To be fair, there was something more between us than lust. I was just too stubborn to admit it.
Her arms were wrapped around me tightly, her bare legs up against the back of mine. I should have insisted that she wear pants on the bike, but I liked the thought of being able to reach back and touch her silky thighs as I pulled her closer against me. I liked how easy it was to get to her pussy if I wanted to, and with her it seemed that I always wanted to. She was a constant distraction to my libido, and since she'd come into my life, no other woman had tempted me. Sure, I'd had more than a few that had been willing to suck my dick or let me fuck them, but Bailey was always there in the back of my mind, like a fucking drug that I couldn't get enough of.
What the fuck made her so special?
Half the shit that I felt with Bailey I'd never felt with Maggie. It didn't mean that I hadn't loved Maggie. Maggie and I had been high school sweethearts, both living on the wrong side of the tracks. Her parents had been poor, but good people who’d done their best to raise four kids on low-income jobs. My grandparents had raised me. Both our families had lived in the same run-down trailer park at the edge of town. As soon as Maggie and I had turned eighteen we'd run off, had a quickie wedding in Vegas, and had never looked back.
I’d thought that Maggie would be it for me, forever. And now here I was, years later, considering a forever with someone else, and it scared the shit out of me.
I pulled into the small parking lot of the deli and parked close to the entrance in one of the spots assigned for bikers.
"I'm so hungry," Bailey breathed against my ear, before giving it a lick and a tug. She giggled at my grunt of a response, easily dismounting my bike with a hand on my shoulder for support.
Fuck, she knew what she was doing, and I wondered if she realized just how much our relationship had changed. I reached up, slid my hand around the back of her neck beneath that crazy wild hair, and pulled her down to my waiting mouth. She tasted of everything good in life, warm and soft, but I knew there was a wildly responsive woman just beneath the surface, waiting to come undone for me. That was one thing I could count on. Bailey gave me her all.
Her soft whimper turned into a fairly throaty moan when I pressed my tongue between the seam of her lips and sought entry into her mouth. The tantalizing taste of her turned my dick hard, because it made me think of the other, more potent taste between the lips of her pussy. I wondered if she was wet for me, and couldn't resist inching my hand up the inside her thighs. My fingers found the edge of her shorts and continued upwards toward her sex. A delicate shiver escaped Bailey when I flicked my index finger over her pussy.
She was soaked. Fuck. My other hand moved up to her hair at the back of her head. I clutched a handful and jerked her head back enough to growl against her lips. "Be glad we're in public, or I'd have you on your knees right now."
Her light laugh wasn't what I'd expected to hear in return. "What about you being on your knees?" Her husky breath teased my mouth.
I grinned, because it was all I could do. "Yeah, that too, baby." I let her step back and got off my bike, letting my gaze travel over the bike that was parked in the lot beside mine. There were no identifying logos as to who the rider might be, but that didn't mean anything. A lot of clubs left identification off their bikes so as not to alert any enemies in the area that they were traveling through.
I opened the door and urged Bailey in before me. There was an opened booth against the wall and I steered her in that direction. The place was filling up quickly for the lunch hour. Bailey slid into the booth and I took the other side, and a server came over almost immediately.
"What can I get you folks to drink?" she asked, smiling wide.
"Sweet iced tea for me," Bailey ordered.
"Coors," I added.
"I'll be right back for your orders."
I glanced across at Bailey, who was focused on the menu, her teeth tugging on that sexy bottom lip. I thought about her wet pussy and considered taking her to the restroom for a quick fuck to relieve the ache in my dick.
"What do you suggest?" she asked after a couple of minutes, glancing up.
"Their classic Rueben is good."
"Okay, I'll have that." She set her menu aside. "This is a nice place; they look like they've been here for a while."
Making small talk wasn't something that I was good at. I sat back in the booth, observing Bailey as she looked around. Every time she took a breath, my eyes went to the subtle movement of her tits. She had a nice rack. Better than some of the strippers that worked for me. The difference was that hers were the real deal--firm, full, and large.
After a couple of minutes of silence her gaze returned to me. "What are you going to have?"
The server appeared with our drinks before I had the chance to answer, setting them down in front of us and then looking at us expectantly. "We'll both have the classic Rueben," I said, drawing her attention to me.
"Fries with mine, please." Bailey cast a shy smile at me. "I'm really hungry." Her smile lit up her whole face, causing the sparkle in her eyes to glitter like clear crystals. She paused until the server had disappeared. "So if this isn't our first date, what are we doing?"
"Having lunch."
She sat back against the booth and narrowed her eyes on me as if she were trying to see inside my head. "Have you ever dated?"
Come to think of it, I hadn't. Maggie and I had hung out before we’d been married, but there hadn't been any extra money for going out to dinners or movies. What I'd earned at the gas station I'd handed over to my grandparents. "No."
"How old are you?"
I didn't see why that mattered, but I answered her anyway. "Thirty-six."
"So you got married straight out of high school?"
"Yep."
She hesitated before asking, "Her name was Maggie?"
I narrowed my eyes. That wasn't a lucky guess. Someone had been talking. God, I didn't want to talk about this shit. "You want to play twenty questions?"
Her face lit up. "Yeah! That sounds like fun."
I released a harsh breath. "Bailey, I was joking."
Her smile never wavered. "I know." There was a little sadness in her tone. "But I want to get to know you, and maybe understand why you are the way you are."
I snorted. "Trust me; you don't want to know why I'm this way."
I could see in her eyes that she already knew the truth. I didn't know how much of it, but it was enough to give her pause from putting it into words. If she were smart, she'd drop it.
"I know what happened, Moody. Cole told me."
I was going to kill the bastard the next time I saw him.
"But please don't be angry with him. I kind of tricked him into telling me." I felt a pounding begin behind my left eye. "I'm sorry, Moody. I'm sorry you lost the woman you loved. Sorry that you lost your son."
I closed my eyes and ran my hand over my forehead as Jacob's happy little face came to the forefront of my mind. Losing him was a pain that never went away. I would hate Maggie forever for that. I could forgive her for taking her own life, but not his.
"She was suffering with depression?"
I tried to focus my eyes on her. "You and Cole had quite a conversation," I said bitterly. Where the fuck was our food?
"My mom suffered with it," she began, reaching for her drink. "The meds helped a little, but it was a constant battle getting her to understand that she needed to stay on them. As soon as she began to feel better, she'd stop." She shrugged, taking a drink.
"Meds didn't help Maggie. I was gone a lot on jobs back then." To this day I still felt guilty for that. "I blame myself for not recognizing how really sick she was, for not paying more attention to the signs." Bailey reached for my hand as if to offer sympathy, and then pulled away just as quickly, as if knowing that I wouldn't accept it.
"My mom learned how to hide it from us," she said softly. "She had a hard time accepting that she was sick and understanding that it was a chemical imbalanc
e. Maybe Maggie did something similar, the times when you were home. She didn't want to worry you, so she became good at hiding how serious her depression was."
It wasn't the first time I was hearing this. I knew that Bailey was trying to suggest a reason that I hadn’t recognized how sick Maggie had been, but it didn't lesson the guilt that I carried for not understanding enough about her illness to have been able to help her. I'd taken Maggie at her word that she was feeling better, and had brushed aside the doubts that had remained because I'd wanted it to be true.
Thank fuck the waitress came over with our lunch. I didn't like thinking about Maggie and Jacob, much less talking about them. All it did was drag up the past and remind me of the things that I couldn't change.
I was thankful for the silence that followed as we began to eat. Every once in a while I reached over and stole a fry from Bailey’s plate. I finished my lunch much faster than her, and then leaned back in the booth, taking in the activity around us.
The door opened. Three bikers wearing dark shades and bandanas walked in and sat down at the counter with their backs to us. Fuck, I hadn't even heard their bikes pull into the lot that's how much Bailey was a distraction. I frowned at the Desert Rebels' cuts they were wearing. I didn't recognize them from the local club, and assumed that they were visiting from another chapter. Desert Rebels was a fairly large MC, having chapters all over the United States. I wondered if their presence in town had anything to do with Killer's decision to go after the Devil's Soldiers.
The server returned to our table a few minutes after the Desert Rebels had arrived. "Would you folks like anything else?"
I glanced at Bailey.
"No thank you. I can't eat all of this." She hadn't touched half of her sandwich.
"Just the check," I said with slight amusement. The waitress pulled out her tab, ripped off a sheet, and handed it to me. "I thought you said you were hungry," I reminded Bailey as I glanced down at the total on the check before digging my wallet out.
"I was. I didn't realize the sandwiches would be so big." Bailey smiled. "Thank you for lunch."
I nodded and peeled off a couple of twenties, handing them to the waiting server. "Keep the change."
"Thank you. You folks have a good day and come back to see us."
Bailey reached for her glass of tea. "So, ah, what now?" she smiled.
"You go to work." I knew that wasn't what she meant. I could see the questions in her eyes.
She gave a sound of annoyance. "I mean about us."
I leaned over the table toward her and said in a low, suggestive tone, "You want to go into the bathroom for a quickie?"
Her cheeks flushed a pretty rose color instantly. Her lips parted, drawing my eyes there. I'd have liked nothing better than to see that lush mouth wrapped around my dick.
"You're terrible!" she whispered harshly, but the spark in her eyes was one of excitement.
I leaned back. "Look, baby, I don't know what happens from here. I just know that for some reason I want you, okay? I'm willing to see where it goes, if you're willing to be patient with me and recognize that I'm trying."
"So that means we're exclusive?" she joked.
"I already covered that."
She shook her head. "No, you said that you wouldn't fuck anyone else until we were done, you didn't say that I couldn't."
I groaned. "Bailey," I warned between my teeth. "You don't want to go there, even joking." The thought of her with another man caused me to feel feral inside. "You wouldn’t like the consequences." I could tell that she was biting the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling. The urge to take her ass to the bathroom and punish her was tempting. "You're mine, and I'm possessive as fuck. No other man touches you."
"I kind of like you being all territorial. It makes me wet."
Jesus. I ground my back teeth together because I was hard as steel and so fucking tempted to take her some place where I could lose myself in her pussy. She had no idea what she was getting herself into with me. It had been too many years since I'd claimed a woman for myself, and now that I had, I was going to be ten times the asshole that I'd been before.
"Keep teasing me, baby. I'm not opposed to public sex."
Her pretty eyes grew round. "I just got wetter," she whispered with a gleam in her amused eyes.
She was calling my bluff? I crooked my finger and leaned back over the tabletop. "Come here," I growled. As she was moving toward me I hooked my finger between her tits, deep into the V of her blouse, and jerked her even closer. I slammed my mouth over hers, swallowing her gasp of surprise, and thrust my tongue in and out several times in rapid succession. She moaned, and I pulled back just enough to threaten her. "That's what I'm going to do to your pussy the first chance I get."
She gave me a quiver in response, and I released her and sat back.
As I gazed across the table at Bailey, the noise of several tables being vacated tore into our banter. People were heading to the register to pay, pulling out their wallets or opening their purses. The three Desert Rebels that had been sitting at the counter had dropped down to one. The one that remained was flirting with the pretty girl behind the counter who was refilling his cup.
"Oh look, someone from the Desert Rebels is here." Bailey must have just noticed him. "Should we go over and say hi?"
I frowned. "He came in with two others. I don't recognize them."
"Oh. Well, do you know all of them?"
"I know the members in Killer's MC." He had introduced me to the new members the day of the cookout--the two new patched members who'd come to my house with Demon, Loco and Bull, and three prospects who didn't have road names yet. "These members are from other chapters of the Desert Rebels."
"Yeah, I don't recognize them, either," she said, her interest on something outside the window that we were sitting at.
Following her gaze, I saw two of the Desert Rebels on their bikes facing sideways so that we could only see their profiles. They were pulling on gloves and helmets with dark visors that covered their faces. Something about their deliberate movements caused the hair on the back of my neck to stand up. They started their bikes and pulled around until they were facing us. One of them said something to the other one. The feeling in my gut intensified, and I moved five seconds before I saw their guns.
I dove across the table, grabbed Bailey, and pulled her down to the booth seat with me just as the glass shattered above our heads from their bullets. She screamed, along with just about everyone else in the restaurant who was diving for cover. I kept my body over Bailey’s as I reached for the gun at the back of my pants. My gaze shot to the counter to see that the other man was gone. I waited for more bullets to fly, but all I heard was the sound of their bikes revving as they left the parking lot.
What. The. Fuck.
"Stay down." I sprinted off Bailey and jumped out the window.
"Moody!" she yelled.
"I'll be right back!" I shouted behind me as I ran in the direction that the two bikers had gone. I ignored my first instinct to jump on my bike and follow them. There was no way that I was going to abandon Bailey.
I made it to the road just in time to see what direction they'd gone, aiming my gun to fire off a shot, but they were too far away. I tucked my gun away and dug out my phone, hitting Killer's number as I turned back toward the deli. No way were those assholes Desert Rebels, but I had to be sure.
I could hear the sound of sirens in the distance and heading toward the deli. Someone had called the cops. I needed to grab Bailey and get the fuck out of there.
I was walking back to the deli when Killer answered his phone.
Chapter 31
Bailey
Fear of the unknown held me glued to the seat in my booth. I'd felt safe and protected with Moody's heavy body covering mine, but now that he was gone, I felt pure fright. I was shaking like a leaf, too afraid to breathe, much less move. But as more time went by and there was no more shooting, I did what everyone else was doing and slowl
y sat up. I glanced out the broken window. Moody was nowhere in sight. God, had he taken off after them? He wouldn't leave me here alone, would he?
I glanced around to see others slowly getting to their feet. Some had hidden beneath their booths and tables, while others had sought safety behind the counter. We all wore expressions of shock and fear on our faces, wondering what the hell had just happened. Whatever it was had happened so fast. I'd thought that the Desert Rebels and Moody were friends, and to my knowledge I hadn’t done anything to offend them, so why had they shot at us?
I shivered, moving away from the broken glass and out of the booth. The waitress hurried over.
"My God! Are you alright?" Her eyes were wild as she took in the destruction around me.
"I'm fine," I assured her, brushing shards of glass off me.
"I hope your friend knows what he's doing, going after them like that."
A nervous smiled trembled on my mouth. "Me too," I murmured low, looking at the door and praying for Moody to return. "The ladies room?"
"Down the hall to the right," she said, picking up the larger pieces of glass and piling them onto a plate. "
I made my way down the short hallway that she'd pointed towards, noticing an exit door at the far end. Just as I reached up to push the bathroom door in, a hand came up to cover my mouth at the same time that an arm wrapped around my waist and jerked me backwards against an unyielding form. My hands immediately flew up to the hand covering my mouth, trying to dislodge it. I dug my nails into flesh, but all I got for my efforts was a male grunt in my ear. Whoever was holding me began to drag me toward the exit door.
I couldn't see who it was, but my instincts warned me that it was Martin. In little to no time he had me outside and pinned against the side of the building. I met his glaring eyes above his hand, unable to move when he leaned his body into mine. If it was Martin, he'd changed dramatically since I'd seen him last. The hair beneath the bandana that he wore was much longer. A beard and mustache disguised his face, and even his eye color was different.
Furious (Nomad Outlaws Trilogy Book 3) Page 23
