by Karen Renee
The red-tank-top-clad bartender approached us with her eyebrows raised almost seductively. “Get you both another?”
From my peripheral vision I saw Beast turn to me, so I said, “I’ll have a Mic Ultra, bottle. Thanks.”
Beast seemed frozen, looking at me, but then he faced the bartender. “One more Abitas, and the check when you’ve got a moment. Thanks.”
The light lager was nothing compared to the amaretto sours I’d had earlier, but by the time Beast was ready to leave you’d have thought I’d ordered a One-fifty-one, such was his concern.
“Don’t move, Clumsy. You don’t need to fall down.”
I screwed up my face at him. “I’m fine, Biker-man. Definitely I can walk to your, oh wait, no. My car! I can definitely walk to my own damn car.”
He chuckled, and even in my state I knew that mild laugh was directed entirely at me.
“Sure can, but you sure as hell can’t drive your ‘own damn car,’ babe.”
I grinned at him. When I first met Liar and some of his biker brothers, I was dismayed at the overly-protective possessive nature these men exhibited. How Andrea managed to deal with it and not bristle every time, I had no idea. I had been told it’s a form of love, but I never expected to have it aimed at me. Not the love, but over-protective possessiveness.
I arched an eyebrow at him. “I’m not so sure you should be driving my car, either.”
He shook his head. “Woman, I got close to a hundred pounds on you. Three beers aren’t the shock to my system that two beers and two girlie drinks are to yours.”
“I didn’t have girlie drinks. Anything with ‘sour’ in the name automatically makes it a drink that’s not girlie.”
“That makes you feel better, keep tellin’ yourself that story.”
I took a pull of the beer the bartender set in front of me. “Whatever,” I said, after I swallowed.
“While I hate to derail your fun, Clumsy, I gotta know. What’s your soon-to-be-ex husband doing right now? He just let you out of the house so close to midnight?”
I leaned away from him. “Listen to you. ‘Let’ me out of the house. I am a grown woman, you know.”
He wasn’t impressed with my lippy retort. “Yeah, but I seem to recall wedding vows including words like ‘have and to hold,’ and where I’m from that’s a form of a husband protecting his wife. So, he didn’t try to come after you?”
So many jokes I wanted to make at that statement, but it was a bad defense mechanism on my part so I refrained. “Here’s a key thing to know about Trent Palmer. He is first and foremost about his appearance. Considering our tiff took place with him standing shirtless and possibly with his pajama pants half-way down his legs, there was not much of a chance he was gonna ‘come after’ me.” I paused, but couldn’t fight an especially crude joke. “Well, he might have ‘come’ after I left, but not the way you mean.”
He stared at me, and from the action behind his eyes I knew he was working through what I just said. After a slow blink, he turned fully to me. “Just so I got this all straight. He tried to force you into sex, argued with you, and didn’t try to keep you from gettin’ in your car?”
I looked up at the ceiling for a beat. “Well, yeah. Though, he figured if I was using a toy then I should have no problem with him–”
I shut up, realizing what I had let slip. After a beat, I said, “Sorry. I shouldn’t have over-shared.”
Beast’s lips had been pressed together, but they split with a burst of air as he belly-laughed. I smiled as I watched him, and then he turned those gorgeous blue eyes to me. “No, babe. Don’t apologize for that. The visual of you with a toy is one I won’t erase from my mind if I can help it.”
I turned my face away from him. “You’re welcome, I guess.”
Beast’s fingers guided my face back to him. I thought he might kiss me, our faces were so close. The look in his eyes said he wanted to kiss me, but I couldn’t be entirely sure. He tucked a wayward lock of hair behind my ear. “Finish your beer. Let’s get you home, Janie.”
In my inebriated state I couldn’t be certain, but I would’ve sworn that was the first time he used my name.
FUNNY THING ABOUT ME and the alcohol. When I had a few, it would loosen my lips in the worst ways, as evidenced by me telling this gorgeous semi-stranger about my toy. But on the whole, I wasn’t drunk. So, as I gave Beast the turn by turn directions to my place, I found myself marveling at how different it was being his navigator or co-pilot, compared to riding shotgun with Trent. Of course, I would never need to give Trent directions to our own home, but had I needed to give him instructions to some other place, he’d be at his wit’s end with my inability to use words like ‘east,’ or ‘north,’ and words of measurement like ‘yards,’ and ‘half-mile.’ I was more of a landmark navigator. Those videos on Facebook about ‘If Siri were Southern’ or ‘Waze in Southern mode’ I embodied every example depicted. I navigated based on landmarks, not distances. Beast was taking it all in stride, though.
He slowed the car while approaching the guard shack for the Orange Park Country Club.
I looked over to him. “Keep to the right. I’ve got my card, and you can scan it and drive through.”
He shook his head, keeping his face forward. “No, babe. See, there’s two cars in line for that, and they’re both backing up.”
Two luxury SUVs were backing up, and there was a five-car-deep line for the guard. Typically, there were two guards on duty during the day to deal with visitors for functions and whatnot, but at night it went down to a single guard. However, for some odd reason there were two guards on duty, and the second one was coming down the line of cars toward us.
“I don’t like this,” Beast muttered, and before I could tell him I didn’t have a good feeling about it either, he swung an abrupt U-turn and we headed back to Blanding Boulevard.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
At the red light, Beast looked at me. “Not there, that’s for damn sure. Looks like you’re comin’ to the compound with me.”
Twenty minutes later, Beast led me into the Riot MC Clubhouse. I had not been there before, but Andrea had told me about it. There were pool tables and high-top bar tables while off to the right there were some worn-in couches. Expecting the place to be empty, I was surprised to see an older man with a long gray beard shooting pool to my left.
“Keep movin’, Clumsy. Time to get you to bed.”
He guided me deeper into the building, and a hall opened up to the left while a medium-sized kitchen was on the right. As we walked down the hallway, I noticed there were five doors on either side. I felt like I was in the corridor of a hotel, almost.
“Listen up, Clumsy. I know Liar isn’t headed back here now that he’s got a house he’s renting and Andrea’s in his bed, sloshed. I got a key to his room, so I’m gonna put you in it. Whatever you do, you keep your door locked, hear?”
I heard what he said, but he was standing so close to me. It hit me how lush his lips were. Looking up into his Paul-Newman-like eyes, I said, “Mmm-hmm.”
He shook his head as if I was being silly.
I squinted at him. “I got it. Keep the door locked. I’m just trying to wrap my mind around sleeping in Liar’s bed. It seems weird.”
Beast chuckled. “Lucky for you, we moved his monstrosity outta here last month. Not sure, but I don’t think he or Andrea have spent the night here. So, odds are pretty good this room’s got the cleanest sheets in the joint.”
I smiled up at him. “Thanks for helping me out, Beast.”
He shrugged. “Ain’t nothin’ but a thing. Lock the door.”
I closed and locked the door, kicked off my sandals, and got myself ready to sleep.
A CHILLY BREEZE WAFTED over my face, waking me up. I blinked into the darkness and didn’t know where I was, but then I heard the clink of glasses, and I remembered Beast bringing me to Liar’s room. It was remarkable just how dark the room was, but then again, if my bedroom had no wi
ndows, I supposed it would’ve been dark as pitch too. Turned out the sheets actually were clean and smelled strongly of fabric softener. I rolled over to go back to sleep, but thanks to the beers I drank earlier, my bladder insisted I visit the bathroom.
After I took care of business, my mouth felt dry and a light headache was creeping in. I thought about cupping my hands under the sink to get a few sips of water, but a few sips wasn’t going to cut it. While getting ready to sleep earlier, I had found one of Liar’s black Hock Pawn Shop t-shirts in a dresser drawer and decided to sleep in it.
Forcing myself to focus on getting to the kitchen and back without being noticed, I quietly opened the door and padded to the end of the hall. In my hunt for a mug, glass, or cup for water, I heard Beast’s distinctive belly-laugh from the common room. I grinned at the sound, and I was glad he was having a good time. I took the water with me back down the hallway, opening the door to the room. A strange feeling stole over me, but after two nights with so little sleep, I ignored it in favor of getting some actual rest. The sheets were flung back just like I left them, so after a big gulp of water, I put the cup on the nightstand and climbed back into bed. As I closed my eyes, I thought I had forgotten something important, but I couldn’t remember what it was, and dreamland was calling to me.
My dreams were often intermittent, but when I had them, those dreams were like movies come to life. I was on the cusp of waking, mainly because the bed was jostling as if two people were on the other side of it from me.
Beast’s deep resonating chuckle filled the air, but it sounded huskier than it had at the RoadWay.
A shrill female voice cut the air. “What the hell, Beast? I’m a good time, but I’m not the kind of sweet butt who does a threesome.”
When dim light obliterated my sleep, I realized that it was not my run-of-the-mill realistic dream.
Beast’s voice was like ice-water in my veins. “What the fuck you talkin’ about–?”
I peeled one eye open and saw Beast looking down at me with a mixture of disgust and something I couldn’t place. If I didn’t know better, I’d think it were admiration, but I damn well knew better than that.
I caught a glimpse of a fair-skinned, brown-eyed, black-haired woman staring at me. To Beast she said, “She’s pretty an’ all, but you got some damn nerve tryin’ to spring a third on me.”
She huffed out like she had something to be annoyed about. She wasn’t the one who’d been awakened.
“I put you in Liar’s room, Jane.”
Most anyone would be a tad annoyed if they were awakened in the middle of the night. But, I hated being called Jane. The only people who did it were new doctors, telephone marketers, and my parents —but even they invoked my middle name or initial when using simply ‘Jane.” I much preferred ‘Janie’.
“Yeah. You did, so why you felt the need to bring her to Liar’s room where you knew I’d be, I’ll never know. And for the love of Pete, it’s Janie. Never ‘Jane’. Capisce?”
“Fine, ‘Never Jane.’ But, this ain’t Liar’s room, it’s mine. So how in the hell did you get in here?”
Blinking, I shook my head at him. “No. I’m in the room you put me in. I went to the bathroom, got a cup of water from the kitchen, and came straight back to the room you opened for me.” It finally hit me what I had forgotten when I came back from the kitchen. “You, yourself, made such a fuss about locking the door, so if that’s so important how would I get into your room? Shouldn’t your door have been locked too? I’ll admit, I forgot to lock Liar’s door when I came back, but I haven’t had a decent night’s sleep in three days. I forgot. Why’d you bring a woman to Liar’s room anyway? Were you thinking you’d get a threesome?”
Beast looked at me as though I was lying to him, but at my last question his face shut down. He opened his eyes and shook his head. “No, I did not think I’d get a threesome, and I damn sure know you are not threesome material. I hope to Christ you can do what I’m about to tell you. It’s four-thirty in the morning. Stay here. Do not open that door until I open it for you in five hours. I’ll sleep in Liar’s room. Can you mange that, Clumsy?”
My eyes bulged at his bossiness and his annoyed tone of voice. I finally looked around and saw that there was no oak four-drawer chest of drawers against the wall like in Liar’s room. Over my shoulder, I noticed where I’d set the cup down was a black lacquer nightstand. This was like being in Alice in Wonderland; somehow I’d fetched a glass of water and opened the wrong door, only to find myself facing the wrong situation.
Before I could apologize, Beast had grabbed something from the foot of the bed and closed the door behind him. Not ten seconds later, the door to the adjacent room slammed with a wall-shaking force.
I woke up a few hours later, and remembered Beast’s insistence I stay in the room until he fetched me. It still rankled.
Unfortunately, being in the wrong room, I was without my jeans, bra, sweatshirt, sandals...and worst of all, my phone! If I’d had my stuff, I’d have Ubered my way out of there. As it was, I couldn’t stay cooped up in what I now knew to be Beast’s room. His sheets smelled like excessive amounts of fabric softener just like Liar’s did, but in the clear-headedness of morning, I swore I could also smell Beast.
Quietly, I opened the door and headed to the kitchen. I stopped short in the hall when I caught sight of Beast at the sink. He was in heather gray boxer briefs, his head tilted back as he downed a cup of something I couldn’t see.
God, he was beautiful.
The Riot MC patch was tattooed across his back and rippled with the movement of his back muscles. His tapered waist led to the firm rounded globes of his ass encased in gray cotton. His muscular legs, with blond fuzzy hair catching the light... I saw his knees, which meant he’d turned around.
Uh-oh.
Do not look below his waist! What was I thinking? I couldn’t be trusted to look below his shoulders! I scurried back down the hallway, but a warm hand grabbed mine. He spun me toward his body.
“You didn’t lock the door. Why? I never would be that...” He trailed off, but his eyes held a glimmer of anger. “You shoulda locked that door.”
Oh shit! Why I didn’t lock the door was the million-dollar question, wasn’t it? I shook my head. He was hot, but he was too much. Too much of everything. Too much sexuality, vulgarity, vitality. The vitality scared me the most.
“No. I mean, I’m sorry I didn’t lock the door. It won’t happen again because I won’t be back here again. My life’s crazy and only getting crazier. I’m sorry I startled you and your girlfriend.”
I snatched my hand from his and ran to the room where my clothes were.
Beast
Beast knew she was watching him because he could feel her gaze on his tat, but it wasn’t until he caught her reflection in the window pane he knew how much she liked what she saw. Woman like her being so drawn to his backside surprised him and made him want to mess with her.
Playing with her was playing with fire in an open arid forest. Knowing that and doing something about it were two different things, though.
CHAPTER 4
Janie
BEAST HAD BEEN A GREAT listener at the bar, but my freak-out was over and my self-protection instincts were kicking in. I hadn’t officially met him until last night, but it didn’t mean I hadn’t heard plenty about him, either. What I heard wasn’t exactly good. I didn’t want to be judgmental, but who lets women touch their dicks while their ‘brothers’ are all around? I knew they weren’t brothers by actual blood, but they called one another their brother, and the people I knew with siblings didn’t even like to think about their siblings getting busy...so how did these brothers enjoy watching one another get fellatio?
“Know which room you should be in now, right, Clumsy?” he asked just as I made it to Liar’s door.
Darn him. This didn’t need to be so awkward. I looked over my shoulder at him, but I accidentally flung my head too fast and my hair went flying. Normally I wouldn’t giv
e a darn about that kind of thing, but I saw his eyes flare as they watched my hair fall.
“Yeah,” I said, unable to hide a lip curl and he had the gall to chuckle at me. I rolled my eyes and grabbed the doorknob.
“Feel free to keep Jim’s shirt. You look damn better in it than he ever will. Besides, he won’t miss it.”
I closed the door behind me and fought sliding down to my tush against it. In my experience, certain men were born troublemakers. Beast was quickly proving himself to be just that type of man. It would be fun getting to know someone like him better, but I didn’t have time for anything like that. Plus, I realized I had told Trent I’d be back but in the guest room. I didn’t need to give him proof right off the bat that I was a liar. That wasn’t likely to go over well with his lawyer, or mine. Heck.
I changed my clothes and folded Liar’s shirt into a neat square. While I stepped into my sandals, I pulled my cell phone from my sweatshirt pocket and saw Trent had texted just after five in the morning.
Guest room was empty. Are you alive? I’m worried.
Scott said he saw your car pull a U-turn at the guard shack. WTH? Where ARE you? Call me.
My stomach lurched at his claim of being ‘worried.’ He wouldn’t know being worried about me if it up and sat on his face. That might be crude of me, but it was the truth. The time to be ‘worried’ about me was when I was in early pregnancy, but I needed to let that go.
I tucked the phone into my back pocket, dug into my front pocket for my keys and realized Beast must still have them. Crap! Interacting with him again was not high on my list of things to do this morning. I nearly jumped out of my sandals when there was a knock at the door.
“Gonna need your keys, Country Club.”
My eyes narrowed a touch while my eyebrows crunched down hard. I flung the door open. “Did you just call me ‘Country Club?’” I asked.
He was wearing black track pants but no shirt, and he wasted no time leaning against the door jamb. This posture put me eye-to-eye with his pecs and his tattooed belly. The skin on his torso was tan, but I could tell it was fading. His chest had a healthy dusting of dark blond hair across it.
