“Pa and Hawg always had each other’s backs. Hawg took his duty seriously, and he looked after Mom well.”
“Ugh! How did she stand it?”
“It’s a brotherhood. Mom knew she was safe. Just like you are now.”
Stacey clunked down her glass. “Because I’m owned by you. You don’t have a problem with that mentality?” She pushed her plate away, suddenly no longer hungry.
“It’s better than the alternative.” He cleaned up his plate and sat back, satisfied, his hand on his flat stomach.
She shouldn’t ask, but she just had to know. “Which is what?”
“If you’re not an old lady, anyone can have you.”
“Please tell me I heard that wrong.”
“Anyone can have sex with a woman who parties with the brothers. They pass her around until someone claims her. After that, she’s off-limits.”
Stacey blinked. Too shocked. Too horrified. “What if she says no?”
“She can’t.”
“So, you’ve had sex with women who didn’t want you?”
“Believe me, if I had sex with a woman, she wanted it.” He reached over and jabbed his fork in her remaining dinner, shifted it over to his plate, and started eating.
“Thank God I have no intention of ever partying with your so-called brothers. I can’t believe any woman in her right mind would subject herself to that. There must be something wrong with them.”
She looked down at the remaining gravy on her plate, glistening with fat, and her stomach turned.
“Plenty of women like the sex and the free alcohol.”
“How can you associate with such a culture of chauvinist pigs?”
“You’d better learn to keep a lid on your hoity-toity opinions because you’ll be associating with them tomorrow night. The brothers are putting on a meet to celebrate our engagement.”
She stood so fast the chair clattered on the floor. She didn’t even bother to pick it up. “No! Hell, no. I’m not mixing with those hideous men. I met your father. I did what I had to do. That is where I draw the line.”
Troy stood, stormed over to her, and grabbed her by the shoulders. “Yeah, you are. And you’re going to play nice. This is about keeping you safe. The brothers need to meet you and see you by my side. Don’t make me throw you over my shoulder and carry you there.”
“Engagement parties are usually planned together. I’m sick of you just ordering me around and trying to control me. It’s unacceptable.”
His face hardened into planes. “Don’t test me, baby. I’ll tie you up and gag you again to get you there if I have to.”
“Yeah, and they’ll totally believe I’m willingly marrying you.”
“Yep. They’d just sit back and watch the spectacle. Women know their place in the club.”
Blind, white rage overcame her, too wild and crazy to control. “Go to hell, you misogynist bastard. Once and for all, I am not going.”
His fingers pressed hard into her shoulders, keeping her from storming off. “You are if I say you are.” He took a calming breath and lowered his voice. “This is for a good reason. Your safety comes first.”
She opened her mouth to retort, but he cut her off.
“New Orleans is not New York City. It’s wild here, and you need to have the club on your side, especially if you plan to run that spare parts business. When I’m away, I have to know someone I trust is here to keep an eye on you. So, yes, you’re damn well coming. And you’re going to make friends with everyone.”
“I won’t,” she muttered mulishly.
“You’re also going to look at me like a woman in love and convince Pa we’re the real deal. He may be an asshole, but he’ll give his life to save you if he believes you’re mine.”
She clawed at Troy’s hands, trying to wrench them off her. “I will not be owned, and I’m not hanging out with men who rape women and women who take drugs. This whole idea was a huge mistake. This isn’t a real relationship.”
“Then what the fuck would you call it? I’m with you every day. I’m making sure you have a hot meal after work. You think I do that stuff normally?” He grabbed her hands and squeezed them so the bones pressed together.
She winced. “Yeah, if you want sex bad enough. That’s what I’d call it. All about the sex.”
“That’s not how I see it,” he said hotly.
“And of course yours is the only opinion that matters. You don’t get to order me around, Troy. I am not your plaything.”
“You need to learn—”
“No! I don’t need to learn a damn thing from you. Go re-up and die.” She tried to pull her hands away, tried to release his grip, but his fingers tightened even more.
“Aren’t you a charmer when you’re mad?” he said, his tone suddenly quiet and deadly. “This is my town. I know what goes on here and how damn dangerous it can be. You’re doing things my way, Stacey, or you’re going back to New York.”
“Fuck you! Let me go. I hate you.”
“No. We’re sorting this out now.”
Blind with fury, she kicked out at him and tried to knee him. But he dodged her kicks, and wrestled her up against the wall, binding her with his arms so his whole body imprisoned hers.
God help her, he had an erection.
He was strong, and so hard, so damned sexy, that she stilled, breathing heavily, and smelled his musky male scent.
Her traitorous body reacted instantly. Craving him.
Damn it! How could he have this insane pull on her?
Right now she loathed him…but she wanted him, too. It hurt so much that he was willing to humiliate her if she didn’t obey him. She believed him when he said he’d bind and gag her, and it did her head in.
“Why are you so damn stubborn?” he asked, his voice gritty like sandpaper. “Can’t you see this is for your own good? I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.”
He bent and kissed her, his hot, possessive lips on hers.
She bit him, hard, drawing blood. “I don’t want druggies and criminals looking out for me.”
His arms coiled around her, squeezing her like an anaconda, his face dark with fury until she was left gasping. “Don’t do that again.”
“Or what? You’ll tie me up and pin me to the floor with your boot? Practice for tomorrow?”
“Don’t tempt me,” he said. He licked his bleeding lip.
“I can’t stand the way you treat me sometimes. I want an equal relationship, but clearly, you don’t know the definition.” She could feel her eyes heating up as tears threatened to spill, but she was determined not to cry in front of him.
“These are my people, Stacey. My family. The ones who have my back.”
“Your people. Not mine.”
“And you say you’re not a princess. You are so fucking judgmental,” he said, stung. “You haven’t even met these people, and your mind is already made up. I’ve served with some of these men. They have more loyalty and more heart than you’ll ever have.”
“That’s rich, coming from you. I want you gone. Now! It’s over. I’m done. Get out of my life.”
He released her, grabbed his cut from the chair where he’d hung it, and pulled it on over his T-shirt. His expression was hard as he glowered at her with brittle-dark eyes. This man had been born into the biker culture, a culture she’d never understand, and never wanted to.
When he wordlessly strode out of the house, she sank to her knees, and the tears fell.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Troy stormed into the club, and the prospect at the bar got him a whiskey without him asking. He threw it back and slammed his glass down for another. At one end of the club’s rectangle-shaped room, some of the brothers were playing pool, Hawg and Barf cleaning up against Garbage Bag and Suck.
He could hear some moans and groans wafting down the corridor from the back of the club. A headboard was thumping against a wall, and it made him horny and edgy. He should be at home taking Stacey right now, savoring the way she moved for him,
her taste, her scent, and her love of what he could do for her.
The noise grew; then the woman started screaming. He assumed in pleasure.
“Stop fucking showing off,” Barf yelled at the wall, and the others laughed.
“What do you think they’re doing in there?” Pervert pulled at his jeans, his dark, beady eyes darting from face to face.
Although he was a wiry little man, Pervert could scale any wall of any house or building complex like Spiderman if the club needed information. He always knew what was going down before trouble happened because he was a genius with technology, especially listening devices, though he did tend to get distracted if he discovered anyone having sex, hence his name.
“Go look, Pervert,” Suck said, feigning insouciance while lighting a cigarette. “Maybe you’ll learn where to put your cock.” He took a puff of his cigarette and blew out a smoke ring, poking his finger rhythmically through the hole until the thing dissipated.
“I gotta look,” Pervert said. “Who’s in there?”
“Axel, grinding his ax on a new babe,” Barf said.
“She his ol’ lady?” Pervert asked.
“Nah,” Hawg said. “We haven’t met her yet.”
“Think he’ll pass her around?” Pervert asked, disappearing down the corridor before he could get an answer.
Troy doubted he would. It wasn’t like Axel to bring a woman to the clubhouse. But then he remembered Axel had his younger sister staying a couple of days at his digs, and he wouldn’t want to take a stranger home while the sister was there. The woman started panting and moaning, and the noise started building again. It was making Troy edgy.
One of the guys grabbed Gabriella, who liked to party at the club when she wasn’t managing her brothel, and pulled her down onto his lap.
Troy stalked over to the sound system and put on some heavy metal. He was used to getting laid several times a day with Stacey, and that was how he liked it. His cock had definitely not accepted the relationship was over.
Hell, he hadn’t. The meal his mother made them had been good, and Stacey happy. Fucking meet, screwing everything up for him.
He looked around, glowering at the brothers, though they’d done nothing to deserve it.
There were boxes of beer and spirits stacked up against the wall at the side of the bar for tomorrow night. Snake would have ordered a hog to roast, and plenty of bread to soak up the fat. Troy had always liked a meet because it helped him unsee the crap from a mission.
Celebrating it without his fiancée would totally undo everything he’d put in place to keep Stacey safe.
Which she’d made abundantly clear she didn’t want or need.
Therefore, she shouldn’t be his worry. So, why couldn’t he get her out of his mind?
A door opened down the corridor, and he heard whispers and giggles, then the sound of a car. Sometime later, Axel sauntered down the hallway, and although he’d put his cock away, the bastard looked contented.
“How’d you get her to scream like that? I’ve seen your dick. It’s the size of a pin,” Barf said.
The brothers hooted.
“Mind your own business. I escorted her out to her car because I’m not passing her around to you poxy bastards,” Axel said.
“He takes her doggy style,” Pervert said, motioning with his hands and rolling his hips.
“You opened the door, you freak?” Axel asked, spinning fast, his hands forming fists.
Pervert leaped onto the pool table and scrabbled over it to put some distance between them. Axel shook his head, clearly too chilled out to bother beating him.
“She your ol’ lady?” Barf asked.
“She will be, if she keeps up her bedroom tricks,” Axel said. “Gargles when she has my cock at the base of her throat. Feels like a fucking vibrator.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Troy said. “I don’t want to hear about it.”
Axel gave Troy a grin and sauntered over. He was the closest thing Troy had to a best friend, and they’d been through too much together in the Middle East for Axel to be wary of him. And although the other guys were fierce, Axel made them look like pussies. His training was second to none, and if Troy needed a man to guard his back, it was Axel all the way.
“Hey,” Troy said, signaling the prospect to get down the whiskey bottle and a fresh glass.
“What happened to your lip?” asked Axel. “You kiss a tiger?”
With a frown, Troy looked at the rim of his glass and saw blood on it. He wiped his lip with the back of his hand and saw more blood. Well, shit. The lip was swelling where Stacey had bitten him. “Something like that,” he said, taking a slug of the whiskey.
“Good cure-all, whiskey. Solves lots of problems,” Axel said.
“Bullshit,” Troy muttered.
“You obviously haven’t had enough,” Axel said, topping up his glass. “What’s made you so cheerful, anyway?”
The prospect handed him some ice wrapped in a cloth. Troy nodded at him, thinking the prospect was doing a good job.
“Stacey won’t fucking come and meet the brothers.”
“Not surprised. They’re ugly bastards. Present company excluded.” Axel gulped down his whiskey, slamming the glass on the counter with an air of satisfaction. “Rachael’s not that keen, either, so I’m easing her in slowly.”
“The screamer?” Troy asked.
“Yeah.”
“No one’s seen her.”
“You heard her. That’s enough for now. She’s very sexy. All curves and flame red hair. Even her bush.”
“Thanks for the vivid description, asshole. You set everyone’s teeth on edge hearing you screwing.”
“Now, don’t be like that, you sad bastard. Think of what it’ll take to get Stacey to come to the meet, instead,” Axel said in a genial voice. “Hell, I want to meet her. She sounds entertaining.”
“She’s a fucking fireball,” Troy said with a shake of his head. “Fights me on every turn.”
“Strong enough to stand up to you, eh? Good for her.”
“No. She’s a princess who refuses to mix with us. She should have stayed in New York City. She’s wrong, all fucking wrong for me and the club. She says I’m controlling.”
“Who, you?” Axel flashed him a mock grin. “How could she say that about a sweet little pussy like you?”
“Fuck off.” Troy took another gulp of his whiskey and replaced the ice pack.
“She must have something good about her. First time I’ve seen you on a hook, wriggling like a worm. Sounds like she’ll keep you interested because she doesn’t let you boss her around.”
“Yeah,” he agreed somewhat morosely, not adding that she’d also thrown him out of her life.
Pa’s office door opened, and he walked out with one of the brothers. Pa’s eyes were glazed, and he smelled of liquor as he came closer. He joined them at the bar and sat next to Troy. The prospect got him a whiskey. “What happened to your face?” Pa asked him. “Your pussy turn feral?”
“The kitten turned into a tiger,” Axel said.
“What did you do to piss Stacey off?” Pa asked, his gaze boring into Troy as he waited for an answer.
Pa could wait until hell froze over, because Troy had never told him about his private business and didn’t aim to start now.
“Stacey won’t celebrate their engagement with us. Your ugly mug must have scared her off last night, Razor,” Axel said.
“Probably,” Pa said, nodding. “Georgia liked her, though.”
Troy studied him. “What? No shitty quips?”
He shifted the ice pack. Surely, Pa hadn’t accepted Stacey so easily?
Pa shrugged. “She’s been brought up to be a lady, like your mother.”
A low, hoarse groan echoed across the clubroom. Troy looked over and saw Gabriella was sucking off one of the brothers. He turned his back on them. His own balls were tight, and he didn’t need to see Gabriella in action, or the line of brothers forming like dogs on a bitch.
>
“You’re right. Stacey is a lady. She doesn’t fit here,” Troy said.
“Sweet, nice girl. Innocent like your mother was.”
“You like her?” Troy asked. Miraculously, Stacey seemed to have turned his father around.
“I know a fine woman when I meet one,” Pa said, and scowled in Gabriella’s direction as the noise increased. “Go use the fucking bedrooms,” he called to her. “We’re trying to talk here.”
She hurried off, and several brothers followed her.
“Get her used to us slowly,” Pa suggested. “Just stay half an hour at the meet before the brothers get rowdy, then take her home.”
Axel raised his eyebrows, looking from Pa to Troy. “Better come before the brothers arrive, in that case.”
“Like when the club is empty?” Troy asked, choking on a laugh.
“Yeah,” Axel said.
“It doesn’t matter whether she fits this place or not. Your mother wants you to marry soon. This could be your only chance,” Pa said. “I expect you to follow through.”
Troy removed the ice pack from his torn lip. The damn thing was throbbing, and the ice was only making it worse. “Who said anything about a quick marriage? And why the fuck does it matter?” He was surprised Pa was even discussing this. Not exactly his style.
“No one else would put up with a moody bastard like you,” Pa said.
Axel nodded. “Controlling, too.”
“Fuck off, Axel,” Troy said.
Axel laughed.
“Mom puts up with you,” Troy shot back at his father.
“True. Another controlling bastard,” Axel said cheerfully.
“Fuck off, Axel,” Pa said.
Axel grinned wider.
The truth was, Troy was happy when he was with Stacey. He’d never wanted to play happy families before, but he enjoyed her company…even if she was too stubborn for her own good. His hands literally itched to hold her again.
“Listen, son, you have to court a lady,” Pa said.
Troy spluttered in his whiskey. “How do you know the word court?”
“How do you think I got your mother?” Pa asked.
“You knocked her up,” Troy said.
“Pfft!” Axel watched the interchange, his face alight with amusement. He was in a sickeningly good mood, and Troy really wanted to punch him.
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