Retribution: A Motorcycle Club Romance (12 page)

~
TWELVE ~

Eva only had two thoughts on her mind when she woke
that morning: she wanted Will inside of her again, and she wanted to call Laura
and tell her what had happened. The bed felt twice as empty now than it had,
after sharing its space with Will.

Will. What the hell are
you?
she wondered, staring at the ceiling. She
pulled the soft sheets up around her still-naked body and drifted effortlessly
into a daydream version of their passionate sex the night before. She couldn’t
believe Will had kneeled in front of her at the bar and eaten her like they
were some college kids at a frat party.

And that was to say nothing about
letting him bend her over it and fuck her like an animal. Eva had never been
touched so expertly, so enthusiastically by a man before. She’d never had a man
care about her own pleasure in bed, even though she had plenty of appreciation
for sex and enjoyed her own company several nights a week since she found
herself single. The men she had been with never seemed to give a shit about
anything past the point of getting her into bed, and then it was just lifeless
mechanical humping until they spasmed on top of her and fell into an exhausted
coma.

Eva had almost resigned herself to
believing that most men were just like that, and it was no use to hope for anything
better. But now here she was, so satisfied from the night before that she could
barely get her legs to listen as she told them to move for the floor. And all
of this from some hard-drinking, dangerous man who probably chewed up hotter
women than her for breakfast every morning—literally and figuratively.

And yet he’s a man who
can quote
Coriolanus
to me at a whim.
Will
was certainly an enigma, and she didn’t feel unlucky to be the one unraveling
it. She felt like he was some dark rider come to her boring little village in
the middle of a storm, trailing adventure and excitement behind him.

But she also knew, deep down, that
she couldn’t fall for him. There was just no godly way falling in love with
Will Bowers was going to end in anything but pain for her. He was dangerous,
and he was in pain.

He’s more than his pain.

Eva tried to shake the heavier
thoughts from her head by conjuring instead the sensation of Will’s mouth
devouring hers, his lean muscles moving over her, hands on her skin, cock
buried inside of her… she bit her lip as she trailed a hand down her own bare
breasts and stomach to gently stroke her clit, still swollen from Will’s
attention. She moaned at her own touch. He wasn’t even in the room and he still
had her body pulsing.

“Do you taste as good as
you look?”
What a thing to say!

She didn’t even hear Charlie’s
footsteps down the hall until he was knocking on her door. Eva jumped with her
whole body, and felt her building orgasm disappear into the ether as soon as
she opened her eyes with a grumpy growl, yanking her sheets up to cover herself
completely. “What is it?”

Charlie nudged the door open and
peeked inside. Eva watched his face for signs of suspicion that maybe he’d
heard she and Will the night before, but she saw none. “Hey, I’m making eggs.
Did you want some?”

“Sure, one. Over easy,” she huffed.

Charlie frowned at her. “You okay?”

She realized she was still breathing
a little heavier than she wished. “Yeah, just woke up from an intense dream.
That’s all.”

He seemed satisfied. “Will said he
might have something safe for you to help with today, if you want.”

Did he now?
“I’ll get dressed.”

Charlie disappeared and closed her
door, finally allowing her to release a long breath and let her muscles relax,
but it was too late to retrieve the sweet haze she had gotten herself into. Pushing
herself out of bed, she threw on her bathrobe to grab a quick shower—seeing
Will in person was better than just lying in bed dreaming about him, anyway.

She shuffled down the hall past
Charlie’s room and to the bathroom, the door of which was closest to the living
room. Will wasn’t on the couch, but like he heard her coming, he appeared in the
kitchen doorway and looked right at her, hand frozen on the bathroom doorknob.

Eva stopped and smiled when she saw
him, his gaze running up her legs to her face, and then back down again as he
lifted a cup of coffee to his lips. A fresh heat erupted the entire length of
her body under that lusting gaze, and she could feel a blush spread across her
cheeks. Turning her head to the floor to hide her silly grin, she pushed her
way into the bathroom.

When she got out of the shower,
Charlie and Will were already down at the bar, so she took her time getting
ready and drying her hair. Whatever job they had for her couldn’t be very
important, she suspected, so she didn’t rush.
Can’t believe they’re even
considering letting me out of my tower.
She poured herself a cup of coffee,
enjoyed the egg Charlie had left her warm on the counter, and used the cordless
phone to give Laura a call.

 “Hey skank. Are you busy?” She
teased as soon as she heard her friend’s voice.

“Oh, on the contrary!” There was
tension in Laura’s voice. “I just had some pop singer cancel on me with no
notice after I already cleared my calendar to accommodate her stupid ass.
What’s up, sweet cheeks?”

Eva sighed, walking to the window to
peek out and make sure the men weren’t coming back through the meadow. “I did
something bad last night.”

“Why, what—” said Laura, then stopped
as realization came over her. “Ohhh,
you’re
the skank! Eva, you didn’t!”

“I did,” she said with a grin.

“Oh, God, tell me everything. I’m in
the worst dry spell.”

“Then maybe I shouldn’t tell you
anything, because…”

“Shit, was he that good, Eva?” Laura
groaned into the phone and shut a door, probably to her small city office. “You
ridiculous bitch. You’re so lucky.”

“Laura, you have no idea.” Eva licked
her lips and looked around again, like she was secretly afraid someone was
watching her. “Remember Richard, the bartender at Andy’s? What we used to
fantasize about when we’d sit there watching him work?”

“Oh, God, you mean… on the bar?”

“Mmhmm.”

Laura let out a groan like a grumpy
zombie, and there was a soft
thump
, and then a few seconds of silence.
Eva laughed as she listened to Laura grasp for the phone and bring it back to
her ear.

“Sorry, I dropped my phone in
impotent fury,” said Laura. “Eva, I’m so proud of you, girl. How much better do
you feel?”

Eva laughed. “
So
much.”

“Is all that drama over, then?”

“No, we’re still hunkered down here.
I’ll let you know when it’s done. Will says it shouldn’t be much longer, if his
instincts are right.”

“Oh,
Will
,” said Laura in a
dreamy, exaggerated way, like she was in a Disney movie. “You better be a
little careful, girly. I can hear love in them there hills.”

“Oh, for God’s sake,” said Eva,
stepping away from the window and toward her coffee. “I just had sex with the
guy. I’m still riding the O-train endorphins. I’m not dumb enough to fall in
love with some… whatever he is.”
Enigma. Yes, what girl in history has ever
fallen in love with a mysterious stranger?

“Maybe he’s a sex robot sent from the
future to protect you from non-sex robots from the future,” offered Laura with
a mouthful of what Eva suspected was a breakfast donut.

“Well, that would be an easier
problem to solve than the one I have, wouldn’t it?” she laughed. “I could just
reprogram him not to be an asshole. Or to not talk at all.”

Laura sighed. “One day, when the
matriarchy finally rises. Seriously, though, technically he is your second fuck
since Rick, so just be careful with yourself.”

“He’s third,” confessed Eva. “I went
home with a guy a few months back, I just didn’t tell you.”

“Okay, now I’m serious when I call
you a
skank!
”

“So just don’t worry about me!” Eva
finished with a giggle. “I get it. Sex good, love bad.”

“No: sex good, love good, love with
scary fighter jerk dude bad.”

“Sure.”

“Hey, someone’s at my door, I’ve
gotta run. Call me later,” said Laura. She made kissy noises into the phone before
she hung up as Eva shook her head laughing.

She may have laughed about it, but
Eva took Laura’s warnings seriously. It was half the reason she chose to call
her. She couldn’t admit to her best friend that she already felt like she was
treading in dangerous territory with Will, and had called to help ground
herself in reality before she had to face his soft dark eyes and full lips that
glistened invitingly whenever he ran his wet tongue over them…

“Christ, get it together,” she muttered,
shaking her head as she retreated to the bedroom to finish getting ready.

She lingered around the house after
getting dressed, picking at her book and finishing off the last of the pot of
coffee. The morning sunshine lit up the white kitchen in the most perfect, beautiful
way that made her reluctant to leave until it had fully passed. Her body and
mind finally felt relaxed together for the first time in what seemed like years
and she wanted to soak up every second of that feeling. Life with Rick had
taught her the value of embracing whatever happy moments arrived, before they
passed her by forever.

At least the small ones
,
she amended honestly. She knew she could still use a push with the big ones,
like she admitted to Will the night before. And like Will gave her.

Will.
Just like that, she could feel his hands on her, roaming up her chest.
Sexiest
enigma I’ve ever met.

It was nearly noon by the time she
wandered down to the bar to see what was going on and find out more about the
job Charlie had referred to earlier. She brought her book with her, like a
shield against the swords of boredom she knew were waiting. The forest meadow
felt more alive and blazing with color than usual—or maybe it was just her.

As she passed through the back door,
she almost ran directly into Will, who was crossing for the kitchen. A surprised
noise escaped her throat as she reflexively hopped back.

“Pardon me,” he said, looking down at
her with a soft expression, but no smile. He seemed to be searching her face
for something.

Eva couldn’t fight her own half-grin.
As close as they were, she was almost overwhelmed by the smell of his musk, now
familiar and evocative. It drifted through her body as if it were trying to
urge the heat in her core to seep out from between her legs to meet it. “Morning.”

“Sleep well?” he asked. She couldn’t
detect a hint of teasing or lust in the question.

“Better than I have in months,” she
said in a breathy way. She waited for a good response, but Will just nodded and
continued on into the kitchen.

Eva watched him for a minute as he
put down a towel he was carrying and absently shuffled through some wires and
computer scraps he had dumped on the small counter from some dusty box.

When he didn’t speak again, she said,
“Charlie mentioned you had a job for me?”

Will looked over to her, expression
blank. “Yeah. Sort of.”

“Sort of?”
Man, where did you
leave your charm this morning, Will?

He nodded for her to follow and led
her back across to the alcove that served as Owen’s office. Really, it was just
a pantry closet he had stuffed a desk and some metal shelving into, a place he
clearly spent little time in, only using it in short spurts to do the necessary
bureaucracy that kept his bar running. Will leaned against the doorway and
pointed inside.