Ryker (Steele Brothers #1)

by Cheryl Douglas

  Since they lived across the street from each other, the odds were in favor of them seeing each other sooner rather than later. “So, she filled you in on the boyfriend I take it?”

  Zane shook his head. “Can you believe she played me like that? I thought I knew her.”

  I knew this wasn’t the time to lecture him about being cautious with his trust. He’d already learned that lesson the hard way. “At least you found out before it was too late, right?”

  “Uh yeah, sure.”

  “Let’s get out of here.”

  “You wanna grab a burger or somethin’ on the way home?” Zane asked.

  I put him in a headlock on the way out of my office, grinning when he broke the hold effortlessly thanks to all that expensive martial arts training. “Since when do I turn down the chance to spend more time with my kid?”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Mackenzie

  Even though I wasn’t in the mood to go out, Molly talked me into it, reminding me of the alternative: sitting home and feeling sorry for myself.

  I felt terrible about the way I’d left things with Ryker. Even if we couldn’t be together, we still had to find a way to be cordial to each other for the sake of our kids, and after the way I’d stormed out on him last night, I wasn’t sure that was going to be possible.

  “Why’d we come here?” I asked, wrinkling my nose at the sight of motorcycles lined up in front of the old building. “It looks like a biker bar.”

  “And you like bikers,” she said, giving me a hip check. “Imagine that.”

  “If you’re thinking about setting me up with another loser, don’t. I’m not interested.”

  “You’re just too picky,” she grumbled.

  Maybe she was right. After twenty years with Ryker, it was hard to settle for just any man.

  “How’d you even know about this place?” I asked, looking up at the sign. Downlow. At least that’s what I assumed it would have said if N and W had been lit up. “It seems like a seedy part of town for you.”

  “I go wherever the hot men are. You should know that by now,” Molly said, laughing. “Seriously, a date took me here a couple of weeks ago.”

  “He took you to a classy place like this? Must have been a friend of Kyle’s.”

  “Oh, shut up,” she said, linking her arm through mine. Hauling me through the door, she said, “We’re going to have fun tonight…” Her gaze travelled to the bar. “Or not.”

  Ryker was cozying up to a trashy blond bartender while his brothers commandeered a table near the pool tables. Great.

  “I’m sorry,” Molly whispered in my ear. “I didn’t think he’d be here. I just wanted you to get a look at the chick he went out with.”

  I stepped into Molly’s path, my back to the bar. “That’s the girl Ryker went on a date with?”

  “Yeah.” Molly bit her lip. “She looks just like the kind of girls he used to date before he met you, don’t you think?”

  Exactly. He may claim that he’d grown up, that marriage and family had changed him, but his taste in women hadn’t changed that much. This one looked like she was about ten or fifteen years younger than him with bleached-blond hair, Daisy Dukes, and a cut-off T-shirt showing off her obvious assets.

  The last six months of working hard in the gym faded in light of the truth. Nothing was going to turn back time. I was middle-aged and would never look like that in a pair of jean shorts again. “Let’s get out of here. I really don’t need this tonight.”

  “Too late,” Molly whispered. “Here comes Nex.”

  “Damn it.” I’d maintained my friendship with Nex since we worked out at the same gym, but I was not in the mood for his dry sense of humor tonight. “I don’t want to—”

  “Hey, gorgeous,” Nex said, wrapping his arm around my waist. “How ’bout a kiss for your favorite brother-in-law?”

  I had five brothers-in-law and the only one who’d ever claimed Nex was my favorite was Nex.

  “Hey,” I said, kissing him on the cheek. “What the hell have you been drinking?” I asked, waving my hand in front of my face. “You better not be driving tonight.”

  Since their mama died and Nex was ten years younger than me, I’d always looked out for him like a big sister. He’d been only ten when I met Ryker, and I’d watched him grow up from a little tyrant to a lady killer, seemingly overnight.

  If there was one thing the Steele brothers were not lacking, it was charm.

  “You know I don’t drink and drive, sweetness. We’re takin’ a cab.”

  “Good.” Except that meant Ryker planned to get loaded too. No telling what might happen, or who he might take home, after a few shots of Jack Daniels.

  “Has Ryker seen you yet?” Nex asked, releasing me to give Molly a peck on the cheek.

  “No, he’s been too busy to notice,” I muttered. God, I sounded like a jealous old hag. “We were thinking about getting out of here. I have—”

  “No!” Nex grabbed my hand. “You can’t go yet. Hey, Ryk, look who’s here!”

  Not only did Ryker turn to look, so did every guy in the bar. And since most were bikers, that was not the kind of attention I wanted to attract… anymore. The thrill of a bad boy may have been fun when I was twenty, but after living with my very own hell-raiser for half my life, I was thinking it might be time for a whole new outlook.

  Ryker’s blue eyes narrowed as his heavy boots ate up the steps between us. His leather boots crunched the peanut shells strewn all over the floor. The only thing that took his attention from me on the short trek was shooting dirty looks at all the guys sizing me up.

  I knew it was a mistake to ask Molly to help me pick out an outfit. A low-cut black tank top, thigh-high skirt, and high-heeled sandals was an outfit for a girl, not a woman with two teenagers at home.

  “Uh, hi,” I said when he finally stopped in front of me.

  His eyes travelled over me, narrowing when they landed on the expanse of bare leg. The skirt hadn’t seemed so short at home, but now I had the urge to pull it down to make sure it was covering my butt.

  “She looks great, doesn’t she, Ryk?” Nex asked, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

  “Nex, why don’t you go and buy our friend Molly a drink while I have a word with my wife?”

  The way he said it, as though I was his property, made me want to throw the word estranged in there just to piss him off, but I knew when Ryker got that look in his eye, it was best not to fan the flames.

  When Nex guided Molly to the bar, Ryker grabbed my hand, leading me down a dark hallway that presumably led to a set of restrooms. Or a dungeon. Maybe a cell. With this hole, nothing would surprise me.

  “What the hell are you doing in a place like this dressed like that?” he asked, gesturing to my outfit. “Do you know what kind of guys hang out here? What they’re after?”

  “You’re here,” I said, poking him in the chest. “Is that what you’re after?”

  “Would I be wearing this if I were?” he asked, flashing his wedding band.

  “I’m guessing your little girlfriend doesn’t care whether you’re wearing one of those or not. She seems happy to take you any way she can get you.” God, now he knew I was jealous.

  “I was just asking her to stop calling and texting me because I wasn’t interested,” he said between clenched teeth.

  “Is that so?” I’d never had reason to question Ryker’s fidelity before, and I didn’t now, which was strange, since I had no right to expect it after our blowup last night.

  “Yeah.” His hand landed on my hip, bringing me closer when a rough-looking biker with a full sleeve of tattoos passed us on his way to the restroom.

  “Hey, Ryk,” he said, looking at us over his shoulder. “This your old lady?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Sweet piece of ass,” he said, grinning to reveal several missing teeth.

  “Get lost, Tiny,” Ryker said, not even sparing him a glance. “Or I’ll knock your last tooth out.”

 
He chuckled as he pushed through the swinging door at the end of the hall.

  Even after so many years, it still surprised me that Ryker commanded respect from the kind of men who would make most run for cover. Granted, he was still rough around the edges—a biker at heart, he claimed—but those edges were a lot softer than they used to be, thanks to his role as a father, he said. And I believed him. Our boys were the center of his world, which made it difficult for me to stay mad at him.

  “About last night,” he said, pinning me against the wall with his muscular body. “I’m sorry if I pushed too hard.” He flattened one hand on the wall behind my head. “But damn, baby, you gotta understand where I’m coming from. I wanna be back in our bed so much it hurts.”

  “I know.” I hooked my thumbs through the belt loops of his black jeans, pulling him closer. “I’m sorry too. I overreacted.” After leaving his place, I had spent most of the night replaying our conversation and feeling guilty for the way we left things. It was obvious Ryker was still feeling insecure about our relationship, and I should be trying to make him feel better about us, not worse.

  “I just want us back,” he said, sinking his hands into my hair. “The way we used to be.”

  “You have to know I want that too.” Actually, I wanted us to be better than we used to be, but I wasn’t going to argue semantics now. “It’s just going to take some time. It took two years the first time for us to decide we wanted to spend our lives together. Is it unreasonable to think it’ll take a couple of months before we’re ready to recommit to spending our lives together?”

  He grunted. “It may have taken you two years. It took me all of two minutes to know I wanted you for the rest of my life.”

  “I love you, Ryker,” I whispered, slipping my hands inside his leather jacket to circle his trim waist.

  “If you love me so much, prove it.” He glanced at a small zippered pocket covering his heart. “Put those back on for me.”

  I gasped when I reached into his pocket and found my wedding rings. “Are you crazy?” I whispered, slipping them back on. “You shouldn’t be carrying these around with you. What if you lost them?”

  “Never gonna happen.” He curled his hand around the back of my neck, bringing me in for a toe-curling kiss. “Besides, I was gonna stop by your place when I left here tonight to plead my case. I was hoping after we kissed and made up, I could talk you into wearing them again.”

  “You were gonna show up on my doorstep drunk?” I asked, propping a fist on my hip. “Begging me to take you back?”

  He chuckled, running a finger down my cheek to the line of my jaw before following the contour of my throat to my cleavage. “I wasn’t gonna show up drunk, sweetheart.”

  “But Nex said you were all planning to take cabs tonight, and I can taste the Jack Daniels on you already.”

  He laughed, propping the heel of his boot on the wall as he wrapped his arm around my waist and brought me closer. “Mmm, you wanna another taste?” he asked, licking his lips with a wicked gleam in his eye.

  Tiny came out of the washroom, saving me from a response.

  “Just keep walkin’, Tiny,” Ryker growled, never taking his eyes off me.

  I turned just in time to see Tiny checking out my ass. The pig. Though I guess it was my own fault for wearing such a short skirt in a biker bar.

  “Ya can’t blame a guy for lookin’, Ryk.”

  “Oh yeah?” Ryker asked, glaring at him. “She’s my goddamn wife, not some broad. And if I ever see you lookin’ at her like that again, I’m gonna knock you on your ass. We clear?”

  “Yeah, sure,” he mumbled, ducking his head as he rushed down the hall.

  Since Ryker had left his club in good standing, he still associated with some of the members and had the respect of all, especially guys like Tiny, who didn’t seem to be sporting any patches, indicating he wasn’t a full member. According to Ryker, a guy like that was a “hang around” until he got sponsorship from a full member.

  “I guess I didn’t realize how much a part of this world you still are.”

  He’d go out the odd time for beers with friends after work when we were first married, but he never wanted me to be a part of this world. It made me wonder how long he’d been coming to this bar specifically and how long he’d known the beautiful blond bartender who clearly had my husband in her sights.

  “They’re still my brothers. You know getting out wasn’t easy for me. If not for my relationship with Buff,” he said, referring to the former president of the chapter, who had been like an older brother to him, “I probably would’ve walked away a marked man.”

  I shuddered to think what that would have meant. He had sheltered me from his world when we first met, but I knew enough to know that few men left with the respect of their brothers. Most left in body bags after announcing their intent to leave.

  It just reminded me how much he’d given up for me. “You’ve been coming here a long time?” I asked, unable to let it go without finding out whether he’d known the bartender a long time.

  “Yeah, why?”

  I was almost embarrassed to ask, but this man had seen me at my worst already. If he still loved me after all we’d been through, I was confident nothing I could say or do now would change how he felt. “Um, that bartender…”

  “Natalie?”

  “Is that her name?”

  “Yeah. What about her?”

  “Have you known her a long time?” I bit the inside of my cheek, barely resisting the urge to punch him in the stomach when a cocky smile spread across his handsome face.

  “No, she just started here a couple of months ago. Why?”

  I shrugged, though I knew pretending to be unaffected was pointless now. “I was just wondering if you’d known her when we were together.”

  “We’re still together,” he said, gripping my chin. “We may not be living together yet, but you’re still my wife and I’m still crazy in love with you.”

  It was my turn to smile as I tipped my lips back for his kiss. “And you told her that?”

  “Yeah, I did, as a matter of fact. Now what do you say we go back out there so you can catch up with my brothers? They’ve missed you, Mac.”

  I’d missed them too. “I’d love to. Let’s go.” I linked hands with him, thinking it was time to send my own message to the young lady tending bar. Ryker was most definitely off-limits.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Ryker

  My brothers were flirting shamelessly with Mac as always, but I was just so happy to have her back in the fold, I couldn’t even get mad at them. She volunteered to sit on my lap when there weren’t enough chairs to go around, and I couldn’t have been more pleased with the setup.

  I caught her glancing in Natalie’s direction a time or two, obviously trying to send her a message about my status, but she was wasting her time. I’d already made it clear to the pretty little bartender that my sole focus was on putting my marriage back together, not starting something with her.

  “Well, would you look at her?” Nex asked, tipping his chair back as he eyed a pretty blond waitress starting her shift. She’d just secured a black apron around her waist, making the short skirt she wore under it virtually invisible.

  “Don’t you think she’s a little young for you?” Molly asked, rolling her eyes.

  Molly was right. She looked like she might be college-aged, while Nex was closing in on his thirtieth birthday.

  “Age is just a number,” Nex said¸ with a mischievous grin.

  “It’s guys like you,” Mac said, pointing at him, “that made me glad we didn’t have a daughter.”

  Nex winked at Mac. “You know your husband was just as bad before you swept him off his feet.”

  My brothers laughed before raising their beer bottles in a mock salute.

  I’d wipe those smug smiles off their faces, one at a time and take pleasure doing it, if Mac wasn’t sitting on my lap, rubbing against me, reminding me of how incredible last night
had been and how anxious I was to get her alone again.

  “Could be I’m waiting for a pretty little thing like you,” Nex said to Mac, “to tame me the way you tamed ol’ Ryker here.”

  “Don’t you mean whipped?” Seb asked, masking the last word with a cough as the rest of the table erupted in laughter.

  I knew they must be three sheets to the wind already if they thought Seb’s lame-ass jokes were funny.

  Before I could respond with a cutting remark that would have put them all in their place, the object of kid brother’s affection approached the table with a notepad in hand.

  “Hey, y’all,” she said with a sweet Southern drawl that was a sharp contrast to the four-inch heels and low-cut top. “My name’s Jaci. Kelly has a sick little one at home, so she called me in to fill in for her. Hope you don’t mind?”

  “Mind?” Nex asked, lacing his hands behind his head as he eyed Jaci up and down as though they were the only two in the room. “I feel like I should thank her.”

  Mac rolled her eyes before touching Jaci’s forearm. “Pay him no mind, honey. He just got out of prison. Wouldn’t even remember what to do with a woman.”

  My brothers were roaring, leaving poor Jaci to decide for herself whether Mac was telling the truth.

  “Don’t you listen to her, sweetheart,” Nex said to Jaci. “Not only do I know what to do with a woman, I wrote the book.”

  “Doesn’t sound like a book I’d want to read,” Jaci mumbled before plastering a smile on her face and turning to Molly. “You look like you could use a refill. What’ll it be?”

  “Actually, I think I’m gonna head out,” Molly said, checking her watch. “I have to work tomorrow. Mac, are you gonna catch a cab home with Ryker?”

  “I don’t know,” she said hesitantly. “Maybe I should head out too.”

  “Stay,” I whispered in her ear before wrapping my arms around her waist.

  “Okay, yeah,” she said, smiling at Molly. “I’ll hang out with the guys for a bit longer.”

  “Nice to see y’all again,” Molly said, reaching into her purse for a few bills to cover her drinks.