Big Timber (Royal Bastards MC: Flagstaff Chapter #7)

Chapter 4

Timber

Spending the morning with Bill is much more relaxing than dealing with their whole family all at once. He digs up a few projects to work on after breakfast, then leaves before his presence becomes annoying.

“He’s a good man,” I say when she rejoins me after seeing him out. More surprising than my words is that I really mean them.

“Dad likes you, too,” she replies as she moves to check my ankle. “What about your family? I mean, you mentioned siblings, but your parents?”

I let out a sigh, considering her for a long moment before deciding to tear the bandage off.

“I never met my dad,” I start, and she tightens her mouth as if sensing that I’m starting with the easiest part of my story. “Through my mom, I have at least four older half-siblings and three younger ones. I left home at fourteen, so I’m not sure if there were others.”

“Where did you grow up?”

“Where was I born, or where did I grow up?” I ask with a sardonic grin. Talia flinches before reaching for my hand and I instantly feel bad about my tone. “I was born in part of the Los Angeles sprawl. I don’t remember a lot about the area, just being hungry. A lot. School was good because we got breakfast and lunch there. I didn’t really think about my two older siblings once they left. By then I was trying to take care of Diona, and later, Jayson.”

“Was it Diona that you learned to make French toast for?” she softly asks, remembering something I mentioned when her dad was here.

Nodding my head, I continue. “There were twins, who were a few years older than me. Mom had thrown a family party for them on their eighteenth birthday, a potluck naturally, easier for her to keep her costs down. Then, while the guests were enjoying themselves at the park across from our apartment, she went home to pack bags for my sisters. She put them out that night and I never saw them again.”

“What about Diona? After you left, I mean?” The concern in Talia’s expression brings a warmer smile to my face.

“I remembered her dad from before she was born. I don’t know exactly what the deal was, but Mom—fuck, I hate using that word for her—made co-parenting impossible, I guess. Anyway, it took me a couple of months, but I tracked him down.”

Her head tilts to the side and I can see a myriad of questions in her eyes.

“I hung around his neighborhood until I saw him one day. I explained the situation, and that I was getting out, but I didn’t want to leave Diona without someone watching over her. We worked it so he would come to visit the next time Mom went out for the night,” I explain, releasing a wary sigh, getting frustrated with how long this story is turning out to be. “Anyway, Diona wouldn’t leave without Jayson, and it took another few months, but her dad got custody of her and made a deal with Mom afterward. She signed an agreement that he could raise Jayson also, and she got to keep getting the state benefits for him. It would be their little secret.”

“That’s really fucked up, Tarak,” she whispers, and it’s impossible to miss how moist her green eyes are. “Wait, you said there were three younger than you!”

“She was pregnant when I left.” I shrug. That’s not something I ever let myself think about. I did what I could for Diona and Jayson, then I had to take care of myself.

“So, that’s where you’re from. Where did you grow up?”

“The story doesn’t get any prettier, babe,” I tell her, watching closely for her reaction. “I was big, even at that age, so I could pass for older. I got into collections for some people you never want to owe money to. Eventually, I got myself out of that and fell in with the Royal Bastards.”

“And now?” she asks, wiping away her unshed tears with the back of her hand before meeting my gaze.

“And now, I run my business and ride with my brothers,” I answer, only slightly skirting the truth. “We said a lot of things throughout the night, Talia. I meant everything I said to you.”

“Good.” Is all she says, not giving me much insight into her feelings. “How does this feel?”

“The swelling is bothering me,” I tell her. With her eyes focused again on my foot, she hasn’t noticed my grin.

“It doesn’t look that—" Her words cut off the moment her eyes meet mine. “Funny.”

“It’s really painful,” I continue, reaching down to tug her hand over my crotch and becoming optimistically hopeful when she rubs her palm along the length. “And I never got my breakfast in bed.”

“After last night, I wouldn’t mind skipping straight to dessert,” she tartly replies, standing up and walking toward the room we slept in. “Let me grab the condoms I picked up.”

Slowly making my way to the room, I pause just inside the door, content just to watch her for a moment.

“You’re so fucking beautiful,” I tell her, and she turns, her eyes lighting up before she crosses to me.

I pull her into my arms, cupping her face as I slide a finger down one of her cheeks.

“Thank you,” she says with a small smile. “For sharing your history with me and for last night.”

“Last night?” I ask, trying to figure out what exactly she means.

“I understand now why you wouldn’t take the chance of getting me pregnant and I appreciate it; probably more than I did before you told me everything.”

“Not that I don’t want kids, but I want stability for them,” I respond after weighing my words. Last night I told her she was mine, but I get the feeling that she needs a minute before hearing that I want everything with her and only her.

Bending down, I slide an arm behind her knees and lift her up. It’s only a few steps to the messy, unmade bed, so she doesn’t have a chance to lecture me before my lips find hers and I make her forget all about my ankle.

Stopping Talia when she reaches for her top, I shake my head at her. “Let me undress you.”

Lying on my side, I pull her hand away, kissing the knuckles before sliding it under her head. When I tug her shirt up and I’m faced with her pale, unblemished skin, I imagine it rounded with my child one day.

The moment I got her top up over her bra, I can’t resist its sapphire tone shade against her pale skin, so I leave that in place. Sitting up, I help her get her shirt off and give her another kiss before I slide down on the bed.

Once I’m eye level with the snap on her jean shorts, I pop it open before placing a kiss below her belly button. Curling my fingers into the waistband, I startle a little scream out of her when I yank down her shorts and panties.

Honestly, there’s only so much I can take. Getting them down over her ankles, she looks at me in surprise when I slide one of my large hands under her to get her to roll onto her stomach. Then I’m kneeling in between her legs, lifting her hips up, and keeping her legs spread apart.

I smile, momentarily picturing the tattoo I’ll create on the wonderful canvas of her back one day before I grip each of her ass cheeks and hold her open. Swiping my tongue over her back entrance pulls another yelp from her, but today I continue down to her pussy where I slowly lick down one side and up the other.

Talia lets out a long, sensuous moan before the front of her body sinks to the bed and that’s when I plunge my tongue into her dripping slit. Taking my time, tasting her as I twist and turn my tongue while I extend it as long as I can before moving down along the path to softly suck on her little button.

“I need you,” she whispers, and I take that as my cue to slide first one, then a second finger into her as I work my tongue faster and faster over her clit, not willing to give her my cock until she comes all over my face.

Once she starts panting harder and harder, I up the pace of my tongue and fingers until she lets her head back to scream out my name—and doesn’t my woman squirt all over my face. I wasn’t sure what was happening at first, never having experienced it, but I take it as my cue to wrap up my dick.

I loathe pulling away from her, but I’m overly eager to feel her spasming pussy working my cock. Thankfully, my fingers have made entering her easier than it would normally have been. I’m a big guy, and fully proportionate.

“Feels so good,” she rasps out, pushing herself up onto her forearms and turning her head to look at me.

Talia’s bottom lip looks swollen, and I can just imagine her biting it, which instantly makes me want to. I lean forward, thrusting the rest of the way inside of her tight pussy so I can suck that lip into my mouth.

“Tell me you belong to me,” I growl out, suddenly desperate for her acknowledgment that this isn’t a fling. “Me. Only me.”

“Yes, yes. Oh, God, harder, please!” she cries out, but that isn’t good enough for me, so I smack her ass cheeks, one at a time, and she looks back at me in surprise.

“I belong to you, Tarak,” she agrees, her eyes glued to mine.

I nod and deeply exhale, unwilling to admit how badly I needed to hear those words. With a smile, I continue my thrusts, plunging deeper and deeper into her until we’re both screaming out nonsensical words and I collapse on top of her before rolling to my side and pulling her into my arms.

*

“Can you grab my shirt for me, please?” she asks after I finish up in the bathroom hours after we first entered the room.

“Nah. I like you naked,” I growl back to her, trying to ignore her pout. “Don’t get shy with me.”

“It’s not that, it’s just—”

“Why do I feel a regulation coming on?”

“It’s not a regulation, smart ass,” she says, trying to slide over me to reach for the T-shirt on the floor. “If there’s a fire, I will lose time getting out if I have to stop to get dressed.”

“How many times has your house caught fire?” I try my damnedest to sound serious, but as I’ve pinned her against my chest, she undoubtedly feels my stomach bouncing with laughter.

“First of all, I have seen my fair share of naked people wrapped in blankets at house fires,” she indignantly replies, until her face softens a bit. “And my dad is worried about things with you staying here.”

I suppose that was the nicest possible way to remind me that a man I’m associated with was just burned alive.

“I’m sorry, Tarak,” she says, shimming up along my body to kiss my chin. “Besides, I ordered a pizza while you were in the bathroom, and I’m not opening the door without clothes on.”

“You could have led with that,” I grumble, riled up over her constant need to do things just so .

“I could have. Except, I kind of like it when you get all growly,” the little minx says, sliding off my body.

She grabs her clothes from the floor and slips them on, her eyes running along my chest as I tentatively flex my ankles.

“Dinner in bed, I think. What do you want to drink?”

“Do you have any more of that root beer from earlier?” I ask in return and she nods, tossing me the remote control for the huge TV before setting us up for the evening.

Declan

“What do you mean, he can’t take my call?” I ask, rage flowing through my body.

It’s been four days since Parker King was burned alive outside our clubhouse and I can’t get one of my oldest friends to call me back?

The only person who’s possibly more pissed off is sitting directly across from me. Axel cracks his knuckles, showing his impatience.

“There’re a lot of things going down right now.”

Holding the handset away from my ear, I squeeze my hand until I hear the plastic start to give in, then I slam it down.

My vice president and I sit there as the minutes tick by, each knowing what the other is thinking.

“We’re going to need a vote,” Axel says.

“We’ll lose a few,” I respond, knowing there are some I can’t afford to lose, not with what’s coming at us. “I’ll talk to Jasper tomorrow, feel him out. I’d rather go independent than walk into another situation like this.”

“We’ll need Big Timber more than ever before.” He bitterly laughs as he rubs the ink on his arm, but he’s not simply talking about Timber’s chosen profession. Neither one of us has any doubt that Wolfman will stay with us, and I like to think Big Timber will also—he just hasn’t been here that long.

“He seemed pretty wrapped up with that firefighter,” I say, nodding to myself as I open the file that Diesel gave me on her and her family first thing this morning.

“Does that help or hurt us?”

Raising my eyebrow at the information I’m scanning over; I give him a grin. “She’s got deep roots here. Firefighters, fire captains, one was a fire captain who became a two-term mayor—let’s see, her grandfather, I think. And check this, the only family member who didn’t stick around Flagstaff lives up in Idaho.”

Axel’s smile matches mine when he replies. “It’s like a goddamn sign.”