Burning Ember (56 page)

On our trip to hitting rock bottom, we’ll try to take people down with us along the way.

EMBER

Smoothing my hands down my top and the skirt Lily brought me, I ask, “Are you sure it doesn’t look like I’m trying too hard?” I twist my foot out and tilt my head. “If I fall in these boots—”

“Then Mav will catch you. I guarantee from the second he gets a peak at you, he’ll be glued to your side.” She stands behind me and rubs her hand up my arm. “And don’t waste your time worrying about what anyone else thinks. All that matters is how you feel about yourself, and how he treats you.

“What we might have to worry about is you givin’ some poor old bastard a heart attack.” She leans back and looks down. “Not even my ass looks that good in leather.” Her warm smile flushes away my doubts.

Turning, I hug her. “Thank you. Maybe you should show me how to do this so I don’t have to steal you away from Goose every time there’ a party.”

“Hey, you’re already gorgeous. I only added a little sparkle. And don’t let Goose give you any shit. Our sex is ten times hotter when we’ve spent some time apart. So you actually did us both a favor. He’ll come out of that meeting horny, hard, and ready—just how I like him.”

Heat rushes up my face and I shake my head. “Ugh . . . Lily. You really need to work on your oversharing.”

She laughs and then weaving her arm through mine, she pulls me toward the door. “Come on. The guys will be out of church soon.”

Over the course of the last twenty minutes, I’ve concluded my newfound friendship with Lily is not conducive to maintaining a healthy liver. In her eagerness to get me out on the dance floor, she’s forcing me to drink a lot of hard alcohol in a frenzy.

It’ll calm my nerves and make me loose, she says. Help me forget about everyone else and enjoy myself. Which I’m all for, except what if all the alcohol hits me like a Mack truck once I’m on the dance floor?

Me drunk + four inch heels = an accident waiting to happen.

Nevertheless, I bite my tongue and watch Lita behind the bar do her thing.

Beside me, excitement radiates off Lily. So much so, she can’t sit still. She’s standing, tapping her foot to the beat of “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked” by Cage the Elephant. Her hair is in a sleek ponytail and it sways, along with her silver earrings, as she moves.

Lily catches me looking at her and smiles. “How are you feeling? You ready to dance yet?”

My skin’s a bit warm and tingly. I’m definitely buzzed, but maybe not intoxicated enough to make a fool of myself just yet. “Nope. Not yet.”

On the next shot, I raise my glass to meet Lily’s, and then toss it back. The kick isn’t as bad and the cherry flavor goes down smoother than the last shot.

Both Lily and I give Lita a thumbs up.

As Lita moves away to make a new round, my gaze lands on the hot biker chick in the mirror with red hair, smoky eyes, and rose pink lips. The white HD tank I’m wearing shows off my freckled cleavage. My hair’s in waves and the sides are loosely pinned away from my face. Another style I’ve never tried before. It’s somehow both flirty, and sultry, which is a far cry from my usual braid or a messy bun.

It feels nice to fit in though, and I can’t help but wonder what Mav will think when he sees me.

A sense of anticipation is in the air as we all wait for church to end and for the guys to fill the main room. The clubhouse feels almost bare without them, and yet nearly twenty people occupy it.

“I hope that’s not what you expect me to do,” I say and gesture toward the hang-arounds grinding on the dance floor. I love to dance. But that isn’t exactly what I’d call dancing.

Before she can respond, HOCs begin to flood into the main room from the hallway, their demeanor somber. Each one wears a haunted expression.

Contradictory to the mood and tension settling into the room, Bodie yells, “Turn the radio up, Rigor, and get these boys all the beer they can drink and pussy they can eat.”

Coming close, he spots Lily. “Bird, will you call your girlfriends at the club and see if a couple of ’em will come pay us a visit?”

“What’s going on?” Lily asks. She waves toward the solemn HOCs still entering the room.

“Just club business shit. All I can say is we’re gonna need some good entertainment to liven up this place tonight.” Wiggling his eyebrows at me he adds, “Lots and lots of tits and ass. And preferably girls that look as young and as sexy as my friend ginger here.”

Bodie catches me rolling my eyes. He takes the seat to my left. “What? You don’t like me no more ‘cause you’re a taken woman now? What happened to shamefully flirting with me?”

“I never flirted with you.”

Chucking, he replies, “Oh, I call bullshit. Not too long ago, you wanted to rub your cum all over my face, remember?” He elbows me as I scrunch up my nose and lips in disgust.

“I seem to remember Griz sayin’ it was your cum,” I quip.

Lita places my shot in front of me. But Bodie snatches it and throws it back in one swallow before I can reach for it.

“Hey!”

“Holy shit that’s good. What the fuck was that?”

Glaring at him, I say, “My drink.”

Lita answers, “Cherry Bomb. Want another?”

“Yeah, make that three of ’em,” Bodie replies. “Wait. Four. I owe ginger snack here one.” He throws around his panty-dropping smile and his eyes roam over my face. “Aww, you’re cute when you’re pissed.”

“And you’re annoying.” He throws his head back and laughs. Then playfully nudges my ribs.

“Hey, baby.” Goose wraps his arms around Lily and makes that half-groan half-growl sound he does as he starts kissing her neck. “Mmmm, miss me?”

She’s fighting to hold back a smile, as she answers, “No.”

“Liar,” Goose replies.

I look toward the hallway, but it’s empty. When my gaze circles the room, it locks with Dozer’s who’s standing behind the pool table. His eyes are hard, but more cold than furious. Star is pressed up against him, and Dozer has his massive hands on her hips. Before I can look away, he bends down and kisses her.

“What we drinkin’?” Griz plops down on the other side of Bodie.

“Cherry Bombs,” Bodie admits.

The old ginger’s eyebrows shoot up, and then he rolls his hand in the air. “Whatever. Just keep ’em comin’.” Leaning forward and peering at me, he says, “Mav’s gonna be a little bit, Doll. Nothin’ you need to worry about. He’s just hangin’ back to talk to Edge.”

I nod and join in the banter that seems to always occur whenever Bodie’s around. For a few moments, we are caught up in the conversation and forget about the party starting up around us.

Until Star lets out one of those horrid cries. Like the ones I heard behind Mav’s door yesterday when she was with Edge.

Morbid curiosity wins out and I peer into the mirror. Dozer still has hold of Star’s hips, but now he’s pushed her face forward over the pool table as he works his hand under her skirt. The skirt that’s currently up and around her waist. It’s all too easy to figure out what he’s doing by the strain of his forearm muscles and the way her body jerks forward.

The sight makes me damn near lose all the alcohol I’ve spent the last half hour slamming.

One of his hands unbuttons his jeans and moves down. I know what’s coming next, so I focus my eyes elsewhere. I absolutely do not need to see this. I tell myself not to look again, or raise my eyes to the mirror.

I can hear it though. And worse, the men nearby egg him on.

Yes, I know on some level that it’s wrong that it affects me. Why should I care? I’m with Mav. But as I study my feelings, I realize I’m not jealous. I’m revolted. He’s better than this.

The guilt hurts my heart when I think that maybe he’s doing this because I’ve hurt him, rejected him just like Bethany did. And it saddens me to see a great guy like him lower himself to touch a tramp like Star. Especially when the woman he should be with, the woman he should fight for, is less than ten miles away. Hell, she’s probably having a glass of wine and fantasizing about him right now.

“How about you, Pumpkin? You want another?”

I look up at Lita. “Sure.”

She slides the small shot glass toward me. As I take the shot, I feel a presence at my back. The people around me stop laughing and chatting. With the glass still to my lips I turn.

“Just wanted to show you, that in case you thought I wasn’t a big enough dick for you”—Dozer rubs his hand over his crotch—“that I got plenty of this to go around. Because that’s your thing, right?”

Speechless, I stare into his hard, gray eyes and lower the glass. Someone, I think Lily takes it from my lifeless hand.

I nearly spit out the words,
just because you’re not man enough to fight for your happiness doesn’t mean you get to screw with mine.
But I get the feeling that would only make this situation worse. He’s angry and running my mouth is probably not the best thing to do.

“Lita, pass me a bottle of Jim,” Dozer speaks over my head. He reaches forward, and I move to avoid him touching me. Throwing me a deadly glare, he laughs darkly, “What you think I still want Mav’s sloppy seconds? Sorry, babe, that ship has s—”

It happens so fast, that it only registers after the fact. My hand burns. I hold it, shocked as it throbs. Dozer’s irises spark with shock, and all conversation in the room suddenly lulls. Whether due to the new bikers flooding into the doorway, or from the slap that caused a handprint to bloom on Dozer’s cheek, I’m not sure.

“I might have been what you wanted for a time, but I wasn’t what you needed. I was a distraction. Star’s a distraction.” My voice is barely audible. He blinks down at me. “I’m sorry you can’t see that.” Going up on my tippy toes, I kiss his red cheek. “Stop wasting your time on the wrong women and go change her mind. You’re better than this.”

A strong hand grabs mine and pulls me away. Sparks fire from the touch and my gaze shifts to Mav.

His eyes dart from me to Dozer. “What’d he say to you? Did he touch you?”

“Nothing. No,” I answer. Mav looks to Dozer for the truth.

Dozer clears his throat, and I hear him say behind me, “She was just letting me know where I stand and giving me what I deserve.”

A good song affects us whether we want it to or not. A great song becomes a part of our story.

EMBER

Bodie’s on the dance floor with a black-haired minx behind him, and two Barbie-blondes rubbing against each of his thighs. He’s singing loudly and off key to the music. Every so often, he stops to make-out with one of the women grinding on him, only to break away a moment later and resume his performance.

“Why doesn’t someone tell him he’s tone deaf?” I ask.

“We have”—Mav chuckles and takes a sip from his beer—“about a hundred times.”

“Doesn’t stop him from actin’ like a jackass.” Taz whips his phone out and snaps a picture of the scene. Turning it so I can see, he shows me the damning photo. “He won’t remember shit tomorrow and he’ll pay me fifty bucks to delete this. Dumb ass doesn’t realize I’ve been saving these to my computer.” Sitting back, he smirks around his toothpick. “I’ve got enough of these to blackmail his ass for life.”

Taz, Goose, and Griz are sitting at the table with us. Lily on Goose’s lap. A voluptuous brunette is on Griz’s, playing with his beard. She looks maybe eighteen and doesn’t appear to be bothered by the fact that he’s three times her age.

The song changes and a few seconds later, Bodie grabs a chair and plops down next to me.

“Nice moves,” I kid.

He throws me a roguish smile. “Thanks. You and Lily gonna come out there with me and show those bitches how to work it?”

“Um, no,” I say and then drink what little is left of my Tequila Sunrise. I lean back into Mav and enjoy the sensation of his hand on my stomach.

“No?” Bodie’s eyebrows shoot up. “Why the hell not?”

“You have plenty of partners already. Don’t sound so disappointed,” Taz grumbles.

“The more the merrier,” Bodie quips. “You could come out there too and have some fun, you know, once you take that gigantic stick out of your ass.” Addressing me, he asks, “Do you know how to dance?”

I eye the girls popping, locking, and rubbing up against one another. “I do, but not like that.”