by Evelyn Glass
“What can I get you to eat?”
I ordered for us both the way a gentleman should for a lady. I let her choose from the menu. To my delight, she chose steak and not some fluffy salad.
“You’re a woman after my own heart,” I said after we’d placed our order. “Girls are usually so concerned about their weight.”
“Oh, God. I should probably be, but I love food. My metabolism has been kind to me.”
I shook my head. “You really don’t have to worry about your weight. You’re stunning inside and out.”
She blushed again. I was going to keep complimenting her all night so I could just see her blush. It was the most beautiful thing to see a woman who still took compliments like that and turned it into a gift to me. Most women expected flattery and it did nothing for them in the end.
“Okay, let’s take the plunge,” she said and nodded toward the manuscript. “You have all sorts of criticism. That pen is making me nervous.”
I opened the first page. “You really don’t have to be.”
She folded her arms on the table and leaned forward, ready to hear what I had to say. I wondered if she knew how good it made her cleavage look. Maybe she had done it on purpose, but I doubted it.
“First of all, your characterization is brilliant. The way you build these people up and give them life is something very few people manage in books.”
She smiled. “Thank you.”
“Your dialogue is great, too. It’s something special. You write the way you talk.”
“How is that?”
“Witty and quick.”
She shook her head. “When you said positive criticism I thought there would be more criticism than positive.”
I laughed. “I’m getting to that. The good things first.”
She nodded, sipping her cocktail. It was a blue mix of something that looked like it might be potent. I sipped my three fingers of Whiskey on the rocks. It wasn’t my favorite but in a place like this it seemed silly to order a Corona so this was my usual for this restaurant. It was a little like all the faces I put up for different people in different areas of my life.
“Your action scenes are fast-paced, which is good, but you don’t plan them, do you?”
She shook her head and I nodded. “I can tell. If you write with a plan you might be able to fix that and not write yourself into a corner.”
She groaned. “You’re not the first person to tell me that. The ladies at the writing club I belong to all tell me the same thing. I guess now that an outsider has mentioned it, too, it must be true.”
I leaned back. “You’re part of a writing club?”
She nodded. “We meet once or twice a week, depending on how busy everyone is, and then we read our new pages to each other and discuss how it fits in with the rest of the book and how we can make it better. They’re great ladies and brilliant writers and the discussions are really good. They agree that the male lead needs to be a biker.”
I raised my eyebrows at her. “You talked about me?”
“I…well, yes, I just…I needed to. You know, Francis needs work.”
She was cute when she stuttered like that, finding an answer to a question she hadn’t expected. She’d talked herself into a corner the same way she wrote herself into a corner now and then. The fact that she’d spoken about me to her friends just made me feel like something special.
“I like that you mentioned me to your friends.”
She shrugged. “I told them you were an asshole.”
I laughed, unable to help my surprise. “You think that of me?”
She nodded. “You’re managing to redeem yourself - it’s not as bad as it was before.”
I couldn’t believe she was saying that, but it was true and I knew it. The insult stung a little but the fact that was willing to be honest with me trumped that.
“What else?”
I looked at the manuscript again. “You can work on your voice a little if you don’t mind me saying. Your characters all sound the same. Like you. Just try to give them different voices.”
She nodded. “Noted.”
I scratched my head, forgetting I’d slicked my hair down. I flattened it again and got irritated with the oil on my hand. I really wanted a smoke but I wasn’t going to smoke in front of Selena. That would be rude.
“Other than that, I really just think that your commitment is commendable.”
“That’s a big word for a biker.”
I shook my head, smiling. Sometimes she jabbed me with little insults, almost like we were play-fighting. In a way, we were.
“Sorry.”
I smiled. “Don’t be. It is a big word for a biker. I know a lot of my men who won’t be able to understand what you’re saying, and I mean that in the nicest way possible with no disrespect to them. I’m just not your average biker.”
“I have to agree with you on that.”
It was when she followed up her jabs with compliments like that, on the fly and so quick I wouldn’t notice if I weren’t paying attention, that made it all worthwhile.
“The discipline it takes to write a book is insane,” I carried on. “And you wrote over two hundred pages already. Not only is that amazing because you made the story work for two hundred pages, all in a row, but you stuck to it. I know a lot of people who would just give up.”
“It sounds a lot like your criticism has gone over into flattery,” she said. And it was true, it did. But there was a side of her I really admired, not as a man looking at a woman but as one lover of literature to another.
“You spend a lot of time in books, don’t you?”
Her question was about a side of me I didn’t often show, but I’d shown her so much of that side lately it wouldn’t really make a different if I lied to her.
“Yes, I do. For different reasons, but the literature side isn’t commonly known. You should feel honored.”
“Oh, I do.”
The food finally came and we were quiet while Maxine and another waitress put our plates in front of us. The food smelled great. I ordered another whiskey and got another cocktail for Selena.
“Thanks, Maxine,” I said before the waitress disappeared again.
“Oh, she has a name.” The comment suggested she wanted to know why I was referring to the waitress by name if there was a backstory.
“My past with her is completely professional. She works for me. I call her by her first name. It’s very simple.”
Selena looked at the food on her plate, nodding. “I don’t mean to sound like a jealous woman,” she said. “What you do with other women is your business.”
I shook my head, looking at her even though she wasn’t willing to make eye contact. “What I do with other women is my business, but the one thing you should realize is that you’re not like the other women, and no matter what happened with them, they can never compare.”
She looked up at me, her eyes a deep blue like the ocean. “Isn’t a bit soon to be able to say something like that?”
I shook my head. “The fact that it is this soon and I know it already should tell you how different you are from them, and how much I noticed.”
She looked like she wasn’t sure what to make of that comment. Instead of answering me she cut a perfect square of her steak and put it in her mouth, chewing. After she swallowed she looked at me. “This food is really good. You should let your chef know.”
We ate in silence for a while, the manuscript and the sudden serious talk was forgotten for a while.
“You still haven’t told me anything about yourself. You know every inch of me and I know nothing of you.”
I frowned. “I don’t know anything about you, either. Other than that you’re a writer, of course.”
She nodded and swallowed the bite she was chewing. “You’re right, but you read my book. That gives you some kind of insight into my soul that I don’t have of you.”
I had to agree, she was right. I didn’t know her well but I felt like I
could relate to her on a lot of different levels because I’d read her work. I felt closer to her somehow, and she hadn’t had that privilege with me.
“I don’t have a book you can read that lets you know who I am, but you can ask me anything you want and I’ll tell you truthfully.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “That’s a very dangerous statement to make.”
It really was. “That should be a testament to how much I trust you right now.”
A smile played across her lips and it made me want to kiss her. Really badly.
“You really shouldn’t.” Her smile was sexy as hell.
That erection from earlier returned and I tried to tell myself to behave. It didn’t work as well this time. The whiskey had relaxed me and I was starting to look at her body more than her face.
Judging by how easily her smile came now and how she talked more and more I was guessing she felt the alcohol, too.
“Come on, give it a shot.”
She thought for a moment.
“You said that your businesses - plural? - were started with dishonest money. What were you doing?”
I winced. “Cutting right to the chase, huh?” Why had I told her I would answer anything? There were sides of my life I didn’t want her to know about. Selena was a goddess and I wanted to look like a god to her for as long as I could. I didn’t want her to be disappointed in me so early in the game. Still, a promise was a promise. I took a deep breath. “Have you heard of one-percenters?”
She shook her head.
“Okay. It’s said that ninety-nine percent of biker gangs are law-abiding citizens that just like to get together to ride together. There is that one percent, though. Those bikers are outlaws and they do all sorts of things that aren’t right, like trafficking or smuggling drugs or other criminal activities. The Fallen Thorns - my gang - weren’t always as good as we are now. We’ve changed a lot of things.”
I watched her closely, hoping I could tell by her face when her opinion of me changed. I couldn’t tell at all. Her face was an expressionless mask and she just nodded, listening to me speak.
“What did you used to do?”
I looked around. Admitting something like our past and letting the information finds its way to the wrong ears was dangerous for everyone, not just me. The restaurant was quiet with diners all around us paying attention only to their own company. “We smuggled drugs. We moved product every night with people on the lookout for police. We were the middle man between one buyer and another and we took a cut of the money.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Enabling, then.”
I nodded. It could be said that that was what we did.
“Did you ever use?”
I shook my head. “I’d seen too many people in my life get fucked up - sorry, messed up - completely from taking drugs. I will never get into that, and if any of my men do I will beat them until they’re right back on the straight and narrow.”
Her face softened despite my violent reaction and my accidental swearing. “You care about them a lot.”
“Can you tell?”
“It really shows.”
After everything I told her, that was what she took away from it? I was really starting to like this girl.
“What else do you want to know?”
She looked around the restaurant, sipping her cocktail and thinking.
“You mentioned that riches mean nothing when you don’t have someone to share it with.” Oh boy, here we go. “You didn’t have anyone special in your life?”
I shook my head. I didn’t really want to talk about May, but maybe it would be good for Selena to know about my psycho ex, just in case she made an appearance. “I had someone in my life while I was walking on the wrong side of the law. She was there before I hit it big before I bought into all the businesses. I thought we could build an empire together, you know? It’s always so much more special when you’ve worked for it together.”
She chewed slowly while I talked, listening. “That didn’t last?” she asked after swallowing. I shook my head.
“She changed. She’s crazy, and I don’t mean that in a joking way. She’s just not the kind of person who can accept the life I’ve chosen. She wasn’t interested in straightening out and now that I have all this, she wants a cut without being willing to give up her ways for it.”
Selena frowned. “It sounds like she’s still in the picture.”
I’d talked myself into a corner. It was this damn alcohol. I shrugged, trying to look like it didn’t matter. “She’s trying to be, but I won’t let her. She’s nothing to me anymore. She should never have been. I was young and stupid. I’m creeping closer to thirty now and I understand the value of life a lot more than I did before. We all make mistakes when we’re young. Sometimes they just come back to haunt us.”
She nodded and took carried on eating. I was nervous about the silence, scared that it meant she thought differently now. When she looked up at me again her eyes were bright.
“You know, you still haven’t told me why you had children’s DVDs under your name for that fine.”
She was smiling at me again and all the nerves about her changing her mind about me melted away. I didn’t know how she did it, but she was able to look past my horrible past and the things that made me sound terrible and still see me as a person. There was something incredibly sexy about that.
“Are you done eating?” I asked when she put the knife and fork together on the plate. She nodded. I held out my hand to her across the table.
“Will you come to the back with me?”
She didn’t hesitate before she took my hand. We got up and I led her to a door that led to the VIP area.
Chapter 9
Selena
The moment we passed through the door we were in some kind of VIP room. It had deep red walls and carpets to match so it looked like we were inside the chamber of a heart. Low black couches and coffee tables were scattered in groups across the floor and there were two bars to the side had black marble tops and the whole place seemed a whole lot more intense than the general dining area outside.
Logan locked the door. Why did a door to the VIP room even have a lock on it? This was where things were going to go from warm to hellishly hot, but I wasn’t going to fight it. I’d had enough alcohol that I didn’t feel shy around Logan and the way he moved in his suit when he came closer to me after closing the door gave me thoughts about what might be under his clothes.
He stood right in front of me and I could feel his body heat. His eyes were on mine and they were dark and drowning deep. I could tumble into them forever. I knew on some level that this was the alcohol talking. I didn’t care. It could talk all night long if it wanted to. My nipples hardened against the strapless black bra I was wearing under my dress and I shifted my weight from one leg to the other.
Logan brought his hand up to my hair and ran his fingers through it, playing with a strand. His hand brushed against my neck when he did and it sent shivers down my spine.
He didn’t wait. He leaned in and pressed his lips against mine. If I wanted to stop it I wouldn’t have had time to, but I really didn’t want to stop him. His lips were warm and full, perfect lips for kissing, and they tasted vaguely like the whiskey he’d been drinking. Whiskey and smoke even though he hadn’t had a smoke since I’d arrived at the restaurant. I didn’t know why, but there was something ridiculously attractive about the taste of alcohol on Logan’s lips. It was almost like there was more at play than just his emotions. It made me feel like he might be rawer.
Like me.
I leaned into Logan and the kissing grew more urgent. His hand came up and he cupped my cheek, making my face feel delicate. His tongue was in my mouth, circling mine, tasting me. He knew exactly what he was doing. He stepped closer than he already was, pushing his body against mine completely. I felt his lust against my hip, a long, hard shaft. I shuddered.
He slid his other hand over my shoulder, down my arm, and to my hand.
His fingers intertwined with mine for a moment before he let go and moved it to my hip. His hand slid over my ass, the back of my thigh and back up again, over my back and into my hair. The whole motion made me feel sexy and beautiful and it pulled my body even tighter against his. My breasts pushed up against his chest and I gasped into his mouth.
My body pulsed, heat flooding through my body, pooling between my legs, responding to the kissing, his body so taut against mine, the hardness in his pants. His hand slipped around from my cheek underneath my hair onto my neck. I put my arms around his neck, melding us together. I pushed my hands under his suit jacket and he stopped just long enough to shrug out of it.
The shirt he wore was a crisp white. I pulled off the tie and undid the front button so I could push my hands into his collar onto his bare skin. His breathing changed, getting harder and more erratic.
“Tell me to stop,” he mumbled against my mouth.
“Hmm?”
“Tell me to stop. If you don’t tell me now I’m going to take you.”
I moaned against his mouth, my body reacting to his words. “Don’t stop,” I whispered.
That was what did it. It changed from something relatively gentle to being completely wild. He looked for the zipper on my dress and yanked it down when he found it. He peeled the dress off me until I stood in front of him in my black strapless bra and matching panties. He took a moment to look at my body, ogling like a boy before he pulled me closer again and started kissing me. He kissed down my neck, over my collarbone and onto the soft skin of my chest. His hands were behind my back and in a flash he had my bra unclipped and it fell to the floor without much help. The cool air made my nipples tighten even more, and the next moment Logan had his mouth over one nipple, sucking and nibbling gently.
I tipped my head back and gasped, getting lost in the sensation of his mouth turning on every other part of my body, awakening the side of me that had been dormant for far too long.
I realized at some point he was still dressed and reached for his buckle. I fumbled with it, trying to get it undone. After a while of fiddling, I pulled back.
“Can you just do this, please?” I had wanted it to be romantic but jealous wives invented buckles so mistresses went through hell and I hated them. Logan chuckled and took care of his own buckle. I undid his pants and pulled them down when he did. He stepped out of them. His sex strained against his jocks, pushing out toward me. I undid his buttons and returned the favor of mouth on skin, kissing a hot trail down his smooth chest and stomach. He got rid of the shirt. I curled my fingers around the jocks’ elastic and pulled them away and down. He sprung free and, good God, he was a sight to behold.
