by V. Theia
Of course, he’d play nice with Preacher’s BIL, he had no grudge against the other prez, after all, he just-------- that shot to hell as he strode inside and saw Steele’s hand touching Luxe’s fingers.
It didn’t matter they were both standing with Rider in a main room full of members, didn’t matter at all she wasn’t leaning her gorgeous body into Steele, all Grinder saw was the connection between two hands and felt the rise of blood from his gut into his eyes, filling his vision, his gait increased and everyone turned at once to look at him as if he was… oh wait, he was growling.
Fuck.
He experienced brutal jealousy plow into his sternum and nestle there like a damn rodent in its nest. Oh, hell no, this wasn’t right, this wasn’t an emotion he was equipped to deal with, what did a man do when he saw his woman giving a smile to another man that was solely for him? What did he do?
Ice doused the flames cooking his blood. I’ll break that hand off and feed you your own fingernails.
The mood changed in an instant and both Rider and Steele seemed to recognize it. Only the dirty rotten thief didn’t.
He wanted to go kamikaze like a demented dickhead, that’s what his roaring instincts were telling him to do, then pull Luxe into his chest and make sure she understood all those sweet genuine smiles were just for him, she had no right giving them to someone who didn’t appreciate them, who wasn’t working his ass off to get every last one.
Grinder didn’t run. He didn’t even sprint. He was a rolling prowl of a bastard, eyes stuck to the Kingsmen president. One long stride in front of the other. His eyes didn’t waver.
Rider give him the what-the-fuck-you-doing glance.
Taking in Luxe’s face, he was floored with her intense beauty and the need to claim her. Whatever she read in his face it made her smile drop.
“You mind getting your hand off her, Steele.” He clipped between clenched teeth.
Rather than jump to do as he was fucking told, Jamie arched a brow and moved closer to Luxe. Grinder almost went nuclear. Luckily for Steele, it was Luxe who scowled confused and moved away, keys jangling in her fingers.
“What’s going on with you?”
Nostrils flared, he caught her scent, the same scent that drove him nuts when she’d been under him. Don’t get in the way of my dream woman, that’s what’s going on.
“I think I kinda do mind, if that’s the tone you’re choosing to use.” And didn’t the shithead move himself towards Luxe just to bait him.
Rider’s gaze bounced between Grinder and Steele.
Luxe’s gaze bounced between them.
Grinder’s back molars itched, he felt his hands fist tightly and that was when Rider sounded his voice. “Grinder…”
“Nah, let him speak, Rider. I’m dying to hear this.” And just as Grinder was about to adhere to his prez’s command, not to cause trouble in their clubhouse Steele slung his arm around Luxe’s shoulder, grinning as he did.
A shift went through Grinder. It was dark and sticky and the possessive tendrils felt like knives in his fucking skull. This shit wasn’t him, he didn’t go apeshit over dumb things, he didn’t act out, he was the cool brother, the one that did the forward thinking and preparation, he wasn’t the one to be found brawling on the floor like he fucking wanted to in that angry second.
“Give me a reason to send you to the emergency room, Steele. Just fucking do it, I’m dying for it in all honesty, I won’t say it again, get the fuck off her now.” Air became a highly sought-after commodity as it huffed its way in and out of his clenched teeth, snarling, how fucking dare he even put a fingertip on Luxe, let alone touch her like he had the fucking right to do in that comfortable way between people who were close. Grinder never got in a jealous rage in his whole life, it seemed fitting now when he was on unstable ground ready to free fall into the emotion with no escape route.
“Threatening me?” Jamie fucking Steele dared to sound amused.
Grinder growled and held his stare.
“Ay dios mio, save me from ill-mannered gorillas.” Huffed Luxe, drawing Grinder’s eyes at last to see the scowl etched deep, she bumped Steele’s arm off her and took a step forward, turning towards him. “Thanks for the key. I’ll be at your place in a while.”
And she walked off, ignoring Grinder altogether.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“Hi, my name is Nathan Frazier, and I’m a dumb, jealous motherfucker.” - Grinder
Diffusing the weird situation bouncing between the two men Luxe didn’t walk too far before she heard Nathan heavy on her heels. He rounded in front, stopping her in her tracks.
Talk about a visceral stare.
It was as intimate as a private caress slipping over bare skin, those dark eyes hooded with long black lashes pinned her in place. Her stomach tugged. Ay dios, he was so, so handsome with his tall swaggering gait and she really liked the dark gray coveralls hanging around his waist, giving her peeks of his hard belly, all the sculpted muscles on display for her own enjoyment, she thought. A handsome working man with dirt under his nails. She’d forgotten the effect he had on her as air whooshed out of her lungs.
She might faint or do something equally mortifying and lick his face.
The energy coming off him was gasoline straight to her veins, his heat radiated all down one side of her body almost as if they were already touching. That whole macho chest beating posturing was never her cup of sweet tea … usually. She’d be lying out of her ass if she said seeing Nathan with jealousy grating his rough voice box was something she didn’t enjoy.
He was either claiming her or he just did hate Jamie and enjoyed poking him.
“Hey, chico, how’s it going?” Now that was a great question, self-high five. Much better than the one swirling around her head. Will you get over here and let me smell your neck, you, sexy bastard. She followed it with; “What was that macho crap all about?”
He really did have the best smell.
Masculine and spicy with a hint of sugar in there somewhere. She’d rolled her nose up and down his throat for those glorious hours spent together moaning how gorgeous he smelled.
“How’s it going? How’s it going?” the repeat got slightly higher in his velvety baritone and Luxe’s brows shot up into her hair from the look of thunder crossing his expression.
Maybe she should have gone with asking to sniff him?
Behind her she heard. “Oh, fuck, the kids are about to have a domestic, this is gonna be good, Rider. Sit back and watch the pocket-rocket demolish your boy.” Chuckled Jamie helpfully and Luxe glared at him, shifting her whole body towards Nathan but his eyes weren’t on her now.
They were all about Jamie.
The stare was death all over with not even a chance of resuscitation. A shiver trickled down her spine, hot all over, it was instinct to move into his body and calm him, to ease whatever discomfort he was experiencing, laying both hands on his chest, he was breathing rapidly. “Don’t,” she said for his ears only. “Nathan. Don’t.” His head cranked down, their eyes meeting and holding, his nostrils flaring like he was a thoroughbred, his chest inflating harder until he took one gusty breath and exhaled slowly.
How extraordinary to calm a man like this, she thought. She felt it happen, the way his body relaxed under her stroking hands, shoulders that were tense dropped and he moved to rest their foreheads together. Luxe braced to have him closer, unconsciously leaning into him. She was drunk on this one intimate touch.
Oh, shit. Did that modest, animalistic observation of calming for her have to tickle every erogenous zone she had?
“Look at that. Our boy just got tamed.” She turned to see who owned the snide rusty voice. Luxe snapped out of her daydream of yanking his head down and licking straight into his mouth.
A guy with very little hair was their smirking heckler.
Just as if Grinder hadn’t wanted their connection severed she felt him all over her back pushing into her, keeping her close. Luxe was busy gaping because i
t was the most curious thing to see a man cradling two kittens in his shovel sized hands, one tiny kitten head caught between two fingers, it lazed on his palm. A man looking as he did with the humongous, frankly vulgar, tattoo across his neck, she blurted the first thing to come to mind. “Is he going to hurt those kittens?”
She wasn’t a member of PETA but she’d once clobbered two young boys for taunting a park squirrel with rocks, the little shits had thought it was funny. Luxe was six at the time. In that same protective vain she wouldn’t stand by if someone was about to be cruel to animals right in front of her, she took a step towards mister menacing who turned the coldest eyes on her, only to have Nathan’s hand sliding around her middle stopping her.
The shiver goose bumped her flesh.
Dangerous was the first word to come to mind as she held the blue eyes of the kitten holder. “I’m more likely to hurt you than these.” He told her, voice like a train wreckage. All rust and granite.
“Oh. Well then. Bueno.” Not that she was pleased for his confession, but still, yay for saving kittens, she supposed.
He let one of the kittens crawl up his black shirt, it was mewling as it butted his little head against the guy’s chiseled jaw looking for affection, it barely appeared to be a few days old, the other one still cradled in his hand, he stroked a finger over the tiny head, all the while glaring empty-like at Luxe.
“Not very bright your girl, Grinder.”
“Shut your trap, Lawless. Come on, Luxe.” He told his buddy as he tried to direct Luxe out the way she’d come.
She held steadfast. “Not very bright?”
“Do you see a bucket of water? Do you see a plastic bag?” Saved from telling this douche-barrel to go fuck himself with a bucket of water, a young pretty girl bound through the door so noisily heads turned everywhere, followed by a pregnant woman telling her to slow down.
Wide eyes, long flowing dark braids on either side of her head, denim and converse. The young girl didn’t listen.
“Hey, guys! Hey, Rider! Hi Lawless. Oh kitties, so cute! I want one. Can I take one back with me, Zara, please, please?”
There was no other word for it, beneath Nathan’s overprotective arm she watched the bald guy -- Lawless -- bristle and then his face flattened out to the darkest nothing she’d ever witnessed before, almost as if he’d schooled his expression into not revealing anything he was thinking. It was fucking eerie. “What’s she doing here? Are we turning into a creche now? For fucks sake, Ri.”
There was one summer about six years ago, Luxe almost got trapped in a littoral cave on her way to Chesapeake Bay with a friend Cynthia from the old neighborhood. They’d gone swimming to flirt with a group of guys and the tide had turned suddenly, it had been the scariest time of her life. Seeing the wash of coldness on the kitten tamers face reminded Luxe she would rather be trapped in that littoral cave again rather than be on this guy’s bad side.
Mean came with a side order of purring pussies on his chest.
“Prez. I can’t work in these fucking conditions,” he muttered about too many kids hanging around. “I’m not changing diapers or doing burp up shit.” He called out to the guy standing with Jamie. The young girl huffed and flung her braid in a swipe over her shoulder, cocked out her non-existent hip and glared down at Lawless. Luxe bit back a grin at her sass. “I’m almost sixteen, jerk!”
Lawless ignored her completely. “Did she bring homework with her?” this to the pregnant woman. “Did you bring homework? Get to it, brat and don’t bother me. Get it done, I might let you feed one of these later.” This directed to the girl herself who scowled but shuffled her feet forward, inching closer to both man and animals. Luxe thought the girl was braver than most for putting herself in the cold orbit of that man, but it didn’t seem to bother her when she went down on her knees reached out and began petting the kitten gently, cooing to the baby. Lawless inhaled hard enough his T-shirt expanded over his chest, eyes hooded, and then he held out the kitten and gave the girl better access.
“He’s weird.” Luxe commented once she was out of earshot of everyone else.
“Yeah, he’s been told a time or two.” Grinder’s voice rushed through her, a forest fire, so much had happened in the last two minutes she’d almost forgotten she’d missed him. “What are you doing here, Luxe?”
“Hello to you, too, Nathan.”
The gleam in his eyes told her he didn’t mind what he saw, he hadn’t stopped sweeping her up and down since the minute he saw her standing with Jamie. Why he was all grump she didn’t know------
He swooped down and kissed her suddenly, stealing her breath and forcing all words out of her brain. Dios. He licked and sucked then set her back on earth. The guy was a sixty-proof tequila rose. One hand sank into her hair while his mouth punished her with searing wet kisses, an incessant pulse between her legs, boiling her from the inside, dampness spreading.
“Hello, love. What are you doing here? And careful if you tell me it was to track down Steele in there.”
Ordinarily, Luxe didn’t care for bossy men, especially not bossy men who had the tone of voice Nathan used. They had mutual satisfaction between then and nothing else… right? Right. She shoved unwanted emotions aside. But there was no denying the flash of heat with his possessiveness.
Pressing her lips together to trap the taste of him and to also to stop from saying what he was obviously so butthurt grumpy over.
He asked again. “Well?”
She poked his chest. “You told me not to say why I was here if it was Jamie related! Dios. Make up your mind, chico, do I say it or not?”
Tightness appeared beside his mouth. “You’re here … at my club … because of Steele?”
“Sí.” She smiled, her heartbeat thudding. Teasing him just a bit. Because when he showed his jealousy Luxe grew warm and wet in warm and wet places.
“Why?”
Well that was easy, she thought. Grinning again. “He’s pregnant with my baby and I’m here to demand his hand in marriage immediately.”
A long silence ensued.
“Boy, you have zero humor today, did you lose it under a kitten butt? I’m here for work, I needed the key from Jamie to the apartment to drop off my things before I get my sticky fingers into things.”
“You need to stop seeing him.”
Luxe blinked. Sure, she’d heard wrong. “I---Excuse me?”
“You heard me.” Came out as a growl.
“Are you insane right now? Have you actually gone insane? Dios mio, you must have, to even contemplate telling me what to do.”
Fingers reached out and cinched around her waist, her heart gave a little bump, if she forgot he was issuing her orders like a fucking Neanderthal she could enjoy those rough, work worn hands on her. Instead he made it worse. “Keep working that little mouth with me, Luxe, and I’ll put it somewhere you can’t talk.”
Warmth caressed her, she couldn’t help it, she saw that scene immediately, he’d push her down to her knees, reach into his pants and----
“Keep at it and you won’t get another filthy, belly-shaking fuck I gave you. The same one you can’t stop thinking about. I mean what I say, Luxe. I don’t want you around him.”
She scoffed in his handsome face, the flash of his eyes was something else. Lust jammed into every corner. “Pah. Think a lot about yourself, don’t you? I barely remember it.”
“Is that right?” he laughed swooping down taking her mouth fast again without warning knocking her off balance, his hands banded around her waist keeping Luxe on her feet, this time it was hard, unrelenting as he pried her lips open before she even realized he’d moved deeper into her space, lashing her with his tongue, his teeth raking her lip, punishing her for some mystery offense she highly approved of if it meant he kept licking against her tongue in that way.
Dios, he tasted so good.
When he took a step back his face was void of emotion and Luxe was left with his taste saturating her mouth and wondering what the fuck
was wrong with the man to make him turn ice cold when he’d been nothing but a volcano the last she saw of him.
Idiota.
“You should have come to me first, Luxe. To me.” He rumbled against her mouth, biting her. “So, I could give you the sweet, little fuck you need.”
It was a miracle she wasn’t strangling him for all his pouting and chest beating and jealous outbursts, but she thought it was delicious. Syrup slid through her veins bringing out her smile, she reached up to cup his cheeks, pulling his head down, this time she kissed him first and she kissed him deeper.
“I’ll come to you first next time.” She modified, acknowledging there would be a next time and she was enjoying this demanding side of him, she nuzzled his beard and kissed him lightly again just because she needed to, to remind herself all her daydreaming she’d sunk to hadn’t been fantasies concocted in her dirty mind, he really did taste as good as she remembered. He smelled of clean sweat, and motor oil and something so masculine her head rushed. She allowed herself a moment to lean in and really inhale that scent, to cement Nathan to memory, basking in contact with a man she was feeling on some level she didn’t think possible. “I think I missed this face, kidnapper.”
She had to force down the protesting lusty howl when out of her peripheral she saw Jamie striding out of the entryway towards his bike.
She froze holding Nathan’s face, he was cupping hers, they were an inch apart. It wasn’t as though she was embarrassed to be caught this way, her and Jamie weren’t like that, and yet she felt a twinge of oh, my god. Like she was rubbing it in his face she was sucking face with someone from a different MC, her long friendship with Jamie meant she was loyal to that at least.
“Hey, Luxe, you have a Renegade on your face.” That asshat was laughing, and more than likely wanted Grinder to go off again, throwing his leg over his big black matte Harley, the engine roared when Jamie started it. “Might wanna get that seen to, you don’t want the infection to spread.”
The growl began in Nathan’s chest, this great big cat noise she felt thundering through her own chest, before he could charge after her friend and what---cause a scene with gorgeous hulk muscles flexing and popping and maybe manly grappling down on the floor? She did the only thing she could think of to halt him in his tracks before she fully registered she was absolutely declaring a side for both men and the entire MC to witness.