“You are the chief editor for one of the biggest publishing companies on the West Coast,” Chloe said.
“And I go home every night to an empty one-bedroom apartment because I don’t need any more room than that. I want a reason to have more room in my life,” I said.
“Then get a dog if you’re that lonely,” Nova said.
“Thanks for the support,” I said with a murmur.
Even though the girls were protesting, I threw back the rest of my drink and slid from the chair. I cleared my throat and smoothed my clothes out, making sure my pencil skirt was straightened and falling over my curves perfectly. If this was Landon, I wanted to blow his brains out with how good I looked. And if this was a stranger, then I wanted to make myself as appealing to him as I could.
I was tired of spending my nights alone.
Either way, I would have that beautiful man at the bar.
Even if was only temporary.
Chapter Two
Maddox
The scotch burned my throat as I took another heavy swallow. Fuck. I was tired of fighting with my dad. I was tired of him thinking I would take over the Ghost Riders MC, a motorcycle club that my grandfather had started. I was tired of him thinking he could dictate the kind of life I lead. Just because I was the only fucking son in the family didn’t mean I wanted to take after him. It didn’t mean I wanted to take over the empire he built. It didn’t mean I wanted to turn out exactly like him.
But apparently, he thought differently.
“This is your destiny. I trained you for this.”
“Then maybe you should’ve asked me before you started putting all this damn energy into turning me into someone I’m not,” I said.
“You’re a disrespectful asshole, but you’re good at what you do. I’m not letting you walk away from your natural talents.”
“Natural talents? You taught me to fight with knives by the time I was nine fucking years old. That’s not natural talent. That’s forced suppression,” I said.
The argument had lasted for well over an hour and drove my mother to tears. I hated when she cried, but she did it a lot. It was one of the cornerstones of my childhood. My dad dictating every fucking thing we did, my dad holding club meetings in his office behind closed doors, and my mother crying every time we fought.
And the holidays were a fucking hoot.
I took another long pull from my drink as I leaned heavily onto the bar. My body felt like it was carrying the weight of the world. I was shoulder deep in quicksand and I felt like my dad was continuously pushing me down into it. I was trying to claw my way back to the surface just to feel the sun on my face, then my fucking dad would stand in the way. Looming over me and getting me to do his fucking dirty work for the Ghost Riders MC.
I was tired of being his bitch.
I knew I had freedom. If I left Seattle for good, I could get away from it all. I could pack up, throw my shit into my car, and drive until my gas tank ran out. I couldn’t take over the club if I wasn’t there to sit on the throne. He wouldn’t be able to ask me to do the club’s dirty work if I changed my cell number and set up shop in a different state, where we had no charter chapters.
I could get away from him if I put enough effort into it.
My phone vibrated on my hip and I groaned. I knew exactly who was calling me. I threw back the rest of my drink before I signaled for the bartender, making sure he knew I wanted another. I would need it after the second leg of this argument with my dad.
I didn’t get my phone to my ear before he unleashed.
“Where the hell are you?”
“What’s it to you?” I asked.
“Don’t you talk like that to me, boy. We’ve got work to do. You blasted out of the house like you owned the place,” he said.
“Had shit to do,” I said.
“Well, you’ve got shit to do here, too. Get your ass back home. And chew some damn gum so you don’t smell like booze. I’m tired of you making your mother cry.”
“Ever thought that maybe you trigger that?” I asked.
“Now you listen here, you ungrateful shit. I built all of this for you. For you and your mother, so you could live a comfortable life. When I have to step down from this position as president of the club, it’ll be your turn to take things over so you can repay the favor. Keep working so I can live a comfortable life and you can take care of your mother and me.”
“Maybe someone else from the club wants to take everything over. Ever think of that?” I asked.
“I will no longer allow you to talk to me the way you are. You get your ass back home or I will make sure you have nothing. No money. No family. All of it. I’ll toss you out on your ass just to show you the life you’ll lead without me. I made you, boy. And I can unmake you if needed.”
“You tell that to all your so-called brothers in the club?” I asked.
“Get home. Your mother’s worried sick and we have a club to run.”
“Mom was asleep when I left because you were yelling too loudly for her to tolerate it. I’ll be home when I get home.”
I hung up before my dad could get a word in edgewise.
The bartender slid me another glass full of that wonderful liquid as I leaned back into the barstool. My dad was right. Even though it made me sick to admit it, he was. He made me. I was initiated into the club after high school, and I never had a chance to go to college. The club was the only thing that I have ever known. I knew that he had insane amounts of money set aside so my mother and I would never have to struggle again in our lives in case something happened with the club. He had broken his neck and sacrificed his precious time with Mom so he could give us all this.
I owed it to him to go home, even though it was a disgusting reality to admit.
“That looks good. What is it?”
I lowered my glass to my lap as I panned my head over to the lilting voice beside me. The woman it was attached to was striking. Her rich brown hair was pulled into a low-lying bun at the nape of her neck as loose curls fluttered around her high cheekbones. Her skin was milky white with freckles that peppered the bridge of her nose and underneath her eyes. She had these light green eyes with multiple specks of yellow that reflected the heat of the sun underneath the fluorescent lights of the bar we were in.
And her curves.
Holy shit, the pencil skirt that clung to her body left me with a fucking cotton mouth.
“Scotch,” I said.
“My father was a scotch man,” the woman said. “But straight up liquor’s never really been my thing.”
“What is your thing?” I asked, bringing my drink back to my lips.
It concealed my grin when the woman climbed into the barstool and sat next to me.
“Depends,” she said. “On a good day, a glass of wine.”
“A decent enough drink,” I said.
“On a rough day? A Long Island Iced Tea.”
“You know that’s mostly liquor, right?” I asked.
“It’s got a splash of soda in it,” she said with a grin.
It lit up her eyes, bringing a mischievous glint to her face. I couldn’t take my eyes off her, and the thought of returning to my dad quickly fell to the back of my mind. There was no way I was trading this playful minx with a night at my dad’s house. If it pissed him off, so be it. Spending time with a woman who was ballsy enough to approach me sounded like a much better way to spend my time.
And my cock thought so, too.
“What if you’ve had an awful, terrible, no good day?” I asked. “Got a drink for that?”
“A dry martini with as many olives as you can stuff in there,” she said.
“Thought you didn’t enjoy straight up liquor.”
“I don’t. It tastes like shit. But the burn going down helps soothe away the pains of the day.”
“Little pain never hurt anyone,” I said.
“It’s good to see you again.”
I furrowed my brow as I raked my eyes down he
r body. Did I know this woman? Had we met before? I racked my brain, remembering all my one-night stands and all the women I had courted over the years. The groupies that would hang around the club.
But I couldn’t place her face.
If I had ever had a woman like the one before me in my bed, I would’ve remembered her.
“I’m sorry. I think you must be mistaken,” I said.
“Come on, Landon. Don’t play coy.”
“I’m not Landon. The name’s Maddox,” I said.
“Then I’m not Reagan. The name’s… Daisy,” she said with a grin.
“No, really. I’m not Landon.”
“And I’m not Reagan.”
I sighed, my eyes dancing between her fiery green ones. This woman was convinced I was who she thought I was. And hell, the man was lucky. There was an excitement in her eyes at the prospect that I could be this guy, and I wanted to know why. I wanted to know how this Landon guy had become so deserving of the woman sitting beside me at the bar.
“Say I was Landon,” I said as I drained the rest of my drink. “Why are you so excited to see me?”
Chapter Three
Reagan
It was so good sitting in front of him again. Looking him in his deep gray eyes and smiling into his face again. He looked good with dark hair, even though I had been a fan of the light blond hair. It had lended a boyish quality to his features, and this dark hair dye made him seem like a man. It darkened his eyes to a devilish stare that shivered me down to my toes. There was so much that had changed about him, and I wanted to know what he had been doing with his life since we’d last seen one another.
“I can get behind this game,” I said with a grin. “Though I’m shocked. You always hated playing games.”
“Maybe I was a stick in the mud. Doesn’t mean I always had to be one,” he said.
“So, why am I excited to see you? Let’s see. Because we had so much fun in college. Because we were young and bright-eyed and had nothing but time on our hands. Because you dropped off the face of the planet after breaking up with me and I always wondered what happened to you.”
“Sounds like a pretty prickish move on my part,” he said.
“It was. I was angry at you for years. Changing your number and moving without a trace. I tried to find you so I could convince you to come back. I think I was a little too wild during those days.”
“A little bit of wild never hurt anyone,” he said.
“It hurt us. But I couldn’t see that. You wanted to settle down and I wanted to keep partying. It cost me the greatest thing that ever happened to me,” I said honestly.
I looked into his eyes and saw all of the memories I loved. Holding hands while we ventured across campus and kissing in the rain. Sharing drinks over dinner right there on campus before we would go to our shared English courses and giggle in the back. We had been young and unchained to jobs. We had the world at our feet as we walked through the sands of time. I wish I had seen it sooner. I wish I had toned it down so I could keep walking that path with him. I missed his embrace. The way he smelled when I buried my face into the crook of his neck.
“What kind of drink should I buy you?” he asked.
“Huh?”
“Drink. You look like you could use one. What kind of drink would you like?” he asked.
I sighed, allowing myself to lean against the bar as I crossed my arms over my chest.
“A martini with as many olives as you can stuff in there,” I said.
Landon nodded before he held his hand up to signal for the bartender. Within minutes, I had a strong martini sitting in front of me. My memories had dragged down my mind, and I wanted to feel that burn ricochet down my throat. I removed the olive skewer from my drink and chugged it back, closing my eyes as they filled with tears. Sitting in front of Landon only served to prove to me how lonely I had been over the years.
And it hurt.
I swallowed deeply, allowing the tears to recede before I sighed. I put the glass back down onto the bar, feeling Landon’s eyes on me. I speared my first olive and put it between my lips as I opened my eyes, and when I did I saw him staring at my movements.
Watching my lips wrap around the decadent snack.
“Do you remember the time we laid out on the golf course and looked up at the stars?” I asked.
“Why don’t you treat me like I don’t,” he said.
“It was the first time we’d ever kissed. I took your hand while you were talking me through all the constellations we could see, then I rolled over on top of you and kissed you,” I said.
“You kissed me? Doesn’t sound like me,” he said.
“I did. I made all the first moves with us. And not once did you ever complain about it.”
“With those curves? I’d think not,” he said.
“You were a spindly little thing, too. How often did you have to work out at the gym in order to get those muscles you have now?”
“I go every day. On rougher days, it’s twice a day,” he said.
“You hated the gym in college,” I said as I shook my head. “I go and run for a while, then you’d insist on taking me out for food just to spite me.”
“Please tell me I at least paid. I always pay. No woman ever pays when she’s in my presence.”
“Eh, we went back and forth,” I said with a shrug. “We were poor college kids. Until my business took off.”
“Business?” he asked. “What business do you own?”
“We’re really going to keep playing this game?” I asked.
“Are you having fun?”
I was, so I nodded before I continued.
“Side Notes.”
“Never heard of it,” he said.
“It failed a few months after we graduated. Though it was a hit in school. It started out as an editing service, but quickly grew into a one-stop-shop for students wanting their last-minute term papers written that they forgot about,” I said.
“You made money off doing other people’s work for them.”
“Not in so many words, but yes,” I said with a grin. Why was he pretending that he didn’t know about the business? He was there with me when I started it.
“You did what had to be done. You found a need in the market and filled it.”
“Very different attitude from what you used to think. You hated the idea. You thought it lacked integrity.”
“There are many things I do in my life that lack integrity. I’ve got no place to judge.”
“You’re the most integrity-filled person I’ve ever known. You made me want to be better.”
“Not possible. You’re fine just as you are. Any man who wants to change that isn’t worth your time.”
“You were worth mine.”
“I’m always worth people’s time,” he said. “It’s time everyone else started thinking the same way.”
Wow. Landon had really grown to be a confident man. It was alluring, and I felt myself gravitating towards him more. I polished off the olives in my drink before I abandoned my glass, then reached for my purse. But it wasn’t hanging on the back of my seat, and I looked back to my table to see Nova dangling it from her finger.
“I told you, no woman pays in my presence,” he said.
I watched him take out his wallet before he pulled out a few twenties from his billfold. My eyes widened as I took in the glimmering cash in his wallet. Holy hell. Landon was loaded. What the fuck did he do for a living?
“You still editing?”
“Hmm?” I asked.
“You zone out a lot, don’t you?” he asked.
“Bad habit. You hated it, even in college,” I said.
“Not a bad trait. Just one that requires a great deal of trust.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“To zone out around someone, you have to trust they won’t take advantage of your vulnerable state. It’s interesting you would do that in the presence of a stranger.”
“You’re not a s
tranger, Landon. I knew you very well back in college.”
“I’m not Landon. I’m Maddox,” he said. “But even if I was this Landon character, people change. College was, what… six years ago for you?”
“Almost seven, yes,” I said. “And to answer your question, I do still edit. I work for a big publishing house as their Chief Editor.”
“Congratulations. That’s a very serious position,” he said.
“Thanks, Landon.”
He sighed and I watched him shake his head. Why were we playing this game? What was he trying to get at? Was his name really Maddox? Had he changed it for some reason? Had Landon gotten himself into some sort of trouble? Or was this truly not Landon?
Shit. Leave it to me to blow something like that.
“Okay, okay. Maddox. I’m sorry,” I said.
“He really must’ve hooked you.”
“Yes.”
“What happened?” he asked.
“Come on Landon. You know what happened....”
“Remind me again?”
“You dumped me on graduation day,” I said.
“I sound like an ass,” he said with a laugh.
“Eh, not important. So, what do you do for a living… Maddox?”
“I help out with my father’s business,” he said.
“What do you do there?”
“Anything my father asks. In return, I get paid a good sum of money to keep doing it.”
“What does your family deal in?” I asked.
“Not books,” he said with a grin.
“Cheeky. I like it. This new persona of yours is very attractive.”
“I’d say the same thing about you, but chances are you were attractive back in college, which means you haven’t changed a bit.”
I felt my cheeks flush at his words as I lowered my gaze into my lap.
“Listen, I don’t know who this Landon guy is, but he’s an idiot. If his reason for dumping you was because you were too wild, then he couldn’t handle a woman like you and had no place trying to do so. But I can.”
“Can what?” I asked.
“Handle a woman like you.”
“I’m nowhere near the type of girl I used to be in college,” I said.
Baby and the Biker: The Ghost Riders MC Page 2
