Split - Coffin Nails MC (Contemporary New Adult Erotic Dark Romance) (Sex & Mayhem Book 7) (8 page)

Cobra’s brown eyes were friendly behind the
streaked makeup, and he took a sip out of a beer he was holding. “Why not. I
had my palm read some time ago. Let’s see how your predictions go against
hers,” he said, challenging Asty with a smile. She was grateful she was wearing
white foundation because she could feel the heat burning her cheeks.

“That depends on her skill. I trust my
connection with the cards.”

Hunter nodded. “Last card she pulled for me
was pretty accurate.”

Asty didn’t think she would be, but she was
happy to see his cocky grin again. They joined the band members and some of
their friends and fans in a private space, and doing readings gave her
confidence in conversations. She instantly felt more interesting, and her
shyness was dissolving like a burning candle so she could reveal her true self.

As she talked to Serpent, the guitarist,
she was surprised to learn Hunter was held in high esteem. He didn’t just bring
them speakers, but he helped tune instruments and had an ear for acoustics.
With everything she was learning about him, Hunter was becoming more of a real
person, and less “one of her father’s bikers.”

Even when she was sitting by the same table
as Cobra and speaking to people she had dreamed of being with for so long, she
still kept glancing Hunter’s way, to his bright smile and shapely body. There
was something incredibly erotic in a shirtless man who only wore jeans that
uncovered some of the ridges around his navel. The long hair was slightly
matted after the concert, but it was thick, and Asty knew how shiny it was on a
daily basis. It made her want to pet it. Worst of all, now that Hunter wasn’t
hitting on her, she wanted him to. She even felt uncomfortable when she saw him
talk to some other girl while Asty was busy with a reading for Serpent.

Time flew by all too quickly, and with
every hour, there were less and less people around, until the band members were
leaving, too.

“We’re gonna continue at the hotel. You
wanna come?” Cobra asked Asty, and the question was so sudden and unexpected, her
voice stilled in her throat. Worst of all, Hunter’s gaze drifted to her as
well, like a hook biting into her flesh and tugging.

Asty stopped breathing and looked at
Hunter, searching for cues. She wasn’t sure she wanted go to some hotel with a
bunch of people she didn’t know, unless Hunter would be going as well.

Cobra followed her gaze and nodded at
Hunter. “You’re invited too.”

“Thanks, but I gotta gather all the
speakers and take them back.”

Asty looked into Cobra’s brown eyes and
toyed with the pendant on her neck, the one that held the hair of her mother
and brother. His gaze was licking up her breasts, and it stirred a violent heat
deep inside her, but her thoughts immediately drifted off to Hunter. “I think
I’m tired, so I’ll go home soon. But thank you. It was great to meet all of
you,” she said, not wanting to give him the wrong impression. She was attracted
to him, but she wasn’t a groupie.

“Have a good night then. Thanks for the
reading. If you ever want free tickets for a show, hit us up. Hunter’s got my
e-mail.” Cobra gave her a quick wink, and he was off with the rest of his
bandmates and their friends.

It went terribly quiet once it was just her
and Hunter, but his presence filled the whole room, and she was aware of him
without even turning around.

“So ... that was interesting,” she said and
slowly turned his way, unsure what to do now that it was just the two of them.
“You must be tired,” she added after a moment to fill the silence.

“I’m fine. I’m a bit of a night owl anyway.
If you wait for me to gather the speakers, I could give you a ride home.”

Asty took a bus to get here and intended to
return by cab, but it would be nice to spend a bit of time with Hunter. He was
the father of her baby, so she could offer him some of her time, get to know
him. It was thanks to him that she met Cobra and the rest of the band, so she
owed him at least that much.

“That would be nice. Thanks.”

They went back to the stage, and wherever
he gathered speakers or cables, she followed. The equipment was heavy, so it
was a case of going back and forth to his van. She offered to help, but he
didn’t let her take more than a few cables.

“You know I won’t let it go, right? You
have to tell me what your ritual was about,” he said as they were in the midst
of another round. “I don’t want to find out in a few months that I helped bring
the plague to Detroit or something.”

Asty laughed and covered her mouth,
slightly embarrassed by that initial reaction. Maybe she was just nervous. “No.
It was about family matters,” she said in the end, not wanting to give him too
many details. It was private, just between her, Mother, and Bell.

Hunter wasn’t laughing. He was silent for a
long moment, and as he put the last speaker into the van, he lit himself a
cigarette, wordlessly offering one to Asty. “Did it work?” He looked into her
eyes and took a big drag of smoke.

She stopped breathing and licked her lips
as they stood in the shadow of the building. The music was still echoing from
the front of the club, but here in the back, it was strangely silent. Asty knew
the baby was too small for her to feel it yet, but she somehow did. “Yes.”

“I suppose that’s all that matters then.
Just …” Hunter frowned and took his time to choose his next words. “Don’t do it
again. That was so extremely risky. What if someone hurt you back there?”

Asty briefly touched the front of her chest
and shook her head. Nothing would have happened with her mother watching over
her, but he couldn’t possibly understand that. It was sweet of him to care
though. “I won’t.”

“It’s gonna be quite a story for ‘how I
lost my cherry.’” He snorted and threw away the butt of the cigarette before
jumping into the van. He started arranging the speakers farther to the back.

Asty leaned against the entrance to the van
and watched him move efficiently. He had a flashlight in the back, and the
shadows it created only stressed the movement of Hunter’s muscles under inked
skin. She wondered whether her baby would look like Bell, or would its body be
what was physically created of her and Hunter. Mother never specified that in
her journal.

“I don’t think I’m gonna be telling anyone
about it, ever.”

“You were so sexy. Like some kind of
otherworldly goddess. Like a dream that only happens in heavy metal music videos.”
Hunter leaned against one of the speakers and watched her with a gaze that
didn’t feel sleazy, but was most definitely hungry for what was under her black
dress.

She could almost feel the ghosts of his
fingers brushing against her thighs, and it made her blood run faster. It was
strange to hear something like that, as she wasn’t experienced in sex. And yet,
his words seemed so sincere. “I think we could have made a pretty picture for
the cover of the next Cries of Decay album.”

He raised his eyebrows with a small smile.
“You sayin’ I’m pretty?”

Asty gasped, suddenly feeling cornered, but
she couldn’t just go back on her words. “Maybe ...”

“What if I say I think you’re almost as
pretty as me?” Hunter winked at her and gestured with his hand for her to join
him in the back of the van.

Asty clenched her hand on the locket on her
chest, staring at him with her heart drumming against her ribcage like a caged
demon. It wasn’t an invitation to take a look at the speakers, and yet, she
slowly entered the back of the van. “I’d say you’re buttering me up.”

“To do what?” He gave her a crooked grin
and reached out to grab her hand.

She frowned, even though she’d gladly melt
into his touch. “You know what. I’m a witch, remember? I can read you like a
book.”

Hunter pulled her closer, grabbed her
waist, and before she could protest, he sat her on a large speaker. “So that’s
why you think I’m a pig.”

“There’s that,” she uttered, fighting the
shallowness of her breath. “And then there’s the name of your former club.” She
knew what “hogs” meant in biker slang, but it was still amusing.

“Well, I’m a Nail now.” Hunter put his
hands on the sides of her thighs, leaning closer. “And I’m not scared of your
daddy.”

Asty inhaled slowly, and her eyes wouldn’t
stray from Hunter’s handsome face and expressive eyes. “You should be scared of
Tooth. He’s like my big brother,” she whispered, unable to stop the shudders
rocking her body.

“I won’t have to be scared if you don’t
tell him, right?” He leaned lower to catch her lips in a kiss.

Asty arched forward, heat streaming through
her body, and the prickling at her lips wouldn’t let her move away. It was as
if time stopped, and she didn’t care to put it into motion again. Electricity
trailed down her chest, all the way between her tender pussy lips, and all of a
sudden, there was an ache inside her, and she just had to close her thighs.

“Maybe ...”

“Oh, you’re a tease, aren’t you?” Hunter
whispered against her lips. “You’re toying with my life, babe.”

Asty slid her hands to his shoulders,
shocked by how warm they were against her own skin. “I told you death is
following me. You can still run ...”

Hunter took a deep breath and quickly
straightened up. “Yep, that’s creepy, I’m done,” he said, and to Asty’s utter
shock and disappointment, he went straight for the back door of the van. But
just as he was about to jump off, he reached out to the handles and pulled them
to shut the van.

They were left in just the bluish light of
the flashlight, and Hunter turned around to her with a grin, approaching
slowly, like a predator about to feast on its victim. “Gotta try harder than
that to scare me.” He stood in front of her, and she looked up the flames of
hell tattooed on his stomach to the large cross on his chest and “JUDAS”
written under his collarbones. “Now, where were we?”

Before she could answer, his lips were on
hers, forcing them to part and let his tongue in. The kiss was so different now
that she actually knew him, now that he wasn’t a faceless man in the darkness.
He’d seen her without makeup, and still wanted her, seen her meltdowns, seen
her vibrator. And still wanted her.

Asty crawled her fingers into his hair and
mewled without even thinking about it. His tongue was so smooth against hers as
it played in her mouth. The contrast of that sensation and the sharp bite of
the stubble growing back on Hunter’s skin had her pussy squeezing, and they hadn’t
even started yet. The one drunken game of spin the bottle in high school had
nothing on Hunter’s kisses.

“That you’re not afraid, and I don’t tell
on you,” she muttered into his lips the moment she could.

“Yes, exactly.” His big hands started their
exploration with her ribs, but then slid up just under her breasts, and he
reached to tease her nipples through the dress with his thumbs. The way he
looked into her eyes was hypnotizing, and Asty couldn’t explain why she
shivered so much. She had been so confident during the ritual, but now
everything was more personal. It wasn’t her liturgical persona and two
strangers she’d never see again. It was
her
and a hot man made of flesh
and blood.

She buried her nose in his hair and
breathed in their scent, a mixture of cologne and the bitterness of sweat, but
it was more addictive than anything she had ever sensed. “Okay,” she finally
whispered, nuzzling his ear as he gently touched her nipples, which already
hardened against his thumbs, despite the clothes and underwear in between. It
was as if she could sense his briefest touch. Hot streams were coursing through
her flesh, and it felt as if invisible hands were rubbing circles all over her
skin.

“You can tell me if you’re not feelin’
something, okay?” Hunter murmured and licked along her top lip, sending yet
another shiver down to her pussy. “I could just eat you up alive, so you need
to rein me in if I’m too much.” His palms slid up to her breasts and squeezed
them slightly. “Perfect size.”

Asty whimpered and nodded. She wanted his
touch with all that she was. Hunter’s words made lust explode in her mind with
images of him fucking her like a wild beast, pushing his thick cock in again
and again until he came, his dick throbbing with heat as he pumped her full of
his come. She couldn’t bear looking into his eyes with those thoughts crawling
in her brain. She gasped when he pulled the neckline of her velvet dress lower,
exposing her black lacy bra. She was so hot it was hard to think straight
anymore, and she realized she’d never been so into someone. Even Cobra.

“Front clasp, I like that.” Hunter murmured
with a smile, and he took his time opening her bra, but once he did, the cups
slid to the sides, baring her breasts to him.

Strangely, she felt much more naked now
than when she did in that church without a shred of fabric on her body.
Hunter’s hands explored her naked skin, and he lowered his face to kiss her
ear, and then down to her neck.

She let her head drop back and pulled him
closer, hoping the stiffness between her legs would be released soon, or she’d
gradually lose her mind. “That’s just because you don’t know how to deal with
bras. It’s not that complicated,” she uttered, slowly rocking her hips forward.