by Lane Hart
“Well, I’m staying in my parents’ house for now,” Parker admits. “But just until I save up enough for a down payment on my own place. My mom’s a really good cook too, which makes it hard to give up,” Parker adds with a chuckle.
I do some quick math in my head, figuring that if he got a two-year degree at twenty years old, and has been doing HVAC for eight years, we’re close to the same age. I barely repress a sigh at the thought of my date still living in his parents’ basement but decide to give that a pass for now.
We make small talk for the rest of the trip down to Wilmington. By the time we get there, I’m comfortable with Parker, but he’s managed to just about talk himself squarely into the friend-zone. He’s a nice guy, but he just doesn’t have that spark the guys from the MC possessed that could really set my furnace blazing.
Parker gets us inside the Gaslight and finds a small table off to the side. The opening act is already going through a sound check on stage, so we sit and watch for a few minutes while they tune their instruments.
There’s a pretty big crowd in the lounge tonight, which is to be expected with such a big-name performer. So, when a sudden hush falls over the whole place, it’s very noticeable.
I whip my neck around to the entrance to see what may have caused the disturbance. A tall man’s head can be seen above the crowd, one with a black beard that’s all too familiar, causing me to mutter a curse under my breath.
Okay, even if that is Abe Cross, this is a big place with hundreds of people. The chance of bumping into him is very small.
“What is it? What’s going on?” Parker asks as he stretches his neck to try and see who is coming in the door.
“Not sure,” I say before downing my glass of white wine. I asked Parker for red, but he brought me white back instead. “Probably nothing.”
“Oh shit,” Parker says as he continues watching the entrance. “It’s those assholes.”
“Assholes? What assholes?” I ask as if I don’t already know.
“The Savage Kings,” Parker says. “I hope they aren’t coming in here to cause trouble tonight. I met one of them at a house a few months ago and he was such a dick. They think everyone is supposed to bow down to them.”
“Really? The Savage Kings? Well, I doubt they’ll cause problems,” I say, slumping down a little more in my chair. “How many are here? Can you tell?” I ask him.
“A lot,” he says while still glancing over. “More than a dozen.”
“A dozen?” I repeat in shock since there’s only ten in the original charter.
Oh no. They must be here with the Wilmington guys too.
Still, there are tons of people between us and all the men in leather. I doubt we’ll have any contact with a King unless it’s at the bar.
“I need to use the restroom. Do you think you’ll be okay here by yourself?” Parker asks, his young, handsome face full of concern.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” I assure him before he nods and then gets up from his chair…to walk two feet down the hall to the bathrooms.
Great! Everyone in the whole place will walk by us at some point tonight if they’re drinking. Maybe I can suggest we move closer to the stage when Parker gets back.
“Cynthia? Is that you?” a deep masculine voice asks from behind me.
There’s nowhere to hide unless I want to slink under the table, so I plaster a smile on my face and turn to find Abe and his beautiful redheaded wife standing behind me.
“Hi Abe. Mercy. How are you guys doing? What brings you to Wilmington?” I ask, even though it’s obvious they’re here for the concert too.
“SKW meeting,” Abe says, which I know is short for the Savage Kings Wilmington charter.
“Well, what a coincidence,” I tell them and then immediately realize how it looks, like I’m the one who knew they would be here, so I showed up. “I’m here on a date,” I quickly explain. “He’s in the bathroom.”
“That’s great,” Abe says. “Oh, and Reece was looking for you. I’ll let him know you’re here.”
“Reece?” I ask.
“Yeah. He was asking everyone when we had last seen you and shit,” Abe explains. “I’ll have him come over.”
“Great,” I mutter with mock enthusiasm. “Good seeing you two.”
“Wow, I leave you for one second and that big bastard starts bothering you,” Parker says as he slumps back down in his seat.
“No, it’s fine. He wasn’t bothering me,” I assure him. No sooner do the words leave my mouth when I hear, “Cynthia! There you are. Where have you been, girl?”
“Um, I think that guy is talking to you, Cynthia,” Parker says when I freeze but don’t turn my head around.
“He probably has the wrong person. Happens to me all the time. Cynthia is a common name,” I tell him.
“Cynthia! Hey, it’s me, Maddox. Check out my new patches!” the kid says when he comes around to the front of our table. He turns his back to us to show off his recently earned bearded skull king.
Unable to pretend I don’t know him any longer, I say, “That’s great, Maddox. Congratulations.”
“Thanks,” he says when he turns around and looks from me to Parker. “Crazy running into you here of all places. Reece is looking for you, by the way. Oh, and I need to introduce you to my girl later.”
“Great, sounds good,” I tell him before he disappears down the hallway towards the bathrooms.
“You know these guys?” Parker asks once he’s gone.
“Um, sort of,” I respond.
“They all seem to know you,” he huffs.
“Just two, not all of them or anything like that –” I say before my voice is drowned out by Dalton’s booming voice shouting, “Reece! Yo, Reece! I found Cynthia! Looks like she’s here on a date!”
The urge to hide my reddening face in my hands is strong but I resist. Barely.
I glance over my shoulder and see the smiling blond man looking down at me. “Sup? I’m Dalton,” he says, holding out his hand for Parker to shake.
“Another one of your…friends?” Parker asks me when he pulls away from the handshake.
“Yes,” I answer; then, to Dalton, ask, “Why was Reece looking for me?”
“Oh, well, the other night he said you hadn’t been at the clubhouse for a few weeks and seemed worried.”
“Reece said that?” I ask in surprise. I had assumed that Abe or Dalton had been the one to notice my disappearance the night he showed up at my apartment.
“Yeah,” Dalton responds. “Dude was like freaking the fuck out. Crazy, right? And then he up and suggests we come see Hank Williams, Junior with SKW when the man hardly ever leaves the clubhouse.”
“Wait, it was Reece’s idea for you all to come here tonight?” I gasp as my embarrassment turns to outrage.
“Yeah. Strange, right?” Dalton says.
“That nosy bastard!” I shout as I nearly snap my neck trying to seek out the big, scowling man in the crowd. He must have overhead Parker ask me out on the surveillance cameras.
“You two have fun. See ya later!” Dalton says before he disappears down the hall to the restrooms.
“All these guys know you, don’t they?” Parker asks. “Were you one of their ‘regulars’?”
“Ah, well…”
“I’ve always heard about the desperate women who fall to their knees for all of the Kings on command, but I never would’ve guessed you were one of them!” Parker exclaims.
“Wow,” I mutter at his angry and offensive words. “Maybe you should wait and let me explain before you jump to any conclusions.”
“No, I think I’ve heard enough,” Parker says when he gets to his feet. “Enjoy the show. I’m sure one of your friends can give you a ride back to town.”
“Parker, wait!” I call out when I jump up to stop him, but he storms away. I quickly lose him in the crowd despite trying to follow him.
Damn Reece.
How dare he try to ruin not one but two of my possible rel
ationships? Not even try, he did ruin them! Parker was so angry that he’ll never call me again, and I’m certain that Tommy won’t come back over for fear of Reece’s wrath.
Well, just wait until that son of a bitch sees mine!
Chapter Nine
Reece
I know Cynthia is pissed off based on the fire that’s practically blazing out of her eyes before she finds me in the crowd. Flames nearly shoot out of them when she spots me standing against the far wall, and I raise my Michelob in salute to her.
Guess she figured out why the Savage Kings are all here tonight. I had hoped that enough guys would say hello to run off her man with her being none the wiser about my plan to sabotage her date, but I guess that was too much to hope for.
“You!” she exclaims. I can’t actually hear her over the rowdy bar noise, but I can read lips.
Weaving her way through the people and tables until she’s right in front of me, she says through gritted teeth, “You and I need to talk.”
I don’t have a chance to respond before she’s tugging on the front of my cut, dragging me toward one of the emergency exits. I slam my beer bottle down on one of the Kings’ tables on the way past before she pulls me through the door and out into the chilly night air.
“Why? Why did you run off one of the few men who wants more than a quick fuck from me? You heard him ask me out on the surveillance video, didn’t you?” she asks while still jerking on my cut hard enough to leave wrinkles in the leather. “It wasn’t enough that you ruined one date, you had to go and ruin two? Well? Answer me, jackass! Tell me why!”
“I’m not really sure,” I admit to her honestly. “Ruining your dates seems to be a new compulsion of mine.” I leave out the truth that I’m also completely infatuated with her and have been for years.
She scoffs at my explanation but finally lets my cut go. “Well…try to fight the compulsion to screw me over! Please?” she begs. “I don’t want to end up old and alone working in a sex shop until I’m ninety years old…”
“Me either,” I agree softly. “The old and alone part,” I clarify since I don’t work in a sex shop.
Wetting her lips, Cynthia says, “Th-then you should really get out of the basement more.”
“I’m trying. I’m out tonight,” I point out while crossing my arms over my chest.
“Yeah, I noticed,” she grumbles. “But so help me god, if you try to interfere with one of my dates again, I swear I will tell the entire MC about your maid fetish.”
“You wouldn’t,” I challenge through narrowed eyes.
“I would, just try me!” she threatens.
“That’s evil, woman. I told you that in confidence.”
“And I’m telling you in confidence, stay out of my business, Reece!”
“No.”
Rearing back half a foot away from me, she scoffs at my refusal. “No? Did you just say no?”
“Someone needs to look out for you. You’ve been through enough hell, don’t you think?” I ask her. “And just because these assholes may look like decent guys, it doesn’t mean they are. Neither of them could protect you, and you don’t know anything about them,” I tell her.
“But you think that you know everything, huh?” she huffs.
“I know you were married to a man who hurt you, beat you so badly that he put you in the hospital three different times before you showed up here wanting a new name. That shit is never going to happen again on my watch.”
“That’s right! I put up with one man controlling every aspect of my life for years, and it is never going to happen again!” she says with tears swimming in her emerald eyes.
“I am nothing like that sick son of a bitch,” I assure her after she wrongly compares me to that controlling bastard. “He enjoyed hurting you while all I want is to keep you safe. Why do you think you haven’t seen or heard from him in over three fucking years?”
“B-because you gave me a new name. And I appreciate that, but –”
“No,” I interrupt her. “It’s not because you have a new last name. You haven’t heard from him because he’s been locked up since the week you showed up here with those goddamn black eyes.”
“What?” she gasps.
“Kirk Strickland is serving a seventy-eight-month federal prison sentence for having child pornography on his computer,” I explain.
“Really?” Cynthia asks, her shoulders slumping a few inches in what I’m hoping is relief. “He-he’s still in there? Locked up?”
“Yes. I just checked the prison records again a few days ago.”
“Wow,” she mutters as her eyes drop to the ground in silent contemplation. “If I had known, I would’ve been sleeping so much better at night…”
“Is he the reason you spent so many nights at the clubhouse?” I can’t help but ask.
“Yes.”
She gives me the one-word response without looking up at me, as if she’s embarrassed or ashamed to admit to that small weakness.
Fuck.
I should’ve told her sooner. She slept with my brothers because of the security they provided when I had already made damn sure that she was safe. She should’ve been in my bed, not theirs.
I thought she needed time to heal from that bastard, but I waited too long. And sharing a woman is something I will never be able to do.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Cynthia finally glances up and asks me, breaking the silence between us interrupted only by the occasional horn honking around the city.
“I don’t know,” I respond honestly. “I thought maybe you would be pissed at me for getting involved in your life. A part of me wondered if you still loved that stupid son of a bitch even after what he did –”
Cynthia’s hands suddenly reach up to grab the sides of my face, and then her lips crash down on mine, causing whatever other explanation I was going to make fall away.
As soon as I recover from her surprise attack, I’m kissing her back, wedging my tongue between her parted lips to slip into her hot, wet mouth. It’s fucking heaven when I tilt her head at an angle and we both find an erotic rhythm together that’s both sensual and sweet at the same time.
There’s nothing but raw, hot need searing inside me as I reach around to grab her ass cheeks and hike her up my body until her legs wrap around my waist. All the blood in my body rushes south, making my cock swell so fast that the zipper of my jeans digs into my skin uncomfortably.
My only thoughts center around finding a hard surface fast so that I can release my shaft and get the relief I’m desperate for from her warm, curvy body. It feels like we’re spinning in circles before I finally press Cynthia’s back against the brick building and grind myself against her mound. It feels great but wrong all at the same time.
I’ve waited so long to be with this woman that I’ll be damned if I take her in a dark alleyway.
“Reece,” Cynthia moans against my lips when I start to pull away.
Her arms move around my neck then her fingers sink into my hair while our tongues collide, and her hips grind up and down on my bulge with a suggestive promise of what’s to come.
Just when I’m about to say to hell with the shitty location, Cynthia pulls her mouth free from mine, and says, “Reece, wait.”
“Wait?” I repeat the unfortunate word as my hands fall away from her ass. She lowers her feet to the ground and then lets my neck go.
“I appreciate what you did for me, really I do. But I’m not going to sleep with you,” she tells me, her rejection like a slap to my face.
“Well, that would’ve been nice to know before you kissed me and started humping on my cock like you were halfway to coming through your clothes,” I grumble.
“You’re right, I’m sorry,” she says, her face reddening. “Kissing you felt really good and I didn’t want to stop.”
“So why did you?” I ask in confusion.
“Because I can’t!” she exclaims. “I can’t sleep with you just because you did something really great for m
e. I refuse to be nothing but a good time again. I want more. I need more than that even if I’m dying to be with you right now.”
“More? Okay. What’s more again?” I ask, ready to give her anything she wants after she admits how much she wants to be with me too.
“Ten,” she blurts out as if I have any fucking clue what that random number means. “I’m not the club’s whore anymore. I made a new rule for myself. I won’t sleep with a man until we’ve been on at least ten dates, not even you.”
Dates? That’s what she needs?
“That’s never gonna happen,” I mutter and then instantly want to take the words back when her beautiful face falls. “I mean, I don’t date. I wouldn’t even know where to start.”
“That’s too bad,” she responds. “Because judging by that kiss, more with you would’ve been amazing.”
God, I’m in so much pain that I can’t think clearly right now. She’s right. If just a kiss has me ready to blow, then fucking her would’ve been phenomenal, even if I do lack the experience of my brothers that she’s already been with...
Still, dates would require time away from monitoring the club’s security and venturing out into the great unknown, like tonight. The world is crazy, and my nerves can’t handle being in a strange place that I haven’t thoroughly vetted enough to be confident there are no threats.
Clearing her throat, Cynthia says, “Okay, well, you know where to find me if you change your mind.” She then starts walking back around to the front of the club. “Goodbye, Reece. Thanks again for…everything.”
Goodbye? Shit. I took too long to figure this out and now she’s leaving. But despite my best efforts, I can’t figure out one damn thing to say to stop her.
I’m not a man who dates.
And while I want her, at the same time, if we ended up sleeping together tonight, I would always wonder if it was only because Cynthia thought she owed me, when that’s not why I had her asshole husband arrested.
