by Alexa Rynn
“Well,” the creepy old one said, flashing his fucked up teeth at me again. “You really are a pretty thing aren’t you?” He pushed a piece of my hair behind my ear. “Not the kind of girl that strikes you right away but up close… well, up close you are really something.” He smiled evilly. “Nice and young, too.”
“You do love them young,” the guy holding me tight whispered.
“Mm,” crooked teeth nuzzled his nose into my hair, inhaling. “I do, I do love them young.” He slipped a clammy hand around the back of my neck and forced me to look up into his black eyes. “Something about their scent just really does something for me. That, and the way they scream. It’s just so desperate and loud, you know sweetheart?” He brushed his chapped lips against one of my cheeks; they felt like old dried prunes.
I glanced around the airport lobby and opened my mouth to scream as loud as I could but I didn’t get a sound out before a hand was slapped over my mouth. “Don’t even think about making a sound, bitch, or I swear, as God as my witness I will cut your tongue out of your mouth before this is all over.”
“Gentleman,” a deep voice appeared out of nowhere and before I knew it the oldest guy in front of me was being yanked backward and shoved aside. “Is there a problem here?”
The man looked pissed, and he unraveled himself from the stranger’s grasp. “There won’t be if you keep on walking.” He turned around and looked the man up and down. “Get lost, junior, this doesn’t concern you.”
“Actually, it does,” he pushed him to the side and grabbed me by the wrist, pulling me close to him. “You had your hands on our property.” He linked his fingers with mine like it was something he did every day.
The men exchanged weary glances. “Your property?”
“That’s right.”
I took the time to sneak a peek at my knight in shining stranger.
My throat lunged up into my mouth; I was holding hands with a model.
He had a square jaw; tan skin, tousled light brown hair and intense blue eyes. And his body… I could have said he was ripped but it wouldn’t have done him justice. He didn’t just have toned abs and big muscles. He had abs so flat that I could practically see the way they rippled through his tight t-shirt, and muscles that that were so bulging I could see each spec of sweat that glistened off of them.
Thick tattoos covered every inch of his arms, and he towered over my 5’9 frame easily. It was hard for me to find men that were taller than me, let alone loomed over me. I wasn’t used to being around men that were so… so… manly. He was definitely a man’s man in the purest sense of the phrase.
I gasped and tried to not tremble in his hand.
One of the random men that had surrounded me stepped forward. “I don’t give a fuck if she’s yours or not, finders keepers, now get the fuck out of here.” He grabbed me by the other arm and tried to yank me away.
The stranger let go of me (much to my disappointment) and grabbed the guy by his other arm, twisting it behind his back and using his other hand to wrap around his throat. “Yeah?” he snarled, choking the crap out of the guy. “Are you sure about that?”
Oh my God! I had never seen anything like this in my life!
I didn’t want anyone to get killed over me!
Even unreasonable creeps like them.
“No! No!” I screamed out, grabbing onto one of his huge biceps. Holy moly, they really were huge, I tried to ignore the part of me that felt like I was gong to pass out. “It’s okay, it’s okay, he’s not worth it.”
The group of men stared at me like I was insane.
It occurred to me that if I really was this man’s property like he said, interfering with whatever the hell he felt like he had to do to this guy probably wasn’t something I was supposed to do.
The guy loosened his grip on the guy’s throat and looked down at me.
“What I mean is…” I threw myself down on the ground. “Please forgive me! Please forgive me for wondering off like that without asking for your permission. I know I must be punished, I just ask that you… that you take pity on me, my gracious, gracious, master.” I wasn’t sure why I called him master, exactly. It just seemed like something I would do if someone really owned me.
The stranger had let the guy go completely by now and the entire group of men were staring at me with stunned and bewildered expressions on their faces. I glanced up at the ripped stranger and kind of half shrugged.
Hey, what did he expect me to do?
I didn’t know how all this crap worked.
“What club did you say you were a part of again?” One of them asked.
“Red Sin,” the stranger said, sounding just as confused as them.
“Jesus,” the old crooked tooth leader said. “Cutter really runs a tight ship over there.” He shook his head. “This is what we need, for our club whores to fall in line, they clearly know their place over at Red Sin. They’re always getting too mouthy with us, causing extra problems.” He tapped his fingers against his temple like he was turning over ways in his mind to make them obey the way he thought I did.
“You know Cutter,” the stranger mumbled. “Little room for back talking.”
“Humph. Well, boys, let’s leave this whore to her punishment then. Shall we?” He patted bulging biceps on the back as his crew started to back away from me. “Take it easy on her, will you? She looks like a nice enough kid,” he said, suddenly worried about my welfare.
I waited until the men were far enough away before I dared look up at him.
“You can get up now,” came his dark and twisted voice.
I rose slowly, still feeling shaky.
His eyes locked onto me and before I realized it I was throwing my body into his arms and holding on to him tightly. “Thank you!” I gasped into his neck. “Thank you so much! You saved my life!” His hair was wet like maybe he’d showered not that long ago and little specs of water fell onto the top of my forehead.
I forced myself to pull away from him when he didn’t embrace me back.
“I’m Faith,” I said sticking my hand out to him. “And you are? I mean, I know your name isn’t really master,” I laughed, trying to lighten the mood.
He glanced at my hand but didn’t take it, the same stone expression written across all his features. “Blade.” He looked at my hand again, not interested. “I don’t believe in shaking hands.”
His name was Blade? And he didn’t believe in shaking hands?
What planet was this guy from?
I pulled my hand back down. “Oh, I don’t blame you. Germs these days.”
“I don’t believe in any type of formal greetings,” he announced.
Jesus, I had come across a real like G.I. Joe; equipped with the same amount of emotion. “Well, anyway, Blade, thank you so much for doing that. What you did was really something."
He nodded like he was aware “And what you did was…”
Brave? Smart? Wonderful?
“Really stupid,” he finished, shaking his perfect head of hair back and forth rapidly. “Do you have any idea how dangerous those men are? What the hell were you thinking getting on their bad side?”
My mouth hung open.
Okay, this guy had saved me but now he was being super rude.
“I was thinking that I had a plane to catch and they didn’t have their blinker on. How was I to know they were some kind of… some kind of… thugs in a gang?” I threw my hands up in the air.
Blade’s eyes narrowed. “Bikers aren’t thugs, it’s about being part of a brotherhood.” He pushed past me harder than necessary and started to head away from me. “Not that I would expect you to understand.”
“Oh, yeah, I just witnessed some of that brotherhood first hand.”
He swung around. “We aren’t all like that.” He sighed heavily and ran a hand through his hair. “Are you going to be okay? Can I go now? You aren’t going to get into trouble with a group of cops next, are you?”
He was leaving? He want
ed to go away? Well, of course, he wanted to go away. What did I think he was going to do stick around and walk me to my gate or something? Of course, he wasn’t. Only, deep down, I’d kind of been hoping that he would. I still felt scared, and more than that, I don’t know… I felt like we had been through something together. Something creepy and rare.
From the look on his face, he didn’t feel the same way.
I grabbed my purse off the ground and turned the other way. “I’ll be fine.”
“Great,” he told me sarcastically. “Have a great life!”
I took off as fast as my legs could carry me. What the hell was that guy’s problem? No one had asked him to come over there and save me! He had taken it upon himself! Why didn’t he just leave me alone if he was going to be such a jerk about it after? I didn’t want help from someone who was that full of himself anyway. You weren’t supposed to do things so you could throw them in someone’s face, you were supposed to do them because it was the right thing.
Besides, I thought the way I threw myself on the ground like that was an absolute genius move. He would have killed that man and then got arrested if it weren’t for me. He should have been the one thanking me!
Blade had me so worked up that I didn’t realize I was going the complete wrong way of my gate until I was practically on the other side of the airport. Great, I was already late enough and now that jerk was going to make me miss my flight. I spun around and started to run as fast as I could down the airport hallway, praying over and over again that I wouldn’t miss it.
I got there just as the door was closing. “Wait! Wait!” I waved my ticket around like a mad woman. “Don’t shut it! I’ve got a boarding pass! I’ve got a boarding pass!” If I didn’t make it home in time for Easter dinner my mother would never forgive me.
The woman letting passengers on smiled at me and held the door in place. “Relax, you still have some time.” She took my ticket in her hand and glanced down at it then up at my beet red face. “In fact, we have a few first class seats left. Come on, I’ll sneak you up there, it looks like you could use a little comfort today.” She held the door open and ushered me into the hall that led down the runway and into the plain.
First class? I’d never flown first class before!
See, I had made my flight and now I was being upgraded to first class.
Things were looking up!
Take that, Blade!
I walked onto the plane with a newfound attitude.
It was going to be a great holiday.
Chapter Three
BLADE
The girl was clearly delusional. What had she been thinking, getting on the ground like that and acting like such a fool? Actually, if it hadn’t been for the circumstance, seeing her down on her knees like that while she called me master would have been kind of hot.
She definitely had that whole naturally sexy thing going on. My brother Ace wouldn’t have looked at her twice, he was all about girls with a lot of status and flash, but me… I liked the girl-next-door look.
And Faith had it.
Too bad she was completely unreasonable and annoying as hell.
Whatever, I didn’t have time to worry about some girl I was never going to see again and whether she could or couldn’t take care of herself. (She clearly couldn’t. I mean she wasn’t even screaming or anything when those guys were surrounding her. She was just standing there with a shocked expression on her face. Yell! Kick! Fight! Do something to attract some attention toward you! Standing there and doing nothing is the worst thing you can do in a crisis!) All I had to worry about was my club and what the heck Cutter had gotten himself into now.
I was going home to my brothers; nothing else mattered.
“Is this the only seat available?” I heard a girl’s voice gasp.
I turned around and there she was, the girl I was trying to never see again. She was looking at the seat next to me like it was infected with a disease and if she sat down she was sure to catch it. Her long blonde hair was even wilder than it had been twenty minutes ago and her emerald eyes looked beyond stressed out.
The flight attendant was looking at Faith with a puzzled expression on her face. “Yes, Miss, this is the only first class seat we have left.” She glanced at me and smiled, shooting me a wink.
Clearly, she was confused as to why sitting next to someone who looked like me would be a problem. I wasn’t trying to sound cocky or anything, I had never been that type of guy, I was just used to it.
“Yes,” Faith hissed. “But outside you said you had some first class seats left, seats as in more than one, so, are you absolutely sure this is the only one available?” She looked at me like she’d rather chew off her own arm than be seated next to me. “It’s just… I’d really prefer another seat.”
The attendant sighed like she couldn’t believe she’d bothered trying to do something nice for someone again since it never seemed to work out in her favor. “Well, this is the only first class seat we have left.” She gestured toward the curtain behind us. “You’re welcome to sit in your ticket seat, of course, in coach,” she said the word slowly like Faith should snap out of it and realize what she was being offered here.
Faith shifted from one foot to the other. “Maybe someone would switch.”
“There’s no switching in first class,” she snapped. “Take it or leave it.”
Faith sighed and forced a smile. “I’ll take it, thank you.” She sat down next to me and held her bag on top of her lap tightly, looking straight ahead into the seat ahead of her. The flight attendant shook her head and scurried away, clearly happy to be rid of her.
“Can I get you something to drink?” The man working in first class asked.
“Orange juice, thank you.”
“And another scotch for me,” I told him, shaking my empty glass.
Faith glanced at the empty glass with a judgmental look on her face.
“Do you want to say something?” I asked, knowing that it was driving her crazy. I downed the little bit of alcohol that was still in the glass, letting one of the ice cubes slip into my mouth and chewing on it loudly.
“Nope,” she said, shaking her head.
“Are you sure? Because it really looks like you want to say something.”
“Well, do you really think that another scotch is a good choice? I mean, it’s the middle of the afternoon, and it is Easter tomorrow. You don’t want to be all hung over for the Holiday.” She shot me a half smile the way people do when they try to act like they aren’t judging you but they really are.
I shrugged. “I’ve been drinking since this morning.”
She gasped. “But what will they say at Easter dinner?”
I huffed. “Baby, the place I’m going for Easter dinner don’t give a fuck if you show up fucked up or not. In fact, it’s probably preferred if you do, but it doesn’t really matter, I don’t believe in Easter.”
“You don’t believe in Easter?” She looked like the thought never occurred to her. “But Easter is the day that Jesus came back to earth and started granting miracles for everyone! It’s a celebration!”
“Oh, I know what Easter is, I just don’t believe in celebrating it.” I grabbed the drink out of our waiter’s hand before he even had a chance to set it down and took a long swig out of it. “I don’t believe in celebrating any holidays.”
“That’s ridiculous.” She crossed her arms over her chest grumpily. “You can’t not believe in celebrating holidays, what about your birthday? You celebrate that, don’t you?”
“Nope, I don’t even tell people when it is.”
It was the truth, too. I had never celebrated my birthday growing up because I never had a family to do things like that with. And once I got older, it just seemed stupid and unnecessary. The same way most of the things society told you was proper and the right thing did. I wanted to be different than the rest of the world. I made a promise a long time ago to never conform to other people’s beliefs.
“I
don’t believe you.”
“Okay,” I said shrugging. I downed the rest of my drink and slammed the glass down on the tray in front of me. “Excuse me.” I held my hand up in the air and motioned for the waiter. “Can I get another one?” Hey, it had been a long three flights and if Cutter was going to spring for first class I might as well go ahead and enjoy myself.
“Jesus!” Faith put her hand on top of mine and pushed it down.
I was tempted to hold it there just to be an asshole because I knew she wasn’t as strong as me but I played along, letting her move my hand down toward the front of my body anyways. Her hands were so small, like they belonged on a doll and not a tall young blonde.
She ran her fingers over one of the tattoos on my lower arm. “You serve?”
I forced myself to pull away from her, I couldn’t go around letting cute blonde girls rub up on me in plans, I had a rep to protect, one that didn’t include anything that looked like it might be in the same universe as cuddling. “I did, I’m on leave now until I decide if I want to go back or not.”
She glanced at her hand, embarrassed she allowed herself to touch me in that way. “Oh, well, thank you for your service.” She crossed one of her long legs over the other and pushed her hair behind her ear.
I looked away from her legs and toward the window. God, they really went on for days. Her skin looked silky and fresh, not overly tanned like most of the whores that pranced around the club. I made myself concentrate on the ground outside as the plane moved around slowly.
The last thing I needed was to get all fucking hard at the start of the ride.
“You could at least say thank you!” She puffed from beside me.
“Thank you,” I said without looking back at her.
“You know, I don’t think you mean that.”
Ugh, what was this girl’s problem? Didn’t she know I was trying to not look at her long legs or curvy hips so I wouldn’t have to deal with having fucking blue balls for the next hour and fifteen minutes? She was so damn chatty.
“Look,” I snapped, facing her. “I don’t talk about anything having to do with my time over there or anything that goes on or how I feel about it. So, why don’t you quit while you’re ahead?”