by Unknown
Animal leaned closer, his lips hovering over hers for a long moment, his hand holding hers while the other cupped her face and he gazed at her lips like a starving man. Then he seemed to shake himself and his hand slid from her face before he uttered a quiet reply. “But I’m still telling you to go to bed.”
Sammy felt fury pour into her system as she shook his hands from her before moving a few feet from the sink. Her hands resting on her hips, she glared at him before saying, “You’re an asshole. I really don’t give a shit what you’re commanding me to do. I’ll do whatever the hell I want. Now clean this mess up and don’t ever show up in my fucking kitchen again. I don’t care why you think you should or if you don’t like my personal choices. Never come into my home without permission again or next time I’ll shoot. Have fun cleaning up, asshole, I’m going to go read in the living room.”
Sammy stormed over to the couch, sitting down and picking up the book she’d been reading earlier. Animal watched her for several minutes and she ignored him, not caring what he was thinking at that moment. She wasn’t in the mood to worry about it. He was an idiot who shouldn’t even be in her house much less demanding that she go to bed like she was a damned two year old, not the grown assed woman she was, damn it. He stood watching her for another moment before he turned back and began cleaning the kitchen.
She was too mad to do more than pretend to read her book. She was also feeling tired and leaned on the arm of the couch. She’d fallen asleep earlier because she was utterly exhausted after going out with Sarah earlier that day. Sammy was actually feeling tired after the heavy meal but she’d be damned if she was going to go to bed like he had told her to. Placing the book on the arm of the couch, she laid her head down beside it and curled up trying to ignore his presence in her kitchen. It didn’t take long, even with Animal banging around with the pots and pans in the kitchen while cleaning up, for her to fall asleep.
She woke as dawn peeked in through her bedroom curtains and sighed as she sat up, realizing that Animal must have carried her to bed last night when she’d fallen asleep on the couch. She wanted to be mad but she couldn’t be because he wasn’t really being an asshole, he was basically just being a gentleman by putting her to bed. Sammy stared at the ceiling above her blindly thinking about the moment when she had been breathless and pinned against the sink by him last night.
She hadn’t felt fear when he had been standing so close she could feel his breath caressing her lips, not even a little bit. She had however felt turned on and that let her know that one day she would get past what that bastard had done to her. She almost sighed in relief at that thought.
She needed to ask him, today. If she could allow him to pin her like that then she was ready. She would go to Ink Bandits and ask. She had to, for her own sanity. She just hoped he didn’t refuse, otherwise she didn’t know how she’d learn to defend herself. Sammy shifted on the bed, her hand rising to brush her hair off her forehead. Damn, she really didn’t want to ask him for anything. Unfortunately it didn’t look like she had a choice if she wanted to learn to take care of herself.
Chapter 6
Animal wiped down his irons, cleaning them after tattooing a lame skull on some hanger-on who had made him want to wring his neck. The guy had grated on his nerves the entire time he’d been in his chair. He snorted when the idiot had told him that he’d be a fully patched member just like Animal by the end of the year.
Animal couldn’t believe how easy some men thought getting into the club was. Hell, he’d only been a fully patched member for a little over a year and he’d been with the club for four years. He hated these idiots who thought they would get to be the exception to the rule. Most of them never made it past the hangers-on stage despite their convictions they would soon be in the club.
The dumbass was standing with his friends just outside Animal’s door bragging about how he was going to be sporting the ink beneath his cut soon. Yeah, right, that idiot would be lucky if he wasn’t run out of town by the end of the week.
Sarah came down the hall holding a data sheet and talking, not paying attention to the three men who were outside his booth, almost walking into the idiot he’d just tattooed. “Hey, Animal. Did we order from a new supplier because these inks we just got in don’t look right. Oh, excuse me––you!” Sarah exclaimed, looking at the man with an evil-eyed glare that didn’t bode well for the man’s safety.
Animal winced, setting down the irons and stepping into the hall, seeing her hands were clenched on the clipboard she was holding and her fingers were white from the pressure. Shit, she had a gun in the holster on the back of her belt. Animal would bet from her expression and the way her fingers gripped the clipboard that it was taking everything inside her not to reach for that gun.
Shit, he better get these idiots out of here before he was helping clean their innards off the walls because that eye twitch Sarah had suddenly developed didn’t instill confidence in her control over whatever had pissed her off and she was a bit like Reaper. You had to watch her when she was mad because her switch flipped from normal to bat-shit crazy in less than a minute. He’d had a front row seat to her going apeshit a few times and quite frankly it had given him a healthy dose of fear of the tiny woman who owned Reaper’s heart as much as he owned hers.
“Well, well, if it isn’t the bitch from the diner. I see I should have told the club about you but I didn’t think you’d work somewhere like this. Not as much of a goody-two-shoes as I thought,” the idiot said, not realizing that he was signing his death warrant with those words. If Sarah didn’t kill him for it then Reaper certainly would. Reaper wasn’t the type to allow insults to his old lady to slide.
“You had better leave now,” Sarah said in a tightly controlled voice that made Animal even more nervous than he had been a second ago. Sarah always seemed to get more controlled when she went apeshit on someone. He’d only seen it three times but that was enough to tell him that he didn’t want to see it again. This idiot was going to end up dead if he kept pushing her and Animal couldn’t say after the hour he’d spent with him that it would be any great loss for humanity.
“You’d better be nice to me or I’ll be sure that you end up without a job just like last time. I’m soon to be a prospect and that means you don’t get to talk to me that way,” he said, laughing with his friends, although they seemed to be a little smarter than their friend was because they weren’t as confident as he was.
Animal wondered how the idiot thought a woman wearing a Blue Bandits property patch didn’t out-rank him, especially when that patch meant that Sarah belonged to Reaper. That was when he realized she had taken off her patch in the office and that was why the idiot didn’t see he was fucking with the wrong woman. Shaking his head, Animal began debating to himself whether he should tell him or just let the fool dig his hole deeper.
Sarah began laughing in a wildly wicked fashion that made a shiver slide down his spine because that was a damned freaky laugh. The prick didn’t like her laughing at him much and took a threatening step forward that made Animal move closer to the four of them, ready to knock the idiot back if he attempted to touch her.
“You better watch yourself, bitch.”
Sarah smiled in that strangely calm way she did when she was about to let the bomb explode. That was when a hard male voice interrupted from behind the two guys who’d been slowly backing away from their friend towards the front door. Those two must have sensed that their friend wasn’t playing with a tame kitten. Sarah was about as far from a tame kitten as they got; she was a tiger and she was about to pounce.
“Who the fuck are you and what the fuck are you doing in my parlor? And who the fuck do you think you’re talking to like that?” Reaper asked coldly, the men parting to let him by. They both flattened themselves against the wall and pretended to be invisible.
“Look, I don’t want any trouble, man, the bitch started it. I’m Fred, one of the prospects that will be patched soon,” the dead hanger-on said
, holding up his hands to ward Reaper off, but he’d already signed his death warrant with those words and Animal stepped back to enjoy the show.
“Really? And you say Sarah started it, did she?” Reaper asked quietly, his hand removing his knife from his boot. He began to pick at something under his nails as he watched Fred, who suddenly looked a little green. Damn, Animal had really hoped that Reaper would drag the fucker outside to handle him, not slice him up right here.
“Yeah, man. She has been mouthy before too and she’s dissed me. I keep telling her that I’m joining your club and that she should show respect but she’s not listening and I think she might need a lesson in manners.” Fred puffed out his chest trying to look important as he said these words and Animal snorted. Damn, that fucker really must be dense because telling Reaper that this wasn’t the first time he’d fucked with Sarah was a big mistake. The little prick looked like he was so proud of his supposed superiority to the “bitch” he was going to get into trouble. It was almost sad that he was that stupid.
Sarah relaxed against the wall and just waited, secure in the knowledge that she wasn’t in any danger because she knew that Reaper was about to deal with the issue she’d been gearing up to handle. It wasn’t that she couldn’t handle it; she could, she just didn’t have to, so she’d let Reaper.
“Baby, did you start something with these boys?” Reaper asked and Fred looked from her to him and back again, suddenly beginning to catch on that maybe he shouldn’t be so confident in his position.
“Why no, darling, I didn’t. I didn’t even start that first issue in the diner all those months ago either. I just don’t know why this man insists on being a prick,” Sarah said in a sickeningly sweet voice Animal had never heard her use before and he shook his head. Yep, he would be cleaning these men off the walls in a few minutes. Whatever had gone down with these men and Sarah in the past wasn’t going to end well for them.
“Hmmm, she seems to think she didn’t start anything. I’m just wondering why you seem to think that because I allow you to hang about with my club means you have any right to come into my parlor and insult my old lady,” Reaper said, still picking his fingernails with the knife, pointing it at the fool who’d dared to do such a thing with a cold calculating gaze that had Fred paling.
Throwing up his hands, Fred began shaking his head wildly as he backed away from Sarah and Reaper. Reaper took a step forward, his eyes following his every move. Yep, he would be cleaning the walls.
Fuck, why did Fred have to be an idiot?
“Wait, I–I didn’t know tha-that she was your old lady.” He stumbled, falling into his friends who’d begun backing up trying to save their own asses. Animal didn’t think it would matter; these men wouldn’t be alive tomorrow unless Sarah wanted to save them because Reaper had already decided.
“That’s really not my problem, is it?” Reaper asked him, stepping forward and putting the knife to Fred’s throat, nicking him. Blood began running down Fred’s neck and he let out an unbecoming whimper that disgusted Animal.
Damned pansy-assed fool.
“Reaper,” Sarah calmly spoke from behind him.
“Yeah, Baby?”
“Just get rid of him. I don’t think him being a total asshat should mean he dies. I just don’t ever want to see him or his buddies again,” she told him with one hand on his shoulder while the other held the clipboard.
“You sure?”
“Yes,” Sarah replied, stepping back to where Animal leaned against the wall, smiling at him with that strangely creepy grin that always made his insides quiver a bit because this woman was as deadly a predator as any of them were. He recognized it inside her and had from the moment he’d met her, unlike others in the club. Even Reaper hadn’t seen it until much later but he would never forget that first meeting with Sarah before she and Reaper got together.
It was her first week at the strip club Blue Bird and she’d been standing behind the bar with Reaper. Reaper had been talking to Iron while she counted bottles for a manual inventory. Sarah had looked up as he approached and her eyes had tracked him as he’d moved closer. His beast had stirred for a moment before he had realized that she was Reaper’s and in that moment he had considered trying to tame her. Not that he could have because she was far from submissive, although she did seem to respond to Reaper just as Reaper responded to her.
Animal had known when Reaper introduced her that she wasn’t the fragile woman Reaper thought her to be. It had taken Reaper a few more weeks to figure it out but now he knew exactly who she was and he loved her all the more for it. It was odd to Animal that Reaper had changed, become more stable, less unpredictable, and Sarah had become less stable and more unpredictable. It was funny in a way.
“You’re very lucky, shithead. She doesn’t want me to kill you but I’m warning you now, if I ever see you anywhere near my old lady or my MC again I will kill you. Understand?” Reaper said, making sure that the knife he held to the man’s throat drew more blood before he turned, looking at the other two men who cowered against the wall behind their friend. “That goes for you two as well. Leave your names with Iron on the way out. If I hear them again or see any of you, I’ll be much less inclined to let you go and her wishes won’t stop me from killing you. Now, get the fuck out before I change my mind.” Reaper let the man go seemingly reluctantly as he shoved him towards the door. Fred stumbled into his friends and they all ran towards the door, only stopping to toss their names in Iron’s direction before the cowards where gone.
Reaper watched them, still fingering his knife. Sarah sighed beside Animal and she took a step towards him, wrapping her arms around his waist from behind, her lips caressing his bare shoulder where she’d brushed his cut aside. Tension that had held Reaper rigid seemed to drain away from him as Animal watched her holding him. Sarah seemed to know what Reaper needed at any given moment just as he did for her; it was sweet in a sickening sort of way.
“No going after them unless they come back, promise,” Sarah said, still holding him around the waist. He’d turned and his knife was put away and his hands now held her hips as he looked down at her with a fire burning in his eyes that before Sarah came along had been missing from him.
Animal was about to make himself scarce to give them some privacy when the door jangled, letting them know someone had entered the parlor. His eyes rose to see who it was and he took in Sammy as she walked into the room looking around. Her blue eyes met his as he stared at her. He was rooted to the spot by those expressive eyes that sent flames licking along his spine as the beast roared his displeasure at being denied the need to touch her.
He’d allowed his hand to caress her last night across the cheek while in her kitchen and cupping her breast as he’d put her to bed. Those touches had fueled the fire that had already been burning out of control inside him for weeks and now that he had felt her skin against his palm, he didn’t know if he would be able to put the beast back in its cage.
He watched as she came towards him, her steps hesitant and her eyes never leaving his. Animal wanted to grab her, to take her away from prying eyes and show her exactly why she should have run the moment she’d seen him.
His heart picked up, creating a roar inside his ears and his eyes tracked her movement like the predatory man he was. As she neared him he could see the pulse in her throat beating wildly like a butterfly’s wings and he wanted to lick along that vein, to bite down, just enough to bring a gasp of pleasure from her lips. His cock hardened and he shifted slightly trying to relieve the ache.
“Oh hey, Sammy. I didn’t know you were coming by tonight,” Sarah said, breaking the spell between them. Sammy’s eyes snapped to her friend, making the beast inside Animal roar in displeasure at being denied.
“Um, well, I wasn’t but I just–got bored and decided to stop in to see what was going on,” Sammy said, smiling wanly at Sarah who frowned slightly, her brow furrowed. Sammy’s eyes peeked at him and when she saw he was still watching her, she qu
ickly moved her eyes back to Sarah. Animal felt something inside him shift and he knew he needed to walk away before he kissed her senseless then threw her over his shoulder to carry her home like a cave man.
“Nothing much, but if you give me a little bit we can go get dinner for everyone and hang out,” Sarah told her, smiling as she pulled away from Reaper who grimly let her go albeit reluctantly. Sarah drew Sammy’s arm into the crook of her own, beginning to drag her towards the office when she stopped suddenly, turning to look at Animal. Unsure why she was suddenly starring at him, he shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other, hoping she didn’t notice his hardened cock because he wasn’t going to be explaining that to either woman anytime soon.
“Whoops, almost forgot to ask. Did we order ink from a new supplier? They look different and I can’t figure out why.”
“No, we didn’t. I’ll uh–take a look and let you know. Are they in the supply room or did you put them somewhere else?” Animal asked, now watching Sammy, who was trying hard not to look in his direction as she ignored the conversation. He could almost feel the tension in her body and the beast began to stir, wanting him to grab her, take her. His need to tie her to the bed and have her, repeatedly, ate at him. He growled beneath his breath, his hands clenching at his sides to stop himself from doing just that.
“Sounds good, let me know what you think. The ink looked thin to me but I don’t know, maybe it’s okay,” Sarah told him as she turned and dragged Sammy into her office behind her, the clipboard still stuffed under her arm. He shook his head, still feeling hungry and it wasn’t food he wanted. No, what he wanted was about five foot three, hundred and forty pounds of sweet hot woman.
Reaper shifted, drawing his attention from the door and Sammy’s retreating form. Animal turned to see the other man watching him carefully, his eyes dark and assessing.
