Blood looked away wondering if he’d misjudged the whole thing. Maybe Skylar and Shades were meant to be together. If Shades was her first love, he’d never be able to compete with that. And that sucked for him, but it wasn’t the first time he’d taken an interest in a woman only to have it dangled in front of him and then yanked away.
****
Shades shrugged out of his cut, tossing it on the bed. Next came his tee shirt. He pulled it over his head and tossed it toward the floor of the closet.
Skylar couldn’t help but gaze upon all that beautiful exposed muscle, the cut abs, that sexy V that disappeared into the low waist of his jeans.
There was a low stuffed arm chair in the corner by the picture windows that overlooked the beach. He sat down in it and bent to pull his boots and socks off, tossing them across the room, into the closet. Then he leaned back into the chair, and she could see the exhaustion rolling off him.
Coming to stand behind him, she started rubbing his shoulders, his skin smooth and warm beneath her hands. His head fell back, and his eyes slid closed as her fingers dug into the knotted muscles.
“Hmm, that feels good.”
She worked his muscles harder.
She thought about the fight he’d been in tonight. This was a whole new side of Shades. A side of him that was being revealed to her on this trip. First the violence in New Orleans, when he’d decked that creep in the bar. Then his confrontation with Blood that same night. And now this fight tonight. This was a side of Shades she hadn’t seen when they’d been together years ago. Maybe it had always been there, maybe he’d just kept it hidden from her. But she’d never been confronted with it before. She’d never been actual witness to it. Witness to its fallout.
She took in Shades’ face, still unbelievably attractive despite being all bruised up. She’d been taken with his good looks from the first moment she’d met him, but it had always been about more than his looks. It was his overwhelming masculinity, his intensity, his strength, his dominant personality. It was the rousing sex and the sweet kisses. The way he brought out the wild side in her, and the way he drew out her most guarded fears, secrets, hopes and dreams.
She’d fallen in love with his gruff voice and his dirty words, the gentleness of his touch, and his growly commands. The way he could be rough and playful with her one minute and sweet and tender with her the next. She never knew what to expect. He was anything but predictable. And she loved that about him. Skylar’s lips touched the skin of his neck and she felt Shades relax into the caress.
“You should sleep.” She slid her arms around him. “You’ve been going non-stop for days. You barely slept when we were in New Orleans.”
“If you wanted me to sleep, you shouldn’t have started touching me like that, sweetheart. When I walked in the room, sleep was all I had on my mind. Now you’ve got me thinking about something else.”
His hand came up to cup her neck, pulling her head down as he tipped his head back and claimed her mouth with his. The kiss was gentle, sweet, but she felt him holding back. When he released her, she looked down into his eyes.
“Come here, pretty girl.” He pulled her around in front of him and onto his lap, his arms encircling her hips. “We need to have an actual honest conversation.”
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
Shades studied Skylar. He knew what was going through her mind. Skylar might try to play the tough biker chick, but she’d never fully pull it off, not when everything she felt played across her face.
“You’re upset.” He watched the frown form on her face, but she wasn’t fooling him. She knew exactly what he was talking about. “The fighting. You don’t like it.”
She did that cute thing he knew she always did where she sucked in her lips as if she was trying to literally hold back the words. His eyes dropped to her mouth. “Say it. Tell me.”
When still she stayed quiet, he squeezed her. “We have to be able to talk about shit, Skylar. We always could before.”
“It scares me. I’ve never seen this side of you. Maybe it was always there, but—”
“I did my best to keep that all away from you.”
“So, it was always there?”
He shrugged. “It’s been a stressful week, Sky. I won’t always be coming home with bruises.”
“But, the life you lead—”
“The life I lead is the same one I always led. You’re just in it now, in a way you weren’t before.”
“Is this the norm for you? First New Orleans and now here? Are you going to get in fist fights everywhere we go?”
“Sky, I don’t go looking for fights, but if someone’s insulting you or some goddamn club is trying to invade our turf, then hell yeah, I’ll make the motherfuckers bleed.”
She looked at him, and it was with anything but certainty.
“That look tells me that right now you’re questioning what the hell you’re signing up for,” Shades said in a low voice.
She looked down and he knew that was exactly what she was doing.
He lifted her chin. “Babe, look at me.” When her eyes connected with his, he searched them. “You don’t get to pick which parts of me you accept. You don’t have to agree with me or like all the decisions I make, but if you accept me, you’ve got to take all of me.”
“So this will always be a part of our lives? The violence?” There was a bite to her words, and it wasn’t lost on Shades. He took a deep breath and nodded.
“Yeah. I can’t sit here and lie to you. More than anything, I want us to be honest with each other, about everything. I want to be able to talk to you about things, without fear of upsetting you. Without fear that you’re not going to support me. If you take me on, you’re taking the bad with the good. I don’t want to have to hide shit from you. If I’m going through a rough time, there are going to be nights when I’ll need to be able to come home and talk to you about it. I need to know I can do that. That I don’t have to make up stories about why my face is bruised or whatever. Bottom line is I need you, Sky. I need your support, your encouragement,” he paused to smile. “Sometimes I’ll need you to tell me when I fuck up. And lastly, I’ll always need your love.”
“I don’t know if I can be that person, Shades.”
He frowned, fearing she was having second thoughts about being with him. Real honest-to-God second thoughts. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know if I can be all those things. I don’t know if I’ll ever be the kind of woman you need.”
“You’re exactly the kind of woman I need, Skylar. I’ve never found another woman that fit me better, that suited me better.”
“Shades—”
“Do you love me? Because that’s all it comes down to, Skylar.”
“You know I do.”
“That’s all I need, baby. Just give us a chance. Can you do that?”
He was right. A life with Shades had to be all or nothing and nothing wasn’t an option. She nodded. “All right. I’ll take the bad with the good, Shades. Because without you I’m lost, I’m only half alive.”
Shades pressed his lips gently to hers. He felt her arms slide around his neck and he deepened the kiss, his hand cupping the nape of her neck. The kiss turned hot and heavy until suddenly she pulled back. He looked up questioningly, and then caught her sly smile. A moment later, she was slipping off his lap to drop to her knees between his spread thighs. Her hands began working his belt buckle as a half grin pulled at his mouth.
“Baby, you gonna take my mind off my injuries?” He brushed a lock of hair back from her face, enjoying the look of desire on her face.
“I’m going to make you feel all better. I know what my man likes,” she whispered as she undid his pants and pulled his erection out.
His hands threaded into her silky hair as she wasted no time in teasing him, but instead settled her mouth over him, taking him all the way to the back of her throat.
He hissed in a breath and his hips involuntarily thrust forward as he clutched her
head. “Christ, Sky. That feels fucking good. Yeah, my baby knows what her man likes.”
His head dropped back against the chair as she made him forget every bruised part of his body.
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
The next morning, Blood shuffled out of his room, shirtless, to find Ghost wailing on the toaster oven with a wooden spoon. He took a seat at the dining table with Shades and Skylar.
“What did that toaster oven ever do to you?” Blood squinted his eyes at Ghost.
“Die, toaster. Die.” Ghost growled.
“It burnt his fucking pop tart,” Shades explained, sipping his coffee.
“Jesus Christ,” Blood grumbled. “Where’s the aspirin?”
Ghost stopped banging on the toaster and pointed the wooden spoon toward the bathroom between Blood and Sandman’s bedrooms. “In the cabinet.”
Before he got up, Blood reached over and tugged on a lock of Skylar’s hair. “Sorry about last night. I can be an ass. We good, darlin’?”
Her expression softened at his apology. “We’re good.”
“No hard feelings?”
She shook her head.
Blood got up and moved to the bathroom, rummaged through the cabinet and pulled out a bottle. As he carried it back to the main room, he glanced into the partially open door of Sandman’s room. There was a woman passed out in the bed with him. Blood did a double take at the door and asked as he returned to the table, “Is that the blonde skank from last night?
Ghost grinned and turned to Shades. “Am I a matchmaker or what?”
Shades gave him a tired thumbs up.
“How the hell did she get here?” Blood asked, knowing they’d all ridden back, and Sandman hadn’t had any blonde ridin’ bitch last night.
“Apparently she followed us back in her car. It’s stuck in the sand out there,” Shades informed the group.
Ghost peered out the window over the kitchen sink with its view of the drive. “Son-of-a-bitch. She’s sunk up to the wheel wells. We’ll have to push her out.”
“I ain’t pushin’ shit,” Blood growled. “He tapped her, let him cart his ass out there and push her out.”
A moment later, Sandman stumbled out of the bedroom scratching his chest. “Did I hear my name?”
“Take a look out the window, bro,” Blood advised.
“Yeah, you’re date’s car is stuck.”
“Christ it’s bright as fuck in here,” Sandman grumbled.
“That’s called daylight, Brother,” Ghost put in.
Sandman’s squinting eyes searched around for his black, wraparound sunglasses. He grabbed them up off the bar, slid them on and then moved to the window. He groaned when he saw the car sunk in the sand.
“Kill me now.”
“Oh, oh, I’ll do it.” Ghost had his hand in the air.
Shades and Blood burst out laughing.
Sandman collapsed into a chair at the dining table, joining the rest of them.
“My head hurts.”
“Everybody’s head hurts. Get over it,” Blood barked and threw the bottle of aspirin at him.
“Why does my face hurt?” Sandman tenderly touched his cheek below the dark sunglasses.
“Because you let some douchebag Death Head blindside you, dumbass.”
“Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. We beat the crap out of ‘em, though, didn’t we?”
“Yup.”
He suddenly turned to Blood. “Was I cuffed to a pole with you or did I just dream that?”
“You dreamt that,” Blood replied with no hesitation.
The rest of them snickered.
Shades looked over at Blood. “Thanks for the help last night.”
“A chance to pound some Death Head faces to a pulp? Wouldn’t have missed it.”
Shades grinned.
Out of the blue, Sandman, who was now fingering a ceramic pumpkin that sat as part of the silk-floral centerpiece, mumbled, “We don’t carve pumpkins at my house…I don’t trust my children with knives. They may turn on me.”
Shades almost snorted his coffee out his nose.
Turning to Blood, Skylar frowned and whispered, “Is he on drugs?”
Blood took a sip of his coffee. “No, but he should be.”
Sandman stood up and moved toward the coffee maker mumbling, “I need coffee.” He pulled down a mug and turned to Ghost. “You want some?”
“Yeah, black, with two heaping spoonful’s of whatever you’re on.”
The table chuckled.
“Why do you all think I’m on drugs? This is me stone-cold sober.”
“God help us,” Ghost muttered.
“I need a smoke. Let’s take this out on the deck,” Shades muttered.
They all moved out to the deck. Shades lit up.
A couple of brown pelicans flew overhead.
“You know what would be good right now? A Bloody Mary,” Sandman said, going to stand by the railing, looking out over the Gulf.
“Go make you one,” Ghost offered, taking a seat and leaning back in his chair. “I’m pretty sure my aunt has some mix and vodka in there.”
“That does sound good,” Blood agreed, lighting up a smoke.
An hour later, they were on their second pitcher, and Skylar was munching on a celery stalk. Blood shook his head, grinning at her.
Shades looked down at the time on his cell phone. “Speaking of cops, it’s time we head back up there.”
Blood tipped his glass up and finished the last of his drink. “It’s a beautiful day—now watch some asshole fuck it up.”
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
Shades and the boys rolled up to the state-line bar. There were squad cars everywhere. They parked their bikes. The county sheriff strolled over to Shades as he sat astride his parked bike, his head dipped lighting up a smoke. Shades flicked his lighter closed, shoved it in his pocket and blew out a stream of smoke.
“You ready for ‘em?” he asked, looking up at the sheriff.
“Yep.”
“What’s your plan?”
The man grinned. “You just keep your boys out of our way.”
“I’d like to stick around and watch the fun.”
“Fair enough. But stay out of it.”
“If you handle it, we will. But if you fall down on the job, we’re stepping in.”
The sheriff’s radio crackled. “They just crossed the canal bridge.”
The sheriff responded back. “How many?”
“About thirty.”
“Ten-four.”
Shades grinned at him. “Showtime.”
The sheriff walked off.
Shades climbed off his bike and stood with his arms crossed, watching with Ghost, Blood, and Sandman at his back.
With only minutes to spare, the Gulf Chapter rolled in the parking lot with a roar. Shades watched as they parked. Case wandered over.
“Any word?” he asked, his eyes on all the squad cars and uniforms.
Shades nodded. “Should be rollin’ up any minute. Word is they just crossed the canal bridge onto Perdido Key.”
They all stood and watched as suddenly law enforcement brought out barricades and set up a check point. A line of officers moved into position, blocking the road and forming a line, each holding a shotgun across their chest.
Shades grinned over at Case. “Guess that’s makin’ a statement all right.”
Case grinned back. “That would definitely make me think twice about rollin’ up on ‘em.”
The line of bikes stopped in the distance, pulling to the side of the road.
The men watched closely, waiting to see what the Death Heads would do.
“How many you count?” Case asked.
Shades squinted into the distance studying the men and the line of motorcycles, heat rising up from the pavement distorted the image with shimmering waves. “A shit load. Twenty-eight if I counted right.”
Shades could see the men in front squinting back in their direction and knew that not only did the Death
Heads see the major statement law enforcement was making, they also saw the sixteen members of the Evil Dead MC standing, their arms folded across their chests, in a line in the parking lot of the bar, making their own statement.
The line of bikes sat in the heat of the sun for a long time and tensions grew as everyone waited to see what the Death Heads would do. After about twenty long tense minutes, they finally turned around and rode off.
Shades and Case turned to each other, and Shades informed him, “Hopefully, they’ll rethink their plan to make a move into this state. But I doubt this is the end of it. More likely, it’s just round one. Your chapter’s gonna have to continue to hold ‘em off. You’re gonna have to be vigilant about that, Brother.”
Case nodded, but grinned. “True, but gotta say, it was fun watching them turn tail and run.”
Shades put his palm in the air, and Case grinned back, slapping his hand in a high-five. Shades turned to the other men. “Let’s get a drink, boys.”
Blood stopped him, asking, “You gonna be good to go? Make it back to Birmingham okay?”
“Yeah, man. We’re good.”
“All right, then we’re leaving,” Blood jerked his chin to Sandman.
Ghost, who was standing behind Shades, looked at Blood and grinned. “Don’t toy with us, Blood.”
Blood shook his head. “You’re a hoot.”
“I try.” Ghost shrugged.
They bumped fists. “Later.”
“Later, Blood,” Shades gave him a chin lift. “Thanks for your help.”
Blood headed off toward his bike, with Sandman in tow. He lifted his hand and gave a thumbs up without looking back.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Shades pulled out of Skylar and slid off her. Turning her and spooning up to her back, he wrapped his arms around her. He nuzzled her neck, and then he gave her earlobe a nip before his voice was in her ear.
“You good, baby?”
She grinned. “I’m great.”
SHADES: An Evil Dead MC Story (The Outlaw Series Book 3) Page 27