“Sure. It’s been at least two weeks since I was so shit faced I couldn’t walk.”
A tall, thin, obviously Native American man walked up to the bar, sat on a stool, pulled Freckles to him, and sat her on his lap. “Shots for me, too. I haven’t met McGyver’s ol’lady yet.”
Iris’s head spun around and she met Danny’s eyes. Was she his ol’lady? Didn’t they have to do something before she could be called that?
“If Viper says you are, that means you are. He knows these things.”
The man she assumed was Viper laughed. “Bullshit, brother. Everyone here can see what she is by the way ya’ll look at each other.” He glanced around and lowered his voice. “Not to mention, your wolf feels like he might jump out and eat anyone who so much as looks at her sideways. Chill, brother. She’s safe here. She’s yours. We can all see it.”
Danny pointed her to a barstool and took the one beside her. “Didn’t realize my wolf was so obvious. I’ll rein him in a little more.”
“You haven’t brought her around us much. It’s to be expected.” He looked at Iris. “I’m glad you’re here. Now, enough talking, more drinking.”
Angelica had filled five shot glasses, and they all took one and downed it. They put them down, and Angelica straightened the line and expertly filled another round.
“You’ve done this before,” Iris noted as she lifted her glass and downed another shot. She felt the heat going down and spreading through her body, and leaned into Danny a little more.
“She has.” Matty stepped around the bar and bumped Angelica’s hip with his. “I was looking forward to some tea.”
“Grab the pitcher and ingredients, and I’ll mix some,” she told him. “I don’t wanna do Jäger all night.”
Angelica didn’t measure as she poured tequila, rum, vodka, gin, triple sec, and a splash of lemon juice, followed by an even smaller splash of cola. Iris was pretty sure it wasn’t supposed to be ninety percent alcohol and only ten percent fillers, but she didn’t argue.
Matty put the bottles away while Angelica scooped ice into six glasses and poured. The pitcher was huge, so there was no danger of running out with one or probably even two or three rounds.
Matty drank the entire glass, put it down, and looked to Iris. “Is it okay if I admit I’m going a little fangirl over here? I mean, if I could just sit in your closet, I think my life would be complete. And it isn’t just the fashion designers you choose, but the way you wear them — like, the way I think the designers meant for them to be worn.”
Iris put her hands over one of his. “Dear, dear Matty. We must get to know each other better.”
Danny growled beside her, but she didn’t even turn her head to look at him. “Matty’s gay, Danny. Get a grip. You haven’t met my friend Clay yet because he can’t keep a secret to save his life, but once my dad knows, you’ll have to put up with him.”
“Clay’s the one in France right now?”
“Paris, and yes. He’s a…” She looked at Matty. “He’s working for Louis Vuitton, as a designer. His dream job, and he speaks fluent French, so it all worked out.”
“How will I have to put up with him if he’s in Paris?” Danny asked.
“You know I flew to New York to spend the weekend with him a few weeks ago. He’ll fly home during Christmas. We text and Skype all the time.”
Danny poured her another shot of Jägermeister. “We’ll deal with it when I meet him. I’ll behave. Probably. It’s okay to cut up with Matty, too, but Viper wasn’t wrong about my inner animal being on edge. It’s okay. My problem. I’ll deal.” He looked to Matty and back to her. “Matty designs houses, or rooms, or… something.”
Matty smiled. “I’m an interior designer.”
“And he races motorcycles,” Angelica said. “Hang on.” She grabbed her phone, clicked something, and said, “Matthew Gibson,” into it. A few more clicks, and she aimed her phone so Iris could see, and she was confronted by a lime green motorcycle way high in the air, with a string of motorcycles behind him — but not the kind Danny rode, this one was made for off roading. Also, it looked like he was in a stadium, and not outside.
“Scroll through them.” Angelica was smiling as if there was some kind of joke, and Iris understood when she scrolled.
A shirtless Matty on the bike, holding his helmet as if he’d just stopped to take a break and get something to drink, looking damned hot and not at all gay.
“Damn, Matty. Razor is a lucky, lucky man.”
Angelica laughed and grinned at Danny. “She knew just the right thing to say. Chill, Mac. She’s yours, even if there was a teeny bit of lust.”
“Clay’s dad made him take martial arts for a few years. He can look badass when he wants, but Matty’s outdone himself.”
“Where did you meet him?” Danny asked.
“Monte Carlo, at a party. We hit it off. Soul mates who are both interested in boys. He went to the Fashion Institute in New York, and I used to spend a lot of time in the city, so it worked out. I spent about half my summer in Paris, before school started this year. I have some other friends there I could hang out with while he worked. Daddy likes him.” Because he comes from money, but Iris didn’t add that part. Instead, she told them, “Clay had his wild years, but he’s gotten serious about his career. He parties, but stays away from the heavy drugs, so Daddy approves.”
She drank down the rest of her Long Island Iced Tea and set it back down in front of Angelica. “You’re an engineer, where did you go to school?”
“I have a Master’s degree from MIT. I needed the time up north, to figure out who I am away from my dad, but I’m so happy to be back in The South.”
“Wow. Impressive. What does your dad do?”
Angelica looked to Danny and back to Iris. “He’s the president of the RTMC chapter in Atlanta, and has been as long as I can remember. I thought I needed to get away from the club, and I’m glad I did while I was figuring out who I am, because it let me come back as my own woman.” She shrugged. “He taught me how cars and bikes work. He gave me my love of mechanical things. I’m a biker’s daughter and a biker’s wife, and I’m happy.”
“I can tell. I’m also impressed your father let you go so far away. My dad wants me close enough he can get to me in two hours by jet.”
“He taught me to take care of myself, plus…” She shrugged. “No one wants to kidnap me. It’s different. I needed to be a civilian a while, so I could better appreciate the club when I came back. Bash is my world, and we might never have hooked up if I’d stayed in Atlanta.”
“Where are you from?” Angelica asked Freckles.
“Middle of nowhere Kentucky,” Viper answered for her. “And with that, I believe I’m going to carry her off and have my way with her.” He looked at Freckles. “Unless you want another shot first?”
She shook her head, and he stood with her in his arms and walked away.
Matty sat in the seat they’d vacated, and Harmony walked over with someone else who was clearly of Native American descent — a knock-down gorgeous woman, this time. They had their arms around each other, obviously close.
“Hailey, this is Iris. Iris, this is Hailey. I don’t think you’ve met Ghost yet, but she belongs to him.”
The woman looked familiar, and Iris had downed a lot of alcohol, but she should know…
“No. Not Hailey, you’re—”
Harmony stepped forward and shook her head, interrupting. “Here, she’s just Hailey. No stage names in the clubhouse.”
Iris smiled at Suli. Hailey. “We’ve met before, though you may not remember. I had kind of a fling with Lord Byran.” She shrugged. “He’s Will to me now, even though it only lasted a few weeks. I’ll get used to thinking of you as Hailey, too.”
Hailey looked at her a few seconds, and finally nodded. “Europe, though I don’t recall the city. Paris, maybe?”
“Yes, and I followed him to Madrid and around Europe a little. We were in London when I decided life on the r
oad wasn’t for me.” She shrugged. “My father wasn’t amused, but he didn’t order me home. Still not sure what was up with that.”
Danny’s growl was more wolf than human, and it raised every hair on her body. She met his gaze and lifted her chin, though her instinct was to lower her eyes. “Total honesty, right? I fucked him, but that’s in my past. We talked about this. We’ve both been with a helluva lot of people, and the past is the past.”
“That was when I didn’t know any of those people. Wouldn’t have to face them.”
“How many people in this room have you fucked? People I will have to face? I haven’t asked, because I don’t want to know the answer, but my guess is that you’ve fucked my roommate.” Finally, she looked down. “Don’t tell me if you have. It was before I was back in your life, and I’ll deal,” she looked back up and met his gaze again, “but you can’t stand there and get pissed because I fucked Will!”
“The wolf isn’t logical. I’ll deal, but he isn’t happy.”
He was trying, so she told him, “I signed a nondisclosure, which means I can’t tell you what happened, but suffice it to say, there’s never a chance of us getting back together.”
Hailey touched Danny’s arm. “I didn’t sign anything, so I can tell you he wrote Blue Eyes when she left. Listen to the lyrics sometime. She left him. You don’t have to worry that she’s still in love with him or anything.”
Iris needed them to change the subject. She’d walked away because Will was bisexual and was clear he’d never be happy with one woman. He was looking for a poly group. The perfect poly group, because he wanted at least one woman and one man, so he could have sex with both. She’d cared about him, could have easily grown to love him, but he was clear that he’d never be monogamous with one person.
And then her prince had called, so she’d left Will and gone back to him, because he claimed to want only her. He hadn’t just wanted her, though. He’d wanted a wife to show off, and a harem of women at the end of the hall.
How could that still be a thing? His father had a harem, and everyone who was told about them signed nondisclosure agreements, so the press didn’t know.
And Iris wasn’t going to tell because it would hurt the women in his harem if she did. Otherwise, she’d figure out a way to tell without anyone knowing it was her.
She looked at Danny. “We both have a past. Can we talk about something else?”
“You’re sad.”
“Yes, but mostly because of what happened after I left Will.”
“When are you going to tell me about it?”
“Already have. I went from Will to the prince, and I told you about him even with the nondisclosure agreements in place, but that’s different. Will wasn’t an asshole, it just didn’t work.”
“You going to try to make me sign one of those?”
She shook her head. “No. My dad might, at some point, but it won’t come from me.”
Her glass was full again, so she drank some more. She didn’t mean to down half of it in one go, but it was really good.
“You didn’t measure when you made this, but it kicks ass. Is there a recipe you can give me?” she asked Harmony.
“Yeah. Equal parts gin, vodka, tequila, white rum, and triple sec. The lemonade I use is way too sugary to drink by itself, but it needs the sweet and the lemon to make it work. I just use enough Coke to turn it the right color. If I can’t get this brand of lemonade, I melt a half-cup of sugar in a cup of water ahead of time and add it in with the juice of one lemon.”
“And white rum instead of the regular stuff is important,” said Matty. “We ran out once and used normal rum, and…” He shuddered.
Iris heard a commotion, and looked over to see a girl over Razor’s lap, her bottom bared, getting a hand spanking. She looked to Matty, who was also watching, and noted he needed to rearrange his jeans. She turned to Danny, but he was across the bar with his arm around Harmony, who was leaned into him with her eyes closed.
“I’m okay,” Harmony told him. “Fun spanking. I’m good.” She met Danny’s gaze, and he rubbed her back.
“She doesn’t do so good with certain kinds of violence,” Danny told Iris. “She’s good now, but Brain’s headed this way, so I’ll hold her until he gets here. No biggie.”
“How’d you get to her so fast?”
“Went over the bar. I take it you’ve seen people get over-the-knee spankings before? You seemed to take it in stride.”
“I told you, I’ve been to elite BDSM clubs in Europe, so yeah, I’ve seen worse.”
“You said you’d spent most of the summer in Paris. Do you speak French?”
She nodded, and he asked, “Any other languages?”
“I’m fluent in French, and I can manage enough Italian to handle restaurants, hotels, airports, and basic social conversations. With those two plus my native English, I can talk to most everyone in Europe.” She shrugged. “Mom spoke Hungarian, and I know a little, but not enough to really speak of.”
“You spent time in Milan with your mom, right?”
She’d loved being out of the country with her mom when her father wasn’t around. They’d been more like big sister and little sister than mother and daughter. She blew out a breath and tried not to be sad. Danny would smell it and feel bad.
“Yes, and I learned Italian while I was there. It’s a child’s vocabulary though. Not an adult’s. I’ve visited enough to keep it up, but I wouldn’t call myself fluent.”
Brain stepped behind the bar and Danny handed Harmony off to him.
“Really, guys,” Harmony told the men, “I’m okay. I wasn’t for a few seconds, but as soon as I realized what was up, it was fine.”
The spanking had stopped, and Iris looked again to see Razor leaned back on the sofa, and the girl kneeling between his legs, giving him a blowjob. She looked at Matty, who had his back to the room, talking to Angelica and another man in an RTMC vest.
And suddenly, Iris wasn’t okay with it. Razor and Matty were supposed to be together. In a relationship. She was about to say something when Danny pulled her to him. “They have an agreement. Matty’s fine with Razor fucking girls at the clubhouse, so long as they talk about it and he doesn’t hide it from Matty. I’ve promised you monogamy, and you’ll get it.”
She looked back to Matty, and then did a doubletake at who’d just walked up to him.
“Austin?”
He turned to look at her, and gave her a sad smile. “Iris. I didn’t think you’d remember me. How are you doing?”
She felt Danny go stiff beside her, and Austin seemed to go on guard. “I didn’t fuck her,” he told Danny. “If I thought there was a chance she’d have remembered me, I’d have told you I’d met her.” He looked to Iris and back to Danny. “Ya’ll know I dated a supermodel in New York for a while, and I hung out with that crowd before, during, and after my time with her. Iris came to some of those parties with her mom.” He sighed. “And some of them without her mom, but she was too young and really shouldn’t have been there.”
He was the most beautiful man Iris had ever met back then, and he still fit the bill. Everyone had wanted him, though, despite the fact he was clearly on the rebound. She’d elected not to join the chase, thank goodness, since it sounds like he wouldn’t have been interested. Funny, most of the men she’d ended up with had liked the fact she was so young. She snuck to a handful of parties at seventeen, and then had been able to go without sneaking once she was eighteen.
“I’m Dawg now, not Austin. It’s good to see you again. You look happy with our McGyver.”
She grinned. “Dawg fits. How’d you end up here?”
“Long story, but this is my family now.” He looked at Danny. “Seriously, brother. I didn’t think the fact I’d seen her from a distance at a few parties mattered. I had no idea she’d recognize me.”
“And he’s tried to put that part of his life behind him,” Angelica said, almost as if she were reminding them. She looked to Dawg. “Go fin
d a sweetbutt to fuck. I’m sorry you’re sad.”
He shook his head. “Not sure that’s the direction I want to go. I think I’ll go for a ride.”
“Hang on. Let me tell Bash where I’m going, and I’ll come with. I rode my bike here.”
When they were gone, she asked Danny, “Am I going to be that close to the other bikers? Like Angelica and Dawg?”
He shook his head. “Not like them, no. Special case. You may be close to some of them, though. Sometimes, ol’ladies are only close to the brothers her ol’man is the closest to, but sometimes they bond with other brothers on their own.” He looked around. “Some nights we have mostly couples in the clubhouse, and the sweetbutts are scarce. Other nights, it’s more single brothers than attached ones, and the sweetbutts have their own little parade. It’s a mix, tonight. One of the pool tables is open — you wanna play?”
Iris’s father had taught her a few fun skills — how to shoot, how to swim, and how to play pool. If she’d wanted to, she probably could’ve made it to the Olympics as a swimmer, but she didn’t want to wake up early and swim before class. She’d won all kinds of skeet shooting awards, and she could run a pool table.
Two hours later, she’d played more games than she cared to count, and hadn’t lost yet. It turned out to be a good way to meet the brothers of the RTMC.
She beat Duke, and Danny stepped forward as the eight ball fell into the hole she’d just called. “I think it’s time I took my Blueberry downstairs.” He brushed his hand down the side of her face. “Maybe a few more shots of Jägermeister, first?”
“You know I’m a sure thing. You don’t have to get me drunk.”
She said it louder than she meant, which reminded her she was still quite tipsy from everything she’d drank with Harmony. Not so drunk she couldn’t play pool, but not at all sober.
“And yet, I think I want to.”
She took inventory of her body and her reactions. “I could do two or three more shots.”
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