And then I saw him.
Gorgeous, more gorgeous somehow than ever before. His enormous frame took up the entire back of the red velvet booth and his mess of curling brown hair caught in the light like it was dipped in gold. He looked powerful and dark. A god in his den of iniquity.
And his eyes were on me. Even across the room as I was, I could see the glint of silver, feel the intensity of his intent.
His eyes were on me, but his arms were around Jade, locked tight around her topless body as she ground her latex-covered sex against his leg and licked a long line up his neck to his bearded chin.
Then, as he’d done when I was a little girl, he winked at me, and turned his head just enough to take Jade’s seeking lips with his own. And all the while, his eyes still hooked mine.
My heart seized and not for the first time in my life, I felt like I was dying.
Zeus.
I liked my girls a lotta ways.
I liked thin, plump, thick with muscles or soft with curves.
Liked blonde, brunette or red, anything in-between but a little more partial to light, the mostly fake kinda blonde women found in a bottle. They reminded me of the biker babe posters I’d first jerked off to as a kid. Still any woman with some gumption no matter her looks or stylin’ would do.
As I said, I liked my girls a lotta ways and I liked takin’ her a lot more ways than that.
They only thing I did not like was young ones.
Seen enough old bikers stick their wick in fresh honey to know it didn’t lead to good things. Plus, I had a teenage daughter who didn’t need to catch wind of me fuckin’ a girl closer to her age than mine.
Then came Louise Lafayette.
The mayor’s daughter.
Same age as my youngest fuckin’ kid.
And the fuck of it was, I’d never wanted anyone more than I wanted her.
Which explained why I was sittin’ in The Lotus, a piece of shit titty bar on the outskirts of Entrance that most of my brothers and I couldn’t be bothered to go to because the dancers were decent but the décor had more stains than even bikers were comfortable with and that was sayin’ something.
I was there ’cause of the girl I’d known most of her life who had somehow turned into a woman, and a fuckin’ fine one at that. I’d watched her all night, wonderin’ at first if she knew it was me sitting at the back booth ’cause she was makin’ an art of avoiding my eyes and the last time I’d seen her, I’d brow-beaten her pretty bad. Wanted to get my point across, get her set on the straight an’ narrow, only looking back I’d been too harsh. Despite my reputation, I wasn’t a harsh guy, at least not with my family and definitely not my kids, yet I’d been fuckin’ brutal to Lou that night. I’d sat on that for a few weeks, wonderin’ why and when I’d come up to the answer, I wished to God I hadn’t tried to figure it out. The answer was simple as fuck. I’d been angry and surprised that the little girl I’d been writing to for years—too many years—was not a kid anymore.
Even drunk as fuck and rank as shit, Louise Lafayette took my fuckin’ breath away.
It mighta been all that pale hair that mussed up in sexy disarray all around that heart-shaped face. I wanted to drive my hands into it, fist it tight and bring that phenomenal bee-stung mouth to mine. Wonderin’ what she tasted like had been drivin’ me crazy for months. In my dirtiest fantasies, she tasted like cherry lollipops, the kind she’d liked as a kid.
I was sick. Sick with lust for a girl nineteen years younger than me and morally sick because of it.
So, if I’d been too hard on her it was to take my mind off the way her out-fuckin’-rageous curves felt against my body when I’d hauled her into my arms. It’d been ’cause of the fury I felt at some dumbass preppy fuck touching her while she was outta her mind with drink. It’d been ’cause I’d forced myself to stay away so she could live a good life, the kind of life a girl with a soul as beautiful as hers should live. And I’d seen her throwin’ it away.
Problem was, as harsh as I’d been, Lou didn’t seem to give a fuck.
I’d started watchin’ her again. Not creepy, you get me, but just a casual eye. Have one of my brothers do a drive by her house, get my son, King, to keep watch of her at school where she seemed to excel—no surprise, she’d always been a smart girl—and keep an ear turned towards my H.R.’s chatter on the off chance I caught a hint of Lou’s name.