Taylor let me into her home, sent me off to shower, found out some of her husband’s old clothes for me, even fed me. The woman gave me a bed to sleep in and told me that I wasn’t going anywhere. She wouldn’t let me go back out there to fend for myself with no one to care about me. Both Jack and Taylor asked about my family, of course, they did. I merely told them I had none, which wasn’t a lie. Taylor then mothered me, fussed for days over everything. Made sure I ate three times a day, learned how to be respectful in her home. It’s not that I was disrespectful, but I hadn’t been taught manners the way normal kids are. But I soon learned with Taylor there to remind me. She taught me martial arts every day because she said it would help me channel the anger inside of me. Have to admit she was good at jiu-jitsu, the woman is a black belt. Wouldn’t like to meet her in a dark alley, that’s for sure.
I never had a mother, so it was strange that Taylor treated me like one of her own, but I liked her, I liked Jack, I liked their kids. Dante and Dominic were crazy little shits even then, but I loved the little idiots right away.
I was a prospect with the club within days. Jack told me that I needed something to focus my mind on, a way to learn that there's more to life than crying over things a man can’t change. Not that I’ve cried since I was a small child, but I knew what he meant. With my place in the club and Taylor’s teaching of martial arts, I knew I’d soon be someone other than the skinny kid from the streets.
I loved the club right away. Didn’t care about the shit jobs I was given to do. I did them with a smile on my face. I earned the respect of my elders within days, received my road name just as fast.
Stryker.
Why?
Because I had a habit of striking when a person least expected it. Strike them with my fists, my feet, my knife, my gun. Strike fast and fierce.
The day I got my road name, some jumped up cunt had broken into the garage the club owned. I’d been giving an apprentice job there with Cueball as my mentor, a way for me to earn my own money and my keep. I’d been in there fixing up the motorcycle Apollo had given me. Just some old broken down Harley that he said would be good practice for me to learn the art of mechanics. If I fixed up that bike, as soon as I became a patched member of the Snakes, he’d buy me a real motorcycle. Any Harley that I wanted. I mean, shit, come on, what kid of nineteen-year-old would ever turn that down?
The guy who broke in hadn’t seen me. I was there alone. I hid, watching him. He was there to cause damage that would kill half the damn club. God knows how he’d gotten in without being seen by one of the others hanging around outside. How he’d even gotten through the gate without being seen was beyond me. The garage was on clubhouse grounds someone should have seen him.
Cunt didn’t see me coming. I got him from behind, wrench to the head a couple of times. I was angry, even with the martial arts training, I still had so much of it built up inside of me that it was bound to come spilling out eventually. It just so happened to be right then.
I hadn’t even realized the garage was filling up with people. Not until I swung my knife across the guy’s neck. That’s when I noticed Shepard, VP back then, clapping, smirking.
It might have been funny to him, a proud moment, but I won’t lie and tell you I didn’t feel sick, didn’t feel my stomach drop. I’d never killed anyone in my life before that moment. That kill would haunt me for many months to come, but it wouldn’t be my last kill.
‘A real tough striker.’ BlackJack had said.
‘Stryker,’ Cueball, one of the older members of the MC, and the man in charge of the garage had said. Spelled the name out and told me it would make me stand out. ‘Welcome to the family, Stryker.’ I’ve been one of them ever since.
I’ve never asked for anything in this life. Anything I’ve wanted, I’ve gotten myself. I’ve worked damn hard to sort my life out, for everything I have now. The only thing I want is the one thing I can’t have. Shepard would kill me, just as he’ll kill Ice when he finds out what he’s done.
The little hands around my waist tighten, little fingers flexing on my abs, and my dick twitches in my jeans. Damn girl. I can’t give in to what I feel it would be more than my life’s worth. Would a taste of this beautiful woman be worth losing everything for?
Of course, it wouldn’t.
I pull up outside the house she’s staying at with her friend whom I left back at the clubhouse after turning down her offer of taking her home and fucking her senseless. I didn’t even ask Coral if she wanted to go home, just wanted to get her away from Ice.
“How did you know where I live?” She climbs off my bike and hands me the helmet. I shrug.
Not like I want to tell her that I follow her home every night to make sure she’s safe. She’ll think I’m a damn stalker. I’m not I just don't like the thought of anything happening to her. She’s part of the club, Shepard’s surrogate daughter, and we all know what some motherfuckers would do to get to him. They wouldn’t think twice about hurting Coral.
She folds her arms around that tight little body of hers and huffs. “I know you’re not a man of many words, but it can be annoying having a one-sided conversation.”
I keep my eyes on her while I climb off my bike and then lean my ass back against it with my arms folded around my chest.
“Seriously?” She raises her eyebrow. I can’t help smirking. She’s so hot. She’s going to be the death of me. I know that right now because there is no way I can go through my life not touching this woman.
She rolls her eyes at me. I grab her hand and pull her against me. She gasps, eyes looking at my mouth before finding mine. “What are you doing, Stryker?” I slide my hand into the side of her hair. So soft it’s unreal. “You just had sex with my friend. Why the hell are you touching me like this?”
Oh. That.
“Why would that stop you? You just slept with Ice, or have I got that wrong?” Ah, fuck. Why do women always have to slap a guy with so much force you can feel it in your toes? For such a little woman, she sure has a powerful slap.
“How dare you!?” She takes a step back. “I did not sleep with that man. I don't sleep around, and I most certainly do not sleep with men out in the open.” Thank god for that!
“I didn’t sleep with your friend either. She offered, I turned her down. She wasn’t pleased, but it is what it is.”
“You didn’t sleep with her?” I shake my head and grab her hand again, pulling her against me. This is going to blow up in my fuckin’ face, I know it, but I can’t seem to stop myself.
With my hand on the back of her head, I pull her to me, our lips almost touching. Her eyes close, and I breathe in the scent of her, lavender and Jasmine.
Her little fingers clutch at my chest over my shirt and under my cut. She wants me to kiss her. She’s breathing heavy, bottom lip between her teeth. I want to kiss her, fuck, do I want to kiss her. Taste her, fuck her like she’s never been fucked before, but I can’t.
I can’t go against what Shepard has ordered. I have more restraint than that. Although, right now, it’s frayed.
I release her, she opens her eyes and narrows them. “I have to go.” I swing my leg over my bike and start it up.
“What just happened?”
“Nothing, Coral, and that’s the way it has to stay.”
“Why?” There’s a little whine in her voice. She’s disappointed, but so am I. I’d give anything to take her right now, but it wouldn’t end well. We’d fuck, I’d leave, she’d get hurt, Shepard would kill me twice over.
She tucks that long blonde hair of hers behind her ear and smiles slightly. I’ve offended her. At least this way she’ll despise me and stay away from me. “Well, thank you for the ride home.”
I tip my head and ride the fuck out of there.
Being near her is too dangerous. I want her too badly to keep my hands to myself, and I have to keep them to myself.
It’s nothing but lust.
That’s what I’m feeling, lust.
Ai
n’t the first time I’ve felt it, and it won’t be the last. Even if there is something special about this girl that makes me feel something I ain’t never felt in my life.
I’m the kind of guy who locks away his feelings.
What’s the point of them?
I’m the kind of guy who sleeps with whom he wants when he wants, without forming attachments.
I don’t know what the hell love is about, not because I’m incapable of it, but because I was never shown any of it. Ever. There was no one to guide me when I was a kid, no one there telling me they loved me when they tucked me into bed at night. No birthday’s celebrated, no Christmases. No one to walk me to school on my first day, no one to praise me when I’d done something good.
There was only ever hate.
A girl like Coral gets attached, thinks she can fix a guy like me. I’ve seen it plenty of times in the past, even had one or two think they can fix me. It won’t happen. There is no fixing a man like me. I don’t consider myself broken I’m a man, not a clock, but there’s no way I could let her fall for me. What a fuckin’ disaster that would be.
No. Coral deserves much better than the likes of me. Shepard knows it too, that’s why he warned me, along with everyone else in the club, not to touch her by pain of fuckin’ death.
Chapter Six
Coral
Friday’s are the best days.
End of the week.
Start of the weekend, which means no work for the next two days.
Since I’ve been back, I managed to get myself a job in the local department store. I’m only working there until I hear back from any of the office jobs I’ve applied for. I mean, I’ve been turned down for a few. They want people with experience, how are you supposed to gain experience when no one will hire you? I don’t have any experience. I may have graduated college a year early, but I don’t have any practical experience.