“But it could be. I know you have feelings for him.” She opened her mouth to set Miss Edna right, but she cut in. “No, don’t protest. I can see it all over your face. You care about him and I know he cares about you, despite being a jack ass tonight. Sensitive shit like sharing feelings doesn’t come to him naturally.”
“Maybe that is the problem. He doesn’t follow society’s rules. ” He didn’t seem to respect boundaries and she liked living inside the lines, for the most part. An occasional wild adventure had its benefits, but could she live like that? She didn’t think so. Maybe this experiment had run its course.
“That’s where some people make the mistake. They assume outlaws don’t have any rules. But we do.”
She thought back to the club officers and the structure they seemed to have. “Maybe, but he obviously doesn’t want to settle down.”
“He is getting older and he might not want to admit it, but he is getting tired of chasing tail. It's wearing on him. I think he’s ready to cash all that in and settle down with someone real. Someone like you, honey.”
Elizabeth had no idea what to say about that.
“Let me bottom line it for you. My son comes with a lot of strings, but if you were his? He’d do anything for you and something like that is rare.”
Somehow, she sensed that about Ryker. Despite his bad boy vibe, he was a good man.
Miss Edna continued. “Trust me, I’ve only had that kind of love once and I’ve lived a lot longer than you.”
“Your husband?” she asked.
She nodded, rubbing the tattoo on her wrist absolutely. “I met Joker at a party and we were inseparable after that.” A grin spread over her face. “Damn, I loved that irritating, handsome, sexy man. It came out of nowhere, like a thunderbolt, and it doesn’t go away either. It only gets stronger.”
That
had the ring of truth about it.
She’d had a very strong attraction to him right from the start. Despite all of the red flags, she still wanted him. He’d gotten under her skin somehow.
She heard footsteps down the hall and perked up. Ryker? Had he come to his senses?
No. Just Shepherd. The blond biker rounded the corner, pulled a beer from the fridge, and decided to unabashedly eavesdrop on their conversation. He perched on a nearby stool, taking it all in.
Miss Edna tousled his hair, in a motherly manner. She turned to Elizabeth. ”Question is, what are you gonna do about? Walk out of here and out of his life? Or stand your ground?”
She was torn. She turned to glance at the exit.
She could leave now, get in her car and never see him again. Clean break. Not like the long slow bleeding death of a relationship she had done with Carl.
But she couldn’t quite make herself walk that last few feet out the door. Not yet anyway. She needed to hear him explain himself. And what’s more? She didn’t want to run and hide. She wanted to face him and let him know what an ass he’d been.
“I guess I’m going to stand my ground,” she said.
“Good decision,” Miss Edna approved. She looked Elizabeth up and down. “He hasn’t offered to make you his, has he? Given you anything, like a necklace or a ring? Or offered you a cut with a patch?”
She doubted some sexy clothing and a sex toy counted. “No.”
Miss Edna raised one wicked eyebrow. “Good. That gives us more options, at least until he is ready to get his shit together.”
She smiled, suddenly perking up a bit. “What did you have in mind?”
“I want you to mess with his head until you knock some sense into it.” She nudged Shepherd who watched the exchange with a grin. “What do you say, Shep? Want to help her give my son his first lesson?”
The blond man grinned. “I’d love to.”
***
Ryker had purposefully taken his time exiting the party, even though it had nearly killed him. He never wanted to be perceived as pussy whipped by his brothers, but he’d needed to haul ass after Pinky for what felt like hours.
Yeah, he’d seriously fucked up this time.
He never thought she’d show up at the club and discover him pressed up against the hellions. He’d only danced with him, let them cop a few feels. While he appreciated easy pussy as much as the next brother, he hadn’t been tempted by either of them. The only pussy he wanted at the moment lay between Elizabeth’s thighs.
Strange as hell, but why question it? His cock wanted what it wanted.
What little fun he’d been having evaporated as soon as she strolled in and found him doing the bump and grind.
The expression on her face. Pain. Betrayal. All he could think about was getting to her, explaining himself and as soon as a decent interval passed, he’d thrown open the doors and hurried down the hall.
“Fetch!” he bellowed when he reached the bar. “Get your keys and your ass over here. I need to go and I’m too drunk to drive.” Instead of the prospect, he found his mother wiping down glasses behind the bar. When she noticed him, she put on that pinched look she wore so often when he’d pissed her off somehow or another.
God damn it.
And that’s when he saw Elizabeth seated at a table in the corner with Shepherd. For a second, he sagged with relief. She hadn’t run from Perdition, from
him
. Maybe she wanted to hear him out before she went off on him? But, no, she didn’t even seem to notice that he’d walked into the room. She seemed much too distracted by his brother. In fact, the pair appeared way too cozy for his comfort. There chairs were scooted real close together and she played with patches on his cut, tracing the letters and gazing up at him all lovesick and moony.
What the hell is this shit?
His hands clenched into fists and he stalked over to the couple. He fixed Shepherd with a stare that would make lesser men run. But it barely made the blond man yawn.
“What the fuck are you doing with her?” he bellowed.
“We were having a drink, man. For starters.” Shepherd took a pull on his Bud. She didn’t even glance up at him, instead, she examined his Vice President patch. “But what if I had been doing something else? I don’t see your name on her.”
Shepherd always seemed to be around her. Maybe the dickhead preferred good girls? Come to think of it, he’d
never
seen the VP with a hellion. Too damn bad. He could find his own citizen pussy to screw. She had already been claimed. Well, sort of.
She finally glanced at him. “He’s been keeping me company.” She patted the blond man’s chest affectionately.
“Yeah, he’s been doing that a lot lately.” He clamped a hand on Shepherd’s shoulder, but then he added some major grip. “Remember that talk we had? She belongs to me and that means completely off limits to all of you assholes.”
She gasped in outrage, but both men ignored her.
He blew a smoke ring. “Yeah, I heard you call dibs,” he drawled. “But that don’t mean shit. I mean she ain’t your old lady or anything, so I got a bit of wiggle room in this here situation.”
“Excuse me?” She jumped to her feet and then got in Ryker’s face. “I most certainly
do not
belong to you! And I
know
you don’t belong to me. Where do you get the nerve to be pissed at me for talking to Shepherd when I saw you having a vertical threesome with two girls twenty minutes ago.”
“Come on, Pinky, we need to talk,” he said, grabbing her arm and tugging her in the direction of the boardroom.
She shook him off. “What the hell would we have to talk about?”
“You are starting to get on my nerves.” He gritted his teeth. “We are going to talk.
Right now.
But you do have one choice in the matter. You can either walk with me or I can carry you. It’s your decision, but you better make up your mind fast.”
“
I
am getting on
your
nerves? Are you kidding me with this crap?” She crossed her arms over her chest, pressed her mouth into a thin, firm line. “I’m fine where I am.”
“Like I said, your decision.” With that, he bent down and tossed her over his shoulder, like a bag of flour and carried her down the hallway to the boardroom. She yelled her head off and pounded his back with her fists.
It didn’t even faze him and no one came to her aid. After all, Horsemen looked out for their own. He sat her down on the ground, near the end of the long table and she scowled at him.
Dammit.
Other than his mother, he normally didn’t deal with pissed off women. Hellions just wanted in his pants. And his mom? Well, she usually got over it, owing to the power of unconditional love. He was at a loss with Elizabeth. She didn’t have a mother’s love and he doubted she wanted to get in his pants right now.
In short, he’ d gone up shit creek without the damn paddle.
“Well, talk already,” she snarled.
Shit.
Now that he’d gotten her alone, no clue what to say. “You weren’t supposed to be here,” he grumbled.
Evidently he chose the wrong tactic, because her scowl deepened. “Yeah, well, I’m so sorry that I interrupted your threesome,” she spit out sarcastically. “But I had a rough night at work and I wanted to see you, you big knuckle-dragging jerk.”
Rough night? That didn’t sound good. Grateful for the distraction, he seized on it. “What happened?”
She shoved a hand through her hair, impatiently. “Carl dropped by the library and made a pass at me and then got a little creepy. But the point is, I came here, because, well, you were the only person I wanted to see and then I found you acting like a frat boy at the playboy mansion. Any questions?”
“Back the hell on up. That asshole put his hands on you?”
She sighed. “Yeah, that’s really not the point of the conversation. We are talking about you and your chippies.”
He saw red. “I’m gonna put him in the hospital! What’s his last name? Where does he live?” Drunk or not, he would go over to the dickhead’s house and straighten his ass out.
She backed away from him. “I’m not telling you that. It is my business. My problem. Not yours. And you aren’t going to distract me from the original topic.” She threw her hands up. “I want to hear about the blonds and what the hell you were thinking.”
It stung more than he cared to admit, that she wouldn’t let him intervene. Maybe she didn’t trust him? Or what if she still had feelings for the asshole and that’s why she protected him?
He took in several deep breaths and tried to calm down. Not easy around Elizabeth. She made him spark, somehow, bringing both the best and worst out of him. When it came to her, he couldn’t be neutral. Everything felt dire. And he didn’t normally get so involved. This emotional crap clouded your judgment, kept you from being on an even keel. In control. In his line of work, that kind of distracting shit could get you killed.
Ryker sat down on the edge of the table and breathed deeply until he felt a little more calm. Finally, he spoke. “Here’s the deal. I’m sorry you saw what you did tonight. These kinds of parties aren’t for girls like you. But you and I? We aren’t together. You ain’t my old lady.”
She swallowed, watching him carefully.
“In my world, when a woman is your old lady, she has exclusive rights to you. Not all the guys see it that way. They have an old lady and chase tail on the side, but I take my commitments seriously and that’s why I haven’t made one for you. As far as I’m concerned? What I do when I’m away from you is my own business.”
She laughed at that and sounded ugly. Sharp and pained. “Oh, so you are free to screw whoever you like?”
“Hey! Hold on a God damn minute!” he yelled.
Christ.
“I didn’t fuck either of them.”
“What? Oh, you only dry humped then? Oh, well, that’s completely fine then.”
He’d never seen her so pissed. Her good girl demeanor slipped a bit, her eyes snapped at him, and her cheeks flushed. She looked fucking beautiful. “They’re hellions. Nothing special. Screwing one of them is fun, but it means nothing to them or me. It’s like eating a burger or breathing. I’m satisfying a simple biological need. Nothing more.”
She rolled her eyes. “I see. And is that supposed to make it better or worse?”
He sighed. “You aren’t from my world, so you don’t get it. But right now? You are the only girl that matters to me and you are the only one I’m having sex with at the moment.”
Hope flared in her eyes. “Since you’ve slept with me, you haven’t had sex with anyone else?”
“No, I haven’t.” It still floored him. He’d never felt the need to be monogamous before. But he couldn’t promise that he wouldn’t at some point.
She relaxed a little, her breath coming more evenly. This was some sick and twisted shit, but seeing her jealousy on display reassured him a bit. She wanted him, well and truly had a thing for him. He hadn’t only been some quick and easy screw for her, a rebound guy to help her pick up the pieces.
He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I’m tired and I don’t want to fight about this anymore. If you were my old lady, you could bust my balls in private all you like, but you aren’t, so there isn’t really anything to say.”