Holy fuck, I was angry.
The last thing I needed was my sister worrying about me. She had enough on her plate, and she didn’t need anymore. Talon would be a handful as long as she kept him around, and I was going to have to find a way to deal with that arrangement. She was a grown woman-- even though I’d always see her as my pig-tailed sister-- and she could do whatever the fuck she wanted.
I would put on a front to keep the peace, because it is what Mac ordered. They both knew how angry I was about their relationship. I just wished they would stop flaunting it in my fucking face.
I walked across the bar as smoke billowed in my face. It was a shame smoking in places like this was banned. But the bars that didn’t abide by the rules were my favorite. They felt like home to me. I didn’t smoke, but I grew up around people who did. Good people who associated with The Road Rebels who took me in when my own family couldn’t have cared less about me. I came to associate the smell of cigarettes to comfort and safety.
I sat down at the darkened edge of the bar before I drew in another deep breath.
“What’ll it be?” the bartender asked.
“Your cheapest beer in a bottle,” I said.
The sound of the lid popping open sent my heart fluttering. That sound would always be my first love. It was the sound of solace. The sound of peace. The sound of me getting my dick wet and the sound of a good fucking night. I tipped the bottle up to my lips as I surveyed the room, clocking every single woman in the place. There weren’t many, but the night was still young. And the women I did saw were dressed just the way I liked.
There was one with gaudy red lipstick and way too much eyeshadow. There was one who wasn’t wearing a bra, and her fucking headlights were blaring. They were practically begging me to wrap my lips around them, and I could already feel my cock hardening as I zeroed in on her. Her shorts were riding up, and I could see those delicious thighs that I wanted squeezing around my cheeks as I devoured her pussy.
I set my sights on her and began to watch her movements.
Men came and went, hitting on her and buying her drinks. She took them kindly and giggled, but I could tell she wasn’t interested in any of them. Lanky guys and guys with beards. Fat ass mongrels and loud, drunk frat boys. She shooed them all away like they were nothing and it made me grin. All she was looking for was me to come up and sit with her. Watch her without saying anything. Take in those beautiful tits without paying her a damn compliment. All of these men laid it on too thick. They started off too heavy, and it made them look like idiots.
Women like here, who knew what she was looking for that night… they deserved special treatment. Silence and mystery, with a bit of bad boy and a whole lot of muscle thrown in. I had a raging cock ready just for her, and I was about to slip from my stool until the doors of the bar burst open.
Who the fuck thought they were a big shot?
Everyone whipped their heads around to see the commotion. A billow of cigarette smoke puffed into the air just as the woman shut the door behind her. I studied her body, taking it all in. The way her jeans clung to her plump ass and how her thighs just slightly rubbed together. I took in the slope of her waist, how the fabric of her black shirt clung to the small rolls she had. Her shoulders were broad, and her blonde hair sat right at her shoulders.
Fuck the woman in no bra. This was the woman I wanted for my night.
She was perfect. Luscious thighs that jiggled just slightly when she took a step. Tits that moved in every direction as her hips swayed. I sank back into the darkness, waiting for her to step out of the murky smoke of the bar. I wanted to look into the eyes of the woman that would house my cock tonight. I wanted to see what color lipstick she was wearing so I knew what color my dick would be streaked with later.
But as she came into view, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.
No wonder she was perfect.
No wonder she was irresistible.
This wasn’t just any woman that had walked into this bar. This random bar on the outskirts of Las Vegas that was breaking just about every law put forth by the state on how to run itself. Her hazel eyes scanned the room, fluttering over my dark corner before settling on a chair at the middle of the bar.
Of course, she would want to be seen. Laiken had always been that kind of woman.
She commanded a room, but not just with her looks. She had this husky voice that drew the attention of anyone around her. It was smooth, but it boomed. And when she called your name, it shook and aroused the recipient of her attention.
Holy fuck, how I missed that woman saying my name.
I watched her from the shadows as she sat down. Her hair was shorter than I remembered and her body had filled out wonderfully, but her demeanor was still the same. She was a take no shit kind of girl, with sparkling eyes and a desire for alcohol that could topple the biggest man on the planet. There were nights where she drank me under the table before she would out-eat me at our favorite pizza joint. She was a man’s woman. A woman who could keep up, fight her own battles, and ride cock like a porn star.
She was the most low-maintenance woman on the planet, and I’d still managed to somehow fuck it all up.
I watched her order a bourbon on the rocks. The drink she always ordered whenever we were together. She wasn’t the kind of woman to do frilly or colorful drinks. Hell, sometimes she didn’t even like ice in her drink.
She didn’t want the stale city water ‘ruining her good shit.’
I grinned at the memory as I watched her take a sip of her drink.
She was here. I don’t know why that shocked me. The last time I saw her, she was graduating from a university around here or some shit. But she was here. In this bar.
As I lurked in the corner.
The woman with no bra and thighs for days left with another man as I sat and watched Laiken. No one appeared at her side, and no one came to meet her. She was staring at her drink, lost in thought and contemplating whatever the fuck it was that brought her to this bar.
I wanted to know what it was that brought her here.
But, just as I was about to get up the gumption to walk over to her, some asshole in a nice button-down tapped her on the shoulder. I waited and watched, waiting for Laiken to turn this asshole down. He was not her type. Too clean cut and not nearly enough muscle to handle her kind of woman. He had this innocent baby-face and big bug eyes that some valley girl could go dream over.
But not Laiken. Not my rough and tumble Laiken.
I sat back down in my seat to watch the show. I wanted to see how Laiken would turn this shithead down. I wanted to see the tears pour from his little baby-face eyes when she shooed him away. Like that woman with the puckered nipples that knew what she wanted.
That was another thing about Laiken. She always knew exactly what she wanted. There was never any mystery with her. Just straight-up, no-bullshit opinions and desires.
But then I watched her smile at the man. The man with the baby-face and the bright blue eyes and the clean-cut hair and the freshly-shaven chin.
I watched her fucking smile at him, and I gripped my beer bottle so hard I heard it crack.
Chapter 6
Laiken
Just driving to the bar helped me to settle my mind. Our small town of Henderson was only a few miles away from Las Vegas. It was easy to lose yourself there. To get mesmerized by the twinkling lights and the star-studded walkways. I hated Vegas. I was bright, loud, and unnecessarily drenched in booze. The Henderson Police Department seemed to get called out to Vegas more than any other place. And for stupid shit, like college frat boys running around with their pants around their ankles. The Las Vegas Police Department was always stretched thin, and Henderson was a bordering town that seemed to always have extra hands on deck.
Why they didn’t permanently transfer people was beyond me.
Either way, there was one thing Vegas was good for, and that was illegal bars. The type of bars I loved even though I worked for th
e police. The bars that still allowed smoking and poured liquor without a license. The kind of bars that had that stale smell and always had a couple fucking in the back room. In these places, everything was clear-cut. You knew who didn’t want to be bothered, you knew who was looking for action, and you knew when people wanted to be left alone.
I could come into these bars, throw up my walls, and no one would fuck with me.
But tonight, I wasn’t sure I wanted to be alone. I walked into the bar and was hit with a cloud of smoke just as I entered. I smiled and took in the scent, but the scent threw me back to a different time. A time when I frequented places like this with him. We’d find one of these bars and sit in a corner. His hand would slide down my pants, and I’d lean back into him as he nursed his beer. I’d get my rocks off, and he’d lick me off his fingers, then I’d finish my drink before he bent me over his bike in an alleyway.
Jace taught me how to not be scared of what I wanted, and he made sure to always give me what I asked for.
I spotted an empty seat in the middle of the bar. That chair looked like the only sturdy one at the bar, so I sat down and signaled for the bartender. I wanted a bourbon on the rocks. I wanted to feel the burn as it slid down my throat. I wanted to drink away the files I’d seen and remembered a time when my hometown wasn’t riddled with drugs, outlaws, and gangs.
I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to take someone home with me. That was the thing with me lately. I just wasn’t sure what I wanted, which wasn’t like me at all. After I had started to pull away from my mother, I became very open about what I wanted. However, ever since I was back home, it was like my wants and needs have lost their way. As much as I tried to fight it, my mind was pulling me back into the past.
Back into a world where Jace and I still existed.
Staring into my glass, I was reminded of a memory. The first time I ever drank more than he did. I couldn’t even remember how the argument started, but soon the two of us were chasing shots of whiskey with our beers. We were seeing who could hold their liquor the best, and the loser had to do whatever the winner wanted them to for twenty solid minutes. I could remember the burn of every single shot. I could remember the way Jace’s eyes narrowed at me as I kept up with him. I could remember the shocked look on his face when the room started swirling for him, and I could remember my triumphant victory before I dragged him back to my place at school.
I sat on his face in my backyard and rode his lips underneath the pale moonlight, a toast to my victory as I shook against his tongue.
I hadn’t been able to drink whiskey since we broke up. It was all bourbon on the rocks for me. My go-to drink when I needed to think. Think and forget and somehow try to process.
I looked around the bar at all the men who were there. Some of them were decent looking enough. The kinds of men I would pity fuck just because I needed to get me some. Some of them were innocent college guys out here looking for a fun time on whatever break they were on now. But some of them reminded me of him.
And it suddenly hurt too much to continue looking.
It was the little things sometimes. Like a man looking around at me with dark brown eyes. Or a man who had a pair of strong arms. Sometimes it was his height that triggered a memory. Jace had always been so tall. I closed my eyes and remembered the last time he pulled me into him. The last time my lips were able to feel the swell of his rippling chest. My skin puckered at the remembrance of his arms wrapped around me.
It still shocked me to this day how he could pick me up and fuck me against a wall.
My mind began to race, but a tap on my shoulder pulled me from my memories, and I looked up to see who it was.
“Hello,” the man said. “I’m Devon.”
I nodded up at him and threw him a kind smile.
“Laiken,” I said.
“That’s a beautiful name,” he said. “Do you like this song?”
“Honestly? I’m not sure what’s playing,” I said.
“Ah. I just saw you bobbing your head to it, so I thought I would ask.”
“Ask what?”
“If you wanted to dance,” he said, grinning.
He was a good looking guy for his type. A baby face with soft features and a lanky build. His hair wasn’t as dark as Jace’s and his eyes were blue instead of brown. Jace’s eyes had been this strong, stern brown. With green around his irises to remind me of the hunter he truly was. His eyes had reminded me of a forest. Such a foreign concept out here in the red clay of the desert. But every time I gazed up into his eyes I found myself getting lost in his woods. Marching to the tune of my own drum as I weaved around within his soul.
“You have beautiful eyes,” Devon said.
His voice ripped me from my thoughts as I shook my head.
“Oh, thank you,” I said. “That’s very kind of you. Yours are… nice as well.”
“Nice?” he asked, grinning.
“Sorry,” I said. “I’m just a bit distracted tonight.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
The man sat down next to me and held his hand up to the bartender. I wasn’t sure if I wanted the company, but the distraction was nice. I hated the fact that every man in here reminded me somehow of Jace. I hated that my mind compared their attributes to his. It had been years since I’d seen him, and it was time I washed him from my mind.
Maybe I just needed to get underneath someone in order to get over him.
“Just a long day at work,” I said as the bartender slipped him a beer.
“Would you like another one?” he asked.
“No, thanks. I’m driving,” I said.
“I could sit here and talk with you until you’re sober,” he said.
He was sweet, which was something Jace had never been. Jace was rough around the edges and never sugar-coated anything. Romance was not his thing, gentleness was not his thing, and kindness was not something he made a habit of.
But holy hell, was he loyal. Domineering? Yes. An asshole at times? Oh, yeah. But when he loved you, he loved you. When he was dedicated to you, he was dedicated. When he set his mind to something, he didn’t stop until it was fulfilled.
And sometimes, that went a much longer way than just kindness.
“We’ll see how I feel after this one,” I said.
“So, what happened with your day?” Devon asked.
He tipped his beer back, and I noticed he did it crookedly. Jace never did that. His was always straight up. Head back, neck exposed, vulnerable just for a second. I lost count of how many times I’d kissed that neck while he was mid-chug. How many times I’d raked my teeth across his pulse point and rose his cock to perfection.
I hated myself for this. Here was this kind man who was easy on the eyes trying to do his best to make me feel comfortable, and I was comparing him to an ex. An ex I hadn’t seen in years. An ex that, for all I knew, didn’t give a shit about me. Didn’t spare a thought for me at all. Hell, Jace probably didn’t even remember me.
I thought I was stronger than this. I thought I was over it. I thought I could come back into this town and resume life as normal. But I couldn’t. Apparently, I wasn’t as strong as I thought. All of the memories that were triggered just in this random bar were about to drown me. And I was in a place I’d never been before! I couldn’t imagine the memories that would flood my system if I ever walked back into a place Jace and I had frequented.
It would choke the very life from my throat.
“I just work a high-stress job,” I said. “That’s all.”
“What do you do for work?” Devon asked.
“Classified,” I said, winking.
“Well,” he said, chuckling, “I work in engineering.”
“Oh, really? What kind?”
“Mechanical,” he said. “I work on the air force base.”
“Nellis?” I asked. “Are you in the military? Or a contract worker?”
“Contract,” he said. “And before you ask, yes. I enjoy it greatly.”
“Well, if you won’t tell anyone in this bar-- because there are about seven things illegal in this scenario alone-- I’m a cop,” I said.
“In Vegas?” he asked.
“Henderson. About sixteen miles outside the city,” I said. “And yes, I enjoy what I do.”
He chuckled and tipped up his beer, and still, I was focused on how it was crooked instead of straight up. How the hell could I stop this? How the fuck was Jace still affecting me? I had to try and stop thinking about him. I had to find something to do that wouldn’t remind me of Jace.
And then, a song came on.
“Do you dance?” I asked.
“I do,” Devon said. “Do you?”
“I try when I can. Would you like to dance?” I asked.
Jace never fucking danced. Not in a million years. There was no possible way I could think about Jace while dancing in the arms of this man. It was the perfect plan. And the smile on Devon’s face as he set down his beer told me he was in for the ride. He put his beer bottle down on the bar, took my drink from my hand, then threaded his fingers with mine.
Phase one of ‘Forget Jace’ had officially commenced.
Chapter 7
Snake
My blood boiled as I watched her with another man. What the fuck was she doing? He wasn’t even her type! She came in here with her head held high and her gaze stuck in a glass. I knew that look. I knew those clothes. She’d had a hard day, and she wasn’t looking to talk about it. She picked the chair that probably looked the sturdiest to her and sat in it. She was always insecure about her weight, which I never understood. She was beautiful, with jiggling curves in all the right fucking places. Got my cock all mixed up in that body for months. But in the back of her mind, she was heavy. She thought she was hot shit, but she always looked out for things that would embarrass her about her weight.
Like breaking a damn chair if she sat in it.
He sat down beside her, and they started talking. Like he gave a shit about her. Like they were old pals. And she was falling for his shtick. Had she retained nothing since she’d been with me? Nothing that I’d taught her? Opened her eyes up to? Every part of me wanted to go over there and bust up their moment. I wanted to stick myself in between him and her and tell that blue-eyed dandy to fuck off.
Snake (The Road Rebels MC Book 3) Page 4