Chapter Two
Gibson
Gibson Ward was cursing profusely and trying to wipe off the blood from his left eye with the sleeve of his shirt as he entered Oak. Joke shuffled him toward the bar at the back where he kept the first aid kit, but they both turned when Jenny laughed loudly, and Gibson froze.
All blood that wasn’t on his face and shirt went straight to his groin.
The woman next to Jenny was short, blonde, fit in a way that looked really good on her, and utterly and completely gorgeous with large dark eyes and a small straight nose. Jenny said something, and the woman’s pretty mouth fell open. He suddenly wanted to ignore the cut in his brow, the blood running down his face and the dull ache in both his fists, and walk over to her.
“Who’s that?” he grunted and twitched his head toward the corner where Joke’s sister was sitting with her friend.
“Huh,” Joke said.
“Dibs,” Gib added quickly.
The men at his sides froze, and he felt their stares but kept his own on the woman. She was staring back at him, and then her mouth moved to say what looked like, “Oh.” Gibson raised his brows, which made him scowl because he’d forgotten the cut above his left eye, and it hurt. The woman looked away immediately.
“Dibs, Gibson? Really?” Paddy snorted. “What are you – fifteen?”
“Don’t care,” Gib said, and he meant it. “She’s mine.”
“Gib,” Joke said. “Let’s get the blood off your face and then we’ll talk.”
“What in the holy hell happened?” Mac said as he came through the door.
Gibson sighed, turned toward the bar and accepted the paper towels Joke handed him. He wondered the same thing himself. He usually didn’t get injured, partly because everyone in the area knew not to fight him but mostly because he was that good.
He’d been in his workshop sanding down a table he’d just finished and had been trying to decide if he should use the soft amber colored varnish or perhaps go with a deeper golden brown. The crash from the front of his house hadn’t registered at first but then his dog started moving restlessly, and he realized what he’d heard. It had taken him less than a minute to get in through the unlocked back door, which the two idiots breaking into his house hadn’t thought to check.
One of them had held a gun, the other a knife and Gibson had been unarmed, cursing himself for it, but who the hell sanded down a table armed and ready for something like this?
The wise thing would have been to back out of the kitchen, but Gib had never been that kind of man and immediately attacking the man with the gun would anyway save him from getting a bullet lodged somewhere in his body as he retreated. His quick move surprised them, and a firm hold of the gun with one hand as he let the other swiftly slam into the throat of the idiot disarmed the man quick enough, but the other one had come at him from behind, and in the scuffle, he’d gotten sliced across his brow.
That pissed him off, so he threw the gun out through the back door and proceeded to beat both men up. They had clearly never met anyone like him and had not expected the kind of fury he unleashed on them with his fists. One went down on his knees, and Gib was about to finish him off when the other pushed him into the wall, pulled his buddy up and out through the front door.
Gibson followed, but he had blood running down his face, so they got in their car and were speeding away before he caught up with them.
That’s when the cursing began, and he kept at it through the following phone calls to Mac at the police station, Paddy in his office and Joke who had been at home.
A couple of police officers arrived first, and then Paddy.
“We’re meeting Joke at the bar,” Paddy said. “Clean you up there, see how bad that cut looks.”
Being the owner of a biker bar in a town full of bikers, Joke had a huge medical supply at Oak, and it wasn’t the first time they’d had to use it, although it usually wasn’t to patch up Gibson.
“Couple of butterflies and I’ll be fine,” Gibson muttered. “Can’t believe the fuckers got me.”
“You’re getting old,” Paddy said with a grin. “Let’s go before you bleed to death.”
“Fuck you.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Paddy said. “Who the hell was it?”
“Don’t know. We didn’t introduce ourselves.”
“They from any of the clubs?”
“Nah. Looked like small-time idiots. No vests, no patches.”
“I’ll make some calls anyway.”
“Yeah,” Gib grunted.
They usually didn’t have any problems with any of the MC’s in the area around Wilhelmine. Paddy was good at alliances, and everyone knew not to mess with any of them, and especially not with Gibson. To have two men breaking into his home was astonishing, to say the least, and now he’d have to spend time hunting the fuckers down to give them what was due for the cut on his brow and having to replace his front door. All of this pissed him off in a big way, which was why the profuse cursing restarted when they got out of the car and still went on as they entered the bar.
“Um, excuse me,” a soft voice murmured. “You have a cut in your brow.”
He turned to look down at the blonde woman who was suddenly standing next to him.
“I know,” he said and scowled because it had been such a stupid thing to say.
Then he scowled because he scowled, something most women backed away from. Maybe he should have smiled instead. Fuck it. Maybe Paddy was right. Maybe he’d reverted to fifteen again.
“Sit,” she said calmly. “I’ll take a look at it.”
He blinked.
“Sit,” she repeated, and this time it wasn’t a polite request.
Was she giving him an order?
She kept her eyes on the cut on his forehead, and there was a surprisingly stubborn look in them. So, he sat down, suddenly feeling like laughing and wondering what the hell she was going to do next.
***
Charlene
What the hell was I doing?
The gorgeous man who had called me a mousey grandma was sitting in front of me with a rather deep cut in his brow and a look in his eyes that could only be described as humor.
“Are you laughing at me?” I asked and started wiping the blood off his face.
“Just a little,” he assured me.
I was about to snap at him when I heard Jenny make a hoarse sound and whipped around to glare at her. She was apparently also finding the situation humorous.
“Not. One. Word,” I snapped. “If there’s a first aid kit in this bar then get it for me.”
“Here,” a deep voice said, and an enormous red box was placed on a table next to me.
I stared at it for a beat, thinking that I’d never seen such a gigantic collection of medical supplies outside a hospital before.
“Holy cow,” I whispered and wondered what kind of place I’d walked into if it warranted a box of that size.
The man in front of me shook a little, and I looked down at him.
“Are you laughing at me?” I asked again, stupidly.
“Yep,” he said and grinned up at me.
“Do you want me to clean you up?” I asked.
“Yeah. Just put a couple of butterfl –”
“Are you a nurse?” I snapped and went back to wiping blood off his brow. “No. You are not,” I added, which was a guess, although not really a guess at all because there was no way the man in front of me was a nurse. Random thug or hitman were occupations that came to my mind as I leaned forward to inspect the cut. “What happened to you?”
“Dealt with a couple of idiots,” he murmured.
Suddenly I felt hands on my legs, pulling me closer. I looked into Gibson’s eyes for the first time and immediately got lost in the pale, silvery gray gaze looking back at me. His big hands slid up my legs, still pushing me closer and I heard someone snort out laughter but couldn’t make myself look away from him.
“What are you doing?”
Shit. I sounded breathy and silly and not at all like the mature woman I was supposed to be.
“You’ll see better like this,” he murmured.
Oh.
That made me feel like an idiot because of course, he was right. He’d widened his legs to pull me in between them, and instead of leaning forward I’d have a good angle to get the wound taken care of this way.
“Okay,” I said and reached for the bottle of antiseptic.
He didn’t even wince as I cleaned up the wound and poked the edges.
“Knife?”
“Yup.”
“Just now?”
“Yup.”
“You’ll need stitches.”
“No.”
I stopped looking at the wound and looked down into his eyes.
“You’ll need stitches,” I repeated.
He opened his mouth, presumably to protest again but I raised a finger.
“Either you get a scar as wide as Grand Canyon, or… You.” I pointed my index finger at him for emphasis. “Get.” I made another stabbing movement with my hand. “Stitches.”
The bar was completely silent as we glared at each other, and then he suddenly grinned.
“Okay.”
“Okay,” I said and started backing away.
His hands came up again to grab the back of my thighs, high enough to make his thumbs graze my butt. This made my private parts quiver, and even as I glared at him again, I decided that once he let go of me, I’d go straight home and dig out the vibrator I hadn’t used once since I got to Wilhelmine.
“Let go of me. You need to go to the hospital.”
“You’re a nurse?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “One that’s not registered in this state.”
“Who gives a shit?” he retorted. “Stitch me up.”
“I –”
“Either you stitch me up or Grand Canyon it is.”
I couldn’t believe what I’d heard. He’d ruin his fantastic face? Out of ridiculous stubbornness?
“Just do the stitches, Lee,” Jenny said calmly. “I’ve known the idiot all my life, and if you don’t, he’ll just tape it up himself.”
My head whipped around, and I watched in silence as she started pulling out what I needed.
Jesus. I’d had an administrative position for years, but what the hell. If I could decorate a cake after all the time that had passed since I left my hometown, I could probably stitch a rude badass up too.
Seven stitches later, I knew that I had not lost my needle-skills. The wound was neatly held together with a line of tiny stitches. He’d get a scar, but it should be a thin line only, and it’d probably make him look even more badass. If possible.
“There,” I said with a nod. He got up and went behind the bar, pulling off his shirt as he walked. My throat immediately dried up, so the snap in my voice was ruined by a slight hoarseness when I instructed him, “Try not to get the wound…”
He raised his head again after splashing several handfuls of water on it to clean away the rest of the blood.
“Wet,” I finished lamely.
He grinned and caught the towel Jenny’s brother threw at him, and I got momentarily sidetracked by his seriously ripped chest when he moved. For someone his age to look like that wasn’t fair, I thought, and knew that, yeah. I would totally go home and reacquaint myself with my vibrator. When he dabbed the wound carelessly, I swallowed the crude protest which was on the tip of my tongue and turned to Jenny.
“Well, this has been an unexpected evening, Jenny. I guess I’m good to drive after all so I’ll just…” I trailed off and indicated the street outside with a feeble wave of my hand.
“We had four shots,” Jenny reminded me.
“They wore off,” I muttered.
The tall man who had barged in last of the badass bunch cleared his throat, and moved his shirt to the side, showing a flat belly beneath a dark blue tee. His jeans were held up by a really cool black belt with something printed on it.
And a badge was clipped to that belt.
“You’re going to arrest me?” I asked incredulously.
“For fixing Gibson’s thick head?” he asked and answered his own question immediately. “Nope.” Then he grinned. “I can’t let you drive after four shots, though. My car’s right outside, I’ll get you home.”
“No,” Gibson said.
I turned to stare at him.
“What?” I asked.
“Give me a sec and I’ll –”
“Need both of you here,” a drop-dead beautiful man suddenly said. “Joke, get her home.”
No. No, no, no.
I did not want to be in a car with Joke either and searched desperately for a way out of the whole mess I’d put myself in. If I had just kept my mouth shut I could have walked away, waving and smiling and getting in my car to drive to Alaska.
Then salvation came walking along the sidewalk with two boxes of pizza.
“Jonah!” I squealed.
My rush to get my purse was slightly embarrassing, but I was not prepared to miss this opportunity to get home without having to put my behind in a car belonging to either of the men watching me in surprise. I saw Jonah through the window and he was talking to someone, so I made myself walk back to Jenny, studiously keeping my eyes away from the group of men, which was not an easy feat because they were tall, and kind of badassy. And there.
“It was so nice to meet you, Jenny. We must do it again sometime?” I chirped.
Like next year? Or never?
“I’ll call you,” she said and I smiled.
Then I walked briskly toward the door only to halt because Joke was suddenly waiting to hold it open for me. As I passed him, he put an arm in front of me and leaned down.
“I know who you are, babe.”
“What?” I asked.
“Wanted to hook up with you, so I looked at you more than the others did. You’ve shifted a lot of weight, too much if you ask me, but I recognize you.”
I stared at him, my mind going completely blank.
“It was just stupid shit. We didn’t mean it, and I’m sorry you heard.”
I kept staring at him.
“It didn’t mean anything,” he repeated.
“It’s okay,” I said, and it wasn’t a total lie.
It had been rude, and I’d felt bad at the time, but they’d in a way shaken me up enough to start changing who I was. Over the past months I’d come to the slightly uncomfortable realization that I hadn’t actually liked who I’d been, so perhaps they’d even done me a favor?
I wasn’t going to tell them that, though.
“You should tell Gib.”
Oh, no. I would never, ever exchange a single word with that man again.
“If I don’t?” I said quietly.
“I will.”
“Whatever,” I said and saw how Jonah put the pizza boxes in the back of his car.
Without another word, I walked off, waving and calling out to my landlord. As I knew he would, he went with me to pick up the groceries which I had left in my car all evening, and then he brought me home.
After unpacking, I moved around restlessly in the house.
Then I turned on the TV.
I made a cup of tea which I didn’t drink and left standing on the scraggly old coffee table.
Then I turned off the TV and stared at the dark screen for a while.
“Fuck it,” I muttered finally and walked into my bedroom.
I tried to make it last, but it built ridiculously fast, and I moaned quietly as I slid the vibrator through my wet folds. Waves of hot pleasure rushed through me, and then I came, harder than I had in a very long time, and through my orgasm, the only thing on my mind was a short beard, a seriously ripped chest, and a pair of silvery gray eyes.