by KB Winters
“Not all night, just open until midnight then reopens at four in time for the truckers to eat and get back on the road.”
I sat back and took a moment to really soak him in. Fiery red hair in a short spiky style that should have made him seem less intimidating and a close-cropped beard that he obviously took great care of covered a full set of pink lips and if I had to guess, also a razor-sharp jaw. His eyes seemed bluer because of the red hair and when he looked at me, they smoldered. “Makes sense.”
The silence that settled over us was broken by a busty blonde in tight jeans and a pink t-shirt with the words BLACK BETTY scrolled across the chest in large gothic letters. “Hiya, Mick.” She leaned over so her tits were just inches from his face, a salacious grin on her red painted mouth. “What can I getcha?”
“Janine. I’ll have a Guinness. What do you want, Talon?”
Damn, he’d just straight up ignored what she so clearly offered. I wondered if it was for my benefit or if he really had no interest in her. “I’ll have the same. And a burger, medium rare and sweet potato fries.”
Mick flashed a grin and then looked up at Janine. “Make it two.” He’d been about to say something, but we were interrupted once again by an older woman with salt and pepper hair and an all-black ensemble. “Hey, Charlie, come and meet Magnus’ daughter, Talon.”
I looked at Charlie and knew her instantly. “Charlene?” I whispered. “My dad mentioned you in the letters he left for me. He loved you so much.” So much I wondered if I’d ever find someone to love me like that.
Charlie’s dark green eyes misted over, and she put a hand to her chest. “I love that old fool, too. He was stubborn and bossy, but the man had the biggest heart of any man I ever came across.” She surprised me with a tight hug. “It’s nice to meet you, Talon. Once you get settled, come on back and I’ll run you through everything.”
My confusion must have shown on my face because Mick jumped in. “You own this place, along with the house and the land.”
My eyes went round with surprise. I thought he’d left me a small café that sold sandwiches and chips, not all of this. “But what about Charlie? This has to be a mistake, he couldn’t have left everything to me if he was the good man everyone says he was.”
Charlie’s warm hand fell to my shoulder. “You sure are a sweet one.” She gently cupped one side of my face. “Don’t worry, Magnus made sure to take care of me. That’s just the kind of man he was.”
“You sure?”
“Positive. I got my own house and a small plot of land. He gave it to me years ago, to make sure I was always taken care of.”
Charlie’s words finally broke the dam I’d erected around my heart and my emotions since finding Damon plowing into Abby on my kitchen table. I didn’t cry after kicking him out, or when I sold everything in the apartment for two grand. I didn’t cry as I packed up my little red SUV and said goodbye to Chicago. I wanted to cry because I’d been left all alone in the world sooner than I should have been. Wanted to cry for the man I never got to know. But somehow Charlie’s softly spoken words were what made me crack. Why, Mom? I just wanted to know why she had lied to me my whole life. Why she’d taken that relationship from me, that love. I turned toward the wall when she walked off, using a napkin to dry my tears.
Finally under control, I took several long pulls from my beer as the busty Janine set our plates down. “Thanks.”
She ignored me and kept her gaze trained on Mick, who acted like she wasn’t even there. He raised his beer and said, “Don’t be shy, sugar, dig in.”
And in six words, Mick made me forget my grief as my body surged to life at that slow molasses drawl.
Yep, he was gonna be trouble with a capital T.
Chapter Two
Mick
The blistering heat of the day had finally relented as I left the clubhouse on the outskirts of Brently and headed toward Magnus’ place. Now Talon’s place, I thought with a smile. How my mind could be so full of such a tiny little thing, I didn’t know. Maybe it had to do with our shared link to Magnus, but the petite raven-haired beauty had occupied my thoughts since she pulled up the dirt driveway four days ago.
Charlie had nothing but nice things to say about Talon who had decided to let the woman stay on to handle the business end of the diner while she took over the people and food end. She’d been in Black Betty every day making schedules, ordering inventory, and sitting down with the cook, Jimbo. She’d even managed to impress that old grouch which hardly anyone had been able to do.
Everywhere I went people talked about Talon. They wanted to know more about her, to tell me how sweet and kind she was. As if I didn’t know already. She’d left me a thank you casserole and cookies at the diner, and she left it at that. She didn’t leave her phone number or an invitation to her bed.
I was surprised but not put off in the least. As my bike came to stop outside her place, I knew it would come because she felt the tug, too. I set my helmet on the seat of my bike and climbed the steps, smiling at the Bob Seeger tunes floating through the windows. I rang the bell and waited, wondering how she’d react to seeing me on her doorstep.
“Mick,” she said in a breathy voice that sent heat straight to my cock. “Come on in.”
I groaned at the small blue dress she wore, adjusting the bulge between my legs when she turned to reveal an expanse of bare back and legs. “Nice dress.”
She gave me a saucy grin over her shoulder. “Want to borrow it?”
“Yeah. I’d like to use it to decorate my bedroom floor.” I almost apologized until I heard the small gasp of surprise and saw the way she stumbled over her feet. Yeah, she felt it, too.
“I’ll keep that in mind.” She put a hand to her flushed cheeks. “What brings you by?”
Reluctantly I dragged my gaze from her toned legs and bare feet and looked into those big gray eyes shining with curiosity. “You. I thought you might like a tour of the area.” Why the fuck do I sound like a horny teenager with his first hard on around this woman?
“On the bike?” I nodded, wondering if that was a deal breaker, though she seemed to enjoy it last time. “Can I wear this?”
Fuck yeah you can. “Please do.” The thought of those bare legs wrapped around me had me imagining another scenario. I had to hold back the growl rumbling in my chest.
“Sure, I’d love that.” She grabbed a small purse and slung it across her chest, stepped into a pair of canvas shoes and grabbed the helmet with a smile. “Ready.”
Hell, I was more than ready to spend some time with Talon. She intrigued me, and that was something no woman had been able to do since I was a teenager. Back then girls were mysterious creatures to be won over, but the moment I joined the Navy the mystery was over. Fucking a SEAL had been more than enough, and even now, my cut was more than enough when I wanted to get laid. But something about Talon was different. She wanted me, but she was wary. “Hop on.”
Her thighs squeezed mine and her arms wrapped around my waist, fingers linking just above my belt, and that sweet honeysuckle scent enveloped me. I stopped at the mini-mart I owned along with the attached service station to grab a few things, and stuffed them in one of my saddlebags. The guys gave me shit about the bags, but with those bad boys loaded up, I could be ready to go at a moment’s notice.
I rode through town even though she’d already seen all there was to see of interest in Brently, before taking one of the back roads that provided a view for miles. Small towns along the border illuminated the dark highway. Forty minutes later we circled back to a small crest that overlooked Brently and the border. “Oh,” she gasped when I lifted her off the bike and held her close. I damn well wanted to feel her in my arms, but I also knew the long ride would make her legs wobbly. “Thanks.”
Fuck me. That breathless whisper did things to me and Dick. “How are your legs?”
“They’re vibrating,” she laughed and held on to my forearms. “I guess that part takes some getting used to.” Then she t
urned and gasped at the sight below. “Wow. This looks like an exhibit I saw once at an urban planning museum, how all the small towns look from above.”
Urban planning museum? That husky laugh sounded again at the expression on my face.
“I always wondered who decided what a town would look like, and when the exhibit came to town I had to check it out.”
When she asked about the view I told her. “That strip of concrete is the border that separates Brently from Tacapeo. It was easier during the mining days than having gunfights every other day, so together they built the strip.”
“You love it here. I can hear it in your voice.”
I supposed that was true. “This is the only real home I’ve ever had besides the military.” I wasn’t ready to tell her about bouncing around as a kid while my mom chased the next Prince Charming who turned out to be an asshole, so I pulled a blanket out and laid it on the ground. Talon smoothed it out while I grabbed a couple beers from the other bag.
“Thanks. Cheers.” She smiled and knocked her bottle against mine. “To starting over and new friends.” Her gaze lingered on my mouth, and a pretty blush stole over her skin.
“Friends?”
She nodded. “I think friends is a good place to start.”
Damn, she was frank. I fucking loved that shit. “Start what?”
Talon took a long sip and looked out over the small towns along the border and let silence settle between us. “You seem to be a hot commodity around here. You got a girlfriend, Mick?”
“No.”
“A wife?”
“No.”
“Friends with benefits?”
“Not lately.” I set my beer down and turned to her, tangling my hand in her long black hair. “You?”
That lush mouth curved up at the corners, and I knew soon I’d learn exactly how that mouth tasted. “No wife or girlfriend to speak of.”
“Talon,” I groaned and brushed a thumb across her bottom lip, drawing a gasp from her.
Her tongue darted out, grazing the tip of my thumb. “Left behind my only family which consisted of a cheating ex and a skanky former best friend in Chicago.”
I cupped her face, holding her in place until her eyes slammed into mine. Honesty, wariness, and a hint of vulnerability shone in those beautiful silver orbs. And desire, too. “So, no one to mind if I kiss you?” I shortened the distance between us, and her warm peppermint scented breath fanned over me.
“Just one who’ll mind if you don’t.”
She shocked the hell out of me, following up those shyly spoken words with a bold kiss that stole my breath. Full of passion and intensity, she tasted every inch of my mouth, licking my lips, and sucking my tongue until Dick stood up and wanted to play. She kissed like a wet dream, tugging her fingers through my hair to pull me closer. I pulled back. “Cherries,” I growled.
“What?”
“I was wondering all night what you would taste like. The answer is cherries.”
She must have liked that answer because she smiled and climbed on my lap, kissing me stupid while grinding against the hard cock nestled between her thighs.
Her small hands found their way under my shirt, gliding up my stomach to my chest. I groaned into her mouth when her nails scraped my nipples. “Talon.”
She froze and pulled back just enough that we were eye to eye. “Too much?” Her nails did it again, drawing another groan from somewhere deeper in my gut. “I don’t know what’s happening to me, Mick. You make me crazy.”
“Welcome to the club, darlin’.”
Her response was to nibble my bottom lip while her hands wrapped around my body, nails gently raking down my back. Her hips continued to grind against me, and my control snapped. I held her hips down and dragged her back and forth across my cock until her body vibrated with desire. “Mick, please.”
I flipped our positions and looked down into eyes nearly black with want. “Please?”
She nodded and grabbed my wrist, putting my hand inside the scrap of silk covering her pussy. “Please.”
I sank one finger inside, groaning as her wet cunt clenched around me. “You’re so tight, Talon, and wet. Are you wet for me?”
“Since you showed up on my doorstep,” she panted.
While I finger fucked her, she undid my pants with one hand and reached inside to fist my cock. “Dick wants to play,” I growled and pumped into her hand.
She laughed. “You named your cock Dick?”
“Yeah. He likes it.”
“Dick seems happy to meet me,” she said, still stroking my cock. “Maybe we should get a proper introduction?”
Fuck, this woman tore me up from the inside. On my knees, I let her free my cock completely, feeling Dick twitch under the heat of her gaze. She licked her lips and leaned closer, swiping her tongue over the tip. That was it, I needed to be inside her sweet, wet pussy. “As much I can’t wait to fuck that pretty little mouth of yours, I need to be inside you.”
“Oh, thank God,” she said and licked my cock once more before I knelt between her thighs and plunged my cock inside her. “Mick. Now.”
She was so goddamn wet I easily sank in to the hilt, groaning at how good she felt. She pulsed around me, flooding us both with her juices. “Talon.”
“I’m good, you’re just, ah, a little bigger than I’m used to.”
“Fuck, you can’t say that to a man and expect him not to respond.”
Guileless gray eyes looked up at me. “I don’t. I want you to respond, Mick. You make me fuckin’ crazy.”
I knew the feeling. I wanted her before, but now that I was buried deep inside her, I couldn’t get enough. I pulled out and slammed in, letting the gasps and cries and moans urge me on. Fucking hard and fast, I slammed in and out while her hips moved in rhythm with mine, drawing us both closer to satisfaction. Lifting her ass so I could go deeper, I felt a light flash behind my eyes, the sensation unlike anything I’d ever felt while fucking.
“Mick, yes,” she groaned and pinched her nipples. She opened her mouth, probably to tell me she was close, but I felt it. I felt every pulse of her pussy, every time her walls closed around me faster and faster. I knew she was on the edge. With a pinch of her clit I sent her soaring over. “Mick!” She screamed my name over and over as I plunged deeper and deeper, fucking her like my life depended on it.
In a way, it felt like it did. She still came as I fucked her, her juices dripping between us. Then I felt the tingling in my balls, the base of my spine, and moments later I roared my pleasure into the night. “Fuck, Talon.”
She smiled up at me. A breathless whisper, “Mick,” was all she said.
***
The sounds of the desert at night swirled around us, scorpions and snakes sang in the distance. Eyes closed so all my other senses were heightened, the sound of Talon’s soft breathing and the musky scent of sex wafted over me. Calmed my racing heart and thoughts. I couldn’t believe the intensity between us. It was unreal, unfathomable. Hell, I’d been with plenty of women, most of whom I’d never remember. But I already knew that for as long as I fucking drew a breath, I’d never forget the feel of her tight cunt squeezing around me. Coating me. Milking me.
She was a wildcat beneath that sweet Midwestern exterior, responsive and eager to please. My cock grew hard just reliving the moments of pleasure from earlier. I couldn’t explain it, but something had passed between us in that moment when she squeezed my cock and shattered around me. I couldn’t say what it was, but something Magnus said came back to me in that moment. “Some men who live the way we do will fuck anything that moves, but men like you and me, we love hard and we love fast. And forever.” I thought he was full of shit back then, a man in love trying to get everybody else all loved up. Now I understood that shit completely.
Talon snuggled against me, one bare leg brushing against mine and one hand resting above my heart. I pulled her closer and kissed her neck, taking advantage of the closeness to grab one of those perky tits. “Lots
of light for just two small towns,” she said softly.
That drew my attention to the world around us. The Brently border didn’t get a whole lot of traffic, especially this time of night when both towns rolled up the sidewalks. Hell, Black Betty, the two bars in town, and the CAOS clubhouse were the only places in town open past ten. But now I could see what she meant. An eighteen-wheeler came to a lurching stop on the Mexican side of the border, on the Brently side a half dozen bikes stopped about half a mile from the border.
I couldn’t see shit from this distance, but I did recognize the flag on the bike in the rear. It was a flag I’d seen a lot. On the bike of Dagger, the Sergeant at Arms for CAOS. What the fuck are they doing?
Squinting, I couldn’t see anything specifically, all I could tell was that something was going down, but that was more than enough for me. We didn’t get our guns from the Mexicans, especially not after last year’s ambush that killed Magnus, so it had to be something else. I knew it could only be one thing, and we didn’t fucking deal in drugs so that couldn’t be it. Shit. “You ready to head out?”
Talon nodded with a sleepy, satisfied smile. She quickly redressed, and I drove her back to her house, my mind still on the overlook at the border. “Can you tell me how my dad died?”
Shit. That was the last thing I wanted to talk about with my body still humming from the orgasms and my mind buzzing with what I’d just seen. Add to that I didn’t have a whole lot of fucking answers for her, I’d rather take her back to bed. Instead, I nodded and accepted the beer she handed to me. “I wasn’t there that night, but I know the cartel was pissed we’d burned a huge shipment of heroin coming over the border. We don’t allow that shit in Brently and try to keep it out of the goddamn state. They know it, but they tried and they failed. Magnus paid the price for it.
The tears in her eyes gutted me, and I pulled her into my lap, rubbing her back while she cried like a baby. “I just wish I could have met him once. Could have heard the sound of his voice. Hugged him just once.” She snuggled closer, burying her face in the crook of my neck, and my body began to respond. “Can you stay with me tonight?”