I could barely make my lips move as I echoed her. "Speech?"
"Yeah. He gives everyone a little talking to before he even rolls the condom on. Each and every time." Turning my head, I saw the confusion on her face. "Didn't he give it to you tonight?"
"Nuh-uh." Nope, he sure hadn't and now I was curious as hell about what his little fucking speech contained, and why I hadn't had the same dubious pleasure in hearing it.
"Well, I don't know that I can quote it to you verbatim, but it goes something to the tune of…" and her voice dropped a couple of octaves as she tried to emulate the way Dare talked. "Babe, this is just for fuckin' shits and giggles. I'll fuck you and we'll have a hell of a good time. But there ain't gonna be a place for you in my life long term. Just because we get together now doesn't mean we fuckin' have something going, all right? Tomorrow, I may not even fuckin' remember your name."
I felt my anger and jealousy leak out of me because even I had to admit that was cold. I couldn't imagine a girl, god! A fucking Honey listening to that shit and not wanting to slap him silly for just uttering that kind of crap. "Has anyone ever gotten dressed and walked out after hearing him talk like that?"
"A couple. Though surprisingly, not many."
What a dick!
Then I wondered about Lock. She was a Honey and Dare was a Hellion. But I truly didn't want that picture in my head even if it made sense, was logical. My eyes darted to hers and saw she wouldn't look at me.
I wasn't gonna ask and it seemed she wasn't gonna offer, which, in the whole of it, was more than cool.
"I told Dare that we had no future and that we could only have last night," I admitted, scraping my fork in the last of my eggs. I'd originally intended Lock's and my talk to lead into a discussion of my dad and his unrealistic expectations, but that was not how it came out. Of what my heart had been avoiding.
Her hand, which had been feeding the last of my snagged sausages into her mouth stilled. "That's not how it works, Ryley," she said softly, almost tenderly as if imparting info to someone who was gonna lose their shit at her words. "You wanna play, yeah. You two deserve to get with the horizontal action after so many years of wondering and fantasizing. But as a one-time deal? Fuckin' no way. Uh-uh."
I didn't say anything as I dropped my eyes to the remains of the yolk on my plate.
"Calling bullshit, girlfriend," Lock whispered into the quiet of her kitchen. The same fucking words Dare had used.
It went quiet between us again.
"I cut him," I mumbled, using my fork to draw patterns in the detritus of my plate. "He shut down. You know, like when I told him last night was all we could have. He completely and totally shut down, Lock."
"Oh, Rye," she whispered from around the last of the sausage in her mouth.
"He told me that I'd bought into Pop's agenda and then asked me if I was really gonna let him go," I confessed, my voice quiet in the large space. God. It hurt to even remember the look on his face or rather the absence of any look. In my mind, it was the lack of any emotion in Dare's face, his voice that had created the hole within me I'd been ignoring.
Into the continuing silence, I felt my bestie rustle next to me, sliding off her stool and grabbing my plate. "How're you gonna play it, Rye? For the rest of the week and all?"
Goddamn.
Lock again hit the nail on the head in one go but the her words didn't stop. She half-turned back to me, catching my eyes. "Here's what I think: he's wanted you and only you forever, girlfriend. None of us could compare. That's the reason why he gave this fucked-up speech to every girl but you. The thing is though, now that you've had him, can you really let him go? After only one night? Really?"
Fuck!
She'd said it outloud and straight up. The question that my heart had been harboring since I'd left him.
But the echoing answer that careened throughout my insides scared me even worse than her question.
I deliberately changed the conversation to more mundane doings and it wasn't until I was getting things together to perform my morning ritual of makeup and hair that I allowed thoughts of him in again. Thoughts of all we'd done and what we'd said.
I wondered why he hadn't given me the same speech he gave every other girl. There'd been time and even more than enough opportunity. But he hadn't cautioned me in the least.
Actually, I remembered he'd said he loved having me there. And he'd asked me to stay the night.
Had he meant it? Compared to what Lock had said, I couldn't doubt it.
God.
Had he spoken from his heart?
Did he feel the same as I did? That it had killed something within me to know that whatever we'd done was only a one-time thing? That I couldn't imagine being around Dare and not being with him especially since I'd dumped March.
Was there a way for us to be together and not have my pops go nuclear and follow through on his ultimatum?
I closed my eyes and decided whether you were fifteen or fifty, guys would fucking do your head in.
Chapter Nineteen
"Can't find shit on them," Bishop said after all the men were seated, and Trey had summed up what Missoula had experienced in doing runs on the eastbound 90 freeway to give background to the Spokane Hellions. "Have looked everywhere and even contacted the Vigilantes and SP's. No one's heard of them."
"Try searching by the Black Knights of the Czar," Dare offered and got Gus's black glare as a response. Geez, if the man could've ripped off his head and shit down his neck, the old fucker would've.
"The whose-a, what-a?" Trey shot back, dragging Dare's reluctant glance back to his pres.
"They might've gone by another name someplace else. Heard the full name and thought maybe…" Dare offered slowly.
"Where'd you hear that other name?" Gus challenged, glowering at Dare before moving his eyes to Bishop's fingers, which flew over the keyboard of the laptop he'd brought to the meeting with him.
"Around," was all Dare was willing to say with the other Hellions in the room. He'd planned on telling the council about Jim but hadn't had the chance. He was not giving Gus or Leif any more ammunition against him and he knew that having a cop, especially a County Sheriff, as a biological brother would be a problem.
Having ties to a civilian was always trouble and cause for concern.
"Yeah, okay," Bishop offered. "Got something here. Well, what do you know? Seems they formerly wore cuts that read 'BKC'."
"Wasn't that who Rodriguez pledged with?" Huff asked with a frown. "I mean before he took the gavel of the Ghosts?"
"I've heard of them," Leif growled reluctantly, seeming to take his cue from his dad's tension. "Bunch of cheap-shit motherfuckers if you ask me."
"A few years back, we had a beef with the BKC assholes in Seattle," Gus offered, looking to Trey. "Lost a couple of brothers in the war that went down."
"Any ties to Mexican drug runners?" Dare tried to keep his tone casual but caught the glances from the Missoula council that looked at him in surprise, the Spokane group caught his roaming eyes but their faces expressed disbelief. Dare was the usually the last one that had knowledge or info on these kind of doings. But, for once, his club chose not to quiz him about his knowledge. Not in front of their guests.
A voice came through the speakerphone. "Heard a rumor a couple of months ago about a club in Montana that had connected with the Vita Diablo's out of Guadalajara."
"Think we're gonna have to have a meet, Trey," Gus growled with a heavy scowl. "If that shit's true, they've got a lot more fuckin' fire power than we'd counted on." Turning to point his face at the phone in the middle of the table, he asked the brother on the line to get as much info from his contact as possible and report back.
"It's clear I need to put more pressure on Ham Banks for a meet but don't want us to go in blind." Trey's voice was firm as he wrapped up the meeting with a bang of his gavel. "Tomorrow. Same time, same place."
As the men filed out, Dare held to his seat as did all the Missoula c
ouncil members. Leif, the last in the line of Spokane men, closed the conference room door behind him.
"Spill, Dare," Trey said, skewering the youngest council member with narrowed gaze as soon as the lock clicked into place on the conference room door.
"Found out my fuckin' brother Jim is the goddamn Big Horn County Sheriff," he said without looking up from his avid study of the tabletop. "Saw him when we were in Billings and he just now called me to ask what I knew of the fuckin' Czars. He says his men stopped a truck that had a shitload of Mexican meth and gave me the fuckin' club's full name."
"Why is he calling you after all this time?" Brand asked. All the brothers were familiar with each other's stories of their pasts so the question wasn't out of line.
Dare shrugged. "Dunno. He didn't want anything to fuckin' do with me when I saw him in Billings."
"How'd he know where to fuckin' find you?" Huff questioned.
"I was wearing a HC t-shirt under my Hellion cut. Says he asked around and found out I was part of the club's inner circle, whatever the fuck that means." Dare ventured a glance and saw all the other council member's eyes were on him. After the crap he'd gone through in the previous twenty-four hours, their concentrated interest was too much to take. He shoved his chair back and stood. "Got shit to do."
But the blowing mud of his day wasn't over. Not by a long shot when he viewed Ryley at his desk, working the keyboard as he'd barreled into his office.
Sitting in his chair as if she belonged there.
Glancing behind him, Dare closed and locked his office door.
*.*.*.*.*
"What the fuck are you doing here?" I heard him say, his voice no longer flat and uncaring but more along the lines of shocked curiosity. I glanced up but didn't allow my eyes to take in anything but the outline of him against the closed door before dropping back to the keyboard.
"Needed to check in with Haven and Lulu said I could chose any manager's office since you were all in a meeting," I responded, trying to keep my eyes on the screen. But all of my girlie parts had gone to red-alert with the knowledge we were alone in his office.
"So you chose mine?" he asked and I denied my eyes the treat of looking at him.
"Yep," I acknowledged, moving the mouse to click where I needed it to go. "Pops would never think to look for me here."
"Ryley," Dare growled out in warning and I understood his frustration. Just a few hours earlier I'd told him we had to stay away from each other. But there I was, on his computer, not fucking caring in the least I was going against my own rules.
"We need to talk." I kept my eyes on the monitor as I manipulated the mouse his hand held every damn day.
"Thought we got it all fuckin' said this morning," he rumbled on a low note and I bit my tongue to prevent my frown at his complaint. At least he was talking to me with feeling instead going robotic.
"Not quite, cowboy," I murmured before dragging my eyes to him only to see he was in full Hellion mode: legs spread and planted with his arms crossed in challenge across his chest. Purposefully, I shifted my eyes back to the monitor. "Seems you were holding out on me. Lock and I talked."
I caught his visibly flinch out of the corner of my eye which told me too much, way too much, about what my bestie and my man had shared. I placed those thoughts, those angry jealous thoughts, aside and carried on. "Why didn't I get the speech, Dare?"
"What?" he said and I could hear that his voice lacked the strength I knew without a doubt he was hiding.
"You know the one," I threw out on a flippant note, a couldn't-be-concerned tone as if it made no difference to me. "How no girl has a hope of a future with you. That you may not even remember their name after you worked it with them."
I slowly dragged my eyes to his and saw him wince before his whole body tensed.
But he didn't answer.
"You never gave me that talk though," I continued on through his silence, his narrowed glare. "Last night, remember? You didn't warn me off."
I tilted my head, still holding his stare. "Why them and not me, Dare, huh?"
His eyes got even narrower if it was possible.
"I'm not worth a warning, is that it?"
His brown eyes left my face and began boring holes in the far wall as I continued.
"Or don't you warn off the women you connect with on a run?" I kept my voice conversational though my body was starting tremble with the tension that was filling the room.
"Shut it," he started, dropping his massive arms as he stepped towards me.
"Shut what, cowboy?" I asked, trying for innocence as I blinked up at his huge physique looming over the desk. "I just want to know why, Dare. Why didn't I get the same fucking warning?"
"Ryley," he rumbled, his deep voice offering caution. "Need you to fuckin' stop."
I glanced down at the keyboard and took a deep breath. "We both agreed this was temporary, that we have no future…"
"I didn't agree to shit," he cut in harshly and I raised my eyes to his and held his stare while I thought, tried to work it out in my head.
'I fuckin' love having you here…'
'…was the best fuckin' week of my life…'
'Took me a motherfuckin' lifetime to get over you…'
'This is bullshit, Ryley…'
'Let's just grab our shit and go…'
I stood up on shaking legs, my heart practically booming out of my chest as the answer came to me. Hitting me hard enough that I staggered.
"You want me. Not just for a while but for..." I cut off my whisper because the flare of heat in his eyes told it wasn't something I should've said outloud.
"Stop it," he demanded, taking a step around the side of the desk.
"You didn't give me the talk because you do want me in your life…" I went on almost challenging both him and myself to deny it. My body was trembling so hard even I could hear the vibrations in my voice. And with my words, I saw a muscle begin to jump in his jaw.
I was right!
He did want me!
I felt a warmth begin and as I gazed into his eyes, it spread until it became a fire. A flame of desire that quickly consumed all my doubts and fears. That swept through my dad's objections and made everything between Dare and I crystal clear.
I wanted Dare and he wanted me whether he actually said it out loud or not!
My heart didn't a hard bump and I realized him not admitting to it was starting to piss me off. Why was it so hard for him to say, for god's sake?
"Well?" I demanded and felt my eyebrows lower and come together when he did nothing but glare at me. We needed to get this out in the open! "Stop being such a pussy and tell me, dammit! I'm right flipping here! Say the words, Dare! Say it!"
"Told you to fuckin' shut it," he ground out, grabbing my upper arms and pulling me up against him until we were nose to nose. "That's fuckin' enough…"
*.*.*.*.*
He hadn't meant for it to happen but she'd pushed him and pushed him. Insisting he confess to something he wasn't ready to admit to himself, much less to anyone else.
"Say it!" she yelled, just centimeters away from his face.
Christ!
Staring deep into her aqua depths, he took the only avenue he knew to take and pointed his mouth towards hers. And his action seemed to change the tension between them. Altering it from angry to hungry.
So damn fuckin' hungry.
Their tongues were tangling before their lips even touched, hands gripping at any body part available as they slammed together. Pressing in order to grind, fingers aching to touch skin, not clothes.
Mouths fused, Dare pulled back far enough to get a hand underneath her shirt to capture a breast and as he tweaked her already impossibly firm nipple, Ryley moaned before she began to writhe against him. She made her own move by slipping a palm down his jeans to encircle and slide over his rock-hard dick. He flexed his hips to encourage her further.
But it wasn't enough—not nearly fuckin' enough.
He wanted to be b
all-deep inside her. Needed to feel the deep, slick heat of her pussy engulf him. He was so hard, he felt his heartbeat in his turgid length.
Their movements became faster and held the edges of frenzy as they tried to get closer.
Without knowing how it had happened, his pants were around his knees and hers on only one leg as he shoved himself into her. In his mind, they were supposed to be on his desk but somehow he'd pressed her against the wall, lifting her by her beautiful full ass as he bent his knees in order to shuttle himself in and out of her hot, tight wetness.
"Fuck, Ryley. Shit!"
"Don't stop. Please don't stop!" she begged. And at her words, he couldn't help but to plant himself even deeper and grind his pubic bone into the swollen piece he knew was her clit as the head of his dick scrubbed again the rough patch inside her. "Oh, god. Yes! Yes, Dare. Right there!"
"You're gonna explode on me, baby. That pussy's all primed to fuckin' come," he growled, his lips on hers. "Give it to me, Ryley, all of it. Hit it right the fuck with me."
That seemed all it took before her inner walls to begin squeezing as he started to spurt inside her. Wave after wave of delight that soared up through the fullness of his pulsating cock as his essence spilled inside her, accompanied by the roar of her name.
Much as hers had with the screaming of his, too loud for either one of them to try to muffle.
*.*.*.*.*
As my breath came back to me and as reason again ruled, I realized what Dare and I'd just done had been wrong. I let my mind review all the reasons why.
"You didn't cover yourself," I mumbled into his collarbone, glad to have what I knew was my red face, hidden.
"Wha'?" came the rumbled, yet satisfied reply breathed into my neck.
"We just barebacked it, cowboy."
Statues held more movement than that of his body as he took in my words. After a time, one of his hands slid from the grip it'd held on my ass cheek to reach behind us as he held me propped against the wall with his other hand and his thickly muscled thigh. I heard a drawer open and close, the scuffing of tissues coming out of a box before feeling the press of paper against my nether region as he slipped out from inside me.
Taking a Dare Page 14
