Trigger’s eyes flashed with what could almost be described as glee. “No problem. I already know what you can do with her.”
Chapter Thirteen
Gabi almost danced through the door of Curves. God, it felt good to be out of Aidan’s apartment, back in public, back at work. The roar of noise and smell of alcohol smashed her in the face and she didn’t even care – it was so familiar, it made her feel like she was home.
“Gabi!” Curtis was on the door tonight and he gave her a huge hug, lifting her right off the floor, set her down carefully. He nodded at Aidan. “Good to see you, hon.”
“Yeah, you too.” She grinned up at him. “You working until two?”
“Yep.”
“Great.” She glanced around the bar and smiled to see that it was all exactly as she’d left it just over two weeks earlier. “I’ll get ready.”
She and Aidan walked over to the staff room and when she went in, she saw Tessa and Kenleigh in there drinking coffee and chatting. The women turned and Aidan was almost knocked over backwards from the volume of the squeals and shrieks.
“Gabi!” Kenleigh said as she gave her a hug. “God… I’m so glad you’re back!”
“Glad to be back.” Gabi turned to Tessa now and accepted a hug from her too. “You guys have no idea how excited I am to serve up shots to drunk bikers, I swear to Christ.”
“Yeah, the highlight of our lives, huh?” Kenleigh said.
“You got that right.”
Aidan smiled to see her so happy. He ran a hand over her lower back, slow and sensual, and she glanced at him.
“OK, I’m going to the bar now. See you out there, baby.”
“Yeah… see you.”
Not the slightest bit concerned that Tessa and Kenleigh were right there, Aidan leaned down and kissed her. She closed her eyes and swayed towards him, wondering why she never seemed to be close enough to this man. His hands were in her long, dark hair, holding her in place as his mouth tasted hers, over and over. When they broke apart, Gabi clutched his forearms to regain her balance, dizzy from the force of her want.
“Ooooh,” Teesa said. “You two may need to hit one of the crash rooms on your breaks, huh?”
Gabi blushed but Aidan just raised an eyebrow.
“Maybe,” he said with a wink. “See you in a few minutes, ladies.”
They watched him leave the room and then they turned to Gabi. She was taking off her jacket, revealing her slim, smooth body clad in a skirt and short t-shirt. Aidan had told her how much he adored her lower back and she now teasingly displayed it for him every chance she got. The hunger in his eyes when he stared at her was such a huge turn-on, she still couldn’t get over it: he openly worshipped and ravished her with his golden gaze. Sometimes she thought she might actually come just from the heat and intensity in it.
“So!” Tessa said. “You and Aidan, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s for real?”
“As real as it gets.”
“God, that’s great.” Tessa pulled her blonde curls back with a hair clip. “He’s such a great guy… I’m so damn happy for you two.”
Gabi stared at Tessa in her jeans and loose blouse, really taking her in for the first time. Her face was less full than the last time Gabi had seen her the night she’d been hurt, and even though she was covering up her body, Tessa looked like she’d lost weight. Quite a bit of weight, actually, far too much for such a short time. She looked pale and tired, too, and alarm bells were going off in Gabi’s head.
Is that asshole boyfriend of hers still taunting her about her weight?
Gabi thought about that night months ago, when she’d overheard Tessa and Kevin talking in one of the crash rooms. Well, he’d been talking and she’d been crying. Christ, the words he’d used to describe the woman who was supposedly his girlfriend were just sickening. Gabi had waited until Kevin had stormed out and then she’d gone in to the room and shut the door.
After making sure that the dickhead hadn’t laid a finger on Tessa, Gabi asked her how often her boyfriend called her a disgusting pig and a fat heifer. Horrified and embarrassed, Tessa had tried to duck the conversation, but Gabi hadn’t let her. She knew all too well about emotional abuse – that it was as devastating as physical abuse in some ways – and no way she was letting Tessa wriggle away. Tessa had cried and begged Gabi to say nothing to anyone, and she’d made the promise reluctantly.
Since then, though, she’d watched Tessa carefully. The woman ate while she was at work, although it was mostly vegetables from a bag, and her weight had seemed pretty steady. Personally, Gabi thought that Tessa’s body was astounding: curvy and lush, it practically begged men to reach out and touch it. She looked like a fifties’ pin-up girl and her cascading curls and large eyes and plump lips all just added to the sex appeal… sadly, just about the only people who wanted Tessa to be a twig were Tessa and her boyfriend.
“OK, let’s get to work,” Kenleigh said now, snapping Gabi back to attention. “You ready?”
“Yeah.” Gabi slicked on a bit more lip gloss and resolved to ask Tessa for coffee, maybe over the weekend. She was going to push the woman until she came clean about her relationship with Kevin and then Gabi was going to help her, if she needed it. “The drunk bikers are waiting, ladies.”
**
Captain drove away from Curves, pulled in to a rest area about two miles away. He called Trigger, thrilled to be the one to give him the update about Gabi Torres. The Fallen Angels had been taking it in shifts to watch Carter’s apartment building for the past six days, and they were positive that Gabi was staying there. They knew all the bouncers at Curves and they knew most of King’s Men, and those fuckers had been going in and out of the building steadily. It was obvious they were guarding someone inside – and Trigger and the boys had no doubts whatsoever who that was.
“Yeah?” Trigger’s voice in his ear was raspy and he sounded drunk.
“It’s me. I actually got eyes on Torres. I followed her and Carter from his place and they’re both at Curves now.”
“She’s gone back to work?”
“Looks that way. She was dressed up like a slut waitress, though, not a cleaner.”
“Got it.” Trigger took a deep breath. “So we know where she is almost all the time now, yeah? And it looks like they think it’s all over and the trade was for real?”
“Uh-huh. I’d say so if she’s out and about. Getting back to her little life at last.”
“OK. You did good.”
Captain paused, leaning all his weight back on the bike. “Trigger? Can I ask you something?”
“Yeah.”
“You said last night that you need a man to go up to that Open Skies place to do that job with the out-of-town boys?”
“I do.”
“If you haven’t found anyone yet, I’d like to be the one.”
“Yeah? How come?”
Captain scratched his chin, hoping that this was the right time to make his request. “I want to move up in the club.”
“To what?”
“Enforcer.”
Trigger laughed. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” Captain screwed up his courage. “If I do a good job up at that ranch and I get rid of that end of the problem for us, I’d like to be considered.”
There was a brief silence and Captain held his breath.
“OK,” Trigger said at last. “In two days, you go with the Boston guys and you shut that bitch up. No loose ends, quick and clean. If you defend the club’s interests, I’ll move you up.”
Captain punched the air. “And my alibi?”
“That’s what I was just thinking about. We need you on video at the party, right?”
“Right.”
“Well, I just happen to know a guy up in Fort Collins who could pass for your fucking twin brot
her, man, no lie. You give him your cut and I make sure he knows where the cameras are. He’ll have your six.”
Captain grinned. “Perfect. Thanks, man.”
“Don’t thank me yet. You do this right and we talk about promotion. You can thank me then.”
“OK.” Captain started the bike engine again. “I’m on my way to the clubhouse now. You there?”
“Yeah. See you soon. I’ll fill you in about the away job.”
“Fuck, man. I can’t wait.”
**
Aidan glanced over at Gabi and smiled. She’d loved every second of her shift at Curves and she was still glowing.
“It’s good being free from house arrest, huh?” he teased her.
She turned her dark eyes on him. “So good.”
“Well, you looked amazing tonight. Every guy in the place noticed it and made it clear they wanted to go home with you.”
“Bah,” she scoffed. “Like every woman in the place wasn’t flirting with you like mad.”
“I’m the guy with the booze, darlin’. Of course they flirt with me.”
“Yeah, well, you’re also drop-dead gorgeous, darlin’.” She admired him from across the front seat of the truck. “I spent years watching them drool all over you and thinking that I didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell with you.”
That surprised him and he looked over at her again. “Yeah?”
“Uh-huh. I mean, they were all so hot and sexy and half-naked and there I was, in my baggy clothes and smelling of bleach. Not exactly the stuff of fantasies.” She hesitated, wondering if she really wanted to ask the next question. “Aidan?”
“Yeah?”
“Did you ever…” She squirmed a bit. “Ever go in to the crash rooms with any of them? Any of the customers?”
Aidan shook his head. “Never.”
“How come?”
“I just couldn’t. I knew that you’d be in there the next morning cleaning up and the thought of you stripping off sheets where I’d been sucked off or had screwed some bar babe… I don’t know. It felt – disrespectful to you, somehow.” He paused. “I know that sounds stupid.”
“It doesn’t,” she said quietly. “But you took some of them home, right?”
He sighed, wishing they didn’t have to have this conversation but he understood her need to know. “Yeah. Yeah, I did.”
“One-nighters?”
“No. I don’t like those. I was stupid and tried to get to know the ladies a bit. Dated them, went for dinner, talked to them.” He shrugged. “I’m not really into quick fucks and it took me longer than it should have to figure out that most of the women who come to Curves are just after quick fucks. By the time I got that, I was already way in to you so I just stopped trying with them. With anyone, really.”
“So what’d you do?”
He flashed her a grin. “Pined for you. Watched you a lot. Thought about you in the shower. Put up with the guys busting my balls about you.”
She giggled. “Sorry about that.”
“Nah. They need to entertain themselves somehow.”
Without a word, Aidan turned left off the main highway. Gabi looked out the window at the path leading up to the mountains.
“Is this a short-cut back to your apartment?” she asked, perplexed.
“Nope.”
She wrinkled her brow at him. “So… where are we going?”
“To a place I like a lot.”
“A make-out place?”
“It can be.” He cocked his head at her. “It’s also a great place to look at the stars.”
“Oooooh,” she said. “You going to seduce me under the stars?”
“You are goddamn right I am,” he growled. “So be a good girl and get your panties off.”
She fluttered her eyelashes at him. “I’m not wearing any.”
Aidan almost drove straight in to a tree. “You were fucking naked under that tight little skirt all night? At fucking Dangerous Curves?”
She waited for a few seconds, almost laughing at the look of outrage on his gorgeous face. She didn’t let him suffer for too long before she took pity on him.
“No, I was wearing underwear all night. I took it off in the ladies’ room before we left to go home.”
“Jesus Christ, woman. You damn near gave me a heart attack.”
“Yeah. It was kind of fun.”
“So you’re really not wearing any?”
“You want to check?”
“Come here, baby. And I mean now.”
Slowly, Gabi moved closer to him, her skirt riding up her thighs. Aidan reached over without taking his eyes off the winding mountain path, his fingers sliding between her legs right away. She gasped and opened her legs wider, turned in the seat to give him easier access.
“You weren’t kidding,” he muttered, his fingers soaked with her arousal.
“I never kid about being naked around you.”
“I should hope not.” He twisted his wrist, pushed two fingers deep inside her. With a small cry, she leaned back on her elbows, arched her back. Her feet were pressed in to the seat now and he risked a quick look down at her. Fuck, she was wide open and glistening and his mouth watered at the sight.
“Aidan…”
He spotted a clearing just off the road, turned in, slammed on the brakes. He didn’t care about anything at all except getting his mouth on her.
She gazed up at him. “Here?”
“Right here,” he rasped, undoing his seatbelt. “I need to taste you.”
He pushed her thighs farther apart, slid his hands under her amazing ass. He lifted her to him and she fell back all the way, her hair spread over the leather in a wild tangle, her breaths coming short and fast already.
Aidan dipped his head and licked her clit, teasing it with long, firm strokes. Her hands were clenched in his hair and she pulled him to her aching sex, needing him to make her come. She was moaning and writhing, begging and almost sobbing. He loved seeing her like this, hearing her like this. There was just nothing better; there never had been and there never would be.
When Gabi came on his tongue, she did so on a shining cascade of falling stars. Her whole body disintegrated, turned to glittering dust, blew away and she was gone. Aidan made her escape the bounds of her body and the chains of the earth. He made her fly.
An eon later, she came back to herself in his arms. He’d tugged her up to a sitting position and she was curled against his chest as weak and spent as a woman recovering from a fever. He was kissing her eyelids, whispering that he had her, that he loved her, that she was safe and everything was OK. When she opened her eyes, he stared down at her, a hard look of worry on his face.
“Gabriela? Talk to me, angel.”
“I’m OK, Aidan.” She stroked those lines around his mouth that always appeared when he was anxious. “I’m better than OK, actually. I’m wonderful.”
“You sure?” He cupped her face, his intensity almost ferocious. “You back with me?”
“Hmmmm.” She smiled. “Yeah.”
He held her tighter, still shaken by how she’d collapsed under his hands, silent and still. “You want to go look at the stars now?”
“Oh, babe.” Her eyes were glowing softly. “I’ve already seen them.”
Chapter Fourteen
Two days later
Gabi toweled her hair dry and pulled on her loose pajama bottoms and a baggy t-shirt. She was deliciously, deliriously sore between her legs after making love with Aidan for hours and she didn’t care at all. He’d been rough and tender in turns and she still hadn’t decided which she preferred. God knows, both made her scream.
She came out of the bathroom and smiled at Aidan. He was sitting next to the massive window and drinking a cup of tea before grabbing a shower. His eyes lit up when he saw her and he
got to his feet.
“How you feeling?” he asked. “Was I too hard on you?”
“You were and I loved it.” She laughed. “But yeah… we’ll be taking it easy tomorrow, I imagine.”
“I’m sorry.”
She walked over to him, walked in to his arms. “I’m not.”
He held her close, just breathing in the fresh scent of her hair. “Gabriela?”
“Yes?”
“I love you, baby.” He kissed her. “You know that, yeah? That you’re my everything?”
“Yeah.” She ran her hands over his chest. “I know it. I love you too.”
Their eyes met and held; their breaths and hearts rose and fell and beat in time. At this exact second, they both knew that they’d never felt this close to another person before and they never would again. This moment was it for them – for the rest of their lives, when Gabi and Aidan heard the word ‘love’, they’d think about these few seconds. This brief, shining moment was perfect. It was everything. It was heaven.
Then suddenly, it all exploded in gunfire and broken glass and blood. In the blink of an eye, Gabi and Aidan were shoved head-first in to hell and in to sprawling blackness – and those perfect few seconds heralded the worst and most terrifying twelve hours of their lives.
**
Gabi was staring up at Aidan when the bullet came through the window behind them. Before she’d even fully processed the sound of shattering glass, Aidan slumped and fell heavily. His arms were still around her so she went down with him, shocked and trying to catch them both. That’s when she saw that the whole right side of his neck was a shiny red.
“Aidan?”
His eyes were closed, his strong, powerful body now limp under her hands, blood soaking his shirt in a relentless, steady dark flow. She touched his cheek with trembling fingers, tried not to notice how cold it was, tried to contain her rising hysteria.
“Aidan?”
The door burst open behind her and she turned with a shriek. Two men with masks and guns grabbed her under her arms, hauled her to her feet, gave her a quick punch to her chin. Dazed, she opened her mouth to scream again when she both felt and heard a sizzle of heat on the back of her neck. The taser shot electrical current through her body and she jerked uncontrollably, her eyes rolling back in her head, before crumpling silent and pale in to the one man’s arms.
Killer Curves (Dangerous Curves Book 3) Page 18