Chaos Bound (37 page)
“Saving your ass, you mean?” She turned and brushed her lips over his cheek.
“Like you did in the clubhouse when you threatened Arianne with the safety on? Made her almost piss herself laughing?”
She pressed her lips together and glared over her shoulder. “We don’t need to rehash all the humiliating details. But it just made me realize I need to learn how to use a gun. I’ve wasted enough of my life hiding and pretending I’m not part of the biker world when no matter what I do it finds me. In the crime lab, we analyze bullets, trajectories, bullet wounds, and casings, but I’ve never known what it feels like to hold a gun, how the recoil impacts the body, and how it burns your skin, and having a biker skill doesn’t mean I’m suddenly going to become a club—.”
Holt growled softly behind her. “Don’t say it. Even the thought of one of the brothers touching you…”
“Won’t happen,” Naiya said, teasing. “You see … I met this guy…”
“What guy?” Holt stiffened behind her.
“He’s a biker.” Naiya turned, nuzzled his neck. “Kinda cute. Longish blond hair. Perpetual scruffy beard. Rides a kick-ass bike. Has a serious overprotective streak. Not bad in bed.”
“Not bad?” He grabbed her ass and ground his erection against her. “You didn’t scream for ‘not bad.’”
“Maybe I need a reminder.”
“I’ll remind you that you’re mine.” He nipped her earlobe, and then licked the hurt away. “And you don’t need to use a gun ’cause you have me to protect you.”
Naiya arched her back, pressed her breasts against his chest. “Are you sure? It feels like you’ve got a new weapon for me to try.”
Heady with a newfound sense of power after his meeting with Jagger, torn between the need to protect Naiya and Tank and the need to avenge the grievous wrong done to him, and overwhelmed with the feelings he had for the beautiful woman in front of him, Holt wanted nothing more than to lose himself in her body, knowing it might be the last time they were together. “My room. Now. And I’ll show you some heavy artillery.”
“I have one more round to fire.” She walked through the trees to the box in front of the low target and bent down to take aim.
Fuck. Didn’t she understand? He needed her now. Crashing through the cover of the trees, Holt grabbed her by the hips and pulled her against him.
Naiya startled and the gun shook in her hand. She looked back over her shoulder and laughed. “Where did you come from?”
“Your dreams.”
“I wasn’t dreaming about a big sexy biker pressing his package against my ass when I’m trying to shoot a gun.” She gave a little wiggle and fuck she almost set him off.
“Too many men looking at this sweet ass.” He smoothed his hand over her cheek. “Thinking things they shouldn’t be thinking about something that belongs to me.” He kicked her legs apart and held her against the box with a firm hand against her lower back.
“Holt! What are you doing? What if someone comes out here?”
“I’ll shoot at them till they go away,” he growled. “I want you like this. After what just happened at the clubhouse, I’m in a mood for rough, and I don’t give a damn ’bout who sees us.”
Her voice caught. “What happened?”
“Got things settled in my mind about who I am, where I need to be, and what I got to do.”
She stilled, drew in a shuddering breath. “I don’t like the sound of that.”
But when she tried to get up, he pushed her back down. He would have her here. Hard and fast. And then he’d take her up to his room and give her slow and gentle, telling her with his body what he couldn’t say in words, saying good-bye. He reached around her, unbuttoned her jeans and shoved them down.
“Holt!”
“We’re in the trees. No one’s gonna see us. And even if they were minded to come out here, Tank will keep everyone away.”
Naiya dropped her head to the box and groaned. “He knows?”
“He knows me.” Holt ripped open his fly, freeing his throbbing shaft from its restraint. He leaned over Naiya, pressed his lips against her ear. “I need you, darlin’. You ready for me?” He slipped a hand between her legs, found her wet and slick.
“Such a good girl. Always wet for me,” he whispered as he positioned himself at her entrance.
“You have a way of turning a girl on.”
“Only one girl I want to turn on.” Holt rubbed the head of his cock along Naiya’s slit, and she moaned.
“Pushing her down on a box at a shooting range beside a clubhouse full of bikers, telling her that you need her, and then ripping off her pants is a good start.”
“You like that?” He pushed inside her with one hard thrust.
“I like anything to do with you.” She arched her back, angling herself to take him deeper. Fuck. She was made for him. Holt grabbed her ponytail and yanked her head back, holding her still as he hammered into her.
“Yes.” She bucked against him. “God, you feel so good, Holt. So big and thick. So hard.”
Christ. He wondered if women knew what it did to a man to hear them talk dirty about his cock. He was so fucking jacked, Jagger could come around the corner and he wouldn’t fucking stop. He pulled back and thrust inside her, faster, harder, gauging her reaction. He was right on the edge, but he wasn’t going to come until she climaxed. After what she’d been through, the last thing he wanted was for her to feel used.
“Give it to me, Naiya.” His balls slapped against her smooth round cheeks, his cock going so deep he could feel her cervix. “Give it up to me.” He slid one hand around her hip and stroked on either side of her clit, feeling the little bundle of nerves swell under his touch. Naiya moaned, and her pussy quivered around him.
“I’m so close.” She gripped the edge of the box, her knuckles white.
“Come for me, darlin’. I want to hear my name on your lips.” He rubbed his thumb over her clit, and she stiffened, choking back a scream as she came.
“Holt. Oh God. Holt.”
He pounded into her, his own release coming as hers ebbed.
Holt. Not T-Rex. A new man with a new life and a woman who had stolen his heart.
Naiya fell on the bed in the well-appointed hotel room in Sandy Lake as soon as the door closed behind Holt. They had been on the road all day, riding from town to town after they left Conundrum for Holt to pick up the equipment he needed for his secret plan that she hoped wouldn’t remain secret much longer. Along the way, he bought pillion pegs for Naiya’s feet and a back rest she didn’t want, but was glad to have when what should have been a short trip turned out to be a day-long event.
“You okay? Riding’s hard if you aren’t used to it.” Holt sat beside her and stroked his hand over her arm, frowned at the goose bumps dotting her skin. “You’re cold.”
“I’ll be okay. The leather jacket you bought me at Big Bill’s kept out most of the chill.” She shivered and Holt pushed himself off the bed.
“I’ll run a bath for you.”
“I’m not really a bath girl. I usually take showers.”
He headed for the washroom, ignoring her just like he’d ignored her when she insisted she didn’t need the backrest he bought for his bike because after the rally they would be going their separate ways. It had been a hint, an opening for him to share his plans, or to reassure her that it would all turn out okay, but he’d ignored that, too. In fact, he had talked less over the course of the trip than he ever had before, and it tripped all the warning bells in her mind.
Naiya stripped down to her underwear and joined Holt in the bathroom. After filling the tub, he added some bath salts from a basket on the tub surround, and piled white fluffy towels on the cream marble counter. When everything was to his satisfaction, he tugged off his clothes and Naiya winced when she saw his scars under the bright bathroom lights. Damn Viper. There wasn’t an inch of his torso that hadn’t been marked.
He choked back a grunt. She looked up and saw him studying himself in the mirror, his eyes unfocused as if he was lost in memories she couldn’t even begin to imagine.
“Holt?” Naiya wrapped her arms around him, pressed her cheek against the soft hair on his chest. “You okay?”
He stiffened, pulled away. “Yeah. Good. Bath is ready.”
“I know what it’s like,” she said softly. “One minute you’re here. The next minute you’re back there—”
“I said I’m good.” He turned off the tap, checked the water, and then stepped into the tub. “Come.”
Anxiety curled in her belly, and she stripped off her underwear and stepped into the tub, settling between his legs as the warm water lapped over her aching muscles.
“Do you want to talk about it?” She looked back over her shoulder. “Sometimes talking helps.”
“No.”
Naiya drew in a deep breath, steeled her spine. No hiding. No running away. Even though this wasn’t a physical problem, she needed to confront it head on. “What’s going on? You haven’t been yourself since the meeting with Jagger. Why are you being so distant?”
He kneaded her shoulders gently, working out the knots until she relaxed against him completely, shifting to accommodate his growing arousal. Well, at least one thing hadn’t changed.
“Got a lot on my mind, darlin’, but I’ll tell you the plan. Viper and his bodyguards have the penthouse suite at the Royal Hotel. The Sinners have spent the last few months paying off the staff, security, fire department, and police. A couple of brothers are gonna go in as trades, set fires in strategic locations that will result in a lockdown of the elevators but won’t put civilians at risk. Fire doors from the penthouse will be locked down. Telephone wires cut, and Wi-Fi cut. Cell signals blocked. Viper and his men will be forced up to the roof. Fire department and police will be delayed getting to the scene. If they come early, people will tell them the building has been completely evacuated. Meanwhile, Jagger and the senior patch will be on the roof of the building across the street with a few sniper rifles. They’ll pick Viper’s men off, go down the fire escape and head out of town in a van waiting for them in the street.”
The Sinners. Jagger. The senior patch.
Not once had he said “we” or mentioned his role in the mission. Maybe she was overthinking, reading too much into his words. “I want to be there. I want to watch.”
“You will.” He slid one hand around to cup her breast, soft and slick in the water. His cock stiffened, and he shifted behind her. “You and Tank will be on the roof of the adjacent building. Tank will be wearing a jacket over his cut, and after it’s over, you’ll go down the stairwell to the sixth floor pretending to be a civilian couple. Once the Jacks figure out where the shots are coming from, they’ll be swarming the other hotel, looking for men in cuts. Tank will look after you.”
She drew his other hand around, and he smoothed his thumb over the curve of her breast. “Where will you be?”
“I’ll be there.”
Another vague statement. Did he mean “there” as in on the roof of the building across the street with Jagger and the Sinners, or”there” with her and Tank, or … “there” on the roof with Viper and his guards? Before she could ask, he nuzzled her neck.
“Spread your legs for me.”
He’d never spoken to her in such a rough, commanding voice, and the incongruity of the warm, rose-scented bath and his harsh tone aroused her. She parted her thighs, and Holt stroked his fingers over her soft curls.
Naiya moaned, leaned back, her breasts lifting, her thighs parting wider, inviting.
“Good girl.” He hooked her legs over his shins and spread her wider, his fingers working their way through her folds to her entrance, and then up and around her clit. Naiya melted against him, her muscles relaxed now in the warm water, a contrast to the tension in her core.
“I love your body,” he murmured. “Your softness, your curves, the way the pink of your pussy matches your rosy nipples. I love how you respond to my touch, how wet you are when we’re together, how you open for me and let me enjoy your beauty.” He kissed his way down her neck, nipping the sensitive spot between her neck and her shoulder. “I love that you’re mine, that you know the worst of me and still want my touch, that you know me as I am now, that I wake from my nightmares and find myself in your arms. I’m gonna make sure you’re safe and happy and able to live that normal life you dreamed about.”
“With you?” She looked back over her shoulder, the niggle at the back of her mind now a full-blown roar of worry.
“Turn around. I want to see you.” He lifted her, helped her turn, and then positioned her over his shaft, her knees on either side of his hips.
“With you?” she asked again.
“I can’t give you a normal life, darlin’. I’m leaving the Sinners. And even when Viper’s gone, he’ll still be a part of me.”
“Maybe I don’t want a normal life anymore,” she said. “Maybe I want a chance to live free for a while, make sure the career I’ve chosen is what I really want to do, and not a reaction to my mom or Viper or what I went through. Maybe I want to go on the road with you. Maybe I love you, Holt. Just the way you are. Maybe I don’t want to lose you.”
Pain flickered across his face, and he cupped her face in his hands and kissed her softly on the mouth. “Maybe you don’t have a choice.”
Naiya jerked back as if he had slapped her. He was planning to do something stupid. She could hear it in his voice, and see it in his eyes. Well she wasn’t going to let it happen. He’d already sacrificed too much. Clearly, he wasn’t going to tell her what he had planned, so she would just have to outthink him, and she’d need Tank’s help. She knew Holt now. He knew Holt then. Together they would be able to figure out what the hell was going on and stop him. She had a choice. And she was choosing him.
Holt eased into her slowly until he was seated to the hilt. So hard. So hot. He filled her completely, perfectly, like they were one person and not two. Naiya wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him toward her until their lips met. Their breaths mingled, tongues tangled. She tried to commit him to memory, the warmth of his lips, the deep rumble when he looped an arm around her waist and pulled her against him. She wanted him. Needed him. She’d made it through hell, and he was her piece of heaven.
He leaned down, licked the perfect, pale swell of her breast, glistening with water, groaned as he closed his lips over the taut, pink peak, rubbing his thumb back and forth over the other.
