A few hours later, the crowd thinned out to a more manageable size. I was still sitting at the bar when I saw her. She was at the opposite end of the bar staring into the glass in front of her. As people moved all around her, she kept her eyes fixed on her drink. And I kept my eyes fixed on the beautiful woman with long, auburn hair.
After several minutes, she picked up the glass and downed its contents before placing it back on the counter and staring at the bartender with her bright green eyes. Sam made his way over and briefly spoke to her before returning with another glass, which she immediately drained. The pretty woman with the sad face was clearly on a mission.
Shit. It was none of my business what she was doing. People came to bars to get drunk for whatever reason. But I knew why I was drawn to her. Because she was alone. No one went to bars to drink like that by themselves. Everything inside of me was screaming at me to leave her alone. But I was given the name Savior for a reason, no matter how hard I fought it.
By the time I got my ass off the stool and went over to sit beside her, she’d had three more drinks. I caught Sam’s eye and signaled for him to cut her off. I took a sip of my drink and kept my eyes facing forward when I asked, “You wanna talk about it?”
She didn’t hesitate. “No,” she said firmly.
“You meeting some friends here?”
“No.”
“Can’t let you keep drinking like that by yourself.”
She scoffed. “You gonna drink with me?”
“No.”
“Then go away,” she said and waved her hand at Sam.
When Sam looked at me, I shook my head. “I told him to cut you off. You’ve had enough.”
I expected an outburst and braced myself for it. What I did not expect was for her to throw some money on the bar, slide off her bar stool, and start attempting to walk to the front door.
“Where are you going?” I asked as I followed closely behind her.
“I’m leaving,” she said.
“You can’t drive. You’re drunk.”
“No shit, Captain Obvious. I’m not driving anywhere,” she said with a slight slur. “I’m gonna walk.”
“You can’t walk home.”
“You’re kind of a buzzkill. You should go away.”
“I’ll take you home.”
“Nope. Nu-uh-uh. Stranger danger. I don’t wanna end up on the news. No, siree,” she said and shook her finger at me.
“Go ahead and take her home. I’ll finish up here,” Coal said from my side.
“He’s a good guy. Let him take you home,” Sam encouraged. I didn’t realize he’d followed us to the front door.
Surprisingly, she didn’t argue. She nodded once at Sam, followed me to my truck, put on her seat belt, and let me take her home.
But then she came back the next night.
3
Avery
I was a mess, and I knew it. My kids had gone to spend most of the summer with their grandparents leaving me all alone. I didn’t want to spend the summer without them, but a good friend convinced me that I needed some “me” time. And I wasn’t handling it well. I was new in town and hadn’t made any friends, but that was probably because I hadn’t tried to make any friends. I was a single parent with two small children. I didn’t have time for anything that didn’t involve them.
After my mother picked up the kids, I spent the first night crying in my closet. Something about being tucked away in a cozy space was comforting to me. However, waking up the next morning with a crick in my neck and a dull ache in my back was not comforting. So, I found a different way to spend my unwanted free time.
Precious Metals was a small, locally owned and operated bar that was in walking distance of my house. All I had to do was walk past the trees lining my backyard, across the open field, and hop over a small creek to be in the lot behind the bar.
I managed to get a seat at the bar and drink in peace until some guy thought it was his duty to rain on my parade. I didn’t know where he came from or why he was bothering me, but he wouldn’t go away, and he was ruining the little bit of drunkenness I’d achieved. Then, the pain in the ass insisted on taking me home.
When I finally looked at him, I mean really looked at him, I struggled to contain my reaction. He was the most breathtaking man I’d ever seen in person. Tall and muscular with a chiseled jaw and a captivating smile. The bastard even had dark blonde hair and blue eyes. Or maybe they were gray. Either way, those eyes saw more in a few short seconds than I ever wanted anyone to see. And because of my need to get away from his penetrating gaze, and possibly my drunken haze, I allowed him to take me home.
He didn’t say a word to me on the ride to my house, and I didn’t say a word to him either. I put my address in my phone and let him follow Robot Sally’s directions. He gave me a strange look when he pulled into my driveway three minutes later. I smirked and closed the door without so much as a thank you. I went inside and, once again, cried myself to sleep.
I should’ve just gone to the liquor store and drank at home. But, for whatever reason, I wanted to drink alone with other people around. So, I went back to Precious Metals and started drinking as soon as I got a seat at the bar.
A good two or three hours had passed, and I was well on my way to being drunker than a skunk when someone pulled a stool up next to me and sat down.
“You do this often?” a familiar voice asked.
I dropped my head to the countertop. “Do you harass all the people who drink here or is it just me?”
“Just the ones who drink excessively by themselves. Right now, that’s you, sweetness.”
My head shot up, and I tried to glare as the room spun. “Suck it, pretty boy.”
“Yep, you’re done,” he said and got to his feet. “Let’s go.”
“You can fuck right the hell off. I’m not going anywhere with you. And you can’t make me,” I said and stuck out my tongue.
He grinned, and for a moment, I was captivated by the damn dimple that popped up on his cheek. But, the moment was ruined when he hoisted me over his shoulder and carried me out of the bar. At least he had the decency to use the back door.
“Put me down, you giant assface!” I screamed and did my best to kick him.
“Stop fucking kicking me. I’ll put you down in a minute.”
I continued to kick him and scream all sorts of profanity at him, but he kept going until he put me down on my front porch. “Open the door and go inside.”
“Fuck you,” I spat and started to cross my arms over my chest when he snatched the keys from my hand.
Within seconds, he had the door open and shoved me inside. “Sit,” he barked and pointed to the sofa. “You need to eat.”
Who in the hell did he think he was coming into my house uninvited and telling me what to do? I did not sit. I followed him into the kitchen, raising hell with each step I took. When I caught up to him, I grabbed his shirt and tried to pull him toward the door.
He didn’t move an inch. Instead, he whirled around and grabbed me by my wrist. I stared into his fiery gray eyes as he glared at me. And something changed. My anger morphed into need as I became hyperaware of the situation—his big hand encircling my wrist, the way our chests brushed when either one of us inhaled, how much bigger he was than me, the anger in his eyes that matched the anger in mine.
I licked my lips and opened my mouth to speak but couldn’t find the words. Frozen in place, I couldn’t even make myself pull away from him.
His eyes flicked to my mouth and hardened. “Don’t. Because I will fuck you. Drunk or not. And hear me now, sweetness, I won’t be gentle.”
“Will you hurt me?” I whispered, almost hopefully.
He cocked his head to the side. “Sounds like you want me to.”
“Maybe a little.”
Those three words unleashed a beast. He fisted my hair, yanked my head back, and crushed his mouth to mine. No one had ever kissed me like that. Not even close. It felt like he was trying t
o consume me, and I wanted him to.
He kept his mouth on mine as he walked me backward. When the backs of my legs hit the sofa, he reached for the button on my jeans. With sure movements, he had my pants and panties pushed down around my thighs. Using the hold he had on my hair, he turned me around and bent me over the arm of the couch.
There was no foreplay, no gentle caresses, no warning. The moment my hands hit the seat cushion to brace myself, he pushed himself inside of me. “Oh, shit,” I breathed and dug my nails into the couch. He was big, and it burned. But I needed it to hurt, to be savage without an ounce of feelings involved.
His fingers dug into my hips as he roughly slammed into me over and over. The only sounds breaking the silence around us were the slap of his skin hitting mine and the involuntary grunts escaping from me. Until he started talking.
“This what you wanted?” he demanded, punctuating each word with a thrust.
“I-I,” I gasped, earning a sharp slap to my ass. “Yes!”
“That pussy was begging for a rough fuck,” he said and slapped the other cheek. He leaned over me and lightly bit down on my shoulder. With his mouth still pressed to my skin, he asked, “You want more?”
Did I? I wasn’t sure what ‘more’ entailed, but I was too far into it to care. “Yes,” I moaned.
“Beg for it.”
I pushed up on my arms and turned my head to tell him he could fuck right off, but the words died in my throat when he wrapped his hand around my neck and started to squeeze, all the while he maintained his rhythm. I began to panic, thinking I’d made the ultimate mistake.
“Please don’t,” I squeaked.
The hand around my throat moved up to squeeze my jaw and turn my head. He locked eyes with me and, without uttering a single word, I knew he wouldn’t really hurt me. Keeping his eyes on mine, he slid his hand from my jaw to my throat and started to squeeze again. He applied more pressure as his hips moved faster. It was too much. I couldn’t handle it.
“Come,” he ordered and tightened his hold for a brief, terrifying second before sheer ecstasy overtook every sense of my being.
I was still basking in the pleasure coursing through me when he groaned long and low. He stilled after he reached his climax but didn’t linger. I heard the sound of his zipper immediately after he pulled himself from my body. Then, he tossed the condom wrapper on the couch in front of my face and said, “Make better choices,” as he walked through the front door without a backward glance.
4
Savior
I walked back to the bar with one thought on my mind. What in the hell had I done?
“Where’ve you been?” Coal asked.
“Took a drunk girl home.”
Coal arched an eyebrow and studied me. “You look just like your dad right now.”
He sat back and rubbed his chin with his thumb and his forefinger. “How about now?”
I couldn’t stifle my laughter. “I’ve seen Copper do that, too.”
He smirked but continued to rub his chin. “So, you gonna share why it took you over an hour to walk a girl across the field out back and now you smell like sex?”
“Fuck,” I exhaled and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Didn’t mean to fuck her.”
Coal laughed and slapped the table. “You didn’t mean to fuck her? What kind of bullshit is that?”
I shrugged. “I meant it’s not why I took her home. It just happened.”
“You gonna see her again?”
“Nah. It wasn’t like that,” I said and changed the subject. “I haven’t seen shit going on in here, have you?”
“Not a thing. Either nothing’s going on, or people know who we are,” Coal suggested.
The next morning, I stopped at a gas station to fill up before heading to the clubhouse. I had just stepped out of my truck when I saw Oliver Burgess walking out of the gas station with a pack of cigarettes in his hand.
Pulling the knife from my belt, I took quick steps to the oblivious prick. He looked up when I threw my arm around his shoulders and pressed the blade to his side. “Oliver! Long time, no see!” I shouted, then lowered my voice. “Get in the truck and don’t give me any shit or I will gut you like a fish right where we stand.”
When he hesitated, I pressed the blade harder against his side. “I’m not fucking playing.”
He swallowed audibly. “Y-yeah, okay. I’ll cooperate.”
I was a little disappointed when he didn’t put up a fight. Instead, he let me walk him around to the driver’s side and stood perfectly still while I secured his hands behind his back. He didn’t even try to kick me when I tossed him into the back seat.
I pulled up to the apartment I shared with Coal and called his cell. “I need you to come down to my truck.”
“Be right there.”
Coal blinked in surprise when he got in and looked in the back seat. “Nice catch. Where’d you pick him up?”
“Gas station. Didn’t even put up a fight.”
I didn’t have much of a chance to think about Grace with the sad eyes over the next few days while we were dealing with club business. But once all was said and done, I ended up at Precious Metals. Grace was there, but she left as soon as she saw me. I shrugged it off and sat down to throw back a few drinks, because, fuck, it had been a long few days. And the more I drank, the more my resistance crumbled.
5
Avery
I’d been crying since he left me laying ass up over the arm of my sofa. What had I done? It felt like I’d betrayed the memory of my husband, the man who was once the love of my life and my soulmate, even though I knew that wasn’t the case. It’d just been so long since I’d experienced anything physical with a man that I was desperate for it. And as soon as I got it, I regretted it.
I ran upstairs to my bathroom and showered immediately, scrubbing my skin until it hurt. Then, I screamed in frustration and started to hyperventilate. The pain in my chest made it hard to catch my breath, but I knew what was happening, and I let the panic attack have its way with me until the water ran cold. Then, I dried myself off and climbed into bed. I may have gotten a few hours of sleep over the course of the night, but it didn’t feel like it when I woke the next morning.
And then I did the stupidest thing I could’ve possibly done. I went back to Precious Metals, took a seat at the bar, and started drinking. I told myself I was there to drink my troubles away and not to see him, but even I didn’t know if that was true.
“We’ve been seeing a lot of you recently,” the bartender observed.
“I’m sorta new in town,” I mumbled.
“I’m Sam,” he said and extended his hand. “I’m here most nights.”
I shook his hand. “Hi, Sam. I’m Avery.”
“So, Avery, how are you sorta new in town?” he asked as he made my drink.
“I moved here about ten months ago. My kids are spending the summer with their grandparents, so this is the first time I’ve been able to check things out.”
“Ah, I see. Well, let me tell you something. Obviously, this is a bar, and we’ve got nothing against people drinking, but the Blackwings want people to be safe while they’re partaking at their establishment. So, when you’re ready to leave, let me have one of the guys walk you home.”
“The Blackwings?”
“The Blackwings MC. You’ve not heard of them?”
“No.”
“Local motorcycle club. They own the bar and a few other businesses around town—nice bunch of fellas. Most of them are ex-military. You keep coming in here every night, then you’re bound to run into a few of them. Actually, you’ve already met the two that just walked in.”
It was just like when someone tells you not to look and you automatically look. My head turned toward the door on its own volition and my eyes connected with a familiar pair of angry, gray ones. I quickly turned back to my drink and cursed under my breath.
“That’s Savior and Coal. They’re good guys,” Sam said and patted my hand.<
br />
I forced a smile and nodded. “I’m sure they are.”
I felt sick. I don’t know what I was thinking earlier, but I suddenly knew I no longer wanted to see him. Quickly draining my glass, I kept my eyes on Sam so I could pay my tab and get out of there.
After what seemed like an eternity, Sam turned and brought me my tab. “Thank you,” I said quietly and placed some cash on top of the receipt.
“Leaving so soon?” a deep voice rumbled from my side causing shivers to run up my spine.
“Yeah,” I said with a nod. I couldn’t bring myself to look at him, to see those eyes of his judging me.
“You don’t have to leave because of me.”
“Yes, I do,” I said quietly, although firmly. I kept my head down as my feet carried me to the front door. As soon as I was in the clear, I bolted for my house.
Pounding on the front door pulled me from my restless sleep. Muscle memory had me reaching over to the other side of the bed only to find it empty. I sat up and waited to see if whoever it was went away.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
Pulling my gun from my nightstand drawer, I checked the chamber and held it by my side as I tip-toed down the stairs. It took a solid two minutes for me to find the courage to peek through the peephole.
When I saw who was on the other side of the door, I was pissed. “What the hell are you doing here?” I shouted.
“Open the door.”
“No. Go away.”
“I just want to talk to you for a minute,” he said, and something in his voice, maybe a hint of a plea, had me slowly cracking the door open.
“This is as open as it’s going to get. Talk.”
“I’m sorry. About last night.”
“Sorry about what? Carrying me out of the bar? Fucking me? Fucking me like a whore? Walking away while you were still zipping up your pants? What exactly are you sorry for?” I spat and, damn, it felt good to release some of my anger.
Savior (Blackwings MC - Devil Springs Book 3) Page 2
