Chapter Three
fucking wink. Not with Neva lying next to me too fucking close for comfort.
I glance over at her as she finishes her makeup. Not that she needs it. She’s a natural beauty. The kind of girl who could ruin a man. Especially me. She’s off-limits. Untouchable. But, fuck me if she doesn’t set my blood on fire every time we are in the same room.
Sleeping Laying next to her nearly killed me.
I never looked at Neva as anything other than an annoying brat until last summer when she came home for a few months. It was as though I was seeing her for the first time as a woman. Even her voice had changed. When she said my name, it sounded like smoke mixed with sugar. Sweet and dangerous. Sultry. The way she said it signed my death warrant then and there, and I knew there was no way in hell I could ever allow myself to go there.
Devil Knight raised me. Treated me like his own.
He’s made it no secret that no one is good enough for Neva.
He damn sure wouldn’t want her with me.
Fuck me, just being this close to her is killing me. The scent of her perfume wraps around me like a vanilla and cinnamon hug.
But there’s nothing innocent about her.
Hair red as blood. Plump, heart-shaped lips. Green eyes that sparkle like emeralds framed by long, thick lashes. She’s not big-chested or thick-waisted. She’s on the petite side, but she’s fiery and sassy as hell. And I know from personal experience from when we were kids, she packs one hell of a punch. I used to have to get between her and Storm.
Those two would go round and round. Fought like crazy, but no one else best not say a word about the other. They’d kill for one another. They get that fierce sense of loyalty from their old man.
I should wait downstairs or at least in the living room, but every time I try to force myself to leave her room, something stops me. Like if I let her out of my sight, she’ll disappear.
She wrestles with her suitcase, trying to get it to shut. She’s jam-packed it full of shit. Crap, she most likely doesn’t even need. She’s only staying for two weeks at the most.
Her room isn’t what I expected. It’s nothing like her room back home. Here everything is white and gray with some hints of red sprinkled in here and there. It’s mature. Her old room is bubblegum pink. Like someone splashed Pepto-Bismol on the walls.
“Think you’ve got enough shit stuffed in there?”
She shoves something else into the suitcase out of fucking spite. Lucky for her, I’m not on my bike or she’d be doing good to bring a backpack. She wiggles around, pushing her clothes around, exposing her sexy underwear.
If she doesn’t stop staring at me with that cute little pixie smirk on her face, I’m going to catch fire and combust.
She sits on the black hardshell case and bounces on it. Her small tits jiggle, and her wide-neck sweater slips down her shoulder, revealing her bare skin. She’s not wearing a bra.
My mind flashes with thoughts of yanking her sweater over her head and getting my mouth on her nipples. Tasting her flesh. Doing every filthy thing that’s been running through my mind since I walked through her door.
She doesn’t realize how utterly and devastatingly sexy she looks right now. Pure sin. Pure temptation.
“Think you can zip this?”
“Yeah, sure.” I scrub a palm over my face. I shouldn’t be having such dirty thoughts about the Prez’s daughter, but the truth is since last summer, I’ve not been able to get her out of my mind.
When I was fucking Tawny, it was Neva I was thinking about. When she’d wrap her lips around my cock and suck, I was thinking about my redheaded magnet for trouble and not the blonde bombshell I was with.
If Storm knew I jacked off in the shower nearly every morning to thoughts of his bratty sister, he’d put a bullet between my eyes.
I lean down to get a grip on the zipper. Fuck. Our bodies are centimeters apart.
I swallow hard, trying to resist the compulsion to taste those ruby red lips.
“Get up. There’s something stuck.”
“Sure.” Her minty breath fans across my face. She slides forward, dropping onto the bed as I step back. She’s eye level with my crotch. In the perfect position to blow me. The muscles in my jaw twitch. Her lipstick would look good staining my dick. She gets off the bed, and I want to throw her down on it and take what I want. I reach around her, pulling a red lacy scrap of fabric out of the teeth of the zipper.
The sight of the thong has me thinking about her standing before me in nothing else. My dick hardens. “Found your problem.”
“Thanks.” She snatches her underwear and stuffs them back in the case.
“If you can take this, I can get Mr. Tinkles in his carrier.” She pulls the zipper closed and yanks the case off the bed.
“We dropping him off with a pet sitter or some shit?”
“No, he goes where I go.”
“No one said anything about hauling a fur ball around,” I gripe.
Her gaze narrows on me. “Don’t be a dick.” Her bottom lip juts out, and she gives me a look I can’t resist.
“Whatever you say, Bean.”
A heavy thump sounds at the front door. “Neva, you here? I just want to talk.”
“Ugh.” She scrunches her nose.
“Friend of yours?”
She shakes her head and marches toward the front door of her apartment. I trail after her. I don’t see her roommate or her boyfriend. Loud ass fucks are probably sleeping like the dead after they fucked like rabbits all night and kept half the town up.
Gotta say I’m jealous. I spent my night staring at the ceiling, listening to Neva breathe, wishing like hell I was anywhere else. Because being next to her like that is fucking torture. Hell on Earth.
She swings the door open, catching it with her foot. Some gothy punk rock looking dipshit stands on the other side looking like he just crawled out of his grandma’s basement. He’s pale with bleached hair. Piercings and tattoos. Not the kind of guy I’d expect to see her date.
“What do you want, Derrick?”
“I’m sorry, okay. Can we just talk?”
“There’s nothing to talk about. I know you fucked that groupie skank.”
“Nothing happened. I swear.”
“I don’t want to see you. Ever.”
I step up behind Neva, and I don’t know what possesses me to do it, but I snake an arm around her waist and draw her body into mine. “Is this asshole bothering you?”
Neva looks back and up at me. I smirk and lick my lips, ready to cross a line. Ready to claim those heart-shaped lips that boil my blood.
“Who the fuck is this guy?”
My gaze snaps to the clown. “Your worst nightmare if I see you sniffing around my girl again.”
“You’re with this guy?”
“I told you once, fuckface. I won’t repeat myself.” I release Neva and step around her. The idiot looks me up and down, realizing I can easily kick his ass.
“Whatever.” He stomps toward the elevator.
I close the door, and Neva is staring at me. “What?”
“I had it handled.”
“Don’t tell me you like that doofus?”
“I liked his band.” She laughs.
The thought of her being anywhere near a guy like that pisses me off. It shouldn’t. Who Neva fucks is none of my business, but the idea of her being with anyone shreds my insides.
I need to get her to Blackwood and out of my thoughts. Being here with her like this is fucking with my head.
“I’ll grab your pussy.”
“What?” she blinks.
“Your cat.”
“Oh. Right.” Blush stains her cheeks, and I’d do just about anything to keep it there.
I should’ve come here first without Neva, but we need to get on the road if we’re going to beat that fucking storm before it blows in with that arctic air from Canada, and travel becomes even more of a nightmare. Prez would rip off my nuts and keep them in a jar on his desk if he knew I slept in Neva’s bed last night. It’s not like it was by choice. I was bone tired, and I really didn’t want to find a motel or stay at Diesel’s shithole he calls a clubhouse. The only reason he’s still operating is because he’s Devil’s half-brother. I glance over at her in the truck. She’s on her phone, and I wonder if she’s texting that loser from this morning.
I’m freezing my fucking balls off waiting for Diesel to come to the door. When I swung by the clubhouse, they said he was at his baby mama’s place. She lives in the lower-income apartments on the shitty side of town. I’m not taking my eyes off my surroundings. If something happens to Neva under my watch, I’m as good as dead.
I don’t trust this stupid fuck, but whatever happens to him and his chapter of the club isn’t my call.
Fucking finally the asshole comes out. I don’t want to hand him the money out in the open. “Let’s take a ride around the block.”
He glances at the truck, sees Neva and relaxes.
“If Prez was sending me to take you out, I wouldn’t do it with Neva here to watch, yeah?”
“Right,” he mutters. Diesel may be Prez’s brother, but that doesn’t make him immune to his wrath if he doesn’t stop fucking around and investing in dirty deals. He’s an idiot, but he’s smart enough to know that he’s on thin ice.
Desperate men do desperate things, and Prez should force Neva to move home or far enough away that when the time comes Diesel gets desperate, she’s not within his reach.
We get in the vehicle, and Neva smiles at the sight of her uncle sliding into the seat behind mine. “Hey, baby girl. You doing alright?”
Meow.
“What the fuck? Do you know you’ve got a cat back here?”
He doesn’t have to remind me that Neva has that fur ball strapped in the back like a toddler. She even has a litter box on the floorboard. But guess it is better than him shitting in his carrier. She loves that fucking gray ball of fluff as though it were her child.
“That’s Mr. Tinkles.”
“What kind of name is that?”
“That’s what I said.” I pull back onto the street and wait until we’re a block over. “Neva, grab that envelope out of the glove box and hand it to Diesel.” She does as she’s told without question. She knows not to get involved in club business. “From Devil.”
“Give him my thanks.”
“You want dropped back at the apartments or somewhere else?”
“Apartment. Gotta pay my child support.” He chuckles.
Fucking hell. This motherfucker. We drop Diesel at the corner of the next street.
“Do you need to make any stops before we start this adventure?”
“I could go for some coffee.”
“Let me guess. Starbucks?”
She bites on her bottom lip and nods.
Seems just like Devil, I have a hard time telling Neva no.
I hit the drive-thru and order her caramel frappe. I don’t dress my coffee up. I take it black, like my fucking soul and some would say my heart.
Neva squeezes my forearm, her touch setting my skin ablaze. “Thanks for the coffee.” I look down at her hand on me, and that’s when I notice the new ink on her wrist. I shove her sleeve up.
“What’s all this?” Since when did she get tattoos?
“Nothing.” She jerks away, but it isn’t nothing. She had the bracelet I gave her for her fifteenth birthday tattooed on her skin.
“Neva Bean.” My chest squeezes tight, and my breath hitches in my throat.
“Don’t make a big deal of it.” She stares out the passenger window, but I can see her reflection and her lips pulling into a smile.
Pure fucking trouble.
Pure temptation.
I’m a dead man.
supposed to fall until later?” Thick, wet flakes of snow cover the windshield faster than the wipers can swipe them away. We’re hardly two hours into our road trip, but I made Justice pull off at a gas station so I could use the restroom.
“I’ll check the weather radar. Do you want anything from inside?”
“Maybe some of those little vanilla cookies if they have them and lemon-lime soda or cherry.”
Justice’s gaze lingers on me as I bend over the seat to grab my coat and gloves. I know he’s checking out my ass. He’d never cop to it, but I’ve noticed he’s been looking at me differently since he showed up last night. I find him studying me when he thinks I’m not paying attention. Could he finally be seeing me? Really seeing me.
When I glance back at him, he’s picking at a loose thread on his jeans where they are worn around his knee.
“I need to walk Mr. Tinkles.”
“You walk your cat?” He shakes his head.
“Unless you want to take him for me.”
“I’ll pass.”
“Suit yourself.” I climb out of the vehicle and get my coat on. “Come on, Tinky Butt. Let’s get your leash.”
“Thought his name was Mr. Tinkles?”
“Tinky Butt, Gremlin, Mr. T, Tinkler. He has many names.”
He shakes his head.
I find a grass spot next to the gas station and proceed to walk my kitty. Justice goes into the gas station and returns with two bags full of junk food. I get Mr. Tinkles back in his carrier. “I’ll only be a few minutes.”
“You haven’t gone yet?”
“You saw me walking my cat.”
“Jesus, you’re a fucking nutball, you know that?”
I shrug.
“Take your time. It isn’t like we aren’t in a hurry,” he gripes.
“Thanks. I will.”
He groans as I shut the back passenger door.
“I’ve got good news and bad news,” Justice tells me as I secure my seatbelt.
“Okay?”
“Which do you want first?”
“Does it matter?”
“Guess not. Good news is they had your cookies.”
“And the bad?”
“Storm is worse than predicted. Temps are dropping, and they’ve already closed roads near Blackwood. They got about three inches of ice in the past hour.”
“What’s that mean for us?”
“Travel as far as we can and get a couple of rooms somewhere until the roads clear and hope we don’t lose power.”
“As long as they allow pets.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll keep your pussy warm.”
He did not just say that, did he? Heat floods my cheeks and spreads down my neck.
“The little fucker is growing on me.” He reaches back and wiggles a finger at Mr. Tinkles.
Right. He meant my cat, not my actual pussy.
Slightly shaking my head, I return his smile. “Give me my cookies.”
“Don’t touch my radio.”
“Technically, it is more mine than yours. This is my dad’s car.”
“Bean, who’s driving?”
“What’s that have to do with anything? Everyone knows the passenger is the DJ on a road trip.”
“Wrong. It’s the driver.”
“Besides, I have better taste in music than you do.”“That’s debatable.”
I roll my eyes at him.
“Just shut up and eat your cookies and let me worry about the radio.”
“Why don’t you shut up and drive and let me worry about it.”
“I’m this close…” he pinches his fingers close together but doesn’t let them meet.
“To what?”
“Pulling you across the console and spanking your ass like your old man should have done when you were little. Maybe then you wouldn’t be such a brat.”
“If you think you’re big enough.”
“Oh, Bean. I’m big enough all right.” He grabs hold of me and starts pulling me toward him.
“Are you crazy?” I smack at him, but I’m no match for this asshole’s strength.
“Should drop your ass off at the next exit and let you find your own way home.”
“I’d manage. I’m sure I could get a ride easy.”
“Five minutes with that mouth and they’d bring you back.”
“Depends on what I do with it, yeah?” I arch a brow and his face gets all red.
“That’s not funny, Neva, Jesus. Do you know what happens to girls who trade their mouths for a ride? They end up in a ditch.”
“It was a joke. Lighten up.” I pinch his inner thigh, and he howls.
“What the fuck?”
“Are you going to drive, or are we going to sit here and flirt all day?”
“You think this is flirting?”
“Yup,” I pop the P.
“Why would I fucking flirt with you?”
“Because you find me charming and adorable.”
“Find you annoying.” He pulls back onto the road.
I fiddle with the radio, and his gaze cuts to mine, sharp as glass. Then he grabs my inner left thigh and gives me a squeeze. My heart jumps to my throat when he flashes me a sexy smile.
“Eat your cookies, Bean.”
How about you eat my cookie? I don’t voice the response, but I’m damn sure thinking it.
My belly goes all warm and melty at the thought.
I shove sugary vanilla goodness in my mouth and crank up the radio before I say something embarrassing that he’ll never let me live down. It doesn’t take me long to grow bored with the radio and scrolling social media on my phone. There’s only so many funny cat videos I can watch before they all look and sound the same. And not to mention the fact that we are traveling at a snail’s pace.
“My grandma drives faster,” I mutter.
“I can barely see shit,” Justice grumbles back.
“Someone’s grumpy. Maybe you should have eaten a cookie.”
“You love to press my buttons, don’t you?” he switches the radio station to classic country.
I don’t push my luck by complaining. Instead, I sing along to the classics like Patsy Cline and Tammy Wynette. My mom would play their records all the time. She’d inherited her mother’s collection. When she passed away, they became mine, but I stopped playing them because they made my dad sad.
They may have been divorced when she passed, but he loved her deeply. I’m not sure if he’s loved anyone since.
“Crazy…” I sing and hum.
“Yeah. You sure as fuck are,” Justice teases.
“Ha. Ha.”
A weather alert overrides the music, warning that all roads are closed to non-emergency travel.
“Guess it’s time we found that motel.”
We travel another half hour when we finally see a sign for Deadeye Motel. It looks about like it sounds. Dreadful. An L-shaped two-story building with the room doors on the outside. But the parking lot is nearly full.
“I’ll get our rooms.” Justice parks and leaves me and Mr. Tinkles in the car.
While I wait, I fire off a text to my father, so he doesn’t worry.
Neva: Had to stop off. Roads are closed. Getting motel rooms until the roads open back up.
Dad: be safe. Love you, girl.
I smile at his message. Things with my father have never been easy. Sure, he’s spoiled me rotten, but that was because it was convenient. So he didn’t have to parent me. So he didn’t have to look at me. Because when he looks at me, all he sees is her. My mother. The woman he lost. I have her eyes. Her smile. But he tries in his own way, I suppose. As I’ve grown older, I’ve learned to meet people where they are, not where I wish they were.
Justice climbs back into the driver’s seat, interrupting my thoughts. “Good news is they had a room left. Bad news is they only had one.”
“Oh. I mean, that’s not really a big deal, is it?”
“They only had a single. One bed,” he says like his throat suddenly drying up. He drives to the end of the longer side of the L and parks in front of the last room on the end.
“Unlock the door and I’ll start bringing everything in.” He hands me an actual key attached to a plastic eyeball keychain.
Classy.
I’m scared that when I flip on the light, I’ll see roaches scattering to the dark corners. I really hope they don’t have bedbugs.
I shudder at the thought.
Luckily, I don’t see any bugs. The room is a basic single-unit motel room. There’s a small table with two chairs in the corner next to the wall heater and the window that faces the parking lot and the pool. Too bad it’s not summer. It’s a winter wonderland out there. Makes me think of when I was a kid, and I’d tag along with my brother and Justice to go tubing and sledding.
They hated taking me, but my dad would make them.
I drop my purse on the table and move further into the room to inspect the bathroom. It’s small, but there’s enough space to put Mr. Tinkle’s temporary litter pan. I should have left him with Allie, but when I got him, I promised I’d never dump him on her, and I can’t bear the thought of being away from him for two weeks. He’s like my child.
“Where do you want your fur ball?” Justice stomps his boots outside the door. He looks so funny. His tall frame, all dark and menacing with his leather jacket and tattoos, while holding my hot pink cat carrier.
I went with color because it’s bright and easy to see.
“I’ll get him.” Our fingers brush as he hands my boy over. A shiver slithers up and down my spine in a good way.
“I’ll grab our bags.”
“Can you get the litter pan, too?”
“Sure.”
“Thanks.” I lean up on my tiptoes and press my lips to his stubbled jaw.
His face reddens, and it isn’t from the cold.
“Turn the heat up,” he grumbles, trying to play it off, but I know better. I affect him. And for at least the foreseeable night, we’re going to be alone in this room. Just the two of us. No club. No dad. No brother. No Tawny to come between us.
