Saving Dallas 2 Making the Cut (10 page)

“Tell me who you belong to, Dallas,” he
growled from behind me.

“You,” I managed to squeak, my face muffled
by the pillow and the growing throb between my legs, affecting my
speech. Luke reached around and began rubbing my clit. The cluster
of nerves was so sensitive, that it was almost painful.

“That’s right, baby. You are mine.”

Luke increased the movement of his fingers,
rubbing furiously against my clit and my dead limbs began to
jerk.

“Come for me,” he demanded in a whisper, and
I exploded around him. Luke drove deep one last time and collapsed
on top of me. I could feel the mixture of our wetness beginning to
slide down my legs. I remember Luke leaving and then returning,
placing something cool between my legs, then covering me and
turning out the light. I also remember the sound of the door
closing behind him as he left the room.

Chapter 4

Dallas

It’s dark where I am. There is only a sliver
of light that shines underneath the closed door. I can’t see anyone
in the room with me, but I can hear screaming. Loud screams that
sound like a woman pleading and begging for her life. Red. I
recognize her voice immediately, even though it is muffled by
uncontrollable sobs. I struggle to get to her, but something is
holding me down. I try to break free, but whatever has me won’t let
me go. The door opens slowly, and the room is bathed in light. I
don’t see who is at the door, but the screams have stopped and
there is only silence. Something is thrown at my feet and I look
down to see a bloody tongue on the dusty concrete slab of my
barn.

“Dallas, baby, it’s me. Wake up.”

Luke’s sweet voice is beside me and I am
cradled in his arms. I look down and see that we are in my bed and
the light is on. I thought I would find Luke fully dressed, but he
was naked under the covers with me and looked like he had been
there for quite some time.

“I-I thought you left,” I said, forgetting my
horrific dream and just concentrating on the fact that he was here
and not sleeping in another room.

“No, baby. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere,”
he said, smoothing my damp hair off my head. “What were you
dreaming about?” he asked, kissing my face repeatedly and stroking
my back. It felt warm and reassuring to have him here and my bad
dream was pushed to the back of my sub-conscious.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I said,
curling into his side. Luke’s arms wrapped tighter around me.

“Baby, I know you don’t like talking about
it, but it would probably be better if you did. You don’t have to
tell me, but you need to tell somebody.”

I thought about what he told me. I had not
shared with anyone what happened that night. I wasn’t sure if Luke
really even wanted to know, or if I wanted to relive it.

“Maybe, one day. It doesn’t bother me so much
anymore.” And it didn’t. Sure, the nightmares were bad, but they
didn’t last long and waking up with Luke next to me, helped me to
forget.

“I’m here, Dallas. Whenever you’re ready.”
Luke slid the hair on my forehead back and planted a kiss there,
then curled me back to him. I closed my eyes and inhaled the scent
of him, letting it relax me completely.

“Luke?”

“Yeah, beautiful?”

“Thank you.” I couldn’t see his face, but I
knew he was smiling.

“My pleasure, darlin’.”

I woke the next morning to find Luke’s
beautiful face right in front of me. His steady breath was warm on
the tops of my breasts and I smiled at the thought of having him
here. I had to be the luckiest girl on the planet to have this view
every morning.

I slowly crawled out of the bed, not wanting
to wake Luke and finding it a little difficult to move. The
soreness was intense, but butterflies formed in my stomach, easing
the pain when I remembered what caused it.

Luke had said we had a “lot of shit to do
today,” so I figured a good breakfast was in order. I grabbed my
robe, leaving the bathroom and started to the kitchen, pulling the
bedroom door closed behind me. Opening my refrigerator door, I was
reminded, once again, how good the club had been to me. It was
fully stocked with groceries. From orange juice to thick sliced
bacon, just how I liked it. I had everything I needed to make a
delicious southern breakfast.

My homemade biscuits were in the oven, bacon
was frying on the stove and I was stirring grits, listening to Neal
McCoy sing “No Doubt About It”, when strong, warm arms wrapped
around me and the delicious scent of Luke filled my nostrils. He
kissed me on the cheek and reached around to turn the grits off,
then grabbed my hand and turned me to him.

“
Like a hammer and a nail, socks and
shoes-we go hand in hand like the rhythm blues. What good is a man
who hasn’t got a dream? ‘Bout as good as a car with no gasoline
you’re the one I’m dreaming of, got to have your love, can’t live
without it. We were meant to be together, no doubt about
it.”

I stood in Luke’s arms, allowing him to lead
me around the kitchen, staring at him with my mouth hanging open as
he sang to me. I had no idea Luke knew how to sing. Was there an
ending to his perfectness?

“I didn’t know you could sing,” I managed to
choke out while he continued to hum the song, looking at me with
those big blue eyes that seemed to sparkle this morning.

“Does it surprise you that much?” he asked
teasingly. I would be lying if I said it did. For some reason, I
knew Luke was capable of doing anything, and doing it well.

“Nothing you do surprises me anymore,” I
said, smiling up at him. He leaned down and kissed me softly, his
lips barely brushing over mine.

“I love you, babe. I need you today. There is
a lot of shit going on and I am going to need you to be there for
me. I know this is hard, but I need you to trust me and stay in my
sights at all times. A lot of people are coming into town and I
need to know that you are behind me on this. Can I trust you to do
as I ask and not give me any grief about it?”

I looked at Luke’s face, full of hope and
wonder. He needed me. When I needed him, he was there. He was
letting me know that this was something important to him, and he
wasn’t giving me the option of backing down. This made my heart
swell and my love for him to deepen. If ever I was sure of his
intentions of keeping me safe, it was now.

“Of course.” There was no hesitation in my
voice and my eyes were determined, staring into his, daring him to
not believe me. I would do what he asked and then some, I owed it
to him-he was my more. He kissed me on my head and grabbed my face
in his hands.

“Thank you,” he said, letting the air rush
out of his lungs as if he had been holding it.

“Does that surprise you?” I asked, teasing
him with the same question he had asked me only minutes before. He
shook his head, smiling and breaking eye contact.

“You are about as unpredictable as the
weather, Dallas Knox. Let’s eat.”

My southern breakfast was a hit with Luke. He
constantly told me how delicious everything was and wanted to know
where I learned to cook. I informed him that the few short years
that I had lived with my grandmother, she had showed me many things
like how to cook, how to can and make biscuits from scratch-each
one having your initial in it.

“See, there is an L right there,” I said,
pointing at the crack in the bottom of Luke’s biscuit.

“You put that in there?” I couldn’t help but
smile at his comment and the innocent look on his face. Of course,
I didn’t. You could just about make out any letter of the alphabet
if you looked hard enough, but he didn’t have to know that.

“Absolutely. What kind of person would I be
if I made you a biscuit without your initial?”

Luke shook his head, and continued eating.
Apparently he believed the old tale my grandmother had told me many
times, yet I was a lot younger than Luke when I figured it out.

“Who all will be there today?” I asked,
standing to clear the dishes from the bar.

“Everyone. The whole club, and some brothers
from a chapter out of Louisiana,” he said, watching me as I moved
around the kitchen cleaning up.

“Who all does that entail?”

“Anyone who is affiliated with the club and
might be in danger of Frankie,” he said, almost cautiously. I
immediately wondered if that meant women that were not ol’ ladies.
Luke seemed to always know what I was thinking and confirmed my
suspicions.

“That includes Maddie, and some of the girls
you have met before. Any hang-arounds or women the club keeps
around for private entertainment. The guys will be there and we
need the bitches to show them a good time. Is that gonna be a
problem for you?”

I’m sure the look on my face was as if I had
just seen a ghost. I could actually feel my skin pale at the
thought of those women there hanging all over Luke as if he was a
prized possession, which he was, but he was mine.

“They’re not for me, babe. They are for the
guys from out of town and the ones who don’t have ol’ ladies,” Luke
said, one of his eyebrows raised in amusement. I still had not said
anything to him. Hell, what was there to say? They were going to be
there whether I liked it or not. I would just have to deal with
it.

“That’s fine. I can be cordial,” I said,
trying to convince myself as well as him. I turned back to my
kitchen duties, trying to do anything to keep the thought of them
women off my mind.

“Cordial?” Luke asked. I could hear the
laughter in his voice as he said it, but I refused to look at
him.

“Yes, cordial. I can be nice to anyone, as
long as they keep their hands and eyes off of you.” The dishes I
scrubbed just a little too hard and the cabinets I slammed did not
deserve the mistreatment I was showing them, but the frustration
seemed to subside each time I did it.

“Babe,” Luke said, coming up behind me. “I
really need you to keep your attitude in check today. Don’t
embarrass me in front of my club.” Luke’s voice was gentle, but his
eyes let me know that he was serious. My heart seemed to stop at
the thought of him being embarrassed by me.

“I would never embarrass you,” I said, my
voice shaky and barely audible. How could he ever think that?

“I meant, by defying me, darlin’. Refusing to
do as I ask. I can’t stress to you how much I need you to not ask
any questions and just do as you’re told. A lot of women will be
there today. All of them will respect you and look to you for
guidance. You are with me and that says a lot.” I nodded my head in
agreement. My heart was still bruised, but I would prove to Luke
that I was here for him, and that I could do this.

“Go get dressed. I need to make some calls.”
Luke bent his head and his lips hesitated right above mine. I
pursed my lips and stretched, closing the few inches that were
between us. The kiss was chaste and soft, but any kiss from Luke
left me swaying. It took me a minute, but I got my shit together
and sucked in a deep breath. “This is what you want,” I chanted to
myself. I knew that not all parts of the club life would be
enjoyable, but I didn’t think I would be faced with them this soon.
I was nervous that this would be too much for me to handle.

My cell phone rang and I dashed to the
bedroom to get it and found the screen flashing “Red Calling.”

“Hello,” I said breathlessly into the phone.
Damn, I was out of shape.

“You fucking?” Red asked, and I couldn’t help
but smile at her crass statement.

“Red, I’m freaking a little.” What the fuck?
Really, Dallas? My diarrhea of the mouth was making me look like a
real pansy. Oddly, she knew what I was talking about without me
having to tell her.

“Don’t freak. I know what you’re thinking and
don’t. Those bitches are actually kinda cool and I promise none of
them will fuck with Luke.”

I shook my head at her weird ability to know
what I was talking about. “How can I be nice to people like that? I
mean, don’t they have any self-worth?” I asked, not sure why I was
being such a bitch, but I had to know.

“These girls are here to keep the club happy.
Don’t degrade them or put them down in any way just because they
don’t live up to your standards,” Red said, clearly pissed off.

“Red I-“

“No, I know what you mean. Some of these
girls were not handed a life on a silver platter like you were.
They have dads that they’ve never met and moms they visit every
other weekend through a glass box, or visit on a street corner.
They have found that they can use their bodies to make a life much
better than the one they were given, so before you start judging
people from your high fucking pedestal, maybe you should take a
walk in their shoes.” Red was super pissed. I tried to tell myself
that I didn’t really mean it like that, but I did.

I came from a privileged back ground, and
often wondered why people were the way they were. My assumptions
were that everyone had the same opportunities as I had growing up,
but Red had a way of bringing you back down to size.

“And when we get there, these women are going
to practically worship you, because to them, you are
some-fucking-body. I don’t give a shit if you have a property patch
on or not, these women will respect you because you are with LLC.
So, when we get there, you better have your shit in check, because
if not, I will gladly take an ass chewing from the guys for beating
your ass.” I tried to respond in time to tell her I was sorry, but
she had already disconnected.

“Shit! Shit, shit, shit, shit!” I
shout-whispered. Now, I had Luke scared that I would embarrass him,
and Red thinking I was a stuck up bitch. This day was gonna be
perfect.

“You ready?” Luke asked from the doorway of
my closet. He was dressed in a white t-shirt, torn jeans and the
black cap that I was beginning to love.