The nameless guy led her down a hall and opened a door. Someone grunted a response, and her one-nighter muttered an apology. She hadn’t seen much inside the room before the door was closed and she was finally led to an empty room.
The guy didn’t waste time nor did he try to kiss her. He peeled her shirt over her head and cupped her breasts through her bra. His hands weren’t rough, and his thumbs dipped underneath the material to skim over her puckered nipples. She moaned when he pushed the fabric down, and his mouth made contact. It was just what she needed until the door crashed open.
27
Ender kissed Lyla more reverently than he did with any other woman. Yet, the magic that could normally clear his head wasn’t there to give him the relief he sought. Instead, he found his eyes opening and searching for Piper.
He found her at the corner bar, getting a drink from Kink. The guy had a disarming baby face, and was known to smooth talk his way into any female’s pants. He didn’t worry about Piper, though. She would read him like a book and could give the guy a run for his money. So he took the opportunity to take Lyla to one of the rooms and work out his erection issues.
“I’ve missed you,” Lyla breathed. Her voice was like warm honey, sweet and seductive. It should have made him hard, but it didn’t.
Fucking Piper had him all in knots. Immediately, as his brain conjured an image of her, his dick stiffened.
Lyla felt his response and took it as her doing. She slid a hand between them to grip his length.
“Let’s take care of his.”
He nodded. It didn’t matter who he was fucking. At some point, Lyla would bring back all the reasons why he’d considered asking her to be his old lady once upon a time.
She led Ender to a room he was sure was clean enough if she took him there. She stepped backward toward the bed and seductively removed her clothes. She was thin, but not skinny; curvy but not voluptuous, just the way he liked. Her breasts were perfectly palm-sized. When she was naked, he grabbed the back of her head and devoured her mouth.
Only all he could see on the back of his eyelids was Piper. So he kept the suckers open, focusing on the woman in front of him. Lyla undid his jeans and took his dick in her hands. He found a condom and handed it to her. She slipped it on before draping herself on the sheet-covered mattress.
He’d just bent down, prepared to take her with his mouth and get her off, when the door swung open. Kink’s head appeared in the doorway as Ender’s ass moon shined him. Ender growled something over his shoulder when he saw a flash of dark hair. The waves reminded him of something, rather someone.
Kink apologized and ducked out before a red haze clouded Ender’s vision. He stood and roughly tucked himself in his jeans.
“What’s wrong, baby?” Lyla asked, concerned.
Unable to speak, he shook his head. He had to check first before he said anything. He could feel his core temperature rising, as the idea that Piper was about to fuck Kink sent his blood to boiling.
He stormed out of the room and opened every door along the way until he found her. She stood with her top off and Kink going to town breast fucking feeding.
The roar that let out of his mouth would have made Tony the Tiger proud. Kink stepped back as Piper used her hand to cover her exposed flesh.
“Do you not know who the fuck she belongs to?”
Kink, newly patched after prospecting for over a year, shook his head. The young guy's eyes were wide, realizing he was fucked.
“She’s Rocky’s.”
Kink scrambled away with horror written in his expression and scampered out of the room. The door closed with a thud.
“What. The. Fuck?”
Piper wanted to point at Ender, but then she would give him an eyeful. “I’m having some fun. Isn’t that what you were doing?”
“You’re acting like some twisted bitch. You have a death wish for that boy. What the hell do you think would happen to him when Rocky found out?”
Piper let her shoulders rise indifferently.
“You know what I do for the club. You want me to come back here with an order to kill him or worse, leave him alive without his balls?”
She threw her hands up, not caring her breasts were there for him to see. “Yeah, it’s not fair. You and I both know Taylor doesn’t want me any more than I want him. Yet you’re cockblocking me, but I bet you don’t cockblock him.”
Ender didn’t know how to answer. What she said was true. There was a double standard that existed in club life. It wasn’t as bad as how his dad ran the ranch, but women were expected to put up with the antics of their man. They could leave, but they couldn’t be with anyone else in front of any member of the club until the guy released her from being his property.
He sucked in a deep breath as he watched the rise and fall of her chest. Her nipples hardened and begged for his mouth. He pointed at the bed. “Lie down.”
Her eyes widened, and then narrowed. “No. Why should I?”
“We have a long ride home tomorrow, and you need a fucking time-out.”
“I’m not a child, least of all yours.”
“Then stop fucking acting like it!”
She crossed her arms over her bare chest and glared at him. It was a fucking standoff. He’d had enough of the woman in front of him. He strode over, picked her up by her arms, and tossed her on the bed.
Piper bounced, and she had to fling her arms out to steady herself.
Once the bed stopped moving, he tossed her the discarded bra and shirt.
“Cover yourself. You’re like a fucking bomb waiting to go off. Only you’re going to bring down someone else with you.”
He turned and marched out of the room with invisible steam shooting out of his ears. When the door slammed shut, she lost all the will to fight. He barely glanced at her, and she felt defeated. She wouldn’t be getting laid, and he was right. She’d put that guy in danger for her own selfish needs. She just wanted this day over. She’d go see her mother once they reached California and then she would leave for New York. Just like that. She obediently stayed put and not because he could tell her what to do. She knew he would be stubborn enough to toss her over his shoulder and bring her back in there if she tried to leave. And she just wanted to be alone.
She turned on her side after she put her shirt on. She considered getting her bag from his bike and fleeing toward California. She’d see her mother on her own terms and maybe not have to see Ender ever again. She shut her eyes, knowing escape was futile.
Ender had to leave. The blood had drained from his head to his cock, making him stupid. He left the room but hadn’t gone far. There was no way he could trust that she’d stay put.
Lyla stepped out of the room they'd been in and stared him down. There in her eyes she searched for answers he didn’t have to give. Without a word, he opened the door and went back into the room where Piper lay. He’d clearly lost his inner battle as he unbuttoned his jeans and climbed into bed next to her. They were both so wound up, they needed a release apparently with each other and not with someone else. Only he didn’t have a death wish.
Without apology, he lay on his back. She rolled onto hers. Both of them stared at the ceiling, fighting the temptation between them that grew each moment.
She hated the man world she lived in. Tired of fighting against that world as she’d done all her life, at home, as a soldier, hell, at his father’s compound and the damn club, she surrendered. She was a woman, hear her roar. She was horny and he wasn’t leaving. So she’d give him a little show.
Closing her eyes, she imagined his hand landing on her hip and pushing up her shirt. She hadn’t bothered with the bra. So she pinched her nipples, pretending it was his fingers, and moaned in pleasure. As she continued with the fantasy, it was easy to pretend it was his hand not hers that moved to the hem of her pants. She was ready and pushed them down.
She willed her brain to conjure imagines of his big hands finding her core. She groaned as her fingers brushed ov
er her clit. The picture of his cock in the cleft of her ass as he dipped his finger into her honeyed heat came easily.
It could be his palm not hers rubbing against her, lighting a fuse. Every stroke had trusting against the fingers she pushed inside. She found a rhythm that stirred up her pulse and made her moan out loud.
“That’s it, baby,” she imagined him whispering in her ear. “Let go.”
Pressing down hard on her clit, she exploded. Bright stars shone on the back of her eyelids as she continued to pump two fingers. She felt like melted butter, boneless and sated until she remembered he was right next to her and hadn’t said a word.
She rolled over, embarrassed because she had it all wrong. He never wanted her. He was just a man whose body reacted to her instinctually. Forcing herself not to cry, she closed her eyes. She wasn’t that girl, not since Taylor had made a fool of her. She prided herself on not letting a guy get to her, at least not the ones who rode motorcycles. Yet, there she was, pining over a guy she couldn't have. She reached for sleep and let it claim her.
Ender hadn’t expected her to go there. He’d barely breathed as he caught snatches of her getting off. He was certain if her hand brushed against his cock, he would come. But she hadn’t. She’d rolled over. Hearing her breaths even out, he eyed her, disbelieving she’d gone to sleep.
He could get up and find Lyla. But he didn’t. Instead, he freed his dick as she slept and fisted it tight. Fuck.
When she’d gotten herself off, he’d watched her face more than the hand between her legs. Her rapturous expression with parted lips had undone him more than anything else. As he began to stroke himself, images of her lips wrapped around the crown of his dick conjured in his head. He barely stopped himself from taking a hold of her hair, visualizing her bright eyes, innocent yet sexy, defying him every suck. That was all it took.
Jets of pent-up cum shot out. Strings of shooting cum dripped down his hand. Spent, he didn't waste time and scrambled out of bed. He got his pants back up after wiping his hand on a towel he found and left her sleeping in the room.
Ender had never known the depths of his conviction for the club or toward his best friend until then. He wanted Piper like he needed food to survive and she’d made it clear she was his for the taking. Yet there he was back in the main clubhouse, taking two shots of whiskey before he started on beer. He couldn’t be twisted, not even in a chapter house of a club. The guys would have his back, but they weren’t his brothers like those at his own charter house.
Lyla came and sat next to him, pouting, not understanding his mood. She tried to get him back in the room, but he wasn’t up to it. He needed to get Piper home and to his best friend. He was sure once he saw Taylor take possession of her that would clear up his head toward the pain in the ass woman. He hoped Taylor would give up the other females and treat Piper right. She might have been headstrong, but she was the kind of woman he could call wife. She’d put her neck on the line for strangers. He’d only done that for his brothers. He could only imagine what she would do for her old man.
At some point, Piper woke having heard a vibration and knew the prepaid phone Ender had yet to find was ringing.
28
Piper answered, expecting to hear Katie’s mother on the other end of the phone.
“You’re forgiven for leaving the state without permission.”
She froze and glanced at the door, hoping Ender wouldn’t come back then. She moved and turned the lock, knowing it wouldn’t keep the man out, but it would buy her some time to get the phone put away if he tried to barge in.
Before she could respond, he said, “I have a job for you.”
She couldn’t dwell on how he’d gotten her number. She imagined if Katie and the girl’s mom had made it to New York, he might have asked if Piper had given them her contact number.
As he started to detail the job, she committed it to memory as she’d been taught. Nothing would be written down, as that would create potential evidence that could be used against her or the organization. She fought to breathe, knowing she was just as trapped in her job as she was with Ender, who would be lurking somewhere nearby. There was no time for thoughts of him. Once the instructions were given, she would be expected to execute them down to the letter and within the window of time given.
When he finished, she had to ask the question because if his answer wasn’t in the affirmative, then how they’d found her would be an even scarier thought. “How are Katie and her mom?”
There was a pause. “They’re fine. Charity work suits you.”
She wasn’t sure how to take that. “Thanks, Kings.”
The line went dead, and she stood there for a moment and replayed the conversation in her head. The plan was simple, yet complicated. It was in the details that made it a job for a professional like herself. Before Ender, she’d been so numbed by life, her job hadn’t affected her. Now, she wondered about all the nameless faces and if they had families. Only she didn’t have the luxury of second-guessing her assignments. If she didn’t do it, someone else would and then she’d be the next target.
She stowed her phone away and lay down to get some rest. She would need it.
The next day, they rode past the city to a town just outside of LA County. They parked at a nondescript building next door to a Harley dealer on one side and an auto body shop on the other. Memories of the past flooded her mind. She took her time getting off the bike and removing her helmet to stare at a line of bikes that sat perfectly positioned along the side wall. They didn’t enter the building from the front. Ender headed for the door on that side.
When he opened it, he waited for Piper, who’d hung back near his Hog. He knew who was inside based on the bikes parked there and wondered if Piper recognized any. Finally, she straightened her spine and walked over to him with her chin lifted. That was his girl.
What the fuck? She wasn’t his, that point would be driven home in a matter of minutes.
God, if she were anyone else he’d kiss her and carry her to one of the back rooms and fuck her properly. But she wasn’t anyone else, and she wasn’t his and never would be.
Music and conversation filled his ears as he made his way to the main room down a very short hallway. Piper steeled herself as she walked behind him into the open space. Tables circled the room with a short bar along one wall. A pool table paralleled another wall in the back. A small stage with a pole centered the room. She remembered as a child the few times her mom had brought her there during club family gatherings that it was cool they had a fireman’s pole in the room. Little did she know then that was nothing from a firehouse.
Ender’s long strides had him across the room and near the bar in front of a tall man, before Piper had gotten a few steps in the room. The man he stood before was just a hair shy of being the same height as Ender as he got off his stool and to his feet. He clapped a hand on Ender’s back as Ender did the same. Piper, however, took her time feeling all the eyes landing on her as she made her way over to the two men.
“Baby,” the big man said before enveloping her in his embrace. His woodsy scent brought back even more memories.
“Rocky, that’s your girl?” Another older man asked while taking her in.
Rocky nodded before he leaned back and studied Piper’s face. He held on to her arms as if he would never let go. Finally, he stepped back but couldn’t keep his hands off her. He smoothed a hand down her head as his eyes lit with warmth and understanding.
That was when she caught sight of movement out of the corner of her right eye. She tensed and closed her eyes a second. Then she turned to face him.
He was as beautiful as she remembered; California blond hair that brushed his shoulders, a face that could grace the cover of any magazine and a body that seemed too good to be true. Only now, he did nothing for her. Gone was all the love she’d professed when he’d taken her virginity years ago. She felt nothing as he blinked at her with big green puppy dog eyes. Ender positioned himself next to her li
ke a sentry.
Taylor stood with a bleached blonde on his arm with tits the size of small watermelons. Piper crushed the leather vest in her fist. She couldn’t remember why she’d ever thought she loved him.
“Pipe,” Taylor said. His voice was like the promise of treasure only she wasn’t buying it.
Her hand jutted out, and instantly every club member was on alert like she had a gun in her hand.
“Piper,” Rocky called out.
“I got this, Dad,” she said sarcastically, shocking herself with the moniker she’d never used for her biological parent. He’d shipped her off to grow up with other parents because his wife didn’t want the product of his adultery in her home.
She turned her attention back to Taylor. “I don’t want this. Don’t know why I ever did. You can keep this and give it to her or shove it up your ass, for all I care.”
Hysterical laughter filled the moment of silence, but she didn’t bother to see who in the room found her funny. When Taylor didn’t take the cut, she tossed it at him, center mass. On reflex, he caught it before it hit the floor, just as she took her leave, stalking back the way she came.
She came, she saw, and now she had to do her duty and see Tricks, her bio mom. Then she could get the hell out of town and back to her life.
In her wake, she heard Ender say, “I’ll take her to Poet’s.”
“Don’t be long we need to talk about what’s going on with Wagon’s crew.”
Ender nodded and Rocky murmured something else, but she was already out the door. Outside, she paced and waited for Ender to come. She knew he would follow her if Rocky ordered it. As club President, anything he said was law.
“That went well,” Ender muttered as he exited the building.
She rolled her eyes. “Look, I’m here. I don’t need a babysitter, and there’s no way I’m going to that pompous bastard’s house. If he thinks I’ll treat his ass like royalty, he has another thing coming.”
Ride or Die (Devil's Edge MC #1) Page 15
