by V. Theia
She picked Nathan by kissing him and didn’t stop until the sound of the engine grew distant, long after that she was still licking his tongue and swallowing Nathan’s grunts, his hands grabbing greedily on her waist.
The rules were changing under her, blood became a rolling boil as their tongues tangled lazily, and did a little fight sequence as if choreographed by Quentin Tarantino’s stunt coordinator.
And the kicker she’d laugh about, uh…sometime. She hadn’t set out any rules for this affair. She’d sort of just fell into it.
The hole was big and she didn’t want to climb out.
******
Ten kisses later. “I’ll knock the grin right off that pretty asshole face.”
“Aww, you think Jamie is pretty?” she teased him and didn’t you know Grinder’s knuckles tightened to hit the cocksucker even harder. Hands came up to rest on his chest that inflated to an impossible capacity filling his lungs until they felt they might burst open and scatter dust everywhere.
Her touch brought a rage and a calm. Covering those hands with his own, his eyelids dropped. “Stop doing that smiling shit at him. And while we’re at it, stop smiling at any man that isn’t me.”
Fingertips rubbed her inner wrist and he felt her pulse jump right along with the scowl marring her gorgeous face. “Is that so?”
He gruffed. “Yes.”
“Since when do you get off telling me what to do?”
“Since forever.” Wasn’t it obvious? Shit. He’d been clear, hadn’t he?
“Oh.” She puffed out air and the darkest eyes he loved looking out widened. “This is you being jealous? It really is. I wondered but I’ve never seen it over me, this is…” when her lips stretched in a sly, little gorgeous grin Grinder’s jaw cracked, he had no choice really, it was out of his hands now when his head anchored down and he crushed those smiling lips with his own much hungrier mouth.
Jealousy was as old as time and the one emotion that could cause a man to kill in cold blood.
“Jamie is comfortable.” The tiger in his chest growled ready to attack. Lucky for him Luxe went on. “There’s nothing about you that’s comfortable.” Their kiss lingered, chewing off the back of his head, making him think in terms of filthy only, urging him to take her down to the floor and rut into her through her clothes and here she was, calmness in her eyes whereas he only felt stormy, telling him he wasn’t comfortable. What did that even mean? Both of his brows fell over his darkening eyes, not entirely sure if he’d changed his mind about killing Steele, or at least pissing a circle around Luxe to tell the guy fuck off.
“I’m gonna need more to go on, love. Steele is comfortable but I’m not?”
“No. You stir me up.”
Fuck, that’s more like it.
That he understood and he began to smile, his beard twitching as he snaked an arm around her waist and pulled her in, crotch to crotch.
“I didn’t say it was a good thing.” She chastised wagging her finger in his face. “You get me mad when I shouldn’t be mad.”
“All I’m hearing is I get you wet and Steele is old worn slippers.” A smirk slid home. “I’m good with that.”
“You’re an impossible man.”
“I’m a hard man hard up for you.”
“I suppose you are. Huh. I like your jealousy.” She said it like it had never occurred to her before.
“If I could, I would keep you in a gilded cage. Captor and captive, love. Keep you for myself. And I don’t fucking understand it either. This is not me. I don’t do risky shit like tie a woman to a bed that hasn’t asked me to. But I look at you, smiling at another man and I want to lock you in a cage of my arms like a fucking caveman.”
Hearing her moan Grinder angled his face down to hers, eye to eye, he desperately wanted to touch her somewhere he wouldn’t have an audience and tell her how much he missed her, to cemented something between them. His buddies were incredibly nosy fuckers.
He was thinking like a man did about his old lady.
“While you sound surprisingly sweet, you need to rein it in, it’s ridiculous to act like that as though you saw me fooling around on the floor with Jamie. Even if I was …”
He growled from the back of his throat and he stepped into her space capturing her tightly with possessive hands, pressing their foreheads together, his voice turned sore sounding. “Don’t fucking finish that sentence, Luxe. For my sanity, please don’t.”
He tasted the panic on her tongue as she pushed against his chest, reluctantly he put the space she wanted between them. "This has turned serious suddenly. I---it’s crazy. What you’re saying it’s ridiculous. What I do, where I go and with who is none of your business, Nathan."
He frowned. “Don’t say that, love. You know we have something.”
“Sex.”
“It’s more than that. Can you say it isn’t?”
“Don’t smile at any other man, Luxe.” He grinned at her imitation. Reaching for her, the rejection when she pulled back stung his chest.
“No, we’re not doing this, I have a job to do, with Jamie… so deal with that, maybe if I decide otherwise, you can see me later.”
Fire in the pit of his stomach, Grinder had the distinct realization he was about to lose this and couldn’t see, save for groveling, how to rewind and fix it.
“Goddammit, Luxe.” Throat working, looking up to the heavens. This wasn’t how he wanted it going the first time he saw her again. “Baby, stay a while…”
It was too late, she was already pissed as hell with him. He wanted that anger under him.
But she was already striding to her car. Scowling over her shoulder.
"Go sit in your gilded cage, kidnapper."
Grinder watched until her car disappeared, feeling the full weight of his foot in his mouth.
He heard slow clapping and caught the shit eating grin of his audience.
“Well you made a cock up of that, didn’t you? For a second I thought you were about to do it right there on the forecourt, even considered pulling up a chair.”
The way Preacher laughed made Grinder want to ball his thick fist and pop his best friend in the face, because he knew he was right. “You gotta get pathetic, man, if you wanna fix this. Like real down low groveling, it’s the only thing that works.”
“I hate you, you big fucking buzz kill.” He sighed with the sourest scowl on his face. “Are you serious, like for real with me right now, ‘cause I can’t take jokes.”
“As the Grim Reaper is my witness.” The jackass had the gall to grin at Grinder’s misery. It was okay for Preacher, he already won his woman, he’d already gone as pathetically low as a man could, and seemed happy as shit about it, you couldn’t turn around in the clubhouse now without bumping into moaning noises from either Rider and Zara or Preacher sucking face with his Ruby.
Big dumb sappy fucks.
And Grinder was jealous as hell.
There, he’d let himself admit it.
He was jealous of that closeness his buddies had with their bitches--- fuck, not bitches, the one time he referred to Ruby as one Preacher had about hit the roof AND Grinder into next week, he didn’t mean any disrespect, but fuck, his jaw ached for a full day.
His MC brethren had turned into pussies and had never looked happier.
Grinder was green about it.
Because the woman he was hard up for didn’t seem to be feeling what he was.
His man made clusterfuck just kept on coming.
Luxe wasn’t like any other chick he’d ever come across. Or come across, even though he wanted to splatter his mark from forehead to toes, god, did he.
She was a ball of contained anger he was attracted to and it made him say shit, do shit, that he wouldn’t ordinarily say or do. Some could say it was her fault, really.
He was pissing himself off.
Preacher slung a weighty arm around his shoulders. As big as Grinder was he still had to recalibrate his stance to accommodate it. “You got it ba
d, buddy.”
“I regret every time I fucked with you about Ruby.” His sigh could have blown over a small building. Preacher just laughed. “Why, ‘cause now you’re gonna catch it from me?”
He turned a vicious stare on Preacher who just grinned.
Grinder was so sunk.
At least he knew now there was nothing but slippers between Luxe and the Kingsmen prez. He felt the jealous weight of that lift.
Now he just had to win around his woman.
Grovelling. Fuck, he could do that.
Something unsettling had happened for Christ sake; he’d been caught in emotional monogamy and he knew he’d chase that dirty rotten thief across the country just to catch her and force her to feel this storm he had building in his chest. He was a damn brutal outlaw, a class A bounty tracker with an authentic case of the feels.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“Stealing a Lamborghini or looking across the table at the sexiest pair of gray eyes? No contest.” - Luxe
He took her for food.
After sitting outside Steele’s apartment, for more than two hours waiting for her, it took a lot of persuading to agree to come out with him. His tongue did most of it inside her mouth. When she sighed dreamily Grinder had pounced, insisted he wanted to take her out for food.
Now they were sitting quietly glancing at the other from opposite sides of the table in the only vegetarian restaurant in town he’d found on Google.
“Only my face?”
“Huh, what?” She was picking and poking at her fries, chomping through every third or fourth one, he ate the ones she discarded. Far as he could tell she liked them pin straight.
“Earlier, you said you only missed my face, nothing else?” Her eyes raced over his face like he could just see her trying to figure out his angle. Her eyes were constantly suspicious, he saw a flicker of calculation before it disappeared, he geared up for her next move. Luxe had always kept him on his toes, he didn’t think trying to date her would be any different. There wasn’t an angle, he could have told her that easily, he was a hard-up man wanting to spend some fucking time with her that didn't involve his dick.
And he saw the irony there because he wanted her there as well. On his dick. On it. Fucking on it. All the time. Was it wrong he wanted more from her and to convince her of the same. It was a gut feeling, he didn't have all the answers but Grinder always relied on his gut to lead the way. This was some unique path he was getting used to. As warily as she watched him across the table, her dark chocolate gaze flicking up to stray to his face, he watched her just as deeply. It went bone deep this kinda obsession he was having to shoehorn himself in her presence any way he could.
Or maybe he was just cursed.
Maybe the women he wanted in his life just didn’t want to stay.
Licking salt from her lips had to be the sexiest thing he’d seen today and since he’d been staring at Preacher’s bare tattooed back in nearly hundred-degree heat while they both worked on a Kawasaki 125 most of the morning and then out on a pickup with Capone for an hour after that it was slim pickings what he considered sexy.
Way he saw it, there was two options he had going for him, the tell-tale she wants sex look crossing her face gave him a boost of confidence he didn’t know he’d dropped until this very moment having her here with him, a fresh chance, he thought, he could either sweep the condiment basket out of the way and do some nasty ravishing on the table top or he could ask to take her home. Again. This time following it up with telling her he wanted to date her, no room for misinterpretation, he wanted her.
Technically, if he wanted to get picky this was their third date if he counted the Russian robbery and food afterward as date one and two.
He looked at a place over her shoulder and marvelled at his self-control.
“My abuela says I shouldn’t lie and skirting the truth is still a lie, so sí, I only missed that face.” Fuck. Fuck. Fuck, nothing short of a world disaster stopped his self-satisfied smirk hearing she’d missed him.
He got hard and he stayed that way.
“I don’t know, maybe you should stop the lies and tell me what you’re thinking, I can see you want to.”
She huffed. He loved that fucking indignation noise. Biting back a grin. “Think I’m a liar, kidnapper? You don’t get to diagnose me, mister bossy, you’ve known me five minutes.”
“It’s been longer than five minutes, you sucked my cock for more than that.” Well that was the wrong fucking thing to put in his head, his cock pulsed pleasure in remembrance of those sweet lips. Looking up he further groaned catching where her eyes were. “You’re staring at my mouth, baby.”
She fired back not a second later or a hint of embarrassment. “Maybe you have food stuck in your beard.”
He laughed at her lie. “I’ll go first. I missed you, love. I missed you as soon as you left and I’d like this with you again.”
Saints and sinners; maybe they weren’t either one, but Luxe was sure bringing out his inner angel wanting to protect her in the same vain that devil on his shoulder wanted nothing less than to finger her under this table right now and have her moan around his tongue.
Nathan, make me come. Nathan, open your mouth. Nathan, I want an orgasm. He suspected he wouldn’t be able to tell her anything other than yes, every fucking time.
“You missed me?” he nodded. “How many women have you had … since me?”
Damn, she wasn’t playing around. He bit back a grin and answered easily. “None. It’s why I’m having a hard time watching you suck the salt from your fingers and not drag you over here and lick your lips.”
She visibly sucked in a breath.
Grinder didn’t see it coming off as a positive by confessing he had wanted to rid her from his mind the other week at the party. When it came to it, as he’d lowered his head to kiss the other woman he couldn’t do it, just couldn’t put his mouth on a woman that wasn’t his woman. He’d woken the next day with a giant hangover pounding his temple and a determination to have his thief for himself.
She seemed to be giving it some thought. He didn’t mind the quiet.
Families across from them were eating together, next to them was an old couple laughing, people from the local factories were chowing down on grub and people milling through the doorway, it was the worst possible time to feel the way he was feeling, all hot and possessive to do that table ravishing. Usually the only way he had the success rate he did with his tracking was always being three steps ahead, to anticipate what a person would do, the ramifications of a fail was not something Grinder ever accepted so he always made sure never to come up against one. With Luxe he was walking blind and had been from the very start. It was oddly exhilarating.
While it unsettled Grinder, he was juiced to the eyeballs.
Fucking juiced.
Leaning forward, sex in her eyes as her lids lowered and looked at him straight on while she deliberately licked salt from her fingertips, her gaze slid down to his mouth, he practically swallowed his tongue. “If you keep looking at me like that..”
Then boldly asking. “Do you need something to hold you over until I can fuck you properly, love?”
She sniffed so offended he had to laugh, even as her cheeks highlighted and her tits rose quickly beneath the thin cotton shirt. “We shouldn’t----you shouldn’t say those things to me here. We always seem to ... flirt in public,” color stained her cheeks and she wasn’t meeting his eyes. He didn’t like it one bit. Reaching across between the glass of water and the cup of house made sauce, he took her fingers in his, felt how they flexed and held on, it was that motion that gave him a surge of want and adrenalin. “Listen to me, love, if you needed my fuck, the location doesn’t come into it, no one would get in my way. I’d end anyone that tried to stop me. You hear me? Let me have your eyes so I see you understand me on this.”
There was no disguising the desire in her expression. Grinder chewed the inside of his cheek to stop from vaulting over and mauling her
sweet fucking lips. “I---I--fuck. I understand, Nathan.”
Silence misted between them as their fingers twined together.
Almost hearing the cogs turning in her head he waited. Say them words, baby.
Sensing how close she watched him he stroked a thumb against the thin veins in her wrist. She was so goddamn beautiful she was making his heart jackhammer. He enjoyed the rough edges to Luxe, the woman who would go toe-to-toe with anyone and not back down but he also liked this slightly hesitant version of herself she allowed him to see, he had a feeling he was one of the lucky few who did.
“It’s okay, you can pretend it’s a favor for me. Unbutton your jeans, let me get inside and I’ll sort out your problem with a few hard rubs.” He hoped his tone portrayed helpful motherfucker, because Grinder was feeling nothing but helpful, he’d sit in this booth all night long and rub her little clit raw until she clawed his forearms off.
A slew of Spanish came out of pretty mouth and just like that she pushed out of her seat, and stormed off, leaving Grinder holding his balls---not literally.
They were halfway around the block when he finally caught up with her grabbing her by the arm. She was making him woozy with the attitude flip. He’d been happy, like one of those wagging dog’s kind of happy, when he’d seen her at his club, for a stupid second, he’d thought she’d come looking for him and hadn’t that filled him with helium.
But nah. Jamie fucking Steele.
“Want to tell me what all that was about? Was I wrong in thinking that’s what you wanted from me?”
The notion of her with Steele----with anyone, bore a hole in his stomach so he wouldn’t entertain those thoughts, not here, not now, not with her spitting crabbiness.