watching me like this, but hell would freeze over before I admitted that to him so I went about the task of making coffee.  We stood in silence while waiting for the kettle to boil.  It was uncomfortable and I wished that J would just say something, but he didn’t.  Eventually I finished making the coffee and handed it to him before we both took a seat at the kitchen table.  And, again, there was complete silence.  Normally, I enjoyed silence, but with J, right now, it felt really awkward.

So, I forced myself to say something.  “How the hell did Bec end up with Nix?” Both her kid’s fathers had been bikers who had screwed her over so the last I knew she had sworn off bikers.

“From what I can work out she flipped after what happened with Rob and got into some bad shit.  Led her to Nix eventually.  I think he targeted her.”

My mind was racing and I could feel my anxiety rising.  I didn’t want to talk about Rob and J had caught me off guard even bringing it up.  My hand brushed over the scar on my arm without me realising it, until I saw J’s eyes move to it.  He lifted his hand and went to touch me.  “Don’t,” I snapped, and scraped my chair back so I could stand up.

“Fuck, Madison.  You’re still dealing with that aren’t you?” J stood and moved towards me, but I was backing away so he reached his arm out and hooked it around my waist, pulling me towards him.

I raised my palms to his chest in an effort to halt his progress of bringing us together.  “Don’t talk to me about dealing with that.  I fucking have.  You’ve got no idea what I’ve been through with all that shit, so don’t think you know all about it.” I tried to push away from him but he was too strong and held me close.

“You might have dealt with your drinking and I hope you fucking have babe, but I can tell that you haven’t sorted through some of the other shit in your head,” he bit out.

“It’s none of your business.  You made it perfectly clear that you weren’t interested when you told me to leave,” I hissed, and gave him another push away.  He relented and let me go.

J’s face contorted in anger and he raked his fingers through his hair.  “Fine.  Don’t wanna get into this crap right now anyway,” he jabbed his finger at me, “Mark my fucking words though, we will be getting into it.”

Oh, my god.  He was still one bossy fucker.

* * *

I rolled over and checked the time on the bedside clock.  Three am.  Shit, it was going to be a long night; I’d woken up every hour since I went to bed at midnight.  The revelations of the evening had stirred up long suppressed feelings and I couldn’t stop the memories that were coming to me.  I reached for my smokes and lit one, taking a long, hard drag on it.  I closed my eyes as it filled my lungs and the smell of it hit my nostrils; it felt damn good and I took another drag, trying desperately to block out the images of Bec suffering at the hands of Nix.

Bec was my best friend growing up.  Her father was also a member of the club and we had been inseparable.  She was a few years older than me and had always looked out for me.  Bec had fallen pregnant at seventeen, and I had helped her look after Georgie when he was born, and later, Crystal.  We had been through a lot together and had always sworn that nothing would come between us, but then on that fateful day that changed my life, something had come between us and there had been no going back from it.  Bec cut me out of her life and I had had to learn how to live life without the unwavering support of a best friend.  Even after Nix had fucked me up she had not checked in on me; she hated me that much.  But I had never stopped loving her and my broken heart cracked even more at the realisation that I would never see her again.

You see, Bec had been dating Rob at the time that he attacked me.  They had been together for a couple of years, and although he had often flirted with me, I had thought he was harmless.  Turned out he was far from harmless.  After J killed him, and he and Scott buried the body, Bec had been heartbroken at his disappearance.  She wasn’t stupid though, and suspected the club had something to do with it because Rob and the club had always had problems.  Threats had been made against him so she assumed that the club had finally made good on those threats.  And when he had failed to ever show up again, and I hadn’t helped her find him, she turned against me saying that I had taken the club’s side.  If only she knew the truth.  But I couldn’t tell her the truth because it implicated J.

I stubbed out my smoke and got out of bed.  There was no point trying to sleep when it just wasn’t going to happen.  Wandering out to the kitchen I saw the light on and realised that J was up.  He was sitting at the table and looked up when he heard me.  We hadn’t spoken much after we had argued.  I had hooked him up with a pillow and blanket, and then shut myself away in my bedroom.  To be honest, I didn’t trust myself with him yet.  I was confused about how I felt about him; I thought I hated him after the way he had treated me years ago and yet there was this almost relief at seeing him again.  Why the fuck would I feel relief of all things?

“Scott called.  Fucking prospects lost Nix.  We’re on it, but haven’t found him yet,” J said as I walked past him to get a glass of water.  His voice was husky from sleep and he was sitting there in just his jeans.  No freaking shirt.  J was easily the best looking man I had ever met and having those muscles shoved in my face at this time of the morning, when I had had little sleep, was making my brain fire haphazardly.  It wasn’t safe to be this close to him when he was dressed only in jeans.  And was that my tattoo still on his chest?  Surely not; surely he would have had that removed.  I wasn’t going to stare to confirm it though.

“You boys are resourceful so I’m sure you’ll find him soon,” I said, absentmindedly, because I was still trying not to focus on his chest and arms.

“Are you taking this seriously, Madison?” he asked, sharply.

His tone annoyed me and all thoughts of his body disappeared.  “Of course I am,” I snapped.

“Well, you don’t fucking seem like it.”  He was glaring at me now, waiting for my response.

I was still standing at the sink and decided it was probably best to avoid the rest of this conversation.  After finishing my drink I placed my empty glass in the sink and turned to leave the kitchen.  “I’m going back to bed.  I need more sleep to be able to deal with this, J.”

His eyes penetrated mine as I walked past him and I wasn’t sure what I saw in them.  It looked like lust but it was probably anger and frustration.  Lack of sleep often led me to the wrong conclusions.

I made my way to my bedroom door and was just closing it when he pushed it open again.  There was no light on here so I could only make him out roughly but the energy surrounding us was charged.

He stood in the doorway, and as I adjusted to the darkness I could tell he was running his eyes over my body.  I had been right in the kitchen; he was radiating lust.  And fuck, it got me wet.  I wanted him in a way that I hadn’t wanted a man for years.  Sure, I loved sex and craved it, but J brought out carnal desires in me that no one else seemed able to.

“J...what are you doing?” I breathed out.

He took a step towards me and reached out, brushing his thumb across my cheek.  “I’d almost gotten to a place where I didn’t think about you every fucking day,” he murmured, surprising the fuck out of me.

His words snapped me out of my lust fuelled trance and I pushed his hand away from my face.  “What the hell?” I said.  Why was he saying that crap to me?  He was the one who had said he didn’t love me anymore, the one who sent me away.  Why would he still be thinking about me?

“You’ve no idea, baby.  No idea...” he muttered and walked out of the room, leaving me confused and annoyed.  J was a walking contradiction to me, and I sensed this was just the beginning of it.  Events from the past were going to start catching up with me and I was powerless to stop it.

Jason

I rolled over and almost fell out of bed.  Shit.  It wasn’t a bed, it was a couch, and it was the most uncomfortable couch I had ever slept on.  Sitting up, I realised what had woke me up.  A fucking blender was going off in the kitchen.  Who the fuck used a blender at this time of the day?  Or maybe it was later than I thought.  I checked my watch.  Nope, it was six o-fucking-clock.

Shifting my legs to put my feet on the ground, I sat up and reached for my jeans.  I slid into them, threw my t-shirt on, and then stumbled into the kitchen.  My guess was that it wasn’t Madison.  I’d never known her to be a six am blender chick.  And I was right.  I rounded the corner and discovered Serena making a mess with leaves and fruit as she concocted some fucking awful green drink.

As she lifted a glass of it to her lips, I asked, “What the fuck is that?”

She turned, startled, and grumbled, “Morning to you too.  It’s a green smoothie.”

I rubbed my eyes; it was too early to take all this in.  I had never seen anyone drink something that looked that disgusting.  “Right,” I muttered as I headed to the kettle, “I need coffee.”

She pointed at the blender.  “There’s smoothie left if you want some.”

“Not fucking likely, babe,” I said, and made my coffee as she stood there, drinking her drink and looking me up and down.

“How long you here for?” she eventually asked.

I shrugged.  “For as long as it takes.”

“For as long as what takes?”

I stopped what I was doing and turned to face her.  “For as long as it takes to get Madison to come home with me.”

“You do realise that she isn’t going to ever go home with you, don’t you,” she stated matter-of-factly.

I smirked at her, “You don’t know Madison as well as you think, sugar.”

This irritated her and she scowled at me before starting to clean up the mess she had made with the blender.  Silence consumed us as we both retreated into our thoughts until a couple of moments later when we were startled by Madison walking into the kitchen.  My dick was instantly alert as I took in the sheer t-shirt she was wearing.  It barely covered her ass, and her long legs almost overshadowed her tits.  Almost.  Because those tits were to fucking die for.

Shit.  I concentrated on drinking my coffee.  Anything to busy me, and stop me checking her out.  However, she made her way to the kettle and when she reached up to grab a mug out of the cupboard, her fucking t-shirt rode up, revealing a perfectly sculpted ass cheek.  I let my eyes take that in, and as I looked back up, I saw Serena watching me.  Her eyes narrowed and she shot me a filthy look.

Geez, what was up this chick’s ass?  “You got a problem with me?” I asked, and settled myself back against the counter, crossing one leg over the other, waiting for her answer.

“Yeah, biker boy, I do.  I don’t like you coming here, after what you did to Maddy years ago, and expecting her to just let you start controlling her.  And I don’t like your eyes all over her ass.  It’s not yours anymore.”

My eyebrows shot up.  I kinda dug this chick now, and the way she was loyal to Madison.  “Doesn’t mean I can’t admire it. And as far as me trying to control Madison?  Are you sure we’re talking about the same Madison?  Because the one I used to fuck never let me control her.”

Madison dropped her mug and it smashed across the floor.  I flicked my eyes to her and took in her annoyed look.

“Classy, J.  Fucking classy,” she muttered, and dropped to the floor to start cleaning up the mess.  This made my day, and I continued to check out her ass and legs while she did it.  Serena helped her, but not before giving me another dirty look.

Right.  I had now succeeded in pissing them both off so it was time to get out of here for awhile.  “Towels in the bathroom?” I asked, pushing off the counter.

“Yes, in the cupboard,” Madison replied, and I could hear just how pissed off she was in her voice.

I took one last look at her ass and then made my way to the bathroom for a shower, making sure to throw Serena a wink on my way out.

* * *

Madison

Serena and I watched J leave.  “What an asshole!” she didn’t hold back.

I laughed.  “He’s worked out how to push your buttons, honey.  That’s all.”

She gaped at me.  “Are you standing up for him?”