Vexed (5 page)

I
hate letting
Athena out of my sight for more than the few minutes I allow her to go to the bathroom in private. When the girls return from the kitchen—finally—I pull her into my lap and kiss her cheek.

While we were waiting, Dante went outside to talk to Karina’s father. When I explain that to Karina, she heads back upstairs.

Athena nuzzles against my neck, kissing along my jaw.

“You smell like peanut butter.”

“We ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.”

“Where’s mine?” I tease her.

An apologetic expression turns her mouth down. “I’m sorry. I’ll go get—”

I tighten my hold on her. “I’m kidding. I’d rather smear it all over you and lick it off your body anyway.”

She shivers against me and I’m ready to take her back upstairs right the fuck now.

The sharp bite of desire for a woman usually goes away after I fuck her. Not this time. The blistering want burns through me
worse
than before I got her underneath me. I’m seriously fucked here.

Even more awkward, it’s not enough to have her near me. No, I gotta have her right in my motherfuckin’ lap where the soft weight of her body presses into me in all the right spots.

This is new. Everyone in the clubhouse senses it.

Clubwhores keep glaring at Athena because they know damn well I don’t act this way. Part of me feels a bit shitty about that. A very small part. But still.

My brothers are dying to razz my ass. Fuck knows I’ve got it coming.

Maybe I should get the fuck out of here. Once I get out on the road, it’ll clear my head.

Except for the part where I want Athena with me on the back of my bike.

“Anyone want to hit up the music fest over in Red Rock?” Sadie asks as Dante and Karina return.

Dante groans. “Is it gonna be a bunch of bands where all the boys are wearin’ nut-huggers and screaming about how their mommies didn’t love them enough?”

Karina giggles and Dante uses it as an excuse to grope her tits.

Athena turns to me with a hopeful expression. “Can we go? I love Attila and they’re on that tour.”

One glance at Dante and it’s obvious this is the last thing he wants to do. “Yeah, Shortcake.”

Karina wriggles out of Dante’s hold and grabs Athena’s hand. “We’ll be back.”

I try really hard not to laugh until the girls leave.

“I’ll go see who else wants to go,” Sadie offers.

“Thanks, Sadie-girl.”

She winks at me before leaving.

“Really?” Dante groans.

“Come on. You saw how excited the girls were.”

“You know it’s gonna be a bunch of screaming girls, pansy-assed boys in skinny jeans, shitty music, and ten dollar beers, right?”

“Never knew you were so anti-social, brother.”

He cocks his head. The
really, motherfucker?
expression he’s wearing cements my decision.

“It’s gonna be crowded,” he warns.

“Good thing I’ll have my enforcer with me.”

“Dick,” he snarls before stomping off.

Sometimes it’s fun to be president.

A
thena and Karina
return from the parking lot. Athena’s clutching a pair of jeans to her chest and carrying a pair of sneakers.

“What’s that?”

“Just grabbed a few things from my car.”

“You got a bag or something?”

Her eyes widen. “Yeah, but I didn’t think you’d want—”

I stand and set my hands on her shoulders, staring her right in the eyes. “Bring in whatever you want and put it up in my room.”

“Are you sure?”

It seems she’s confused or reluctant. I don’t know her well enough yet to be sure. We walk outside together and I wait while she pulls a backpack out of her car. She’s got some boxes and other bags in there as well.

“Taking a trip?”

She slams her trunk shut and spins around. “No. It’s just stuff I cleaned out of my locker at school.”

Seems she must have had a big locker to fit so much in. “You want to bring more inside?”

“No. This is enough.”

I hoist her bag on my shoulder and lead her back inside, where she and Karina disappear upstairs.

Sadie rounds up a bunch of brothers and their ladies. The girls take so long to return, I start wondering if they changed their minds. We’re waiting outside when they finally burst through the door. Athena walks over shyly.

“Karina said I should wear this. Is that okay?”

Fuck yeah, it is. Looks like I owe Karina a big fuckin’ thank you. She found my girl a thin, red Iron Bulls tank top to wear.

“You look good in my club’s colors.”

She blushes and glances at her feet. “Thanks.”

“You need to stop by your house and pick up more clothes or anything else?” I hope she’s reading the
you’re never leaving my bed
intent behind my words.

Panic flashes over her face. “No. My parents—no. That wouldn’t be a good idea. They think Karina and I are out of town.”

I guess I can’t blame her. The uptight couple I met at her graduation probably wouldn’t be real receptive to their little princess showing up on the back of a motorcycle driven by a man twice her age.

She glances at the bike and bites her lower lip. “I’ve never ridden on a motorcycle before.”

“It’s easy, Shortcake. I’ll do all the hard stuff.”

A naughty grin lights up her face.

“We going or what?” Whip, the MC’s Road Captain, barks out.

“Calm the fuck down,” I snap.

Athena’s eyes widen at my tone and the way everyone responds to it, but I ignore her reaction. She’ll get used to things around here in time.

I walk her through the basics of being a good passenger, but before I’m finished the guys start up their hogs, drowning out the last of my words. Athena nods vigorously to show me she understands and lets me strap her into a helmet.

Fuck, if she doesn’t feel perfect up against me.

She doesn’t loosen her grip around my waist once, and each time I shout over the wind to ask if she’s okay, she yells back, “Yes.”

When we make it to the concert grounds, she hops off before I even shut the bike down.

“Oh my God, that was so much fun!”

She has trouble pulling off the helmet, but that’s fine. I like having an excuse to touch her. Karina runs over and they do their girly hugging and high-pitched chatter thing. Dante glances at me and shrugs.

Because I insist on paying for our little group of eleven, my wallet gets raped at the ticket window. Once Athena grabs my hand and drags me to the security checkpoint, I forget all about it. Security doesn’t seem to like the looks of us and we are all but cavity searched. Thankfully, none of us are carrying today.

Wretched noise echoes over the grassy knolls. There are two stages set up on opposite ends of the park. It’s hard to tell which one has the crappier bands since every note spewing from the dozens of speakers sounds like shit. I raise an eyebrow at Dante who laughs. “Told ya.”

“You’ll recognize the headliner,” Sadie assures me.

“Yeah, when do they go on stage?”

“About seven hours from now.”

“Fuck me.”

This is the weirdest group date—if you count the other two girls from the MC who joined us—I’ve ever been on. Karina and I have come to this festival the last two summers, so we know what to expect. The crowds don’t bother us. Although Dante and Romeo look like they want to murder everyone in their path, it is pretty funny to watch the way people can’t scatter out of our way fast enough.

After we decide which bands we want to see, we stake out a spot where we have a decent view of the big screens.

Karina glances at me and a sly smile turns her mouth up.

“What?” Dante asks.

“Karina and I usually go hang in the mosh pit,” I answer.

Romeo looks at me like I’m nuts.

“Sweetheart, we go down there and someone looks at you the wrong way, let alone slams into you, I’ll fuckin’ kill ‘em.”

Dante seems to have a similar opinion. Karina shrugs and cuddles up with her man. I get the feeling whatever he says goes.

I’m not so sure how I feel about being told what to do.

Dante tosses a blanket at us from the backpack he carried in and spreads out his own before motioning Karina back into his arms. They’re all lovey-dovey and generally disgusting.

Romeo chuckles when I turn away and gag. He pulls me down between his outstretched legs. “You’ve seen this band before?”

“Oh, yeah. We met the singer last year. He was super cool to us—” I realize I’m babbling and probably boring the hell out of Romeo.

He raises one dark eyebrow at me. “And?”

“I’m sure you don’t want to hear about my silly escapades.” He slides his hand into my hair and I shy away. “I’m all sweaty.”

“So?” This time he yanks me to him. “Don’t pull away from me. We got more than a little sweaty last night.”

My jaw drops and I let a little “Oh” sound out. He takes my surprise as an invitation to press his lips against mine hard, but quick. “Plan to get sweaty with you later,” he says as he pulls away.

I have no words.

It’s impossible to concentrate on anything other than the hard man wrapped around me. Last year, I was right down by the stage in the thick of it. Karina and I were trying to figure out how to talk our way backstage to meet a few of the band guys.

This year, all I can think about is last night with Romeo. What tonight might bring. More than once, I almost turn and ask him if we can leave.

As darkness falls, the air cools off enough that I’m uncomfortable. Romeo pulls me tighter. “You okay?”

I bob my head up and down because the heat pouring off him has a different effect on me than I think he intended. He sweeps my hair to the side and dips his head down, running his nose along my neck. My breathing picks up and I let out a small moan. Thoughts of what I want him to do to me are making me dizzy.

“Are you okay?” he asks again.

“Yes.”

One of his hands slips under my tank top, strokes over my belly, and stops at my breasts.

“Romeo?”

He keeps his mouth at my ear while his thumb flicks over my nipple. “I want to suck on your tits.”

“Now? Here?”

“Right now.” His low, gritty voice seeps inside my body. I don’t hear the words as much as I feel them. My nipples are especially responsive to his desires and don’t care that we’re in a crowd full of people.

Any shyness I had disappears around Romeo. I shift my body so my hand can brush over the crotch of his jeans. “Oh, wow.”

“I ain’t fucking around, Shortcake.”

“I never got to kiss you here,” I whisper in his ear as I rub my hand a little harder over his erection. He hisses in a breath and pinches my nipple until I gasp. Not a bad gasp though.

“You’re gonna do more than kiss my cock, sweetheart.”

“Oh, yeah?”

He slides his hand back down and pops the button of my jeans open. Even so, they’re too tight to fit his hand inside and he growls in frustration. “Lean back.”

“I can’t. There are people everywhere. Someone will see.”

“It’s dark. No one’s paying attention to us. I need to feel how wet you are.”

I lean back and he eases the zipper down, then shoves his hand in my panties. “Fuck me. This shitty music get you horny?”

“No. You do.”

He sucks and nips at my neck until I’m moaning, and despite what he said, I think anyone could look over and figure out exactly what we’re doing.

I’m strangely turned on by the idea of someone watching. Even better, what if one of the cameras scanning the crowd caught us and beamed the image of Romeo with one hand down my pants and one under my shirt to the entire place?

He slides one finger inside me, working me slow but steady enough that I’m ready to explode after a few minutes.

“Oh, oh, oh.”

“Shhh, not too loud.”

“I can’t—” He keeps easing in and out of me with the right amount of pressure until I let loose, pulsing in pleasure around his finger.

He kisses my cheek and while I’m catching my breath, fixes my jeans. “That was beautiful.”

“I think it’s your turn.”