Sydney Storm MC Complete Series

by Levine, Nina

  “Fuck, you’re beautiful.” Possibly not the best use of my time with her, but it captured her attention.

  Her eyes lit up and she arched her back a little, which forced her tits closer to me. Biting her lip, she smiled and said, “And you’re hot as sin and just as dangerous, I bet.”

  I had to fight with myself not to touch her. She was so damn close and so fucking sexy. Even in her sweaty just-performed state, she was sexy as hell to me. Images of her with sweat-slicked skin, her long hair stuck to it, hit me, and I groaned.

  “What time do you finish tonight?”

  “In about an hour or so. Why?”

  “Because I’m buying you a drink tonight, and you’re not gonna argue with me this time.” I moved my mouth to her ear. “I don’t give a fuck if you’re kinda seeing someone. You spend some time with me, and I’ll show you what it’s like to not ever wanna flirt with any man but the man you’re seeing.”

  I pulled my face away from hers and took in how her eyes had widened a fraction and the way her breathing had slowed. Her mouth formed a small O before she finally said, “I hate to break it to you, bossman, but I can’t hang around tonight.”

  “Tomorrow then.” Bossman. I fucking liked it.

  “Nope, can’t do that either.”

  “Pick a day, gorgeous, and I’ll be here. But no way in hell am I taking no for an answer.”

  She stayed silent for a beat before exhaling a long breath. “I’m not trying to fob you off. I really do have stuff on tonight and tomorrow.”

  “You got a date tonight?”

  “You just don’t give up, do you?”

  I pressed my body harder against hers. “No.”

  Staring at me, in what I presumed was either bewilderment or frustration, she ran her fingers through her hair and said, “I don’t have a date tonight. The guy I’m seeing is actually out of town for a week or so. I have to go home and look after my grandmother tonight. She fell yesterday and hurt herself, so she needs someone there as often as possible to help her.”

  Her words wound themselves around me with an unfamiliar emotion. It was a mixture of happy surprise and respect. I didn’t meet many people who commanded those emotions from me, so it felt a little surreal.

  “You live with your grandmother?”

  “Yes. Why?”

  I smiled. “It’s not often I meet people who live with their grandparents.”

  “Well, my grandfather was an asshole, so I never had anything to do with him. My grandmother lived with my parents, but when my dad died six months ago, I knew I couldn’t leave her with my mum, so I moved her in with me.”

  “Your family sounds like it might be as dysfunctional as mine.”

  She checked her watch before glancing back up at me with a look of regret. “I really need to get a drink and freshen up before we go back on.”

  I placed my hand on her waist to keep her with me, half expecting her to pull out of my hold. She didn’t, though, so I kept my hand there. “Name a day, Hailee.”

  I could have sworn her body swayed against mine when she said, “Sunday afternoon, around three. I’ll meet you here for a drink.”

  I let her go. “I’ll see you then.”

  As I watched her go, I realised she was the first woman in years I’d hounded for a date. Not that she’d probably call it a date, but I was going to. As far as I was concerned, our drink on Sunday would be the end of whatever the fuck she had going on with the guy she was seeing. And the beginning of something with me.

  Hailee

  “Miss Hailee, how are you today?”

  I smiled at the man who stood behind the counter of the convenience store waiting for my reply. “I’m good. And you, Avi? I was worried about you yesterday.” I had been visiting this store at least once a day since my grandmother and I moved in to a house up the road six months ago. Avi and his wife, Preena, had become my friends in that time, and I’d been concerned when neither of them had been at the store the day before.

  He waved away my worry. “Preena took ill, so I stayed home to look after her. She’s much better today.”

  “I’m glad to hear that.” I scribbled my phone number on a piece of paper from my bag and handed it to him. “I want you to call me if you ever need help with anything.” I knew they had no family close by and not many friends. They’d called a friend in yesterday, but I wasn’t sure how many people they had to rely on, so I wanted to help them in any way I could.

  Avi gave me a huge smile. “Thank you, Miss Hailee. You have been very good to us.”

  “I haven’t really done anything.”

  His eyes widened. “You have been like family to me and Preena. We can never thank you enough.”

  Sure, I’d helped them a few times when they’d been run off their feet, and I’d done a few other things here and there for them, but I didn’t see this the same way he did. However, it made me feel like I may have done some good if he felt the way he did, so I gave him a smile and said, “There’s no need to thank me, Avi. It’s what friends do for each other.”

  His phone rang, drawing him away from our conversation, so I turned to make my way to the fridges to grab some milk. I ran smack bang into a hard chest and a chuckle. Looking up, I found Devil smiling down at me.

  “The places I run into you,” he murmured, seemingly happy that he had.

  Pleasure at seeing him again ran through me, but I did my best to contain it. That was proving harder to do each time I saw him. The man was smoking hot and a huge flirt. He’d been wearing his cut tonight, which he hadn’t previously, so I discovered he was a member of the Storm MC. That should have been a warning, but it wasn’t. When I’d told him earlier that I’d meet for a drink in two days, I’d meant it.

  “Do you live around here?” As soon as I said it, I realised it was probably a dumb question. The convenience store was just down the road from the pub, so he was probably on his way home.

  “Yeah, about two blocks that way,” he said, pointing in the direction of his home. “Do you live close, too?”

  I pointed in the opposite direction to his home. “I’m about a twenty-minute walk that way.”

  “You’re walking home?” He seemed concerned, and my belly somersaulted at that. Having a man worry over me was something I hadn’t experienced in years.

  Stop it, Hailee. You have Wayne.

  “Yeah, my car’s out of rego and I can’t afford to pay for it for about two weeks, so I’m currently walking everywhere.” I smiled as I added, “It’s great exercise.” It irritated me that I always felt the need to tell people it was great exercise when I had to tell them why I couldn’t drive. But I was a little embarrassed about not being able to afford all my bills, and I deflected with the exercise comment.

  “Fuck, it’s not safe for you to be walking these streets at night.”

  “My brother sometimes drives me home, but he had to work tonight.”

  “And he’s happy for you to walk?” He sounded incredulous.

  “I may have told him I would cab it home.” Aaron would hit the roof if he knew I walked home, but he also didn’t know what it was like to be dirt poor. He was never short of cash. I could have asked him for a loan, but I didn’t want to get even further behind in my bills.

  “Right, grab your stuff and I’ll walk you home,” he said, taking charge in a bossy tone that, as much as I didn’t want to admit, I liked. However, I’d never tell him that.

  “I’m fine. I’m a big girl and I’ve done this walk many times in my life.”

  His eyes flashed with determination. “I know, but I don’t care. Tonight you’re doing it with me.”

  I stared at him. “We’ve just met and you wanna boss me around already?”

  His eyes didn’t let mine go. “Darlin’, I’m betting you like me bossing you around. And to be honest, I like you arguing with me over it, so by all means, keep giving it to me, because I’ll just keep giving it back.”

  He wasn’t kidding. I didn’t know him, bu
t I figured that much about him so far. He didn’t bullshit. I reached for a basket and yanked it up. “Oh, for God’s sake,” I muttered as if I was annoyed, but I wasn’t. He was right—I liked the back and forth with him. But at the same time, I had an independent streak a mile wide, and no way in hell would I go down easily.

  Without waiting for him, I walked to the fridges and grabbed milk and butter. I then stocked up on bread, Earl Grey teabags, and Tim Tams. My grandmother had an afternoon routine that consisted of tea and Tim Tams, and she’d be cranky if I forgot either of them tonight, because we’d run out during the day.

  Devil stuck close behind me, but let me shop in silence. His presence alone caused a rush of butterflies in my tummy, though, and that put me off my game to the point that I dropped both the teabags and the Tim Tams while attempting to put them in my basket. And then when I bent to retrieve them, he did too, and we butted heads.

  However, while I was in a state of nervous energy over it, he didn’t appear to notice, being completely engrossed in concern for me. Reaching out, he placed his hand on my forehead. “You okay?”

  “I’m fine.” My voice was all breathy. God, what was happening to me tonight? I was like a damn schoolgirl around him.

  I took the groceries out of his hand and dumped them in the basket before stalking back to the counter. I knew I was being all kinds of rude, but my thoughts and emotions were in a state of turmoil.

  Confused as fuck was where I was at. Which was pretty much how I’d been since I’d met him. From that very first conversation we had in the back of Aaron’s car, I’d been attracted to him. But I didn’t want to be. I wanted to want Wayne, the predictable guy. However, I couldn’t help myself around Devil. I flirted back every time he flirted. And I said yes to drinks before my brain caught up with my body. I was helpless to stop myself. The excitement I felt when he came near me was unlike anything I’d experienced before.

  I paid for my items and chatted with Avi briefly before exiting the store. The summer heat hit me the moment I stepped foot outside, and I groaned my annoyance. Summer could fuck off; give me winter any day.

  “Here, let me carry that,” Devil said as he came up behind me and took the bag of groceries from me.

  And there he went, surprising me by doing something most men I met didn’t. “Old school manners. I like it,” I said with a smile.

  He fell into step with me as I walked along the footpath. “You don’t make it through a childhood in a good catholic family without learning some manners along the way.”

  “Oh God, you too? The way you say ‘make it through’ leads me to believe you may have only just survived it.”

  He chuckled. “I made it through, but I’m not sure you could say I survived it.”

  “Same. Ruth Archer is not a woman you survive.”

  “That’s your mum?”

  “Yeah. She was a stay-at-home mother who excelled in all things wifely. Cooking, cleaning, raising a perfect family. She tried so hard to shape me to become just like her. Unfortunately, she failed, and all I became was one constant disappointment to her.”

  “So you’re telling me you’re not good at cooking and cleaning? I’m gonna have to rethink this whole chasing you thing now.” The grin he watched me with almost caused me to trip over my own damn feet.

  “If cooking and cleaning are what you’re after, you’ve come to the wrong woman.” I wanted to smack myself for flirting with him. Why the hell was I encouraging him?

  “Darlin’, cooking and cleaning can be learnt. The thing you have that I want can’t be. I’m definitely not chasing the wrong woman.”

  I couldn’t be sure, but I think my mouth dropped open at that. I wanted to shove it closed, but I was flat-out concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other while remembering to draw breath while I did it.

  Finally, my brain caught up with my thoughts, and in an effort to change the subject, I blurted, “Tell me about your parents.”

  He didn’t reply straight away. Instead, he took a moment before saying, “I haven’t seen them for fifteen years. My father was ex-navy and strict, and my mother just went along with whatever he said. I loved her, but after a while, you wonder how you can love someone who allows bad shit to happen to their child.”

  I could hear the pain in his voice. His tone had turned from fun to hard, and it made me wonder what happened to him in his childhood. Devil had to be just over thirty, so fifteen years away from his parents would mean he left home in his teens.

  The nurturer in me took over and I reached for his arm. I was never under the illusion I could fix things for people or take away their hurt, but the need to soothe compelled me to offer my touch. This often caused me trouble; a lot of people weren’t comfortable with it and told me so. Or sometimes they didn’t say anything, but they drew away from me.

  Devil was different. He glanced down at my hand on his arm and then met my gaze. He didn’t pull away and he didn’t tell me to remove my hand. Rather, he said, “You wanna keep that up, I might not be able to restrain myself for much longer.”

  Although the street we walked along was lit only by the occasional streetlight, I could see the heat in his eyes. Or maybe it was that I could sense it, feel it. Devil didn’t seem to be the kind of man to hide his feelings. They blazed brightly for all to see. I bet that most of the time he didn’t even have to speak—his body language would probably be enough to convey his thoughts and emotions.

  “I think you’re lying,” I said.

  “How so?”

  “Well, I know you’ve got manners and I know you were raised in a strict family, so I’m guessing that for all your talk, you’re actually a man who can restrain himself and who treats women with respect. I don’t think you’d ever make a move on a woman unless she signalled her readiness.”

  “And you don’t think you’ve already signalled your readiness?”

  I shook my head in mock exasperation. “I knew I shouldn’t encourage you.”

  “And yet you did. That tells me everything I want to know, darlin’.”

  I didn’t want to encourage him any further, so I shut up and walked the last few metres to my home in silence. Devil seemed to clue on to what I was doing and met my silence with that bloody grin of his that seemed to be permanently painted on his face.

  He followed me up the few stairs we had to the front door and then down the hallway into the kitchen where he placed the groceries on the counter before saying, “For the record, you just looking at me encourages me, Hailee. But when you speak, it’s like a whole other world I never knew opens up, and I want in on that world. And I don’t give a fuck if that makes me sound like a fucking pussy. It’s the truth.”

  My heart sped up to the point that I thought it would beat its way out of my chest. No man had ever said something like that to me before. My words sat in a big fat mess on my tongue, and I struggled with arranging them in a manner that they’d make sense if I said them.

  My grandmother saved me the trouble of having to get my shit together when she entered the kitchen and cut in on our conversation. “It does make you sound like a fucking pussy, but hell if I wouldn’t have fallen for that when I was Hailee’s age. She’d be a damn fool not to give you a chance.”

  Oh. God.

  Jean Archer had a way with words, that was for damn sure.

  Devil chuckled as he glanced at her. “I can see where Hailee gets her sass from.”

  Without thinking, I flung my hand out and lightly smacked him on the chest. Our eyes met as I said, “I’m nowhere near as sassy as my grandmother, thank you.”

  His chuckle turned into a belly laugh and he grabbed my hand before I could pull it back. Holding it against his chest, he said, “Maybe I should take your grandmother out for a drink on Sunday instead.”

  It was my turn to laugh. “She’d probably love that.” I turned to her. “You do love your gin after all.”

  Devil’s hand on mine was doing crazy shit to my body, and I attempted
to pull away, but he shook his head and mouthed, “No” before looking at my grandmother again. “How about it, Gran? You up for drinks with me and Hailee on the weekend?”

  She narrowed her eyes at him and tsked. “I know what you’re doing, young man. Trying to get into my granddaughter’s pants through me. You’re shit out of luck there, though. You want in, you’re gonna have to do the work yourself.”

  I couldn’t believe she’d just said that. But I should have, because she’d never been one to beat around the bush in her life. Well, except when it came to my mother. She’d beaten around that bush for decades.

  “Jesus, Gran,” I muttered as I pulled my hand away from Devil’s. “Do you have to be so to the point?”

  She scowled at me as she hobbled around the kitchen with her cane. Her seventy-five years were catching up to her, and she was slowly starting to lose her health, but she had her wits about her still. “Life’s too damn short to fuck around, my dear. More people should just say it like it is, and then we’d all know where we stand.” I knew this was coming from all those years of her trying like hell to get my mother to like her, with no success. The minute my mother turned on her completely after my father died, Gran hardened a little more and began speaking bluntly to everyone. I usually appreciated it, but with Devil, for some reason, I felt a little ruffled that she’d speak so openly to him.

  I shouldn’t have been concerned, though. He took it in his stride. Even seemed to welcome it. “Life is too damn short to fuck around. I agree. And yes, I was trying to get into Hailee’s pants through you, but I see that’s not going to work for me here. I appreciate the heads up. I’ll shift gears now and try other avenues.”

  Gran nodded. I shook my head. “Really? You two are gonna stand here and talk about me as if I’m not even in the room?”

  “Feel free to leave,” my grandmother said.

  Devil’s lips twitched in amusement. “I’m gonna leave you two alone now. Maybe your grandmother can talk some sense into you,” he said with a wink.