“H-here?” I stammer, and the eagerness and combined fear in my voice are obvious.
A slow, lazy smile curls over his beautiful lips. “Not here, darlin’, though I appreciate the enthusiasm. Not here, where the whole fucking town could see if they looked out their window. I was waiting for you here because I knew you’d come to me, but I have somewhere else to take you. Somewhere safe. Somewhere no one will hear or find us.”
Chapter Eleven
Steel
“Here?” Leah wrinkles her nose as she stares up at the squat brick building that serves as our clubhouse.
I take her hand in mine, curling my fingers back around hers. It was a short walk from the water tower, and I could tell she was disappointed that I didn’t have my bike, which, of course, I didn’t have since I didn’t want to alert the entire town to our presence, but her eyes were also alive with the promise of the adventure she thought I was taking her on. I’m not sure what’s going through her mind as we head towards the old building with the worn red bricks and the barred-up windows and the chain link fence. If I’m honest, the disappointed look on her face hurts. Our clubhouse might not be fancy, but it’s home.
She turns to look up at me, confusion glistening in her pretty blue eyes. “This is… private?”
I realize then, that it’s not the building that unsettled her, just that she was expecting some out of the way hidey-hole.
My dark chuckle rolls thickly in the night air between us. Fuck, it’s all I can do not to drag her through the compound, up the steps, and down the hall to my room. I’m so desperate for her. The ferocity of that desperation takes my breath away like I’ve been thrown from my damn bike and hit the pavement hard.
“All the brothers are at their houses doing Christmas shit with their families. The rest are partying at The Canteen.”
“Where’s your daughter?” She looks embarrassed after saying it. Like putting Harley there between us is somehow wrong.
It’s not. We will both have to get used to the idea because, one day soon, I’ll have to tell my daughter.
“She’s at a party. Nothing crazy. The guy’s parents are gonna be there. Just movies and hanging out and shit.”
I lead Leah off the sidewalk and across the dimly lit street. In the industrial part of town, a few streets over and a few blocks down from the water tower, there isn’t much going on, but still. It is not that I don’t want to chance being seen, it’s just that I can’t wait any longer or my cock is going to explode, and I might go full-on wild beast and take her here in the middle of the street. Fuck the consequences.
“You like her going out?” she asks softly as I punch in the code for the gate.
The gate slides across effortlessly. Several cameras blink down at us, a few from the fence, others from various positions in the compound, others still from the building.
I roll my shoulders back so hard they crack. “No,” I admit. “But she’s old enough to do what she wants. People in this town know who her dad is, so they know not to mess with her. I’m not worried about some punk trying anything. Harley knows how to take care of herself. I can’t wrap her in cotton forever.”
The lights are on in the place—since I usually keep it that way, the fluorescent tubes buzzing overhead. The clubhouse had another life, ironically enough, as a cop shop. The old jail cells still exist near the back, though they’ve been turned into storage areas. One has been left in its former incarnation, not that we’ve had any use for it. But you never know. There were ten rooms when I bought the place, and we’ve added more—putting a fewbays in for the guys to work on their bikes, and a few extra rooms for them to crash in. Only me and Edge have permanent rooms here. The rest are open for the guys when needed, but we keep the place clean. Saint’s old lady, Cherry, comes in and does the cleaning once a week—since Saint is pushing sixty and so is Cherry, and she needed a job. She’s trustworthy, and that’s all I care about.
I don’t bring women back to my room at the clubhouse. I don’t bring women back to my home, either. I’ve always been all about privacy and any fucking I do is well away from my personal territory. But somehow, all that goes out the window as far as Leah’s concerned.
When I unlock the door and push it open, Leah stands in the doorway. I flip the light on and pull her inside, slamming the door and doing up the deadbolt behind us.
Her beautiful blue eyes are wide, taking it all in, doing a slow sweep of her surroundings like a hunting dog stands in the woods, sniffing out possible prey. It’s basic, but homey. There’s a large bed, a sofa on one side of the room, and a couple of bookshelves.
I clear my throat. “I know it’s not what you’re used to and all. Growing up in that big fancy house you—”
“Don’t tell me what I’m used to.”
Nervous as she is, with a beautiful rosy-hued blush on her porcelain cheeks, Leah whirls on me and the fire in her eyes tells me I pissed her off. She crosses her arms again, a habit she has that I’m never going to break because I love the bossiness of it, how it reminds me of something an old lady would do.
“I… All that stuff in myparents’house—it doesn’t matter to me. I would trade it all in a second for a father who actually wanted me there. I’ve known since a kid that I didn’t meananything to him. Sure, on the surface I probably looked like a spoiled little rich girl, mostly because the town was always watching, and judging. He bought me a car for my birthday and sent me to camp in the summer, just like he did for my brother. But it was the little things he never did. He never touched me unless it was in front of someone. I’ve always known that anything nice he did for me was just for show so it looked like we were a happy family. My mom tried to cover for him, I knew half of the things that he bought for me, was actually her doing it. But then after…” she pauses. Her eyes get even bigger, and she blinks those thick, honeyed lashes furiously. “The day they put my brother in the ground was the day my father finally came out and told me that my brother was his whole world. I’d always known it, but to hear him say the words. It was his way of saying that if I’d never been born, my brother would still be alive. Or that he wished it was me. Whatever.”
I try to say something, but a murderous rage is sweeping through my veins.
“No, it’s okay.” She gives a subtle shake of her head. “I like it, it’s all you. I grew up in a gilded palace where things were bought to replace the love that was lacking. It’s dark and raw here, but it’s not cold. It’s… yours and you’re going to give yourself to me here, so that’s the only thing that matters. All we need is a bed for that.”
“Don’t need a bed, darlin’.”
She laughs nervously, and the sound shoots straight to my already aching cock. I step into her space, and she doesn’t shrink back. Something close to goosebumps erupts on my skin underneath my leather vest. God, I’m fucked.
She stares up at me, unblinking. Her lips part and she sweeps her tongue out and over them as if she can still tastethe kiss I gave her up on the water tower. I want to take her, throw her down on the bed, push her fucking dress up and sink into her tight, hot pussy. She sees it in me, the darkness, the predatory desire that roars through my blood. I want to fill her up from behind, watch as I pump in and out of her before I rear forward and bite her neck like the animal I am.
