Never Wed an Outlaw: Deadly Pistols MC Romance (Outlaw Love)

by Nicole Snow

  The unimaginable was happening. The club got richer thanks to me. I'd found something I was actually good at. Hauling in this kind of cash every night told me that maybe this life wasn't so strange after all – and just maybe, I could make it.

  “Fuck, you taste good. What's all that for?” he asked, breaking the kiss reluctantly. His strong hands held on to me.

  “I'm happy to see you, silly. It's been a great night for money. Meg and Skin are going to be really happy.”

  He grunted. “Yeah, Skinny boy can use some of that shit after the kinda day we've had.”

  I looked at him and cocked my head. He didn't elaborate.

  Instead, he pushed me gently inside, shut the door, and sat in the chair across from Meg's desk. The normal office chair looked tiny with him filling it, and I couldn't help but smile.

  It was either that, or think about everything that mountain he called a body did to me.

  “Finish up. We've gotta hit the road.”

  “Okay! We should stop by the store later. I'd like to pick up a few things for the place, especially now that we're both getting settled in.”

  I didn't notice his face had darkened until I looked up. Those soft blue eyes were like icy stones. He had the same stare as the one when he'd knocked out Tony Pearson the other night.

  “That's gonna have to wait, babe. We're staying at my sister's place for the next week or two, or however the fuck long it takes to wrap up important club biz.”

  My fingers came to a dead stop on Meg's keyboard, logging the day's profits on the spreadsheet. What?!

  “Sister? I didn't even know you had one! What business? What are you talking about, Firefly?”

  “All the boys got into a bad fight with the Torches today. They came here, pissed off about your old man, looking for you. Prez shrugged them the fuck off. They tucked their tails and ran, but that shit won't last long. They're dangerous. Outta control. They'll be back. Means we're gonna deal with 'em on our own terms..”

  “But I mean...our place...” I looked down at the dusty computer screen, my heart sinking. “Jesus, my work here...”

  “Meg'll hear it soon. She'll work around it, have somebody cover your shifts 'til hell blows over. God willing, you'll only be outta commission for a little while.” He stood, crossed the small space to my desk, and put his hands down flat, gazing straight into my eyes. “No bullshitting, babe. I'm trying to save your life.”

  I wanted to cry. Just when I'd started to relax, feel at home with him, and this strange, dirty underworld...

  “What's the plan?” I said softly, wondering if I even wanted to know.

  “Like I said, my sis is giving us her place for the next week or two. Hannah's a hotshot traveler for the banks, spends half the fuckin' year over in Switzerland or the Virgins or some shit. Her house is nice. Lot bigger than the apartment.”

  His teeth clenched when he said the last part. I came up behind him, and laid my hand softly on his shoulders. Thought it was just because there was a gaping hole between him and his sister, and he'd let me in on it, in his own little way.

  “There's more, darlin'. We're not just hiding the fuck out 'til this all blows over. I gotta be honest. Can't lie to you.”

  I looked at him, narrowing my eyes. For the millionth time since I'd been thrown into all of this, my heart raced, thumping along with a steady, revving tempo, ready to tear me in two.

  “I can't take the mystery here. Tell me.”

  “No. I'll show you. Come on.” He grabbed my hand, rough and insistent.

  Before I knew what was happening, we were leaving the office. Firefly pulled me toward the curtain. I started dragging my feet – what the hell was he doing? Didn't he know they were right in the middle of Honey-Bee's late night act?

  “Firefly, no!” There wasn't any stopping him.

  He was too strong, too persistent, and the lights blinded me the second we stepped out on stage. Huge, glaring spotlights and neon red would've wrecked anyone's eyesight after spending eight hours in the gloomy blackness backstage.

  The music came to a screeching halt. Honey-Bee swung from a giant sling above us, wearing nothing except tall white heels and those fake crystal angel wings she always slipped on before her act. She looked down on us, totally confused, a ball of feathers in her hand she'd been ready to blow to the horny men as part of her tease.

  Then the catcalls started.

  “Take it the fuck off, baby! All the waaaay!”

  “What the hell's this big biker asswipe doin' on stage? Didn't know this place was licensed for hardcore fuck shows...”

  “Honey-Beee!”

  I pushed myself into him, desperately pushing my nails into his neck, holding his eyes. “Firefly – please! We can't be out here.”

  “No, babe. Keep breathing. I've got something for you.”

  He reached into his pocket. His hand took mine, held it up, and I watched the bright gold ring in the club's bright lights slide onto my finger as he shoved it in place.

  “Everybody listen up!” Firefly boomed, roaring through the crowd. When he spoke, their chatter stopped, like a hurricane silencing the ocean. “Came out here tonight to let ya'll know I'm claiming this girl. Cora Chase is about to be the best goddamned old lady a man could ever ask for, and an even better wife. One round for everybody on me!”

  The crowd erupted, hooting and hollering. The few lone women stuffed between the clammy, horny bastards screamed like they'd just won the lottery. Free booze meant the world to old bar flies so desperate for booze they came here with their husbands just to drink.

  Hell, I wanted to join them. I could've used a tall, stiff drink right now. Maybe ten of them.

  The entire club blurred. I couldn't follow what was happening. That ring around my finger felt like a leash, a noose, a choke point trying to smother my whole world for the second time in a month.

  “Crank the fuckin' music up when I'm done,” Firefly growled, grinning to the crowd, still holding up the new ring on my hand triumphantly with his. “Play something sappy and loud about love, I don't give a shit, DJ. I just want this whole fuckin' town to know that Cora's Property of Firefly now. I'm gonna love her, keep her, and never, ever let her go.”

  The crowd exploded. Firefly moved in, pulling me to his chest. His tight arms around my waist were just about the only thing stopping me from passing out.

  “Kiss me, baby girl,” he whispered in my ear. “Meant every fuckin' word I just said here, Cora. This is about protecting you, yeah, but it's more than that. Don't expect you to understand. Don't care if you ever do. You're mine now, babe. Forever.”

  Too much. Too soon. Too crazy.

  No mistake. This was CRAZY!

  I tried to claw him, to scream, but I couldn't do anything when the bass started blasting through the club. Honey-Bee chirped happily above us, shouting down congratulations, showering us in huge handfuls of cheap feathers like snow.

  His lips moved up my neck. Rage, confusion, and desire wrestled like snakes inside me, making my skin crawl until I swooned.

  He held me, kept me from collapsing. Our eyes locked, and those dark, blue seas in his face held a thousand wild promises.

  I didn't know what to do. Didn't know if I'd step out of here without having a heart attack.

  Then the gorgeous lunatic pulled me toward him, burying his lips against mine. I sank into his kiss and bit him. Hard.

  Firefly never took his mouth off mine until he decided it was finally time to move. Not even when I tasted his blood.

  Eventually, the delirium on stage swept me away. At first, I thought I'd passed out, and he'd carried me to the small, dingy church just outside Knoxville. But then, if I was unconscious, I couldn't have ridden with him on his bike, draped around him like a ragdoll, clinging tight to him through the sharp turns he took on those high mountain roads.

  “This wasn't the way I wanted this shit to go down, darlin'. It'll have to do. Ain't no time to throw you in lily white and invite all your fr
iends and family. It'll be a small ceremony. We'll make up for it in all the years to come. Do bigger bashes when we renew our vows.”

  “You're...you're out of your mind,” I whispered, trying not to stumble as he led me up the steps.

  I was still woozy from the ride in. My brain temporarily shut down, processing the latest trauma.

  God. How could he do this to me?

  Nothing about this made sense. Well, maybe the part about keeping me safe, but did it really take this to do it? Marriage?

  Talk about extreme. Irrational. Ridiculous!

  And just when I'd started to like him, too.

  Firefly gave the old double doors a hard shove, and we stepped inside. I did a double take when I saw Skin and Meg standing near the altar, alongside an old, wiry looking preacher man with silver hair and owlish spectacles.

  “You two knew?” I hissed at Meg as he dragged me down the aisle.

  “Just found out. Skin said the ceremony needs witnesses to be official...sorry, Cora. I'm just trying to help.” She lowered her eyes, shooting her lover a sharp look that said it all. Are you sure about this?

  Skin embraced his woman, pulled her tight to his chest. Right now, she was the only one being comforted in this freak show.

  “It's gonna be okay, babe,” he whispered softly, before he looked up at me. “Gonna be all right for you, too, Cora. Nobody wanted it to get this real, but we've gotta keep you safe. Firefly won't let anything bad happen to you. He promised.”

  We stopped next to the altar, and the two men shared a vicious look. Firefly took my hand, held it to his lips, and kissed it. I felt the scar I'd left from the harsh love bite, and tasting his blood in my mouth.

  “Everybody ready?” Preacher man asked, his voice as soft and out of place as everything else here. He didn't even flinch when he looked at me, smiled, and saw the sickening look on my face.

  Jesus, he looked official, too. I wondered what drove him to do this kind of favor for the club.

  “Babe, don't fight it,” Firefly said, pulling me into his warm embrace. “Hold on. This'll all be over before you can...what the fuck?”

  I head-butted him. My face sank into his warm, powerful chest, igniting a whole new storm of emotions I couldn't begin to handle.

  Nothing in my life was going down like I'd planned it.

  But this...this weird, sudden, terrifying joke of a wedding tore away the shielding on my heart. All the pain and humiliation I'd suffered came pouring out. Inhaling his rich, masculine scent made me want to stay there forever. Die there, if I had to.

  Even now, it calmed me. Even when I hated him. I should've put up a fight, gone out kicking and screaming and shouting, but what little I'd had left died on the Ruby Heel's bright stage.

  He'd decided I was going to be his old lady, his fucking wife, and there wasn't a single thing I could do about it.

  “Wait.” The word dropped out of his mouth like a hammer hitting concrete, and everything else stopped, including the crappy organ music flowing through the speakers.

  “Brother?” Skin sounded so unsure.

  I looked up, and saw Firefly's attention shift from him to me. “You're confused as shit right now, aren't you? Fuck yeah, you are, and you've got every damned right to be. I swore a promise to the club before we got all this in motion. Told the man standing here I'd do whatever the hell it took to keep you safe. I thought you'd be on the same page.”

  My eyes were prisoners in his. He leaned in, licked his lips, and whispered words that gutted me.

  “I'm sorry, darlin'. I fucked up.”

  His beautiful blue eyes softened, mirroring the change in his energy from hot and excited to melancholy. Suddenly, my sympathy swelled for him – so insane and unexpected I wanted to scream.

  “Wedding's off. For today. We'll settle this shit when you're good and ready, Cora,” he said, stopping to put his warm, firm lips on my forehead. “Skin, you let the brothers know it's done, without a hitch. She's still getting my brand and wearing my ring, but we're stopping just short of making this shit legal. I gotta do what's right for everybody here.”

  Meg sighed. I saw her out of the corner of my eye, tugging on Skin's hand, a soft smile pulling at her cheeks.

  “Good,” Skin growled. “I'd have stopped this shit myself with the way she's acting. You're taking a wife, Firefly, not a slave.”

  “What? You think I don't fuckin' know that? Why the hell you think I'm putting a hold on the only shit I ever wanted?”

  “For fuck's sake, brother, that's exactly what I'm saying. You don't need a lecture from me. You're a good man.” Skin bowed his head just slightly, a respectful gesture I never would've imagined coming from these rough, hard men in leather.

  They shook hands, before Firefly turned his attention back to me, pulling me deeper into his embrace, big as the southern sky. His arms held me tighter than before, solid like oak.

  My heart swelled. He'd sounded so serious, so loving. He'd surprised me for the millionth time today, and I wasn't going to be able to handle any more.

  Preacher man shuffled awkwardly behind us, coughing into his hand. “I'll keep the papers in my office, just in case anybody decides to change their mind.”

  “No need,” Firefly told him.

  For just a split second, I regretted the fact that we weren't going through with it. Then he shook me awake, cupping my chin in his hand, and tilting my face up to meet his eyes.

  “Darlin', you look at me, and listen good. Far as you and everybody else knows, we're hitched. I announced it at the Heel because the Torches have got spies all over town. They need to know you're mine. They need to get pissed about it, so they'll roll right into the hell we've planned for 'em.”

  “Firefly, I –“

  “I ain't done yet,” he growled, moving his face closer to mine, until I could feel his hot breath on my lips. “I meant every fuckin' thing I said back there. Everything I told you tonight. I want you to be mine, dammit, but not like this. This wedding's on hold. Doesn't change the fact that I'm making you my old lady tonight.”

  My heart stopped. I gasped. His hand snaked down my back, grabbed my ass, and jerked me into him, turning me into a buttery, knee-shaking mess.

  “You've got about twenty minutes to decide how you wanna wear my ink. We're going to get you branded. Right now.” He brushed his lips against mine, teasing me until it hurt. “This is the place to take God as my witness for everything I'm telling you next. Make no mistake, Cora, you are mine. Get used to it. There's no taking it back. Second my name goes on your skin, I own your sweet ass, plus every other inch of you, darlin'. Mine tonight, 'til the end of fuckin' time.”

  Oh, God. His words hit me like dark biker poetry, rough and conflicted as everything I felt for him, igniting a hundred more raw emotions.

  I wasn't looking at a man anymore, or feeling him. He was a human tornado, conquering me with his eyes, telling me with nothing more than a long, hard glance that this was real. All of it.

  Just like a raging storm, he'd pick me up, fling me around, and fuck me with those huge, feral muscles until I was bruised and dripping wet.

  Love? Hate? I didn't know the meaning anymore.

  That wicked, mysterious place where they met was Firefly incarnate, and he vowed to make me feel every mad inch of him.

  I actually bit my bottom lip as he took my hand and spun me around, pulling me toward the church doors.

  Skin whispered a few words to the preacher man, something about how he'd better not breathe a word of this to anybody. Nothing except the lie we'd all been told to say.

  We were married.

  Back on Firefly's bike, I hugged him tighter, breathing the warm night air hanging down over the city from the Great Smokies.

  No, I hadn't been ready for a flash wedding ceremony. Daddy wanted something beautiful for me, long ago, and I did, too. But I wasn't fighting him on the old lady thing.

  A delicious tingle pulled at my nipples, firing between my legs. Whenever I
thought about him owning me with ink before he claimed my ass, I shuddered, and held on tighter.

  We tore through the backstreets, his bike kicking up puddles of rain settling on the streets. My heart raced faster, and that savage pulse between my legs quickened when I saw the glowing red sign.

  SKULL'S INK, it said in neon, with a smaller sign beneath it. NO F*CKIN' CRYBABIES ALLOWED!

  “Last stop before we hit my sis' place,” he said, drinking me in with his eyes. “Let's make the most of it. Fuck if these fingers aren't itching like hell to put my name all over you.”

  “Don't know about all over me,” I said, sticking out my tongue. “One spot. That's all I need to make it official, right?”

  “Yeah, darlin',” he said. “That's the goal. Long as I see my name stamped on your ass, you're getting fucked 'til you can't even walk. Promise.”

  Holy Shit. I shivered, the anticipation building like a fever.

  We walked into the deserted shop. I'd expected an artist to come out and do the work, some freaky man with dark shapes scrawled on him from head to toe.

  “Sit down,” Firefly said, gesturing to the nearest bench in the back. He jerked on the lamp overhead, aiming it.

  “No way. You're a tattoo artist too?”

  He just smiled, laying out his tools. “Pants off, babe. We'll talk it over as we go. You'll be more relaxed than usual because you've already had my hands all over your ass.”

  However true, that didn't stop me from blushing like a prom girl as I dropped my khakis. On the table, his rough hand snatched at my waistband, ripping my panties down.

  I heard him breathe deep, taking in my scent, everything I couldn't hide from how hot and wet and conflicted I'd been for at least the last hour.

  “Fuck. You're lucky I learned a thing or two about discipline with Uncle Sam, alongside these inks. Otherwise, I'd be slamming into you hard and deep, right the fuck here. You'd be out before we even got started.”

  His hand touched the small of my back, swept downward, zipping over my bare ass cheeks. Arching my back, I sucked in a breath, held it, and let it steam out my lips.

  “Soon, baby girl. Keep that fire hot. Hold it just for me.” He leaned down, numbing my ass with one hand, pouring hot breath into my ear. “Quicker we get this over with, quicker you get this dick inside you. This ain't officially our honeymoon, but I'm fucking you like it is.”