Karmen
“You’re early.”
“I said it would be around three.”
“It’s one-thirty. That isn’t around three. That’s more like around one or two.” I peeked out at Nickel through the three-inch gap I had opened the door. I wasn’t ready. Well, physically I was ready, but I hadn’t been able to give myself a pep talk yet. “Come back at three.” I moved to shut the door, but Nickel stuck his foot in the way.
“I see me being gone two days fucked up all the progress we made last week.”
Ha, that was the damn truth. “Just give me an hour, and I’ll be ready.”
He pushed open the door and looked me up and down. “You look ready to go to me. Grab your purse or whatever you need to bring and let's go. We can take the bike.”
I scoffed and shook my head. “We can’t take your bike. I need to buy stuff. How am I supposed to hold onto you and a bunch of bags?”
“We’ll put your shit in the saddlebags.”
“How big are they?”
“Big enough.”
“Hmph, every man says that,” I whispered.
Nickel wound his arms around my waist and pulled me flush against his body. “You know it’s big enough, baby girl.”
I couldn’t control myself not to roll my eyes. “I think we established many times over that it is more than big enough,” I looked down between us at his crotch.
Nickel’s body shook as a chuckle rumbled around me. He brushed my hair out of my face and tilted my head back to look up at him. “What’s it going to take for me to get you out of this house now and not an hour from now?”
My eyes traveled over his handsome face, taking in his stubbled skin. “I like this,” I whispered as I stroked his cheek. A smirk spread across his lips, and I was mesmerized. God damn, this man was handsome. Every time I looked at him, I found something new to focus on.
“Thank you, baby. Now answer my question.” Nickel wasn’t messing around.
“You keep the scruff, and we take my car.” I wasn’t budging on the scruff. If he really tried, he could get me on the back of his bike, and I would just go shopping after work to get the rest of things I wouldn’t be able to fit in the saddlebags.
“Deal, but I get to drive.”
A smile spread across my lips, and I bobbed my head. “You’ve got a deal, Outlaw.”
“Outlaw?” Nickel laughed. “You giving me another road name?”
I tilted my head to the right. That reminded me of the question Nikki asked me before. “What’s your name?”
Nickel smiled hugely and shook his head. “I think it’s time to go.”
I gripped his biceps., “Not so fast. I don’t leave until I find out what your real name is.”
“I’ve been called Nickel for the past fourteen years of my life. That is my real name.”
“Nope, that’s not gonna fly. I wanna know what your name was before you became Nickel, the outlaw.”
“I am not an outlaw.”
I waved my hand. “Ignore that then, just tell me what your name was the day you were born.”
“You aren’t going to let this go, are you?”
Hell no. I knew the bare minimum about this man, and I was going to start finding out more. “Spill it, or I keep calling you Outlaw.”
“You find out what it is, you keep that shit to yourself, Karmen. The only other person that is alive who knows my name is Pipe.”
There was another little nugget of information about Nickel. His parents were both gone. I held up my hand and smiled. “Scouts honor. My lips are sealed.”
“Grab your keys. I’m not telling you until your ass is sitting in the car.”
Leave it to Nickel to still be in charge when I had the upper hand. “Your alpha drives me crazy sometimes,” I mumbled as I hitched my purse over my shoulder and grabbed my keys.
“No idea what the hell that means.”
“You’re bossy. Too bossy.”
Nickel scowled, grabbed my hand, and pulled me out of the apartment. “Don’t act like you don’t like it, baby girl.”
He didn’t let go of my hand ‘til we reached my car and I beeped open the locks. “I like it, but sometimes, it’s a bit too much. I’d like to make my own decision sometimes.”
“Okay, I’ll let you decide if I’ll kiss you here or when we get in the car.”
I rolled my eyes and reached for the door handle. “How kind of you.”
He shrugged and knocked my hand out of the way. “I’m assuming we’re gonna make out in the car. I’m good with that.” He pulled open my door and motioned for me to get in. “It’s been two days since I kissed you. Get your ass in the car before I put you in the car.”
I ducked into the car and slammed the door shut. The man was absolutely insane. I was half tempted to lock the doors and not let him in.
Nickel moved around the front of the car and pointed at me through the windshield. “Don’t even think about it,” he hollered.
“Damn man,” I mumbled as he got on the driver’s side.
“Remind me why you need to be the one to drive.”
Nickel stuck the key in the ignition and turned in her seat to look at me. “I like to be in control. You know this.”
“I didn’t know that dealt with everything.”
“It does,” he replied.
“I don’t know if I can handle that, Nickel.”
He threaded his fingers through my hair and pulled me close. I was pressed against the center console, and I braced my hand against his chest. “You’ll get used to it,” he promised against my lips.
My fingers balled his shirt up in my grasp as his tongue swept through my mouth, and I did the only thing I could—hold on. Nickel kissed me thoroughly while his hands drifted from my hair and over my body.
“Do we really need to go to the mall?” His mouth moved from my lips to my neck, and I tilted my head to give him better access.
“I…uh…there is stuff…Jesus Chri—” I pressed against Nickel’s chest and moved toward the door, out of Nickel’s reach. My face felt hot, and I knew I was blushing all the way down to the tips of my toes. “I need more scrubs for work. I’ve been washing the same two tops every other day the past three weeks. I’d like more than one day where I don’t have to do laundry.”
He grabbed my hand and tried to pull me closer. “I’ll do your damn laundry for you as long as you get your sweet ass back over here.”
I shook my head and buckled my seat belt. “No. Not happening.” Even though my body was screaming for his touch, I had to say no. I was horribly terrified that Nickel didn’t want to be seen with me in public, and this was going to be the test to see if that was true or not. “Drive.” I looked forward out the windshield and saw Nickel out of the corner of my eye. He was still turned toward me, and he looked like he was ready to scream.
“You get one hour at the mall. That’s it. I’ve been waiting to have you underneath me the whole ride back to Weston, and I’m not going to let you make me wait too long. Don’t forget your body belongs to me, baby girl.”
I turned my head toward him and watched him buckle his seatbelt and start the car. “How gracious of you to give me an hour to shop. Maybe you should just wait in the car while I get everything I need.”
He shook his head and drove out of the parking lot. “You’re not going to be out of my sight in those shorts. Here I thought you were some quiet, shy girl but, when you have those shorts on, you are anything but a girl.”
“Then why do you call me baby girl?” I sassed. I loved when he called me that, and I would honestly be upset if he ever quit, but I was apparently in a mood to argue with everything he said.
“Because it’s what I call you.”
I rolled my eyes and turned the radio up a bit. “Speaking of what people are called, spill your name, Outlaw.” It was a twenty-minute drive to the mall, so that gave me plenty of time to find out a little bit more about Nickel.
He glanced at me but kept his lips sealed.
Nickel smoothly merged onto the highway and didn’t talk ‘til after he reached eighty and turned on the cruise control. “You wanna tell me why you need to know so bad what my name is?”
I managed to shift in my seat and turn to face him. I didn’t run the risk of him pulling me into his lap when he was driving. Although, I really shouldn’t put it past that he might not try something at a stop light. “Because I like you, Nickel, but I feel like I know nothing about you and that scares me.”
“Why does it scare you?”
“Because I only know the basics about you, and somehow, I feel things I shouldn’t.”
He eyed me up and down and reached for my hand. His laced his fingers through mine, and rested our hands in his lap. “I mean it when I say you can’t tell anyone what it is, Karmen.”
I nodded. Looked like I wasn’t going to be able to tell Nikki what his real name was, but I could at least tell her that Nickel was his road name. “I promise.”
My answer satisfied him, and he sighed deeply. “My full name is Augustus Callum Cunningham.”
“Well, that’s a mouthful.” I tried my hardest not to laugh, and I thought I was doing okay until Nickel looked over at me, and I tried to think of him as Augustus.
“See, that right there is the reason why I didn’t want to tell you,” he said, outraged.
I covered my mouth with my hand and turned to the windshield.
Augustus Callum Cunningham.
I was never going to be able to call him that. Augustus was far from a badass biker name. “Did your mother hate you?” I managed to get out in between giggles.
Nickel scowled and squeezed my hand. “You can now see why I was more than happy to get my road name.”
I leaned my head back against the headrest and turned toward Nickel. “And why did you get the name Nickel?”
“Hey, I just agreed to tell you what my real name is.”
My bottom lip pouted out, and I gave him my best puppy dog eyes. “Please? I promise if you tell me, we can make a stop in Victoria’s Secret.”
Nickel glanced at me with heated eyes. “I get to go in the dressing room with you?”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re going to get us kicked out of the store, though.”
Nickel shrugged his shoulder and exited the highway. “That may be, but it’ll be a hell of a story to tell.”
“I roll my eyes way too much when I’m around you,” I muttered under my breath. “Now spill why you got the name Nickel before we get to the mall.”
He sighed and gripped the steering wheel. “I was drunk.”
“Gee, that’s hard to believe that this is how this story starts,” I mumbled.
“You wanna hear the answer or not?”
Nickel glared at me, and I held up my hands. “Sorry, sorry. Continue.” Jesus, the man was little sensitive today.
Nickel drove for a few minutes before he finally spoke. It took everything in me not to pounce on him and demand he tell me why he was called Nickel.
“So, I was drunk.”
I couldn’t hold back the snicker that escaped. He side-eyed me, and I got my shit under control.
“Pipe and I were playing pool. We were both prospects and were right in the thick of doing every little bullshit thing we were asked to do. You know what a prospect is?”
I shook my head. “I think I know, but I doubt I know exactly what it means.”
“It’s basically me having to do absolutely anything asked of me to prove to the other club members that I will do anything for the club. Proves loyalty.”
That made sense. Although, couldn’t one prove loyalty by not being a slave? “So what were some of the things you had to do?”
“Keep the clubhouse clean, no matter the time of day answer the phone and do whatever they asked. One time, Pipe had to drive to Chicago to get a deep dish pizza for Wrecker and be back in three hours.”
“That’s impossible,” I insisted. It took two hours one way to get to Chicago from Weston.
“I know, and so did Wrecker. But Pipe somehow managed to do it.”
I looked out the windshield and saw we were only minutes away from the mall. “Now spill why you’re Nickel.” I wasn’t letting him out of the car until he told me.
“So, we were playing pool, we were both drunk off our asses, and Wrecker walks out with a jar full of change under his arm. I’m talking a huge fucking jar. He sets it on the pool table and looks at Pipe and me. He twists off the lid to the jar and tosses it to me. He tells us that there is three hundred twenty-one dollars and seventy-nine cents in the jar.”
I slapped my hand over my mouth and think I know where this is headed.
“That fucker takes that jar, holds it over his head, and smashes it down on the floor.” Nickel sounded amused and had a smirk on his lips. “He then tells us we need to find every last penny or we are out.”
“Holy crap,” I whisper. That was a hell of a lot of change.
“You’ve never met Pipe before, have you, baby girl?” I shook my head. “Well, imagine me and a guy bigger than I am, drunk off our asses, down on the floor on our hands and knees trying to count change while we shove it in our pockets.”
“Why didn’t you go get a bowl or something?”
Nickel smirked and turned into the mall parking lot. “We were drunk, babe.” Good point. “Pipe took his jacket off and laid it out on the floor. We piled all of the change on it, and painstakingly counted every quarter, dime, nickel, and penny.”
“So then what happened?”
“It took over two hours and us recounting the money eleven times before we were close.”
“Close?”
“Yeah. We were so close, but we were missing a nickel.”
“No way!”
Nickel laughed and pulled into a parking spot that was surprisingly close to the entrance. “Yes.”
“So what did you do?” This was absolutely insane. Who in the hell does this to people? It was like hazing in a fraternity, but fifty times worse.
He shifted the car into park and turned his body toward me. “At this point, Pipe and I had sobered up and knew that we were screwed. Neither of us had any change on us and were back to crawling all over the floor looking for a fucking nickel.”
I covered my mouth with my hand and tried not to laugh. Nickel being at the mercy of anyone was something that I just couldn’t picture.
“You laugh, but back then, Pipe and I were frantic as hell.”
“So what happened?”
He shook his head and threaded his fingers through mine. “Wrecker lied.”
My jaw dropped, and I got pissed on Nickel’s behalf. “You are kidding me!”
“Nah. That fucker wanted to see how far we would go until we gave up.”
“So after hours of searching, you finally gave up and then he told you.”
“Nope, we never did give up. Wrecker told us while we were both still on our hands and knees on the floor, but neither of us believed him. Pipe was the first one to stop looking, but I was convinced that there was a nickel on the floor and Wrecker was just testing us.”
“You got the name Nickel because you wouldn’t stop looking for the damn nickel,” I laughed.
He pressed a kiss to the back of my hand. “Yup, more or less. They just did it making fun of me, and then it just stuck.”
I leaned forward, a breath away from his lips. “Well, I think that’s a good story. It shows you never give up. Or it could mean you never listen.”
Nickel chuckled and pressed a kiss to my lips. “I think you’re right on both counts, baby girl.”
I hummed under my breath and pressed my forehead against his. “I missed you.” I held my breath, terrified that I sounded like a love-sick teenager. He had only been gone two days, but it had felt like a month.
“You were on my mind the whole time.”
My heart sang, and my breath whooshed out. “Thank the Lord,” I mumbled. It wasn’t a promise of his undying love, but it was better than if he had said okay.
“Time to shop. I hate the mall, but if this is where you need to be, this is where I need to be.” He pressed a quick kiss to my lips and slipped out of the car.
He opened my door and held his hand out to me. I looked up at him, my mind wondering how in the hell I was lucky enough to find a man like him. I was still getting to know him, but everything I did know made me want to find out more. Even his goofy story of how he got his road name made me eager to learn about his MC and the other members.
“Get out of the car, or I’ll put you over my shoulder and carry your sweet ass into the mall.”
I put my hand in his, and he pulled me out of the car. “And there comes the demanding Nickel.”
He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me to his side. He beeped the locks on the car and guided us to the entrance. “Don’t act like you don’t like it, baby girl. I’ll have to remind you in the fitting room just how much you like me telling you what to do.”
As much as I was acting like I didn’t want him to come in the fitting room with me, my body flushed at his words, and I hoped like hell he was able to sneak in.
I was up for a reminder of all of the things I secretly liked about Nickel.
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