“Hey, old man,” I called, shaking his hand as I got closer. “Looking good. You get a little Botox on the forehead maybe?” I joked.
“Smartass!” he chuckled back. “Think it must be the new diet Mary’s got me on. Something to do with cutting out carbs and anything fried, and no sugar.” He shrugged and I glanced over at the half-eaten bucket of fried chicken he had behind the counter and smirked. “Well, you didn’t come here to ask about my good looks now, did you, so what can I do you for?”
“The A/C unit at the clubhouse is shot. Need a new one ASAP,” I explained.
“You still with that club?” he asked with a tut.
He always asked, despite knowing I was a patched-in member. He wasn’t a huge fan of clubs and I understood why; we were known for running drugs and killing anyone who got in our way. Wasn’t a whole heap to like about us when you looked at it that way. But club life wasn’t always about drugs and killing. It was much more than that. Yet despite repeated attempts, Alfie had never gotten it.
“Got an order coming in an about an hour, actually. Ordered a new unit for Officer Forbes, but I can delay him and give you his. It’s a good one too—didn’t waste his money on it.”
I laughed and agreed immediately. Could have been a piece of shit for all I cared, but the fact that it was that little dipshit Forbes’s made me want it regardless.
Alfie looked at his watch. “Like I said, gonna be about an hour, if you wanna come back. Course you’ll get it a hell of a lot cheaper than the good officer.” He winked. “I’ll get the paperwork ready and get the boys to load you up as soon as you come back.”
“Boys?” I asked, because his two sons weren’t worth shit. Both of them had gone off to some fancy college and quit after a couple of months and were now sucking the life out of the old man instead of letting him retire.
“Got me some apprentices. Hard working kids too.” He smiled proudly. “Never too shy to put in the hard work for me. Only wish my two could have been the same.”
“Whose boys are they?” I asked.
“Alex Williams’ kids from the fire department. They wanted to work there over the summer and earn some extra cash, but they’re not taking anyone on right now so I said I’d help out. Though, truth be, they’re helping me more than the other way around. Worth their weight in gold,” he said confidentially.
I smiled. “Glad someone’s helping you out, old man. You ever need anything though, you know the club’s got your back.” I shook his hand again, holding onto it for an extra beat and clasping my other hand over the top. “Especially me, ya hear me? I’ll be back in an hour.”
I headed out of the door and back to where I’d seen the hot piece of ass that I’d nearly crashed the club’s truck over. Figured she owed me for nearly causing a collision. Had no doubt she wouldn’t mind paying whatever I thought was fair, either, I decided darkly.
After walking for fifteen minutes up and down the high street, I gave up looking for her. Maybe she was a figment of my imagination, a delusion my sun-heated brain had made up to help get me through the day. My imagination had great taste.
I headed over to the old skate park to watch some of the little shits do some stunts. It was where I’d spent most of my childhood and where Fighter and I had first met and toked our first joint together. It held both good and bad memories for me. But mostly, it was shaded because it was under the freeway which went overhead, and I clearly needed to get out of the sun for a little while.
I sat down in the shade and watched the boys trying out tricks that they weren’t ready for but were eager to do regardless, shaking my head when one gangly-assed kid fell off and cursed loudly as the ground scraped away the skin from his shin, leaving a trail of blood down his leg. He hobbled away, ignoring the echo of taunts that trailed after him.Poor kid, I thought, chuckling to myself. I lit a cigarette and leaned back, closing my eyes against the brightness of the day. Because even under there, you couldn’t get away from the heat.
“Can I borrow your lighter?” a soft and sexy voice said from behind me.
I opened my eyes and turned in my seat, squinting up against the sunlight behind me and trying to focus on the woman standing there. My gaze moved up from her Chucks to her slender legs (that looked even longer in the short-as-shit cut-offs she was wearing) to the cut-off Led Zeppelin tee she was wearing, and right up until I was standing up so I could look into the face of the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.
“Borrow?” I replied, feeling my dick grow hard in my jeans as I stared at her ample chest like I was a teenage boy living out my own personal wet dream.
“Your lighter,” she said with a smirk. “Can I borrow it.” She held up her own unlit cigarette. “I’ve been looking for a store to buy one since I got here, but no luck so far.” She smiled again
“Fuck, yeah, sorry,” I replied, and reached into my pocket to grab my lighter.
I held out my hand to her and she reached out to take the lighter, her soft fingertips grazing my rough palm, and the weirdest fucking thing happened—something I would never have expected in a million years. Something you heard crazy love-sick women talking about. Or the sort of cheesy thing you saw happen in movies. But this was no movie. This was real fucking life, and when her hand touched mine it felt like I was being electrocuted, but in a good way. Because I couldn’t imagine that being electrocuted would make my balls draw up and my dick go even harder. But that was sure as hell what happened to me as our skin touched.
She dropped the lighter back into my palm and looked up at me sharply, sucking in a gasp of air. And I knew right there and then that she’d felt it too.
~ 3 ~
Quinn
What the hell was that? I stared at him in equal parts shock and amazement and he threw me another cocky smile and sucked his bottom lip into his mouth like he was God’s gift to women. I mean, he sort of was, what with that dimple in his cheek and his dark eyes that could probably hypnotize even the wildest of beasts. His arms were bigger than my waist, and his chest muscles teased me from under his leather cut.
I swallowed and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. His dark eyes were almost a physical touch as they watched my every move. They were brown—no, black, maybe. God, it was like they were changing color the more I looked at them. Black granite eyes infused with diamonds or something, because the more I stared, the more they freaking twinkled at me. Could a man like him have twinkly eyes? I mean, was that even allowed? Was it legal? It probably shouldn’t have been. Either way, it was mesmerizing staring into them. Like looking up into the sky at night, filled with a million stars. If I wasn’t careful I was going to fall over the barrier and straight into his arms. Actually, maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all. When else was I going to get the chance to be wrapped up in those muscled arms of his?
A slow smile crept up his handsome face until it split wide, separating his lips enough so that I could see his perfect white teeth. He let out a chuckle, a deep, rumbling sound that came up from somewhere deep in his chest that was so incredibly sexy I had to clench my thighs together.
My fingers were still tingling from the first touch I’d had of him, and I rubbed them together mindlessly while I continued to stare at him like a crazy woman. What even was that? Static electricity, maybe? Though I had to wonder what kind of static electricity would make my nipples so hard they could crack glass. God, I bet he could see them right through my shirt. I should have been embarrassed, and yet I wasn’t.
