I remembered how the huskiness of her voice had caressed my dick like the touch of soft hands and made it jerk. I thought about her name, and decided that she must have been the product of some late-bloomer flower child, because who the fuck named their kid Daisy Mae Flowers? It was cute, and not a name that I’d likely to forget.
Neither was she.
Despite her age because she looked to be around twenty-five, and way too fucking young for me there was a tempting innocence about her that made me want to spoil her for other men. I’d sensed that she was afraid of me, but there was something else that she was afraid of more. Someone had hurt her. But I’d also picked up on the fact that she’d been interested in me, and damn, thinking about her smoking curves had sure interested me. I wanted to wrap myself around her and claim every part of her, every hole. For the first fucking time in my life I wanted to leave my mark on a woman.
I was talking bruises, bite marks, and plenty of my seed.
The thought made me angry.
“What’s got you looking so dark, brother?” Snake asked as he slid my beer over to me. My gaze shot up to his beneath my furrowed brows. I snarled at the happy smirk on his face, which only made him laugh. “Must be a woman.”
“Why does it have to be a woman?” I groused, picking up the bottle.
He shrugged. “You have that look.”
I was curious. “What look?”
“The same look I saw in Prez and Rock when their women first came to the club and were causing them grief.”
I snorted, taking a sip. “Screw you, asshole. I don’t have a fucking woman.”
“Well, brother-” I wanted to punch the knowing look off his face, “You’ve got that look,” he insisted. “The kind that says you’ve got some pussy on your mind and it’s messing with you.”
“Fuck off.”
Snake laughed all the way back to the bar. I put the bottle to my lips and chugged the whole fucking thing, and then slammed it down onto the table, drawing eyes my way. I ran the back of my hand across my mouth. It was Friday and I knew how I wanted to end my day. I’d go back to the salon to see if my attraction to Daisy was as strong as it had been a few days before. I would see if she reciprocated, or if the whole fucking thing had been my imagination. My gut told me that it had been real, my dick said he didn’t care, as long as he got inside her pussy.
The door leading to the back of the building where the clubhouse was located opened, and Lynn and Janet walked into the bar. Sid was leaving the stage, so I guessed that one of them was there to take her place. Snake ran the bar, and he always made sure that there were a couple of dancers to entertain the clients. Lucy was already doing her routine on the other side of the room. Between that, working behind the bar, and providing relief for the brothers, the women were kept busy.
They reaped the benefits of it, too.
The club offered them protection and bought them whatever they needed. They were there because they wanted to be there. Others had come and gone but most of them, except for Lucy, had been with the club for eight or nine years. They stayed because they had a good thing. And the brothers needed them. Needed what they provided after we’d gone to war or had to deal with club issues that revved us up and made our blood boil.
Fighting and fucking took care of a lot of shit that riding and drinking didn’t.
The back door opened again, and Clay stuck his head in and glanced around the club until his gaze landed on me. He jerked his head for me to come. I wondered what was up, he’d looked serious. I hit the door open in time to see him step outside. Hawk, Rock, Clay, Painter, and Ned were outside by the bikes, smoking and talking. I could tell by the way they held themselves that something was wrong.
“What’s up?”
All eyes turned my way, but it was Hawk who spoke, getting right to the point, as he always did. “Hey, brother. You know anything about the Trouble Makers MC?”
Shit! That was the last fucking thing I’d been expecting him to ask. I hadn’t thought about the Trouble Makers in a long time, not since I’d left their MC, long before I’d become a prospect for Phantom Riders MC. In fact, I was surprised that they were still around. They’d gotten into some serious trouble soon after I’d left, the kind of shit that had sent most of their club to prison. As far as I knew, that was where they still were.
I could tell by Hawk’s expression that it was too late to make up some shit story, not that I would have anyway. My history with the Trouble Makers was just that, history, and it didn’t involve Phantom Riders. I’d come to them a nomad, free and clear. I crossed my arms and expelled a low growl. I had the feeling that I wasn’t going to like what came next.
“I used to ride with them, back when I was in my early twenties. Left them long before I came here. Why?”
“Do you know what happened to them?”
I didn’t like the look of mild suspicion on Rock’s face. “Last I heard, most of them went to prison, wouldn’t be surprised if they were still there. The FBI and ATF picked them up for human trafficking, kidnapping, and the murder of some important government official.”
“Whew!” Clay responded, shaking his head with disbelief. “That kind of shit will send you away for a long time.”
“Were you involved in any of that, brother?”
I set my gaze on my president. I didn’t blame him for the questions. Hell, I’d be doing the same damned thing if the situation were reversed. Hawk looked out for his club and brothers, and I knew that no matter how he felt about me personally, if I’d fucked them over he’d put a bullet in my head himself.
“No.” It had been one of the reasons I’d left the MC. They’d been heading down a dark road, and it wasn’t something I’d wanted to be involved with. Shooter, the president, and once a good friend of mine, had known that. “What’s going on?”
“You’re not very forthcoming, brother,” Rock snarled.
“What are you looking for, brother?” I snarled right back. “I belonged to the MC, I left them. I haven’t seen or spoken to any of them for, hell, fifteen years, at least.”
The low, growly noise Hawk made caused us all to look his way. “Covacks just called me to give us a heads-up. Seems some of the Trouble Makers are out of prison and looking for redemption.” I furrowed my brow, waiting for him to continue, because I knew that he had something more to say. “Your name was mentioned, and not in a good way.”
I thought about it for a minute. “They think I betrayed them?” I would never do that. Hawk confirmed it with a head shake. “Fuck, I had nothing to do with it.”
“Right after you left the club, shit went down. Doesn’t look very good for you,” Painter remarked in a hard tone.
I shrugged. “A coincidence. The club had been heading in the wrong direction for a long time by the time I’d made up my mind to get out and go nomad. Any names mentioned on who’s out?”
Hawk shook his head. “Does it matter? They were asking questions about you at one of the fights in Last Hope. They’re coming here for you, brother. We need to be ready.”
“It’s my problem to take care of,” I snarled firmly. I didn’t need to remind them of my position in the club, and that taking care of a few bad-asses with a grudge would be a piece of cake.
“You’re not a nomad now,” Ned said, entering the discussion.
“We deal with this together.” Not one of us would question the finality in our president’s tone, and we all knew how Hawk felt about brothers having each other’s backs. “If those fuckers show up here, we’ll be prepared. I’ve already got Fox looking into it to see who’s been released from prison.”
I thought back to that time of my life when I’d been with the club, trying to recall what I’d heard about them. I’d only been gone for about three months when I’d received word that there’d been a bust at the clubhouse, and that just about everyone present had been arrested. Not everyone had gone to prison, but most of the officers had, along with some of the soldiers. What had been lef
t of the club had been too insignificant to keep the MC running, that was certain. Prospects didn’t know shit.
“If I remember correctly, about twelve members ended up in prison.”
“The officers?” I nodded in response to Rock’s inquiry. “Which is probably why you haven’t heard anything from them all this time, the members were probably told to lay low until they were released.”
“Makes sense,” Ned said, lighting a cigarette. “Now they’re starting to get out, they want to bring their club back together. Do you remember any of the officers?”
“Hell, I don’t recall their real names, but Shooter was the club president. There was Taco, their VP, Mooch was Enforcer, and Tiger was Road Captain. What they didn’t have in numbers, they made up for in ruthlessness. They were ambitious and reckless.”
“It’s probably good you got out when you did.”
I nodded.
“Who do we have to look out for?”
I knew what Hawk was asking me. Who were they going to send to kill me. If they believed that I’d turned them in, someone would come for me. Spending ten plus years in prison gave you a chance to think about who put you there, and what you were gonna do about it when you got out. It hardened you, made you mean, and filled you with hate. And revenge gave you the reason to keep going.
“Shooter.”
“Their club prez? He hate you that much?” Clay wanted to know.
“No,” I said. “We were friends before we became brothers.” Eyebrows rose at my admission. “I’ll go in and tell Fox what I know, and then I’ve got some place to be.”
“Do you need backup?” Hawk asked as I turned and began walking back toward the door.
I tossed him a look over my shoulder as I kept walking. “Not for this, brother. I think I can handle her on my own.”
Their crude remarks and snorts followed me inside the club. It didn’t take me long to tell Fox what I knew. Ten minutes later I was racing toward the salon. If they kept normal hours, I knew that there was a chance they’d already be closed for the day, it was almost five o’clock. The thought of missing little Daisy Mae Flowers forced me to pick up speed. I hadn’t been able to get her or the things I wanted to do to her off my mind since the day I’d first seen her. And it all began with her hands on me.
Chapter 4
Big John
As I neared the house I could see there was only one vehicle in the drive. But even before I pulled up, an elderly woman emerged from the salon and headed toward the car. With no others present, that meant that Daisy would be all alone. I pulled up close to the door and cut the engine. I sat there for a minute, staring at the front door. It was glass, with the name of her business, ‘Country Pretty,’ etched into it. I could see movement inside, but it was hard to make out what she was doing.
I dismounted and walked toward the door, willing my dick to behave because it was already stirring at the thought of being close to her. I walked up the three steps and reached to push the door open just as Daisy appeared on the other side. Her hands quickly moved up to the lock, but she didn’t turn it. She looked nervous and undecided as to whether or not she should lock me out. And damn, she looked cute as hell with that bottom lip clamped between her teeth.
We stared at one another as if sizing each other up. I cocked my head, my eyes moving back and forth between her eyes and her hand, which was still poised at the lock. “Don’t do it,” I finally said, realizing that my gruff command might result in the opposite effect.
She opened her pretty mouth as if to say something, then thought better of it, and clamped it shut again. Next, she spun around and walked away from the door. I pushed it in and stepped inside the salon, watching the sexy sway of her full hips as she continued to walk away. She turned to face me before my interest shifted from her shapely ass. My hands itched to get a hold of it.
“I, ah, wasn’t sure that you were coming, and was just about to close up,” she said in a silky rasp. I grinned when she stepped around a chair at one of the stations as if it offered her some protection. Nothing was going to protect her from me. “So, you’re here for a haircut?”
Yeah, that was why I was there. For a fucking haircut, and maybe a taste of her. She looked good enough to eat. The first thing I noticed was her hair. The first time I’d seen her it had been confined, but today it was loose and surrounded her pretty face in sexy waves. My fingers prickled with the need to touch the silky mass. Her face was devoid of makeup, but the fresh, clean appearance of her skin needed no enhancements. I fucking loved the dusting of freckles across her pert little nose. I wanted to run my mouth over them to see if they tasted as fucking sweet as they looked.
“Would you, ah, like a wash first?”
I watched the rise and fall of her large tits, revealed by the open neck of her blouse and barely confined in the tight white tank top she wore beneath it. The glitter of a gold cross hanging from a chain around her neck drew my eyes to her exposed cleavage. My dick jerked, and I clenched my teeth. “Yeah, that sounds good,” I said, walking her way. The closer I got, the more color stained her cheeks. Interesting. And then she was biting down on that bottom lip again, and all I could think of was taking it between my teeth and sucking it inside my mouth.
Fucking hell, this was a mistake. I knew that I’d wanted her the minute I’d first seen her, but the intensity of my reaction to her today scared the living shit out of me. I wasn’t sure that I had the control I’d need to keep from hurting her. When I wanted a woman I just took her, but it was usually a club whore. I couldn’t recall the last ‘good girl’ I’d wanted to pin down and fuck.
I sat down in the chair she indicated, aware I didn’t usually go in for all that wash and blow shit. When I wanted a haircut, I got a haircut and that was it. But I wanted Daisy’s hands on me, and right then I’d take them anyway I could get them.
“Um, I need you to−” She stopped talking as soon as our eyes met. It was obvious she was nervous as shit, and probably afraid. Good, she fucking needed to be. She was tiny compared to me.
“What, baby?” Her eyes dilated. They fucking dilated. “What do you need me to do?” My nostrils flared as I took in her tantalizing scent. Musk, and something flowery, slammed into my senses, and my dick punched forward.
“I need you to scoot down in the chair so I can get your head in the bowl.”
I grinned at the huskiness of her voice, moving my big frame into position. Once I arranged my head into the sink she turned on the water. I’d never much thought about having my hair washed before, and Daisy was fast and efficient, running the hot water through it before lathering it up with shampoo. When her fucking nails began to massage my scalp, I closed my eyes and groaned because it felt that good.
“Am I hurting you?” her soft voice asked me.
“No.” I didn’t want to admit how fucking good it felt having her hands in my hair. Something brushed across my forehead, and I opened my eyes. Daisy was bent over me, the cross around her neck moving against me with her movements. And fuck, my nose was nearly buried in her cleavage. I inhaled deeply, taking in more of her warm scent.
“Sorry,” she laughed softly, the sound going straight to my throbbing dick. She moved the cross aside, but as soon as she went back to scrubbing my scalp it went right back to where it had been. I couldn’t have cared less about the cross, my gaze was riveted on the view of her cleavage and the mounds of creamy tits staring me in the face. The urge to stick my tongue out and lick her there was so overpowering that a shudder moved over me.
“Are you cold?” she asked.
I grinned. Yeah, that’s exactly what I was, but I kept my mouth shut because I doubted she’d be impressed with what I was really feeling. She moved upward to reach the water hose. “I am so sorry!” she made a frustrated sound when her cross scraped across my forehead again. Her hand came up, and I grabbed her around the wrist.
She gasped. All movement stopped as our eyes clashed. She licked her lips, and I knew that if I didn�
��t do something about my dick soon it was going to burst right through the zipper. “I got it.”
There was a question in her eyes, but she didn’t say or do anything. I wondered what kind of a fool I was for even touching her. I brought my arm up between our upper bodies and reached for the cross. Her eyes widened as my knuckles brushed across her exposed flesh. I took the cross and tucked it deep in between the valley of her tits, feeling her warmth and softness surround my finger and imagining that it would feel the same way for my dick when it sank inside her body for the first time. She caught her breath again, our gazes still locked tight. Hell, I wanted to fuck her right then and there.
“Th-thank you.”
I reached down to rearrange my aching dick, no longer caring if she knew that I had a hard-on for her. Shit, she’d have to be dead not to notice. It was moving with a life of its own inside of my pants, and he wasn’t shy about what he wanted. Daisy rinsed my hair, turned off the water, and covered my head with a towel. After a couple of brisk rubs to catch the drops of water, she nudged me to my feet.
My gaze fell to her ass as I followed her to the chair. As God as my witness, I was going to get a taste of her before I left that salon. Her shy innocence was appealing, sucking me in as if she wielded all the power over my feigned control. I sank down into the chair and she swung me around until I was facing the mirror. The towel was still in my hair. She gave my scalp a few more vigorous rubs and then pulled the cloth away.
And then her gaze rose to mine in the mirror.
“How much do you want me to cut?”
“I like it long.”
“So, a trim then?” I nodded, narrowing my eyes on her until she glanced away.
A grin spread across my face at her reaction to me. Were the same inane thoughts going through her mind, too? Was she wondering why there seemed to be a fierce attraction between us? Was she turned-on? Was her body sensitized and thrumming with unexplained arousal? I closed my eyes when she began to run a comb through my long hair. Was she wet for me? Fuck, I wanted to find out.
What He Wants (Book 3 after Phantom Riders MC-Hawk and No Mercy) Page 3
