TANGLED WITH THE BIKER_Bad Devils MC

by Kathryn Thomas

  She doesn’t have to tell me twice. The idea of a new dress, one that Race had picked out for me, is thrilling. I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t covered in spilled food, spit up, or road dust.

  I race off towards the bathroom and shut the door quickly behind me. A bright red bodycon dress is tossed neatly over the towel holder with a pair of matching stilettos lined up neatly underneath it. The color practically takes my breath away.

  It’s a perfect fit, sliding down the long lines of my changed body. My new curves fill out the strapless top nicely. Even I give myself a second glance in the mirror before I head back outside.

  “Damn!” Ariel sings out across the busy restaurant. I try to conceal my blush as about a million eyes turn in my direction.

  “Fucking hell,” one of the bikers sitting at the countertop mutters to another, “Race is one lucky son of a bitch.” I stand a little straighter at that.

  He is lucky. After all that we’ve been through, after over a year being the claim of the second-in-command of one of the largest motorcycle clubs in L.A., and a new mom and business owner, we have had our struggles. There have been times I’ve wanted to rip his eyes out, especially after Mateo was born. And I’m sure there were times when he was ready to pack it up and go back to bachelorhood. But I can’t see any of those times as I proudly walk towards the doors of the restaurant in the fancy dress my man has bought for me.

  “He’s got good taste. I’ll give him that.” Ariel smiles as she gently rubs my back. “He’s also hell romantic for a guy who spends his days beating the shit out of other men. Can he give Seb some tips?”

  “Seb’s a great guy, Ariel,” I remind her. Without him and his quick thinking, I’d be looking over my shoulder every time I stepped out the door.

  The first few weeks after that night with my dad had been tough. I didn’t trust my new freedom–always wondering when my father would come after me. I watched his case from afar– tracing his arrest and the court trials for murder and conspiracy until he was put away for life without parole.

  There are some days I feel horrible for him and wonder if he really did just want his family back together. But then I look at Race with Mateo, and I know how wrong that thought is. A real father is present. A real father stays with their family no matter what. A real father is man enough to do what is right for the mother of his children.

  “Any sign of him?” I ask Ariel as she leans against the hostess stand.

  “I think that’s sign enough!” she exclaims as she walks around to the front. My eyes go wide at the sight of the jet-black stretch limo pulling up to the door.

  “He didn’t,” I mutter.

  “Oh, he did,” Ariel corrects me.

  A slicked up, cleaned up Race steps out the passenger door wearing a button-down black shirt and tight black trousers. He’s still sporting those motorcycle boots he never takes off, but this look… I can get used to. My heart thumps loud in my chest with my stomach going up and down with the beat. I gulp as he opens the door to the restaurant. A warm breeze sweeps through, but I’m all goosebumps.

  “Y-you look…” he stammers, staring at me.

  “No, no… you look…”

  “Here, I’ll help,” Ariel jokes. “You both look like you’ve stepped off a red carpet or something. Now go on, get going! No one wants to spend their anniversary at a diner with these dirty riders!”

  I try to suck back my laugh as I take Race’s hand and walk towards the car. He says nothing until we’re inside and the car’s already taken off.

  “I didn’t know what to do for our anniversary. I was never good at this kind of thing.”

  “Really? Because this and the dress were enough…”

  “No. It’s not enough. It’s never going to be enough for you, Del. The things I want for you and our family… I could never fully tell you how much you mean to me.”

  “Then don’t tell me,” I instruct him, placing my hand on his face. I press my lips against his, taking in his familiar scent and taste. It’s enough to make me go completely mad with want. Need.

  I move closer to him so that I nearly wind up in his lap with my bare legs draped across him. He cups a piece of my firm backside in his hand, massaging and toying with my skin. A few fingers travel under the line of my dress until the hem is pulled up towards my hips.

  “Here?” I ask, already knowing the answer. I could take him anywhere.

  “Here,” he replies firmly, catching my eyes in the dim light of the skyscrapers and office buildings the limo drives by.

  Race’s lips move towards my neck and down towards my clavicle. I hold onto him tightly. My fingers move through his hair as he kisses the tops of my breasts while using his jaw to move down the neckline so that it rolls over my nipples and to my stomach. I can’t help but let out a deep sigh as his tongue travels around the tip of my erect nipple until it’s encased in his warm, wet mouth. My body dips back so that it falls onto the seat. He follows me, his body neatly tumbling on mine. My legs part, letting him in.

  He stops his traveling hand and his roaming mouth to ask, “What’s this? No panties? I thought you were wearing a thong…”

  I smile back. “Not tonight. Is that okay?”

  “Dammit,” he growls out. “That’s more than okay.”

  Race leans back into me, going to work on the rest of my body. I watch as his head moves down the line of my stomach to the naked spaces between my thighs. My body hums and turns warm at the delicious feeling of him pressing his mouth against my skin.

  Enjoying every bit of him and the way he shows his love, I close my eyes and let go.

  THE END

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  PREGNANT FOR A PRICE: Kings of Chaos MC

  By Kathryn Thomas

  I’LL PAY WHATEVER IT TAKES TO MAKE HER MINE.

  She wants nothing to do with me.

  But I’ve decided I want the pretty nurse in my bed.

  And I won’t take no for an answer.

  She was the first face I saw when I woke up on the operating table.

  I still had a bullet in me, but I knew then and there:

  This angel was mine.

  But near-death experiences are no joke.

  And before I can find the strength to claim her,

  My enemies strike first.

  They wanted my blood.

  But they settled for enslaving her.

  The thought of Cara bared and begging before my rival makes me sick to my stomach.

  I don’t give a damn how much lead is still in me.

  I’m coming to claim her.

  And when I do, making her moan my name won’t be enough.

  I’ll need every inch of her body.

  Her heart.

  And her womb.

  Chapter One

  Damian

  I put the kickstand down on my bike and climbed off. There was a bright slice of moon hanging high in a clear sky, casting the world around me in a silvery light. Taking my helmet off, I ran a hand through hair that fell to my shoulders and enjoyed the quiet of the night for a moment. There was a taste of the nearby ocean in the air, and everything was peaceful.

  And then I remembered why I was there to begin with.

  “You ready, bro?”

  I turned and looked at my buddy, Crank, whose real name was Arthur Banks – but we'd taken to calling him Crank for reasons that were lost somewhere in the haze of time and memory. We all just accepted Crank as his name and never really thought twice about it.

  Crank had been my friend since high school. We'd served a few tours in the shit together back when we were Marines, and now he was my right-hand man. There wasn't anybody on the planet I trusted more than Crank. I knew that no matter what, he always had my back.

  I hung my helmet from the handleb
ar of my bike and nodded. “Yup. Let's do it.”

  We walked to the back door of the diner and pulled it open. The smell of hamburgers, fries, and everything else they were cooking came flooding out – and smelled delicious. My stomach growled, reminding me that it was well past dinner time. I followed Crank into the kitchen, where some of the cooks looked at us. I saw the fear in their eyes the moment they saw us, most of them turning away quickly, becoming totally engrossed in whatever task they were doing.

  Such was the way when you wore a Kings of Chaos kutte.

  Our MC was both feared and respected. We had a colorful reputation – we stayed mostly out of trouble, but we also didn't take shit from anybody. If push came to shove, we weren't afraid to throw down and put a beating on somebody. Most people thought we were responsible for a multitude of disappearances and murders. Hell, it wouldn't surprise me if somebody out there wanted to pin the JFK assassination on us. And we were happy to let people think whatever they wanted. It only enhanced our rep.

  But truth be told, the only blood spilled by the Kings had come in self-defense. We'd had more than a few scrapes, but as far as cold-blooded killing? Never happened. And the bottom of the barrel truth was that I only knew of two bodies that could actually be pinned on the MC – and both of those were because it was a case of them or us. We'd never taken a life just to take a life, no matter what anybody else thought.

  Still, I couldn't sit there and say that our hands were clean. We dabbled in drug running – pot and ecstasy mainly – and we took a slice of local business profits as a service fee for keeping the streets of Fernwood safe, clean, and free of trouble.

  I grabbed a handful of fries off of a plate as we headed for the office. Crank opened the door without knocking and stepped inside. Stan, the owner of the diner, was leaning back in his chair with his hands locked behind his head, a look of pure rapture on his face. When we walked in, he looked startled enough that he might have pissed himself if it hadn't been for the brunette on her knees in front of him. She looked up with an expression of pure relief and tears shining in her eyes.

  Stan stumbled as he got to his feet while trying to pull his pants up at the same time. The girl, her lipstick smeared and hair mussed, stood frozen in place. She was one of the waitresses; that much I knew. I thought I'd seen her in here before. And she looked all of about seventeen or so.

  “Don't you assholes ever knock?” Stan almost shouted.

  “How old are you, sweetheart?” I asked the girl softly.

  “Sabrina, get your ass back out on the floor!” Stan yelled. “Now!”

  I shot Stan a look that stopped him in his tracks. Crank stepped up, putting himself between Stan and me, his face colored with anger – as I was sure mine was. As the girl moved to hurry past me, I put my hand on her shoulder and forced her to look me in the eye.

  “How old?” I pressed.

  “Nineteen,” she said, lowering her eyes as if she were ashamed.

  “Nineteen?” I asked, arching an eyebrow.

  She never took her eyes off the floor. “I can show you my ID if you want,” she said, her voice so low it was almost a whisper. “I'm nineteen. I swear it.”

  “She's an adult,” Stan said as if it made everything okay. “Now, can you two get the fuck out of here?”

  “Why are you doing this?” I asked the girl, ignoring Stan completely.

  “I–I need this job,” she said, still avoiding my eyes. “There's not much opportunity here. You know that. It ain't like I can run away to go to college or something. And Mr. Greeley here said if I didn't blow him whenever he wanted, that he'd fire me.”

  The girl looked up at me, tears spilling down her cheeks. The rage that existed inside of me – dark and abiding – welled up and threatened to overwhelm me. I was a lot of things. Some might call me a monster – and maybe I was – but if there was one thing I could not, and would never condone, it was violence done to women and children. Nothing enraged me more quickly or deeply.

  “Please,” she said, her eyes pleading. “Don't do nothin' that's gonna get me fired. I can't afford to lose this job.”

  “Don't worry,” I said. “I won't. When I'm done here, you're not going to have to worry about a goddamn thing.”

  I released her, and she scurried out of the office. Stan looked at me, his eyes wide behind his thick glasses. Sweat dotted his brow, and he looked terrified. Which was good. That's exactly how I wanted him to feel. I narrowed my eyes and gave him my hardest look.

  “You're an even bigger scumbag than I took you for,” I growled.

  “Maybe we should just burn this dump to the ground,” Crank added. “Put two in his head for good measure.”

  Crank stroked the butt of the pistol that was sticking out of his waistband. He carried it more for show than anything. I honestly didn't think he'd shot at anything with it other than bottles and cans.

  “L-l-look, you guys don't have the right to come in here like this,” Stan stuttered, trying to sound confident and tough – and failing. “You got no call to be tellin' me how to run my business.”

  I shrugged. “Maybe not. But we do got an interest in protecting the people of this town. And judging by what I just saw, you're a goddamn predator.”

  “I ain't no predator,” Stan said. “What you walked in on was a consensual act between two consenting adults.”

  I was a large man, and because of that, people underestimated just how quick I was. But I'd played some tight end back in high school and had plenty of speed. Stan was one of those who underestimated me. I closed the distance between us so quickly that he didn't have time to react. And when I drove my fist into his ample gut, all he could do was croak and wheeze as the air was forced out of his lungs.

  Stan doubled over, clutching his belly. He tried to speak, but all that came out were strangled gasps. Crank knelt down beside him, putting his face mere inches from Stan's, and smiled.

  “You know, Damian's just getting warmed up,” he said. “He's still working through some rage issues he developed over in Afghanistan. And I can tell by the look in his eye that he'd love to tear you apart piece by piece.”

  “P–please,” Stan croaked and held his hand up in surrender. “Stop. I–I won't do it again. I swear. I'll never touch Sabrina again.”

  I knelt down on the other side of the man, staring hard at him. “You're goddamn right you won't,” I hissed. “You're not gonna touch any of your employees ever again. You got me?”

  He looked at me, and beneath the fear, I could see the hatred in his eyes. It was buried under layers of terror, but it was there all the same. That look told me that he was going tell me what I wanted to hear, whatever would get us to leave, but was still going to do whatever in the hell he wanted.

  “I'll tell you what I'm gonna do,” I said. “I'm gonna give Sabrina my phone number. And I'm gonna tell her to call me if you ever – and I mean ever – look at her sideways again. And the same goes for all of the girls that work here. You even think about forcing them to do anything, even if it's just working a double shift, I'm gonna pay you a visit. And I guaran-fucking-tee you, it's not going to be nearly as pleasant as this.”

  “You better listen to the man,” Crank threw in. “When he guaran-fucking-tees something, he's serious. His word is his bond, bro.”

  Stan was slowly getting his wind back, and he looked away from me, the fear winning out over his defiance. He slowly straightened up, his wheezing lessening. Crank and I stood up and stared him down.

  “You understand me, Stan?” I asked. “You touch any of the girls working here, and you may as well go ahead and eat a bullet because I'll be coming for you.”

  His face was flushed, but he nodded.

  “One more thing,” I said. “If I hear that Sabrina or anybody else here gets fired, and it smells the least bit suspicious or retaliatory to me, same deal. I'll be coming for you.”

  Stan looked at me, that defiant light back in his eyes. “You can't tell me how to run my busines
s—”

  “You're right,” I agreed. “And I'm not trying to. What I am doing, is making sure that you're not preying on innocent girls who don't know to stand up for themselves when they're dealing with a scumbag like you. I'm just making sure you're playing fair here.”

  “You do that,” Crank added. “And we're all good. But you start cannin' people because of what happened here today, and – well – we're most definitely not all good, bro.”

  Stan walked back to his desk, putting it between him and us. Yeah, as if that would protect him. He looked at Crank and then at me and sighed. His shoulders slumped, and he looked defeated.