“You don’t know me, and you’re kind of sounding insane.”
“C’mon, Gwen. Give me one chance.”
“I have three conditions,” she breathes, her voice little more than a whisper, but somehow firm, too.
“Hit me.”
“First, my dog is with you when you pick me up, and he better be healthy and happy.”
“Goes without saying. Next?”
Her lips purse together as she studies me. Then, she lets out a sigh. “This is just dinner. I’m not agreeing to anything else.”
“Fair enough, with one small addendum.”
“Now who’s sounding like a lawyer?” she jokes gently.
“You need to know that while this is dinner, I’m going to work to get you to agree to more time with me. To me, this is our first date.”
“Whatever,” she mutters, but she doesn’t quite hide the happiness that glows on her face. Yeah. She’s into me.She can deny it, but the evidence is there in her smile.
“What’s your third condition?” I ask, eager to collect her dog. I’m going to win the pup over first. By the time I pick Gwen up for her date tonight, I’ll have spoiled her puppy. Then, I’ll spend tonight doing the same thing to Gwen. She doesn’t know it yet, but I’m going to claim this woman. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that makes me nervous. Hell, the last time I chose a woman didn’t work out that great for me. Even though I’m filled with trepidation about taking this step again, there’s an excitement in me I barely remember. A buzz that settles me and makes me feel excited for the day. It’sthatfeeling that has me staying the course. There’s a chance—a very big one—that the woman in front of me is my future. For now, that’s all I need to move forward.
“No more gunfire. That happens again, and I don’t care if you’re somehow perfect and the man of my dreams, I will walk away.”
“You can’t really say the gunfire was because of me. It could be entirely coincidental,” I point out.
“Well, if it happens again, we’ll know it’s not, and Iwillwalk away.”
I stand up once she does. I can’t help but frown at her words. Still, I’m getting what I want for now, and I’m going to go with it. I step into her and graze my lips against her cheek. “Deal. Now,take me to get your puppy, and I’ll be back to pick you up at four on the dot, sweetheart.”
I feel her body tremble as I whisper against her skin. She steps back, creating space between us. I let her as I follow her out of the room. I don’t know if whoever was shooting today was aiming at me. I also don’t know they weren’t. I’m going to have to figure that out—all while making Gwen fall in love with me. Still, I’m getting what I want, and that has to be enough.
At least for now.
A Motorboating Poodle In A Sticky Situation
HORSE
Ipush open the front door of the Broken Kings clubhouse with my boot, cold air snapping at my heels. I step inside, holding a damn white poodle in one hand like some kind of deranged, denim-clad elf. I refuse to call the dog Baby. It makes me feel like I have tits instead of a dick. So, I’ve coined the mutt, Buddy, after the character in that Elf movie. It seems to fit since he’s a fluffy, Santa-suited menace. He wiggles in my grip, the stupid red velvet coat glittering under the overhead lights. Jesus, my men are never going to let me live this down. I imagine they will tear me apart over it.
Do I care?Hell, no—not after the smile Gwen gave me when I left with Buddy. Plus, she agreed to dinner tonight. That makes for a very good fucking day. The only thing that will make it better is to end the night in her bed—preferably buried inside her while she moans my name like a Christmas prayer.
I stride into the main room, past the plywood bar, the mismatched chairs that look like we stole them from three different yard sales, four overstuffed black-leather couches, and the twin eighty-inch televisions. One hangs by the bar for game nights. The other’s bolted above the couches for video games and, during the raunchier club parties, porn marathons.
None of it is really my scene. I tend not to even attend the parties unless other clubs are visiting, and I have to be here. I don’t touch the club girls. I like my women to belong to me and me alone. I’m not a sharer. My old man used to fuck around on my mom all the time. I saw what it did to her, and it marked me. I never wanted to see that pain on a woman’s face that I gave my dick to. So, I never have. Hell, I didn’t even step out through the seven miserable years with my ex-old lady, Dee, not once. It didn’t matter that we were poison together—marriage was marriage, and I wasn’t going to disrespect the woman I’d chosen. After she and I divorced? Yeah, I’ll get laid if the need gets sharp enough, but never in town. Never close to the club. Dee’s still got spies in the club’s old ladies—Rocky’s and Knife’s women in particular. Those are some nosy-ass bitches. Dee and I are over, but for some fucking reason she thinks she still owns my dick. Since I’ve never found a woman I want to claim, I’ve let it go. Now that I’ve met Gwen—if things work out—I’ll have to put a stop to that. In fact, I’m going to have to lay down the damn law with Rocky and Knife to wrangle their women. I won’t have Gwen sucked into Dee’s bullshit.
But that’s a problem for later. Right now?—
“What the fuck are you carrying, Prez?” Animal, my VP, calls out from the pool table.
And it begins.
I roll my eyes so hard I might sprain something. “You never seen a dog before, asshole?”
“That’s not a dog,” he mutters. “That’s … fuck, I don’t know what the hell that is.”
I ignore him and head to the bar.Mouth—yeah, that’s what we call the redhead club candy who is serving as bartender today. She grins at me while stacking shot glasses. She’s wearing a tight, stretched-to-hell white T-shirt that absolutely belongs to one of the brothers. Her chest is … Jesus. Dolly Parton wouldsalute respectfully. Some poor surgeon had to work overtime on those things. If Pie wasn’t bullshitting last week, he said she’s something like a double-J cup. Why a woman would want to cart that shit around all the time, I have no idea. I mean, I’m a man and I have a dick, so of course I like to watch them bounce. If I fucked club girls, I’d even think about doing her just to see what they look like when she’s riding me. I’d be kind of afraid I’d end up with two black eyes and a busted nose, but it might be worth it—at least once. Still, if I had to pack them around all the damn time, I’d hate them.
