Booth

I loved watching her. She was the most stunning, beautiful woman I had ever laid eyes on. She had no idea I watched her from the privacy of my office, which she didn’t clean. It was the only room off limits to anyone who wasn’t a patched officer of the club—or Shiloh, who had no restrictions around here. Even though the war room was where we discussed business and matters of importance, and we wanted it kept private, Shiloh’s behaviour in there was always perfect. Now, with Charlotte—her stepmother and Deck’s fiancée—around to take care of her, Squirt didn’t have to come in all that often anymore.

Then all the shit going on with Rogue, the pissed-off former team member of ours—or so he says, and being we had no idea of his identity, we had no choice but to take his word for it. Ford was doing all he could to try to get that shit figured out, but without a proper or legal security clearance, he couldn’t check the files of the other snipers that had worked with us over in Afghanistan. If we could get our hands on those, things would go a lot faster.

But we refused to play under the radar of the law. I wouldn’t allow it. When Deck and I started this MC, we didn’t want to get into anything illegal. Our businesses were all aboveboard and in line with the proper authorities. It was how we were, and I made no apologies for it.

My father had played in the dark shadows of the law, and he gave my mother nothing but grief and despair my whole childhood. She was always bailing him out of some sort of trouble. Once he left the army, his personality just changed, and he either owed money to a bookie or the local pub for his beer tab.

My mother worked her fingers to the bone for that piece of shit—the years she gave him, the punches to the face she took for me when I was a small child. Fucking coward. I found it deplorable that a man, especially a man who wore the uniform of a commando, would hit a defenceless woman for doing something that was instinctual like protecting her child. But I got mine. A smile played on my lips at the memory, but I quickly pushed it away. No way was I going to go back there. Not with the image of the beautiful woman on the security monitors in front of me.

I would much rather get lost in her than in the ugliness that was my father.

Looking at Stella, I ran my finger over the image of her face as she stood in the kitchen, laughing at something Shiloh and Teach were saying to her. Stella had the most gorgeous smile. Seriously, it lit up her pretty heart-shaped face. Fuck, she was amazing. I watched as she took a grape from Shiloh and popped it in her mouth. When her pink tongue darted out and licked those lips, I groaned. Oh, fuck me! The things I want that tongue to do to me.

I had been in a constant state of arousal since the first time I saw her standing in my kitchen. I remembered how crazy it made me not knowing who had been doing all the washing, cleaning, and cooking around the club.

Six weeks ago, I finally walked in on her and caught her in the act.

***

“Care to tell me who you are, honey?” I asked the stunning blonde standing in my kitchen. There was a smudge of flour across her cheek, and her black T-shirt was covered with the white substance. Her breasts were a decent size. More than a handful. Fucking perfect in my opinion.

I watched her jump slightly at my voice, and then I saw them. Her nipples peaked under her black shirt. Hard bullets. Fuck yes.

“Oh, hello, um, I’m allowed to be here. I have permission.” Her soft voice penetrated right into my cold heart. Oh, no, no way.

“Honey, my name is Booth. I’m the president of this club, and I ain’t given anyone shit. So again, tell me who you are?” Yeah, I knew I was being a dick, but I didn’t like the way my body was reacting to this chick. And that beat in my chest? Yeah, that wasn’t on.

Her whole demeanour changed. Suddenly, she looked nervous and like she wanted to be anywhere but near me.

“Ford and Deck know me. I used to be friends with Zoe, Shiloh’s mum. Um, she said if I ever needed anything, Deck would help me out. I came here a few times with Zoe… you know, before she died,” she explained, her hands busy patting away the flour from her shirt. But all I saw was her large breasts jiggling softly with the motion as she brushed her hands over them.

“I remember you. You needed help?” I remembered her. Her small frame, tight body, and incredible tits held me captive every time she came to the club.

“Oh, um, yes, I needed a job. I have a few debts, and my other job doesn’t pay enough. Ford, who I know from high school, interviewed me for a few other positions, but I took this one. My talents on the stage and pole are non-existent, and I wouldn’t know a Fosters from a Coke,” she rambled. She was still fiddling with her shirt, only this time, she was twisting the hem around her fingers, causing the material to pull tight in many places. I could see a small lump at her belly button. Oh, Lord, she had a belly piercing. What I wouldn’t give to drop to my knees, lift her shirt, and push my tongue into her belly button, then take the piercing in my mouth and pull ever so gently. I wonder if she would moan or cry out. Maybe she would thread her fingers through my hair and pull, or would she push my head further down and beg for my tongue somewhere else? Oh, fuck me, the possibilities. But I wouldn’t be going there, not in this lifetime, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t have some fun with the pretty blonde.

“Well, Honey, I presume you are the one behind all the great smells in here, the fantastic food, and the clean club,” I said, enjoying the pink blush that dusted across her face.

“Yes, I like nice smells. I hope that’s okay. Ford gave me instructions for the money, and it’s to be used for groceries and anything else I need for the rooms. He said all I have to do is keep the receipts from the shops, along with the credit card receipts, and I can spend whatever I need to—within reason, of course.”

Damn, she had a sexy voice, a little huskiness to it but feminine all the way. Suddenly, I really wanted to hear her say my name. Not Booth, no—I wanted to hear her say Vincent. And that made no fucking sense being as I hated that name—my father’s middle name.

I stared intently at her. Her eyes were hazel and so expressive, sort of like the eyes of Deck’s woman. Charlotte was new to the club, and to be honest, I wasn’t sure she would make the cut at first. Deck was totally gone over her—love at first sight… insta-love… call it whatever you want. By the looks of things, my SAA had jumped in with two feet.

He could have it. I was happy with being in my bed alone every night. Easier that way. Safer.

“What’s your name, Honey?” Again, a pretty blush spread across her face at the endearment. Well, now, I didn’t care what her name was—I already knew it, of course. As soon as Ford had given me the information I needed, I did a thorough and complete search of the lovely Stella Hogan. I did for anyone who was in my compound. I took no chances with the lives of my family—my team, my brothers, and my darlin’ goddaughter, even the girls who frequented the club parties and the dancers. Their safety was in my hands, and I didn’t take that job lightly. Never again.

“Never mind. I like Honey.” I grabbed a piece of shortbread off one of the cooling racks on the bench and took a big bite of the warm buttery treat. Goddamn, this chick could cook. Giving her a chin lift, I made my way out to the main room.

“I like when you call me Honey, too.” The barely whispered words only just reached my ears as I exited the kitchen. A grin suddenly split my face.

Me too, Honey. Me too.

***

The memory of that day was still one of my favourite moments with the pretty Stella.

And of course, there were more than a few ugly moments, thanks to my arsehole mouth and stupid actions. In the last six weeks, I had acted like such a fucking prick towards her. Sometimes, I couldn’t believe the shit that came out of my mouth. Then I would see the hurt look on her face, and I would feel like kicking my own arse. I had done it so many times over the weeks that I really didn’t know why she was still here.

But Stella continued to look after everyone. She made sure we all had clean clothes, good food, and clean bathrooms. The woman was a cleaning dynamo. Nothing seemed to faze her. Neither the mess nor the number of potatoes she had peeled because Darth and Steel needed to have twice as many as anyone else. She just smiled that shy smile of hers and went about doing whatever they wanted, from grocery shopping or babysitting Shiloh whenever Charlotte couldn’t be with her and Vegas wasn’t available. Stella was just a seriously nice and kind person. And yet, I continued to shit on her every chance I got.

Fuck, I was such a prick. Darth was right when he said I may as well have told Shiloh Santa Claus wasn’t real the night the girls got drunk and called us all. Damn, I liked that phone call. I smiled at the memory of Stella’s drunken slurs telling me off, calling me a hunk, as in ‘a hunk of burning love,’ which had caused a riot of laughter from my brothers. And it was funny as fuck listening to her telling me about my boxers that she kept under her pillow at home.

What wasn’t funny was hearing her admit she was still a virgin and wanted to ask one of the prospects to be her first. Yeah, that shit had messed with my mind big-time. Then I was so incredibly cruel to her after we arrived back at the compound, finding her half-naked and on parade for anyone to see. That beautiful body was meant for me. No, no, no, no. Taking a deep gulp of air, I ran my fingers through my shoulder-length hair in frustration. I had never wanted to be someone’s first before.

Before Stella, that was. Because now? Yeah, I wanted to be that person. Fuck, if I was honest, I wanted to be her first, last, and only.

I balled my hands tightly on the table, my eyes riveted to the monitor. Charlotte and Shiloh were no longer there, leaving Stella alone in the kitchen. I thought of it as hers now. She spent so much time in there creating masterpieces and seeing to all the men’s personal food fetishes.

I could see she was singing. The way her lips moved and the seductive way she swayed her hips had me itching to get in there, put my hands on those curvy hips, and grind my hard-as-fuck cock against her. Damn, she loved to sing. I often found myself trailing behind her at a safe but close distance in the mornings when she was doing her routine cleaning and laundry round-up from the patched officer’s rooms. I enjoyed listening to her sing everything from Ed Sheeran to Elvis Presley. I noticed she had taken a bit of a shine to one of Ed’s songs. She had been singing it quite a bit lately and even roped Shiloh into singing bits and pieces of it with her.

I felt a smile on my lips at that. Shiloh had been brought up on lullabies of old-school rock. We tried the nursery rhymes for a while, but she fell asleep quicker to Guns and Roses than she had to Humpty Dumpty. Plus, bikers singing songs about eggs falling off walls or spiders climbing up water spouts didn’t do much for our image.

My finger hovered over the button on my computer to turn the audio on. What was she singing? I wanted to hear her voice. She had a great voice. Just another thing my honey did well. I could call her that in the privacy of my office where no one was around. I admitted that shit to myself. I wanted her. I wanted her every minute of every day. Hell, I fucking ached for her. But I reined that shit in and put it in the back of my mind.

My eyes wandered to my watch to take in the time.

We had a meeting here in the war room in fifteen minutes. It had been six days since the accident that injured Teach, Shiloh, and Stella, the same day our prospect and friend Dundee was killed by Rogue. Ford had been working hard on some voice recognition software to try to get an idea of who the fucker was.

The most frustrating part was that we were all soldiers. All trained and highly specialised in so many areas. And we couldn’t find out which one of our former team members was messing with our businesses and targeting our women. As the president of the club and their former commanding officer, not being able to control the whole situation was not sitting well with me.

The fact Shiloh had a broken arm and Teach’s back was black and blue from the accident in which she could very easily have lost hers and Deck’s unborn child had Deck beyond protective mode. There wasn’t a good enough word to describe his level of pissed off. His very existence was nearly ripped from him. It was hard to watch when Stella’s call came through that day.

Stella.

She’d had to drive the truck while someone crashed into them from behind. She’d watched Dundee get killed, and she had sustained injuries from the airbag that deployed from the impact of the crash. It was just more guilt to add to my stockpile.

Chancing another look at the monitor, I looked at Stella’s face. The whole side of her face and under her eye had copped the impact, but the bruises were starting to yellow. I hated that she was hurt, that she had been so scared behind the wheel. The phone call from her that day nearly brought me to my knees. Poor Deck did hit the ground when we heard Shiloh taking off her seatbelt followed closely by the sound of Charlotte removing hers, too.

I would never forget the anguish in Stella’s voice when she begged me to help her. Then she came so close to telling me something I really wanted to hear—but not in front of my brothers and not because of an extreme situation. If she’d said those words to me and I found out she was scared, it would have killed me. I really needed to shut those feelings down. And quick.

I looked closer and noticed a bruise that was darker than the others. Was that there before? It seemed fresher from my vantage point behind the monitor. Maybe it just took longer to show? It was on the side where all her other ones were.

Shrugging my shoulders, I hit the sleep button on the computer. I couldn’t be Booth the president of the Wounded Souls and have a clear mind while I stared at the woman of my dreams. Nothing good could come from it. And that was that.

***

“I’m telling you, brother, it’s a boy,” Deck, my sergeant-at-arms and best friend, said to Creed as they walked into the war room. Steel, Mannix, and Darth followed behind with smirks on their faces.

“Seriously, brother, you can’t even tell she’s pregnant yet, so how the fuck can you know it’s a boy from the way she’s carrying?” Steel asked while Darth chuckled.

I noticed the way Creed had suddenly taken himself out of the conversation. I knew this was hard on him, watching Deck so happy about his baby coming.

Creed had barely made it through Zoe’s pregnancy. Shiloh’s birth was bittersweet for my brother, but he loved the little shit just as fiercely as the rest of us.

“All right, all right. Enough talk. Where is fucking Ford?”

Before anyone could answer, the man himself tumbled into the room, his arms full of computer equipment, papers, notepads, a pen stuck in his mouth, and his fucking shoes untied—it was a wonder he didn’t go arse over tit ten times a day. He was such a contradiction. Tattoos covered every piece of flesh, from his neck to the tips of his fingers. I knew his entire chest and back were also covered, even his legs and feet had intricate tats all over them. He was tall, lanky, and muscled like a martial arts fighter, which was his speciality. A trained master in Krav Maga. He really was a ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ example.

“Yo, Pres, I’m here. Just had to get some other shit sorted out,” he said by way of an explanation. He never told me what shit, and I never asked. If I needed to know, he would tell me. He had been with the club and me long enough to know how I worked. I didn’t like unnecessary shit.

“Okay, now sit down, and tell me that you got this prick’s voice figured out, and we know who we are looking for.” Wishful thinking on my part, but I needed this sorted and quick. Too much of this mess was spilling out onto the innocent members of this club.

“Brother, there is nothing I want more than to tell you that, but it would be blowing smoke right up your arse,” Ford said matter-of-factly.

“Then what have you found, Ford,” Mannix said with a growl as he let it rip. “I got another complaint about false readings on Ingrid and Tori’s drug tests the other day. I’m getting fucking annoyed with this shit, Booth. Every other day there is something against the strip club or the Bar and Grill. Deck is having issues every day on the job sites. When is this crap going to end?”

It wasn’t often the club’s enforcer voiced too many opinions. He liked to stay quiet and observant. Plus, he was the joker of all of us. One thing that impressed me the most about the man was his control. He was a strong man and could fight better than most. Deck was the fighter of the team, but Mannix had gone toe to toe with him on many occasions and kicked Deck’s arse. But his violent side wasn’t one he let loose very often, and I admired his ability to keep his control, which was why he held the patch that he did.

“Brother, I’m doing the best I can with all the tools I have at my disposal,” Ford placated the enforcer.

I just sat back and listened. This was a club of equals. I was not into yelling and constantly cursing at my brothers. That wasn’t how the club worked. I was their president, yes, but these men were all highly trained, all former commandos and smart men, and I knew Ford was doing all he could. Ford and I along with the others had spent hours going over the photos of the accident scene that our friend and former drill sergeant, Lincoln, took for us before any law enforcement or medics arrived on scene. Seeing Dundee’s lifeless body on the ground had been devastating. So had the pictures of my smashed-up truck. The girls were lucky to get out of it with just the injuries they received.

“Okay, boys, let’s talk about what we do know. Break it down. Have we missed anything? Creed, what has Lincoln come up with?”

For the next hour, we did what we did best. Analysed and read between the lines, looking for anything that could point us in a different direction. We were all desperate to get the danger away from our women and our lives

“Anything else for discussion?” I asked. I was invited to a tea party with two German shepherds, a chinchilla that hated me, and the cutest little bad-mouthed beauty this side of the river. I was late to the last one and suffered Shiloh’s wrath for a full ten minutes. I wouldn’t make the same mistake again.

“Going somewhere, Booth?” Steel’s smirk told me he knew exactly what I had up next. He had one with her only days ago.

“Got a date with a fiery raven-haired squirt. She tore me a new one the last time I was late.” I laughed.

“Yeah, well, watch your six, LT. She is after information on her party. Darth here is a pussy and is hiding from her. She knows he’ll cave if she turns those blues on him,” Deck joked. A proud smile lit his face every time he spoke about his little girl.

“Fuck you, prick. That kid knows how to play me. Her eyes fill with fucking tears, and I’m a goner,” Darth admitted, not even a little bit ashamed. She had that effect on all of us.

“Stella got the food under control?”

Deck nodded his head. “Yeah, brother. Darth and I took the girls shopping yesterday. The cake is all organised, or I should say cakes.” Deck turned to glare at Darth once again. “This big bastard wanted one of his own creations for Shiloh, too.”

“What? Stella said she was more than happy to do it for me.” We all laughed at Darth. His devotion to his goddaughter had no limits. We were all her godfathers. She would never be unprotected with all of us around.

Standing up, I got ready to leave. My date time was fast approaching, and I needed to be on time.

“Hey, Pres, speaking of Stella, I was looking at her employment contract yesterday, and I think we should give her a pay raise,” Ford called out as I started towards the door.

I didn’t even have to think about it.

“Do it.”