by Hart, Eve R.
Turn.
I’d never realized how loud and annoying the sound of my heels were until now.
My long legs kept eating up the marble floor, over and over again. My phone just so happened to be clutched tight in my hand so that I could check the time every ten seconds or feel it vibrate with some sort of communication.
Only there hadn’t been a single thing from him.
I didn’t know what irritated me more, the fact that he hadn’t shown up or the fact that I was worried something might have happened to him. The lack of response was normal. He never did tell me he was coming when I commanded. Every other time he simply came.
But it had been too long. Over an hour now. And maybe he could have been caught up in something but I was sure that if that had happened he would have let me know.
Click. Click. Click. Click. Click.
Turn.
Click. Click. Click. Click. Click.
Turn.
This was stupid but I couldn’t stop.
My mind went over the last time that he’d been here. I could admit that the three weeks that had passed seemed longer than normal. It somehow added more tension to my body and the longer the seconds ticked on, the tighter my muscles seemed to pull. I couldn’t come up with a single reason to explain the abrupt, blatant change in our arrangement. There was nothing that had been different in our previous interaction that led to me think this was no longer working for him. He left satisfied.
Then I remembered the phone call. The one that had been over two months ago. I thought that maybe I’d given him too much that night. All I was trying to do was let him know that I was… sorry… for ignoring him in that coffee shop. Perhaps my plan had backfired on me. Maybe giving him one thing had changed things in his mind.
He liked being over me, he had told me that much. I couldn’t believe that I’d let that happen and as I thought about it, I wasn’t even sure that I was aware of it at the time.
We had been together a few times since that night. And while I had let him continue to touch me, I wasn’t going to let him get me on my back again. He must have known that it wasn’t going to happen because he hadn’t even tried.
My aggravation level was rising. I didn’t like to be left hanging. If it was something he didn’t want any longer, then he needed to tell me those words. I wasn’t a fan of playing games or vaguely hinting at what you wanted. I was blunt and straightforward. If I had a problem, I faced it.
I shouldn’t be forced to pace because someone else didn’t know how to communicate. I didn’t like my time to be wasted and walking the floor back and forth, was a big pointless, frustrating, waste of time.
Ten more minutes and I was going to give up on waiting. I was going to walk out of here with my head high and throw myself back into work. I had girls to watch over and a business to run. I didn’t have the luxury of sitting around doing nothing. Or walking around, as the case was right now. I was well aware that I was the one that put that all on my shoulders. I didn’t let myself relax or leave for too long. A trip to the coffee shop or even a quick lunch was about all that I let myself have. Even the moments stolen with Iron had been pushing it. I had faith in Rowan and that was why I left her in charge most of the time. I didn’t trust easily but for some reason, I did with her.
Ten minutes had come and gone.
I found myself grabbing my purse and keys before I stepped into the elevator. Then I shot Rowan a text, to let her know that I was leaving the building and told her she would handle it until I got back.
She responded back before I hit the bottom floor.
An incessant string of absurd cartoon faces and an eggplant filled up my screen when I opened the message.
I didn’t understand a thing, but I knew she’d received my message and that she would make sure everything was taken care of.
I held the gas peddle down the entire way over to the club’s compound. I’d been here once and I hadn’t been in my right mind then. I’d just lost Esme and I was angry for so many reasons. The fact that I’d been emotional even irritated me. A death for a death was what I’d demanded from the club president, but he wouldn’t give me that. But he let me take my pound of Keften’s flesh once they had found him. When it was all over, I didn’t feel justified, but knowing the man was going to die soon after I left helped me to sleep at night.
It didn’t bring Esme back.
But it made it easy to close my eyes knowing that man couldn’t hurt another soul.
All eyes were on me as I walked into the front door of the building. I had no clue where to find Iron. I didn’t even have a clue why I was here.
I couldn’t seem to let this go.
He’d made me angry.
And when someone made me angry, I got even. I hurt them back. I proved to them— and myself— that you couldn’t get me down. You couldn’t damage me. I would not cower.
I realized that I wasn’t simply angry. I was many things. There were tiny sparks of emotion coming from all directions that I wasn’t quite ready to acknowledge and deal with. I couldn’t. It was who I was and I wasn’t going to apologize for it.
The music was loud and there were people everywhere. I was pretty sure I recognized a few of them from the one time I’d been here but I had no clue on what their names were. Nor did I care to know.
“Where is your President?” I asked in a stern voice. My eyes stared down the biker closest to me. I didn’t know him and it was unclear if he realized who I was or not.
He looked at me with a smirk on his face and said nothing.
“Holy fuck, you are a fine piece. We don’t get bitches like you in here.”
My eyes cut over to the man that had said that, but other than that, I showed no reaction to his words. They didn’t bother me but he was wasting my time.
Man was the wrong word to use for him, that much was clear. Boy was more appropriate. Young and carefree. A little smug, too. One of those that thought he could get any woman into bed with a flash of his tattooed body and a few dirty words.
Hm.
Maybe it worked around here but it certainly didn’t do a thing for me.
“Hey, baby. I like a woman that’s mature. How would you like to take a ride on my face?” He didn’t seem to know when to stop. “You’re fine as fuck, woman.”
“Sketch,” someone called out from behind him with a clear ring of warning in their tone.
He didn’t take the hint, choosing instead to take a step closer to me until his hot breath fanned across my shoulder.
“You one of those hard badass bitches, huh?” If that was supposed to be a question I hoped he wasn’t expecting an answer. I wasn’t going to waste my breath on this one. “That’s cool. I can be down. I’ll let you tie me up and spank me until I scream.”
“I don’t like repeating myself,” I said as my eyes slid back over to the man that I’d asked my question to.
“C’mon, baby. I’ll take care of you.”
My gaze slid back to look at the boy that was obviously as dumb as a bag of concrete.
“Shit. Sketch, fuckin’ knock it off.”
I didn’t know who said it but it didn’t matter.
In the blink of an eye, I gripped his bright blonde hair at the back of his head and smashed his face down on the edge of the bar. I suppose it might have been a little much to make my point, but I was a little on edge and he was beginning to annoy me.
“The fuck!” he roared as he straightened up. Blood dripped from his nose down onto this leather vest, covering some of the patches in its dark stickiness.
Most of the men jumped to attention, their backs going straight as their hands went to their hips. A few of them even went as far as to reach around to their lower backs. I expected guns and knives to be pulled but I didn’t flinch.
“Stand down!” a voice called out and the crowd parted as the man walked forward. “Petra.” I wasn’t sure if he said my name as an acknowledgment or a greeting, so I said nothing in return.
Without another word, he tilted his head, turned around, and walked back through the path that had been made for him.
I followed along, my eyes straight forward as I clicked my way to the back of the room.
“Up there, take a left,” he told me once we’d reached a set of stairs at the end of the hall.
I nodded as a way to tell him thank you.
His low chuckle floated into my ears as I began to ascend the stairs to the next floor.
When I turned left, I found a door. I didn’t bother knocking before I reached for the handle and opened the door.
Inside I found what looked like a small apartment. My feet carried me over the threshold into a living room that was about one third the size of mine— maybe even smaller.
I found the man that I was looking for sitting right on the couch in front of me.
His brow was raised as he looked at me.
And there was something I never expected to see in his arms.
“What is that?” I asked. I was confused and curious but my voice let on to none of that.
“A baby. What the hell does it look like?” His lips tipped up in an amused smirk.
Yes, I knew it was a baby. That wasn’t what I was trying to get at.
“Why is it here?” I asked, each word coming out slow as if I was frustrated.
“Because I offered to watch her.”
“And you couldn’t let me know that was the reason you didn’t come over?”
It was clear that he was safe and I didn’t really need to be here anymore. But there were a few more answers I needed before I left.
“Wasn’t watching her when you sent me that text. Didn’t offer to look after her until after I saw it.” He was smug and cool. There was something in his tone that told me that he wasn’t even sorry about it. And I even wondered if he did it on purpose in a way to spite me even if I didn’t know what was going on at the time.
At least it wasn’t his. Or so I was assuming. We hadn’t talked about babies and such because there hadn’t been a need to. He’d never mentioned that he had one. And while we had this on and off thing going, we’d never set rules for what happened in between. I didn’t care if he carried on with other women. I didn’t really. I didn’t expect the man to be committed to me because I couldn’t even give him a sliver of myself. He got what he got. And I was pretty sure he understood that it was all he was going to ever get. So that said, it could have been his. You would have thought something like that would have come up at some point. Then again, we didn’t talk about each other’s lives.
And I was perfectly fine with that.
In fact, I preferred it that way.
“I don’t do babies,” I said.
He must have found that amusing because his eyes twinkled and that half-knowing smile was tipping up his lips.
“Sit,” he said and his head cocked to the side indicating that he wanted me to take up the open space on the couch next to him.
“I’d rather not.”
“Sit, Pet,” he said a little more forcefully.
My body snapped rigidly, my spine growing even straighter.
I was not going to let him talk to me like that. I was in charge. I may have been a woman but I bent for no man.
“Hey, Prez,” someone said from behind me as they came in without knocking.
“Hey, B.” Iron turned his attention to the man that had stepped in behind me.
The man stepped around me and his chin lifted in my direction.
I recognized this one. I had seen him at least once before. His big frame and short hair weren’t any different from the last time I’d seen him. However, his face wasn’t holding the deadly edge that it held that night.
There was a female trailing behind him and she didn’t pay me any mind as she walked over to Iron and happily scooped the baby out of his arms.
“Thanks, Prez,” The guy— B, I assumed— told Iron as he grabbed a bulky bag off of the coffee table. “Petra,” he said to me as he walked by me toward the door.
Then they were gone.
Iron abruptly stood. His steps were predatory as he crossed the room to me. My eyes stayed locked onto his. There was something there in his gaze, a fire of rage.
He wasn’t hungry.
He was mad.
Furious.
At me.
His hand went to my hip and my feet slightly stumbled as he forced me back against the door.
My head tilted to the side as I let my eyes hold his without having to lift my chin. I knew it was a power move and I wasn’t ashamed of it. It was who I was, after all.
I opened my mouth to tell him to back up but he stopped me with a short shake of his head.
“Now, it’s my turn,” he told me, his voice low and raw. “I’ve played it your way for far too long, Pet. I give you what you need because, believe it or not, I care about you.”
The corner of my eye twitched at his words.
“And yeah, I’m not done giving,” he went on. “But tonight you are in my house. You are on my time. And you comin’ here tells me something big.”
“And what’s that?” I asked trying my hardest to not show how he was affecting me. His hand on my hip. His arm bracing above me against the door. His mouth so close to mine. All of it was strangely causing a dizziness to cloud my brain.
The more I thought about his words the more I realized that he could have been right. I didn’t let myself think about the reasons I did things the way I did sometimes. I just did what made me the most comfortable. But I broke out of that and I had done something that was very uncharacteristic tonight.
I came to him.
It hit me all at once.
This was his plan.
This was what he wanted.
And I had needed him so badly that I went blindly.
I might have been angry but I knew deep down that wasn’t what was fueling the fire.
I waited for his answer. I waited to see if he saw through me even though I tried so hard to hide everything.
The look that fell over his face told me that he wasn’t going to hold back any longer. And the answer that was to come would be something I wasn’t ready to hear.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Petra
Iron smirked at me. It irritated me but it also caused a shiver to run down my spine. I didn’t let myself get into a position where someone else held the cards, but it was clear that I’d shown him my hand by barging my way up here.
“What does it tell me?” he asked. Only it wasn’t a question, it was simply part of his long, drawn out point. “It tells me that you need me tonight. That you need me right now more than you have before.”
Maybe he was right but I wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of hearing that from my lips.
“It tells me, Pet…” His head dipped and I felt the tip of his nose run up the exposed side of my neck. His warm tongue licked up the shell of my ear and my eyes drifted closed. Everything had me on edge and his breath in my ear was about to send me over the cliff. “That you’re beggin’ for something you’ve never had before.”
I delicately cleared my throat and steeled my spine.
“What it should be telling you is that no one ignores me and gets away with it,” I told him rather coldly. But it was a lie, and by the way his eyes held mine, he could see right through it.
“Nah, babe,” he said with a small shake of his head. “I said one day, and that day has come. And be prepared, Petra, I’m takin’ everything I can.”
I didn’t have a chance to get a word out, let alone a breath.
His lips were on mine and he was taking, hard and relentlessly.
I realized my mistake by coming here. Or it could have been this is what I’d expected in the back of my mind. I was taking it, though, and I was certainly enjoying every second.
He pulled away and I looked at him. I could feel the dazed look on my face and this time, I did nothing to wipe it away.
“You’re mine now.
Best you realize that,” he said as his hand dropped away from my hip. I was lost without his touch and even if I hated to admit it, I wanted it back.
The click of the door locking as he reached behind me set it in stone.
Whether I’d asked of it or not, I was his. I was trapped in his web. But then again, was I really trapped? Maybe this was what I really wanted all along but never knew how to say it.
“Tonight I’m going to fuck you in my bed. I’m going to strip you down, lay you out and devour every single inch of your skin.” My jaw clenched at his words.
As a rule, I didn’t let any of those things happen. I didn’t strip down for anyone and I sure as hell didn’t let them get that close to know every inch of me.
“Iron.” His name fell from my lips in a soft plea that had a sad ring to it. I couldn’t look at him. I couldn’t bring the words forth to tell him that I was sure I couldn’t handle that. I couldn’t let him see all of me.
“Not givin’ you a choice here.”
There was something in his eyes that told me I actually did have a choice. I could choose to tell him no and walk out that door. I could, I knew he’d let me. But that choice came with heavy consequences. I’d lose what I already had of him. Was I willing to risk that?
The air felt heavy in my lungs as he waited for the sign that I was choosing to stay.
Words were too hard to form so instead, I blinked up at him letting a small amount of softness hit my eyes so he could see.
That smirk was back on his face.
This man was everything I should hate and run from. He was going to break me. But the question was, how much? How much of myself was I willing to give him? How much was left to give?
“On your knees, Pet,” he ordered, his body shifting back so he was standing to his full height. Then he shuffled back a few steps so I’d have the room to obey his command.
One at a time, my knees met the hard floor.
“Undo my pants. Pull me out.”
I took in a deep breath and did as he said, slowly pulling the leather flap of his belt back to release it from the buckle. Then one by one, I opened up the buttons of his fly. He didn’t help me and I tried hard not to look like I hated it.