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

by Blair Grey

  I was definitely hungry, but not exactly for food. I didn’t want to make her any more nervous, though. I was still trying to let her be the one to call the shots. The last thing I wanted was for her to kick me out again.

  “I’d love to have some dinner with you,” I told her.

  She nodded and led the way into the kitchen. “Is there anything I can help with?” I asked while she checked the oven and started pulling down plates.

  She glanced over her shoulder at me, like she was surprised that I had asked. “There’s some stuff in the fridge for a salad," she said.

  “I’m on it,” I told her, moving toward the sink to wash my hands.

  But I had no sooner turned on the water than she was there, behind me, running her fingers up my back underneath my shirt. And it was as though that touch broke whatever resolve I might have had to let her call the shots, to take things as slowly as she wanted. I couldn’t help responding to her, my dick throbbing as all the blood in my body shot southward.

  I growled and turned around, pulling her close to me and kissing her fervently.

  28

  Anne

  When it really came down to it, I knew exactly what I was doing, so it wasn’t a surprise when I ended up in my kitchen pressed against Landon’s muscular body, his tongue plundering my mouth for all it was worth. Nor did I try to fight it.

  I suppose the adrenaline and the tension had worn away some, leaving me aching with the need not to be alone. As the afternoon had gone on, I had imagined worse and worse scenarios in my head, each of which seemed to end with Landon either beaten to a pulp or involved in some other worse kind of accident. Seeing him there at my house, in the flesh, looking both very much alive and unharmed, made something inside of me relax, but I wasn’t ready to let him out of my sight. Not just yet.

  I didn’t believe him for a moment, though, when he told me that he wasn’t in trouble. I wasn’t sure where that little bit of intuition came from or if it was just that I didn’t trust him fully, but I knew there was something he wasn’t telling me.

  I wasn’t ready to tell him about the guys who had come by the pharmacy yet, though. When I really thought about it, I was pretty sure it was because I wanted him to tell me the kind of trouble he was in before he found out that I already knew about it. I wanted him to prove that I could trust him.

  There were other ways to get information out of him, though. If I could get him sleepy, sated, and spent, maybe he would be more forthcoming.

  Besides, I wasn’t sure that I could keep my hands off him. I knew we were trying to keep things strictly friendly between us, but I had to admit that I had missed him lately. Of course, it had only been a couple days since the last time we had seen each other, when he had shown up at my work. It hadn’t even been a week since our last date—since the coupling we’d done in the back room of the pharmacy.

  It seemed like it had been forever, though. My body ached for his touch. So it was only too easy to move toward him, to stroke my hands up his broad, firm back, feeling his muscles clench and then release as he relaxed into my touch.

  He turned around and claimed my lips with a kiss, and I forgot that this was partly just a scheme to get him to tell me what kind of trouble he was in. What kind of trouble he had maybe gotten me involved in. No, I just simply wanted him. I couldn’t think of anything else.

  We continued to kiss as he backed me out of the kitchen and toward the stairs. I was distantly glad that I had at least thought to pull out the lasagna and shut off the oven before I had moved over to touch him. Otherwise, we might have burned the whole building down, and I wasn’t even sure that I cared.

  That was silly. Of course I cared. He just had some strange way of making me forget, of scattering my worries to the wind.

  I tripped a couple times going backward up the stairs, but Landon was there to steady me each time, his fingers tight on my hips as he guided me into my bedroom. Neither of us said a word as he started removing my clothing, staring deep into my eyes as he did so. I shivered, feeling naked even before he had me stripped down to my bare skin. As though he could tell just what I was thinking.

  As though he knew that I was starting to develop feelings for him.

  He finished stripping me down and pushed me back toward the bed, his eyes still locked on mine as he shimmied out of his own clothing.

  He climbed on top of me, twisting his fingers in my hair, just barely pulling at it. His lips, when they claimed mine, were forceful as well. There was nothing tender and sweet about this, no lovemaking involved. But it was somehow just what I needed right then, and I wondered how he had known. I could feel my body relaxing back against the sheets, earlier worries all but gone as he made use of my body in ways that only he seemed capable of doing.

  He jammed his fingers inside of my slick hole, twisting and turning them, always seeking deeper points of pleasure inside of me as I writhed against the sheets. He didn’t spend long preparing me, though, before he was replacing his fingers with something else, something much thicker. His cock throbbed with heat, and I practically sobbed with the need for it.

  He set a quick, frenzied pace, slamming into me over and over again. Each time, I cried out. And each time, his grip on my hips tightened until I knew that he was leaving small, finger-shaped bruises there. But I needed this, more than I could ever put into words.

  It wasn’t love. It wasn’t even a relationship. It was just sex. And right then, at that moment, we were using each other, unable to forget how much we appreciated the other person’s body. So maybe I couldn’t keep my hands off him. And maybe this would never amount to anything. But why not enjoy it while it lasted?

  Again and again, Landon pressed into me, forcing me to open myself to him, giving me pleasure beyond my wildest dreams.

  Until it was all over. We came in unison, me screaming his name and him groaning out mine. He tumbled off to the side, and we both lay there for a long moment, harsh breaths the only noise in the house. I didn’t feel sated like I had before when we’d had sex. If anything, I felt like I needed more, like I was still full of pent-up energy just waiting to spill over.

  Should I ask him to leave again? Should I lead him downstairs so that we could eat dinner? But when I really thought about it, I wasn’t exactly hungry, and I didn’t want to leave the room. I didn’t want to break this spell between us. I wanted to stay here, with him, where I felt safe.

  Safe.

  I remembered why I had asked him to come over her, and suddenly I remembered my plan. This hadn’t just been about the sex. It hadn’t been about the fact that I couldn’t stop thinking about him or the fact that I couldn’t seem to keep my hands off him. No, this had all been part of some other plan.

  I rolled over to the side and put my head on his chest.

  “What’s wrong?” Landon asked immediately, and I wondered how it was that after we had spent so little time together, he could already read my emotions so easily. I absently traced patterns across his chest, but finally, I decided just to spit it out.

  “Are you in some sort of trouble?”

  Landon stiffened. “I already promised you that I wasn’t,” he said, and for a second, I thought that he was going to get up and leave, without my even having to ask him to.

  It was in that moment that I realized just how much I didn’t want him to go. I knew I was playing with fire. I knew I was well on the way to a broken heart. But I also knew that I was developing feelings for him and that I didn’t want this to end, not yet. I wanted to enjoy it while it lasted.

  So I nuzzled closer to him. “I know you told me that. But I just want to make sure you know that you can tell me the truth. If you’re in danger or anything. Or if there’s anything that you need me to know?”

  Landon was silent for a moment, and I could practically feel all the secrets hanging in the air between us. Maybe if I told him a secret of my own, the fact that I was falling madly in love with him, he would be freer with his own secrets. Maybe he wo
uld be able to tell me about the three men at the pharmacy today.

  Or maybe it would only screw up everything between us, even worse than it already was.

  “Everything is fine,” Landon finally told me, his voice a low rumble beneath my ear as his fingers stroked down along my spine. He shifted beneath me, and I clung to him, afraid that he was going to leave.

  I should be asking him to leave. I knew what came of cuddling. It was only going to make losing him that much more difficult. But then again, I was in for tears either way, so why not let myself have this for now?

  “Are you in some sort of danger?” Landon asked slowly, and for a second, I wondered if he knew about all of it. But he sounded mostly just wary. Curious. Like he might almost want to protect me?

  I shook my head. “No danger,” I said, even though that was a lie as well. I was in danger, but he was the one who was set to ruin me. The only way I could explain this danger was to tell him that my heart was in his hands. I knew what the outcome of that would be.

  “Do you want me to leave?” Landon asked.

  I shook my head before I had even finished processing his words. Did that make me look too needy, too wanton? But Landon hummed softly. “Good,” he said. “Because all I want is to hold you tonight.” He paused. “And maybe go for round two, when you’re feeling up to it.”

  I giggled, even though I still felt curiously unbalanced by all of this. Oh, it was hopeless. I was hopelessly in love with him. I only hoped he wasn’t actually in danger, because losing him was going to break my heart.

  All thoughts for protection went out the window, though, as he rolled me over onto my side and curled around me so that my back was pressed against his sculpted chest. It had been a while, now, and even though sex between us was undeniably utilitarian, there was something sweet about that action that made tears spring to my eyes.

  I held my body very still, willing myself not to start sobbing, and slowly drifted off to sleep.

  29

  Landon

  Waking up with Anne still nestled in my arms was every bit as perfect as I had imagined that it would be. I smiled down at her still-sleeping form, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead. She looked relaxed there, her cheek pressed against my chest, her worried look from the previous night replaced by something much sweeter.

  I thought back to her questions from the night before. How she kept asking me if I was in trouble or if I was in danger, if there was anything that she needed to know about. It had to be Braxton, like I’d suspected. I didn’t know what he had said to her, but he must have wanted to convince her that I was no good for her.

  And to be honest, I wasn’t sure that I was. The more I got to know her, the more I realized just how sweet she was under that take-charge, confident exterior that she often put up. She acted so no-nonsense, but I could tell that she was craving something whimsical in her life, someone who would tell her how beautiful she was and make sure that she felt loved.

  I wasn’t the right person to do that. I was just some biker from New Mexico, and I wouldn’t be in Sarasota for much longer. There was a reason we were just friends, and it wasn’t just that she kept insisting that we keep our distance.

  But right then, at that moment, with her still asleep on my chest, I wondered if there could be some way for me to stay in Florida, to date her for real, to wake up in bed with her every single morning for the rest of my life.

  I shook my head, trying to clear it of the fantasies. Not only was there no way for me to do that, but I didn’t want to do that. My whole life was back in New Mexico, and I wasn’t giving that up, not for some girl. Even if she was as amazing as Anne was.

  I was going to break her heart. But I was starting to realize that she might have a little hold on my heart as well. Leaving her behind was definitely going to hurt. But it was what I was going to have to do.

  The only thing I could do would be to explain everything to her. Everything. She had to know why I couldn’t stay. She was too nice of a girl to get caught up in Red Eyes business. What’s more, she would know that I was lying. I didn’t know how she knew, whether Braxton had told her or what, but I could tell from her questions the previous evening that she had some inkling of what I was involved in.

  Maybe telling her about Red Eyes and the Mambas and the reason I was here in Sarasota would soften the blow of the fact that I had to leave her. For both of us. Talking it out might be a good thing.

  Anne shifted and stirred, scrunching up her nose and then blinking her eyes open. She seemed confused for a moment, and then she looked up at me and blushed.

  “Good morning,” I said, ready to tell her everything before we had even had breakfast. I had lied to her, the night before when I told her that I wasn’t in any trouble and that there was nothing she needed to know about. And it was eating at me.

  But Anne rolled to the edge of the bed and sat up, knuckling at her sleepy eyes. She looked back over her shoulder at me. “I have to get to work,” she said.

  That was it. Toneless, inflectionless. Like she didn’t care.

  Because she didn’t. Who was I trying to kid? We were just friends with benefits. I knew that. That was all we were ever going to be. She wasn’t stupid enough to get tangled up with a guy like me, even if she didn’t quite know what I was mixed up in. I had to let her go.

  I didn’t want to worry her, anyway, I rationalized. As soon as I told her about Red Eyes and the Mambas, she was going to start thinking that I might get hurt. And I couldn’t help remembering how she had been when I had had that allergic reaction. That had been a mild reaction to a food. It was nothing like the level of injury the Mambas could do to me if they decided to come after me.

  So I didn’t tell her about any of it. She had to go to work anyway. Now wasn’t the time.

  “Wish we could stay in bed all morning,” I told her, grinning and resting a hand on her lower back for a moment.

  To my surprise, she didn’t pull away. Instead, she just blushed. But then, she gave herself a little shake and stood up. “I wish we could too,” she said quietly, her voice barely audible. “But I have work.”

  “I know,” I said, smiling to let her know that I understood. “But I’ll see you again soon?”

  “Yeah,” Anne said, and this time, she sounded surprisingly sure. Like she was done running away. I counted that as a little victory, even though I didn’t know what had changed between us.

  She finished getting dressed just as I was buttoning my jeans. “Can you lock up as you leave?” she asked, leaning up on her toes so that she could kiss my cheek.

  “Yeah, of course,” I said.

  She slipped out of the room and down the stairs while I pulled on my T-shirt. I heard the front door open and close, and then she was gone. I smiled to myself, feeling like I had won some sort of victory since she hadn’t kicked me out this time.

  I headed outside as well, locking the door behind me as I went. I frowned at the black van sitting in front of her house. It looked vaguely familiar, but what’s more, it looked out of place here. It definitely wasn’t the kind of vehicle that Anne would drive, so why was it parked in front of her house?

  I walked closer to it, trying to figure out why it looked so familiar. But as soon as I got close, the vehicle pulled away. It was as I watched it retreat that it suddenly hit me. That was the car that Braxton and I had chased. The one that the Mambas had been driving. And they had just watched me leave Anne’s house, right after she had left.

  I felt a sickening churning in my gut remembering what that first shopkeeper had said. The Mambas weren’t like other MCs. They didn’t go after you specifically. They went after those that you cared about. First, they had sent me that note, threatening Braxton. And now, they had to know about Anne.

  I immediately headed home. “Braxton!” I yelled the minute I was in the door.

  “What’s up?” he asked, running down to the hall. “Jesus, Landon, what’s going on? Has something happened to Neil or the other
guys?”

  “No,” I said shaking my head. “But we need to grab Jason and head over to the pharmacy. Now.”

  “What the hell have you done?” Braxton asked, but he was already putting his shoes on.

  “I think the Mambas are following Anne. And I’m worried what they might do to her. I just saw that van, you know the one that we chased, parked outside her house. They watched me leave there.”

  “Fuck,” Braxton muttered, running a hand back through his hair. “All right, let’s go.”

  We grabbed Jason. And drove toward the pharmacy. “So who is this chick?” Jason asked as we went.

  “She’s his fuck buddy,” Braxton said, rolling his eyes. He gave me a look. “I told you that you shouldn’t get involved with her.”

  I gave him a look. “Did you tell her that?” I asked. “Because she was after me yesterday about some sort of…” I trailed off and started swearing under my breath. In retrospect, it was so obvious. It wasn’t Braxton who had come to see her at the pharmacy. He wasn’t the reason that she thought I was involved in some sort of trouble.

  I put my foot on the gas, speeding up and just praying that I didn’t get a ticket.

  “So what’s the plan?” Jason asked as I idled across the road from the pharmacy. I was scanning the street, but I didn’t see the black van. That could be a good thing. Maybe I was just imagining things.

  Or maybe they had already come by and grabbed Anne and taken her hostage. I felt sick just thinking about it.

  “She’s still in there,” Braxton said, pointing toward a silhouette in the window. I might be the brains of this operation, but he had always had sharper vision than me. I had to trust that he was right.

  I exhaled noisily, feeling all the tension go out of me at once.