Strip You Bare (7 page)

“I’m starting to doubt we’re going to find anything out with me just hanging around the Delacroix mansion with my dick out waiting for shit to happen,” Micah said, by way of greeting when he entered the Priory only a few moments after leaving Sarah. The impression of her body burned against his, her lips leaving behind a trail of fire on his skin.

“Then zip your pants up and keep standing there,” Leon said, leaning against the bar.

Ajax and Travis were silent. Travis’s girl, Billie, was sitting on his lap, her arm flung around his shoulders, her hand on his chest. The casual contact irritated Micah because he had just cut off some very un-casual contact. And his body was giving him hell about it.

Sure, she had been the one to stop things. But he could’ve pressed. A few more touches, a few more kisses, and she would have been his. There was no question. She wanted him, he was certain of that. Oh, she didn’t want to want him, but the fact remained that she did. He could have seduced all the resistance right out of her. Turned her no into a very emphatic yes. It’s what he would have done back in the glory days of the Deacons.

But it wasn’t what Micah Carpenter did. Not the Micah Carpenter who had made a name for himself in business in San Francisco. Who knew how to appeal to sophisticated women. Give them just enough rough to feel like they had an experience, but not enough to scare them away. Micah Carpenter, as he was now, had again, and he knew how to play it. Flawlessly.

But here? Things were different.

He was different.

Whatever was happening between himself and Sarah wasn’t a game. He wasn’t trying to scare her, wasn’t trying to give her a thrill with a bad-boy fantasy. It was beyond him. And that was unacceptable.

The only person who was allowed to lead him around by the balls was Ajax. And that was only because Ajax would detach his balls and shove them down his throat. Right before killing him.

“I don’t think my dick being out is the reason we aren’t getting any information. I think it’s because your cousin is nothing more than an empty-headed rich bitch who doesn’t have any hidden depths for us to plumb.”

Micah was being an ass. And he didn’t care. He was here against his will, taking care of things he didn’t want to take care of, dealing with desire for a woman he didn’t want. He wasn’t exactly in a good space to behave.

Blue—who was for all intents and purposes the world’s most fucking terrifying monk—rarely reacted to things the way you might guess. Some days he would simply stare at you, shift his weight to the other foot, and let a slight pass him by.

Other days he would just straight reach down your throat and pull your spine out through your mouth.

Micah wasn’t certain which Blue he was staring down today. He was pretty attached to his spine, so he had to hope it was the former.

“Doesn’t much surprise me,” he said, rolling his shoulders back. “My family, as a general rule, is a bunch of rich fucks who have money where their souls should be. I don’t know why Sarah should have grown up to be any different.”

Now, for some strange reason, he felt defensive of Sarah. And he was the one who had just called her a rich bitch. But he had been lying. The problem wasn’t Sarah; the problem had never been Sarah. The problem was how Sarah made him feel. And that he was impatient to get back home. Leon didn’t know that. Leon was being insulting.

“Don’t take it too far, Leon. I’m just saying she clearly doesn’t know anything.”

“Someone does,” Ajax said. “And you’ll continue to keep your ears open.”

“I think Blue should go deal with his cousin,” Micah said.

“We already discussed this,” Blue said. “We don’t need to bring baggage into it. As far as I’m aware, nobody in the Delacroix family knows where I ended up. I’m not in a hurry to change that. We need to figure out what all of this means independent of me. Because I sure as hell didn’t have anything to do with the club ending up with this mansion. I don’t want to create connections where there aren’t any.”

“Bullshit. You don’t want to deal with her because you don’t want to deal with your family.”

Blue shrugged. And Micah had a feeling he was about to sit and have a beer with his spine in place. Because when Blue was casual, you were usually in danger. Instead, the other man crossed his arms over his broad chest and leaned back. “I don’t. There’s nothing in it for me. There’s certainly no reason to make things any more dramatic for Sarah than they need to be. I’m happy to keep those ties severed, thanks.”

“Just shut your whore mouth and deal with it, Prince.” This came from Ajax, unsurprisingly.

“I’m dealing. But I don’t have anything to report. If you do, that would be helpful.”

“Not yet,” Travis said. “Billie interacts with a lot of the people here in town at the gallery, so she’s been feeling things out.”

“Not very successfully,” Billie said.

“You’re trying,” Travis said, smiling at Billie in a way that could only be described as tender. Shit. What was the world coming to?

“Thanks to Alice we have a direct line with the Ministry now. Unfortunately, that hasn’t turned anything up, either.”

“The Ministry aren’t behind it,” Ajax said. “I’m satisfied enough with Blade’s word on that.”

“But,” Leon said, “there are connections within connections that we’re trying to use. Alice talks to a lot of people that come through her garage. Real salt-of-the-earth types.”

“I bet,” Micah said. “I’m sticking close, but at this point all I can guarantee is that I will be attending a very fancy Christmas party when I would much rather be at home dealing with my own shit.”

“I suggest you get in the holiday spirit,” Ajax said. “Because you’re here for as long as we need you.”

He couldn’t foresee himself getting in the holiday spirit anytime soon. He was, however, definitely in the spirit to push one very uptight socialite against a wall and screw her until neither of them could breathe.

He shouldn’t have come here. He shouldn’t have left the mansion. He should have stayed there and done just that.

“I hate you,” Micah said, no real venom in his words.

“You and my own mother,” Ajax said. “Am I supposed to be bothered by that?”

“I’m leaving.”

“Go,” Ajax said, clearly disinterested.

Somehow, during this exchange Micah had a feeling he and Ajax had patched up a few things. He wasn’t sure how.

“I’ll walk you out.” This came from Blue, a surprise. Micah wondered if Blue hadn’t decided to spare him, if he’d only just decided to wait and kill him outside where he wouldn’t make a mess.

“His ass is mine, Blue,” Ajax said. “If I find out you had him out in some alley, I’m going to be pissed.”

Neither Micah nor Blue responded, both continued out of the Priory. Micah started to walk down toward the mansion, but Blue stopped. He said nothing, but Micah knew it was his signal to stop too.

“What, Leon?” He used his given name on purpose.

“If you hurt my cousin, I’ll skin you alive, make a jacket out of you, and ride down Bourbon Street wearing you like my new colors. So we’re clear.”

“If I hurt her? You mean if I bang her?” Micah laughed. “What are you, her overprotective dad? Since when do you care about shit like that?”

“Usually? I don’t. But Sarah isn’t Sophie, or Alice, or even Billie. She’s not one of the chicks we used to take back to the clubhouse. She’s not a part of this world. You have no idea how protected they would have kept her. She’s got to be naïve as hell. She doesn’t know what kind of man you are.”

“She’s a grown woman, she’ll make her own decisions. If she wants to suck me off, I’m hardly going to say no.”

“I’m starting to think you have an active death wish.”

“If I did, I would have left already. But I genuinely believe Ajax would cut my tattoo off, so here I am.”

“Is that the only reason you’re still here?”

Micah cleared his throat. “For Priest. That’s the beginning and end of it. I . . . I don’t know what you get out of this life. I don’t know, I don’t care. But understand it didn’t do the same thing for me. It kept me from dying for a while, but in the end it would’ve killed me. But Priest was a father to me when nobody else was. For all that he was a bad guy, he was good to me. And whoever killed him . . . I want them to pay. Don’t tell Ajax I said that.” Micah turned away and kept on walking. He stopped when Blue spoke again, but didn’t turn.

“Glad to hear it. But I’ll still fucking kill you if you hurt her.”

“Then I won’t.”

He had a feeling they both knew that was a lie.

“What are you still doing here, princess?”

Sarah turned at the sound of that familiar voice that created an instant response in her body. It was strange how quickly she knew him. But no one sounded like Micah. His voice was everything he was. Grit. Depth. Honesty.

She could hear all of that in the sound of his voice, and it made her wonder what was wrong with her, since she couldn’t tell if her best friends were being nice or bitchy half the time in a twenty-minute phone call, never mind a greeting.

She was so tired of it. Tired of all of it. He would help. He would strip all these layers away she couldn’t seem to take off on her own. He could be the one to shatter her.

“I don’t know why I’m here,” she said.
Liar
.

She needed to cling to that harder now, to make it all the more satisfying when he took her. Because that was what she wanted. For him to take control. For him to strip her completely.

“Oh, honey, don’t try that with me. Not when I can see straight through that sweet little look on your face. You aren’t here for nothing. And unless the cleaning crew is still hiding out, I think it’s for me.”

She closed her eyes and swallowed hard. He knew.

“No,” she said, her voice echoing in the entryway.

He advanced on her then, a dark flame in his eyes. He reached out and gripped her chin, and her breath froze in the center of her throat, a restless surge bursting through her. Arousal. Complete and total. Blotting out everything else.

His grip hurt, and she was afraid of what he might do. Afraid of what she might do. But it didn’t matter. Not when walking away was so much scarier. Walking right back into that perfectly pressed mint-julep world, when she could stay here and ride the hurricane.

“You’re so pretty. But you’re
such
a fucking liar,” he said, his tone soft, deadly. “You know exactly why you’re here. Wearing that prim little dress like it doesn’t show your tits and how pretty your ass is. Like you didn’t come back here so I’d shove it up your hips and bury myself in your pussy.”

Her face heated. Her whole body heated. Sure, men shouted words like that across the street, but she let those slide right off. These didn’t slide off. They sunk in deep beneath her skin, burning right through down to her blood. Pooling in her stomach. Lower.

Her internal muscles clenched tight in response. In desire. She wanted him more than she’d ever wanted anything. Even a handbag.

She didn’t know him. They’d spent a couple of days hanging around each other, and he’d done nothing but act like a jerk. They hadn’t had any real conversation.

Nothing like the cabal who’d known her since she was an infant. Nothing like her family. Who’d decided, long before she ever had, just what and who she would be.

That damned double-edged sword of her position in life. That gave her power and stripped her of it all at the same time.

But Micah didn’t care who she was. And she didn’t care what he thought.

Where else would she ever have that? Not in New Orleans. Not in this life. But in this moment? In this house? With him?

Maybe for just an evening she could strip it all off. Forget what she should be, and be who she was. Maybe she wasn’t this. But if she didn’t try, she wouldn’t know.

At least that was her justification. Because it was what she wanted. And right now that was the easiest choice to make.

She said nothing. She wouldn’t need to. He would tell her what to do. He would know what she wanted.

Slowly, so achingly slow, as if he read her mind, he leaned in. And he pressed his lips to hers. Heat spread through her like sunlight breaking through a cloud, rolling slowly over each and every part of her.

And then when he touched his tongue to hers, it burst into flame. She arched against him, desperate for more. Desperate for everything. But he held her fast, his hand like iron as he forced her to keep still, as he kept her just where he wanted her while he subjected her to a kiss so carnal it surpassed every other sexual experience she’d had.

They parted again and she was breathing hard, his dark eyes cutting into hers like a blade. “Liar,” he said, his breath hot against her cheek. “You knew this would happen. You wanted this.” He bit her bottom lip and she gasped as his teeth scraped over the tender, swollen skin. “But because you lied to me, you’re going to have to earn it.”

He reached down between their bodies and she felt his hand moving. Working his belt. A tremor shot through her, anticipation rendering her utterly motionless.

“Get on your knees,” he said, his voice rough. “You’ll start by sucking my cock.”

She shivered, need taking hold of her. She loved it when he talked like this. When he told her what to do. Like he didn’t give a fuck who she was, what she was. He wasn’t careful with her. Didn’t hide what he wanted. It made her feel . . . it made her feel free.

He released his hold on her chin, reached around, and tangled his fingers in her hair, tugging hard, guiding her down to her knees. And she followed. Obeyed. Her legs shaking as she went to the newly polished marble floor of the proud Delacroix family manor.

He slipped the end of his leather belt through the buckle slowly, and she drew in a sharp breath, everything in her body heightened by awareness. Anticipation.

His fingers went to the snap, and the sound echoed in the room, along with the slow slide of the zipper.

He had nothing on beneath the rough denim, and when he parted the fabric, he revealed the thick, hard length of his cock. He wrapped his fingers around his shaft and tugged himself free, the head hovering near her lips.