“Got it,” she whispered.
“Good,” he answered. “How’d you get in here?”
“Jazz.”
Of course. He looked over at the clock on the nightstand. “You’re up early.”
“Hawk, it’s ten.”
He wound a strand of her hair around his finger then tugged it. “Yeah, early. Bar’s open ‘til two. Work ‘til three. Don’t fall asleep ‘til four.”
Her fingers brushed over his chest and she circled a fingertip around one of his nipples. When she scraped the tip of it with her nail, he shuddered. Goddamn.
“I know.”
Against his better judgement he stated, “Weren’t here last night.” There was nothing obligating her to sleep in his bed while waiting for him to come home, but he was always pleased when she was. And he hated to admit he was disappointed when she wasn’t.
“I had some late clients.”
He cocked a brow. “How late?”
She slid farther up his side, placed her thigh over his, and nuzzled her nose into his neck. Damn, he liked that.
“I had dinner with one and drinks afterward with another.”
His body tensed and he stilled his fingers that were tracing the curves of her waist and hip. “That normal?”
“I try to avoid it when I can. Sometimes I can’t.”
“Don’t like you goin’ out at night with a man. Dinner or drinks.”
“Who said they were men?”
Right. He tried to catch her gaze but she was avoiding it. “Were they?”
She sighed. “Yes.”
His nostrils flared and his blood surged through him. He blew out a forceful breath and shut his eyes until his temper cooled down a few degrees.
Pressing her lips against his throat, she laid a path of kisses along his skin. “I can’t be here every night, Hawk. I don’t live here and we’re not even what I’d consider dating.”
He opened his eyes and stared at her. It fucking killed him how beautiful she was. She shouldn’t be in his bed. She should be in some rich fucker’s bed, bearing his well-off children, and being spoiled with overpriced jewelry, expensive cars and fancy vacations.
He could give her none of that.
The only thing he could give her hung between his legs.
God-fucking-damnit.
“I have my own life, my own career, and my own place. I can’t always be away from it.”
The air rushed out of him and the disappointment rushed right in. “Right.”
“It is what it is.”
His jaw tightened. He fucking hated that saying. “An’ what is it?”
“I don’t know,” she answered so softly that he almost didn’t hear her.
That was a bullshit answer. “Right,” he repeated.
“Hawk...”
“Quiet, Kiki.”
He felt her lift her head, but he stared at the ceiling. His chest was tight; his blood pounded through every vein and artery in his body. A sharp pain shot through his brain.
“Hawk,” she started again.
“Seriously, shut it.” She needed to stop talking, otherwise he might go ape shit and say something he might or might not regret. Either way, it wouldn’t be good.
“Right,” she echoed him, now just as tense as him. “Maybe I should go.”
“Right.”
“I guess I’ll see you at the fundraiser,” she said softly.
His breath rushed out of him. The Dogs & Hogs fundraiser was a month away. Fuck.
“Yep.”
He continued to stare at the ceiling as he listened to her gather her clothes, get dressed, and head downstairs. Though, he had to strain to hear the soft click of the front door closing.
He squeezed his eyes shut and forced himself not to jump out of bed to chase her down as her Vette roared to life and he heard her back out of his driveway. Her tires chirped for a split second when she gave the six hundred-fifty horsepower engine gas and accelerated at a high rate of speed down the street.
Hawk flipped over onto his belly and punched the pillow, then shoved his face into it and screamed.
* * *
Hawk’s gaze swept the fairgrounds and landed on the area where he knew Kiki’s pop-up tent and table would be set up. He was surprised to see a line of people snaking out from under the tent. His eyes shifted to the kissing booth not twenty feet from her location, then flicked back to the “legal aid” table, then back again to Dawg’s girls in the booth.
What the fuck?
Her line was longer than the kissing booth’s, but like the kissing booth it was made up completely of men.
He never should have gone on the Poker Run this morning. But he needed to clear his head and he thought taking his bike out to enjoy the early morning air would help. It didn’t.
Why? Because he knew he’d finally see Kiki again after a whole fucking month of not. Which was bullshit.
But for the best.
Sure. Fucking goddamn.
His bed had been empty for almost thirty days. Even his bed at fucking church. He didn’t touch anyone else for almost thirty whole days. That was worse than doing the ten days in County.
Right now, he couldn’t stomach any of the pussy that had been offered up. Maybe after today things would go back to normal. He would see her, remind himself that she was way out of his league, that her not showing up in his bed was for the best, and get back to quick and meaningless fucks.
Once he dealt with seeing Kiki today, she’d sign off on all the hours he put into this fundraiser and he’d be free from the court’s judgment. For the most part.
And she’d be free of him, too.
He’d just need to keep his nose clean awhile longer and get off probation.
He strode across the trampled fairground grass, pleased that they had a great turnout, but annoyed that he had to push through so many people to get to her.
When he got to the crowd at her tent, he shoved his way through.
“There’s a line,” came a grumble behind him.
Hawk ignored the gripes, groans and bitching as he worked his way through the line to move around to the back of the table. She had a clear plastic barrel, with a sign taped to it that read “donations,” sitting at one corner of the table and it was stuffed full of dough.
As he stepped beside her, deep blue eyes slowly rose up his body until they hit his face.
“Hey,” she said softly. Then turned her attention back to the guy sitting in the chair on the other side of the table.
Hey? That was all she had to say?
He let his gaze roam over her like a starved man. It felt like he hadn’t seen her in more than a month. More like a year.
Fuckin’ A.
Now that he was up close and personal, he could see exactly why she had such a crowd. It wasn’t because it took longer to give free legal advice than a kiss. It was because she wore tight jeans with frayed holes strategically placed, and a super snug black DAMC camisole which did nothing but emphasize her fucking tits. She had to be wearing some sort of push-up bra, or even no bra at all, since her cleavage was mounding out of the top begging to be stared at. Or even touched.
Her tits had to be almost as big as some of Dawg’s girls, but hers were one hundred percent natural. Soft, squeezable, and certainly fucking suck-worthy.
His fingers clenched into fists. He was going to lose his mind.
“Where’d you get that?” he growled.
Her eyes jumped from the guy she was talking to back to him. “What?”
“What you’re wearin’.”
Her fingers automatically went to one of the thin straps that curved over her bare shoulder. His eyes and probably every other man’s in eyeball view went the same direction. Too bad it wasn’t winter when she’d have to wear a turtleneck and a thick coat.
“One of the girls gave it to me. We’re all wearing the same thing.”
“Didn’t they have your size?”
“This is my size.”
&n
bsp; No way. It was way too small for her. “The fuck it is.”
Her eyes narrowed and her eyebrows dropped low. “Hawk... I’m in the middle of—”
“Know what the fuck you’re in the middle of. Need to go change.”
“I didn’t bring anything else.”
“Fuck me,” he muttered. He looked over at the line of all men. “Closin’ this down.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Yeah, I am.”
She slammed her palm down on the table, making the man sitting across from her jump. She pushed to her feet and drew herself to full height, even though it was a good eight inches shorter than his six-foot-four.
She sucked in a deep breath, which, of course made her tits look even bigger, and let it rip. “I’m in the middle of raising money for this event. You were the one who volunteered my time to do this.” She jabbed him in the chest with her finger. Her eyes narrowed and became heated. “You were the one who didn’t even have the courtesy to ask me first. You were the one who got arrested and it was because of your actions that you needed to do community service. I’m here because of you!”
He winced.
Shit.
His eyes once again went down the line of men, who now all stood smiling and looking like they were about to cheer her on.
“So...” she continued loudly. “I’m going to finish what I started and you’re not going to say shit about it. Got me?”
Fuck him.
The whole time she was yelling at him, her tits jiggled wildly and he now had a half of a hard-on.
He ought to just throw her over his shoulder, toss her on the back of his sled and haul her ass home to fuck the shit out of her.
That’s what he should do.
That’s not what he did.
“Whatever,” he grumbled. “We’ll talk later.”
“Fine,” she snapped, then settled back into her chair and apologized to the man she had been helping.
Clearly, he had been dismissed.
With a last look at her, he realized he needed to have a little discussion about those jeans she was wearing, too.
He pushed back through the crowd and saw Zak standing on the other side of the line. He was not fighting back his laughter. Not one bit. When Hawk approached, Z held his hand out, palm up.
Hawk frowned at it. “What?”
“Hand over your fuckin’ man card.”
“Fuck me,” he muttered and headed toward the beer tent, hoping he had enough cash on him to get shit-faced.
Chapter Ten
Kiki sat back in her plastic folding chair, stretched her arms overhead, and released a long, weary sigh. Not only was she beat, her ass hurt from sitting all day, and her muscles were stiff.
The Dogs & Hogs fundraising event had been extremely successful. At least from what she could see since she had been tied to her tent almost the entire day. The donations she collected for answering simple legal questions, that for the most part could have been answered by Google, filled up ten of those clear plastic pretzel barrels. Ten.
For any questions or cases that were more complex she handed the person a business card, telling them that she’d give them their first hour of consultation for free.
Tom would have a coronary, but she didn’t care. She’d do it on her own time if she needed to.
All day long, the air was filled with catchy rock music from a club member’s band, Dirty Deeds, the roaring of loud motorcycles, and the smells of a roasting pig and fried food.
Her stomach was growling since she only ate a pulled-pork sandwich and some fries that Bella and Jewel had brought her earlier in the day when they came to check on her. Which was nice. The DAMC women had all been very warm to her, accepting her into their fold easily. And, of course, Ivy had been kind enough to supply the day’s “uniform” of the black DAMC camisole that Hawk had a conniption over.
She looked down. Yes, it fit a little “too well.” But she figured if that was what helped fill ten whole barrels with cash, then so what. The money was going to a worthy cause by supplying trained service dogs to veterans.
Surveying the fairgrounds, she noticed quite a few bikers still hanging around. Some wearing DAMC cuts, some wearing “colors” proclaiming them to belong to the Dark Knights. Then there were a few clean-cut men wearing vests that said the Blue Avengers.
Wasn’t hard to figure out they were law enforcement. She dealt with cops way too often in her job, so she could spot them a mile away. A few times during the day she had spotted Bella and one of the Blue Avengers standing close and talking very animatedly.
She wondered what was up with that. Guess she could ask Bella herself since the woman was headed her direction.
“Done here?” the dark-haired beauty asked.
“Yes.” Kiki sighed. “I’m tired. I’m hungry. I need a long nap.”
Bella laughed. “We’re all going back to church to get grub. Prospects are going to stay behind to break down all of the tents and tables.”
It seemed that prospects were little more than slaves. They did whatever they were told, no matter how menial the task, to prove themselves worthy of “patching” into the club. Kiki compared it to hazing into a college fraternity.
Amazing what she could learn in one day of being surrounded by bikers and their women. She knew more now about the biker life and motorcycle clubs than she ever wanted to. At least it gave her some insight for future defense purposes. Not that she wanted to have to defend any of the “brothers” any time soon.
“Diamond come collect your money yet?”
“No, and look,” she lifted the long fabric tablecloth away from the ground and lowered her voice. “There’s a lot of it.”
Bella leaned over, peering under the table. “Damn, you raked it in. Guess the combination of a beautiful woman who can get your ass out of a jam is a good one!”
Diamond strolled over, wearing a huge smile. “I think Hawk would agree with that.” She pulled one of the clear plastic barrels from under the table, held it up and turned it three hundred-sixty degrees, whistling. “Need to do this for all of our fundraisers.”
Oh good lord, now she was going to be stuck doing more of these?
“How much do you think you collected?” Bella asked.
“I don’t know.” She’d been so busy, she never had a chance to count.
“Shit, this thing is full of twenties, not ones and fives like the Dawg’s strippers over there,” Diamond tilted her head toward the now abandoned kissing booth. “I think someone threw a bunch of pennies in theirs.”
Bella and Diamond snorted while elbowing each other.
“I take it that you ladies don’t like the club running a strip club?”
Diamond shrugged. “Wouldn’t be so bad if Dawg didn’t drag them into church all the time and to all our gatherings. It’s bad enough that there are sweet butts constantly hanging around, spreading their legs every time a brother glances their way. That’s why you hardly catch me at church for the parties.”
Just then a loud rumbling came out of nowhere. All three of the women’s heads spun toward the sound to see a few men on motorcycles headed their direction, riding hard and fast through the center of the event area and over the grass. Their faces were covered with dark goggles and black bandanas, their heads with skullcaps.
“Fuck!” Bella shouted, her face suddenly pale. “Warriors!” Her head spun toward Diamond. “Put the money down, Di.”
Diamond hugged the barrel closer to her stomach. “No, they’re not getting Kiki’s hard-earned money.”
“Fuck that, Di. Put the money down!”
“No—”
Diamond’s words were cut off when she gave an angry scream as a biker snatched the barrel out of her arms and then kicked her squarely in the gut with his boot. Diamond dropped to the ground with a cry, grabbing onto her middle.
Four unknown bikers circled the tent on their bikes, knocking a couple of the poles down. A bike came so close to Kiki that she fel
l backwards and landed on her ass, the air rushing out of her.
Bella faced off with another one of the bikers and when he got close enough to her, he put out his arm like he was going to snatch her up.
Kiki watched in horror as Bella screamed, “Not today, fucker!” Her face was now flushed, her eyes glittering. She pulled back her arm and punched him in the side of the head. The bike wobbled but didn’t go down.
“Fuckin’ bitch!” the Warrior yelled, then swung at her, punching her in the face. Blood spurted, her head whipped back and she fell to her knees.
Before Kiki could scramble to her feet, Diamond screamed at her, “Don’t let them get the money!”
Kiki quickly crawled on her hands and knees under the table, throwing her body over as many of the barrels as she could, which wasn’t many.
Then there were hands everywhere, grabbing her, yanking painfully on her hair, pulling her off, snatching the money. She grabbed the closest barrel and curled her body around it.
They were not getting all the money. No way.
“Fuckin’ bitch! Let it go!”
She shook her hair out of her face and glared up at the masked biker. “No!”
“Fuck it then, I’ll take you with.”
Oh shit.
The man grabbed her bicep and started dragging her from under the table. Even with that, Kiki refused to release the money.
Holy shit, if he got her on his bike and rode away with her, she was screwed.
Before she could kick at him, the biker went down. Kiki’s eyes followed the biker’s fall as he hit the ground hard.
She glanced back up and saw the guy who had been at The Iron Horse that night Hawk took her there.
She never learned his name.
He jumped on the downed biker and started to pound the hell out of him.
Watching his fists fly, Kiki’s mouth dropped open, not knowing what to do. She turned her head to see where the rest of the Warriors were and was shocked to see Bella chasing one on foot across the fairgrounds. Then one of the Blue Avengers rode up beside her on his bike and snagged her by the waist, halting her progress. Bella shook her head violently and shoved both palms into the man’s chest, almost knocking him off his motorcycle. She was screaming at the top of her lungs, her arms moving wildly, but Kiki couldn’t make out what she was yelling. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her close, trapping her arms. Kiki realized it was the same guy Bella had been speaking closely with earlier.
Down & Dirty: Books 1-3: Dirty Angels MC Series Box Set Page 49