Damien: Billionaire Bad Boy Romance (24 page)

BETH

“Two years, Beth! It’s been two years since you hung out with us past seven o’clock!” Brittany, my short, purple-highlighted-haired friend slid a beer across the table at me.

“How could you go that long without…well…you know?” Chrissy, Brittany’s twin sister and ally in the quest to get me out in the bar scene again, took a swig of her beer while letting her eyes wander around the crowded room.

They weren’t wrong on either account. Bar scenes weren’t my thing, and clubs were even worse. I had bigger things in my life; I had my daughter, Madison. Since her father, my ex, skipped out on us two years ago, it has just been me and her. And nothing was going to pull me away from that little girl, not even a night of partying. But I had to admit, finally caving and letting the twins muscle me into the back of their car for a night out was feeling pretty good.

“First off, Maddie needs me a hell of a lot more than I need a night life. Second, two years of no men hasn’t been hard at all.” I smiled into my beer. Men could easily be replaced by some high quality batteries and well-made machines, but they didn’t get that. How could they, they didn’t seem to mind fucking anyone who looked at them twice.

“Ugh! Why is it so crowded in here?” Chrissy whined as someone passed by, bumping our table. We’d been able to grab one of the few empty ones when we arrived.

“Anarchy’s Reign is here.” Brittany pointed at the large group of men walking around in leather kuttes and jackets. The patches were unmistakable. The blood red letter A encircled by more red, with a knife and hatchet crossing in the background. Yeah, everyone in town knew what that patch meant. Trouble. And lots of it. “Don’t they have their own clubhouse to get drunk in?”

“They do, but it’s being rebuilt. Some biker fight broke out last week and the front window was shattered and the inside was torn up,” Brittany chimed in. Her sister and I looked at her with raised eyebrows. “What? I had a date last week, he was a member…we stopped by for a beer.” She gave a delicate shrug and pulled out her phone. “Shit, Tommy’s not gonna make it. We’ll just have to hang here for a while.”

Tommy was her on again, off again boyfriend. When they were on, he doubled as her driver, taking her wherever she wanted to go. Mostly she wanted to go shopping and clubbing. I wasted too much of my breath trying to get her to understand that at twenty-seven she needed to start settling down. At least stay sober for a few nights in a row, but she never listened.

“My god.” Brittany’s jaw slacked and her eyes widened as she looked off into the crowd. I followed her gaze into the sea of hard bodies and leather to find what she was gawking at. Hot blue eyes stared back at me, making my breath catch in my throat. His jaw and chin were chiseled, hard. From where I sat, I could make out a light line of stubble running along his jaw. His light brown hair had been slicked back away from his face. Broad shoulders and a muscular torso strained against the t-shirt he wore under his leather vest. I noticed the patch on his chest, but couldn’t make out his ranking. It didn’t matter. The man oozed danger and sex. Both of which I needed none of—well, at least the danger. The longer I looked at him, the more convinced I was that I could use a little sex.

“Fuck, he’s hot.” Brittany breathed out, leaning over Chrissy a bit more to get a better look at him.

I turned back to face her, and stop gawking at him. “He’s okay.” Even I wanted to roll my eyes at my obvious lie. Just because I didn’t need or want a man in my life didn’t mean that I couldn’t at least appreciate them, but there was also no need to admit just how hungry my body was for some physical attention.

“Okay? Are you demented?” Brittany’s eyes widened at me.

I laughed. “He’s good-looking, and he’s a member.” I pointed at the bikers roaming the over-crowded bar. A loud cackle of laughter erupted from somewhere in the back and it spread throughout the bar, almost like a virus.

That was what Anarchy’s Reign was to our little town in southern Missouri. A virus. It spread and wiped out anything that stood in its way. Work was scarce for the guys getting out of high school who didn’t want to go to college, so most of them ended up becoming prospects for the Anarchy’s Reign. Some of those ended up in jail or dead, and the rest patched in. Rumors ran wild about their parties, their sex clubs, the porn company they talked about opening up—a virus.

I checked my watch again, almost eleven. The girls teased me about my watch, but as an ER nurse it came in handy. I couldn’t pull out my cell phone every time I needed to check a pulse. “I’m gonna step out and call Mrs. Olsen. Make sure Maddie is sleeping okay.” I scooted out of the booth and ignored Chrissy’s eye roll.

“Grab me a drink on the way back,” Brittany yelled as I started to make my way through the crush of people in the bar.

Mrs. Olsen lived next door to the tiny house I rented. I knew Maddie would be safe with her. She was more like her grandmother than a neighbor, but I still needed to call her. I never left her alone at night—what if she’d woken up with a nightmare or needed some water. Mrs. Olsen watched her plenty of times when I had to make a quick trip to the store or something, but never for so long and never at night.

When I got to the door the bouncer put his hand on my shoulder, stilling me. “If you go out, you can’t come back in,” he said loud enough I could hear him over the noise of the music starting and the guys from the club laughing and carrying on.

“What? I just need to make a call.” I showed him my phone.

“Sorry, too crowded as it is. If you go out, another comes in, and you’ll have to get back in line.”

I laughed. “Line? For this place?” Dunkin’s Dive was as close to a club our little town ever got. Unless we drove the forty-five minutes to where the real clubs were, it was the best we could hope for, but never did people line up outside waiting to get in.

“You see all these bikers? They have chicks with them, between all of them and our regulars, we are filled. If you go, you stay gone.” He jerked a thumb at the door. He didn’t look familiar to me, but then again it had been years since I stepped into a place like that. Unless he broke his face breaking up a bar fight, I would have no reason to know him.

“Fine,” I growled, and pushed my way back toward the bathrooms. Nearly there, I felt an elbow shove into my back and I lurched forward, bumping into a broad back and ricocheting off. A brick wall would have been more forgiving. Just as I was about to collide to the floor strong hands shot out and grabbed my arms, steadying me on my feet.

Looking up at my savior, those same hot blue eyes peered down at me. Small wrinkles outlined his eyes as his lips curled into a smile. “You okay?” he asked, leaning toward me so I could hear him.

I nodded. His hands hadn’t left my arms, and I could feel the warmth of his skin pressed against mine. My body reacted to his touch completely without my consent. My skin tingled all the way through my body to my inner core. I swallowed hard, my throat having dried up.

“You sure?” He laughed when I didn’t respond verbally.

“Bathroom!” I shouted, and pulled free of him, wiggling my way through the rest of the crowd. Once alone in the closet sized room, I let out a breath.
Bathroom?
That was smooth! I’m sure he’s thinking I had to puke. Great.

Shoving him out of my mind for a minute, I dialed Mrs. Olsen’s cell. She put me at ease that Maddie was still asleep, and had been since I put her to bed before I left. Again, she told me to have a good time and not worry so much.

After Jeremy, Madison’s dad, walked out on us, I couldn’t do much else except worry. Worry about bills, rent, grocery expenses. Madison deserved the best, and I wasn’t exactly rolling in the cash. ER nurses did not make as much money as the public was led to believe. I took on as much overtime as I could without burdening Mrs. Olsen too much to watch Maddie after her daycare closed, but even that didn’t help much.

The door vibrated as someone’s fist pounded on the other side. I clicked off my call and threw the door open, just in time for a blonde woman to stumble in and stick her head in the toilet. I winced at the horrible sound of her retching and left her to it.

“You okay?” The same deep voice from before spoke into my ear. I jumped and turned around to find those damn blue eyes peering down at me. The man looked big enough to break me in two with just his fingers.

“Yeah. Fine. Just needed to make a call.” I showed him my phone before stuffing it into my back pocket. What did I care what he thought about why I ran off to the bathroom? “Thanks.” I shuffled around him and headed toward the bar, but I knew he wasn’t gone. I could feel the heat of him following me as I inched my way through the crowd.

I heard a snap of fingers and a loud “Move,” bellowed from behind me. Before I could stop to find the source of the yell, everyone in front of me parted a path right through the crush of people. I looked over my shoulder to see him smiling at me and pointing at the bartender in front of me.

Jonny stared at me with surprised eyes. I was just as curious as he was about why everyone suddenly moved out of my way, but not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I stepped right up and gave my order. “Two Heinekens.” I waggled my fingers.

“You got it, Beth.” Jonny sat behind me in homeroom for all four years of high school.

I dug out my last ten dollars from my jeans only to have it snatched out of my hand by a much larger and stronger one. “I got it.” Before I could try to snatch the money back, he was shoving it back into my pocket. His fingers lingered a little longer than needed. “Put it on my tab, Jonny,” his baritone voice said from over my shoulder.

“Sure thing, Rafe.” Jonny held out the beers, and Rafe took them from him.

“I don’t need you to buy my drinks, or to carry them.” I reached out to snatch them, but he held them up higher so I couldn’t exactly reach them without reaching up on my tiptoes. I hated being so goddamn short!

He laughed, but not at me, I could tell that because that look guys got when they were teasing me about my height wasn’t there. “You may not need it, but it’s gonna happen. These aren’t both for you, are they? Not that I mind a girl that can double fist.” He leaned lower so only I could hear that last bit.

My cheeks burned with a blush that I hoped to high hell he couldn’t see with the dim lighting in the bar. “No. One’s for my friend over there.” I turned to point at the twins, only to find them both buddying up to a few guys of their own.
Well, hell!

“I think they got it covered over there.” He handed me one bottle and took a long pull on the second. I couldn’t help but stare at him. Completely at a loss for words, as I watched him down the entire beer. I couldn’t even be pissed about it; he had bought the damn thing.

He put the bottle back on the bar, and slid his hand onto my waist. His thumb hooked into the top of my jeans, running along my bare skin. Maybe Chrissy had been right, it had been too long since I felt the touch of a man’s hands on me. Just the little brush of his skin against mine left me with damp panties. I should have stopped him, I should have shoved him away, but before my mind could catch up to my body, his mouth covered my lips.

A crushing kiss, one that demanded my full attention. Not that I could move away, his hand firmly gripped my waist, keeping me right where he wanted me. His tongue ran along my bottom lip, testing to see if I would hope for him. When I made no move to obey, he thrust his tongue past my lips and pulled me closer to his body. My breasts pressed against his chest, the leather of his kutte cool against me. He smelled musky.

When he finally pulled back, breaking the kiss, he looked more satisfied than any man should after stealing a kiss. I was about to tell him that when he grabbed the bottle from my hand and put on the bar. “You’ve had enough, I think.” He winked. He was probably right. What else would make me let him put his hands on me and kiss me like that? It had to be the three beers I had before bumping into him that made me feel so much desire for a man I didn’t even know.

“I’m not driving,” I said stupidly.

He looked confused for a minute then gave a low chuckle. “No, you’re not. No one drives my bike, but me.” He brushed his lips against my forehead and pulled me to his side. “Why don’t you go tell your friends you’re leaving.”