My breasts suddenly felt heavy and my nether regions zinged with need.
Lordy, I wanted to run my hands through those curly locks.
“You keep lickin’ your lips, we’re gonna have a problem,” he warned, without looking up from his phone.
I sucked my tongue back into my mouth. “I’m not—”
“Yeah, you are, Posey.”
I crossed my arms and silently ordered my nipples to retreat.
God, I needed to get laid.
“You offerin’?” he asked, never once taking his eye off his phone.
“Did you just read my mind?” I accused.
He raised an eyebrow and focused on me. “Yes, I absolutely just read your mind.”
“Oh my god,” I groaned. “I did not just say that out loud.”
“You did. And you know I think you’re fuckin’ hot, baby, but I got somewhere I gotta be.” His eyes raked my body. “But if you want me to come back later, you let me know.”
“Depends on if you plan to bring dinner,” I whispered under my breath.
Shadow laughed.
“Oh my god, there’s no way you could have heard that.”
“I have ears like a bat,” he retorted as he pulled his tape measure off his belt loop again.
I rolled my eyes. “As long as you have eyes like a builder, because I was always taught to measure twice and cut once.”
“This here tape measure is a sophisticated piece of equipment, but I think I’ve got the hang of trying to read it.”
“Are you sure?” I sassed. “Because in my experience, most guys don’t actually know what ten inches looks like.”
He burst into deep laughter, shaking his head as he slid his phone into his pocket. “Jesus, you’re funny.”
“I really can’t take credit for that.” I smiled. “I studied at the feet of Monty Python.”
“Oh, really?” He raised an eyebrow. “Favorite Monty Python?”
“Movie or sketch?”
“Sketch, of course.”
“Live or on record?”
“Holy shit, you are a fan,” he exclaimed. “Hm, dealer’s choice.”
“The Cheese Shop,” I said.
“Why?”
“It was equal parts silly and smart, plus I’m a sucker for comedy that contains absurd lists.”
He chuckled. “And cheese.”
“Oh, definitely. Always cheese.” I cocked my head. “What about you?”
“Mr. Creosote from the Meaning of Life.”
“Of course, that’s every guy’s favorite.”
“What can I say, I’m a sucker for vomit-based humor.”
I couldn’t stop a laugh as I mock-scoffed and bit out, “Ugh, boys.”
I hoped to god it covered up my glee at discovering his deep understanding of some of the funniest men on the planet and the brilliance they created.
“I got what I need, babe. Gotta head out.”
“Okay,” I said and walked him to the door.
He stopped in my foyer. “You want me to come back later? If not, I’ll be here tomorrow at four.”
I bit my lip and he grinned.
“Back here before seven,” he said, and walked out.
I closed the door… and panicked. I had two hours to prep.
I hadn’t waxed in two months, so I needed to take care of that pronto, and I should probably shave my legs. I decided a shower was in order and rushed back to my bathroom to do just that, getting sidetracked by the state of my bedroom.
“Jesus,” I hissed out. It looked like a tornado, then a hurricane went through it. I sighed. First things first, I needed to clean.
And I did. For an hour. I started in my bedroom and ended in my kitchen.
It was official. I was a pig.
Of course, it was just me. I didn’t have anyone I needed to be neat for, and my place was clean… just not tidy.
But justifications were my forte, and admittedly, this was just another one.
Once I was happy with my tidy up, I headed to the bathroom.
* * *
My doorbell pealed just as I flipped my hair over to put it into a scrunchy. Tripping down the hallway, I continued to try and wrangle my hair, managing to slam my elbow into the wall as I went. “Shit. Ow.”
I pulled open the door and Shadow frowned. “You okay?”
“Yes,” I said on a sigh. “I just whacked my elbow on the wall. Come in.”
“Why’d you whack your elbow on the wall?” He stepped inside.
“I was trying to contain my hair.”
“Your hair’s beautiful,” he said, and smiled. “Why are you trying to contain it?”
“Because when it’s down, it could be considered a lethal weapon.”
“Fair.” Shadow chuckled, lifting a bag of food and a drink carrier with two cups. “Burgers?”
“Awesome,” I said, closing the door and following him into my kitchen.
“I didn’t know what you wanted on it, so I had them put everything on the side.” He started pulling food out of the bag while I inspected the drinks.
“You bought shakes?”
“You gotta have shakes with burgers. Chocolate and vanilla,” he said as I shoved a straw in the chocolate and took a deep suck. “Your choice.” He looked up and grinned. “Chocolate it is.”
“Unless you really want chocolate,” I hedged, holding the cup closer to me.
“I’m good, babe. I actually prefer vanilla.”
“Sexually?” I asked, gasping quietly. “Sorry. Don’t answer that. I have no filter.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You want to know, you ask, sweetheart. I’ll answer any question you have.”
I nodded my head, focusing on my shake again in an attempt to hide my mortification.
“I grabbed ketchup and shit,” he said, pulling the packets out. “Wasn’t sure what you had.”
“Nothing. I have nothing.”
“No beer?”
“Oh, I have beer,” I countered. “Plus, wine and stuff to make margaritas. But that’s because I have priorities.”
He grinned wide and pulled open the fridge, grabbing a beer. “You want one?”
“Yes, please,” I said, and he handed me a bottle. I screwed off the top and took a sip, then popped a fry in my mouth. “What do I owe you?”
“Nothing,” he said, twisting the top off his beer. “I’m drinkin’ your beer.”
“This is beyond sweet, Shadow. Thank you.”
“Anytime.”
We ate for a few minutes in silence, and then I needed to fill the quiet.
“How often do you work at the firehouse?” I asked.
“Since I just earned my badge, I’m goin’ down to one day a week.”
I cocked my head. “Budget?”
He nodded. “I was able to work more when I was a probee, but now that I’m official, I’m on a roster.”
“But you’re a contractor as well?” I asked, taking a bite of my burger, then adding mayo.
“Yeah.”
“How do you have time to worry about my problems?”
He smiled. “I got time.”
“But if you don’t, my feelings won’t be hurt if you can’t see to every little need I might have.”
“Every little need?”
I blushed sitting on a stool at my peninsula. “Stop.”
He grinned and took a bite of his burger, opting to stand instead.
We didn’t talk for several minutes as we ate, and I found myself settling into the blissfulness of this sweet domesticity. I could seriously get used to this.
“You’re silent again,” he observed.
“I’m eating,” I pointed out.
“Yeah, but are you also imagining what it’ll be like when I eat you?”
“Oh my god, stop.”
He wiped his mouth and grinned again. “That’ll be our safe word.”
“That’s more of a sentence than a word.”
“True.” He held up his dinner. �
�Burger, then.”
“But that could just mean I want a burger.”
He cocked his head. “If you want a burger while I’m in the middle of eatin’ you out, then I’m not doin’ my fuckin’ job, baby.”
I shivered. “Yeah,” I whispered.
He grinned again. “Finish that so I can prove my mouth can make you forget all manner of things.”
I dropped my sandwich. “I’m done.”
“You want this?”
“More than I want breath,” I rasped. “If you need the words, then I wholeheartedly consent, and am happy to put that in writing.”
“What do you want, Posey? Exactly.”
“Follow me back to my bedroom and I’ll give you a list.”
He chuckled, dropping his burger next to mine and sliding out from behind the peninsula… just as his phone rang.
“Fuck!” he hissed, and I turned in the middle of my hallway to see him answer the call. “Not a good ti—” He slid a hand to the back of his neck and dropped his head. “Shit.” He raised his head and met my eyes. “Yeah. Give me ten.”
My heart dropped and I bit my lip. “You have to go?”
“Yeah,” he breathed out on a sigh. “Emergency.”
I bobbed my head up and down in an effort to hide my disappointment. I forced my feet to move toward him and he gave me a gentle smile. “You want me to come back?”
“It’s okay.” I blew a frustrated puff of breath through my lips. “I know you’re busy.”
Hooking his hand to the back of my neck, he tugged me gently forward. “If I come back, I’m stayin’.”
I shrugged. “Stay, then.”
“Yeah?”
I gave him a slight nod and was rewarded with his lips on mine and a kiss that made me want to kneel before him for a quick taste.
“I’ll text you when I’m done,” he promised, and turned and walked out the door. I locked up behind him, then turned on the television and ‘watched’ it while I cleaned the kitchen.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Shadow
I PULLED UP to my sister’s apartment building and rushed upstairs, pounding on her door before I’d even caught my breath.
Glass shattering and Cat’s scream spurred me to put my boot to the door and kick it open. I heard footsteps behind me and scowled at Shutter over my shoulder. “You’re late.”
I didn’t spend any more time on him as I headed for the sounds of struggles, pushing into Catalina’s room and finding her fighting with some asshole who’d gotten her to the ground.
“Not today, dickhead,” I growled, wrapping my arm around his neck, and dragging him off my sister.
Shutter grabbed Catalina and guided her out of the room. I forced myself to focus on the issue at hand and slammed him to the ground, settling my knee to his neck. He tried to wriggle away, but he was a pencil necked piece of shit who had no idea how to fight, let alone defend himself.
“Shut the fuck up,” I ordered.
“Get off me,” he said on a whimper as I gave him a pat down, retrieving his wallet from his pocket.
“If you ever come near my sister again, I will make it so you shit in a bag, do you hear me?”
“Yes. Just get off me.”
I slid his driver’s license out of his wallet and held it between two fingers. “I know where you live now,” I glanced at the ID, “Dale Dawson. I also have your social security number because not only are you an asshole, you’re a moron and you should keep that shit locked up.” I let the pressure off his neck, stood, and after taking all the cash inside of it out, threw his empty wallet at him.
“I’m gonna call the cops,” he threatened, scrambling to his feet.
“Do it. Make my fuckin’ day.”
“You can’t go around attacking innocent men.”
“And you can’t go around attacking innocent women,” I countered, sliding his cards and cash into my pocket.
“She wanted it.”
I saw red, grabbing his shirt in my fist and slamming him against the wall, putting a hole in it I’d have to fix later.
“What the fuck?” Dale screamed like a girl.
“You wanted it, right?”
Before I could do anymore real damage, however, Doom stalked into the room and frowned. “This the prick?”
“Who are you?” Dale squeaked, trying to pull away from me. I currently had his face pushed up against the wall with one of his arms yanked high up his back making it impossible to move without pain.
“I’m Butch,” he retorted, and I rolled my eyes.
“No. I’m Butch,” I growled.
“You’re a fuckin’ kid,” Doom argued. “Ergo, you’re Sundance.”
“Is Lyric making you learn new words?” I taunted as I continued to struggle with Dale.
“Are you seriously arguing with your boyfriend?” Dale demanded, his mouth smirking.
“Are you seriously trying to be funny right now?” I snapped back, chucking him at Doom who used the man’s momentum against him, pushing him into the doorframe.
Dale squealed again, but since Doom had a good forty pounds and two inches on me, he was a giant compared to Dale, so he didn’t stand a chance.
“Am I taking him back to the barn?” Doom asked.
“I got his info,” I said. “If Dale promises to be a good boy, I’m fine with you letting him go.”
“Fuckin—”
“That’s not a good start to making me believe you’re gonna behave,” I pointed out.
“I’ll behave,” he said quickly, and Doom shoved him down the hall while I followed.
“Cat,” Shutter warned and I watched in surprise as my sister stepped in front of Dale and set her hands on his shoulders.
“What the fuck are you doin’?” I growled.
“I’m really sorry this didn’t work out, Dale,” Catalina said, promptly shoving her knee into his groin so hard, he fell to the floor in a heap of more screaming.
Doom bent down, grasped the collar of his shirt and dragged him out the front door, dropping him on the concrete of the landing and slamming the shattered wood behind him.
“You’re movin’ out,” I decreed, and Cat glared at me. “What?”
“I’m not having this conversation with you in front of strangers,” she hissed.
“What the fuck?” Doom snapped at the same time Shutter growled, “Fuck me, woman… strangers?”
“You were supposed to be watchin’ her,” I said to Shutter.
Shutter was an enforcer for the club, and a young one at that, because if you didn’t know him, he was scary as shit.
“I was watchin’ her,” he said. “I was the one who called you. But you told me you didn’t want me to engage, and I didn’t until I heard her scream.”
“Why the hell was Silas watching me?” Cat demanded.
I smiled. She refused to call Shutter ‘Shutter.’ She always used his real name, and it was something to behold.
Because she was the only one who got away with it.
“I’m gonna go grab my shit,” Doom said. “Come help, Shutter.”
Shutter frowned at my sister, a silent expression of his irritation. I was sure they’d have a conversation about it later, considering Shutter was one of my sister’s favorite humans, so her comment would have been especially hurtful to him.
Doom pulled the door open and I noticed Dale had gotten the fuck out of Dodge, or at least the landing, so I faced my sister who had now set a bag of peas to her eye.
“Rein it in,” she ordered, and I dragged my hands down my face.
“You’re comin’ back to the barn and you’re gonna stay there until we can get you outta your lease.”
“My lease is up, NoNo. Well, it is in twenty-two days,” she said. “It’ll be month-to-month after that.”
“No, it won’t.”
“I’m on the lowest rung of the 9-1-1 ladder, big brother. I haven’t even been there a year, so I won’t get an evaluation or a raise for at least another six mo
nths. I can’t afford anything else.”
“I told you—”
“I’m not living with you, Nolan. I love you, but I can’t have a decent sex life if I live with my brother. God! You’re impossible.”
“I’m not talking to you about your sex life.”
“And I’m not talking to you about being roomies,” she snapped back. “Or taking money from you.”
“Who’s impossible now?” I challenged.
She sighed, walking out from behind her island and facing me. “I should have started with thank you. I thought Dale was just a nice guy who worked down the hall.”
“You work with that asshole?”
“Not directly. He works on the first floor. I think it’s some hedge fund company or something.”
“I thought you had the whole building.”
“Budget cuts. We had to rent out space, apparently.”
“That’s bullshit.”
“It’s not like he has access to my floor, Nolan. I met him when we bumped into each other getting coffee. We’re on the same schedule.”
“Stalker.”
“Or a coincidence.” I raised an eyebrow, and she wrinkled her nose. “Probably not a coincidence.”
“Thank you for not being an idiot.”
“Thank you for saving the day.” She wrapped her arms around my waist. “But let’s discuss this ‘watching you’ business. Why do you have Silas watching me?”
“He volunteered.”
“Of course he did.” She sighed. “That man needs to get a life.”
Shutter had broken it off with his woman, Darlene, a year or so ago, but they were still friendly. Darlene was a good ten years older than him and had a six-year-old daughter, Nova, who adored Shutter. Because Shutter was a good guy, he was still a father figure in her life, and she was often hanging out at the barn with the other Dogs’ kids while Darlene worked.
“I’ll let you have that conversation with him,” I said.
Doom and Shutter walked back in and Doom got to work on the front door, while Shutter walked over to me and Cat. “You comin’ back to the barn?”
She glanced at me and then stomped her foot. “I guess I don’t have a choice.”
“Pack a bag. You’re at my back,” Shutter ordered.
“Oh, I’m not getting on your bike, Silas,” she argued.
Fanning the Biker's Flame (Dogs of Fire: Savannah Chapter Book 8) Page 5
