by Sam Crescent
It turned her on. What was wrong with her?
His presence was so commanding. He made her feel safe and grounded.
Brick took one of her hands, cupping it between both of his. The way he stared at her took her breath away. He was so intense. “Your eyes, they’re so fucking beautiful.”
She began blushing again. He was rough around the edges, but he sounded completely sincere.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“How old are you?”
“Are guys supposed to ask that?” She felt surprisingly comfortable talking with him.
“I just did.”
“Twenty-sex.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“Twenty-sex. Sorry. Twenty-six.”
Callie wanted the floor to open up and swallow her whole.
“Just a baby,” he said, amusement in his eyes. “I shouldn’t be here, but I couldn’t keep away.”
Chapter Two
This was the last place Brick should be. Even as he sat opposite Callie, he knew there was nowhere else he wanted to go. Shit was going down at the club, and Lord wanted him there, but he’d used the excuse of needing a night off. The strange look his prez had given him had made him regret the words instantly. He never took time away from the club. He certainly didn’t hide his leather cut to impress a woman.
Callie was doing something to him.
Back at the clubhouse, even though everything had calmed down since they’d taken care of Skull Nation MC, they’d been trying to figure out their other problem. Who was the rat within the club? Someone was talking and leaking vital information.
Someone gave the details of where Ally was staying when she’d been attacked at Rancher’s farm. She was supposed to be safe from all the shit going down, but somehow, they’d known she was there. There was a leak in the club, and, as VP, he was determined to find it. It was driving Lord crazy not knowing the rat’s name. Whoever it was covered their tracks, which again, wasn’t good.
They needed to come up with some kind of plan. While the Skull Nation MC rebuilt, Straight to Hell focused on getting stronger.
“I’m a baby. How old does that make you? Not that age means anything. It’s just a number.”
Callie’s smile was so fucking sweet. He loved the way she continually nibbled on her lip. As if she was too nervous to speak. He wanted to take that lip between his finger and thumb and tease it down, but he held himself back.
“You want to know my age?”
“You know mine.”
“I’m forty-one.”
She paused. “A man with experience.”
He smiled and realized it was the first time he’d done so in a long time. “With a great deal I can show you.” He reached across the table and placed his hand above hers. He saw the pulse beat even more wildly against her throat. He wanted to kiss her neck. To sink his teeth on her pulse, to hold her against him as he pounded into her tight, hot cunt.
His cock started to harden right then and there, and he had no choice but to look away. He was a grown man, not a child, and here he was acting like a fucking teenager for the woman in front of him. It wasn’t like he hadn’t had his fair share of club pussy. What sickened him a little was three hours before meeting Callie, his dick had been down the throat of one of the club whores. He didn’t know why it bothered him so much, but it did. The night before, he’d been balls deep inside another’s ass.
The women came easy to him, and being the VP in the club, they threw themselves at each other and pretty much competed for what they were willing to let him do to them. Looking back now, some of the stuff made him wince, but it had always been consensual. He wasn’t the kind of man who enjoyed raping a woman. That shit sickened him. Men who held down a woman who didn’t want them, those assholes needed to be fucking slaughtered.
He pulled his hand away from Callie and stared at the menu. The tips of his fingers that had touched her tingled. He was losing his fucking mind over this woman.
“Do you know what’s good here?” she asked.
“Can’t say. I haven’t eaten here in a long time. I’m thinking the steak. It looks good.”
“I’ll have the house special pasta.”
“You sure?”
“Yep. I happen to be addicted to pasta.” There she went nibbling her lip and tucking some strands of hair behind her ear.
Again, he wondered what it would be like to wrap the length of hair around his fist with her on her knees, taking her from behind.
Calm down, boy.
His cock was going to come right out of his pants if he wasn’t careful.
He nodded for the waiter to come and take his order. The man looked petrified. This was going to cause him a problem. Even though he should tell Callie straight away who he was, he didn’t want to. He liked her not judging him. The way she looked at him and not the leather cut. He was a real person to her. Not a trophy or some guy to be afraid of.
Little did she know being with him was bad for her health. Women were targets by rivals. So he had to keep their relationship secret for more reason than one.
“Tell me about yourself, Callie,” he said once the waiter had left.
She looked around the restaurant. “There’s not much to tell really.”
“You’ve got no family.”
“No, not really,” she said.
He noticed the way she moved in her seat, seeming uncomfortable.
“Let’s not talk about family,” he said. “I won’t mention mine.” He’d already made plans to keep his family life vague, not wanting her to know the truth.
Awkward silence filled the air, and Callie chuckled. “Is it me or did this seem a lot easier back at work?”
He smiled. She was right. “I’m not used to dating.”
“I find that hard to believe,” she said.
Brick winked at her. “Because of my charming good looks?”
“You know you’ve got everything a woman could ever want. There’s no reason to seek any compliments.” She rolled her eyes, but it was cute. He liked it.
Attention from the whores meant nothing. A simple compliment from Callie meant everything.
“I just don’t date.” He thought about the club women. There was no reason to. “Not that I haven’t been with a lot of women.”
“Okay,” she said. “That is … an interesting date topic. Tell the woman opposite you how she wouldn’t measure up.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that. You’re not like any of the other women.”
He noticed her cheeks start to flame.
“Right, of course. I know I wouldn’t be.”
“Shit, fuck. I didn’t mean it like that. You’re not like them because I … actually like sitting opposite you.” He frowned. “You know, I’m never bad at this with anyone else.”
Callie smiled. “This is the first date I’ve been on.”
“And I’m messing it up.” He grabbed his water and took long swallows of it, wishing it was something a hell of a lot stronger. “Wait, what?”
“Huh?”
“Your first date?”
She nodded. “I don’t date. I don’t get asked out. You’re the first.”
“You’ve had boyfriends, though, in the past, right?”
She started to shake her head then smiled. “My life has been a little complicated.”
Brick stared at her. She kept moving the fork around.
“Are you a virgin?” he asked.
Her face went from a nice pale red, to full-on ripe strawberry. What the hell was wrong with him? It was just so surreal to have a real-life good girl having dinner with him. In his world, virgins were as fictional as a fucking unicorn.
“If you raise your voice a little louder, I think the kitchen staff will hear.”
Brick glanced around the restaurant and realized he’d raised his voice. Asshole. If the club could see him right now, they’d be taking the piss out of him for fucking months, if not years.
He was the fuckin
g VP, not some normal guy who didn’t know his way around torturing a man. This should have been fucking easy.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I mean it when I said I don’t date, and you’re the first woman I’ve met that I want to get to know.”
“I am?” She tilted her head to the side.
“Yeah, you are. I don’t go on dates at all. I don’t recall ever taking a woman to dinner.”
“Oh,” she said. “So, we’re both kind of rusty. You just have the experience of what is supposed to happen at the end of a date.” She stopped and then raised her hand, shaking it left and right. “Not that I mean this is going to end like that.”
“Of course not.” He wanted to. He’d love to be the first man to break her in and feel her tight cunt wrapped around his dick as she came. The very thought of it had his cock hardening again, which pissed him off, seeing as he’d just gotten the damn thing under control.
“Tell me what it’s like to be a chicken farmer,” she said.
“Chicken farmer?”
“That’s what you are, right? A farmer. I figured chickens were your thing with what you came in for.”
“Right, yes, right.” Shit. Fuck. Shit. Then he remembered Rancher. “Yeah, it’s not something I talk about. There’s no reason to talk shop. Let’s talk about something else.”
“Sure. Sure. So, Brick, is that your real name?” she asked.
“Yeah, it is. Weird parents. What do you like to do outside of work?”
“There’s not a whole lot of time to do anything else, but I like to go for walks and I visit the library when I have time. I’m also saving up for some night classes. When my grandmother was alive, she was always upset that she didn’t have the money to send me to college. She told me it was a dream of hers to have at least one member of her family do it. Even though she’s not with me anymore, I’d like to do it.”
“You loved your grandmother?”
She nodded. “Yeah. She was a good woman. A strong, hardworking woman. She believed hard work got you places in this world.”
As he looked at her, Brick saw the demons in her eyes. There was something she wasn’t telling him. He didn’t know exactly what it was, but he intended to find out.
****
The following day, Callie let herself into work, turning on the lights in the office. She moved toward her tiny locker, opened up the combination, and stored her bag inside. Next, she went to the coffee station. Her date with Brick yesterday had lasted long after midnight. They’d been one of two couples left, and it had been amazing. At first, there was awkwardness. There were times she thought he wished to be somewhere else, but that had been her insecurities rearing their ugly faces.
Gradually, they’d started to talk, and she realized Brick was an incredible man. He never went to college, but he was a man of the world. He spoke of traveling and experience out on the open road. The life he’d told her about sounded glorious.
She’d never traveled. Since her grandmother had taken her in, she’d been settled in the trailer until her mother came and took the only home she’d really known away from her. Callie quickly pushed the memories of her mother to the back of her mind. There was no room to think about that woman. She wouldn’t allow her back into her life, not that her mother was doing that in the first place. If anything, it was like Callie didn’t exist to her mother, and she was more than happy with that.
With the coffee poured, she opened up the rest of the shop as other employees arrived. Jeff was one of the last ones in, and it looked like he’d been partying all night.
He stole the cup from her, and she rolled her eyes.
“You know that’s mine,” she said, already going to pour herself another one.
“Yeah, and we both know you make much better coffee than me.” He took a large gulp and moaned. “See, I feel better already.”
She poured another coffee for herself as Jeff fired up his computer. Standing in the doorway so she could see the counter and not be rude to Jeff, she thought about Brick the night before.
The ride on his bike had been … heady. She’d never imagined it could be fun, but he’d made it so. She smiled, thinking about how it felt between her thighs, but more importantly, how she loved holding on to Brick.
He’d been amazing.
Rock hard.
Since her grandmother died, he was the first person she felt safe with. Like he could protect her from all the dangers in the world. It was a nice feeling.
“You’re staring off into space,” Jeff said. “You living out one of your fantasies or did you just have pie this morning?”
Jeff was a … well, she didn’t know who he was. One moment, he was nice. The next, he was saying hurtful things. Almost as if she’d done something to piss him off. She never knew which version she was going to get one day to the next.
“Do you think it’s going to be a long day today?” she asked, avoiding eye contact.
The end of the date with Brick, that was when he’d been a perfect gentleman. She’d hated telling him where she lived. It was a dump, but he hadn’t shown any kind of judgment when she told him. He’d walked her directly to her apartment door and had kissed her goodnight on the cheek. She didn’t know for sure if that meant anything. The kiss on the cheek—did it mean he wanted to date her again? Did he hate their date?
She was going out of her mind wondering. This was all so new to her.
It doesn’t matter.
If he never came around again, she’d just be happy she got to go on at least one date with him. It was better than nothing. It had been the happiest day she could remember in a long time.
The door to the shop opened, pulling her out of her thoughts. The moment she caught sight of the Skull Nation insignia, she disappeared into the office, giving Jeff the signal.
This was what she’d been told to do. Sitting at her computer, she put on her headset and turned the music volume up to the loudest it could go, blasting her senses.
These were the instructions she’d been given. If she wanted to keep her job, the moment a Skull Nation MC member entered, she was to sit at her computer, complete invoices, and listen to music as loud as she could. She was never to give any of them eye contact.
From her computer station, she could see out of the door.
Just for a quick second, she glanced over the top of her computer. She wished she hadn’t. One of the men punched Jeff in the back of the head. He didn’t go down to the floor, and she averted her gaze as her heart raced.
“No matter what, you stay behind your computer. You don’t watch. You don’t even look. If you do, you’re out on your fat ass. Got me?”
She’d agreed.
This job was long, but it paid well. She’d been able to save some money up, and she had plans. All of them would come with time and hard work.
Why were they beating on Jeff?
Her stomach twisted into knots. What if one day they turned their attention on her? What would she do? Who would protect her?
When Jeff came in sporting a bloody nose, she removed her headphones. “Are you okay?”
“Fuck, why do you always have to talk? Useless cunt. Get out there and work. I don’t pay you to sit around and do fuck all.” He was her boss, so she felt helpless and forced to take the verbal abuse.
Getting to her feet, she rushed out of the room. If she tried to help him or lingered, he’d get more abusive.
Jeff could be an asshole, but he had moments where he was nice as well. He never asked too many questions nor did he demand to know absolutely everything about everyone who worked for him, and she liked that. It made life easy. He didn’t judge her, and after a lifetime of being criticized for who she was related to, Jeff was refreshing, even if he was an asshole.
For the entire morning, she stayed out of Jeff’s way. Ignoring the tense way the men worked as the Skull Nation stuck around. She heard random shouts but zoned out. By the time it was lunch, she was more than ready to get out of there.
; After grabbing her bag, she left the store and headed straight to the small public park area nearby to have lunch. In the height of summer, families and friends would swarm the place, all looking for the perfect shaded spot.
It was hot as fuck, and the park was completely packed. Men and women in different stages of undress were either lying down on the ground or sitting on lawn chairs. There wasn’t a spare seat, so she decided not to eat her lunch there.
She walked around until she found a lonely bench. One side had bird shit splattered on it, and the other looked okay. She took her seat and pulled out her bag of sandwiches. Plain old peanut butter. These sandwiches meant she didn’t have to splurge on expensive food. Taking a bite, she pretended it was the best sandwich she’d eaten all day.
It wasn’t.
In fact, she was sure she was getting sick of peanut butter. She’d been eating the same sandwich for nearly a year and a half.
Yeah, she needed to change it up.
Callie was halfway through the second sandwich when she saw him. The way the sun shone on him made him look like an angel or something. Brick wore a shirt this time, but it was pulled tight across his chest and arms, which were all heavily muscled, and the ink, damn, he turned her on.
“Hello, princess,” he said.
Her entire body lit up like Christmas.
“Hey,” she said. Her heart raced as she looked at him. Dropping her half-eaten sandwich to the ground, she stood up.
He bent down and wrinkled his nose. “This is what you call a lunch?”
“Er, yeah, I think so.” Why was she tongue-tied right now?
“Nah, it’s your lucky day. I’m taking you out to lunch.”
“You are?”
“Stopped by your workplace. No one knew where you were. Said you went out to lunch. Figured we could enjoy some food together.”
“You always seem intent on feeding me.”
He chuckled. “It seems the only time I can get you alone.”
He’d stepped closer, or had she imagined that?
Tilting her head back, she looked up at him. She hadn’t realized how much taller he was than her. “I’d like to go to lunch with you.” She grabbed her bag and stuffed the sandwich inside just in case she needed it later.