by Atlas, Lilly
“Okay,” Izzy suddenly announced right after a woman named Stephanie had told an outrageous story about nearly getting caught having sex in public. “I’m just gonna put this right out there. Anybody have any objections?”
Seeing as she was pregnant, Izzy hadn’t had a drop of alcohol. Same couldn’t be said for the rest of the group of giggling women.
“No!” Shell, the MC president’s ol’ lady said with far too much exuberance. “Speak your truth, woman.”
Izzy’s face scrunched as she shook her head in Shell’s direction before turning her attention on Holly. “Wasn’t sure what to think of you once I found out your dad was the dick who keeps causing trouble for our men,” Izzy said, staring straight at Holly. The rest of the women stopped dancing and fell silent. “But I fucking like you,” she said with a scowl. “Fuck us over, and you’ll answer to me. Get me?”
Holly’s eyes widened at the same time Stephanie whistled.
“She’s even scarier now that she’s knocked up,” Toni whispered.
“I’m not fucking scary,” Izzy said with the scariest look on her face Holly had ever seen. “But LJ means a lot to all of us and preggers or not, I’ll fuck you up if you mess with his head further.”
The alcohol swirling in Holly’s bloodstream made it hard to follow the conversation word for word. But the intensity of the emotion rolling off the frustrated Izzy? Yeah, Holly caught every ounce of that.
“I-I’m not here to—wait, what do you mean, mess with his head any further?” Holly looked from one ol’ lady to the next. One of them would clue her in, right?
Wrong.
Instead, they just exchanged side-eyed looks with each other. Like they were trying to decide just how much info they could trust the sheriff’s daughter with.
Shit!
Tears pricked the backs of Holly’s eyes. It was long past time to leave this party and get back to her real life. She’d been crazy to start thinking she’d find friends here.
“Well, fuck,” Izzy said with a roll of her eyes. “Don’t go and get all cry baby on us. Makes us think you aren’t going to run and tell the sheriff everything you saw tonight.”
“I’m not,” Holly immediately responded. “I wouldn’t. Why would you think that?”
There went this tight-knit group again, communicating with their eyes. What the hell was going on?
“What?” She looked between the women who suddenly found the floor very interesting. All but Izzy. Clearly the most outspoken and ballsy of the bunch, Izzy cocked her head and kept her gaze on Holly.
“You don’t know?”
Any pleasant buzz she’d achieved from the alcohol was quickly chased away by the frustration of being left in the dark about something everyone else seemed clued in on. “Don’t know what? Someone just spill it already.”
“Your dad has the entire sheriff’s department coming after the club almost daily. The guys are being pulled over for bullshit while riding, our businesses are being shut down because your father has been getting anonymous tips about illegal activity, yet not a single thing has been found. I even had that prick Deputy Schwartz at my tattoo shop yesterday because supposedly three sets of parents came to complain I had tattooed their underage children.” A furious scowl crossed her lips. “Fucking bullshit.”
“Shit, Izzy,” the redhead, Chloe, said. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
Izzy shrugged. “Because it was bullshit and nothing came of it.” Her attention came back to Holly. “You know he shut down every project LJ had running today?”
Holly’s heart stuttered to a stop. The loud music faded until she could hear nothing but the sound of her own breathing and Izzy’s words. “What do you mean?”
Chloe took over the story, sadness in her eyes. “My ol’ man is Rocket. He owns the construction company LJ works for. LJ is his lead project manager. Right now, they have four separate sites running simultaneously. More than usual, so they’re pushing it hard to finish everything on time, so pretty much someone was working at each site today even though it’s the weekend. Anyway, the sheriff’s office halted all work for the entire day, maybe even more, because they supposedly got a tip about the missing money from that casino robbery being stashed at one of the Hell’s Handlers construction sites.”
Holly’s stomach rolled, the tequila sloshing around like the sea in a storm.
“Of course, they didn’t find shit,” Izzy said with heat in her voice. “Because our men aren’t fucking bank robbers.”
Oh, God. She pressed a hand to her stomach. Did her father do this because of her? Was this his fucked up way of warning LJ away from her? No wonder the man wanted nothing to do with her. Guilt pressed down on her shoulders, hard.
“I have to talk to LJ,” she said, voice hoarse.
And tomorrow, she needed to have a difficult conversation with her father. Holly refused to be used as a pawn by the sheriff’s department to funnel information on men she knew nothing about. Nor would she be used in the opposite way to provide the MC with police tidbits. No matter how hot LJ made her or how nice these women were.
“Upstairs,” Izzy said indicating the staircase with a tilt of her gorgeous head. “Fourth door on the left.”
“Is he, um, will he…”
A smile curled Izzy’s lips for the first time since this conversation started. But it wasn’t a reassuring grin; it had a more sinister quality. “Will he be up there fucking one of the Honeys?” She shrugged. “Guess you’ll find out, won’t you? You’ve got some sex-rumpled hair and your lipstick’s all gone. How worked up did you get him?”
Pretty damn worked up if he felt even half of what she did when they kissed. With trembling legs, Holly nodded to the group of women who were clearly more family than friends before turning away. She’d taken three steps when a hand closed around her wrist.
“He’s alone, I promise,” Jazz whispered. “Just LJ and a bottle of tequila that’s probably working its way toward empty by now.”
“Thanks,” Holly whispered to her new friend.
As she climbed the stairs, her head spun, and her stomach threatened to expel everything she’d consumed that day, which was pretty much alcohol and pastries. Great combination.
The short walk from the top of the staircase to LJs door seemed to pass far too quickly. She hadn’t had enough time to prepare what she planned to say. Hell, she didn’t even know what she wanted to say. All she knew was the thought of LJ’s livelihood being threatened because her father discovered their quasi-friendship was sickening.
Without giving her swirling mind a chance to talk her out of it, she raised a hand and knocked on LJ’s door.
“’S open,” came the slightly slurred reply.
Holly willed her hand to stop shaking, but it was a wasted effort. With unsteady fingers, she opened LJ’s door and stepped through.
“Fuck me,” LJ said on a groan as she stepped into his line of sight.
He lay sprawled out on his bed, shirtless, with an unzipped pair of jeans. His boots lay scattered haphazardly next to the bed. A half-full bottle of tequila rested against his side. Holly swallowed around a thick throat. He looked beyond sexy. All those rolling muscles and ink spread out on display. Like he was lying there just waiting for her to climb on and ride him.
“We need to talk,” she said.
He grunted. “We could skip the talk and just fuck.”
“It’s tempting,” Holly said, some hidden inner vixen taking over her tongue. “Really tempting.” This time she whispered the words. Holly had slept with a handful of men, not a crazy number, but she’d never been the aggressor. Never put herself out there and asked for it. Something about their chemistry seemed significant to her. As though indulging in LJ would somehow alter the course of her life. Could she really pass the experience by?
“But?” His voice made her jump.
Holly shored up her courage. “But you’ve left me hanging twice now. I don’t want a third strike.”
He sat stra
ight up, grabbing the bottle with his left hand. Gaze dead-locked with hers, he rose and stalked toward her. Once he was close enough she had to look up, an advantage he seemed to enjoy, he spoke. “Your father is gunning for my club.”
“I didn’t know.” She couldn’t have torn her gaze away if the building exploded around her. His hazel eyes seemed greener tonight. Flecks of gold sparkled through them drawing her in. “The girls told me tonight. I had no idea that was happening, and I’m so sorry he messed with your work today.”
“But you know why he hates bikers.” Holly was eye level with the hard expanse of his broad chest. Resisting the urge to probe the muscles was proving more difficult by the second. Would his inked skin feel hot beneath her hands? His chest was free of hair, but a fuzzy brown trail ran down from his belly button and disappeared into his jeans, just begging her to follow the path.
“I know why he hates bikers.”
Her father wasn’t a bad guy, and certainly wasn’t a dirty cop, but his loathing of motorcycle clubs ran so deep, Holly wasn’t sure he’d ever approve of any of the men in this MC. But he was a fair man and a dedicated officer, so if the Handlers proved they weren’t a threat to the people of Townsend, her father would back off. She was sure of it.
LJ brushed her hair from her shoulders until it all hung down her back. She shivered as his coarse fingertips grazed her skin. He didn’t ask another question, but Holly felt the need to explain at least a little bit. “He’s dealt with some biker clubs in the past that have been…bad.”
“Bad?”
“My—my sister was kidnapped and murdered nearly thirteen years ago. The man who killed her was the president of a one-percenter motorcycle club.” Each word felt like a knife cut to her soul.
“She why you wear this?” He asked, fingering the best friend charm resting against her chest. The one she never took off. If she had any hope of keeping her wits about her, the man needed to stop touching her. Never before had she had such a strong physical reaction to a man. The moment his callused fingertip grazed her skin, all good sense flew right out of her head.
“I’m sorry that happened to you.” His intense and concerned gaze had her believing he meant the words. He leaned down until she could smell the tequila on his breath. “So now you think all bikers are murderers?”
What did she think? With him so close, Holly could barely breathe, let alone get her brain cells in gear. Part of her wanted to say yes. To fall into the repetitive pattern she’d followed her whole life. The one where she let her parents dictate her thinking, but, as she stared into LJ’s eyes, she couldn’t do that. “No. I don’t.”
“Your father does.”
“Yes.”
“So now what?” He stayed close, his hands landing on her hips as his nose trailed up her neck.
Now I run!
That’d be the sensible thing. The safe choice. Were anyone in her family to find out about this, they’d be horrified. It’d be seen as the ultimate betrayal to her twin sister and her parents. But Joy was different. Joy grabbed life with both hands. Her best friend charm felt warm where it rested against her skin. Though she knew it was crazy, Holly often felt that heat in times where she needed advice, craved guidance. She’d always viewed it as Joy’s way of checking in on Holly’s life. A life she’d promised her twin she’d live for the both of them.
So instead of walking away, she turned her face, so her lips were inches from LJ’s. “Now you touch me,” she whispered.
LJ lifted his hand, circling it around her throat in a light hold that had her pulse speeding up and her panties dampening. “I won’t leave you hanging this time,” he whispered against her lips. “You’ll come so fucking hard they’ll hear you over the music downstairs. You want that?”
His grip on her throat increased just enough to let her feel his power. Power he’d promised to use to pleasure her, not harm her. Her entire body trembled with his little squeeze. The skimpy thong she’d worn to bolster her confidence was soaked straight through. Hell, her jeans even felt wet.
She was more turned on than she’d even been in her life.
Falling into bed with LJ might make her a reckless woman, but walking away from her first taste of true ecstasy would make her a fool for sure.
Decision made, she finally let her hands have what they’d been itching for. Pressing her palms flat to his chest, she absorbed the feeling of those rock-hard pecs. Damn, the man was powerfully built. His strength an affirmation of life. And for one night at least, Holly was all about living life to the fullest.
“Like your hands on me, sugar, but I need an answer.”
Holly gazed up into his smoldering eyes. “I promise you’re not an act of rebellion. And I’ll never betray your trust,” she whispered. “I just really want you to make me come.”
With that, she grabbed the back of his head and pulled him in.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
SHIT, LJ JUST found the third thing to soothe his soul and chase away his demons. Holly’s fucking delicious mouth. That dark, sweet cavern was more potent than the alcohol and far more pleasurable than any fucking mental exercise his shrink doled out.
Getting tangled with the sheriff’s daughter had to be the worst fucking idea he’d ever had, but it no longer seemed to matter. The choice had been made. Might as well reap the benefits before the piper came ’round to collect.
“Fuck, you’re so goddamned sweet,” he said before ravaging her mouth.
Holly moaned and rubbed against him like a cat in fucking heat.
He could have spent hours feasting on her mouth, but those tits had been torturing him for the past few weeks. It was high time for a taste. Without breaking the kiss, he worked the fitted tank top up until it rested over her tits. His hands immediately went to them, encountering the soft scratch of very thin lace. Shit, no wonder her hard nipples were visible through the tank. This thing barely offered an ounce of coverage.
After a few moments of fondling her tits, testing their weight, plucking her nipples and fucking loving the desperate whimpers she made against his mouth, he pulled the lace cups down. Ending the kiss felt like it might kill him, but knowing what was in store for his mouth made it well worth the sacrifice.
LJ ripped away from her lips and stared at her tits, panting hard. “Fuck,” he whispered before bending his head and lifting one handful to his mouth. He didn’t tease, didn’t ease her into it, just latched on to her tight nipple with a fierce suction.
Holly let out a strangled sound as her hands landed on his head. But she didn’t push him away or balk at the rough treatment. No, her nails scored his scalp, and she held tight as though she’d die if he stopped sucking her.
He kept at her with harsh pulls of his mouth and intermittent swipes of his tongue. As she’d done earlier in the evening, she widened her stance and tried to grind against his thigh. LJ would have chuckled if he wasn’t so lost in desire. His girl needed some relief, now. Too bad for her, he was going to make her wait for it.
“LJ,” she said on a gasp as he finally released her nipple. The heat of her pussy seared his thigh, straight through his jeans. God, she’d be blistering once he finally got inside. Kissing his way across to her other breast, he spoke against her silky skin. “Hope you don’t think this is a one-shot deal, sugar. No way in fucking hell am I going to be satisfied with just one taste of these gorgeous tits. I’m too on edge to give them the proper attention tonight, but next time. Next time, I’ll do right by them.”
“Jesus,” she whispered as a shudder ran through her. “You’re going to kill me.”
He gave the neglected tit a quick, hard suck and her nails scratched his scalp. Hissing as the bite of pain spiked through his bloodstream, he took a step back.
Mussed hair, swollen lips, and glazed eyes stared up at him. Framed by her bunched tank on top and her bra below, those gorgeous tits hung wet from his mouth with nipples a deep red from the attention.
“Take your jeans off then lie on the edge of t
he bed. I’m not done tasting yet.”
“Oh, fuck,” she whispered. Her hand went to her top.
“No,” he bit out. “Leave it. I love the way it makes your tits look.”
Her face flamed. “They look ridiculous like this.”
“They look sexy as fuck. Leave it. Pants off. Hurry. I’m hungry.”
Now, the red in her cheeks seemed more from heat than embarrassment. She obeyed, wiggling those generous hips out of her skintight jeans in a move that nearly made him come in his pants. Next time he’d be watching that from the rear view.
Her panties were totally useless, an aqua thong that couldn’t possibly contain her arousal. The thing matched her bra and looked dark from her wetness. “Holly,” he rasped out as his cock leaked into his own underwear.
She met his gaze, though it seemed to take effort. “I’m not exactly built like most of those girls downstairs.”
“The Honeys?” He snorted. “Those scrawny bitches aren’t worth a second of your time, sugar. You’re built like you walked straight from my dirtiest fantasies, Holly. Curvy hips, big soft tits, and an ass I’ve jerked off to thoughts of every fucking night since I’ve met you.”
“S-seriously?”
“Dead serious, sugar. Now get on the fucking bed for me.”
The compliments seemed to bolster her confidence. Something they’d need to work on, because the woman had a traffic-stopping body. She should strut into any and every room, head held high, letting those rounded hips sway to their full potential while rocking outfits that showed off her tits and legs. Instead, she felt the need to issue a disclaimer.
By the time he was done with her, she’d be in love with her own body.
Holly straightened her shoulders, then turned giving him a prime view of her ass split by the fucking string of her thong. LJ let out a tortured groan which had Holly peeking over her shoulder with a playful smirk.
That’s it, sugar. Tease me with that gorgeous body.
When she reached the bed, Holly faced him again, then sat on the edge of the mattress. She bit her lower lip, then slowly leaned back until her elbows held her in a semi-reclined position.
