Untouchable: A Dark Bad Boy Romance

by Kathryn Thomas

  “I’ve been trying to be reasonable. I've been holding onto this rock for so long. I didn’t want to wait. I don’t want to wait because I want you to be mine. I want it to be official. I want to give you my last name. Living with you and seeing you every day is great. It’s perfect, but I can't rest knowing there could be more. I want everything, Quinn. I want every part of you, and I want to give you every part of me, too.”

  I leaned up and kissed him.

  He was ridiculous.

  He was mine.

  We sat and I was distracted the entire duration of the event. I couldn’t stop staring at the rock. It was a yellow-tinted diamond on a rose gold band. I had never told him anything about the kind of ring I wanted or what I liked. He probably chose the color because his team was the Yellow Jackets. That meant he remembered his team was my favorite. It fit perfectly, which I had no idea how he had managed. I couldn’t see him in a jewelry store trying to tell the people who worked there that he was looking for an engagement ring. It was large and it was ostentatious, but the band was slim and delicate. The rock was perfectly clear. I wondered whether it was all his choice or whether he had help. I didn’t care either way. I was just curious. I loved it regardless. I loved him regardless.

  Dante squeezing my hand reminded me that we were at a function and I had to be present. They were about to announce who was going to beat me for the award. I sat up straight in my seat and tried to pay attention. Some night Dante had chosen to completely knock me on my ass. Was it too late to just go the fuck home?

  “Quinn Blaze.” I heard my name, but I didn’t immediately remember why it was important that I had just heard it. Dante stood beside me, pulling me up and hugging me.

  Oh.

  I had won.

  I felt like an idiot for not paying attention and realizing what was going on. I had to get to the stage. The walk there felt like it was miles long. There was applause and I realized on the way up that I had no idea what I was going to say. I had not been expecting this. A lot of people would say that they hadn’t been expecting it but then they would launch into an entire articulate prepared speech. That was not going to be me. I had no clue what I was going to say.

  I tried to concentrate on walking without falling. I received my award and walked up to the mic to give my speech. I wanted it to be short, but I wanted it to be honest. There was only one reason I had put the doc together. This speech was for him.

  “This is an amazing honor,” I began. “I could never have expected that when I was putting the documentary together that it would be this well received. I went into creating it…not because of the story I wanted to tell…but because of the man the story was about. Dante Rock is a man who we are going to keep talking about because he has done exceptional things and will keep doing them.”

  I paused as the audience applauded.

  “When I met Dante, I never expected that our interactions and conversations would turn into the finished piece. I have to dedicate this award to him because without him there would be no documentary. I learned a lot from him. I know things about him that I am happy he told me. He is the kind of man that many, myself included, at the beginning were eager to classify and put into a tidy box. Dante Rock defies definition. He showed me what he really is… which was much, much more than we all thought or wanted to give him credit for. This is for you Dante. I love you. Thank you.”

  THE END

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  RIPPED

  CHAPTER ONE

  There was something freeing about wearing a wig. There was something to be said about a different hair color. About different clothes and different moves. About a different persona. About a different name. About a different life.

  Eve Robinson was only Eve Robinson by daylight. At night, she was someone else. At night, she was Trinity, and it may not be a very original name for an alter ego, but it was hers, and it was secret, and it was exciting. Trinity did things Eve didn’t do. Trinity danced on poles, her lean but muscular thighs wrapping around the metal bar like a snake coiling around its prey. Trinity stripped, never completely nude but enough that the imagination wouldn’t have much work left to do. Trinity let strangers slip dollar bills past the elastic band of her garter, the adoration in their eyes sending a thrill down her spine. Trinity flirted but didn’t let herself be touched. Trinity drank moderately during the evening and then unashamedly later on with the other girls—when the club was closed and they danced only for themselves.

  Trinity was wild and free and unattainable. Trinity was a fortress of curves and sexy moves that Eve Robinson wasn’t supposed to even know about, let alone be able to perform. With Trinity, every night was different.

  But no night would ever be as different as the one that both Trinity and Eve were about to experience.

  She didn’t normally pay much attention to the outside world when she danced; she didn’t want to. Up there, on the club’s platform, there were only two things that mattered: the music and her body—its movements, its twists and turns, her curves and limbs and skin driving strange men insane. For the duration of one song, the power of her body was all that mattered and all that she would allow herself to experience. After all, she danced to get lost in it.

  So, she normally didn’t notice new arrivals, especially since the nightclub was large and busy and a constant whirl of comings and goings. That night, however, she did notice. She noticed them. She noticed him.

  It was just impossible not to. Eve had seen her fair share of striking men, both in her daytime life and her nighttime one, but he was something else. He walked into the room and everything stopped…or at the very least, it felt like it should have. It seemed unfathomable to her that the world should keep turning while he was around.

  Tall, with strong shoulders and unruly mid-length black hair that fell in front of eyes that were such a deep blue one could drown in them, and so sharp that one could be killed by a single look. Their eyes only met for a moment as Trinity danced on the platform, but it was enough for her to almost miss her step. He wasn’t the leader of the small group of men he had walked in with, but Eve thought that he should be. His body language exuded a quiet, dangerous sort of confidence. It was the kind of confidence possessed by someone who knew he was not to be messed with and whose knowledge of that fact was not boasting—it was just a fact.

  Eve kept her eyes on him and, once her number was done, she hid within the backstage doorway to spy on him as he walked with his group towards the privet and disappeared behind the heavy red velvet curtains.

  “You’ve got your eyes on the wrong man, Trinny,” said the sultry voice of Jessica. (Of course, that wasn’t her real name either.) Eve turned around to find her friend staring at her; the warning clear in her tone. “That’s a dangerous one.”

  Eve hesitated. Thirty-eight years old and twenty years in the business, Jessica was smart, wise, and experienced. Making love to a dance pole every night wasn’t a hobby for her in the same way that it was for Eve, and it certainly wasn’t an escape. For Jessica, it was a job, her only source of income. Jessica had seen more than one single person should have to see in a lifetime, and she wasn’t casual about throwing the word “dangerous” around.

  Still, rather than scaring her, that notion only intrigued Eve more.

  “Who is he?” she asked, still keeping an eye on the privet as if she could see the guy who had grabbed her attention so firmly through the thick fabric of the curtains.

  “He’s the Viper.”

  “Who?”

  When the craziness of her leading a double life began, Eve had been very careful in picking an area of the city as far away from her more normal, respectable daytime life as possible. She couldn’t and wouldn’t risk running into someone who knew her. This came with the ever-liberating feeling of complete
anonymity, but it also cut her off from local information that she felt should probably have been common knowledge. Like knowing who the Viper was.

  Since Jessica was the only person in the whole club who was fully aware that Eve was living in two very different worlds, she didn’t seem surprised at this renewed display of advantage.

  “The Viper, sweetheart,” she said, gently leading her away from the backstage entrance and back to the privacy of their dressing rooms, which they currently had all to themselves.

  Monday nights were slow, and only a few of them were working. Most of the others were already done for the night and the remaining two were already on stage, twenty-five year old twins helping fuel the threesome fantasies of men in eastern Los Angeles.

  Jessica sat in front of the large, bulb-littered mirror and began to wipe off her makeup with satisfied strokes. She was obviously glad to be done for the night, and not for the first time, Eve found herself wondering how much longer they would be sharing the nightclub experience.

  “His name is Lind Addams,” Jessica said. “He’s a member of the Diamondbacks. I trust you know who they are?”

  Eve shrugged. “Not really.”

  Jessica rolled her beautiful green eyes. “They’re a motorcycle gang.”

  Eve snorted. “That much I’d noticed, thanks.” The men had all been wearing biker’s boots and leather jackets with a large outline of a white diamond sewn into their backs. “I mean, what do they do?”

  Jessica shrugged. “Deals.”

  “What kind of deals?”

  “How the hell should I know?” Jessica finally snapped, with the vehemence of someone who did, indeed, know. “It certainly ain’t anything clean.”

  “Guns?” Eve pressed.

  Jessica hesitated. “It’s possible.”

  “Drugs?”

  “Definitely. Coke, mostly. Sometimes meth.”

  Eve thought about it. She thought about Lind Addam’s blue eyes and about the fact that, while his whole figure did scream danger, his eyes didn’t. “Why do they call him the Viper?”

  Jessica huffed in exasperation. She finished getting dressed in her “civilian” clothes and zipped up her hoodie with a jerky, impatient movement.

  “Because he bites,” she said, slinging her tote bag up over her shoulder. “And you had better stay away from him.”

  Still uncertain, Eve bit down thoughtfully on her lip. She felt a strange sort of thrill run down her spine, similar to what she had felt whenever she danced on the club’s platform…only multiplied tenfold.

  “I think I’m going to stick around just a little bit longer.”

  Jessica stared at her. It was clear that she wanted to say something, but she also knew better than to argue whenever Eve’s mind was set. “Suit yourself,” she finally said. “Me, I’m getting out of here.”

  “How would you approach him?” Eve heard herself ask.

  Jessica froze on the doorway and turned around slowly. “I would not.”

  “Come on, Jess,” Eve said. “I’m only talking about a drink. He seems interesting; I just want to talk to him.”

  “He’s not talking material, sweetie.”

  Eve grinned. “Then maybe I won’t talk.”

  Jessica glared at her. “I mean it, Eve. This stuff isn’t for you. He comes from a different world.”

  “Come on, what could he do to me? I would only buy him a drink and that would be it. I swear.”

  Jessica arched an eyebrow. “What could he do to you?” She smirked despite herself. “Sweetheart, you have no idea.”

  Eve watched her carefully. “Have you been with him?”

  “No,” Jessica said quickly. Too quickly.

  Eve laughed. “Oh my God! You have!” she cried in delight.

  “Shh!” Jessica hissed. She slammed the door that she had pulled ajar shut behind her once again. “Keep it down!”

  “How was it?”

  “It was only one night, okay?” Jessica said. “And it was out of this world.”

  Eve laughed again. “And you don’t want me to get near him after that?”

  Jessica sighed. “No, I don’t,” she said, looking gravely at her. “I want you to stay away from Lind Addams and the Diamondbacks. They’re dangerous, and once you get sucked in, there’s no getting out.”

  “You got out,” Eve pointed out.

  “I only had one night.”

  “What makes you think I’d have more?”

  Jessica shook her head. “You’re not cut out for one-night stands, Eve. We both know that.” She pulled the door open again. “Stay away from him. I mean it.”

  Eve watched her go. She also changed back into her everyday clothes, stripping off Trinity with eased practice. Soon, she was just Eve again. At this point, on a slow Monday night, Eve would leave. She would go home and forget all about the nightclub until her next shift there. She couldn’t do it tonight. Tonight, something kept her into her nighttime life even while she wore her daytime clothes. Or rather, someone.

  What was she doing? Jessica had said the man was dangerous. Eve had no doubt that the danger was real—one only needed to take a look at Lind Addams to know that. She would probably be wise to follow her friend’s advice and stay away. And yet…she just couldn’t bring herself to get into her car and go. Every time she thought back on him, he kept her rooted to the spot. She couldn’t explain it.

  Finally snapping out of it, she packed up her stuff and strode purposely out of the dressing room. This was ridiculous. She simply could not be so taken by a stranger whom she had barely set eyes upon…

  CHAPTER TWO

  …or could she?

  Three drinks, two hours, and 120 doubts and questions later (one for each minute of each hour), Eve was still wondering what it was that she was doing there.

  She had caught a glimpse of Lind Addams earlier when he briefly left the backroom and went outside for a cigarette break. And he had caught a glimpse of her. Their eyes had met once more, longer this time, and he had grinned at her. It had been a sultry, cheeky kind of grin that had made his impossibly blue eyes sparkle with a boyish, devilish light.

  Eve had felt it again then, that thrill. She was never a believer in love at first sight, but she believed in instant, mutual, sizzling attraction.

  When the twins finally joined her for drinks, she only half-listened to their giggles and their bubbly conversation. That is, until the talk shifted to the only topic that truly interested her that night.

  “What do you think the Diamondbacks are doing here of all places?” Kelly asked. She dyed her hair dark brown in order to distinguish herself from her otherwise identical blonde twin, but she wore a blonde wig when she performed on the nightclub’s stage.

  Aileen shrugged. “Making trouble, I’d imagine.”

  “Do you think Gary crossed them somehow?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe.”

  They didn’t seem too worried. Gary Merchant treated the girls who performed at his nightclub surprisingly well. It was one of the reasons why Eve had decided to stick around this long—but all of them, even Eve, knew better than to get attached. You never knew when things may go south, and if they did, you were better off with as little emotional scars as possible. Gary was just their boss. A fair boss, but just a boss nonetheless. There were no personal ties and there never would be, especially not for these girls who, unlike Eve, didn’t dance to escape.

  “It doesn’t make sense though,” Eve spoke up. “If Gary had been in business with the Diamondbacks, wouldn’t we have seen them around here before?”

  The other two paused for a moment.

  “I guess,” Kelly conceded. “I, for one, would have noticed them. There’s some pretty fine-lookin’ boys in their ranks.” She grinned suggestively.

  “Like that Viper guy,” Eve said casually. The twins didn’t seem to be as spooked by the presence of the motorcycle gang as Jessica had been, and she allowed her interest to make an appearance.

  As if a spell h
ad been broken, however, the twins froze and stared at her.

  Finally, Aileen laughed. “Oh, honey,” she said, “you couldn’t take the Viper.”

  Eve blinked, taken aback. “Excuse me?”

  “He’s a wild one,” Kelly said. “Too wild a ride for you.”

  Eve huffed, offended. “You’re underestimating me.”

  The twins giggled and shrugged, unconvinced.

  “I could take him,” Eve insisted. “And his bike, too.”

  “Really?” Aileen said, her interest suddenly peaked. Her hazel eyes sparkled with an impish, drunken glint. “Then, I dare you to do it.”