Ace grinned the most panty-dropping grin I’d ever seen. “What about you, Pussy Cat?”
He was using the nickname to piss me off, I was sure of it. “It’s Cat,” I corrected, my dream of being spontaneous going up in flames, “and I think I’ve had enough drinks for the night. It’s late and I have to work tomorrow. We should probably get going.”
The look on Anna’s face was like someone who’d just watched their puppy get kicked, which made me feel kind of bad. But, like the true friend she was, she didn’t outwardly protest her disappointment.
“Alright, assholes. Everyone out! Anyone who doesn’t leave in the next ten seconds is getting the spray gun,” Kierston threatened, aiming it at one particularly crusty man sitting in the corner protecting his beer with his life.
Ace and his friend chuckled. “Come on. Let’s go outside and finish this conversation. The bartender means what she says. As much as I’d enjoy watching you get hosed down,” his intriguing grey eyes openly stared at my breasts with so much hunger I could have spontaneously orgasmed on the spot, “I’d prefer we were in private when that happens.”
A nuclear furnace ignited low in my belly. Not waiting for an answer, Ace’s enormous hand engulfed mine and pulled me out of the bar. Unable to resist, I let him lead me directly into the night and the temptation I knew I was going to regret come the morning.
CHAPTER 3
Ace
Her warm hand in mine felt right. I don’t know why, but it was akin to the perfect key in a lock. And boy, did I want to try my “key” in her lock in every position my filthy brain could imagine. I don’t know if it was the Blood Moon, the fact that I’d been working for the Club so much lately that I hadn’t had any time for fun, or this hot little blond next to me, but I was about ready to combust.
She didn’t put up a fight as I guided her out the back door where our bikes were parked. My skin pricked and burned as soon as we moved into the warm night air. The moon called to me now, and I wanted to call right back to her. My inner wolf was so close to the surface, he was practically visible behind my eyes.
Domino, under the same spell as I was in the presence of a nearly full moon, tossed his head back and howled. The sound wasn’t quite all the way human and his low bay stirred up a deep longing inside of me to join him.
Before I could give in to the temptation, a group of bikes began to stream into the parking lot. Unfortunately, they didn’t belong to the Night Stalkers. They belonged to our Club’s most hated rivals, the Los Lobos, another shifter MC a few counties over from Mercy.
The men banked their rides along an empty row as I glanced at Domino, silently communicating with my brother what we were both thinking. We had to get the women away from here immediately or things could turn bad quickly.
No women were safe around Los Lobos members. The last thing I wanted was the two with us to be exposed to them. As much as I hated to do it, I was going to have to send them away for their own safety. Preferably before any of the bikers caught sight, or a whiff, of them. Especially Cat, whose hand had begun to tighten and tremble in mine the second she spotted the others advancing. The way she smelled, even if we’d been on good terms with Los Lobos, I would have had a fight on my hands. With my greatest enemy, it might spell a full-on war.
Though I’d protect Cat with everything I had, I didn’t want to put her in that kind of vulnerable position. She was an innocent who had nothing to do with my MC rivalry. I wouldn’t drag her, or her friend, into my violent world.
“Where are you parked?” I demanded, my tone hard and menacing. There was no room for soft right now.
Cat tensed and tried to slip her hand free of my grasp, but I wouldn’t let go. “In the front parking lot,” she answered, her voice quavering the slightest bit at the end. Those big amber eyes of hers were practically circles as she awaited my next instruction.
“I want you to cut back through the bar and head directly to your car. Get the hell out of this place as fast as you can. Got it?”
I could feel Cat’s body begin to hum like a tuning fork as she absorbed the seriousness of the situation. “What about you guys?”
“Yeah, we can’t leave you two alone with all of those rough looking men,” Anna bravely added. “Do you want us to call the cops or something?”
Domino gave a deep chuckle. “That’s fucking sweet of you, babe, but we got this covered. Just get your fine ass back to your car and don’t, whatever you do, call the cops. You got me?”
Both women nodded dutifully. “Good, now go. Don’t look back,” I ordered sharply.
Running for the bar door, they opened it but came to an abrupt stop when Kane, the president of the Los Lobos, exited.
“Where are you two fine looking ladies going?” Kane questioned, roughly snagging both of them by the arm. His eyes lit up as he caught a whiff of Cat. “Now that is interesting,” he fairly purred, nuzzling the woman close so he could take it all in. “I never smelled anything quite like you before.”
A lust-filled glaze shuttered over his predatory icy, blue gaze as he registered the sensual notes that were Cat’s personal perfume.
Enraged, I snarled a feral sound and advanced on Kane. My long legs ate up the distance between us. “Get your fucking hands off of her, asshole!”
Kane took in the sight of my murderous glare, as well as that of Domino right beside me, and slowly dropped both women’sarms. “It’s not like you to be the jealous sort, Ace. This girl must mean something to you.”
There was no good way to answer that query. No matter what I said, I exposed my hand to this deceitful mongrel, and I had no intention of doing that to my worst enemy.
“Did I stutter?” I growled, ignoring his point altogether. “Get the fuck away from those women. If you want a fight, you can have one. I’m right here. Unless you’re even more of a coward than I realized and want to drag two innocent women into what should be dealt with between two men!”
Like most wares, or most men for that matter, I knew the way to get under Kane’s skin was to hit him in his weakest spot. His pride. My targeted comment didn’t fail.
