by Jordan Marie
“I don’t see a damned stamp on her,” Skull growls and he yanks my hair hard, looking at the back of my neck.
I wince at the pain. I can feel the sting and breathe in to stop the water from gathering in my eyes. That’s it. I’ve had enough. Who did this ass think he was?
I relax my body to catch him off guard. When his arm loosens against me enough to allow it, I move to the side with a flirty smile. I can see the disapproval on Irish’s face as he catches my ass wiggling on Skull’s lap. Skull’s hard and obviously packing but the feel of him leaves me disgusted. I don’t let that show however, playing my part as I slide down his lap and turn so I can move my hand down his chest. It’s a stupid way to get a man’s guard down, but then most men only think with their dicks. Besides, I’m good at playing the dumb blonde. It’s come in handy over the years. Hell, it worked with Dragon! Well… before I became a whore! When I catch Skull’s grin and the way he is sizing up my breasts, I almost roll my eyes.
Seriously men are just too predictable.
“What’s your name, little girl?”
“Nicole.” I’m trying to make my voice sound breathless. That’s not hard to do, since I’m pretty much panicking. I’ve got to get out of this damned bar before Dragon makes it back in.
“Nicole, huh? I like that, sweet one. How about we get better acquainted?”
Ugh, seriously?
“What do you have in mind?” I ask, slowly moving my hand down his chest. Another couple of inches and I’m going to twist his balls so tight maybe one of them will pop and the blood can go back to his brain—which is obviously deprived.
“Nicole, get your fucking hands off him.”
Oh fuck. My hand immediately stops. Damn it all to hell. I go to get up and I can’t step away because Neanderthal man has gone back to holding me tight. I release an aggravated breath and then because at least I now have moving room, whereas, I didn’t before, I bring my elbow hard back into his solar plexus. He immediately lets me go and I get up.
“What the fuck?” the man growls.
“That’s for pulling my damn hair and grabbing my ass!”
“Nicole, get over here now,” Dragon orders. He doesn’t yell, but his voice is cold and deadly. A smarter woman would obey. I have never been particularly smart, especially when it comes to men.
“Will you quit ordering me around like some damned lap dog?” I huff. I turn to the bar and untie the small serving apron I have around my waist.
“Get your damned ass over here before I smack it.”
Did he really just say that?
I’m not sure why it surprises me at this point, but it does.
“Seems to me Dragon, la amiga doesn’t want shit to do with you.”
“Fuck off, Skull. What the hell you doing in my club uninvited anyway, motherfucker?”
“Right now, enjoying the scenery,” Skull replies.
“She’s hands off,” Dragon growls, and I really need to stop liking the way he growls damn it!
“Didn’t see your mark on her and she seemed to warm up to me pretty damn quick, compadre. I’m thinking I’m about to get my hands all over her.”
Skull’s men start laughing, and as annoying as that is, Dragon manages to top it.
“She belongs to the club.”
Now I have been pretty calm, all things considered. I mean if you set aside the mild freak out I had after boinking the hot ass, scary biker dude, I have been calm. I’ve even ignored being talked about like I’m not in the room. But having it announced that I was the club’s property? After I already set his ass straight on that shit? Hell no.
“She can talk for herself,” I say finally. I am feeling a hundred different things, and I’m not too sure how to deal with it all. So, instead of trying to sift through it, I decide to grab hold of the one thing that is messing with my head the most.
“Nicole,” Dragon says in warning. It is a warning. Hell, I’m so mad I can hear blood rushing through my ears, but I still his warning over that. Any other time I might have listened, but not now.
I look down at Skull.
“What the fuck is this mark thing you keep talking about?”
Skull smiles, and he might be good looking, but that smile is scary shit. This man is dark, cold and scary.
“Dragon here likes to mark his personal bitches. He puts the club symbol on their neck. You, girl, do not have that mark, so I can only assume that you are fair game. I’m not much for loose pussy, but for you?” he shrugs giving me that cold smile again. “I’ll make an exception. I find I don’t even care if you are club pussy.”
“Why would you think I was club pussy?” I ask. Oh, but I know. I know and the knowledge is twisting sour in my gut. I am such a freaking idiot.
“Dragon just said you belonged to the club.”
The emphasis in his words, is on the word club. Not Dragon, but the club. Skull sees my reaction and the way his grin spreads makes me physically ill. He knows what he was doing. He knew that would cut, and he definitely knows he’s twisting the knife now. It wasn’t so much to get at me. It was more to upset Dragon. I understood that, but it didn’t change things.
“Nicole get your ass over here now,” Dragon orders. I see the guy who was with him earlier go around and stand in front of Skull. I walked the opposite way, going towards the door, while giving Dragon a wide berth.
“Nicole.”
“Fuck you, Dragon. I told you before I’m not ever going to be a club chew toy.”
I stopped in front of the door when a thought occurred to me.
“Was that what we did in there? Were you trying me out to see if I would live up to the stable you already have?” I yell out. Had I been of my right mind, I would have been mortified. I would have noticed how horribly quiet the room had gone, and the way that Dragon and I had become the center of attention. Thankfully, that didn’t hit me—at least not right then. I was more mortified that possibly the single best sexual moment I would ever encounter in my life had really been just a try out for becoming community pussy!
“Woman, stop your yammering.”
“My yammering… What the hell does that even mean? I can’t believe you! You, asshole! I gave myself to you. I gave you the green light. I didn’t give myself to your buddies. I don’t want your buddies. I wasn’t thinking about anyone’s hands on me but you, and the whole time you were planning on me just giving out to anyone in your fucking club? If you want to give me away, then fuck you. Go back to your Twinkies.”
“Woman, we had an hour in a fucking back room, not a honeymoon. Now get your fucking ass over here.”
If he had slapped me, it couldn’t have hurt more. What was worse, was that he was right. He was totally right. I was acting illogical and completely irrational. It was two strangers hooking up in a back room of a seedy bar. It hurt but it was the truth, and Dragon was absolutely right. I didn’t tell him that however. I’d cry on Dani’s shoulder later. I decided instead to score a point the best I could and be done.
“I think you’re overestimating it there, stud. You didn’t last fifteen minutes, let alone an hour.”
I deliver my verbal barb, feeling a little bit better when Skull’s laughter rings out loud. I can even hear Dragon’s own man laughing to my left.
Dragon says nothing, but I can feel the anger vibrating from him. Still, in for a penny, in for a pound and all that.
“I’m out of here Irish. I’ll see you Friday.”
“Yeah, alright. Friday,” Irish said, laughing enough it distorts his words. I can see a muscle jump in Dragon’s jaw.
I turn to go, stopping at the door when Dragon calls out to me.
“You walk out that door woman and we have problems.”
I didn’t turn around.
“It was a fifteen-minute hook up in the back of a bar, Dragon. We don’t have anything.” I thought it was a good parting line. Aces really, so I pushed the door open, and leave this horrible night behind.
6
&nb
sp; Dragon
I watched her leave and wanted to go spank her ass. Women don’t talk back to me like that. Hell none had even tried. Nicole was going to be a spitfire to try and tame. I feel a certain amount of exhilaration at the thought. Still, I can’t show weakness in front of Skull or his men. If he thought Nicole was special, he’d sail down on that shit like a fucking vulture.
So I shrug when she leaves, and relax the tension in my body. I’ll be dealing with Nicole soon enough. I don’t exactly know how, but I would. I walk over to Skull’s table and stop.
“I asked what the fuck you are doing on my turf unannounced, Skull. You and me, we got an agreement. You and the Devil’s Blaze stay out of our way and we’ll stay out of yours. If you’re going to start going back on that shit, maybe I need to rethink letting you use my town to get from Red River to run your shit.”
“Just stopping by for a drink. Surely old friends can do that, eh?”
Smarmy motherfucker! We’re not friends. He’d fucking slit my throat if he got the chance and I wasn’t too far behind that my own damn self, especially after seeing his hands on Nicole. Skull is a waste of air.
“Deal was, you stay off Savage property and we let you use our road. That was the extent of the deal. Not one fucking thing else exists between us asshole.”
I have to admit, I enjoyed the flash of hate that comes over Skull’s face. At least that feeling is real. I can deal with real. Not this fake shit he keeps trying to blow up my ass. I ain't got time for that.
“There’s a nasty rumor going around, Dragon.”
I yank a seat out and sit down. It looks like this shit was going to take a while. Nicole would get away with her shit for now. Motherfucker.
“Not in junior high, Skull, and I sure as hell don’t have time for fucking rumors.”
“Fine, I’ll lay it out for you.”
“Fucking, finally,” I growl.
Skull’s jaw clamps down and I can almost hear his teeth grinding.
“Word has it, you’re letting the Kings and Saints traffic their merchandise in this area, for a cut.”
“Word would be wrong.”
“Have it on good authority, your man, Twist, was brokering a deal with them just last week. That does not work for me Dragon. I have been paying your fees. You can see how you’re going behind my back would piss me off and cause us problemas.”
“Are we having this discussion?” I growl, because now I’m pissed. For several reasons, but the majority of them have to do with the man in front of me.
He looks straight at me and doesn’t back down, which isn’t good. That means this fucker truly believes what he’s saying.
“Don’t have a deal with the Kings or those fucking scums the Saints, haven’t even talked to the motherfuckers. You had my word on this before. That’s not good enough, perhaps you and I do have problems. I don’t appreciate the disrespect.”
Skull nods. I can feel Crusher moving closer to my back.
“I got no problem with you man as long as our deal is straight up. I hear things, though.”
“What things?”
“Not packing tales, Dragon. Like you said, it is not junior high. You might want to reel in your boys though. That’s all I have to say.”
“I handle my men. You hear shit otherwise, then you be a man and speak up—or shut the hell up and get out of my club.”
Skull slams his hand down and rakes a bottle onto the floor. I hear it break but I keep my face cold as stone. He doesn’t intimidate me; I have faced fuckers harder than him for years.
Still, I can’t back down from this, even if there was a chance Skull is telling the truth. You can’t show any weak spots to your enemies. In this world that’s the quickest way to die.
“Your ass man, I was just trying to do you a solid. It will not happen again. Don’t worry about if I am a man, hermano. I’ll make sure your new el gatito knows this up-close and personal.”
He gets up and slapping me on my shoulder in goodbye. I want to rip his arms off for even thinking about Nicole and for touching me. I don’t though. I remain expressionless and choke the need for violence down. No weaknesses! That is my world.
Crusher waits until Skull and his crew leave, then takes a seat. It doesn’t take but a minute before Irish is in the other seat. They know as well as I do, Skull had to know something or he never would have walked into my bar—fuck, he wouldn’t be in my territory, period.
“Should we talk to Twist? Find out what the fuck is going on?” Crusher asks.
“Not wise,” Irish speaks up and I agree, but remain quiet.
“Why the fuck not,” Crush asked. He had a history with betrayal and I knew this shit would hit way too close to home for him.
“Because if this shit is true, we are just letting him know he’s been found out. No, we have to figure this shit out first,” I explain.
“He’s a brother. You should go to him directly. We owe him more than taking a Skull’s word over one of our own.”
I agree with Crush to a point, but the truth was I know Skull well enough to know he wouldn’t put the word out unless he could back it up. I had known Twist for a while, but I can’t lie. There’s a lot about the man I don’t like. There was a reason I’ve never promoted him into a higher position in the club. He joined up about the same time as Bull. They had served a term in the military together. Bull came across as a straight shooter, but Twist? Well he lived up to his name at times. He could twist shit up a hundred ways before it finally fell into place. If Skull said he had heard talk, then yeah, he had more than heard it.
“Get Bull, Hawk and Gunner together, have them meet up with us at the shed tomorrow. Keep it quiet. We’ll have a vote.”
Crusher nods. Irish was Irish. He doesn’t say shit, but he’s with me. I had hoped that would be the end of it and I’d get out of here. I should have known better.
“So?”
“Shut it Irish.”
“I’m just saying she seems like a firecracker. Maybe more trouble than she’s worth.”
Undoubtedly.
The word pops into my mind at the same time my dick jerks at the thought of her again.
“Hell I like a woman with spirit. If Dragon ain't up to it, I’ll take her off his hands in a heartbeat.”
“You want to keep your hands then you keep them the fuck away from her,” I order.
Nicole might have thought I wanted to share her. Hell, I can’t even deny I hadn’t thought about it initially. I had done that before with some of my brothers, and it never bothered me. Yet, when I saw Nicole’s hands on Skull, watched as the fucker eyes were glued to her tits, I could have easily choked the life out of the asshole. Yeah, there would be no sharing Nicole.
“Whoa there you go sounding territorial again, brother,” Crusher says watching me closely. Crusher and I have a long history. It went deep. He knew me inside and out. He could tell this was different. I didn’t want to talk about that shit though. This is not some kind of Steel Magnolia moment when we would start acting like a bunch of hormonal bitches, gushing about feelings. I want Nicole. That’s all I needed to concentrate on right now.
“Fuck off,” I return, only half joking. “I’m out boys. See you tomorrow. Crush you and me will leave early to get to the shed.” I didn’t look back. I didn’t wait for them to reply. I had one thing on my mind and one thing only. What’s more I knew that my men realized what I was thinking about too and I didn’t need to see their smart assed faces mocking me.
I didn’t go to see Nicole like I wanted. I thought about it. Fuck, I hadn’t thought about much anything else since I had sunk inside her. Still, she needed to stew over shit for a bit. I want her, but I’ll be damned if I’m not going to demand respect from her sexy, tight little ass. I might want her like I’ve never wanted another woman, but I’m a man. A man who can’t afford to be led around by his dick.
All this basically means that it has been over twenty-four hours now since I had been inside the damned wo
man and I had never been a junkie, but I feel like if I didn’t get my fix soon, I’m going to start shaking with the need. Fuck. Nicole has me so damned knotted up inside, I’m starting wonder if she didn’t put some kind of voodoo hex on my cock.
I need to get my head in the game quick, like yesterday. I’m currently sitting in front of a worn out as hell table made from an old slab of wood. My chair cocked back, my feet perched on the table, giving the appearance that I am a man without a care in the world. Hell, I couldn’t even remember what being a man like that felt like. Truthfully, I don’t think I have ever felt like that—not that it fucking mattered. Life was what you were dealt and mine had been shitty since the beginning, but I survived and fucking did it daily.
I had called a meeting at the shed and Bull and Gunner had just arrived. Hawk, Irish and Crush all came with me. This place was well off the beaten path. It was an old fishing cabin in the hills out from Laurel Lake. You had to drive up a road with so many curves and turns it felt like you could kiss your own ass before you were done. Once you got all the way back on the hill, the brothers and I had hidden some ATVs in a small garage that was out of sight, right off the main road. It was visible, but hidden enough you would have to look for it and know it was there to even see it. It was a building we had dug out of the side of a hill. The place was actually part of the hill itself and we encouraged the kudzu vines and other shit to grow wild all over the place to hide the damn thing.
Once you got on an ATV and traveled about thirty minutes, you arrived at the shed. It had three rooms and a completely different building about thirty feet away. The brothers and I fixed the place up when we first formed the club. We needed a place out of sight, so we could make sure we kept people in line. It wasn’t easy being the ruling club of a city. There was always someone wanting to take that position away from us. The shed and the reason we used it, wasn’t exactly my favorite parts of the life, but it was a part of it. My life—my world is different from everyone else’s. In my world it was a dog eats dog kind of reality and you had to do what you had to do… just to survive.
