Maxwell

 

There were about three different ways to blow off steam if you were a guy like me, and since two of them were pretty likely to get you put in jail, I thought the third seemed like a pretty good option. And I definitely needed to blow off a little steam tonight.

 

When you were a guy like me, family was important, because you didn’t fucking have any. You had a crackhead mother who OD’d when you were a kid and a slew of foster parents who didn’t know how to handle the wild child you’d grown up to be. Your dad was MIA for all your life, and given your mother’s tendencies to sleep with anything that could get her a fix, it was probably for the best.

 

By the time you were old enough to understand what all that crap meant, you’d gotten yourself in deep. Juvie was supposed to straighten you out, but all it taught you was that you were the only thing that was going to keep you safe. You were the only thing that was going to be tough enough to fight through the bullshit.

 

And you became one hell of a fighter.

 

When you’re a guy like me, family was important and you found it in the strangest places. Which was why I went to see Spin today, despite how the Lions, my family, had been split lately. Or maybe because they’d been split lately.

 

It pissed me off that Spin was in there in the first place. He shouldn’t be. He was leader of the Lions, a motorcycle club that dealt in more than a few operations, but took care of its own. And at least we didn’t deal in an underage children or crap like that.

 

It was a deal breaker for most of the club, and if it weren’t, they didn’t last long anyway.

 

Unfortunately, having a moral compass that only ruled out that stipulation meant there were a lot of other things you could be doing. Things like running drugs and guns. And, apparently, the government didn’t really appreciate that.

 

I snorted, rolling my eyes at what the government decided was good and bad. Like the system had any idea what it was really like on the streets.

 

I did.

 

There was a long row of chairs pushed up against little desks that were attached to the walls. Each desk had a plate of glass between us and the other side of the room. There was a phone where we could communicate between one side and the other, but otherwise there was no connection.

 

I took a seat several chairs down towards the end that was opposite the door. Spin was already there in an orange jumpsuit, looking a little motley, but he always had. He pointed to the phone and I nodded, picking it up just as he did.

 

“Things are getting restless,” I told him by way of starting the conversation. I wasn’t going to ask him how he was doing or what he thought his odds were of getting out. Those were things we both knew and we both knew they weren’t good either.

 

He nodded. “Yeah, I’ve heard. A couple of the guys have been in to see me.”

 

I tried not to look nervous. It wasn’t unusual to think they’d come by and see him; after all, he was our leader. But it was the other stuff that was bugging me. I wasn’t deaf and I wasn’t dumb; I’d heard some of the shit that was flying around the club right now. It worried me more than I wanted to let on.

 

“Yeah?” I asked, trying to sound only annoyed instead of furious and worried. “And what did they have to say? Did their poor little feelings get hurt?”

 

Spin cracked a smile, but it wasn’t a big one. He seemed to be a little nervous about everything, too. Worried about what was going on. It didn’t affect him in here, not really, not yet, but it could. I knew what they were saying about me and so long as they were talking about me, the heat might stay off what they were all really riled up about: what was going to happen if Spin didn’t get out.

 

Sure, he could still be de facto leader from the inside, but it made things more difficult. And there were probably a few people around who wouldn’t mind replacing him.

 

“I don’t know about their feelings,” Spin said gruffly. “But I know some of them are looking for anything to pin me being in here on.”

 

I froze. It took a minute for that to sink in as I processed it. He didn’t say it outright, but he didn’t have to. When he said anything, he meant anyone. Namely me, if I were reading between the lines correctly. They think I had something to do with it. I’d heard some rumors flying, mostly about me being the kind of guy who might step in and try to take over the club, but some other things, too. Like that I’d been the one who fucked up that night. That it should have been me in prison, not him. Or that I was just a knucklehead who was dumb enough to go to another club for help.

 

None of that was true, and though it irritated me and worried me—anything that had us all split down the middle while Spin was locked up worried me—I didn’t let it really get to me. Nothing a few well-placed punches wouldn’t get out of my system.

 

But this?

 

“You know they don’t know their ass from their elbow, right?” I asked.

 

He considered my question, knowing what I was really asking. “You’ve been loyal through and through. Haven’t had an issue with you yet.”

 

I let out a small sigh, barely audible, as relief flooded me. At least the guy in charge believed me. I just wished the guy in charge wasn’t also the guy behind bars.

 

We didn’t say much after that, but Spin had a parting piece of advice. “Watch your back. These guys can be vicious if they think you’re a rat.”

 

We hung up after that and I left with the intense need to blow off a lot of steam. When I got to Lights that night, I was looking to pick a fight. Anyone and everyone was on the menu, but when I caught sight of her across the room, my gears quickly shifted. I couldn’t say what made her different or why my dick was struggling to get out of my pants the moment my eyes locked onto hers, but without even seeing her for longer than a second, I knew I had to have her.

 

Her hair hung down her back in chocolate waves that looked silky. Silky and strong. The kind you could dig your fingers into, grab into a fist, and tug on while you drove into her again and again. Her eyes were a bright green that seemed to glow in the dim, shifting light. They were locked on me and I held onto them like I could physically reach across the room to grab her, despite the distance and the throng of people. When she continued to stare at me, I couldn’t help but grin, the urge to go to her and see if the rest of her was as perfect as those damn eyes was almost impossible to ignore.

 

It wasn’t until she tore her eyes away from me that I realized she was going to play hard to get.

 

Suits me, I thought, and when she got up, I made my way across the room to follow her. She was headed towards the bar.

 

I’d come here looking for a fight tonight, but now that I’d seen that sliver of perfection in the form of an hourglass brunette beauty, I decided fucking was a much better option. And less likely to get me thrown in jail for causing trouble. And, man, did I want to fuck her. Fuck her until she screamed and clenched around me and did things she never even imagined. Let me do things she’d never even imagined.

 

Oh the plans I had for that body.

 

She was already at the bar when I reached her. She was pointedly not looking at me, but I knew the second she sensed I was there. Her body tensed up, her shoulders and arms going rigid. I resisted the urge to slap her ass, which was the perfect kind of round, tapering off into some of the best damn legs I’d ever seen.

 

I wished her skirt wasn’t so damn long; I would have liked to see a little more of those stems.

 

After what seemed like forever, she finally turned to look at me.

 

When she did, I let her see just what I wanted. Lust shone in my eyes and I let them travel over her soft, smooth features. Her full, ruby red lips needed my teeth grating against them. Her ears needed nibbling. And her throat…

 

I was going to slide my wet tongue down that throat and between those full, perky breasts. I was going to bite and suck on them, too, until her nipples were hard and the undersides of them were red with hickeys. And I wouldn’t stop there, oh no. I was going to trail my tongue down the center of her body, then go lower and lower until my face was pressed between those long, shapely legs. When she started screaming for me, that was when I’d give it to her. Hard and fast until she was breathless and I was spilling myself inside of her, hot and thick.

 

“Maxwell,” I told her, and her breathless, lusty answer told me just how much she wanted me. She was already tucked into my back pocket, waiting for the second when we could get out of here for somewhere more private.

 

Hell, I’d do her right here if she was up for it. I didn’t mind finding a dark corner where I could press her up against the wall and tear off her panties. She probably wouldn’t even think about protesting if I did it right, and I almost considered making the suggestion to her before we even got any farther than this.

 

Then the bartender came over and whatever spell I’d cast over her seemed to be broken. She blinked twice, then seemed to find herself again. She looked over to the bartender and ordered another round of drinks—three, presumably for herself and the other two women I’d seen her seated with. When she left to get those drinks, she turned back to me.

 

“Well, lucky for you,” she said. “But I’m not interested.”

 

My eyebrows shot through the roof. I knew she was lying, at least partially, because her voice was still low and seductive, but her eyes were hard all of a sudden, as though she was forcing herself to mean it even if she couldn’t really mean it. Then the drinks came and she whisked them away before I could say anything else.

 

I watched her go. Watched her hair sway low down her back and watched her full ass swing to and fro, enticing me, begging me to slap it.

 

Oh, she wanted me. At least, her body did, and the rest of her would come willingly enough. All she needed was a little time, and, suddenly, it seemed like I had all the time in the fucking world.

 

I was going to fuck her until she begged, or my name wasn’t Maxwell Lawson.