Ultimate Alphas: Bad Boys and Good Lovers (The Naughty List Romance Bundles)

by Synthia St. Claire

We pulled up at a small house, not much bigger than my own, and he waited as I got off the bike and handed my helmet to him. Grabbing my hand possessively in his, he led me up the walk and pulled a key from a chain hooked into his belt loop. As soon as we were in the door, he grabbed me around the waist, pulling me to him and kissing me deeply. Then, silently, he bent and picked me up, carrying me to his room.

  In the dark, I didn’t see much of the house. The first light he turned on was the table lamp at his bedside. He lay me on the bed, then stood before me unbuckling and unbuttoning his jeans. “I’ve been waiting for you all day,” he breathed.

  “So have I,” I said truthfully, mesmerized by his actions. I watched in anticipation as he shrugged off his cut and pulled his T-shirt unceremoniously over his head, revealing sculpted pecs and a tight washboard stomach. My mouth watered as I imagined tracing my tongue down those abs. He pushed down his jeans, freeing his stiffening cock from its prison, and I took in my breath at the sheer beauty of this man.

  “Your turn,” he said, looking at me with wolf eyes, and I knew he wanted me to give him a show. Trying not to feel awkward, I stood and slowly grasped the bottom hem of my tight Teasers T-shirt, pulling it slowly upward to reveal my stomach. I arched my back, drawing the shirt up over my breasts and my head, then dropped it to the floor. I forced myself to stand there for a moment, quietly letting him look at me, then gave him a little smile and shimmied out of my tiny skirt. Now I stood before him clad only in a tiny lace bra and matching panties, which I had put on that day in hopes that this very scenario would happen, as much as I had pretended otherwise to myself.

  Spider showed me his approval by reaching down to slowly begin stroking his thickened member. My lips parted in excitement as I watched him, marveling at how unbelievably sexy this was. I slowly reached behind my back and freed my breasts. The corners of his mouth turned up slightly in a lascivious smile. Cocking my head coyly, I overcame my shyness and reached up to gently fondle myself, and was rewarded by his sharp intake of breath. “Jesus, Tina, you are so fucking hot,” he groaned. I suppressed the regret I always felt at hearing him call me by my false name, and took one slow step toward him. Hooking my thumbs through my panties, I pulled them down and let them fall to the floor, then kicked them aside. I was naked now except for the pair of black heels I hadn’t taken off yet.

  “Keep those on,” he growled, and came toward me with lust in his eyes. “You’re gonna pay for teasing me like that,” he muttered, but there was a sparkle in his eye that let me know I would love any ‘paying’ I would have to do. Grabbing me around the waist, he turned me so my back was facing him, then bent me over the bed and gave my ass a sharp slap that made me moan with desire. How could pain give such pleasure? I still didn’t understand it, but somehow, Spider had tapped into something deep within me that I hadn’t known I needed. My tingling skin set all my senses aflame. My sex was throbbing with need, and my breathing became shallow with longing as I waited for him to take me. Soon, I was rewarded as I felt him grab my hips and slide the thick head of his cock against my dripping folds. “Yes…” I moaned instinctively, angling my hips toward him. He slipped his head past my entrance, pushing in just an inch or so and then withdrawing. I mewled in frustration and pressed back, trying desperately to get him deeper inside me. Again his cock found my entrance and pushed inside, and this time I was ready, rocking my hips back to get him in deeper. He laughed throatily. “Tell me what you want, baby,” he murmured, pulling back. “Please, Spider. I need it. Please, fuck me!” He pressed in further, then withdrew, then pushed in quickly again, deeper. With every thrust, I moaned in satisfaction and rocked back, waiting for him to fill me completely. Finally, he thrust all the way in, his head pressing against my cervix, and began to pump, hard and deep. Our bodies urged each other on, and again our voices mingled as I pleaded and Spider grunted. He fucked me hard, harder, and all I wanted was more. Each thrust was pure heaven. It was as though we were joining together as two part of the same machine, incomplete without one another. All that was in my mind was my primal need for this man, my body emptied of all thought.

  I rose higher and higher, coming close to the point of no return, and then felt Spider pull out of me. I uttered a scream of frustration, and reached desperately behind me to pull him back in. Instead, he leaned over me and whispered in my ear: “I want to feel you ride me.” He lay on his back and pulled me on top of him. I was so wild to have him back inside me that I immediately straddled him and guided him in. The angle was different this way, and I realized I could control more like this. Began to move my hips up and down, sliding his thick cock against my swollen wet lips in a way that drove me wild. I began to moan, throwing my head back as I braced myself on his chest and rode him, every thought blacked out except the need for release. My eyes fell on his, and saw he was watching me with the rawest expression of pure lust I had ever seen. He raised his hips to me as I fucked him, going higher and higher until finally I shattered around him, my pussy clutching and throbbing with wave after wave of pleasure as I screamed his name.

  As the world began to slowly reassemble itself around me, I felt Spider withdraw from me. Then his hands were on my hips as he helped me back to my former position on hands and knees and moved behind me. The bed sank under his weight, and again his cock pressed through my swollen, sensitive folds and inside me. This time, he began slowly, building up speed as I felt him reawakening my desire and need. “Oh, fuck yeah, darlin’, this is it,” he groaned as he pumped, his hand going again to my hair to pull my head slightly back. I felt myself smiling as I gasped and urged him on, wanting it hard, wanting him to fill me, wanting everything. His pace quickened, and I met him thrust for thrust. Soon, I felt him grow large inside me, and the power of his orgasm sent another wave of ecstasy coursing through me. I heard him crying out from far away, and my voice joined his as I realized I had never felt happier in my whole life.

  * * * * *

  We lay together, me with my head on his chest, talking quietly as the sun went down. “Chig has to go for chemo starting next week,” Spider was saying. “He thinks he’s gonna be strong enough to run the club during treatments, but I have a feeling he’s not being very realistic about that. So, I’m gonna have to be acting president until he gets better.”

  “Do you think he’ll accept that?” From what I knew about Chig, I could tell he liked to be in charge. Making decisions as V.P. while trying to give Chig the illusion of still being at the helm seemed like a delicate dance.

  “I dunno,” Spider admitted. “I don’t want to hurt the old man, you know? But the club is facing some major challenges right now, and we can’t afford not to have someone clearly in charge.”

  I was surprised by his candidness with me, not to mention a little touched. “What kind of challenges?” I asked.

  “The Vipers and the Fugitives have been involved in a turf war,” he explained. “They’ve been making deals while on our territory. A few days ago, there was a shootout just outside of town. A couple of their guys got killed, and they’ve let it be known they’re looking for revenge.”

  My blood chilled. “What kind of revenge?” I asked.

  “This is an eye for an eye business, darlin’,” he sighed, drawing me closer. “Blood gets repaid by blood. It doesn’t matter that we were within our rights defending our territory. They’re gonna try to come after us until they either kill two of ours as payback for their two, or we convince them it’s not a good idea to fuck with the Fugitives.”

  “Jesus,” I whispered. “Spider, are you in danger?” I pulled in tighter around him, suddenly cold.

  He wrapped his arms around me and kissed me on the top of the head. “Honestly, darlin’, we’re always in a little bit of danger. This isn’t the Boy Scouts, you know? But don’t worry,” he continued, stroking my hair. “The Fugitives haven’t lost anyone in a long time. Not since my best friend Gonzo, and that was what? Close to ten years ago, now.”

  I froze at the ment
ion of my brother’s road name. “Gonzo,” I repeated, willing my voice not to shake. “What happened to him?”

  Spider’s voice dropped low and heavy with sorrow. “Shot in the chest. He and I had just gotten our rockers and been patched. We ended up in an ambush with a rival club, the Aztecs, over a weapons haul. I got shot in the leg, and couldn’t get myself out of the line of fire. Gonzo hauled me back, saved my ass. But he got shot in the process.” I looked up to see Spider’s face; it was pale and hard in the emerging moonlight. “His chest exploded right in front of me. He looked straight into my eyes when he realized what had happened. I watched him die. I saw the light go out.”

  His voice was shaking slightly now, and I could hear that he was struggling to continue. “It almost killed me. Me dying, that was a possibility I had already come to terms with when I decided to join the club. But seeing my best buddy -- my brother -- die right in front of my eyes… it threw me. After it happened, I found myself questioning everything: my loyalty to the club, my life, my family…” His voice trailed off. My heart swelled with sadness and sympathy for him. For a moment, I forgot it was my brother he was talking about. It was Spider’s friend. His best friend. And it was clear that his death still haunted him to this day.

  “Spider, I’m so sorry,” I murmured, wrapping my arms more tightly around him and squeezing his chest. “How… how did you get over his death?”

  “The only way I could,” he said simply. I felt him shrug his shoulders. “I had to choose, once and for all, whether to be all out, or all in. If I chose to be all in, I needed to decide not to question things that happened, whether they hurt me or not. To choose loyalty to the club, above all else, and not look back, or else walk away completely. I chose the club.”

  As I lay there listening to him, my brow furrowed as I contemplated his words. Could it be that simple? Was choosing complete allegiance to the club really the right solution to coping with such a devastating loss? I couldn’t help but feel a small wave of anger move over me. Wasn’t shrugging it off as just “something that happened” disloyal to his friend’s memory, somehow? Wasn’t it just a cop-out?

  I was pondering all this when Spider broke the silence. “What about you, Tina, darlin’? I don’t know anything about you except that you work at Teasers. Where’s your family from? Where’d you grow up?”

  Shit. Without realizing it, I had stepped into a minefield. How could Spider know that he was asking me about the very same people he was just talking about? “Uh, I grew up in Butler,” I said carefully. “My parents are both dead. I’m an only child.”

  “Like Jan,” Spider replied quietly. He kissed the top of my head. “Must be lonely.”

  “Yeah,” I admitted. “It’s… it’s been tough.”

  “What brought you to Crystal Spring?”

  Working to keep my voice light, I responded, “I don’t know, exactly. Seemed like as good a place as any to start fresh.”

  Spider seemed to accept that logic without question. After a moment, he shifted his weight onto his side and looked down at me, his eyes serious. “Look, baby girl,” he began, “I know you and me, we haven’t known each other that long. I don’t know exactly where this is going, but I’m hoping it’s someplace good.”

  I felt caught like a deer in headlights. More than anything, I wanted Spider. I might as well admit that to myself. He made me feel things I’d never felt in my life before. I felt safe with him, protected. I felt – I could hardly believe it – I felt loved. My mind was a swirl of conflicting emotions that made it hard for me to hold his gaze, but I forced myself to. As I looked him in the eye, I said the only true thing I could say:

  “I do, too.”

  Spider’s face broke into a wide smile that took years off his careworn face, making him look innocent. I felt like he was giving me a secret gift with that smile, one I doubted most people had ever seen. He leaned down and kissed me, more gently than he ever had. I melted into his arms, the two of us speaking our feelings through our lips, our tongues.

  When he broke away from me, his eyes were shining. I could only smile up at him, telling myself I would think about everything later. Right now, there was only him and me. “Spider,” I began, “can I ask you something?”

  “Anything, babe,” he whispered.

  “What’s your real name?”

  He laughed, a full throated belly laugh that made my heart melt with love for him. “Conrad,” he replied.

  “Conrad Daniels,” I repeated, yawning. I was suddenly exhausted, and starving. “It suits you, actually.”

  “You don’t think Spider suits me?” he teased.

  “I suppose that suits you, too,” I considered. “It’s what you’ve become. Conrad’s who you were. Spider’s who you are.” I looked up at him, and bravely said exactly what I was thinking, for once. “I want to get to know them both.”

  Spider’s eyes seemed to change color he heard me say this. He rolled over, covering me with his body, and held me tightly. “I want that too, baby girl.” He leaned down and kissed me deeply again. I felt his growing hardness against my thigh as we moved together. “All this talk is making me hungry,” he growled against my neck.

  “Me too,” I said innocently, pretending not to understand. “Should we order a pizza?”

  “Anything you want. But first,” he said, moving between my legs, “Dessert.”

  Chapter Seven

  Late that night, I lay in bed, listening to Spider as he slept peacefully beside me. After “dessert,” we had indeed ordered a pizza, and spent a wonderfully romantic evening together drinking beer and eating under the stars on his back deck. It felt so right, so normal. It was easy to forget the danger Spider was in, and the secret I continued to keep from him. But now, all of the fear and worry that I had succeeded in pushing away came flooding back as I stared up at the ceiling, sleep far away.

  “If I chose to be all in, I needed to decide not to question things that happened, whether they hurt me or not. To choose loyalty to the club, above all else, and not look back, or else walk away completely. I chose the club.” Spider’s words played on a continuous loop in my mind. What could he mean? Could he possibly believe that the solution to dealing with his best friend’s death was to just stop questioning why it had happened? Could he truly be so callous as to just forget about it?

  As I stared out into the darkness, my thoughts turned to my original reasons for coming back to Crystal Spring. I realized now that I hadn’t thought my plan for revenge through nearly well enough. It had seemed so simple when I’d made the decision: go back to Crystal, figure out a way to get close to the club, find a weak chink in their armor, and use it to make them pay. But that was before I had met Spider, and Jan, and Larry. Even Candy and the other Fugitives… now their faces stared back at me when I tried to figure out what to do. They were human beings now, even the ones I didn’t particularly like, and I realized that I couldn’t simply operate on simple “eye for an eye” justice. No matter how simple, how reassuring, it had seemed before I had gotten here – no matter how easy it must be for the club to operate on those terms – I knew now that it was more complicated than that.

  And what was more, I had to admit it to myself: I was falling in love with Spider. I was falling in love with my brother’s best friend. And as such, Spider was connected to both of us now, even though he didn’t know it. I wondered what Kyle would have thought about us being together. I realized I didn’t know. My relationship to Kyle had been that of a ten year-old girl to an eighteen year-old man. He had grown up, made his own choices, decided his own fate. What I thought of as my brother Kyle was more of a fairy tale creation of what I had wanted him to be than what he really was. I hadn’t really known him when he died. Not really. Spider had known him much better than I had, I realized.

  Not only that, but – as difficult as it was to admit it – I would never have met Spider if it hadn’t been for Kyle’s death. It was as though, by coming here, I had gained back a little of
what I had lost. I no longer had my parents, or my brother, but I had someone who had known them both. Who had loved my brother as his own family. And who now wanted to love and protect me.

  Exhausted by the events of the day and the thoughts swirling around in my head, I fell into a fitful sleep at last, and dreamed of my brother’s face.

  * * *

  I woke up the next morning to the sound water running. As I lay in bed, stretching the sleep out of my limbs like a cat, Spider came into the room with a towel around his waist, his hair still damp from the shower.

  Smiling at him lazily, I reached out to grab a corner of the towel. “You should take that off,” I murmured.

  Spider leaned down to place a kiss on my forehead. “I can see you comin’ a mile away, darlin’, but I can’t stop and play right now. I got to get going. Church this morning. Vipers ambushed one of our guys last night and shot him.”

  “Who was it?” I whispered, my eyes wide.

  “Bullet,” Spider replied grimly.

  I didn’t know him well, but his face flashed in my mind. I remember him joking with the others and copping a quick feel my first day at Teasers. “How is he?”

  “Not looking good.” Spider had taken off the towel, giving me a magnificent, too-quick glimpse of his manhood, and was now pulling on his jeans and a clean T-shirt. His preoccupied look warned me off of asking too many questions.

  “How long do you think you’ll be gone?” I asked, my voice timid.

  “Not sure,” he replied grimly. “Oh, shit, I forgot we left your car at Teaser’s from last night. You want a ride there to pick it up?”

  I hadn’t thought of that. “Yeah, good idea,” I said, reluctantly pulling my sex-sore body out of bed. In a few minutes, I had splashed water on my face, run my fingers through my sleep-tousled hair, and “brushed” my teeth using my index finger and a daub of paste. I came out of the bathroom to find Spider waiting for me on the bed. Pulling on my clothes from last night, I smiled gamely at him, willing myself to push down my fears about what would be decided at church, and what kind of danger Spider could be in. Now was not the time for me to be barraging him with questions.