Stripping Her Defenses (8 page)

We entered a hallway with multiple doors, the sound of the music snuffed out behind us as the door was closed and heavy lock engaged. Now, if I had to book it out of here for whatever reason, I knew that way was potentially blocked. I didn’t worry about it too much because Lucas had assured us all that he trusted Ice and Hammer with his life. The three men had all served in the Green Berets together for several years and had grown to trust that the others would always have their back.

I understood that kind of camaraderie; I’d had it with my fellow
seal
team members. With that said, if Lucas trusted Ice and Hammer, I could give them the benefit of the doubt. Lucas had more than proved himself to our team, and I trusted him.

Looking up ahead, I noticed a couple of the doors were open and music and feminine giggling could be heard from at least one of them. As we came up on the first open door, I caught a glimpse of gorgeous women in different states of undress. I was guessing these were the girls’ changing rooms since one woman was peeling off her T-shirt while another woman held up a metallic bikini top for her. A few of them whistled at us as we walked by, which had Dec shooting them his famous panty melting grin. I didn’t bother to react in any way except to smile at my brother’s antics.

As we came up on the second door, I heard a woman humming. From the angle I was at, all I could see was a hint of her upper thigh cocked out to the side with a tiger tattoo gracing her radiant skin. It wasn’t much to see, yet, because I knew it was the woman from the poster, I already wanted more. I wanted her.

The second the rest of her body came into view, I stopped dead in my tracks. She was bent over a vanity with her masked face up close to a mirror as she swiped a red lipstick over her bee stung lips. Because of that mirror, I could see her front almost as well as I could her back.

She was every fantasy I’d ever had come to life. Sinfully lush curves that most women today didn’t have or usually want. Like all the old pin up models soldiers used to jack off to in war time, this chick had round hips, a cushy ass, and breasts that made me want to bury my face in them and stay there. All of it was accentuated by her snug outfit. A black leather vest barely held her voluptuous breasts. The black mini skirt didn’t cover enough of her ass, which was accentuated by her knee high, black leather fuck me boots. In fact, she was bent over so far I could even make out a small bit of the tiny tiger print thong covering her pussy.

Everything around me disappeared. The men. The music. The fucking floor. All of my damn air. I watched with rapt attention as she rocked her hips from side to side to the music from the other girls’ room and continued to hum while touching up her makeup. My cock filled until it felt like it was going to burst and goddamn did it hurt so good, a delicious kind of pleasure-pain I hadn’t felt in more years than I wanted to think about.

I was so focused on her, so oblivious to everything else, a bomb could have gone off right next to me, and I would never even have known to kiss my ass goodbye.

This had happened only one other time in my life.

The first time I’d laid eyes on Kara.

I didn’t know who the fuck this woman was, but I knew what she was about to become.

Mine.

All fucking mine.

A sick, twisted part of me mocked how much she looked like my Kara: same tanned skin with that subtle red undertone, same dark brown hair color and molten chocolate eyes. Did it really fucking matter, though?

Mission or no mission, I would make this woman mine in every way that counted while I was here. I could figure out the future later. Fate didn’t hand you moments in life like this so you could fucking ignore them.

She must have felt my eyes on her because, all of a sudden, she got this adorable little furrow between her brows and shifted her gaze to see the room behind her in the mirror. That’s when her eyes locked with my own and she gasped, dropping her lipstick. Twirling around on her high heels, one of her hands reached up to cover the area of chest over her heart, and a strangled sound left her throat.

Taken aback by her reaction, I was about to apologize for obviously scaring her when I hadn’t meant to, but Lucas’s voice rang out from down the hall before I could open my mouth.

“Yo! Sullivan! Bring your ass down here and stop checking the girls out.”

I turned my head in Lucas’s direction as I flipped him the bird, but I was again cut off by a voice before I could tell him he could shove it up his ass. Only, this time, the voice that interrupted me was soft, feminine, and one I heard every night in my dreams.

“Riley?”

Motherfucker.

That scantily clad stripper was my goddamn wife!

Chapter

8

Kara

It couldn’t be.

There was no way.

Karma couldn’t be that cruel, right?

There was no way Riley Sullivan was standing in front of me.

Yet, as I looked into those burning green eyes of his, full of shock and rage, I knew that’s exactly who it was. My ex-husband, in the flesh. Only he didn’t look like my Riley. My Riley had military-short buzzed hair, a clean shaven face, and practically lived in his Navy uniform. This man was the complete opposite with his five o’clock shadow, shaggy brown hair, jeans and black leather cut.

Wait.

Cut?

Why was Riley wearing a Regulators’ cut?

I didn’t get a chance to ask him about that, though. In one blink of an eye, he was standing outside of my dressing room door. In the next, he was standing in front of me, reaching towards my face with his hand and then ripping my mask clean off. His trembling hands cradled my face, and I stared into the countenance of the only man I’d ever loved, watching as a raw sense of sorrow washed over his features while he croaked out my name.

“What are you doing here, Riley?”

The sorrow melted away, his lips becoming a grim, determined slash of a line as he snapped, “What the fuck am
I
doing here? How about what the fuck are
you
doing here, Kara? You do not belong in a fucking strip club!” The last words ended on a shout. At least something about Riley hadn’t changed. Piss the man off and he started dropping more F-bombs than a whole platoon of soldiers.

I shook my head as he slid his hands from my face into my hair, gripping the strands so tightly I could no longer move my head. He lowered his face towards mine and growled, “My fucking
wife
does not belong in a fucking place like this. You’re coming with me right now, goddamn it, and you’re going to tell me how the fuck you ended up here. If this is about money, you should know all you had to do was cal—”

“Motherfucker!” Ice roared as Riley’s hands were pulled from my body. He now had Ice’s arms wrapped around his throat in a headlock that had him bent awkwardly backwards and away from me. “Get your damn hands off her! Hammer, get her the fuck out of here!”

Hammer grabbed my hand, pulling me towards the door of the dressing room, away from Ice and Riley who were now in a struggling match. As soon as we passed through the doorway, I saw Big Jim holding off both Declan, and some other man I didn’t know, from getting inside the room where I could hear my ex-husband fighting with the Regulators’ President. My head started to spin as Hammer dragged me down the hallway in a state of shock before he shoved me into a different room, slamming the door behind me and locking it.

Unable to move from where I woodenly stood, my hands shook uncontrollably and my breath raced in and out of my chest as if I’d just run a damn marathon.

The first time I come back to After Midnight for an act, in four years, because Ice begged me to, and Riley shows up? What were the chances? Feeling the shock start to drain away and worry taking over, I paced back and forth in the office Ice had shoved me into and listened to the raised voices outside of the door.

Shit, shit, shit!

How in the hell had this night gone bad so quickly? One minute, I was getting ready to dance my ass off in front of a packed house, and the next, I was reacquainted with a man I hadn’t laid eyes on in eight years. What was he doing here? And why in the world was Riley wearing a Regulators’ cut?

I’d known the Regulators for six years now, and I damn well knew Riley wasn’t a member. Ice would have asked if there was a connection the very first time he heard my last name, Sullivan, if he’d known Riley or Declan.

A loud bang vibrated against the wall next to the office door, and I winced at the familiar sound. You didn’t work or hang around a strip club run by bikers without learning what the sound of a body hitting something sounded like. The only question I had now was whether that had been Riley’s body being thrown around. I winced at the thought and my stomach felt heavy with dread. I didn’t want Riley hurt. I’d already hurt him enough by filing for divorce and disappearing after the loss of our son. I didn’t want him hurt anymore because of me. Besides, our marriage might have gone to shit, but I would always love him.

I knew better than to try and step into club business, though. Ice and the boys had taught me the rules a long time ago. I kept my ‘pretty little nose,’ as they liked to call it, out of club business, and they would always make sure club business never bothered me. I also knew anything and everything having to do with After Midnight qualified as club business since they owned and ran the place, but that was Riley out there. Could I really stand here while they possibly beat the shit out of him or worse?

I took a step towards the door, determined to do what I’d never done in the entire time of working for the Regulators—stick my nose where it didn’t belong. This might be club business, but that was my ex-husband, and I wasn’t about to let them beat the shit out of him just because he’d been shocked as shit to see me dressed in next to nothing, while getting ready to flash my tits and ass on a stage.

I hadn’t made it more than one step, though, before the door burst open, broken pieces of wood flying in all directions. Riley came barreling towards me while shaking three guys off his arms like they were nothing.

I gasped in surprise. Frozen to the spot with a hand covering my mouth, I locked eyes with a furious Riley while I heard Ice shout from the hallway, “Somebody grab that asshole before he gets to Kara!”

I could hear Declan shouting something in the hallway, but I didn’t make out the words. All I could see was Riley standing before me in all his enraged glory. All I could hear was his fast, furious breathing and stomping steps as he closed the distance between us. And all I could feel was my heart start a familiar pitter patter I hadn’t felt in over eight long years. It was proof that time simply couldn’t change some things. Like the way my mind, body, and soul reacted to the man who was now barreling towards me like an angry bull.

He didn’t make within grabbing distance of me before we heard the familiar click of a gun being armed. Riley stopped dead in his tracks at the sound, and I watched as his jaw clenched in frustration. He turned around slowly, both hands held out to his sides in surrender, and faced Hammer who held one of the largest pistols I’d ever seen, pointed at Riley.

“You take one more step towards Kara, and I’m gonna splatter your brains all over the walls and call it redecorating.” The chill in Hammer’s words sent shivers up my spine.

Oh, holy shit, this situation had gotten so out of hand so fast it was no wonder I felt like my head was spinning.

When Ice also came through the doorway with his pistol in his hand, I knew I had to do something before they hurt Riley more than I already had.

Quickly closing the distance between Riley and myself, I saw Ice watch me, raising his eyebrows in surprise when I put myself in front of Riley, blocking Ice and Hammer’s line of sight, instead of running out of the room like he had more than likely assumed I would.

Putting my hands in front of me, I murmured in a shaky voice, “Just hold on a damn second, Ice. This isn’t what you think.”

One of Riley’s arms was wrapped around me by the time I got that much out, and he was trying to forcibly maneuver my body back behind him. “Jesus, woman! You don’t ever put yourself in harm’s way for me!”

Planting my feet firmly, I wrapped one of my hands around Riley’s forearm, leaving the other hand out in front of me to continue warding off Ice and Hammer. “I don’t know what you think you saw or assumed about what was going on, but I know him.”

Ice snapped, “I heard him yelling at you, and then I walk in the room to find his hands on you, woman. I don’t know what the fuck he’s got over you, Kara, but you just move the fuck out of the way; I’ll handle it so he doesn’t have anything over you anymore, babe.”

Before I could refute Ice’s words, Riley snarled, “You don’t call my fucking wife ‘babe,’ asshole!”

An unsettling level of silence descended on the room. I watched as Hammer’s eyebrows rose until they practically touched his forehead. Ice, on the other hand, looked statue still, although the twitch of his left eye gave away his anger. This situation had just gone from bad to holy shit ugly with one comment. Of course, Riley couldn’t have known that what he was saying would cause a shit storm; nonetheless, there it was.

I waited with bated breath to see what Ice would do, fearing the worst when I saw the subtle movement of his jaw that meant he was grinding his teeth. A few seconds passed while I waited to see if he would pull the trigger from anger; however, something that looked strangely like defeat passed over his eyes, and he lowered his gun.

“Looks like your past came back knockin’. Handle your shit, and then get your ass on stage. We’ll talk later.”

With that, he gave Hammer a chin lift and then left the room. Hammer lowered his gun and put it back in his shoulder harness. He didn’t leave the room right away, though. Instead, he pointed a finger in our direction and sucked his teeth as if he was biting back his words. Then he shook his head, turned on his heel, and pushed both Declan and the man I didn’t know out of the doorway so he could slam the door closed on his way out.

My head fell forward as I heaved a huge sigh of relief. The relief was short lived since the bigger of my two problems stood behind me, tightening the hold he had on my waist as he dropped his head until it touched the back of my neck.