by Ryan Michele
Crow continued, “With everything goin’ ass-backward, it keeps gettin’ pushed back, but I’m gonna make a point to get that shit done this week.”
“Appreciate that.” Using my index finger and thumb, I rubbed my eyes. The damn things were killing me, itchy, burning, and just damn tired. I needed to adjust my screen settings ASAP. Whatever they were set on now wasn’t working.
“You alright?” he asked, concern filling his tone. It was one of the many things that made him my best friend and the perfect president for our club.
“Yeah. Just fuckin’ tired.” I took another swig of my beer and with that, I was making myself even sleepier. Not a good mix.
“Take a day off, Wrong Way,” Crow ordered. “You burn out, we got nothin’. Rather you take a day to recoup than drive yourself into the ground.”
I nodded once, him still knowing I would do what needed to be done. While I appreciated it, having all of our businesses up in the air wasn’t an option. But I felt like the end was near or, at least, closer than it was yesterday.
“Hornet and Rooster are workin’ on all the cameras and wiring. That’s helpin’ tremendously. Phoenix and Tex are lookin’ after the properties and gettin’ them secured. All of that’s helpin’. But havin’ Ethan to take some of the load off for coding would be good.”
I was man enough to admit that I needed help. It had nothing to do with me not being able to accomplish the job, but everything to do with time. The longer our businesses went unprotected, the bigger the risk of something going wrong.
We almost lost millions when Lemon tried to steal from us. That wouldn’t happen ever again. Being tired was a result of working around the clock trying to finish.
“This week we get Ethan in, but, brother, you’re off for the next twenty-four hours. Get some sleep. Get laid. Whatever in the fuck you need to do to recharge.”
Crow respected me being upfront with him, which was good because I couldn’t be another way. Not in my makeup.
“Fine, but I have a coupla things to do before that.”
Crow eyed me, the lines around his eye getting tight, and I knew it was coming. When he got in this mode, it was best to listen to what he said and move on. He was the president, after all. “You have one hour. Then done.”
While I knew deep down, Crow wouldn’t do anything to me, he was right. I needed a day to pull my shit together and get back on track. One to recharge and not look at a screen. I’d do no one any good wearing myself down to the bone, and I was getting there. So close to there. This would be good.
“Got it,” I said, finishing the last of my beer.
“Hey!” Rylynn, Crow’s ol’ lady, came up to the table wrapping her arms around Crow’s neck, who pulled her down to sit on his lap.
“Hey to you,” Crow murmured to Rylynn’s huge smile. “Are you drunk?”
Rylynn tapped her finger to her chin, appearing to be thinking. “Nope. Only half a bottle. Nowhere near it.”
The woman had a tolerance of a three-hundred-pound man when it came to alcohol, being able to drink a bottle of Jack and only that would get her drunk. She told me she didn’t know if it was a blessing or a curse.
She almost died a few months ago when she was stranded out in the woods, surviving on drops of water from leaves on trees. It all came from Crow’s ex and her scheme to take down the Ravage MC. Rylynn just got caught up in the middle of it. Rylynn was a fighter and one of the strongest women I knew. Crow carried some guilt about causing her pain, but he had no control over the situation.
She’d been letting loose a little more than usual, but she’d been through a lot. She needed a break, and she was taking it. I needed to take my cue from her.
Looking at the happy couple and the way they looked at each other, something inside of me wanted that. Someone who knew me so well that we connected on so many different levels. But that was for the future. No way was that right now.
Crow may be sidled up, but that didn’t mean I was going to be.
I knocked my knuckles on the table, standing. “I’m out.”
Crow nodded to me as Rylynn said, “Night, party pooper.”
My head shook. Only a woman like Rylynn would get away with calling me that shit.
Now to finish up the preliminary stuff so when I took tomorrow off, Ravage would have some coverage.
While my good setup was at the clubhouse, I did have a computer system at my house for nights like this. Ones where I needed to make sure shit was good before I could settle down.
The preliminary security system was up and going, but it took longer than an hour at the clubhouse. I wasn’t leaving until at least that was complete because I wouldn’t be able to let loose tomorrow always thinking of what could happen.
Before Lemon tried to take down our club, going to a party, letting loose, and getting laid always cleared my head. The party didn’t do that.
I’d be the first to admit that what Lemon had done to the club right under our noses hit me hard. I kept replaying conversations with him and his actions, but up until the end there, the signs were nowhere to be found. He was just Lemon.
And I kept it on repeat, trying to figure out what was missed and how it slipped through my fingers. Being unable to find anything was frustrating. Being attuned to my club and putting that much trust in them, this was a blow. There were no secrets, and in Ravage we trusted everyone implicitly. That was the underlying code for the club. This though, put a huge kink in that armor we had around us. Getting it back was a priority.
The underlying betrayal from him was full force on me, but with everything I had going on, there wasn’t time for me to fully let it out. Time. That was what I needed.
Grabbing my eye drops, I put a few in each eye hoping to give me at least an hour more. The main security code for everything was almost complete. With everything else branching off of that, this would be a huge task done.
Even with the preliminary up and going, the main one would be tougher and stronger. Once this was completed, I’d have a small bit of the weight off my shoulders.
If I got this part done, and not wanting to party, I could sleep then focus on the getting laid portion, and I knew just who to go to.
7
Hayden
A wide smile came over my face as I looked at my tablet seeing the man at the door through the camera. Tall. So damn tall. Even standing on my tiptoes at five eleven, he had to dip his head down to kiss me. He made me feel tiny and protected by his size, which wasn’t a small feat.
Not to mention how unbelievably sexy the man was. Just looking at him, I could cream my panties. No joke. Add in that level of confidence you didn’t see in a lot of men these days and he was a recipe for disaster. But it was always a good one.
Setting the tablet down on the countertop and moving to the security panel, I punched in the code, and it beeped twice, telling me it was disarmed.
Anticipation filled me as I took the few steps to the door, unlocked it, and opened it wide.
The sexiest grin came to his lips as our eyes locked. My pulse quickened and below the belt quivered.
“Haven’t seen you in a while,” I said, leaning a shoulder on the frame of the door, looking cool and content like I had all the time in the world. Somehow when we were together, he made time stand still for a brief moment. We could get lost in each other and forget the world around us.
Forget the lives we led, problems we had, or envisions for our lives to disappear and just focus on the two of us.
“Had shit goin’ on,” he said in his gravelly voice, sending chills down my spine. Damn, I loved his voice. He had one of those deep tones that could be a radio jockey or an audiobook reader. It pulled you in, wanting nothing more for him to continue to talk even if it were reading the damn dictionary.
His face was a work of art, chiseled and defined. Even the two small scars under his eye were hot as hell. It was the eyes, though, deep brown with a golden ring around the iris reminding me of a lion. Unique. Go
rgeous. Deep.
Wrong Way wasn’t like most men. Not only in the looks department, but in the brains as well. He was so damn smart, and I craved his intelligence—craved him going toe to toe with me in discussions. Most men, Rocco included, couldn’t hold an entire conversation about the ways of the world. But Wrong Way could and had on many occasions. While we shared many similar views, I always had to challenge him, which he met anytime.
“You gonna come in? Or just doin’ a drive-by?”
His grin turned wicked as his arms wrapped around my waist, lifting me clean in the air. My legs wrapped around his hips as he came in and kicked the door shut. His lips came to mine as I heard the deadbolt lock into place.
When I heard the beeps of my alarm, immediately I stilled. My head lifted as I watched Wrong Way put in my code to secure the house. “How did you know that?” See smart, but this made him dangerous in a way I knew he possessed, but I wasn’t exactly comfortable with.
But dangerous was part of the appeal.
His teeth nipped at my bottom lip. “Babe. Your system is damn good, but I can still get it.”
This blew some of the wind out of my sails because I thought it was full proof. “Fuck. Now I’m going to be spending the night securing it. And don’t do that.” He still held me easily as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
“Do what? Fuck you?” he teased, carrying me through the living room and toward my bedroom.
“No. You must fuck me. That isn’t an option. I mean hack into my shit,” I warned.
While I really liked this man, no one cut into my business. No one. If he could get into my security system, no telling if he could get into my computers. Getting that deep into my life, well, it wasn’t an option. We had a good thing going between us, and I wasn’t ready for any kind of change. Another thing to scratch on the to-do list.
“Then make it more secure,” he challenged just as his lips came back to mine. The taste of sexy man filled my mouth, and my body instantly relaxed into him completely, forgetting what we were talking about. Hell, forgetting my damn name. This was the way things were with us. When he was here, every thought disappeared.
The next thing I knew, my back was to the bed, and Wrong Way was tearing at my clothes. I joined in the fun and began to tear his off as well. It was a flurry of passion, desire, and lust all rolled up into two people who counted on each other for this one thing.
Escape.
Release.
Reprieve from the thoughts that plagued us both.
There was no preamble. No making sure I was ready for him, but truthfully I always was. The moment his pants were off he was inside of me to the hilt. My back arched off the bed, neck going with it, and I gasped out, releasing him from the kiss. His bulk on top of me was warm and hard as my nails scraped up his back through the muscled ridges and into his silky hair.
His thrusts were punishing, moving in and out so rapidly the headboard began to bang on the wall in a steady pace, the sound only turning me on more. I was so close to my climax—right on the edge.
He pulled out leaving me whimpering and wanting. Flipping me over quickly to my stomach, my breasts pressing into the mattress, he was in charge. His hand came down hard on my ass, the sound echoing through the room. Three more came in rapid succession. My ass was warm, and a slow burn came to the cheeks, sending a zing of pleasure to my pussy.
Getting spanked was one of my kinks in the bedroom. I moaned then yelled. “Get inside me!”
To that, he smacked my ass three more times and pushed my legs together. He straddled me and spread my ass cheeks wide, finding my slick entrance as he slid back inside. Fuck, that was good. I could feel him so deep inside me as he used his hands on my shoulders to pull me down further.
My cries came out jumbled as his grunts became sexier. In and out, over and over again, he thrust. Sticking my head in the mattress, I screamed out loud enough that Ms. M could probably hear me next door. The orgasm hit hard, my entire body shooting off like a rocket, and my mind closing down. All I could do was feel.
Wrong Way continued to thrust hard and fast, the mattress banging and bouncing.
“One more,” he said, moving so he was now between my legs, still inside me. He gripped my hair and pulled my back flush with his front, his other hand coming to my clit. There he moved his fingers quickly as his thrusts continued. The combination of the two had me humming.
The build came hard and fast. He could work my body like no man before. I’d never once had better. Ever.
“Milk me,” he ordered, and something about those sexy words sent me flying off into another round of pleasure. My body jolted as it came over me completely, robbing me of everything. I could only open my mouth, letting air out.
He joined me after three more deep thrusts up, spilling inside me. We sat in this position for long moments, both needing to catch our breaths. If Wrong Way’s arm wasn’t around me, I would’ve fallen face down on the bed.
He wrung me dry, sating my body beautifully.
As he pulled out of me, he flipped me around, and we laid face to face on the bed, our eyes finally opening and connected with each other’s.
“Wow.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, wow.”
My hand lifted and brushed the hair away from his face. His eyes opened, and a grin played on his lips.
“That’s a hell of a hello,” I teased.
“Any time I’m ‘round you all I can think about is that tight, wet pussy.”
I rolled my eyes. “It’s always about the pussy. Why not my brain?”
“Can’t fuck your brain.”
“True.” We sat in silence for a bit just looking at one another. This game we’d been playing for the past ten months was fun and thrilling. I never knew when he’d show up, and it would be at the most random times. But each time he did, he always made it a good time. The first time I saw Wrong Way he was under the hood of Ms. M’s Cadillac. He was saying something about her getting a new car, and she was telling him that wasn’t happening. If he couldn’t fix it then she’d find someone who could.
* * *
“Gram, seriously. This beast needs to be put out of its misery.”
Ms. M smacked him on the shoulder. “It’s a classic, and I’m not gettin’ rid of it. Fix it!”
I couldn’t help but chuckle at their back and forth banter.
* * *
He didn’t see me watching him, but even then, he captivated me.
It was still months before we spoke other than ‘hi’, and years of me living here before we ended up in a tryst.
As I stared in those dark eyes with golden flecks, I tried to read the depths, but something was closing him off from me. While I hated that, I also understood it. Connecting with each other in that way wasn’t in the cards or, at least, hadn’t been.
He and I knew the score here. We’d always been upfront, and that was exactly what this was. Sex. Sure we’d talk over food or drinks, but nothing more, and I was good with that. We were casual. It worked, for the most part.
“You stayin’ around?” I asked curiously, not wanting our time to be over just yet. Just a little while longer so I could get my fix of him because who knew when he’d be back. The light touches of his rough fingers caressed my face so damn lovingly. As if he were memorizing me with each brush.
“For a bit.”
I smiled, wanting our time to continue. It was selfish, but the times we were together were priceless to me. “Hungry?”
His hand smacked my ass, and he pulled my hips to his, the semi pressing against me. “Always around you.”
This made my insides do funny things that I shut down immediately. Instead, I reminded him, “Food.”
He kissed me quickly. “That chicken ‘n dumplin’ stuff.”
I lifted up on my elbow to look down on the man. “Now you’re bossy. Maybe I should just feed you chicken noodle soup out of a can.”
His arms came around me and pulled me on top of him. “Am who
I am, babe. There’s no changin’ that.”
“I know,” I said, pulling my hair to the side so it dangled over my shoulder. “That’s one thing I can always count on you for. Telling it to me straight.” That was the honest truth. Never would I want to change him.
“Always. Let’s eat ‘cause we have a few more rounds to go before I hafta head out.”
“So bossy,” I teased, crawling off the bed, moving to the bathroom, and taking my robe off the hook on the back door. Slipping the soft fabric over my shoulders, I tied it tight then threw my hair up in a messy bun on the top of my head.
This was another thing I loved about Wrong Way. I could just be myself. Hell, if I had to fart, then I would. We were comfortable together.
It was a small known fact that I loved cooking. Growing up the way I did, where eating out of dumpsters was gourmet, I vowed to myself I’d learn to cook. I wasn’t the best, but I wasn’t the worst either.
Looking over my shoulder, he was laying sprawled out on my bed, his legs opened wide. His cock was already semi-hard, and I knew from experience he could go again right now. But something in his eyes was off. He was tired or stressed. Something.
If making him his favorite meal of mine would help kick him out of whatever funk he was in, so be it.
“You gonna lay around while I slave in the kitchen?”
“Be there in a sec,” he said with a wink as I moved through the house. I heard the clawing on the door of my office. Fuck. Luna. I’d forgotten her.
Grabbing my keys from the kitchen, I unlocked the door from my office, and Luna came barreling out. She paid zero attention to me, sniffing the air, and went on the hunt for the man in my bed. Typical woman, fawning all over the sexy man.
Luna loved Wrong Way. Loved him. Every time he came to the house, she forgot I existed for a few hours, which I couldn’t blame her. Bet that was how everyone was with the man.
On a sigh, I pulled out all the ingredients and got to work. With the lack of time, I had to take a few shortcuts, but he wouldn’t be able to tell in the end.
