Owning Beauty (Taking Beauty Trilogy 3)

said flatly, putting the card back down and turning away from me.

“Wait!” I pleaded. “You were here, right? When it happened yesterday?”

“Yeah, but I told the cops and the other news guy everything I know.”

“Yes, I understand,” I said, taking a seat at the bar. “Can I get a beer?”

It was late in the afternoon and the bar had just been allowed to open again after being closed all evening and most of today. The place was unusually empty after being cordoned off with crime tape the whole time.

The smell of bleach was strong, mixing with the unmistakeable smell that would probably never go away no matter how much bleach was used and can only come from being a bar for many years - the pungent, rancid scent of old cigarettes and stale beer.

“Sure,” the bartender said, pulling a cold mug from the fridge and pouring beer from the tap into it. I tried again after he sat it down in front of me.

“Your name is Tony, right?” I asked, pulling my shirt down subtly, hoping a little extra skin might help my mission. I’d only been a reporter for a year and this was my first big break. The network had finally given me an assignment, my very own exclusive, if I could pull it off. And by pull it off, I mean get some extremely intimidating and recklessly dangerous bikers to open up to me.

When I was first given the assignment this morning, I was sure it was a prank. The guys in the office weren’t too keen on me joining the team, considering I was the first woman they’d hired in ten years. You’d think this wasn’t the twenty-first century by talking to these guys. They were so far backwards, as far as equal rights for women go, that I half-expected them to start calling me ‘little lady’.

Instead, they gave me this assignment, but it came with a whole lot of smirking and whispering amongst themselves. Like I said, I was pretty sure they were just setting me up to fail, hoping I’d tuck tail and run in fear, but I was determined to prove them wrong.

So, here I was. In Otto’s, trying to figure out where to start. I figured ground zero was as good a place to start as any, even if I knew the likelihood of discovering anything that hadn’t already been plastered all over the news was slim. But I’d always been up for a challenge, and if an exclusive story on the local outlaw biker clubs was the first door of opportunity that opened for me, then I sure as hell was going to barrel right through that door. Prank or no prank.

“Yeah, I’m Tony,” he muttered, wiping his hands on a towel. Tony was tall, bald, and he had bright blue eyes. He moved behind the bar like a rabbit, darting around and wiping down the bar as he talked. “I didn’t really see anything other than what you saw on the tape.”

“What about before the fight?”

“What about it?” he asked, stopping in front of me. His gaze raked across my tits again and lingered for a few seconds. I let him get a good look, and then asked again.

“What happened to lead up to it?”

“This little hottie with long black hair came in. Hell, she strutted in like a woman on a mission, honestly. She looked really fucking young, though. Too young,” he said, looking at me again, and shaking his head. “But I checked her ID, and she was legal. Barely, though.”

I nodded enthusiastically, waiting for him to continue.

“I didn’t know who she was at the time. Seems weird that a mobster’s daughter would come in here. You’d think she’d hang out over at Vinnie’s or something. But a biker bar? I’m telling you, she was just really out of place. I think she figured it out pretty quickly, too. As soon as she got a good look around, she was eyeing the door.”

I looked around quickly, trying to picture this place full of rowdy bikers. As for right now, outside of the broken barstools piled up in the corner and the lingering smell of bleach, you’d never know something so violent had gone on in here.

“So then what happened?” I asked, flashing Tony a coy smile as I pushed my boobs out more. Sure, I was down for equal rights for women, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t use my God given gifts to my advantage.

“She started talking to this one guy. Not one of the Iron Godz, though. Another club. The Deadly Sinners. You don’t see them around much, nobody knows much about them.” He leaned onto the bar, leaning in close to me, and lowering his voice. “I hear they basically keep to themselves, lay low. Not like the Godz who try to raise hell every chance they get, no matter who’s looking their way. They think they’re invincible, that they can treat people like shit wherever they go and get away with it.”

“Is that what happened here?” I asked, blinking my eyes at him.

“Yeah, basically. Only they didn’t get away with it this time. The girl was talking to the guy from the Sinners and the Godz started hitting on her. Before you know it, the whole bar is brawling like they’re making Roadhouse Part Two or something. Chairs flying, fists flying, bodies flying. You saw the rest on the video.”

“Right, right…” I nodded. The video was brutal, but impressive. Gabriella Loprinzi was obviously a take-no-shit kind of woman, and I felt a small sense of pride that she’d stood up for herself, instead of shrugging it all off with a polite smile, like most women were taught to do. Being a Loprinzi had apparently influenced her. “So, what do you know about this other club? The Deadly Sinners, you called them?”

“Not much. I guess everyone’s looking for their clubhouse now, but as far as I’ve heard, nobody was sure where that was located. All I know is that some shit is gonna go down when they find them. You don’t fuck with the Iron Godz and not expect revenge. It’s gonna be bloody, whenever they do find them.”

I nodded again, finished my beer and smiled at him again.

“Surely, there’s rumors, though right? About where they live?”

“Nope. Not that I’ve heard.”

“C’mon,” I prodded, pushing my tits even further at him and licking my lips suggestively.

He cocked his head, smiled, and smirked.

“Yeah, I might know something,” he grinned, his blue eyes gleaming mischievously. “but what’s in it for me?”

Well, here we are, I thought. I knew this moment would probably come in my career - I’d heard stories, lots of them. Plenty of journalists came to this fork in the road where they had to ask themselves just how far they were willing to go to get a lead.

I looked over at Tony and smiled while I silently contemplated that very question. He wasn’t hideous. Maybe a little bit an asshole. But decent.

I wasn’t naive, I knew what he was asking.

If I left the decision up to my body, it would be easy. It’d been months since I’d had sex, and even then, it’d been a completely unsatisfying, way-too-quick, drunken romp with some guy I’d met in a bar that I barely remembered. I could use a good memorable fuck and if I got a good lead in the process? Well, that was a win win situation if I ever heard one.

I raked my gaze down Tony’s body, trying to get a peak at the treasure in his jeans. I smiled when I saw the large, pulsing bulge, so ready, so hard. Perfect.

What the fuck, I thought, throwing caution to the wind. I looked around the place one more time just to make sure we were still alone. At least it’s just been cleaned, the smell of bleach heavy in the air.

I turned back to Tony, a seductive smile playing across my lips.

“What did you have in mind, Tony?”

He nodded, his grin lighting up his face.

“I thought we might come up with a mutually beneficial situation.”

“Yeah,” I replied, nodding slowly. “I think we could arrange something.”

He nodded back slowly and then turned and walked around from behind the bar and over to the front door, turning the lock with a loud click. He turned back to me with hunger in his eyes, closing the distance between us.

My pussy quivered with anticipation, my nipples hardening under my silk blouse.

His hands were on me in an instant, pulling me close as his lips fell hard on mine. I tensed at first, his assault a little too fast and unexpected

, but I forced myself to relax, to melt into him, opening my mouth and accepting his hot tongue.

I shuddered, shaking away my inhibitions, letting my body take over, letting my thoughts disappear as his hot mouth worked against mine. My hands raked across his hard chest, his muscles tight and smooth under my skin. He pulled away, leaving my lips puffy and bruised, his burning kisses trailing down my face and onto my neck. Reaching around, he grabbed my ass, pulling me in hard against him, his cock pressed so hard against my hip I could feel his pulse throbbing against me.

I moaned as his tongue snaked into my blouse, sliding under my bra and finding my nipple. He bit it hard, his teeth scraping roughly against my tender skin as I cried out in pain.

“Not so hard,” I cried, trying to pull away from his embrace, but instead he gripped me harder, grinding his cock into my slacks.

“I’m gonna fuck you so fuckin’ hard, lady,” he sneered. “You’re gonna fuckin’ love it.”

“Lauren,” I said, my voice breathy and low, as I gasped, pushing myself against his hard cock like a wanton hussy. At this point, I didn’t care.

I’d turned a corner and I was ready.

I wanted his cock.

I wanted him to fuck me like the hungry slut that I felt like.

And then I wanted him to tell me everything he knew, so I could wipe those smirks off those asshole’s faces at the station.

“I’m gonna fuck you so hard, Lauren,” he said, grinding into me harder.

“Do it, do it now!” I cried, every ounce of shyness disappearing as I began unbuttoning the little pearl buttons of my white silk blouse. They were so tiny, it took forever - way too long. Before I could finish, Tony impatiently swatted my hands away, ripping the bottom of the shirt apart as tiny white buttons flew all over the floor of the bar.

His hands found my tits, squeezing them through my bra before he ripped it from my body quickly. My tits fell out and he pinched my nipples hard, until I was writhing under his fingertips.