The raging beat of Johanna's pulse through her ears only added to the noise of the music blaring and the voices shouting in the clubhouse. She stared across the room. More and more lately, every time she came onto Brikken property unannounced, she found some bitch hanging off of Chief.

Tonight, Michelle Hillard leaned in front of Chief and brushed her breasts against his face. Infuriated, she pushed her way past everyone blocking her way until she stood within five feet of the skank.

Without any thought, she tossed the pop out of her Solo cup onto Michelle's back.

The startled scream and scrunched face of the bitch in front of her brought a smile to Johanna's face.

Michelle's big mouth repeatedly opened and closed as if drowning. Johanna stepped forward, challenging the other woman. If acne scars and sagging tits made someone beautiful, the older woman should be on the cover of Biker Girls.

"Take your ass and go bother someone else." Johanna swept her arm out and pushed Michelle to the side.

Standing in front of Chief, she ignored the names aimed at her back. She'd grown up in the Brikken clubhouse. Strong women showed no weakness and the weak ones become prey for those unafraid to fight to get what they wanted. The later the party went, the men silently encouraged the arguments, fistfights, and hair pulling.

From witnessing the hierarchy with the women of the club, she'd concluded that every scrap, insult, and challenge centered around stroking a man's ego and had nothing to do with the females involved.

That's probably why Chief sat in the sofa chair stroking his beard, his gaze hot and bothered, and aimed at her.

Titillated from the power she held, she cocked her hip. "I need to talk to you."

"Busting in here and interrupting me isn't the way to go about it." He dropped his gaze down to her breasts, her hips, and back up to her face. A habit he'd begun lately that warmed her insides, no matter how much he hurt her with his absence.

Over the last two years, he'd pulled away from her. He seemed not to care about curfews, dates, skipped days at school any longer. Whatever rule she broke went unnoticed by him. If she wanted to see him, she had to show up at the clubhouse — and more often than not, she found him giving his attention to another woman.

At eighteen years old, she only wanted to pull him back to her, and nobody could stop her. By law, she was an adult. In a month, she'd graduate high school.

"I want to stay at the clubhouse with you." She loosened her lips and pouted, falling back on being cute to get her way with him. "Please."

"We've already discussed this." He widened his thighs and tilted his head, looking her over. "You're not going to be a club whore, no matter how you dress."

"I don't want to be a...whore." She dropped between his legs, kneeling on the floor, and put her hands on his thighs. "I want to be with you."

"I've got Karla, Nene, and any woman around here I want." The muscles of his legs under her hands tensed.

Encouraged, she whispered, "But, you'd have me. I-I can have sex, give blowjobs, and —"

"What?" He lifted one brow. "What can you do for me that no other woman can do, bug?"

She'd run out of ideas. Over the last couple of years, she'd self-educated herself on sex and how to please a man. None of her knowledge involved actually having sex yet. The internet was filled with information, and that was as good as doing it herself.

"I can love you." She caught her lower lip between her teeth.

His gaze softened, and he cupped her cheek, rubbing his thumb over the corner of her mouth, popping out her bottom lip. "You keep being you, Johanna. Finish school. Let Karla take care of you. Because someday, I'll be taking you up on your offer and when I do, I'm not fucking going to let you go and you're going to wish you had these days when you could walk into the club, mouth off to the whores, and not get decked."

Filled with the first sign of hope she'd received from him, she leaned forward and hugged his waist. Cocooned between his legs and pressed tight against him, she closed her eyes and inhaled the leathery scent of him. After months of him walking away and not having time to spend with her, plus Thorn telling her today that Chief would ban her from the club once she graduated, she clung to the hope that she was right.

Soon, Chief would pick her to be his woman, and she'd never leave him. He'd keep her forever.

"Promise?" she whispered.

He stroked her hair. "Maybe I should make you promise. People grow up, their opinion changes. What you feel now might not mean that much to you in a few years.

She grabbed his leg. "You have no idea how I feel about you."

"Tell me."

She stared into his eyes. "You'd have to be inside my body to understand. It hurts me but it's also the best feeling in the world, and I never want it to stop."

"Will you stop hurting if I let you stay for a bit?" he asked.

She nodded, afraid of saying any more in case he changed his mind.

"Then, stay for a while, bug."

She stayed between his legs and sat her butt on the floor. As long as she was here, no other woman would be allowed near him.

***

JETT WALKED INTO THE clubhouse, looked around, and headed straight across the room where Chief sat overlooking the members partying and having a good time. Chief kept his hand cupped on Johanna's head, content for the first time in months. Her ass had landed on the floor hours ago, and she'd nestled her head on his lap, snuggling right up to his crotch. She'd fallen asleep between his legs and damned if he had the heart to wake her.

Her outburst over Michelle entertaining him hadn't come as a surprise. He'd witnessed Johanna's temper more lately as she became aware of what the women were here for. His happy and laidback bug was jealous and had no restraint when her emotions were played with.

That was probably his fault. He let her have her way too often over the years.

"Mom's looking for Johanna. She was supposed to be home two hours ago." Jett glanced down at Johanna and fisted his hands. "You take her?"

He petted Johanna's head. His sons knew Johanna belonged to him.

His boys grew up indulged within Brikken. Sex whenever they wanted, an engine between their legs, and the ability to take whatever they wanted, including women.

He'd kept Johanna for himself. Jett, Olin, and Thorn would work through the change of status of having Johanna in their home, a part of the family, to understanding that respect would be given to her when she became his woman.

"She's always been mine." He looked his son in the eyes. "As my son, you'll make sure nothing happens to her when I'm not around to protect her."

Jett's mouth hardened. Johanna's breathing warmed his balls, and he stilled his hand on her head, cradling her, not wanting her to move. He'd sit here all fucking night to have her near him.

"You got a problem with that, son?" he asked.

"Your business."

"Remember that." He inhaled deeply. "Call your mom. Tell her you'll escort Johanna home in an hour, so she doesn't worry."

"She's got school tomorrow. Mom's gonna be pissed. It's almost midnight." Jett hooked his hands under his armpits.

Jett had his mother's thick, brown hair. The same way he could read Karla's mood in the way she held her mouth, he spotted Jett's irritation in the white ring around his lips where tension remained high.

"She'll be well rested and be able to take her final tests before she graduates." He motioned his chin. "Now, get out of here."

Alone in a room full of members, noise, bullshit, and drinking, his bug slept like an angel because he'd allowed her into his space. It took so little to make her happy, at a cost to him. An amount he willingly paid.

She wasn't ready for sex. Yet.

She wanted comfort and affection. She wanted to love and be loved. She wanted the security of having someone in her life who wouldn't leave. She wanted him.

And, he'd made sure she wanted all those things. He'd made her needy and starving for affection. It was the only way he could seal his future.

Knowing she needed to wake up and be able to drive the ten minutes to Karla's house, he caressed her cheek, letting his finger wander to her mouth. He rubbed the moisture on her bottom lip and a primal urge to order her to unzip his jeans came over him.

He already ached, but he couldn't force Johanna off him and go seek another woman who would fuck him. His time with her, one on one, was far and few between since he'd let Karla have her way regarding letting Johanna grow up and mature at her own rate.

Johanna had accepted her feelings toward him at a young age. He'd made sure she never doubted how he felt about her. If she'd given up on him, she never would've shown up offering to have sex with him.

He slipped his finger between her lips. Her tongue balked at the invasion and then shyly accepted him inside her body. She sealed her mouth around him, and her tongue sucked, pulling him in.

"Jesus Christ," he mumbled, struggling to keep his eyes open as the assault of pleasure hit him.

Playing with her, he pulled his finger, and she whined before sucking harder, drawing him back into her wet warmth.

He let her suck and used his free hand to sweep her hair off her face, needing to see her. Her plump lips lazily pulled on him. At any little movement from him, she worked harder to keep him in her mouth. He watched the rosy flush stain her cheeks as her lashes lay still against her high cheekbones.

Fucking gorgeous. Even as a child, she'd been beautiful, and he'd tapped into what she'd become as she matured. It'd been hell watching her grow into her body. The way her hips moved. The way her breasts grew, swayed, bounced and remained in constant movement opposite her body. She walked with purpose. All long-legged strides and no awareness of the many heads that turned in her direction.

But, she only belonged to him.

He pulled his finger from her mouth. She startled at the abrupt loss and lifted her head, blinking her eyes. He stifled his groan of pleasure.

"Chief?" She touched her lips and tilted her head in question.

He'd leave her to figure out for herself what had happened when she was alone. "You need to wake up and go home. You've got school tomorrow and Karla's upset that you didn't make curfew."

He lifted her to her feet and held her until she got her balance. Rubbing the warmth of her cheeks, he peered into her eyes. It would take nothing for her to crawl into his bed upstairs and go back to sleep.

She swallowed and worked her lips together as if seeking his finger again. "She won't be mad because I was with you."

Johanna only knew the mothering side of Karla. He knew the woman. The one who took her status as his kids' mom seriously and her position with the women of Brikken with an iron fist. The only contention between him and Karla was her refusal to let him be more involved with Johanna. If he'd had his way, he would've taken her when she was sixteen and learned how to kiss.

"Let's get you out of here." He picked up her hand and led her across the room.

She held on to him, leaning on his arm. The cooler air outside would wake her up fully.

Pushing through the door, he looked around and found Jett parked beside Johanna's car. He walked her the twenty yards and put her in the driver's seat. She kept glancing at him as she hooked her seatbelt and started the engine.

He leaned through the opened window. "Keep your eyes on the road."

"I will." She turned her head toward him. "Can I come back tomorrow night?"

"Don't you have plans with your friends?"

Her brows lowered. "I don't have to go with them. I want to be with you."

"I've got business with the club going on. Go out with your friends and have fun." He tapped his hand against the door of the car and stepped back. "Jett's going to escort you home. Follow him out."

Looking up, he lifted his chin at his son and watched them both leave the Brikken property. He put his hands in his pockets and strolled between the clubhouse and the garage which contained the business side of Brikken. Behind both buildings, a stream ran through the property.

He stood at the back of the buildings until his eyes adjusted to the darkness and then using the light from the moon, walked to the creek flowing at the back of the property. His body raged. It would take nothing for him to go inside and use one of the women to finish what Johanna had started in him.

But he wouldn't.

He closed his eyes and tilted his head back, remembering the sweet suction of her mouth on his finger. One more month, Johanna would graduate high school.

What came naturally to her would become a deeper craving away from the structure of going to school and living with Karla. Every inch of freedom as she stepped into adulthood would only give her confidence to go after her dreams.

And, he'd made sure her dreams always centered around him. At first, having her in his life had been a 'what if' situation. Grooming her to be the perfect woman to fit into his life as president of Brikken. But, somewhere over the years, it wasn't so much his paying attention to her, but her commitment to him.

Her loyalty and trust were given freely, and he'd sheltered her feelings, letting her have him in her life.

Opening his eyes, he looked into the darkness across the creek where his parents had lived. Rollo had built a home for his family to protect what was his. He wanted Brikken to provide a livelihood and security to those he loved.

But, Rollo had made mistakes.

Chief wasn't going to repeat them. Not with the club, and not with Johanna.

The pressure of his age, the pressure from the Feds getting closer, the pressure to accomplish all he'd set out to do weighed heavily on him. He could feel the clock ticking.