We pulled into the parking lot of the Carolina Diner, a local landmark that had been in Charlotte since the twenties.

“That bastard,” Thom growled.

Four men wearing Ravens leathers lounged on motorcycles in the parking lot. “Don’t worry about them,” I said. “They’re just for show.”

“Good. I’ll use that.”

We’d argued for two days over me attending this meeting. He needed me more than he knew. I knew how the club worked and could help him. I’d solved his refusal to take me by stealing all the car keys from the key bowl and sitting in his car. He could either take me or physically drag my ass out of the car, and I knew he wouldn’t do that. He wasn’t happy about it, but I didn’t care. He needed me, even if he didn’t know it.

I’d been coaching him during the entire drive, but I couldn’t think of everything that might arise. The Ravens never went anywhere alone, ever. Club business was always conducted at least in pairs. Chains, Rocket, Bear, and Scooby wouldn’t interfere unless shit went sideways. There was only one other bike, Rock’s, which meant he was alone inside. Thom had put him on the spot by questioning the size of his cock. If he refused to meet alone it would weaken his position in the club. Like a pack of dogs, a sign of weakness could lead to challenges, and Rock was already weakened by the shit he’d pulled with me and Trip-B.

Thom pulled into a parking place. When I stepped out of the car, I pushed my sunglasses up onto my head so the men could get a good look at my face. Scooby’s lips thinned. Despite the shit the Ravens were involved in, Scooby was an upstanding guy. Before I broke with the club, he had been giving Rock hell over what he’d done, and Hearts was probably riding his ass hard after this latest incident. I’d kept the club’s secret, I’d honored the code, but I’d still gotten my ass kicked.

Thom wanted me to burn their ass with what I knew, but that was my ace in the hole. I had no compunction about ratting them out to the police if it came to it, but when I did, I’d turn the whole club against me. By keeping my mouth shut, I was making Rock look like the fuck he was, and that was worth a lot more than spilling my guts to the cops with information I had no proof was true. I’d never actually witnessed the drug dealing, but it was common knowledge within the club that drug dealing was where the bulk of the club’s income came from, not the strip club RMC owned where most of it took place.

They were well away from the door, but as I marched past them, I glared at Scooby, silently condemning him for being involved in a club that didn’t honor their own code. We stepped inside. The restaurant was well occupied, but we were between the lunch and dinner rush, so it wasn’t packed. I spotted Rock sitting at a table and tugged Thom toward him. I hadn’t wanted him to do this, but since he was determined, I wanted to make sure Rock saw no hint of fear.

“I thought you said alone,” Rock sneered as we slid in across the table from him, me first and then Thom.

“She’s part of this. What about the goon squad outside? You thought maybe I’m more than you can handle by yourself?”

Rock smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “I’ll give you this. You’ve got more balls than I gave you credit for. I didn’t think you’d show.”

“Why wouldn’t I? I’m not hiding behind four other guys.”

Rock’s face was stone hard. “Keep running your mouth, asshole, and I’ll fuck you up right here.”

“You do not want to fuck with me, Rock,” Thom sneered.

The men’s voices were low, but there was no mistaking the threats. The section we were in was sparsely populated and all the nearby tables were empty to give us reasonable privacy.

“Or what? You going to condemn me with strongly worded language?”

“Or I’m going to reach up your asshole and rip out your heart.”

“Fuck you. I’m not afraid of some pussy in a Volvo.”

“You should be,” Thom growled. “This stops, it stops here, and it stops now,” he snarled, jabbing his finger onto the table with each demand. “If I so much as see you or one of your goons anywhere around me or anyone important to me, I will bring so much fucking thunder you’ll be begging me to stop. Do I make myself crystal clear?”

“Are you threatening me?” Rock snarled, leaning across the table.

“Yes, and you’d better listen,” Thom replied, leaning in as well.

The two men glared at each other for a long moment. I was terrified violence was going to explode, but Rock relaxed back into his seat. This was a side to Thom I didn’t know existed.

“You want it to stop, you know what you need to do…or didn’t she tell you?”

“She told me. I’m not paying you five million dollars. I’d rather spend ten times that amount to see you kissing my ass.”

“Five?” Rock sneered. “It just went up to fifty.”

Thom began sliding out of the booth. “You’ve heard my offer. My suggestion is you take it.”

Rock snorted. “You’ve really traded down, Mikki.”

I smiled at him. “I don’t think so. Unlike you, he knows how to treat a woman, both in and out of the bedroom, and his cock is a lot bigger than yours.”

Rock stiffened, and for a moment, I thought he was going to slap me. I’d have never dared speak to him like that before today.

“Do it!” I sneered. “Hit me! You so much as touch me in front of all these people and I’ll have your ass.” I pointed to the camera in the corner to drive my point home.

He relaxed, trying to pretend my words hadn’t stung him. “You’re not worth the trouble.”

Thom took my hand and pulled me out of the booth and to his side. “That just shows me how fucking stupid you really are.”

We turned and walked away without a backward glance. I didn’t know about Thom, but I could barely walk, my legs like jelly, but the club had taught me well and I strode out of the restaurant, my head high. As we passed in front the Ravens, I smiled as I threw them a vicious middle finger. Flipping off the Ravens isn’t good if you value your wellbeing, but Thom made me feel bold. Bear’s face clouded in anger as he started toward me, but Scooby grabbed his jacket and hauled him back.

Thom opened my car door for me, and I smiled at Rock standing the entrance to the greasy spoon. He was watching. “Kiss me like you mean it,” I whispered.

Thom didn’t look around to see what prompted my request, but he pulled me into a warm, passionate kiss. I encircled his neck with my arms as I pressed myself into him. My lip, while much improved, was still tender, but I didn’t care. I needed this, and I knew the kiss was a stab straight in the center Rock’s pride.

I sighed out of the kiss and lowered myself into the car, Thom shutting the door as I tucked my legs inside. He ignored the Ravens as he circled the car and dropped into the driver’s seat.

“That went well,” he muttered as he started the car.

Now that I knew we were going to get away unscathed, I was practically bouncing off the walls. “Actually, it went great! You had him rocked back the entire time. He’s not used to someone who isn’t intimidated by him. He didn’t know how to handle you.”

“Do you think he’ll back off?”

“No.”

“Fuck,” he snapped.

“Yes we are.” He glanced at me in confusion as I picked up his phone. He didn’t know it yet, but I was taking him back to my place and I was going to wear his ass out. “What’s the code?” He gave it to me, and after I unlocked his phone, I found Bláithín’s number. I quickly sent her a text.

“What are you doing?”

“Letting Bláithín know we’re okay but will be a few hours getting home. Unlike Rock, I know just how to handle you. We’re going back to my place and you are going to fuck the shit out of me, understand?”

Since the Ravens played bongos on my face, we’d only snuggled because my lip hurt and I was a little tender from being dribbled like a basketball, but that was about to change.

“Yes, ma’am,” he chuckled. “What’s gotten into you?”

“The way you stood up to Rock for me? Nobody’s ever stood up for me like that! I’m so turned on right now there’s going to be some fucking at my place, whether you’re there or not!”

He chuckled again. “I guess I’d better be there, huh?”

“I guess you’d better!”

The Carolina Diner was on the opposite side of Charlotte from my apartment. As we drove around the east side of the city on I-485, I began softly caressing his leg before unzipping and reaching inside to directly caress his raging erection. He did a commendable job ignoring my play as he drove, but when we were in the safe confines of my apartment complex parking lot and I didn’t have to worry about causing an accident, I squeezed him tight and was rewarded with a slow pressing up of his hips and a sexy hiss.

We parked, and I snickered as he struggled to zip and make himself presentable, a small, wet stain on his trousers foretelling his excitement. We hurried up the steps, and I grinned to myself as we passed someone on the second floor coming down, the woman checking out the bulge in Thom’s pants before giving him a looking over. That’s right, bitch, and he’s all mine. We finished the climb to my floor and I unlocked my door.

“Wait,” he said, putting his hand in front of me before opening the door and stepping inside. A moment later he reached out, grabbed my hand, and pulled me inside. I didn’t expect him to do that, and I squeaked softly before giggling in surprise and excitement. The moment the door banged shut behind us, he had me pinned against it with his body as he kissed me furiously. Considering all that had happened in the past two week, his aggression should have frightened me, but it didn’t. It turned me on even more.

Thom was a gentle and giving lover. I knew very well he could be fiery and passionate, but until now he’d always waited until I led us there. But not today. Today he couldn’t wait to have me, and his desire fed mine.

As we kissed we began stripping each other, tearing our clothes off, gasping and panting, our desires slowing us down as we couldn’t keep our lips and hands off each other. When my bra was hanging by one arm and my panties were around my ankles, he picked me up and pinned me against the door again, the cold of the steel a shocking contrast to the heat of his flesh.

His kiss was torrid as I kicked my ankles free and wrapped my legs around him. I humped him, working up an orgasm, unable to contain my lust and excitement. He peeled me off the door, kicked out of the boxers around his ankles, and carried me to the bedroom, my legs still locked around him. There was no love, no tenderness, only need.

He dumped me on my bed and I pulled him down. The night after the shooting at his house he’d taken me to levels of pleasure I hadn’t dreamed possible. I’d come so hard I’d clawed deep gouges into his back as he fucked me. This was going to be another of those, but this time I’d try not to hurt him, and without Bailey asleep in the next room, we wouldn’t have to be so quiet.

He plunged into me with a single, hard, deep insertion that made my back arch in pleasure as he cried out softly. I wasn’t going to last long, but I didn’t care. He lunged into me again and again and again, his face twisted in pleasure.

“Fuck!” he breathed, holding himself deep and grinding his hips into mine.

I pulled his lips to mine, desperate to taste his kiss. He was in as bad a shape as I was, and that turned me on even more. He broke from the kiss and buried his face in my neck as he began thrusting into me with long powerful strokes, his hands kneading my ass as he pistoned into me. He felt so fucking good!

We’d only just started, but I was already close to rapture, teetering on the edge, fighting my orgasm with everything I possessed, not wanting this perfect moment to end. He pulled his hands from under my ass and braced up on powerful arms, his face a mask of pleasure and erotic pain, his breath coming in gasps and pants. He began to growl, his tell that he was approaching orgasm as he began to pound into me furiously hard. I wasn’t a screamer, but when he splashed into me with a loud bark, I wailed quietly as my climax washed over me, my body alive with erotic fire like I’d rarely experienced.

He collapsed onto me, pinning me to the bed with his weight, shivering, hissing, and grunting as he fought through his orgasm. I wrapped him in my arms, clinging to him desperately tight lest I get washed away and become forever lost. He relaxed with an explosive release of breath as I sighed out of my own rapture.

“Fuck…” he sighed into my neck.

He rose sluggishly, as if he were weak, and kissed me with such tender passion my heart swelled with feelings for him. I was falling for him, and falling hard. He was everything I could want in a man, loving, gentle, funny, yet he could be incredibly passionate, full of fire, and today I’d seen a strength and fearlessness in him I didn’t know existed. His calm, rational manner wasn’t a sign of weakness, it was a sign of strength. He knew himself and had nothing to prove to anyone.

He slowly withdrew from me, a hard, grunting convulsion passing over him as he did, before he collapsed to my bed. I snuggled in, feeling intensely close to him, closer than I’ve ever felt to a man before.

He sighed and kissed me on my head as his hand drew lazy patterns on my back. Our love-making had been hard, passionate, and fast, but I knew from experience after a short break he’d be ready to go again.

“When did you tell Bláithín we’d be home?”

“I didn’t,” I murmured. “I only said we’d be home later.”

He nodded. “Good.”

I sighed in contentment. Good indeed. Our feverish romp hadn’t satisfied me, and apparently, it hadn’t satisfied him either. I stroked his skin, allowing my fingers to roam over the ripples of his chest, smiling to myself as I gently teased his nipple into hardness.

We lay quietly, no words needed or spoken, until I rose and took his lips, our tongues slowly dancing as our passions ignited anew.