I WAS BORED. I was twenty-four and still living at home thanks to an overprotective father. I never dated. I didn’t go out with friends. And I was still a damn virgin. Half the men I came across were terrified to even talk to me because of who my dad was. Please. He wasn’t that scary. So, he’s the president of a motorcycle club. There were rumors about his nickname, Shadow, and how he got it. I scoffed. These men were damn pussies.
I sighed, running a cloth over the same spot on my brother’s bike that I had been buffing for the last half hour. I needed to do something. Something exciting. Something that no one would expect. Not that I ever wanted to defy my father but being under his thumb my whole life didn’t help my social status. I had no friends. I was stuck by myself in a life filled with men that I couldn’t even touch. Not that I would anyway. I wasn’t attracted to any of them. Was I a lesbian?
God, girl, get it together. I couldn’t be a lesbian. Not that there was anything wrong with that, of course. You loved who you loved, but as far as I knew, it wasn’t for me.
Finishing up buffing Kian’s bike, I stared down at my beautiful work. The tank was so damn shiny, I could see my reflection in the blood-red paint.
Stuffing the cloth in my back pocket, I left the room and bumped right into a wall of muscle. My body heated, my heart thumping hard. Every inch of me came alive.
“Whoa there.”
That voice. Deep and melodious. It slid over me like melted honey.
I looked up and up and found myself drowning in dark pools of black. I swallowed hard, and then again, and again. My throat went dry.
“You okay?” the man asked me, his hand sliding down my back to stop me from falling.
“Yes,” I whispered, my gaze dropping to his full mouth. I licked my lips, suddenly wondering what it would be like to taste him.
His nostrils flared, those eyes darkening even more.
I cleared my throat, stepping out of his embrace, and shook myself. My father would kill him if he saw him touching me. I didn’t need a stranger’s blood on my hands.
“Can you tell me where the office is?” the man asked me. “This place didn’t look so damn big from the outside but now I’m lost.” He ran a hand through his black hair, mussing it up even more. The smattering of gray showing through the dark beard on his jaw made me wonder just how old he was. But I found I didn’t care. He could be fifty and I would still find him attractive.
My cheeks burned. “Yeah. It’s this way.” I spun on my heel, needing to put some distance between us before I started humping his leg. Poor guy probably thought I was a nutcase or that I had never seen a man before. I had. I had seen lots of them. But none that looked like him.
“So … do you work here?”
I paused in my steps, glancing at the man over my shoulder. “Who’s asking?”
He chuckled, something flashing in his eyes. “I was just asking a question, beautiful. No need to get defensive.”
My heart jumped at the compliment. “You think I’m beautiful?”
“Uh …” His cheeks reddened. “Yeah.”
My lips pulled up into a grin at seeing him suddenly becoming shy. “Thank you.” I continued heading down the hall. “The office is this way.”
(Tray)
Fucking hell, she was stunning. Rosy cheeks. Dark eyes the color of milk chocolate. And caramel skin. When she bumped into me, I couldn’t help but notice the tiny freckles on her nose and cheeks. She was absolutely breathtaking.
This young, tiny, little thing stirred something inside of me that I had never felt before. Not with other women. Not even with Catch. It was something more. Something dark. Something feral.
The young woman’s black curly hair was piled high on her head. A smudge of what looked like grease sat just above her left eyebrow. It had taken everything in me not to wipe it off, but I knew if I touched her skin, I would be a dead man.
I wasn’t sure why she was at this garage, but I didn’t need to find out the hard way, either. Knowing my luck, she was the daughter of the president or some shit.
After my SUV broke down, I had it towed to this garage. It was the nearest one in miles or else I would have just taken it home. Home. I bit back a scoff. I didn’t have a home. Not one I visited often anyway. The clubhouse was where I laid my head every night but that was it. It wasn’t home.
The woman led me down another hallway before we finally ended up at what I could only assume was the back of the building. Voices carried from the next room over followed by the sounds of the air compressor and the clanging of every other tool known to man that was used to fix up vehicles.
We reached a door marked Office and I saw an older man standing inside with his back to us.
She opened the door. “Daddy, someone’s here to see you.”
Daddy? Like he was her ‘Daddy’ and she played his little girl for kink or was she in fact his kid?
The man turned.
My heart thumped, and the semi I was sporting deflated instantly.
Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
This woman was not only young, but she was the daughter of Nero Wolf. Known as Shadow on the streets. There was no question that they were related. Same caramel skin. Same black curly hair. Same fucking freckles. Last I heard, his daughter was just a kid. Although young, this woman was clearly no damn kid.
Only difference between them was the young woman’s eyes didn’t showcase years of pain, suffering, or even torture. Nero was lethal as fuck.
“Well, I’ll be. Tray Lister.” Shadow leaned against the wall, crossing his arms under his broad chest. His dark brows narrowed, his even darker eyes zeroing in on me. “I feel like you need something. What is it this time?” His thick South African accent slid over each syllable. I didn’t know what part of South Africa he was from, but rumors had it that he came from nothing. I couldn’t imagine the things he had seen but it still didn’t mean I liked him. Respected him yes, but we were far from besties.
“My SUV broke down,” I finally said.
Shadow laughed, the wrinkles in the corners of his eyes becoming more pronounced. Rubbing the dark scruff on his jaw, his brows narrowed. “You can leave,” he told his daughter. “Thank you.”
She nodded, brushing past me but not before I caught a whiff of her scent.
Apple pie. She smelled like a damn apple pie. And it took everything I was made of not to take a bite out of her.
The moment the door shut behind me, I let out a slow breath.
“Keep eye-fucking my daughter and you won’t need your SUV fixed.” Shadow sat his old body in the chair behind the desk.
I, on the other hand, only stood there. There was no way I would let him know that I had been checking her out. That for the first time in as long as I could remember, a woman finally got a reaction out of me. So what if it was a rival club member’s daughter. My dick sure didn’t seem to mind.
“What do you want?” Shadow asked, tenting his fingers under his chin.
“I told you. My SUV broke down. Trust me, if I didn’t have to be here, I wouldn’t.” How the hell we didn’t know this garage was property of Mayhem’s Revenge was beyond me.
“You’re not here on business?” he asked, leaning forward.
“No.” I looked down at myself before meeting his gaze. “Do you see me wearing my cut?” I left my cut in my vehicle. Because I was clearly the brightest motherfucker on this planet.
“Yeah. Why aren’t you wearing it? I’m sure Greyson will be so happy to hear about that.”
I bit back a curse. “Listen, are you going to help me or not?”
Greyson Mercer would get over it. Even though he was the president of our own MC, Hell’s Harlem, his temper had calmed down some since his wife gave birth to their son a year ago.
But Shadow was right. I still should have put on my vest.
“I’ll help you, but you owe me.” Shadow stood and came around the desk. “What are you doing in this area anyway?”
“Making a delivery.” I had visited the grave of a friend who died. But Shadow didn’t need to know that.
“Ah.” He clapped my shoulder, his dark eyes focusing on me. “I do have one demand, though.”
I waited, knowing what he was going to say before he even said it. “What?”
He smirked, a dimple popping in his cheek. “Stay away from my daughter.”