Without Consequence

by Victoria L. James

  Then she was there again.

  Now she was here in front of me, flashing me that smile of hers that was trying not to show too much or give her game away. Her poker face was shit. Resting back on my elbows with my legs hanging off the edge of the bed, I sank my teeth into my lip and took a moment to just admire her. It was almost criminal of her to hide her body under baggy t-shirts the way she sometimes did, although that worked out well for me for now, I suppose. The last thing I needed was a group of teenagers giving her the eye while she was clearing tables over at the diner. There was only so low I was allowed to stoop, and going smack-down on a group of pre-pubescent boys was way beneath the level of dirt I could lower myself to. I guess that’s one thing Tate should have been grateful for.

  Clearing my throat as my eyes trailed all over her, I kept my gaze away from hers, speaking quietly as it lingered on the rise and fall of her chest.

  “How set were you on that shower?”

  “That depends. Do you like the smell of hamburgers?” she asked with a grin, her hips swaying from side to side as though she was self conscious of standing there in just her underwear and jeans.

  “Who doesn’t? Although, there is the issue of it making me even hungrier than I already am.”

  “You’re hungry?” She tilted her head to the side in an attempt to look all innocent. She lifted her arm, pointing behind her with a thumb and a cheeky smile. “I can make you something.”

  “Or…” I dragged out, my brows rising. “You could come over here and give me a hundred and eighteen pounds of the finest meat in the land, hold the bread. I’ll provide the rest.” My toothy grin broke free almost instantly, and even though I’d hardly touched any alcohol at all, I felt drunk.

  Ayda approached slowly, her jeans hugging her waist as she moved. The moment she was at the edge of the bed, she leaned forward, her knees pressing against the edge. “I still don’t understand how the hell you were so exact on that. Was that in my little file too?”

  “I pay attention,” I answered softly. “Some people get more of it than others, granted.”

  “I’m honored.”

  My feet rose up to try and trap her in their grip, or at the very least, make her fall forward. Trailing them up the backs of her calves, I pulled her in at the knee and pushed myself further up on my elbows. “I think deep down, I always knew I’d get you to stand at the end of my bed half naked. Phase one complete.”

  “That’s because you’re Drew Tucker,” she gasped with feigned reverence, lifting one hand up and under the leather of my cut, her touch gentle.

  “Damn right I am.” I grinned back at her, raising my hips as I tried to nudge myself closer. “I always get what I want, one way or another. I just like to go the long way around sometimes.” My gaze dropped down to where her hand was hidden beneath the leather on my chest before I peered back up at her body. I felt a weird urge to connect the two of us together in a way I’d never felt the need to with any woman before. “Do you have any idea how hot you look to me right now, Ayda?”

  The look she gave me back was wistful, her smile a curl at the edges of her mouth as she looked down at me, her lashes barely kissing her cheeks before she brought her eyes back up to mine. “I…” She shook her head, and blushed.

  Lifting a hand to her neck, my thumb ran over her jaw. “Do you?”

  “Tell me?” she whispered.

  “If only I was that good with words.”

  Moving slowly, she straddled my hips, her body lowering further, her hips rolling instinctively as her hands gripped my cheeks. “You’re better than you think you are.”

  “Yeah?” I said through a heavy breath, my hands sliding up her waist then around to her back as I held her in place. “So are you.” When my eyes rose up to meet hers, that rush of something unexplainable came back again, forcing the words out before I even had a chance to think about what that might mean to either her or me. “You couldn’t look better to me right now, even if you were naked and wearing just my cut.”

  The pause that filled the air would have felt like it was choking me had I been sitting here with anyone else on my lap but Ayda. There was just something about her that made shit come out of my mouth without me turning it over a million times in my head beforehand. It was when I heard her sharp breath stick in the back of her throat, and I saw her perfectly formed lips part, that I knew what I wanted to see for the first time in my life. I wanted to see another person in my jacket. I wanted to see it against Ayda’s skin more than I’d ever wanted anything in my life.

  “You should wear my cut,” I whispered, all the humor dropping from my face as I held her gaze.

  Her hands moved from my cheeks to my shoulders, her fingers tracing every crease in the leather, around every patch on my chest, with more reverence than I expected of her. She didn’t meet my eyes for the longest time. Her chest just rose and fell with breaths as she took in the cut.

  Finally, her eyes met mine, the hunger I’d mentioned earlier shining back at me. “Isn’t that breaking some cardinal rule of the pack?”

  “Not when you make the rules of the pack, and I wouldn’t care even if it was.” Leaning back on one arm again, my other hand pulled her closer, and it suddenly seemed so important for me to see her wearing it. There was no reason to it. I knew it was probably too fucking soon. But I wanted it. I needed it. I just hoped she saw that now more than ever.

  Another roll of her hips and a squeeze of her thighs, and she was sitting up, looking down at me expectantly. “I… I would be honored. Gimmie.”

  Sitting us both up, my hand brushed over the end of my beard before I shrugged myself out of my very own security blanket and watched her as she watched me, watching her. “Be gentle with it. This is more important to me than my own heart.”

  She took it from me as though it was made of gold and covered in diamonds. She wasn’t being sarcastic. I could see how lost in the moment she was as she held it and brought it to her face, her cheek touching it gently. It took her a moment to move again, but when she did, she slipped the leather over her arm, her own eyes lost in the movement as it slid over her skin before she repeated it on the other side, shrugging it so it was level. Her eyes were wide when they met mine. “It’s heavier than I thought it would be, but it’s soft and smells like you.”

  I expected some smartass comments to come up once she had it over her shoulders. I expected for me to try and make light of the situation or for her to roll her eyes at the fact that I held onto a piece of leather with as tight a grip as I did. I expected to feel a twinge of something going on when her blonde hair fell over the front of it, covering the embroidered badges of the MC’s name. I expected lots, I guess.

  What I wasn’t fucking prepared for was the pain in my chest as I looked up at her. That was pretty indescribable. My face creased as I took her in, and no matter how hard I tried to dislodge that painful lump in my throat, I couldn’t shift it for shit. There wasn’t much I could say to try and tell her how she looked to me, so instead of saying anything at all, I let my hands do the talking and pushed myself up again. The tips of my fingers fell inside the cut, meeting the warmth of her ribs before they curled around her skin and held her in place. I’d seen men hand their leather over to other women before, sometimes with love, sometimes just to impress, more often than not as a fast track ticket to get laid, but I’d never seen any of the men look at their woman the way I was looking at Ayda there and then.

  Even though it killed me to turn away, I lifted my eyes to hers as my hands slid down her back until they had her ass in their grip and I could pull her even closer.

  “I didn’t hear a word you just said. I was too busy looking at the hottest woman alive wearing my most prized possession.”

  The words hung between us, but I didn’t miss the quiver of muscles on her stomach as she tried to suck in a breath. Her voice was quiet as she spoke, trembling with every word she pushed out in a heated whisper. “Don’t be mad, but the way you’re looking at
me right now…” She inhaled, her eyes closing for a second before opening to meet mine. “Fuck me, Drew.”

  “With pleasure,” I growled back, instantly grateful that she’d got to the point before I had. Gripping hold of her as tightly as I could, I pushed my mouth up to hers and attacked her with a hungry kiss. Our breaths were heavy from the word go, and I knew I couldn’t stay with her this way for long. Guiding her ass back and forth against me, my eyes fell to a close, as I got lost in that one single moment of pure fucking need for Ayda Hanagan.

  It was no secret that I’d been with a lot of women, but with her on my lap and us engaged in some kind of private little cut ceremony, everything felt new again. There were several different ways this could go in my head, but as Ayda’s hands pulled me closer and she released that perfect, feminine mewl from the back of her throat, all thoughts of trying to take this slow flew right out of the window. Within seconds, I was up on my feet and my fingers were digging into the curves of her ass as I spun us both around. Every move she made, every kiss and slow flick of her tongue had me just growing harder and more needy – to the point where it was painful. The need to be a part of her wasn’t just strong, it was overpowering. I didn’t know who I was until I guided her back down onto the bed and let my hips drop against hers.

  My arm fell beside her head while my free hand pushed one side of the cut away from her, exposing her bra just enough for me to feel even hungrier than I already did. “Jesus, Ayda…”

  Her hands found their way around to the back of my neck as I looked down at her body with a newfound admiration and tried like shit to take my time. But it was impossible. Everything felt impossible when I had her caged beneath me this way.

  As my hand trailed up over her bra, my fingers grazed down the middle of her chest, following the path across her stomach until they paused on the button of her jeans. Her body responded instantly. The way she arched her back just an inch off the bed, rolling her spine along the mattress until her ass rose and did the same… it was her way of telling me that she needed this to move as quickly as I wanted it to. Her every reaction to me only made my smirk and confidence grow as I let my eyes lock on hers again.

  “I hope you’re rea–”

  My shoulders bounced and my body flinched when the fist banging against my bedroom door interrupted us at just the wrong fucking moment. It was loud, it was angry and it was desperate, but with her beneath me, and my hand paused over the button of her jeans, all I could think to do was let my anger out and shout.

  “Fuck off!”

  “Drew. Listen up,” Slater started, his voice pushed up against the door as he yelled back.

  “I swear to God, Slater. Not now. I will fucking kill you if you walk into this room.”

  “Tucker…”

  “GO!” I snapped back, throwing my head in his direction, unable to ignore the way Ayda’s grip tightened around my neck as she tried to pull me back down.

  For a moment, I thought that had done the trick. I thought he’d got the hint and taken a hike. But when the sound of his boots hitting the bottom of the door warned me of his presence, my body dropped down onto Ayda’s and I let out a heavy sigh.

  “I can’t go, bro. We need you out here, now. I’m coming in.”

  “What?” I didn’t have time to put up an argument before the door was pushed open and Slater stood there in the doorway. Rolling on top of Ayda, I let my hands slide to the edges of the cut and tried to pull it closed over her exposed body. The death glare I shot to Slater felt strong enough to knock him on his ass, but he didn’t falter one bit as he looked back at me, then down at her, raising his brows as his eyes landed on the leather. “You had better run,” I growled over at him.

  Slater didn’t say anything about what he was seeing, even though the flash of acknowledgement was there and I knew he understood what it meant for her to be sprawled out on my bed, wearing our brother’s name across her chest. When his eyes eventually lifted to mine, it was my turn to look surprised as he shook his head and let out a weighted sigh.

  “If you don’t get out here now, we’ll all be running.”

  My frown grew even deeper as I stared at him and tried to ignore the painful ache that was pushing up against the inside of my jeans. “What the hell are you talking about now?” I asked quietly, my head shaking as I watched him.

  “I’m talking about trouble. We’ve got trouble, bro. The Emperors are here.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

  Ayda

  The interruption came at the most inconvenient of moments, and though I lay there staring at Slater upside down, I felt the moment Drew changed gears and moved from the intimate man to the brother in arms. He was on his feet in a second, his hand pulling me onto mine behind him as he headed through the bathroom, into his office and towards the door with Slater.

  I could see the halls alive with people moving around on high alert. If it had been a submarine, I’d have expected a tinny voice shouting ‘All Hands Man Your Battlestations!’ It was regimented, rehearsed and everyone seemed to know what it was they were supposed to be doing.

  I was the only odd person out in this scenario. I had no idea where I was supposed to be or what was expected of me. I looked between Drew and Slater as I gripped the two sides of the leather together over my bra and squeezed the hand he was holding.

  Drew ran his fingers over the top of his head as he smoothed his hair down and tried to straighten out his t-shirt. The way he was walking, the motion of his body as he charged down the halls, it was all a side of him that I knew even less than the man I’d just left behind. It was hard to know what I was feeling. It happened so quickly and all at once, I felt as though I’d left half of myself on Drew’s bed as the twinge of pain jacked in my gut at his sudden switch of moods.

  Slater marched beside him, his spine straight, his chin raised high with his arms almost swinging down by his side as they both rounded the corner and headed out into the bar area.

  “This is all we need,” I heard Drew mutter.

  “You think they know?” Slater asked, glancing around to make sure no one was listening.

  “Fucking hope not.”

  “They rode in quietly.”

  “How many?” Drew asked sharply.

  “Three that we can see.”

  “Cameras showing anything else?”

  “Nothing. Harry’s going through all the screens now. Warehouse is clear. Pawn shop’s clear. There’s nothing but them out in the yard, and from the looks of things, the roads are empty,” Slater answered quickly and accurately, his body shifting to the side as he tried to fit through the swarm of people, while also somehow silently communicating with every man that passed that they were all needed up front.

  They were moving so fast it was hard to keep up with them. No matter how much I rushed, I felt as though I was slowing them down and tripping over my own feet. I had one hand in his and the other holding the leather together. As my hair started falling in my face, I felt like a fool, blowing and shaking my head from side to side in an attempt to get it out of my eyes.

  The closer to the front of the hut we got, the more I was aware of the stares I was getting. My initial thought was that people were looking to Drew and Slater for guidance, and to a certain extent, that was absolutely true, but as rushed as they were, I felt their glances roll off me and come back a second later. It was only when we approached the open door that I realized exactly what had their attention, but I was helpless to stop at that point. I was in Drew’s grip, and he only released me as his foot was out the door, sending me stumbling out and grabbing for the railing.

  My head dropped immediately as the men already out there turned to look at me. I wanted to back up and head inside, but by that point, I was trying to decide on the lesser of two evils, while Drew simply rolled his shoulders back and leaned against the porch post, his ankles crossed, looking like nobody but the mailman had rolled up.

  I wasn’t even sure that he was aware I was there at
that point. Slater and he had gone into some kind of automatic defense mode, and even though I’d been dragged along, I couldn’t have felt more misplaced if I’d tried. Looking at the back of the one man I knew I could find some comfort in, I shuffled my feet on the spot and burned holes into his shoulders as I tried not to think of this being as dangerous as it felt.

  “Two visits since I got out, Chester? Anyone would think you’d missed me.” Drew practically sang down the steps to the man with the heavy glasses as he made his way towards the hut.

  Slater’s body twitched, and his feet moved two steps closer to his brother, like he was about to take a bullet for him. My stomach rolled at even the thought of anything like that going down, even though the reality of the situation was this – I was standing in the middle of a bloodthirsty MC and bullets were fired all the time.

  “What can we do for you?” Slater asked.

  “Easy, Slater,” Drew said through an obvious grin, even though I couldn’t see him. “Chester is just paying us a friendly visit. Isn’t that right, Cortez?”

  The man they were calling Chester dropped his head to his chest, pulling his glasses from his face before looking up and resting a foot on the bottom step. His eyes scrunched tight to fight off the sun, and at first, his gaze fell straight onto Drew.

  But then I must have moved. I must have made a sound or twitched or done something – something I wasn’t even aware of, because from one blink of his eyes to the next, Chester’s head had turned to mine and his gaze fell straight to the leather I was wrapped up in.

  When his eyes roamed over my flesh like I was a prize heifer at market, I felt the cold finger of fear run down my spine. The flash of his tongue over his bottom lip seemed to drag everyone on the porch’s attention directly to me. I’d always thought the feeling of my blood draining from my body would be a slow thing, but all it took was me pulling the edges of the leather tighter around me like a security blanket for it to hit my feet and leave me feeling completely vulnerable. To this predator, I was prey and I saw it as the side of his mouth curled up in humor.