JAX: MC Biker Romance (New Adult Contemporary Bad Boy Romance) (2 page)

She nodded. “You going to go talk to him?”

I let out a bark of laughter. “You kidding me?” I shook my head furiously. “I’d sooner go chat up a tiger.”

“He’s looking at you though.”

I shook my head and backed away, ending the conversation.

We danced for a few more songs, and I ignored the heat on my back from his stare the whole time. When we went to get another drink, we decided to sit down to catch our breath a bit. I needed a breather from more than just the dancing.

When I took my first sip of my drink, I let my eyes flit over toward the man again. He wasn’t looking at me anymore. With his arms crossed over his chest, he looked incredibly bored as he surveyed the rest of the club. Perhaps he’d never been looking at me in the first place. Perhaps that had just been my drunken mind making things up that I wanted to be real.

His eyes snapped to mine.

Or perhaps not.

I hadn’t looked away fast enough, and now, I was trapped in it. He raised his hand in the air and inclined one finger toward me. The suggestion was clear: come here.

I immediately turned to look at Melissa, heat rising on my face. She was looking at the exchange with light in her eyes.

“You’ve got to go over there!” she yelled. “You’re being summoned.”

“I don’t have to go anywhere!” I defended. But, my feet were already turning in that direction and I knew that I was powerless to the man’s call. Even if my mind was telling me that no good could come of this, my body was already desperate for his attention—anyway that I could get it.

I put one shaky foot in front of the other and approached him. He watched my progress with a hint of a smile, his eyes dark beneath the flashing lights. As I got closer, I could see that he had a silvery scar on his upper lip, and his eyes were a cold, icy blue.

When I was finally standing before him, he bounced forward from the table and stood at his full height, towering over me. He leaned down to my ear, his breath tickling my neck. “You must be new.”

His voice was like dark chocolate—rich and sinful. It caused me to shiver with delight.

“You can’t expect me to believe you know everyone in this bar,” I replied.

He chuckled. “No, but I would remember you.”

How the hell was I supposed to respond to that? My body told me that the obvious response was to take my clothes off, but my mind said that was inappropriate for the dance floor. Instead of doing either, I just began to word vomit.

“Yeah, my friend and I just moved into the area. Our apartment is across the street, so we thought we’d come check it out. It’s actually kind of cool in here, though I’m not sure about—”

I was silenced by a finger to my lips. My eyes widened in surprise, and the man smirked down at me.

“Relax,” he said. “Just tell me your name.” He removed his finger, and I could still feel it, hot against my mouth.

“Annabelle.”

“Nice to meet you, Annabelle.” He pulled my hand up from my side and clasped it in a firm, unyielding handshake. “I’m Jax.”

“Annabelle!” Melissa was suddenly at my side. “Come for a smoke!”

I blinked and looked over at her, my hand still in Jax’s grip. We didn’t smoke. She must have thought I needed rescuing. Did I need rescuing? I’d never wanted to rip someone’s clothes off so much in my life, but I’d also never had the fight-or-flight instinct so engaged. In my mind, all I could think was that he was a predator; a wolf waiting to gobble me up.

I wasn’t drunk enough for this shit.

I pulled my hand away. Jax let go of it easily.

“Gotta go,” I said.

He nodded, watching me leave with a crooked grin. As soon as we were out the doors and out of his sight, Annabelle and I began to hustle toward the apartment.

“We don’t have to leave just cause I went all deer-in-the-headlights over some biker guy,” I said.

Melissa laughed, fishing our keys from my bag as we walked. “I know, but I’m tired anyway. And, I figured it was either I get you out of there or I wind up listening to you having crazy animal sex with the hot biker guy while his three friends and I sit at the coffee table and play strip poker.”

“Sounds like you’ve thought a lot about this.”

Melissa smiled at me, clapping me on the back. “I think a lot about a lot of things, silly. That’s why you keep me around.”

Chapter 3

Jax

No matter what I did or how many broads I fucked afterward, I couldn’t get Annabelle out of my mind; the way her fiery red hair swung around while she danced, her luscious hips keeping time as she laughed at her own silly moves… those green eyes, filled with fear and lust as she walked toward me.

I thought it would go away, but two god damn weeks later, I was still waiting for her to come back from her smoke break. Every night at The Cruise I’d conduct Brixton business at the back tables; all the while keeping an eye out for the redhead with the tight body and the long legs. And every night, I’d go home disappointed.

Normally, I let the girls come to me. Never been much of a chaser… never seen the point. The women in my life had always proven to be more trouble than they were worth. Why actively seek that out? The girls that came to me knew the score—they knew it would be a one night thing, and that I’d be smacking the ass of some other girl the next time they saw me, and they were okay with that. It was an arrangement that worked for everybody.

But now, I was hung up on some chick who had been in my bar once; who I had met for less than five minutes. But, I needed to have her. I needed to find her, screw her, and get her out of my head, and then maybe, I’d have her once more just for the hell of it.

It didn’t help that Ronnie had been a total douche about the whole thing in the first week. I’d ended up having to clock him across the face for being such a presumptive dick; teasing me about having fallen in love... the god damn nerve.

He was still glaring at me from his table when I got into The Cruise that night. At least, the bruise had gone down. Anyway, it was probably the first time someone had blemished his pretty pink skin, and everyone agreed he’d been due for it.

I went over to the back tables where the rest of the guys were recapping the week and reporting to Gus. He was an angry looking guy with a gray beard hiding most of his face, but I still remembered him trying to make me eat my medicine by pretending the spoon was an airplane.

“Jax,” he said, extending his hand to me.

“Gus.” He had never liked being called Dad. I clasped his hand and smacked my other on top. “How was the trip?”

“Jamestown has agreed to back us up if Halberton starts running in our zone again. So, it was good.”

Halberton MC and their dumbass leader, Rick, had been encroaching on our territory for the past six months. Only problem was that they had more guys. The support from Jamestown MC was incredibly valuable.

The old man gave me a big smile and gestured for the waitress, Mandi, to come over. He ordered beers for the table and sent her on her way with a wink and a smile. I wasn’t surprised to see her return his interest. There was something about chicks and guys on bikes. Even if Gus was in his fifties now, he still pulled as much as any of us.

I settled down at the table next to Gus and caught up with the rest of the guys. Unsurprisingly, not much had changed since I’d seen them last. I wasn’t used to feeling bored, but I was. Mandi came back with our beers, and I chugged mine back with enthusiasm, wanting to sink into a beer haze so I wouldn’t be thinking about a certain redhead.

When I was finished with my drink, I was itching for a cigarette. Normally, I smoked out back by the bikes, but tonight, I was feeling like torturing myself a little. I walked out the front doors and leaned against the brick wall of The Cruise, eyeing up the apartment building across from me as I did.

I figured she had to live there. She’d said they had moved in across the street, and that was the only apartment building that could really be considered across the street. And, because I was a glutton for punishment, I lit the smoke between my lips knowing that I’d spend the next ten minutes trying to figure out which apartment was hers.

My eyes glanced from window to window, starting on the bottom floor and working toward the top. She might not have even had an apartment on the front side of the building, but my little game continued nonetheless. I got to the fourth floor when something caught my eye. Taking another drag, I narrowed my eyes at the deck. There was someone sitting in a chair on it. They were turned away from me, but they had vibrant red hair.

It had to be her.

But, what could I do? She wasn’t looking at me, and I wasn’t about to call out to her like some sort of god damned Romeo. My next drag was an angry one; so close, but so far.

Then, a miracle happened. The doors of The Cruise burst open and two of the bouncers pushed a guy out onto the street. He was cussing and throwing a fit, but he was clearly no match for them, and anyway, he took one look at me and decided to take his patronage elsewhere. That wasn’t the miracle.

The miracle was that it made Annabelle look.

I glanced up after the guy started staggering down the street, and I could see her looking down at me. Her body was still facing the other way, but her face was clearly pointed at mine. I caught eyes with her, though I was too far away to see the expression on her face. Then, I stuck my smoke between my teeth, lifted my hand, and beckoned her like I had that night two weeks ago.

She didn’t move at first. I thought maybe she couldn’t see me at all. But then, she got up and walked inside.

I stomped my butt out on the sidewalk, debating whether to light another. Either she was coming out or she was running away. I didn’t want to hang out on the street like a loaf if it was the latter. But, I was rewarded moments later when the front door of her building opened, and out walked my redheaded beauty.

She was wearing a little pair of pajama shorts and a baggy t-shirt with a pair of flip flops on her feet; it was so god damn hot. I licked my lips, as she crossed the street, her arms folded over her chest as if that would protect her from me. Her mouth was set in a grim line, but her eyes betrayed her excitement.

I let her come to me, not moving an inch.

“Hey,” she said, coming to stand in front of me.

“Hey.” My eyes dragged up and down her body. “You’re in your pajamas.”

She blushed and looked down. “Yeah. I—uh—didn’t want to keep you waiting.”

She didn’t know it, but those words were like candy to me... so god damn sweet. I loved the idea of her submitting to me...bending to my will.

“I haven’t seen you around,” I said. “You avoiding me?”

She didn’t answer right away. Finally, she said, “It was just kind of a one-time thing for us. We don’t go out much.”

“Right.”

She wanted me and she hated it. She hated that I had the ability to have her come running at my beck and call. It was plain as day on her face, but it also intrigued her—this connection we had.

“What are you doing right now?” I asked. “Apart from having story time or whatever it is you do before bed.”

She laughed. “I was reading.”

“You’re not anymore,” I said. “Go put on some proper clothes and I’ll take you for a ride.”

Annabelle narrowed her eyes at me. “What if I don’t want to?”

I took a step closer to her, placing a hand on her hip and leaning into her ear. “Baby, if you didn’t want to, you wouldn’t have come outside.”

When I pulled back, her face was nearly as red as her hair. She looked horrified and full of lust. I’d never met a girl more at odds with herself.

“I’ll be right back then, I guess.”

Chapter 4

Annabelle

Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god!

I couldn’t believe it. Jax was taking me for a ride on his bike. Was that a good idea? Should I just go inside my apartment and hide for the rest of my life instead? Surely, no good could come of me going back out there with Mr. Walking Sex.

The elevator had never seemed so slow. It would have been faster to take the stairs, but I wasn’t taking any chances. What if I got all sweaty and gross, and he decided that he didn’t want me anymore? That was stupid. I knew that was stupid. It was every bit as dumb as racing out to the street in my pajamas because I thought he was going to disappear like some sort of freaking ghost.

I blasted through my apartment door, and Melissa immediately turned to me from her spot by the window.

“What did he want?” she asked, her eyes wide.

I was already walking down the hall to my room. “He wants to take me on a bike ride,” I called behind me.

Melissa bounded down the hall after me to where I was rifling through my pants drawer. Jeans. I should be wearing jeans on a bike, right? Leather pants were preferable, sure, but all I had were pleather leggings. Would those be better than jeans? Was I over-thinking this?

“A bike ride? I presume not the kind that tourists take around the city.”

I shot her a flat look, pulling down my shorts and slipping into the jeans in my hands. “No, not that kind of bike ride.”