Taking a Dare - A Hellion MC Novel (21 page)

I looked her and her desk over. In my opinion, you
can tell a lot about a person from the way they kept their desks.
Messy is as messy does, I think the old saying goes. And Lulu
appeared to be a clean kind of girl. "That would be awesome."

She beamed at me and I got the full affect of her and
her crazy style. For her, the look she sported worked in a big
way.

Calling for a car from the yard, she then gave me a
list of codes for her security system as well as a key to her
place. "You might have to restock the fridge. I haven't been there
in a while," she advised with a cute nose scrunch.

"Can do. I really appreciate this Lulu," I said,
hoping she recognized my sincerity. She had literally saved me a
ton of money as well as time in getting myself sorted when it came
to a ride and a place to lay my head.
And to avoid Dare
, my
head reminded. "Can we keep this just between us girls?"

She leaned towards me and whispered, "I don't tell
none of the others anything. But if Trey asks me, I won't lie."

"And you shouldn't," I shot back. "What's your cell
number, just in case?" As we exchanged info, I realized that even
though we were miles apart in our fashion statements, I may have
made a new friend.

*.*.*.*.*

Trey went back to his office and turned his chair
towards the huge windows that were normally behind him when he was
sitting at his desk.

He'd followed Dare from the conference room, seeing
how upset his brother seemed to be after their meeting. Actually
how on edge the man had been since the Spokane chapter had come to
town and Trey was determined to get to the bottom of it.

But from the slam of Dare's office door and then the
resulting sounds that had echoed from inside, he'd slowed his roll.
As the sounds had hit the upper registers, he'd moved to Huff's
office, acting like he'd just come by to say 'hey' although he knew
the blonde man wasn't fooled. Not if how Huff's eyes shot to his
doorway too as Ryley had gone sailing by, her feminine boot heels
echoing in staccato-fashion as she went towards reception.

"She's the fuckin' reason he's off his game," Huff
had said in a low voice. "The right fuckin' bitch will bring even
the best of us to our knees every damn time."

"And have our dicks dragging in the dirt behind us,"
Trey replied, echoing the sweet misery of Huff's rueful grin.

But, he'd been surprised when he'd cornered Dare in
an office that smelled, almost reeked of sex. And when he'd gotten
the story about Dare's brother, the full of it, Trey's heart had
felt a tug inside. Dare'd always been special, almost like an
adopted sibling after his mom and dad had taken the kid in when
he'd been on his own.

Shit! Hit hard on two different sides. He couldn't
blame his Hellion brother for leaving the conference room as he
had. After talking with Jim, and being reminded of Dare's legal
name, Trey'd high-tailed it back to his 'big dog' space as his
woman liked to call it.

To think how best to support his obviously in pain
brother.

Trey pulled his cell from his pocket and called his
girl. "Dallas? Got a minute? Yeah, just needed to hear your voice,
honey."

Their talk meandered until he finally told her the
full story of Dare and Ryley, or what he knew of it. He'd been
around for a lot of it when they'd all been so young, so goddamn
vulnerable and yet thinking they were the baddest motherfuckers in
the world. But it had not proven to be true because the state Dare
had fallen into when Ryley and her club had left had been a train
wreck. Showing how vulnerable even the toughest boy-man was on the
inside.

"And they're still working on it in spite of her dad?
Damn, sweetie. That's a lot of years to carry a torch," she'd
breathed. "How's our guy holding up?"

"He's lost his laugh, Tex." Which was the absolute
motherfucking truth. There hadn't been a day that had gone by,
except for that horrible time when Dare had gone off the rails and
had earned the smack-down Trey had given, that he hadn't heard the
man break into laughter throughout the day. Something Trey hadn't
even realized lifted him up from the shit that tried to claim him
as he worked all his Hellion responsibilities.

"Oh, sweetie," she moaned into the phone and Trey
felt his crotch twitch at the sound. "He'll be back. I'm sure.
Ryley seems like a fighter. Maybe together, they can work things
through."

But Trey was done talking about other people when he
could be using verbal foreplay to get his woman in the mood for a
little something-something after she'd clocked out. "Which bra
today, Dallas? The scary shit or the fuckin' good kind?"

And as his fiancé laughed down the line, Trey counted
his blessings even as his cock flexed hard inside his jeans.

*.*.*.*.*

As soon as Trey had left his office, Huff had called
his Carly. "What's doing, beautiful?"

"Hey, babycakes. Good to hear from you!"

Most people never got how sweet his Carly was, how
incredibly feminine she could be in spite of her military
background. To a lot of his brothers, she was just one scary
broad.

"Was thinkin' about goin' out to eat tonight. Think
you could shake off the Honeys for an evening and spend some time
with your biker-man?"

He heard her gasp as she made it to the page he was
more than already on. "How about pizza and beer at our place? Cell
phones off and a bottle of baby oil?" she said in a sultry whisper
that meant there were others nearby that she didn't want listening
in. Working for the Uni in the Security section, Carly took her
responsibilities seriously. But once she was off the clock, his
woman was completely his.

"Curtain ties or handcuffs?" he asked, dropping his
own voice in case of the occasional walk-by outside his office.

"How about rope, you luscious hunk of male junk? Have
a hankering to be completely immobile while you have your nasty way
with me," she breathed into the phone.

Almost four years on and the woman still had him
damn-well shivering with her naughty talk. "Absolutely fucking can
and will do."

"Love you, Huff."

"Love you back, baby. Real and true."

Hanging up, Huff couldn't help but reach to adjust
himself. His fucking wife was the hottest girl on the planet as far
as he was concerned.

*.*.*.*.*

"How is your day, my draga?" Brand rumbled into the
phone. He didn't often call Reese when he was working but today,
for some reason, he'd felt the need to connect with her.

"Good. I weeded the front flower beds and then took
Tops for a long walk into the back property," she said in her
naturally whiskey-rough voice and he could hear her moving
throughout the large downstairs space. Tops was their new little
blonde lab puppy that Brand had lost more than one pair of boots to
as she'd chewed her way through her milk teeth. "Was just going for
a glass of ice tea before sitting down on the porch to decide what
we'll have for dinner. Any preferences?"

"You. Either in the shower or on our bed but with the
puppy in her crate," he immediately responded.

"Oh, Brand," she breathed and at her words, her tone
he could almost see her in his mind's eye. Clutching the phone with
both hands, her eyes half-closed because the way she'd breathed,
how when she'd spoken it had been almost a moan. "I've been…"

"Yes, draga? Tell me," he almost panted back, his
heart so caught on her voice, on
her
, that nothing else
mattered.

"I've been thinking about you too. You know, like in
that
way," she admitted in a rush.

They'd been married almost a year and her hesitancy
in how they loved still caught him off-guard. There was something
about her innocent uncertainty in that arena that heated his blood
to boiling.

Weren't married people supposed to slow down after a
time? True, they hadn't had the love between them when they'd given
their 'I do's' before the judge. But they damn-well had it now.

"I need you to ride me, my draga. To give me all the
tight wetness you hold inside," he mumbled, keeping his voice soft
so no one passing by his office could hear the love-talk he shared
with his precious wife.

"God, Brand," she moaned back, making his name into
two-syllables which he'd come to discover was because of her
Texan-twang. "Just come home, baby. I wanted you before but now I
kinda…I kinda
need
you."

Oh fuck. That was all Brand need to begin clearing
the crap off the desk from his day. He was leaving, making no bones
about cutting out from his job early.

It wasn't often his woman said she needed him but
when she did, he knew to get his ass to her as soon as he possibly
could.

Chapter Twenty-One

"Where is everyone?" Dare asked, tucking one of the
barstools under his ass and looking around the clubhouse. Seemed to
be a lot of brothers missing from the scene which was almost
unheard of on a Monday. After the day he'd had, he'd been fuckin'
looking forward to having a few drinks and laughs with his fellow
brothers.

He glanced at Silo and Bishop then at Jilly who set
his tumbler of Tequila in front of him.

"All the pussy-whipped fuckers went home to their
women," Bishop explained, taking a long, slow sip of his drink.

Silo looked over at Dare with raised eyebrows as if
to emphasize the next bit of news. "Brand fuckin' left
early
to go be with Reese. At
home
."

"Ssshhhiiittt," Dare drawled in return before picking
up his glass. Maybe it really
was
a cold day in hell if the
hard-working Croatian had left work early.

"So what was all the doin' going on in your office
earlier?" Bishop threw out casually. A little too casually.

"Trey came in to ask about Jim—" Dare started.

"That's not the fuckin' shit Bishop's asking about,
dickhead," Si interrupted, before taking another long drink of his
beer.

Bishop leaned around his bald brother in order to
look Dare square in the face. "I was talking about all the banging
and the 'oh god, Dare. Right there!' shit that was being screamed
in your fuckin' office, dig?"

Dare ripped his eyes away and stared at the bottles
of booze that lined the back wall. They'd fuckin' heard it? Christ!
He knew he and Ryley had been loud for a few seconds but shit!
Having his brothers overhear him with a Honey was one thing, but
he'd been with
Ryley
for god's sake. Something that was too
private for public consumption even of the brother variety. "Don't
fuckin' worry about it," he mumbled and took another sip.

"Oh,
we're
not worried about it," Silo pointed
out. "But Ryley's dad, Gus, fuckin' is."

"Seems your girl took off soon afterwards and nobody
can fuckin' find her. Escalade is in the lot but she ain't anywhere
to be found," Bishop's voice took on a note of caution. "He was in
here making a bunch of noise and asking about you,
specifically."

Dare allowed that to sink in. Gus had already made
his demands and if he'd heard about what Dare and Ryley had gotten
up to earlier, there'd be even more fuckin' hell to pay.

"What the fuck does he have against you anyway?" Silo
asked, finishing off the last of his beer and motioning for Jilly
to bring him another. "That mother gets on my last fuckin' nerve
with his need for control. He's only a president like Trey but the
asshole acts like he rules the fuckin' world."

"Agreed," Dare couldn't stand the guy either.

"So why's he looking for you, amigo?" Bishop
questioned.

Dare shrugged in a 'hell if I know' gesture but his
mind was whirling. Had Gus heard that Ryley had gone to Dare's
place? Or had he in some way found out about their
up-against-the-wall doings in his office?

"I don't fuckin' like this," Silo rumbled. "Think we
need to get Trey in on it? Have him tell Gus to back his ass off
when it comes to the Missoula brothers?"

Hearing a ruckus at the door the three large men
turned on their stools to see what was doing.

"There you fucking are!" Gus's voice boomed
throughout the clubhouse as his thick forefinger pointed in Dare's
direction. "Where's my girl, you little shit?"

Would this fuckin' day
ever
be over
?
Dare thought with a sigh as he set his glass down and fully faced
the angry man. "Dunno. Saw her earlier but haven't seen her since.
What happened, did Ryley's leash break?"

"Don't get smart with me, dickwad! We all know you've
been sniffing around her ever since we fucking blew into town."

"So? I'm interested. Seems she is too. What fuckin'
business is it of yours?" Maybe it was because of the day he was
having or that he was just fuckin' fed up with Gus and his demands,
but Dare's mouth kicked in. "We're no longer teenagers, you old
fuck and no longer have to report in to you."

"Why you little…" Gus reached for Dare but Silo's big
body got in the way. Dare saw his brother use both hands on Gus's
shoulders to hold him back. "You either tell me where she is or,
swear to god you little piss ant, I'll beat your ass so far down
…"

For the first time that day, Dare gave a sharp bark
of genuine though rueful laughter that cut into the older man's
speech. "Don't think so, Pops," he finally mumbled around his huge
smile and began to turn back to the bar. "You've already threatened
to take my cut and gave Trey the option of fuckin' sending me to
Sheridan. None of which is gonna fuckin' happen. So now you're
thinking to give me a smack-down? Again, don't fuckin' think so,
dude."

"You think I can't take your skinny ass? Why, back in
the day I could've done it with one hand behind my back!" Gus was
so mad, he was spitting which had poor Si catching the brunt of it.
"All mouth and nothing to back it up! Always knew you were a loser,
a first class, no-family, illiterate loser who doesn't fucking
deserve to be a Hellion."