Wanted: County Knights MC (8 page)

              “From work.” I sipped the water, enjoying the chill as it slid down my throat. The AC in our apartment worked, but really only enough to take the edge off.

              “The shelter keeps you this late?” He raised a brow at me as he took a seat. 

              “No. My cleaning job.” I took a longer sip, trying to delay the conversation.

              “You have two jobs, and go to school?” Leaning forward, he pulled the glass away from me to keep me from avoiding him again.

              I sighed. “Yes,” I finally answered, looking at him full on. The wrinkle in his brow and the concern in his eyes tore away my resolve to be defensive. “I clean offices three nights a week. I’m not usually this late, but a co-worker called in sick so I picked up her slack.”

              “And you took the bus home.”

              “I’ve done it often enough. My car overheats a lot, so a lot of times I’ll bus it at night to be sure it’s okay for the morning. School’s further away than the shelter or the offices I clean.”

              “Well, you don’t have to do it anymore. Your car won’t overheat once I get it fixed up, and if something happens you’ll call me to pick you up.” He sounded so matter of fact. As though he’d already made up his mind about what I was going to do, and I had no say.

              “Why didn’t you answer any of my letters?” If he was going to be pushy, I would have to be just as stubborn back.

              “Anna, we don’t—”

              “No. You expect me to answer all of your questions, to follow your little demands, but you won’t give me the truth? Why? Why did you disappear? If you don’t blame me for what happened, then why?”

              Indecision crossed his expression. He leaned back in his chair and jammed his hands into his hair. I’d seen him do that all the time when we were younger. Mostly it was because he wanted to stay cooped up in my bedroom watching movies when I wanted him to take me a party I’d heard about in school. He always won back then, but this wasn’t then, and I wasn’t a scared teenager anymore. 

              “I didn’t want you to see me in juvie. Not because I blamed you. I didn’t. I chose what I did. Not you. It wasn’t a horrible place, but it was messed up. You didn’t need to see that place. Jason checked in on you for me while I was gone. He told me that your step-dad finally ran off and it was just you and your mom again. By the time I got out, you were already graduating, had gotten a scholarship to the junior college. You didn’t need someone like me messing it up for you. You were on your way to doing exactly what you said you’d do. And look, you’ve done it. If I had come back, all my baggage and bullshit would have followed. I wasn’t good for you.”

              I stared at him in silence for a long minute. “So you took the decision away from me? You let me think you hated me all these years?” The need to smack him nearly overwhelmed me.

              “I didn’t know that’s how you felt. I heard how great you were doing, how happy you looked.”

              “Of course I did. On the outside!” I took a deep breath. Yelling at him wasn’t going to get us anywhere. “What happened after you got out? You didn’t go to live back home. I checked in with your dad every now and then.” 

              His dad always had a minute to talk with me when I stopped by his house. Mr. Perry probably could have been a better father figure for Jackson. Maybe he could have drank a little less, dated a little less often, but not once did he lay a hand on him. Even when he had been arrested, his father had tried his best to get in front of the situation and get him home. But Jackson seemed to have cut his father out as quickly as he had me. Mr. Perry asked me to let him know if I heard from Jackson. I wondered if I should call him.

              “No, I couldn’t go back there. Dad didn’t need me hanging around causing trouble. I stayed with some guys I’d met in juvie for a while. Got some work, took care of myself.” There was more he wasn’t telling me. His eyes didn’t lie to me, secrets lurked there.

              “Where’d you work?” I pulled my glass away from him and took a sip.

              He shook his head. “Here and there. It’s late, and you’ve had a really fucked up night. Let’s get you to bed.” His chair scraped against the floor as he stood up. 

              I wanted to push him more, but he’d already thrown up that wall. And once that wall was up, breaking through it would be hard. And he was right. I’d had a really fucked up tonight.

              “I need a shower first.” I nodded. “A long hot shower.”

              “I can fill the tub if you want a bath,” he offered, already starting to walk in the direction of the bathroom.

              “No. Just a shower.” If I lay in the tub, I’d probably fall asleep.

              He looked me over, as though assessing if I had the strength to handle standing under the water. “Okay. But I’ll be right out here if you need anything. Understand?”

              “Yes, sir!” I mocked. His jaw tightened and his eyes flashed something, and that tingling started in my body again.

              “There are some phrases you don’t say if you don’t mean them.” He stepped toward me. “That is one of them. Now scoot. Which room is yours? I’ll get the bed ready for you.”

              Unsure of how to take what he said, I pointed to my room. “I can—”

“I know you can, but I want to. Get that sexy ass of yours in the bathroom before I change my mind about not jumping in there with you.”

              I stared at him for a moment, heat rushing to my cheeks. He didn’t look the least bit sorry for his comment. With a nod toward the bathroom, he disappeared into my bedroom.

              How was I supposed to relax knowing Jackson was in my bedroom?

CHAPTER EIGHT
Jackson
 

              Once I heard the shower running I sat on the bed in Anna’s room. Being there, in her bedroom, didn’t bring about the claustrophobic grip that always came when I went home with some girl. Something about being their place messed with my head. Pictures of themselves scattered throughout the place would try to convince me they were more than just the girl I was going bang for the night. But here in Anna’s room, the pictures she had on her bookshelf over her dresser of her and her mom didn’t behave in the same aggressive manner.

              It had a homelike feel to it. A thunk came from the bathroom, followed by a soft laugh. “Just dropped my shampoo, don’t come charging in!” Smart-ass. I turned my attention back to finding her some pajamas.

              Finding her in that gangway with a knife pressed up against her throat had stolen several years off my life. When I stopped by, I expected her to be asleep. I wasn’t even going to ring her bell, I was only going to sit for a minute, make sure everything looked okay, then head home. When I saw her walk up the street, I had to check my temper at her being out so goddamn late by herself. But when she made the dash through the gangway my heart nearly stopped.

              Tossing the punk off of her had been easy, putting my fist through his face didn’t take much work either. Looking at my knuckles, I could see a bruise starting to form, but it was worth it. That asshole put a knife to Anna, he was lucky to still be breathing. 

              His pockets had turned up an ID in his wallet. Remembering Anna telling me not to steal anything made me want to laugh again. The woman was pressed up against the wall, eyes clenched shut, trying not to come unglued, and she was worried about me stealing something from her attacker’s pockets. She would never cease to amaze and dumbfound me.

              The name on the ID confirmed what I had suspected when I had the asshole pinned to the ground. Jonny Stratfine. One of Fuller’s cronies. Samuel Fuller proved to be a cement block around my fucking feet, continually dragging me back under the water. As president of the County Knights MC, he ran a few different operations, mostly car overhauls, that was where I did my best work when I ran with the club. Years ago. I got out, told him to shove off—in a manner of speaking. You don’t really tell him to shove off, you politely back away and hope he doesn’t follow you. He’d let me go, only because Belby was on his case, chasing him down whenever an auto theft crossed his desk. Belby helped save my ass more than once when it came to Fuller.

              That was years ago. Before I could really stand on my own two feet. A while back I bumped into Fuller at the dump. I was looking for spare parts, and he was looking to clean up a mess. He didn’t need to tell me what he was doing there, I’d been part of that club long enough to know why Fuller took the time out of his day, and mucked up his leather shoes, to go to the dump.  

              Once in a while he’d send one of his lackeys by the garage to feel me out. See if I’d jump back in to the club. Legit now, he would promise me. Body work and such. Except I wasn’t an idiot. When he said body work, he meant stripping cars. No thanks. I did a year in the joint for him once, and I was in no hurry for a repeat performance. 

              What didn’t make sense was why Jonny would be after Anna. She had no connections to anything he’d be interested in. Not even me. There was no love lost between me and that crew, but no reason for retaliation I could think of either. Hell, a handful of the brothers worked for me.

              If Jonny was going after Anna, there was a reason. Nothing small either. Maybe it was the accident. Could one of his crew have been driving the Challenger? Up until that afternoon, Anna wasn’t a part of my life, so why would they gun for her?

              One thing was for damn certain, until I figured out all the pieces, Anna wasn’t leaving my sight. Now I just had to convince her staying with me would be the best thing to do. 

              The pipes screeched as she turned the water off, reminding me that she was standing in the bathroom completely naked. I rifled through the top drawer of her dresser but only found long t-shirts. Didn’t women have lacy things to sleep in?

              “What are you doing?”

              She wasn’t naked. Not totally. A towel had been wrapped around her torso, where she held it closed at her chest.

              “Where do you keep all your nightgowns?” I let my eyes wander down her body. A thin coat of moisture remained on her skin from the shower. The towel covered the essential parts of her, but her legs were completely exposed. I could make out the firm curves of her thighs, and the slope of her calves. When I tried to look back up at her face, my eyes snagged on the swell of her breasts peeking out of the towel.

              “I usually sleep nude. Just hand me one of those shirts.” She waved a hand at the drawer hanging out of the dresser. Nude? The woman had no idea what giving me information like that did to my body. I was already using up all my energy to keep my cock from jumping out of my pants at her in that goddamn scrap of a towel.

              I closed the drawer and walked toward her, empty handed. “If you’d rather sleep naked. I won’t stop you.”

              A fresh blush covered her cheeks and my cock pushed against my jeans. Her eyes widened when I put my hands on the towel, but she made no protest or move to stop me. Slowly, I pried the towel open, and let it drop to the floor. Her fully exposed naked body stood before me. She swallowed and tried to look away.

              “Look at me, Anna.” I pulled her chin back toward me until her eyes met mine. Large round pupils looked back at me. “What were you thinking about in the shower?”

              “Nothing.” That lip sucked into her mouth again.

              “Liar.” Using my thumb, I pulled her lip out from behind her teeth. “Do you know what I do to girls who lie?”

              “You kiss them?” She played so nice. I only half expected her to resist, to push back, but the woman before me held more desire in her eyes than fear.

              “No. I kiss good girls. Bad girls get slaps to their ass. Turn around, Anna.” Putting my hands on her shoulders I turned her. Goddamn, her ass couldn’t have been more perfect. Round and curvy. I cupped her cheeks with my hands. “Do you understand that?”

              “Y-yes.” She nodded. Her breath came in shorter bursts, her chest rose higher as she took in more air. 

              “So the next time you want to lie to me, you remember this.” I landed two hard swats to each cheek, groaning over how beautifully they bounced under my hand. She covered herself with her hands, but I easily captured them in one hand and pinned them to her back. “Nope. No covering.” I leaned against her, feeling the moisture of her skin seep through my t-shirt. I placed a warm kiss to her neck, then her earlobe. “I’ve wanted to touch you forever. But if you want me to stop, you need to tell me now, because in a few minutes I’m not sure I’ll be able to.” 

              Another nod. “Yes. Jackson. Please.” She turned her head, searching for me. I gave her ass cheek a hard pinch. I’d waited so long to have her body in my hands. With the moment finally upon me, I couldn’t help but notice the teenager in me grinning like an idiot, and scared out of his fucking mind. Anna wasn’t going to be a quick fuck. I’d waited too long to take her fast and furious.

              “Good girl.” I turned her back around to me, so I could see her. I licked my lips like a boy staring at a dessert case in a dinner. Her breasts were more than I could have asked for. Round and heavy. I cupped them, holding them in my hands while my thumb flicked over her taught nipples. She closed her eyes. “Open.” I pinched a nipple, and she complied immediately. “I didn’t think your tits would be this hot.” I leaned down, taking one nipple into my mouth. My tongue swirled around the peaked nub while my hand caressed its twin. Her moan nearly did me in, but I would be patient with her. “Have you done this before, Anna. Have you had a man touch you like this before?”

              My hand slid down her stomach, lower to the small patch of curls. Fuck, I loved that. Too many girls took away all the hair there. Having a patch of curls gave her a more womanly appeal. I ran my fingers through the slick curls, then moved lower. She sucked in her breath when the pad of my middle finger brushed over her clit. “Ah, there it is.”

              Her head rested on my shoulder, her hot breath blowing across my neck as I continued on with my exploration. I rolled her clit under my finger several times, until she started to arch her back and push her pelvis forward. “Nuh-uh, hold still, baby. I’m just looking.”

              “Jackson.” She nearly growled. My little Anna was hungry.

              “You haven’t answered me. Have you had a man touch you like this?”

              “No. I mean yeah. I mean, argh!” Poor girl. My fingers slid further down, through her wet folds until I reached her entrance. As much as I knew she wanted me to, I didn’t push inward, I only circled the opening.

              “That’s not much of answer.” I kissed her temple. 

              “I’m not a virgin, if that’s what you mean,” she finally managed to say. It wasn’t that I expected her to go untouched the rest of her life, but I didn’t like the fact that some other asshole had taken her virginity. Had he been soft? Did he take his time? Did she find fulfillment?

              “Hmm,” I mumbled, driving two of my fingers into her tight, hot pussy. Her hands flew to my shoulders, gripping me hard as she threw her head back and moaned from the intrusion. “Ahh, you like that?” I moved my fingers slowly at first, in and out of her. Her knees bent and she tossed her head to the side. My thumb found her clit and began to rub it in circles, which made her nails dig into me harder. “Don’t’ come yet, baby. I have plans. Don’t come.”

              She looked at me with a furious glare that I didn’t think possible until I saw it for myself. “If you can’t behave, I’ll take my fingers out.”             

              “No! No, I’ll be good,” she promised with a hard nod of her head. So easily she complied to my dominate side, just like I knew she would.

              “Uh-huh.” I grinned. Nothing prepared me for the ease in which her responses came. I took one nipple between my fingers and pinched hard while fucking her pussy harder with my fingers. I could feel her thighs trembling, her fingers pushing harder into my flesh. She wouldn’t be able to hold out much longer. “Lay back on the bed.” I pulled out of her, making her watch as I licked all of her juices from my fingers. Her eyes glazed over.

              Once I had her settled on the bed, her head propped up on pillows, her legs spread for me, I began undressing. I tossed my shirt to the floor. Digging out a condom from my wallet, I tossed it to the nightstand before I unbuckled my belt. Her eyes were locked on the leather belt as I worked it open, and I wanted to grin. Oh, how much she was going to like it when I laid the leather over her ass. Not yet, no, she wasn’t ready, but one day. One day I’d have her bent over the bed, taking a belting, making her pussy drip for me, and her body crave mine. But first I needed to have her, to taste her, and devour her.

              I slid my hands under her ass, kneading the flesh as I moved her lower, closer to my mouth. I could smell her arousal and it kicked mine up three notches. “Fuck, baby.” I looked up the length of her and saw her watching me with concerned eyes. “Don’t tell me I’m the first to taste this beautiful pussy.”

              She nodded. My eyes nearly crossed. I gently spread her pussy lips apart, exposing her swollen clit to my attention. My tongue darted across it slow and easy. Her hands flew into my hair, holding onto me. I let her have her anchor, at least for the first time. 

              I licked her, dragging my tongue up her slit, enjoying the grunts she made as I swirled my tongue around her tender clit. My tongue swept lower through her folds to her entrance. Her fingers gripped my hair when I circled her opening. The burning of my scalp only added to my desire to drive her to the very edge.

              She sucked in her breath when I took her clit between my teeth, and her legs tried to snap shut around me. I couldn’t help but chuckle lightly as I slid my hands up from her ass to the back of her thighs and pushed them further apart and back, giving me even more access to her pussy.