You Belong to Me (4 page)

“Deal. I was married for about a minute. It didn’t end well, but it didn’t start well either. Anyway, I put her dog in the microwave. I almost nuked it; hence, I’m Nuke.”

“You cooked a dog
!?” Jasmine blinked with surprise. She definitely didn’t want any food now. She sat back away from the table. As for the oral sex agreement, it was now null and void due to his obviously unstable mental condition.

“I didn’t kill it! I didn’t even nuke it. That’s just the story that got spread around, probably because it’s a funnier story. But that dog did get crazy after that. Maybe just being in the microwave scrambled its brain.” He made a circling motion with his index finger on his right hand. Nuke felt slightly offended that she thought he’d killed the dog.

Jasmine waved her hands in the air. “Okay, wait a minute. Let me get this straight. You put a dog in a microwave? What’s wrong with you?” She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. What kind of person puts an animal in the microwave? A kid, maybe, who didn’t know any better, but he was a grown-ass man.

He shrugged his shoulders. “I was angry.”

“Why were you mad at the dog?”

“I wasn’t mad at the dog. I was mad at her.”

“Why were you pissed off at your wife?”

“She stole two grand from me.”

“But you were married; what was yours was hers, right?”

“Not when you take the money I worked hard for and give it to your boyfriend.”

“Why not just take the money back?”

“I did, but the point was, she shouldn’t have been cheating, and she shouldn’t have given him my money.”

“How did you get the money back?”

“How do you think? I found out where he lived and I went over there and I took it back,” Nuke replied with a serious look across his gorgeous face.

Jasmine said nothing for a moment. This guy was crazy. Why did the hot ones always have to be crazy? It was a cruel joke from karma. Make a man in the spitting image of a Viking God, and of course he’s completely insane. “I have a cat. If you ever hurt her, I’ll kick your ass,” she said with a serious tone. “I don’t play that shit!”

He laughed and nodded his head in amusement. “You think you could take me?”

“I guess we’ll have to wait and see!”

“Does this mean I’ll be around for a while?”

Shrugging her shoulders, she glared at him. No logical person tattoos his face. She looked at him, searching for reasons to dislike him. The most disturbing tattoo was the one on his left temple. It looked like a bullet wound, with the flesh splayed open and blood running down toward his left eye. Who in his right mind would permanently put that on his face? It’s an automatic warning to anyone looking at him that he is not part of civil society. The tattoos on his face screamed that louder than the Hells Viper insignia.

“Believe it or not, I have a cat, too. Her name is Jell-O,” he said, interrupting her thoughts.

“Jell-O? You named your cat Jell-O?” Of course he would; he’s crazy, she thought.

“Yeah, what’s wrong with that? What did you name your cat?”

“Her name is Stella.”

He smiled. “Ah…‘A Street Car Named Desire,’” he said and then proceeded to do his best Marlon Brando imitation.

Against all her new distaste for him, she shook her head and giggled. He truly didn’t care what other people thought. Even she had to admit that his impression of Brando was spot-on. It drew even more attention to their table.

“You got it,” she finally responded once she stopped giggling. “I wanted to stand outside in the rain and yell ‘Hey Stella!’ It never happened.” She shook her head with genuine disappointment. “She’s an indoor cat, hates the outside. Refuses to leave the house,” she chuckled. “I’ve tried and tried, but she’s not having it.”

“You have a cute laugh,” Nuke said with a glint in his eyes.

She wanted to ignore his compliment, but she was flattered. “Did you do anything else to your ex-wife or the dog?” she asked because she needed some ammo to shoot down her lust for him.

He stared at her with a teasing grin, and she hated herself for being aroused. “Your lack of response answered that question.” She stared at the food on her plate. “Where is she now, your ex-wife?”

“Don’t know, don’t care.”

“How old were you when you got married?”

“Twenty. I was a hang-around for the club then.”

“What’s a hang-around? No wait, I know. It’s someone who wants to be in the club right? I think I heard that term on some show. A real show about bikers, a documentary.”

“Yeah, it’s a person that wants to be considered for membership. You have to be a hang-around long enough for them to get a feel for you and vice versa.”

“Does it take a long time to become a member?”

“Yes. It’s not easy, but it has to be that way; it weeds out the weak. Kevin’s dad got me a job at the Viper Garage. Kevin’s dad is a Hells Viper.”

“He’s in prison, right? Cindy mentioned something about it once. She wanted Kevin out of the club before he ended up in prison like his dad.”

“Sounds like something Cindy would say. He’s been locked down for five years now.”

They looked at each other in silence for a moment before Nuke said, “The auto repair shop is over on Harvester Street where the clubhouse is at. Do you know where that is?”

“Yeah, I drive by there sometimes when I’m headed to the outlet mall, but I don’t go to the east side of town much.”

“The garage is separate from the club house,” Nuke said. “There’s a fence separating the business from the main compound. It keeps the curious from wandering where they shouldn’t. We take up the whole block between the auto repair shop and the clubhouse and some storage buildings.”

“What happens after you’re a hang-around?”

“If you make the cut, you become a prospect. I was a prospect for two years, then I became a full-patch member. I had to fix my life before they would patch me in.”

“How long were you married?”

“Dated, married, divorced in less than a year. Actual time living together was four months, maybe five. I can’t really remember exactly. We were off and on. Even when we were together, we weren’t together, you know what I mean?”

“I guess. Was it love at first sight for you?” Jasmine asked, imagining that his ex-wife was a Barbie blonde who carried around a tiny dog that was now insane.

“No, I was wasted. We both were. I did a lot of meth and other drugs back then. She and I used to get fucked up together. I’ve been clean for almost fifteen years. I do smoke a little weed every now and then. I drink a beer or some whiskey, but that’s it. I stay away from the hard shit.”

“Were you high when you named your cat Jell-O?”

“Actually I found her out back behind a meth house that I used to go to all the time. She was in bad shape. Just a tiny little thing, maybe four weeks old. Took her home and all I had was green Jell-O, the lime flavor. Anyway she loved it, so it was either call her ‘Green’ or call her ‘Jell-O.’ I guess I could have named her ‘Lime,’ but that sounds stupid to me.”

Part of her felt sad. She was on a date with an incredibly hot guy who was crazy and violent. He was also a former drug addict and a member of an outlaw motorcycle club. She hadn’t just taken a step out of her comfort zone; she’d jumped out without a safety net. It sucked because he was so damn sexy. He’d be one of those guys you’d sit back and think about when you were eighty years old and remember with a big grin on your face.

The clatter of the restaurant engulfed them. The illusion of being with a bad boy wasn’t at all turning out like she thought it would, though she hadn’t really dwelled on details. She’d kept herself occupied these past few days by fantasizing about him throwing her down onto the bed and screwing her brains out.

“You got quiet on me. Why?” He had stopped eating and was watching her. She had apprehension written all over her, and he didn’t blame her one bit. It seemed that the more she was learning about him, the less interested she became. That bothered him. There was something about her that he really liked and not just her physical appearance. He had to salvage this because his gut was telling him that this could turn out to be something good if he didn’t blow it.

“I don’t know what else to ask you right now.” She pushed the food around on her plate.

He let out a low grumble as he looked around the restaurant and then
back to her. “How long have you been a nurse?” he asked, tapping his fork on the side of his plate.

“Eight years.”

“Do you like it?”

“Not really, but where I work at now isn’t so bad. At least I’m not pushing a med cart in a nursing home anymore.”

“What do you want to do if it’s not nursing?”

“I wanted to be a writer. I went back to school for a bit. I took some English classes. That’s when I met Cindy.”

“So you gave up on writing?”

“Kind of. Writing is my passion, but I needed a reliable paycheck. I was an EMT for two years before I decided to go to nursing school. I thought I’d like nursing better, but I don’t. Do you work?” She glanced up at Nuke.

“Technically, yes.”

“What do you mean ‘technically’?” Jasmine asked, holding his gaze.

“I mean ‘technically’ as in ‘abstract’ or ‘theoretical.’”

She laughed purely at the bizarreness of his answer. “Well, what ‘abstract’ jobs do you do?”

“The Hells Vipers own Club Throttle. I work as a bouncer occasionally. I work on motorcycles, cars at the garage. I’ve worked construction for my uncle when he’s in need of help. I also do tattooing. That’s my passion. I have a whole set-up over in our clubhouse. I’ve been thinking about opening up my own shop in a year or two.”

All she heard was Club Throttle. Of course he would work at a strip club. This keeps getting better and better. He looks at tits and ass all day long. “Strip club, huh?” She looked at her plate. Screw it. She took a bite of chicken. He wasn’t going to see her naked, so what difference did it make?

He made some kind of a throat groan as he got up from the booth and walked over to her side of the table. “Scoot over,” he ordered as he slid in next to her and draped his arm around her shoulder. With his other hand, he turned her face to look at him. “I’m an adult with a life, just like you. That life has good things in it and bad. You’re a nurse, and in my head, I’m thinking, ‘She’s surrounded by doctors all day, so why in the heck would she be interested in me?’ You’re thinking, ‘He’s a biker.’ The lies that television and Cindy have filled your head with must be overwhelming your senses right now. Not even counting all of the things I just told you. You’re wondering, ‘Why is he here with me?’ What we’re both failing to see is the obvious; we’re here with each other because we want to be. So there has to be something to that, don’t you think?”

“Not what I was expecting you to say,” she said quietly. She looked in his eyes and felt a flush of excitement again. Maybe she didn’t really hate the tattoos on his face. “By the way, I wouldn’t date a doctor if you paid me. They tend to be egotistical assholes.”

“And I don’t date strippers. A lot of them look at men and see dollar signs, plus they usually have fake tits. Do you realize that if things would have gone smoothly after my surgery, I would have never met you?”

“We might would have met sooner or later, especially if Cindy works things out with Kevin,” she said.

He shook his head. “Cindy and Kevin were together for over a year. She never brought you to one our parties, and she wouldn’t have because she’s ignorant.”

“You don’t like her, huh?”

“No, I don’t. I want you to let what’s going to happen, happen, and stop being paranoid.”

“Maybe what’s going to happen is nothing at all.
”

Once again, he shook his head. “You felt it, too, when I was walking up to your door with Cindy and we looked at each other. There was a spark.”

“Sparks start fires!” she replied with a coy smile.

“A controlled burn isn’t a bad thing.”

“That’s a pretty deep thought,” she replied. His face was so close to hers that she could count the hairs on his scruffy goatee. She wished that he’d kiss her right then.

“You’ll love how deep I can go, babe.”

***

Her house was dark and her heart pounding with anticipation of the unknown by the time they walked back into her living room. Did she or didn’t she want to have sex with him? Depending on the second, her decision changed.

She reached for the light as he locked the front door behind him. She took off her sweater and tossed it onto the back of the couch. She turned around to face him. “Since it’s getting late, I think you should…”

He backed her up against the wall before she could finish her sentence. “No backing out now, sweetheart. We made a deal back at the restaurant.”

“Nuke, I need you to listen to me.”

“I’m listening
” he said. He leaned in and sniffed like a predator stalking its prey as he placed both of his hands on the wall, penning her in.

“You’re the most gorgeous man I’ve ever seen in my life, and I’m not just saying that because it’s been a while since I had sex.” It was hard for her to think with him nuzzling her neck. “I’ll admit that I have some self-esteem issues but no more than any other woman on the planet. However, there is no way in the world I would ever let you see me naked. How do you find time to work out with all that secretive biker stuff you do?”