by Jenika Snow
“I’m sorry, Tawny.” He lowered his gaze to her lips. “But when it comes to you I can’t help myself.” He lifted his gaze back to her eyes, and they stared at each other for several seconds. “With you I feel like this beast, ready to tear anything or anyone down for even coming close to you.”
Her breath hitched. Dakota was a human, didn’t have those animal instincts inside of him like a shifter did, but it seemed that didn’t matter. She could smell the truth in his words, see the reality of what he said on his fierce expression. His short, dark hair was messy, had traces of blood still in it, and he watched her with his hard blue eyes. His face was rudely handsome, his cheeks covered in a light sprinkling of dark stubble, and his lips were slightly parted as he breathed out heavily.
“I see you speaking to a guy and feel this anger rise up in me, the need to tear the asshole away from you, and I have to force myself not to react.”
“Dakota,” Tawny said his name on a breath. This was a conversation she never thought she’d have with Dakota, a situation she had never thought she’d be involved in with him. Yes, she had wanted him for years, and although he had gone away for a while to help out with his club, she had still wanted him like a damn addict looking for her next fix.
“I know this situation is fucked up. You’re younger than me, Dallas’s daughter, but the truth is, Tawny…” He trailed off, moved his face closer to hers, and then said in a low, husky voice, “I have wanted you for a long time, but told myself that you and I being together wasn’t ever going to happen.” He rested his forehead on hers, closed his eyes, and breathed out. “But I get so damn jealous seeing you with other guys, talking to them, laughing at their dumb-ass jokes.”
If this situation wasn’t so intense and sexually charged right now she would have laughed.
“Does that frighten you?” he asked, his blue eyes staring right into hers, this hardness to them, but also a vulnerability.
Her heart beat fast and wild, and she felt her inner, dormant bear brush along her body. She wanted Dakota, had for longer than she had ever admitted to anyone, and she wasn’t nearly finished now that she was actually having him. Grabbing onto his hair, tugging at the short strands until he hissed out, she pulled him closer so she could be the one to claim his mouth. Stroking her tongue along his, sucking the muscle into her mouth, and moaning out at the flavor of him, Tawny knew that she should stop now.
“Tawny, fucking hell, baby,” he groaned out, grabbed a chunk of her hair, and yanked her head back, baring her throat. He growled out, and she felt these tingles take root in her pussy, engorging her clit, and making her so damn wet she felt the cream cover her pussy lips. She had no doubt that soon the wetness would seep through the denim. That was how aroused she was for this man.
He grabbed her bottom lip with his teeth, tugged and pulled at the sensitive flesh, and then smoothed the sting away with a lick of his tongue. She moaned, he groaned, and then she was moving in his arms, grinding her pussy on his cock, and causing this delicious noise to leave him.
“I could devour you right now and it wouldn’t be enough, Tawny.” He moved his mouth to her throat, sucked and licked at her pulse point, ground his cock into her pussy, and caused this heat to move through her until sweat beaded between her breasts.
“I want you to devour me, Dakota.” She breathed out, closed her eyes, and inhaled the scent of the dark and spicy cologne he wore.
He made this gruff noise against her throat, tightened the one hand that was still cupping her ass, and said, “You can’t say shit like that and expect me to keep my control, Tawny.” He pulled back, let go of her hair, and slid his hand over her throat to hold her against the wall. It was a gentle yet fierce hold, one that had just enough pressure to make her know that he was in control right now.
Tawny wanted to submit to this male, to give herself to him and not worry about anything else. Would her father be pissed if she were with Dakota? Dallas would be pissed if she were with any male. The last few guys she had dated, although she never had sex with anyone, had infuriated her father. He was an original Grizzly MC member, saw her as his baby girl, was old school all the way, and she knew that if she was with another biker, even if it was Dakota, a male that was considered family though from another club, her father would be enraged. He still looked at her as though she were this innocent little girl. She might not have ever gone all the way, but she was far from innocent, and could handle herself. Tawny had tested the bounds of her father’s protectiveness. She had gone out with bad boys, and although Dakota was a hundred times sexier, and more hardcore, than all of the tattooed and pierced men she had dated, he was still dangerous, and that was what her father would focus on.
“God, Dakota, I’ve wanted you for so long.” The words tumbled out of her mouth.
“Christ, Tawny,” he breathed out. “Is this really fucking happening?” He asked it like a question.
“I sure as hell hope so,” Tawny said just as breathlessly.
He placed his hand between their bodies, started undoing the button of her jeans, and she grew frantic with her need for him. They were both breathing so damn heavily, so freaking aroused, that she couldn’t even think straight. Perspiration dotted her forehead, lined her spine, and she was so itchy to feel his hands on her bare skin that she felt this high settle into her.
The sound of her zipper being shoved down filled her ears, and then she was the one tugging at his leather cut, trying to get it off. He was swift with his movements, calculated in trying to remove his biker vest without it touching the ground, and without letting her go. When the cut was off he set it on the shelf beside them. The door to the backroom was hidden behind two shelves, but despite the fact someone couldn’t see them if they walked in, there was still the risk of them coming the few feet around the corner and seeing her pressed up against the wall. And that fact, that they could be seen being all filthy and sexual, had her pussy clenching and her just exploding.
“Touch me, Dakota. God, please touch me.”
“Oh, fuck, baby girl.” He started licking her neck, and had used that endearment, one that shouldn’t have made her so damn aroused, but did on every level. He shoved his hand down her pants, underneath her panties, and that first touch of his fingers to her slick pussy had her slamming her head back against the wall hard enough that pain lanced in her skull. But the pleasure of his fingers stroking her, moving up and down through her slit, had that pain morphing into ecstasy.
“Hell, Tawny, you are so damn wet for me.” He took her mouth in a hard kiss, sucked on her tongue, and mouth-fucked her. He rubbed her clit with his thumb and then started to tease the opening of her pussy with his finger. He didn’t penetrate her, and although she was desperate to feel a part of him inside of her, she also wanted him to know that this was a first for her. She had been touched before obviously, but never had she allowed a man to be with her in any way that penetrated her body. There had always been a part of her that screamed that it wasn’t right, that it was abhorrent. Maybe she had known all along, deep inside of her, that she wanted her first time to be with Dakota?
“Wait a second,” she said.
He stopped right away, his fingers still on her pussy, his mouth on her neck, but he didn’t stroke her, didn’t kiss her further.
“You’re killing me, baby,” he said and licked a path up her throat to her ear. He breathed out, seeming like he had just run a marathon, and then slowly pulled back to look at her face. He still had his finger against her slit, and although she wanted to yell out for him to finally fuck her, to just take her virginity and they’d worry about the rest later, she wanted to be truthful with him, too.
“I don’t want to stop—”
He groaned out and went to kiss her, but she placed a finger on his lips, stopping him.
“But I also want you to know that I have never been with a man before.”
That had him stopping completely, growing tense against her, and pulling his head back an inch. “
You’re a virgin?” he asked softly.
She nodded, licked her lips and waited for him to freak out because sometimes guys got like that when a bomb like this was dropped. But in what seemed like her hundredth time of being shocked today, Dakota leaned in and placed his lips lightly on hers.
“God, Tawny. You have no idea what it does to hear you say that.” He kissed her once more, pulled back, and slipped his fingers out of her pants. He held the digits up, all glossy from her arousal, and brought them to his mouth. She felt her eye widen as she watched him suck those digits clean while never breaking eye contact. When the fingers were clean he grabbed her chin, the smell of her musky arousal and his natural scent on his hand, so close to her mouth and nose, and for some reason making her even more aroused. He leaned in, kissed her, slid his tongue between her lips, and made her taste herself on him. He groaned out, dug his fingers into her chin hard enough that she knew she’d have bruises, and this thrill of pleasure filled her. Those marks would mean a possession, an ownership to her, and she had a feeling that with Dakota it would mean that as well.
“Dakota, you’re not freaking out.” She had no clue why those words fell from her lips, but he swallowed them, moaned out his approval, and then finally pulled back slowly. She felt his cock throb against her, and she pressed down, heard him hiss out, and then leaned forward. She connected her mouth with his again and licked his lips. It turned her on. He turned her on.
“Why would I freak at the knowledge that this virgin pussy hasn’t been touched by anyone else?” he murmured against her mouth. “Knowing that I almost had this cherry right here and now, that you’re so damn receptive to me, and want me as badly as I want you, makes this possessive side consume me, Tawny.” He kissed her harder this time, and she breathed out, tightened her legs and arms around his waist and neck, and pressed her pussy harder on his erection. He was still so stiff, so ready for her.
“I want you to be my first, Dakota.” She pulled back slightly. “I think I’ve always wanted it to be you.”
He groaned out, tilted her chin up with his fingers and stared at her mouth for a suspended moment. He went to kiss her again, but then the sound of the back door opening had them both stilling.
“Tawny, where the hell are you?” Steve, the old as fuck bouncer that had been working the same nights as she did—probably because of her father demanding it—called out loudly.
“Shit,” she said softly, and Dakota let her go to the ground. As soon as her feet touched the floor she straightened her clothes, smoothed her fingers through her hair, and looked up at Dakota. He watched her intently, and her heart started beating a little faster at his expression.
“I’ll be right out, Steve.” She hollered out, not taking her eyes off Dakota.
He lifted his thumb, smoothed it along her bottom lip, and she opened her mouth, sucked his thumb inside, and moved her tongue along the digit.
“Where the hell are you?” Steven called out, and she heard him moving back toward where they were standing.
“Unless you want to see me fixing my tampon you better not come back here.” Her face heated at the words that tumbled out of her mouth. God, had she really just said that?
“Uh,” Steve said, and then she heard him retreating. “You’re okay though?”
“Yeah.” Her voice wavered a little, and she cleared her throat. “I’m just straightening up since that bathroom is nasty as hell.” She shrugged at Dakota when he cocked the corner of his mouth at her. “I’ll be out in a minute.”
Steven left, and when the sound of the door closing sounded, Dakota grabbed her around the waist again, hauled her close to his body, and buried his face in the crook of her neck.
“Fixing your tampon, baby?” he chuckled softly. “I didn’t know they needed fixing.”
She smacked him playfully on his bulging bicep, and then melted against him when she heard him inhale, and then run his nose up the length of her throat. “Yeah, not sure why I said that, because I’m not sure what fixing a tampon means either, but it worked in getting Steve out of here.”
Dakota pulled back slightly. “He would have told your dad.”
She licked her lips and nodded. “Yeah, but I don’t care. I’m twenty-one, Dakota. My dad doesn’t run my life, and he knows I can handle myself. We’ve talked about this, actually.”
That had him lifting his eyebrow. “Really?”
“Yeah, really.” She smiled.
Dakota grunted in response, but then his expression changed to something softer the longer he stared at her. “I meant everything I said, Tawny.” He searched her face with his gaze. He was so big, so powerful, that even at her thick size sixteen frame, one that she had gotten courtesy of her genetics from her mother, Dakota still made her feel small and petite. He held her like she was fragile one minute, and like he couldn’t get enough of her the next. At over six feet in height he was taller and more muscular than most human males, even rivaling his father Malice’s physique. Hell, he was just as big as a Grizzly.
He cupped her cheek, smoothed his finger along her flesh, and the intimate, soft way he stroked her had her smiling. She was happy, he made her happy, and all it took was this one moment shared between them. Years had passed from when she had realized that she wanted Dakota, and ended at this one encounter where she proclaimed his desire for her. Would it last? She didn’t know, but she hoped it did, because for her this wasn’t a passing moment or a fling. She truly did love him, and she didn’t care what anyone said, her father included. She would find her own happily ever after.
Chapter Seven
“It’s just dinner, Tawny.” She whispered to herself as she stared at her reflection in the mirror on the back of her bedroom door. The sweater and leggings she wore were not fancy, and made her feel comfortable. She wondered what Dakota thought about how she looked, if he liked that she wasn’t a skinny female, but a thick and round size sixteen. Although he seemed to like how she looked just fine as he was all but taking her up against the backroom wall. He had kissed her hard and forcefully, mouth-fucking her like he owned every part of her body. God, there was no other way to describe what he had been doing, how he had been kissing her.
She lifted her hand and smoothed it over her braid. It hung over one shoulder. Tonight she was going to sit down with Dakota and actually talk to him about all of this. Even after what they had done at the bar the other night they hadn’t actually spoken about what had happened or what the hell the next step was. Tonight was very casual, very easygoing, because that was what she needed to get through this. Telling Dakota how she had felt all these years, in public, without the sexual heat consuming them both, was stressful enough without having to worry about it being labeled a “date”.
A knock on her door had her focusing on the wood instead of the glass, and then it was being pushed open and her mother was coming inside.
“Hi,” Tawny said and moved over to her bed to take a seat on the edge of it.
“You’re going out tonight?” her mother asked, coming fully in the room and shutting the door behind her.
“I am … with Dakota,” Tawny added on a last breath. She hadn’t told her parents about Dakota, what happened at the bar, or that he was the one she was seeing tonight. It wasn’t that she was embarrassed or feared what their reaction would be. It was just because she was so on edge and confused right now, more optimistic than she had been because of the bar incident, but still not knowing what would happen. Why tell them that Dakota was the man she loved, that she had loved him for so long that it all blended together now when she didn’t know if he truly loved her? Yeah, she knew what he had said, but love was different from lust. But now it seemed like it was pointless to keep any of that a secret. He had professed his feelings for her, and a part of her liked that she was feeling the truth in his words.
Her mother sat down beside her, turned her body so she faced Tawny, and smiled. Even in her forties Hope Stoker was a beautiful woman. She didn’t look her age, kept
in shape by running in the woods behind their home, and had always been there for Tawny and her sister, even if she was just as protective of them as their father was.
“So then I guess Gabriel is out of the picture, or are you…” Her mother lifted a brow and smiled.
“God, Mom, I’m not a slut,” Tawny said and smiled.
“I know you’re not, sweetheart. You like to act like you’re this wild child, but I can see who you really are.” Her mom cupped her cheek. “You get that from your dad. He was always reckless, didn’t care about much after the deaths, but I saw in his heart that he was very vulnerable, even if he would never admit it.” She looked a little sad. “Still doesn’t to this day in fact.”
Tawny looked down at her hands, thought about how strong her father was on the inside and out, and wondered if she really did take after him in that regard. “Gabriel and I are nothing more than friends, or at least that’s how I feel. But Dakota—” She looked at her mom again.
Hope placed a hand on hers. “You care about him,” she said without question.
Tawny nodded. “Yeah, I do, have for a while, too.”
“Why didn’t you tell us? You know your father and I would support you all the way.”
Tawny gave her mother an “are you serious” look.
Hope started laughing. “Well, your dad would have put up a fight, but that’s only because he loves you. He’ll always be like that with the ones he loves, you know that.”
Tawny nodded. “Yeah, I know, but I didn’t tell you, or anyone else for that matter, because I just didn’t think Dakota felt anything for me, not like how I care about him.”
“But he does.”
Tawny nodded again and swallowed. “Yeah, he does, and so tonight we are going to meet up and talk about it all.”
“And you’re waiting to tell your father until you know that everything is stable with you and Dakota?”
“Yeah, because despite what Dad says I really am not out trying to give him a heart attack by the guys I date.”