Chapter 9
Snake
I had no idea what I was going to say to Laiken once I got to her, but I knew one thing was for certain. I wanted that man’s hands off of her, and I wanted it now. He didn’t deserve her, he wouldn’t be able to please her, and he should be thanking me. Rejection from Laiken was rough. I’d experienced it many times before, even while we were dating. If she didn’t want to have sex, there was no getting around it. If she didn’t like what you were doing, she would definitely let you know. The longer she was with me, the more confident she grew, but that confidence came with a price.
And if I didn’t step in, this poor little sob story was going to figure that lesson out the hard way.
As I emerged from the shadows, I could see Laiken’s eyes studying me. She was slowly letting them slide down my form, and if she was trying to hide it, she was doing a piss-poor job. I rolled my shoulders back and began to strut across the floor, taking my time as Mr. Asshat behind her took in my full form. He was lucky if he came up to my shoulder. A pathetic little existence for a man trying to take home a woman like Laiken. I grinned as Laiken’s eyes got to my legs because I knew exactly the memory they reminded her of.
The night of the chicken wings.
She thought I wasn’t romantic, but I was. I was just romantic in the way she needed. It was one of the many things she accused me of during our last fight. She told me I wasn’t romantic and didn’t give a shit about doing anything other than fucking her, and I informed her that I didn’t romance her because she didn’t need it. She didn’t like or want that kind of romance, so I gave her the romance she needed. Like those sly little leg rubs underneath the table or my fingertips slowly sneaking up her shirt. Not to get her to fuck me or sit on my cock, but just to feel her skin against mine.
There was no feeling in the world like it. There was no woman I’d taken home since her that could replicate that feeling. Only she had that feeling. And I wasn’t going to let just any man experience that with her.
I stood in front of Laiken, and I allowed my eyes to travel over her body. I took in her sparkling hazel eyes and her shoulder-length blonde hair. She had lost a little weight from the last time I’d seen her. Her cheeks were a little more prominent, and her arms weren’t as thick at the top. But perched at my height and hovering over her like I was, I had the perfect view down her shirt.
And her tits were as luscious as ever.
“Laiken,” I said.
“Jace.”
“Laiken, is this man bothering you?”
I looked into the eyes of the man standing behind her, his hand clamping down onto hers so hard his knuckles were turning white.
“Funny, I was about to ask her the same question about you,” I said.
“Do you know him?” the man asked.
“Do you have a name?” I asked him.
“Devon,” the man said.
“Hello, Devon. I’m Sn-... Jace.”
“Snuh-Jace,” he said, grinning. “An interesting name.”
I was ready to lunge over her shoulder and wrap my hands around this cocky fucker’s neck. I knew his type. They played innocent to prey on women who weren’t sure whether or not they wanted to go home with someone, then they unleashed their fury. I could see the deviousness rolling around behind his eyes as Laiken kept her stare trained on me.
There was no way in hell she was going home with this man. I’d follow them all the way there if it meant protecting her from this asshole.
“I do know him,” she said as she looked back at Devon. “We’re… old friends.”
“Friends,” Devon said, grinning. “How quaint.”
I took a step forward but felt a pressure on my chest. I panned my gaze down and saw Laiken’s hand on my chest. I could feel her warmth burning into my skin, searing my soul and touching my heart. It had been years since I’d felt her. Years since I’d been anywhere near her skin.
And now she was touching me.
I looked into her eyes, and I saw how wide they were. How shocked she was that she could so easily touch me again. I felt her fingers curl into my chest, her body exploring my strength. She was magnetized to me, just like I was to her. Two souls floating aimlessly throughout the universe, trying to convince themselves that they were fine alone.
But neither of us was fine alone. Me bringing all those fucking women home said that.
And her lunging for a pathetic boy like the one behind her said that, too.
She ripped her hand back from me and released a breath she was holding. My eyes were boring a hole into the top of her head as she dropped her gaze. She cleared her throat, keeping her grasp on the man behind her. Just seeing their fingers interlocked made me sick to my stomach.
Why the hell was she clinging so hard to this guy? What the fuck did he have that I didn’t? I was here. I was right in front of her. I could feel the tension brewing between us. She should be releasing him and jumping into my arms. She should’ve been kicking him to the fucking curb so I could take her home.
So I could remind her of why she really came back to town.
If she had actually left in the first place.
“But he doesn’t mean anything to me now,” Laiken said.
“What?” I asked.
“I figured by the way you were treating him,” Devon said.
“Laiken.”
My voice was hard, and it pulled her eyes up to mine. I could see so many things boiling behind them. Shock and hesitancy and disbelief. Anger and frustration and a hint of sadness. So many memories bombarding the both of us. It was getting harder to breathe as her familiar scent stifled my lungs. I was breathing her in and holding it close, trying to absorb it through my pores in the hopes that I would never have to live another second without it.
“What?” she asked.
“Look me in the eyes and say that,” I said.
“I believe she’s given you her answer,” Devon said.
“I wasn’t talking to you,” I said mindlessly.
Her hazel eyes danced with mine as tears glistened in her eyes. I’d only ever seen that happen twice in the year we were together. The first was chicken wing night, and the second was during that fight.
The fight that ended up and pushed the one thing I treasured more than life itself out the door. Fucking literally, too.
I kicked myself to this day for doing that to her.
“Look me in my eye and say that,” I said.
She swallowed thickly, but she didn’t make a move to say anything. I could see the specks of yellow and brown dancing in her eyes. All the colors that made up the beautiful hazel that nothing on this planet could replicate. Not the colors of a sunset or the colors of the night time sky. Not the colors of a rainbow or the colors of a waterfall. There was nothing I’d found in this desert that could replicate the beauty of the colors in Laiken’s eyes.
I felt myself falling again. Just like I did all those years ago.
Laiken ripped her eyes from me, but still stayed silent. She took a step back into Devon, who willingly opened his arms to her. He threaded his hand around her waist, and it made my hands tremble. I clenched my fists at my sides, trying my best to keep my anger at bay.
I didn’t want this encounter with Laiken to be filled with fighting. But if I had to fight this shithead to get his hands off her, then I’d beat his ass to a bloody pulp.
“Come on,” Laiken said as she shook her head. “Let’s go dance.”
I watched her walk off with Mr. Baby Dick in disbelief. I watched as they made their way to the middle of the bar like I wasn’t even there. Devon’s eyes flickered over to mine, a malicious grin crossing his cheeks as he slid his arm around Laiken. He pulled her close as her hands wrapped around his neck, then her cheek pressed into his.
I was furious. I was clenching my fists so hard I could feel my hand cramping. It was taking every ounce of respect I had for Laiken to not go over there and pull her out of that guy’s grasp. It was taking every ounce of energy I had not to charge that cocky little dipshit and punch him square in his jaw. He was weak. Tired. Flabby and flimsy underneath those clean-cut clothes. His skin was probably smooth. Not rough from living the life a real man should live. He probably couldn’t regale her with stories of travel and night time affairs. He couldn’t give her a life of freedom that she craved endlessly. He couldn’t inspire her to be the best she could be, and he sure as hell couldn’t comfort her the way she required comfort.
It took months to learn that shit about Laiken. Months I’d sunk into her because I wanted to.
Because I needed to.
Because I loved her enough to.
I sat down on the stool next to Laiken’s and watched them dance. Every time Devon turned my way, he would wink at me. Like he’d just won some prize in a street car race. He was everything a man wasn’t. Sneaky. Malicious. A trickster who played games to get what he wanted. It shocked me to my core that Laiken couldn’t see through his shit.
And if she did, it shocked me even more that she was okay with it.
Had her confidence slipped? Had she pulled back into her shell? Had our fight-- and my actions-- caused her to backtrack?
It made me sick to think that I might have created the perfect storm for this scenario myself.
I watched the two of them like a hawk. I watched his hand slide lower and lower down her back. I watched Laiken’s hands slide down to his chest before wrapping around his waist. I watched her bury her face into his neck, breathing in his disgusting scent.
The entire scenario unfolding in front of me made me want to puke.
I was responsible for this. I was the reason she was doing this. Had I just been upfront with her. Had I just told her what she wanted to know, maybe things would’ve worked out. But from the moment I first met Laiken, I knew she wanted to be a police officer. I knew she wanted to work at putting people behind bars. I knew she wanted to work and helping those that couldn’t help themselves.
Helpless people that reminded her of herself.
And that didn’t mesh well with a man who had just been initiated into an outlaw motorcycle club. Had I been honest with her about where I was going, it would’ve ended us. Had I told her the job I really did on a regular basis, she probably would’ve tried to find a way to arrest me. I couldn’t tell her that ‘church’ didn’t mean a temple and I couldn’t tell her that ‘running a job’ meant pedaling drugs. I couldn’t bring her around the guys and expect her to understand and I couldn’t explain to her that my weekends away were because I was escorting our crew safely to biker rallies.
I couldn’t tell her any of this, so I resorted to lying.
But, Laiken was smart. She knew from the very beginning that I was lying. She knew I was hiding things with her. She questioned why I never took her around my friends. She accused me of being ashamed of her. Of wanting to hide her. She thought for a while she might’ve been the other woman. That my secret was the fact that I was married or some shit.
I tried to settle her mind without ripping her into my world. I tried to get her to trust me while lying to her about my own fucking life. But things spiraled out of control and words were said that could never be taken back.
I fucking wished I could take those words back.
Now, all I could do was sit here and wait for her to come back. She was dancing in the arms of another man. A man who was just as conniving as he was innocent-looking. It was a deadly combination, and every time he looked at me I knew I was doing Laiken a service. She might hate me for the rest of her life for what I was about to do tonight, but then again… maybe she already did.
In which case, I had nothing to lose.
I wanted to talk with her. Privately. Without Mr. Cheap Shot with her. I knew what she said to me wasn’t true. I knew she still cared. It was written all over her features when she saw me emerge from the shadows. It was strewn behind her eyes as she held my gaze. It was seen in the uptick of her breathing as I grew closer to her.
She still cared, even if she didn’t want to admit it.