by Jenika Snow
Her mom chuckled harder this time and patted her hand. “He knows. He’s just a grumpy ol’ bear that tries to keep his girls safe from the world. Your father will never understand that letting you live your lives because you’ve grown into competent and strong women is the natural way of things.” She lifted her hand, cupped Tawny’s cheek, and smiled in that motherly way. “But he’ll learn to deal with it, because you have to do what makes you happy, no matter what anyone else says.” Hope leaned in and kissed her forehead. “And if it doesn’t work out with Dakota, that doesn’t mean the man you’re supposed to be with isn’t out there, just waiting for your spunky and wild personality to knock him on his ass.”
Tawny felt the humor in that. She watched as Hope stood and went over to the doorway. “Have fun tonight, and I hope you both figure out what you want.” And then her mom left her alone to think about what she had just said. There was no one else for Tawny but Dakota, and she knew that with everything inside of her. But she was also smart enough to know that just because that was how she felt, and what she wanted, that wasn’t always how things worked out.
****
The pizza shop they were at was in River Run. She had met Dakota here, because even though they had told each other they cared for the other, she was still nervous about how things would play out. A part of her wanted to be able to escape if she needed to. It was cowardly, she knew, but this was something she had never envisioned actually happening. Sure, she had fantasized about what it would be like with Dakota, because no matter how many tattooed and pierced bad boys she went out with, tried to be with, too, they never compared to her Brothers MC member. He was the epitome of what a dangerous, tall, dark and handsome bad boy should be like. She loved him, and wanted this to work.
They were sitting in the corner both, the small twin candles in the center of the table half burnt down, their check sitting beside him, but Dakota seemed completely focused on her. Since meeting him at Romano’s pizzeria in River Run an hour ago, they had stayed in neutral conversation. No relationship talk, nothing about how they felt for each other. It was just about what they had been doing in their lives. Although she had known for the past few years he had been taking any and all runs for The Brothers of Menace, it was interesting to hear about his time away. He wouldn’t go into club details, even all these years later, but she was used to the secrecy and tight knit brotherhood of a motorcycle club. Even her father didn’t say things about the club to her mom, even though Hope had been in the life with him for over two decades.
The silence stretched between them now, and she knew it was because the pleasantries they had been talking about for the last hour, the things that really were just fillers for why they were here, had been used up. Dakota looked at the table. She stared at his hands, ones that were big and strong, and tanned from working outside on his bike during the summer months. He had hardworking, masculine hands, ones that had her picturing being held down, of him touching her with them, stroking her body under she was a wet, aroused mess for him. Twisting in her seat, she crossed her legs, thinking it would stem off her desire. But it had the opposite effect as it pressed her lips to her clit, and caused a spark of pleasure to fill her.
“Tawny,” Dakota said, not lifting his head, and still staring at his hands. After a second he finally lifted his gaze, his head still downcast, and stared at her. “There is a lot I want to say, a lot I should have said a long time ago.”
She swallowed, licked her lips, and nodded, because she felt the same way. The music overhead was soft, low, and Italian sounding. “Dakota.” She took a deep breath, and knew that she just wanted to get it all out. She wanted to move past this all, to see if they could actually move forward as a couple. “I love you, have loved you for years now. I remember one time when you were at the Grizzly clubhouse working on bikes.”
The smile on his face after she spoke told her he knew what she was talking about.
“Your mom had dropped you off, and then not long after that you got into the car of some douchebag with his nose and eyebrow pierced.” He sounded fierce, angry even, but then he shook his head and smiled. “Even thinking about that, years later, still pisses me off and makes me feel like this jealous asshole.”
She reached out and covered his hand with hers. “The fact that you are like that with me makes me feel…” She looked at where her hand covered his much larger one. “It makes me feel wanted and loved.” Lifting her gaze to his again, she saw that he wore this very serious expression on his face.
“I feel a hell of a lot stronger than that for you, Tawny. In fact, I am trying very hard to calm the need to go over to that asshole sitting in the table across the room, and punch him right in the fucking eyes.”
She knitted her brows and glanced over at the side, trying to see who he was talking about. “Who…” She stopped speaking when she saw a guy at one of the tables with three of his friends. He was staring at her, and when he saw she was looking at him this smile slowly spread across his face. Tawny looked over at Dakota again, saw that he was watching the guy in question, and applied pressure on his hand. “Hey, he’s not worth it, and I don’t think he means any harm.”
Of course she knew that wasn’t right, because even from this distance, with the scents of pizza, sauce, and others in the room, Tawny’s bear scented the male’s lust.
Dakota looked at her, his jaw clenched tight, and the muscle under the scruffy skin jumping. “You and I both know that that little asshole over there has been eye-fucking you for the last hour.”
She actually hadn’t even noticed because she had been in her own world, wondering how this night would play out. “Dakota, you want me, and I want you. What difference does it make if another woman looks at you, or vice versa?” Of course she’d feel jealous as well if another girl was checking Dakota out. But she wasn’t a male, and although he was human and not a shifter, therefore not having those feral urges, Dakota proved he wasn’t much different from her Grizzly family. “If he wants to mess with you, the male that I am here with, and one wearing a Brothers of Menace cut, then let him be a stupid fool who gets his ass kicked.”
Of course she wouldn’t want anything being started in her honor, especially not for a guy looking at her, but she figured stroking Dakota’s male ego might simmer him down. It worked on her father, and even some of the other Grizzlies from time to time.
“Tawny—”
Before he could finish his sentence, she rose up, bent over the table, and pressed her lips to his. That shut him up, and even had this low sound of need leaving him. He cupped the back of her head, tangled his fingers in her hair, and tilted her head to the side to deepen the kiss. Their tongues moved together, and she felt her heart start to beat faster. But she pulled back before they really made a scene. Staring at Dakota, just inches apart now, she saw the way he had this hard, heated look on his face.
“Why’d you stop?” he asked in a low voice, and looked down at her lips.
She looked down at his mouth, wanting to continue, but started chuckling at the need in his voice, and the way he tried to pull her back to his lips. “Dakota, we are going to get kicked out for causing a scene.” She grinned when he made this grunt.
“Let them.” He pressed his lips to hers again. “I can’t let you go, Tawny.”
She stared at him, their mouths only an inch apart because she had pulled back, and this flutter in her belly intensified. “I don’t want you to let me go.”
He pulled her forward again, slammed his mouth on hers, and kissed her like he meant every word he had said. Before she could stop it, or maybe she planned on just saying the hell with it all and causing one big ass scene, the sound of deep male voices came through. They broke away and turned to stare at the front door. Walking in, loud and with too much energy coming from them, were Marcus, Gabriel, and Link.
The pizza parlor was popular in River Run for their homemade sauce and crust, and it tended to get a lot of the younger population in town coming in
on the weekends and evenings. Tonight it just so happened that three members of The Brothers wanted something to eat and given the state of Gabriel and Link, and how drunk they acted, it was clear they were in for a pit stop of food before moving on to party more. Seeing Gabriel after him kissing her was more uncomfortable than she thought it should be.
“Shit,” Dakota said under his breath, and turned back around to face her.
“Everything okay?” The way Dakota acted angry all of a sudden told her his sudden change in mood had nothing to do about the guy that had been watching her, and strangely having to do with his brothers that had walked through.
“I’m good,” he said in a kind of gruff, detached voice, but she saw the way he clenched his hands on top of the table.
“You sure, because you’re acting like you might go off the handle right now.” Did he know about the date she had gone on with Gabriel, or that it was only as friends? Hell, did he know about the awkward kiss? It wouldn’t have surprised her since she knew members of the club talked about shit like that, even when there was not anything to really talk about. But given the way Dakota was jealous over even some strange guy just looking at her from across the pizza place, it was safe to say something like this would make him even more territorial.
Dakota stared at her for a second, his blue eyes seeming especially bright right now. He exhaled loudly and ran a hand over his short dark hair. “No, that’s a lie. I’m not good.” He glanced behind him again and stared at the guys. She followed his gaze, watched as Marcus was leaning against the To Go counter flirting with the cashier, and how Gabriel and Link were swearing and talking loudly. But no one in the restaurant would say anything to them, or dare toss them out. This was River Run, Brothers of Menace territory, and the club had a wicked reputation here.
“You know about me going out with Gabriel and the kiss, don’t you?” She wasn’t going to explain herself, because the truth was whatever she had done, even if it hadn’t been more than friends going out on her part, had happened before she and Dakota had even been in this place in their lives. But she could tell him how she had felt.
He clenched his jaw, removed his hands from the top of the table, and leaned back. “Yeah, I heard that he went out with you, kissed you, too. And although you and I weren’t anything then, I still wanted you, still fucking loved you, and that shit pissed me off.”
She licked her lips and flicked her gaze to the guys again. “We are just friends. I don’t feel anything more for Gabriel,” she looked back at Dakota, “or any other male for that matter.” Tawny gave him a smile, because right now she hoped any little act of emotion she gave him or said would lessen his jealousy. This kind of emotion from a man might be too intense for a woman, even seem crazy and overly possessive. But if they had never grown up in either an MC, or around shifter males, they would never fully understand that yes, the men were intense, but they had to be like that. It was not only the way they lived, survived, but also an act of how much they cared, of what they would do for their families and the women they loved.
“Come on, let’s get out of here and go some place where we can talk in private.” She was thinking thoughts that had nothing to do with talking, and maybe that need was shown on her face because the expression Dakota gave her was pretty damn powerful. The heat that came off of his body, and the fact her bear picked up on the scent of his rising arousal and his lessening rage told her this male was hers. They hadn’t really spoken a whole lot about what they wanted with each other, but they didn’t need to. Saying they cared, loved each other even, was enough for both of them.
The truth was she didn’t want to talk. She wanted him to take her away from here, strip her naked, and show her with his body how much he really did want her. She was a twenty-one year old virgin, had been waiting for this moment her entire life, and this male was the one she wanted to give her innocence to.
He leaned forward, cupped her chin in his hand, and stared at her lips. “Talk, baby?” he said and lifted a dark eyebrow. He was aroused, she could smell it, and she knew that his dick was probably hard right beneath his fly. She certainly was wet enough that her panties were soaked clean through.
“Or other things,” she said in an equally low voice. Everything else faded away except her and Dakota. “I just want to be alone with you, without all these people watching, without drunken MC members and other guys making this animal inside of you want to rip off heads.” She smirked, knowing maybe she shouldn’t have been aroused by the fact Dakota wanted to inflict bodily injury on other guys for even looking at her, but she was a woman, and it did turn her on. He was just so … male.
He didn’t respond, just moved out of the booth, grabbed her hand, and together they walked toward the front door. He stopped when he came up beside Marcus. The other member seemed to be the one that wasn’t drunk, most likely their DD, and when he turned around and saw Dakota standing beside her, his arm around Tawny’s waist, he lifted a dark eyebrow.
“Hey, man,” Marcus said, a toothpick in his mouth. It was freezing outside, snow already falling, yet Marcus only wore a long sleeved Henley and his cut. His sleeves were pushed up his muscular forearms. The sight of the five thick bands of ink tattooed into his flesh on his right forearm flexed as he lifted his hand and removed the toothpick from between his lips. His other arm flexed as he did the act, and tattooed on the inside of his forearm read in bold Old English script was “Ride Free, Stay Loyal, Fuck Hard. A Brother for Life.”
“He, brother,” Link said, and walked over to them. The scent of liquor came from the younger member, and his eyes were glossy and bloodshot from his clear intoxication.
Dakota pulled her closer to his body, squeezed the side of her flesh with his fingers, and she saw how Link looked down and noticed the act. His eyebrows lifted, and he glanced over at Gabriel. God, if this became a scene because Gabriel was drunk, was still going to make it seem like he didn’t understand she only wanted to be friends, then she’d kick his ass herself. They hadn’t talked since going out and him kissing her, and although she had made herself clear, it was clear, because of that not so friendly act from him, that Gabriel was going by his own rules. He was an MC member, lived by his own code, which she was used to.
“So, what’s … up?” Link asked and looked down at where Dakota held her again. “Didn’t know you and Tawny were a thing.” Link looked at her now, smiled, but it looked a little off, and not because Link was drunk.
“Yeah,” was all Dakota said.
“Hey, you think we should get a couple of extra pizzas to bring back to the club?” Gabriel said, and then turned around from where he was leaning against the counter. When he saw Dakota he grinned, and then he looked at Tawny, saw that Dakota held her close, and that smile faded. He moved a step closer, his movements a little sloppy, and she knew he was far drunker than Link was. “Hey, Dakota, what the hell is going on?” Gabriel asked in a friendly, bullshitting manner, but Tawny could tell that there was this underlying hint of anger and hostility coming from the other male. Hell, she could smell the rage simmering below the surfaces of both Dakota and Gabriel.
“Not much, man. Just about to leave.” Dakota tightened his hands on her side, a little painfully, but she knew that this situation was probably near to pushing him over the edge. “Tawny and I were going to go talk someplace a little less open.”
Gabriel nodded slowly, looked over at her, and slowly dragged his gaze down to her breasts, and lower still. He lifted his gaze just as slowly as he had on the way down, and although she wore a sweater tunic and leggings, and her coat draped over her arm, she felt uncomfortably naked and on display right now. Gabriel was drunk, and she knew that if he had been sober he probably wouldn’t be blatantly checking her out right now, especially not when Dakota held her so closely.
“So, Tawny,” Gabriel addressed her, not bothering to respond to what Dakota had just said. “I had a really good time when we went out.” He took a step closer, and she felt Dakota tense b
eside her. “I was waiting to give you some time and space, hoping you’d call me, because I have been thinking a lot about you.”
Dakota made this low sound in his throat, and Gabriel looked at the other biker, this smirk on his face. His eyes were glossy and bloodshot, and he reeked of alcohol even worse than Link.
“Gabriel, are you really doing this right now?” she asked with incredulity in her voice. The scent of his need to antagonize Dakota, to try to piss him off even worth by bringing up their non-date dinner and movie, was now pissing her off.
“I’m not doing anything, Tawny. All I was saying was that I enjoyed our date, and the kiss at the end of it.” Gabriel grinned and glanced at Dakota, as if rubbing that statement in.
If she didn’t get Dakota out of here, shit was really going to hit the fan.
Chapter Eight
Dakota saw red, but told himself that he didn’t want to get into this with a fellow Brother. Gabriel was part of his family, a brother of the club, and starting shit with him would be bad all around. He was also drunk, and Dakota knew the other man well enough to know that right now he was probably pissed that the girl he had wanted wasn’t feeling him, and was with Dakota now. But it was hard to ignore the fact that despite Gabriel being intoxicated and a part of him was probably hurting right now, that he kept eye-fucking Tawny. Maybe Gabriel hadn’t wanted her for more than a night of sex, which in itself infuriated Dakota—but there also may have been a part of the other man that had really started to care for Tawny. It was hard not to when Tawny had every attribute that turned a man on. He looked at her, saw the beauty in her face and body, the intelligence in her mind and the strength she held herself with. She was the whole package, but she was his. Only his.
He let go of her, took a step toward Gabriel, and said in a low voice, “Brother, I’m not going to do this with you right now.”
Gabriel’s nostrils flared, and he flicked his gaze to Tawny, but Dakota moved to the side, blocking his view.