by V. Theia
Her mind was blank.
Was that good news or bad she couldn’t recall what it was she was supposed to have stolen? Maybe a case of mistaken identity? She couldn’t be the only thief in town.
She worried at her lip.
He had nailed the window shut as he’d said, it didn’t even budge when she’d tried it.
Ay Dios mio. What else could go wrong?
He could kill me and feed me to the mountain cats… there was that…
Was Grinder a killer? She would have guessed not. But then she also would have said no to kidnapping two days ago.
She didn’t know him save for a few shared hot kisses.
It had been more than kisses.
Slumping down onto the lip of the bath tub Luxe realized she was shit out of options. Her poor Mimi was at home clueless to what was happening to her granddaughter, probably watching one of her telenovela’s oblivious Luxe was moments away from a possible gruesome end… or worse, a scowl-off with that big gorgeous bastard with his stupid gorgeous hair and stupid perfect beard.
Think, Luxe. Think. There was a way out of this.
She’d seduced him once… or so she’d thought, before the better part of her brain had stepped in and stopped that train and got her the hell out of there. But he’d wanted her, hadn’t he? Cogs turned in her brain.
Could she seduce herself out of here?
Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.
******
Tits so perfect, they both fit into his hands, her cries muffled by his mouth vibrated down to his dick. God fuck, he wanted this woman like no other before her. It was an instant punch of want, the lick of desire more potent than he’d felt before. Hell, she was a revelation. He could feel the hunger emanating from her skin, in the way her fingers clawed at his shoulders. Her eyes had been all over him, he'd felt it, hadn't he? Not giving a single fuck, they were in a packed bar, or that she'd been sitting with Jamie fucking Steele, the leader of a rival ----albeit friendly---- MC, he didn't care if they were married with a school of kids, he knew as he tasted her he would break them up to have her, he wanted this woman under him, grinding her little body until she passed out. "Let me have you. I need to fuck all this heat, Luxe."
Grinder blinked, he hadn’t meant to go down memory lane like that, it still stained to recount those images. It had taken him a whole goddamn year, but he’d finally tracked her down, hadn’t he? Sort of, since she strolled back into town without a care in the world of her own accord. Rolling his neck from side to side, Grinder eyed the bathroom door, his ears straining to the sounds from behind, the water had been running for minutes now, was she trying to drown herself in there? He’d made good and sure before he’d even hog-tied her ass back here that the window in the small motel bathroom was well and truly nailed shut giving her no chance to wriggle her skinny little body through it in her escape.
Not this time, she’d evaded him long enough.
Clearing away the debris of the food she hadn’t eaten earlier, he unpacked the fresh food, this time a vegetarian burrito and a salad with a pink lemonade. Reluctant to leave earlier, but since his brothers had no fucking clue what shit he’d landed himself in when he got the call for a church meeting he’d had to re-tie and leave Luxe for hours, and then he’d faced questioning from Preacher about why he was acting weird. Am I acting weird? he’d fired back with a grin as casual as he could muster.
Yeah, fucking weird alright. It wasn’t every day he snatched a woman to interrogate her. Nothing about this situation since he found out she was back in town had been normal, knowing she was near had sent him into a fucking tailspin he wasn’t recovered from, it made him do dumb shit
It's always the silent ones you gotta be cautious of.
Those soundless types that blend into the background, that become part of the furniture, you don't see them until it's much too late.
The kind that never speak up unless it's necessary and even then, it's too late.
Silent and deadly.
Cunning and deceiving.
Grinder was a quiet type of guy when he had to be. Secrets upon secrets when it was needed and he didn't breathe a word of them to anyone. Such layers of untruths.
No one would know.
No one would guess what was going on. Because he made sure of it. His tracks from the past year and tonight were covered. He’d be shit at his job if they weren’t.
The day after he'd seen her he'd put it all in place, working fast, he'd had to, what with so little time, but that didn't matter now it was done.
Did he feel remorse? No. Maybe. He didn’t know. Shit.
It didn’t go down as he’d wanted. Talk to her, get his shit back, that was meant to be it.
“Luxe.” He called out in warning.
She was stalling.
Prepared to break the door down if needed, he took a step forward right as it swung open and there she was.
The little shorts curved her hips, she’d taken off the denim jacket to reveal a thin cotton tank, she was braless he noticed right away.
Fucks sake, stop staring.
His dick had a mind of its own when he streaked eyes all over her, admiring with that single memory of her that still sometimes plagued his sleeping hours.
Look at her lying lips. They were so fucking pretty, plump and pink and it was all too easy to imagine them wrapped around his thick cock until she choked on it.
He could still hear her first lie. I could do with some company. She’d told him.
And then her second lie came thick and fast off the back of the first, in her smoke brushed voice through those lying fucking lips he’d been mesmerized with. I want you.
Liar, liar, pants on fire. Or… his gaze skimmed down her bare legs, shorts on fire.
Hell, the washed-out denim was skin tight, molded to her thighs and what she had between them.
Grinder felt a hunger crowd his chest.
“You’re not tying me up again, don’t even think of it. You obviously wanted my attention, you went to the extreme, well here it is, you have the floor to say what you want to and then get the fuck out.”
Don’t touch her. Don’t.
He shouldn’t want to reach out and brush the hair back from her flushed face, to see her eyes up close again knowing how dark her irises were, he shouldn’t have any desire in him other than wanting to interrogate the dirty rotten thief for her crime.
And yet.
He had the incomprehensible sense he saw the future in her eyes.
Impossible. Fucking ridiculous. A foolish man’s notion.
He just wanted his property back, not to make a for ever after with her, that’s not how kidnapping works the last time he checked.
Tinder for kidnappers. Yeah, right. He’d get Lawless working on that app.
Swallowing the urge, he kept his stare on her. “You’re under the impression, little thief, that you have a say in what happens.” She didn’t like her nickname, Grinder swallowed his grin.
The fact that she kept up a steady pace of Spanish insults while he stood over her uncapping a bottle of soda amused him, some about his parentage and what he did with zoo animals, if his translation were right. Funny and inventive, he didn’t even think it was possible to do that with a giraffe. Like how would he even reach? She was like a fourth of July firework that had gone rogue from the formation and was firing at will.
“Here, drink, before that mouth gets you into more trouble,” he told her.
The muscles in his belly tightened when their fingers brushed handing her the bottle. Just a second’s touch and he felt the spark jolt through him.
Still there.
Still fucking there.
But that chemistry wasn’t about why he was here, why he had taken her from that Apollo Kingsmen MC party, why he’d bundled her prone body laying her carefully on the back seat of his truck or why he’d carried her struggling and hissing self to her motel room and situated her on the bed.
His dick might like the woman, migh
t want to dig in to see if their sex was anything like what he’d been imagining this past year when his temper was high and he thought about her furiously.
She had something of his and he’d get it back.
He hadn’t misread the signs a year ago, the dirty rotten thief had been feeling him in the same damn carnal way.
But it wasn’t about that. Not now. He just wanted rid of her from his system for good.
As he grasped her chin between forefinger and thumb her body tensed.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he told her gruffly.
“Says the homicidal lunatic sharpening his axe,” she spat back, eyes so dark and deep blazing at him.
Annoyance flared on his face, quickly drowned out by her facial expression shutting down, she calmly used her fingers to move his from her chin before she took a large gulp of soda.
“If I’d wanted to hurt you I would have done it already. I could have done it yesterday, or six hours ago when I watched you stroll into the Kings, or when you were buying tampons and gum at the market.” He didn’t mention her flirting with Jamie fucking Steele. That had been the nail in the coffin, up until that point he only intended his spying to be recon. Then she’d given Steele a smile, one that lit up her face and Grinder had felt something snap in his brain, the next thing he knew he’d been behind her when she’d taken a minute outside, despite the MC being packed, anyone could have seen him grab and palm her mouth, he could have easily been wearing bullets in his chest and still the risk hadn’t stopped him for a second.
“Homicidal and a stalker. Nice, you should put that on your dating profile. Swipe right for lunatics.”
Whatever she meant to convey, the hard, tight-lipped expression only made her lips pucker and for a second he thought about kissing, she looked even younger than the twenty-seven he knew her to be.
He knew everything important, her date of birth, place of residence, even her weight and blood type because he’d made it his business to know every goddamn detail about the thief.
No stone was left unturned in his pursuit and here she was. Perhaps not in the way he’d originally planned, blame this shit on his impulsive nature.
Fuck him, he’d abducted a woman. He could just picture his cell mate.
CHAPTER TWO
“I realized as I looked at her, there’s no coming back from this. She’s lost to me.” - Grinder
“Do you make a habit of this?”
Grinder could have questioned what ‘this’ she meant but it was glaringly obvious. The sigh rattled through his chest wall.
“No. You’re my first.” He rasped evenly, not feeling any of the calm his voice portrayed.
"Please take this in the absolute way it was intended, but you're a bit of an asshole."
“Noted,” crossing the room he dropped down into the chair, resting one leg on his knee, he left both arms hanging there on his leg while he watched her decide what she was going to do. Didn’t take Lawless’ number of degrees to see she was eyeing the door, wondering if she could beat him there. He could advise her not to, that he’d easily catch her before she could wrap a hand around the door knob and unlock it. But Grinder waited.
Let her come to that conclusion herself.
And he saw it a beat later when her eyes went flat, shifted back to him, she drank again and moved towards the bed, she flipped on the AC, cooler air filling the room, she sighed. “Finally, I was being cooked in this box. So, talk, mister kidnapper. What is it you want, if it’s not ransom, which FYI, no one will pay, so you’re shit out of luck, chico, if that was your angle, my family is poor, my abuela is more likely to offer to feed you and then arrange our wedding.”
She was being clinical. Smart. Mouthy. He liked that.
It could have gone either way, he’d expected hysterics, some womanly tantrum that would burst his eardrum or force him to keep her gagged. This was better, civilized, he could get answers and get the hell back to his regular scheduled life where he wasn’t holding a woman against her will.
For fucks sake, he’d dropped brain cells in the last few days for fucking sure.
And his club brothers didn’t have a clue what he was doing.
He’d sat around the church table tonight, nodding and interjecting his opinions on the latest business, all the while his mind was back here with the little thief.
Preacher had caught up with him as he’d swung a leg on his hog ready to get back to the motel and asked blankly what the fuck was up with him lately. He’d pasted on a grin for his friend and told him nada. Lied like a dickhead. If anyone would understand Grinder’s temporary insanity it would be Preacher but he couldn’t form the words so he’d rode off in hopes to fix this situation.
As it stood he was looking at a possible war with the Apollo Kingsmen if Luxe was as tight with them as he suspected.
And he suspected alright that she was close to their president. Hadn’t he seen with his own two eyes already. Sucking on his teeth, the irritation clear, he tamped back on that annoyance, the shard of odd jealousy that filled his gut and pooled like pus.
He never got jealous. Women were to enjoy when he fancied it, but he didn’t catch an attachment, not even in grade school when he had three girlfriends at once. He’d had one semi-serious woman he’d dated on the regular that lasted two years but even then, once that relationship ended he’d never thought of Jules again.
Yet, here he was staring at the pretty thief and wondering just how intimate she was with Jamie fucking Steele. Would the man want revenge soon as he knew what had happened to Luxe? That’s all the Renegade Souls needed was another enemy to add to the pile, not after they’d just swept the city of the Raging Rebels.
RS had always played fair with the Kingsmen, in Grinder’s history of being in the club that was, both their former presidents had enemies long, it had taken Rider an age to sort out his territory, and Jamie both, to put truces in place with all neighboring clubs.
This could set the club back decades.
Hell. He sucked in a gulp of air, rubbed a hand over his beard and sat back in the chair, contemplating his next move. Get this done, get gone. Get her gone for good.
That was his plan of action and he had to stick to course, not let himself be deviated by a set of big round eyes or pouty lips that begged to be sucked on.
Realistically, he could just walk out the door and leave her to her life, let this shit go, never see her again. Why wasn’t he? It’s not just about what she stole, dickhead.
His attraction to her wasn’t a surprise, he’d wanted her like crazy, but he wasn’t about to act on it now. Dumb move.
Hey, I kidnapped you, how about a date? Somehow, he couldn’t see that going well.
Leading a solitary life suited Grinder. Not even the pink and the wet controlled him. Grinder preferred not to have entanglements, not because he had issues, nah, nothing like that, even though his mother had taken off on him and his dad early on, he didn’t hold it against her, didn’t harbor deep-seated grudges, or let it affect his life now, people had to do what they had to do, even if it meant leaving your kid behind, he’d had a good life with his dad and uncles, but he never wanted to be responsible for another person either.
He liked plans. Strict regimes. It was how his tracking worked.
He’d seen Luxe smile only once at another guy and his plans and regime had flown out the fucking window, making him react first and ask questions second.
He had no explanation other than he’d caught up to her after a year of wondering, how it had stung this little thief had gotten the drop on him because for once his dick had taken over the thinking.
It unsettled him to admit he’d deviated from his strict proficient way of living without a second thought the moment Luxe had come onto his page.
What the hell did that mean?
“Are you just going to sit there glowering at me?” Her voice brought him out of his own head space, he blinked her face into focus. Fuck, he had been spaced out.
&nb
sp; “As enjoyable as I’m sure your nana’s food would be, filling my belly isn’t what I’m after, little thief.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“What, a thief? That is what you are.”
“And you’re a bloodhound for the Renegade Souls, but I’m not calling you Scooby Doo, am I, imbécil?”
Grinder’s mouth twitched seeing her eyes flash before she reined herself in. Goddamn, she had fire beneath her walls. If things had gone differently last summer he’d already know what that fire tasted like on his tongue.
“You’re sexy as fuck when you insult me in Spanish, bebé.”
“I’m not your baby, and you’re really trying to flirt with me now? Unbelievable.”
“I tell it like it is.” Unrepentant.
“You kidnapped me!” she spat out, eyes glaring. “In what estupida reality does that make it okay for you to look at me with … with ...” tits heaved as she took in great big swallows of air through her angry tirade. Grinder sucked on his teeth suppressing a grin, dropping his leg he sat forward, arms braced on his knees, eyes trained on her.
“Go on, finish your sentence. How am I looking at you, bebé? Like I wanna eat you up, make you pay for fucking stealing from me?”
“As you said,“ she shrugged. “I’m a thief. You can’t be shocked if I take something that doesn’t belong to me, Grinder.”
His name coming from those lips shot through him like fire pooling in his gut, staying around his groin, thank god, he was leaning forward or she would have seen how his dick hardened.
