Page 2 of Her Demanding Biker (Savage Kings MC #9)

Chapter

Two

F ucking assholes!

I joined the Savage Kings because I liked the guys. They were fun to be around. Being a prospect?

Hell.

Fucking hell.

Being at the whim of someone else?

It reminded him too much of his time in the Army.

Yes, sir.

No, sir.

Jump, sir?

How high, sir?

Oh, I can't date your daughter, sir?

Well... I'd been there, done that, and had the mother fucking t-shirt!

When my contracted years of service ran out?

I walked away, determined to live by my own rules.

That didn't last more than a couple of years.

And all of the crazy aversion to rules was replaced with a need to belong somewhere.

But aside from the hell that was following everyone's orders while I was a prospect, as soon as I slipped on the leather cut with the Savage Kings colors embroidered on the back of it, I'd felt something I hadn't felt for most of my life.

I felt like I belonged.

The only other time I'd felt like that was...

Was with a woman I was never going to see ever again.

Not only was she several hundreds of miles away, she was married.

Something her father thought I should know.

How the fuck he knew where I was? I didn't exactly ask him, but I knew he was thrilled that he'd finally put his daughter out of my reach.

Well, fuck you, sir.

As the gates of the Savage Kings property filled the road ahead, I remembered that we were hosting a party tonight.

A party.

I rolled up to the gates and a prospect opened it up.

I nodded in greeting. "Jet."

He smiled at me and that only soured my attitude a little more.

Yeah, I could be a contrary sumbitch.

"You made it back in time for the party, Thief."

I sighed. "Any chance I can just slip in the back and avoid the festivities?"

Jet looked at me as if I'd grown a second head. "Come on, Thief. Have some fun. You're always trying to avoid the parties."

There was a reason I avoided the parties.

The girls were pretty enough, but none of them caught his interest.

No one had caught his eye since...

No, I shook my head, I wasn't going to go there. Arlys Mackey...

Arlys Hunt, now, was far away and married.

I had no interest in anyone else.

My hand was the only thing I used when the mood hit me.

It was enough to take the edge off, so I didn't need club pussy.

"You should go in and get a beer at least." Jet looked at me over his shoulder. "Willow, Diesel's old lady, brought a friend."

I lifted my chin and gave a grunt as an answer. It was enough of an answer.

Prospects didn't question patched members all that much.

Especially if they wanted to become members.

The gates were barely open enough for me to walk my sled through, but I wanted out of this situation.

I made it work.

The tip of my boot dragged through the dirt enough that Jet coughed a little.

Served him right.

I found a spot to stop and shifted my weight so I could lay down the kickstand and stand up.

Ah, fuck.

I'm getting too old for this.

Riding for as long as I did, trying to get home so I could put my head on my own pillow instead of sleeping on the ground or paying for a piece of shit hotel room.

I swung a leg over the back of my sled and took a few steps feeling like one of those old dimestore novel cowboys.

A hot shower was just what I needed to take the ache out of my muscles.

And a good fuck.

That's what the other guys were always telling me. I get it, especially from guys like Diesel and Moose. The growing list of members who were hooking up and settling down.

As much as members settled down that is.

The thought of falling into bed was what I was chasing tonight.

The thought of falling into the warm embrace of a woman?

Well that would have to wait.

Likely forever.

Yeah, that's me.

Mister positive.

"Thief!" I heard Hawk calling to me even with the music playing in the main room of the clubhouse.

There were people I could avoid in the clubhouse. but Hawk was the Sergeant at Arms. There was no ignoring him.

"Another party?" I swung a glance around the room and saw that the main room was packed with people.

Hawk gave me a look that spoke volumes.

"You found the information we were looking for?"

I reached into my jeans pocket and fished out the piece of paper I'd written everything down on and handed it to him.

"More than we were looking for, but it's not good news. Those assholes are into some shit and they're looking to bring it to us."

I let out a long breath through my nose feeling my nostrils flare a little.

The last thing we wanted was the shit that the Sons of Decimation were into bleeding into our territory.

It was too late to keep them getting a foothold into town, but we were going to stop it and soon.

I waited until Hawk was done reading before I spoke. "What do you think?"

The look on his face when he looked at me was telling.

He lifted the paper between us. "I'm gonna show this to Pres and see what he has to say, but I don't see anything here that can't wait until tomorrow's Church. We all need a night to party."

I had to smile then, not because I agreed with him, but because of the pretty redhead walking up behind my friend.

Maggie was everything opposite of Hawk and it made them the perfect pair.

Maggie wrapped her arms around Hawk's waist and tipped her head to the side to look up at him. "Hey, handsome. I think I might want to dance," she gave him a wink, "come on and join me?"

The look on Hawk's face changed and I tried not to laugh at the big man.

He was big and muscled like a lot of the members of Savage Kings, but around Maggie he was different.

He was softer, but you'd never catch me saying that to him.

After all, I wanted to live.

Hawk seemed to hesitate, and Maggie's shoulders fell in a disappointed shrug.

The gesture called up a memory for me.

Arlys used to do that, too.

She was always so feminine and sweet, but she knew how to use her sweet face and body to tempt me.

It wasn't like I was unwilling.

The first time I'd set eyes on Arlys, I was sure I'd end up in prison for just looking at her.

She was a pretty little thing.

But as good looking as she was, her father was... a strict asshole.

And he was my unit commander.

So there was a problem from the get-go.

I ended up lusting after her from a distance. Falling for her, too.

Nothing about Arlys made me do things in part.

Including leaving her because of her fucker of a father who threatened to trump up some charges and put me in military prison.

He wasn't joking either.

He knew people up and down the chain of command and me? I was just a stupid kid just out of high school.

The only skills I had were connected to the Army.

And her dad? Well, he laid it all out for me.

Every shit thing he planned to do. Including sending his daughter to her great-aunt.

That wasn't going to happen. Not if I could help it.

So I chose what might have been the worst decision of my life, but hopefully, it was the best one for her. I left.

Her dad transferred me to Camp Humphreys in South Korea with a warning to keep my ass on foreign soil if I knew what was good for me.

"Hey!"

"Ow!" I stepped back and covered my side.

Maggie was giving me a look with one raised brow. "Earth to Thief."

"Sorry." If it had been one of the other members, I would have told them to 'fuck off.' But since it was Maggie, I went for polite.

That wouldn't get my ass kicked by Hawk.

It was a sound plan.

"Where did you disappear to?" Maggie had moved around Hawk and was standing in front of him, her arms folded across her chest. "In your head, that is. You looked like you were far, far away."

Her smile was sweet, but I wasn't about to think about it very long.

Hawk had sharp eyes and a short temper around his woman.

If a man dared to look at her too long or too closely, they were likely to end up with a busted lip.

"I was thinking about someone I knew a long time ago." That was about all I could manage to say. The last thing I wanted to do was talk about Arlys out loud.

I'd kept her in my heart for what felt like forever.

Some secrets were worth keeping.

And I'd keep Arlys forever.

"Okay, enough with the melancholy mood." Maggie nailed me with a look.

She reached out and grabbed my arm.

Before Hawk could push me away, Maggie put a hand on his chest and gave him a look. "Back off, big guy. I'm not dragging him off to make out with him. Willow told me she brought a friend to the party and we both thought she'd be perfect for Thief."

That's when my feet grew roots, planting me firmly in place.

Maggie gave my arm a tug, but I wasn't about to move.

That's where I underestimated the hold that Maggie had on Hawk.

He grabbed me by the back of my shirt and almost threw me in her direction.

Almost because he'd never do a damn thing to hurt her.

Maggie smiled like she'd been handed a puppy and dragged him along with her, calling out for Willow.

I had a feeling that I could have pulled my arm free, but I also had a feeling that Hawk was walking behind me ready to kick my ass if I tried it.

That's when I realized that as much as I didn't want to go and meet this 'perfect for me' girl, it was safer for my continued existence to just do it and then drag my sorry ass to my room and fall asleep like the dead.

"Willow! Where is she?"

A moment after Maggie asked... yelled the question, Willow stood up head and shoulders above the crowd.

It wasn't until he was pulled down into the middle of the floor that he saw that Willow was standing on a coffee table.

"Fuck me."

My eyes scanned the room for Diesel.

"He's gonna be pissed."

"Willow!" The music seemed to go silent for a moment and the whole room stilled. Diesel had a voice as big as he was, but when he had a need to, he could cut through a mountain with a bellow. "Get your ass off of that table!"

Willow turned a quarter turn and gave her man a glare. "Excuse me?"

Diesel stopped at the edge of the coffee table, his arms folded over his chest. "Excuse you, what?"

Maggie came to a stop a few feet away and I stopped behind her. The area around the couches were clearing out.

It wasn't so much that they wanted to.

The people in the area were likely backing up to stay out of the way in case they were going to get caught in the blast radius.

No one wanted to be collateral damage if Diesel went off.

When he went off.

" My ass ?"

The tone of her voice said that it was a loaded question.

People around the room made some comments under their breaths but no one was stupid enough to do it where Diesel could see and hear.

"That..." Willow wiggled her butt earning her a few impromptu cat calls.

Cat calls that were silenced with a turn of Diesel's head.

"...Is all you're going to say?"

Diesel stepped in, put his shoulder up to her belly and put her over his shoulder, clapping his hand on the ass in question. "This ass is mine!"

Willow screamed and beat her fists against his back, but no one took it seriously, not when she was laughing.

Diesel did her the favor of turning around so she could talk to Maggie.

Red-faced and giggling, Willow pointed in one direction and then the exact opposite a moment later. "She's over there."

Then she reached down and grabbed a hold of Diesel's ass and gave it a squeeze.

They were gone a moment later with Willow's laughter echoing off the walls.

Maggie turned around to look at me.

"Well, that was... surprising."

I raised a brow at that. Surprising was a fact of life around a motorcycle club.

"Come on, Thief. I'll introduce you."

She took my arm again and this time I didn't feel Hawk's hand clutching my throat.

It was a win for me.

I liked breathing.

I followed after Maggie, figuring that it would be faster to say hello to the woman and then make some excuse to get some sleep.

Who wanted a sleep-deprived biker on their hands?

No one.

Maggie pulled me to a stop where Diesel had been standing a few moments before and gestured at the corner of the big couch we had on the other side of the coffee table.

I saw movement across the table and turned to look and that's when my brain stopped working.

The hamster or whatever animal had been turning the wheel in my skull passed out in shock, leaving me with a handful of cells.

"This is Thief. He's a little rough around the edges, but he's a good guy, otherwise I'd never introduce the two of you."

My heart was pumping harder than I'd ever felt it in my chest.

The air in my lungs had frozen and I didn't know if I'd ever be able to speak again.

"And, Thief?" Maggie looked at me with a cat-like grin that was only missing a feather poking out from between her lips. "This is-"

"Arlys."

Saying her name made my heart stall like a flooded engine.

"Arlys." I repeated her name, saying it aloud while I waited to wake up from the dream. "What... what are you doing here?"

"Logan." She covered her mouth a moment later as if she wasn't sure she should say his name.

A moment later, she slowly lowered her hands away from her mouth. "I was just about to ask you the same thing."