“Optimus… Harlyn and I are going crazy. Being locked inside this damn place for days on end.” Sugar’s protests drew my attention as I finally managed to drag myself out of bed. I’d been on shift at X-Rated last night and some asshole had brought in a knife. After he’d gotten a little too drunk, and one of the girls at the bar decided to cut him off, he pulled it out and started waving that shit around.

Unfortunately for us, someone called the damn cops before we had a chance to deal with it, which meant I had to keep the stupid motherfucker in one piece. With one of our girls being murdered there a little less than a week ago, they used the excuse to spend a little more time in the club than normal, taking statements from every fucking person inside.

It was well after four in the morning before I managed to get to bed, and even after all that bullshit, the moment all the crazy disappeared, and I was left with my own thoughts, they were consumed with Sugar. She lived up to her name that was for sure.

Goddamn, that woman tasted sweet.

All I could think about was using her as my own personal lollipop, I wanted to strip her fucking naked and lick her from head to toe. I didn’t know what it was that had pushed me over the edge last week. Neither of us had mentioned it since, even though I made a point to spend time with both her and Harlyn every single damn day, no matter how much it killed me to keep my hands to myself.

We were stretched thin right now, with Optimus having guys on Anthony DePalma, watching him twenty-four hours a day, as well as Chelsea now that she’d decided to step away from the club.

I guess we’d all wondered how long it would take her to get sick of his bullshit and offer him a choice, all of her, or none. What not one of us anticipated, was the fact that the fucking idiot actually took none, and let her walk out the damn door and leave. Chelsea had been around for nearly four years, and three of those they had spent exclusively fucking each other.

Fucking hell.

It was a shit stain of epic proportions.

Now the mopey bastard was wandering around the clubhouse in the foulest of moods, searching for any reason at all to go after this fucking mafia kingpin, just so he could kill someone and get us thrown further into the cesspool.

“I need you girls here, it’s the safest place for you,” Op told Sugar, as I stepped into the kitchen with them.

“Harlyn loves it here, but the kid is turning this place upside down. She’s got cabin fever, she needs to be out and about, stimulating her mind so she can actually be tired and sleep at night,” Sugar fought back, throwing her hands in the air. “Would you please pull your head out of your ass for one damn minute?”

I choked on a laugh, but the sound was loud enough to disrupt the battle between them and draw their attention to me.

“Don’t start with me,” Op snapped, pointing in my direction as he turned away and plucked his coffee cup from the coffeemaker.

I smirked. “Awww, somebody’s got a frowny face. Do I need to call Chelsea in so she can fuck the grumpy out of you?”

“Don’t push it, asshole,” he warned, gripping his coffee in his hands as though it was his lifeline. I was surprised it wasn’t a glass of whiskey, to be honest.

“I’ll take them out to my place for the day,” I found myself offer as I leaned back against the benchtop of the industrial sized kitchen. “You know it’s safe as hell out there, and there’s so much shit for Harlyn to do that it will satisfy her for days.”

Sugar’s eyes lit up, I’m not sure whether it was in surprise or excitement at the thought of getting out of this jail cell, but the way they brightened made me even more determined to make it happen.

I owned a house just outside of town, and a bunch of land. It was vacant most of the time, with the fact that I loved to be here around my brothers and family, rather than out in the middle of nowhere alone. That was a house, but this was my home.

The huge house overlooked a man-made lake where the club often camped and held cookouts over summer, along with the ruins of an old concrete factory. It was kinda creepy, but also pretty damn beautiful with the mixture of broken down slabs of building that had been overrun by nature, and was now covered in grass and vines.

“I don’t know about that…” Optimus drawled, but I could tell in his head he was thinking it over.

I rolled my eyes. “Man, you have enough shit on your hands right now. Like you really want your ex in your ear nagging you about shit, and your daughter constantly barging into your office asking you to play Monopoly with her.”

Sugar’s bright eyes quickly narrowed, and I held back a laugh, it was cute how she thought that shit was intimidating. “Fuck! We’ll take Ham with us too just for good measure if that makes you feel better, princess.”

“Walking a thin line, Wrench. A fucking thin line…” he growled, but it didn’t last long, and soon he threw his hands in the air. “Fine. But you’re back before dark, and I get one round with you if either of them comes back with even a fucking hair out of place.”

I held my palms up in surrender. “You got it, boss man.”

He glared at me as he stomped out of the kitchen and into the busy dining room where half the club was already having breakfast.

“You don’t have to go out of your way to do this for us,” Sugar said sheepishly, but I could tell that she was itching to get out of this damn place. Hell, I didn’t blame her, even I hated being here too much, and I’d fucking lived there for as long as I could remember.

“It’s not out of my way,” I said shaking my head and moving over to take Op’s empty spot next to the coffee maker. “I haven’t been home in a while to check on things, so it’ll be good to go back and make sure everything is still tickety-boo.”

Her soft laughter had me looking out the corner of my eye at her. “Something funny?”

She covered the laughter with a fake cough, bringing her hand to her mouth. “Uh… tickety-boo?”

“What’s wrong with tickety-boo?”

I could tell she was hiding a grin as she refused to move her hand from over her mouth. “Nothing, nothing at all,” she murmured. “Unless you’re like… Cinderella’s fairy godmother.”

“Pretty sure that was bippity-boppity-boo,” I joked, tapping her on the end of the nose with my finger, before turning away and heading for the door. I smiled, hearing her soft footsteps following behind me.

“So now you’re a Disney princess expert, are you?”

I clicked my tongue and grinned over my shoulder at her. “That’s one secret I’ll never tell.”

Her mouth opened and closed, before a frown buried itself in her brow. “I can’t tell if you’re being serious.”

I simply laughed before turning away and stepping out the patio doors. “Ham,” I called, getting the young kid’s attention from where he stood pushing Harlyn on the swings. “Bring Harlyn in, we’re going out to my place for a while.”

He raised his hand to tell me he’d heard me, and I spun back around to find Sugar still staring at me curiously from the doorway. “Your mind is working overtime.”

She shrugged but the corner of her mouth lifted in a smile. “Just trying to figure out if you’re more of a Snow White fan, or if you prefer a blonde like Rapunzel. Come on, you can tell me.”

My eyes scanned the area around us as I took two large steps forward until our bodies were separated by just a few inches of tumultuous air. I dipped my head, my lips grazing her earlobe. Her breathing instantly accelerated, and my cock twitched in response. “Rapunzel. All that hair to wind around my fist as I fucked her… mmm…” I lifted my hand, pulling at a few strands of her hair. As I pulled back, she licked her lips, and a visible shudder ran straight through her body.

She cleared her throat, finally finding her voice after a few long seconds. “Way to turn Disney princesses into something dirty.”

“Don’t ask questions that you don’t want to know the answers to, lollipop,” I said with a wink.

She snorted. “Lollipop?”

“Yeah, you know, a sugary substance that you lick? Your name is Sugar… I want to—”

Before I could finish that sentence, Harlyn flew through the patio doors and crashed into my leg. I managed to grab her before she stumbled backward, and swung her up and onto my hip.

“Are we really going out somewhere other than here?” she asked with so much excitement that her words seemed to almost slur together.

I chuckled. “Yeah, kid. Grab your swimsuit and some good shoes, we’ve got exploring to do.”

“Awesome,” she exclaimed, leaping from my arms and onto the floor. I’d grown slowly accustomed to the kid just throwing herself from heights, or leaping from one person to another without any fear or warning. Sugar was right, the daredevil part of her was strong and it made me fucking nervous.

Harlyn took off up the staircase with Ham trudging along behind her.

“Maybe you should work on that nickname,” she said finally, patting my chest. “Or just stick with Sugar before you embarrass yourself.”

“I’ll come up with something, don’t you worry, sprinkles.”

Her laugh filled the room as she headed for the stairs. “I’ll get dressed and grab my stuff, you keep working on that.”

I was going to. She could count on that.

The club had always known her as Sugar. A nickname Optimus gave her the first time they met, one that stuck. To everyone here, that’s what she’d always be, but that caveman part of me wanted a part of her that I could call my own. Something that, when it came to her, was mine.

It sounded stupid.

Fuck! I knew it sounded stupid.

I couldn’t fucking have her. That had been made clear on more occasion than one. Yet, every time I was in her presence, that shit flew out the window and I was right back where I fucking started—pining over my president’s ex-Old Lady, begging for someone to kick my fucking ass.

Fuck.

Why did I offer to spend the whole day with them?

Jesus Christ, this wasn’t going to end well.

No. Fucking. Way.