by Addison Jane
But the way he looked at me when he saw my blood smeared across his fingers… that was new.
That was different.
In that moment, I think I felt things shift.
And not like a subtle shift.
More like an earthquake, and before I could realize it, the ground was about to be whipped out from underneath my feet.
DAKOTA
Ham refused to let me go home to my apartment last night. He blabbed on about something to do with my head, and wanting to make sure I was checked on through the night, but I knew it was because they were scared about what Caleb might do now that he’d decided to show some of his cards.
I found it strange, and I guess a little hard to comprehend.
I thought I knew what the law was.
Of course, I wasn’t naïve to think that there weren’t some police officers out there who rode the line between right and wrong, but I’d never had to deal with them face to face before. I’d never had to stare one in the eye and pretend I didn’t see the devil smiling back at me.
It was a strange feeling to be threatened and hurt by a figure you’d been taught, ever since you were little, to trust and to honor.
Even just speaking normally, his words dripped with arrogance and privilege. He may be an officer of the law, but I bet he never struggled a day in his life. I bet he never knew what it was like for those people who had nothing, and I bet he never thought once about how he could help them.
He wasn’t a real policeman.
Not like my daddy.
My dad loved his job. It was scary, it was dangerous, and sometimes it was downright traumatic. I didn’t want to even think about the things he’d seen. There were nights when he’d come home but wouldn’t be his regular self. Those nights my mom would usher us to our bedrooms and let us watch television in there because Dad had this blank stare on his face, and he would just sit down at the kitchen counter with a glass and some moonshine.
Yet, he embraced it every day with excitement and love for the fact that he had the opportunity to help people who couldn’t help themselves. He was always so calm, so understanding, and if he saw something inside you, he fought for you like you were one of his own. There was no problem out there that he felt better than. He took every job that came across the radio, and he did it with dignity, with enthusiasm, and with conviction.
Until that final call.
It’d been a little over six years since I’d seen him—since he’d been killed.
He got caught in a shootout without any backup.
I was a daddy’s girl. He was my everything. He taught me all his bad jokes. He’d taught me how to be strong and not let the things people say get you down.
He was the reason I was who I am today.
He was the reason I was alive.
He was what a police officer should be.
Caleb Corrigan was a fucking embarrassment to the name.
And he was coming after the people who I cared about? No way.
I looked over at the clock beside the bed. It was a little after 2:00 a.m., and I still hadn’t been hit by the sleep bug yet. It usually didn’t come until around 3:00 a.m. which was why we were often late for classes because I would always sleep in, and Meyah would always be banging on the door trying to get me up.
Honestly, it was kind of just a thing we did now.
She tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for me to jump around pulling on shoes and trying to brush my teeth at the same time.
We made it work.
Kind of.
Groaning, I threw the blankets back and shuffled off the edge of the bed choosing only to throw on a long black hoodie that Ham had loaned me earlier when I was cold. It came to just below my ass and left my boy shorts poking out the bottom.
Honestly, I wasn’t even sure what I was looking for, but I just needed to get out and walk around. My head was feeling better, but some movements still made it hurt. Currently, it was thumping gently in the background as I made my way downstairs. Usually, you could guarantee that unless there was some kind of raging party going on, most of the men were in bed by now.
I didn’t spend a lot of time at the clubhouse, but while I was there, I noticed that I felt safe. I felt almost untouchable.
There was one point where I would have told you that was because Ham had threatened all the boys there with their lives if they even looked me up and down, but the more time I spent there, the more I realized that it came down to respect.
These guys believed in four things above all else…
Family.
Brotherhood.
Loyalty.
Respect.
I’d shown them nothing but acceptance and respect for the club, so they returned the gesture.
As I tiptoed down the staircase, I froze as my foot hit the hardwood floor at the bottom. There was one single light on right beside the door, which I then noticed was cracked open slightly.
The smell of smoke wafting in through the open doorway caught my attention, and I frowned. It was cigarette smoke, and as far as I knew, none of the brothers here smoked.
But I knew one who did.
The one who I wasn’t sure I wanted to face right now.
I’d been a bitch earlier.
In the moment that Ripley showed up, I was angry, I was confused, and I was defensive. That coupled with the fact I’d never seen him act that way before, certainly not toward me, where he was ready to slaughter someone instantly, my head couldn’t keep up with it.
I just knew I was upset, and that I hated him having to see me that way.
It’d been a long time since I’d let anyone see me broken. It was why I put up such a hard shell. It was why I was always quick to throw some kind of bitchy retort or something that would have them think twice about coming near me. I wanted people to see the bright, funny, sarcastic, and sassy woman that I put out front, not the little girl I tried to shelter and protect inside.
I owed Ripley an apology at least.
He’d rode in on his motorcycle like a knight, ready to leap out and save me from evil, and I’d basically told him to take a flying leap off a cliff.
Fucking classy.
I moved toward the open door pressing my hand against it and pushing it a little wider as I stepped outside.
It took a moment for my eyes to adjust, but I soon made out his figure leaning back against the building, his eyes closed, and his smoke dangling from his fingertips, the tip glowing brightly in the darkness. It only took me a moment to realize he had no shirt on, his entire upper body naked while his jeans hung low on his slim hips, sitting so precariously that I wondered how they were even staying up.
It wasn’t the first time I’d seen him on the less-clothed side, but honestly, I wasn’t sure there’d ever been a time where I’d seen him this… at peace. It was like a different Ripley, a less intense version that seemed to warm me a little.
The night air was warm against my almost completely naked legs, but it didn’t stop me from shuddering as I stepped out into the shadows and finally managed to form a word. “Hey,” I murmured quietly. Rip didn’t even flinch, but why would he, I’d been standing there staring at him for the better part of a minute or so. Of course, he knew I was there.
His eyes slowly flickered open, and he lowered his chin before turning just slightly toward me. “How’s the head?”
I nodded. I don’t know why because the sharp movement hurt like hell, instantly causing me to stop and cringe, my entire face screwing up like I’d just bitten into an ice cream and got brain freeze.
When I finally focused my eyes again, I noticed Ripley had turned his whole body toward me, and his muscles were clenched like he was preparing for a fight.
“Sorry,” I groaned softly. “It’s just a headache.”
He took a long hit on his smoke, his eyes burning straight through me at the same time. “You need to go back to sleep, get some rest,” he ordered, instantly making me want to snap back.
The corner of his mouth twitched. “Oh, wise one?”
“Sorry, do you prefer, master of knowledge? Maybe king of thinking, he knows it all?”
He chuckled quietly, clearly delighted in how he could so easily annoy me. Then another pull on his cigarette which I couldn’t help but admit that I found kind of fucking sexy in a weird, it gives you cancer but makes him look like a bad boy I’d love to take a ride with, kind of way.
“You haven’t been to sleep?” he asked, little puffs of smoking shooting from his mouth with each word. It kind of looked like a party trick, and I couldn’t help but laugh quietly to myself. Well, not entirely to myself. Ripley looked at me as if I’d lost my mind but continued to wait until I answered.
I let out a long sigh. Sometimes it was hard to explain to people that I didn’t sleep. Sometimes they were just fascinated, other times they tried to offer every fucking remedy that they’d seen on Pinterest to help with sleep—and I’d tried every single one. “I don’t sleep a lot. It’s a long story,” I replied as a cool breeze swept over us. Ripley didn’t move a muscle, but a full body shudder ran through me, moving from my toes all the way up my body. “Jesus,” I cursed, pulling down the sleeves of my hoodie over my hands before tugging at the bottom hem, which turned out was a waste of time since I knew it wasn’t going to fall any lower.
“You need to go back inside,” Ripley growled, startling me for a second with the deep rumble of his voice. He flicked his half-smoked cigarette out onto the gravel parking area of the clubhouse, not even bothering to walk over and put it out with his boot.
His hand dug into the pocket of his jeans, pulling them down far enough so I could see a little sprinkle of dark hair just above his Calvin Klein’s. I pulled my lip between my teeth, cursing myself in my mind for being so turned on in that moment.
The only sound in the still air was the crinkle of the wrapper before he tossed the gum in his mouth and shoved the rest back in his pocket.
I frowned, finally managing to get my brain to work again. “Why do you always have to be throwing orders around? Would it ever hurt you just to ask me nicely?”
I saw the way his jaw clenched tightly before he spoke. Ripley didn’t feel like he owed shit to anyone. There were very few people that I’d ever seen who were able to tell him to do something, or call him out when he was being an asshole. Huntsman, Drake, Meyah and occasionally Ham too, but Ham liked to keep out of that kind of thing.
When he finally spoke, I was surprised. “Don’t you think you should go inside?”
A smile grew on my lips as I realized how much effort that had taken him, how hard it was for him not to be an asshole and just make demands. So, I just knew how much it would annoy him for me to argue back.
“N—”
He didn’t even give me time to finish the word ‘no.’
I screamed loudly as he stepped forward and dipped his shoulder down into my ribcage before hoisting me up over his shoulder. My mouth hung open, my brain still a little dopey as it tried to figure out what the hell was going on.
He carried me in through the door, leaving it wide open behind us.
“Rip, put me down!”
There were a couple of heavy footsteps descending urgently on the staircase, but I couldn’t see who it was until they spoke.
“Everything okay?” Ham asked, not even trying to hide the amused tone in his voice.
Oh, fantastic.
Not only was I laid over Meyah’s brother’s shoulder, her boyfriend was also looking at my ass which was currently hanging out of the hoodie he’d loaned me and on show for the world to see. “No everything is not oka—”
Slap!
There was a sharp sting on my left ass cheek, and I gasped loudly.
“Everything’s fine. Fucking dandy. Right, Dakota?” Ripley responded in a gruff tone which was followed by Ham’s deep chuckle before his footsteps disappeared back up the staircase.
Traitor.
I slammed my fists down on Rip’s back—his perfectly tanned, toned, and muscular back.
Fucking Christ.
“Put me down, Ripley,” I snapped, needing to get the hell out of there and out of this situation before things escalated. Because if they did, there was a chance I might not stop them. How did I know that? Because I was already wet as hell, and with Rip’s hand laid across the back of my thighs to keep me from falling face first into the floor, I could feel his fingers creeping ever so damn close to my panty line.
“Down?” he finally asked.
“Yes, down,” I hissed, trying not to wake up the entire clubhouse. The last thing I needed was for all the boys, and whoever else was here, to walk in on my ass up in the air and an obvious wet spot on my passion pink underwear.
My body began moving in the other direction, but just as I was preparing for my feet to hit the ground, my half-naked ass landed on the polished—and fucking cold—bartop. I narrowed my eyes on Rip and slammed my palms against his chest which barely even caused him to sway, annoying me even more. “What the hell?”
“You said down.” He smirked, placing his hands on the bar on either side of my legs.
“You’re an asshole, you know?”
“Really?”
“Yes, really.”
Good come back, Dakota.
“Maybe you should have told that to your pussy which seems right now is in slight disagreement with you.” His hand drew up and over my thigh, his fingers tickling at my skin. I was already mortified, I couldn’t even think of a comeback. I couldn’t form any kind of word to argue, or to protest, or to try and fight the fact he was completely right. My cheeks just flushed what I imagined looked like some kind of clown-nose red, and my mouth hung open in shock as his hands gently gripped my thighs and pried them apart.
Jesus Christ.
His thumb rubbed directly over my panties connecting with my swollen clit. I gasped, my hand reaching down and wrapping around his wrist as I fought to find my composure again.
He knew he had the upper hand, he knew what he was doing to me.
He was driving me fucking crazy, and it was working perfectly.
“I can’t wait to see you come,” he growled. “Watch that fierce lioness that always seems to come at me, suddenly turn into a little kitten as I drive you crazy.” I reached out, ready to slap the arrogant bastard, but he’s too quick. He grabbed my wrist and twisted it up behind my back, pressing our bodies closer while his thumb flicked back and forth across my swollen and sensitive clit.
My breathing was heavy, and I was struggling to keep any kind of dignity and not plead with him to please just let me come as he held me on the brink. “Dammit, Ripley,” I hissed, rolling my hips and letting out a soft moan as I felt the edge of the cliff. It was right there, I could almost reach out and touch it.
He leaned in, his teeth pulling at the sensitive skin under my ear as he chuckled lightly. “Come, Dakota,” he taunted. “Just let it go. Come for me.”
I did.
I came so fucking hard that my back bowed, and I just about ended up falling off the other side of the bar.
Rip caught me with his arm around my waist and his forehead pressed between my breasts as I struggled to breathe through the tremors that shook my entire body. One after another, even after he’d pulled his hand away, it was the smell of him, the way his body continued to touch mine, the way he held me so close and tenderly as he witnessed me come apart.
There was no cocky remark, no smug smirk.
His eyes looked up at me. They were dark and cloudy. I couldn’t read them or tell what he was thinking.
The air around us was different.
It wasn’t full of tension.
It felt calm.
It felt good.
“What was that?” I dared to whisper as we stared at each other. My heart was still slamming against my chest, bu
t I didn’t care. I was confused. I wanted answers. I needed to know. He went to pull away, but I reached forward hooking my hand around his neck. “Rip—”
“If you don’t let me go right now, Dakota, I’m gonna carry you up to my room and fuck you all night,” he responded instantly, his hands gripping my waist like it was a lifeline. His words sparked a new light inside me. Maybe it was the fact I was still feeling the effects of my orgasm. Or that I was still in that state where the idea of more just sounded so fucking amazing, so screw everything else.
Maybe that was it.
Or maybe it was the fact that the way Ripley was looking at me was so new, so different, and it was a look that made me feel… good.
And that made me want more.
So fucking much more.
“I haven’t let go yet,” I teased. His hands tightened again, and he lifted me off the bar, folding my legs around his waist. His hands moved to my ass cheeks, squeezing them tightly and pressing himself against my pussy.
My mouth fell open, and I took in a sharp breath as I wrapped my arms around his neck. His mouth was just a breath away from mine, his eyes practically daring me. “You better be damn sure about what you want right now. This is your only warning.”
I didn’t stop to think.
I knew what I wanted.
“Sounds like you’re looking for an excuse,” I teased, licking my lips.
He wasn’t.
DAKOTA
I clung tightly to Rip as he carried me effortlessly up the staircase. He kicked open the door to his bedroom before slamming it closed behind me.
The room was pretty bare. It was lucky the Brothers by Blood were still a reasonably small chapter here and had plenty of spare bedrooms.
This was one that Rip seemed to have claimed permanently though, since he was here visiting every couple of months doing business with the club and spending time with Meyah.
I didn’t see him very often when he was around, and I knew this was part of the reason why.
