“No, we're goddamn not!”
Before the protest has fully left my lips, Ark slaps my ass again, this time hard enough to make me yelp. Pitt shoots me a sympathetic look, but quickly hands me his beer. “Just roll with it, butterfly. The movie’s half over, anyway.”
“I don’t give a fuck-!”
A third stinging slap has me going as stiff as I board. “Shut your mouth like a good girl,” Ark purrs, rubbing my butt again. I splutter in rage, but Pitt and Bluff are grinning, and I shoot Wings a scowl as he holds up a bucket of popcorn. “Want to grab some for the road, sweetheart?”
“Traitors!”
I’m still growling at them as Ark stalks to the front of the quad. I can’t see much beyond his big, stupid back, but I’m pretty sure we’re blocking most of the screen. A humiliation that’s confirmed a moment later when Ark says in a booming voice, “Cut the film for a minute, will you, Signal?”
There are a few disgruntled murmurs from the crowd, but Ark stops them with a wave of his hand. “I know all you folks are keen to get back to your various forms of entertainment…” He pauses, and there’s a round of cheers and wolf whistles that make my cheeks burn even hotter. “But there are a couple of things I need to make clear to every member of this club. Firstly,no one gets their patch stripped based on their designation. I couldn’t give a goddamn what rules, laws, or nasty fucking habits this club was built on, everyone in the Iron Flyers is under my protection.”
I can feel the tension vibrating through him, but it’s the simmering dominance underpinning his words that has the entire quad going silent. “My dad and his friends did some unspeakable things to members of the club in the name of biology. Booker hurt those we should have protected the most, and for that, I will be forever ashamed to share his blood.”
The silence takes on a heavier, more somber edge and I let myself go lax over his shoulder, not wanting to distract anyone from this moment. “If you were around in his time, you no doubt saw it with your own eyes. But if you joined us later, you heard this from my own lips when you were invited to pledge. We. Protect. Omegas. That is an ironclad Flyer rule, and if you break it, you’ll answer to me.”
The silence continues, although there are a few chuckles from the crowd as he palms the back of my thigh and repositions his feet. “Now, you’re probably wondering why I’d say that and then have an omega over my shoulder. It’s a fair question, but this particular omega and I go back a long way. She’s been on my mind, one way or another, for most of my life, and yet we’ve only started talking plainly to each other in the last couple of days. So, the second thing I want to make clear to each and every one of you, is that I’m courting Abigail Taylor.”
There are whoops and cheers now mingled in with the laughter, and someone pipes up from the back, “You sure that’s what she wants, Pres, cos she looks kinda squirmy?”
“Maybe we should take a vote!” Pitt laughs, and I nod my head vigorously, but a third voice, which I’m almost certain is Callie, calls out, “This is so precious, but do you think you canget the courting underway, Pres, so we can get back to our entertainment?”
That gets the largest hoots and cheers, and Ark waves a hand as he tells Signal to put the movie back on. I expect him to drop me to my feet, but he turns and carries me into the clubhouse, his strides long and determined. I really start squirming when we enter the hallway to the front door, but Ark reaches around to show me the palm of his very large hand. “You want another swat for the road?”
“No, I damn well don’t!”
“Good.” He swings me off his shoulder and once I’m back on my unsteady feet, I realize we’re standing next to a fully restored 1965 Electra Glide. It’s the last panhead engine Harley Davidson produced and isn’t just a highly-sought-after collector’s item, it’s a big, gutsy beauty. My eyes grow wide and I temporarily forget my outrage. “You finished her.”
A proud smile tugs at the corner of Ark’s mouth. “A few years back.”
“Wow. She’s beautiful.”
“Wait until you feel her open up on the road.”
I wrinkle my nose at him as he hands me a helmet. “I thought you were just winding me up. We’re really going on a field trip?”
He nods, reaching over to help me fit the helmet. “I have things to say, butterfly, and I want your undivided attention.”
My eyebrows shoot up, but he’s already swinging his leg over his bike, and my mind goes instantly hazy.
I’m well aware that Ark is an incredibly attractive man. I’m sure he has sweetbutts falling over themselves to share his bed, and more than one unbonded omega who’s hoping for his claiming bite. But when I look at him, I don’t see the president of the Iron Flyers, even when the club’s patch is staring me right in the face. I see Ark, the first alpha I trusted and loved, and the symbol of my lost childhood and exile from the club. But it’shard to focus on the bad parts when he holds out a hand, his dark eyes sparkling. “Wanna come for a ride, butterfly?”
“I guess I’ve seen the movie before, anyway.”
It’s a weak pretext for taking his hand, but he smiles as I swing a leg over the bike and settle on the p-pad, my back nestled against the sissy bar. It puts me a couple of inches above Ark’s seat, but he’s still big enough that I’m shadowed by his bulk. Especially when he grabs my hands and wraps them around his washboard waist.
I expect him to reach for the handlebars, but he keeps one hand on mine while the other strokes up my bare leg. “You gonna get cold back there, sweetheart?”
I want to snort, since not only is it a balmy summer night, but I’m pressed up against the human equivalent of a furnace. Add to that the way his hand is stroking my calf, and I’m lucky I don’t burst into flames.
“All good,” I tell him, and he nods, satisfied. There are a couple of prospects on the gate, and they step back respectfully as we roar out of the gate.
It takes less time than I like to admit to be lulled into a compliant state. My ass might still be tingling from his swats, but the Glide lives up to its reputation, the road passing beneath us like polished glass. It’s impossible to ignore the intimacy of our positions, his body both a shield from the night air and a wall of warm muscle. I’m also very aware of how I’m pressed to his ass, the allure of his scent like night-blooming flowers in rich, dark soil. Heat courses through me and I try to clench my thighs to suppress the trickle of slick. Of all the complicated alphas in the world, I amnotgoing to perfume for this one.
Of course, my body has other ideas, and by the time he rumbles to a stop, there’s an embarrassing wet spot on my panties. I leap off the bike before he can comment, but stop deadas I bump into a familiar chain link fence. “What…” I pull off my helmet, blinking at the bare, empty lot. “Why are we here?”
“I want to help you put a ghost to rest.”
