Inked (9 page)

“Come on, let’s sit down.” He turned and faced the
living room. When he looked at her over his shoulder and pointed to the couch
she nodded.

She followed him, and when they were both seated
side-by-side there was a moment of silence.

“How about I start?”

“Okay.” She turned her body so they could stare at
each other when they spoke, and waited for him to say whatever it was he was
going to say.

“I’ve never done this before.” He leaned back,
placed an arm over the back of the couch, and spread his legs slightly so he
took on this relaxed position.

“Do what? Have a conversation?” Stella was trying to
go for a less weird vibe by teasing a little, because honestly she had never
been in a situation like this either, but Cadeon didn’t even crack a smile.
“I’ve never had to talk about something like this either.” He didn’t respond
for several seconds, and she shifted on the couch as the awkwardness
intensified. Should she say something else or wait?

“You know what your dad and The Vicious Bastards
would do to me if they knew I fucked you?” He said that sentence with
absolutely no emotion, and her mouth dried and her throat suddenly started to
swell shut. “I’ll tell you what they’d do.” Again, a moment of silence, and she
wondered if he was going for some kind of shock value or if he actually wanted
her to answer. “They’d beat the living shit out of me, and when they stopped
for a second to allow me to catch my breath they would bring out the crowbars
and chains.” He stared her right in the eye.

“I have grown up with those men, and yes, they are
dangerous and can live up to their club name, but I also know they want me to
be happy.” Her father’s MC wasn’t just called The Vicious Bastards because it
sounded intimidating, but because they were exactly that. She may never have
been in the thick of the violence because her father had made sure to always
keep her away, protected and ignorant, but she knew. She had seen them come
back to the clubhouse many times over, some with gunshot wounds, others with
busted faces. She had even seen them carrying a fallen member. But she never
asked what had happened, never pried into “club business”.

“Yeah, they want you to be happy, Stella, but I’m
just some asshole that took something that I shouldn’t have. That doesn’t go
over very well with them.”

She shook her head. “I’m an adult, Cadeon. This is
my life, and they know that.” Would her dad be mad? Most likely, but the other
guys, even though they were like her family, would listen to her and how she
felt far more effectively then her dad would.

He smiled, but it wasn’t genuine. “Stella, baby, you
are the daughter of the club president. No matter how old you are Scars will see
you as his little girl. I want you, but the last thing I want to do is show
disrespect. We had sex, incredible sex, but still, I knew better than to go
there with you.”

She shook her head, but she didn’t know what she was
shaking it to. No, that was a lie, she knew. In her heart she just had the
feeling that Cadeon was going to tell her that she was good enough to fuck, but
not good enough for more. Damn the tightening in her chest at that thought. “If
you’re going to say it, then just say it.” She found this almost violent
strength inside of her, and her voice rose from her anger. “I am sick of guys
being pussies because of who I am associated with.” She would not cry, but
rage-filled tears threatened to spill.

Cadeon leaned forward and rested his forearms on his
thighs. He kept direct eye contact with her. “You know what the truth is,
Stella? If the MC doesn’t approve of who you want you know that guy is as good
as broken.”

She didn’t say anything, couldn’t. What Stella did
wish he would do was get on with it.

“But my reputation is just as shady as The Vicious
Bastards’. I’ve done bad stuff, things that could have put me away for a very
long time if I was ever caught—”

“Just say it, dammit.” Her voice was louder, and her
anger continued to grow. “I’m not about to play this cat and mouse game, or
listen to you try and justify why you think all we can have is some kind of
physical relationship behind everyone’s back.” She wouldn’t cry. “Because if
you think they wouldn’t be okay with you being with me, then they sure as hell
wouldn’t
be okay knowing
I am your pussy on the side.”
She stood, her frustration climbing higher.

“Sit down, Stella.”

She shook her head. This was her house, and she had
been stupid enough to think his parting words at the shop meant more than what
they really had. But everything inside of her felt like a jumbled mess. It
seemed like an eternity that she had wanted Cadeon, and the very idea that he
might not want her in the same deep way hurt in the worst kind of way. She was
human, after all, and couldn’t help these wild feelings moving through her at a
rate she couldn’t even comprehend.

“Sit down.” His voice was deeper, harder, and there
was that dominating quality laced in his words like there had been when he had
been inside of her. No she wouldn’t even go there.
Hell, no.
Cadeon stood before she could even say anything in
response. He had his hand buried in the back of her hair, and had her head
tilted back so she was forced to look in his face. “Stella, I can see on your
pretty little face that you’re jumping to all kinds of fucked up conclusions. I
haven’t even finished what I was going to say.” He had that sandpapery tenor to
his voice, and she clenched her hands at her sides and swallowed the lump that
had formed in her throat from her erratic emotions. “Now, what I was going to
say was that the MC would kill me if they knew what I did with you, and of what
I want to do with you.”

She blinked, trying to comprehend what he was saying,
and trying to keep her emotions in check so she could think clearly through
this. He didn’t know how deep her feelings went for him, and that she had been
in love with him since she was twenty years old.

“I don’t give a shit what they
try
and do to me, because I want you more than for that one time,
Stella.” He used his other hand to cup her cheek, and used his thumb to run it
along her bottom lip. “Maybe I should just walk away? I know what I feel for
you might piss a lot of people off.” It was almost like he was speaking to
himself, but even if she had wanted to respond she couldn’t find the words. “I
wanted you like a fiend before, but I’ve tasted you now, and there isn’t anyone
or anything that is going to stop me from making sure you stay mine.”

Her breath stopped at his words.
“Really?”

He grinned, and this time it was genuine and heated.
“Yeah, baby. I have never been surer of anything in my life. I don’t know how
your old man is going to take this, or his crew for that matter, but what I do
know is that I will fight for you, no matter what.” He leaned in and pressed
his lips to hers. “I don’t care about age, or connections. When something feels
this right you go with it, hold on tight, and never fucking let it out of your
sight.” He murmured against her mouth, and she molded herself to his body. For
several seconds all they did was kiss. It wasn’t fast or frantic, but it was
filled with a lot of heat and need. “I am not going to let you go, Stella, so
we need to decide how we are going to tell that lot of biker brutes.”

She smiled, because didn’t Cadeon realize that he
was just like them? “Let me break this news to my dad.” It might be easier and
smoother if she did it. She looked into his face and lifted her hand so she
could smooth her fingers over his stubble covered cheeks. It wasn’t just his
huge size, or the tattoos he had or the Harley he drove. He was a badass all
around, but he wore this confidence that told people not to fuck with him
unless they wanted to regret it in the end. Maybe that was why she had been so
attracted to him? She had lived around men like that all her life, but had
never seen any of them as more than her family. But then Cadeon had come around,
and she had felt like he was this magnet and she could not stop herself from
going to him. It might have taken her a long time to take what she wanted, and
maybe he had been the one to actually initiate everything, but it had been
done, and she couldn’t have been happier. But he was right. She needed to think
about how in the hell she was going to tell the MC, because surely shit would hit
the fan with this little announcement.

Chapter Eight

Cadeon lay beside Stella and listened to her sleep.
After they had eaten he had taken her to her room, and made sure to show her
that she wasn’t just a piece of ass to him. Why did he feel so strongly for
her? He didn’t know why having sex with her had switched something inside of
him and made him man-up, but it had and he wasn’t turning back now. Being
around her this time had had this protective side rising inside of him, and
even if he had kept his distance because he had thought it was the right thing
to do, that didn’t mean that he still hadn’t felt something strongly for her.
But this was a complicated situation, because no doubt her father and the club
wouldn’t see him as anything more than a bad boy with a nasty reputation that
would hurt her in the end. He had done a lot of shit when he was younger, and
although in his older age he had toned down how wild he was
,
that still didn’t mean he hadn’t done deplorable things. Things like fucking Tally
in the filthy alley behind his shop, or getting drunk and starting shit just
because he had known he could kick the other guy’s ass. All of that and more
hadn’t gone unnoticed by the club, or the town for that matter. Reckless was
small, and people talked. It was all they could do.

He turned his head and stared down at her. The sheet
had ridden low on her and now lay around her hips. He lifted his other hand and
smoothed it down the dip of her waist. Was he in love with this woman? Yeah, he
really was. Just the thought of her being with another guy had rage moving
through him fiercely. He tightened his hands into fists and breathed in deeply.
Yeah, he was so damn gone for this girl. But Cadeon didn’t want to even think
about how fast everything was moving, because honestly it felt right on every
level. There weren’t a lot of things in life that happened like that, but this
was definitely one of them.

She shifted beside him and pressed her naked body
more firmly against his. His cock sprang to attention even though they had just
had sex less than an hour before. It was like he was insatiable for Stella,
like all she had to do to get him rock hard was look at him.

The sound of a couple of Harleys nearing had him
sitting up in bed. The jarring motion had Stella groaning beside him. He looked
over at her and watched as she roused.

“What’s wrong?” She pushed herself up in
bed,
and the sheet and fell away, exposing her big, round
breasts. Shit, right now was not the time for this, especially when the Harleys
he heard were most likely coming to her house.

“Baby, you expecting anyone?”
He was already out of the bed and grabbing his clothes.

She rubbed her eyes, still clearly foggy from sleep,
but when the bikes came closer her eyes widened. “Is that…”

He nodded, but she was already out of the bed and
getting her clothes on. “Shit, what time is it?”

He looked at his watch.
“Nearly
nine.”

She rushed around the room, and when she was dressed
she ran over to her cell and looked at it. “Shit, phone is dead. My dad
probably called me, and knowing him since I didn’t answer he is stopping by on
his way home to check up on me.” Stella was an adult, but Cadeon knew how
protective he was of her. Cadeon supposed if he had lost his wife in the
traumatic way Scars had lost his he would be just as protective. But as sad as
the situation was, men in any kind of MC knew the kind of life that they
immersed themselves in.

“Stella.”

She stopped and looked at him, and they stared at
each other for several seconds. “I’m sorry, it’s just I certainly don’t want my
dad to come here and know I just had sex with a guy,” she said. He could
relate, because he certainly didn’t want the confrontation that was surely
about to transpire. When they spoke to Scars he’d wanted to be when he hadn’t
just slept with his daughter. “I have every intention of telling him about us,
because I want him to know that I am happy.” She smiled, and a small amount
tension left her, but those bikes were now pulling into her driveway, and she
sighed heavily. “God, of course things couldn’t just go the way I see them.”
She smoothed her hands down her shirt and looked down her body. “Does it look
like I just got fucked really
good
?” She lifted her
head and grinned at him.

Cadeon couldn’t help it. He chuckled and walked up
to her. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, still
mindful of her healing tattoo. “It does, but it looks really damn good on you.”

Now it was her turn to chuckle. She pulled back and
tilted her head back. “Well, I hope you’re ready to tell my dad about this,
because looks like it is about to happen sooner rather than later.”

He cupped her cheek and leaned down to kiss her.
“Stella, I think I can handle a protective father.”

She lifted a brow.
“What about a
lot of overprotective bikers, too?”