Disclaimer-The Sons of Anarchy said that they thought I would make a more fun owner than Kurt Sutter, but sadly, they're fictional so their opinions don't matter. I do own No Other Man Alive, its plots (and you may not know it, yet, but there is a lot brewing!), and all my fantastic original characters. Even Starla.
It was dark in the dorm room, and Ace was huddled in the tiny patch of light coming from the window, sketchbook and pencils in her lap. She was wearing his hoodie, and Happy found it unexpectedly sexy. He didn't say a word, just watched her as she scribbled furiously. He felt a little cheated that from where he lay he could see the clock, but not Ace's face or what she was drawing.
As though he'd summoned her, Ace turned and looked right at him over her shoulder. She squeaked in surprise, losing her balance and dropping her book in the process.
"Fuck, you scared the shit out of me." She scolded him, crawling under the chair to retrieve her stuff. Happy groaned when he saw that she wasn't wearing anything under the hoodie.
"Do you ever sleep?" He asked, and his voice was sandpaper rough.
"Um, not really." Ace shrugged, sliding the hoodie off her shoulders. She grinned when Happy groaned again, and slid into the bed next to him.
"It's four o'clock in the fucking morning and I came twice, if you wanted more than that, you shoulda picked a younger man." He grumbled at her when she rubbed all her nakedness on him. Ace just laughed, wide awake and delighted that for the first time in the many years she'd known Happy, she finally had his attention.
"Mmm, I had a younger man." She purred, and swung a leg over to straddle him. She ran a finger lightly over his mouth and down his chest and stomach. "And this is a very serious upgrade."
Happy firmly put her off of him, and heard her laugh again. Her veiled reference to her dead shitbag husband triggered his memory, and he propped himself up on an elbow to look at her.
"You never answered me." He said, catching her face with his free hand. "About why you stayed with him after he beat on you."
"What are you, the MC Dr. Phil?" She snapped, all laughter gone from her voice, and pushed his hand away. "It's not like you didn't grow up on the same block. Puerto Rican men slap their women around when they get pissed, it's the machismo. You can't tell me you've never hit a woman."
Happy was uncomfortable with her uncharacteristic cynicism, but she couldn't distract him from finding out what he wanted to know. He was single minded when it came to discovering shit.
"I didn't ask why he did it, I asked why you let that shit happen. I've seen you fight. It doesn't add up that you would just take that lying down." He knew that he'd hit a nerve when she pulled the comforter higher up her back and tucked it between them.
"I'm not a stupid bitch, that's why. I didn't leave because my husband was the only family I had, my parents are gone, Delia had just had her heart attack, I mean, I could support myself but what would the point have been? And I didn't fight back because no matter how scrappy I am, I only weigh a buck twenty and any dude worth his shit is going to be able to put me down. Fighting back only makes that shit worse." Happy wondered when Ace would stop surprising him, because there wasn't even a hint of weakness in her voice. She was just very matter of fact about it. "Why do you care so much, anyway?" She asked, yawning widely and turning her back on him.
"I like knowing how your head works." He answered her, tracing the letters of his name on her back lightly. "You know I'm not going to be that guy, right?"
"Sure, Hap." Ace agreed, mostly asleep.
"I'm serious, Ace." He barked at her, needing her attention. "I will beat the shit out of someone, I will kill for you if I need to, but I'm not going to raise my hand to you."
Sighing, Ace rolled onto her stomach and opened her eyes.
"I know, Happy." She smiled a little dopily at him. "Can I sleep now?"
"Yeah, sleep, baby." He said, stroking her hair, wide awake now that she was ready to sleep.
No Other Man Alive
In a change of pace that felt deliberate, Ace had the bed all to herself when she woke. She was groggy and disoriented, and it took her a long moment to figure out where she was. Insomnia had a way of making real life seem awfully hazy sometimes. She dragged herself over to the other side of the bed, stopping briefly to inhale Happy's scent on the pillow like a lovestruck teen. After a moment to recover from that exertion, she hung her head over the side of the bed to get a look at the time. It was after two in the afternoon. Shit. Granted, she didn't really have anyplace better to be, but Ace didn't figure that hanging out in bed all day was precisely "old lady" behavior. Not that she really had the first clue what an old lady did all day.
Fighting the urge to bury her head under the Happy smelling pillow, Ace sat up and blearily surveyed the room, hoping for a clue as to where Happy might actually be. Predictably, the walls had no answers for her. Sighing, she patted her hands over her incredibly wild bedhead, and then decided that it was likely beyond redemption anyway.
Ace threw the comforter back just as the door swung open. She squeaked and dove back under it, but heard Happy chuckle before she could manage to get herself sorted out. She heard him shut the door and cross the short distance to the bed. He slid onto the bed just behind her, and she watched him through her lashes, wondering when the thrill of having him would wear off. His hands stroking up her bare back, and brushing her hair over her right shoulder woke all her lazy nerve endings to full awareness.
"How sore are you?" He asked her, his palm moving from shoulder to shoulder, testing her reaction. Happy was relieved by the noncommittal hum Ace answered him with.
"You can't still be tired." He coaxed her, trailing a hand all the way down her spine.
"Mmmm," Ace hummed again, arching into his strokes, "Wide awake."
Happy pulled his hand away quickly as a striking snake, and Ace fell backward.
"Wide awake, huh?" He teased her, leaning over her. She surprised him by closing the inches between their faces and kissing him chastely. The casual affection that clearly wasn't meant as an invitation still unnerved him, but he decided that allowing it cost him nothing, as long as it stayed behind closed doors. He hated that having her was an obvious weakness, and wanted to minimize the risk to her, and to him, so he knew that he wouldn't let her act like this in public.
"Yes, I'm awake." She seemed even younger in the daylight, and he promised himself that he would show her basic self defense when they reached Tacoma. And the moment Tacoma crossed his mind, Happy wanted to take her there. His old charter was one of the only places in the world where Happy didn't feel like he had to watch his back, and he realized that he really needed a few days with her not looking over his shoulder. Besides, Kozik would have run his gigantic mouth about Ace so no one would fuck with him, and almost all the Tacoma boys had old ladies.
"Good. If I pad your tat, can you ride?" He pressed her, wanting to get out of Nevada. "Long distance, I'm trying to get out of the fucking desert."
"Uh, I think as long as you shellac some A&D on underneath, I'd be ok for a while." She looked a little uncertain. "How far are you trying to go?"
Happy stood, pulling Ace with him.
"Why are you always fully dressed and I'm standing around buck nekkid?" Ace sighed, allowing Happy to push her toward the bathroom.
"Because you're young and hot and I'm an old man. Get dressed and get your stuff together and we'll figure out how far we can get. I want to take you to Tacoma, baby."
Ace dug her heels in when they reached the bathroom door. She turned and slid her hands under his cut, pulling his shirt out so that she could feel his skin under her palms.
"You're a lot of things, big man, but old is not one of them." Ace leaned into her man, loving the power she could feel coiled just under his dark skin. "Didn't you used to live in Tacoma?"
"Yeah, spent a few years at their table." Happy ducked out of her reach, not wanting to get distracted by all the nakedness that she seemed determined to rub all over him. He liked that she was so desperate for him, but the pull of Tacoma was slightly stronger than the allure of his old lady's tight body. At least it would be if he got the hell out of their room. "Come across the hall when you're ready."
No Other Man Alive
The best part about traveling light, was that it didn't take long to get your shit together. Ace was dressed with her bag in one hand and the supplies to dress her new ink in the other in less than 25 minutes. She knocked on Tig's door, craning her neck to see who might be in the clubhouse while she waited. All she could see was the Prospect wiping down tables, and Judge? No, Jury, with reading glasses perched on his nose, working on some accounting books. At the other end of the hall, there were two girls dressed in scraps of lace fussing with each other's hair.
"Just come in, Ace." She heard Happy from the other side of the door. Turning away from the pair of working girls, Ace juggled her load to get a hand free to turn the knob. Pushing the door open with a hip, she caught sight of Happy and Tig crowding the tiny table, heads together.
"Whatcha doing?" She asked, dropping the bag on the floor. Her nose wrinkled as she caught a whiff of all the bodily odors marinating in the room. Ace assessed Tig for a long moment, wondering if he'd be offended if she opened the window, but decided that he would probably find it amusing. And if he didn't, Happy would be between the two of them, anyway.
"Trying to figure out where to stop. It's about 750 miles to Tacoma, and loverboy doesn't think you can handle it." Tig explained, smirking when he saw her opening the window. He stopped when Happy slapped him in the back of the head.
"Hey." He protested, rubbing the spot.
"He's probably right." Ace admitted, leaning around Happy to look at Tig. Then she saw the road maps spread out on the table and looked incredulously from Happy to Tig and back again.
"Really, guys? Have you never heard of Google Maps? Or Mapquest?" She asked, pulled her iPhone from her pocket with a flourish.
"Gentlemen, meet the interweb. Interweb, the gentlemen." She scrolled through screens and icons, tapping the map app. Then exited to the settings when she saw that the GPS had somehow been turned off.
"Do you have a specific address, or a city, or do you just want a midway point to stop at?" She asked Happy, finally looking up at him when he didn't answer right away.
"Uh, we should probably look for somewhere to hole up in or around Redmond." Happy answered her. "Cheap motel, not a big chain, I don't want to be tracked because we were stupid enough to use a credit card."
Ace raised a brow at him, but silently continued tapping and swiping at the infinitesimal screen, then handed the phone to him. Happy glanced at the screen, and handed it right back to her.
"I don't know how to work that shit." He snapped, and Ace flinched a tiny bit.
"Well there's a Bed & Breakfast 3 miles off of 97 North, it's under $100 a night and doesn't look disgusting." She defended, leaning away from him a little, not enough to actually step away, but Happy felt her trying to find her proverbial footing with him.
"And it has breakfast." Tig pointed out helpfully.
"Well let's fucking roll, then." Happy said, folding the map quickly and shoving into his cut's inner pocket. He grabbed Ace's bag and walked out without looking back at her. She stared after him, then looked to Tig, because she was still holding all the supplies to pad her tattoo.
"Come on, he'll get you squared away." Tig told her, pointedly not touching her as he grabbed his own bag. "I really do like breakfast. Let's go."
No Other Man Alive
Ace followed her two road warriors about the clubhouse as they took their leave of the few Indian Hills' Sons there on a weekday afternoon. Slick was the only one who acknowledged her, respectfully wishing her an easy ride. She really felt like an idiot, just nodding back, trailing Happy with her arms full of A&D, bandaging, and tape, just waiting for him to remember that he had to help her.
"Hap!" She finally hissed, exasperated, when he had started for the door.
"Oh, yeah, I guess I need to do that, huh?" He took the load from her. "Turn around, I want this done. I'm itching for fourth gear."
He wasted no time in coating his work with the ointment, efficiently taping a thick pad of bandages across her shoulders. Once he was satisfied that it was securely taped, Happy rubbed it roughly, testing Ace.
"I said, I would be fine, Hap." She glared at him over her shoulder.
"The next one is going right across your stomach so that you can take care of this shit yourself." Happy informed her, tugging on her braid in a caveman show of male dominance.
"Next one? I believe I actually owe you some ink, big man." Ace let Happy push her out of the door and into the desert sunlight.
"Yeah, we need to handle that tomorrow in Tacoma." He sighed, balancing their gear, and handing over Ace's leather and sunglasses. "They're going to go apeshit over you there. God knows what the fuck Kozik told everyone."
Ace worked to get herself ready without looking like an idiot in the process. She was tremendously relieved when she only fumbled the cinch on her helmet once. Marinating inside her leather, and trying to figure out why the hell she had to wear leather when none of the guys did, Ace was just tucking her piece into the back of her waistband when Tig stepped in close to her. She flinched back, but managed to stand her ground knowing that it was Tig, and Happy trusted Tig with her when he trusted no one else. His instincts served her well, because Tig produced a slightly squashed breakfast burrito from his cut and offered it to her.
"I made sure to grab you something, we wouldn't want Angry Ace coming out because no one remembered to feed you." He explained when her face softened. "You don't have to get all chicked out, it's a fucking burrito."
"Thanks, Tig." She mumbled through a mouthful of burrito.
"Yeah, you're real cute." He shot back with all the sarcasm he could muster.
Happy started his engine and revved, effectively getting their attention. Ace toasted Tig with the last bite before cramming it in her mouth. She looked at Happy's motorcycle with less trepidation than she had leaving Fallbrook. It surprised her that she even looked forward to the ride a little bit. Happy planted his boots and nodded to her, and she felt confident enough to mount from the pegs instead of awkwardly hopping over the seat. When she was settled, Hap dropped a hand to squeeze her knee. Then, with a nod to Tig, they were off.
No Other Man Alive
They pulled into the B&B just shy of midnight, Ace navigating from the bitch seat, her phone tucked safely between her stomach and Happy's back. She leaned heavily against his shoulders, grateful for his big back keeping her from falling on her face.
"Hop down, I want to walk it back." He patted her knee and then braced himself to make it easier for her to scramble off. This time without the grace she'd managed in the Indian Hills parking lot. She was sore, but it wasn't terrible, and Happy steadied her before walking his motorcycle back so that it was tight to Tig's Dyna. He dismounted, and surprised her by grabbing her by the hair and kissing her.
"Does this mean I gotta pay for my own room?" Tig complained, shoving into the pair roughly. Happy just kicked Tig's ankle in response.
"I'll cover you until we start earning again. It ain't cushy like Charming, but you'll be flush soon." Hap assured him, keeping Ace trapped against his left side. He slid a hand up under her hair, massaging her neck with a pressure that bordered on painful. "We might have better luck if you go check in. I don't know if Tigger and I are exactly B&B material."
"I hate to break it to you, big man, but your pipes may have spoiled your element of surprise." Ace cracked up, burrowing further into his side as the proprietor opened the backdoor. In her mid seventies, she wore an outrageously orange caftan that should have been hideous, but managed to look effortlessly chic.
"Your young lady is right, but I'm not afraid of a couple bikers. I rode cross country in the summer of '68 on the back of a Harley." She beckoned them into the B&B with a grand gesture, while Ace still giggled uncontrollably into Happy's cut.
No Other Man Alive
As soon as the door shut behind them, Happy was on Ace. The thing about distance riding was that there were a lot of miles spent solely in your own headspace, and Happy had burned most of those miles wondering why Tacoma had seemed more important than getting inside Ace. He loved Tacoma's clubhouse, it was more home to him than his mother's house in Bakersfield, but there were always people around and he knew that he wouldn't have Ace to himself again until they left for Quinn's in a week.
He kissed her, one hand undoing her braid, while the left clamped on her hip. It made him uneasy when she opened his cut and started pushing it off his shoulders. He pulled back from her, but she stopped him.
"Let me, Hap. I may not know jack about MCs, but I've watched you for years. Your cut gets hung up. And if there's nowhere to hang it, it gets laid out with the big patch on the back facing up."
"Colors." He corrected her, and let her circle behind him to remove his cut. He watched her hang it on the back of the chair, shrugging out of his shoulder holster without taking his eyes off of her. She took it from him, laying his SIGs and her Glock out neatly on the nightstand closest to the door. Happy found it incredibly erotic. He kept still as she undressed herself, eyes never leaving his. Completely naked, except for the bandage across her shoulders, Ace came back to him. She pulled her hair over her shoulder and presented her back to him.
"You don't want to leave it on for tomorrow?" He asked, but really missed seeing his name on her.
"I'm fine, Hap. It needs air anyway." She just hissed when he ripped the tape off. She took the wad of bandages from him and threw them out.
Happy remained passive when she returned to him again, allowing her to undress him. His gaze was heavy on her as she stroked and explored, running her palms up his stomach and chest, then sliding around to his back. Ace rose up on her toes to kiss him, and he surprised her when he didn't immediately take control of her mouth. Happy just stroked his hands up her waist, rubbing his thumbs over the sensitive skin just on the side of her breasts. It made his cock even harder when he felt her nipples tighten up against his skin.
"Do me, Hap." She breathed into his mouth when she'd grown too anxious waiting for him to dominate her.
Instead of cranking her head back like she no doubt expected, Happy stepped back away from her. She whimpered at the loss of contact, but waited for him while he kicked off his boots and loosened his belt. When he turned his attention back to her, she was flushed and her eyes were hungry.
"Lay down, right on the edge of the bed." He ordered her, crowding her, but not touching her. When she leaned back on her elbows, legs parted for him, he ran a hand from her cheek, down the center of her chest, then spread his hand over her stomach, spanning the stretch of skin between her hip bones. The heel of his hand put the lightest pressure on her pussy, which made her gasp and bite her lip.
"Yeah, right here." Happy growled to himself, seeing it in his mind.
He went to his knees in front of her, wrapping his arms around her thighs and pulling her farther down, so her round little ass was just at the edge. His shoulders forced her legs wide, and he pinned her knees to the mattress, spreading all that pink wide for him. She was already soaked for him, he could smell how turned on she was, so it was unexpected when she sat up, pushing him away.
"No, Happy, you really don't have to do that."Ace's voice was unusually high as she tried to scoot back away from him. He just clamped down on her legs to keep her still.
"I don't have to do shit. But I'm the only man alive who has had this pussy, and if I want to bury my face in it, I'm going to." He emphasized his point by licking straight up her slit, then pulling back again. "I never meant a bitch who didn't like getting her pussy licked."
"No, it's not that I don't like it, I mean I don't actually know if-oh fuck." Ace broke off her explanation when Happy sucked her clit into his mouth.
It had been years since Happy had had his mouth on any woman. He actually really loved eating pussy, it just wasn't something he bothered with when he was fucking for function. But with Ace writhing beneath him, he really wanted to take the time to feast on her. He pushed his tongue inside her, and was rewarded when she came right in his mouth. He pulled back, lapping at her folds, loving the taste of her all over his face. She shoved him away when he tried to lick her clit again.
Happy dropped trou, pulling Ace farther onto the bed with him. He kept her right knee hooked over his elbow, using his other hand to guide his cock to her entrance. Slipping into her heat, he groaned, she was so slick and swollen.
"Fuck, you feel so good." He ground out, sliding his arm under her shoulders and resting his forehead on hers.
Ace gripped his biceps, in love with the controlled strength beneath her hands. His body overwhelmed her, but he wouldn't let her look away from him. She'd expected him to fuck her hard once she'd cum, so the slow, hot grind had her off balance. The weight of him pressed into her, and she couldn't catch her breath, panting into his mouth and tasting herself on his breath.
"Jesus, Hap, I-" He cut her off by dropping his head and biting her in the sensitive flesh where her neck met her shoulder.
Happy felt her orgasm again, and groaned into her neck. She was so perfect, her body everything he could have wanted. It was fascinating to him that Ace could clearly have any man at her beck and call, but instead she let him fuck her any way he wanted to and enjoyed it. He remembered the way it felt when he'd been fucking her face and she'd hummed around his cock.
"Fuck me hard, big man." She begged him, and he kissed her hard enough to bruise her.
"I love your filthy fucking mouth." He growled and pulled back from her. Grabbing her ankles in one hand, he drilled into her, watching his cock stretching her. She was so swollen and tight that he came quickly, his head thrown back and his hand clamped down hard on her leg.
When his heart had stopped hammering his ribcage, Happy pulled his softening dick from her. He got up to grab his shirt to clean himself off. When he had turned to offer it to her, he stopped in his tracks, captivated by the sight of her. Ace was still sprawled where he had left her; she was watching him through her thick lashes, a smug smile on her face. He could see his semen dripping from between her swollen lips, and he wished he could fuck her all over again.
"You look beautiful like that." He grunted awkwardly, and gently began to clean her up. He tossed the shirt off the bed and pulled the blanket over them both. Ace tucked herself against his left side, tracing the faces that covered his abs with one lazy finger. Happy smoked with his right hand, stroking her hair with the other, watching her as she drifted off. When he was sure she was completely out, he kissed her forehead tenderly.
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