Destroyed
Jackie Ashenden
'You’ll let me do whatever I want?'How can he resist…?Why would a hot-as-hell biker put everything on the line to help the police chief's nerdy, innocent and very off-limits daughter? Simple—Summer Grant is offering Jake ‘Tiger’ Clarke something he can't refuse: her! It means playing with deliciously wicked fire, but Tiger is prepared to risk everything for what he really wants—even if it destroys them both…
“You’ll let me do whatever I want?”
How can he resist...?
Why would a hot-as-hell biker put everything on the line to help the police chief’s nerdy, innocent and very off-limits daughter? Simple—Summer Grant is offering Jake “Tiger” Clarke something he can’t refuse: her! It means playing with deliciously wicked fire, but Tiger is prepared to risk everything for what he really wants—even if it destroys them both...
“DARE is Harlequin’s hottest line yet. Every book should come with a free fan. I dare you to try them!”
—Tiffany Reisz, international bestselling author
JACKIE ASHENDEN writes dark, emotional stories with alpha heroes who’ve just got the world to their liking only to have it blown wide apart by their kick-ass heroines. She lives in Auckland, New Zealand, with her husband, the inimitable Dr Jax, two kids and two rats. When she’s not torturing alpha males and their gutsy heroines she can be found drinking chocolate martinis, reading anything she can lay her hands on, wasting time on social media, or being forced to go mountain biking with her husband.
To keep up to date with Jackie’s new releases and other news you can sign up to her newsletter at jackieashenden.com (http://www.jackieashenden.com).
If you liked Destroyed, why not try
Ruined by Jackie Ashenden Make Me Crave by Katee Robert Wild Thing by Nicola Marsh Best Laid Plans by Rebecca Hunter
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Destroyed
Jackie Ashenden
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-07130-7
DESTROYED
© 2018 Jackie Ashenden
Published in Great Britain 2018
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
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www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
This one’s for all the lovely editors at the Mills & Boon UK office who’ve worked with me over the years.
It took me a while, guys, but I got there in the end!
Contents
Cover (#u94ab90be-55ea-5ee3-b9b4-585fca317cb7)
Back Cover Text (#uecb9acb9-52b3-51d0-b7b4-8da7f847796a)
About the Author (#ub4cebb81-5dde-5b21-aeea-7bf2dd944d3b)
Booklist (#u03a109f4-5170-5040-af6c-fcd82301a9d0)
Title Page (#u20cf73dc-782b-5964-99e5-44d1716469e1)
Copyright (#uf99153bc-57f6-54ec-bd8a-c37e81d4bdb7)
Dedication (#ucb7e3779-7f7e-5c4b-96db-dbe8ac3cf4b6)
CHAPTER ONE (#u48082c3b-9cda-5196-8f85-ec3203e59863)
CHAPTER TWO (#u0266aad3-4543-5d8b-9569-99dff0670712)
CHAPTER THREE (#ua02c6a8d-77a8-5a2a-8f18-cacc30af374f)
CHAPTER FOUR (#u695d3d03-68a0-5e8e-9010-83b19bc1a033)
CHAPTER FIVE (#ubde58157-9959-5bf5-a798-005df1c2c178)
CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIFTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIXTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#u1937e0c4-b091-5eed-9b0b-da27b043c3f6)
Summer
BRAVERY WAS NEVER my strong suit, but I guess it takes a certain amount of courage to talk your way into a biker’s bedroom in an outlaw motorcycle club’s clubhouse purely so you can hide from your father.
Either that or I was simply stupid, difficult as that was to admit for a person with an IQ score over 170.
Whatever it was, as I sat on Crash’s bed in his tiny squalid bedroom, my heart racing, listening to the sounds of a heavy driving beat and male laughter going on outside, I was beginning to question my decision big time.
Two doors separated the bedrooms from the main living area of the clubhouse, but the bikers were so freaking loud I could still hear whatever was going on outside. I didn’t know whether it was a party or what—I’d only ever been in the clubhouse a couple of times before—but whatever it was, it didn’t make me any less nervous.
Crash had left me in his room, muttering something about why don’t I relax while he went and got us some beers.
I didn’t really want a beer—I wasn’t a party girl and I didn’t like alcohol—but sitting on Crash’s bed, listening to those sounds outside the door, made the idea of some liquid courage not half-bad.
Especially since he’d been gone awhile and my anxiousness was starting to tip over into outright fear.
His room was little more than a closet, the floor covered with dirty clothes and beer cans and all kinds of other things I didn’t want to look at too closely. The bed I was sitting on was unmade and there was a smell to the air that reminded me of my older brother Justin’s room when he was younger. Sweaty teenage boy, musty and a bit rank. It was unpleasant and made me feel sick.
I wiped my damp palms nervously on my denim mini.
Okay, maybe it really had been stupid to come here. Then again, I hadn’t known where else to go. I’d been dumb enough to tell Dad about my Silicon Valley job offer, hoping he’d be happy for me, but of course he hadn’t been.
He’d told me I wasn’t going and that was final, and that he’d do whatever it took to make me stay here in Brooklyn with him.
I knew what ‘whatever it took’ meant. Emotional manipulation, emotional blackmail, and if I was really unlucky, he might stoop to physical restraint, too. Dad had always hated being told no.
The quiet and introverted teen I’d once been would have automatically bowed her head and agreed with him. But I’d just come back from three years at college and the time away from him had allowed me some breathing room. I’d had space to grow, to realise that there was a better life out there, one that wasn’t constantly overshadowed by his presence.
Sure, I was still quiet and introverted, but when he’d told me I couldn’t go, I discovered I had a bit of backbone after all.
I couldn’t let him take my dream job away from me. I couldn’t let him stop me from trying to live my life. My ticket was booked and I’d be out of here in a couple of days. All I had to do was avoid him so he couldn’t do his usual emotional number on me and get me to change my mind.
It would have been fine if I’d been a stronger sort of person, but I wasn’t. He always found my vulnerable spots and used them against me, just like the bullies in school used to. I knew I was weak so it was better I take myself out of the equation. Go somewhere he’d never think to find me, never in a million years.
The Knights of Ruin MC’s clubhouse.
As police chief, my dad had had a few run-ins with the Knights in the past, though these days he was best buddies with Keep, the Knights’ president. Dad would never expect me to have run here, not to the most notorious MC in the state, and especially not when Keep would give me up to him first chance he got if I was ever discovered here.
Which was why I’d come in disguise, dressing up the way I’d seen other girls who wanted a walk on the wild side with a bunch of outlaw bikers do—tiny denim miniskirt and stilettos, a tight blue crop top. I’d had to kill the effect by putting a hoodie on over the top, with the hood pulled up, but I couldn’t afford for anyone to see my face. Not that anyone would recognise me these days, but still. Better safe than sorry.
Getting in had been a problem. The only biker whose name I could remember—other than Keep—was Tiger. He’d once been my bodyguard for a month back when I was in high school and I still remembered him. I could hardly forget him, truth be told, so his name had been the first on my lips when I’d been interrogated by the prospect at the door. Unfortunately, though, Tiger was ‘busy’ and so I’d had to think fast and make up some other lie.
I wasn’t experienced with men, had no idea that perhaps flashing my tits would have worked better, but luckily at that moment a semifamiliar face had appeared. I’d met Crash only a couple of times, in conjunction with Tiger, and had no idea if he’d remember me or not. I threw myself at him anyway, begging him to let me inside and that I’d make it worth his while.
He grabbed me around the waist and grinned at the prospect, and before I knew it I’d been bundled down the corridor and into his bedroom.
Unfortunately, I was starting to think that not only had I been stupid to come here, I’d been naive into the bargain. There were stories about the Knights that I’d heard from various friends, about drunken parties and public sex and threesomes and all kinds of things.
And now I was in the thick of it.
Alone.
So much for my high IQ. Panic had made me stupid. Again.
More sounds came from outside the door. A man shouting and then the sounds of a scuffle followed by laughter. Something thumped hard against the wall and I jumped in shock.
God, I wasn’t cut out for this.
I was just starting to wonder if I could slip right back out again without anyone noticing when the door banged open and Crash came in. He was a good-looking guy, which made me nervous since good-looking guys always did. Actually, men in general made me nervous, good-looking or otherwise.
You sure picked the wrong place to hide then, didn’t you?
Given that the clubhouse was full of men, violent and loud, yeah, it really had been.
‘Still here?’ he asked, grinning and swaying on his feet.
I decided not to tell him that he was stating the obvious since men generally didn’t like it when I did that, settling for smoothing my miniskirt instead and trying to smile.
Okay, so I was naive. But I wasn’t that naive. I knew what girls in MC clubhouses were supposed to do and I knew that Crash hadn’t brought me into his bedroom because he wanted to chat about the finer points of game theory—my favourite subject. He’d brought me here because he thought I was ready for some hot sex.
As if on cue, he sauntered over from the door, two beers in his hand, then held one out to me. That grin was still on his face and there was a glazed look in his blue eyes. As he stood there swaying, I finally realised what I should have known the moment he’d grabbed me and hustled me into his bedroom: Crash was drunk. Very, very drunk.
Dammit.
Drunk guys were always super fun. Not.
I took the beer, the can cold against my damp palm, and tried to resist the urge to do something about my fear by downing the whole thing in one go.
‘So-o-o-o...’ Crash said slowly, lifting his own beer and taking a swig. ‘How long exactly are you planning on keeping your clothes on?’
My palms got even damper and I could feel myself begin to sweat.
Sex. I knew that was what he expected, but... Well, my great plan had kind of ended with me at the clubrooms. I hadn’t thought about what I might have to do to stay in the clubrooms.
So, is losing your virginity to some guy you barely know in a dirty biker clubhouse really worth avoiding your father for?
That was a very good question. And one I didn’t want to find out the answer to. Maybe if I told him I only wanted to hide out here for a while, he’d let me?
I cleared my throat, trying to get the words out. ‘I...um...well...there’s kind of a reason.’
‘Uh-huh.’ Crash sat down heavily next to me on the bed, making me aware of him in a way I didn’t like. He was in the usual biker uniform of jeans, a T-shirt and the leather vest they called a ‘cut’ worn over the top, and I could feel the heat of his body next to mine. He wore a lot of aftershave and that combined with the reek of alcohol coming off him made me want to cringe. ‘If that reason is to suck my cock, then, baby, I’m here for that.’
Fear fluttered in my gut.
Yeah, I didn’t want to do that. Even the thought of it made me feel ill. I’d never done it before and I certainly didn’t want to start with some drunken biker, just because I’d apparently lost my mind and made a decision that was, in retrospect, looking to be the stupidest decision in the history of creation.
‘W-what if it’s...not that?’ I asked hesitantly.
‘Oh, come on...’ He leaned in, nuzzling against my ear, his beer breath wafting over me, deepening my discomfort with the whole situation. ‘Uh...what did you say your name was again?’
I hadn’t told him, and what’s more, I couldn’t. Because although he might not have known who Summer Grant was, I was pretty sure he was familiar with Campbell Grant, the police chief and my dad. Not that he’d necessarily draw a link between the names, at least not in his current state, but I couldn’t risk it.
Desperately I tried to think of another name I could give him, but for once my dumb brain was empty. ‘Do you really need to know that?’
He left a wet kiss beneath my ear that made my skin crawl. ‘Nah. Couldn’t give a shit. Just gimme a taste of that pussy.’
I cringed again, both at the crass way he was talking and at how he was leaning over me. ‘Hey.’ I tried to pull away from him. ‘What would you say if I...uh...didn’t want to have sex with you?’
He gave a drunken laugh, reaching for my hand. ‘Are you kidding me? Then what the hell am I supposed to do with this?’ And he pressed my hand right down over his fly, where I could feel him already as hard as a rock.
Wonderful. This situation was getting better and better.
I swallowed, my mouth dry, trying to resist the urge to jerk my hand away since I was pretty sure that would offend him and I didn’t want to risk that, not when I wasn’t sure what he’d do.
Instead, I left my hand there for a second, then carefully drew it back. ‘That’s, um...very impressive.’ I took a quick sip of my beer, grabbing a bit of that liquid courage and trying not to pull a face at the taste. ‘But maybe you could get someone else to do something about it?’
He shook his head and put a hand on my knee, sliding it up to the hem of my skirt. ‘Oh, no, baby. It’s a party and you’re the one in my room. You know what that means.’
I shifted my leg away, attempting to put some distance between us. ‘No. I have no idea what that means.’ Because, although I knew what it was that he wanted, I didn’t know how it being a party made any difference.
Outside, the thumping of the music had increased in volume, and there was lots of loud shouting and laughter. More immediate were the rhythmic noises coming from the room next door and someone moaning, while someone else cursed.
I could feel my face flushing.
‘Well,’ Crash mumbled, trying to slide his fingers beneath my skirt yet again. ‘Girls only go into a brother’s room for one reason and here’s a hint. It’s not to chat.’
I knew that. Of course I knew that.
But you didn’t think it through first so now you have to deal.
My heart shuddered in my chest, the fear inside me getting wider, deeper. Would he even let me go if I didn’t want to have sex with him? And if I got out of Crash’s room, what would happen then? I’d have to run the gauntlet of those men outside all the way back to the entrance of the club.
Yeah, you’re a freaking genius. Mensa would love to have you. Not.
I shivered, feeling like the biggest fool to ever draw breath. What had I been thinking? I hadn’t; that was my problem. I’d let my anger at Dad and at my own weakness get the better of me, and now I was here, being pressured into having sex with a drunken biker.
Awesome.
I pushed Crash’s hand away yet again, trying frantically to think of a solution to this particular problem. But sadly this was real life and it wasn’t quite as simple as a math equation. There were no rules I could apply here and way too many variables, and when you were battling panic, logic didn’t always work.
‘C-can’t we chat?’ I wriggled away from him. ‘Just while I finish my beer?’
But his hand was now sliding underneath my hoodie, over my bare stomach, and he was pulling me very close, his mouth at my neck. ‘Nah. I don’t wanna chat. C’mon, baby. Put those lips to work.’
I went rigid, my heart now climbing up into my throat. I could feel the strength in his arm going around me. I knew I couldn’t fight it.
Men, they were all the same. Even the ones who were supposed to be the good guys were assholes, and I knew that better than anyone.
In the corridor outside, a woman giggled, the deep voice of a man saying something in return.
‘Well, o-okay.’ I hated the way I couldn’t keep my voice from shaking. ‘But I’m a virgin, you know that, right?’ It had been my experience that once you said the ‘V’ word, men usually ran for the hills.
Sadly Crash didn’t run, though to be fair, there were no hills he could logically run to.
‘Mmm...’ he said. ‘Then maybe I can teach you.’ And he moved his hand up to cup my breast.
I don’t know what happened then. Something in me simply snapped, roaring in negation as his hand cupped me, and I found myself shoving him away hard before I could think better of it, yelling ‘No’ as loud as I could for good measure.
Then, as I was sitting there, trembling with anger and fear, the door to Crash’s room burst open with such force that it bounced back against the wall with a bang.
A man was standing in the doorway. A horribly familiar man.
‘What the fuck is going on?’ the man demanded, his voice deep and dark, rough and gritty. Then his strange amber eyes met mine and my heart clenched tight with a weird combination of absolute terror and utter relief.
Jake Clarke, aka Tiger.
I’d never forgotten the first day I’d met him. He’d been waiting for me outside my school one day, sitting astride his massive black Harley and smoking a cigarette. He’d worn battered blue jeans, a black T-shirt with a leather vest thrown over the top, and there were chains attached to his belt, huge motorcycle boots on his feet, brightly coloured tattoos wrapping around both his powerful arms.
He was as beautiful as the animal he was named for and twice as dangerous. Mean as hell and sexy as sin.
The sun had struck copper sparks from his dark hair, and when he’d seen that school was out, he’d thrown his cigarette down right there in the street and ground it under his heel. Then he’d looked straight at me.
And I’d forgotten where I was. I’d even forgotten who I was.
His eyes were amber, the colour of expensive whisky or newly minted gold coins, and they had pinned me to the spot. A golden arrow straight through my heart.
His face was all hard lines and arrogant angles, his brows slightly winged at the corners, and he had the hardest, sharpest jawline I’d ever seen. He didn’t smile. His mouth was wide and beautifully carved, and the rounded shape of his bottom lip was the softest part about him, but it didn’t curve.
All my friends had stared at him—hell, everyone had stared at him. No one in my exclusive girls’ school had ever seen a man like him.
‘There’ll be someone there to meet you after school today,’ Dad had told me that morning. ‘In fact, he’ll be taking you to and from school for a little while so be nice to him, okay?’
Tiger had been that someone. An enforcer for the Knights of Ruin MC, he’d been assigned to be my bodyguard to protect me from the death threats another MC had thrown at my father. And Dad, being canny, had decided that the best protection from one MC was a rival MC.
I’d been terrified of Tiger and excited by him in equal measure, and I’d fallen in love with him the moment I’d seen him. But back then I was only seventeen and a nerdy, tongue-tied little girl, while he was twenty-six and a full-grown man, and so far out of my league he might as well have been the sun to my Pluto.
He was a star while I...I was barely even a planet.
It had taken me years to get him out of my head and I’d thought I’d managed it while I’d been away at college. But one look at him was all it took for those feelings to come flooding back. The fear and the curiosity and the dry-mouthed excitement.
I’d thought my situation couldn’t get any worse.
I was wrong.
CHAPTER TWO (#u1937e0c4-b091-5eed-9b0b-da27b043c3f6)
Tiger
THE SIGHT OF the girl sitting on Crash’s bed, staring at me with the biggest, deepest blue eyes I’d ever seen, hit me like a fucking brick to the head.
Not only because she was as white as a goddamn sheet, but also because I knew her.
Summer Grant. Daughter of that well-known asshole Campbell Grant, the police chief.
What the ever-loving fuck was she doing here?
I’d been enjoying the party, aka the usual Saturday night at the clubhouse, and had gone off to spend a little quality time with Mercy, one of the club girls, and hadn’t been in the mood to hear some girl shout ‘No’ from behind a closed bedroom door, and still less to do anything about it.
But I didn’t have much patience with brothers who didn’t treat the girls right, so I’d kicked the door open to check out what was going on, to make sure things were okay. Only to find Summer fucking Grant sitting there, shaking, on the bed with that dumbass Crash trying to get his hands all over her.
The brother was drunk as a fucking skunk and didn’t appear to notice that his door was currently hanging off its hinges. Or that I was standing there. Or even that I’d asked him a goddamn question.
He reached again for the police chief’s pretty little daughter.
Fuck. No.
I took two steps into the room, grabbed Crash by his collar, jerked him off the bed, then shoved him up against the wall. ‘You hurt her?’ I demanded, gripping him by the throat. ‘Say yes and I’ll punch your fucking face in.’
Couldn’t have brothers hurting the girls here. Made for a bad rep and brought trouble, and if there was one thing the Knights didn’t need right now it was trouble.
Crash blinked at me, choking slightly in my hold. ‘No,’ he managed to get out, but I gave him a cuff over the face all the same, because he was an asshole and needed to learn a lesson.
I took my hand away and left him to drop in a heap on the floor, then I turned around to see how Summer was doing.
She was sitting on the bed, giving me big eyes and fear and not saying a fucking word.
‘Want to tell me what you’re doing here, baby?’ I asked her.
Crash croaked something from the floor, but I stuck my boot in his gut as a warning. ‘Didn’t ask you, dumbass.’ This time he must have found some brains from somewhere because he closed his mouth again pretty quickly.
Summer still didn’t say a word, hunching over and looking down at her hands like they were the most fascinating things she’d ever seen her life.
Fuck. Looked like my evening of beer, a smoke and a couple of relaxing blow jobs was toast.
‘Summer,’ I said, keeping things mild because it was clear she was shit-scared, ‘let’s start again from the top. What the fuck are you doing here?’
At that point there came a loud burst of noise from the corridor outside and I glanced towards the doorway, catching a glimpse of some shrieking girls and a couple of the brothers laughing as they all came in from the living area, obviously in search of some bedrooms.
Mercy, hanging around by the broken door, gave me a pointed look.
Christ. I needed to lock this shit down before someone going past got a look at Summer and recognised her, and started wondering what the hell the police chief’s daughter was doing hanging around the clubhouse.
‘Sorry, Merc.’ I gestured to the girl on the bed, who was hunching her shoulders and generally trying to make herself invisible. A bit of an impossibility when she was wearing a miniskirt that barely covered her pussy and left a pair of long slender legs very, very bare. ‘Got a situation I have to handle. Maybe we’ll have some fun later.’
And I did have to handle it. If Summer decided to make a complaint about Crash to her dad, things could go badly for the Knights. We’d already had some drama with the chief’s son and we did not need any more with his daughter.
Mercy made a pouty face, but she was a good girl who knew when to back off. ‘Yeah, okay, but I’m holding you to that.’
I didn’t look after her as she disappeared back down the corridor. Instead, I took a step over to where Summer was sitting with her head bowed. Crash made another sound, but I didn’t want to hear it, especially not from him. ‘Shut the fuck up,’ I warned him, not even bothering to look at him. ‘You try forcing a girl again and I won’t just punch you in the face. I’ll cut off your cock and make you suck it. Understand?’
He didn’t say anything, which was just as well since my evening was starting to look less like blow jobs and beer and more like complicated bullshit.
Annoyed, I kicked aside the clothing lying across the floor and came over to the bed where Summer was sitting. ‘Baby,’ I said again, ‘talk to me.’
But she just shook her head and hunched her shoulders even more.
It made me remember when I used to bodyguard for her. She’d been a little scaredy-cat even then, perpetually treating me like I’d frighten her to death if I even looked at her funny.
What was she doing here? And what had Crash done to her to scare her like this?
I crouched in front of her and reached out to grab one of her hands. Her fingers were icy in mine. ‘Hey.’ I tried to keep my voice gentle, which was difficult since I wasn’t a gentle guy by any stretch of the imagination. ‘You okay?’
A brother’s voice sounded from close to the doorway. Big Red, the VP, from the sounds of things.
Jesus, I really needed to get her out of here.
I rose to my feet and carefully pulled Summer off the bed so she was standing in front of me, her hand still cold in mine.
Her chin came up, her eyes blinking in shock, her hoodie falling back a little, giving me a better look at her face. Yeah, I remembered her all right. Couldn’t forget eyes that blue, or that huge and dark. They seemed black beneath her fair, almost colourless brows, and then there was that determined, pointed chin. I remembered trying to tease her out of her constant terrified silence a couple of times, a tactic that had never worked. But that chin of hers used to jut in a way that made me wonder if she wasn’t as scared as she seemed, more like pissed instead. And then there was her luscious mouth, all soft and pink and pouty...
Something punched me hard, right in the gut, and since it was pretty much the last thing I expected to feel when looking at Summer Grant, it took me a second to realise that my cock, the impatient motherfucker, was very, very interested in that mouth.
Fuck. This was all I needed. Getting inexplicably hard for Campbell Grant’s daughter, which was so not happening. Jesus Christ, I’d be lucky if Keep didn’t kick my ass from here to fucking Florida if he ever found out.
Not that I’d do anything about it. I hadn’t been into jailbait back when she’d been seventeen and I wasn’t into it now. Though I guessed she wasn’t seventeen any more. More like...twenty-two maybe? Except she didn’t look it, not with those big, frightened eyes. She looked like a kid who’d just woken up from a really bad nightmare.
I didn’t mind a bit of fear to get a chick turned on, as long as she was into it. But if she wasn’t, then neither was I, and as for outright terror... Yeah, that wasn’t hot as far as I was concerned and it pretty much killed the burgeoning hard-on in my jeans. Good fucking job.
‘Come on,’ I told her, impatient now to get this mess sorted out. ‘Party’s over.’
I began to move back to the doorway, pulling her with me, but she’d gone rigid, freezing like a block of wood, staring at me like I was some kind of serial killer.
Christ. Please don’t tell me I was going to have to haul a terrified girl through the clubhouse in the middle of a party. Knowing my fucking luck, she’d start screaming and then the shit would hit the fan. Especially if Keep spotted me and got the wrong idea.
Yeah, that wasn’t happening. Except the problem was that I didn’t have time to calm her down now, not with a whole lot of brothers out in the corridor. I needed to get her somewhere private, then maybe get her to quit being so scared and tell me what the hell she was doing here. If it was to take a walk on the wild side with some bikers—which a lot of girls did—then I needed to point out what a stupid fucking idea that was. And then I’d tell her exactly what it meant for the club to have the chief of police’s daughter found screaming in a brother’s bedroom.
If she didn’t want to bang a whole bunch of bikers—and quite frankly, given the look on her face right now, I guessed she probably didn’t—then I needed to find out what the hell else had brought her there, then take it to Keep for the same reason.
Protecting the club. That was my job and I took it very, very seriously indeed.
‘You gonna come with me?’ I asked, giving her a chance to move under her own steam.
But she just stared at me, her face completely white, trembling like a leaf.
Shit. She was panicking now and that was another thing I remembered from my time as her protection. There’d only been one instance of trouble and it hadn’t been from the MC who’d delivered the death threats, but from some kids at her school. She’d been late meeting me so I’d gone to see where she was, only to find her being bullied outside some classrooms. All it had taken was a hard stare and a couple of threats, and those bitches had run away, but Summer had stood there stock-still, like a deer caught in the headlights of a car. Too afraid to move.
It had taken a lot of coaxing to get her to snap out of it then, but time was something I didn’t have right now. Plus, I was an impatient motherfucker, just like my cock. I wanted this over and done with and I wanted it now.
So I put my hands on her hips, picked her up and threw her over my shoulder.
Summer didn’t make a sound or even struggle, though I felt every inch of her go rigid.
‘Don’t scream,’ I told her, wrapping my arm around her slender thighs to hold her steady as I turned towards the door. ‘I’m not going to hurt you.’
She was completely silent, stiff as a board as I stepped out of Crash’s room and into the corridor.
And into the middle of a goddamn orgy.
Great. Something else I was missing out on. Shit.
I tried to ignore all the hot sex happening right in front of me, heading towards my room since that was the only place I could guarantee we wouldn’t be interrupted by douchebags.
But, of course, walking down the corridor with a woman thrown over my shoulder wasn’t going to go ignored.
Sure enough, as I went past a brother getting head from two different women, he called out something about my ‘friend’ and that it was rude not to introduce her.
It was going to look unusual for me not to join in since it was well known that I was a big fan of the orgy, but since I was damn sure that the pretty little thing over my shoulder wouldn’t be thrilled if I suddenly started insisting on her getting to know the brothers and their cocks, I merely gave him the finger and strode on past.
My room was down the corridor a way, and I stopped outside it, my arm still wrapped around her thighs. She was taller than I’d expected and on the skinny side—I preferred chicks with a little more to hold on to—and I was weirdly conscious of the way she smelled, sweet and flowery and kind of innocent. It got to me, that scent. Not sure why, but it did. The club girls I was used to didn’t smell like that and I wasn’t sure I liked it.
It made me aware of how scared she’d been and of how I was now hauling her around over my shoulder like a sack of coal. Made me wonder if that really had been the best course of action, since it probably wouldn’t have helped her fear.
Then I realised what I was doing and glared at my door. What the fuck? I wasn’t used to questioning my decisions and I didn’t appreciate the fact that I was questioning them now, and all because of the way some scared little girl smelled.
Holy shit. I was going soft.
Irritated with myself, I opened the door and stepped inside.
I actually had a place of my own, but I liked to keep a room at the club because I liked being where my brothers were, where I could get all the cold beer and hot pussy I could handle without having to do a thing.
I wasn’t a loner, unlike my buddy Smoke. I liked people. I liked a party, too, lots of music, alcohol and women... Everything a man needed to feel good, and since feeling good was my preferred state, I indulged myself often.
Pity I was missing out on all of that now, though, which was pissing me off. Especially after the day I’d had taking care of some Demon’s Share MC assholes who’d accidentally-on-purpose wandered into our territory and had needed a little reminder to stay out of it.
Anyway, I’d been looking forward to some R & R tonight, a chance to forget about my problems for a little while, but now I had to deal with the tiny issue of a panicking civilian who shouldn’t have been anywhere near the clubhouse, and that wasn’t exactly enhancing my mood.
I kicked the door shut after me, then carried Summer over to the bed and slid her off my shoulder and down onto it.
I reached for her hood and pulled it off so I could get a good look at her, wanting to check if she was okay. A whole lot of silky platinum-blonde hair came tumbling out and down around her shoulders, reminding me of how she used to wear it back in school, in an untidy ponytail or in a bun wound around a pen or pencil. I always used to want to tie it back properly for her since I hated untidiness as a rule, but of course I never did.
Even with her hair all down, she didn’t look up. But I wasn’t having that so I put a finger beneath her chin and tipped her head back so I could see her face.
Her skin was dead white, her eyes round as fucking saucers and darker than a night sky.
Jesus.
It was all coming back to me now, that month I’d spent taking her to and from school. How pissed I’d been with the Knights’ then president for assigning me what had amounted to babysitting duties as a favour to the police chief. How she’d never said a word to me unless I asked her a question directly, and wouldn’t meet my eyes. How much that had irritated me because, sure, I was pretty scary but I hadn’t thought I was that scary.
She was looking at me now the same way she had back then, those big eyes glazed with fear, and it annoyed me at the same time as it made my chest feel tight. Because I hadn’t wanted her to be afraid of me back then and I didn’t want her to be afraid of me now. It felt...wrong somehow.
I had no idea what was up with that shit because it wasn’t as if I was a nice, caring kind of guy. I was an enforcer, for fuck’s sake. I made sure the brothers stuck to the club rules. And I only cared about three things—my club, my bike and making myself feel good as often as I damn well could.
Nothing else mattered.
Certainly not this scaredy-cat who’d got herself into some pretty deep shit.
But knowing all that didn’t stop the tightness in my chest. And I found myself rubbing her little chin with my thumb as if I wanted to soothe her or something. ‘You gonna tell me what you’re doing here, baby girl?’ I asked, deliberately using the name I used to call her years ago, when I’d wanted to get a rise out of her. I’d always figured that since being nice to her hadn’t got her to be less scared of me, maybe getting her angry would work. ‘Did Crash hurt you? Because I’m telling you right now that if he did, his name is going straight to the top of my shitlist.’
She didn’t respond to me ‘baby girl’-ing her. Instead she swallowed and I found myself staring at the pulse beating in the hollow of her throat. It was fast. Way too fucking fast.
‘Tiger?’ she said at long last, her voice husky and uncertain.
Hearing her say my name like that shocked me. I didn’t know she’d even remembered it, because she’d certainly never used it to my face.
‘Yeah, you know it.’ Her skin was incredibly soft and smooth under my thumb and I couldn’t seem to stop myself from stroking her again. I’d touched plenty of other women so there was no reason why her skin should feel any different. But somehow it did.
She blinked a couple more times, staring at me as if she’d never seen me before in her entire life. Then her gaze slowly dropped to... Holy shit. She was looking at my mouth.
That thing inside me kicked again, harder this time, and I felt my cock stir.
Christ, what the fuck was she doing that for? Didn’t she know what a come on it was?
As if I’d said it out loud, those big blue eyes came back to mine again, and she must have realised what she was doing because suddenly colour washed over her pale skin and she jerked herself out of my grip.
‘Don’t,’ she muttered, bending her head again and looking at her hands twisting in her lap, the long blonde hair in a curtain around her face.
‘Okay. So you can talk.’ I resisted the urge to grab her again, settling for putting my hands in my pockets instead. The warmth of her skin against my fingertips lingered, which pissed me off for no good reason. ‘You wanna answer my question about Crash?’
She was silent and I thought she was going to retreat, but then she said finally, ‘He didn’t hurt me. He was just...insistent.’
‘More than insistent. Looked like he scared the shit out of you.’
‘I wasn’t s-scared.’
‘Yeah, and I’m the fucking Queen of England.’
She didn’t say anything to that, her hands white-knuckled in her lap.
Christ, this silence bullshit was starting to get really fucking annoying.
‘What the hell are you doing here, Summer?’ I demanded, coming to the end of my patience. ‘And look at me when I’m talking to you.’
Finally, she lifted her head, and maybe I was imagining things, but it seemed like her eyes were less dark. I saw a small blue spark had flickered to life in them.
If it was anger, then good. That was way better than fear.
‘Maybe I just wanted to hang out with some b-bikers,’ she said, a defensive note in her voice.
I nearly laughed. ‘Seriously? You were nearly catatonic back there, baby girl. So, no, I’m not buying you wanting to hang out with some bikers.’
That pretty mouth of hers thinned. ‘I’m not a baby and I’m not a girl.’
Yeah, looked like I was annoying her, which was excellent. It also looked like she had a bit of spirit in her after all. Certainly more than she’d had when she was seventeen.
Yeah, and you like that, too.
Which I was not going to think about.
‘I don’t care who you are,’ I said mildly. ‘You’ve got five seconds to give me the truth or I’m taking you straight to Keep and you can tell him.’
Fear flashed in her eyes again, but this time that determined chin firmed. Another good sign. ‘Don’t do that. Please.’
‘Okay, well, you’d better start doing some talking then, hadn’t you?’
Her gaze flicked away from mine. ‘Well...um... I... It’s...uh...’
‘Use your words, baby girl.’
It flicked back, another of those blue sparks flashing, the colour in her cheeks pinker. Much, much better. Annoying her was clearly the way to go. Which was excellent considering I was a master at annoying the shit out of people.
‘Give me one good reason I should tell you.’ She lifted that chin, looking down her nose at me, all haughty and shit. And fuck knows why, but my cock found that extremely hot.
‘Because I asked you,’ I said gently, ignoring my impatient dick.
She frowned. ‘That’s not a good enough reason.’
Holy shit, this woman was a problem.
‘Baby girl,’ I explained, trying to be patient, ‘the way I see it, you have two choices. You either tell me what’s going on right now. Or you tell me what’s going on right now.’
Her frown deepened. ‘But...those two are the same.’
I folded my arms and gave her my enforcer’s smile. The one guaranteed to make a brother wish they’d never been born. ‘Yeah. I know.’
CHAPTER THREE (#u1937e0c4-b091-5eed-9b0b-da27b043c3f6)
Summer
I SAT ON Tiger’s bed and stared at him, feeling something deep inside me quiver in a way that had nothing whatsoever to do with the weird panic that had overtaken me in Crash’s room.
Or rather, it felt related to fear but not like I was in imminent danger of death or anything. More like when you get on a rollercoaster or a plane taking off, and everything is fast and out of control and it’s freaky and scary at the same time.
Tiger had always had that effect on me. He had been exciting and scary and I just hadn’t known what to do with myself around him.
I still didn’t.
Him suddenly appearing in Crash’s room like some kind of tattooed avenging angel, bringing all my confused teenaged feelings about him flooding back, had made me freeze. Like I just...couldn’t deal with Crash and him and where I was and what was happening all at the same time. And then he’d picked me up and tossed me over his shoulder like I weighed nothing at all and my brain had simply shut down.
Sometimes it happened to me like that. When I got overwhelmed, I froze. As if I was afraid something worse might happen if I moved.
I hated it. Or rather, I hated myself when I got like that. Especially when it happened in front of someone so strong and in control.
Someone like Tiger.
And he was just as strong and in control now as he had been back when I was seventeen. Just as tall and muscular. Just as scary. And just as freaking hot.
He was in jeans and a blue T-shirt, that biker leather vest over the top, and he had his arms folded, giving me a glimpse of the incredible tattoos inked into the bronze skin covering the powerful muscles of his biceps and forearms.
On his right arm, a tiger prowled, long and lean and dangerous, its teeth bared. On his left, an intricate, dizzying design of interlocking circles and spirals and all sorts of other geometries. For a second I got distracted, too busy staring at it and trying to follow all the angles to remember that he’d asked me a question.
‘Baby girl,’ he said quietly, in that deep voice that I felt right down low in my belly, ‘I’m not gonna ask again.’
Baby girl. Hadn’t he heard me when I’d told him I didn’t like it? How annoying. I’d hated it back when he’d been my protector, had found it incredibly patronising, but I’d been too shy to tell him to stop.
I had a bit more backbone now, though I got distracted again by the warning note in his voice.
Crap. He was going to make me tell him, wasn’t he? God, what the hell was I going to do now? I didn’t want him to find out what a coward I was. Or how ridiculously stupid I’d been to come down here without a plan.
No, I shouldn’t have cared what he thought of me, but the fact was, I did.
He was so strong and bright and...vivid. He didn’t give a shit what anyone thought of him. He did whatever the hell he wanted.
He was everything that I wasn’t and that intimidated the crap out of me, and the thought of having to spill my guts to him about Dad and my generally being pathetic when it came to emotional manipulation made me feel ill.
But what choice did I have?
Well, you could try distracting him...
That was an option, of course. But how? I wasn’t especially good at small talk and found talking to people in general difficult. Particularly people who intimidated me.
I bit my lip and frowned at him. My panic seemed to have receded, which was a mercy, my brain functioning again, formulating several plans, then discarding them.
Maybe I should ask him about his tattoos. Didn’t guys like talking about themselves? And if I managed to get him talking, then I wouldn’t have to, an added bonus.
Taking a silent breath, I pushed myself off his bed and took a couple of uncertain steps towards him.
He watched me approach, those golden eyes on mine, unblinking, and I felt fear curl up tight once again inside me. But I made myself take another step or two, getting nearer.
He was even more intimidating close up. I wasn’t short, yet he towered over me, a wall of hard muscle and raw masculine power, sending my heartbeat racing into overdrive.
My mouth was dry and I felt shaky, and I had to force myself to speak. ‘Your t-tattoos are amazing,’ I stuttered weakly. ‘Where did you get them?’
This close to him I could feel the heat of his body and smell that delicious scent I remembered from years ago. Leather and engine oil, and some kind of dark spice that made me want to bury my face in his neck and inhale.
Unlike Crash, the thought of being near Tiger didn’t make me want to either cringe or pull away. No, it made me want to get even closer.
God, he made my head swim. Like he had when he’d taken my chin in his hand and rubbed it with his thumb. I’d forgotten my fear the moment he’d touched me, the very second those incredible eyes of his had met mine. And instead of feeling like I was going to freeze to death, I’d felt hot instead. Far, far too hot.
He’d been so close, his beautifully sculpted face right in front of me. And I hadn’t been able to stop myself from looking at his mouth, with that full bottom lip that had fascinated me so completely at seventeen.
It still fascinated me, and, like I had back then, I’d found myself wondering what it would be like to have that mouth on mine. I’d never been kissed before so I had nothing to compare it to, only that half excited, half fearful wondering...
‘Jesus Christ,’ Tiger said, his dark voice rolling over me, making me feel like he’d wrapped me up in black velvet. ‘I swear to God if you don’t start telling me what the fuck is going on, I’m going to call the cops right now and get them to pick you up.’
His golden eyes were full of impatience and anger, and the way he was staring at me made me feel light-headed and dizzy.
So much for distraction. It had been a lame conversation starter anyway.
I dragged my gaze away, trying to control my sudden breathlessness, not wanting want him to know how badly he affected me. I was even shocked at it myself, especially since it had been a good five years since I’d seen him.
‘Okay, okay.’ I turned around and went to sit on the double bed pushed up against the opposite wall.
Unlike Crash’s room, Tiger’s was scrupulously neat, which surprised me, though I wasn’t sure why. The floor was clear of clothes, the quilt straight on the bed. Even the male toiletries and other paraphernalia on the dresser were neatly lined up. Obviously Tiger liked a tidy room, a fact I filed away like I’d filed away other salient facts I’d learned about him in the one month during which he’d guarded me. Not that there were many, since I’d been too tongue-tied to ask him any questions.
But I knew he kept a gun in the small of his back and that he had the most amazing, sexy grin that he turned on any pretty woman who came near him. I knew he rode his bike like it was part of him and that he’d taken his job of protecting me very seriously indeed. Even though he’d hated it, which he’d made very obvious.
You know there’s another way to distract him. One that doesn’t involve conversation.
My brain came to a screaming halt as the thought crossed my mind and my face heated.
Oh, yes, well. There was that. Which was all very well if I’d been some kind of practised seductress. But I wasn’t. I was Summer Grant, and I’d spent most of my life trying to be invisible to as many people as possible.
I was the classic nerd. I had been at school, and the same in college. And since mostly it made people leave me alone, I was okay with it. I didn’t miss parties or the desperate drama that went along with dating. I was happy with my studies, losing myself in numbers and equations, where everything was logical and followed clear rules. It was easier and way more interesting than all the usual college/teenage stuff that other people got up to.
I’d never met anyone I’d wanted enough to bear the hassle of it anyway.
Well, anyone except Tiger.
He was staring at me, that gaze of his almost flattening me with its intensity. He was leaning back against the closed door now, his arms folded across his muscular chest, the black geometries of his fascinating tattoos dark on his skin.
I felt his stare like a pressure around my throat, closing off all my air, leaving me in no doubt that he wanted an answer and he wanted it now.
Taking a breath, I got up again, a weird kind of restlessness pacing under my skin. I closed the distance between us, coming right up to where he stood. Even nearer than I had before.
His amber gaze followed me so intently it made me almost dry-mouthed with terror. I didn’t quite know why. I only knew that the way he looked at me, as if he could really see me, made me feel vulnerable in a way I couldn’t describe.
It made me want to run away and hide.
But I couldn’t, not here. There was nowhere to run to and, besides, I had a feeling Tiger wouldn’t let me anyway.
All I could do was keep walking until I was right up close to him, so there were only inches between us. He never took his eyes off me, not once, and again, this near to him, I felt the weird dizziness take over. His scent and his heat and his golden gaze...
‘I was in Crash’s room because...’ I faltered but then made myself go on. ‘Well...I wanted to see what being with a b-biker was like.’
Tiger stared down at me for a long moment and I could see something that looked like annoyance glinting in his gaze. Then his mouth curved in a smile that had nothing to do with amusement and he gave a soft laugh that made a shiver chase down my spine. ‘Right,’ he said. ‘So all you want is biker cock.’ He gave another laugh. ‘Try again, baby girl.’
I don’t know what happened then. Maybe it was just being here and running out of options. Maybe it was some leftover stupidity from me shoving Crash away. Whatever it was, his obvious disbelief made a small spark of annoyance ignite me.
It was insanity to argue with a man like Tiger, a man who radiated violence and danger, who had menace inked into his skin. Yet for some reason I opened my big fat mouth and said, ‘How do you know that’s not why I’m here? Biker c-cock might be exactly what I want.’
There was a stunning silence.
Tiger finally blinked and I was conscious of a weird warm feeling in amongst all that cold fear. Had I finally surprised him?
Of course it didn’t last long.
He bent his head and suddenly his face was millimetres from mine, those amber eyes boring into me, that beautiful mouth so close. ‘If biker cock is really what you want, then what are you waiting for? I’m a biker and I have a cock. Get down on your knees and suck it.’
The shock of the words and his abrupt nearness froze me in place. But not like before, in Crash’s room. I wasn’t rigid with fear this time, because I could read in his gaze that he wasn’t serious. This was a dare. He used to do that in the month when he’d been my protector, teasing me to get a rise out of me. I’d always been too afraid to respond to him then but now...
I don’t know what came over me. A sudden rush of anger filled me, along with a determination to show him that I wasn’t the scared ‘baby girl’ he seemed to think I was.
Forgetting my fear, I gave him one furious look.
Then I dropped to my knees in front of him.
CHAPTER FOUR (#u1937e0c4-b091-5eed-9b0b-da27b043c3f6)
Tiger
NOTHING SURPRISED ME much any more. But little Summer Grant dropping to her knees right in front of me, ready to prove she was desperate to suck my cock?
Yeah, not gonna lie, that surprised the hell out of me.
Telling her to get on her knees was supposed to have made her back off, not actually do what I said.
I didn’t move, looking down at her as she knelt in front of me. Of course I knew that she didn’t actually want to do this—I hadn’t missed that blue spark that had lit in her eyes just before she did what I told her to do.
She was calling my bluff the way I’d called hers.
And, fuck, she might just have won this round, because, Christ, I couldn’t actually let her suck me off. Not given how terrified she’d been not fifteen minutes earlier in Crash’s room. And not when she was only doing this because it was clear she didn’t want to tell me what she was actually doing in the clubhouse.
Unfortunately, though, my goddamn cock didn’t seem to understand that.
There was something about the way she knelt in front of me, with her chin lifted, her eyes on mine. And I could see that spark of anger dancing in them. Yeah, she definitely wasn’t the scaredy-cat she appeared to be.
In fact, if I wasn’t much mistaken, she was giving me a challenge to answer the one I’d just given her.
Not many brothers took me on these days, let alone one little girl. That took guts.
And it made me hard.
Made me want to reach down and bury my fingers in all that silky blonde hair, hold on to her as she took my dick, as she worked her mouth on me, taking me deep.
Made me want to know how far I could push her, how far I could go. Did that little spark of hers mean she was steel all the way through, or would she shatter if I put pressure on her?
I suspected I knew already, though. I suspected she was steel. It was always the quiet ones you had to watch out for, those were the ones with claws.
Christ, that mouth of hers was to die for. Perfectly shaped and a little red from where she’d been gnawing on it. I could imagine those lips wrapped around my cock, could imagine tasting them as well. Maybe biting on them to see if they were as soft as they looked.
But, shit, I had to get a handle on myself. I couldn’t goad her into blowing me. It wasn’t what she was here for, no matter that she was insisting otherwise. And apart from anything else, I wasn’t in the mood to be giving dick-sucking advice to virgins.
Yeah, sure. You’re not in the mood. Like hell.
Ignoring my cock thoughts, I didn’t move, only shook my head. ‘I’m glad you’re keen, baby, but no. We’re not doing that.’
Those big blue eyes widened in what I thought was genuine surprise—for some reason it made me glad I could surprise her the way she’d surprised me—and that pouty mouth opened. ‘Oh, but I thought you said—’
‘I know what I said.’ I cut her off. ‘I fucking changed my mind. Now, go sit back on that bed like a good girl.’
Again that blue spark jumped, like she was pissed or maybe disappointed, which I didn’t mind at all, not one bit, then she got to her feet and went slowly back over to the bed once more. She sat down and looked at her hands again, resolutely avoiding my gaze, her shoulders slumping.
Okay, so it was definitely disappointment. But...why? She hadn’t really wanted to suck my dick, had she? Not after she’d been so goddamn terrified.
Why are you thinking about this shit? Why the fuck does it matter?
Both very good questions and ones I didn’t have the answers to.
Just like I still didn’t know why the hell she was here.
I was about to give her the hard word yet a-fucking-gain, when someone’s fist connected loudly on the door at my back. ‘Tiger.’ It was Keep, sounding pissed. ‘I need to talk to you. Open the fucking door.’
At the sound of Keep’s voice, Summer’s chin came up, her gaze getting wide and dark, frightened again.
Interesting. So given how she hadn’t wanted me to talk to Keep earlier and her reaction to the sound of his voice now, it was obvious that she really didn’t want him to know she was here. Which kind of made sense. She probably knew he’d bundle her up and ship her out the moment he discovered her.
Keep hammered on the door again, louder this time, and Summer’s gaze came to mine, the desperation in it loud and clear. She really didn’t want me to give her away.
It was crazy. The first thing I should have done was open the door and let my president inside, show him who was hiding out in my room. Because the club came first and always had done, and she represented trouble for it, no doubt about that.
Yet for some reason, that look in her eyes made my chest tighten yet again. Been a long, long time since someone had looked at me like that. Not since my little brother had disappeared along with my mom. Looking at me as if I could help them. As if I could save them.
So when I opened my mouth, it wasn’t ‘Sure, Keep, come in’ that came out. It was ‘Gimme a minute, Prez. I’m kind of busy.’
Summer let out a small, sharp breath, like she’d been holding it.
Then Keep said very distinctly, ‘Open the fucking door. I don’t care who you’ve got in there.’
Shit.
I couldn’t say no to my president and Summer must have known that, because her face went white, and she went very still. And she kept her gaze on mine, silently pleading.
So I made a snap decision.
Pushing myself away from the door, I strode over to the bed and jerked the quilt out from under her. ‘Get in,’ I ordered.
She blinked rapidly. ‘W-what?’
‘You want me to hide you? Then get the fuck in my bed.’
She hesitated only a second, kicking off her stilettos before crawling into my bed and drawing the covers up to her chin. While she did that, I shrugged off my cut and slung it over the end of the bed, then pulled my T-shirt off.
‘Tiger!’ Keep was sounding really pissed now. ‘For fuck’s sake.’
Summer was watching me with those big eyes getting rounder as I pulled the quilt from her fingers. ‘If you want this to work,’ I said shortly, quietly, ‘then don’t argue and follow my lead, okay?’
She didn’t speak, only nodded.
So I got into bed with her, positioning myself over the top of her, covering her with my body. Then I pulled the quilt over us.
And not before time.
The door slammed open and there was Keep, standing in the doorway, one of the meanest motherfuckers in the whole MC.
‘Sorry, Prez,’ I said lazily, looking around at him. ‘I should have said. The door’s open.’
He gave me that long, hard president’s stare, taking in the fact that I was in bed and that there was very obviously a woman with me. My elbows were on the pillows on either side of Summer’s head, my upper arms shielding her. Her hair was all over my pillow and she’d turned her face away. There was no way Keep would know who she was, as long as I didn’t move.
‘Thought you would have been out in the corridor,’ he said flatly. ‘You’re such a fucking exhibitionist.’
Summer was trembling a little, her body warm and soft beneath mine, the flower scent of hers wrapping around me like I’d stumbled into a fucking garden. Her legs were spread and I could feel the intense heat of her pussy pressing against the zipper of my jeans, soaking into the denim.
This wasn’t a mistake. At all.
Christ, what the hell else was I supposed to do? There’d been nowhere else for her to hide. Pretending she was some chick I’d brought in to fuck had been the only option.
I forced myself to ignore the feel of her beneath me and said, ‘Yeah, well, today I thought I’d be really kinky and try for some privacy.’ I shifted my hips, like I was halfway up inside her already and wanted to keep going. ‘Speaking of, you got something serious to ask me? ’Cause as you can see, there’s something else I’d much rather be doing.’
Keep grunted, his blue eyes cold. ‘Got word that Campbell Grant’s daughter has gone missing and he wanted me to keep an eye out for her.’
I could feel Summer go rigid under me and I didn’t need to see her face to know that the thought of being discovered scared her. Of course it made me want to know why, because although I didn’t know much about the police chief, I knew plenty about his asshole son, Summer’s brother. Justin Grant was the ex of Cat Livingston, my friend Smoke’s old lady. He’d been violent towards her and some shit had gone down that had included Smoke teaching the prick a lesson.
I didn’t like the thought of Summer being exposed to that kind of crap, and if the son had been like that, what about the father? Sure, I’d never known what it was like to have a dad since I’d grown up without one, but I knew what had happened with Smoke’s old man and Smoke had told me about Cat’s.
Seemed like fathers in general were assholes.
‘Yeah, I haven’t seen her.’ I looked down at the woman lying very still under me. She had her face still turned away, her hair covering her cheek.
Was it her father she was scared of? Was that why she’d come down here? But why here? There were plenty of other less dangerous places to hide than a biker clubhouse. What about friends? Other family?
‘Maybe you should start looking,’ Keep said. ‘Once you’ve finished, obviously.’
I didn’t look at my president, as I was too busy frowning down at Summer. ‘Yeah, okay. Might take a while, though.’
‘This is more important than your dick, Tiger,’ Keep growled. ‘The chief’s still pissed about that fucker Justin so we’ve got some ground to make up. Be good if one of the Knights could locate her and bring her in. If she hasn’t simply run away, of course.’
Summer did that freezing-in-place thing again. And I wanted to grip her chin and turn her head to face me, look into her eyes to make sure she was okay. But I didn’t want to risk Keep seeing her, so all I said was ‘Gotcha, Prez. I’ll finish up here and then I’m on it.’ Quite literally in fact, but he wasn’t to know that.
Keep didn’t say another word, but I heard the door slam shut and then silence.
Summer remained still and that was actually starting to become something of a problem. Because my brain kept on wanting to concentrate on that heat between her legs and it was starting to get me hard.
No, scratch ‘starting to.’ I’d been hard even before getting into bed with her.
Which makes getting into bed with her a pretty fucking dumb idea, don’t you think? Especially when you shouldn’t even be touching her.
Yeah, okay, maybe it was. But I wasn’t a goddamn teenage boy. I was the one in control, not my fucking cock. Which meant I should have been throwing back the quilt and getting off her, putting some distance between us.
Yet I didn’t move. I stayed right where I was. I was bracing myself on my elbows so I wasn’t actually lying on her, but her tits were almost brushing my chest. I couldn’t see much of them since she was wearing a loose hoodie, but they seemed high and rounded, a nice handful.
And now you’re staring at her tits? What the fuck is wrong with you?
It was an excellent point and yet I still couldn’t seem to make myself get off her. And what was more, I was beginning to think that this was actually a great time to make her tell me what the hell she was doing here.
‘Summer,’ I said quietly. ‘He’s gone.’
A quiver ran the entire length of her body. I could damn well feel it. Then, slowly, she turned her head, giving me a quick glance from beneath her lashes, like she was afraid to look at me. But there was a flush of pink on her cheekbones, a pretty good indication to me that she wasn’t scared. Or at least not as scared as she had been.
Fuck, she was so hot, though. That little pussy of hers felt like a fire burning through my zipper and if I wasn’t much mistaken—and I seldom was—I thought I’d caught a hint of musk threading through her sweet, flowery scent.
Whatever you’re thinking, it’s not a good idea, dumb fuck.
Of course it wasn’t a good idea. It was a fucking terrible idea. Yet I still wasn’t moving, staying there braced on my elbows with my cock pressed hard between her legs.
She made a restless movement and her hands came up, long, pale fingers pressing against my chest. Then, like my body was a stove she’d accidentally burned herself on, she jerked them away again. ‘T-Tiger...’ she muttered thickly, still avoiding my gaze. ‘I th-think you should...uh...move.’
I don’t know what it was about hearing my name in her mouth. Plenty of women called me by it and yet I’d never once felt it go straight to my cock the way it did right now. Maybe it was her voice, all soft and husky and uncertain, and that goddamn stutter on the T. Like she was afraid to say it.
The club girls didn’t say my name like that. They didn’t avoid my gaze, jerk their hands away from my bare skin and blush like a fucking rose. And when they did look at me, it wasn’t with fear or excitement or any shit like that. Sure, they wanted me, but they didn’t much care who got them off. One cock was as good as another as far as they were concerned.
It had never bothered me before.
It had never bothered me before that one cock was as good as another for them. As long as everyone came, I was fine with it. And as for civilians, well, I didn’t mess around with them, because I wasn’t up for anything more complicated than fucking.
But Summer, she was lying there all pink and flushed, and avoiding my gaze. And it wasn’t because she didn’t want me. Because if she hadn’t, she’d be shoving me like she’d shoved Crash, and there was definitely no shoving going on.
Yeah, I knew when a woman was into me and this little girl was into me. Not Crash. Not some other brother. Me.
And I didn’t just like that.
I fucking loved it.
‘Uh-huh,’ I murmured, staying right where I was, because I was an asshole. ‘And how exactly do you want me to move, baby girl?’
CHAPTER FIVE (#u1937e0c4-b091-5eed-9b0b-da27b043c3f6)
Summer
I COULDN’T THINK. I could barely even breathe.
I’d always been proud of my brain since it was about the only thing about me that made me special. But right now, with Tiger lying right on top of me, it was like I’d lost several thousand brain cells and the stupid thing was refusing to work.
He was just so...hot. And...big. And he was everywhere, his bare chest right in front of me, his wide shoulders blocking out the rest of the room, his long, lean, muscular body pressed the whole length of mine.
And his gaze looking down at me, drowning me in gold.
I didn’t know what to do with my hands. I didn’t know what to do with my entire self.
It had happened so fast. One minute I was feeling half disappointed, half relieved that he’d pulled me up off my knees, and maybe a little angry at myself, too, since I hadn’t managed to distract him, which meant that now he was going to make me tell him my real reason for being here. Then the next minute there had been a knocking at the door and I’d heard Keep’s voice.
I’d thought Tiger would turn me in.
But he hadn’t. He’d come across to the bed and told me to get in, and since I hadn’t exactly had a lot of choice, I’d kicked off my shoes and done so. The next thing I knew, he’d ripped off his T-shirt and had climbed in, too, lying on top of me, bracing himself on his elbows so he wasn’t resting his whole weight on me.
I’d never been in bed with anyone before, let alone the man who’d been lurking in my head ever since I was seventeen. The man who was now half-naked, his hard, sculpted chest and powerful shoulders on show. And somehow it didn’t matter that he wasn’t resting entirely on me, I felt flattened by him anyway. By the sheer intensity of his physical presence. By his closeness. By the heat of his body and the scent of his bare skin.
My brain shut down then, simply unable to function with Tiger being so near. And then Keep was in the room and finally I realised why Tiger had told me to get into bed and why he was lying on top of me.
He was hiding me from Keep.
The thought was brief and bright and then it disappeared, and I forgot completely that Keep was even in the room. Because somehow my skirt had got rucked up around my waist, my bare thighs brushing against the denim of Tiger’s jeans. His hips were resting between my legs, forcing them apart, and there was something big and thick and hard pressing against the front of my panties.
And once I’d become conscious of that, I couldn’t concentrate on anything else. There was something about the pressure of him right there that made me go hot all over. That made my thighs tremble and my breathing catch. I tried to hold myself rigid, to pull away from where he was touching me, but it was impossible.
He was everywhere. His heat and his dark, spicy scent and all that smooth tanned skin right in front of me. The fascinating tattoo of all the spirals and circles that was on his upper arm went up and over his shoulder, too, spreading halfway across his broad chest. I had to turn my head away to stop from staring at it, my fingers itching to touch it.
But not looking at him didn’t do anything to stop the aching awareness of him. The feeling of his long, hot body over mine, pressing down on me, overwhelming me.
He was still overwhelming me.
Keep had gone, yet Tiger was still lying on top of me, braced on his elbows on either side of my head, looking down at me. I could feel myself getting hotter and hotter, and I didn’t want to meet his gaze. I didn’t want him to see what he was doing to me, how completely overcome I was about this whole situation.
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