Taking a Dare

by J. A. Hornbuckle

  I couldn't though, not until I'd taken care of a couple of issues. When Dare and I got together I didn't want anything, not one goddamn thing, to stand between us.

  "Can I take a rain check on that, cowboy?" I asked and watched the intensity in his eyes dim a bit. "I'm not saying no—just not tonight. Okay?"

  He didn't saying anything for a couple of heartbeats which was long enough for me to realize he didn't like my answer.

  But, it was the only answer I could give him at that moment. "That was one helluva kiss though. Been saving it for ten years, huh? Was it worth it?" I wanted to get us back to the lighthearted fun rather than leave him with his boxers in a bunch.

  "Maybe. Maybe not," he chuckled as we untwined and sat up, both of us adjusting our clothes. "Guess we'll need to fuckin' do it again just to see, yeah?"

  "Horn dog," I teased, swinging my legs off the table. The loss of his body heat was the reason for my shivers. At least, that's what I told myself.

  "Temptress," he shot back reaching to steady me but his arm slid further around and he pulled me into his chest for a tight hug. "Don't want to let you go, sugar."

  I leaned my head against his chest and gripped him tighter. "Yeah, cowboy. I know."

  I didn't want to let him go either but there was no way I could take it further with Dare without resolving the shit in my life first.

  March.

  Then my dear old dad and the control I'd let him have over me and my life.

  Chapter Nine

  "Baby?" Dallas called from somewhere around Trey's chest. They were both replete with their night's doings, him on his back and her curled up alongside him, head on his pec.

  "Right here, Tex," he replied on a yawn.

  "Overheard something weird tonight."

  "Weird, how?"

  "As in that Gus guy talking to Ryley about Dare," came the sleepy reply.

  "Gus is, was and will always be a fucking asshole." Trey had no problem in naming the other Prez for exactly what he was.

  "No, baby. Listen. He was telling Ryley to stay away from Dare, saying our boy was shit and that Dare had caused their family a lot of trouble." Trey heard a deep sigh before his fiancée and love of his life continued speaking.

  Fucking Christ!

  That goddamn, motherfucking asshole!

  "How could he do that, baby? She's his daughter for god's sake! You can't tell a grown woman who they can or can't be interested in!" Dallas's temper was very evident in her words. "I can't imagine my parents ever even telling me we couldn't be a family because they didn't like you. And for Gus to talk about Dare like that? Our Dare?"

  Trey could feel his own temper rising, knowing Miller and Mary wouldn't ever consider giving their Lally grief over her choice in men. "Gus came to me earlier and told me to get rid of Dare too. Told me that Spokane would give Missoula support as long as Dare was out of the picture. Even told me to send Dare's ass to Sheridan until Spokane went home if I couldn't get rid of Dare completely."

  "Completely? You mean like…"

  "Yeah, honey. Gus wants me to pull Dare's cut." It was Trey's turn to sigh. "Shit went down years ago and I don't think Gus or his son, Leif, have ever gotten over it."

  "And it has to do with Ryley and Dare?" Trey could almost hear the gears in Dallas's head spinning as she tried to put all the pieces together.

  "Yeah. Yeah, it does," he admitted. "Though why that bit of happening has echoed in their house for all this time..."

  "What are you going to do, Trey?" she interrupted, turning her face up to his and he found himself, as he did every time, lost in her nickel-colored gaze. He moved his hand, the one that had been drawing aimless patterns on her back, down to her ass as he thought over his options.

  "I'm gonna do what I do best, pretty girl. Let my man make his own decision," he offered on a rumble, knowing it was gonna be one of the hardest conversations he'd ever had. "He has a right to know what's doing and to figure out what he wants to do for himself."

  She scooted herself up his body until her face was level with his.

  "You are the most amazing man I've ever met." Her face, only partially seen in the moonlight, matched her tone in sincerity. "I love you, Trey."

  Without a blink, Trey rolled his woman onto her back, again situating his hips between her creamy thighs. "Then show me, Tex. Show me how much you love me."

  "With pleasure, baby…" came the mumble in their lip on lip action.

  *.*.*.*.*

  When I pulled out of the Hellion parking lot, I'd had every intention of going to Lock's. But the Escalade seemed to have a different mind and I found myself pulling into the Rosemont.

  I wasn't really surprised by how I'd decided to have it out with my dad. It had been brewing between us for a long time. A looonnnggg-assed time. And as I adjusted my purse on my shoulder, only marginally aware of how my boots thudded against the motel's asphalt, I considered what I was going to say to him.

  "That's room 210, miss," the clerk's tinny voice announced through the double glass as I'd slipped two twenties into the sliding drawer and shoved back his direction.

  "Thanks," I murmured without thinking and held onto the strap of my purse as I ascended the stairs.

  I just needed to get to the bottom of this, make my old man understand that he didn't need to control me every second of every day. That I was a grown-up woman and could take charge of my own life.

  It was a reasonable argument.

  A logical one.

  And something I knew he'd never go for—not in a thousand years.

  Shit!

  I did the soft, socially acceptable three knocks on room 210's door.

  "Who the fuck is there?" came the shouted challenge. "Can't you see the do not disturb sign? Fuck!"

  "It's me, Pops," I called out, trying to keep my voice soft knowing the other Hellions that'd made the run were in residence on that floor. "I need to talk with you."

  "Christ, Ryley," I heard him bellow in an exasperated tone. "Shit! Give me a second."

  There were murmurings and rustlings with even a door slam before my dad opened the front portal wearing nothing but a pair of jeans, his hair loose on his shoulders.

  "What is so motherfucking important you gotta show up in the goddamn middle of the night to talk to me about!" he bellowed irately even as his hand waved me into the room.

  Parking my purse next to one of the wooden chairs next to a battered table, I turned to him and answered, "why does me being with Dare bother you so much?"

  I watched him run a hand through his hair as his eyes darted to the closed door of his bathroom. "Because he's a shit, girl. No family, nothing of his own. He's a lowlife and a brother that only knows how to cause trouble."

  "That's not true." The words were out of my mouth before I could even think them through. "He's got a great job with the HC. He's a manager and is responsible for—"

  "Don't give a shit what he's in charge of, Ryley. He almost destroyed you before and you know it!" My father's voice was no longer in the bellowing range but had escalated to a full-throated roar. "I got you away from him before and I'm not fucking letting him hurt you again!"

  I could feel my eyes blinking as I tried to think of how to counter his words. "He didn't almost destroy me. It was me, Pops, me and my reaction that caused all the upset…"

  "Bullshit!" This was said so loud even the big picture window covered by the drapes rattled in its tracks. "I brought you here so you could see what a piece of crap that boy turned out to be. You're March's girl now. Stick with the program and everything will be okay."

  I could feel my eyes narrow as my mind tried to make sense of what he was saying. Really? He thought that by making me come to Missoula that I would see Dare and realize that the love of my youth was crap and that March was my man?

  Seriously?

  "That's not how my heart works, Pop," I challenged and even I could hear the stubbornness in my voice.

  "But that's how it needs to fucking work
, princess," he ground out equally as determined.

  We eyed each other for a time before I decided he'd already made up his mind and wasn't going to change it. At least not that night. My stomach was in knots at the possibility that he never would, not when it came to Dare.

  Grabbing my purse I stood and stepped to the closed door across the room. "Need to use the bathroom then I'll get outta your hair."

  "No! Ryley, wait," he said, jumping towards me as I turned the knob on the door. As it opened, I saw Dee wrapped up in a bed sheet and pressed against the side of the tub.

  "Oh," I said, trying to keep my jaw off the floor and the shock from my voice. "Hey, Dee."

  "Ryley," she offered with a shaky grin.

  I closed the door and set my purse on the counter. "Need to pee, if that's okay."

  "Have at it," she said with an imperial wave towards the commode.

  I unzipped my leathers and began to wiggle them down. "Guess you heard, huh?"

  "Hard to miss, baby girl," she rejoined.

  I sat myself down before turning my eyes to her. "You and Pops, huh?"

  "Yeah," she breathed, her cheeks flushing with her words as her eyes looked at anything but me.

  "This the first or the first I've heard of it?" I questioned, winding the toilet paper around my fingers.

  "Uhm," came her soft reply.

  "Okay. The first I heard of it," I determined aloud. I stood and pushed on the handle, filling the silence with the hard flush of the toilet. Yanking my pants up and zipping them, I eyed her. "The old man works for you?"

  All I got was a soft nod in reply but then she tacked on, "don't like his attitude about you and Dare, though."

  I washed my hands while holding her eyes. "Me either, Dee." Stepping towards her, I gave her a hug. "Glad your giving Pops some of the Honey-sweet."

  "Thanks, Rye. Just wish he'd take to it and gain some sweetness himself," she whispered back.

  "Me, too. Just keep trying, though, all right?" I said with a sincere smile before I opened the door and exited.

  Head held high, I walked across the room without even glancing at my dad.

  I counted me not slapping him silly as I left a win.

  Chapter Ten

  Church was a fucking joke in Dare's opinion. The regularly scheduled and mandatory meeting of the Hellion's that occurred each and every Sunday morning when all the brothers were as fuckin' hung-over as hell was a motherfuckin' waste of time.

  His mind was back on the night before. Of holding Ryley in his arms and kissing the shit out of her while having her kiss him right the fuck back. How could it be that the heat between them could reignite so fast?

  But it wasn't just heat. There was something else. A kind of a completion somehow in just talking together, laughing with her…

  He tuned back into what was being said but found he hadn't missed much. Numbers, blah-blah. Counts of this and that. Who was doing what to whom and who the Hellions were supporting, blah-blah-blah. Same shit every week that did his fuckin' head in. And looking around the room at the faces that were sitting or standing before the council table, he knew he wasn't alone in his opinion.

  More than one fuckin' jaw was canted in the yawn position.

  He went back up into his head where it was a lot more interesting in his opinion.

  Dare had watched the Escalade as it barreled down the driveway taking Ryley away from him and the sight had dropped his fuckin' heart to his knees. Almost as much as it had done when he'd asked her to go home with him and she'd said no.

  Why had it been so hard to watch her leave, for Christ's sake?

  He'd felt almost…what? Lonely? Heartsick when she'd gone?

  But that was crazy. He wasn't one of those type of guys. Hadn't ever been and never would be. As he'd stated fervently on many an occasion, he'd never be a part of a pair! Being one of the persons linked as a couple was for jackasses, for fuckers who enjoyed being led around by their dicks. Who lost the ability to make their own decisions simply because they were giving the high-hard to the same piece of pink every fuckin' night.

  That wasn't for him!

  No fuckin' way in hell was that ever gonna be him! But somehow he knew that when it came to her, that was abso-fuckin'-lutely not the truth.

  What was true was that he'd wanted Ryley for years, but now that he'd seen her, tasted her then all that want, the yearning he'd carried for so goddamn long should've been taken care of. Would have fuckin' stopped on the promise of being able to have her in his bed. So why did he want even more of her than just a sexy roll in the hay? It didn't make fucking sense.

  Was it because he hadn't nailed her yet? Just one time should be all it would take to get her out of his twisted up insides, right?

  But, he couldn't say that with any goddamn level of certainty. That shit, that 'tied together forever' shit scared him senseless. And the thought that he was more than willing to have her lead him around by whatever appendage he had? Fffuuuccckkk…

  He liked being free, for god's sake. He fuckin' loved being able to play whenever and with whomever he wanted. And if the one he'd chosen wasn't available it weren't no biggie to grab on to some other sweet piece. No matter what Huff said about settling, about getting less than what a man wanted when his sights were set on a certain girl. And Dare knew without a doubt where his fuckin' sights were set, were tuned to.

  Did Ryley fuckin' feel the same way? Was the reason she was still unclaimed because she valued her freedom in that arena too? The thought sent his heart southward again as his mind stuck on it. Maybe she didn't want to be tied down either.

  Christ!

  As Trey's voice droned on, he tried to untangle his mind until another thought hit. Had she really gone to Lock's or had she gone to the motel? Maybe spent some time March?

  And why the fuck did the thought of her with March, or any other brother for that matter, piss him right the fuck off? Who she got off with shouldn't be any of his business. It had never mattered before with any of the other Honeys. As far as he was concerned when it came to the club's girls it was share and share alike.

  But it did fuckin' matter with Ryley, dammit!

  Fuck!

  The thought of sharing her with anyone made him want to punch the shit out of something. She wasn't just some fuckin' piece of ass to be passed around. She was motherfuckin' his and whatever it was between them had snapped right the fuck back into place proving it beyond any shadow of a doubt.

  The look she'd given him, just after they'd shared a long, deep wet kiss goodbye by the Escalade still told him how special he was to her.

  Hell!

  He hated to admit it, but couldn't deny that his crush was changing into something bigger, deeper somehow.

  Dare suddenly remembered his last thought before he'd fallen asleep the night before, even as the echo of her vanilla perfume wafted up from his t-shirt, a shirt he'd uncharacteristically worn to bed. Sleepily, he'd wondered if he'd inadvertently, without his permission or foreknowledge, fallen back in with the little spitfire who he'd had held in his heart for so long.

  And that thought, done in the full light of day, shocked and rocked him to his core enough to bring him up and out of his ruminations.

  Dare again zeroed in on what was being said and glanced at the brother's reactions that were still in the 'get-this-the-fuck-over-with' range.

  That was until Trey brought up the Czars.

  "You all know we've got an issue if we decide to split and create a chapter in Billings as I think we should. We'd need to have the fucking right of way to blow through goddamn Belgrade, Bozeman and Livingston in order to have supplies brought in as well as to support our brothers that decide to relocate to that new club. With that in mind, I've approached Ham Banks, president of the Black Czars, asking for a sit down to fucking chew it over and fucking find a solution."

  Dare felt his spine straighten. He personally hadn't had any doings with the other club, but from what Si and Dice had recapped, the fucker
s were looking to make a name for themselves. Which had been proven in their intrusion onto Hellion land.

  "He says he's amenable but wants time to fucking talk it over with his council."

  "That's fucking bullshit, man," someone from the back muttered and the hue and cry from the floor of the big room was soon taken up with the brothers cussing out the other club.

  Trey had to use the gavel to regain the attention of his club.

  "What fuckin' happens if they decline?" Dare thought Pagan was the one that yelled the question that had been in his own mind as well.

  He saw Gus stand and answer. "Spokane has pledged to stay and participate until this fucking shit is resolved. We're Hellions and stand by our brothers whether they're in Missoula or outer fucking Mongolia."

  "Hear, hear," Silo boomed.

  Dare saw Bishop shoot his fist in the air at the other president's words. A gesture that was caught and repeated by most of the brothers that filled the clubhouse.

  While he was all for the show of solidarity, all Dare could concentrate on was that Ryley was gonna be around for a lot longer than the formerly scheduled week. And his heart seemed to take flight at the thought.

  Both he and his cock fuckin' hoped the negotiations would take as goddamn long as was fuckin' possible.

  As the meeting broke up, a lot of brothers hit the bar filling glasses with a little hair of the dog to help alleviate the worst of their hangovers. Dare, though, needed caffeine and worked his way to the large urn set up in a corner by the kitchen.

  On a typical Sunday, Dare would be joining Hardwood and Lulu at their house. To share a meal or to take a long ride with just the highway in front of them, urging them down whatever road they decided might be interesting.

  But that Sunday, Dare didn't leave the clubhouse and had no desire to do so.

  He was waiting. Waiting for Ryley to show and to see what the doings of the previous night might have changed in her. Because it had done something to him. And he'd recognized it as soon as he'd opened his eyes that morning, when he realized he hadn't be fooled by her teasing attitude. That kiss (Christ! That fuckin' kiss) exposed the truth of what Ryley had been really feeling.