Phoenix Bar: A Steel Demons MC Novel (4 page)

              “Ember’s not much of a morning person,” I said, indicating to Mac who was resting against the wall. A small line of drool was at the corner of her mouth and I decided that I was going tease her about that later.

              “I’m Phoenix.” I offered my hand to the one that had helped me up and he shook his when he reciprocated.

              “I’m Brice, people call me Grit. This is Jason, he goes by Titan,” he said, indicating the man behind him, “so, Phoenix, what are you wanting to do with this place?” He looked around the room giving me a small break from his intense stare.

              “Just a minute,” I said. I squatted down next to Mac. “Ember. The contractor is here and so help me, if you don’t wake your ass up now with a smile on your ridiculously beautiful face, I’m going to poor what’s left of the tequila we demolished over your head.” I spoke low hoping they wouldn’t be able to hear me, but knowing that she would even if she didn’t want to.

              “I hate you,” she muttered, but started to get up anyway swaying a bit from the alcohol still in her system. Thank god she had forgone the stilts she normally wears for her tennis shoes or we’d have an issue.   

              “Yeah, yeah, whose idea was it to bring the tequila? I’m the one that brought the coffee.” I turned around to face the two men. They were both grinning, so apparently they heard our whole conversation. “Sorry. We couldn’t sleep last night so we decided to come out here and try to clean up the place and apparently drank a little too much and didn’t clean enough.”

              “Don’t mind us. We’ve been enjoying the view.” Titan spoke. I think he was looking at Mac because I didn’t feel his gaze was on me. His friend’s gaze I felt full force. Grit’s eyes heated as he looked me over head to toe. I couldn’t help but shiver in response to his intense perusal. His lips twitched at my obvious reaction to him. 

              Mac stood up and brushed off her shorts and wiped the drool from the corner of her mouth before she walked forward. “Sorry guys, I’m not much of a morning person. I’m Ember.” She stuck her hand out to each of the men. When Titan held her hand a little longer than she would have held on, she cocked an eyebrow in her snooty ‘really’ look. Titan just grinned at her response and the attitude she put off.

              “Ok, well this side of the building will be Ember’s so I’ll let her tell you what she’s wanting and her ideas,” I spoke, letting her take over for the moment.

              Mac started off talking about everything that she wanted to see happen in the building. Where we ultimately wanted the kitchen, to be and how we wanted the buildings to connect through the kitchen. We toured her whole side of the building both upstairs and down. Then went through to what would be my side of the business.

              “Ok, well this is going to be the bar side and honestly I’d like your guys’ input as well. I know what I want put in and a woman’s perspective. I would like to have a man’s perspective as well if you both don’t mind. I plan on offering just appetizers to eat here in the bar and I plan on having a few pool tables, dart boards, and TV’s. I would also, if it is possible and we can find the space for it, like a small dance floor with a pole in the middle or off to one side.” I was walking around gesturing about where I wanted things to be and what I had been envisioning for a few weeks.

              We made our way upstairs on my side of the building to look around. “I’m not going to lie, this is going to take some major work and a lot of money, but I think it’s a great idea and will work out well. I’ve got to go over to Bedford and start pricing supplies so we could get you an accurate estimate, but it is going to take a lot of capitol and the estimate can change depending on what we find structurally when we are doing the demo work.” He handed me a pad of paper and a pen that he had been writing notes on “Write your number here and I can either call you tonight or come over tomorrow with the estimate.”

              “Either way. Thank you.” He grinned and winked at me before walking out the door. Holy fuck, his smile made my stomach clench and my pussy melt.  

Chapter 4

Brice

              When we arrived at the building, a truck was already out front. Apparently they didn’t hear our bikes, because they didn’t come outside. I walked into the building and the smell of cleaners assaulted my nose, apparently the girls had already been working. My eye was drawn to the back wall where two women were asleep, leaning against the wall and each other. There was a bottle of tequila between them. The short brunette had a little drool at the corner of her mouth and the blonde had hair sticking up in all directions. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. She had full lips that were pink and plush. I wanted to taste them. I felt my dick twitch as I imagined her lips taking my cock. “Fuck me,” I whispered just loud enough for Titan to hear.

              “You better be looking at the blonde brother because the brunette is going to be mine,” he growled.

              “Don’t touch unless you’re playing for keeps”,
Gavel’s words played in my head. “Do you think Gavel–“

              “Yeah, he knew,” Titan grumbled out.

              “We could be jumping the gun here, brother. They could be the biggest bitches in the world.” As I was talking, I watched the blonde’s face. She had a dreamy look on her face and a soft smile. Whatever her dream was about, I wanted to be there with her. Slowly as I watched her for a few minutes, the smile faded and wrinkles appear between her brows. Whatever good she was dreaming, was turning bad fast. She whimpered and I made my way to her.

              I reached out and slightly shook her. “Sweetheart,” the endearment slipped out so easy. I’ve never called a woman by an endearment other than baby or babe and frankly I didn’t like the fact that it came so easily with this woman. I gently shook her awake.

              Her eyes fluttered and I got a glimpse of her eyes. Calling her eyes blue would have been an understatement. She looked at me still half asleep. I heard her whisper,
“If I’m dreaming, I don’t want to wake up.”
I couldn’t help but grin. She shook her head and looked at me again. Her cheeks turned pink when she realized she had spoken out loud. She nervously reached over and shook her friend, trying to wake her up. I laughed when the friend called her a bitch for trying to wake her.

              Once they had both got up and introductions made between us all, they took us around the building, both highlighting what they wanted to see. It was a different concept, but one that I thought would work well and be welcome in the community. The building was actually really perfect for what they wanted.

              “Well ladies, Titan or I will call you with the estimate tonight. Y’all have a good day.” I shook their hands, winked at Phoenix, and walked out without a backward look. I didn’t like that I called her something other than babe, and it bugged the hell out of me how much I wanted her. My cock stayed hard the whole damn tour.

              I was on my bike, waiting, when Titan came back outside. He climbed on his bike without a word. We headed to Bedford and did what needed to be done. After doing the calculations, I gave him the figures and asked him to call her.

              “We’ll split the crew into two. I’ll work on the restaurant side with Dozer and Chink. You can work on the bar side with Roper and Brick.” I had to squeeze my fists in order to pass the bar over to Titan. God, when she mentioned she wanted a pole in the middle of the dance floor… I barely stopped myself from groaning, imagining her gorgeous body working a pole for me and me alone.

              Our club was unusual to other clubs. Whenever we’re on MC business, Titan is the boss, hands down, but when we are doing or working for any of the other businesses that are tied to the club, whomever runs that business is boss. Demon Contracting is mine; I pay the workers and I pay the club because they helped me start up the business. Once all the money I originally borrowed to start the business is paid back, it will work as though they are an investor in my company and they receive a monthly dividend.

              “You coming back to the club or are you headed home tonight?” Titan asked me as we were about to head back toward Belle. I wanted to go home, but if I went home I knew what would happen. I would spend all night thinking about a blonde with intense blue eyes and plush lips. I’d be hard as stone and have to stroke myself and it still wouldn’t sate this fire she started in me.

              “I’m headed to the club.” He didn’t say anything, but the way he looked at me told me he understood and he was in the same place.

              “You up for doubling up tonight?”

              “Yeah, man, sounds like we could both use it.” He nodded.

              We were in a silent agreement. We wouldn’t touch Gavel’s girls no matter how much we wanted them. I had Titan call Phoenix, because I did not want to hear her sultry voice, which is a total lie. I wanted to hear her voice, so I knew calling her myself would be a mistake. Fuck this job was going to be way harder than I originally thought, figuratively and literally.

<<<<<>>>>>

              The next day I called an order in to be delivered and then we headed to the job site. Phoenix’s truck was outside where it had been the other morning. The scene before Titan and me this morning was better than the day before. We followed the music upstairs and found Phoenix and Ember their backs were to us, but we could hear them over the music. I recognized the song immediately Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert were singing about something bad happening. Each of them picked up a part and if I wasn’t sure they hadn’t seen us, I would have thought they were performing for us, but I was sure they hadn’t. No, these girls were just having fun hanging out, dancing, and singing to the music.

              Titan was just as wrapped up in their performance as I was. I saw his hand grip the door frame when Ember’s hips swayed and dropped. The song was wrapping up and at the sound of the last note, I clapped. They both jumped and turned around. The girls grinned, held hands, and took a bow. God she was cute. That’s why I’m working in the restaurant and Titan in the bar.
“Off limits”
I had to keep repeating it to myself. But dammit, that saying about forbidden things being more desirable is unfortunately true.

              “We are ready to start working. The rest of the crew is downstairs.” I turned cold and hard before walking away. Clenching my jaw and my fists to keep from turning around and making her mine. I know I was an ass, but damn the woman made me want her just by breathing. She had no clue that I was hard as a rock and to top it off, unlike the women that are constantly demanding my attention, she isn’t. I wish I could fuck her out of my system, but Gavel would kill me. Erin and Kelly had joined Titan and me in bed last night. He and I were pounding our want and desire for these two women into them and this morning, we heard them giggling and talking about how wonderful it was to the other women, how mind blowing it had been. It had been more mind-numbing than anything to me.

              When I walked back to the lower floor, the guys were standing around waiting. Titan and the girls came down after me. When Phoenix and Ember came into view, I wanted to rip my brother’s eyes out. Every single one of them raked their eyes hungrily over Phoenix and Ember. Titan wasn’t any happier with their appraisal. I stepped in front of Ember and Titan stepped in front of Phoenix, both of us basically growled at our brothers, giving them a look that said
‘Back the fuck off’
. They got the picture loud and clear, even if the picture they received was crossed.

              “Alright guys, we are splitting the load up, three of us will work on this side and three on the other. Titan will take one crew to the bar and I will have two of you over here with me. There are two women around. Phoenix and Ember, so behave yourselves. Let’s get to work.”

              Titan took Roper and Brick next door. Phoenix followed not long after, but not before I caught her looking at me with confusion on her face at my cold aloofness that I turned on suddenly for her benefit. “Ember, this is Chink and Dozer.” Each guy shook her hand and then I turned to her. “I think it would be best if you and Phoenix either got out of here or went back upstairs. That way you two are out of the way and won’t get hurt.” I sincerely hoped they would leave.

              “Yeah, sure. We have other business that needs attending to anyway. If you have any questions about what I want as far as the restaurant goes, give me a call.” She wrote down and handed me her number. “I’ll grab our stuff from upstairs and then head over to get Phoenix.”

              I nodded my head, then got to work. She left about two minutes later and about a minute after that, I looked up to see the truck pulling away. With them gone, I could breathe again.

I worked hard that day, harder than I remember working in a long time. Not that my men were lazy, but I was doing the work of two of them trying to burn myself out into exhaustion. The following days went the same way for me.  Over the weeks, Titan and I both started to get to know the other’s girl. Ember was a sweet girl and I felt protective of her like a brother. Titan said he felt the same for Phoenix. We were claiming them without doing anything about it. It was fucked up on so many levels. 

              We were about two months into the renovation when I decided enough was enough. “Titan,” I called walking into the clubhouse toward the bar. He was talking to some of the other brothers, one of whom was getting a blowjob from Becky. “You got a minute, brother?”

              “Yeah,” he said as he got up and headed toward me. I grabbed us a couple beers and we headed to the conference room where we held our club meetings. “What’s up, brother?”

              “Tomorrow, we’re going to switch it up. I’m going to work in the bar and you with the crew in the restaurant. I want to be around her when they bring lunch in for us, and I want to be the one to go over the job with her.”

              “So, you’ve made up your mind then?”

              “No, but this avoiding her and this gut wrenching physical attraction I feel for her is not working for me. I’m hoping that I will get to know her and I’ll realize that she and I don’t mix well. We end up friends and I end up protective of her as I am of Ember, like an older brother.” I was spewing shit. I knew it, Titan sure as hell knew it, but fucked if I was going to admit any of it.

              “I’ve got to say, man, I’m with Gavel on this one. You don’t touch her unless it’s something more to you. Phoenix has been hurt. I’m not sure how and I haven’t been able to get her information from anyone. Not Gavel, not Linda, and the property records are sealed up tight. She’s running from something or someone. I talked to Gavel about it and he assured me he is keeping a look out to make sure her past doesn’t come for her.” I sat back taking in this new information. There was no background on her to speak of since we had no name for her or Ember. I didn’t like it. Whatever was going on with her gave me a bad feeling. It was going to come back and bite us at some point. I just knew it. 

              “We need to get Gavel to let us in on what happened, either that or we have to get them to open up to us. My gut is telling me that something is coming that we need to be prepared for.”

              “Are you sure it’s not just that she is a mystery that you need to figure out and that is the reason you want her so bad.”

              I looked at my best friend, my brother, and contemplated his question. “That’s part of it I’m sure, but no, it’s more than that.” I finished off my beer. “I just wanted to tell you the plans for tomorrow and get your opinion.” I got up and headed for the door. “Oh and, Titan,” I said over my shoulder. “Same goes for Ember, you make sure before you make a move”