by Stacey Lynn
I bit into my overly greasy piece of pizza and glared at Daemon and Jaden sitting three tables away. It gave us only a semblance of privacy. We had been at the mall for two hours. We could have been done in one, but I was having too much fun dragging out their misery. Listening to bikers bitch and moan about having to carry our shopping bags through a mall was the most entertainment I’d had since Daemon forced me to stay at his house a week ago.
Forced might be a strong word. I went willingly because it was the smart thing to do; but after a week of house arrest, I was going insane.
“Yeah, well,” I said in between bites and wiping my mouth with my napkin. “He’s still got me on a short leash.”
“You don’t seem to mind.”
Oh, I minded. I minded that Daemon was slowly driving me crazy with lust. I didn’t remember ever being as turned on as I had been in the last week. I minded that every time he got out of the shower, he stood too close to me, wiping his hair with a towel and left his jeans unbuckled and unzipped just enough that I could see the final water drops trail down between the two veins on his lower stomach. They looked like a road map straight to the promise land.
I also minded that I didn’t even bother pretending that I hated him anymore.
We had grown too close. It was too familiar. Being with Daemon, in his house and surrounded by memories of good times, I felt protected.
Beside the occasional touch that sent a jolt of lust straight through me, Daemon hadn’t tried anything.
“It hasn’t been too bad, staying there, I guess.” From across the table, Faith made some unfeminine snort sound. She didn’t believe me. I didn’t believe me either. I’d blame my pregnancy hormones on my lustful reactions to being close to Daemon, but even I knew I’d be lying with that one. “So, how’d you get involved at Penny’s, anyway?”
I looked up cautiously, but I couldn’t help but ask. My one time closest friend was the most popular escort in Jasper Bay. I had been itching to ask her or Daemon or Jaden, who had become somewhat of a surrogate bodyguard in the last week, how that all went down in the first place.
She took a slow breath, breathing it out through her barely parted lips and messed with her shiny, jet-black hair. Her face fell into sadness before she cleared whatever emotions she was dealing with.
I wanted to reach out, hold her hand, and tell her to forget it, but curiosity and the fact that we had been friends since we were born prevented me. I had never seen Faith struggle for words like she was doing now.
She took a deep breath and smiled at me. But her lips barely lifted and it didn’t reach her eyes. “After my Dad turned on the club, what in the hell else was I going to do? I had to take care of my mom and I needed money. And once Ryker left me…” Her voice trailed off and for the first time in my life, I swore I saw a tear form in her eyes. “After that happened, I was on my own. It was the only thing I could think of to take care of us.”
She was hiding something from me. I could tell in the way she avoided my eyes and the way her fingers played with the edges of her napkin.
Nervously.
Hesitantly.
I didn’t know if I had the right to push her.
We stared at each other quietly from across the table. I wanted to reach across and hug her but knew she’d probably kick my ass for pitying her or feeling sorry for her. She quickly wiped a finger under her eye and tried to compose herself but I could see it breaking down all around her.
I didn’t know what to say. So we sat silently, eating our nasty, greasy pizza in silence until I said the only thing that would make both of us smile.
“The fucking motorcycle club sucks ass.”
She laughed silently, just once, but it was enough.
“How are you doing with all of this?” Her eyes dipped down to my stomach that was now starting to look slightly swollen at nighttime, like I’d gorged on too much Thanksgiving dinner.
I licked my lips. How was I doing? I didn’t know. “Good most days. I’m not sick or anything and I have an appointment in a couple of weeks. I just… I don’t know,” I shrugged and looked away, avoiding Faith’s knowing eyes. Finally, I blew out a breath. “It’s not what I planned, but I think, most days, I’m getting excited about having a baby.”
Faith smiled lightly. “I think you’ll make a great mom.”
The backs of my eyes began burning slightly. I had had an amazing mom. She was kind. She laughed a lot and made everyone feel welcome. She had raised me to be strong and independent, and she always had homemade cookies on hand. If I could be half the mom, my mom was…
I blinked the tears away and tried to give Faith a smile, but it was shaky. As if she knew what I was thinking, she changed the subject.
“Let’s get out of here. I have more shopping to do.”
We stood up and saw Daemon and Jaden do the same thing in the distance. They stalked over to us in record speed, dodging little kids with sticky fingers and the frazzled, stroller-pushing moms on the way. I couldn’t help but smile at the women—somehow innately relating to them even though I wasn’t yet a mom. But Faith’s words about me being a good mom rang in my ears long after she spoke them.
“Are we done yet? We got shit to do today and I am not going back into another damn chick store.”
I rolled my eyes at Jaden. He was tough. At least he probably looked tough to other people. I still remembered the day I kicked his ass when we were seven over a game of kickball that went bad after he cheated and claimed he didn’t.
“I got one more stop to make,” Faith said and I frowned at her. She just winked at me.
With only a small amount of grumbling, the guys followed us to her car and hit the road on their bikes behind us.
I smiled in my rearview mirror at the image of being escorted by two members of the Nordic Lords. I could hear the motors of their bikes rumbling louder than the music in Faith’s car. They both looked sexy and dangerous in their leather cuts and sunglasses. Their faces were completely serious as if following us was the most protective job in the world.
I instantly felt my lower stomach warm at the thought of those powerful hands, Daemon’s powerful body. The way he had changed. Grown up, in attitude and in his body.
God, I was a mess. Stupid pregnancy hormones.
“I sort of feel like we should be wearing beauty pageant sashes and tiaras with the way they’re following us.”
Faith was right. I looked out the car’s side view mirror and laughed. All the earlier sadness replaced with mischief and happy memories.
“Like when you won the Sweet Sixteen pageant.”
She laughed. “God, that was horrible. Do you remember the looks I got when I showed up on stage with my biker boots on?”
I laughed along with Faith at the memory and then quieted. “I’m really sorry I was such a crappy friend and left you to deal with all that shit on your own.”
She shrugged, not taking her eyes off the winding road in front of us. “It’s done, Liv. Nothing we can do about that shit now except move passed it.”
I agreed with her, but the car went silent and as I saw Daemon again from the side view mirror, I wondered if I would ever truly be able to let the past go, or if it would always cause an unsurmountable space between us.
I might have been able to forgive him for leaving me. I just didn’t know if I would ever forget, and the threat—the fear of it happening again—wasn’t something I thought I could get over.
I felt the car pull to a stop and I instantly gritted my teeth together when I saw where Faith had pulled up. The familiar bike engines came to a stop next to us. To my right, I saw Daemon swing his legs off the bike and take the few steps to my door.
“I am not going in there,” I told Faith, my eyes back on the door to the bike shop. Next to anything club related, this bike store had felt like home. It was where I poured over bike pamphlets as a pre-teen, planning the bike I wanted.
She rolled her eyes. “You need more clothes, and this is where
you get them.”
Biker clothes. Old lady clothes that would make me look like I belonged on the back of a bike. I hadn’t been on a bike since the night Daemon threw me on his and took me to his house. It made me think of mine, still covered in a dusty tarp, banished to the back corner of my storage garage.
I stayed in the car as Faith and Jaden went into the shop. She had a happy little skip to her step. What in the hell did an escort need from this kind of store?
I jumped in my skin when Daemon opened my door. His body filled the space as one arm rested on the open the door, the other bent over the top of Faith’s car. One side of his lips twisted into a grin as he leaned down until his face was inches from mine.
“Let’s go, princess.”
I scowled. And ignored the buzzing on my skin that happened whenever Daemon got this close to me. It was unnerving.
It was too familiar. The way his breath danced across my skin made me shiver with desire. The stupid grin on his face that widened when I shifted uncomfortably beneath his gaze showed he completely knew what he was doing to me.
Asshole.
I went back to staring at the store. It was just a shop. It didn’t matter that there would be rows of shiny new Harley bikes, lined up perfectly in a row that I could slowly run my hands over. It didn’t matter that as soon as I opened the door, the smell of new leather would sting my senses—making me want to wrap myself up in the soft feel of their high-quality leather coats. Or make me want to hop on a bike, ride for hours, and feel nothing but the wind tangling my hair and the vibrations of a bike under my ass.
I couldn’t do it.
Yet, the pull was too great to ignore.
“It’s just a store, Liv.” I blinked my eyes at the humor in Daemon’s voice. But like the good little girl I’d become in the last week, willing to do whatever he said, I nodded once and swung my legs, clothed in short denim cut offs and flip-flops to the side of the car.
Daemon didn’t step back right away, not that I thought he would. His eyes slowly raked over every inch of skin on my legs. He stopped when he got to the frayed edges that rested at the top of my thighs.
I felt his eyes everywhere. Heat rushed up to my neck. At least it was almost ninety degrees outside, so I could blame my pink skin on the unbearable humidity and Faith’s lack of air-conditioning.
It didn’t matter that her air-conditioning worked just fine.
“You need to get some things for our ride.”
I frowned once the throaty words Daemon spoke finally rolled over me and settled into my brain.
“What ride?”
He held out his hand, pulling me out of my seat and then set his gloved hand on my lower back. My skin prickled with heat and beads of sweat popped up along my hairline. “It’s summer, Liv. What ride do you think I’m talking about? We leave next month.”
“Sturgis?” I shook my head. No way. “I’m not going.”
He took what should have been a menacing step toward me. I stepped back and immediately plopped my ass on the hood of Faith’s car. I hissed in a breath as the heat from the hot summer sun on metal stung the backs of my thighs.
“Club’s goin’,” he said quietly, leaning into me, as he tended to do. His height and strength was intimidating to almost everyone. To me, it was an aphrodisiac, and I inhaled a slow breath to calm my racing heart. Which was stupid because all I ended up doing was inhaling his scent of leather mixed with sweat. My head felt woozy from the combination of him standing so close and smelling so good. “And if the club’s goin’, you’re comin’ too.”
I rolled my eyes and then ducked around him, suddenly anxious to get into the cool building looming in front of me.
“What’s going on with Travis and the Black Death?” I asked as Daemon held the door open for me.
“You really want to know?” He didn’t look at me as he asked the question. In all honesty, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t heard a thing yet. It had been a week since Gunner’s tattoo shop was blown up. I was expecting fallout to happen much sooner than it did. I didn’t want Travis hurt, but I wanted everything taken care of so I could go back to finding my own place to live again, find a new job, and get out of Daemon’s house.
Mostly.
“Just want to know when I can get my life back.”
Without warning, Daemon gripped my wrist and swung me around to face him. The rubber of his boots squeaked on the linoleum floor and his eyes pierced mine. I froze as he stood in front of me. Anger flashed in his eyes. And maybe a hint of disappointment. Or fear.
I looked away.
“What life is that, Liv? The one you weren’t living? The one that kept you locked in a shitty, second floor apartment, pretending you were someone you aren’t?”
I pursed my lips together and my hand curled into a fist at my side. I would not slap Daemon. I would not slap Daemon. My teeth hurt from pressing them together so harshly, and the muscles in my arm shook slightly.
I hated when he got like this. Trying to make me be the person he wanted me to be, while shoving every other decision that went against that idea down my throat.
My lips curled back into a sneer and I hissed at him under my breath. “Fuck you.”
“You want to? ‘Cuz I’m more than willing.” His eyes did a quick scan of my body. I felt it everywhere. “Gladly, Liv. Just let me know when and where.”
With heat hotter than an erupted volcano rolling through my veins, I pushed passed him and walked to the back of the store where Faith was. I ignored the bikes. I ignored the racks of leather cuts and pants that I knew would feel like a second skin.
“Why’d you bring me here?” I asked her, my voice tight and restrained. If she noticed my frustration, she ignored me while I stared at the rows of tank tops and shirts decorated in biker logos and slogans. Black, grey, white and pink. Could it be any more cliché than this?
Without thinking, I grabbed one, then two, and threw them over my arm.
“I need some things for the trip,” she said, throwing a shredded leather mini skirt on top of the large pile of clothing in her arms. Faith didn’t look at me. She didn’t respond to my question and she continued shopping like it was something we had always done, completely ambivalent to the hissy fit I felt like throwing in the middle of the damn store.
I eyed the leather skirt in her hand. It would barely cover her ass, much less mine. And the cut, faux leather would fall right where my leg hits my hip. It would be sexy as hell.
It would drive Daemon crazy; especially, when I wore it on some stranger’s bike at Sturgis.
It would probably also be too small for me by the time we left if my slowly growing abdomen was any indication.
I didn’t pay attention to what Faith did when I grabbed a skirt, in one size larger than I normally wore, threw it over my arms and stomped to the cash register.
At the last second, I also threw in a pair of leather gloves hanging next to the cash register.
I hated that I loved this place. That no matter how hard I had fought to leave, being a biker was all I knew. It pissed me off that I felt more at home in this store than I did in any of the shops we’d browsed at the mall.
And I really hated seeing the proud smirk on Daemon’s face as I stomped passed him in the parking lot, throwing my new clothes into the back of Faith’s car. Slamming the door after I climbed into her car, I threw my sunglasses over my eyes and avoided the victorious grin Daemon wore like a proud father.
He wouldn’t be grinning when he saw what I was wearing when I went to the clubhouse later that night.
If people were so desperate to have me back, I’d give them exactly what they wanted.
And it was only a half-lie. Being around Faith again, and spending the day with Jaden and Daemon, felt just like how it used to when life was simpler. When it was easy and fun.
My shoulders relaxed in the car as I accepted my fate.
I was always the biker girl. I was the biker princess. It wasn’t just for Daemon that
I wanted to show him what I would look like dressed as the daughter of the President, acting the part of who I had been groomed to be.
I wanted to be the girl I was groomed to be.
Strong.
Tough.
Independent.
Yet with the compassion of my mom and her ability to forgive and let things go for the sake of the life she had chosen. She would want that for me. She would want me to walk into any room, knowing exactly who I was.
Daemon smiled at me, that cocky grin on his lips as memories of my mom—good memories—rushed through me, solidifying my decision to take the final step and let the past go. I could move on and be the daughter she raised. I could make her proud of me. It wasn’t until that moment, while Daemon frowned at my changed expression, that I realized how desperately I’d been searching for just that and yet it was there, in Jasper Bay, the whole time.
I sent a text message to Jaden, who was still inside the store with Faith, and watched a few seconds later as he received it. Then out of the corner of my eye, I watched Daemon flip his phone open, read a text and hop on his bike, peeling out of the parking lot without looking back at me once.
“Thanks for bringing me here,” I told Jaden as he lifted the door to my storage garage. “And thanks for getting rid of Daemon.”
“You can thank me when you have to ice down the black eye he’s going to give me for helping you do this behind his back.”
I was too nervous to laugh, but I doubted Daemon would be upset when he saw me show up on my bike. I wiped the sweat from my hands onto my denim-clad hips and braced my hands on them, blowing out a breath.
“Why are you freakin’ out about this? You grew up on a bike. You’re probably more comfortable driving that beauty than you are with that ugly ass sedan.”
My nose twitched and a slight smile formed. A genuine one, even though I felt like a hundred butterflies were swarming my insides, fighting to break out wherever they could find an opening.