The idea of the sergeant’s hands on me flashes into my mind again. I push it away and fix my necklace in the mirror.
“Well, spankings aside, hopefully for Chantel’s sake they were good tippers,” I laugh, turning to check out my ass in my skirt. It registers with me that we don’t really have a time limit for customers, so as long as they keep ordering, they could stay here until close.
I lean into the mirror and fluff my ponytail, then carefully touch up my lipstick, rubbing my lips together with a slight pop. I’m trying not to romanticize someone who is probably just acocky, womanizing criminal, because he’s the exact opposite of what I’ve always thought I want in a man. My mind drifts to the lines of his sculpted hands and I remind myself that those hands have probably done terrible things in the name of his club. What those hypnotic green eyes have witnessed would probably give me nightmares. And then I ask myself again why the hell I’m so transfixed by him.Why the hell do I care?
But try as I might, while Amber rambles on about another server she doesn’t like, the vision of Ax stalking toward me with his face partially covered by that black bandana floods my mind and I let myself take it a step further. I imagine his body over mine, pressing up against me and whispering into my ear in that gruff, deep voice. Those rough, experienced hands drifting down my sides—
“Are you behind the bar for the rest of the night?” Amber asks, cutting into my headspace as she spritzes hairspray. I blink and force myself to take a deep breath.
“Yep,” I say, keeping my eyes on the mirror as I release the breath. “But I still have some time left on my break.”
“Alright, I’m going for my smoke. See you out there,” she calls. I smile, knowing Amber is heading out to our covered patio. She only allows herself one or two cigarettes a day. She calls it “stress balance.”
“Sure thing.” I snap my eyes to her in the mirror as she leaves the room.
I give my ponytail one final tighten, and I swear the shadow of something catches my eye behind me. I turn, suddenly feeling like I’m not alone. My breath quickens as my eyes move back and forth, waiting, but I hear nothing.
“You’re losing it,” I mutter under my breath, then decide I might as well get back out there early. Sitting in the break room thinking about how the big bad biker’s hands would feel sliding up my naked thighs isn’t helping anyone. Namely my thincotton panties that already feel a little more damp with just the thought.
All the storage is partway down a long narrow hallway of warm brick, flanked with black sconces every so often for the same ambience as the restaurant itself. Right in the middle sits the giant dry goods walk-in pantry, and across from it is a massive walk-in cooler that houses all the cold goods and frozen items. The door to it looks like a bank vault and the lights turn on automatically when we open the door and walk inside.
I pull the heavy door open and make my way in so I can grab limes for the bar, only the light doesn’t turn on. I pause and step backward over the threshold, then back into the cooler, hoping to trigger the motion sensors and waiting for the light. But there’s nothing. I lean outside the door to reach for the manual switch, wondering why the automatic sensor is off, when two strong arms wrap around me from behind and pull me in. His scent washes over me and I instantly know exactly who is in this cooler with me. I open my mouth to scream, my blood thickening with fear, but I can’t call out because a heavy hand is clamped down over my mouth as my chest is pushed up against the frigid cooler wall. His deep, gruff timbre fills my ears as my vision from earlier comes to life.
“Let’s see if fear is what you wish for, little dove …”
CHAPTER SIX
Layla
“Let me go!” I bite at his hand, but my words are muffled and I lodge my elbow into his ribs. Ax grunts with my bite then chuckles darkly as he glides his hand down my arm, grasping my wrist in front of me and holding me tight.
The truth is Ishouldbe afraid, but instead something else is happening as I struggle uselessly against Ax’s strong hold. His cedar and leather scent washes over me and sends my body into a frenzy I’ve never felt before. His breath is even and calm as he holds me tight and kicks the door closed with his foot. With one hand he drops the safety latch to lock us in the freezing space, while dipping his head down to my neck and taking a deep breath in, running his nose along the column of my throat.
“Fuck…” he groans, as his nose brushes the shell of my ear and he inhales. Just the way he says it has my skin erupting with goosebumps, and every cell in my body tingles with the rush of danger and a kind of deviant desire I’ve never felt before. I lean my head back on his chest, realizing this is an untapped fantasy, buried deep within the darkest corners of my mind. To be taken, to be forced. But even still, I fight to be released fromhis hold, because that’s what Ishoulddo. I shouldn’t want him to sneak in here and put his hands on me the way he is.
“You can’t just come in here and touch me like this,” I whimper as my cheek is pressed into the freezing cooler wall. Right and wrong bleed together like a shockingly vibrant kaleidoscope of desire and need. It clouds my head when he tightens his hold.
“Your body isscreaminga different story.” He reaches down and grips one of my hips tight and I realize I’m rolling them back, rocking against him instead of away. “My ego is big enough to handle you pretending you don’t want me. In fact, I fucking love this little game.”
His lips drop to my neck again, and the moment they do I’m filled with two things: anger andneed.The two feelings colliding is like a sonic boom—and it’s something entirely new. I feel rage toward him because he’s mysterious and frightening and beautiful. And yet there’s stability, because I’ve never felt empowered in any man’s arms the way I do right now in his. This connection to someone I’ve just met is completely foreign, and although it’s a hard truth I’ll only admit to myself, Iwanthim to touch me.
“Maybe you’re just not as scary as you think you are,” I taunt, my voice sounding much raspier and in turn sexier than I intended.
I begin to fight again, against both him and my own desires, grabbing at him anywhere I can as he spins me around. I gasp when my bare back is pressed into the cold cinderblock wall. Ax’s hand comes up to my throat and he circles it with ease as his lips hover over mine.
“You have no idea how scary I can be, but I can already tell.” He pauses to watch my lips. “You want that fear, and you want to be forced to feel it.”
I whimper in response, unable to deny his words.
“I bet the idea of you not having a choice makes this tight little cunt weep for me.” He slides his free hand down andsqueezes under the curve of my ass as my blood races. His other hand stays at my throat, his thumb grazing back and forth over the center. I imagine that the chain inked on his skin now looks like a necklace around my throat, and it’s eerily settling.
“You’re only afraid because you know you want me … the same way I want you, and you can’t explain why,” he notes in a gruff whisper.
“If you scare me, it’s only because I know what you’re capable of, but I don’t … knowyou,” I breathe out as my core throbs with his words and the admission that he feels the same unexplainable connection I do.
“You think you know.” He rests his forehead on mine. “And that’sexactlywhy you like it. But babe …” He pauses to bring his hand from my ass to my chin, bringing my gaze up to meet his. “Youwillknow me.”
My mind races as I look into those haunting eyes, comparing this to what I’ve had with any man before this moment. The boring dates I’ve had to force myself not to yawn through. One serious boyfriend for a year in college who seemed sweet when we met but couldn’t even make me come without my help. What I’m being offered at this moment isn’t any of those things.
