“Blowjob,” Tawny said to the bartender and then turned to Lucy who was sitting on a stool next to her in a bar that was a block away from the tattoo place where Lucy had gotten her first tattoo. “Seriously, blowjob; the drink and… you know, the call to action. I can’t believe I’m saying this since he’s my brother, and just ew, but let’s pretend for a moment he’s not and you’re just my friend who’s about to get in deep shit with her boyfriend… in oh, say, five-ish minutes.”

Lucy frowned and glanced around in apprehension as though Mack were about to jump out at her. He was nowhere in sight. “How do you know?” she asked incredulously reaching for the drink Tawny had just ordered. It was the second one and she had to agree with Tawny, blowjobs were delicious! The drink, not the call to action. She didn’t know about the latter yet because she’d never tried it. She told Tawny as much while she was quickly downing the shot, because if Tawny was correct and Mack was about to show up, she wanted to get the drink down before her ass was dragged away.

“He’s about to show up because I know Mackenzie and he has ears all over this city. He’s the absolute best at finding people. I’m actually a little surprised he didn’t have eyes on you at the diner, given the way he is around you.” Tawny tossed her drink back and wiped her lips on her arm, then signaled the bartender for two more. “I mean I’ve never known him to give two shits about what a woman did with her hair, yet he didn’t want me touching yours. Pretty sure if I wasn’t blood and someone he actually cares about, he’d kill me for the length I took off.”

Lucy gasped and put her hand on Tawny’s arm, swaying on her stool a little drunkenly. “I’d never let him kill you!” she said with the genuine feeling only a tipsy girl could have for her new best friend.

“I know, honey,” Tawny laughed and straightened Lucy on her stool before she fell off. “And may I say, your bodyguard is a handsome piece of man flesh. If I weren’t happily married and damn near old enough to be his mother, I’d climb that one like a damn tree and let him take advantage.”

Both Lucy and the bartender laughed while Tawny openly ogled Alexandr who pretended he had no idea what they were doing. Lucy was really beginning to get the warm fuzzies for her bodyguard. Either because she was halfway to plastered or because he kept following her around and patiently watching over her despite her many crazy antics. He didn’t even seem to mind that she was getting drunk again, not like last time she got drunk and he tattled on her. Hey… she narrowed her eyes at him. He saluted.

Damn it. Mack really was on his way. Or Vlad. Or possibly both.

“So, back to blowjobs,” Lucy said, turning quickly on her stool, knowing their five minutes had probably just become two.

“Ah, yes. The perfect get-out-of-jail-free card.” Tawny picked up their drinks, handed one to Lucy and clinked their shot glasses before tossing hers back. Lucy did the same and nearly tossed herself entirely off the stool. Tawny grabbed hold of her and righted her. They smacked their glasses down on the bar. She held her hand up in front of Lucy’s face and then wrapped her fingers in a fist, her long talon-like nails curling inward. “You wrap one hand around the base, like so, so you don’t accidentally choke yourself. Then you start at the tip. Make sure to get him nice and lubed up so its slippery. He’ll like the way it feels, and it’ll help you slide down easier.”

“So… I basically drool on him?” Lucy asked, trying to get the bartender’s attention. She wanted another drink for this conversation.

“Yes, basically,” Tawny agreed.

“Fuck, no,” a deep voice growled from behind them. “I’m not hearing my woman and my sister talk about this shit.”

A heavy hand landed on their shoulders and both women were swiveled around. Lucy was unsurprised to see the towering, angry-looking bounty hunter. She really wished she’d managed to get her hands on that last drink before he got hold of her. From the looks of him she was going to need it. He was definitely pissed and getting angrier by the second. Tawny shrugged his hand off her shoulder and slid off her bar stool.

“Well, look at the time,” she said, not even bothering to glance at her phone. “I’ll just get your handsome boy toy bodyguard to deliver me home so I can climb my own husband instead of mister tall, dark and seriously delicious over there.”

“Fuck Tawn,” Mack grated in disgust at the same time as Lucy narrowed her eyes and muttered, “Traitor.”

Tawny shrugged, grabbed her leather jacket and kissed Lucy on the cheek. “You’re the one that decided to shack up with this guy. You can deal with his temper, I’m outta here, babe.”

Lucy waved after Tawny as she swung her way over to Alexandr. Mack grunted in annoyance and hauled Lucy off her stool. “Hey!” Lucy exclaimed and reached for her purse.

“The fuck happened to your hair,” he snapped, glaring at her as he towed her out of the bar. “And why weren’t you at the diner where I told you to be after your shift.”

She raised an eyebrow at him while he opened the driver’s side door to his truck and shoved her roughly through. Before she could slide all the way across the console he swung her over top of him as he wedged himself underneath her. She was jammed between his big body and the steering wheel.

“Ouch! Mack, there isn’t enough room,” she complained, squirming against him. She could feel him growing hard underneath her as her skirt bunched up around her hips and she was forced to straddle him. She gave him a pointed look before dropping her gaze between their bodies. “Really?”

“Stop moving around like that and I might be able to stop myself from fucking you in front of this shit hole you thought was a good place for a drink. It’s not by the way. I’ve tracked down more than one perp in this place. Ain’t fit for the likes of you, babe,” he growled, clamping a hand on the back of her neck and forcing her to look at him. “What the fuck did you do to your beautiful hair?”

“Owwww,” Lucy howled in pain and grabbed his hand, desperately trying to get him to release her neck. He realized the problem when his thumb brushed the edge of a bandage behind her ear.

“What the fuck is that …?” He forced her sideways until she was nearly plastered against the window, turned her head to the side and examined the white square bandage taped to her neck.

Lucy bit her lip, deciding that silence was probably her friend until further notice. She just prayed he would leave the bandage alone. Maybe she could pretend she’d fallen and somehow scraped the back of her head on the sidewalk in a freak accident. No such luck. She felt him gently begin to pry the section of tape away from her skin so he could see what was happening underneath. She tried to throw an elbow back at him in an attempt to stop the carnage she knew was about to go down. Because something on an instinctual level told her Mack wasn’t going to approve of what she’d done.

She felt the gradual stiffening of his body beneath hers as he realized what he was looking at; a tiny scattering of stars and hearts. She’d picked the tattoo as a joke at first, because Mack had once mocked her for having stars and hearts in her eyes. But the more she thought about her new tattoo the more she loved it, the more perfect it seemed. Lucy was stars and hearts when it came to everything. She loved and appreciated the world around her, saw its beauty for what it was. Only, she didn’t think Mack was seeing things her way at the moment.

He leaned in until she felt his warm breath on the back of her neck as he took a closer look. Despite her fear of his reaction she shivered in response. Stupid hormones. She closed her eyes nice and tight and thought of the farm when he turned the overhead light on for an even better look. She was so fucked. Yup, fucked. That word seemed entirely appropriate for what he was going to do to her.

“Anything else you want to tell me, Lucy?” he asked, his breath washing across the back of her neck and collarbone.

His tone of voice both annoyed her and aroused her to the point that she could feel dampness flooding her panties and leggings. She squirmed against him, but his hold was so tight she was forced to lay passive in his lap, her upper body plastered against the window, as though bound. She was desperately glad the front windows of his truck were tinted.

She nodded her head. “Yes,” she breathed.

“Tell me,” he commanded.

“You’re going to get mad,” she moaned, sagging in his arms

He leaned in and pressed his lips against the new stars and hearts tattoo, causing her to flinch in pain. “Baby, I’m already plenty mad. Just tell me now and get it over with. Trust me, you don’t want me to find out on my own. That’ll make it so much worse when it comes time for payback.”

“P-payback?” she asked, trying to twist around in his arms, anger rising in her voice. “What exactly are you talking about Mackenzie Hudson? You have no rights where my own damn body is concerned.”

He chuckled grimly. “I took those rights when I staked my claim. For better or worse, I made you my woman and for damn sure I have a say in what you do with your body. Now tell me what else you did. Or am I gonna have to strip you bare in the front seat of my truck to find out? Because I’m telling you now, if I have to do that, you’re getting fucked right here and now.”

Lucy screeched in anger, all sense of self-preservation gone. “You have zero rights in what I do with my body you… you ass. I may have grown up in a society out of touch with technology, but I know right from wrong and what you just said is so freaking wrong I can’t even wrap my head around it!” Lucy was so enraged she squirmed out of his grasp and lunged across the console. She kneeled on the seat across from him, reached for the edge of her T-shirt and hauled it up so he could see the glittering jewel nestled in her naval. “I got my belly button pierced!”

He reached for her with a growl, but she slapped his hand so hard he actually pulled it back, stunned for a moment.

“I wish I’d gotten my nipple… or… or my privates pierced now!” she yelled loud enough that people inside the bar could probably hear.

He grabbed her jaw in a grip hard enough to bruise and yanked her forward until their lips were inches apart. “You’re going to want to stop talking now, Lucy,” he said quietly. So quietly she knew she was in deep trouble.

“Fine,” she said wrenching her face out of his grip. She twisted around and reached for the door handle. “I’m leaving anyway.”

“Take one step out of this truck and I swear to god I will humiliate you on the sidewalk,” he told her. “I will push you up against the side of my truck, shove my hand inside those little panties and finger fuck you until you come all over me and beg for more. Don’t care who’s watching.”

She turned around to gape at him while he started the truck and pulled away from the curb. She automatically reached for her seatbelt. “You wouldn’t!” she gasped.

He sent her a grim look. “Not a fucking chance,” he admitted. “No one gets to see your orgasms but me. Kept you in the truck though.”

She glared at him through narrowed eyes. “I really think I hate you right now, Mack Hudson.”

“I guess that blowjob is out then?” he asked sarcastically.

“I dare you to put your penis anywhere near my mouth right now,” she growled.

He laughed, low and mocking. “Yeah, I think I’m gonna take you up on that little threat, baby. You know how much I like a challenge.”

“Fuck you!” she snarled, leaning as far away from him as she could get and crossing her arms over her chest.

He laughed again. “Definitely need something to stop that mouth, it’s getting filthier by the day.”

She didn’t bother mentioning whose influence that was.