I kept my eyes on the city lights below. I couldn’t bring myself to look at him. “You take a discount?”
“I pay her what she’d make with a john. I get a discount, because I don’t pay the RTMC’s portion, but the girls get the same from me they’d get from anyone else.”
“And yet, ya’ll keep prostitution out of the city blocks you claim. Doesn’t that make you hypocrites?”
“We keep it off the streets. No whores standing on a corner. The rule with drugs is absolute — no drug deals in our territory, whether out on the street or in someone’s living room. Hookers just have to keep it inside, and they have to be discreet when coming and going.”
“So, you let someone else’s stable come into your territory, as long as they don’t flaunt themselves?”
“Why are you asking for so many specifics, Angelica?” His voice was soft again, not angry or defensive… almost so soft it worried me. When my dad used that tone of voice, the answer was very, very important.
Finally, I looked at him. “Because the idea of subjugating women and using them like that pisses me off, and I hear what you’re saying about not recruiting, and taking care of them…” I blew out a breath in frustration. “Maybe the damned liberals got into my head at college more than I realized, because my first instinct is to try to save them all, but the realist in me knows how ridiculous and juvenile the idea is.”
“You didn’t answer the question.”
“I was asking for specifics because it was easier than talking about the real issue, and don’t ask me to talk about it, because I’m still processing and I have no idea where to start.”
“So, is Pickering right? Does this make me one of the bad guys?”
“I know you do bad things, Bash, but I’ve always told myself you do them for a good reason. There was probably no other way to take care of Sloane. Any other solution would’ve brought problems between the Pack and MC. I have no idea how you straight up lied to their Alpha without him smelling the lie, but it kept us from going to war.”
“Does it bother you, knowing I can lie without giving off the scent?”
I gave him a half smile. “It didn’t before. When you put it that way, though, I guess I have to admit it does, a little.”
He nodded. “There’s a trick. You and I get hot and heavy, I’ll teach you.”
“My dad know the trick?”
He looked away. “Fuck, Princess. We’re crazy for even considerin’ this. Please don’t ask me questions about your dad, okay? I’ll try to answer what I can about myself, and club business where it pertains to me in a way you should know, but… shit. You know the life. I don’t have to explain it to you.”
No. He didn’t have to explain a thing. And, I’d just learned my dad could lie while smelling like he was telling the truth. All the times I’d believed him because he hadn’t smelled like he was telling a lie suddenly came back to me and made me doubt him. Yeah, my dad would be royally pissed, if he knew.
“Is there any chance we can spend a weekend fucking and get each other out of our systems?”
I felt him stop. He didn’t breathe, didn’t move, and totally shut down. His voice was different, cold, when he asked, “That what you want?”
“No, and it came out wrong. I’m sorry. Truth is, I don’t know what I want. My brain and my libido aren’t in agreement. I want to fuck you, but I know it’ll complicate the shit out of my life.”
He chuckled, his voice back to normal. “Right back atcha.”
“We doin’ this?” I asked, purposefully letting my voice take back its southern accent. I’d learned not to speak southern at college if I wanted to be taken seriously, and I was keeping to the practice at work. It was kinda nice to be able to fall back into it sometimes, though.
“Can you live with fucking what most people would consider a pimp? ‘Cause that ain’t gonna change, Princess.”
“And will you be okay with my screwing other people? Dating other people? I’m good with not bein’ exclusive, but it goes both ways.”
“Fuck.”
I chuckled and shook my head as I looked at the ground below the cannon. “We don’t have to decide anything right now. My weekends are free — if you decide you want to do this, let me know when you can get away and we’ll figure out the details. My finances are gonna be a little tight for about six weeks, and then things loosen up.”
“I’m good with going out of town for our first time, so we can change before coming back if we decide we aren’t ready to go public yet. But, if we go off together, I’ll pay.”
“I’ve spent years becoming my own person, Bash. You’re gonna have to respect that.”
He jumped down off the wheel, his body the picture of liquid grace as he moved towards his bike.
“Time to go back, Princess. Think we’ve done all the talkin’ I can handle for one night.”
Well. Amen to that.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Angelica
Duke said it should be safe to go out with my work friends Saturday night, and Bash drove me home Saturday afternoon so I could get ready. I’d agreed to come to the compound to sleep when I was finished with my coworkers, but only because they said it should be safe for me to sleep at my own place again Sunday night.
Thomas had gone home from the hospital, and I’d talked to him on the phone but hadn’t driven up on the mountain to visit. I’d have to face him again eventually, but I was hoping to give him the “we need to just be friends” speech without pissing him off.
My outing with coworkers ended up with nine men and two women from work, including me, at a sports bar. Three of the men had brought their girlfriends, and the other woman had brought her boyfriend, bringing the total to ten men and five women. Officially, drinking voided my carry license, but I had my gun and was drinking anyway. I’d breeze right through a sobriety test, breathing test, or blood test — at two or three beers an hour, my werewolf metabolism ate through the alcohol as soon as it hit my system. I don’t usually carry when drinking, because it’s still a legal risk, but I didn’t want anything to happen to my coworkers because of me, so I had it to protect them. Just in case.
Being a woman in a man’s field comes with its own pitfalls, but I’d watched the upper classmen when I’d been a freshman, and realized there were a couple of kinds of women who got respect, and none of them slept around. The ones who slept around were treated as bimbos, no matter how smart they were. The pretty girls who didn’t sleep around weren’t treated well, either, because the guys were ticked at them for turning them down.
Close observation told me the women who were treated as fellow engineers, fellow humans, were the ugly, dowdy ones no one wanted to fuck.
So, I’d gone about finding a way to change the rules. I started out by telling them I was flattered, but I had a boyfriend back home. When they pushed, I responded with humor. When I started dating someone from the physics department, I had to tell them I’d broken up with my boyfriend back home. When that fell through, I told them I realized I needed time to find myself and become my own person before dating again.
Eventually, I talked one of the guys at the garage into being my fake boyfriend, which was believable because he became a friend-with-benefits. He came to a few campus parties and played the part well enough that the other guys left me alone and didn’t hate me for not going out with them. I was a good girl when I was with my college friends, and I made sure I got off campus far enough I wouldn’t see anyone I knew when I went out prowling.
Which was just as well, because when I went out looking for a fun night I occasionally went to biker bars. My dad would have a shit-fit if he knew. For that matter, so would Bash and the rest of the RTMC, because if the guys I’d partied with had known I belonged to my dad, they’d have probably hurt me pretty bad. I’d been careful when I chose, though. They were human, I’m a wolf. As long as it was just me and one of them, I could take him. So, I always got a hotel room under another name and then took the
biker back to it. I chose well, and it was just fun, wild, sex. Exactly what I’d needed.
All this to say, my first couple of weeks at work I’d had eighty-four guys hit on me. After the first hour, I kept a running tally on my phone. Maybe it’s juvenile, but after five guys asked me out in less than fifteen minutes, I couldn’t resist.
Pablo dropping me off and picking me up a few days had helped with my “I have a boyfriend,” line, but I could already see I was going to need to come up with another plan with this crowd, because the people dating someone had brought them to our evening out.
Still, I had a really fun time with them, and the conversation and alcohol flowed. Someone asked me about my car, pointing out I was basically driving a museum piece around. I told them the story of my dad giving me three MGB’s for my fifteenth birthday, I just left out the part about him assigning one of the MC prospects to help me out when he couldn’t.
“What does your dad do? Is he an engineer, too?”
“He works at a custom bike shop, and he’s a master at making bikes purr.” I was never going to be ashamed of my father. Ever.
“Really?” asked one of the men. “I have a bike, and I know some of the shops in Atlanta. Where does he work?”
Here we go. No sense lying. It was going to come out eventually, I’d just hoped to have more time for them to get to know me as me, before they saw me as the motorcycle club president’s daughter. I took a breath and told him the name. I saw the recognition in his eyes, but he only said, “Yeah, I know them. They do good work.”
I thought maybe we were home free and he was the only one who’d know, but then someone else piped up with, “Isn’t there a Rolling Thunder shop here, too? Behind the Rolling Thunder bar? Aren’t they associated with the motorcycle gang?”
I grinned and said, “Yes, yes, and no. It’s a motorcycle club, not a gang.”
“So, your dad is in the gang, in Atlanta?”
“My dad is one of the best dads on the planet, and I wouldn’t trade him for anything. He taught me to put a bike back together when I was eight, after I snuck downstairs in the middle of the night to tear it apart because I was sure I could make it go faster. He gave me my love of engineering. If I’m the one who discovers the breakthrough to truly renewable, affordable energy, it’ll be a direct result of his parenting, so think carefully before you say anything disparaging about my dad.”
No one spoke for a dozen seconds, and finally one of the guys laughed and said, “We all know the government will silence anyone who discovers an affordable energy source. Talk about delusional.”
I lifted an eyebrow and said, “Yeah, point to Howard. Where’s our waitress? I think I need another beer.”
* * * *
The RTMC compound was in full-on Saturday night decadence when I arrived shortly after one in the morning. I’d left my coworkers at close to midnight, but had driven around town a while before coming back. I loved driving at night, and I was still getting used to the layout of the city.
I saw Bash’s bike in the lineup, along with Brain’s. A few people were outside, but it was a hot, stuffy night, and most everyone would be inside.
I thought I knew what to expect when I walked in, but the entire energy cooled as I stepped in, and I scanned the room to see why.
And saw Bash sprawled on one of the sofas, a girl laying across Gonzo’s legs, her head in Bash’s lap, blowing him. I rolled my eyes and looked to the room. “Seriously? I know a bunch of you don’t know me, but I grew up around this shit. Chill the fuck out and go back to whatever you were doing, and maybe someone can get me a shot of tequila? We got limes? Or should I go get some?”
Ten shots in three minutes would give me a short buzz, and I was thinking that was a pretty good idea right about now. I wasn’t pissed he was getting a blowjob. We’d talked about the possibility of going away to see what was up between us, but neither of us had promised monogamy. I wouldn’t have felt guilty about meeting someone and going off with them tonight, so there was no reason for me to be upset about him getting a blowjob from one of the club sluts. She’d be blowing someone else in twenty minutes. It didn’t mean anything.
“We got limes, Girly,” Dawg said as he walked towards the bar. “I’ll set you up.”
“Hold up,” someone said from a few inches away, and I looked at the giant of a man a few seconds before remembering his name. Dozer. “Thought weapons privileges were short term, and only for downstairs?”
He’d gotten close enough to smell me and see if I had it. I made a mental note as I said, “Oh. Fuck. Sorry guys. I’ll take it downstairs and put it in the safe. I think I’m gonna be allowed to go back home tomorrow night, and then it won’t be an issue.”
“It’s not an issue now,” Bash said, his eyes closed and his head lolled back as he enjoyed his blowjob. “Duke and Brain wanted it on you while you were out tonight, and knew you were coming back. Dozer wants it locked up, it isn’t a problem ‘cause we can protect you now that you’re back. Everyone knows you’re off limits even though you ain’t an ol’lady. You’ll be safe enough.”
I noted an odd look from Dawg, remembered his casual flirting, and I grinned at him as I said, “Want to walk me downstairs and see if we can figure out how I might manage to not be off limits anymore?”
“You gonna let me call you Princess?”
“You gonna let me call you Kitten?”
The room erupted in laughter, and Dawg walked to the back door of the main room. If I was alone, I had to go the long way around to get downstairs. If someone walked me down, I could go past the brothers’ rooms, which was a substantial shortcut.
Dawg waited until we were in the stairwell and unlikely to be heard from the main room before saying, “You’re playing with fire, Girly.”
“I don’t know what I’m playing with, Dawg, but I’m pretty sure this isn’t a game.”
“Least you’re smart enough to figure that much out. You know your dad’s been checking in with Brain pretty regular, checking on you?”
“I saw Brain’s bike. Is he here?”
He shook his head. “He’s across the street with his woman. You need him?”
“No, just thought I’d pop my head into wherever he is and say hi, if he was here.”
“He and Duke and their ol’ladies have a small group partying across the street. If someone lets them know you’re here, my guess is they’ll be upstairs when we get back. Don’t know why Dozer spoke up, but Brain’ll want to mediate.”
“Brain will? And not Duke?”
He shook his head. “Let’s not go there. Brain’s apparently close to you, though, and he seems to be calling more shots than Duke where you’re concerned.”
“I was only partially joking about removing myself from the off-limits list,” I told him as we stepped into my room downstairs.
“I know.”
“Brain and I are close because he used to help me with my chemistry and calculus homework. My dad also had him picking me up from school and shit for a while. When he got his patch, Bash was assigned to me, and then it was his job to get me to and from school, and all of my practices. He also cock-blocked all the guys who flirted with me, and he helped me build my car. He wasn’t worth shit when it came to homework help, though.” I grinned as I said the last part, and Dawg looked thoughtful.
“But you’re all grown up now, and your daddy’s two hours away.”
“You and Bash are tight.” I said it as a statement and not a question, but he nodded in answer to confirm, his eyes on my weapon as I stowed it and the magazine in the safe I’d tucked into my suitcase.
I closed and locked it, and turned to him. I wanted to see his face for these next questions. “You didn’t know me when I was a kid, so maybe I can ask you some questions and get answers?”
“You can ask.”
Right, because answers aren’t guaranteed.
“I get the feeling ya’ll share a lot.”
“Share?”
He was
gonna make me spell it out. “Use the same girl at the same time, or one after the other.”
His look told me I needed to convince him to answer the question. Or, maybe I needed to ask an actual question. “Look, I’ve seen the club skanks being fucked and used a zillion different ways since I was in elementary school. Dad usually sent me away before things got too wild, but I was curious, and knew how to be quiet long before my first change. Also, I think I had better night vision than he expected me to have before my first change, too. Bottom line is, when two guys share a lot, they seem to get to know each other’s… fuck. I don’t know how to say it. But, there’s a different energy to it, when two men share a lot and have kind of a system down, and it’s always fascinated me.”
And I’d gone to the biker bars up north looking to find two guys to take me at the same time, but never had the nerve to do it. I could take on one guy and stop him if he got too rough, but I’d worried I might have trouble controlling two. Bikers pretty much always have guns and knives around. Normally, two humans wouldn’t be a problem for me, but two bikers? I couldn’t be sure, so I hadn’t. Though I’d really wanted to.
“I saw you and Bash working over the same girl. Your back was to me, but—”
“I smelled you. Knew you were there, and know you stuck around a bit. Also smelled a lot of arousal off you, and saw Bash staring. Figured it was none of my business as long as the bitch kept her mouth on my cock.”
If Dawg wasn’t interested, there was no sense in my bringing this up with Bash. I took a deep breath and just said it, before I lost my nerve. “I want you and Bash at the same time.”
His eyebrows rose just a touch, but his scent signature didn’t alter in the least. “Bash know about this?”
I shook my head.
“Maybe he should.”
“No argument there, but would you be… is there any need in bringing it up with him? Would you do it, or would you refuse, if he was okay with it?”
Bash, Volume I (Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club Book 3) Page 16