Stripped: A Dark Bad Boy Romance

by Brook Wilder

  The knocking sound returned again, in real life this time and sounded even more urgent. Carla jerked awake with a gasp and her blue eyed gaze instantly collided with his.

  “What was that?” she asked, her voice roughened from sleep and so sexy it had his already half hard erection tightening painfully. He realized he could get used to hearing that voice first thing in the morning and something about that thought scared the hell out of him.

  Joel got to his feet, unembarrassed by his nudity, and glanced at the clock. It was still several hours shy of morning. They’d only slept for a few hours and he cursed himself for getting so distracted by her that he forgot the plan he’d set into action after Carla had notified them about the police investigation.

  “Joel, I need to talk to you,” it was Hot Wheels’s voice and she shouted through the closed door of the studio apartment before banging on it again.

  “I’m coming! Jesus, hold the fuck on,” he yelled back, walking towards the door nonchalantly. He cast a glance back at Carla, opening his mouth to tease her about getting some clothes on but stopped at the sight of her. Her pale skin was flushed the prettiest pink from her cheeks all the way down her long neck and onto her chest where she had the sheet pulled up to cover herself. He wondered briefly if that blush continued any lower, instantly cursing himself for the wayward thought as his erection bobbed once more, more than happy to find out the answer to that question.

  Resolutely, he turned away, ignoring her wide eyed gaze burning between his shoulder blades and walked to the door. He grasped the handle and pulled it open just enough to see Hot Wheels standing there with a giant grin on her face, but still keeping Carla, and most of himself hidden.

  “What do you have?” he asked, all business despite Wheels’s smirk as she leaned forward, trying to peak into the room. “Well?” he asked again, and she turned back to him, slightly more serious.

  “I got a hold of my contact, Sparkplug.” Joel raised an eyebrow at the moniker but let her continue without interrupting. “He says he can set up a deal with some local groups in Utah. He said he could get it done in a week.”

  This time Joel did interrupt, whistling through his teeth, impressed despite himself. It would have taken them at least another month to move the weed.

  “What’s his price?” he asked, already dreading the answer and Hot Wheels’s guilty expression confirmed his worse fears.

  “Less than half,” she finally said.

  “Fuck!” Less than half of what they had expected to turn it for themselves. That’s why they usually cut out the middle man, but this time they didn’t have a choice. “Fine. Set it up. Let’s get this thing moving. Fast.”

  “Okay. I’ll contact him agi–”

  “Hey, hey. Boss!” Viper’s nasal tones interrupted Hot Wheels and he shouldered his way past her, forcing the door open enough to reveal Carla, who still sat frozen in the middle of the bed. But now she was turning virulent hot pink color and all of Joel’s possessive instincts fired at the lascivious look Viper sent her way.

  Joel grabbed Viper’s shoulder, shoving them both back out of the room and sent the man a glare that made him cringe.

  “What?” he snapped, and then took a deep breath, trying to regulate his racing heartbeat.

  “It’s just, we’re getting ready to move the shipment, you know, to a more discreet location. You said you wanted to go with,” Viper said, his voice now just as cringing as his posture.

  “Good work, Viper. I’ll be ready in five.” Joel slapped him as good naturedly on the shoulder as he could but Viper still flinched. Perhaps it was a little harder than it needed to be. After Joel had finally succeeded in shooing both Hot Wheels and Viper away, the whole time rolling his eyes at their curious glances and smirks, he shut the door and turned around with a sigh. His gaze landed on Carla’s and the lust that had been banked for a moment roared back to life like a wild fire.

  It was strange to him, just how intensely she affected him. It was more than he could remember feeling for any woman recently. The endless parade of biker groupies and club girls had started to get old but Carla was something altogether…different. For one thing, the girls that hung around the club wouldn’t be blushing bright enough to shame a sunset at the tiny peek Viper had gotten of her sheet-covered body.

  His fists clenched unconsciously as something else, new and unwanted, flooded through him. Jealousy. He shook it off as he walked back towards the bed, grabbing his jeans and a shirt along the way. By the time he reached her, he had the pants on but still unbuttoned and he slowed his movements, loving the way her gaze brightened with desire, no longer filled with embarrassment but just pure lust.

  On impulse he leaned down, giving her a quick kiss that threatened to turn into something more, much more, but he knew if he let that happen he wouldn’t be leaving his apartment anytime soon and he reluctantly pulled back. He had a job to do. They needed to get this weed out of their hands, and it was too big of a risk for him not to be involved in every aspect.

  “I’ll be back in a couple hours. Make yourself at home here.” He stood up, “don’t leave until I get back.” The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them and he turned away. He didn’t have any answers to the questions that had fired in her blue eyes. As he walked out of the door, he wished to hell he did.

  *

  Carla waited until the door shut behind him to exhale the breath that had been pent up since that scorching kiss and flopped back on the bed. Her emotions were so tangled up she couldn’t even begin to sort one from the other. Wonder, desire, confusion, and trepidation all threatened to overwhelm her as her thoughts tumbled through her head.

  It was just lust, right? It was just a one night stand.

  But then why did she feel like it was something more? Or that it could be? She fought the thoughts back.

  It was just one night, she scolded her wayward imagination before it could get off the rails completely. Nothing more, nothing less. He’d told her so himself.

  But then what explained the butterflies that whirled through her stomach?

  Nothing, she thought. I’m probably just…hungry. Yeah, hungry. That’s it. She mentally snorted at herself but threw back the covers, hastily throwing on the dress and jacket from the night before.

  She looked around his Spartan apartment, able to see it now fully with the lights on, and without the blindfold, and it gave her another view into the enigmatic man that was the second in command of the Dirty Cruisers. There was a softness there, riding along all the edged, that surprised her.

  With a sigh, she headed out of the room and out to the main bar. It was completely empty, the early hours found most of the men passed out in their own beds, or someone else’s. She was startled to see Honey still behind the bar, wiping down glasses and restocking for whatever the day would bring. Likely more thirsty bikers.

  “Honey, do you ever sleep?” she asked as she slid onto one of stools in front of the worn bar. He shot her a haggard smile.

  “Not as often as I’d like. It’s almost four in the morning and the last customers just left about a half hour ago. We’re a late night crowd.” He gave a wink, “I’ll hit the hay soon, sleep until noon, and then do it all over again. But maybe I don’t have to sleep alone?” he added at the end, so casually that Carla almost missed it.

  She snorted a laugh, slapping him none too lightly on the arm.

  “I thought I told you to knock that off.”

  “You did, but a man can always hope,” he grinned at her unrepentantly and it was impossible not to match his infectious smile. “Speaking of hope, tell me more about your friend, the gorgeous prissy blond with the stick up her ass.” His grin twisted crookedly around the words and his melting brown eyes fired with a mix of anger and desire.

  “Elle is a very good friend of mind, and she’s off limits, Honey. She’s not your type, anyways.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “It means she’s…nice,” Carla
finally answered, “And she has standards. High standards.”

  “Nice,” Honey snorted, staring intently at the same glass he’d been cleaning since he had brought up Elle, “Nice is overrated. And I have standards too, you know.”

  “Uh huh. I’ve seen the girls that throw themselves at you. I’d say those standards only encompass one thing, and that one thing is whether or not they’re female.”

  “Two actually,” he said, with a guilty grin, “female and willing.”

  “Right. Like I said, Elle is nice. And inexperienced. So just stop whatever lascivious thoughts you have right now because it’s not gonna happen.”

  “We’ll just see about that,” he said, determination now lighting his gaze before he turned it back towards her with a glimmer of mischief. “So, you and Joel, huh?”

  “There is no ‘me and Joel’.” Even as she said the words though, she had to wonder.

  “I don’t know, I saw the way he looked at you. It’s…different.”

  “Well, according to him, it’s not.” Carla suddenly didn’t want to talk about it anymore, and stood quickly, “Listen, I’m going to go back to bed. Joel’s not going to be back for hours and I’m exhausted.”

  “I’m sure you are, sweetheart,” Honey teased with a laugh and Carla sent him a mock glare as she walked out of the large bar and towards the back of the building where Joel’s apartment was. She opened the door and closed it behind her with a thud, wondering why she suddenly felt like crying and blamed it on everything that had happened earlier with Maurice. Yeah, that was it. Nothing at all to do with Joel.

  She slipped off the jacket and dress and sighed as she slid under the silk sheets. Joel’s scent, spicy and male, surrounded her instantly and she drifted off to sleep with images of him dancing through her head.

  Chapter 14

  Joel was exhausted as he slipped back into his apartment hours later. It had taken a lot longer than he had hoped to move the shipment and they’d ended up having to split it amongst several different vehicles to keep it inconspicuous. But the real delay had been all the extra troopers circling wide swaths of their territory, just waiting for any excuse to pounce.

  They’d had to be careful and he’d been so grateful he decided to go with, especially when Viper had suggested just charging them. The man was a good biker and was good at following orders, but he acted before he thought, and this situation was too delicate for that kind of shit.

  He flicked on the overhead lights and stopped abruptly when he glanced over to the bed. His chest tightened painfully on an unfamiliar emotion. Carla was still there. The dark silk sheets wrapped around her creamy, pale limbs and the contrast had his breath stalling in his lungs.

  She looked so peaceful, so calm, so relaxed, so goddamned beautiful it was almost hard to look at her and Joel clenched his hands as he walked closer. She also looked out of reach. Unattainable.

  But you’ve already attained her, a sly, soft voice whispered in his mind, you attained her on the bed, you attained her against the wall, and afterwards you attained her bent over the kitchen table.

  Joel shook the thought away, his body hardening instantly as the memories of the night before came tumbling back. Was this just lust? And if it was, why was it so intense, why was it so much more than he’d known before? He’d told her nothing but the truth last night. He didn’t have girlfriends, he barely even had relationships with the women he slept with outside of the bedroom and that was how he’d kept things for the past ten years.

  So then why did this feel different? With her, with Carla. What was it about her that had him tied up in knots, and his thoughts constantly returning to her when she wasn’t with him? He stopped at the edge of the bed and just stared down at her. Surprised, he peered closer at her side, shocked to see the intricate tattoo that wound its way across her rib cage, twining up her back and around her shoulder blade. It looked like plants, or trees. Maybe a forest.

  Well, well. It looked like his little bluebird had a wild streak in her too. His fingers itched to trace the artfully done ink, having plenty of tattoos himself. Not used to denying himself, he sank onto the bed next to her and pushed down one side of the sheet.

  He noticed there were words inked in script next to each different one and he marveled again at the beauty of the piece, its delicateness, and yet there was a strength and straight forwardness there as well. It was a lot like Carla herself, he realized.

  With one rough fingertip he started at the tattoo’s highest point that reached to her shoulder and traced it as lightly as he could, marveling at the detail. Down and down, across the smooth expanse of her back, her side, until it dipped to sweep across her rib cage. It grew up like a living thing from where it started at her hip and that’s where his hand stopped, no longer just tracing but caressing with every touch.

  Joel felt like he could just feel her like this forever, and wondered briefly if he would ever have enough. As that thought shattered through him, along with the repercussions, his mind shouted for him to pull back, for him to check himself before things got too carried away, but his body had other ideas, and it seemed to have a will of its own as it drew the silken sheet down even further. Every inch of new skin revealed had his desire growing, drowning out any unease at the train of his thoughts.

  Carla shifted in the bed, making a purring sound in the back of her throat and he was rock hard in an instant. But as she turned into him, her body soft and warm from sleep, he groaned as he forced himself to pull back. He didn’t have time. He was already supposed to be on his way to meet Hot Wheels to figure out their next move.

  But he couldn’t make himself stop touching her, even if it was just a light caress against her soft hip, a hand pushing a stray lock of light brown hair from her face. She turned her cheek into his palm, rubbing like a contented kitten and it made it so much harder to pull his hand away, especially when she blinked open those eyes, the bluest he’d ever seen, and shining like polished gemstones at him filled with sleep and something else, something dangerous.

  “Hey,” she whispered with a soft smile just curving her lush lips. Lips that begged him for a kiss. Before he could stop himself, his mouth descended on hers, and it wasn’t sweet or gentle. It was hard and fast and full of all the pent up lust, frustration, and doubt that had swirled through him, but she responded to him in a way that had him instantly gentling the kiss. Finally, he pulled back with one last nip of her lip and he loved the way her back arched, the way her neck strained, following him as if she never wanted him to stop.

  “Hey,” he said after a moment, both of them breathing heavy now, staring at each other as he sat up slowly next to her. If he laid down next to her lush, willing body for another second he would never make it to his meeting with Hot Wheels.

  “Listen, I need to talk to you about something,” Joel started, and Carla sat up slightly, her expression curious as she tried to blink away the lethargy of sleep and his kiss and he almost died right there as the sheet that had been covering her ample chest slid down. He traced the line of her curves with a hungry gaze as his mind turned red for an instant and as she scrambled to pull the sheet back up, he was reminded once more just how different she was from the normal club girls he spent his nights with.

  Joel forced his gaze back up to her face to see her cheeks flaming a bright pink and couldn’t stop the grin that tilted lopsided across his lips.

  “You know, Carla, I saw a hell of a lot more than that last night. You don’t have to be embarrassed around me.” In fact, he found he wanted her to be comfortable with him, comfortable with showing of her gorgeous body and knockout curves and he realized, as he looked into her bright sapphire eyes, that she didn’t even realize just how beautiful she really was. On impulse, he kissed her again. Because if he didn’t he was going to say something foolish and then they’d both be embarrassed.

  “What–What was it you wanted to talk about?” she finally asked, giving them both a distraction they desperately needed and he lean
ed back on one hand, trying to put a little more distance between them, hoping it would ease the lust rushing through his body like a monsoon. It threatened to drown him.

  “I was thinking while I was out moving the supply and I realized…maybe it’s not a good idea for you to go back,” he paused, fighting for the right words to say, to make her understand, “I think you should stay here. With me,” he said, looking down at the sheet, “at least until all of this is over.”

  He added the last hastily, not wanting her to get the wrong idea.

  What wrong idea? That sly voice mocked, that this is the first time in your life you’ve ever asked a girl to stay with you?

  Joel waited impatiently as she thought over his words in silence. It was almost more than his nerves could handle and the thought would have made him laugh and call pussy-whipped on anyone else, but it wasn’t someone else, it was him, and he realized in those brief, quiet moments that her answer meant more to him than it should. More than it would if it was just a casual fling.