Page 9 of Cinder (MC Fables #2)

L ars

I see her the moment she walks in with Cheezy. She’s fucking gorgeous. Tight dress. Legs for miles. Boots—fuck, nothing gets me going like a pair of boots.

But when my gaze trails up her body and sees that face, it’s like something heavy just hit me in the chest.

There’s beautiful. And then there’s this girl.

She blows beautiful out of the water.

She glances my way but looks right through me like I’m invisible.

Which is a surprise. I’m not saying I’m anything special, but I easily attract attention from women.

Lots of women. But this one looks past me like I’m not standing here feeling my world shift on its axis because she is so damn gorgeous .

I pull on my beer and scan the room, but my focus comes back to her. Cheezy takes her hand as he leads her over to a table and introduces her to some of my club brothers as his date.

How the fuck is she his date?

Cheezy is a flea. One of our delivery drivers I’ve never gotten a good feel for. There is something slimy about him.

How does someone like him walk in with someone like her?

She’s trying to look like she belongs here. But there is something about her that screams out-of-place. She’s not a club girl or an outsider. This woman is in a league all to herself.

Moving on from the table, she and Cheezy make their way toward the bar.

As they pass me, Cheezy greets me with a tip of his head which I ignore.

But then the woman and I finally make eye contact, and it’s like I’ve been shot in the stomach.

And I would know . My insides contract like they’re twisting around on each other, and heat explodes through every nerve and fiber.

My beer bottle pauses at my lips, and all I can do is stare. Her eyes are a penetrating blue. Dark on the outside and a piercing light blue on the inside.

But again, they look right through me. Like she doesn’t even register me being here.

I turn away and nod to Luna who’s on the bar tonight. I don’t need to tell her what I need. She pours the whiskey and slides it across the counter with a wink.

I throw back the shot and signal for another .

“Who is the chick?” she asks, refilling the shot glass.

“What chick?” I ask, throwing back the second shot.

“The one who made your tongue hit the floor when you clocked her,” Luna says with a mischievous grin.

“Didn’t see her.”

“Just as well. She’s probably out of your league.”

“She’s out of Cheezy’s league.”

“So you did see her.”

When I give her a pointed look, she grins and pokes her tongue out before moving down the bar to serve Rogue and Stone.

I move to one of the empty booths along the wall where I sit down and scan the room, involuntarily searching out the woman again. She and Cheezy are standing with Zac and the prospect.

Cheezy reaches for her hand, but she pulls it away and gives him a warning look. And when he places his palm into the small of her back, she steps away from him, clearly uncomfortable with his hands on her.

Interesting.

The enforcer inside me stirs.

He’s always watching. Always anticipating. Always figuring shit out.

She’s not his date. And from the icy expressions she gives him, they don’t even look like friends .

As if she can feel me watching her, she turns to glance over her shoulder and our eyes meet, and for the second time tonight it feels like I’ve been shot.

Bam.

Right in the gut.

Her gaze lingers, and I raise my beer. But she looks away, unaffected.

“Do you mean to tell me that the legendary Lars charm is failing to work?” Mya, one of the club girls, slides into the booth across from me. Dressed in a tiny pair of shorts, a shirt tied above her belly button, and a pair of cowboy boots, she’s gorgeous and one of the best chicks I know.

She grins, and two dimples press into her cheeks.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say, pulling on my beer.

She rolls her eyes and slaps me with the toweling cloth she’s been using to wipe down the tables. “Why don’t you go over there and talk to her?”

Across the room, someone knocks into Cheezy, and he spills his beer all over the mysterious girl.

“You’re right,” I say, grabbing the cloth out of Mya’s hand and leaving the booth.

When I reach Cheezy and his date, one searing look from me tells Cheezy to back off. He throws his hands up in surrender and backs away, wisely biting his tongue .

“Here.” I hand the girl the cloth so she can wipe the beer off her dress, averting my eyes from her taut nipples pressing against the wet fabric.

She smiles. And it’s like the rest of her. Gorgeous. “Thanks,” she says, as she dabs at the front of her dress. “My date is clumsy.”

“Your date is an idiot.” I speak without thinking, because damn those nipples are a distraction. They’re demanding attention and I’ve got so many ways to give it to them. “So what’s a girl like you doing with a guy like Cheezy anyway?”

She looks up. “A girl like me?”

I can see fire in those blue eyes.

“You and I both know the only way a guy like Cheezy gets a girl like you is if he’s got money, inheritance, or power. And he ain’t got any of them.”

“That seriously sounds like you’re calling me a gold digger.”

Fuck. Not what I intended.

I’ve come over here to flirt with her, not insult her.

But I’m a bit rusty.

Since Carina and Beth’s parents asked the Knights to find their daughters, it was all I could think about during my waking hours. Determined to bring the girls home to their families, I hyper-focused on the task. Foregoing everything else. Sleeping. Eating. Partying. Pussy.

Now it seems I’ve lost my game.

Fuck .

“You forgot the fourth reason girls like me date guys like him,” she says, handing me back the cloth.

Yep, by the way she’s shooting laser beams out of her eyes at me, I’ve insulted her.

“Which is?” I ask.

The mysterious girl leans in and whispers, “A big cock.”

I almost choke on my fucking breath.

Hearing cock fall from those luscious lips sends all kinds of crazy straight to my balls.

Who the hell is this firecracker?

She grins, mischief twinkling in her beautiful eyes.

“I’m kidding,” she says, diffusing the tension with a sweet chuckle. “He’s not my date. We used to go to school together and when I ran into him in town the other day we got talking and he invited me along tonight. But just as friends.”

I glance over at him. He’s sitting at a table across the room with Gambit and Scotty, the prospect, but he’s scowling at us. Which tells me he didn’t get the just as friends memo.

“So not a date?” I reiterate.

“I think you already figured that out since you’ve been watching me all night.”

Not a lot of people surprise me.

But this woman keeps surprising the hell out of me.

“How would you know I was watching you if you weren’t watching me back?” I ask her .

“Touché.” She laughs and folds her arms. “Does this usually work?”

“What?”

“You ride in like a knight in shining armor, lay the lines on thick, and what? I’m supposed to fall to my knees and blow you?”

Sweet Jesus. That smart mouth.

Those plump lips.

Where the hell has she come from?

“I mean, if that tickles your fancy.” I give her a wink.

“It will take more than a flex of muscle and a panty-dropping smile to get me on my knees.”

“You think my smile is panty-dropping, huh?”

“Of course that’s what you take away from my comment.”

Because I like the way she’s scowling at me, I give her one of those panty-dropping smiles and say, “You’re flirting.”

But she doesn’t flinch. Just lifts an eyebrow. “Is that what this is?”

“This can be whatever you want it to be, honey.”

It takes a beat, then she bursts out laughing. “Oh, you’re too much,” she says. “Just for that cheese, you owe me a drink.”

I grin because I haven’t met this much of a challenge in a long while. “Lead the way, sweetheart. ”

At the bar I order two shots of tequila, and Luna lines them up in front of us.

“Salt, lime?” she asks.

The woman with the mesmerizing eyes nods.

I haven’t done tequila shots with salt and lime since Gambit’s stag night. Normally I drink it straight. But if this beauty wants to lick salt and wrap those luscious lips around a lime wedge in front of me, then who am I to complain?

Luna slides the salt along the bar and places two lime wedges on a napkin, then leaves us to serve Belle further down the bar.

My drinking companion picks up the saltshaker and simultaneously reaches for my hand.

Mouth open, I watch as she sprinkles salt on the patch of skin where my thumb meets my forefinger, then bends her head and looks up at me as she slides her tongue over the salt.

And boom.

There is a mass exodus internally as all my thoughts, common sense, and awareness leave me.

Not to mention all the blood rushing south.

I’m amazed I can still stand.

Not that she notices. She picks up the shot and drinks down the tequila, then sucks on the lime wedge.

A burst of citrus floats between us .

“Your turn,” she says, licking the lime juice from her lips.

She sprinkles salt on her hand and offers it to me, so I make eye contact with her as I take her hand and slide my tongue along her skin.

Heat flares in her eyes, and her smile wavers. But it quickly returns when I take the shot glass and tip the tequila down my throat. The lime I could do without. But I do it anyway. To please her.

Our eyes meet again.

“I saw that in a movie once and always wanted to do it,” she says.

“Another?”

“Oh no, I’ll do things I regret if I have another.”

“Which I highly encourage.”

A slow smile touches her lips. “I bet you would.”

“Life is too short to play it safe. Sometimes you’ve got to just say fuck it.”

“And what would me saying fuck it look like tonight?” she asks.

I take a step closer. “You. Me. Exploring where those tequila shots take us.”

She leans an elbow against the bar. “You’re very self-assured.”

“Among other things.”

She shakes her head and laughs, tucking her hair behind her ear .

My gaze drops to the watch on her wrist.

It seems out of place. Because this firecracker is all biker girl with her wild hair, high boots and a tight dress that shows off an impressive rack. But the elegant piece of jewelry suits her.

I nod toward the watch. “Interesting piece of jewelry.”

“It was my mother’s,” she says.

“It’s beautiful.”

“She wore it all the time. My father gave it to her the day I was born.”

Her eyes get that distant look in them when someone recalls something that hurts. I know, because I’ve seen that distant gaze around here a lot.

Frowning, she lifts her lashes and brings her gaze back to me, along with a self-deprecating smile that’s all dimples and cute. “Well, that’s a story for another time.”

“Baby, I’ve got all the time in the world,” I say.

She cocks another eyebrow at me. “Baby?”

“I don’t know your name.”

She smiles and holds out her hand. “I’m Ella.”

I take her hand, but the moment her fingers curl around mine, a thrill zips through me, and for a long moment everything goes quiet, and all I’m aware of is the gentle touch of her skin on my skin.

The fuck ?

I look at Ella, who clearly didn’t feel the same thing because she’s looking at me like I’m a complete fucking weirdo.

“And your name would be?” she asks.

I pull my hand away, not sure what the fuck just happened. But when I do, her watch slips off her wrist. Thinking quick, I grab it before it falls to the floor.

“Oh, the damn clasp keeps breaking,” she says.

I wrap it around her wrist and fix the clasp so it’s more secure. “You might want to get that fixed properly.”

“Thanks, I don’t know what I’d do if I ever lost it.”

As I’m letting it go, I brush my fingers across her skin and feel another zap of whatever-the-fuck-that-is go through me.

“So are you going to stand there looking like you’ve just been struck by lightning or are you going to tell me your name?” she asks.

Jesus, what is wrong with me?

“Lars.”

She smiles, and it feels like sunshine spreading through my chest.

Jesus, get a grip.

“I like that name,” she says. “So Lars, before Cheezy spilled a bottle of beer over me, he pointed you out as the enforcer for the club.”

“I am.”

“So what does an enforcer do? ”

“The stuff no one else has the stomach to do.” The words slip out before I can stop them. Because like I said, all my common sense left me the moment she slid her tongue along my skin. “But I don’t want to talk about me. Let’s talk about you.”

“You don’t want to talk about me. I’m boring.”

“Sweetheart, there ain’t nothing boring about you.”

“Okay, look, if you want your dick sucked tonight then you’re wasting your time with me.”

I lift my brow. “Your preoccupation with my dick getting sucked is quite concerning. Tell me more.”

She chuckles like she can’t help herself. “I’m not preoccupied with it.”

“You’ve mentioned it twice in….” I make a show of looking at her watch. “The last ten minutes. Be honest, is there something you want to tell me?”

“Other than you’re annoying, way too confident, and completely not my type, then no, there isn’t.” She holds up a finger. “No wait. There is something I need to know.”

“Anything.”

“Where’s the bathroom? I need to pee.”