by Evelyn Glass
"I have to agree with you on that."
It was when she followed up her jabs with compliments like that, on the fly and so quick I wouldn't notice if I weren't paying attention, that made it all worthwhile.
"The discipline it takes to write a book is insane," I carried on. "And you wrote over two hundred pages already. Not only is that amazing because you made the story work for two hundred pages, all in a row, but you stuck to it. I know a lot of people who would just give up."
"It sounds a lot like your criticism has gone over into flattery," she said. And it was true, it did. But there was a side of her I really admired, not as a man looking at a woman but as one lover of literature to another.
"You spend a lot of time in books, don't you?"
Her question was about a side of me I didn't often show, but I'd shown her so much of that side lately it wouldn't really make a different if I lied to her.
"Yes, I do. For different reasons, but the literature side isn't commonly known. You should feel honored."
"Oh, I do."
The food finally came and we were quiet while Maxine and another waitress put our plates in front of us. The food smelled great. I ordered another whiskey and got another cocktail for Selena.
"Thanks, Maxine," I said before the waitress disappeared again.
"Oh, she has a name." The comment suggested she wanted to know why I was referring to the waitress by name if there was a backstory.
"My past with her is completely professional. She works for me. I call her by her first name. It's very simple."
Selena looked at the food on her plate, nodding. "I don't mean to sound like a jealous woman," she said. "What you do with other women is your business."
I shook my head, looking at her even though she wasn't willing to make eye contact. "What I do with other women is my business, but the one thing you should realize is that you're not like the other women, and no matter what happened with them, they can never compare."
She looked up at me, her eyes a deep blue like the ocean. "Isn't a bit soon to be able to say something like that?"
I shook my head. "The fact that it is this soon and I know it already should tell you how different you are from them, and how much I noticed."
She looked like she wasn't sure what to make of that comment. Instead of answering me she cut a perfect square of her steak and put it in her mouth, chewing. After she swallowed she looked at me. "This food is really good. You should let your chef know."
We ate in silence for a while, the manuscript and the sudden serious talk was forgotten for a while.
"You still haven't told me anything about yourself. You know every inch of me and I know nothing of you."
I frowned. "I don't know anything about you, either. Other than that you're a writer, of course."
She nodded and swallowed the bite she was chewing. "You're right, but you read my book. That gives you some kind of insight into my soul that I don't have of you."
I had to agree, she was right. I didn't know her well but I felt like I could relate to her on a lot of different levels because I'd read her work. I felt closer to her somehow, and she hadn't had that privilege with me.
"I don't have a book you can read that lets you know who I am, but you can ask me anything you want and I'll tell you truthfully."
She narrowed her eyes at me. "That's a very dangerous statement to make."
It really was. "That should be a testament to how much I trust you right now."
A smile played across her lips and it made me want to kiss her. Really badly.
"You really shouldn't." Her smile was sexy as hell.
That erection from earlier returned and I tried to tell myself to behave. It didn't work as well this time. The whiskey had relaxed me and I was starting to look at her body more than her face.
Judging by how easily her smile came now and how she talked more and more I was guessing she felt the alcohol, too.
"Come on, give it a shot."
She thought for a moment.
"You said that your businesses - plural? - were started with dishonest money. What were you doing?"
I winced. "Cutting right to the chase, huh?" Why had I told her I would answer anything? There were sides of my life I didn't want her to know about. Selena was a goddess and I wanted to look like a god to her for as long as I could. I didn't want her to be disappointed in me so early in the game. Still, a promise was a promise. I took a deep breath. "Have you heard of one-percenters?"
She shook her head.
"Okay. It's said that ninety-nine percent of biker gangs are law-abiding citizens that just like to get together to ride together. There is that one percent, though. Those bikers are outlaws and they do all sorts of things that aren't right, like trafficking or smuggling drugs or other criminal activities. The Fallen Thorns - my gang - weren't always as good as we are now. We've changed a lot of things."
I watched her closely, hoping I could tell by her face when her opinion of me changed. I couldn't tell at all. Her face was an expressionless mask and she just nodded, listening to me speak.
"What did you used to do?"
I looked around. Admitting something like our past and letting the information finds its way to the wrong ears was dangerous for everyone, not just me. The restaurant was quiet with diners all around us paying attention only to their own company. "We smuggled drugs. We moved product every night with people on the lookout for police. We were the middle man between one buyer and another and we took a cut of the money."
She raised her eyebrows. "Enabling, then."
I nodded. It could be said that that was what we did.
"Did you ever use?"
I shook my head. "I'd seen too many people in my life get fucked up - sorry, messed up - completely from taking drugs. I will never get into that, and if any of my men do I will beat them until they're right back on the straight and narrow."
Her face softened despite my violent reaction and my accidental swearing. "You care about them a lot."
"Can you tell?"
"It really shows."
After everything I told her, that was what she took away from it? I was really starting to like this girl.
"What else do you want to know?"
She looked around the restaurant, sipping her cocktail and thinking.
"You mentioned that riches mean nothing when you don't have someone to share it with." Oh boy, here we go. "You didn't have anyone special in your life?"
I shook my head. I didn't really want to talk about May, but maybe it would be good for Selena to know about my psycho ex, just in case she made an appearance. "I had someone in my life while I was walking on the wrong side of the law. She was there before I hit it big before I bought into all the businesses. I thought we could build an empire together, you know? It's always so much more special when you've worked for it together."
She chewed slowly while I talked, listening. "That didn't last?" she asked after swallowing. I shook my head.
"She changed. She's crazy, and I don't mean that in a joking way. She's just not the kind of person who can accept the life I've chosen. She wasn't interested in straightening out and now that I have all this, she wants a cut without being willing to give up her ways for it."
Selena frowned. "It sounds like she's still in the picture."
I'd talked myself into a corner. It was this damn alcohol. I shrugged, trying to look like it didn't matter. "She's trying to be, but I won't let her. She's nothing to me anymore. She should never have been. I was young and stupid. I'm creeping closer to thirty now and I understand the value of life a lot more than I did before. We all make mistakes when we're young. Sometimes they just come back to haunt us."
She nodded and took carried on eating. I was nervous about the silence, scared that it meant she thought differently now. When she looked up at me again her eyes were bright.
"You know, you still haven't told me why you had children's DVDs under your name for that fine."
&nb
sp; She was smiling at me again and all the nerves about her changing her mind about me melted away. I didn't know how she did it, but she was able to look past my horrible past and the things that made me sound terrible and still see me as a person. There was something incredibly sexy about that.
"Are you done eating?" I asked when she put the knife and fork together on the plate. She nodded. I held out my hand to her across the table.
"Will you come to the back with me?"
She didn't hesitate before she took my hand. We got up and I led her to a door that led to the VIP area.
Chapter 9
Selena
The moment we passed through the door we were in some kind of VIP room. It had deep red walls and carpets to match so it looked like we were inside the chamber of a heart. Low black couches and coffee tables were scattered in groups across the floor and there were two bars to the side had black marble tops and the whole place seemed a whole lot more intense than the general dining area outside.
Logan locked the door. Why did a door to the VIP room even have a lock on it? This was where things were going to go from warm to hellishly hot, but I wasn't going to fight it. I'd had enough alcohol that I didn't feel shy around Logan and the way he moved in his suit when he came closer to me after closing the door gave me thoughts about what might be under his clothes.
He stood right in front of me and I could feel his body heat. His eyes were on mine and they were dark and drowning deep. I could tumble into them forever. I knew on some level that this was the alcohol talking. I didn't care. It could talk all night long if it wanted to. My nipples hardened against the strapless black bra I was wearing under my dress and I shifted my weight from one leg to the other.
Logan brought his hand up to my hair and ran his fingers through it, playing with a strand. His hand brushed against my neck when he did and it sent shivers down my spine.
He didn't wait. He leaned in and pressed his lips against mine. If I wanted to stop it I wouldn't have had time to, but I really didn't want to stop him. His lips were warm and full, perfect lips for kissing, and they tasted vaguely like the whiskey he'd been drinking. Whiskey and smoke even though he hadn't had a smoke since I'd arrived at the restaurant. I didn't know why, but there was something ridiculously attractive about the taste of alcohol on Logan's lips. It was almost like there was more at play than just his emotions. It made me feel like he might be rawer.
Like me.
I leaned into Logan and the kissing grew more urgent. His hand came up and he cupped my cheek, making my face feel delicate. His tongue was in my mouth, circling mine, tasting me. He knew exactly what he was doing. He stepped closer than he already was, pushing his body against mine completely. I felt his lust against my hip, a long, hard shaft. I shuddered.
He slid his other hand over my shoulder, down my arm, and to my hand. His fingers intertwined with mine for a moment before he let go and moved it to my hip. His hand slid over my ass, the back of my thigh and back up again, over my back and into my hair. The whole motion made me feel sexy and beautiful and it pulled my body even tighter against his. My breasts pushed up against his chest and I gasped into his mouth.
My body pulsed, heat flooding through my body, pooling between my legs, responding to the kissing, his body so taut against mine, the hardness in his pants. His hand slipped around from my cheek underneath my hair onto my neck. I put my arms around his neck, melding us together. I pushed my hands under his suit jacket and he stopped just long enough to shrug out of it.
The shirt he wore was a crisp white. I pulled off the tie and undid the front button so I could push my hands into his collar onto his bare skin. His breathing changed, getting harder and more erratic.
"Tell me to stop," he mumbled against my mouth.
"Hmm?"
"Tell me to stop. If you don't tell me now I'm going to take you."
I moaned against his mouth, my body reacting to his words. "Don't stop," I whispered.
That was what did it. It changed from something relatively gentle to being completely wild. He looked for the zipper on my dress and yanked it down when he found it. He peeled the dress off me until I stood in front of him in my black strapless bra and matching panties. He took a moment to look at my body, ogling like a boy before he pulled me closer again and started kissing me. He kissed down my neck, over my collarbone and onto the soft skin of my chest. His hands were behind my back and in a flash he had my bra unclipped and it fell to the floor without much help. The cool air made my nipples tighten even more, and the next moment Logan had his mouth over one nipple, sucking and nibbling gently.
I tipped my head back and gasped, getting lost in the sensation of his mouth turning on every other part of my body, awakening the side of me that had been dormant for far too long.
I realized at some point he was still dressed and reached for his buckle. I fumbled with it, trying to get it undone. After a while of fiddling, I pulled back.
"Can you just do this, please?" I had wanted it to be romantic but jealous wives invented buckles so mistresses went through hell and I hated them. Logan chuckled and took care of his own buckle. I undid his pants and pulled them down when he did. He stepped out of them. His sex strained against his jocks, pushing out toward me. I undid his buttons and returned the favor of mouth on skin, kissing a hot trail down his smooth chest and stomach. He got rid of the shirt. I curled my fingers around the jocks' elastic and pulled them away and down. He sprung free and, good God, he was a sight to behold.
Thick and hard, his balls heavy underneath his shaft the tip glistening with precum. I knelt down and opened my mouth, taking him inside of me. He moaned and pushed his hands into my hair, urging me to keep doing what I was doing. I moved up and down, swirling my tongue around him, licking the tip and moving back down, mimicking the motions of sex. I felt him harden in my mouth as I pushed in and pulled out.
After a while he pulled back and took my hand, pulling me up.
"You're driving me crazy," he said in a hoarse voice.
My body was on fire. Sucking him off had gotten me so wet I could feel it in my panties and I wanted attention. Logan seemed to know that without my say so. He pulled the panties down and pushed his fingers into me. I cried out.
"God, you're so wet," he mumbled in my ear.
His one arm was around my back, holding me up. The other was between my legs, fingers probing, sliding, returning to probing. I gasped, feeling the orgasm build inside of me. He didn't stop and I didn't pull away the way he had. The orgasm slowly coursed through me the way a cup was filled with hot water. I moaned, leaning into Logan's body. He held me up with his arm. Good thing, too, because my legs had stopped working. He moved back and forth over my clitoris, faster and harder, until I moaned. My back arched involuntarily, pushing into him even harder, and then the orgasm washed through me, making me curl into him. It reached all the way to my legs, making my body numb. I gasped and held my breath, riding it out. Logan moved his fingers slowly against me now, making it that much more intense. When the orgasm subsided I collapsed against his chest, panting.
"You're so fucking hot," he whispered in my ear.
He guided me to a couch. When my calves hit the side I let him lower me down onto my back. He crawled over me and my thighs fell open, ready for him. He positioned himself between them, his sex pressing at my entrance and I gasped. I lifted my hips slightly, giving myself to him. He looked at me, his eyes dark and stormy, pupils dilated, lips parted slightly.
When he pushed into me I moaned until he was in all the way to the hilt. My body stretched and yielded, trying to get used to his size. When he was sure I was comfortable he started moving and the friction was almost orgasmic straight away. I cried out as he pushed into me, my body rocking on the couch. He leaned on his arms, hands on either side of my head and it made his shoulders bunch up and the muscles ripple under his skin. I was already sensitive from the first orgasm and his pumping in and out of me took me to a new level of bliss.
"Sorry," I said, loosening my grip.
He shook his head. "Don't be."
His face took on a look of concentration and he started pumping into me again, moving faster than before, pushing in harder. I cried out, the friction that much more intense. His strokes shortened and he picked up a speed that seemed primal. He jerked and released inside of me, grunting through gritted teeth. His face was a mixture of strain and ecstasy, and then it was all over and he balanced over me, gasping, breathing hard.