I grinned. “But it’s good news, if you’re happy about it.”
She laughed and wriggled her shoulders, then stuffed her phone in the saddlebag she had strapped behind her. “Will you follow me? Sapphira is a hardass about the bikes. She wants all of her girls to know how to ride well. Could you see if I have any bad habits you notice? I want to impress her.”
“Sure. Scar’s already heading out to work. Why not?”
She smiled. “We can stop to tell Trav he’s in the clear and won’t have to marry Calliope Tuccini.”
Laughing, we started our bikes, and I let her lead us away from Nonno’s nonsense.
The day was fun but long as I helped her figure out how to take turns tighter, and I was tired before I ever left the apartment to go to work that evening. Casper had texted to ask me to go to Sinful, so that’s where I went. Sinful was a more sexed-up crowd than Black Out, even with the kink club overhead. There were more druggies, though we tried to keep outright use out of the club, and more assholes groping asses—generally just more fucking work for me. Sinful was Black Out’s dirty cousin.
When I walked inside the two-story brown brick building through the front door, all the bartenders rushing around to set things up along the wooden bar at the back of the club were young, hot, and brand-new faces. I squinted to see through the flashing, multicolored lights on the dance floor. The newbies weren’t necessarily bad, but since they were probably half trained they’d be asking me where shit was all night. Or even worse, they would ask me to barback because they didn’t understand I was security—all on top of my regular work. I sighed and got on with it.
By about midnight I was fucking finished with life. The throbbing club music had a migraine settling behind my eyes, and I was hoarse from yelling at fresh-faced twenty-one-year-olds that they couldn’t get so drunk they were stumbling in public. I genuinely worried about a few of them. Then I had to go yell at the bartenders and remind them it was their job not to overserve. I’d tossed so many drunks and grabby fucks I was starting to feel like I’d run a marathon. The kids behind the bar were looking desperate with customers at least two deep in front of them. The high tables along the wall were full. I was fairly certain we were at capacity.
We would be fucked if an inspector walked in tonight because the boys on the door didn’t seem to realize it was their job to count how many people came in and left when it was busy.
In short, it was a clusterfuck, but also just another night in New Gothenburg.
And I wanted Colton. I missed him. Sighing, I rubbed my hands over my face and went to go back out onto the dance floor because there was a couple I was pretty sure was actually fucking, with the way the woman’s skirt was hiked up—when someone grabbed my ass. I spun, not fucking believing someone would do that to me since I was wearing a shirt that said Security on the back. I tilted my chin to stare up into Colton’s face.
“Hi, Fish,” he said with a tired smile that crinkled a few laugh lines in the corners of his eyes. I almost swallowed my tongue. He’d cleaned up. His beard was gone and in its place was a sleek chin-strap goatee. His hair was trimmed. The shirt he wore had buttons—I hadn’t seen him in anything like it outside of court or job interviews—and was loose over a pair of black leather pants that looked as though they’d feel like warm butter against my fingertips. The nice riding boots that came halfway up his calves had my dick rushing with happy tingles.
“Hi,” I said so softly he leaned forward.
Colton wrapped his hand around the back of my neck and pulled me in for a kiss that had my lips aching. My cockhead throbbed and my pants became a torture chamber.
“What are you doing?” I asked as he straightened, but he held me flush against his front. He slid his hands down and into the back pockets of my jeans, gripping my asscheeks and pulling me closer. He glanced over his shoulder, and when I looked where he was staring, Travis lifted a hand at me.
“What’s my brother doing here?”
“Your replacement,” he growled in my ear. I shivered when he sucked on my earlobe.
I took a deep inhale of Colton and his cologne made me swoon a little. It was so fucking crisp and delicious. He didn’t have anything that smelled like that at home, or at least he hadn’t when I left.
“What’s all this?” I leaned back to get a good look at his face.
“I was thinking about all the stuff we talked about,” he shouted, just loud enough to be heard.
“Me too.”
He shrugged. “So, here I am. Being… romantic or some shit.”
Laughing, I kissed the warm skin of his neck, and he rocked his hips against me. “I asked King if he could start looking for a different job for me. I think he will.”
Scar tightened his arms around me. “Good. I don’t like you doing this. Being a bouncer.”
“I know. That’s insulting by the way.” I licked at his throat and sucked right below the point of his jaw, and he bucked his hips against me.
He shrugged, totally unapologetic. And I loved that about him—when it wasn’t over something that I was already pissed off about. He wanted to keep me safe.
“Dance with me?” he asked.
Nodding, I let him urge me toward the middle of the dance floor with a hand behind my back. He was stiff. We didn’t do things like this much. I turned and leaned my chest against his.
“You didn’t have to do this.”
He stared down at me and smiled, and my heart skipped. “I did. Something wasn’t right between us. You keep wanting me to try a little.”
