Blade

by Hope Stone

  “I’d like to.” He smiled, and I saw two rows of perfectly straight, white teeth.

  I sipped my drink while we talked. It was nice and strong, exactly how I liked it. Which was good, because David might be physically perfect, but he was dull, and after making small talk with him for ten minutes, I needed the alcohol to keep enjoying myself.

  I looked around and found that Piper was on the dancefloor, grinding between two guys that were also a part of David’s group. I finished off my drink and ordered another shot, enjoying the way the burn of the alcohol seemed to spread through my whole body. I slammed the empty shot glass down onto the bar and got off the barstool. The dress I was wearing rode up my thighs, but I didn’t fix it.

  My head swam once I was on my feet, all the alcohol that I’d consumed quickly taking effect and making everything seem somehow more vibrant and muted at the same time.

  “Let’s dance,” I said, grabbing David’s hand and leading him to the dance floor.

  My long hair was down, and I whipped it around as I closed my eyes and let my body move to the music. David was with me, and I could feel his cautious touch as his hands rested on my hips. The music was coming from big speakers on each side of the stage, and the volume was so cranked up that I couldn’t even hear myself think. The heavy bass made my bones vibrate.

  Suddenly, there was another set of hands on me, pulling me back into a hard body. My eyes flew open, but I knew who it was before I even saw him. It was clear in the way that every nerve ending in my body lit up like a firework. A rolling heat that was shockingly similar to the warmth I got from my tequila shot licked up my spine, and I arched my back so that my ass was pressed into Blade’s erection. I loved knowing that I got him so worked up.

  “What the hell, man?” David said, stepping forward.

  “Back off, All-American. She wants me.”

  I did, and my hazy mind couldn’t seem to hold onto the good reasons why I shouldn’t. I turned around in his arms and looked up at him. The lighting in here was dim, but I could see him clearly. His eyes were burning into mine, and he looked almost angry.

  That shouldn’t make me hot for him, but it did.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked, but he couldn’t hear me over the music.

  The next thing I knew, I was being led off the dance floor. I glanced back to see David watching me go with a frown on his face. I gave him an apologetic smile before I was pulled out of the backdoor of the bar. We were in a poorly lit alley between the bar and a brick building behind it, with no one around.

  “Are you looking for trouble here, Kitten?” Blade asked.

  The fresh air cleared my head a little, and I felt a flicker of irritation. “I told you not to call me that.”

  Blade moved closer to me until my back was pressed up against the vinyl siding of the bar. He didn’t stop until I was caged in by his arms, and I couldn’t seem to catch my breath. The heat radiating from him seeped into me, and I couldn’t hold myself back anymore.

  I reached up to grab the sides of his face and pulled his lips to mine. I could blame it on the alcohol, but that wasn’t really why I did it. As Blade took control of the kiss, I knew that I needed to be with him one more time.

  Eighteen

  Blade

  I probably shouldn’t have come to the bar. It wasn’t in my plans for the night. In fact, I didn’t have any plans and probably would have ended up at the Blue Dog. So, when I heard Kat and Piper talking about coming to the Copper Bar tonight and meeting men, I talked myself into following them.

  I couldn’t explain my reasoning, but when I arrived and saw Kat on the dance floor in a skimpy dress with some asshole’s hands on her, I didn’t stop to think before I acted. I knew that whatever had started between us was over now, but then she rubbed her body against mine, making me hard as a diamond. Now my tongue was in her mouth as she kneaded my ass with her fingers.

  I was under no delusions that this would change anything, but that wasn’t going to stop me. If anything, I was fueled by my anger at her. It needed an outlet, and I was going to take it. Reaching down, I unbuttoned my pants and pulled out my cock. Lifting her legs, I put them around my waist while her back was braced against the building. I broke our kiss and looked into her eyes as I pulled her thong to the side and lined myself up at her entrance. I thrust inside of her wet heat. It was raw and rough, with an added thrill of knowing that we were in public, even if it was dark here.

  I took her hard against the back wall of the bar, fulfilling a need that we both didn’t want to admit we had. Kat’s ankles hooked together behind my back, and she clung to my shoulders. I buried my face in her neck, breathing in the flowery scent of her hair.

  God, she was so tight in this position, and her breathy moans were driving me wild. I’d never been so uninhibited with a woman, and the gritty nature of our sex meant that I was barreling toward an orgasm quickly. But I wouldn’t finish until she got what she needed out of this, too.

  With her dress pushed up around her waist, the bare globes of her perfect ass were exposed, so I grabbed them with my hands and squeezed while I directed her up and down on my cock. I took her mouth again, nipping at her lower lip.

  Kat shrieked into my mouth as she came, her inner channel gripping my erection and sending shockwaves of pleasure through my body. I pulled my mouth away from hers as I reached my own climax, barking out her name like it was a curse as I exploded inside of her.

  It was so damn good, and I had a feeling this quickie wasn’t going to be nearly enough. Whether Kat considered us enemies or not, our sexual chemistry was too much to ignore. I disengaged our bodies and lowered her until her feet were back on the ground. I turned away as I zipped my pants back up and she righted her dress. When I’d pulled her out here, I’d hoped that afterward, the lust that I felt for her would be gone.

  But when I turned back around, I knew that I’d never reach that point. I’d always want her.

  Fuck Las Balas. Fuck her dad. Fuck this whole shitty situation.

  “Get back inside,” I told her. There was really nothing else to say. I could read the indecision in her expression, but somehow I knew that Kat wasn’t going to change her mind about me. I was still the enemy in her eyes, and she was too damn stubborn to consider otherwise. Which just made me angry all over again.

  “I’m on the pill,” she said.

  Fuck. I’d been so caught up in my desire for her that I hadn’t even stopped to think about that.

  “Good.” I started to walk down the alley so that I could go around the building to where my bike was parked. I didn’t need to go back inside. I’d gotten what I came for. Turning back to her after a couple of feet, I called out, “Kitten?”

  She paused with her hand outstretched to open the metal back door. “Yeah?”

  “Don’t even think of going home with anyone else tonight.”

  I knew that it was an unreasonable demand, but I didn’t give a shit. To my surprise, she didn’t argue. She just flashed me a little smirk before disappearing inside.

  “Okay, you hold the metal detector like this, with the round part pointed at the ground. I’ve programmed the readout to let you know if it detects steel.”

  Hawk was passing out metal detectors to each of us as we stood on the edge of the property where the weapons were hidden. The thing was heavier than I expected it to be, and I wasn’t looking forward to lugging it around for the next few hours.

  “We only have four of these things, so we’re going to start at the south end of the property and spread out to work our way north. If you detect something, mark it with a red X on the grass,” Ryder spoke as Pin passed out the paint cans. “We’ll come back through later and dig.”

  There was a small group of us tonight, and a second group would come tomorrow, that way we didn’t push anyone too much. The days were getting longer, so the sun wouldn’t be fully set for about three hours. Plenty of time to cover a lot of ground.

  My mind lingered on Ka
t while I walked with the metal detector. Today, work had been more of the same. She ignored me or was hostile, and I found my frustration mounting. As expected, she didn’t change her attitude just because we had sex outside the bar. In fact, she seemed even more determined to push me away, as if my presence was a bigger problem for her now. If she thought she was going to get me to quit my job just because she decided to back the wrong horse, she was dead wrong.

  Most of the land was flat, any trees that had previously been here being cleared out so that houses could be built on top of it. In the distance, we could see subdivisions being built, the same few cookie-cutter designs repeated over and over in various shades of tan, yellow, or blue, all sitting way too close to each other. I’d lived in places like this growing up, with their HOAs and everybody in each other’s business. I hated it.

  Looking around, it was obvious that Raymond was holding onto this land for a reason. There were houses sprouting up everywhere on the lots surrounding this one. The metal detector in my hand made a noise, and the readout indicated there was steel beneath my feet. I got excited for a second before I heard Trainer’s detector going off to my far left.

  Right, there could be more than one piece of steel here. It was impossible to know what was underground. Shaking up my paint can, I marked a big red X on the grass and continued onward. I wasn’t into spending much time in nature, but I could appreciate the beauty of this place. The sky was colorful as the sun started to set, and the breeze in the air made the tall grass and trees sway.

  We kept at it until it was fully dark outside, but we hadn’t even covered half of the property yet. It was that big.

  “I’ll come back out tomorrow night with Chalupa, Kim, and Swole,” Ryder said as we met back up at his truck. Hawk packed away the metal detectors again while he talked.

  “Then comes the fun task of digging,” Trainer said drily.

  “You got it,” Ryder agreed. “Now, let’s get back to the Blue Dog. The first round’s on me.”

  That sounded pretty good to me, and so we hopped on our bikes, ready to follow his truck back to the bar, but a movement from nearby caught my eye.

  “Hey, wait a minute,” I said, lowering my kickstand and hopping off the bike.

  “What is it?” Trainer asked.

  “Someone over there,” I pointed in the direction that I’d seen what I was sure was the outline of a man. “Behind that tall shrubbery.”

  “You sure?” Trainer asked, getting off his own bike.

  “Yeah. Someone’s watching us.”

  As soon as those words were out of my mouth, we heard the unmistakable sound of motorcycles starting. I hurried forward, coming around the bushes to see who was there, just as two motorcycles took off in the opposite direction, following an unpaved road that would lead them back to La Playa. I wasn’t able to see who the riders were, but there was no disguising the patches on the back of their jackets.

  “Las Balas,” I murmured.

  “God damn it,” Trainer said from beside me. “They were spying on us.”

  “You think they knew what we were doing?”

  “There’s no way they do, but it’s still not good news. This shitty situation just got even more complicated.”

  I couldn’t help but think of Kat. She’d heard a snippet of Ryder talking about what we were doing here tonight. Did she hear enough to send her Las Balas buddies to watch us, or was it just coincidence?

  I hated feeling suspicious of her, but she’d made it clear that Las Balas were her people. I would have to talk to her about it, and I hoped like hell that I was wrong.

  Nineteen

  Kat

  I was finished with my mother’s room. The space had a new paint job and decor. It was now a guest bedroom. I stood in the room after making the bed and felt a lightness in my heart that I hadn’t thought would come for a long time. It hurt to let her go, but I was finally ready to start moving past it.

  Next, I was redecorating the living room. My mom had painted the room a salmon color when we moved in years ago, back when I was still in diapers. I’d never liked it because it was too girly for me, so now I was going to change it.

  I felt like I was changing my life as I changed my house. I was in the best place emotionally that I had been since my mom died. Then, I thought about Blade and decided that might be bullshit. Why couldn’t I move on from this guy? He was trouble for me, with his Outlaw Souls patch on his back.

  But I’d slept with him on Tuesday at the bar, and I couldn’t stop thinking about doing it again. I’d never had such an insatiable need for a man before. Of course, it had to happen with the wrong guy.

  I could really use another cigarette. It was too bad that I threw the pack I bought away when my commitment to kick the habit returned.

  Embracing the idea of a distraction, I went to the hardware store to look through paint samples, choosing to focus on something productive instead of my confusing feelings for Blade. There were so many color options that I was almost immediately overwhelmed. I knew I didn’t want the ugly pinkish color that had been on the wall, but other than that, I was lost.

  Grabbing a couple of swatches of each color I might be even remotely interested in, I shoved them into my purse. When I got home, I’d tape them to the wall and see what I liked best with the living room’s lighting.

  I was heading to the door when I was stopped. A man in the blue polo shirt that all the employees wore stepped into my path. His name tag listed him as a manager, but all of that was secondary as I realized that I knew the man, sort of.

  “David?” I felt a twinge of guilt as I remembered leaving him on the dance floor when Blade showed up, then blowing him off when I came back inside after having sex in the alley. I knew that I didn’t owe the guy anything, but I could tell that he was disappointed. I didn’t want to be a bitch, but I wasn’t really feeling it before Blade showed up. After he made his appearance, it was unthinkable to go home with David.

  “Kat, how…interesting to see you here.” There was something in his voice that I didn’t like. He seemed cold somehow. “Do you know why I’ve stopped you from leaving?”

  “No?” I was confused by the question. Hadn’t he just stopped me to say hello?

  “I saw you put something inside of your purse.”

  “Yeah, paint samples.”

  “I’m not so sure about that. You seem like the dishonest type.”

  “Excuse me?” White-hot anger flared to life inside of me.

  “I’m going to need to search your bag.”

  “No way. What’s your problem?”

  “You know, you seem like a woman that makes bad decisions. Like leaving a perfectly nice guy on the dance floor after leading him on, only to run off with a guy that looks like he belongs behind bars.”

  “You know, men that refer to themselves as nice guys rarely are,” I told him, walking over to the unmanned customer service counter nearby and unceremoniously dumping the contents of my purse all over the place just to be petulant. His insults of both Blade and me pissed me off, so I didn’t care if I seemed childish.

  My wallet, gum, and birth control pills went spilling out all over the place, as well as all the color swatches I’d put in there. David pursed his lips as he saw that I hadn’t stolen anything. Then, he smiled.

  “You know, I should probably search you, just in case.”

  My skin crawled. What. A. Creep.

  “No fucking way,” I said loudly, drawing attention from the other customers nearby.

  “Then, maybe I should call the police?”

  Did he really think that would scare me? Pathetic.

  “Go ahead, but you’ll also have to call an ambulance if you try to lay a finger on me.”

  David laughed. “I knew you’d be fiesty. It was what drew me to you in the first place.” He took a step closer to me until he was so close that he could reach out and touch me. “All I want is to touch you, Kat. Get a little payback for those drinks I bought you.”
>
  I clenched my teeth and met his eyes. “I don’t owe you anything.”

  “Is there a problem here?” a voice asked from behind David, and he turned, revealing a pissed off looking Blade.

  “Not at all,” David said, his voice oily as he stepped away from me.

  Blade’s hands were fisted at his side, and his breathing was heavy. I had a feeling that he was trying to decide if he should pound David into a pulp or not.

  “It’s fine, Blade,” I said, scooping up the contents of my purse and shoving them back inside. “I’m done with this place, anyway.”

  As I side-stepped David, I thought for a moment that he might be dumb enough to try to stop me, but he didn’t. He just glowered at me as I went by. Blade kept his eyes pinned on the skeezy asshole until I had walked past them both, heading for the door.

  “You keep your hands to yourself from now on,” I heard him say to David. The threat was so clear in his voice that I felt a shiver go down my spine, even though it wasn’t directed at me.

  I pushed open the door to go outside and felt his presence behind me. As I got to the parking lot, I spun around to face him.

  “You didn’t have to do that, you know. What were you even doing here? Did you follow me?”

  “Hell no. I’m not a stalker. I came to the closest hardware store to the Blue Dog to pick up a couple of packs of lightbulbs. The one in the men’s bathroom went out.” He looked begrudging as he answered my questions. I trailed my eyes down to his hand and saw that he was carrying a white plastic bag at his side. “And as for what happened in there, I think you meant to thank me.’”

  I sighed, breaking eye contact. He was right. I was embarrassed about the whole thing, but I still owed him some gratitude.

  “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” he said. Blade started walking backward toward his bike so that he could still speak to me as he walked away. “It’s okay to need help sometimes, tough girl.”