“Do you normally hang around with these people?”
“There are a few I see outside racing nights, but they are mostly Kai’s friends.”
Thick, white smoke curled in the air. Biting noises penetrated our ears. The chaos of the races had been my natural habitat, but now something felt amiss. Charlotte had taught me to go slow. While I had always moved through life like a bullet, she had made me crave the deliberateness of enjoying each little instant. Of enjoying her.
I knew the exact moment when Charlotte caught sight of Brayden. She stiffened, missed a step, and turned from curious to increasingly agitated in a blink of an eye. My right arm banded around her waist in an iron grip.
Pulling her into my side, I buried my face in her hair to calm us both. I was still debating whether I should properly mop up the floors with Brayden.
“Can I suggest something, Miss Burton?” I hoped teasing would take her mind off her memories, and she would go back to relaxing and enjoying herself.
“What is that, Mr. King?”
“Just kick the idiot in the gut.” I pointed to Brayden, earning his immediate glower, which I dismissed nonchalantly. “I promise to hold him still for you.”
“How do you know I can’t kick him all by myself?”
She regaled me with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes, but I appreciated the effort, then she was the one to pull us into motion again. Kai came our way and wrapped me in an uncharacteristically warm hug, then he awkwardly embraced Charlotte, making me seriously wonder whether he was already drunk. His evident happiness pleased me, though, no matter its source. I only hoped it would last.
“I’d tell you to set your bet, but I don’t think that is something you’d like to do,” Kai told Charlotte with a shy hesitance that women loved.
“I might not approve of what is happening here, but let’s say that tonight I forget about right and wrong, and I’ll root for you to win.”
“Oh, my... Thank you.”
Charlotte was definitely falling for the scoundrel’s charms.
My own smile dispersed a shade when Brayden passed by us, glaring and all but spitting our way. Gratuitous rage and dim-witted arrogance rolled off him in poignant waves. He was off with an earsplitting roar of his engine.
Bryson, on the other hand, still lurked around. He neither took off in Brayden’s drama queen fashion nor dared to come too close. He didn’t ask for forgiveness obsessively like Kai had, and I doubted he ever would, but he had the grace to frown upon his little brother’s stupid and misplaced arrogance.
I nodded my salute to him, and he nodded back, his eyes settling questioningly on Charlotte. There was one simple thing they had to grasp. They were going to respect her.
“Of course, you can root for him, but it won’t be him who wins.” Joleen Stone, dressed in a red leather race suit, tiptoed her way to us and leisurely rested her elbow on Kai’s shoulder. “We were never properly introduced. I’m Joleen.”
“Charlotte.”
She shook Joleen’s hand, throwing me a questioning glance. We hadn’t discussed Joleen or my dislike of her after the encounter at Kai’s workshop, yet Charlotte was smart enough to notice my displeasure.
“You want to bet on that?” Kai sneered at Joleen. His voice was defensive bordering on aggression. His eyes, though, were undressing her in a million different ways. I felt nauseous.
“Darling, I bet when the odds are even. I don’t want to slaughter your dreams.” Joleen smacked a kiss on Kai’s waiting mouth, then she returned her attention to Charlotte, making me glower. “Can I show you around, Charlotte?”
“She is with me. I’ll show her around.”
“When Caveman King relents, join me for a girl talk.”
Joleen made her retreat stealthily and cunningly like a fox, shooting a luring smile Kai’s way. Her red suit stood out even in the midst of the gathering crowd. I wasn’t going to change my mind though. I didn’t like her company for Kai, let alone for Charlotte.
I stroked Charlotte’s cheek and felt warmth spreading inside me when she gifted me with a grin. If she thought I was a caveman, she didn’t seem too bothered by the idea. Not yet, at least.
“That was uncalled-for,” Kai grumbled.
“Kai,” I warned with a glare fixed on Joleen’s back.
“I trust her, Marcus.”
Faced with my own words, I remained speechless. Consciously, I knew that Joleen wasn’t necessarily an evil woman. What I didn’t trust about her was her ability to take care of Kai’s heart.
“He has a point,” Charlotte whispered, yet both Kai and I heard her clearly.
With a smile and a wink, Kai returned to his motorcycle. Suddenly, he was lethally focused and savagely determined.
“Aren’t you going to show me around?”
I didn’t tell her that Kai and maybe even Joleen were the most suitable to show her the ins and outs of the races. While I introduced her to the people who were worth knowing and explained a few technicalities about motorcycles, speed, and racing rules, I reached the understanding that I was almost as much of an outsider as Charlotte. I had only come to the races the same way somebody went to the pool for a swim. While I had always been in transit, there were others who had built a lifestyle here.
A few women approached me boldly, although they probably didn’t even know my name. I was mildly surprised to catch Charlotte glaring coldly at a petite blonde ogling me shamelessly. My hand twisted in her hair to dip her head back. Before I kissed the living daylights out of her, I watched her proudly, hotly. I enjoyed owning a woman as much as I enjoyed being owned.
“The things you do to me...” I whispered against her glistening lips. “The things I want to do to you.”
I heard the air wheezing through her teeth as she inhaled and felt the temperature of her body rising.
“Are you a thing now?”
This time, her sharp intake of breath was not caused by my wicked promises but by Bryson’s hostile voice.
“Yes, we are.”
My fingers tightened around Charlotte’s hand, but my eyes never left Bryson. I saw when acceptance settled in his gaze, and his opinion of Charlotte changed. He knew me well enough to realize that if forced, I would always choose the woman by my side.
“I hope we can start fresh,” he told Charlotte, but endless pride prevented him from doing anything more.
“I hope,” Charlotte answered warily. She didn’t mask her displeased expression.
The music started then, so loud that it was obnoxious. Bryson headed for his motorcycle and straddled it smugly.
Tires screeched on the pavement, a useless display of brutality and wildness, yet a component that fused perfectly with everything else about the illicit circumstance. I pulled Charlotte into me, intentionally startling her out of her controlled calm. When I pressed my mouth to her ear, I felt her moan rather than heard it.
“Here comes the fun part.” For someone who condemned such illegal affairs, she was looking around quite enthusiastically. “Careful, sugar. You look like you’re enjoying yourself.”
“I’m enjoying you.”
“Are you sure you want to provoke me, Charlotte?”
I gripped her hips and pulled her against my front so tightly that there was no escape. Against my hard, awakened body, she squirmed. I pulled her hair back and buried my head in her throat, smelling her deeply, until she was etched in my very lungs. I kissed her throat and suckled on the soft skin above her collarbone.
“Marcus.” It was a plea for mercy. It was a plea for more. Both her hands covered the hand I was resting on her belly and clung tightly for support.
Kai brought his Kawasaki to a standstill and watched us with quiet amusement. He folded his arms over the handlebar and leaned closer, his eyes fixed on Charlotte, who fidgeted adorably.
“Public lewdness—I did not expect that of you, Miss Burton.”
Throwing my head back, I released a strident laugh. Charlotte elbowed me with a glare th
at she divided between Kai and me. I only held on tighter to her delicate hips.
Bryson inched closer to the starting line, followed by The Fox, Brayden, and Samuel, Kai’s friend. All participants were ready and eager as the music raged on, and I felt a distant desire to be atop my motorcycle, with adrenaline pumping in my veins and freedom on the horizon. I could fool myself that I was content to simply hang around, but the truth was that I wanted to race. I missed the exhilaration.
“I’d like to paint you.” The look Kai gave Charlotte was the perfect blend between analytical coldness and artistic interest. “Maybe on Marcus’s motorcycle.”
“Don’t you even dare think about it.”
“Oh, but that would be—out of the ordinary.” Charlotte chuckled nervously. Her smile was expectant and genuinely excited.
“Charlotte, he paints nudes.”
“They are works of fine art.” Kai winked, his expression somewhere between challenging and inviting. I took a menacing step toward him, but he was already speeding to the lineup. “Think about it,” he called to Charlotte, knowing that persistence on the topic was the perfect way to goad my temper.
An earsplitting boom made Charlotte jump in my arms, then a second boom signaled the beginning of the race. All contestants took off in a fury, casting an asphyxiating smoke behind them. They were racing on a circular course, so they were supposed to return where they had left from. As soon as the motorcycles became blurs in the distance, the crowd shifted to face the finish line. Then the excitement and the noise mounted to epic proportions.
“Imagine me being caught here by the police and my father bailing me out of jail,” Charlotte shouted.
She laughed, a sound deep and sincere, one that hinted at freedom. I realized then that being here might have been the most unconventional thing Charlotte had ever done. I pillaged her mouth but trusted she could read the gentleness in my wildness.
“You have never done anything forbidden, have you? Why did you take the risk with me?”
“Because I trust you.”
In the hollows of my chest, I felt an all-consuming fire expanding, seeking, finding, and conquering. It was a fire that Charlotte had unleashed and only she could tame. That fire was Charlotte herself.
She came into my arms before I reached for her, filling a place in my life that just now I comprehended how badly I needed to have filled.
Spinning in my embrace so she faced the boisterous crowd surrounding us, Charlotte perused the couples dancing without inhibitions, grinding against each other. Women clapped their hands and jumped animatedly, waiting for the ones they cheered for. Men placed outrageous bets and engaged in good-natured arguments. During it all, I watched her. In the dark, illicit night, she was the light.
“See? People are having a great time. It’s not about breaking the law. That is only the drawback to the experience.”
I propped my chin on her shoulder and pressed my cheek against hers. While I had neither strived to make my father understand what the races could offer nor cared much about his opinion, I wanted Charlotte to understand. I wanted her to see and listen before she judged me.
“You’d really want to race, wouldn’t you?”
She surveyed me from beneath sensually sluggish eyelashes. She could understand the fascination the races held, but I doubted she could ever accept them.
“Yes. But this time, I think I’d find the experience lacking.”
“Lacking what?”
“You behind me, your arms wrapped around my waist and your hot, tantalizing breath against my back.”
I really, really missed the sensation, even more so than the racing itself. Charlotte pressed into me, her weight a warming comfort as well as a harsh temptation.
“Look,” she squealed, definitely excited. “They are getting back.”
Indeed, some of them were getting back and furiously fast. A flash of green shattered the black of the night and raced against a white blur, topped by a red silhouette. Yet, it was Kai’s dark and red motorcycle leading the way, flying over the road like a weightless spirit. Despite the distance that separated us, his control was clear.
“Kai and Joleen are racing for first place now,” I explained, pointing to the two motorcycles that approached us vengefully. Distantly, Brayden let out an enraged shout, slicing the already thunderous atmosphere.
“Who are you betting on?” Rising on tiptoes, she struggled to see past the gathering throng.
I guided her forward with an arm coiled around her waist and the other pushing people aside. Ignoring groans and protests, we managed to get to the first line just in time to watch Kai claim leadership once more.
“Kai, of course.”
“Because he’s leading or because you cannot stand Joleen?”
“It’s not about being a misogynist.”
“Nor jealous,” she supplied. If I hadn’t held her in my arms, I wouldn’t have detected how her spine straightened up.
“Charlotte.” My low growl was authoritative enough to compel her to face me. “I am not jealous. I am protective of my little cousin and his stupid artist heart.”
I knew her suspicion wasn’t deep-rooted when she replied with a satisfied beam and leaned once more into me. The bikes arrowed toward us until they got so close that we could see their incensed faces. Joleen’s upper lip was curled over her teeth, and her eyes and lips had a defiant set. Kai was crouched over his speeding motorcycle like a panther about to pounce, confident and conceitedly satisfied.
“Poor bastard,” I laughed when Kai hopped triumphantly off his bike. He might have won, but a woman like The Fox certainly had limitless methods to make him regret his victory.
A group of excited females came rushing toward Kai but stopped abruptly when Joleen climbed off her motorcycle and shot them a deadly glare. They knew better than to get on her bad side.
Charlotte congratulated him while Kai embraced her on a whim. “What about that painting?” he giggled.
I took advantage of their discussion to tackle Brayden. He finished fifth, behind Bryson and Samuel. Climbing off his bike, he wrenched the leather gloves off his hands and pushed them into his back pocket. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he careened unsteadily to a blonde who offered him a cheap bottle of beer.
“Do you want to kill yourself?” I shouted at him. He merely took another swig of his beer. “You’re drunk.”
“Leave me the hell alone,” he spat and shoved me with a force that momentarily caught me off guard then teetered away.
“Hey,” I bellowed as I caught him by his collar and forced him back to face me. “Your behavior has long ago ceased being cute. One of these days you’ll end up a pile of flesh and bones, and it won’t be pretty. If you don’t care about yourself anymore, then care about your family. You’re killing them.”
“He got the point, Marcus. Cut him some slack.” My gaze cut to Bryson. His constant coddling wasn’t helping his brother either.
“If you keep cutting him some slack, you’ll end up picking his body from the morgue.”
“What’s your damn problem?” Brayden spat again.
The leggy blonde produced a second bottle of beer and pushed it in Brayden’s hands with a wide smile. Her arms snaked around his neck, and her mouth found his although they were no more than strangers. He ended the coarseness when I grabbed his bottle and crushed it to the ground.
A growl was my only warning before his fisted hands hit me in the chest and pushed me backward. He was starting to get on my nerves.
“Aren’t you getting enough of that split-tail? You’re too cranky and noisy for one who should be actively banging.”
“Hey,” I snarled, my hands automatically fisting in his jacket. “You respect her!”
“Or what?”
“Come on, Brayden. Let’s go home. The race is over.” Bryson’s peacemaking words remained noises in the background.
“And the fun apparently.”
I glared at him and concentrated on
restraining my own anger. Yet there was still a part of me that worried about him, that hated the state he was in, that wished his life was different.
“Dude, keep your hands off.”
Kai’s sharp, commanding voice reverberated louder than all lingering noises.
I turned and saw Charlotte standing still, her arms wrapped around her body as if to protect herself. Her eyes were tense; her mouth was set in a pale line; and her jaw was clenched tight. She watched me mutely, nearly reproachfully.
Only when my eyes darted past her shoulder to Kai and the leather-clad rider he was holding back, did I figure out Charlotte’s reaction. She was afraid, and I had promised she would never be frightened again.
With a growl, I gunned for the man Kai was nearly blocking from view. No questions asked, no instant of hesitation, my fist connected with the idiot’s jaw as soon as I stopped in front of him.
I wasn’t in the mood for a fight, so I cut it short. He stumbled back, the stench of alcohol greeting me as he huffed and dropped to one knee. I caught him by the throat and grabbed his right arm, pulling it back. The satisfying crunch of dislocating bones echoed right before the man howled and collapsed to his side.
“Don’t come near her again.”
I panted for breath and massaged the suffocating ache in my chest while my eyes remained angrily fixed on the man’s retreating back. When I couldn’t turn, when I didn’t dare face Charlotte, I came to comprehend that with my sudden burst of anger, I had just ruined the entire night all by myself. I had shown her the dark side of me that I had never wanted her to see. I had demonstrated just how utterly unfit for her I was.
Charlotte was unnaturally still and absolutely silent when I eventually turned to her. The warmth of her eyes turned cold and glassy, and though her gaze was pinned on me, she was looking everywhere but in my eyes. There was suddenly a bottomless chasm that spread between us.
“Charlotte,” I called, my voice coming out tartly. But I was pleading.
The instant she turned around and started walking away from me, a sense of dread paralyzed my judgment. I hurried after her, but when she sensed me following, she walked faster, farther, as if she couldn’t stand my very presence. I growled in frustration, and I could swear that she shivered.
Darkside Love Affair Page 28
