CLAIMED BY THE BAD BOY: A Dark Bad Boy Romance (Bloody Saints MC)

by Zoey Parker

  Kade pulled his full lips into a frown, then nodded. Even unhappy, distressed, his face was handsome in that rugged, I don’t give a shit kind of way. “Alright. I’ll drive. It’ll be easier to get out of there that way anyhow.”

  I should have felt a thrill of victory at having forced him into doing what was clearly not his job. Instead, I just felt relief at not having a stranger with me tonight. And then I felt angry at myself for feeling that way.

  What is wrong with me?

  We were in the car now—him sitting up front driving, me in the back like the movie star I was—and I was staring out the window, watching as the night lights passed by in quick succession that drew them across the dark sky like neon streaks. I hadn’t said anything since he’d agreed to drive and he had observed my own silence, making it his.

  Part of me really wanted to talk because it was better than being left alone with my own fearful thoughts, but I didn’t want to talk to him because I was worried. Worried that he would see the fear in me. Despite my earlier thoughts that he was a Neanderthal, the fact was that he seemed pretty perceptive.

  Kade Johnson, I thought, mulling his name around in my head. I pictured him the way I had first seen him, dressed in that torn up shirt and ripped jeans. The dark eyes and the silky, thick hair to match. The rippling muscles. It was amazing how different he looked now in clean clothing, the silky shirt and dark jeans doing wonders to make him look James Bond good. Delicious. Good enough to eat. It was amazing what a change of clothing could do.

  But if I were being honest, it wasn’t the clothing that had me thinking about him. It was the way his skin felt on mine, the way his rough hands jerked me into his body. The way he looked at me like he wanted to eat me right then and there.

  Which was not an unpleasant thought.

  And therein lie the problem. I wanted him. My body craved him. He looked like something I wanted to run my hands all over, and he spoke like the kind of man whose words I wanted to drown in. Even if he was kind of an ass.

  We pulled up to the club where the party was being hosted tonight. Pauline Brady had reserved the entire club for the night, making sure that only those on her personal list got in. I, of course, was on that list, along with several other big names, including Riley unfortunately. It wasn’t fair, but after last night, I disliked her even more. It wasn’t that it was her fault, honestly, but I would forever associate that attack with her house and her party and her snide remarks that had me running from the house as quickly as possible.

  “You can just drop me off here,” I told Kade, treating him like I would any other driver. I was so used to people just listening to me that I was trying the door where I expected him to be coming to a stop. Except that he didn’t come to a stop and the door was locked. Child safety, even. “Um, I said stop.”

  I caught his gaze in the rearview mirror. It was a mixture of annoyance and amusement, which must have been a feat, honestly.

  “This isn’t funny! Let me out right now!” I jiggled the door handle again, but he just kept driving.

  “Nope, sorry, princess. Since I am both your driver and your bodyguard for the evening, you’re just going to have to go with me while I park.” I saw his smirk and fumed; I wanted to smack it off his face. “After all, as your bodyguard, I can’t exactly let you go into that club unprotected.”

  Oh, I see how it is.

  He probably had this planned all along. Give in to the whole chauffer thing only to catch me on something else later. Well, I’d figure out other ways to get under his skin.

  “Hope you have decent walking shoes,” he added just to harass me a little further.

  I narrowed my eyes at him. Of course I didn’t have sensible shoes on. They were four-inch heels, damnit, and they looked spectacular on me, especially with this dress. But they were not really designed with walking of any kind in mind. They were more for lounging about in chairs or tall stools. Maybe for just a little bit of dancing. And, of course, kinky fucking.

  But walking? I was going to hurt tomorrow.

  “Don’t worry about me,” I told him hotly, because I wouldn’t let him get the last word in.

  He just laughed at me, making me feel even angrier.

  He found a parking spot that wasn’t too far away from the club, though I still wasn’t keen on walking that far. Especially since the pavement wasn’t exactly red carpet nice. As we began the short trek to the club, my heels kept catching in little cracks in the sidewalk or hitting the pieces of cement that had jutted up from earthquakes.

  As we rounded the corner, I caught a particularly bad crack and starting falling. Unable to regain my balance, I felt myself falling and braced for the impact that would come momentarily.

  Except that it never did.

  Kade had caught me, wrapping his arm with its thick, ropey muscles around my middle. He pulled me back up in a way that forced me against his body. I shivered at the contact, unable to deny how good his heat felt as it filtered through my dress and soaked into my skin.

  I swallowed. “Thank you.”

  I heard the smirk in his voice as he answered, “No problem, princess. Though I kind of thought you were supposed to be graceful or something.”

  Narrowing my eyes at him, I shoved at his chest—hard and unyielding—to push him away. He let me and I straightened up, smoothing out invisible wrinkles in my skintight dress. I didn’t look at him again as I marched purposefully toward the club, more mindful of the ground beneath my stiletto heels.

  I met the bouncer at the door; he gushed. Although sometimes it still weirded me out when people recognized me and had one of those “moments” where they just sort of freaked out, it was also really nice to have someone know who I am.

  I had been a no one not so very long ago and I hadn’t cared for that. Now, I mattered.

  “I know I shouldn’t and you’re just here to have fun and all,” continued the bouncer, who was adorable because he was the size of a sumo wrestler but was gushing like a thirteen-year-old girl over some young adult vampire franchise. It was sweet. “But would you be willing to give me an autograph? I just love your movies! All of them!”

  I smiled at him, then sent a scathing look toward my temporary bodyguard. He frowned at me, making my smile widen. I turned back to the bouncer. “Of course! I’m so glad that someone likes my movies.” I flashed him my smile.

  The bouncer quickly dug into his pockets for a pen and some paper, ending up with a scrap of a receipt or something like that for me to sign. “Sorry, it’s all I have,” he apologized, looking truly disgusted with himself.

  I felt like laughing. He looked so heartbroken over it. But I didn’t laugh and I didn’t care that a receipt was the only thing he could find for me to sign. It was the thought that counted, and right then I honestly believed that.

  “Don’t worry about it,” I said, taking the pen and paper from him. “I’m just glad you like my movies so much. It means the world to me.”

  His smile was surprisingly brilliant given his size. He had clearly been chosen for the job because he had a menacing scowl, but I wouldn’t have guessed that beneath it he was a total teddy bear.

  I signed my name with a flourish, then added Keep up the good work, Big Boy! XOXO When I gave it back to him, he was so thrilled that he looked like he wanted to do a happy dance. It was all the funnier to me because he was ready to usher me in on his own personal red carpet, then immediately went back to intimidating bouncer when Kade approached him.

  “Hold up there,” he said, holding out a hand palm flat. “You’re not on the list.”

  Kade made an irritated sound low in his throat and I wanted to laugh. “I’m with her,” he said gruffly, pointing at me.

  The bouncer frowned. “You’re not on the list.”

  Kade looked like his head was ready to explode. I was fairly certain that of all the things that could go wrong that night, this was not one he had predicted. Looking around the bouncer to me, he asked, “A little help please?”<
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  I tapped a finger on my chin, pretending to think really hard about the whole thing. Inside, I felt like giggling. I might have even left him outside the club just to teach him a lesson after the whole high heels and graceful thing, but as I considered it, the truth hit me like a ton of bricks.

  If he stayed outside, I’d be in here alone. With a bunch of strangers, in shoes I couldn’t run in, with dark lighting, people lost in a crowd…

  Fear flashed through me and it made me feel awful inside, but it had me putting a hand on the bouncer’s shoulder and carefully telling him, “It’s okay, really. He is with me. He’s my new bodyguard.”

  The bouncer considered Kade one last time before looking at me. “If you’re sure, Miss Woodard.”

  I smiled. “I am. Thank you for looking out for me.”

  He beamed, then shot Kade a warning look before letting him in after me. I made sure Kade was inside and following me before venturing too far into the club. I hated that I was afraid.

  The party inside was about what I expected it to be. There was a huge throng of bodies pressing against each other, dancing wildly and without worry. They were dressed not unlike me. The women were in skintight dresses of varying lengths and colors. Most bore extreme cleavage when they had it and long expanses of back if they didn’t. Their legs were like milky white towers spiraling upwards into forever and their arms were bedazzled with bangles and glitter both. Hair came in all shades, many of them not found in nature, and their faces were painted in every which way possible. Some of the guys, too. Some wore intense makeup meant to shock, while others were very muted, looking as though maybe they weren’t wearing makeup at all. And each and every one of them looked as though they had styled their hair with enough gel to start their own beauty supply shop.

  Along the edges of the dancing starlets and their impressive, equally vain beaus, were people with a little more decorum. These were the people who had been raised to have money and act like it. They sipped at their drinks as they talked about politics or agents or whatever else they thought was important to talk about so that they could look as fancy as they thought they should. Though they were boring and often so stuck up that my smile had to be screwed into place. They were the ones I searched out tonight.

  I didn’t want to get caught in the throng of undulating people. I couldn’t handle it, not right now in my current freaked-out state.

  So instead I went to the bar first to order a drink. I got something with a lot of vodka in it and a little bit of flavoring, then thanked the bartender with a large bill and a flirtatious smile. He seemed pleased and even blushed, though I was sure I wasn’t the first and wouldn’t be the last to treat him like that.

  As I turned around with my drink in hand, planning to immerse myself amidst the rich and snobby while condemning myself to a night of boredom, I ran smack into Kade.

  “Hey!” I cried as a little of my pinkish-colored drink sloshed over the side and onto the floor. I hopped back just in time for it to miss my shoes. “Watch where you’re going!”

  He snatched the drink out of my hand so quickly that I had to blink to make sure that it wasn’t still there. “Should you really be drinking right now?” he asked in the best imitation of Caleb I had ever seen.

  I scowled at him. “Excuse me? I’m twenty-three. I’ve been drinking for two years now.” Legally, I didn’t add, because I felt it wouldn’t add to my case.

  “I don’t care about whether or not you’re legal,” he told me in irritation, though I thought I saw a flash of heat and wondered if he hadn’t considered the other meaning of the term legal. “I’m talking about being sober enough to be aware of your surroundings.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. There was a small part of my brain that told me he was right, that I should make smart decisions and be more careful. Then there was the rest of me which was outraged at being told what to do by some biker dude who didn’t know the first thing about me. Like he was my parent or guardian or something.

  “I’ll do what I want,” I told him, not caring if I sounded childish or bratty. I jabbed a finger into his rock hard chest. “It’s your job to make sure I’m safe, not mine. So do your job.”

  He scowled at me and looked like he was going to argue with me some more, but before he could, I snatched my drink back and downed it in a single gulp. It burned all the way down, but I didn’t care. I hadn’t been planning on doing a lot of drinking tonight for the very same reasons that Kade had just listed, but now that he was challenging my right to make decisions for myself, well, it would be a free-for-all.

  I wouldn’t let anyone tell me what to do, and I was already starting to feel like too many people were doing just that.

  First Uncle Caleb and now the man he sent?

  Shoving the empty glass back into his hand, I spun around and marched back to the bar, flagging down the same bartender. I ordered a double this time and downed that, too. I knew I should slow down, but now that I’d started, I wasn’t about to let it go.

  But as I let the second drink settle in my stomach, aware that I hadn’t eaten much since breakfast and it was hitting me hard and fast already, I tried to come up with other ways to annoy Kade. Other ways to get back at him and Caleb both for making me feel like a child. For making me feel like I wasn’t capable of taking care of myself. Just like that guy last night, thinking he could just attack me and I wouldn’t fight back.

  Now that I’d made the connection, I was even more furious. I was a grown woman. I could take care of myself. I could make my own choices!

  And that was when I spotted him.

  He wasn’t anyone I recognized, though he had to be someone if only because Pauline had chosen the guest list for tonight very specifically. She was picky, too. He was probably a model or something, maybe someone up and coming. Really, in that moment, it didn’t matter. He was sexy in a well-kempt, overly made up sort of way. His dark hair was slicked back just so and his eyelashes were so dark and long that I was pretty sure he was wearing mascara. His lips were full, maybe falsely so, and his skin was that perfect tan that told me he went to a really good salon. Add that to the couple thousand dollars’ worth of suit, and it was pretty safe to assume that this pretty boy was as vain as the day was long.

  But he was pretty. And that was all I was after tonight.

  Grinning like a cat, I slunk toward him, keeping one hand on the bar as I did so because I was already beginning to feel the effects of the alcohol on my system. Sliding as gracefully as I could into the seat next to him, I asked after the fact, “Is this seat taken?”

  He grinned back at me, showing rows of pearly white teeth that might have been fake or at least partially manufactured. “I hope it is now.” He winked at me.

  I forced a laugh from my throat, making it loud in the hopes that it might travel far enough for Kade to hear it. Take that, I thought spitefully, willing him to react to the sound. Maybe he would see me and Mr. Pretty Boy together. Maybe he’d get angry, jealous even. “Aren’t you charming?” I told him flirtatiously, batting my eyelashes at him and running a slender hand down his arm.

  His smile widened and under normal circumstances I might have noticed something a little off, might have sensed that something was wrong. But alcohol flooded my system and I was swaying already. My judgement was off and worse still than that, I was so focused on Kade that I really didn’t care that this guy was kind of slimy and maybe rubbed me the wrong way. I didn’t care so long as it got to Kade.

  My gaze flashed over to where I’d left him. He was standing nearby, leaning against the wall. His arms were crossed and his face was tense in what was probably anger. And he was staring right at me.

  I felt a rush of satisfaction and upped my flirting with Mr. Pretty Boy.

  “Can I get you another drink?” he asked, his eyes flashing.

  There was some little voice in the very back of my mind that whispered a quiet no, but I shoved it aside. I was tipsy already and the whole point was that I could make
my own decisions. Which meant I should totally take the drink offered to me, right?

  It sounded reasonable to me in that moment and that was enough for me.

  “Yes, please,” I told him, giggling softly as I leaned toward him, knowing that my breasts were half spilling out of my dress as I did so. “Thank you.”

  “My pleasure,” he told me, his eyes darting down to my breasts.

  I didn’t necessarily care for him staring at me and felt the sudden urge to cover my chest, but this was all just part of the game. I wouldn’t go home with him tonight, wouldn’t sleep with him, but I could flirt and do all the things that flirting entailed. And that would piss Kade off and prove my point all at once.

  Yes, this was a good plan.

  The new drink came over and the guy, whose name I had yet to catch and didn’t really care to know anyway, shoved it toward me. “Here you go,” he said, still smiling.