Inked (12 page)

“What, going to hit me?”

He grinned, but it wasn’t humorous at all, and her
smug little smile left her. “No, I don’t hit women, even ones like you.”

“But I do.” Naggie grinned and cracked her knuckles.
“In fact, I have been doing a damn fine job of keeping my anger in check since the
last time you and I met at the bar. Remember?”

Tally narrowed her eyes even further, which now made
her look like she needed glasses. “Yeah, how can I forget? You threatened to
smash my face into your windshield if I hit on your boyfriend again.” Tally
tossed another piece of hair over her shoulder. “I was drunk, and would have
never hit on him to begin with. Guys that are all pierced up like that don’t do
it for me.” She eyed Naggie up and down. “But I can tell you like the freaks,
given as you are one.”

Right before he knew Naggie would have attacked
Tally’s ass, the bell on the front door rang again. He turned and saw Stella
walk in, and of course she had arrived at the least convenient time.

She stopped and looked among the three of them. “Hey.”
She greeted them, but there was
a wariness
in her
voice. No doubt she could no doubt feel the thick, strangling sensation of
annoyance, anger, and tension that lined the air.

He looked at Tally when he heard her grinding her
teeth. She was staring at Stella with this narrow eyed and glaring expression.

“This is the bitch you picked over me?
Some MC biker brat?”
Tally asked in an outraged voice.
“She’s fat as hell.”

He made a low, threatening sound, but before he
could put Tally in her place Stella spoke.

“Excuse me?” She took a step toward them, and an
outraged expression was on her face. “You’re talking about me?” She pointed to
herself as if she were truly surprised that she had just been dropped in this
situation.

Tally didn’t respond, but instead crossed her arms
over her chest and glared at Stella.

Although Stella had it was phrased as a question
there was hardened anger and disbelief in her voice. Tally knew who Stella was
seeing as she lived in Reckless, too, and knew that she was thick in the biker
life. But Tally wasn’t the smartest woman he had ever come across, and her
self-image was set high above everyone else’s. She was also jealous, and she
was allowing that to cloud the commonsense part that should have been yelling
at her not to fuck with Stella or Naggie. She was stepping into a territory she
wouldn’t walk away unscathed from. Both females could eat Tally alive and still
be hungry for seconds.

Pride filled him at that thought that his woman
could handle what was thrown her way, and that was clear by her stance, the
look on her face, and the fact she had said something in defense. Cadeon stared
at Stella, and knew without a doubt he loved her. Christ, did he love her. He loved
seeing the strength pour from her, even if it was during this small confrontation.

“You always go around insulting people you don’t
even know?” Stella stepped closer to them, and there was a bite to her words.

“I call it like I see it.” Tally all but sneered.

“Stella, I wouldn’t worry about this skank or think
much on her verbal vomit,” Naggie said in a singsong voice that was filled with
a whole lot of dislike thrown Tally’s way.

Tally looked at Naggie and curled her lip. “This is
coming from a dyke.”

He expected Naggie to launch herself at Tally, but
all she did was laugh. “Sticks and stones and all that bullshit, bitch. At
least I don’t have to resort to dressing in underwear in public just for a
little attention.”

Tally’s
face started taking on a red hue, and she made an outraged sound. “These are the
people you associate with, Cadeon?” Tally asked in a high-pitched voice. “I
have never been so insulted in my life.”

Naggie snorted. “You must not get out much then.”

Cadeon looked at Naggie and then at Stella, and
didn’t stop the grin that spread. “Yeah, I hang around some pretty fucking
incredible company.” He started chuckling harder when Tally narrowed her eyes.
“Look, I have tried not to be an asshole every time you’ve come on to me and
I’ve kept you back. I really have, Tally, but this is the very last time I’m
going to tell you, and maybe this time it’ll actually sink in.” He took a step
toward her and said in a very low voice, “I have a woman, a damn good one at
that, and she is the one I love.”

Tally’s eyes
widened,
and
she snapped her head toward Stella. His girl had a surprised look on her face,
too, and although she knew he cared about her, no doubt hearing him say he
loved her was a shock. He knew he had always loved her, but he had just been
too fucking deep in his own shit to let those emotions out.

Tally made an angry sound, and tightened her hand on
the strap of her purse. “If you want that,” she narrowed her eyes at Stella,
“then your loss.”
 
Without saying
anything else she turned and headed for the front door. Tally went to pass
Stella, but his girl refused to move for her. They stared at each other for
several seconds, and Stella had more of a curious expression on her face than
one of being threatened. Tally gave a mixture of a laugh and snort. When Stella
was clearly not going to move out of the way Tally walked around her with a
huff. If Tally thought Stella was some pushover bimbo, she was clearly getting
an eye-opener. That had him chuckling harder because his woman was tough as
nails, and all his.

Once Tally was out of the shop there was a second of
silence that passed between the three of them. They glanced at one another.

“Wow.” Stella glanced out the front door. “What a
bitch.” There was surprise on Stella’s face when she turned and faced them
again. “I take it she was one of yours, Cadeon?” Stella crossed her arms over
her chest and stared at him, but there was no jealousy or anger, but more
disbelief in her expression.

Naggie started laughing, and he glanced over at her,
but she had her gaze on Stella. “Girl, that wasn’t one of his, but a hanger
that wouldn’t take no for an answer,” Naggie said and wiped the tears from her
eyes as her laughter died down.
 
“I like
your spunk though.” Naggie looked at Cadeon. “I’d love to stay and experience
more of your crazy ass life.” She glanced at Stella. “No offense,” Naggie
looked back at Cadeon again. “I’m out of here. I should have kicked that skinny
bitch’s ass.” She turned and grabbed her purse and without waiting for him to
reply showed herself out.

Stella shook her head, and turned to look out the window,
but Cadeon could hear the soft laughter coming from her. “She called me a fat
bitch.”

“Baby…”

Stella started chuckling and shook her head. “You
would have thought she could have come up with something not so high school-
ish
.” She started laughing again, harder this time. “It
might have hurt my feelings if I didn’t love the way I look.”

Cadeon grinned and walked over to her until there
was hardly any space separating them. “And I fucking love your body, too.” He
moved his hands along her curvy sides and felt his cock harden instantly, as it
always did whenever he was in her presence.

She stared up at him, but there was this question in
her eyes.

“Yeah, baby, I really fucking meant it when I said I
loved you.” He cupped her cheek and leaned down to kiss her. “I think I’ve
always loved you, even from that first time I saw you walk into the clubhouse
when I was giving your old man some ink. But I buried that shit deep down, and
I know it was because I was afraid of how it made me
feel
.”

“This whole situation feels surreal.” She closed her
eyes and rested her forehead against his.

“Yeah, it sure as hell does, but doesn’t it feel
good and perfect?”

She opened her eyes and leaned back enough that she could
look into his eyes. “Yeah, it really does. We should have had sex three years
ago, and all this time wouldn’t have been wasted.” He heard the teasing note in
her voice, and then she grinned.

“Baby, it wasn’t the sex that made me finally
realize that I didn’t want anyone else but you. It was the closeness of being
with you, the way you touched me and spoke to me, and the fact my dumb,
stubborn ass finally realized that I couldn’t stand to be away from you.” He
rubbed his thumb along the lush mound of her bottom lip. “Does it scare you
that everything is moving quickly?”

It took her a moment to answer. “Everything isn’t
moving quickly, Cadeon. In fact it seems like it has taken years to get to this
point.”

He grinned and chuckled softly.
Yeah, literally, and figuratively.
But he was going to make up for that, and he was going to use the rest of his
life to show her how much she meant to him.

****

One
month later

The music in the clubhouse was loud and vicious. Her
father and Booshie were at the bar speaking with Cadeon. She had told the guys
not to bother him about ink just because he was at the clubhouse. He didn’t
work constantly, but the guys seemed to think that whenever they saw Cadeon
that it was tattoo discussion time. That was better than acting grumpy around
Cadeon, which they had when their relationship had come out in the open.

She watched as Booshie pulled up the sleeve of his
t-shirt and turned to the side so Scars and Cadeon could see his muscular
bicep. She couldn’t hear what they said being this far from the bar, or with
the music so loud. She knew enough by watching Booshie move his hand up and
down over his arm that he was talking about getting more ink.

Stella brought her beer to her mouth and took a long
drink. Things were going especially well since she and Cadeon had decided to
give this relationship a go. The guys had given Cadeon a hard time at first,
but she knew that if she was happy they were happy. She had heard them say that
enough times. Even if they acted like big, bad biker dudes, they had hearts of
gold and protected what they thought of as theirs. Her father could be cranky
about it at times, and give Cadeon a hard time, but she could see on his face
that he was okay with what was happening between her and Cadeon deep down.

“Hey, girl.”
Diamond, an old lady for one of the more seasoned members, walked up to her and
grinned. “
You doing
okay?”

Stella nodded. Diamond had been with the club since
Stella was a little girl, but she hardly came to the actual clubhouse. After
raising three boys that had followed in the biker father’s footsteps, Diamond
was now enjoying the freedom of being on the back of her man’s bike. But the
years and a hard life showed on the older woman’s face in the form of deep
lines and wrinkles.

“Your man treating you good?”

“You know it. You think I’d put up with bullshit?”

Diamond started laughing and slapped her black
leather chap covered thigh. “Yeah, I knew you
ain’t
some woman to put up with any man’s shit.” Diamond grinned again and reached
inside of her leather jacket for a cigarette. There was a loud crash, and
Diamond turned to the side. Stella could see the back of her jacket. It read “PROPERTY
OF RAZOR”. “Damn drunken fools.” There was a round of laughter as the guys
kicked away the broken pieces of glass that now littered the ground. Diamond
turned back around. “You take care, honey.” And then Diamond was moving toward
the intoxicated bikers, ready to give them hell.

Over the last month things had been running
smoothly. She and Cadeon were taking things slow, enjoying their time with each
other, and not rushing into anything. Yeah, they had already had sex—too many
times to count in the last month in fact—but being together physically was one
way to show each other how they felt. Did she love him? Yes, she did a lot, and
she knew he loved her to by the way he touched her, and told her there would
never be another woman for him. Although Tally had acted like the jealous
girlfriend, she had surprisingly left things alone, but that might have had
something to do with the fact when they had seen her at the bar a week after
the tattoo shop incident she was hanging off two guys. Yeah, it seemed she
moved on pretty quickly, especially when those two guys she had been all over
were brothers and owned their own construction business in Reckless. Tally
forgot all about how much she “wanted” Cadeon once a little money was flashed
in her face.

“Hey, baby.”

She hadn’t even realized Cadeon had moved away from
the bar and was standing behind her until she heard his deep voice and felt his
warm breath on the nape of her neck. He wrapped his arms around her, kissed her
on the side of the neck.

“I think I’m ready to get out of here so you and
me
can spend some quality time together.” His breath was
warm, smelled faintly of the beer he had been drinking and the spearmint gum he
had chewed earlier, and she instantly became aroused.

She smiled even though he couldn’t see her. “I think
your definition of quality time is not cuddling on the couch.” She turned her
head so she could see him.

“You aren’t even the cuddling and spooning type.”