by Naomi West
“Don’t apologize. I did what I had to do. But right now, we’ve got to get you out of here. Do you have any out-of-state relatives you could stay with for a while?” He moved his hand to her arm and began leading her out of the trees.
Blue planted her feet, refusing to go any further until she had some answers. This man had been nothing but confusing and unsettling since she had met him, and it was time it stopped. “I suggest you tell me what’s going on, or else I’m not going anywhere. Hell, I might not anyway.”
He could easily have dragged her across the ground or thrown her over his shoulders. Blue could feel the strength in his arms, threatening to be used. But he let go of her and turned to face her once again. She couldn’t really see him, but she could feel his presence like a thick shadow hanging over her.
Torque’s fist pounded lightly on the tree behind her. “There was a shooting last night. I just found out about it this morning.”
She struggled to understand what that had to do with anything. “Yes, I heard about it on the radio. Half the businesses downtown have closed for a few days over it, and all the anti-gun groups are on the rampage. They said an officer was killed. What about it?” A horrific thought struck her, one that made her feel dizzy all over again. “You didn’t shoot a cop, did you?”
“No, I didn’t,” he retorted. “I wasn’t even there. But that shootout was between the Dirty Bastards and Satan Seed, and our clubs are at war now. Rat already has it out for you, and he’s likely to get stirred up all over again with this happening. I need to get you to a safe place before something happens.
“I see.” Things made a little more sense now. There had been the gunfire in the distance, and then there had been the three Bastards who had ridden by. Blue had no way of knowing if they’d been looking for her or if they’d been just looking for trouble in general, but she didn’t want to know. Torque was probably right about Rat, and he had already messed up her life enough. She not only had to worry about what was going to happen with her career and her life now that she was going to be a mother, she had to just make sure she kept herself alive.
But then she remembered just who and what Torque was. He was a worthless biker, and if he was here to get her to a safe place then it was only because he expected something from her. No, she didn’t need him to protect her, and she twisted her arm away from him. “Fine. But I can take care of myself. I don’t need your help with any of this.”
Torque regained his hold easily. “Uh, yeah, you do. There are Bastards all over the city right now. I parked my bike a half a mile back just to make sure I wouldn’t be seen anywhere near your shop, since that’s what Rat will expect. It’s not safe for you to be out here alone, even on a good night, and I’m sure as hell not letting you walk back home alone.”
“That’s quite the act of chivalry for someone like you.” Blue wasn’t going anywhere, not with him, and certainly not because he told her to. Dirty Bastards be damned, especially if they came across her in her current mood.
“And just what is that supposed to mean?” He was in front of her, his face tipped down to hers and the muscles of his arms alternately tensing and relaxing. She could feel the shift in his body as he grabbed her around the waist.
Blue jutted her chin up at him, feeling angry and defiant. “I think you know exactly what that means. You come around the shop, all interested in saving me and being the hero of the day. You were there so much that Spencer was just about ready to start writing you paychecks as a part-time security officer, but once you got what you needed from me, you disappeared. I don’t appreciate being used, Torque.”
“I used you?” He gave a snort of a laugh and pulled her an inch closer. “You were the one who told me over and over again how awful bikers were. You didn’t want to have anything to do with me, but you slept with me anyway.”
The way his body had felt underneath her that night was still clear in her mind. He had been so hard and muscular, holding a kind of strength she had been longing for. Unbidden, her hands travelled up to splay against his wide chest as her throat tightened. “You could have stopped me.”
“I’m not an idiot. Why would I stop a beautiful woman from making love to me?”
She pressed her lips together to keep from smiling. Blue was supposed to be angry, but she knew flattery when she heard it. “And what about after that? You didn’t have to disappear like that. Even injured, you could have gotten a hold of me. I don’t think I’m that hard to find.” It had hurt her, whether she wanted to admit it to herself or not.
“You made it very clear you didn’t want me around. I’m just a low-down, rotten, no-good biker, remember?”
Their bodies were so close now that she could feel the heat radiating off his skin to touch hers despite the coolness of the shadows and the night. Her heartbeat raced to match his, and she closed her eyes just to focus on the feel of it all. Their lips were only a fraction of an inch apart, and she swore she could feel the very edges of his skin as she spoke. “Oh, yes. I remember. You’re awful. But I’ve not always been known for making the best decisions.”
He kissed her then, and she let herself be pulled into his embrace. They could argue all day long, but their bodies always seemed to agree. Blue opened her mouth and gave herself to him. She forgot about her own troubles, about Torque’s absence over the last few weeks, over the way he had practically kidnapped her in the park. None of it mattered right now, because they were together. Her arms floated up to wrap around his neck and pull him closer, if it was even possible.
When his hands slid under her shirt, she made no move to stop him. She relished the feel of his rough skin as he explored her, tracing the lines of her back and curling around the front of her hips and up to cup her breasts. It was then that she leaned away from him, but only to give him access to anything he wanted. Her shirt was off, disappearing into the night, and Torque reached for the waistband of her yoga pants. Blue let him wriggle them down off her hips and throw them after her shirt, but only if he didn’t stop kissing her.
He pressed his thumb at the crotch of her panties, slowly rubbing in small circles. Blue barely held herself up by clutching at his shoulders, pulsing her hips to his rhythm. He knew how to make her wet with just a touch, or even a look, and she gasped with pleasure and surprise as his fingers drew aside the fabric of her undergarments to touch her skin. His hand was so warm, and the sudden contact made her body leap toward him.
Her own fingers shaking from being so ready, Blue pulled at his belt buckle and reached for the treasure she knew was waiting for her. Torque’s member was hot and ready in her hands, and she caressed it with her fingertips. Oh, how she had been waiting for this. There had been so many nights since the last time she had seen him that she had wished he would show up at her door just to torture her with that body of his. He was so thick, so alive, and his raw masculinity made her weak in the knees. She wrapped her hands around his cock and tightened her grip, wanting to bring him the same kind of pleasure he could bring her.
“I want you,” she whispered desperately into the night.
“No. Not yet. I want to make sure you get what you need before I take mine.” His words made her quiver inside all over again. “I’m not just here to mess around with you, Blue. I’m not here to control you or make you a part of something you don’t want to be involved in. But I want you, and I’m going to make sure you know it.” The movements of his thumb increased.
Blue moaned softly, now so dizzy she didn’t know if she could stand any longer.
With his free hand, Torque wrapped his strong fingers around the backs of her thighs and pulled her up into the air. Blue wrapped her legs around him, and he turned to put her back against the tree. She was floating in the night air, so far above the ground that she had no idea how long it would take to fall back down again. She could feel his package pressing against her even as she continued to please him with her hands, and her core was now spread wide for him.
“Oh, yes,” she
whispered.
“That’s right. You’ll get everything you need.” His hand practically vibrated against her most sensitive place, his fingers working to bring her to her to rapture.
Blue melted into the tree behind her as her body convulsed from the inside out. Stars burst in her vision as her legs shivered around him. It was pure pleasure, but it wouldn’t stop. Her body was responding to his, singing back to him in repeated melodies of demand, desire, and satisfaction, and it was relentless. “Please,” she begged. “I need you inside me, or I’ll never stop coming.”
“I don’t want you to.” But he did as she asked and entered her, his cock calming the tidal wave of elation that had possessed her body. He pounded into her as his hands grasped her ass.
Blue didn’t think she’d ever felt something so wild, so pleasurable, so feral. She put her arms behind her and wrapped them around the tree, tipping her face and her breasts up to the night and giving herself over to the primitive parts of her mind and body that knew exactly what they wanted and would stop at nothing to get them.
Torque bent his head to kiss her nipples as he fucked her against the tree, pulling them into his mouth and sucking them hard. He knew just what she needed. Yet another wave of undulating gratification flowed through her body, and Torque felt it. He thrust harder as his member swelled, bringing them both to the brink and pushing them over the edge to fall together.
Blue panted as she wrapped her arms around his neck. Torque leaned forward and pressed his forehead to her shoulder. Neither one of them wanted to break the embrace, but they knew they couldn’t stay like that forever. Finally, Torque leaned back to break her contact with the tree, and he used the strength of his arms to let her slowly slide down his body.
Being back on her feet again was slowly bringing Blue back to reality. They weren’t in some mystical forest where they could just strip down and do what they wanted. They were in the park, and there could be Dirty Bastards all around them by now. She was almost completely naked, and she fished around on the ground with her toe for her clothing. Most of all, there was something they needed to discuss. “Torque.”
“Yes?” His voice was rough, almost rasping.
“There’s something I need to tell you.” Blue didn’t want to. Telling Torque the truth could completely change things, and only a moment ago she had really been enjoying their relationship. But this was going to happen. Just as surely as her body had demanded his, just as surely as her body would grow and change around the baby, her tongue was going to spill out her secret.
“Go ahead.”
She had expected him to put her off, to argue that they had already wasted enough time with their passion and that it was time to get a move on. But he didn’t, and there was no turning back now. “Torque, I’m pregnant.”
Chapter Eleven
Torque
“You didn’t just seriously do this to me, did you?” Acer paced the length of the bar at the Clubhouse. His dark gray eyes were steely as he glared at Torque. “We’re right on the verge of war, and you bring some useless interloper here? I thought you were smarter than that.”
Torque glanced at Blue, who slouched in a booth in the corner. She could hear them clearly, but Acer insisted on talking about her as though she wasn’t there. Torque knew it was completely against their protocol to bring strangers back to their domain. But he hadn’t been about to leave her out at the park in the first place, and after her news he couldn’t leave her anywhere.
It had shocked him, to say the least. Torque hadn’t really even thought about it, although he knew what they had done. After he’d stood there in the shadows, his pants barely even on, and tried to register what was happening, he’d had to know every detail. How far along was she? How did she know? Was she sure?
And then he had moved like lightning to get her to the one place he knew he could keep her safe. He’d made sure she was comfortable and had a tall glass of ice water before he would allow Acer to start asking questions. He’d acted, but he hadn’t said much.
His thoughts were coming and going so quickly in his head that he wasn’t even sure he could make complete sentences out of them.
“I don’t see how this is any different than having the club girls here,” Torque tried to reason.
“It’s completely different, and you know it is!” The president slammed his fist on the top of the bar, making his whisky glass jump. “The club girls know what this life is about. They signed up for danger when they agreed to be part of this madness. This …This girl has no clue what she’s doing.”
“I can hear you, you know,” Blue remarked.
Torque stifled a laugh. This was a sensitive situation, and he couldn’t encourage her to talk like that to the man who might decide whether she lived or died over the next few days. Acer wasn’t the kind of person she should be messing around with, and he probably appreciated her smart remark even less than her presence. But Torque was proud of her for being able to stand up to Acer like that. Blue had a mouth on her when she wanted to.
“Good! Then you can hear me tell you to shut up and stay out of this!” Acer turned back to Torque. “I don’t have time for this, man. There are plans to be made and meetings to be held. You can’t bring your little fling here.”
For the most part, Torque was content to let Acer run the club as he saw fit. He wasn’t interested in the day-to-day management of the members like Acer was, and his life was much more relaxing when he did his job and moved on. But right now, the president just didn’t see what was going on. “You don’t understand. This is the tattoo artist I was telling you about. She’s the girl Rat’s been after, and it’s because of me. She was involved in this war before you even knew about it, and it should be our duty to protect her.” Torque had to find a way to make Acer see that this was so much more than just bringing a piece of ass back to his room.
Acer shoved his hands in his jeans pockets as he continued to pace. “I don’t know. That’s not the kind of thing we really do. You say you want her here to keep her safe, but don’t you think the Dirty Bastards will come here to look for her? We’ll be exposing all our men to danger.” He stopped pacing long enough to lean heavily on the bar, lines of worry creasing his face.
“I don’t see how it’s any more dangerous to have them come here than to encounter them on the streets,” Torque countered. “We’ll be on our own turf, and there will plenty of us here for backup on a regular basis. We’ve got a hell of an advantage by just shooting out the third-story windows. Maybe this is really the best plan.” He was bullshitting his way through this, but he would do whatever it took.
Torque wanted to be done with this conversation so he could take Blue up the stairs to his room and lay her in his bed. He didn’t even need to do anything else with her, other than just have the satisfaction of seeing her between his sheets.
Acer hesitated, clearly still looking for a reason to deny this simple request.
“I can fix that as payment.” Blue’s voice rang out through the room. Torque looked over at her table just in time to see her get on her feet and approach the president. She pointed at one of the large tattoos on Acer’s forearms, where a slash of pale skin skewered the arm of the King of Hearts. “That’s quite a scar, but it looks like the wound is old enough and the tissue is flat enough that I can fix your tattoo.” She reached out and took his arm gently in her hands, rolling it over so she could examine the entire piece.
Acer looked at her in surprise. Torque waited for the older man to snatch back his arm and send her away, but he didn’t object. Instead, he smiled. “All right. Maybe you’re not so useless after all. But I want it done here. I’m not leaving the clubhouse at a time like this. You get your supplies and then come back.”
Blue smiled back at him and turned for the door. Torque stepped up with her.
“Now, hold on.” Acer put his hand on Torque’s shoulder. The pressure was light, but Torque knew it could be as heavy as necessary. “It’s damn near dawn. Nob
ody is out there doing anything right now. Almost all of our men are back in bed, and I’d be willing to bet the Dirty Bastards turned in an hour ago. Let her go home, get whatever she needs to stay here for a few days, and then she can return with her tattoo supplies.”
“But—”
“No, Torque. There are no buts about this. You’ve gone against me enough by bringing her here, and I’m already giving you far more than I want to. Just because she found a way to make this situation agreeable for me doesn’t mean the tide has completely turned in your favor. I want you here with me, just in case something happens.”
Torque clenched his fists. His need to protect her was strong, whether Acer thought she needed that protection or not. But the president did have a good point, and there was little he could do about it. “Fine. But I’ll take her down to the garage and see her safely into a cab.”
Acer flung the assertion away with a flick of his fingers. “Whatever. Just keep your ass on this property.”
Torque kept his eyes on Blue as they walked down the stairs. She’d had a long, rough night, but she still carried herself proudly. His gaze wandered down to her ass, which was still enticing even after their rendezvous in the park. He reached out to pluck a small leaf from the confines of her hair. “You really think you can fix it? Acer’s tattoo?”