“What are those?” Diamond whispered in awe, mesmerized by the hip-widening confections.
Bella did an elaborate hand sweep over the tray. “S’mores cupcakes. Chocolate cake filled with a swirl of fudge and marshmallow filling, topped with toasted marshmallow frosting and graham cracker crumbles on top.”
Ivy sighed as she stared at the baked goodies.
Di felt the same way. “Give me one of those right now!”
Bella laughed and handed them out. Everyone got very quiet as they shoved all the sugary goodness into their cupcake holes. Eye rolls, passionate groans, and lip smacking ensued.
Then the bells over the door jingled and they all turned their attention in that direction.
“How’d you know we were pigging out on the newest cupcake flavor?” Bella called out.
Axel pushed through the door, wearing his uniform and a heavy patrol jacket since it was March and winter still hadn’t completely vacated Shadow Valley. He smiled and shrugged. His gaze bounced from the tray of cupcakes to Bella.
“I’ve been thinking about them all morning. Especially since you mumbled something about S’mores cupcakes in your sleep.”
“I did not,” Bella scoffed.
“I swear you did! Give me one of those.” He approached the display case and Bella handed him a cupcake.
All the women held their breath as Axel peeled the baby blue paper baking cup off the bottom of the cupcake and waited for him to tongue the icing in the sensual way he was known to do. But he didn’t. He just took a big bite.
All their breath rushed out at once.
“What the fuck, Bella? You ruined it now that he’s in your bed every night,” Ivy muttered under her breath to her sister.
Bella smirked and shrugged.
After swallowing his bite, he cocked an eyebrow toward the group of women behind the counter. “Am I interrupting an important meeting?”
“Yes, since your cousin’s turning thirty in a couple weeks. We’re making plans.”
“Oh fuck,” Axel muttered. “Like what?”
“Going clubbing or male strippers. Or,” Kelsea shrugged, “something fun.”
Axel frowned. “Male strippers?”
“Yeah, why not?”
Di didn’t miss it when Axel’s gaze hit Bella’s. Something went unsaid between the two.
“We’re not doing male strippers,” Bella said softly, rolling her lips inward to contain her amusement.
“Says who?” Kelsea asked, disappointed.
Diamond was surprised she didn’t stomp her foot for good measure. She was known to do that on occasion.
“I could tell you who would have something to say about it.” Axel’s gaze landed on Jewel. “Diesel.” It moved to Sophie. “Z.” It bounced to Ivy. “Jag.” Then finally landed on Kiki. “And Hawk. Maybe that’s who.”
“But not you, right?” Kiki asked, just as amused. “You’d be fine with Bella going to see male strippers?”
Axel’s inhale of breath and his chest puffing out was unmistakable. He yanked up his duty belt. “I have no problem with it.”
Kelsea’s laughter peeled through the shop as she slapped her palm on her thigh. “Right!”
“I wouldn’t. Bella’s free to do what she wants!” he exclaimed.
“Riiiight,” Kelsea said again, still laughing.
Bella moved around the counter and up to Axel, slipping a hand into his open patrol jacket and planting it on his belly. “Maybe it’s best if you leave us women to finish our little pow wow. Go fight some crime or something.”
He planted a quick kiss on her lips before shoving the remainder of the cupcake into his mouth. He nodded, chewed and swallowed before saying, “Can I take one to go?”
Kiki grabbed another cupcake and held it out to him. He moved to snag it and then leaned into Bella, putting his mouth to her ear.
Diamond wondered what he whispered to his woman and felt a pang of jealousy. It wasn’t that she wanted Axel, hell no, she didn’t. He was her cousin, for fuck’s sake. But she was envious of what those two had.
Hell, she was envious of what all the women in the room, who had hooked up recently, had with their men. All but her. Well, and Kelsea, too.
Bella beamed up at him and after another quick kiss to her forehead, Axel left.
Bella turned to the group who was staring at her and she clapped her hands together sharply. “Now, let’s get down to the business of planning Di’s thirtieth birthday bash!”
The women hooted and held up their cupcakes, tapping them together like champagne glasses.
“I know part of my plan is that I’m getting laid for my thirtieth,” Di declared with a nod.
“Easy enough,” Ivy said, licking icing off her finger.
“No, seriously.”
“We believe you, sis,” Jewel assured her. “All we have to do is plan a pig roast and there’ll be plenty of dick to choose from.”
“Like who?” Di asked and before anyone could answer, she added, “And don’t say Slade.”
“Okaaay. I won’t.” Jewel frowned. “Like hang-arounds. And... we can invite the Dark Knights. I’m sure one of them would drag you by your hair upstairs and bang the shit out of you.”
“Yeah, I’m sure our brother would love to watch me being dragged upstairs by a Knight. Your ol’ man might have something to say about it, too.”
Jewel waved a dismissing hand in the air. “Then don’t do it at church. Take whoever it is back to your place.”
Di tilted her head as she considered her sister’s suggestion.
“Okay, but we still need to plan what we’re doing,” Kelsea said.
“I think we need to do it somewhere other than church,” Kiki said. “We want it to be special. You only turn thirty once and we don’t want it to turn into a club party just like any other.”
“True,” Ivy said, tapping her bottom lip with her finger.
“So we don’t want to do it at The Iron Horse, either...” Kiki said, clearly giving it some thought.
“No. Plus, do we really want the men busting in and being all up in our business? Making sure we’re not doing something they don’t approve of?” Jewel said, reminding them all of how bossy and domineering the club members can be.
“Right. I thought you liked driving your man so crazy he gives you those “lessons” of his?”
Jewel smiled, her eyes sparkling. “I do. But still...”
“Right. They’ll spoil it. It has to be elsewhere.”
“So we go to a club and go dancing. Simple as that,” Kelsea said.
“Somebody really wants to go out clubbing,” Kiki murmured.
“What else is there to do?” Kelsea, the youngest of all the club sisters, asked.
“Not goin’ out dancin’,” came the deep grumble from the direction of the bakery kitchen.
“Ah, fuck,” Kelsea muttered next to Di as Zak came through the door.
“Ain’t goin’ out runnin’ ‘round puttin’ yourself in danger with the fuckin’ Warriors on the warpath,” he continued.
“The Warriors aren’t going to be at a night club in Pittsburgh,” Kelsea huffed.
Z shook his head, making his dark shoulder-length hair swing, and stepped up to his wife, curving a hand along the bottom of her extended belly. “How’s he doin’?”
“She’s doing fine,” Sophie corrected him.
“Why didn’t you guys find out the sex?” Kiki asked with more than a little exasperation in her voice.
Sophie waved a hand around, then laid it over Z’s. “We want it to be a surprise. And I already know it’s going to be a girl.”
“Ain’t gonna be a girl,” Z grumbled.
Bella snorted at the argument that kept being repeated for almost the last nine months. And it was driving them all crazy.
“What are you going to do if it is?” Kiki asked, her eyes crinkling with amusement at his stubbornness.
Z opened his mouth and shut it. His eyes narrowed, and he frowned.
Then he said, “You women wanna party, do it at church.”
“Z! No!” Kelsea yelled.
“No, we’re not doing it at church,” Jewel seconded Kelsea.
“No lip. Ain’t gotta choice.”
“The fuck we don’t!” Kelsea cried.
Z raised his brows and swung his head toward her, laying down the law. “Church or nothin’. Got me?”
“What the fuck,” Kelsea muttered. “We’re not having our meetings here anymore.”
Di sort of agreed with Kelsea. It was difficult to have their meetings at the bakery now when it always seemed that Z was around. Instead of working in any of the other club businesses, he decided he’d help “manage” the bakery, which, to him, pretty much meant he got to boss his wife and Bella around and sometimes do paperwork.
But really, Diamond thought the reason he wanted to “work” in the bakery was to keep an eye on and protect his pregnant wife.
Sophie cupped her man’s cheek as she grinned up at him. “Then you men have to promise to stay out and we can have male strippers come in.”
His blue eyes swung back down to his wife. “What?”
“You heard me,” Sophie murmured, her grin widening to a smile.
His eyebrows hit the top of his head. “Strippers?”
Di tried not to laugh at the way he spit that word out of his mouth.
“Yeah, you know, like the ones that are always at all the club parties, except these have dicks instead of tits,” Kelsea said, crossing her arms over her chest. “Shouldn’t have a problem with that, right? With equality and all that.”
Z’s eyebrows dropped low and his expression turned dark and stormy. “Equality? Have you lost your fuckin’ mind?”
“Nope. Time for this club to come into the twenty-first century. We’re demanding equality,” Kelsea declared as she stomped her foot. Ah, there it was.
Z snorted, dropped his head to stare at his boots and shook it. “Brain musta got scrambled,” he muttered to the floor. He raised his gaze to his wife. “You ain’t goin’ nowhere with my kid in your belly, got me?”
Sophie pinned her lips together as she patted his chest reassuringly. “First off, I’m not going out dancing in this condition.”
“In any condition,” he corrected her in a mutter.
“And your concern with our safety is duly noted.”
“Reason for it.”
“Right. I get it, baby,” she whispered. She glanced toward the rest of the women. “But it’s Di’s thirtieth birthday and we are going to celebrate it, whether you like it or not.”
“That so?”
“Yep, that’s so,” Sophie repeated with a nod.
Di rolled her lips under in an attempt not to beam at Sophie’s control over her husband. As club president and badass biker, he wasn’t normally willing to bend for a woman, but Sophie had him wrapped around her little finger. And right now she was wiggling that powerful pinky.
The rest of the women were pretending not to notice Sophie’s control over her old man. Di eyeballed Kelsea, hoping the younger woman kept her trap shut and didn’t blow it for them.
Kelsea’s eyes slid to hers and she bugged them out in a silent message. Di gave her a slight nod.
Zak finally sighed. “Gonna get Hawk to close down The Iron Horse an’ get Dawg to book you some male strippers. Ain’t gonna let any of the brothers over there to bother you. Drink, dance, eyeball some strange dick, have fun. Still safe. Got me?”
“Got you,” Sophie whispered, her eyes sparkling.
“Invite Dawg’s girls.”
“No,” she said firmly with a shake of her head.
His eyebrows furrowed. “The sweet butts.”
“No.”
“The Knights’ ol’ ladies,” he muttered finally.
“Fine.”
“Gonna set the prospects out front to guard the door. Keep an eye out for trouble.”
“Fine. As long as they don’t come in.”
His nostrils flared. “Whatever,” he muttered, pressed a kiss to her forehead and moved back in the direction he had come from. No one said a word until the door to the back kitchen swung shut. Then they even waited a few more seconds until they knew he was out of hearing range.
Then they all looked at each other and beamed. Di rushed up to Sophie and gave her a high five. “Good job.”
“Now, I just hope I don’t pop until after the party. I want to see the results of my negotiations.”
“Strange dick?” Ivy asked, quoting Z.
“Hell yes!” Kelsea crowed.
Ivy snorted. “Dawg should have connections to find a hot traveling troupe of male strippers on short notice.”
“Up to him, he may find the ugliest ones.”
“I’ll call him and make sure he doesn’t,” Jewel assured Kelsea. “And I’ll make sure there’s a lot of them. One for each of us.”
“Oh, brother. You know Z was only the first obstacle. Some of us will have one of our very own,” Kiki said.
“Like Hawk?” Jewel asked.
“Mmm. And remember that big, serious, overly protective brother of his?” Kiki asked her with an arched brow.
“How can I forget?” Diesel’s ol’ lady answered with a frown.
“Right.”
“Bah,” Jewel answered, waving a dismissing hand. “They’ll all get over it.”
Di was suddenly glad she didn’t have to worry about a possessive man like most of them did. She was free to enjoy her birthday and hot, naked men as much as she wanted.
And she was going to make sure she took full advantage of her birthday celebration. Maybe she’d even be able to talk one of the strippers into a private dance. At her place. With both of them totally naked. And horizontal.
No batteries required.
Yeah, that sounded like a great idea.
She couldn’t wait.
Chapter Two
Slade groaned, pressed the heel of his palm into his eye socket and ground it hard. His head was splitting open and he hadn’t even opened his eyes yet. He held his breath for a moment and listened carefully.
Breathing.
That wasn’t his.
He cracked one eye open and stared at a stained dropped ceiling that was not the one in his room at church.
Fuck.
He opened the other eye and slid his gaze over to the side without turning his head. Because that might be too painful.
He did a mental body scan. He was naked. Something alive was next to him. And he was laying on something somewhat soft.
Possibly a bed.
He sucked in a breath to steel himself and finally forced his head to turn.
Fuck.
That was a lot of long, dark hair covering the woman’s face. But hair was the only thing covering her. Otherwise, she was as naked as he was.
For a moment, his heart stopped thinking that somehow he hooked up with Diamond and ended up in her bed.
Because that would be a fucking mistake. A huge one.
Sticking his dick in her would be like sticking your finger in one of those Chinese finger traps. The harder you pulled away the tighter the trap got.
He carefully pushed some of that hair out of the woman’s face and studied her.
Fuck. What was her name?
Sarah. Sally. Sierra.
No. It was more stripperish. Sa-something.
Her eyelids lifted, and blue eyes stared at him. His heart stopped again.
Dark hair. Blue eyes...
Just like Diamond. Fuuuuuck.
She yawned and pushed herself over, curling into his side.
Oh, fuck.
“Morning, soldier,” she greeted with a smile, reaching out to run her red-painted fingernail over his dog tags.
Was it morning?
“Not a soldier,” he grumbled, his voice rusty.
“You’re wearin’ tags.”
“Yeah,” was all he grunted. He needed to get the fuck out of there. He glanced down at his dick.
>
“We fucked, right?” he asked her.
Her eyes got wide and Slade realized her blue eyes didn’t have the same intensity as Diamond’s. Fuck no they didn’t. This one’s eyes were a bit dull.
“You don’t remember?”
“Will you be mad if I say no?”
When her eyes narrowed, he took that as a yes.
“How ‘bout if I don’t remember your name?”
She pushed away from him and sat up. “You don’t know my name?”
He groaned quietly. “Know it. Just drawin’ a blank right now. Starts with an S.”
She bit her bottom lip, studied him and when she finally released it, said, “Savannah. Not surprised you don’t remember. You kept calling me Di or Diamond or something like that.”
Ah, shit. “So we fucked?”
She nodded.
“Wore a wrap, right?”
She nodded again.
Thank fuck!
“Wait. How many times did we fuck?”
She held up three fingers.
Jesus fuckin’ Christ.
“Wore a wrap all three times, yeah?”
She nodded again.
Oh, thank Christ!
“This your place?”
“Yeah.”
He looked around the small room. She was not a neat person. Clothes, whether they were dirty or clean, were in piles everywhere. The top of her dresser was so full of shit, he couldn’t even see an inch of the wood top. A trashcan overflowed nearby. Dust covered the little bit of space that was visible on her nightstand. This woman was not squared away at all.
He was afraid to inspect the sheets they were laying on to see if they were clean or dirty.
He shuddered, pushed to a seat, and dropped his legs over the side of the bed. “Gotta go.”
“Don’t want to have breakfast? Kids will be up soon; I can make us some pancakes or something.”
Kids.
Fuuuuuuck.
He glanced over his shoulder at her. Now that he was upright he realized how much she looked like Diamond. But in a more “ridden hard and put away wet” type of way.
“How many kids you got?”
She smiled as if he was asking because he was interested. He wasn’t really. He didn’t want to be a daddy to anyone else’s offspring.
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