The men aren’t wearing any cuts, a word I’d only learned tonight, but they sure do look like bikers to me. If he isn’t a Wind Dragon, I guess he’s with a different club, or something like that.
“What the hell did you do to him?” Anna asks, glancing around the bar.
“He’s currently being distracted,” Talon replies, flashing me a wink.
“Talon, I swear to God—”
“He’s fine,” Talon interrupts. “I just wanted to see you. It’s been a while.”
Anna’s expression softens. She sits down, Slice next to her. “Yes, it has. How have you been?”
“Good,” he says, then looks at me. “Even better now.”
Anna does not look happy, her eyes narrowing and her mouth tightening. At her suddenly sober expression, I can’t help thinking that she needs another drink or two. “She’s Rake’s ex.”
Talon’s eyes widen at that, and all of a sudden, I’m feeling a little sober too. Why did she have to bring up his name?
“Well, if she has such bad taste in men, I’m sure I’m right up her alley,” he says, lips twitching.
Slice chuckles at that, sending an amused look in my direction. “Ain’t that the truth.”
I hold up my hand. “In my defense, it was years ago. I like to think I’ve grown since then.”
“All is fair in sex and pussy,” Slice adds, then sends a flirty look in Lana’s direction.
“Tracker will murder you,” Anna grumbles, crossing her arms over her chest. “No, he’s going to murder me, and so is my brother and my man when they find out how tonight turned out.”
I gape. “You said Rake wouldn’t find out!”
She cringes, then tries to play if off by waving her hand in the air. “It will be fine. I can handle my brother.”
I open my mouth and then close it. It is what it is. “If shit is going to start over this, we might as well go out with a bang.”
When Talon murmurs his approval, I narrow my gaze on him. “Not that kind of a bang. Drinks and dancing maybe. Either of you two up for some karaoke?”
Slice looks like I’ve offended him with just the thought, but Talon throws his head back and laughs. “I like you, Bailey. I’ll tell you what. One kiss and then I’ll sing any duet you want.”
Unconsciously, my eyes lower to his delicious-looking, full lips.
He’s handsome, yes, but I feel nothing.
Why do I feel nothing?
Am I broken?
When was the last time I had a proper kiss? A consuming, melting, mouthwatering, panty-wetting kiss? The sad thing is, the last person to kiss me like that was Adam.
Fuck it.
“Deal,” I blurt out.
Four pairs of eyes, suddenly all on me.
“What?” I say, shrugging my shoulders. “He’s cute.”
“So are you,” Talon rasps, his tone making me look at him. He licks his bottom lip, his eyes smoldering. “Come here.”
“How about you come here?” I say in a sultry voice I didn’t know I possessed.
Talon grins, eyes heated, and comes closer.
“Bailey!” I hear Anna growl over Slice’s laughter and Lana’s soft “Uhh, Bailey?”
I ignore them all.
If I want a kiss, then I’m going to get one. I’ll let future me worry about any possible consequences. When Talon grabs my face in his large warm hands and slants his lips on mine, I block everything else out.
Everything except his lips.
His spicy scent.
His tongue.
Yeah, it’s a good kiss.
Great, even.
But it’s not an Adam kiss.
Not for the first time, I think that maybe the man has broken me. Ruined me for any other. Determined not to let the bastard win, I deepen the kiss with Talon and let my hands wander over his muscled back. He makes a deep growling sound, which brings me back to reality, reminding me that people are indeed watching us make out right now.
Then I hear a familiar voice, and I just know I’m now in deep shit.
And I’ve brought everyone down with me.
“What the fuck?” I hear Adam growl. I pull away from Talon and look up into the angry eyes of Adam, Arrow, and Tracker.
Fuck.
His gaze doesn’t leave mine. A muscle in his jaw repeatedly tenses, and his hands are clenched to fists.
He looks pissed.
And I mean pissed.
Yeah, tonight was one huge fucking mistake.
Adam didn’t want me around his family, and no matter what Anna said, tonight shouldn’t have happened. I don’t want to cause a rift between the two of them. And I don’t want to fight with Adam, because I just know that old shit is going to resurface. That’s the last thing I need. And, I definitely shouldn’t have kissed Talon knowing he has some beef with Adam.
I should have sat my ass at home and played Monopoly with Cara, Tia, and Rhett.
“Pretty sure I told you to stay away from my family,” Adam growls at me. He glances next to me, his mouth tightening at Talon. “And you. I let you live because of Anna, but don’t fuckin’ push me.”
Talon simply raises an eyebrow, looking . . . amused? Are these men all insane? “I’m sitting here enjoying the company of a beautiful woman who isn’t with any of the men in your club. I fail to see what you’re so fucking angry about, Rake.”
Anna stands up, her face pale. “Rake, wait. I’m the one who—”
“Stay out of this, Anna,” Adam growls, eyes steady on me. The way he is—his body posture, the menace pouring off him—it’s like the Adam I used to know times a hundred.
I don’t miss the way Arrow scowls at Adam’s tone when addressing Anna, and takes a protective step in her direction.
That right there is what I wish I had.
But no one is going to protect me.
I see the sexy bald guy from the bar storm up to us. “Take this outside, now. Or Reid will be here to kick everyone’s ass.”
Arrow looks at the man, who takes a step back. Yeah, I wouldn’t want to mess with Arrow either. Still, I guess the men respect Reid and his bar, because they grab their women and make an exit. Thinking I’m now free to jump in a taxi and get the hell out of here, I jump in surprise when Adam grabs me by the upper arm and pulls me to his side.
“Let go of me,” I say so only he can hear.
“Not a chance,” he growls under his breath. “You came back here, into my fuckin’ territory, with my people, now you and I are going to have a little chat.”
“You don’t own this bar,” I say snidely, narrowing my eyes on him. “How is this your territory? Just let me go. I’ll go home and we’ll pretend this never happened.”
“Yeah? Think I’m going to forget you kissing a guy I can’t fuckin’ stand any time soon? You know nothing about loyalty, do you? Maybe hanging with Anna and them will be good, maybe you’ll even learn something.”
He’s such a dick.
I kick him in the shins. He looks down at me but doesn’t even flinch, so either it didn’t hurt, or he’s just not giving me the satisfaction of knowing that it did.
“Mature, Bailey.”
“So much bad shit to say about me, yet you’re still holding on to me. Why?”
“Like I said, we need to talk.”
“Talking is the last thing we need to do,” I fire back. The time for talking is over.
“Bailey!” Talon calls, taking my attention away from Rake. Rake stiffens as he approaches us. He and Talon stare at each other, the tension between them making the air feel thick and uncomfortable. I can tell that this has to do with more than me. I try to pull my arm from Adam’s grip, but he just holds on tighter. Slice steps up next to Talon, having his back if anything goes wrong, I guess.
“Do we have a problem here?” Adam asks.
Talon tilts his head to the side. “You tell me.”
“Rake, let’s go!” Arrow calls out, turning to Anna and saying something in her ear. Was he doing Anna�
��s bidding? Something about that amuses me, the big, scary-as-hell man trying to appease his woman.
“Let me go,” I mutter, tired of their posturing. “I need to go home.”
They both look down at me, as if they only just remembered that I’m here.
“I’ll take you home,” Adam commands, then looks at Talon. “This isn’t over. I don’t want to ever see you near her again, do you fuckin’ understand me?”
Talon however, ignores him and looks at me. “You can go with him, or I can take you. Say the word.”
The air thickens again.
Shit.
I don’t want a fight to break out because of me, and I don’t want Talon to think I like him more than I do. He’s a nice guy, but I have no intention of sleeping with him, or dating him.
“Thank you, Talon,” I tell him. “I’ll be fine. I don’t want to cause any more trouble.”
Talon nods slightly, his eyes telling me that if I need him, all I have to do is speak out.
But I don’t.
I wave ’bye as Adam pulls me to his bike.
Talon and Slice don’t leave though—they stand there watching.
I’m handed a helmet, which I put on. Adam makes sure our hands don’t touch.
“Get on,” Adam demands, without bothering to help me up. I’ve never been on a bike before, and I’m pretty sure he knows this.
“I’ve never ridden on the back of a bike before,” I admit quietly, not knowing how to feel about it. Is it safe? As a single parent, I can’t exactly afford to do anything reckless. My daughter needs me, and if she doesn’t have me, she has no one.
He licks his bottom lip. “So? The old Bailey would have loved this shit. The old Bailey made Anna look like a saint. Have you changed so much?”
I stare daggers at him. “I grew up, Adam, perhaps you should try it?”
He makes a scoffing noise but says nothing while I awkwardly straddle the bike and reluctantly wrap my arms around his waist.
I have one question running through my mind.
Why did he want me to leave with him?
FIVE
WHEN we come to a stop, I almost want to kiss the ground. Anna and Lana come over to me as I fumble off the motorcycle and take off my helmet. They obviously made it here before us.
“You okay?” Anna asks, glancing between Adam and me.
“She’s fine,” he answers for me.
The jerk.
“She can speak for herself,” I snap, turning my back to him and facing the girls. “I’m fine. I just want to go home. Could you give me the address for this place so I can call a taxi?”
Anna and Lana turn their heads to look at each other.
Are they not going to help me? It’s Anna’s fault I’m here in the first place.
“They can’t save you, Bailey,” Adam rasps, coming up next to me. “I warned you; you didn’t listen. Now you gotta deal with me.”
I lift my head to look at him. Was he always this damn tall? “I don’t have to do any damn thing I don’t want to, Rake.”
I need to remember that that’s what he goes by now. Also so I remember that I don’t know the man standing next to me.
He laughs without humor.
And I’ve had enough.
I turn and start to walk down the road, pulling out my phone. There has to be a street sign somewhere around here. Suddenly I’m grabbed around the waist and pulled back into a hard body.
“We’re going to talk, Bailey. Then I’ll take you home, all right?” he murmurs in my ear.
“We don’t have anything to talk about,” I reply, tilting my head away from his lips.
“Yeah,” he whispers. “We do. So you can come inside of your own accord, or kicking and screaming. At this point, I don’t care which one you choose.”
He wraps his fingers around my nape and squeezes firmly. “What do you have to lose? I never told Anna what happened that night. In fact, I never told a single soul. Trusting you is my burden to bear, and not a mistake I’ll ever make again.”
His comment sends me straight back to that night, just the place where I didn’t want to go.
“Fuck you,” I grit out, turning around to face him. “You don’t know shit, Adam. Just let me go. I won’t see your sister, or anyone connected to you again.”
He studies me and rubs his palm along his jaw. Then, in a simple move, he bends down and throws me over his shoulder.
“Adam!” I yell, squirming around. “Put me down, you asshole! Anna, I’m going to kill you!”
I ignore the men’s catcalls as he walks with me through their clubhouse. From upside down, all I can see is scary-looking leather-clad men, and all I can hear is music and laughter. All I can feel is anger and embarrassment. I’m wearing a fucking dress, and who knows what everyone can see. I punch the back of Adam’s thighs, but all he does is slap my ass once and I freeze.
“No one better have seen that,” I growl, trying to push my hair out of my face. A door is opened, a light is turned on, and then I’m tossed onto a bed.
His bed.
His very large, black, could-be-a-porn-set bed.
Images rush through my mind, me on that bed, underneath him, but I shake my head and push them away, knowing that they have no place being there. I look away from the bed and study the man in question instead, causing more memories to flash through my mind. I miss the old Adam. Before everything went to hell. The Adam who I would lie with in bed, staring at the ceiling, just talking for hours. The Adam who was my best friend in the world. He paces the room, stops, gives me a cutting look, then takes off his jacket and throws it on the ground, bringing me back to reality
“I never wanted to see you again,” he says, running a hand through his short blond hair. “Yet here you are. In my fuckin’ clubhouse. Christ.”
“You brought me here,” I remind him.
“I know,” he grits out between clenched teeth.
I cross my arms over my chest, hugging myself. “Anna and Lana wanted to see me. I didn’t seek them out. And I didn’t want to say no, even though I knew I should have. I couldn’t hurt their feelings. I still care about both of them.”
“I know you do, but this isn’t fuckin’ working, Bailey,” he says, shaking his head. “It’s too fuckin’ much. You’re in my territory, everywhere I go, when all I want to do is forget that you even exist.”
Ouch.
Why do I do this to myself?
I can’t have everything I want, and it looks like a friendship with my old friends is going to be something to add to that list. I totally see where he’s coming from. Anna and Adam are a package deal. I can’t be in her life without being in his. It is too much. Too much everything. Pain, emotions, memories. Just everything.
“I’ll stay away,” I say in a small voice. “I don’t want to be here either.”
Being reminded of everything I lost, everything that happened, isn’t a good time for me. I understand when he says he wants to forget. When you’re stuck in a place where you can’t go back, when you can’t fix the past, you need to let it go or it will eat you alive.
He looks at me then, I mean really looks at me. Looks inside me. “Why?”
“Why what?” I ask softly, swallowing hard at the emotion I see flashing in his green eyes.
“I mean,” he says between clenched teeth, “why don’t you want to be around me? You’re the one who fucked everything up, and now you’re acting like I’m the one who did something wrong, when the only thing I did was trust a woman who obviously couldn’t keep her legs closed.”
Before I know it, I’m on my feet, and I slap him right across his face. No one talks to me like that. No one.
His eyes narrow, but he doesn’t even flinch or lift his hand to rub his face. Instead, he just stares at me with heat in his eyes.
“I want to go home. Now,” I demand, touching his chest with my hand. “If you ever cared about me at one point in your life, you will get me out of here.”
His thro
at works as he swallows. Did he realize the line he just crossed? “All right, let’s go then.”
I exhale in relief, then follow him out of the clubhouse.
I don’t look anyone in the eye.
I don’t say good-bye.
I just get the fuck out of there.
* * *
I hand Adam his helmet, then walk down my driveway without looking back.
“Bailey,” he says, making me stop and turn to him.
“What?” I ask quietly, just wanting tonight to be over with. I like to think that I’m a strong woman, but there’s only so much I can take.
I’m surprised when he walks down my driveway and stops in front of me. “You know, I try not to be an asshole to you, I really do. But when I see you, my mind is fuckin’ clouded and I can’t control my emotions.” He sighs. “You’re the only person who it happens around, and it’s a weakness.”
“A weakness?” I ask, not sure what he means by that exactly.
“Showing emotion is showing weakness,” he says, looking into my eyes. “If two people are angry, and one stands quietly while the other rages and breaks shit, who do you think is the most powerful, mentally?”
“Does it matter who is most powerful?” I ask, tilting my head to the side. “I guess the quiet one would be, but then he would hold it all inside, and it would slowly eat at him. The man who raged and reacted may have less control, but he gets all the emotions out, so they don’t destroy him.”
“Yeah, well,” he says, looking down at his feet. “You make me rage. You make me feel shit I don’t want to feel.”
I swallow hard at the emotion in his voice.
“I’ll wait until you get inside and lock the door,” he says, but I don’t move. I just look into his eyes, seeing how much of my Adam is still in there.
“Bailey, go,” he whispers, eyes narrowing.
I nod and slowly walk to my front door.
I’m about to close it when I hear him say, “It would help if you weren’t so fuckin’ beautiful.”
But that must have been my imagination, right?
I close the door, lock it, turn around, and collapse against it. My breaths come in pants, in and out, in and out in quick puffs. I squeeze my eyes shut, emotions running through me. Ghosts from past pains, past wounds that are now being split back open. Why did this have to happen? I don’t want to deal with all of this. I was finally in a good place, and now . . . I won’t let him ruin that. He made me so angry, but then when we just spoke . . . he made me feel something else. Something I need to bury. The anger, yeah, I can understand that. The other emotions—no, I don’t need to concentrate on those. They don’t exist. I need to learn how not to let him get under my skin.
Rake's Redemption (Wind Dragons Motorcycle Club) Page 4