It was entirely my idea that we did, and it had almost gotten us killed.
We pulled up in front of the hotel, and he put the car in park. “You alright?”
They were the first words spoken, and I suddenly realized I couldn’t answer. My throat was tight, and I feared if I were to say something I’d break down in tears. So, I just nodded. I slowly grabbed my purse and opened the truck door, then stepped out onto the ground.
“You’ve got my number if you need anything. Axle will be outside tonight,” Trip said. I nodded again, but I hesitated. He waited for me to close the door, but I couldn’t. There were tears in my eyes, threatening to run down my cheeks.
“You were right,” I said at last.
“What?” he asked.
“That was a former student. The kid who almost killed me. He was someone I knew,” I whispered.
“Fuck,” he said. “I’m sorry. I know you try your best with those kids, but sometimes there’s just nothing you can do.”
His words hung in the air. He didn’t need to say it again. It was their choice at the end of the day what they did with their lives. I could push and push, but if they were going to go off and do their own thing, that was on them. I nodded.
“Do you want me to come in for a minute?” he asked. My head jerked up. I hadn’t thought of that, but now that the offer was out, I wanted it more than anything.
“Would you?” I asked.
He turned off the ignition and opened the door. We walked in silence to my room, and I let us both inside. My heart raced. I was still running on adrenaline, but I was also nervous. The man had saved my life, and I was now more attracted to him than ever.
He wasn’t pushing himself on me, despite my being vulnerable, which also turned me on. Whether I thought of him as a criminal or not no longer mattered. All I wanted was to have him. I wanted to taste him, to feel him, to have him hold me until I felt safe again. I locked the door, and without a word, I stepped over to him, pressing my lips to his. I didn’t know what to expect. He might push me away, he might pull back. He might tell me it wasn’t a good idea. The man was my brother’s biggest rival, after all.
But he didn’t do any of those things.
Slowly, he started kissing me in return. Our hands started exploring each other, grabbing at each other’s clothes. His hands moved to my tits, squeezing them, massaging them, making me put my head back and moan.
I had my hands on his pecs, then I moved them to his biceps. I’d wanted to grab them since the day I saw him in the bar. I wanted to know what he felt like under my fingers. I rolled his jacket off his shoulders, then pulled his t-shirt over his head.
He did the same to my shirt, letting them both fall to the floor at nearly the same time. He unclasped my bra with one hand, as the other wrapped around the back of my head, pulling my face toward him, kissing me passionately the entire time.
I was growing wetter by the second, and there was no denying his arousal as I pressed myself against the front of his jeans.
He suddenly put his hands on my waist, started walking, and pushed me back onto the bed, crawling on top of me. His hand slid under my back, raising me slightly toward him. He put his mouth to my tits, his teeth to my nipples, suckling me, nipping at me, sending chills down my spine.
Trip unbuttoned my jeans and pulled them down, then used his teeth to pull my panties free as well. I couldn’t wait any longer. I was driven crazy with the heat of the moment, and I had to have him inside me. He would have gone down on me, but I wasn’t the kind of girl to not show what I wanted in bed.
I pulled him back up to my face, undoing his jeans and pushing them down, using my feet to include his boxers, freeing his massive dick. He was already rock hard, dripping with anticipation for me.
I took him in my hands, stroking him as I laid beneath him. Trip eased himself down on the bed on top of me, his arms on either side of my body, the palms of his hands on the top of my head as he passionately continued to kiss me.
Then, he pressed his cock to the slit of my pussy. I was so wet, he didn’t need any help gliding inside. I let out another moan, arching my back as I took him as far inside me as I could. I spread my legs wide for him, encouraging him to thrust in and out of me, the full length of his cock piercing my insides each time.
He moved fast and strong, using the headboard as leverage to get as deep as he could. I put my hands on his ass, pulling him into me with each thrust. Closing my eyes and smiling with the passion of the moment. Slowly, the events of the night faded as the pleasure ran through my veins.
He made me come quickly, sending the orgasm through every part of my core. I cried out loudly as I came hard, arching into him as much as I could, letting the sensation run through me.
Trip wasn’t far behind. He thrust into me twice more, hard and deliberate, then I felt his cock emptying inside me. He moaned, holding me against him as he filled me completely, his cock pulsing until he had finished.
Then, we held each other for a moment longer. I didn’t want him to pull out. I didn’t want to face what my world had turned in to. I just wanted him inside me, and I wanted to be in his arms forever. For the first time I realized, when I was with Trip, I was truly safe.
Perhaps my brother had done something right for once in his life, sending me to be with the one man who really would take care of me no matter what. He had risked his life for me tonight, and I knew he’d do it again in a heartbeat.
He pulled himself out of me and laid on the bed, and I wasn’t sure whether to lay on him or turn away. The passion was still in the air, and I felt connected to him, this wasn’t just a one-night stand; this was something deeper and far more meaningful than anything like that.
It just had to be. I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths. I didn’t want the moment to end, though I knew it must. Trip felt every bit as good as I thought he might, and I hoped he could feel the connection to me as well.
But my eyes were suddenly too heavy to open, and I felt myself drifting. I wanted to fight it, I wanted to say something to him about the night – about the moment – but they refused to listen. I drifted into the inky bliss of sleep, the night disappearing as quickly as it had arrived.
The next morning, I woke to an empty hotel room. There was a dent in the pillow next to mine, but I wasn’t sure if Trip had left right after I’d fallen asleep, or sometime this morning. The light was pouring in through the slits in the blinds, but it was Saturday; he likely wouldn’t be coming for me.
Last night was a one-time thing. Forget about those feelings you had after you had sex. It wasn’t anything more than that, just let it go. You got caught up in the moment, that’s all. It’s natural. It’s completely natural.
There was no denying that I felt weird about what happened, but I wasn’t going to let myself dwell on it. I had been weak when I was scared, and I had given into the temptation that was in front of me.
Did I regret it? Not a damn bit. Did I wish that it hadn’t happened? Hell no.
But was I going to let myself think that it meant anything more than what it was, or that it might happen again? No.
It was what it was, and now it was nothing more than a memory. It might be one of the best memories of my life, but it was just a memory, nonetheless.
And as far as I was concerned, it was safer to keep it that way.
13
Trip
I stepped out of the shower and ran the towel through my hair. I still couldn’t get the night before out of my head. There were two separate parts of the night, both of which were demanding my equal attention.
The men who had shot at us had to be members of the cartel, plain and simple. Who else could they have been? No other MC’s rode in that area unless they were passing through and not once had I heard the sound of a bike. It had to have been kids the cartel recruited to do their dirty work. They were just ill-informed and unexperienced. An experienced hit squad would have taken the time to make sure they were aiming at t
he right damn targets, not just anyone in a leather cut.
And the one that had aimed his gun at Megan had known her personally. What did that mean? Were they coming for her in particular? Did they want her dead for some reason other than sending a message to her brother? That really didn’t make sense. She was so adamant that she wanted nothing to do with that life, why else would they want her dead? It had to all lead back to Cutter and Satan’s Souls.
It was a puzzling situation, but, there was no denying that they seemed to be after her in particular. Cutter told me when he asked if I would keep an eye on her that she had received a threatening note. At the time, I thought it was nothing more than them reaching out to the family.
It wasn’t unusual for people who got caught up in drug deals gone wrong to have their families threatened, and Cutter knew that. But there was something different about this time. He seemed to be genuinely afraid someone was going to do something to his sister.
If I knew what happened in the first place, I might be able to make more sense of this. Maybe one of the men who were killed that first night had a connection to Pedro. Maybe that’s why he’s trying to get revenge on Cutter on a very personal level.
Fuck. For all I knew, Cutter might have been the one responsible. The man had done some royally stupid shit in his life. Maybe he did go ahead and kill those cartel associates thinking that he was going to get away with it.
But that would be stupid, even for Cutter. If he had signed a contract and was going to be working with them, then why the hell would he risk everything by killing them?
I shook my head. It was frustrating, very frustrating, and I didn’t know how to handle it. If Megan was being targeted, and they had come as far as halfway between Barstow and Ridgecrest, were they hunting her? The cartel ran wherever it pleased, so if they were looking for her, we really weren’t far enough away for me to be okay with it.
They’d catch up eventually, and what would she do? Hell, what would she do if she was in that hotel room on her own and they were to show up? She’d all but frozen in fear when they attacked us the first time, she’d be dead for sure.
I sighed. I’d rather think about the second half of the night. The sex we’d had was mind-blowing. She had been so tight, so gorgeous. I could have gone for two more rounds. I understood how tired she got when the adrenaline wore off, but I was glad for the moment we had together before she passed out on the bed.
I hadn’t stayed long after she fell asleep. I wasn’t sure if she wanted to wake up with me still there, or if I had been merely an escape from the trauma of the night. So shortly after she’d fallen asleep, I snuck out. I turned off the lights and made sure the door was locked behind me, then I headed back to my place after flipping Axle and his knowing smirk the bird.
A sudden knock at the door caught my attention. I wasn’t expecting anyone, and any of the boys would have called before they showed up. Wrapping a towel around my waist, I walked over and opened it up.
“Hey,” I said in surprise.
“Hey,” Meg replied. She was trying not to stare, it was obvious, and to make it harder on her, I put my arm up on the doorframe.
“Is everything alright?” I asked.
“I thought you might want breakfast. You know, as a thank you for what you did for me last night,” she had two bags of food in her hand, and a tray of coffee in the other. I was surprised and was sure I couldn’t hide it.
“That sounds great,” I said. “Come in.”
I held the door open for her, and she deliberately kept her eyes on the floor in front of her as she walked in.
“I’ll go throw some clothes on,” I said as I grabbed a pair of jeans and headed into the bathroom. I called out behind me before I shut the door. “There’s plates and shit in the kitchen!”
“I found them,” she called back. I closed the door behind me and shook my head. What the hell was with this girl? She goes from one side of the spectrum to the other, but she’s not irrational about it.
Cutter did say she was a handful. Shit, if he only knew she was in my apartment with breakfast. Not sure that’s what he meant when he asked me to keep an eye on her.
I finished getting dressed and headed back into the other room. She had set my food on the coffee table in front of the couch, and hers was on her lap. “You don’t have a dining room table.”
“I’m aware,” I said. I took my plate and sat down. “Thanks.”
“Thanks for last night. Saving me, I mean,” she added quickly. She nervously brushed her hair behind her ear, and I smiled.
“You’re most welcome for last night,” I said. It was enough to make her cheeks flush, and I had to fight to keep from laughing out loud. We ate in silence for a few moments, then I cleared my throat. “I don’t think you should stay in the hotel anymore.”
“What?” she asked. She looked at me as though I’d just proposed to her, and I shook my head.
“I’m not sure what’s going on, and if those people are after you, then they aren’t going to simply sit down south and wait for you to show up again. They’re going to keep coming after you until they get to you. That’s how these kinds of situations work,” I replied.
“Why would they be after me?” she asked. I could hear the fear in her voice, though she was forcing herself to remain calm. “I don’t understand it. I haven’t done anything to them.”
“Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe your brother did something to piss them off on a personal level, and they’re now going to get back at him in any way they can. Who knows?” I said.
“If you get caught in the middle of the night with them at the hotel with only one of my guys out there, there’s no way you’re going to reach me in time,” I said. “I don’t like it. And posting more than one guy out there is just going to draw more attention that there is something or someone in the hotel worth guarding.”
“So where am I going to go?” she asked. “Here?”
I didn’t answer. Instead, I just looked at her with a blank expression on my face. Her face changed as she realized what I was saying, and she started shaking her head back and forth vigorously.
“No! There’s no way I’m going to stay here with you. No!” she said adamantly. “If you think you’re going to keep me under lock and key under your roof, then you have another thing coming.”
“If you don’t want to stay with me, I can arrange for you to stay with another member of the club. I’m sure Gunner would be happy to have you, or Brutus,” I suggested.
“I’m not staying with any of you!” she said. “Forget it!”
“So how do you plan to get out of it if you find yourself on the other end of a gun again?” I asked. The words hung in the air, and she stabbed feverishly at the eggs on her plate. She shoved them in her mouth, but I didn’t think she was really paying attention to what she was doing.
“And where would I stay? You don’t have a lot of room in here,” she looked around the apartment.
“You can either stay out here on the couch, or you can take the bed and I’ll take the couch, I don’t really care,” I said.
She relaxed slightly. “What about when you have people over?”
I gave her a funny look, and she shrugged. “I’m not exactly the dinner party hosting type,” I deadpanned.
She huffed an exasperated breath. “Well I don’t know what your personal life looks like!”
“If that was going to be an issue, I would have told you,” I said. “I’m just trying to look out for you here. It would be a lot more comfortable for you to come stay here with me than for me to come stay with you in that hotel room.”
She now nodded with as much enthusiasm as she had had when she was arguing.
“True,” she said. “Fine. But I’m going to take the couch, and I’m going to keep all my stuff in my bag. I don’t need to unpack any of it or anything.”
“That’s fine with me,” I shrugged. “Whatever makes you happy.”
“I’d be happy if I
could go home,” she muttered.
“Soon enough hopefully,” I said. “I’m sure your brother is doing everything he can to get this fixed. These aren’t the kinds of situations anyone enjoys dealing with, trust me.
We finished our meal in silence, and I offered to take her plate. “We can get you out of there and in here today. Since you don’t have a lot of stuff with you, it’s not going to take you long to move.”
She took her plate to the kitchen and grabbed her purse off the table. Axle is still outside. I’ll have him take me over to gather my things.”
I nodded and watched as her perfect ass sauntered out my door.
Keep in mind this is for her own good. You aren’t going to get anything out of this but the peace of mind knowing she’s safe in the apartment with you. Forget a repeat of last night. She’s going to be on the couch, and you’re going to be in your bedroom, end of story.
I had been through some shit in my life, but nothing compared to what I was feeling now. To be around a woman so beautiful and so perfect for me and know that to resist her after I’d already had a taste, was a hard pill to swallow.
14
Megan
“Look, if you want to come, then you can, but I trust no one is going to bother you here. It’s a lot more secure than the hotel room,” Trip said. “All the doors are locked and only me, Gunner, and Axle have a key.”
I hesitated, then I put my chin up.
“Alright, if you really think that I’ll be okay, then I’d prefer to stay here,” I said.
“Okay. Don’t leave. If you want anything, you have my number. I can get it for you when I’m on lunch, or I’ll send one of the guys. Just stay here, do your thing, and lay low,” he said.
“Fine,” I replied. He didn’t stick around. With a final nod, he turned and headed out the door. I listened as his footsteps faded down the hall, then I walked to the window and watched as he got on his bike and rode off.
Men in Charge: A Contemporary Romance Box Set Page 52