Not Acceptable Red Eyes MC Romance Series - Book #3)

by Blair Grey

  We barely knew each other. This was just sex. It was time for him to leave.

  But I couldn’t deny that I might want to do this again. Just the sex part.

  I smiled up at him. “Thank you. For tonight. I had fun. I just think it’s better that you leave.”

  Landon looked at me for one last second and then grabbed his boxers and jeans from me. “All right,” he said gruffly.

  After he left, though, I had to wonder if the sex part had really been over, or if that had just been a prelude to something more. What might have happened if he had stayed over? We had been full of such chaotic need the first time that it felt as though we had barely had a chance to appreciate each other.

  It was silly, really. I had climaxed, and he had as well. I should be all set now. For weeks. If not months. How long had it been now? And I’d been perfectly fine taking care of things myself until he came along. I hardly even felt those twinges of need anymore.

  But now here I was, lying in bed alone after a perfectly good orgasm, and all I could think was to wonder if we might have gone for another round if I had let him stay. How many times could we have gotten each other off over the course of the night?

  My hand drifted, unbidden, down between my thighs, rubbing at my clit and then dipping into the lingering wetness of my hole. Even now, I still felt turned on by the night I had had with him. As though I couldn’t sleep unless I got off again. And now.

  I shook my head and retracted my hand, rolling onto my side and pulling a pillow to my chest. No use thinking about it. Landon was gone, and that was for the best. I hadn't expected to feel things so deeply, after just sleeping with him once. I shouldn’t see him again.

  But I wasn’t sure that I could stay away.

  13

  Landon

  I slept stupidly well on Friday night, thanks to that incredible orgasm I’d had with Anne. And okay, thanks in some part to the beer that I’d had as well, no doubt. But I chalked it mostly up to the orgasm.

  I didn’t know what exactly had happened there. I just knew that I was getting more and more turned on by her, and especially turned on by how turned on she clearly was. Not only that, but stripped down like that, she’d been miles and miles of skin, all mine to touch, taste, and work over.

  She was beautiful. And she reacted so perfectly to everything that I did to her, with those quiet moans, her fingers twisting in the sheets, her legs urging me on. It had been a fucking dream come true, and it was no wonder that when I came, I was practically shaking with everything that it had taken out of me.

  It had been a surprise for her to kick me out afterward. I had wanted to stay and talk to her about it. To make sure that she wasn’t having second thoughts and that she didn’t regret having sex with me. But she had made it very clear that she didn’t want to talk about it, and that she didn’t want anything more to do with me. That sucked, but I had a feeling I might be able to win her over again. I hadn’t thought we were going to make it this far even. So maybe I just needed to keep trying. Be persistent. Show her how badly I really wanted her.

  I had headed home, slipping in quietly so that Braxton hopefully wouldn’t hear me. The last thing I needed was for him to spoil a near-perfect night by teasing me, asking me where I’d gotten off to. I wasn’t ready to tell him that I had slept with that sexy pharmacist. Not yet. Maybe in the morning. For the moment, I wanted to savor my memories of her as I fell asleep.

  So I’d slept well, and in fact, the only thing waking me up on Saturday morning was the hand on my shoulder, shaking me.

  “Come on, get up,” Braxton said.

  I groaned and pulled a pillow over my head. “What time is it?” I asked. “We don’t have anything we’re supposed to do today, do we?”

  “I’m hungry,” Braxton said, his voice unmistakably whiny. “We need to get breakfast.”

  “Can’t you just pour yourself some cereal or something?” I sighed, but I tossed the pillow aside and sat up, rubbing at my eyes. “God, you’re like a little kid sometimes. What are you, five?”

  Braxton rolled his eyes. “We’re pretty much all out of food at this point,” he said. “I know the house was pretty well stocked when we got here, but we’ve eaten through most of the staples. There’s no milk for cereal and no eggs for anything else, basically. Besides, I thought you and I could get breakfast together. You know, pretend like we’re friends or something.” He lowered his voice, as though someone might overhear us there in our private house. “Plot our next move against the Mambas.”

  I snorted. “Plot our next move?” I asked. “Don’t you mean plot our first move? We don’t even know who they are yet. Unless you’re telling me that you got some kind of intel last night.”

  “Nah, I wish,” Braxton said, shaking his head. “But come on, get dressed. Meet me downstairs in fifteen.”

  “Fine, fine.” I sighed, holding up both hands in surrender.

  I hurriedly showered, dressed, and headed downstairs. Braxton drove us to a diner.

  “So where were you last night anyway?” Braxton asked once we had placed our orders. “You told me you had some kind of errand to do, and then you just disappeared for the rest of the night. I went to bed before you were back even."

  I shrugged, trying not to let him see my grin. “You remember that sexy pharmacist? Anne? The one who managed to find your prescription? She and I went for a few drinks. And then some.”

  Braxton scowled at me. “That’s ridiculous,” he said.

  “What, you think I’m lying?” I asked, honestly surprised that he would say that. I mean, sure, he was usually the one out of the two of us who pulled random women, but that was more because he tried harder than I did. It wasn’t like the ladies didn’t like me.

  Braxton rolled his eyes, though. “Of course I don’t think you’re lying,” he said like he thought I was being deliberately stupid. “But why the hell would you start something with a woman who lives in a town that we’re not going to stay in? Isn’t that what you keep insisting? That as soon as this thing with Neil’s books is cleared up, we’re heading straight back to Las Cruces, ‘do not pass go?’”

  I shrugged. “I didn’t start something with her,” I protested. “We’re not getting involved or anything like that. It was just sex.” And that was the truth, despite whatever else I might feel about it.

  The truth was, I liked Anne. And in another universe, could I see the two of us dating? Sure. But that would have to be a universe where we were staying a lot longer in Sarasota, something that I didn’t want. And I was sure that if she even caught a whiff of the kinds of things I got up to with the MC, she would want nothing to do with me ever again.

  No, this had just been sex. I knew that, and it was clear that she did, too, if the way she had rushed to get me out of there afterward was any indication.

  To be honest, my ego was still smarting a bit from that one. I don’t know what I’d expected. I’d kind of hoped that I could stick around at least a little longer. Maybe get her off again, a second time. I had thought that that was what she was asking for when she had said that maybe I would need to figure out a way to get her to stop thinking so much.

  But that was neither here nor there. At the end of the day, it was just sex, we were both on the same page, and I didn’t understand why Braxton was making such a big deal of it. What, did he think I was going to fall in love with Anne and permanently move here to Sarasota? Fat chance. My whole life was back in Las Cruces, at least when I wasn’t doing work for Ray…who happened to be in Las Cruces.

  No, we’d be going straight back there as soon as this whole thing with the Mambas was done. I’d make sure of that.

  Speaking of Ray, my phone started to buzz, and when I looked at the screen, it was his name flashing there. “It’s Ray,” I said to Braxton.

  “You should answer that,” Braxton said, nodding at me. I could tell that he wasn’t finished talking to me about what I should or shouldn’t be doing with Anne yet, but it would have t
o wait.

  I answered the phone. “Hey, Ray. No, we don’t really have anything yet. It’s frustrating. We went to one of the local businesses, one of the ones that hasn’t been paying its dues to Red Eyes anymore. Chatted with the owner there. He was pretty helpful, told us there’s some rival club, the Mambas? You heard anything about them?”

  I put the phone on speaker so that Braxton could hear as well. The diner was relatively busy since it was a weekend morning, so I wasn’t particularly worried about anyone overhearing.

  Ray whistled lowly. “The Mambas are bad news,” he said.

  “What do you know about them?” I asked. “Why haven’t we ever heard of them?”

  “The Mambas are an MC that doesn’t promote themselves,” Ray said slowly. “And I assume that’s part of the problem that Neil has had with getting all of this sorted out. The Mambas won’t want it spread around that they’re taking up territory there in Sarasota.”

  “No, they apparently threatened the businesses they’ve taken by telling them that if they told Red Eyes about Mambas’ dealings, they would hurt or kill the owners’ loved ones,” Braxton said. “How fucked up is that?”

  “Sounds like them,” Ray said grimly. “And the problem is, you’re not going to know when the Mambas are around until it’s too late.”

  “So what do we do?” I asked. “How do we even go about finding out who is involved with them? Doesn’t sound like anyone around town is really going to be able to give us that information.”

  “Not likely,” Ray said, and I could tell that he was shaking his head. “The best way to flush them out would be to stake out one of the businesses that they’re prowling. They always come in groups of three, or so I’ve heard.” He paused. “But even then, you might have a hard time tracing it back to anything more than those three guys. They’re sworn to secrecy. I think half of them don’t even know who any of the other members are, not outside their three.”

  “Well if that doesn’t just make things difficult,” Braxton muttered, not looking impressed.

  “How do you know so much about them?” I asked, suddenly curious. There was so much we didn’t know about Ray’s past. Had he had dealings with the Mambas in the past? Had they started in on Red Eyes territory in Las Cruces even?

  Ray didn’t answer my question, though, and I hadn’t really expected him to. “Don’t worry about it,” he said. “Just listen to what I said. Follow my advice. And keep me posted.”

  “I will,” I said because there was nothing else I could do. It wasn’t like Braxton and I had come up with any leads on our own. I didn’t particularly like the idea of staking out one of the businesses; it sounded boring as shit, and there were other things in Sarasota that I’d rather be doing.

  Like fucking the life out of Anne.

  But those things would have to wait. First and foremost, we were here with a job to do. We were here because Ray—and Neil—trusted us.

  “I’ll keep in touch,” I promised Ray. “But hopefully your plan works better than expected and we can get them out of here in a matter of days.”

  “Don’t get too cocky,” Ray said warningly before hanging up the phone on me. It was a typical Ray thing to say. He always warned us about getting too complacent in New Mexico. Before the Unknowns had come along, it had been quite some time since anyone else had challenged our territory, and Ray was afraid we were all getting soft.

  But there was something more to the way that he said it this time. Something darker, deeper, something hinting at a secret that he wasn’t telling me.

  Braxton raised an eyebrow at me as I slowly retrieved my phone from the center of the table. “Is it just me or does it sound like Ray knows more about the Mambas than he’s letting on?” he asked.

  I shrugged, even though I was thinking the exact same thing. Sometimes, even when we were on the same page, we had a discussion like this, using each other as a sounding board. “What exactly do you think he knows?” I asked.

  Braxton gave me a grim look. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say it sounds like he might have had a past with these guys.”

  I nodded slowly. “We don’t know better,” I pointed out. “For all we know, he could have been one of these guys.”

  We were both silent for a long moment. Finally, I shook my head. “Well, if Ray doesn’t want us to know, we’ll never know. Which business do you think we should stake out?”

  “Maybe Eric’s?” Braxton suggested. “He was pretty helpful before.”

  “He was,” I agreed. “But he also said that the Mambas had threatened to hurt his wife if he spilled any information to Red Eyes. On the off chance that anyone has made the connection already, I think we want to steer clear of him.”

  “That makes sense,” Braxton mused. “So what are you thinking?”

  “We need to get more information on the business owners,” I said. “Find out who has the least to lose and set up shop there.”

  Braxton nodded. “Good plan,” he said. “Why don’t we head over to the clubhouse after breakfast and see if we can get a copy of that map that Neil has?”

  14

  Anne

  I was so caught up in my thoughts on Saturday that I almost forgot that I had agreed to go to dinner with Lina that night. When she called me, I panicked a little bit. Was I really ready to face her after the whole thing with Landon last night? She would know immediately that something was up. She already knew that I had gone out and done something the previous night, something that I hadn’t wanted to give her the details on.

  She knew that I had gone on a date. Or sort of a date. I still wasn’t sure what I thought about the drinks portion of the evening. It hadn’t been framed as a date. It had been framed as a meeting between friends. Showing him around the town. But I had a feeling we both knew what it had really been. It was more like a date. And it had ended just the way that any good date should.

  I definitely didn’t regret it. I had spent half the night dreaming about Landon, feeling phantom fingers trace my body from cheek to thigh. God, it had been good. The sex had been really good. And as long as I could keep thinking of it as just sex, just a meaningless date that led to some meaningless sex, then it was all good.

  The only question was, could I keep thinking of things in those terms? Or did I want it to be something more?

  It was probably a good thing that I was meeting up with Lina. If there was anyone who could help me sort out the chaos in my head, it was her. She knew me better than I knew myself. Of course, I knew that she would also be biased in this instance. She wanted me to meet the perfect guy and have that storybook romance. But I wasn’t looking for that, and I hoped that she would respect that.

  When I really thought about it, this was my first real rebound since the disaster that had been my previous relationship. My last relationship. Might as well have a little fun and try not to get too attached.

  Sure enough, Lina barely waited until our drinks were served before she leaned across toward me. “So what were those mysterious plans of yours anyway?” she asked. “What did you get up to last night? And don’t you dare tell me that you just binge-watched something on TV or I swear to God, I’m disowning you as a best friend.”

  I laughed and shook my head. “Don’t do that,” I said playfully. I shrugged. “You remember the guy from the pharmacy? Not Donald but that customer. Landon.”

  “I knew it!” Lina said excitedly. She looked like she was ready to start clapping her hands. I glanced around, wishing that she would keep her voice down a little. The last thing I needed was for everyone in Sarasota to know that I was sleeping with the new guy. That I had slept with the new guy at least. I didn’t know if it would happen again.

  “So what did you do?” Lina asked, pressing for details.

  I tried to act nonchalant. “We went for drinks, and then we went back to my place.”

  “Oh,” Lina said, suddenly looking uncertain.

  I frowned, wondering what was wrong. “You didn’t want
him for yourself, did you?” I asked, confused.

  “Oh no!” Lina said, shaking her head. “I just didn’t expect you to go to bed with him so fast. Are you sure that’s such a good idea?”

  I rolled my eyes. “It’s nothing to worry about,” I told her.

  “I know, I know,” Lina said. “Because all guys are jerks and you’re not looking for the one. But I just don’t want you getting in over your head. Sometimes the heart wants things, you know. And I know you’re still upset after everything that happened, you know. Before.”

  I grimaced. “You don’t have to make it sound so dramatic,” I said. “I’ve already thought about this. It’s kind of a rebound. Because yeah, I still have feelings about my ex. Good and bad. But I think this is good for me. It’s just sex. Good sex.” I lowered my voice. “I don’t think I’ve ever come that hard in my life,” I admitted. “I didn’t even know I could.” It was more detail than I would normally share with her, but I was hoping it would distract her from whatever emotional distress she thought I should be in. Because I was fine, really.

  Lina giggled and shook her head. “Well, I guess that’s good,” she said. “If you’re going to go home with someone on the first date, it had better be worth it.”

  “It wasn’t really a date,” I said. “We went for drinks, but it was more about showing him around town, nothing more. We’re just friends. With benefits.”

  “Huh,” Lina said, but I could tell that she didn’t believe me, not fully at least. “Are you going to see him again?”

  “I don’t actually know,” I admitted. “I don’t think so. It was just one night.”

  “But you want to see him again,” Lina said, sounding confused. “At least, that’s the vibe that I’m getting from you.”

  I sighed and rubbed at my temple. “I mean, yeah, I guess,” I admitted. “I’d like to see him again. Like I said, the sex was really, really good. But I don’t want to make the mistake of thinking this is something more than it is. It was just sex. And I know that the longer I continue to see him, the more likely I am to develop feelings for him. Not because he’s the kind of guy that I would develop feelings for, but just because that’s the way these things go, isn’t it?” I shook my head. “Better just to stop it now, before I get in over my head. It was just one night.”