“You don’t do the whole bargaining thing much, do you?” I sauntered towards the door leading into the range with an extra sway in my hips. “I would’ve said yes to that anyway.”
When I turned, he made a show of lifting his eyes from my ass.
“It’s done now, either way,” he said, stalking towards me.
I held my breath.
For a moment, it looked like he was going to crash our bodies together and take me right then and there. An idea the throbbing between my legs was totally on board with.
So the sigh of relief and disappointment when those big hands lifted to punch in an obnoxiously long key-code couldn’t be helped.
We walked in together and the slight smell of smoke clinging to his skin made sense. There were four lanes. One of them recently used given the disassembled gun sitting on the counter before it, along with a pair of over-ear protection.
I glanced at Monster for approval and he nodded.
Giddy with excitement, I strolled to the counter and stopped in front of the gun, inspecting it. I felt Monster’s body heat close behind me before I registered him moving. He was hard to ignore, but chewing on my lip while I took in all the parts sitting on the table made it easier.
When he started talking, my shoulders tensed.
I was already expecting him to launch into some macho spiel about women and guns, so it took me a minute to realize that wasn’t what I was hearing.
“Can you repeat that?” I murmured, cheeks heating. I waited for the barely restrained anger he’d been holding onto earlier to slip the leash.
Sensing my discomfort, Monster stepped to my side instead. Having him in my peripheral vision helped. A bit.
“Have you ever used something bigger than the snub-nose you carry?” he asked.
I shook my head.
“What about anything with a magazine?”
Another head shake. Another pause where I waited for a joke or recrimination that didn't come. The lack of either put me on edge.
Monster said nothing for a moment. Finally, he nodded to the gun on the table. “Check that out and see how it feels. You’ll probably want something with a smaller grip for your personal use, but I don’t have anything that’ll fit you better right now.”
His choice of words stood out to me.
Right now?
Didn’t that imply there would be a later?
I couldn’t tell if he realized how that sounded, so I tucked that thought into the black box of my mind and hid it away. No reason to bring extra attention to the weird buzz happening in my chest. Grabbing the matte black gun in a two-handed grip, finger outside the guard, I pointed it at the floor and waited.
His approval wasn’t a sound so much as a feeling.
But damn if I didn’t bask in it all the same.
“What you have there is a Glock-17,” he said. “Most of the Sinners run with the same thing. They’re reliable, easy to get our hands on, and frankly, uniformity always makes the world run more smoothly. Even applies to criminal empires.”
“Should you be telling me all this?”
He shot me a droll look. “I’m not sure what good you think any of that will do. The weapons we carry aren’t exactly a secret, and the President already had a deal with people in the upper echelons long before I came around.”
“What kind of people?”
“The kind that hold important government seats and make decisions on whether or not a biker gang is worth their time.”
“What was the verdict?”
And why did the thought of someone busting his door down and slapping handcuffs on him make me want to kick ass and take names?
For his part, Monster seemed incredibly unconcerned. “As long as we continue keeping crime rates down and hard drugs off the streets, they’re willing to look the other way. Apparently, a bit of added coercion helps too.”
He shook his head when my mouth opened. “Enough about the club. The person who taught me all I know about firearms said to always start with knowing the gun inside and out before you ever get around to pulling the trigger. Are you prepared for that?”
I could feel something looming just out of reach while we stared at each other. Another test, maybe?
Was this Monster checking to see what kind of person I was?
Whatever the feeling was, I couldn’t put my finger on it enough to matter. So I did the only thing I could do. I nodded my head and said, “Show me.”
***
Thank God I never worried about having impressive nails just because I was a girl. The grease currently stuck under mine was going to take some serious scrubbing to get rid of.
Good thing my progress made the whole thing worth it.
I’d left my phone upstairs, and there weren’t any clocks down here for some reason. That left me without any idea how much time had passed. I was thinking at least a few hours, and most of those had flown by.
The only reason I measured using hours instead of minutes was that Monster had taken a brief break to make turkey, ham, and avocado sandwiches for us both.
And no, I hadn’t quite digested the idea that he was a culinary master who made a mean sandwich on wheat bread. That was something else I was going to have to figure out. What I knew so far was that he made for an amazing teacher.
“Do it again,” Monster ordered, grabbing a chip from the huge bag he’d brought downstairs and taking a crunchy bite.
We sat across from each other on the floor of the range. Monster had pulled out a white sheet for us to park ourselves while he took the Glock apart into more pieces than I thought possible and explained each one to me.
Aside from being a great listener, I also managed to avoid bringing up how this was the weirdest picnic I had ever been on in my life. Then again, my scale was somewhat skewed.
I had never been on a picnic to begin with.
But I had watched lots of them on TV when Mom and I still had a stable roof over our heads and plenty of money to go around. These days, there wasn’t room in the budget to sit in a park sipping wine and nibbling on fancy cheese.
Monster crunched another chip, startling me out of my thoughts. “Don’t lose focus on me now, pussycat. You’ve been doing well so far.”
I sighed and started putting the gun together from the ground up. “Do you have to keep calling me that? Don’t you think I’ve heard that one a time or two million?”
Monster shrugged, lifting a bottle of water to his mouth. I thought I caught another smile appearing before it was hidden behind the bottle. He took a long sip, throat working, and all of a sudden I was feeling very thirsty myself.
“I’ll say it as much as I want to.” He screwed the top on the bottle and set it down. “It’s not a joke to me. I call you pussycat because you’ve got claws, but you’re nowhere near as threatening as you think you are.”
I scoffed. “Before you came around people thought I was plenty threatening, thank you very much. That’s about to be even more true once we get to the part where you actually show me how to shoot this damn thing.”
“Not until you stop trying to put the magazine in upside down.”
I glanced down in shock that quickly morphed into annoyance when I realized he was full of shit.
He smirked. “Gotcha.”
“You're such an asshole.”
“Better than being gullible.”
“But—” I shook my head, slamming the magazine into place. Checking that the safety was on and a round was chambered. “No. Stop trying to distract me.”
“If I was trying to distract you,” he rumbled. “I would've already buried my face in the cleavage you've been flashing for hours.”
His eyes trailed lower, burning a path I couldn't help but follow. The way I was sitting—leaned forward with my legs crossed—made his over-sized shirt gape in the front. A blush burned the tips of my ears.
I hadn't worn a bra.
Grasping for solid ground, I said, “Have you seriously been staring at my tits this entire tim
e without telling me?”
“And deny myself the view? Don't mistake me for a gentleman, pussycat. You'd be dead wrong.”
Monster made a show of biting his knuckles and adjusting himself, still staring at my chest. I waited to feel offended instead of thrilled, but it never came. His desire was a whip of lightning, carefully harnessed, dragging across my senses with the promise of so much more.
He got to his feet. “Come on. That's enough of the basics.” Monster pointed to one of the lanes. “Let's see what you can do.”
I practically bounced to a stop beside him. He stalked around me in a circle, making adjustments as he went. Monster kicked my feet farther apart. Tilted my shoulders. Straightened my back.
His rough hands lingered wherever they went, and I knew better than to think it wasn't intentional.
He confirmed as much when he fit himself against my back, putting us hip to hip. There was something hot and warm pressed against my ass, and I couldn't recall seeing him stuff a flashlight in his pocket so…
That was all him.
Jesus.
“You're not listening to a word I say, are you?” His arms wrapped around me, hands lifting the gun in mine slowly.
I shot him a glance over my shoulder. “Of course I am. But you should tell me again anyway.”
His chuckle stirred my hair, caressed my neck. “Eyes on the target, little liar. Show me what you’ve got.” Monster released me and stepped away, sliding the ear protection into place as he did.
I took a deep breath, aiming down the sights.
“Careful,” he said. “Remember, it has more recoil than your pea-shooter.”
It was too bad my hands were occupied, or I would’ve flipped him off. But he was right. When I squeezed the trigger, the kick traveled through my arm and shoulder as the shot reverberated around us. I let off a few more rounds, just to get accustomed to the feeling.
Well, that, and because it made me feel powerful as hell.
At least until I lowered the gun and stared down-rage at an immaculate target. It wasn’t even that far away. Maybe ten, fifteen feet at the most.
Discouraged and embarrassed, I hesitated to turn around and see what expression he wore. Then he lifted the cup covering one ear so I could hear his next words.
I thought I knew danger.
I’d lived it. Breathed it. I held it in my hand even now.
Yet nothing compared to the soft sound of his encouragement when he whispered, “Go again. We’ve got time.”
The somersaults my heart did out of pure happiness?
That was dangerous. I could get used to that feeling, and it was one I had no business trying to hold onto.
Temporary, I reminded myself, lifting the gun again. This won’t last.
But even the loud clamor of gunfire couldn’t drown out the sound of me wondering what being wrong would mean.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Monster
Josie was a damn fast learner.
After hovering over her shoulder, correcting her form here and there when her stance got wonky, it was plain as day to see. Within a half-hour, she hit the targets on a regular basis.
Not long after, she managed to punch a hole between the paper cutout’s eyes.
Sure, it was mostly a fluke. Throw several hundred bullets downrange and eventually you’re going to hit something vital. This was by no means proof that she would handle herself equally as well in a high-pressure situation, but it was a step in the right direction.
And watching her carefully unload the gun, flip the safety, and place it down before jumping around in excitement told me I wasn’t about to take this moment away from her.
“I did it!” she screeched, voice hitting a decibel I didn’t know she was capable of.
Her face was flushed and the wide grin she wore went on for miles. Josie turned, still jumping, presenting me with an amazing view of her breasts hopping all over the place.
Before I realized what she intended, she bounced into my space, threw her arms around my neck, and forced me to take her weight while her feet kicked behind her.
No one would ever hear me admit how fucking cute it was.
“Do I get a medal?” Her eyes glowed with excitement when I set her down.
Was she aware of how she held onto my hands when they settled on her hips like they belonged there?
I didn’t get a chance to respond. She glanced down, brows curving wickedly. When she looked up at me again, the mischief on her features was easy enough to read.
“Seriously?” Body language was a hell of a thing. Her tone was mocking, but her smile told me she wasn’t the least bit offended by the length of me straining against my jeans.
“Your whole body jiggles every time you pull the trigger,” I admitted, fingers flexing on her waist. She was so goddamn soft; it didn’t make sense. “Besides, do you have any idea how good your ass looks in sweatpants?”
She pulled her lip between her teeth and I growled, spinning us around. I had her pressed against the wall in no time. The surprise in her dark green eyes quickly gave way to desire when she realized how close my mouth was to hers.
Josie sighed, breath tickling my lips. I waited for her to either push me away or dare me to kiss her. There was never any way of knowing which one it would be with this woman.
She was a grenade ready to go off at any moment, yet it was impossible to guess if the payload would be confetti or shrapnel.
What I didn’t expect was for her to stand up on her toes and erase the distance between us as she slanted her lips across mine.
I overcame my surprise quickly enough. The lazy drag of her tongue was a great motivator to kick start the engine she had stalled with her actions. Being caught off guard tickled something at the back of my brain, and the thrum of my pulse demanded that I remind her who was in charge here.
This was my lair.
Badass, beautiful, and strong she might be, there was no hill I couldn’t conquer. No battlefield I couldn’t step on and wrench victory from the very jaws of defeat.
Wasn’t this everything I’d been waiting on for the last week? A chance to consume her and trap that elusive spark of hers inside me where it could keep the itch of violence at bay, even when she was long gone?
That was what I told myself yesterday, at any rate.
And my hands were skimming up her sides frantically enough to support the hurry I was in.
So why did I feel like I was going to find more than I was searching for?
Why did I feel like I never wanted to let her go?
Josie grabbed the hem of her shirt, yanking it over her head all at once. My other thoughts were immediately obliterated. Smashed into pieces so tiny they would be impossible to find and put back together.
“Fuck,” I said eloquently, unable to take my gaze from the perfect handfuls before me and the light brown tips already hard and begging for attention.
“Noooo,” she said slowly, cupping my jaw and lifting my eyes to her. “Those are breasts. Say it with me...breasts.”
I refused to dignify that with a comment.
Especially when there were better things I could be doing with my mouth.
My hands grazed across the slope of her ass and found purchase on the backs of her thighs. I lifted her from the floor with ease. Josie wrapped her legs around me, head slumping against the wall on a low moan as my mouth dropped and my tongue flicked out.
I licked a path between her collarbones before venturing lower, lathing one nipple and then the other. Her hands found my hair and ran through it with reckless abandon, nails skidding across my scalp. I was going to look like I got into a fight with a washing machine and lost, but there wasn’t a single part of me that cared.
Her hips rolled against me, pressing against my hard cock. “Why does your tongue feel so good?”
I buried my face between her breasts and chuckled, letting the low rumble travel across her flesh. “Because I know what I’m doing.”
My head turned and I nipped at her flesh. She yelped, but a second later, she scratched a trail around my neck, hard enough that there would be obvious marks there tomorrow.
“People are going to notice,” I growled, pretending to be upset.
In reality, my blood was on the verge of going supernova from how hot it was that she returned the pain I gave her tenfold.
She would never be beaten without giving as good as she got.
For all the fights I’d been in, how was it that I had never found a more worthy adversary than this small, scrappy woman with a barrel’s worth of secrets and a pussy I knew would be better than heaven?
“Not my problem.” She tugged at my tank top. “This needs to go. Like, right now.”
Who does she think she’s bossing around?
And yet I flattened her against the wall, holding her up with my lower body alone as I ripped my shirt off in record time. Her lips parted, but she was greedier than I gave her credit for. She only traced her hands across the ridges of my abs for a moment before skillful fingers dropped lower, working at the buttons on my jeans.
I kissed her again as she worked my cock free, hissing into her mouth when her hand closed around the sensitive tip. “You don’t waste time, do you?”
“Why should I?” She glanced at my cock, eyes going wide. Her tongue came out to wet pink, swollen lips. “People spend too much damn time these days pretending instead of actually enjoying their lives.”
Josie closed her fist around my shaft and stroked, pulling a tortured groan from my throat.
“I don’t have a lot of excess anything,” she said. “I don’t think I should have to waste time acting like I don’t want the things I want. That’s a good way to look up and find your entire life has passed you by before you ever got the chance to do anything with it.”
I raised a brow, forehead tapping against hers. “That’s some real shit, pussycat. But I see where you’re coming from.”
She had a point, after all. All I needed to do was think back on some of the clients I’d had over the years to confirm as much.
How many of them spent months and years searching for the perfect dream house that would impress all their friends, just to turn around and sell it in two years because the pool wasn’t big enough or the roof was the wrong color or some other mundane bullshit?
Monster: A Seven Sinners Novel Page 13
