“Guard,” I told Zaka as I went to the door of the garage. After nine months, he was finally trustworthy enough to leave loose in the house. At least there weren’t any porcupines in there for him to try to play with. I’d made sure the doggie door was secured after he’d gone out to do his business, to be safe.
He pouted with his head on his paws.
“I have a date with Doc,” I said. His ears perked up, and he lifted his head and tilted it to the side as if he understood. His thick tail began to thump. I chuckled and went out, closing the door behind me.
Before I started my bike, I shot her a text.
Me: Make sure you’re wearing jeans and boots. We’re taking my bike.
Doc: uh ok. Do u have a helmet for me? I don’t have one.
Me: I got you
Doc: Why do I feel like I’m gonna regret this?
I laughed out loud.
Me: You won’t
Doc: You’re pretty sure of that
Me: See you soon
Tucking my phone into an inside pocket of my cut, I strapped my helmet to the sissy rest I’d latched on as soon as I’d gotten home with Zaka—I’d been that confident she’d text.
The bike roared to life, and I wracked the pipes as I rolled out of the garage. After hitting the remote to close the door, I took off toward the address she’d texted me earlier.
She lived in a nice area with newer, but modest homes.
I backed up to the curb in front of her house. I’d barely swung my leg over the seat when she rushed out of the house. Giving her a suspicious look, I wondered why she seemed in such a hurry. Especially considering how reluctant she’d been to go out with me.
I took a second to appreciate the tight jeans that hugged her every curve and the tall back boots that encased her calves like gloves. Stifling a groan at the way the long-sleeved T-shirt she wore stretched over her perfect tits, I fought the need to adjust my junk.
“Where’s the helmet?” she asked as she held out her hand.
Crossing my arms, I narrowed my eyes and asked her, “What’s the rush?”
Wide hazel eyes darted to the house, then back to me. That had me raising a brow.
The door flew open, and a woman with brunette hair stuck her head out the door. “I see you trying to sneak out, Kira!”
Raising both brows, I looked to her for an explanation. Her shoulders sagged.
“Come on, I’ll never hear the end of it if I don’t introduce you two.” She trudged back to the house.
The brunette had a smug grin and her arms crossed as she waited on us. We stepped onto the porch, and she reached a hand out.
“Hello. I’m Geneva, Kira’s roommate. And you are?” She had a remarkably firm handshake for a woman.
“Voodoo,” I replied.
“Voodoo? Jesus, did your mom not like you?” She had spunk, and I appreciated that, but I wasn’t giving her my given name, because as far as I was concerned, she didn’t need it.
“My momma liked me just fine.” Daring her to pursue what was none of her business, I left it at that.
“So you’re one of those bikers I see riding around town, huh?”
“Oh my God, Geneva. Enough,” Kira said in exasperation. It caused me to chuckle.
“What?” she asked Kira. “I just wanted to know if they were like that TV show!”
My eyes rolled, because I couldn’t help it. While there might be some shit from that show that was uncannily accurate, most was highly fictionalized.
“Not quite, Geneva,” I replied.
“Well, take my girl here for a real good ride. She needs it.” I couldn’t help it, I laughed at her innuendo.
“Okay, time to go!” Kira cut in. She grabbed my arm and tugged. There was no way she could’ve moved me on her own, but I was anxious to get going, so I let her.
“Nice to meet you, Geneva,” I said over my shoulder as we moved toward my bike.
“Okay, can we go now?” Kira had exasperation written all over her face.
“Sure,” I said as I grabbed the helmet and unhooked the bungee from it. Pleased that she’d braided her hair so it didn’t tangle, I placed the helmet on her head.
“I can do that,” she fussed.
“I’ve got it,” I insisted, because it gave me a reason to touch her. Her skin that my fingers brushed was silky soft, and I longed to explore every inch of it.
Once it was strapped on as tight as it would go, I got on and motioned for her to climb on behind me. She looked uncertain, so I told her how to get on. She was surprisingly adept.
“Have you ridden?” I asked as I looked over my shoulder.
“Yeah.”
“The way you acted, I thought you’d never been on a bike.”
“It wasn’t that” was her evasive response.
“Hmm.” Letting it drop, because I didn’t like to think of her on a bike with someone else, I started the engine, and we pulled away from her house. Once we got on the main road, I hooked her thigh with my hand and tugged on her to scoot forward.
The heat from between her legs hit me like a ton of bricks, and my goddamn cock jumped again. It was a bit of torture for me, but worth every second.
We hopped on highway 69 and got off on First. I pulled in to Cazador and parked. Once I’d shut off the bike, I helped her off.
“You good with Mexican?” I asked as she was removing the helmet. It hadn’t occurred to me to ask in advance, because I wasn’t really a dating kind of guy. The mechanics of a date were a little foreign to me.
“Yeah,” she said, and she bit her lip. I took the helmet and hung it on the handlebar. She looked from the helmet to me.
“Won’t someone steal it?”
Huffing out an amused snort, I shook my head. “Not if they know what’s good for them. Trust me, no one will mess with anything on this bike.”
She obviously didn’t understand the 1% sticker and the SYLRB decal.
Looking dubious, she walked with me when I placed a hand on her lower back and guided her to the doors. For a moment, I paused and glanced around. She gave me a questioning look. The feeling of being watched diminished, and I continued into the restaurant.
Once we were seated and looking over the menu, she seemed to fidget nervously.
“Everything okay?” I asked.
The waitress came and got our drink order. Surprisingly, she ordered a margarita and a glass of water. “Water for me,” I told the waitress, who assured us she’d be back for our order.
“Well?” I prodded. She sighed.
“Look, Voodoo, Ogun, whatever you want me to call you, I don’t know what I’m doing going out with you. You’re everything I don’t need to be mixed up in—everything I’ve tried to get away from.” She hesitated.
“What are you trying to get away from? Are you in trouble?” Never in a million years would I have thought she’d have skeletons in her closet.
“No, nothing like that.” She fidgeted nervously. “I’m worried that if this goes badly, it will affect our professional relationship at the clinic. Dr. Moran said there was no policy against us going out but to be cautious.”
Stiffening slightly, I took exception to him warning her away from me.
“Don’t get me wrong,” she said. “He didn’t tell me not to go out to dinner with you, but he said he hoped it wouldn’t cause tension in the clinic if it didn’t work out.”
Relaxing, I nodded. “I get it. But don’t worry. I’m mature enough not to be an ass.” Maybe a bit of a lie, because I could be a real dick when I wanted to be. In fact, most people found me pretty intimidating, but she made me feel lighter. A little more human.
The waitress dropped off our drinks, took our order, and left again.
She appeared to ponder on the situation. “Okay. But you need to know that I’m not looking for a relationship. My life is pretty busy right now.”
“That’s perfectly fine with me. I’m not much of a relationship kind of guy either. But I like you, and I’d lik
e to get to know you more. Hang out. Whatever.”
She stiffened slightly when I said I wanted to get to know her. Most people might not have noticed it, but I was extremely adept at reading people.
“Mmm,” she said before she took a sip of her margarita.
“How do you feel about stopping by the clubhouse after this?” I asked her, gauging her reaction.
“Umm, like your motorcycle club hang out?” Nervous energy poured from her. “Who all will be there?” she asked as she trailed a finger through the condensation on her glass.
Not sure who she was worried about being there, I opted for the truth. “The club members, maybe an ol’ lady or two, likely several, uh, club girls.”
She raised a dark blonde brow. “Club girls?”
Pushing on my bottom lip with my tongue, I debated how to describe them. Any other time, I wouldn’t have hesitated, but she was different. “It’s probably exactly what you’re thinking.”
“So chicks that sleep with all the guys?” she bluntly questioned. Her finger tapped the side of the glass as she stared in my eyes.
“You could say that,” I replied with a shrug. Leaning back in the booth, I took in every minute thing about her, trying to see how bold she would be.
“Chicks that you sleep with?”
“I have.”
“Oh,” she murmured as she took a sip of her drink again. “So if, um, we….” She stuttered and trailed off without finishing her thought.
Deciding I wasn’t going to beat around the bush because it wasn’t in my nature, I sat up and tapped her hand that rested on the table. “Hey. I’m a little new to this dating shit. Though we said we weren’t going to pursue a relationship, per se, if we did take this further, I wouldn’t be fucking anyone as long as we were fucking.” And I was honest enough with myself to admit that I’d wanted to fuck her from the first time I laid eyes on her.
“Holy shit,” she huffed.
“Too blunt?” I raised a brow as the corner of my mouth lifted.
“No.” She cleared her throat and wiggled in her seat. My head cocked as I studied her. Though she may have been trying to hide it, I could literally smell her arousal. The pheromones she exuded were off the charts, and my dick jumped against the zipper of my jeans. If I thought for one second she’d be up for it, I’d say fuck the food and take her back to my place.
“Good.”
The food came, and we ate with small talk interspersed between bites.
“So I find it interesting that you have a female German shepherd.”
“Why?” she asked after washing her food down with more of her margarita.
“It’s just interesting. You have a female, I have a male. Do you intend to fix her?”
“I’d not planned on it. She has champion bloodlines.”
“So does Zaka,” I added.
“I’m aware.”
“Really?”
She cleared her throat. “Okay. Honesty?”
“Always.”
“It has always been a dream of mine to have a GSD, but my father would never allow me to have a dog. However, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t consider breeding Sasha to Zaka.” Her cheeks flushed a soft pink.
“So it’s okay for our dogs to fuck, but not us?” I teased. She gasped and quickly looked around to see if anyone had heard me. Her hand shot out and squeezed mine.
“Shh!” she whispered in dismay, but I barely heard her.
As I sat there in a bustling Mexican restaurant, I had a vision that would change the course of everything.
“Daylight”—Maroon 5
When I grabbed Ogun’s hand, he froze and his eyes went slightly unfocused. It only lasted for a few seconds, but it left me feeling shaken and wondering if he’d had a minor seizure.
“Are you okay?” I asked when he paled and fell back against the back of the booth. He blinked rapidly and shook his head.
“Jesus,” he whispered before taking my margarita and swallowing the last of it.
“Ogun?” I questioned. He didn’t look good.
“I’m… uh, I’m good.” He didn’t look it, but his color was returning as his gaze locked on mine. It was impossible to stop staring into his crystalline eyes.
We both jumped a little when the waitress came up to the table. She made to leave the bill, but Ogun pulled cash out of his wallet, handed it to her, and said, “Keep the change.”
“You didn’t even look at the bill,” I said in exasperation. He shrugged and stood up.
“It was enough,” he said. I rolled my eyes.
“I wasn’t implying you shorted her. You likely gave her a tip as big as our bill.”
Again, he shrugged. When he held out a hand, I reached up and allowed him to help me out of the booth. As I stood, he pulled me so close to him, his heat washed over me in waves.
“Ogun?” I breathlessly questioned. He was acting strange, but it was affecting me in the oddest way.
“You never answered me. You up for stopping by the clubhouse?” he gruffly asked.
“If we’re not dating, wouldn’t that send the wrong message?”
“How?”
“Um, you taking me into the sanctity of your clubhouse to meet your gang?”
That drew a dark chuckle from his gorgeous lips. “It’s a club, not a gang. And I can bring anyone I damn well please to a party.”
“Okay,” I murmured.
Suddenly feeling like things were quickly escalating into something neither of us was truly prepared for, I took a shuddering breath. My eyes searched his, looking for answers to the uncertainty that plagued me.
More gently than I would’ve ever thought him capable, he cupped my cheek, and my breath hitched. It was like a jolt of something unnatural, but not the least frightening, shot through me. Those pale blue eyes were captivatingly hypnotic.
Without another word, he dropped his hand, grabbed mine, and led me back out to his bike.
Still silent, he handed me the helmet. I put it on with shaking fingers, and before I knew it, we were headed down the road.
My mind was in such a jumble, I didn’t pay attention to where we were going. The feel of his firm muscles under my hands was driving me to distraction, along with the intoxicating scent of his cologne mixed with the leather of his vest. Any hope I had of keeping my wits about me blew away with the passing breeze.
“We’re here,” he said as he tapped my thigh. Blinking, I realized we’d not only arrived, but he’d parked the bike at the end of a row of others.
With trembling limbs, I climbed off and tried to ignore the large group of people staring at us. The looks on their faces ranged from shock, to smugness, to straight-up anger. The last was on a woman with bright red hair and more skin than clothing showing.
Unbraiding my surely messy hair, I finger combed it, hoping it looked somewhat presentable.
The heat of his hand on my lower back was another jolt, and I moved forward. He left it resting there as we approached the group.
“You want something to drink?” he asked as he motioned toward several metal water troughs full of ice.
“Is there a bottle of water?” I asked through incredibly parched lips. Licking them in an attempt to moisten them, I caught his gaze. His pupils were dilated, and lust was blatant in them.
Swallowing with increasingly difficult effort, I saw his lips tilt in a semblance of a smile. He plunged his hand into the ice, fished around a bit, and came out with three longnecks grasped in his fingers.
“Beer, beer, or beer?” He held them up.
“Um, beer?” I said with a laughing shake of my head as I grabbed an import.
“Good choice,” he chuckled. He dropped one back into the ice, then used one of the chunky rings on his fingers to pop off both lids.
“Thanks,” I said with an eye roll and a smile.
“I want to introduce you.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me back toward the crowd. My heart hammered as I took in all the rough-looking bikers. Except, I
’d be lying if I said they weren’t attractive. Well, most of them.
We stopped in front of a burly guy with a lush salt-and-pepper beard. His vest said “Venom” and “President.” The two guys next to him both had tabs that said “Vice President,” and I was confused. Then I saw that they had different places on another tab. The guy with a thick silver beard and slicked-back hair to match was obviously from Detroit—and coincidently, his name was “Silver,” according to his name tab.
“Pres, I’d like you to meet Kira.” Venom’s gray-blue eyes seemed to go green, and I was mystified at how they’d seemed to change colors before my eyes.
He took the hand I offered and raised it to his lips with the snake bite piercings, but he left me feeling much more relaxed after shaking his hand. The way he held me and kissed my hand wasn’t inappropriate, but Ogun’s hand that rested on my lower back clenched my side, and I jumped a little.
“It’s a pleasure, Miss Kira,” Venom, the man Ogun called “Pres,” said with a humorous glance at Ogun.
“And this is my VP, Raptor, and our Detroit chapter VP, Silver,” Ogun went on with the introductions. If looks could strip you naked, the man he called Silver was a pro at it. He gave me such a heated stare as he trailed his blue eyes from my head to my toes that I shivered. He gave me a knowing smile, and Ogun gripped me again.
“Nice to meet you both,” I said as I shook first Silver’s, then Raptor’s hand. Neither did anything inappropriate, but Raptor did give Ogun a strange look before his oddly light brown eyes returned to me.
His brown hair was closely cropped with a messy upsweep of the front. He was ruggedly attractive, as were the others. His eyes narrowed on me, leaving me feeling almost naked. Exposed.
“Do I know you from somewhere?” he asked me. When I realized Ogun was squeezing me again, I also realized I was still holding Raptor’s hand.
“Oh!” I said as I released his hand, and he gave a soft chuckle. “I’m a vet where Og—uh, Voodoo brings his dog, Zaka.”
“Hmm, maybe I need to get a dog,” he said with a flirty grin.
That time, I was pretty sure I heard Ogun growl. The three men broke out in laughter, and I glanced from face to face in confusion. While I didn’t know the inside joke, I got the feeling they were messing with Ogun somehow.
Voodoo (Royal Bastards MC: Ankeny IA) Page 4
