Chapter 15
Daisy
I was going to leave! I couldn’t take anymore of the madness that was Big John. The man kept me horny and confused, and I was beginning to realize that anything that had to do with him was not healthy for me. My heart was still beating erratically from our steamy encounter, even though it had had a less than awesome ending. Something had stopped him from fucking me, and the way that I felt right now I didn’t give a flying fuck what it had been.
I’d find Jasmine, tell her what my plans were, and then I’d go home. No one could stop me. I had a business to run, and now that the snow storm had ended ladies would be knocking on the door for services. At least, they would be in the morning, as it had suddenly dawned on me that it was evening. That’s how messed up I was over what had just taken place.
The place was quieter than usual, lights had been turned down or off. I walked through the clubhouse, keeping my gaze straight ahead because I knew exactly what was going on in there from some of the sounds that I heard. There were still people in the bar, mostly members and their old ladies, a toned-down version, I was sure, of what was the norm for a biker bar. The restaurant was dark, revealing that everyone who was in there, children mostly, were in bed. I reluctantly made my way back to the clubhouse. A quick search didn’t produce Jasmine. Damn! I guessed that she must have been with Clay in his room. Well, I could phone her later to tell her I’d left.
As I stood contemplating what to do to get out of there, I was approached by one of the women I’d learned early on was a sweetbutt. The smile on her face didn’t fool me. I knew she had a thing for Big John just from the way she’d glared at me that first night, and from the rumors I’d heard since. I braced myself for the hard determination I saw in her flashing eyes, sensing that this wasn’t going to be a friendly chat.
“You done chasing Big John?”
Well, that was blunt. “I’m not chasing anyone.”
She laughed, but the sound had little humor in it. “They all say that, honey. But let me tell you, he always comes back to us.” Well, that was different. I’d been expecting her to say ‘me’. “Big John likes variety, and he doesn’t do relationships. Ever. He might fuck a civilian, but that’s all you’ll ever be to him, a fuck.”
Nice.
“Don’t listen to her, Daisy.” I turned toward Joanne, who was the only sweetbutt there that had made me feel welcomed. “There have been a few other members here who started out the same way as Big John.” She glared at Lucy. “And they’re happily married with families now.”
Lucy shook her head, keeping the fake smile on her painted lips. “We both know Big John is different.” She put her thick mascaraed eyes back on me. Her gaze ran up and down my body, mouth twisting as if she’d found me lacking. “Once he’s done with you, I’ll be the one he comes to. I know just how he likes to have his cock sucked, how rough he likes to push that big, fat cock deep into my ass.”
She would never know how much her words had hurt me, but she’d painted a clear picture for me. Somehow, I kept myself from exposing the pain, and decided that two could play at her game. “Oh, wow. We haven’t done anal yet. I’ll need to bring that up the next time we have a moment alone.” I heard the words fall from my mouth, wondering at the same time what the hell I was doing.
Joanne laughed with genuine amusement, while Lucy stood there turning red with anger. I didn’t like stooping to her level, but I refused to be the quiet, little outsider that fell apart because a mean-spirited whore wanted to get a reaction out of me. I was sure that my reaction wasn’t the one she’d been hoping for. With a huff, she turned and marched off. I couldn’t stop my gaze from falling to her naked ass, unwillingly thinking about Big John fucking her there.
“Good for you,” Joanne said, lightly touching my arm. “Lucy is the new girl here, and very insecure. Unfortunately, she’s developed a thing for Big John, which is her downfall. The men don’t like women who attach themselves to them and become clingy. That’s not what we’re here for.”
“I know what you’re here for,” I said quietly, not wanting to think of Big John with any of these women. “I just don’t understand it.” Or like it, I admitted to myself.
“Honey, it’s not any different than having a one-night hookup or casual fuck buddy when you’re not in a serious relationship. Think of it that way.” I gave her a skeptical look. I’d never done that, but I’d known people who had. Still, it seemed that was different somehow. “Once these men make a commitment, they avoid us like we have the plague.”
I gave Joanne a small smile, unable to laugh along with her. I just wanted to get out of there. “Do you suppose someone could give me a lift home?”
Her finely-plucked brows arched. “We’re on lockdown.”
“I know what that means, but I don’t care. I need to get out of here, and I’ll walk if I have to.”
“Big John−”
I shook my head briskly. “Has nothing to do with this, or me,” I cut in firmly. Her gaze dropped down around me, and I knew instinctively what she was looking for. “I can come back for my things later.”
“I don’t know…”
“Hey, Jo--” We both turned toward the voice. “Lockdown’s been lifted. Anyone who wants to go home can.”
“Are you sure, Ned?” He responded with a hard look, one brow raised high on his forehead, as if to say he couldn’t believe that she was questioning him. She turned back to me. “I guess I can take you, then. Where’s your coat?”
I waved her away with a smile. “It’s not far from here, I won’t freeze to death.” There was no way I was going back up to Big John’s room for it. I wanted to get out of there before he came down.
“Okay, then. Let me get my keys and coat, and I’ll be right back.”
Dressed in a bikini top and thong, she would definitely need a coat. I didn’t know how they walked around mostly naked at this time of year, yet they did it as if it were nothing. Even with the place heated, there was a winter chill in the air. It didn’t seem fair that the men were fully dressed in jeans and warmer shirts beneath their cuts, but then who was I to question it?
Joanne was a sweetheart for taking me home in her car. She knew right where to go. I guessed that everyone from the club knew that I lived above my salon since it was on the main road halfway to town. “I really appreciate this.”
“No problem,” she assured me, pulling into my drive. “I’ll wait until you’re inside before I leave.”
I gave her a smile and exited her car, thankful that I’d had the forethought to slip my keys into my pocket before leaving Big John’s room. Once I was inside and the door was locked behind me, I breathed a sigh of relief. Why did I feel as though I’d escaped from the lion’s den? And why the hell were there tears building in my eyes? I shook my head with disgust and turned to go upstairs, not bothering to turn on any lights.
Big John didn’t deserve my tears. And the next time I saw him I was going to give him a piece of my mind. Or maybe I’d just totally ignore him. Yeah, that would only work if he left me alone. After his strange reaction in the shower, maybe I didn’t have anything to worry about, other than getting over my insane attraction to him.
I closed the door to my apartment behind me, made sure that I locked it this time, and leaned against it. Home sweet home. It seemed like more than just a couple of days had gone by. I made my way to my bedroom to prepare for bed when my cell began to ring. Big John? I yanked it from my pocket, frowning when I glanced down to read that it was an unknown caller. I decided that it must be a wrong number.
“Hello?”
Breathing.
I rolled my eyes. “Hello? I can hear you.”
A soft laugh followed, something sinister and slightly familiar about it sending a chill down my spine.
“I’m hanging up−”
“If you know what’s good for you, you won’t.”
Paul! I caught my breath and slowly sank down onto the edge of the bed. He’d found me!
“And if you hang up, I’ll just have to go there.”
My eyes rounded at what was an obvious a threat. “You can’t!” I whispered, familiar panic setting in.
He laughed again. “Who’s going to stop me, darling?”
“The law,” I shot back, finding my backbone. I had a restraining order against him, and if there was anything I’d learned about my ex-husband it was that he respected the law. He couldn’t afford not to. “I still have a restraining order against you.”
“Darling−”
“How did you get this number?” I demanded, standing up and walking to the window with thoughts in my head that he might be close.
“I have my ways.”
I could just imagine what they were. I pulled the curtain aside and glanced out, expecting to see his car parked below my window. It was dark, but I kept the light at the back door on and it revealed that my little jeep was the only vehicle there, so I decided to go to the front of my apartment to check the driveway of my business.
“You’re not supposed to be bothering me, Paul.”
“One call is not bothering you,” he said smugly. “And your fucking restraining order ran out.”
What? He had to be wrong! Satisfied that he wasn’t parked outside, I let the curtain close and rushed over to the calendar that I kept on my fridge. One glance revealed that he was right. The restraining order had expired the day before. I’d noted it on the calendar as a reminder. Shit!
“Checked the calendar on the fridge yet?” he smirked.
“What?” I rushed out in a frightened breath, wondering how he’d known that.
“Come on, darling,” he laughed, the sound scraping over my flesh and leaving goose bumps. “I know your habits, Daisy. You always kept a calendar on the fridge for important dates to remember.”
I hated him! I snatched the calendar off the fridge and tossed it onto the counter. The only thing keeping me from not hanging up was the fear of him coming to my apartment. “What do you want?”
“You have to ask?” I could hear the smirk in his voice, could just imagine the look on his arrogant face. “I want my wife back.”
I closed my eyes with dread, sinking down onto the sofa. A whole year had gone by. Why couldn’t he just leave me alone? He knew that I didn’t love him, and I knew that Paul didn’t love me, he just wanted to possess me. I hadn’t learned until it had been too late how controlling and jealous Paul was when it had come to me. The longer we’d been together, the worse it had become. And our last encounter had ended with brutal violence.
“I’m not your wife and never will be again. Tomorrow I’m going to the courthouse to file for another restraining order.”
His laughter sounded brittle and confident. “Go ahead and try, but you won’t get another restraining order against someone who isn’t a threat to you. What have I done in the last year?”
Was he right? I’d go to the police station in Solon first thing in the morning to see what my options were. Then I became angry at Paul’s smug tone, because he’d always used it to make me feel inferior. “Just your breathing the same air as me should be grounds for a restraining order,” I hissed, losing control.
I could tell that he didn’t like what I’d said by the silence that followed. Good! Let him see that I wasn’t the same woman he’d raped and left bleeding the year before. It had taken me a while to get back to the self-confident, independent woman I’d been before we married, and I didn’t intend on ever go back to being what he’d turned me into. I decided to put an exclamation point at the end of my comment by hanging up. I exhaled a deep breath, feeling proud of myself. When a few seconds went by and the phone didn’t ring, I went back to my bedroom.
When I was in town tomorrow I’d also look into having a security system put in my house.
Big John
I was more asleep than awake when I felt the bed dip, revealing that someone had joined me, and then soft skin and a warm body was sliding up against mine, skinny arms wrapping themselves around me, a leg wedging between my thighs, gliding over my dick. A low moan sounded, and I groaned at the tits and warm cunt snuggled up against my side. I’d been dreaming of Daisy, remembering what she looked like as she’d made herself come in the shower, and how close I’d come to fucking her, so I was already half-primed with arousal. Before I questioned what was going on, I took hold of one of her tits, trying to remain awake.
“Daisy, baby−” She stiffened for a short second before relaxing against me. I arched my hardening dick into a bony knee. Bony? That’s twice that word had come into my mind, and bony was not a word that I’d use to describe any delicious part of Daisy. She was all curves and silky softness, and she smelled fresh and pure…
Not like booze and stale cigarettes. My nose was pressed inside a tangle of slightly stiff hair. I inhaled deeply. Yep. Nothing pure and fresh about the way this woman smelled. And the tit in my hand was big, yet too small to be Daisy’s. I clearly recalled that her flesh overfilled my palm. The more I registered the differences, the more I woke up and realized that Daisy was not the woman who’d crawled into my bed.
No. She’d left hours ago, and had returned to her home.
“What the fuck?” I bolted into a sitting position and turned on the bedside lamp. Lucy blinked up at me, blinded by the light, a smile on her make-up streaked face. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I snapped, pushing her off me.
“Don’t you remember, Big John? You told me to come up and see you after I was done with Painter.”
I thought about it for a minute, feeling my head swim from the alcohol I’d consumed. Normally I could hold my liquor, but, pissed at finding out that Daisy had gone home, I’d drowned my stupidity until I couldn’t stand. “Well if I did I changed my mind. Get the fuck out.”
“Well, I’m here now,” she said teasingly, and I felt her hand climbing up my thigh. “Why waste an opportunity to make each other feel good?” I clamped my hand around her wrist to stop her from getting to my dick.
I wasn’t going to compound the trouble I had with Daisy by letting her find out that I’d slept with Lucy or any other club woman after she’d left. Besides, I wasn’t interested in Lucy or any of the other sweetbutts, so the temptation to fuck Lucy right then wasn’t even in the equation. Jesus, wanting Daisy had messed up my thinking, and I didn’t know what I was going to fucking do about it. I was hard as fucking steel now.
For her.
Screwing Lucy wasn’t the solution. I yanked back the sheet. “Get the fuck out of my room now.”
A pout spread across her face as she crawled out of my bed without protest. She knew better than to try and change my mind, especially in the condition I was in right then. I didn’t trust the bitch, and her story that I’d asked her to come see me was too convenient for me to believe. I loved my brothers, but I wasn’t in the habit of fucking any of the club girls once they’d been with a brother earlier in the evening. I’d made it clear to Lucy right at the beginning that if she wanted me for the night, I was the only one she fucked.
I watched her pick up her tiny pieces of clothing and then leave my room with a huff. Once my door was closed, I relaxed back against the headboard with a mental note to start locking my door. I was good and awake now, and Daisy’s pretty face flashed before my eyes and what she’d looked like the last time I’d seen her. She’d been as turned on as I had, but the arousal had given way to confusion and hurt, and maybe a little anger.
That was all on me.
I should have explained why I’d acted the way that I had, but I’d been so fucking shocked at the time that I’d frozen up and told her to leave. Would it have been the end of the world if I’d fucked her without a condom? No, but the consequences could have changed my way of life in a big way. I didn’t want an old lady, and I sure as shit didn’t want a kid. I wasn’t saying that Daisy would have ended up pregnant, but that wasn’t a chance I wanted to take.
The image of Daisy pregnant with my kid suddenly came to mind, and I threw my arm out to the side of me, slamming my fist into the wall because it wasn’t as bad as I’d thought it would be. Fuck! I snatched up my phone from the nightstand to check the time. Too early to get on the road with Jumper. We needed to give Clay and Cooper enough of a head start to get into position. I was ready for this shit with Shooter to be done.
Then I could deal with Daisy Mae Flowers.