by Marie James
“Your turn,” Grinch says as he pours the last of the second pitcher into his glass.
“Really?” I try to sound surprised and annoyed, but I’ve been waiting for a reason to go to the bar.
“Yep.” Grinch winks at me, and I can’t tell if it’s because he can read my mind or if he likes me agitated about buying beer.
“We sticking with draft?”
Everyone nods so I grab the empty pitchers and head to the bar.
Cannon is flirting with a brunette when I step up to the bar, and I nearly audibly groan when she asks if what his shirt says is the truth.
The red t-shirt reads THE MAN with an arrow pointing to his chin and THE LEGEND with an arrow pointing to his crotch. I almost speak up and tell her that the shirt is in fact true to its advertising, but I manage to snap my mouth closed just in time because he notices me standing there. Maybe drinking more beer isn’t the best idea.
“Need a refill?” he asks as he steps closer.
The brunette stands to the side, watching our interaction as if I’m an asshole for interrupting her flirting. I pay her no mind and smile at Cannon. His eyes light up, and it makes me wonder if I’ve ever smiled at him before. I bet I haven’t. I’m normally a surly asshole, but tonight I’m just in a good mood. I have been since getting back from South America after the realization that I’m both wanted and needed on my team.
“Two more please,” I tell him as he reaches for the empty pitchers.
He tosses the dirty ones into a dish bin behind the bar and grabs two fresh pitchers. His eyes stay on me as he begins to fill them.
“Hey, gorgeous.” My eyes snap to the man beside me, but then I notice who he is.
“Now’s not a good time,” I mumble, thankful the jukebox is low tonight and he can hear me without yelling. But he slow blinks, looking much less put together than he did a while back when I was dumb enough to walk into the parking lot with him.
“You ready for that hookup? I’ve been thinking of all the things you could do with that pretty mouth of yours.”
Taking a long, slow, deep breath, I try to ignore the guy, but he’s still standing beside me talking filthy when Cannon carries over the two pitchers of beer.
“Shane,” Cannon says, grabbing the guy’s attention long enough for me to scurry off. “Your cab’s waiting.”
I don’t glance back at Cannon, unsure of what all he heard.
“Took you long enough,” Jinx complains when I arrive back at the table. “I almost sobered up.”
Jinx isn’t close to being drunk, but the man never misses an opportunity to complain.
“Where’s Rocker?” I look around the bar and don’t see him.
“Did you see Simone at the bar?”
“No.”
“Then now you know where Rocker is.” He laughs, throwing me a salacious wink that tells me Rocker couldn’t wait for her to get off work. They’re probably in the storage room or something.
Our group starts to get smaller one by one as the guys either head back to the clubhouse or find a friend for the night. Rocker hasn’t come back, and Jinx slinked off somewhere, leaving me alone at the table.
Since my ride is MIA, I head to the bar to wait for him to show back up with Simone.
Chapter 18
Cannon
“Shane left in the safety of a cab rather than driving home,” I tell Rivet after serving a few drinks and finding her sitting back on the stool at the far end of the bar.
She does the same thing every one of the other Cerberus guys does. She keeps her back to a wall and her front facing forward so she can see what’s going on around her.
Griffin is the same way, so I imagine it’s something they teach during combat training.
“Okay,” she says, but it doesn’t seem like she cares.
“I’m just letting you know. I didn’t want him to end up wrapped around a pole. It would destroy his wife. Raising twins alone wouldn’t be a fun thing for her.”
I heard part of the conversation when I walked up, and it was easy enough to put two and two together to figure out Shane was the guy she left the bar with a while back.
“I didn’t even kiss that guy,” she mumbles.
“Didn’t kiss me either.” I raise an eyebrow to let her know that the excuse doesn’t make me believe he didn’t sink balls deep inside of her. I know I did without so much as a peck on the lips.
I’m totally down with fucking, but going after a married person with kids is a low even I wouldn’t participate in. It honestly changes the way I see her.
I wipe down the bar, keeping my distance from her as the night drags on. I refill her glass only when there are other people waiting to be served and busy myself when there’s a lull to keep her from speaking to me. It irritates her. She almost has steam coming out of her ears by the time she’s ready for a second refill.
“What I meant,” she begins, clamping down on my wrist when I reach for her empty glass, “is that I didn’t touch the guy. Not even a kiss. I left him high and dry in the parking lot. I’m not okay with married men. I’m not okay with single men with children. I don’t do complicated which means I don’t do baggage.”
She releases my hand, but I don’t walk away. I can tell by the look in her eyes that she’s telling me the truth. What I can’t figure out is why it’s so important to her for me to know.
“Just water,” she grumbles when I stand there gazing at her for a long moment.
Her confession changes everything as I go from not wanting anything to do with her to wanting to pull down the tiny strap of her tank top and suck her nipple into my mouth.
I grab her a cold bottle of water and slide it across the bar to her. She stops it with a sure hand, indicating that she hasn’t had so much to drink that it’s made her sloppy.
“You dodged a bullet,” I tell her on my next pass.
“No joke,” she mumbles, tearing at the paper label on her water.
“No, I mean that guy’s the biggest douche for fucking around on his wife, but rumor is the guy doesn’t even know how to please a woman. It’s why he’s always in here trying to pick a different one up every night. The local women have either been there, done that, or have heard about it from the ones that have.”
She grins up at me, and it’s the second time she’s directed her happiness toward me tonight. “Bartenders learn a lot. How long have you been working here?”
“A couple days.”
“You bartend before?”
“Nope.” Her eyes widen when I make a drink with flash and attitude.
“Don’t lie to me.” Her grin is wide. She’s happy and impressed, and that makes my heart beat a little faster.
“I haven’t done it formally. This is my first paying gig, but I would make drinks whenever my frat had parties.”
She snorts.
“What? Surprised I’m in a frat?”
“Not even a little.”
“They’re more than just parties, you know.”
Her eyebrow shoots into her hairline. “Really? Then what else are they?”
“We do a lot of charity work and fundraising, that sort of thing.”
She nods, her eyes drifting back down to her water bottle.
Quickly, I fill a couple more drink orders so I can get back to talking to her. “No sorority for you, then?”
She huffs, rolling her eyes as she lifts them to meet mine. “I didn’t do the whole college thing. Went into the Corps right out of high school.”
“That may be a good thing. I don’t think college boys would know what to do with a woman like you.”
“You managed just fine,” she mumbles, but then her eyes widen along with my smile. She didn’t mean to say it out loud.
Last call keeps me busy for the next hour, but Rivet doesn’t make a move to leave her spot at the bar. She sends off enough don’t fuck with me vibes that she isn’t approached by another person, and that suits me just fine.
I’ve seen her tits, se
en shadowed glimpses of the treasure between her legs, but there’s just something about her bare shoulders that’s driving me mad tonight. I work, but it’s impossible to keep my eyes from drifting to her every chance I get. I find her watching me, too, and tension sinks low in my gut, settling into a need I’m not sure I’m going to ever be able to satisfy.
“So, umm…,” she begins when I walk past to throw some dirty glasses into the bin, “do you think you can give me a ride back to the clubhouse? The guys all split off and left me here.”
“Dicks,” I mutter, but I’m ecstatic at the prospect of having a little more alone time with her, even if it’s only the fifteen-minute drive back home. “Sure. I’ll be just a little while longer. Have to clean and do some prep for dayshift.”
I want to rush the last of the customers out of the bar, but I don’t. I let them enjoy their last drink, cashing out their tabs before they leave. Rivet sits comfortably and watches as if she doesn’t have a care in the world. She’s grinning when I look back at her after shuffling the last customer to the door.
“You should stay open later,” Mike grumbles as I tug open the heavy door for him.
“See you tomorrow, Mike. Cab’s waiting right there for you.”
I keep an eye on the old man as he walks to the cab, making sure he doesn’t face-plant and pass out. It’s been known to happen when he overdoes it.
Rivet is still in the same spot when I turn back around and lock us in the bar.
“You’ve only been working here a few days and you’re already closing the place up?” she asks when I make my way back behind the bar to cut limes and refill the other stock.
“Jake trusts me,” I tell her with a shrug. I don’t bother telling her that Simone was supposed to close with me, but I saw her sneak away with Rocker earlier. “My dad and a couple of the other guys from the club have been coming here for decades. Jake knows I won’t mess anything up.”
“It’s strange, isn’t it?” I raise my eyes to her in question. “This community, the way they embrace the club. I figured everyone would be scared of the big bad bikers.”
“You’ve seen the way most people keep their distance when you guys are here?” She nods. “The community is respectful of your space, but Cerberus also does a ton of charity work in the community. It’s been that way for as long as I can remember. If someone needs help, the guys are always there for them. The people around here know if they ever need anything, they can ask the guys.”
“Yeah, Grinch has mentioned more than once the things the club gets involved in, but we’ve been gone so much recently that I haven’t gotten to help with anything yet.”
“You will,” I tell her. “The community will come out in droves for the annual Fourth of July party. They like to get an inside look at the club property, and the free food and fireworks are a plus as well. There are some that are uneducated about what Cerberus does. Some that snub their noses and base their opinions on TV and misconceptions of what they think bikers really do. Some people don’t understand that there are tons of riding clubs and groups that aren’t involved in criminal activities, but there’s no way to change their minds. Cerberus doesn’t exactly advertise what they do to keep the doors open, so some people just make assumptions.”
“People are assholes,” she mutters.
“Yeah, some are. Give me five minutes to load the dishwasher in the back, and we can get out of here.”
Chapter 19
Rivet
“I’m glad you didn’t ride your bike,” I say as Cannon presses the unlock button on his key fob and the lights on a quad-cab truck flash. His isn’t the only vehicle in the lot. Shane’s minivan is sitting at the far end, deserted by its shitty owner.
“Why is that?”
“Because I’d have to call a cab if you did.”
I didn’t even think about the possibility of him having his bike tonight when I asked for a ride home.
“You wouldn’t ride with me?”
“Nope,” I say and climb in the passenger side to end that thread of conversation.
Cannon climbs inside, and when he presses the ignition button, the truck purrs to life. It’s a damn beast—all black, lifted, and the exhaust doesn’t sound like other factory trucks.
“You know,” I turn to him with a smile on my face, “I bet people think you’re compensating for something with this big truck.”
He grins back at me as he shifts the truck into drive. “You know better.”
He winks, but for some reason it doesn’t seem as douchey as it would’ve months ago, and he’s right. I do know better. Even as my mind is telling me to chill out and chastising me for even hinting at something sexual, my body is well aware of his proximity, well aware of what he’s capable of.
“You hungry?”
My eyes snap up to his face, and I wonder if he can see my cheeks flush because I just had my eyes plastered to the front of his jeans.
“What?”
“Hungry? Food? Eat?”
He grins even wider, but his focus is on the road.
“There’s a couple of fast food places still open, and I’m starving.”
“I could eat,” I say, and it only takes a few moments before we’re pulling up outside of a local burger joint.
Disappointment begins to settle as he pulls toward the drive-thru. Why I want to spend more time with him, I don’t know, but I do. The drive-thru only means we’ll get back to the clubhouse quicker.
When it’s our time to order, I tell Cannon what I want. Of course he refuses my cash, but while he’s talking to the girl in the window, I shove the money into his console.
Surprisingly, he doesn’t drive toward the clubhouse. He detours until we’re entering the parking lot of one of the local parks.
“Wanna eat in here or sit at the picnic table?”
His lips wrap around the straw of his soda, and I’m once again lost to my own thoughts.
Since I don’t answer him, he simply opens the bag of food, handing me mine before unwrapping his own cheeseburger. Silence fills the cab of the truck as we eat, but it doesn’t feel as awkward as it should. I had sex with this man. I invaded his space and jumped on his dick like I had every right to do so without so much as saying a word.
He let me. Of course he did. He made his desires clear the very first night I came to work for Cerberus, but I’m the one who made the first move.
Other than his you know better comment earlier, he hasn’t even alluded to our time together, and honestly that chaps me the wrong way for some reason. We’re alone and he still doesn’t bring it up. I’m grateful he kept the secret in front of the guys, but I would’ve bet money he’d bring it up once we were alone again.
“We only got to play here a couple of times when Griffin and I were kids.” Cannon angles his head toward the swing that’s swaying back and forth from the breeze. “And only when Dad was home from the field. We had top-of-the-line playsets and stuff back home, but we all wanted to play with other kids from school.”
“Shadow didn’t trust your mom?”
He takes another long drink before speaking. “He was overprotective of us and her. All the guys at the clubhouse were the same. Diego didn’t let the twins play here if he wasn’t around either. The club member to kid ratio was two to one. So for four or five of us to play meant two or three dads were coming too. Schedules didn’t always line up for that to happen, so we spent a lot of time on the property. Now, most of the time, we choose to be there over anywhere else.”
“Because you feel safer?” I chew slowly, wanting to keep him talking.
“Nah. I mean bad shit happens all the time, even in Farmington, but we just get tired of the crowds. The club is a novelty. People want to know more about it, so we never know when people are sincere or if they’re trying to get close just to see what the club is all about. It’s why none of us bring people back to the clubhouse, other than if we’re having a small party or something.”
I keep eating, h
oping he’ll keep talking, and my luck continues.
“So as kids we all wanted to make more friends, have other people to play with, but now as adults, we mostly keep close to each other. Hell, even Gigi ended up with someone from the club. Griffin and Ivy were always meant to happen. Samson, although engaged to Camryn, still comes back every chance he gets.”
He sighs.
“I sense a but coming.”
“It’s nothing.” His eyes dart out his side window, and I hate the distance that’s suddenly between us. “You done?”
I nod, wadding up my trash and handing it to him when he holds his hand out. Opening his door, he climbs out to throw everything into the trashcan in the parking lot, and the second he climbs back inside, he reverses out of the spot and heads toward the clubhouse.
He’s struggling with something, but it’s not my place to ask. We don’t really know each other, and if he wanted to explain, he would’ve done so when I prompted him the first time.
Tension has replaced the easy silence from earlier, and it doesn’t dissipate on the ride home.
Once he parks the truck, he doesn’t say anything as he climbs out. I manage to catch his arm before he can walk around the side of the clubhouse to his parents’ place.
“Was that night a one-off?” The question comes out in a rush, and the longer it takes for him to answer the more I regret even asking it.
His eyes latch on to mine, and he stays silent for a long moment. “That night was out of character for me.”
I don’t bother to stop the huff of laughter as it escapes my lips. “I get the impression that you’re very familiar with casual sex.”
“I’m not talking about casual sex.” His sexy throat works on a swallow. “I’m talking about you coming into that room and taking what you wanted, expecting me to just offer it up to you. That was out of character for me.”
He was willing. I never once would’ve pushed things to go further if I didn’t think that he wanted to do exactly what was done. “You regret it?”