Page 11 of Desiderium (Devil Dogs of the Apocalypse #2)

Cole

It’s the middle of day two, still pissing down rain at the farmhouse, as I toss my last card down on the table with a curse.

“High, low, and game, fuckers! Time for y’all to pay up. Now gimme them undies!” Hawk’s excited ass crows while sporting grabby hands.

We’ve been playing this game for a bit—wins and losses all around the table—but one such fucker seems to have all the luck tonight.

Thankfully, I’m not the only one about to get completely naked.

Aly is in the same predicament, but her soon-to-be attire is completely appropriate, and not just because we love to see her beautiful body in its most natural form, but because it’s her birthday tomorrow.

The woman we all love and adore is turning twenty-eight, which makes Jax the baby of the bunch. Surprising, I know.

How does the youngest end up being the leader of a motley crew such as this?

I certainly don’t know but for some reason it works.

The only thing that doesn’t? Having a birthday without some sort of celebration…

or in Aly’s case, a cake. That’s straight up sacrilege and not allowed if I have anything to say about it.

But first thing’s first….

Aly stands in front of Hawk, Jax, and me, her perfect breasts already on display and looking beautifully enticing.

It’s been a task keeping our hands to ourselves during the game, especially since her top was the first item forfeited after losing the first round of cards.

I think it was a strategic move on her part, intent on luring our focus away from the game so she could, potentially, win more hands.

The rules were simple:

Play strip pitch - because Aly doesn’t know how to play poker.

The last one with any clothing on wins.

The winner, then, was able to choose. If it was one of us guys? We got Aly. One-on-one.

Since our exodus to the cabin, that particular scenario has been extremely rare, or, in some cases, nonexistent.

The one-room cabin didn’t really afford any one-on-one time.

It was typically an all-of-us situation.

Whether one of us sat out to watch didn’t matter, everyone was present—it was the middle of winter, where would the others even go?

We were in the boonies surrounded by wilderness and with potential death lurking around the next bend.

The only time we separated was when I worked with Aly to curb her anxiety attacks.

The rest of the time it was all for one and one for all .

But enough Three Musketeers, back to current affairs .

If either Jax, Hawk, or I won, we got Aly to ourselves for the night. But if Aly won, she would then get to choose one of us, two of us, all of us, or none of us. It would be her choice.

Tonight, however, Hawk won, as evident by the quick swipe of his arm over the table, sending the cards and our beverages careening to the floor in a mess. Well, all except for mine, thankfully. I managed to lift my glass just before Hawk’s arm connected with the table, saving it from the avalanche.

“Hey, hey, hey! We know you won, but shit ! No foul play, man!” I point to the drink in my hand. “Beverage, dude.”

Hawk doesn’t hear me, however and prowls around the table, his sights set on Aly. She goes to move out of his reach, trying to start a chase, but her panties are halfway down her legs, impeding her movement. But it wouldn’t matter even if she was fully clothed, he’s quick as ever.

Lunging, he picks her up and throws her over his shoulder, caveman style.

Spanking her ass playfully, he turns to us.

“Well, boys, it’s been fun, but we’re gonna call it a night.

All night. Don’t even bother coming to find us because guess what we’ll be doing?

That’s right. Each other. All night.” He starts to move his hips in what might be considered a salsa move but it’s like he missed half the classes.

It’s still funny as hell, though, and keeps getting even better.

With Aly perched, naked as a Jay-bird, on his shoulder, he starts singing, “Juuuust the two of us.... ”

“Yeah, yeah go on. Have your fun. Just remember, she’s got your ticket to punch coming soon.” I remind him with a smirk and raised eyebrows.

“Oh, I’m not worried. I’m gonna take good care of our little princess, here,” Hawk responds unfazed, spanning his hand across her ass, squeezing the flesh before he continues.

“Any screaming or yelling that might come from upstairs is gonna be from her writhing on my dick, or my tongue, or my fingers. Fuck, maybe all three at once! Isn’t that right, sweets? ”

Jax jerks his head back, probably just as confused as I am. “How is that even fucking possible, you delusional dinglehopper?”

Aly squirms in Hawk’s arms. “I’m gonna start beating your ass if you don’t put me down soon! I’m about to pass out from all the blood going to my head, fucking Neanderthal,” she huffs out before Hawk places her down on her own two feet.

“You love it,” he gloats before kissing her nose. His soft demeanor seems to ease her hackles a bit as she grabs him by his hips, pulling him into her.

“Yeah, yeah, now shut up and show me how much you love to win.” She lifts up on her tip toes and nips at his chin. Her tongue trails sensually along his stubbled jaw all the way up to his ear where she whispers something that turns his complexion a deep crimson.

Fuck , I think as I simultaneously adjust my hard-on. Our girl’s so damn sexy and she barely even realizes it. Or maybe she does. Either way, it’s fucking working. I peek over at Jax, next to me, and see him do the same thing. It’s gonna be a long fucking night....

Aly’s seductive words get Hawk moving in full gear as he grabs his bag by the couch, lifts her back up in a fireman carry, and heads upstairs, flipping us off over his shoulder as he leaves.

I laugh before turning and meeting Jax’s concerned gaze.

“What’s got you in a funk? Sad you won’t be up there getting the royal treatment?”

He shakes his head, almost looking defeated—and not about losing the card game, either.

“It’s Aly’s birthday tomorrow and we have absolutely fuck all to celebrate the day for her.

We… I can’t just sit back and do nothing.

” He turns his head away, ashamed and disgraced.

His shoulders slump with the weight of disappointment.

“We should have waited to start this trip until after but I’m not even sure I would have had the supplies at the cabin to do anything, anyways. ”

If Jax had a love language, it would be service. Taking care of his loved ones. Providing for them. Nurturing them. It’s his life force.

I remember how we all collectively gave Aly her holiday wish, pulling cookies, a Christmas tree, and decorations—the whole shebang—out of our asses.

Those were special circumstances, though.

We had weeks to prepare for that. For Aly’s birthday, we only have a matter of hours to get our heads out of our asses.

Thankfully, Hawk’s keeping her occupied so we can do just that .

Unfortunately, we’re out of our element here—on the road with only ourselves, a wish and a prayer—but it’s not like we can let the day go by unnoticed.

Absolutely not. Our girl deserves a bit of celebration, however humble it may be.

Not to mention, Jax and I are decently intelligent guys. I’m sure we can figure out something.

“You’re right. We can’t just sit back and do nothing.

There’s got to be something here we can work with to celebrate the day.

We’re nothing if not stubborn assholes, I’m sure we’ll figure something out.

She deserves the world.” Jax nods, accepting my response, before making his way around the kitchen, pacing in a circle as he thinks.

“Yeah, she does. That and more,” Jax agrees.

We both look up at the ceiling as Aly’s giggles filter down through the rafters.

Suddenly, Jax’s eyes go round, an idea forming in his head.

“Maybe it’s a good thing Hawk gets to spend the entire night alone with her.

It gives us time to tinker with a few things I found that might just do the trick.

” He walks over to the cupboards he emptied earlier and pulls out a few items: hot cocoa mix, some flour, an unopened jar of apple sauce.

I walk over and place my hands on the table, silently scrutinizing the ingredients. “Ok... So, we’re making a mud pie?” I ask skeptically.

He shakes his head. “Nah, man. More like a cake.”

My brows furrow skeptically. “I don’t know, man. Aren’t we missing vital ingredients? We can’t possibly bake something edible using only this stuff.” I hold my hands out, indicating to the items. “We’d have better luck whipping out her smore’s kit and making her that.”

“Ok, no. We’re not touching the smore’s kit. She’d castrate you and me for looking at it wrong, let alone using it without her.”

I mean... he’s definitely not wrong about that.

Aly is vicious when it comes to her sweets.

Just the scent of chocolate in the air makes her feral.

I shoot a glance up above me to where a bit of dust falls from the ceiling.

If we’re fucking around with chocolate down here, she’s gonna destroy Hawk up there from just the scent alone.

I swear, it’ll be like a pure aphrodisiac wafting in the air.

He’ll enjoy that though, even if our experiment does fail. So, fuck it, let’s do it.

“Just… hear me out. This might take some fiddling, but… maybe… just maybe, we can work with this. Cake is simple. It’s all up here.

” He points to his head. “Flour, sugar, eggs, oil, vanilla. That’s it.

Maybe some chocolate if you didn’t want white cake.

Now, the cocoa powder will cover the sugar and chocolate, maybe even the vanilla.

We have no oil, but I did read a while ago that applesauce can be a good substitute.

We just need to figure out something for the eggs cause, yeah, we have no chickens or eggs.

But…maybe we don’t need them? I don’t know.

We can test it out and try. If it sucks, we can bail and think of something else. But it’s worth a shot.”

A quiet feminine moan drifts down to us followed by loud steady thumps. I suck on my teeth as my eyes drift down between us. The large bulges tenting our pants are unmistakable .

Yeah... we need a fucking distraction.

I nod, rubbing my hands together. “Alrighty, let’s get this show on the road. I mean, what else do we have to do besides listen to them bang all night? At least it’ll keep us preoccupied instead of spraining our wrists jacking off to their animal sounds all night.”

Jax points to me. “Bingo. Let’s do this.”

We get the available ingredients into an old bowl we found and start mixing but a thought pops into my head, freezing my motions.

“What’s wrong?” Jax asks.

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve got your thinking face on.”

I do not have a thinking face...

“You’re sticking your tongue out of the side of your mouth and biting down on it. Rather hard from what I can see. You do it whenever you’re deep in thought. Did you not know you do that?”

No... no I did not. I pull my unruly tongue away from my clamping teeth and shake myself a little, asking the question that’s nagging the back of my mind instead of confessing to my tell.

“What’re eggs used for? Like… why do they need to be in the cake? What’s their purpose?”

Jax stops mixing and puts on his own thinking face.

I laugh inwardly. At least I just bite my tongue.

Jax looks like he’s downright constipated or something.

His eyes are all bugged out in his attempt to concentrate.

His tanned complexion is even gaining a bit of a rosy tone.

It’s fucking hilarious but I keep that to myself.

“I’m… actually not sure. Binding agent, maybe? I also know cakes need some sort of leavening agent, so maybe they’re meant to help the cake rise? Your guess is as good as mine, man,” he says in reply.

I zone out for a second before turning towards the cupboards. I empty the first before finding what I’m looking for in the second one. “Vinegar and baking soda.” I hold up the two items like victory trophies and smile.

“Um, yup that’s what those are.” He looks so fucking confused right now. And I get it. He probably thinks we’re about to conduct a science experiment, which... isn’t completely wrong if you think about it.

“No, you don’t understand. If you need a leavening agent—something to help the cake rise—these babies, mixed together, can do that.”

“Cole, vinegar? In a cake? Seriously?”

“Yes, seriously. You mix the two together and it bubbles! Chemical leavening agent. Science wins again. We should try it. What do we have to lose?”

Jax shakes his head and sighs. “Absolutely nothing….” He shrugs his shoulders and takes the bottle of vinegar. “Alright, you mad scientist, let’s try it.”