Taking a Dare - A Hellion MC Novel (34 page)

Fuck!

"So what are you saying, Dee? That I've gotta just
accept that my daughter wants a no-account, shiftless, orphaned
Hellion who probably doesn't have two-cents to rub together?" he
shouted, fed up and more than willing to let the woman know.

Dee rolled her eyes as she shook her head. "Damn,
Gus. You are absolutely clueless, aren't cha? Dare is not of
no-account, hardly shiftless and even though he may not have a
biological family anymore, he has one helluva Hellion family now."
She snagged the glass off the countertop and viewed the big,
graying biker over the rim of her drink. "And he loves Ryley more
than his own breath. How're you gonna fight against that kind of
love, stud?"

He stared at the other woman's reflection as his mind
raced. There had to be a way to argue, to prevent what was
happening. But he couldn't come up with a single thing. Especially
not since Dee had mentioned how his Maggie would've reacted at his
recent actions, the restrictions he'd tried to impose.

Maggie, he knew with absolute certainty, would've
ripped him a new asshole in threatening to toss Ryley out of the
family based on nothing more than her choice of partner.

As if knowing that his stance had wavered, Dee
pressed on. "He's a good guy. But even if he wasn't, he's
Ryley's
choice and you and Mags didn't raise your kids to
make stupid decisions."

"I don't like him," Gus said fervently, tossing the
two fingers of Tequila back as if they were water.

"You don't have to," Dee said, her voice softer as
she took the half-step to get closer to him. Her hand moved to
stroke his shirt between his shoulder blades even as her head
tilted to rest on his shoulder. "All you've got to do is support
your girl. In whatever choice she makes."

He sighed deeply, feeling the woman's hands on him
providing comfort. "So it's as fucking easy as that, is it?"

Gus caught the small smile she wore in her reflection
before his arm looped around her waist to turn her body into his.
She buried her head against his chest before he heard her speak
again.

"It's never easy, stud. You know better than that.
But you don't have to be the bad guy in the scenario."

Chapter Thirty Two

Dare steered his bike to his apartment just as I'd
guessed but was up and off, racing to the stairs before I'd even
had a chance to lift my leg over his big machine.

"Ryley! C'mon, girl!" he yelled over the sounds of
his boots on the wooden staircase. He was acting like the hounds of
hell were at our heels but I couldn't see what the hurry was about.
He'd made his choice (me) and we were going to (finally) be
together.

Once the decision had been made, there wasn't a need
for urgency. At least not in my mind. So I followed him at a sedate
pace, watching my feet as they lifted up on each tread. When I
reached the top, I went through the still open front door and
calmly placed my purse on the small bar. I could hear him rummaging
through things back in his bedroom as he mumbled.

"Where are my fuckin' suitcases?" he bellowed. It had
to be a rhetorical question because I hadn't a clue where he kept
dick-all. Instead, I took the time to study his environs, something
I hadn't had the opportunity to do the last couple of times I'd
been there. Nice dark brown sectional leather sofa that I'd learned
from experience was very comfortable and more than accommodated his
big frame. A massive television was affixed to the far wall. A
square wooden coffee table devoid of anything other than a
multi-buttoned remote and a stack of motorcycle magazines. Dare
didn't have a whole lot in the way of decorations to brighten the
small living room. A few things on the walls and a couple of
pictures in frames on the side tables was all he had.

I went to them to better see what my man thought was
important enough to display. One table held a small picture of two
little boys with their arms around each other, beaming at the
camera but the poor picture looked like it'd been put through the
wringer. I could see the white areas where the picture had been
folded into quarters, the edges dark as if someone had handled the
photo a lot.

There was one of him with his council brothers in
front of their rides that I was guessing had been taken within the
last couple years and another of him hanging upside down from a
thick tree branch by his knees as he laughed. Those were the only
other pictures I spied in the room.

The rest of it, though, was nothing but Harley stuff
hanging on the walls. Dare'd even framed his 'recruit' patch,
something that gave me goosebumps at the realization of how much it
meant to him. A person didn't frame something that was of no
importance.

"They're probably in the garage," he said as he
swiftly strode to the front door.

I wandered into the small kitchen and helped myself
to a water bottle from the 'fridge, watching as Dare stormed back
through, angling himself and more than a couple of suitcases down
the hall. I followed but at a more sedate pace and with a lot less
banging into the walls.

He had one of the suitcases opened on the bed as he
moved between the closet and the chest of drawers. I planted myself
next to the travel bag he was filling, trying to think of words
that might calm his ass down. But I wasn't coming up with much and
decided to just start talking.

"It appears you're a man on a mission." Boy did he
ever, not even glancing my way when I spoke.

"What's the hurry, cowboy?" I asked, my eyes
following him from closet to case.

"We just need to get fuckin' gone, sugar. I've had
enough of this shit and the sooner we leave, the sooner it will all
be over," he mumbled, moving back to the chest of drawers and
pulling out a stack of t-shirts.

"And what shit is that? The shit of my pops? Or the
shit of you thinking you're gonna leave the Hellions?" I found I'd
tilted my head as my mind tried to make sense of his explanation,
his actions and his attitude.

"All of it," he pronounced, zipping up the full bag
which he placed on the carpeted floor before grabbing the next
one.

I placed my hand on his arm in order to get his
attention. "Need you to stop for a second, Dare, and talk to me."
He gave me his eyes before he stood, placing his hands on his
hips.

"Think we've already talked the fuck out of
everything, Ryley. So now it's just you and me and wherever the
fuckin' road takes us."

I took in his words and the oh-so-serious look on his
face before I burst out laughing. Which earned me a deep scowl
before he widened his stance and crossed his big arms on his
massive chest. "What the fuck is so funny?"

I was laughing so hard, I couldn't breathe, much less
talk and found myself curled down to my knees in my mirth. When I
finally was able to answer him, I only had enough breath for a one
word answer before my chuckles returned. "You!"

"Me?" There was a huge measure of disbelief in his
voice. "You're fuckin' laughing at me?"

I could only nod but I did it hard enough to ensure
he'd be able to see it.

"Seriously uncool, sugar," I heard him sigh as I
tried to get a grip on my laughter. He was already on edge and I
didn't want that to slip into the pissed-off arena. So I held up my
hand, silently asking him to give me a moment.

Which, to his credit, he did.

"If you'd done this ten years ago, I would've been
over the moon," I explained, trying to keep my voice steady. "The
rush to turn our backs on our lives and just…how did you put it? Go
wherever the fuckin' road takes us. But that's a little…too
dramatic for us now, don't you think?"

He didn't answer except to use a hand to drag over
his mustache.

"You know I love you, Dare," I said in a softer
voice. "And I want to spend my life with you. But, the Hellions are
your life and have been since you were what? Sixteen?"

"Fourteen," he corrected.

"Okay, fourteen then. A long-assed time no matter
which way you look at it." I conceded the point. "Long enough for
you to have grown roots, made them your family. So I'm wondering
how long it would take before you started to resent me for dragging
you away from the club and all you've built in Missoula?"

"And that's what was so fuckin' funny?"

"No. That wasn't what made me laugh," I couldn't help
my smile. "It was at your determination, the sheer
we-gotta-get-gone-right-the-fuck-now thingie you had going. So
fierce, cowboy while you were jamming your boxers inside your
suitcase." I looked at the bag sitting next to me on the bed and
found my smile got bigger. "You never do anything half-assed, do
you?"

I caught the edges of his mouth as he held back his
own smile and gave a shrug. "You know me, Ryley. Go big or go
home."

"Words to live by," I said with a laugh. "So, I'm
thinking that instead of running around like a couple of headless
chickens, we figure out how this is going to go down."

I knew the worst of it was over when he moved the
suitcase off the bed and sat next to me on the mattress. "What are
you saying? I fuckin' turned in my cut, which means I'll probably
have to get another job…"

"From what I heard, Trey has your vest and you know
he won't let you leave your club," I reminded him with a bump of my
shoulder. "So you're still a Hellion and you still have the job I
know you love."

Almost unconsciously, Dare picked up my hand and used
his thumb to stroke my knuckles. I could almost taste the relief he
was feeling and was glad I was able to assure him that his life, a
life he'd built for himself, wasn't over. "So what's the fuckin'
plan, gorgeous?"

"I'll relocate here to Missoula. I'm only renting and
my directorship at Haven is up in a couple of months, which I think
I can end earlier." My stomach was full of butterflies as I talked
through what I'd been chewing over since Dee had suggested it. "Was
thinking I might look into setting up another Honey Haven here in
Montana."

His brown eyes came up from where he'd been studying
our hands to look deeply into mine. "You'd do that? Move here to be
with me?"

"In a fucking heartbeat, cowboy," I breathed, leaning
towards him. He met me more than halfway and pressed his mouth to
mine gently, almost reverently. "I think it's customary for married
people to live together."

"Thank Christ!" he murmured before angling his face
to kiss me more thoroughly. Just as I felt him press me back so we
could lay down, he stopped.

"What about your old man, though?" he asked
frowning.

"What about him? He's the one with the issue, not
us." I'd already decided how we were gonna handle my pops. "As I
see it, he needs to decide if he wants to be a part of our lives or
not and to do so, he's gonna have to respect my husband. He doesn't
have to like you, but he sure as shit has to respect you."

Dare's frown immediately morphed into a blindingly
bright, delighted smile. "I like the way you said that, sugar."

"Well, it's true! I can't have him picking a fight
with you every holiday…" I started before he cut me off.

"No, not the shit about your dad," he said with a
embarrassed chuckle. "The other thing."

I did a mental rewind, trying to see what had pleased
him so much but couldn't put my finger on it so I went a different
direction. "You have the attention span of a gnat!"

"He'd have to respect your what?" he urged, ignoring
my not-so-subtle taunt.

Oh, so that was what it was! "My husband." I
enunciated the word carefully, drawing it out and watched Dare's
eyes flare. "Mi espousa. My man. My mate. My
husband
."

He completed the move of pushing my back into the bed
before draping himself over me. "I love the sound of that word on
your lips, Ryley," he growled with his forehead against mine as his
lips hovered. "But I'd fuckin' love to hear it when I'm buried
inside your sweet pink."

"God, I hate that expression," I moaned, partly from
the feel of him pressed against me and from his awful phrasing. "If
you want to turn me on, cowboy, you gotta do better than that."

"I've got more but they're even worse, sugar," he
warned, his mouth now next to my ear as one of his hands moved up
my side, stopping only to cup the bottom swell of my breast. His
errant thumb began a slow swipe over my suddenly
plumped-in-anticipation nipple.

"Like what?" and again my words were given on what I
knew was a groan.

He chuckled softly before whispering. "My hard cock
inside your creamy cunt. Screwing your slick pussy short and
shallow, my throbbing dick just waiting to hear you beg for more.
Or even fucking myself into all your wet tightness so deep and
hard, you start screaming my name as you grip and release my prick
before losing complete control."

Oh, shit. He was right, those words were worse. But
in absolutely the hottest way! Or was the heat from the way he'd
insinuated himself between my legs, rubbing his erection against
the most perfect spot as his thumb continued his assault of my
now-ready-to-cut-glass breast peak while he whispered to me?

"You like that?" he asked, pulling up to look in my
eyes. I realized my hips had been meeting his stroke for stroke as
he'd spoken and I must've given myself away with another groan.

"Yeah. It was a'ight," I muttered, trying to sound
unconcerned and breezy but failing in that attempt. "Good, but
still not quite what I need." It was, freely admitted, an out and
out lie.

Dare's mouth was again on mine, devouring me as our
tongues danced and rolled even as our hips moved together. He
shifted and pushed both my top and my bra out of the way in order
to have a clear field for the ministrations he was showering on my
bared breasts.

"Fucking turned myself on," he confessed before his
tongue found a nipple and began circling it. "Even if it didn't do
much for you."