by K. A. Ware
“Who’s ridiculous now?” Baz asked, sitting next to me.
“Shut up and let me have my fun,” I snapped, tearing into the gorgeous wrapping paper. When I’d freed the plain white box from all the tape and remaining paper, I held it up and jiggled it around until the bottom fell out onto my lap. Tossing the lid to the side, I looked down and my breath caught in my throat.
Sitting in the box on my lap was a black leather jacket with three patches sewn onto the back. The first, a ‘Knights of Mayhem’ patch across the shoulders. Next came the club insignia, a smaller replica of the one the guys wore on their cuts. And finally, a patch on the bottom that read ‘Property of Baz.’ Reaching out, I ran my fingertips across the word property.
My hands started to sweat, and my throat felt like it was closing. This was big—bigger than big. This was fucking huge.
“So, what do you say? Will you be my old lady?”
Tears spilled over onto my cheeks, and a smile pulled at my lips. “Yes! Of course, I will,” I said, swiping at my tears.
Baz gripped the back of my head, and his lips crashed into mine. I deepened the kiss, teasing his tongue with my own. I was about to climb into his lap when he pulled away.
“Try it on, let me see how it looks,” he said, pulling it from the box and shaking it out.
I stood and turned around, letting Baz help me into the heavy leather jacket. Turning to face him, I struck a pose, then spun around again to show him the back and shake my ass a little. Laughing, I shoved my hands into the pockets, getting a feel for my new favorite article of clothing.
The laughter died on my lips when my fingers brushed against something velvety in the right pocket. Fishing it out, I looked down and gasped at the little black velvet box in my hand.
Whirling around, I found Baz on one knee. I must’ve been in shock because I didn’t react when he reached out and plucked the box from my hand. I didn’t move when he opened it in front of me, revealing the biggest fucking rock I’d ever seen.
“You said you were all in, did you mean it?” he asked, looking up at me with those green eyes I’d fantasized about for so long.
“Yeah, I did,” I whispered, meaning the words with everything I had inside me. I was all in, whatever came our way, I was in it for the long haul. I wanted Baz and the club. I wanted Micah, and the moments we shared behind closed doors. I wanted it all, and I was finally ready to admit that I wanted forever, too.
Baz smirked, that fucking infuriating smirk that killed me every damn time. “Good, because I wasn’t going to give you a choice,” he said, getting to his feet.
He grabbed my left hand and slid the ring onto my finger. It was a perfect fit, just like us.
Epilogue
FINLEY
Three Months Later
“Hey Fin, Harper and I are going to sneak out and grab more ice, do you need anything?” Honey, Ox’s favorite club whore, asked, poking her head into the kitchen.
“No, I think we’re set. But could you put this on the food table on your way out?” I asked, picking up a giant bowl of potato salad Stella had made the night before.
Honey smiled and hurried to take it from me. “No prob, boss lady,” she chirped.
“Go, get out of here while you can,” I said, laughing. “Ox is probably already looking for you. If he finds you, you’re not gonna make it to the store.”
She snorted. “Waiting might do him some good, make ‘em appreciate it a little more,” she said with a wink.
I wondered if she was right as I watched her walk away. Ox seemed pretty wrapped up in her, but I still wasn’t sure he was a one-woman kind of man. When Honey was around, you couldn’t separate the two, but when she wasn’t, he didn’t have a problem filling his bed with another warm and willing body.
It wasn’t my business, but if Ox ever did slap a property patch on Honey’s ass, I’d be happy to bring her into the fold. She was good people, and the way she’d stepped up for Gunner’s funeral and after had made an impression on more than just me. She’d earned the club’s respect, and Ox would be a fool to let a woman like that go.
Ox and I may have had our differences once, but he’d come to me after they’d taken out the Sinners and apologized for his behavior. We’d never be buddies, but I respected the hell out of him for admitting he’d done wrong. I had a feeling there was more to the raging bull of a man than he let on, I just hadn’t figured it out yet.
“Food, napkins, plates…beer, duh,” I mumbled under my breath, checking off the items on my mental to-do list.
Hefting a case of beer, I opened the walk-in cooler and started stacking. It was Labor Day, and we were getting ready for our last big cookout of the summer, the three kegs we had outside wouldn’t last long and nothing was worse than warm beer.
With Blondie out of commission, taking care of Chains, it was up to me to make sure things ran smoothly today. Candy and the other old ladies helped, but they’d hung back on this one, letting me take the reins for the first time. It felt like a rite of passage, the old welcoming the new, and I wanted everything to be perfect.
Chains hadn’t been at the club much lately. He was doing okay, but the cancer was still progressing and he was getting weaker. This party might very well be his last, and that made the pressure of getting it right, even heavier.
We weren’t without our dramas, big and small, but as a whole, the club was solid. As painful as losing Chains would be, we’d manage.
Things had been good the past three months. A million things had changed, but the important things had stayed the same.
There hadn’t been a single sign of Butcher, either. Not even a blip on his bank account. I didn’t know what fate had befallen him, but I was happy to envision him burning in hell for his sins.
“Fuckin’ love seein’ my name on your back,” Baz growled from behind me as I bent to grab another case of beer.
It was hot as fuck in the thick leather jacket, but I’d endured the heat knowing the reaction it got from Baz, and his cock. His hands snaked around my waist, pulling me flush against him.
Tilting my hips, I rubbed my ass against his already growing erection. I loved the way he responded to me. I was pretty sure Baz could fuck me seven ways to Sunday every day of the week for the next thirty years, and I’d never get tired of him.
The connection between us was like gravity, invisible, but impossible to resist. He was my anchor in the harsh sea of reality.
“Fuckin’ narcissist,” I said, turning my head to find his lips.
“You’re not allowed to diagnose me until you get that fancy doctorate,” he challenged. Ducking down, he captured my mouth, his lips moving soft and slow.
It’d be a few years, but I’d get there. I was starting classes next week, and since I had hung up my plastic heels and G-string, I’d be able to focus all my attention on school. At least, when Baz wasn’t trying to fuck his way inside of me like he was at the moment.
I probably could’ve kept dancing, despite the scars Butcher had gifted me with, but it felt like it was time to step out of the spotlight. Since Baz was looking for ways the club could earn legitimately, I’d proposed a partnership with the club. The Red Rabbit Room, Portland’s newest premier strip club, was set to open its doors to the public in a month. The partnership was a win on all sides. The club got a legitimate stream of income, and I became a business owner at twenty-six, not bad for a girl from the slums.
I broke our kiss when Baz’s hand slipped into the front of my shorts. “Are we seriously doing this right now?”
“Want you, wife,” he grumbled against my neck, tongue darting out to sweep across the smooth skin.
“People are going to start pouring in here any minute,” I warned, my resolve crumbling even as I said it.
I still melted every time he called me his wife. There was something so primal and possessive about the way he said it.
We’d gotten married in a small ceremony in the side yard of the club a little over a month ag
o. Typical of any big club event, the day had been filled with drama and drinking, two fistfights, and Butter rounded out the night by fucking a space heater to death.
As crazy as the day had been, I wouldn’t change it for the world. The club and everyone that came along with it, was family, my family.
Baz’s fingers dipped into my underwear, finding me wet and ready. My breath hitched a little when his finger gently brushed against my sensitive clit, once, twice, three times.
“So what? I’m the Prez. It’s my club. I can fuck my old lady wherever the hell I want,” he growled.
His free hand drifted over the tender flesh at my breastbone, fingers running along the fresh pink scar that traveled from below my right collarbone, across the entire expanse of my chest. Some people would shy away from it, an ugly reminder of the hell we’d been through, but I wore it like a badge of fucking honor. I’d come face to face with the devil and came out on the other side, that should be celebrated, not hidden or erased.
Thankfully, Baz felt the same way. He liked that I wasn’t some pristine, innocent girl next door type. I was tough, I’d lived a life, and he loved me for it, scars and all.
Giving in, I reached down and unbuttoned my shorts, pushing the fabric down my legs. Baz quickly went to work behind me, and I sent up a little prayer that none of the kids wandered in looking for a fucking juice box.
Gripping my hips, Baz guided me to the counter, kicking my legs farther apart as he moved behind me. Bracing my hands on the stainless steel, I tilted my hips, pressing back into him as he lined himself up at my entrance.
“Fuckin’ hell, can’t even wait to let me fuck her, she’s gotta reach for it,” Baz grumbled behind me.
I laughed, pushing back further. “If you didn’t take so long to get it up, old man, I wouldn’t have to—”
He surged forward, filling me up and effectively cutting off my snark. His hand snaked around my throat as he found his rhythm. I arched my back, and he nipped at my ear as his hips picked up the pace.
“Maybe I’ll fuck that smart mouth of yours next. Can’t toss your attitude at me when you’ve got a mouth full of my cock,” he breathed, tightening his grip on my throat.
My eyes rolled back, and my legs began to shake. I loved the way he whispered filthy things into my ear while he fucked me. Hell, he could read the damn phone book with that gravelly voice, and I’d get turned on.
Reaching around with his free hand, Baz found my clit and a tremor of pleasure shook through me. He knew his way around my body better than he knew his way around a bike.
Baz’s fingers circled my clit as his thrusts became even more brutal and I spiraled off the cliff.
“Fuck, baby. Oh, God!” I moaned. My body locked up as wave after wave of my orgasm washed over me.
“Fuckin’ yes, squeeze my cock,” he groaned, his teeth sinking into the flesh between my neck and shoulder.
The pain coupled with his fingers on my clit and his cock still pounding into me sent me spinning out on another orgasm. This one stronger than the last. Baz growled out his release, stilling deep inside me.
My body was still trembling with aftershocks when a voice sounded from the other side of the door. “You know where the taps are?”
“Shit!” I hissed, pushing Baz away and snatching my shorts from the floor.
Baz laughed, stuffing his cock back into his pants at a leisurely pace. “Let ‘em see. My wife is hot as fuck.”
“Fucking caveman,” I said, smacking his arm.
He shrugged, walking backward toward the door. “You married me,” he shot back with a wink.
“I don’t remember you giving me a choice!”
“Eh, semantics,” he said, darting out the door just as I tossed a hoagie roll at him.
He was a pain in the ass, but he was mine, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Thank You For Reading
Thank you so much for reading Tempt My Trouble! I’d love to hear what you thought of the book, please consider leaving a review.
Word of mouth is an indie author’s best friend so if you loved the book, make a post, share your review, tell someone!
Again, thank you for taking the time to read Tempt My Trouble!
Make sure to look for book two in the Knights of Mayhem series, Madness In Me, coming April 2019!
Acknowledgments
Danielle - Girl what would I have done without you? You made it so easy to talk about these characters and your insight was spot on! I would do anal-thing for you! LOL
Holly and Katie - Thank you for always standing beside me no matter where I go, your friendship and support means everything to me.
Beta Bitches - You guys rock my world! Thank you for taking the time to read this labor of love and give me incredible feedback! Your passion for this story and the characters is infectious!
KA’s Dirty Bitches - My bitches are the BEST! Thank you for spreading the word about my work and picking up my books! You guys are amazing!
J - If it weren’t for you, this book would’ve been out months ago, but I still love you. Thank you for always being there and supporting me in all my crazy ventures. You’re my Reid, my foundation, my dream man, and I’m so lucky to call you my husband.
About the Author
K.A Ware is an indie author living in Ridgefield, Washington with her husband and daughter. Her days consist of surfing the internet while pretending to write, making soap, and avoiding eye contact with an ever-growing pile of laundry.
Writing is not her only passion, K.A. also serves on the Board of Directors for a local non-profit and spends way too much time reading. She believes in the power of words, alpha females, and that special escape you get when you hunker down and dig into a good book.
When she’s not busy mothering, working, writing, or reading she enjoys spending time with family and friends and embracing the weirdness and wonder that is the Pacific Northwest. K.A. loves to cook and is often found tinkering in the kitchen and trying to feed anyone that walks through her door. She is obsessed with music, so if you find yourself at a metal show in Portland —take a look around— she’s the crazy redhead headbanging at the front.
Stalk Me Online
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KA’s Dirty Bitches
Private Party Book Club
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Website:
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Also by K.A. Ware
The DeLuca Family Series:
Omertà
Vendetta
Notorious
Bloodline
Fracture
DeLuca: The Complete DeLuca Series
Swamp Bottom Series:
Front Porches and Funerals
Voodoo and Vodka
Hook-Ups and Hang-Ups
Blue Lights and Boatmen
Pink Lines and Panic
Divorce and Denial
Warrants and Onesies
The Dirty Bitches Series:
Hot Mess