“Fine,” Copper said with a rumbled sigh. “Keep your secrets. I appreciate you heading out there and convincing my daughter to come home more than fucking anything, which is why I’m not pushing you on this.”
“I get that.”
“But if I find out you’re keeping shit from me that I need to know…”
Fuck.He didn’t need to finish the sentence to make the Hell’s Handlers brand on Saint’s forearm tingle. The patch meant more to him than anything, but the thought of his family, his place in the club, and the risk of jeopardizing those relationships was like a knife to the gut.
Yet there he was hiding something he knew Copper would want to know.
Beth’s bruises weren’t as spectacular as they’d been that first night, but she’d need a good deal of makeup or a goddamn turtleneck in the middle of the summer to hide them from her father’s savvy gaze.
Or her mother’s.
Hell, sometimes Shell scared him more than Copper. His president might be lethal as fuck, but Shell handled the big guy with the ease of a knife gliding through melted butter.
“I hear you loud and clear,” he said. Once Copper found out how Jason had abused Beth, and he would find out, Saint was fucked.
“All right. Just making sure. Back to tonight, we are doing a barbecue, but it’s super casual, typical weekend shit with no focus on Beth.”
Saint nodded as though Copper could see him. “Yeah, that should work.”
The motel door opened, and Beth popped her freshly washed and dried head out. “That my dad?”
Saint nodded, then passed her the phone when she held out her hand.
She stepped outside, and his eyes nearly fell out of their sockets. Dressed in baggy jeans and a tiny fucking tank top that hugged her like a second skin and left enough skin on display to be nearly obscene, she looked like temptation wrapped in sin.
He had to press his tongue to the roof of his mouth to keep from trying to lick her. How the fuck was he supposed to survive a whole day on his bike knowing the body pressed against his back was a few severed threads away from being naked?
“Dad, Saint is being a perfect gentleman, so you can stop threatening him,” she said into the phone, utterly oblivious to the growing problem in his jeans.
Why did she have to be so damn sexy?
If she’d been any other woman in any other circumstances, he’d have backed her into that motel room and fucked her until they were both too exhausted to ride a few hundred miles on a motorcycle. Instead, he’d get to feel those full tits on his back all day while he fought to keep his blood circulating through his entire body.
Wonderful.
“Dad, I’m fine. I swear it.” Beth rolled her eyes as she tried to soothe her overprotective father.
If Beth was fine, then Saint was a damn teddy bear, but he kept his mouth shut. Beth was an adult. She didn’t deserve him telling her what to do, especially not two days after escaping a violent and controlling relationship.
“Yeah, okay,” she said. “A Tennessee barbecue at the clubhouse sounds great. Been too long since I’ve had Mav’s famous ribs. Yeah… okay… I will. You need Saint again? Okay, then we’ll see you tonight. Love you too. Bye.”
She ended the call, then handed his phone back. As he grabbed it, their hands brushed, and electricity shot up his arm, raising the hairs. Beth sucked in a breath, then lifted her gaze to his. For one second, they stood frozen, locked in a heated stare-off until his phone chimed, breaking the spell.
Beth stepped back, clearing her throat. “Ready to go when you are.”
Saint nodded. “I’ll get our shit loaded on the bike, and we’ll take off.”
Four hours later, he was in hell.Complete and utter hell.
He took an exit to refill his gas tank and give them both an opportunity to stretch their legs, but mainly to preserve his sanity. Most of yesterday, Beth had sat straight behind him with her hands on his waist, enjoying the scenery. Today, she’d decided to try her hand at becoming a sadistic tormentor.
At his insistence, she’d thrown a leather jacket over her skimpy top, but kept it open and leaned fully into his back. She was a small woman, short and on the thinner side, but by no means a twig like so many women these days. She had a softness to her that melted against him and made his eyes roll back in his head. Her ass and tits were the things of men’s fantasies,and feeling her nestled against his back all day while her thighs cradled his hips was a cruel and unusual punishment.
He’d battled a raging boner for most of the ride.
He wanted to fuck, and he wanted to fuck Beth, but his dick needed to get the message that it would never happen. Instead of sticking around for the barbecue, maybe he’d head to a local bar and find some willing woman to work off his sexual energy.
