by Mia Malone
There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for my daughter, she’d said, and he got it.
“Your ex didn’t handle it well?”
“He always wanted a big family. I did too, and we’d talked about it. I wanted to adopt, but he was firmly against it, which I’d known from the start. Bill had always said he wanted to raise his own kids. So, we split up, and he met Patricia.”
That ex of hers was such a douche. To tell any wife that only biological children counted was pretty horrible, but to say that to someone with Cas’ background?
“Your ex is an asshole,” Black muttered.
“Not really,” she said with a shrug.
“Yeah, he is,” Black said, but decided that they’d leave talking about her ex to another day too. “Glad I didn’t know when –” He cut himself off and tried frantically to come up with a good cover-up.
Which he failed at.
“When?” she prompted.
“Ah, Cas...”
“Black, when?”
“I was in the area,” he muttered, feeling like a fool. “Might have passed by your house.”
“You drove by my house? When?”
“A week before we heard Dad was sick.” He sighed and decided that he might as well just tell her. “Saw you, Cas. You opened the door and called for a bunch of kids to come in. Said dinner was ready and they came running. They had the same hair as Desi. Looked like her a little.”
She stared openmouthed at him, and then she blinked slowly.
“That was Desi’s siblings,” she murmured. “I sometimes had them over for dinner. You know? When Bill and Patty had to work late.”
“You were their damned babysitter?”
Jesus. There really was no end to shit she’d put up with.
“They took care of Desi when I went out on something.”
He wanted to roar at her that it wasn’t fucking babysitting when it was your own child and how that ex of hers had better not show his face in Rogan ever because it would be bashed in. Repeatedly.
“Desi lived with you?” he asked instead.
“Yes. She saw her father whenever she wanted and had dinner there sometimes, but she lived with me.”
“How the hell did you date?”
“The usual way?”
He leaned back and raised a brow.
“Babe. I meant how the hell did you have sex?”
“The usual way?” she repeated, and a smile seeped into her eyes.
“With a daughter in the house and an ex next door knowing your every move?”
“Yeah, but I didn’t have it much. Didn’t need it.”
She didn’t need it? The woman had pulled out his cock and fucked him on a bench outside his house in a way that made him forget to put on a condom, and she tried to tell him that she didn’t need it?
“Everyone needs it,” he said.
“Not really,” she said with a shrug, looked at him under her lashes and added coolly, “I used my fingers, and I have... appliances. That worked too.”
He choked on the swig of beer he’d just taken and coughed furiously.
“You’re seriously sitting there, telling me that you got yourself off with some toys?”
“Yes,” she murmured smugly, and he knew she’d said that just to mess with him.
Well, he’d just fuck with her right back then, wouldn’t he?
“Babe,” he said calmly. “You gotta know that what we’re doing here,” he indicated the table and their glasses with his hand, “Is starting something that’ll get us to the point where you show me how you use your fingers... and your toys.” Then he grinned and raised the bottle. “So, tell me. What do you have? A dildo?”
***
Cassandra
“Yuh – What?” I mumbled and wondered why the hell I had thought I’d be able to play any kind of games with the man sitting calmly in front of me, talking about dildos.
“Oh, yeah,” he rumbled.
“I’m not going to masturbate in front of you,” I shared.
“You will.”
“Black.”
“You watched me,” he said smugly.
“What?”
God.
I had a sneaky suspicion that I knew what.
“I saw you, baby.”
Well, shit.
“You saw me?” I echoed stupidly as if he hadn’t just told me so.
“Yup,” he said and leaned back in the chair. “Hope you liked the show.”
“I was surprised,” I said in an attempt at justifying the fact that I’d stood there and ogled him. “I didn’t expect you to be there in the middle of the afternoon, doing, you know?”
“Yeah, Cas. I get that,” he said with a grin. “You also didn’t leave.”
Well, double-shit. He looked at me, and the way his eyes had darkened sent a shiver down my spine.
“Did you like it, baby?” he asked, and his voice was suddenly low and hoarse. “Watching me stroke my cock? Did it make you wet to watch me come all over my stomach?”
I thought about what I’d done when I got back to my cabin and knew I was blushing.
“Um.”
“Yeah, it did,” he concluded, and added smugly, “So there’ll be payback, baby. I liked knowing you were there, watching me, but I’ll like watching you more.”
He got up, and since it was almost two thirty in the morning, I didn’t protest, but then he took my hand and pulled me out through the door, and I realized he was walking me home.
“Are we –”
I’d thought we’d end the night in his bed and wasn’t sure what was happening, but he cut me off.
“Have you forgiven me?”
“For being an ass?” I asked.
“For being an ass,” he confirmed.
“Yeah.”
He swung me around and backed me up until he pinned me firmly to my door.
“Good. You’ll be in my bed, and I don’t want you pissed when you end up there.”
“What?” I breathed, not understanding why we were by my door if I would be in his bed.
“Just saying,” he murmured against my lips.
“I’ll be in your bed?” I asked.
“Yup.”
“Now?”
“No.”
“Why not?” I asked and wished it hadn’t come out sounding quite so desperate.
He grinned knowingly and squeezed me.
“It was a heavy day today and it’s late so we’re both tired. I want you to be sure about shit, so I’m gonna be a fucking gentleman and let you have some time to think.”
I did not need any time at all and was pretty sure my brain was too overheated to think anyway. I was, in fact, so hot and bothered I felt like screaming at him to take me against the door where anyone could see us.
“Okay,” I heard myself whisper.
“Good girl,” he murmured against my neck. He ground his hips against me and felt how hard he was so I let my hands slide down his sides, hoping that my hands on his ass would make him change his mind.
“And Cassandra?” he went on and used a hand to cup my breast. “While you think that shit through, you can’t use your fingers or whatever toys you’ve brought here.”
“What?”
“Next time you come, it’ll be me making that happen,” he growled and let his tongue slide over the tip of my ear.
I shuddered and was about to agree because I’d be in my bed within seconds and there was no way I’d hold back, but he wouldn’t –
“I know what you look like when you’ve come, Cas. Don’t even think about putting your fingers on your clit because I’ll know.”
Dear God.
“If I can’t use my hands then you can’t either,” I murmured and pressed up against him.
My hands slid down to cup his behind, and I let my tongue slide over his neck in a long swipe. “I know what you look like too, Einar.”
“Jesus,” he grunted and snorted out a short chuckle. “That backfired, didn’t it? W
ell, you’d better think fast then.”
I tilted my head back and pressed out weak laughter, and then he kissed me.
There it was.
That soft, hot kiss with a lot of tongue sending heat straight to my pussy and making my heart skip a beat, but he pulled back and murmured, “Goodnight, baby.”
I watched him walk away, and how he turned to grin at me.
Then I walked in and thought that I’d have to take a shower or something to cool down, but I fell face first into the bed and was asleep within seconds.
Chapter Eleven
Mr. Big Stuff
Cassandra
My mouth fell open, and then I rasped out, “Dear God, is that a wolf?”
“Nope,” Ronnie said calmly. “Dog. Comes here sometimes for scraps.”
“He’s young,” I murmured and got up from my front porch. “Just a couple of years.”
“Don’t, Cas. He’s dangerous. Feral. And wily like a coyote. The men have tried to shoot him on more than one occasion, but he gets away every fucking time.”
“I’ve been thinking about getting a dog,” I said because I had.
“Not that dog,” Ronnie said firmly. “Something small and fluffy. Perhaps one of them small white terriers, what are they called? West something-something.”
I turned to stare at her.
“You think I’m the kind of woman who gets a Westie?”
I totally wasn’t that kind of woman. They were super-cute, but if I got a dog, it would be a big one. If there were a shelter somewhere within driving distance, I could go and –
“Fuck no.”
I blinked.
“Fuck no, what?” I asked, which I thought was reasonable because I’d lost Ronnie somewhere between the Westie and the f-bomb.
“Fuck no, you’re not a Westie kind of gal. But the way things are moving, if you get one? Then Black’s gonna walk it for you, and it’d make my day to watch that. Might even make my year.”
I snorted out laughter, and she nodded sagely.
“Probably my year,” she concluded.
I’d had Bessie off the leash most of the time and would train any dog I got the same way, but we still spent some time coming up with other dog breeds we’d like to watch Black stroll around the compound with.
It felt good to joke about it while anticipation of what would come buzzed through me like sweet honey. I hadn’t touched myself that morning either and hoped Black didn’t have any plans for the evening because I’d done any thinking I needed to do, which was very little, and I would share that with him at the earliest possible opportunity.
The gates were open, and a long line of bikes suddenly came through them. Ronnie muttered a curse, and I straightened.
“What?” I mumbled.
“Didn’t know they were visiting,” Ronnie said, barely moving her lips and I saw her head move subtly when she looked around for one of the men. “Graws. Not a good club. Dirty.”
Okay. A bunch of dirty bikers, whatever that meant, had apparently just entered the compound and parked their motorcycles in a long line over by the bar.
I decided that staying where I was would be for the best.
One of the bikers were apparently of a curious nature because he came strolling over, and Ronnie got up, so I did too.
“Rhonda,” the man said, looked at me and added, “Hello there, darlin’.”
He grinned in a way I suspected he thought was salacious, but since it mostly looked sleazy, I nodded and didn’t return his greeting. I wasn’t afraid because there was no goddamned way he would be stupid enough to try anything at all inside the Thor compound, but I didn’t like the way he looked at us, so when he just stood there, I pushed Ronnie slightly behind me and raised my chin.
“Can we help you with something?” I asked, trying for haughty, which I pulled off rather credibly.
“Yeah, gorgeous,” he said, let his gaze linger just a little too long on my chest, and stretched a hand out to slide it through my hair. “I’m pretty sure you could –”
“Get your hands off me,” I snapped and took a few steps back.
“Now, don’t be –”
He started toward me, but the way he’d looked at my breasts and how he wouldn’t back off made me both uneasy and pissed off.
“I need you to back away,” I warned him and took another step backward.
The man’s grin widened into a smile, he took a step forward, and I promptly pulled the gun I had in the back of my pants out and aimed it at him.
“Whoa,” he said and stopped moving.
“Told you to back off, so you should back the hell off,” I snapped.
I didn’t carry the gun around with me usually, but I had thought I’d ask Roddy to show me where I could practice some, so I’d tucked it into my pants.
“Sugar, that thing isn’t loaded, is it?” the man asked, and it looked like he’d move toward me again, so I flicked the safety switch.
“Someone once told me that there ain’t no use having a gun if it isn’t,” I retorted. “See the big green sign to your left?”
His eyes moved briefly to the side, and he nodded once.
I promptly swung my arm out and fired two shots straight into the sign.
Ronnie cursed, but the man took a step backward.
“Jesus,” he grunted.
“Yeah,” I said sweetly. “Looks like it’s loaded, sugar.”
“What the fuck are you doing, Boog?”
I exhaled and smiled at Black who marched up to us.
He was not looking happy, so I shifted the gun around to point at the ground and held it out toward him.
“Sorry,” I mumbled. “He pissed me off.”
“Babe,” Black said and gave me an exasperated look when he pulled the gun out of my hand.
“I told him to back off,” I elaborated. “Twice. He didn’t.”
“Uh,” the man muttered and then he had Black’s fist in his face.
Twice.
“This isn’t gonna be a problem, is it, Boog?”
“No,” the man said and winced as he pressed his fingertips to his eyes. “Didn’t know it was your woman.”
“Now you know.”
“Yeah.”
“Boys,” a deep and also angry voice grunted. “Step back.” Roddy turned to me, looked over at the sign, and sighed. “Cas, for fuck’s sake,” he muttered. “What happened?”
“Didn’t want him touching my hair. Didn’t like him ogling my chest. Did not like that he didn’t back the hell off even though I asked him several times.” I smiled sweetly at Roddy and added, “At least I killed that sign instead of him.”
Roddy’s lips twitched, but Black was moving in a way that made me worry he’d punch the man in the face again.
“Einar,” I said. “I’m good.”
“I’m not,” he muttered but stepped back.
“Booger,” Roddy said. “Meet Cassandra. Cassandra, the moron here is Booger. He’s President of the Graws, and he’ll stay away from you from now on.”
“Fuck, yeah,” the man muttered, but there was a hint of a smile in his eyes. “I’m sorry, Black. Won’t happen again.”
“It won’t.”
Well, that had been clear.
“Okay,” I said calmly. “I’ll just let you guys go back to whatever you had planned to do. If anyone needs me, I’ll just...”
I waved my hand toward the Lodge and started to move.
“A minute, Cas,” Black said and didn’t wait for my consent.
Then I was inside my cabin, and the door was closed.
“Jesus,” he muttered. “You learned how to shoot?”
“Had plenty of time on my hands this past year, so yeah. Didn’t want to feel that helpless ever again, so I found an old man who taught me.”
“You carried my gun around all this time.”
“Yes.”
“Without a license?”
“Um.”
“Cassandra, for fuck’s sake,” he b
arked.
“Do you have one?”
“Of course, I have a fucking license.”
Okay.
Right.
He was Sergeant at Arms in a motorcycle club, so I hadn’t thought he would –
“What am I gonna do with you?” he sighed.
My view was that he could take me into my bedroom and do all kinds of things, but I didn’t think this was a good moment to share that.
“You could kiss me?” I suggested.
He did, and when he pulled back, he was calmer, but we were both breathing heavily.
“I have to go,” he sighed. “The fuckers decided to show up out of the blue, but they’re leaving again after the negotiations.”
“Okay,” I said, pretty sure I did not want to know what they would be negotiating about.
“If shit goes well, we’ll party tonight.”
“Okay,” I repeated. “I’ll go and see if your mother needs any help.”
He watched me for a beat, and then his lips twitched.
“I’m gonna guess that my fantasies about you being a perky cheerleader back in High School weren’t exactly true?”
“God, no,” I said with a chuckle. “I was captain of the debate team.”
“Well, shit,” he muttered as he walked out the door. “Guess I’m fucked.”
***
Ice saw me across the bar when he walked in to join the party that evening and started laughing.
“You killed a sign today,” he said, and then I was swung out on what had become a small dance-floor.
“Maimed,” I corrected him. “Black took the gun back so it won’t happen again.”
“Boog couldn’t stop laughing about it, which pissed Black off hugely, so negotiations went seriously our way today.”
I blinked but decided that I did not want to know what the heck that even meant.
“I’m glad to hear that,” I said with a sweet smile. “Anything else I can do to help?”
“I can think of a lot of things, but Black always had pretty hard fists, so I’ll let him handle shit himself.”
I felt a blush creeping up my cheeks but decided to act as if it was my usual thing to dance with hot brothers of hot men who I wanted to do repeatedly and imminently.
“You’re afraid he’ll hit you?” I asked, and when he’d swung me around and brought me back into his arms I added innocently, “That he’ll take you down and squash you like a teeny-tiny bug?”
