by Atlas, Lilly
A small laugh bubbled from her. “Not gonna lie, I’m pretty pleased with the reaction to this dress so far. And to think, I almost wore jeans. All you missed was me asking how your day was going.”
“Better now, sugar. Much better now. And I’m pretty sure I’d have had the same reaction to that ass if you were wearing jeans.” If he wasn’t mistaken, her gaze flicked briefly to the bulge in his pants before returning to his face.
That’s right, that’s exactly the reaction I was talking about.
A thought occurred that had him frowning. “You got a hot date?”
As she shifted her weight on some very sexy and very spiky heeled ankle boot thingies, Holly rolled her eyes. “I have a date, yes. Not so sure about the hot part.”
LJ leaned against the wall space between their apartment doors and crossed his arms over his chest. “Now, I’m intrigued.” And not at all ready to beat the fuck outta whoever came to collect her.
Right.
Her thin laugh was more of the nervous variety this time. “It was a set-up.” Holly grimaced. “By my dad.”
“Oh, man.” He couldn’t help but laugh.
“Yeah, pretty high on the pitiful-o-meter. Apparently, he told this guy who works for him that I’m new to town and too lame to have weekend plans yet. Not sure if the guy felt like he had to ask me out or what, but here I am.” She shrugged. “Least I got to see your tongue hanging out of your mouth, huh?” she said with a wink.
LJ threw back his head and let out a laugh. This girl was a trip. As well as serious eye candy. “Amen, sugar. Guess I owe your pops a thank-you right about now.”
She let out a feminine grunt. “Let’s not go that far.”
“What time is this guy picking you up? Want me to meet him? Growl a little?” Maybe tear off his balls so using them was out of the question that night?
Smoothing a hand over her perfectly smooth blonde locks, she said, “Thanks for the offer to play big brother, but I’m meeting him at a restaurant.”
“Seriously?” What kind of man didn’t pick up his woman for a date? And more importantly, why did she assume there was something brotherly about his offer?
“Yes, this way I’m not stuck with him at the end of the date. You know, in case it sucks. I won’t have to have any awkward no-I-don’t-want-a-kiss-at-the-door conversations.” She tapped the side of her head. “Not just air swirling around in here.”
Damn, she was funny, smart, sexy as fuck, and baked like a dream. His cock was fully charged and ready to go. Full being the key word. He stepped closer—using the move to spread his legs and relieve some of the tension in his pants—until he was only inches from her, and she had to tilt her head back to see his face. She wasn’t a tiny woman, and he fucking loved that, but she was short enough, he’d have to bend way the fuck down to taste those juicy lips.
Holly’s breathing hitched before kicking up to a light pant, making her suckable tits rise and fall in a rapid clip. Goddamn, he wanted those beauties in his mouth.
“How about this,” he said, staring down at her. “You go on your shitty date with the loser tonight. And tomorrow night I’ll take you to a party. You can meet some people, kick back, and I promise to tell you again just how fucking gorgeous I think you are.”
Holly’s eyes widened, and her jaw dropped. “Um, yeah, uh, wow. That sounds fun. I’d like that.”
He chuckled when she took one step back as though needing him out of her personal space to engage her brain.
“Perfect,” he said. “It’s a date.”
“What should I wear?”
“It’s casual. Jeans are good. I want the opportunity to see that ass wrapped in denim. Plus, we’ll take my bike.”
“Bike?”
The loud and familiar rumble of motorcycle pipes flooded the parking lot then cut off at the same moment Holly’s gaze dropped to his chest. For the first time since they emerged from their apartments, she seemed to notice what he was wearing.
“Oh, shit,” she muttered on an exhale before gnawing the lipstick off her bottom lip.
“Yo, LJ, get your giant ass down here, brother. Hey! That the sexy neighbor girl you were telling me about? The one with the tits and ass? Hey, sexy neighbor!”
Goddamnit.
Screw was clearly visible through the slats of the second-floor railing. The mouthy motherfucker sat astride his Fat Boy next to Maverick and Thunder, one of the MC’s newer prospects.
As LJ opened his mouth to tell Screw to fuck off, the heavy pounding of feet approaching from the staircase had both him and Holly turning.
“Oh, shit,” she said at full volume this time as a furious man in uniform stormed straight toward him.
He wore a badge indicating he was the new town sheriff. LJ had wondered what the fucker looked like. Now he knew. He looked like a rabid animal out for blood.
“What the…I didn’t do shit.” LJ said as the sheriff drew closer.
Holly stepped between him and the charging law enforcement officer, hands on her hips. LJ grabbed her waist with the intention of hauling her behind him until she said, “Dad, stop!” in a deadly, but low command that had him freezing in his tracks.
Dad?
Dad?
Fucking Dad?
Oh for fuck’s sake…
“Holly, are you okay? Get out of the way, honey.” There was genuine panic in the sheriff’s voice. What the hell did he think LJ was going to do to her?
“Dad—”
“Did he threaten you? Touch you? Scare you?”
“Dad—”
“Get your fucking hands off my daughter unless you’d like to spend the night in jail.” His voice was as quiet as Holly’s had been, probably to keep LJ’s nosey brothers in the parking lot from hearing, but no less lethal than a raging shout.
“What the fuck?” Maverick’s pissed off voice floated up from the parking lot. Great, that guy was already over the top pissed at the sheriff’s office. He did not need any fuel on his fire. Especially when the sheriff seemed all too willing to toss their asses behind bars.
“Dad!” Holly screamed this time. The biting sound seemed to snap the sheriff out of whatever fury-induced trance he’d fallen into. His gaze finally left LJ’s hands—which he sure as fuck didn’t remove from the soft hips of the woman in front of him—and landed on his daughter.
“What the hell are you doing, Dad? Why are you even here?” She was nearly vibrating with frustration beneath LJ’s hands.
“Step away from him, Holly.”
She blew out a long breath and shook her head, but she didn’t move away. In fact, she leaned the slightest bit back, which bumped her directly into LJ’s chest. The moment their bodies connected, some of the tension leached out of her. LJ couldn’t help himself. Blame it on the same devil that gave Holly those great tits. He gave her hip a slow, sensual squeeze. When her father’s eyes narrowed in on the action, LJ smirked.
“No, Dad. I’m not going to step away.” Her voice held a slight tremor despite the strength of her words.
“Need us up there, LJ?” Screw called from below.
“Nah, brother. I got this. Hang tight, I’ll be down in five.”
“Dad, this is LJ. He’s my next-door neighbor, and a…friend,” she said.
“Holly,” the sheriff said in a voice that was almost pleading. “Don’t do this. You have no idea—”
“Dad, LJ is the guy who kindly helped me carry a million boxes up all those stairs the other night. He’s been a complete gentleman since I met him.”
LJ bit back a bark of laughter. Good to know he’d been a gentleman in his actions. Had she been privy to what was going on in his head or with the relationship between his fist and his cock while thinking of her last night, she might amend that statement.
“Look, Sheriff, I don’t know what’s going on here,”—whopper of a lie. He knew exactly what was going on. New sheriff hated the fuck out of bikers and was losing his shit over his daughter living next to one. And associa
ting with one. Being touched by one. What would the guy do if he knew his daughter was gonna be fucked by one sooner rather than later?—“but I got shit to do, and it sounds like your daughter has plans as well. So why don’t we just move alo—”
“Shut the fuck up.”
“Dad!” Holly threw her hands in the air and pulled out of LJ’s grasp, marching toward her father. “You need to stop this,” she hissed under her breath when she was inches from him. “Now, I have a date to get to, and LJ seems to have plans as well. Since he hasn’t done a single thing to warrant a police visit, I think you should let him pass by. You still haven’t told me why you’re here.” Red tinged her cheeks whether from embarrassment or anger, LJ couldn’t tell. Probably a bit of both.
Finally, the sheriff’s attention shifted from LJ to his daughter. LJ held his ground, hands on his own hips now that Holly’s weren’t available.
“Came to see if you needed a ride to the restaurant.”
It was probably wise if LJ did not snort at that moment, so thank fuck Holly did it for him. “Well, Dad, since it’s been almost a decade since I was fifteen, I’ll have to pass.” She cast an apologetic look over her shoulder right before linking her arm through her father’s. “Tell you what, though. I’d love an escort to my car.” As she stepped forward, she gently tugged on her pop’s arm in a sort of come with gesture.
The sheriff didn’t budge. “Go on, honey. Have fun with Richard tonight. Just gonna have a quick chat with your neighbor, before I head on home to your mother.”
Holly opened her mouth, but LJ gave her a quick shake of his head. Sexy as it was watching her get all steamed up, he didn’t need her fighting his battles, and he sure as fuck didn’t need anyone saving him from the small-town sheriff.
She nodded once in his direction, that biteable lower lip back between her teeth before walking toward the stairs.
“Let’s get a few things straight, shall we?” The sheriff asked, closing the distance between them.
LJ smirked. “Sure thing, Sheriff. What’s on your mind?”
“Sheriff Coleman is gone. That means whatever bullshit backdoor deals you had running with him are also gone. Money doesn’t turn my head or make me hard. But you know what does?”
“Fucking someone who ain’t your wife?”
“Nah, what turns me on more than anything is watching the scum of the earth rot away in prison. And there’s no one lower than bikers, in my opinion.”
LJ wrapped his hands around the rungs of the railing behind him to keep from lunging forward and slugging the arrogant son of a bitch who had the power to make life very uncomfortable for his club.
With a chuckle, as though he knew what the restraint was costing LJ, the sheriff turned and strolled toward the stairs. “Stay the fuck away from my daughter, asshole. She’s way too clean for your kind of filth. Be seeing ya.”
In his mind, LJ started to count. A little trick a therapist had taught him to keep from lashing out or losing his sense of reality. Focus on the numbers. Stay in the moment. By the time he hit thirty-seven, the sheriff’s motor was running, and he was pulling out of the parking lot, ignoring the slurs yelled from LJ’s brothers.
He jogged down the stairs to his waiting bike.
“You good, brother?” Screw asked, slapping him on the back.
“Yeah, no worries.” A lie if he ever told one.
Nothing irked him more than being treated like trash. He’d served his country for years as a special forces operator. He’d saved lives, earned a purple heart, and was honorably discharged after a mission that left him scarred on the inside and outside.
To be looked at like a piece of garbage who was seconds away from raping and murdering the sheriff’s daughter chapped his fucking ass.
With a laugh, Mav said, “You’re about as shitty a liar as they come, Little Jack.” Then he grinned. “Speaking of coming. Let’s get you plastered and find a willing mouth to give you a good suck tonight. Yeah?”
With a grunt, LJ started his bike. As luck would have it, his dick had no interest in any mouth beside the one he’d been drooling over five minutes ago.
Goddamn fuckin’ shame is what that was. A nice kick in the nuts. A woman walks right out of his dirty fantasies and into the apartment next door only to turn out to be the daughter of the cop who’s fucking with his club.
Just his fucking luck.
CHAPTER SIX
“AND LET ME tell you, we were so goddammed wasted,” Richard—Rick as he’d requested she call him—said with a hearty laugh right before guzzling nearly half his wine glass in one long gulp.
What she found most impressive about this date so far was a toss-up between the magic trick in which he’d made three generous glasses of wine disappear in a span of thirty minutes, or how he’d told four stories in the same amount of time all containing the sentence, “We were so wasted.”
Don’t get her wrong; Holly liked to have fun as much as the next girl, but really? Did this guy enjoy anything besides getting sloppy with his fraternity brothers turned thirty-year-old bros?
“I’m talking could barely tell up from down smashed.” He shook his head and chuckled. “Good fucking times, Holly. Good fucking times.”
“Mm-hmm.” Holly swallowed a mouthful of her wine. Sure, the irony wasn’t lost on her. Here she was, bored out of her mind with his verbal diarrhea aka reminiscing about days he could only partially remember thanks to booze, and it was driving her to suck back the alcohol much as she imagined he did on a regular basis.
But, come on, a girl couldn’t be expected to listen to this guy droll on without a little something to lube her ears.
Rick fell silent for a blessed moment, as though lost in the fantastic memories of his glory days. Shame to be only thirty and have his best times already behind him. Holly used the quiet to study him. He wasn’t an unattractive man. Nicely muscled, nothing model-worthy, but certainly no slouch. A neatly pressed charcoal button-up with dark wash jeans. Hair styled almost too well. And none of the antipasto appetizer they’d shared gleamed at her from between his teeth.
He just wasn’t for her. And whether that realization came about strictly because her father was pushing their connection or because she really had no interest, who knew? Wasn’t worth overanalyzing. Not when this first date would probably be their last.
“Shit,” he said with a bit of a self-deprecating laugh. “Where was I going with that story?”
Uhh, straight down the toilet?
Thankfully, Holly had only made it to the bottom of her first glass of wine, so the insensitive thought stayed in her head. “Um, not sure, but I’ve been meaning to ask how you like working for my dad so far.” She winced as soon as the sentence had been uttered.
Seriously?
That’s the best conversation starter she could muster? A question about his working relationship with her father? A father she was furious with at the moment. God, this date was about as exciting as waiting in line at the DMV.
Rick puffed out his chest, proud-peacock style. “Really enjoying it so far. I gotta tell you, Holly, your father has an impressive resume. He did some great work in Tampa before moving here. Working under Coleman was all right, but your father’s ideals and work ethic fall much more in line with my own.” His eyes practically glowed with adoration for her father. Now, every girl wanted a potential significant other to get along with her parents, but the hero-worship radiating off Rick was perhaps a bit too much. Didn’t speak well for a relationship if the guy was more enamored with the girl’s father than the girl.
Just as Holly went to ask exactly which ideals he was referring to, Rick tilted his head and gave her an almost boyish smile. “Want to know my favorite thing about working for your father?”
She snagged a sausage stuffed olive off the artfully arranged platter and said, “What’s that?” right before popping it into her mouth. Delicious. So far, the food was the highlight of the date.
“Getting to sample all of the amazing
treats you’re constantly bringing by. If you offered me a million bucks right here and now, I couldn’t pick a favorite. Thought it was those pumpkin scones, but then you brought brownies, and those fudgy coffee-ball things—man, those were unreal.”
With a laugh, Holly said, “The espresso truffles.”
“God, yes.” His eyes rolled heavenward, and he let out a little moan.
Holly giggled as heat flooded her face. If Rick had been looking for a way to butter her up, he’d found it. Sure, she was a woman, and loved hearing she looked hot in a dress, or her hair looked nice, or someone admired her shoes, but compliment her pastries, and she’d pretty much bow at their feet.
Maybe she’d been too harsh on the guy. Judging him before getting to know him solely based on the sad fact this date had been a parental set-up wasn’t exactly giving the guy a fair shot. And if she were honest with herself, she was probably extra critical after the LJ debacle earlier in the evening.
Ugh. The moment she’d slid behind the wheel of her car, she’d promised herself the mortifying incident wouldn’t be thought of again until the date was over, and she was home. Alone.
But there she was, recalling the hatred on her father’s face. Hatred directed at the first man who’d stirred something in her in a long time.
A goddammed biker.
LJ had seemed like such a good guy. Kind, helpful, funny, intelligent, and…hello, sexy as all get out. The total package.
Wrapped up in leather trimming and riding a Harley.
Basically, the antithesis of all her family stood for. While Holly might not have viewed the whole of bikers in as harsh a light as the rest of her tribe, she wasn’t naïve enough to overlook the one-percenter patch on LJ’s cut. Nor was she stupid enough to pretend that patch didn’t mean trouble of the illegal variety. Plus, a life spent hearing about the evils of bikers had had an effect on her. She’d be lying if she said a little prickle of fear hadn’t skittered up her spine when she’d finally noticed LJ’s cut.
