His tongue slipped past my lips and touched tips with mine. It was an easy, gentle kiss. I was surprised by how deft he was with his tongue. I would have thought he would attack me, dominate me right away.
But he didn’t need to. He claimed me without any show of power. A simple kiss and the last of my resistance fell away.
He pulled away slowly, but his hands never left my waist. “Do you want a drink?” he asked me.
I nodded, unable to find the words. He took my fingers in his grasp and led me back inside the clubhouse.
Indoors, there were a few groups of late night survivors scattered across the various chairs and booths dotting the room. Most people were deep in the stages of alcohol and drug-fueled mania, quickly hurtling towards sleep or unconsciousness. I saw many couples with their tongues down each other’s throats. There was even a threesome in one corner. A heavily pierced Dark Knights member was locked in a three-way kiss with two scantily clad brunettes. As we passed by, I saw the girls slip their hands down the front of the biker’s jeans.
I drew closer to Ben. This was so far out of my comfort zone that I couldn’t even begin to decide what I should be feeling. I was rattled, I knew that much. But it was hard to say whether I’d been that way from the start or if the man holding my hand had been the one to shake me out of what I considered normal. After all, I was clinging to him like it was the most natural thing in the world to be doing—him, Ben Killmore, the president of the Dark Knights MC, owner of a Greek god’s body and an archetypal bad boy’s face. If only Daddy could see me now.
I shuddered. I hadn’t thought of Daddy all night. On the way over, Lori had made me swear up and down that I’d do everything in my power to banish all thoughts of Papa J’s revenge, to file it away in the “Worry About It Later” folder in the back of my head. For the most part, I’d done a good job of that, albeit not without significant help from my friend Jack Daniels. But now, with the wind of the bike and the thrill of Ben’s kiss coursing through me in equal measures, I was having a hard time keeping much of a lid on anything at all.
I followed Ben to the corner of the bar where we’d taken the shots earlier. He retrieved the same bottle of whiskey and went to pour two more drinks, but he paused halfway with the bottle lingering in the air.
“I forgot—you don’t like this stuff, do you?”
“Not my favorite,” I admitted shyly.
He screwed the cap back on and tucked it away again. “Yeah, I should probably lay off it, too. Killed my old man and it’s certainly doing its best to lay me down in the dirt right next to him. I’ve got a bottle of wine in my room, if that’s more your speed.”
“That sounds good,” I said.
But instead of turning and taking me to his room, Ben paused for a second. He eyed me with an unreadable expression on his face, then suddenly reached out to pull me against his chest and kissed me deeply once more.
I melted in his arms. His warmth, his strength, surrounded me and took me in. My mouth went soft to accept his teasing tongue where it flicked against my teeth. His lips were surprisingly soft.
Then, just as suddenly as he’d kissed me, he pulled away. Only an inch, though. Just enough to introduce the tiniest sliver of air between my mouth and his. He stayed close enough for our breath to mingle in the space there, for his eyes to consume almost all of my field of vision.
When he spoke, his voice was a low growl. “Listen, Carmen,” he said. “If you were any other girl, I’d have you bent over in my bed right now. I wouldn’t have bothered with all this bullshit—the bike, the kiss, all that. No, I’d have cut straight to the chase and ripped that silly little shirt right off you, left your ass raw and red from a good spanking. And I might do that to you anyway. But I’m not gonna rush it. I want to take my time with you. You’re not like the others. When I make you come, I want to remember it.”
I stood still in shocked silence. Who in their right minds talked like that? Make me come? Take his time with me? Was this man out of his freaking gourd? I felt dizzy, like everything was happening too fast, and I didn’t have the slightest bit of control to slow it down, not even one tiny notch. I’d been suppressing thoughts of Daddy all night and now they came tumbling out at me in a flood. He’d skin this man alive if he heard a single word of that speech. I’d seen how deep that anger ran in my father, and while I didn’t know the details, I knew he was capable of some scary things, both to me and to Ben.