After eating and cleaning up my mess, I checked on Lan. I found him sitting up in bed, in his dimly-lit room from the lamp on the bedside table, blinking tiredly at nothing.

“Hey, you need something?” I asked, walking in and sitting on the edge of the bed. “You hungry? Need a drink? Shower?”

He smiled and then chuckled. “Sure,” he slurred. Jesus, how much medication had he had? He must have caused more damage being outta bed and next door that morning than he thought and upped his meds. “You gonna join me?”

Snorting, I shook my head. “Wrong guy.”

“Nope.”

My brows dropped. Ignoring what he said, sure he thought I was Easton, I asked, “Thirsty?”

He sighed, ran a hand over his face once and then mumbled, “Dunno.” He looked at me and blinked. A grin came over his lips. “Hey,” he whispered.

I shook my head. “Hey. You okay?”

“Yeah.” He nodded. He leaned forward. His hand gripped my shoulder and then slid to my neck. I froze. “Hey,” he said again.

“Lan?”

“Sorry,” he blurted.

“What for?”

“I did something, but it’s not there.”

I chuckled. “Man, you need some more sleep.”

He laughed, gazing drunkenly at me. “Yeah.” I felt a finger of his start to make circles on my skin. For a reason I couldn’t explain right then my heart moved up a speed. When his eyes slid down to my damn lips, my body locked.

“I’m Parker,” I stated roughly.

His smile widened. “Know.” For a medicated guy, he was fucking fast. He pushed forward and touched his lips to mine. In my mind, I shouted, What the fuck? But I didn’t do anything because shock had taken hold of my body and I still sat frozen.

That was until he slanted his mouth over mine more and touched his tongue to my lips. My brain shut down and for a half a second, I closed my eyes, opened my mouth and, fuck me, wound my tongue around his. Then I remember who I was and who he was and that I was kissing a guy!

I bolted off the bed with a rough, “What the fuck, Lan?”

He blinked slowly, cocked his head to the side and stared up at me.

“You… me… what were you thinkin’?” I didn’t wait for an answer. Instead, I stalked from the room, grabbed my keys off the table near the front door and slammed my way outta the house. I made my way to Easton’s by jumping the fence and then pounded on his door.

I heard frantic footsteps, and then the door swung open, “What’s wrong?” he asked breathlessly.

I opened my mouth, snapped it closed and glared at him. He stood there in a towel, water still dripped down his body. Hell, he was fit for a paramedic and his tats…. Goddamn, motherfucking hell. Where was I going with that thought and why in the fuck was I looking at him? Fit?

Fit?

“Get your arse over to Lan’s. You’re it for the night. I got shit to do.”

“But—”

“No. Fuck no.” I ran a hand through my hair and shook my head, taking a deep breath. “Please,” I added.

“Okay,” he replied quietly.

With a nod, I left and headed for my car.

My head was jumbled with thoughts. Lips. Scruff. Hard lips. Soft tongue. What in the fuck?

That wasn’t me. I didn’t kiss guys. Not that I kissed him. I didn’t. It was the shock.

Fucking shock.

It’d caused me to freeze and not know what to do. Shock caused me to press back, to open my mouth. I didn’t want to offend him. It was Lan.

Lan Davis.

A man I worked alongside.

I’d been stressed for a long-arse time. It was stress.

Stress fucking let that happen.

Somehow, I made it to the Hawks MC compound. Sitting in my car, I wondered what in the hell I was supposed to do. Would he remember? Could I flog it off and pretend he’d dreamt it? Then another thought occurred to me. It had me reaching over for my phone on the passenger seat. I snapped it up and pressed the few buttons I needed to.

“Yo,” Stoke answered.

“You weren’t worried about Easton before. What was that about, Stoke, and don’t fuckin’ lie to me?”

“Where are you?”

“Compound.”

“You left?”

“He has someone with him.”

“Easton?”

“Yes,” I clipped, gripping the wheel. Fuck, maybe leaving Easton with Lan wasn’t a good idea. Fuck that. I didn’t care what happened.

“He ain’t gonna protect him like—”

“Stop fuckin’ messin’ around. It was you not long ago said Miller’d be stupid to try again at the house. Now tell me what I wanna know.”

“What’d Lan do?”

I tensed. “What do you mean?”

“He’s done something to get you pissed. Not that it’s hard.” He paused and then, “He make a move on you?” He chuckled when I didn’t answer. “Your silence is enough of an answer.” He sighed. “Honestly, I didn’t know if I should’a told you or not, but I guess now you need to know. I think he’s, ah, shit, why is it me who has to have this conversation?” He cursed again. “He’s got a thing for you.”

I felt like barking out, “No he doesn’t. Shut the fuck up,” and then hanging up and hiding, but I didn’t.

I forced a laugh, and said, “Yeah, sure. You probably got it wrong. He’s hooked on Easton these days. We’re friends and that’s—”

“He said he thought you were good-looking and often looked at you, but he didn’t want you to know because you would beat his arse,” Stoke spat out quickly. “If you do beat his arse, that means I’ll have to step in. I doubt he would have made a move on you unless he’s high. Not sure if he’ll remember it or not, but now it’s out there, you’ll just have to deal with it.”

“Deal with it? What would you do if it was Killer and you?”

He thought for a moment and then chuckled. “Tell him I’m flattered, but I don’t want to stick my tongue down his throat.”

“This before or after you freaked out?”

“Yeah, all right. I know it’s a damn shock, but you gotta ask yourself if that shit scares you, are you willing to back outta Lan’s life forever?”

“How in the fuck did we come straight to losing Lan over this? Of course it’s a motherfuckin’ shock. I only found out he was into guys a couple of days ago, and now you’re saying he fancies me. Jesus Christ, Stoke, why in the fuck did you even tell me that?”

“That’s what I thought you were calling to find out about.”

Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and tried to calm down. “I don’t know why I even called.”

“Relax, brother. Things’ll be fine.”

“Yeah.” I nodded, only to shake my head after it. I was fucking lost to know if things would be fine. I had my goddamn lips on Lan’s. What was I supposed to do with that? “Gotta go,” I said, and then ended the call even as Stoke started to say something. It was a cunt move, but I needed a drink over anything else.

When I walked into the compound, I was greeted by every brother I passed. None of them stayed around to start a conversation, which could have been because of the scowl I knew I had going on.

I stopped at the bar, smacked the counter and ordered, “Shot.”

“Anything?” Vicious asked. I nodded. He got me a shot of whisky. I sucked it back and then asked for a beer. “You all right, brother?”

“Fine,” I bit out.

“I’m headin’ to Pick and Billy’s pub soon, wanna join?”

A squeal caught my attention. I turned to see Gamer with one of the club bunnies over his shoulder before he walked over to the couch to drag her to his lap and make out.

“Parker?” Vicious called.

“I’m good here,” I said, my gaze travelling over the other brothers milling around playing pool or arcade games, and some bunnies trying to get their attention any way they could.

Maybe that was what I needed. A release to help ease some stress.

“You want another?” Vicious asked. I glanced over at him just as I drained the last of the beer in the bottle. Hell, I didn’t realise I drank it that quick.

“Sure.” I nodded, placing the empty on the counter.

“Last one I’ll get. Help yourself next or Dallas’ll be in later.”

“All good.” I tipped the beer back and took another long pull.

“You sure you’re good?”

I tilted my head enough to glare at him and clip, “Fine.”

His hands came up. “Got it. I’m headin’ off. We run out here, come to the pub.”

I gave him a chin lift in response. When he’d left, I leaned over the bar and grabbed the bottle of whisky. I’d repay it back next time I was in, but I wanted to de-damn-stress and whisky was calling my name.

“Handsome, your phone keeps ringing.” The woman over me giggled and then ground down on my hard cock.

“I’ll ring ’em back,” I mumbled into her neck while I gripped the other side to hold her still enough to claim her mouth with mine. She was like a damn energiser bunny moving this and that way. Her lips were soft, wet, and sweet from her chapstick. They weren’t hard and rough. She smiled against my mouth and moaned.

Fucking hell. I was hard, but I wasn’t fully into it.

Why, Goddammit?

Usually it didn’t take much for me to get going after having a good-looking bird grind over me, but as I kept thinking, I started deflating.

No, I need to get action tonight. I want this. Want her and her soft curves, her big tits. I ran my hands over the handful and my dick perked up once again.

It’d been a few hours since I’d arrived. I had a nice buzz going and a blonde dry-humping me on a chair in the corner of the common room at the compound. I wasn’t the only one getting a taste that night. Another brother had one of the bunnies on her knees between his legs sucking him off, since none of the club women and taken brothers were around, and I was hoping my one would be up for doing the same soon.

My phone started again. I let out a frustrated groan. It was the third fucking time. Without looking at the screen, I picked it up from the arm of the chair and answered it, “What?”

“Where are you?” Lan asked.

My throat closed over as I froze. The woman on my lap pulled back to stare at me.

“Busy,” I bit out.

“We need to talk.”

Like fuck we did.

“Busy.” I smiled up at the blonde. “Tell him, baby, how busy am I?”

She giggled, got close and said in a girly, high-pitched voice, “Very busy.” Her lips trailed down to my neck where she bit.

Lan was very quiet on the other end.

“I didn’t mean to….” He cursed low. “Have a good night,” he said, and then hung up.

I gripped the phone tightly in my hand and lowered my arm.

Why in the fuck did I suddenly feel like an arsehole?

The blonde leaned in and sucked my lower lip into her mouth. I brought my eyes up to hers to find her smiling. She pulled back and licked across my lips. “We playing, handsome?”

Were we?

Why the fuck not.

“Yeah, baby. We’re gonna play.”