by Skye Jordan
Her smile flashed again, and her hand shifted in his to a far more intimate hold. A hold that made him realize he’d never put her hand down. “I’d like to see enough of you to say yes.”
A laugh he hadn’t known was coming rumbled in his throat. “I guess that would be a no.”
As kids, they’d spent many Sunday nights sitting across the table from each other at dinner while their fathers talked shop: his father building bridges, her father supplying the steel to construct those bridges. They’d been young, with her nose always stuck in a book, and sure those dinners became more and more infrequent as both companies grew, but still.
“I’m Isaac,” he told her, braced for her to connect the same dots he had.
“Isaac,” she repeated, her expression sultry. “That’s a nice name. Why don’t you sit? Tell me about yourself? I don’t know anything about bikes, but if you were my teacher, I’d be a very willing student.”
Isaac pulled his hand back. “You might want to be careful who you make that offer to around here. Just about every one of these guys will take you up on it.”
“What about you?” she asked.
“Not me.” He glanced around for Bix and found him at a table on the other side of the bar. “I’ve got business.” He slid his gaze over her one more time. Her curvy body had been poured into a little black skirt and a crimson off-the-shoulder blouse. The fabric molded to her breasts.
Man, she’d grown up nice. And every biker in this bar would want a piece of her.
“I’m serious,” he said. “Watch yourself here. You don’t belong, and they know it.”
3
Ava blew off the latest offer to hook up—this one from a fifty-something lizard-skinned man with faded tattoos and a basketball beer belly—and finished off her third vodka tonic.
Talk about a bust. Someone should have told her that very few biker dudes were hot biker dudes.
She let the glass snap against the bar and sighed. Katie had abandoned her for a charming ginger and was laughing up a storm with a group of bikers about twice her age. Just another sign Ava needed to let more of her inhibitions slide. But to what end? The only guy remotely interesting had turned her down cold.
His flat-out rejection had somehow taken the meager breeze from her confidence sails. All the determination she’d come with to fuck her cheating bastard of an ex-fiancé from her system had bottomed out.
Katie was wrong. It wasn’t time Ava got out and picked up some hot guy to make her forget. It only exposed her incompetence when it came to men, making her feel twice as bad about herself.
“Another?” the bartender asked.
“Please. A double.” What the hell? She and Katie could take an Uber back to Katie’s parents’ house in Greenwich if they had to. Ava would just have to dodge Katie’s mother in the morning. If her own mother heard she’d been in Connecticut and hadn’t stopped to visit, they’d have one more reason to keep her in the doghouse.
She let her gaze roam toward Mr. Tall, Built, and Irresistible where he sat in deep conversation with another guy. Maybe he was gay. Only she couldn’t imagine the other bikers here welcoming a gay man. And he sure as shit didn’t give her a gay vibe. But what the hell did she know? Matthew hadn’t given her a cheater vibe either, and look how that turned out.
Isaac had charisma. He had presence. He had a killer body, a scruffy jaw, and steamy, penetrating gray eyes. He was also rude, cold, and hadn’t looked at her once since he’d walked away.
Fucking figured.
The bartender served her drink. Ava laid a twenty on the bar and wandered toward Katie. When her friend looked over, Ava lifted her brows and tilted her head toward the door. The ginger had his arms around Katie and lowered his head to kiss her neck.
Ava rolled her eyes and changed course to the jukebox. Half a dozen innuendos peppered the air along with a whole lot of eye-fucking as she passed. But, nope, that wasn’t going to do it for her. She needed a real fuck. A wild fuck. The kind she read about in Cosmo or heard about in the locker room at the spa. The kind she felt she needed to bolster her self-esteem after she’d found her fiancé getting sucked off by not one but two subordinates under his desk.
Katie had assured Ava she’d find exactly the kind of man needed to set her straight at a rough biker bar. Evidently, this wasn’t Katie’s first time at Grind. But while her uninhibited friend was making time with the ginger, Ava was turning away the leathered, overweight, bald-headed, sagging biker dudes. After this drink, she was going home—Katie or no Katie.
She paused at the jukebox, where the thick beat of Lynryd Skynyrd blared from the speakers. Ava peered through the glass to see what other options were available, but the song list blurred in front of her tired and—okay, drunk—eyes. Three drinks had taken the edge off her nerves over coming here. They’d also numbed the residual pain that had been nagging at her for weeks and even given her enough courage to flirt with the hottest biker dude in the place.
Even though she shouldn’t, she sipped at the fourth drink because, well, she’d been here two hours—an hour and fifty-five minutes too long.
Ava set her glass on top of the jukebox, rocking her hips to Lynryd’s beat. Someone came up behind her and flattened his hand on the glass of the jukebox with enough of a snap to startle her. The combination of alcohol and disappointment fostered a what-the-fuck attitude.
“I’m sorry,” she said, her voice carrying annoyance. “Did you want to choose the songs? I’ll tell you what, I’ll pay, you pick.” She slid a dollar into the machine. “There, why don’t you—”
She stepped back to move away, but hit a wall of warm muscle and looked into turbulent gray eyes. Her pulse jumped.
“Well, we meet again.” She turned and leaned against the jukebox, holding his fiery gaze—and grinned.
“What’s so funny?”
“You. Trying to act all alpha and threatening when you know all I have to do is grab your balls to make you jump ten feet away.”
He didn’t think she was funny. Which only meant he hadn’t had enough to drink.
“If you’re not going to pick songs…” She shrugged and started to turn, but he shifted, his lower body connecting with hers, holding her in place.
“You and your friend don’t belong here.” His gaze burned into hers, so clear, so sharp. “I’ve given you an hour to get out. The drunker these guys get, the higher your chance of getting caught in a situation you don’t want.”
“How would you know what I want? Can you read minds?” She lifted her brows. “Go ahead, try it.” And she held his gaze thinking: You want me. You want me. You want me.
“You’re here to get fucked,” he said.
“Hey, you’re good at this. But since you’re not interested in doing the fucking, why don’t you go back to your business, and I’ll go back to mine?”
“Why are you here?”
“Didn’t we just cover this?”
“The real reason. You could get fucked in any bar. Why come here?”
“That’s the sweetest thing anyone’s said to me all night.”
He gripped her arm hard—his first physical contact. She liked the force of it, the intensity of it. She wanted to be handled tonight. Wanted someone alpha and confident to take the reins and give her an escape from the shame, the loneliness, the self-loathing. “What did you think you’d get here tonight?”
His hand burned into her skin. All the nerve endings between her legs tingled to life. “Escape. I expected you to understand the concept. Isn’t that what your group rides are all about? Freedom? Escape?”
“This is a different world.”
“That’s what I was hoping for. I was also hoping I’d find someone like you to show me a little more of this world.”
“You’ve had plenty of offers.”
“Yet none from you.”
“If you keep turning everyone down,” his voice shifted into a sultry, menacing tone, “they’re going to get pissed that you came to tease t
hem all with such a tasty piece of meat only to yank it out of reach when they get close enough to smell it.”
Her pulse surged. She could feel every thick beat of the blood in her veins. “I think there was another compliment in there somewhere.” She shifted, sliding one thigh between his while holding his gaze. His lids lowered, his nostrils flared, his gaze fell to her mouth. She purposely licked her lips and murmured, “Do you smell it, Isaac?”
He didn’t move. Didn’t speak. He was intensely still. Finally, his gaze made its way to hers. “How much have you had to drink?”
“Four. You?”
“One.”
And he went back to the silent staring. Silent, intense staring that captivated her, annoyed her, and turned her on.
“What aren’t you getting at home that forced you out of that pretty ivory tower?”
His words stung like a whip. A caustic laugh bubbled up. “Fuck you.”
She sidestepped and jerked from his hold, but he shifted, trapping her there. He released her arm, only to rest his hand at her waist. His heat burned through her clothes and tingled over her skin.
“You looking to get a little dirt under your fingernails?” he asked, his voice a dark rumble. “’Cause if I fuck you, you will get dirty.”
Her breath caught in her throat.
“Is that what you want, Princess Ava? A dirty, hard-core fuck? Did you come down to the hood to get what your white-collar boyfriend can’t give you?”
The rough language shocked her. Heat flashed through every inch of her body. Along with anger. “I don’t have a white-collar boyfriend. And this dirty talk is fun and all, but I’m looking for more bite, less bark.”
“Bullshit. Women like you always have boyfriends.”
On top of brushing her off earlier and killing her hope, now he was pissing her off. “I don’t care whether you believe me or not, and I’m not going to stand here while you call me a liar.”
She pushed past him, but he hip-checked her against the jukebox again. Ava’s ass hit the machine a millisecond before his hips hit hers. She couldn’t tell if her quick breaths and tingling body came from fear or excitement.
“I’m going to say good-bye to my friends,” he told her, his voice low, slow, and deliberate, “and walk out to my bike. I won’t wait more than five minutes. But before you follow, let me tell you exactly what you’ll get if you do.”
Her heart pounded hard in her ears. At this point, she wanted everything he’d give. She was already so out of her comfort zone, she might as well go all the way. How often would this moment come again?
“I’m listening,” she told him.
“I will push your every limit. I’ll fuck you in ways you never dared. Next week, you’ll still see shadows of the bruises and bite marks I leave on you tonight.”
Her mouth dried up.
“I’ll take you places you’ve never even dreamed of going. I’ll fuck you in ways you’ve never dreamed, and you’ll love every minute. I’ll make you whimper, scream, and beg.”
His words quickened her heart. Her sex felt full and hot and wet. She pulled in a stuttering breath and licked her lips, trying to play it cool. “Someone has a high opinion of himself.”
“And there will be none of that. No mouthy backtalk. No attitude. No bullshit. Just raw fucking. The only thing you’ll be using your mouth for is to scream in pleasure or suck my cock. On your knees. In the dirt.”
Her insides trembled. The picture he painted was terrifying and thrilling at the same time. She’d always believed that fear was a precursor to greatness, the subconscious recognizing what the conscious mind denied. And everything in her gut screamed Yes!
“You’ll never feel so used or so satisfied, and I’ll leave you begging for more.”
He took a step away, creating a buzz of panic in her gut.
“Five minutes,” he said. “Not a second more.”
4
Isaac swung his leg over his bike and pressed the ignition. The engine purred like a contented kitten. He’d like to work on Ava and get her feeling the same way, but he wasn’t holding his breath. Hopefully he’d scared her off from this bar and her stupid idea of hooking up with a biker.
This was not the place a woman came for a fuck on the wild side. Isaac may be horny enough to grab low-lying fruit, but not with a woman like her. A rich, spoiled bitch who expected men to drop at her feet. He also didn’t want her thinking she could come back here again for a quick, easy fuck. She’d get way more than a quick fuck from the other guys in that bar. And there wouldn’t be anything easy about it.
He glanced at his watch. Three minutes.
Isaac lifted his helmet over his head. He kicked the stand free, revved the gas, and turned the bike toward the exit.
His headlamp washed over Ava coming toward him. His stomach jumped. His body surged with excitement, anticipation, hunger.
She strapped her purse across her body and came to a stop beside him.
He let the bike idle and leaned back, pulling off his helmet.
They stared at each other for a long, hot minute. She was really stunning. Fresh and young and refined. Her mind and her tongue were quick. Her will strong. She reminded Isaac of the women he used to date—lawyers and doctors and corporate women. The kind of women who bored Isaac to death. Until now. Until he thought of dominating her.
“I-I told my friend we were going for a ride,” she told him.
The double meaning made him smile. Her safety measures—as minimal as they were—also gave him a sliver of relief. At least she hadn’t just disappeared with a stranger without telling anyone.
“Have you ridden?” he asked.
“No.”
“Come here.”
She took two more steps toward him.
“Count backward from one hundred,” he told her.
“Wh—”
“No questions. Just do it.”
She licked her lips. “One hundred, ninety-nine, ninety-eight, ninety-seven—”
“Done.” He slid the helmet over her head, then fastened the strap.
“Why’d you want me to do that?” Her question came muffled behind the helmet.
“To see how drunk you are.” He tested the security of the helmet. “Climb on.”
Ava hiked her skirt, giving him a glimpse of smooth thighs, then grabbed his biceps to pull herself onto the bike behind him. She found the footrests and intimately pressed the front of her body to the back of his. She was warm and soft, with lots of curves.
By the end of their short drive, one of two things would have happened. The rumble of the bike between her thighs would have her hot and wet and ready to fuck. Or the night air would have awakened her common sense, and she’d want to return to her friend at the bar.
He spent the short drive making plans for both scenarios. He’d start dirty. If she could handle that, he’d get rough. If she wasn’t begging to go back to the bar, he’d give her the ride of her sheltered life.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
He huffed a laugh but didn’t answer. Now she thought to ask?
Eight minutes later, he slowed, steered off-road, and coasted along a gravel path, through thick brush and low branches until the lake came into view. The water was black with a cone of moonlight rippling on the quiet surface.
He parked the bike beside a picnic table someone had built from the surrounding trees, shut down the engine, and twisted toward her. He unbuckled the helmet, drew it from her head, and settled it on his handlebars.
Ava brushed her hair out of her eyes and gazed at the water. “What lake is this? I didn’t know it was here.”
“You slum these backwoods often, do you? Hop off, babe.”
She balanced her hands on his shoulders and swung her leg over the back of the bike. Isaac followed. He strolled to the lake’s edge, and looked out over the dark water for a moment. Crickets and cicadas broke the silence. A breeze blew through the treetops. Isaac turned and found her several feet behi
nd him, her features highlighted by the cool white hue of scattered moonlight. “Take off your top.”
She remained still and silent.
“I’m not asking twice.”
He was thinking this might end sooner than even he’d expected, until she exhaled, lowered her hands to the edges of her blouse, and lifted it over her head.
Her waist was small, her breasts full. Hunger swelled in the back of his throat.
When she laid her blouse on the table, he just stared, knowing it unnerved her. “Now your skirt.”
She thought about it a long moment, then obeyed. Sliding the zipper at her hip, she shimmied the fabric over her hips and let it fall to her feet. Now she stood in the moonlight in nothing but bra, panties, and black thigh-high suede boots, their rhinestones winking in the night.
Long legs, nice tits, curvy hips. “Wow.”
He wandered toward her and stopped two inches away, where he towered over her until she had to tilt her head back to hold his gaze. He laid his hands on her shoulders and dropped into a slow crouch, running his hands over her arms, her waist, her hips. She trembled, just a barely there shiver that thrilled the hell out of him.
“Step out,” he told her. When she did, he laid her skirt on top of her blouse and met her gaze again. He stroked one hand down the length of her hair. “You’re a good girl, aren’t you?” He cradled her chin while he stroked her lips with his thumb. “Too good for me. Way too good for those bastards at the bar.”
She lifted her hands to his torso and clutched the fabric of his T-shirt, shooting tingles over his skin. On the next path of Isaac’s thumb, Ava parted her lips and took it inside. Isaac’s gut clenched. She held his gaze while she pumped his thumb slowly between her lips, sucking and licking. The sensations shot straight between his legs, and Isaac groaned in approval.
She covered his hand with hers. Without looking away, she used his index finger to slowly impale her mouth before she sucked. Then added his middle finger. The heat and suction teased his cock into stone.
“Mmm,” he groaned. “You’re good with that mouth.”
