by V. Theia
A year ago he would have laughed and teased his brother because it was rare to see him with a woman. Texas was always class. Until he proved himself a piece of shit, that is.
He was right behind them now, close enough to see the woman was clinging onto his arm as he guided them down the cold street to the Raptor on the corner.
“You want to have your heart to heart with your piece somewhere else so I can get fucking by.” He growled low and watched Texas halt and spin around.
Capone stared.
His whole existence was ruined because of men like Texas.
Oh, they’d bleat how they were doing it for the good of the family.
Well Capone’s whole fucking family were slaughtered within minutes while they slept in their beds because his younger brother thought he was doing the right thing by doing business with someone he had no right doing business with.
If only Santiago had just once discussed the shit he was planning with Capone, or anyone of the brothers first.
Capone held no weight in doing things for others for their own good. Protecting them or not.
He preferred full disclosure and the choices in front of him, no matter how dire, let him choose his own death.
On the narrow sidewalk, rather than getting out of his way, Texas stared back before reaching behind him and unlocking his truck door, ushering the woman inside. She gave him a curious glance but Texas put her in the cab and closed the door, then he stepped aside. “There you go, brother.”
That got fire pushing into Capone’s throat. “Not your brother.”
“You want to tell me what your problem is? You’ve glared at me all night like I kicked your prom date.”
Oh, he thought he was funny, sí?
Stopping in his tracks, he faced Texas and curled his corner lip.
He already had shit on his mind with what was happening in Miami, without this aggravation.
“I don’t think so. Can’t be sure you’re not wearing a wire for your bro.”
“Oh, fuck off, Capone,” Texas said. “I’ve said sorry until I’m blue in the goddamn face. I didn’t do anything to you personally.”
“You fucking kidding me with that shit? The club is me. I am the fucking club, Esé.” his fingers flexed inside the sheepskin jacket, buried deep to ward off the cold. It was times like today and this whole frozen month that he missed the warmth of Miami beach. They had one season there and it was magnificent. Denver took some getting used to.
“You voted me out, what more do you want? Me to suck your cock for forgiveness? I did wrong, I admitted that.”
“Yeah, you did.”
“And? Shall I throw a parade because you’re pissed off at me, Capone, what do you want from me?”
The window whirred down and that same dark head popped out, her voice tentatively croaky. “Tait, is everything okay?”
“Yeah, Poppy, close up, baby, you’ll get cold, won’t be a minute.”
“See you landed on your feet.”
“Grow the fuck up, Capone.” Texas sighed.
It was strange seeing him without his usual shirt and thick tie at his neck. Stranger still with the beard. Texas was always groomed like a Disney prince.
Capone hated the betrayal.
Hated more that he didn’t confide in anyone until Arson caught the brother out.
Would he still be a cop informer today if that hadn’t happened?
He just hated it all around and he couldn’t get over his anger for trusting this guy for years.
“You’ve got some balls on you, Texas, to play the wounded victim. Who was going to be next, the Souls? Going to send Rider down the river, sí?”
“Fuck you. I never would. The whole shit I was doing was to protect my fucking club. Always. I would have put my own neck on the line before anyone in the compound.”
The fierce way he spat out the words through his clenched teeth made Capone think for a second he was actually telling the truth or he just believed his own lies.
It was a bad mistake to square off with Capone.
He had a hair trigger ever since he walked into his family’s home and found everyone in a blood bath.
He got into fights regularly—instigated them, then he fell into a bottle to forget his sorrow.
He never backed down from a fight and if Texas wanted to go boot to boot with him then it was going to be the guys funeral.
If only there was some anger in the other man’s voice it might have helped Capone reach that no return moment but Texas’ voice was downgraded to a tortured croak, almost as if he were in pain for his actions. But he’d gone in with his eyes wide open so Capone felt no amount of pity for his predicament now.
“I fucked up, you can hate me all you want, brother, but no one can hate me as much as I fucking loath myself.”
Capone snorted and rolled his eyes.
Pity party of one, he wondered if he were about to get a gift bag.
“We all make mistakes, Capone. You’re not blameless in this life either, we’re all stained with our crimes. I’m sorry, get the fuck over it and let me live my life.”
And then he walked away, climbed into the cab of his truck and left Capone there with his own mind full of black fog.
Blameless.
It might have been the one word to save Texas from a beating and Capone’s swirling anger that lived inside him though not many saw how he masked it daily.
No one knew how angry Capone really was.
Or that he lived half of a life.
Because half of him was never here.
Straddling his bike, he started her up with a gentle purr. In this weather he should be driving his Jeep but he couldn’t face being closed in some days, he liked the wind on his face and the open air around him. So what if he froze.
And it was before he rode away that his phone pinged, he fished it out and saw the one name that always caused his veins to rush fast and hard with blood.
He ignored the rush of his cock too.
The steel pipe had no business getting hard for his sister in law.
But with each passing day, the feelings increased.
mi corazón.
His heart walloped as he swiped to open the message.
Lucia: Giancarlo, I think I’m in trouble. I know it’s not time, but will you call when you can?
It was Wednesday, he only ever called Lucia to check in each Friday and he both dreaded and was eager for it at the same time.
He knew now she was his eternal torment, meant to pay for his own crimes.
He revved the engine, intent on driving home to his apartment to call the love of his life who would never know the depths of his feelings because at one time she was married to his brother.
That was too much Telenovelas for him.
Burying that love in booze, women and violence had worked so far for him.
Blameless.
Yeah, Texas was right in that respect.
Capone himself was far from blameless for a lot of things.
The biggest one being coveting thy brothers wife before he was cold in his grave.
* * *
Texas slammed into his truck and nearly took the door off its hinges.
Poppy blinked at the show of his temper, it blazed like an inferno almost heating the cab and before she could even say a word, to ask if he was okay, he plucked her out of her seat and dragged her across the console and into his lap.
So stunned, she didn’t even have a full breath in her lungs when he fisted both hands in her hair and rammed his lips against hers.
The sensual assault lasted no more than a minute of Texas licking and nibbling her lips open until they permitted him entry and then it was girl down because Poppy couldn’t think straight with the way he was wolfing her mouth and tongue with his.
He was an animal and she was the raw meat and he was getting his fill.
“Don’t,” he rasped when she tried to pull away only to snatch a piece of air.
So she did
n’t. She’d rather die than unlock from his lips anyway.
He was a fantastic kisser, like the really greatest kisser in the world.
His lips were firm and so was the pressure.
There was nothing soft or calm about the way he went at her mouth.
He had the moves and he backed them up by making her moan into his lips and that’s when she felt a hardness begin to swell really freaking big between her straddled legs.
Oh, God, Tait was aroused and taking a hold of her hips, he moved her on him.
“Fuck. Fuck,” he hissed into her lips, slowing with the kissing but her tongue was manic now and she didn’t want to stop for all the diamonds in Tiffany’s. “Now we stop,” he said pulling back. Leaving Poppy with two plundered lips that no longer felt like they belonged on her face.
She was ruined.
He unlocked some secret door to her arousal, sprang the hinges and forced her to feel this attraction she initially thought was only a slight girlie crush.
In fact, it was a fully-fledged, out of control roaring fire.
Burning up her skin and making his taste dig down into her stomach.
Breath was like steam passing between them and Poppy could hardly think let alone speak but words started tumbling out of her sore lips.
“I think we should get that man back if he riles you up like this because wow, Tait. I think if I were wearing socks, you would have kissed them off.”
“It’s knocked them off,” he snickered.
“I can’t brain. You kissed my soul out.”
He placed her back on her own seat and she missed the hardness already. She wouldn’t have minded rocking on him for a while.
“Are you okay?”
The engine started and he pulled away from the curb, heading back to his apartment.
“Yeah, shit just got heated with Capone. He’s still angry with me.”
Bristling, rushing to defend the man who had been nothing but kind to her, she chomped her teeth together. “Well he can just bite it.”
Texas chuckled again and reached out for her hand which she clasped tightly.
“We need to get some things sorted, babe, when we reach home, okay?”
“Oh? Is it more furious kissing? I might need to do some tongue exercises because you took me by surprise there.”
He grunted such a sexy caveman noise that she felt it in her skin and hoped it was a happy sound from him.
“If you want more kissing, I’ll give you that.”
“I do!” she blurted.
“But we need to talk and sort some things first.”
Talking implied something serious but she wouldn’t let that deflate her, not when she felt all jumbly excited inside.
“Is that how dirty bikers kiss, Tait?”
“Yeah, little girl,” he rasped in the darkness of the warm cab and she felt herself grinning really wide.
“Wow,” was all she could reply. “I think I like you as a biker.”
His laugh was magic and made her forget her early family woes.
So far she was not regretting leaving everything behind and finding Tait in Colorado.
FOURTEEN
“I do. And I don’t.” – Poppy
“Okay, talk the stuff so we can get to the kissing.”
“Jesus,” she was all but fizzing as she plonked on the couch with her legs tucked under her and her dark hair swept over one bare shoulder.
She was wearing one of those tops that didn’t have a neck so half of it fell off and showed too much creamy skin to his hungry eyes.
Texas didn’t sit next to her, he couldn’t or he’d animal attack her again.
He hadn’t meant to drag her across his lap in the truck or eat her whole, but he wasn’t sorry for it.
Once he’d kicked off his boots and his jacket, he poured himself a coffee and sat on the low table in front of her, cradling his cup, using it like a barrier so he didn’t reach for the woman gazing at him with sex in her eyes.
“I’m attracted to you,” he imparted to her and watched her eyes get low lidded and dream-like.
Fuck him, he liked that look on her. Liked it more because he’d put it there.
She made it worse by clapping and saying “Yay.”
Fucking adorable.
Seeing as they split before they got the food, he couldn’t handle that kind of cute on an empty stomach and a dick that hurt to know what she felt like hugging it with the wettest part of her body.
Something about Poppy clanged innocent to him and it made a man like him hungry.
There were no games, she was upfront even if she risked being knocked down.
“But…”
“Oh, no. Buts always mean something negative. Let’s get back to the part where you said you’re into me, Tait. I liked that bit so much better.”
Texas smirked when her face fell like she was tasting peanut butter. If she were anything like him, then she’d know that shit was nasty. It was unamerican, but it didn’t change the fact it was gross.
“Do you have a girlfriend? A regular woman? I don’t know how it works for bikers, do you just click your fingers and women lie down?”
Because she said it so serious, Texas’ mouth split into a cheek hurting grin.
God, that innocence was intoxicating, he felt drugged and drunk and he wanted to lick her up like maple syrup.
“Do you see a woman around here?”
“Only when I look in the mirror. But I don’t know what you get up to when I’m not around.”
“Little girl, you’re always around.”
“Not when you’re in the downstairs apartments, you’ve made it your man cave.”
“So I’m sneaking women in?”
“Plural?” Her eyes, if it were possible, went round as the moon and she started chewing on her lip when she crossed her legs Indian style. “I didn’t think of that. I mean, one girlfriend would be fine, if it were casual. I’d chase her off, tell her you had the herpes or you were sexing up your sister.”
“Poppy…” the laughter couldn’t be contained and Texas folded over his knees, careful not to scald himself with coffee and he just laughed like he hadn’t laughed in forever. “Fucking my sister, really?”
She scrunched her nose. “I think women wouldn’t like a sister sexer, but I’d double down with the herpes just to make sure she got gone.”
“You can’t say fuck?”
Her whole face bloomed.
Fuck. She couldn’t say fuck and that was too appealing to him because it sparked a dirty side to Texas to hear every lewd word come out of her good girl mouth while he was drilling into her.
“I choose not to.”
She chooses not to. That was a conversation he’d revisit, but first he had things to say.
“As I said, I’m attracted to you.”
“Yay,” she said again and made his lips twitch.
“But you have a man.”
That took the wind from her sails when she frowned. “I don’t have a man anymore, Tait. You know this. The wedding gown is hanging in your bedroom closet, which I need to sell by the way.”
“Baby, you have a man, you ran away and didn’t talk to him, you didn’t end it, you didn’t get closure. You have a man.”
She sighed and he understood, really he did.
He just wanted to maul her and take his head away from being back home again by burying it between her fucking legs.
“Look at this,” she huffed, all but flinging herself off the couch and she ambled over to him after she’d grabbed her cell phone. She shoved it under his nose.
The last messages from her man were not the kind of messages you’d expect from a jilted groom who loved his bride with his whole fucking heart. “Does that say to you that I have a man? That I have a man who gives a crap about me?”
Ronnie: What the hell, Penelope. I hope you realize how much you’ve embarrassed me. Humiliated my whole fucking family. This really is unacceptable.
Ronnie: T
his is going to take some work to forgive you for this.
Ronnie: Contact me when you’ve grown up.
Texas didn’t stop with those three messages the guy sent 2 weeks ago and nothing since. He scrolled up and up through their text thread.
There wasn’t many at all, only blunt messages letting Poppy know he was outside waiting for her. So the guy couldn’t even collect her at the door. What a gent.
On and on he went back further and he didn’t see any affection.
Certainly nothing risqué to tell him she loved him or Ronnie loved her, or even wanted to fuck her. Did the guy even have a dick down there?
Hovering at his shoulder, her fingers toying with the material on his t-shirt, she sounded about as sad as Texas felt pissed off on her behalf.
This guy was a fucking dillhole. Worse, he didn’t deserve to have a woman like Penelope.
He’d only been in her life again for a week and even he could see what a breath of fresh air she was. Why wouldn’t a guy, even a jilted one not climb mountains to make her happy? Why did it get to a point she felt like her only choice was to run away.
“Tell me straight, you love this dude?”
“Not even a little bit. I mean, I like him as much as I like anyone. I think I need to tell you something, Tait.”
Just the way she worded it in her cautious voice made him angle his neck and she tried to put distance between them by moving back to the couch.
Hell no. He grabbed her wrist and hauled her butt onto his lap.
“You got something to confess? Then you tell me right here.”
“I mean.” She stumbled. “I don’t think it’s something you will like.”
“So what? Tell me anyway.”
“You might not want to kiss me. And I really want those lips, Tait.” She dropped her gaze to his mouth and he was sure he could already feel her sucking them.
“Little girl, I’ve had a gut full of secrets to last me a lifetime. I don’t want to do it anymore. I don’t care if you’re confessing to skinning farm animals in a bathtub to make new dresses, just spit it out so I can deal with how serious it is.”
“Okay,” she inhaled hard enough to suck up some of his hair and that didn’t bode well for whatever she needed to say.