Kellan (2 page)

I reached into my back pocket and pulled out my card. I stared at it for a second, fingering the red-and-black raised lettering. It was still hard to get used to the fact that we’d made it out. With Colt’s leadership, we’d managed to shake loose the thug shit we’d been doing to make ends meet.
The
Wolf Den
was a legit business. Finally. I also knew somebody like Mallory Rhodes could draw in some serious money. Yeah, I could still think with my head, not my dick. For now.
 

I slid the card across the bar and looked harder at the kid. He didn’t own the place but it occurred to me whoever did might not be in a hurry to share his band. There was a good chance the kid might get instructions to wipe his ass with that card rather than give it to the band’s manager. Later, I’d tell myself that’s the reason I stayed. It was part of it, but there was no way I was leaving that bar without seeing Mallory Rhodes up close.
 

“Think I’ll stick around a while just the same,” I said. The kid offered me another beer but I waved him off.  I had an hour’s ride home. Plus, if I managed to get that girl alone, my dick was going to cloud my judgment plenty. I didn’t need help from the alcohol. So, I turned and watched, mesmerized as Mallory owned the crowd, song after song.
 

“On Fridays the band usually stays for the bonfire,” Brad said just as Mallory and the Malcontents finished their set. “Head straight out back and you’ll probably be able to catch her.”
 

I gave him a nod and finished the last of my beer. I pushed the mug across the bar and slid him a twenty. Then I headed out the back toward the beach.
 

I found her almost instantly. It
was
like every part of me was tuned in to her. Well, it was that and following the crowd of other guys hoping to get close to her.
 

She leaned against a wooden railing, her hands hooked into the waistband of her jeans at the small of her back. She was surrounded by other men. She smiled at them, but it didn’t reach her eyes. She shook her head, letting her hair fall over the side of her face as they offered to buy her drinks.
 

I didn’t say anything.  I wasn’t going to fight over her, that wasn’t what I was here for. Turned out I didn’t have to. Maybe it was something in my eyes or the way I carried myself. I couldn’t even say it was because they knew who I rode with because I wasn’t wearing my cut. Still though, when I got close, the rest of the guys took a step back. Then Mallory looked up and met my eyes. A slow smile lifted the corners of her mouth and she cocked her head to the side.
 

No. Fuck that. I wasn’t some groupie. She was about to find that out. If she started with some line asking me if I liked what I saw, I probably would have grabbed her then and there and kissed the smirk right off her. I wasn’t interested in this girl’s act. I wanted the real thing.
 

She didn’t feed me that line though. As I got closer, I think she understood the look in my eyes. The guys fawning over her were boys. She was about to deal with a real man. They knew it too and cleared out, leaving me alone with Mallory under the light of the moon with the waves lapping behind us.
 

“You’re new,” she said. God. Whether she was singing or talking her voice seemed to go straight to my cock. It was low, with a sexy little rasp to it, like she smoked. She didn’t though, I would have smelled it on her.
 

I nodded. “Yeah. Not really a lake kind of guy. I like wheels, not water.”
 

She laughed. “I can see that. You’re not really dressed for it with your jeans, motorcycle boots, and ink.”
 

“You could say I’m more of a city guy.”
 

She ran a hand through her hair. The shock of pink fell across her eye and I resisted the urge to smooth it back. “Are you going to tell me you came all the way out here just to see me . . . uh . . . what’s your name?”
 

“Kellan,” I said. I took another step toward her. I saw her breath hitch and her chest rise and fall. I had her just as unsettled as she had me. And I hadn’t even touched her yet. “And Mallory Rhodes, huh? Is that your real name?”
 

She pursed her lips and nodded. “Yep. Since the day I was born. Is that your bike parked out front? Are you going to offer to take me for a ride tonight?”
 

“Where do you want to go?”
 

She thumped her head against the railing and rolled her eyes. “Anywhere. Everywhere. You think you’re man enough to handle it?”
 

She had her mask firmly in place. She was used to this. Guys coming up to her after a show, wanting her. Willing to do anything she asked just for a quick taste. It’s not what I wanted though. Well, it was. But I had the sense that the moment I
did
taste her, there’d be no going back. She had so much more to give and I wanted it all. I came back here thinking I could go for a quick fuck. Seeing her, listening to her, being this close to her, I knew that was never going to be enough.
 

“How about I settle for you taking me home? Do you live close?”
 

I didn’t move. I kept my eyes locked with hers. She looked away first, sensing I was gunning for a hell of a lot more from her. But I didn’t want to scare her.
 

She was bold. She ran her fingers along my bicep and the swirling tattoos she found there.  She lifted her eyes then, slowly. She wore thick false eyelashes and her eyeliner had started to run. But when she looked up, her gaze locked right on mine and stayed there.
 

Yeah. Just that little gesture. The slightest shifting in the air around me. The corner of Mallory’s perfect, pouty, bee-stung lips curving into a sultry smirk. It was just enough to change my life forever. Because I knew then I was going to make her mine. Soon. And I knew she was going to let me. I also knew she’d beg me for it as she moaned my name.
 

What I didn’t know is how much hell it would put us both through.
 

Chapter Two

Mallory
 

I know what most men think when they look at me on stage. Most women too. They think I want them. That I’ll make love to them and it might just be the greatest night of their life. They’ll have something to brag about to their friends. Something to keep them warm at night when they go home to their wives or girlfriends and worry that their lives might never be interesting again. But for one night, for one moment, when I lock eyes with them from behind the shield of my microphone, they know that every note I sing is about them. My gift. My curse.
 

But this night, this moment, I was telling the truth. I saw him watching me from the other side of the bar. He kept his arm draped casually over his knee. I wanted nothing more than to hold his gaze and make him feel special. Because there was something special about him too. He had an air of raw power about him that made every other man in the room seem like boys. They were here to drink. To party. To get lucky. They could fantasize that it would be with me. But
he
seemed to see right through me. A smirk lifted the corner of his perfect, full mouth and something about it made my body hum.
 

It meant that as soon as my set was over, I needed to get the hell out of here and fast. But who was I kidding? The instant he came out the back door and saw me, I knew it was already too late to run. I couldn’t let the night pass without knowing who he was.
 

Kellan. The second he said his name it echoed through me, searing me. Kellan. He was strong and hard beneath my fingertips. My touch affected him. I could see it in the tiny flicker at the corner of his eyes and feel it as his muscles tensed.
 

I looked at him. Really looked at him. He had thick, wavy brown hair that hung to his shoulders. I don’t know what made me do it, but I reached up and brushed a lock behind his ear. He worked the muscles of his strong, square jaw and his green eyes flashed dark. He wore a plain black t-shirt stretched over hard muscles and tight abs. He stood before me still and strong as a stone wall. My breath caught in my throat as he licked his lips.
 

“You want to grab a drink?” he said. It took a moment for his words to register in my brain. Whatever happened between us, it seemed like the world stopped and everything fell away. It was him and everything about him. He seemed to command the space around him and pull me into his orbit. I took a step back. I
knew if I wasn’t careful, he could be exactly the kind of guy who’d make me lose control. But, oh, I wanted to.
 

I wrapped my arms across my chest and kicked the plank of the boardwalk. “Sure,” I said, except I wanted to get as far away from
The
Sand Bar
as possible. I hated sticking around after a set. There were always too many people, each of them wanting something from me even after I felt I’d already given them my soul on that stage. But it never seemed to be enough. When I sang my last note, the fantasy ended. Those were the rules. But this guy seemed hell-bent on breaking them. I knew I wanted to let him. I turned and put a hand on the railing; Kellan stepped around me and started to climb the stairs back up to the bar.
 

“On second thought,” I blurted. “I think I’d rather take a walk.”
 

He turned and smiled, flashing a row of straight white teeth. “Even better,” he said.
 

I reached down and slid off my heels, letting my bare toes sink into the cool sand as I stepped off the boardwalk. I waited, expecting Kellan to do the same, but he didn’t.  I smiled and shrugged; he was about to get those slick leather boots full of sand but he didn’t seem to care.
 

“This way,” I said, leading him away from the crowd gathering near the bonfire. I waved and nodded as a few catcalls and cheers were sent my way. Kellan stiffened next to me, his fists clenched at his sides.
 

“Comes with the territory,” I said. “These guys are pretty much harmless around here.” The instant I said it, I realized the absurdity of it. Here I was walking off into the dark with a guy I didn’t know. He was tall and broad and looked built for sin and danger. But something buzzed between us and the thought of being anywhere else made my heart squeeze and the air leave my lungs.
 

I led him to the public boat launch just a few hundred yards away from the back porch of
The Sand Bar
. The bonfire was still in plain sight and anyone looking hard enough would see us at the dock. I sat on the edge of it and tossed my shoes behind me.  I dipped my bare toes in the cool water. Kellan hesitated a moment then sat down beside me. He sat sideways, facing me, with one leg bent at the knee and the other stretched behind me.
 

What the hell was I doing here with this guy? I let everyone
think
I was reckless when they watched me on stage. But that was just the show I gave them. I didn’t take these kinds of chances. I didn’t walk off with random hookups in the middle of the night. What in the hell was I thinking?
 

The full moon bathed Kellan in shadows and blue. My heart thundered in my chest and I became aware of the physical space between us. He was too close. He wasn’t close enough. I saw his own furious pulse beat in a tiny vein near his temple and the rise and fall of his broad chest.
 

He was here for one reason and so was I.  I wanted him. Plain and simple. It was wild and reckless and it meant that at least for now, I was everything everyone thought I was.  There were a thousand reasons this was a bad idea. I saw something cross Kellan’s face. I didn’t know him. He could be thinking a million things, but as his eyes darted over my face and lower down, I just knew he thought the same thing I did. Whatever reasons we had for making better choices, none of them mattered.
 

We moved together. I leaned toward him, pressing my palms flat on the dock. He was so big, he only needed to cock his head to the side and his lips met mine. A shock of heat rushed through me as his tongue darted past my lips. He reached up and put a gentle but firm hand at the center of my back, pulling me even closer. I kept my hands flat on the rough wood, trying to tether myself to something real. Because this wasn’t. It couldn’t be. He tasted too good. His lips felt like heaven as he leaned in deep and feathered his tongue down the column of my throat.
 

I knew I should stop. This was an indulgence I shouldn’t take. This guy was all kinds of wrong for me. He had bad boy written all over him. He tried to cover, but I’d seen him eye fuck me through my whole set, just like every other guy in the bar. Except, God. He wasn’t like any of them. None of them had me weak in the knees. Only he made my heart pound like this. Arousal coursed through me, settling low in my belly. He had me wet and quivering and all he’d done was kiss me and run his hand down the small of my back.
 

“Mallory,” he whispered in my ear, his voice ragged with lust. “Let’s go somewhere.”
 

“No,” I gasped. “Here. I want you here.”
 

I couldn’t believe I was saying it. Couldn’t believe I wanted it. But I did. More than anything. I wanted to tear off my clothes and let him do all the wicked things I just knew he would. He was skillful with his tongue as he drank me in and I shuddered to imagine what it would feel like if I spread my legs for him. The second I thought it, I knew it needed to happen. My clothes seemed to burn as Kellan brought his hand up and cupped my breast.
 

I tried to be cool, controlled, but this guy made it impossible. My nipples ached with pleasure as he flicked his thumb inside my bra. I reached out and pulled his t-shirt out of his pants and fumbled with his belt buckle.