One Step Too Close - Coffin Nails MC Louisiana (Gay Biker Stepbrother Romance) (Sex & Mayhem Book 6) (24 page)

“You’re fucking with
me,” said Ryder with a low chuckle. “I was fucking terrified.”

Jed’s smile widened and
he nipped on Ryder’s neck. “I’m not kidding. I’ve never been so turned on in my
life. Except for yesterday that is. I didn’t have to close my eyes and think of
you. I could actually watch you in the flesh. All red and stubbly… Fuck. So
hot.”

Ryder exhaled, adjusting
his legs on the floor. “You know what this means?” he whispered, playing with
Jed’s hair as their bodies gradually cooled off. “Your VP is now a cocksucker.”

Jed frowned at the word
and only clung closer to Ryder. “You’re nothing like that.”

“Why not?”

Even thinking about it
made Jed uncomfortable. “‘Cause… you’re… you know, you’re all man.”

“I know. So are you,”
whispered Ryder as he gently pushed Jed’s head up, just enough to kiss his
temple.

Jed sighed, unsure what
to say, but he leaned into the touch. “The guys wouldn’t think so. Dad wouldn’t
think so.”

“Why?” Ryder made Jed
look at him, cupping his face in his hands. His gray eyes were soft and so full
of understanding that it was impossible to look away.

“‘Cause they think it’s
disgusting. You know this. You even said it many times yourself.” Jed tried to
look away, but Ryder held him put.

“And I just swallowed
the contents of your balls,” whispered Ryder, though a flush crept to his face
as he looked Jed in the eye. “What makes us so different?”

Jed groaned at the heat
those words ignited in his body. “Is this hard talk, or dirty talk, ‘cause I
can’t tell.” He laughed, trying to avoid the question.

Ryder grinned. “This is
meant to be hard talk.”

Jed slid his hand along
Ryder’s side. “Fuck. I hate hard talk. You know what I mean.
You
can
always go back to girls. I’m stuck like this. I will never be like everyone
else.”

Ryder sighed and looked
away for a few seconds. “Yes. You can’t help it. This is the way you are, while
I could be with a girl, but I still sucked you off, and I’m still with you.
Doesn’t that make my crimes worse? If you can call them that.”

“I’ve always wished that
I could stop being this way. That a girl would come along and would change me.”
Jed kissed Ryder’s cheek. “But I’m too far gone now. If I got the choice to be
straight. I’d still choose you.”

Ryder’s face glowed with
a smile as he gave Jed a soft smooch. “I was wrong. The others are wrong.
There’s nothing wrong with you, and this feels amazing. I just want you to be
happy.”

Jed didn’t realize how
much he needed to hear that until the happiness hit him in the face. “You make
me happy. I don’t want to go to the bridge anymore, no matter how fucked up all
this is.”

Ryder pulled him close
and squeezed Jed so hard it almost hurt. “Promise me you won’t? There’s nothing
to hate about you.”

Jed slid his hands under
Ryder, almost to his ass, but he was still a bit shy about touching it. “I
promise. Thanks for the hard talk.”

Ryder grinned. “I’ve
always been good at those. It’s a surprise you don’t hate me yet.”

“That’s true.” Jed
snorted, and slowly stirred against Ryder, enjoying the feeling of having his
dick trapped between their naked bodies. “Always pretending to be the
reasonable one.”

“I’m not reasonable.
This is very unreasonable,” Ryder said, stroking Jed’s chest. “But it feels so
fucking right.”

Jed’s smile widened, and
not only was he bathing in the afterglow of orgasm, but now also feeling
lighter at heart. “I’ll keep your secret if you keep mine.” He slid his hands
all the way to Ryder’s ass. So fucking firm.

Ryder nodded and rolled
them to their sides, seemingly just as unwilling to leave the floor as Jed.
“What about Dana?”

Jed groaned but didn’t
pull away. “What a fucking turn-off. If you ever wanna use those cuffs again,
my safeword is ‘Dana’.” He made a gagging sound.

Ryder laughed. “It’s
fine. She’s not gonna do anything as long as she thinks we’re cooperating with
her. But we’ll get that bitch one way or another.”

That piqued Jed’s
attention, and he squeezed Ryder’s ass hard. “We will? Jesus fuck! Yes. We have
to. I thought you were gonna go with her bullshit. I didn’t interfere, because
I just wanted it to be over. But I want her to hurt. She needs to pay for what
she did!”

“She’s gonna. We just
need to make sure she doesn’t know it’s us who fucked her over,” muttered
Ryder, looking at the floor with a serious expression.

Jed bit his lip not to
blurt out what he wanted to, but as soon as he opened his mouth, it still came
out. “I love you.”

Ryder’s chest
compressed, and he looked back at Jed’s face. His fingers ghosted across Jed’s
lips, big, rough, and calloused. “I love you too.”

Jed kissed the tip of
Ryder’s finger, too enamoured for words. He’d suck each of Ryder’s fingers, and
finish him off with a blowjob. There was nothing better in the world than
hearing those words from Ryder.

Ryder

Ryder finished his
cigarette, filling his lungs with mint-scented smoke. He looked at Jed, who
stood on his right side, mouth set into a thin line. To his right was Dana, who
looked like a classy woman from TV in her little black dress and tasteful
jewelry she must have rented. He sighed and rubbed his eyes, tossing the
cigarette butt into the ashtray on top of the trashcan.

They were all on pins
and needles. The local airport was small, and Ryder was pretty sure the private
jet that had landed a few minutes ago belonged to their man.

The last few days had been
a manic time of getting the clubhouse in order, and fucking Jed at least twice
a day. In the postorgasmic glow, they came up with an idea for what to do with
Dana—they would introduce her but make sure that Toro knew she was a skank.

Making plans about his
new relationship was much harder. Ryder still didn’t have a clear picture of
how things should work between them. Who should be doing what? Ryder was also
wondering whether he wasn’t leading Jed on by letting him touch his ass. Should
they try to go with what they knew about relationships and work out what their
roles were, or experiment and risk failure? He only knew he wanted Jed now, and
wouldn’t let him go. He’d been able to deny what he felt when he was still
convinced Jed thought of him as a brother. When he was still sleeping with
girls and never touched a man this way. Before he knew the thrill of kissing
Jed’s lips.

“Shouldn’t you powder
your nose or put on lipstick, or something?” he asked Dana.

She raised her eyebrows
at him, as if surprised he spoke to her after over an hour of silence. “Oh, no.
Men don’t like that. I don’t want him to see me doing it and think I’m a ditz.”

Jed frowned at her. “You
did your makeup all the time.”

Dana raised her
perfectly plucked eyebrows. “I was pretending to be your girlfriend. If you
were straight, you’d go for a ditz.”

Ryder smirked. Jed’s
girlfriends were usually a bit of that, but he suspected Jed chose girls who
wouldn’t realize something was out of the ordinary about their man. But now?
Ryder thought Jed had great taste. He didn’t like thinking that it also meant
Jed noticed other men and had the hots for them.

Jed raised his eyes to
the sky. “Just go back to hell where you belong.”

Dana rolled her eyes.
“So dramatic. Don’t be a queen or you’ll never find a husband.”

“Good, ‘cause I’m not
looking for one,” Jed hissed, and Ryder wanted to put a hand on his shoulder to
calm him down. Jed was always too easy to rile up. It used to be a fun quality
when they were younger and Ryder wanted to tease his little brother, but in a
grown man, it caused problems.

But petty arguments
disappeared from Ryder’s mind when a group of men in suits emerged from the
arrivals exit. They were led by a tall and tan man with slicked-back
salt-and-pepper hair and a broad mouth marked by a small scar in the right
corner. Dressed in a white dress shirt and well-polished shoes, he looked like
a handsome businessman. It was only the quiet group following him that seemed
out of place, especially in the shabby airport that looked very much like a
large bus station.

“He’s here.”

Dana made a pleasant
smile appear on her face, but she kept behind them, waiting to be introduced.
Toro headed their way with his entourage, and if Dana wanted to be noticed she
succeeded. Toro took a full second to trail his gaze up her body before
focusing his attention on business.

“We finally meet,” he
said and extended his hand to Ryder.

Ryder stepped forward
and gave him a good, firm handshake. “I’m Ryder Arige, the vice president of
Coffin Nails Louisiana. Welcome.” Now that he was faced with the responsibility
to make Toro a partner, he suddenly felt very much out of his depth. He hadn’t
expected him to come with so many associates either. He counted six men
standing behind Toro, and they only came with two cars. His and Dana’s. “I see
you have many friends. How many vehicles do you need?” he asked, trying not to
let his nervousness show, even though he had the feeling his skin was either
red or transparent. Burning down a junkie’s trailer was one thing, dealing with
an international weapons merchant quite another.

Toro looked back at his
men. “It should be enough if you rent two more. I will go with you and Manolo
here,” he said, indicating a huge muscular guy with a thick nose and a bush of
dark locks. “But I need transport for the rest of my men.” He took another peek
at Dana, and Ryder didn’t like it one bit, unless it meant Toro would fuck her
without exchanging any words. He couldn’t stand the thought of things going
Dana’s way, but this was the time for introductions.

Ryder let his hand hover
behind her back, unhappy with even the concept of touching her when the touch
wasn’t about breaking her neck for the torment she’d inflicted on Jed. Knowing
that she played a big part in making him suicidal gave Ryder the urge to push
her off the bridge. With seventy pounds worth of kettlebells tied to her
ankles. “This is Dana. We thought you’d enjoy female company upon arrival.”

“This is a good start.”
Toro smiled and shook Dana’s hand. Ryder made a mental scowl, watching her act
all sweet, like a normal woman. She even looked at Toro from underneath her
eyelashes, all flushed as if she really found him attractive.

Dana looked down for a
moment, only to glance up like some shy bride, but covered her mouth when Toro
brought her hand up to his lips. “It’s such a pleasure to meet a true gentleman
once in a while.”

Ryder wanted to roll his
eyes, but he kept his face smiling as he introduced Jed. They also shook hands
with two of Toro’s men, and once formalities were out of the way, Ryder rented
two cars, and the whole cavalcade of four vehicles drove out into the hour-long
trip to the clubhouse. Ryder was on pins and needles, but he trusted the guys
to have polished every surface. Everything had been planned in detail, and everyone
agreed not to overdo it with alcohol. Keep the party polite. Now that Ryder had
met Toro, he had sweat beading on his back in fear of their efforts not being
enough for someone like him. What if Toro changed his mind about them after
seeing how shabby their clubhouse was? As much as Ryder loved his brothers and
the club, he was not blind. Their place looked more like a community center
than the headquarters of a successful organization.

In the end, Jed had to
go into the other car with Manolo, and Ryder could only hope that Jed would use
all of his cocky charms to win Toro’s associate over. Toro, on the other hand,
seemed to have a lot of fun with Dana in the backseat. Too much fun, in fact,
and it was making Ryder’s skin crawl with bullet ants.

Their guest did talk to
him, but most of his attention seemed to be on where Dana’s dress ended, even
though she pretended to constantly pull it lower and effectively only drew more
attention to her thighs. Ryder listened in on the conversation, uncomfortable
that even her accent became different, but it was when she started talking to
Toro in fluent Spanish that his hair bristled. What else did she have up her
sleeve? With just basic high-school level knowledge of the language, he
couldn’t follow what was being said anymore, and she didn’t have to challenge
him with mean glances reflected in the rearview mirror for Ryder to know it was
a dig at him.

Toro laughed out loud at
something she said and looked at Ryder. Now that was fucking uncomfortable.
This wasn’t part of the deal, but at this point it was too late to remove Dana
from the picture, and Ryder squeezed his hands on the steering wheel until his
knuckles went white. “Maybe you two should get a room once we arrive at the
club.”

Dana gasped. “Ryder...
really...”

But Toro seemed amused
and whispered into her ear before looking at Ryder again. “She just told me how
she met you.”

Ryder swallowed hard,
his heart thumping. “Did she?”

Dana’s cool eyes settled
on him. “Yes. That time when you saved me when my car stopped working?”

It was bound to be a
story that had nothing whatsoever to do with reality, but Ryder would go with
it.

“I’m not surprised
though,” Toro said, running his fingers over Dana’s thigh as she giggled. “I’d
stop traffic to help a girl like her.”

“I bet you could do
that,” said Ryder, forcing himself to smile.

Toro turned his dark
eyes at Dana and considered her for a long moment. “Where I’m from,
definitely.”

That degree of
self-confidence came with just the right amount of money to buy fully
functioning rocket launchers. Ryder couldn’t wait to get his hands on his share
of that kind of cash, but at the same time, knowing just how much this deal
relied on him was making him too stiff, too jumpy, and he couldn’t chase away
the thought that they were a bit out of their depth. A few years ago, he
wouldn’t have even considered the possibility of failing, but now, the club
wasn’t in the same condition it had been in before. They were only starting to
pick themselves up on Ryder’s back, and aiming so high could prove both a
blessing and a curse.

“Is it beautiful there?
Tell me more about it,” Dana asked, and despite watching the road, Ryder
imagined the glint in her eyes. He hoped Toro wasn’t stupid enough to fall for
her no matter how pretty her blue eyes and tits were. A man who started out as
a street kid and ended up at the top was bound to be not only ruthless but also
smart.

Toro grinned. “Well, of
course. I have a ranch in the countryside. Maybe you could visit me sometime?”

Dana smiled. “Oh, I hope
you’re not joking.”

Ryder frowned. He needed
to talk to Toro in private before this got out of hand. Who the fuck moved this
fast? He’d just take her to Colombia? And her? Was she not aware how dangerous
this man was? To make things worse, Toro answered in Spanish, and Dana giggled
like a love-struck teenager. Not that Ryder would feel sorry for her, however
this ended, but it was ridiculous. Blackmailing a gay biker was one thing, but
playing a powerful crime lord whose ties reached far out of his native
Colombia? This was a game Dana wasn’t prepared for.

“How far away are we?”
asked Toro, and Ryder looked at the trees on one side of the road.

“Fifteen more minutes,
give or take. We booked a hotel for you to stay at if you like, or for more
security, you can stay at the clubhouse tonight. We’ll make arrangements if
you’d like to stay longer as well.”

“I hope you do,” Dana
added. “I’m sorry to be so forward, it’s just that I never met someone so
well-traveled, and I’d love to talk more.”

“We can arrange that,”
said Toro, sliding his arm behind her.

“I’m sure you lead a
very interesting life,” Ryder said, glancing at Toro in the mirror. Ryder
needed to act fast if he wanted to engage their guest, but without tits as
ammo, he seemed to be at a disadvantage, and his head was completely empty. Why
was this happening now of all times? He’d been waiting to be a leader all his
life, but now that he got the opportunity to make a difference, he was failing
the club.

Toro blinked, but his
mouth slowly spread into a smile. “You could say that, yes. I know many people
all around the world. Frankly, I’m disappointed the ties I used to have with
this region were severed a few months ago.

Ryder swallowed hard.
“What happened?”

Toro shrugged. “Same
old, same old. Imagine having an exclusive agreement, and then you find out
your partner has cheated on you with a different supplier. Heads rolled,” said
Toro with a bright laugh, and Ryder felt a shudder go down his spine. He
suspected Toro meant that metaphor quite literally.

Dana nodded with a
concerned little frown. “You can’t just let people get away with betrayal.”

Toro laughed and touched
her shoulder. “She’s pretty
and
smart. You knew who to introduce to me,
Arige.”

“Yes, she is in a class
of her own,” said Ryder, keeping his voice cheerful despite Dana sending him a
slanted glance.

When they arrived at the
clubhouse, Ryder was relieved to see the gate open, and all the members waiting
in front of the building, with no hangarounds in sight. All the cars were parked
in the inner yard, and for once, no broken bottles threatened the tyres.

Wolver gave Ryder a nod,
and as they all exited the vehicles, Ryder was annoyed to hear Dark whistle at
Dana. There was no need to further establish what a catch she was. Thankfully,
Axe was there to poke Dark in the ribs. After obligatory introductions and
handshakes, their guests were invited to the lounge first, for a drink and
short conversation, but as soon as Toro expressed the will, Wolver and Ryder
took them to the rocket launchers. All were polished to perfection, the floors
sweeped. Ryder was quite proud of how well the club looked for the visit. The
guys must have been hard at work since early morning while he was away. The
club wanted to appear as legit as possible, and they seemed to have succeeded.

Toro inspected the gear
with Manolo, and Ryder couldn’t be entirely sure, but they seemed happy. Toro
said he’d hold off with the final decision until tomorrow, preferring to stay
around and relax after the long flight.