It was a shame they’d never connect.
It was just as well she’d waited too long to act. Zak would negotiate this deal, set up the place where the money could be stashed to pay for Demarco’s premium merchandise and then disappear.
As soon as the cash was distributed and spent by the bad guys, the good guys would swarm in and arrest everyone. It was possible he’d be completely done with this job and this town before midnight tonight.
He admitted to himself it was very unfortunate that any attraction or future relationship with his shy neighbor would remain unexplored. Making her the only regret he had about leaving this place. The prim, sexy woman he’d just left standing on his rented porch with what smelled like home-baked blueberry muffins and a tantalizing female scent even now made his cock stiffen. The scene might always haunt him with sincere regret.
Fate was a cruel bitch, but his prim neighbor was better off without him complicating her life. No matter how much he wanted to explore her with leisurely care.
Chapter Three
Kaitlin watched Zak peel away on his bike. Anger stirred in her soul. Her heart was almost beating out of her chest in excitement. Her courage had finally shown up. She’d put on her sexiest dress and marched over to invite herself into his life, albeit briefly.
Her plan was to offer him homemade muffins, do her best to entice him, and finally to refuse to leave until he’d made her a woman by taking away her virginity as he satisfied his own salacious lusts with her innocent body.
When he’d breezed by her on the porch, the scent of leather and sexy male had assaulted her lungs. Her panties were saturated in a second. She almost dropped her plate to launch herself at him. Just as quickly, he’d shut his door, turned his back without so much as a by-your-leave and left her standing there like a fool with a plate of unwanted muffins.
Some seductress she turned out to be. Where was he headed in such an all-fired hurry? The motorcycle roared away like his ass was on fire. She’d seen him head west. There was only one place in that direction he could be going to before several miles of blacktop exited right out of town.
The Devil’s Playground. A raunchy, rough bar on the wrong side of town.
How humiliating to be looked over and abandoned for such a place.
Anger bolstered her courage. She’d follow him. See if she didn’t. If he kept rolling out of town, perhaps she’d stop in for a drink at the local biker watering hole and pick up someone else to take care of her escalating needs.
Before she could change her mind, Kaitlin marched back to her house to get ready to hunt him down. She pulled her hair out of the ponytail she usually wore, made use of her curling iron and applied plenty of hairspray to add volume to her stick-straight hair. An honest assessment of the dress she’d gone over to Zak’s in yielded the honest personal opinion that she was still dressed too modestly.
Time to pull out the big guns.
The too low cut, way too tight knit dress Brooke had given her as a joke fit the bill perfectly. She retrieved the fuck-me black heels she’d bought on a whim last week. They went nicely with the clingy black-and-red knit dress she was almost wearing. She eyed herself critically in the mirror. The neckline barely held to the edges of her shoulders, revealing her bra straps like a middle-school kid playing dress up with Mommy’s nice clothing.
The bra had to go.
Kaitlin pushed out a shaky breath. She hadn’t gone out in public without a bra since she was fourteen. Tossing her best Victoria’s Secret in the laundry hamper, she slid the dress back into place. The soft fabric slipped like a whisper across her bare breasts. She studied herself in the mirror again as her heart pounded.
It looked pretty good. She still needed more, though.
Instead of the usual swipe of mascara and faint pink lip-gloss she used day-to-day, she applied a thick black smear of eyeliner along each set of her lashes. Three coats of mascara and the painful process of curling them with a small torture device, and she suddenly had big eyes like the ones in magazines. Perfect.
A quick survey in the mirror of herself in the sexy dress and glam makeup showed a woman she almost didn’t recognize. She was motivated to change, and her time had run out. Kaitlin needed to get rid of her virginity tonight. Her stepsister would be here tomorrow. If she was determined to do this, now was the time. If she couldn’t entice someone wearing this dress, it was hopeless anyway.
She put a long black jacket over her sexy outfit for the sake of immediate modesty and headed out to her car. It was entirely possible that Zak had gone somewhere else after leaving, but she’d seen his bike parked at the Devil’s Playground once before. Her anger had cooled enough for her to revise her goal. If she didn’t see Zak there, she’d abandon her plan to fuck anyone else. Honestly, she didn’t really want to have sex with any other stranger.
Kaitlin, to her relief, spied Zak’s large black motorcycle before she even pulled into the gravel parking lot. Leaving her purse in the trunk, she put her keys, ID and some cash in her jacket pocket and took a deep breath. She could already hear the music, so it must be loud inside the bar.
She walked to the door, pulled it open and stepped into darkness. The neon sign behind the bar was seemingly the only light in the place. The dim, windowless space with a scattering of tables smelled like beer, sweat and all the things her mother had warned her to avoid in life. She held tight to her recently captured courage and pressed forward, gaze searching for Zak. He wasn’t readily apparent. Was he in the back?
Five steps into the place, she felt a hand grip her ass and squeeze. She jumped forward as a voice said, “Hey, mama. Never seen you in here before. You looking for a date?” She turned to see the seated man who’d grabbed her put his hand between his legs and cup his package. “I’m ready to help you out, mama. I’ll make you purr like a kitten.”
Kaitlin decided then and there she wasn’t capable of pulling this off. What a fool she’d been. If she got out of here without being violated, murdered and her body buried out back, she’d count herself lucky and never, ever take such a foolish risk again.
She took a step backwards, inching her hands behind her as if she could summon the door by reaching for it with her fingertips. Unfortunately, someone had moved in behind her, blocking her from the front door exit. She tucked her hands to the front to keep from accidentally touching the new stranger barring her escape.
“Don’t go,” the new scary stranger said. “You don’t have to leave, sweetness. Stay. Have a drink. Relax.” He smelled like booze, cigarette smoke and body odor. Kaitlin swayed forward to escape the stench of the man crowding her.
“I…I’ve made a mistake,” she said in a barely audible voice. She clutched her hands to her coat collar, wishing she didn’t look like a total slut beneath the thin covering.
The man behind her moved a step closer. He reached for her neck. She flinched but couldn’t move fast enough before he grabbed her coat half off of her shoulders.
Arms trapped, Kaitlin went cold with panic. She froze as he tugged, trying to get her coat off.
“Loosen up. Let me take your coat,” he said. A quick decision made her relinquish the coat. She wanted free of him. Losing the coat meant she was able to move away from him, albeit without her covering. With her long coat clutched in his fingers, his gaze went straight to her chest, dipping down to her unbound breasts.
Kaitlin took a longer step away from him and eyed the coat longingly. Her wallet and keys were in the pocket. But he still stared at her chest. She turned away. He laughed. Over her shoulder she saw him turn to hang it on a coat rack by the front door.
Decent of him, and a surprise.
She took a step or two further into the bar area, not looking exactly where she was going. Keeping her coat in view seemed more important in that moment. Then again, walking blindly further into this bar might also be unwise. So she divided her attention between scanning the bar for Zak and keeping an eye on her coat. With her head turning every which way, she
was fairly certain she looked idiotic.
There were a few tables strewn about in her immediate surroundings. An arched open doorway ten feet ahead of her led into a larger room. Along the right side was a long wooden bar, where men sporting leather and denim and stitching that she assumed denoted various group affiliations sat on barstools.
Unfortunately, moving away from the man who took her coat also pushed her deeper into the bar, closer to the loud music, and further from the only way she knew out of this possibly dangerous place. Her gaze darted here and there throughout the dark space.
Still no Zak in sight.
Her attention was directed over one shoulder, focused on the man who’d taken her coat. He was again encroaching on her space. She moved almost sideways to keep the distance between them. A grin shaped his cruel lips. The jagged pink scar across his forehead didn’t make him look dashing. It made him look scary. The stringy dark hair hanging to his narrow shoulders also didn’t add any appeal.
What had she been thinking even coming inside this place? Why was she even here? Her stupid pride. Her stupid, foolish, longstanding need to one-up her worldly, older stepsister, that’s why.
Brooke was the one person who’d never be impressed by Kaitlin’s actions anyway. She was about to die thanks to making poor decisions regarding her foolish lack of experience with men. Maybe she deserved to be buried out back.
She’d push out a dejected sigh, but didn’t want to draw any more attention to herself than she already had by bursting in here like an idiot junior high girl chasing after the unattainable bad boy.
Kaitlin swore that if she got out of this mess she’d never want or try to get sex ever again. Brooke could do her worst. And she would. Kaitlin vowed to suffer her many regrets in silence.
She’d let Brooke—
Her self-flagellating reverie was interrupted when the man who’d grabbed her ass and spoken initially—a slightly rotund older man with a fading hairline—suddenly stood up and moved in her direction.
Kaitlin took two quick steps further into the bar to avoid being sandwiched between him and the coat thief. She made it to the arched doorway and rushed into the next room, her shoulder leading the way, without much thought as to where she was headed.
Three steps past the entryway, her attention still wasn’t on where she was going. Naturally, she bumped into someone. Out of the corner of her eye she saw dark hair, smelled expensive cologne, and felt the power of the man’s presence when he moved a single stride closer.
She looked up into the face of another scary man. He was devastatingly handsome in a completely demonic sort of way. He sported a large smile filled with straight white teeth and an angular, sculpted face any male model would kill for, but his eyes were dark and dead. The large grin shaping his lips never came close to reaching his gaze with any form of real amusement. Like a grinning shark.
His deep voice grated across her skin unpleasantly when he said, “What do we have here? A new customer?” His gaze dropped to Kaitlin’s braless, low-cut cleavage. She wanted to cover herself with her hands, but feared looking even more ridiculous.
Everyone in the immediate area looked at the man with respect. Or maybe it was fear. Either way it was clear this satanically attractive and powerful man was the boss.
She was so screwed. Her boobs fairly hanging out of the slutty dress she wore, Kaitlin was also without the means to leave. She’d lost sight of her coat, but hoped it was still by the front door, even though she wasn’t.
Now the powerful man likely in charge of this heathen space was about to make a decision that would probably change her life forevermore. Would he accost her? Put her into a white slavery ring where her virginity would be auctioned off to the highest bidder? I do have a fanciful imagination along with my potent death wish, trying to get laid for the first time in a biker bar no less.
Kaitlin’s eyes filled with frightened tears. It was a huge tactical mistake to show fear in a place like this and in front of a man like this. Knowing that didn’t stop the growing panic infusing her soul with dire predictions of what was about to happen. Terror soaked into the very marrow of her bones. She was going to die because she’d futilely lusted after a man and sought out the pleasures of the flesh.
She took a step away from the boss, bumped into the rotund man crowding her. She side-stepped him and turned, ready to run toward a hallway she hoped would lead her to the back exit, only to plaster herself against the muscular front of the man she’d come in here to find.
Zak.
The masculine scent of him hit her first, infusing her lungs with pleasure, arousal and, most importantly right now, a sense of refuge. Pressed this close to him, Kaitlin felt immediate comfort, inherent desire, and debilitating lust with every breath she took. Without another thought, she wrapped her arms around his waist, locking her hands at the small of his back, hugging him tight, and pressing her breasts to his solid abs.
She wasn’t going to let go. They’d have to pry her off.
“What are you doing here, Kaitlin?” Zak’s low voice rolled over her. He knows my name?
She tilted her head back when his irate tone registered. It didn’t support any notion of safety. Her gaze locked with his deep blue eyes.
“Zak,” she said with the appropriate amount of fear laced into the word, wanting to cry because she had assumed she would be safe in his arms. Currently she was unsure he’d be any better than anyone else here. All she really knew about him was that he had a great ass and Mrs. Waverly liked him.
An unruly lock of his hair dropped to the center of his forehead. Despite her terror, she wanted to tuck it back in place. She wanted to lovingly stroke his whiskered face. She wanted to trace the beautiful lines of his sculpted lips with a light touch before discovering what he tasted like.
Her heart sped in her chest as several intimate desires filled her body and soul. “I didn’t like how we left things on your front porch,” she finally said. She’d thought her words were stated quietly enough that only Zak could hear it.
But behind her, Mr. Demonic Power asked, “Fighting with your woman, Zak?” He made a tsk tsk noise.
Zak’s gaze lifted to the boss man.
“No,” he said, crushing her feelings. She wasn’t his woman, unfortunately. They’d never formally met or even touched until now. Why did she expect he’d save her?
“No? Are you sure? Sounds like you left your woman behind and now she’s caught up with you.”
“Well, some jackass called and told me I needed to get here right now or else. Did you think I was just sitting by the phone waiting for your call?” Zak laughed. Kaitlin was close enough to feel the rumble of amusement fill his wide chest. But he didn’t sound happy at all. “Well, I wasn’t just sitting around doing nothing, was I, baby?”
Both of Zak’s arms wound around her with measured care. His palm pressed warmly in the center of her back, pushing her more intimately into his firm body. Her hips settled against his erotically, one pelvic bone digging in, invading her side. Baby? Was he going to play along and save her? Please?
Was it wrong to like the way he called her baby, like intimacy had already been shared between them? Like they were already rolling around in his bed, beneath the sheets, taking every opportunity to go at it like bunnies as often as possible?
A warm, loose feeling encompassed her as that fantasy swirled in her head.
“No. You weren’t just sitting around,” she murmured near his collar. “You were about to be very busy…with me.” Because I was about to seduce you, but you had to leave and come here to see the beautiful demon boss of this scary place. Now I understand. Now I wish I’d waited at home for you to return.
Without warning, Zak’s fingers brushed along her jawline, slipping easily into the waves of hair at the side of her face. The tips of his nails grazed a path along her scalp with a delicious, decidedly powerful force until his fingers curled through several locks and gripped tight.
He tugged her head b
ack slowly until her face tilted upward. Her gaze was suddenly fixed on the wickedly curved shape of Zak’s mouth. It was a completely possessive move to make, and she really liked it. She willed him to kiss her, lifting her stare to his luscious bedroom-blue eyes.
And he did, shockingly enough.
His mouth lowered in the next second, pressed hard to hers. His warm, luscious tongue licked between her pliant lips, sending tendrils of pleasure through her body from head to toes. He overwhelmed her in every possible wonderful way.
Kaitlin moaned, curling her tongue around his, tasting him, devouring him, falling in love instantly with the commanding way he kissed her.
Even if she was murdered and buried out behind the bar today, she would at least die happy with the taste of Zak’s exquisitely perfect kiss on her lips.
Chapter Four
The moan Zak heard soon after he initiated this kiss with his not so prim and proper neighbor resonated through to his very soul. Jesus. This was so not the situation he wanted to instigate a lip lock with Kaitlin. He would have preferred to go back in time, pull her from his front porch and spend his time with her tucked away in the upstairs bedroom he’d claimed.
He would have rather pushed her to the surface of the soft bed and discovered why she seemed so fascinated with a bad boy instead of falling for a dentist or an accountant with a stable life, like she deserved.
Zak couldn’t forsake her to this crowd. He’d have to claim her or Demarco would deal with her. A growing part of him didn’t mind staking his claim so much.
After she moaned, he took inventory of all the places they were connected. First and foremost on his sizable list was the fact she’d ditched her bra and her soft ample breasts were pressed deliciously to his chest.
The notion equally tantalized and inspired dread because the crowd of onlookers was a dangerous one. He wasn’t quite one of them yet. Once the first deal was completed, they’d feel he was complicit and trust him more, but not much. Bringing a woman into this place before the first deal was even arranged meant they would want to vet her as well. Now that he’d claimed her as his woman with such a provocative public kiss, his criminal life here was about to change.
Biker (Bad Boys in Big Trouble Book 1) Page 3