by K. Renee
Banging on my door pulls a frown from her, and I can’t help the grunt of frustration that comes out. It better be fucking good, whatever it is.
“What?” I call out as I stand from the bed, not really wanting to open the door if it’s Ryder on the other side of it.
“Prez wants to see you,” the voice calls from the other side of the door. I let my head fall forward before I run my hand along the strands of my hair, stopping at the back of my neck. I squeeze the back of my neck and sigh.
“I’ll be there in a minute.” I back at Syndey, and she has a knowing grin on her face. She thought that it was going to be her brother too.
“Lucked out this time,” she giggles. I stalk over to the bed and put a knee down beside her thigh and straddle her, forcing her to lie on her back.
“You going to stay put or should I tie you down to my bed?” I raise an eyebrow at her, and she reaches up to cup my cheek.
“As hot as I think it would be for you to tie me to your bed, I’ll be here.”
I move my face enough so I can kiss her palm before leaning down to kiss her on the lips.
“I’ll be back.”
She grins as I pull away.
Turning my back to her, I hear her breath catch and then the rustling of my sheets and blanket before her hands are running down my back, grabbing onto my ass. My entire back is covered in ink. Most people wouldn’t know it unless I took my shirt off and it’s rare that I do.
I feel one of her fingers start to trace over my skin, but I don’t let that stop me from grabbing my jeans that were discarded on the floor and pulling them on. She moves her hands along my skin until I reach for my shirt and pull it over my head, blocking her from more exploration of my back.
I grab my cut off the dresser and slip it on before shoving my feet back into my boots and making my way toward her. She’s naked as the day she was born and not even shy about it. Every inch of her skin is a golden color that is either natural or she tans in the nude. She’s got no visible tan line.
Grabbing the back of her neck, I pull her mouth to mine and kiss her deeply before releasing her and walking toward the door. I shoot her a wink before I open it and walk through it.
Part of me knows she’ll run. I’d be more surprised if she stuck around while I meet with Prez.
Something is nagging at me, telling me exactly what this is going to be about and even though I want to say fuck this shit and go back to bed with Syd, I have to face this head on. He’s going to ask me about my twin, Hallum. He’ll want me to find out more information about his whereabouts, but I still won’t know.
The only thing I know right now that I didn’t know before is that Syd has his mark on her skin. She may not have known it then, but he thinks he owns her. He marks the women that have been in his bed as some sick way of adding another notch to his bedpost, only the woman herself is the one with the notch.
I never understood it, but I’m sure that I’m about to find out what it all means.
Knocking on the door to Prez’s office, I wait for him to call out for me to come in.
“Come in.” His voice resonates through the closed door crystal clear.
Opening the door, I see Dominic, Brantley, and Nick standing around the desk while Cason sits behind it.
Shutting the door behind me, I stare at the men before me. All of them have been mentors, men that I look up to in a way that they will probably never know. I respect the hell out of them, and I hope to one day be the type of men they are.
Strong. Determined. Loyal.
“Thanks for coming in during the party. I know I’m probably taking you away from something, or someone, way more exciting than club business.”
I shrug, not really sure what he’s hinting at. Either they all know who I have back in my room, or they are just assuming that I was in there fucking someone that was at the party.
“No problem,” I answer before looking at each of their faces. I don’t see a hint of anything there, and I wait with bated breath for one of them to say something.
Cason leans back in his chair and motions to Brantley. He turns to face me more before he says a word. “We know who your brother is and have never once made it a topic of discussion. You’ve proved over time that you are nothing like him. We rode you harder during your prospecting time just to make sure, along with always watching your every move. I trust you, as do all the other brothers. We know you bleed this club just like we do, but…” he pauses and looks to Dominic.
Dominic continues where Brantley left off. “Sampson is starting to become a threat. He vowed to take us down because we accepted you into our family. He claimed that we took his only flesh and blood away and that he was going to make us pay for it.”
I can’t help but snort in laughter. “He is serious about that? In all the years I’ve known my brother, he has never been one to care what I did. We made a promise to always protect each other, but the minute he started doing the shit he is now, I told him I wanted nothing to do with him. He wants a war; I’ll give it to him. He is nothing to me. Not anymore.”
Chapter Four
Sydney
The minutes tick by as I wait for Hendrix to come back. It seems like forever, and part of me is unsure if I should even stay here. For one, if my brother finds out that I’m naked and in one of his brother’s bed, all hell will break loose.
Grabbing his blanket, I pull it up high enough to cover myself and lean back against his pillow. His bed smells just like him and a hint of perfume. I try my hardest not to picture another woman under Hendrix, but it’s no use.
I know the type of man he is, and I won’t fault him for it. I watched my brother become a manwhore overnight once he and Danielle ended things. He was a wreck for months and practically drowned himself in fake tits and pussy.
He could never fool me. I knew how much he was hurting. The times he would show up at the house looking worse for the wear, but not once did he ever complain.
Instead, he just acted like nothing was wrong and that he had moved on. Personally, I always hoped that they would figure out their shit. I love my brother and Danielle and knew that they were the ones for each other. Like two peas in a pod for most of their high school lives.
Danielle did what she thought was best and I could never fault her for it. She was pregnant with my brother’s baby, and he lives a crazy dangerous life most days. Terrified that he would get hurt or worse, she ran. Danielle was young, and I don’t blame her at all for it. Hell, I would have probably done the same exact thing if I was in her position.
Closing my eyes, I try like hell to keep all the thoughts running through my head at bay. I don’t want to think about the shit that will probably get me killed right now. Instead, I would rather fall asleep in this bed waiting for Hendrix to come back and hopefully make me feel again.
As I start to fall asleep, the scar on my neck starts to itch, and when I reach a hand up to scratch it, I pause. Sampson. The bastard who made my life hell for a brief encounter and the whole reason I’m here.
If there were a machine to actually take you back in time, I would love to use it right about now. I wouldn’t have been at that party and I sure as hell wouldn’t have let Sampson ever touch me.
Maybe if things were different, I wouldn’t be in this bed right now. I might just be out at the party, having fun reminiscing with my brother and his girlfriend. I’d still probably be nervous as hell about talking to the twins, or staring at Dominic from afar, way too shy to even say a word to him.
I would be nothing like the girl I am today.
Bedding a Saint would have never crossed my mind, at least not yet. I might have flirted with Hendrix all day, but never would have made it to his bed.
Taking a deep breath, I exhale slowly and try like hell not to make myself have a pity party for one. Hendrix may not deserve me keeping this secret, but he is the one that Sampson said I had to come to.
He told me that I had to get Hendrix to fall in love with me
and the fastest way to get him interested in me was to sleep with him. I pulled out all the stops, ensuring that we would fall into bed faster than normal for me. My finger runs along the tally mark that was carved into my neck.
Hendrix felt it, I know he did. His whole body tensed up when he touched it, but he didn’t let it stop him from sleeping with me. Does he know what his brother wants from him or is he just as clueless as I was before he demanded that I come home, demanded that I get Hendrix back on his side?
I’m sure you’re thinking to yourself that I could just come out and tell them the truth and spare myself whatever it is that they will do to me, but Sampson scares me more than the Saints. My brother would never let them kill me. Ryder wouldn’t let my parents suffer like that. He joined the MC, not the family, and he would do everything in his power to save me. Or at least I hope he would.
To be honest, I don’t know what he might do.
Sampson on the other hand, he threatened to kill my entire family and everyone I’ve ever cared about. The list is longer than I want to admit and I couldn’t live with myself if he went through with his threat. So many innocent lives would be lost, lives that I would be able to save even if it meant giving up mine in return.
I hear footsteps coming down the hallway mixed with the chords of a guitar from some old rock band that those guys listened to as teenagers. Looking at the doorknob, I watch it as I wait.
The last thing Sampson said to me before sending me back here was, “An eye for an eye or blood for blood.”
I didn’t understand anything he was referencing until he told me that I needed to win Hendrix over. His instructions were so damn precise, and if I didn’t follow them to the T, he would make me suffer. He said the first person he was going after was Danielle, and I couldn’t let him hurt her. My brother loves her too much to lose her again. He just got her back.
The door opens, and I see the frown on his face. “Is everything okay?” I ask Hendrix as he locks the door behind him.
He doesn’t answer, but he does look up at me. His eyes take me in, scanning over every inch of me. I let the blanket fall and his eyes trail over my skin like a caress. I can feel it from here even though he hasn’t put a hand on me.
As he makes his way back to the bed, he slowly starts to strip back down. As he pulls his shirt up and over his head, I take the time to admire his defined muscles as he flexes and pulls his shirt all the way off, tossing it on the edge of the bed.
His jeans are the next to go, and once he gets them off, he crawls on the bed right for me. Pushing me backward, I fall back on the bed and stare up at him.
“I know you’re here for a reason, and I may not know what it is, but I’ll figure it out.”
All the blood drains from my face, and his eyes burn into me. He doesn’t say anything else as he presses against me. Just as I am about to say something, he slams into me, stealing the breath from my lungs.
As his body presses into mine and he starts to move, all thoughts of what he said disappear, and all I can focus on is him. The way he feels as he’s inside of me. The way my heart starts to race when he presses his lips to my skin. The moment his skin touches mine, I forget how to breathe, all rational thoughts escape me, and I’m left feeling irrational, uneasy, but so damn good.
His lips move along my skin, down my chest as he moves slightly. Every thrust is better than the last, and I know it won’t take me long before I’m coming again.
My fingers wrap around his bicep, and I squeeze as I moan out. His grunts fill the air, and I have to suck in a breath when his lips wrap around my nipple, and he bites down. “Oh God,” I whimper as my pussy clenches around him. My body spasms and I close my eyes tightly as I ride out my orgasm.
His pace increases and he slams in and out of me chasing his own orgasm. The slapping of our skin fills the room, and as much as I want to be embarrassed, I’m not. Every ounce of me is satisfied in a way that I never knew was possible.
I feel his body stiffen before he moans out my name, coming inside of me. I should be freaking out right now, but I’m not. He told me I had to do whatever it took. This might work, but I have no idea. My brother would kill me if he found out what I was doing right now. Disown me for betraying him and his “family.”
Hendrix collapses on me, and his face goes into the crook between my shoulder and jaw. His warm breath is coating my skin, leaving behind little tingles on my skin as we lay here neither of us moving.
We stay motionless in silence, only the sounds of our breath and the racing of our hearts filling my ears. I want to say something about what he said when he came in here, but I’m afraid to bring it up. Afraid of what information he might get out of me. More than that, I’m terrified that my brother won’t protect me, which I’ll be thrown to the wolf that I know as Sampson.
One drunken college party is going to be my downfall.
Hendrix picks his head up and looks down at me silently for a minute before he says anything. “You are so fucking beautiful it should be a sin. As much as I know I should walk out that door right now, I can’t. I want to stay right here with you.”
My throat goes dry, and I don’t say a word. I don’t know what I could say to that. I stare at him for a second before I ask, “Why should you leave?”
He sighs and runs his hand through his hair before rolling over onto his back. “Because you have a scar behind your ear that reminds me of something someone I know does to women.”
My heart starts to pound. “What? I’ve had that for a while. I got it in college on a drunken night.” I try to calm myself slightly so he doesn’t see what I’m feeling right now. I steel my emotions as I wait for him to say anything. To question me further, but to my surprise, he doesn’t. Instead, he just wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me closer to him.
“Do you know someone named Hallum?”
I pull back to look him in the eye before I answer him.
“No, why?” I try to run through names of all the people I came across in college, and that name would have stuck with me. It doesn’t sound like something I would ever hear around here either.
“No reason,” he answers. He runs his fingers along my bottom lip before replacing them with his mouth.
The name Hallum continues to stay with me long after we start talking about random things. He tells me cute little facts about himself and asks me a million questions about what it was like growing up with my brother and the rest of the guys his age.
Questions about college come up as well, and as much as I answer them honestly, once he asks about the scar again, I come up with a story. I don’t think, I just start talking, hoping that he believes this lie that I am now giving him.
I hate lying; it’s not in my nature. But I need to protect those I love. If lying to Hendrix is the way to protect my family, then I’ll do it. I’ll be the bad guy. I don’t really have another option. Here’s to hoping my heart stays intact with the fallout.
Chapter Five
Hendrix
Two Weeks Ago
I’ve known since day one that she was lying to me. I could feel it, but could never prove it other than that mark. She swore she got it at a frat house. Her story might be credible, but I don’t see a drunk girl falling back on the corner of a table and getting that gash. It doesn’t add up completely, but I let her continue to lie to me.
A matter of a few days, she’s become my favorite addiction – the one thing that I can’t stop craving even if I wanted to. Last week she snuck in here and pushed me up against the wall. I fucked her right then and there, not giving a shit about who saw us.
In the days since, I’ve watched my back from Ryder. He’s protective as hell of her, and the last time one of the brothers was staring at her ass, he throat punched the poor bastard. What he’s going to do to me when he finds out I’ve been fucking her is going to be way worse, but I can’t bring myself to care.
That little spitfire is every fucking thing I want and need. Even if she has some
thing to do with Hallum, I don’t care. I’ll kill him if he hurt her.
I look around the room and see her standing there talking to Ryder. She’s rolling her eyes at him as he lectures her on one thing or another. Last night when I was over at her place, he called to tell her that she needed to be more careful, and figure out what her plans are if she’s staying here long term. She did that same exact eye roll and had her hand on her hip as she talked to him on the phone.
I thought it was funny as hell, but he’s right. She needs to be fucking careful here. In this town, we are gods, but that also brings trouble. Every few months we have someone coming in and trying to fuck up the peace that we strive for, and that is never going to change. She’s going to have to learn to deal with it, to deal with our bitching because we don’t want anything to happen to any of the women again.
When she looks over at me, her eyes light up and that sexy little grin that she gives me every night spreads across her lips. Ryder notices her attention is no longer on him, so he follows her line of sight.
I see him clench his jaw from here and the smirk that spreads only eggs him on more. Sydney starts to move toward me, but he grabs her arm and pulls her back behind him. I knew the secret wouldn’t last long and that there would be hell to pay when he found out, but it’s worth it – so fucking worth it.
As soon as Ryder gets within striking distance, he swings at me. I barely have time to move just enough to not take the punch to the jaw. Instead, he strikes my shoulder. The fucker can hit harder than most, and when he goes to swing again, this time he actually hits me in the jaw.
My head snaps to the side, and Sydney screams at him to stop. The rest of the members that are still around crowd around us and Ryder just stares at me. Neither of us says a word, we are locked in a stare down with Sydney standing in the middle, one hand on each of our chests.
“Ryder, you aren’t my keeper. I can do as I please, I’m a grown woman,” she grinds out. She looks even more pissed than her brother, but I continue to watch him. I’m not going to let him swing at me again with her in the way. No fucking way.