I headed home after leaving jail. I hadn’t had a proper bed or a proper shower in a week, and I felt as scummy as my dealings were. When I got home, I called Emily’s phone first. I was anxious when I heard it ring. She hadn’t really been answering my calls lately. I couldn’t blame her because I knew that she had a rough job, but a woman who was hard to get could really make a guy worry.
She answered on the third ring. Thank God.
“Hey stranger,” she said. It was cute.
“Hey,” I said, smiling, so that she could hear I was happy to hear her voice. “I’m back in town. I was wondering if you wanted to go out and do something when you have a chance?”
She hesitated. That wasn’t a good sign.
“When’s your next night off?” I asked, trying to push the conversation in a direction, any direction.
“Actually, it’s tonight,” she said. She sounded tired. I could just imagine what kind of week she’d had. Telling by the messages I’d gotten from her, not a good one. Any kind of week where you lost lives was a bad one.
“Let me take you out,” I said. “Get your mind off things.”
She chuckled, and it was a soft sound, a bedroom chuckle. The kind I would like to hear in my ear after we’d done it—while we lay together, cuddling. The image was vivid and totally foreign. I’d made a habit out of leaving the moment it was over. There were ways not to put your heart on the line.
“I think that might be a good idea,” she said. She’d agreed. Perfect.
“You’re okay, though, right?” I hadn’t meant to ask, but I felt like it was rude not to. She sounded off.
“I’ll be okay,” she said. “It’s been a rough week, and I just have a lot on my mind.”
She sounded distant, but I was willing to take that for now. When we were face-to-face, it would be that much easier to figure out what was really wrong. I somehow doubted it was just work.
“I’ll pick you up at seven,” I said, and I couldn’t help smiling again. “Put on something semi-formal.”
I hung up and looked in the mirror. If I wanted to take her out for a good time, I had to fix myself up. I looked terrible. I was so used to wearing leathers I wasn’t sure what else I would fit in anymore. I got in the shower and washed off the grime. I shaved as well, getting rid of the stubble and my bad-ass look.
I wanted to show her the property I’d bought. I wanted to change my life, but I couldn’t seem to get away from my dad’s business. One day though… one day I was going to do something different. And that empty patch of land was my ticket. I wanted to know what Emily thought. Maybe, if I was lucky, she wanted to be in my life long enough to have some kind of say in it.
Tonight, I was going to find out if she was interested. For now, I needed to make sure that I actually looked like the respectable guy she might go out with, not the leather-clad biker who kicked ass for a living.
I got on my bike and drove down to the strip of shops that made up the main road downtown. I stopped in front of a men’s shop and walked in. The shop assistant looked me up and down.
“Can I help you?” she asked me in a way that suggested I might be lost.
I looked around. There were mannequins everywhere wearing silk and cashmere, suits and other outfits that looked like they belonged in magazines for men with morals. Not on thugs like me.
“Yes,” I said, making myself seem confident. “I’d like to see your manager.”
The M-word always got attention. Her eyes bulged, and she rushed away to get the manager.
The man came out a moment later, looking like he batted for the other team. I tried to ignore how uncomfortable it made me feel.
“I’m going out on a date with a special lady tonight,” I said. “I need something to wear. Something that won’t make me look like…” I gestured to myself. “This.”
The manager smiled in the way people smile when they’re presented with a challenge, and then he snapped his fingers as if he was some damn fairy godmother. I rolled my eyes. This was going to be a long afternoon. Hopefully, when I saw Emily, it would be worth it.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN Emily
I put on a little black dress. I didn’t have a lot of clothes in my closet, living in a doctor’s coat, and most of my clothes consisted of comfy pants and shoes so that I could spend hours on my feet. Still, dressing up was fun.
The black dress was something I’d had for years. It had a capped sleeves, a low neckline that showed off the swell of my breasts to leave just enough to the imagination, and it hit me mid-thigh.
I brushed out my hair and let it loose because I never got to do that with my job, and then I found black heels that looked great again when I wiped them down.
I applied makeup, too. It wasn’t something I did often, either, and it felt good to dress up again for a change. My life as a doctor meant that so much attention went to other people that I paid very little attention to myself. When I walked out to the kitchen to find my handbag and swap the contents to a bag that would suit my outfit better, Sarah glanced over at me and whistled.
I blushed and shook my head, laughing.
“Since when do you have legs?” she asked. I chuckled, swapping the contents of my bags.
“I’m going on a date tonight,” I said.
“I’ll say. Is it Daniel?” she asked in a mocking tone that made me want to scowl at her. Instead, I just blushed again. “Where is he taking you?”
“I have no idea,” I admitted. I wasn’t even sure if it was a good idea to go, but I wasn’t going to mention that to Sarah. She was the one who had told me to do what I’d done with him in the car. She wasn’t going to join in talking me out of this.
“He’s picking me up at seven,” I said. Sarah smiled.
“I think you’re set for a date to my opening next week.”
I nodded. I was probably going to ask Daniel. I was nervous about him, but it was difficult to deny that I liked him and that I wanted to spend time with him. I heard a motorcycle pull up outside, and I glanced up at the clock. He was a little early, but it was better than being late. I hated a guy being late.
“I’m out of here,” I said and took my handbag. “Don’t wait up.”
Sarah laughed. “I won’t.”
I didn’t know what was going to happen tonight, but whatever it was, it was going to be on my terms. Losing control had been great, but I needed to keep some kind of handle on my life.
I walked downstairs and stepped out of the apartment building. Someone sat on a bike that looked like Daniel’s, but the person I saw hardly looked like him. I burst out laughing when I looked at him.
He wore a shimmering silver suit that fitted him as if it had been sculpted to his body. He wore a matching shimmer shirt and a tie that matched, too, so that everything was perfectly color-coded.
“What’s so funny?” he asked.
I shook my head. It wasn’t the fact that he’d gotten all dressed up. He looked really good. It was the fact that on top of his head he had a helmet. One of those old ones that you saw in the movies.
“Did you take that out of mothballs?” I asked.
He smiled broadly. “I had to dress up for you.”
I shook my head and walked toward the bike. I looked at the seat, sizing up the bike.
“What is it?” he asked.
“I forgot that you’re on a bike. This dress isn’t exactly biker-friendly.”
Daniel looked me up and down, and that hungry expression crossed his face again.
“It looks pretty damn biker-friendly to me,” he said.
I blushed all the way down to my toes.
It took us about fifteen minutes to arrange me behind him on the bike without flashing my assets to the world, and then we took off. He’d even brought me a second helmet and my dark hair streamed from underneath it like a cape behind me. I wrapped my arms around his body, hugging myself tightly to his back and felt the wind whip around us. It was a new sensation, trusting someone else like that, and I was
starting to think that this was something I was able to do.
I’d started noticing that Daniel challenged everything in my life: my serious need for control, my definition of freedom, my ability to trust.
We wove in between traffic as the sun set, and finally drove out of the city.
“Where are we going?” I asked. I expected it to be some restaurant, given how fancy we’d dressed up.
“You’ll see,” he answered over his shoulder and opened throttle. The speed took my breath away and I gave myself over to it, not feeling or thinking about anything other than right here and right now. With Daniel.
When he finally slowed down we were in a hilly patch of land with green grass stretching as far as I could see in the almost darkness and the smell of jasmine thick in the air.
Daniel got off the bike first and then helped me off, which proved to be a lot easier than getting on had been.
“What do you think?” he asked, holding out his arms to both sides and turning around. I turned around, too, looking at our surroundings.
“I think… it’s an empty patch of land?” I asked, feeling silly about my answer. We stood on what looked to be a plot of some kind.
“You’re right,” he said. Point for me. “I bought this a couple of weeks ago. I want to build something on it. A business. An empire.”
I looked at it again with this new dream in mind and nodded.
“I think it could work,” I said. “What kind of business?”
He looked sheepish and shuffled his weight from one leg to the other.
“I don’t know that yet.”
I chuckled. “Well, it sounds like a great idea nevertheless.”
He smiled, too, and extended his hand. I took it because there was nothing else I could do. There wasn’t really anything else I wanted to do. He led me onto the grass, and I had to clutch onto him so that my heels didn’t sink into the mud.
We move down a hill, and at the bottom, a gazebo was set up with what looked like a picnic basket. Some kind of lantern stood in the middle, and it looked like a fairy tale. Daniel looked at me and smiled when he saw my face.
“I was thinking this is a little better than the back of a car,” he said. I blushed at the idea and nodded.
When we reached the gazebo, I was stable on the wooden platform on my heels again, and we sat down on the blankets and pillows that were arranged. Daniel opened the picnic basket and pulled out food. Gourmet sandwiches, caviar, salmon, and champagne. It was the most expensive picnic I’d ever been on.
“What’s all this for?” I asked.
Daniel poured us each a glass.
“This is for you. I know the other night was spectacular and everything, but you deserve more, so I’m giving you more. I don’t want you to think I’m just after one thing.”
It was what I’d been thinking. His words meant more than he could ever know, so I didn’t say anything.
“This is really sweet,” I said, and we ate our sandwiches. As we ate, we spoke about the other victims that came into the hospital, thanks to the mystery drug.
“I don’t suppose you know any more about it?” I asked. I doubted his answer would be yes, though. He’d been out of town and things had been pretty busy all round. When he shook his head, I still felt disappointed.
“I’m going to get to the bottom of this,” he said.
I nodded. The fact that we were losing lives because of this thing was killing me, but there was nothing more we could do than we were doing. The police were on it, the staff was prepared, and Daniel said his boys were keeping a look out. There was really nothing more that could be done.
“It looks like it’s administered with an injection every time. There doesn’t seem to be any other way to get it into the system, so that eliminates things like powder and pills, at least.”
Daniel nodded, but he didn’t look convinced. I wanted to ask what things they were looking for out on the streets, but I was scared. I thought about Taylor and his visit, and how he’d said that their lives weren’t the kind they wanted me involved in.
“It’s good to see you again,” I said after we ate for a moment in silence. “It was weird with you out of town.”
Daniel nodded and then rolled his eyes, swallowing his bite. “It was a pain in the ass. I don’t like having to leave town for work, but sometimes we have runners.”
“The bounty hunting?”
He nodded and took another bite. I hesitated. It sounded dangerous.
“I had backup,” he said, as if he knew what I was thinking. I flashed him a half smile, but it wasn’t genuine, and he picked up on it.
“What’s wrong?”
I shrugged. Was I going to tell him about Taylor? Was I going to tell him about my fears and reservations when it came to this relationship? I didn’t know where we stood. I knew that I liked him. I knew that I liked spending time with him. What I didn’t know was how far this was going to go. I didn’t know how far he wanted to go. I didn’t know how far I wanted to go. There were so many questions that it made everything feel weighted, sitting with him.
Finally, I shook my head and forced a smile. “It’s nothing,” I said.
He nodded, maybe not believing me, but not prying. Nice of him.
“Do you have any idea at all what you want to do on this land?” I asked, changing the topic.
Daniel shrugged and dusted crumbs off his suit.
“I don’t know. I feel like giving up the club is wrong. My dad used to do it.”
The way he spoke about it made me think that there was a story behind it.
“Where’s your dad now?”
His face hardened into a look I imagined he used on the criminals he chased.
“I don’t know,” he said. “And I don’t really care.”
It seemed strange that he was so hostile about his father but holding on so tightly to his legacy. I didn’t ask. I didn’t push it. Instead, I changed the topic again.
“This is really nice,” I said, looking out over the dark fields around us. “I can see the appeal. It’s so quiet and peaceful. And alone.”
I looked at him when I said that and shifted a little closer. I wanted him to pay attention to me—and not whatever was going on in his head. I shifted right up against him so that my face was just inches from his. He looked surprised for a second, but then he smiled.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN Daniel
Emily really knew how to turn me on. Sometimes I didn’t even think she was doing it on purpose. There was just something about the way she moved and the way she watched me and the way she listened when I spoke that made me want to claim her over and over again.
When she shifted over to me, it was obvious that she wanted to change the topic, and I was grateful for it. There were so many questions about my parents that were left unanswered. I hated talking about it. How was I supposed to answer questions I didn’t even know the answer to? It reminded me of how lost I felt when they’d left, a young man with the sudden responsibility of a teenager on his hands. It reminded me of the pain and the rejection and the torture my dad had put us through—not just me, because I’d felt every inch of Taylor’s pain as well.
Emily was a healer. It was in her blood to sacrifice herself so that others may live, and it made me feel like it was that compassionate part of her that understood how I felt, even though she knew literally nothing about me. And that made her all the more special, and all the more of a turn on. There was nothing hotter than a woman who didn’t think of herself all the time.
I leaned forward, taking her chin between my thumb and forefinger and kissed her. Her lips tasted lightly salty from the deli food and the champagne. Her perfume lingered in my nostrils, a sweet, floral smell that made my head spin, and when she kissed me back, she smiled like it was something she liked doing.
I liked it, too.
I put my hand behind her back and pulled her closer to me, pushing my chest against her breasts. The dress she was wearing was a knockout. It had t
aken my breath away the moment I’d seen her in it, and I was willing to bet she was just as spectacular without it.
I knew she was, I’d seen her naked before; it was just the whole picture that had me reeling tonight.
My body responded to her closeness, her taste, her smell, and where my thoughts were headed. I strained against my pants, and I felt trapped inside the damn suit. It wasn’t nearly as comfortable as my leathers, but I was willing to bet I could get out of it just as fast.
DADDY AT THE ALTAR: Iron Claws MC Page 60
