Skid
Skid studied the woman in front of him. She looked so sweet, so tantalizing, when she looked at him that way, but he wasn’t buying it. He had seen the way Animal had looked at her back at the clubhouse. For the first time since he’d heard of her pregnancy, he truly began to wonder if he had been the only member of Satan’s Legion Mina had slept with. The blond man had held her with a certain amount of possession that Skid recognized, and it worried him. She was even wearing his T-shirt, something that Skid wanted to rip right off of her body. She wouldn’t really be safe with a man like that. Animal’s nickname had come to him for good reason.
Skid shook his head, trying to drive out the mental images that suddenly haunted him. “You wanted to talk?”
She looked out over the water, down at the sand under her boots, and then back at him. “I think we should, don’t you?”
He shifted uncomfortably, putting his hands in his pants pockets and then taking them out again. “I guess so. But I’m not sure what there really is to say.”
“You can’t mean that!” Her eyes blazed at him. “You know I’m pregnant. Don’t you think there needs to be some … some …” She flung her hands in the air uselessly. “Some sort of discussion?”
Skid nodded slowly, trying not to let her hysterics get to him. Mina could throw a fit all she wanted to, but he was determined to remain calm. “Okay. Fine. Let’s start by talking about whose baby this is.”
She pulled her fist back and slugged him in the chest, but he made no move to stop her or avert her punch. Skid knew Mina couldn’t really hurt him, even though she’d done a number on that club girl. Let her hit him if it made her feel better. “How dare you? Just who the hell do you think I’ve slept with?” The wind picked up her hair and whipped it around her face, pissing her off even more. She wiped furiously at it with her hands.
“You tell me.” The idea still wasn’t sitting with him well. He had never been the kind who stayed with one girl for a long time. That just wasn’t the way the Satan’s Legion members did things, at least not most of the time. But he didn’t like thinking about someone else’s hands on her, someone else whispering in her ear, someone else grabbing her by the hips and—
Mina hit him again. “I didn’t sleep with anyone else, and I can’t believe you would accuse me of it! Do you think I ended up pregnant because I’m some slut or something?” Her arms were constantly flailing at him now.
He grabbed her wrists and kept them still. She fought him, but he held her easily. “You’ve had plenty of chances, Mina. You’ve been living in a clubhouse filled with men. No matter what your father told them, it doesn’t mean you didn’t tempt them.”
“Oh, I see.” She yanked her wrists out of his grip and turned to stomp a few steps away through the sand. When she turned back, she was blinking back tears. “It’s all my fault. That’s typical, isn’t it? Nobody would ever think to blame you or any of the other men had I slept with them. This is solely on me. Well, fine. Maybe I’ll just make sure it stays that way.” Mina crossed her arms in front of her chest.
A feeling rose up in Skid that he didn’t recognize, and it burrowed through his chest. Fear? Worry? “What exactly does that mean?”
“If this is all my fault and all about me, then I’ll just be the only person who takes care of this. I’ll leave the club, and I’ll go somewhere on my own. It’ll just be me and the baby, and nobody else will be there to criticize me.” Her fists were balled at her sides now and she stuck her chin out toward Skid, daring him to argue with her. “I don’t need anyone else, especially if all of you are going to act like such babies about this.”
“Mina…”
“What? That’s what you want, isn’t it? I’ll just disappear. You don’t care about me, and you don’t care about the baby. It’s your child, but I guess that’s only because it’s carrying your DNA. The rest of it doesn’t matter.”
For some reason, hearing the truth straight from her lips struck a chord with him. He had known it was a possibility, but he had tried to deny it. Now there was no way to do that. “It does matter.”
“Really?” she challenged. “Then why didn’t you stand up and say anything to my father? Oh, yes. I saw the whole meeting. I saw how you sat there at that table acting like an innocent bystander, like you didn’t know anything about what had happened.”
Despite the cool breeze, Skid felt heat radiating from underneath his skin. “I was trying to protect you.”
“Yeah, you did a great job of that when you got me knocked up,” she retorted.
“Listen.” He grabbed her by the arm, but gently. He didn’t want to hurt her or treat her as Animal had. “What do you think is going to happen if Park finds out about us? He’ll kill me, or at the very least kick me out of the Legion. So then what happens to you? You’re not going to be allowed to be with someone your father doesn’t approve of. You really will be on your own.”
Her lower lip stuck out a little. “I can do what I want to.”
“Oh, really? Then why did you have to sneak around when you wanted to talk to me? Why haven’t you told your father yourself? Mina, you know that’s not how things are for us. You can pretend all you want to, but sooner or later you’re going to figure this out. I just hope it’s before the baby comes.” He couldn’t imagine what things would be like for her if she had to do this all on her own. It was a tough world out there, and he had learned that well. Even if she didn’t realize it, she had a support system back at the clubhouse. It might not be ideal, but it was far better than her running away.
“You’re just saying that because you still want to cast the blame on me. You know what, Skid? I think you’re just a coward.” She poked her finger into his chest.
“Excuse me?” He could handle a lot from her, but this was just too much.
“I said, you’re a coward. You like to pretend you’re some tough guy with your big muscles and your dark hair and your vintage motorcycle, but you’re just too chicken to own up to what you’ve done.”
“That’s about enough of that.” Skid tightened his grip on her arm and pulled her close. Her eyes widened in a moment of fear, but they softened and slowly closed as he pressed his lips to hers. God, it had been so long since that night. He had forgotten how soft her skin was and the way she tasted. He opened his mouth and she did the same, their tongues dancing. A raw, animalistic yearning rose up in him, and he wrapped his free hand around her hip and pressed her to the hardness growing between his legs. Mina wasn’t just some club girl, nor was she just the president’s daughter, she was a sexy, wild woman that he longed to tame. He dug his fingers into her flesh, barely keeping himself from pulling her down onto the cool sand and making love to her right there. It wouldn’t matter that it was the middle of the day or that they were on a public beach; some things just couldn’t wait. The fact that she was carrying his child only made him all the more desperate to reassert his claim over her.
With that thought, he pulled back and broke their kiss. He stared down into her wide brown eyes and remembered there was still reality to deal with. “I do care about you, Mina, and I definitely care about the baby. But we both know that this isn’t a simple thing. We can’t just go to Park and tell him what happened, not without a lot of complications.”
She frowned, sending a wrinkle across her smooth forehead. “What are you suggesting?”
“We keep this thing between us quiet for now. Just for now,” he assured her as she started to protest again. “It’s the best thing for you and for the baby. We’ll let your father calm down a little bit while we try to find a way to tell him.” Skid still had her pressed against his body, and he wasn’t yet ready to let go. He knew he couldn’t have her again—not yet—and he would take what he could get.
“Don’t you think he’ll figure it out? I mean, he’s not exactly stupid. If he sees us together, he’ll know in an instant.” Hope fell from Mina’s face.
“I’m sure that’s true, and that’s exactly why he’s not going to see us together. We’re going to stay away from each other until this whole thing blows over, one way or the other. It’s the only way for right now.” Gently, he pushed her away from him. It was almost painful, and he could swear she felt it too.
She crossed her arms, instantly back to being the defiant young woman she had always been. “What do we tell him if he asks about this little rendezvous? You know how busy the clubhouse is, and someone probably saw us take off together.”
Skid nodded, seeing the reason behind that. “True, but we could just say that we wanted to blow off some steam. Everyone will believe that. There’s been plenty of tension back at the clubhouse.”
Mina turned to look out over the lake, the breeze picking up her fringe of hair. It was dyed blonde on the top, but it was still the original black underneath. He liked that she always managed to remain herself no matter what kind of look she was going for or what she was interested in at the moment. There was never any doubt as to who Mina was. “I guess that will work.” She turned back to him, her eyes sharp. “But I’m going to make it clear, right here and now, that I’m not happy about this.” She trudged through the sand back to the small parking lot where his bike was waiting.
After watching her go for a moment, Skid finally followed. He wasn’t entirely happy about it, either, but he had to do what he thought was best. Being separated by choice was much better than being separated by force, after all, and Park still needed a little time to get used to the fact that he was going to be a grandfather soon.
Skid got on the bike and settled in, glad that he could at least feel Mina’s arms around him for their ride back to the clubhouse. It wasn’t much, but he would take it.