Bounty

by Aubrey St. Clair

  “Oh, was he, now?” I shoot a glare at Zane, which he doesn’t seem to notice. I have a pretty good idea what kind of parts he might have added to his hog, and seeing that right now would probably throw this night into fucking chaos. “Well you might have to take a rain check on that. I want to show you the rest of the club.”

  “Haha, didn't you already give her the private tour of your office last week?” laughs Snake. “Don’t be fooled, Eve. Bash just wants another piece of that hot ass of yours.”

  I laugh, but he’s not entirely wrong. Seeing Eve flirt with all of these guys is making me want to drag her to the back and mark her as if I’m an animal staking my claim. What the hell has gotten into me? We’re supposed to just be pretending to date. She isn’t really mine. She doesn’t want to date her boss again, and I was stupid enough to take on that role.

  “There’s more than just my office back there,” I counter, feeling more defensive than I should. “That’s just the only thing that Eve got to see last time.”

  “Yeah, and even then it was probably just a close-up view of the top of your desk, right?” All the guys laugh this time, and although I feel my fist clench, Eve joins in.

  “Come to think of it, you're right. I did get a very good view of that. But I’m always up for taking a second look, if that’s what Bash wants to show me.” She slips her arm through mine, giving it a squeeze. “It’s been fun, boys, but my man wants some alone time, and I’m sure you all know what that means. We’ll try to keep it down, though. Wouldn’t want this little meeting of yours to turn into a circle jerk…”

  My eyes widen, but all the guys throw their heads back and laugh raucously. Eve continues to amaze me.

  Despite what I had said about wanting to show her the back of the club, I steer her back to my office. Watching her flirt with the other guys while she wore next to nothing has left me burning with desire, and I can’t continue to ignore it. As soon as the door closes, I grab Eve’s arm and pull her against me into a kiss.

  She returns it, but then pushes back from me after few moments. “Wait,” she protests. “I thought we weren’t going to do this.”

  “That was your rule, not mine.” I press my lips back against her as my hands run along the sides of her body. The flesh of her bare stomach is soft and warm. Rules were made to be broken, after all.

  Her mouth opens to let my tongue slide in and for a few more moments she seems to melt into me, but then stops again.

  “Right… it’s my rule. I can’t do this, Bash. I’ve been down this road before. Look where getting involved with Edward got me.”

  I run my hand up along her body and cups one of her tits, squeezing it as I realize for the first time that she isn’t wearing a bra. My cock is hard instantly. “I’m not Edward.”

  I can feel her heart pounding in her chest, and I know it’s not because she’s scared. She licks her lips as she looks at me, the indecision on her face as clear as if it were written there with a sharpie.

  “I can’t…”

  “You can,” I say. “I want you Eve. More than I’ve wanted anyone, ever. You know both sides of my life and you actually accept them. That’s been the one thing I’ve been missing my whole life. You’re smart, you fit in wherever you go. And you’re fucking gorgeous.” I run my thumb across her nipple and then bend my head down to kiss her on the neck. She tilts her head back to give me more access.

  “Bash…” Her protests are getting weaker, and her hands are now running along my back, tracing my muscles lightly with her nails.

  I meant what I said, though. I’ve never felt like this for anyone before. I’ve never felt jealous or upset at just seeing someone I was with talking to other men. I think about her when she’s not around, and the idea of letting her into my lives have been a huge relief to me ever since I made it.

  “I thought we were just pretending,” she pants.

  “I don’t want to pretend anymore,” I answer, lifting my head to gaze into her eyes. She finally nods and then meets my lips in a kiss that grows in passion with each second that we touch. My hands slip up under her top and push away the fabric as I close around her breasts. Her own hand slips down between my legs and squeezes my cock. I’m harder than I can ever remember being.

  I just begin to lower my head to take her nipple into my mouth when there is a pounding at the door to my office. Eve jumps back and grabs at the top of her shirt, trying to yank it down just as the door flies open. I don’t even bother trying to hide the rage I feel as I whirl around to stare at Snake and his swinging beard.

  Before I can even scream at him to get out, he holds up his hands to stop me. “Boss, we got a big problem.” Something about the look on his face tells me I’m not going to like it. I glare at him, the urgency of his tone the only reason I haven’t punched his lights out yet, and wait for him to continue.

  Snakes eyes shift to Evelyn and then back to me, the reason for his hesitation at continuing obvious.

  “Speak,” I say, dismissing his concern. It’ll save me having to repeat this conversation to her later, anyway.

  He looks back between us again warily, but then he just shrugs, deferring to my decision. At least someone around here remembers who the boss is.

  “Ripper just showed up. And he’s got something with him.” His eyes shift to Evelyn again as he stops speaking.

  “What do you mean? What does he have? What the fuck did he steal now?”

  Snake shakes his head violently, his beard lashing against his cheeks like a whip. “No, nothing like that… he didn’t actually show me what it was. He just said that you and I need to meet with him now, in the conference room. He said he has something… on you. He claims it’s new information and proof that you’re not what you seem, and that it’s time for you to step down as president and get the fuck out of the club. His words, not mine.”

  My heart begins to pound against my chest, the last few words out of Snake’s mouth almost imperceptible against the rushing of blood behind my ears. There’s only one thing that Ripper could possibly know that he could use to force me to step down. The only question is, how did he find out after all this time? I’ve been so careful. There is only one variable that has changed lately. Only one potential leak that I don’t have complete control over.

  My eyes harden and I can feel my teeth grinding against each other painfully as I turn my gaze to Evelyn. This is exactly why I’ve kept women out of my life. Getting too involved leads to stupid decisions and dangerous mistakes. And now I know exactly what mine was. I never should have trusted her.

  19

  Evelyn

  “Tell him I’ll meet you guys there in a few minutes to discuss this.”

  I can still feel the burn of the accusation, even when Bash shifts his gaze back to Snake. The bearded biker just nods as he exits, clearly anxious to get out of here. He must have seen the look on Bash’s face as well. Does he really think I have something to do with this? I don’t even know who Ripper is, never mind what he has on Bash.

  “Bash—”

  “Who did you tell, Evelyn?” His fury swings back to me as soon as the door is closed, cutting me off.

  “Tell what? I don’t even—”

  “About me, obviously. You can’t expect me to believe that it’s a coincidence that after years of keeping this a secret, it’s discovered only days after I finally let someone in on it. So who did you tell? Your girlfriend from the bar last weekend?”

  “What? No! I haven’t told anyone about you. I swear. I mean, after the night we met I told her we had sex, but nothing about you since.”

  “Bullshit!” Spit flies from his mouth at the word, and his face is red. I’ve never seen so much raw emotion on him before. His dark eyes are pools of midnight, but I can feel the raging inferno behind them. I can’t believe that moments ago he was kissing me so passionately, and now he’s turned into this monster, so eager to believe that I’ve stabbed him in the back. “This was a mistake. This whole fucking thing.” He
turns his head from me now as he reaches for the door to his office.

  “Wait,” I plead, reaching for his arm, my fingers closing against the cool leather of his jacket. “Bash, I swear I didn’t tell anyone anything about you.”

  Instead of responding, he just yanks his arm from my grasp and flings open the door.

  “Wait,” I say again. “What should I do?” I can feel hot tears of shock start to rim the edges of my eyes.

  Bash pauses for a moment before I hear his gravelly voice reply, still hot with fury, but tightly controlled.

  “Get the fuck out of my club. I think you’ve done enough already.”

  The door slams shut with a force strong enough to loosen the tears building in my eyes and allow them to stream down my cheeks.

  Two days.

  It’s been almost two full days since Bash blew up at me at Axle’s, and I haven’t heard from him since. Considering I didn’t go into work yesterday or today, that probably means I’m fired. Of course, just not going in without calling is probably cause to fire me on its own, but there was no way I wanted to see or even talk to him after Monday. So he can go screw himself and that job.

  What burns me the most is how one minute he’s complimenting me, wearing down my arguments about why I shouldn’t get involved with him, and then the next minute, he’s basically accusing me of selling him out. I knew he had two sides to him, but I had no idea those sides were Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Maybe the MC side was his true persona. I thought he was more Sebastian, masquerading as Bash because it was easier to maintain a wall when you were surrounded my leather and chrome. Turns out he was Bash all along, using the Sebastian mask to fool idiots like me.

  Maybe he wasn’t so different from Edward, after all. Edward could certainly act the part of Dr. Jekyll when there was a client to woo, before he brought down the axe of Mr. Hyde. How different is that from Bash? Proper businessman by day, lunatic thug by night. Maybe the whole story about him turning the MC around was a lie.

  It’s a hard idea to swallow, though. If I believe that, then I have to believe I’m a much worse judge of character than I thought I was. The things that he told me about his past, about how he’s trying to change things… if they aren’t true, then I really was blinded by something. Not love, of course. We just met a week ago. Lust, maybe. Muscles and danger and a change of pace from my ordinary and dreary life. Maybe that’s what I was blinded by? A desire to believe something I wanted so desperately to be true.

  But did I really want that? I kept telling him, and myself, that I didn’t want to get involved. That I had made promises to keep my love life out of the office. I wasn’t going to get romantically involved with my boss again. Yet if Snake hadn’t shown up when he did, there’s no denying what would have happened next. Bash may have been urging me to break that promise, but I wasn’t putting up much of a fight. The truth is, I wanted to break it just as desperately as he did.

  Which is why this whole thing hurts so much. Despite myself, I was actually starting to fall for him. And like a fool, I thought he was starting to fall for me as well.

  Now I’m just stuck back on the job boards, waiting for a pizza to drown feelings of regret and anger in layers of saucy dough and melted cheese.

  When the call comes from security, I make sure to check the feed on my television this time. An uncomfortably large part of me is disappointed to see my regular delivery guy, so I switch it off in disgust. Why is it that no matter how hard the logical side of me argues that I’m better off without him, and that he was obviously a complete asshole who clearly didn’t think enough about me to give me the benefit of the doubt, I’m still disappointed that he hasn’t even called? Am I really such a glutton for punishment and abuse?

  The phone rings again, but this time it’s just Jackie, checking in.

  “Hey, you. Feeling any better?”

  “Not really.” I didn’t tell her exactly what happened, just that things weren’t going so well at the new job and I didn’t think it was going to work out. Despite what Bash may think of me, even if he’s a dick, I’m not the type to spill his secrets.

  “How about we hit the town? I’m thinking martinis and manicures. Not necessarily in that order.”

  “Jackie, you do realize it’s a Wednesday?”

  “Yeah? So? Why let that stop us? It’s not like either of us have to get up early tomorrow.”

  Jackie never starts work until the afternoon.

  “The last time we went out drinking, look where it got me.”

  “If I remember correctly, the answer to that is: laid by a gorgeous, leather-clad biker.” Telling her about my initial rendezvous with Bash seemed innocent enough at the time, until I saw him again at the interview. But as far as she is concerned, that first meeting with Bash was my only meeting with Bash. “If I recall, you said it was one of the hottest encounters of your life. So what’s your complaint, exactly?”

  A knock at my door saves me from having to answer. “Sorry, girlfriend, I already have plans tonight. My pizza is here.”

  “Oh my God, Evelyn, you are so lame sometimes.”

  I laugh as I say goodbye and toss the cordless onto my couch. She might be right, but I think lame just works better for me. Besides, I didn’t even stay long enough at Piston to get a single paycheck yet, and I hate going out and having Jackie pay for me. I need to stay in and start sending out résumés. I already wasted all of yesterday and part of today moping around the apartment, waiting for the phone to ring. It was time to get cracking again. Maybe now that Edward thinks that I have another job, he’s no longer poisoning the job market against me.

  “Hi. Medium pepperoni, roasted red pepper, and mushrooms?”

  “That’s me.” I nod, rifling through my wallet. “How much was it again?”

  “Uh, nothing, actually. It was already paid for.”

  I look up from my wallet in confusion. “Excuse me?”

  “The bill has been paid,” he repeats, drawing the steaming box from his fabric pizza bag and pushing it toward me.

  “What do you mean? I told them cash on the phone.” I’ve been afraid to use my credit card lately. I’m sure I’m just a purchase or two away from being declined.

  He just shrugs, staring down at the box as he shoves it forward again. As soon as I grab it, he turns.

  “Wait, I think this is a mistake. Maybe you confused me with another customer?”

  “I don’t think so.” He doesn’t turn as he continues down the hall. “Have a nice day.”

  I watch him until he turns the corner and disappears toward the elevators. As much as I can use a free pizza, I feel guilty about it. There was obviously a mistake, and my conscience won’t let me just take it without calling the store first to tell them about it. I don’t want to get the pizza guy in trouble when he gets back and they ask for the money, even if he wasn’t willing to listen to me.

  What is it with men not wanting to hear what I have to say?

  I close my door and walk the pizza back into the kitchen, pondering whether or not I should call Jackie and change my mind about going out. Whenever I spend time with her, I feel more aggressive and vocal. She never has any trouble with people ignoring her. I need to develop more of an in-your-face attitude, and she’s usually more than happy to help me work on it.

  But first, I have to call the pizza place. When I do, they put me on hold as soon as I ask to speak to a manager. The priority seems to be more on taking new orders than resolving issues with existing ones, because a moment later, I hear on-hold music.

  I’m waiting less than a minute when there’s a knock on the door again.

  The delivery guy must have realized his mistake after all and come back for his money. Hanging up, I grab my wallet and head back to the door.

  “Figure out the mix-up?” I ask as I pull the door open.

  My mouth drops when I don’t see the delivery guy standing in front of me as expected.

  “Not completely,” comes a deep and familiar vo
ice. Sebastian is standing before me, his suit jacket open and white dress shirt pulled tight across his hard chest. It’s his smoldering eyes that draw my gaze the strongest, though. I see something in them that I haven’t seen before. It looks a lot like regret. “But I’m pretty sure the fact that I was a complete ass the other day only made things worse…”

  20

  Sebastian

  “What do you want?” Evelyn’s eyes are cold. They seem more golden than green today. Almost as if there is a fire burning behind her frosty stare. I can’t blame her for her anger.

  “To apologize.” The word is foreign on my tongue, but I’ve been practicing it all morning in the office so I hope it sounds natural. “Can I come in?”

  For a moment, she looks like she’s going to say no, and I don’t have a backup plan for if she does. I’m certainly not going to force my way past her. Finally, she nods almost imperceptibly as she steps back to clear the way.

  “So, I guess it was you that paid for the pizza?” she asks as she closes the door behind us.

  “I followed him through the doors so I didn’t have to stop at security. I didn’t know he was coming here until he pressed your floor and I took a peek at the receipt on his bag. He remembered me from last week, so I told him I was trying to surprise you.”

  “Mission accomplished,” she mutters, then sighs. “Why are you here, Sebastian? I think you made it pretty clear the other day that you don’t trust me.”

  I can feel my jaw tighten at the accusation. Not because it isn’t true, but because I’m embarrassed by how much that lack of trust reveals about my own shortcomings far more than hers. Admitting to weaknesses is not something you do when you’re in an MC, and it’s hard to push back so many years of practiced denial.

  “You don’t know how hard it is for me to trust someone after so long…” I trail off. Excuses aren’t an apology, and Evelyn deserves an apology. “I do trust you. I acted rashly, without thinking. You have no reason to sell me out, and I should never have believed you’d do it anyway. That’s not who you are, which is why I opened up so much to you in the first place.”