by Karen Renee
On that, I disconnected the call, put the vehicle in gear, and barely kept my sports car from burning rubber out of the tiny parking lot.
Beast
As Liar went inside Andrea’s studio, Beast hung back. The sporty Beemer sedan was running, and he could see the clumsy strawberry-blonde’s hands moving. She had walked out like a zombie, and he was dying to know what could have her in such a daze. He wasn’t joking about her knees. Normally he didn’t consider himself to be a leg man, but hers were especially long and shapely. A thrill went through him as he imagined them wrapped around his hips.
He shook his head at the thought. It was because of a woman’s deception he had come to Jacksonville. Another woman was not what he needed right then, and definitely not one like her. Other than the initial stumble, she shouted upscale and uptown.
Still, she intrigued him.
CHAPTER 2
Janie
I LAY THERE WITH MY eyes closed in the dark, but I was suddenly awake.
My lawyer had told me to stay in our home until things were settled, if I possibly could. Since I wasn’t in any physical danger, overall I was okay with that, but some fear was creeping in now, for some reason. The bedside clock read eleven-oh-three, which meant I had slept for possibly forty-five minutes. My inability to sleep through the night was getting to me in the worst ways.
Trent’s hand slid along the curve of my hip down toward my navel.
I stiffened. I’d had no idea he was even in the house, let alone in bed with me, after our rip-roarin’ argument on the phone.
“Noticed your bleeding has stopped,” he said, in a voice husky but not from sleep.
Shit.
I knew I had been forgetting something when I was in the bathroom that day.
If Andrea knew about it, she’d read me the riot act for killing the environment, but that was the least of my worries. No matter how conniving it made me, I had been leaving the outer wrappers of maxi-pads and the adhesive paper backings of panty-liners in the bathroom garbage. Amazing how observant a man could be when a woman’s period was thrown into the mix. Of all the things I could afford to forget, that was not one of them.
I sighed. “Trent. Just because the bleeding stopped doesn’t mean I’m not still in pain.”
I felt something cool and soft on the skin of my forearm. His voice was no longer husky.
“Then why the hell did I find this in our bed? Pain can’t be that bad if you can use a toy. Hell, I didn’t even know you had this.”
Even in the dark, looking down at my arm, I could see the outline of my vibrator. I wanted to rue the afternoon when I had run into my old friend Monty, who owned an adult novelty store, but that toy I bought from him brought me pleasure heretofore unknown. So, earlier I had been wrong. Of all the things I could forget, putting away the vibrator was at the top of the list.
I feigned a yawn. It was the lone upside to my yawn dysfunction that I could fake a yawn like nobody else.
“It’s really late. I’m tired. I haven’t managed a full night’s sleep all week, so I’m really not in the mood.”
He shoved me to my back. “You’re my wife. Get in the mood.”
My eyes widened, but I knew he didn’t see it. Not only because it was dark, but also because he was focused on removing his pajama pants.
I squirmed against the pressure of his hand holding me down by my bicep. “Trent. It damn well doesn’t work like that, and you know it.”
He lowered some of his chest onto me, reminding me how deceptively heavy he was for a thin man. Panic gripped me, but I knew I had to overcome it to get away from him.
His free hand worked to get his dick out of his underwear, while he moved the hand holding me down to paw at mine. That gave me the chance I needed to get out from under him. I bucked, kicked, and finally scrambled out of the bed, thanking the Lord above for my freedom, and that I had been a slob earlier: my jeans were on the floor. Since all I had on was a camisole and my underwear, I stepped into the jeans and buttoned them, and had poked my head through a sweatshirt when Trent launched himself out of the bed.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
“I’m going for a goddamn drive.” I said, toeing into some sandals.
“It’s the middle of the night!”
“I’m damn well not having sex with you.”
“Yes, you are. It’s what married people do, Janie.”
I left the bedroom as quick as I could, calling over my shoulder, “We’re getting divorced. I can’t believe you had the nerve to even crawl into bed with me, let alone insist on sex!”
My purse was on the kitchen counter. As I hiked it onto my shoulder, I was whirled around by my other arm. I tagged the light switch, and Trent winced at the sudden brightness.
“Let me go,” I said, in a voice I didn’t recognize.
He dropped my arm, but moved further into my space. “You aren’t going anywhere, Jane.”
“Yes, I am. We both need to cool off, and it isn’t going to happen if I stick around here.”
He dragged a hand through his mud-colored brown hair. “I’m sorry. Those papers blindsided me today. We need to work things out, Jane.”
Hearing him call me Jane set my teeth on edge, but I hid it. Sure, Jane was my name, but nobody ever called me that, it was always Janie. Twice in five minutes he’d done it.
I couldn’t dwell on that.
“Trent, you need to rethink that. There isn’t anything to ‘work out’ if you’re not open to starting a family.” He opened his mouth to speak and I held my hand up. “I know what I said when we got married and all the times in between, but that sonogram changed everything. I can’t explain it, and had you been there, you’d understand.”
“Had I–” His tone was outraged and I knew he was about to lose it.
“Just stop. I’m going for a drive. I’ll be back, but I’ll be in the guest room.”
“You’ll what?” he asked, but I was already at the front door.
SITTING AT THE TRAFFIC light leading out of the country club, I realized I had nowhere to go. The light changed and I pulled into the northbound traffic, deciding to wing it. The next thing I realized, I was pulling into Liar’s place, because Andrea had officially moved in with him. Glancing at the clock on the dash, it was nearly midnight. I was surprised to see Liar’s bike in the drive. The house had a two-car garage, and I could have sworn Andrea said he always parked his Harley in the garage. Sitting in my car with the engine off, I listened to the frogs and debated leaving. I typed out a text to Andrea, and waited for a response.
Why did I come here around midnight?
My fingers were curled around the key when I noticed the neighbor next door come out of his garage with a cigarette between his lips. The few times I’d been over here, he’d creeped me out. Tonight it seemed even worse, so I yanked my key from the ignition and scurried to the front door.
Raising my hand to knock, I was surprised to hear voices behind the door. They were male voices, but bottom line, I knew I wouldn’t be waking up Liar, so I rapped three times.
The voices stopped immediately, then I heard a low-pitched “The fuck?”
The door opened and Liar skewered me with his brown eyes. “Janie? What in the fuck are you doing here?” He paused and I almost felt his eyes rake down my body. “And are you wearing jeans?”
I closed my eyes, and when I opened them I heaved a beleaguered sigh. “I shouldn’t have come. I wanted to talk to Andrea. It’s no big deal. I’ll just—”
“Honey, Tennille and Frankie just left. Andi’s pretty damn sauced, or I’d have no problem lettin’ you in here.”
I tried to grin. It was great that Andrea had found a new extended family in the Riot MC. She never let her hair down like that before Liar.
I shook my head. “Like I said, it’s no big deal. I’ll catch her tomorrow. Sorry to bother you. Good night.”
Before I could turn on my heel, the man who’d been with Liar earlier edged Liar o
ut of the doorway. After I left her office, Andrea told me over the phone that they were cousins. It was hard for me to believe, since this guy was blond and Liar was a red-head, but their bodies were fairly similar, thick and stacked with muscle.
“Not so fast, Clumsy. Anybody can see you’re in no state to drive, even if you’re stone cold sober.”
Shit!
When was I gonna get my act together? I had been so up in my head and wrapped up in worry, I didn’t even think about who the other man with Liar could be. I should’ve known it would be him. The leather vest hanging on his shoulders had a patch reading “Beast.” A sliver of my brain itched to mull that over, but I shoved it aside.
My chin tipped up defiantly. “I’m fine. Really. I’ll just go now, and talk to her in the morning.”
As I turned back to my car, I heard Beast tell Liar “Later,” and before I reached my door, he was blocking my way with his bulky arms crossed over his chest. When I opened my mouth, he spoke. “Don’t tell me you’re fine. It’s bad enough hearing you say ‘It’s no big deal’ twice in two minutes. That tells me it isn’t ‘fine’, and if your haze this afternoon is anything to go by, nothin’ is just fine for you right now.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Whatever. I am capable of driving home.”
“Doesn’t mean I’m gonna let you. Gimme your keys.”
He wouldn’t let me? What? I shook my head. “I’ll drive, you can ride shotgun. You think I can’t get us from here to Blanding, maybe I’ll let you drive.”
He laughed, and I could’ve sworn I saw a dimple, but it might have been a shadow. “‘Maybe’ you’ll let me drive? Clumsy, you lost your mind you think a man like me’s gonna ride shotgun. I ride anything, I ride my bike.”
“I don’t even know you. I’m not letting you drive my car.”
He assessed me for a long moment. “Then get on my bike.”
I gaped. “What? No way!”
“You some kind of snob?” he asked, with a lethal edge to his voice.
“No, but I’m not getting on a bike wearing sandals. Plus, there’s the whole I-don’t-know-you bit to consider.”
We had been holding eye contact, but his eyes moved down my body and he suddenly lunged forward. Both of his hands grasped mine and I was divested of the keys I wasn’t clutching as tightly as I should’ve been.
“Dammit! Give me back my keys, mister.”
He smiled at me, and in the dim light of the streetlights I noticed he had two arresting dimples. “Get in the car, Clumsy. Gonna take you somewhere and get your head straight. And if we can’t do that, well, you’ll at least lose some of whatever it is that’s got you so damned uptight.”
Beast
Even with a gun to his head, there was no way Beast could have said what came over him when Janie showed up. Her standing at Liar’s door so late at night wasn’t just unexpected; that action took his intrigue with this woman to the next level. When he finally got a good look at her on the doorstep, he knew something was wrong. He winged it with the shit about her not being fit to drive, but the more he watched her, the more he knew something heavy was going down.
Deep down he knew any interaction with a woman like her was a bad idea, but he couldn’t help himself. Snatching the keys from her soft hand was fun in a way he hadn’t experienced since he last saw Katherine.
He couldn’t let himself go there. There was no way he would see Katherine again, and he needed to put it out of his head.
Spending time with a woman was not the way to do that, but he knew this one needed some help. Of course, he had been spending plenty of time with the easy sweet butts around the Riot clubhouse, but that was not the same thing, in the slightest.
Easing the German car out of the neighborhood, Beast sensed she didn’t drive this machine like she really should. Then again, most women didn’t drive their cars very hard. Once he made it to Argyle Forest, he went heavy on the gas and grinned to himself when he heard her swift inhale. Her body had pressed back into the seat, and if it were daylight, he was certain he would see her with white knuckles.
“Relax, Clumsy. Not gonna wrap us around a tree or anything like that. Sit back and enjoy the ride.”
He felt her eyes on him.
“I might be able to do that if I knew where we were going.”
That was actually a damn fine question, and when they first took off he thought he was taking her to the clubhouse, but the closer they came to Blanding, the less he wanted to do that. In order not to lie to her, he said, “We’re going for a drink.”
Beast was new to the area, but the beauty of the brotherhood meant he’d already been informed of all of the decent places within a ten-mile radius of the Riot compound. Watching Andrea and the other old ladies drink their cares away that night, he remembered Tennille mentioning her grandparents owned a local bar on Blanding. That would beat the hell out of taking her to the compound for a drink.
“I could go for a drink,” she muttered to the passenger window.
“And why’s that?”
Her head whipped back to him, and he caught a whiff of her delicate and subtle perfume. It might’ve been subtle, but he could still tell it was damn sure expensive. Much like everything else about her. At a red light he glanced over at her and she gave a haughty shrug. He wanted to chuckle, but didn’t want to break her show of bravado.
“Proceedings on my divorce officially got started today, so frankly, I’m stunned I didn’t take these matters into my own hands earlier this evening.”
It was his turn to go white-knuckled. From the corner of his eye he looked to her left hand and sure enough, there was an ostentatious wedding set. How the hell he had missed that when he stopped her from tripping he would never know. Now he was out with a woman who was in the midst of divorce.
Fuck. He really did not need this.
The gaudy LCD sign with alternating screens for the RoadWay bar loomed ahead of them, and Beast moved into a turn lane. He was always good at winging things with women, so he’d buy her one drink and then get her on her way. Push came to shove, he’d get a damn Uber back to his bike.
AN HOUR LATER, AND he’d had two and a half beers while Janie had a beer followed by two amaretto sours poured by a heavy-handed bartender. She wasn’t drunk, at least not quite yet, but he could tell she had lost her tightness. They hadn’t made much conversation. When they first sat down at the bar it was clear this was her first time at a bar bordering on being a biker-bar. She didn’t look uncomfortable so much as taking everything in because she wanted to remember it since she wouldn’t likely come back again.
Beast swirled the last of his beer in the bottle and looked at her. “You feelin’ a little better now?”
She giggled. “Joe Cocker would approve of how I’m feelin’ that’s what I can tell you, Liar’s cousin.”
He gave two short shakes of his head as he decided what to focus on first. “What are you talkin’ about with Joe Cocker?”
She pitched her voice lower and sang. “‘I’m feelin’ all right,’” but it was so awful it was damn near cute.
He groaned as it hit him that now she really wasn’t in any shape to drive herself home. “That’s good to hear, Clumsy, but I’m thinkin’ you’ve hit your limit.”
She pouted but for a moment as it shifted into a curious look. “Why ‘Clumsy’? I don’t think I’ll see you again after this, but I gotta know why you’ve dubbed me by that name.”
Seeing as the nickname was obvious, he ignored her question. “Why don’t you think you’ll see me again after this?”
Her head tilted in an exaggerated fashion. “The back of your vest, duh. Biloxi? You got a ways to go before you sleep.”
Her voice was heavy on the last sentence and he realized she was quoting something literary or poetic, but he couldn’t put his finger on it because it had been nearly fifteen years since he had that hard-ass English teacher where he last heard that line. “So, you ready to get back to your pad?”
�
��Uh, no. Seeing as how my soon-to-be-ex tried to force himself on me before I left to see Andrea, I most definitely am not ready to go back to my pad.”
Those words were a sucker-punch to his lungs and his gut. “Say that shit again?” he growled out his question with little air left to spare.
She sighed. “Well, he wasn’t successful, but even though divorce papers were put in his hands today, he said to me that having sex is ‘what married people do.’ Um, hello? Divorce papers make it pretty fucking clear where I’m at with his ass, wouldn’t you say?”
Oh, he’d say all right. But he needed to keep her on topic.
“Did he hurt you?”
She shook her head. “Not physically. He’s just an asshole supreme. I mean, he wouldn’t even come with me to a doctor’s appointment when I was in early pregnancy. Wanted me to get rid of my baby. He’s a fucking Republican, and in office, no less. Lucky for him, I miscarried. Though unlucky for me and little peanut, obviously.”
Her words, every one of them, were bullets to his soul. “Were you thinking of divorce before all of that?”
She arched an eyebrow at him, and to his surprise, her eyes were not near as glassy as he expected them to be. “No. His reaction to knocking me up was the impetus for this shit. You would think me changing my mind about starting a family was akin to a capital crime. Needless to say, it’s an irreconcilable difference.”
CHAPTER 3
Janie
WHERE WAS THIS VERBAL vomit coming from? It was like I couldn’t turn it off. Of course, I hadn’t told Andrea about Trent forcing himself or almost forcing himself on me, though I would have if she had been available. It would be easy to blame this on the three drinks, but that wasn’t really the cause of my loose lips. Beast was so beautiful it made me nervous. When I was nervous I either climbed into my shell, or I babbled endlessly.