Faith’s Temptation (Dueling Dragons MC Book 1) (3 page)

Lifting me from the bed, he reached underneath, releasing my bra. My breasts fell out of their soft cups.

“Wow, you look amazing like this.” He laid me back gently on the bed and started his exploration of my nipples, licking, sucking, and nibbling on one of them while he played with the other between his finger and thumb.

Working his way from my chest to my stomach, feathering kisses down my rib cage. Stopping to dip his tongue into my belly button.

“Ah, yes!” I hissed as I raised my hips from the bed.

“You enjoying yourself, baby?” He looked at me with a smug smile on his face.

The only sound in the room was my soft moans. The way my body felt as his hands drifted downward sent shockwaves through me. If this was how it was going to be every time, I was going to be addicted to sex.

Feathering gentle kisses down my hips and thighs, stopping only to smile up at me before grabbing my feet, he placed them on his shoulders and started to run his finger the length of my soaking-wet folds.

“Mmm, Faith. Who knew that your pussy was going to be this good lookin’ and smell so divine? I wonder how it tastes....” He started to lick and move his tongue in a circle over my secret spot.

Bucking my hips off the bed, he slipped a finger inside me and I started to come unraveled.

“Beau!” I screamed as I rocked with my first orgasm.

***

Rolling over, I look at the clock. My eyes bulge when I realize that it’s almost ten in the morning. I need to get my ass out of this bed and take a cold shower. Thinking about Beau and my first orgasm has me hot and bothered.

I swing the covers off, sit up, and scoot off the bed to get ready.
Today, I am going to go apply for a job
. I smile to myself and walk into the bathroom.

After taking a most refreshing shower, I take stock.
It’s time to shit or get of the pot
, I decide, ‘cause overthinking things is driving me to daydream of
him
.

Pulling on my orange and yellow halter-top sundress and tan wedges I found at the street fair, I slip on some earrings and arrange my hair in a messy bun on top of my head. It is way too hot in Kentucky to worry about styling my hair. The humidity is a killer.

All that really matters is that I look good enough to sling some food to some greasy truck drivers. I guess things could be worse—I could be working as a stripper or, even worse, a hooker serving the truckers in the car park.

Shuddering at the thought, I grab my purse and check myself one last time in the mirror.
Well, Faith, today is the first day of the rest of your life. Don’t mess it up!
I wink and smile at myself and walk out the door.

***

Ryder

Waking up to the sound of airbrakes and horns is the life of a trucker. It’s something you grow accustomed to, being over the road, or OTR as they call it. I am my father’s son, though, and I have the blood of a biker running through my veins, so hearing those noises is a reminder of everything that I’ve given up for the MC. But it’s something I would do time and time again. What’s that saying?
Live by the cut and die by the cut.
That’s the Dueling Dragons way of life, so I obey it.

Stretching out on the bed in the apartment above Layla’s shop, I toss around the idea of what life would’ve been like if I wasn’t driving a truck anymore. It’d probably be simple, living in one place, but then again, I’d probably be with Bambi and have a kid or two by now. So it’s really a toss-up on which life is better.

Running my fingers through my hair, my stomach rumbles, sounding and feeling like a small earthquake.

“Fuck, when was the last time your ass ate, Prez?” I hear Zig call out from the living room.

This apartment is run-down. Cobwebs are everywhere. There are boxes for the diner up here, and the place smells like a rat or two met their maker.

“What the fuck is all this shit?”

Pulled abruptly out of my thoughts after hearing a crash, I turn and look toward the kitchen, and that’s when a lone paper cup rolls across the floor. “What the fuck, Zig?” I call out as I jump up from the bed and run to the living room.

“Fuck, man, there’s shit for days in here! Your sister would get hit with serious health code violations.” All I can see of Ziggy is the very top of his head, a case of paper cups piled around him.

I laugh and lean against the wall to keep from falling over. “What exactly are you trying to do?” I cough out.

“Well, asswipe, I was going to make some fucking coffee.” Zig hoists himself up to a standing position. He raises his right hand. “At least I found some filters.”

I laugh hard and loud. “Yeah, fuck that, man. My sister pays people to do that shit. Let’s go down to the diner.”

He shrugs, kicking boxes out of his way. “What the fuck is this shit anyway?”

“Jesus Christ, what kind of kinky shit you into?" I laugh as I look down and see that one of the boxes he kicked says “Tampax.”

I hit the bedroom door at the same time as Ziggy gains his footing. He grabs a bunch of tampons and throws them at me. "These are yours, not mine! You're the bitch!"

“Oh, yeah, I’ll show you who’s the bitch,” I bellow back. “Go get your nasty ass dressed so we can go eat.”

I grab my boots and lace them up.

If only my life was this simple and carefree all the time.

***

Faith

Walking into the diner, I am instantly hit with the smell of stale smoke and years of fried foods. The floors are black-and-white checkered. At least, if you look past the years of grime, you might call them white.

Fire engine red booths line the windows. The cushions on the chairs at the center tables match the booths.

The whole place probably hasn’t had a makeover since the 70s, with wall art from the 1950s. The walls were a mixture of white where a picture had been and a yellow-brown from the years of accumulating oil and nicotine.

I get an ill feeling in the pit of my stomach. If I didn’t need this job so badly, I wouldn’t be here.

There’s a crescent-shaped counter to my right. A woman leaning on the bar under the window looking into the kitchen says something to the guys in the back as she grabs plates.

“It’s open seating. Seat yourself,” she says to me, turning around with two huge plates piled full of biscuits and gravy. “I’ll be with you in a second.”

“Oh, I’m not here to eat. I’m here to see if you’re hiring,” I say to her as she starts walking in the other direction.
Should I follow her or stay here?
I question myself and decide the better of the two is to sit down.

Just as I sit, she comes back around the corner with an application form. “Yeah, here, fill this out. Got any experience?” She comes around the end of the counter, looking me up and down.

“You know what, don’t tell me,” she continues. “You seem small-town, and we small-town women have worked our asses off for centuries to keep our heads afloat,” she says, walking toward the kitchen. “Be back here in a couple of hours and we’ll talk.” She disappears behind the swinging doors.

You betcha I’ll be back here for that job.
Looking at the menu for the diner, I see that they have a salad that is only a couple of dollars. So I order it and a soda and get to work on filling out this application in hopes that I land the job.

***

Ryder

Holy shit! I never thought I’d meet this chick again. She’s the one, the one that literally stumbled into my life off the street corner. No pun intended, of course, but shit, she is really here.

“Hello?” I wave my hand in her face, hoping to get her attention. She looks so disconnected, reading over paperwork or something.

“Yeah. Hi, I’m Faith.” She shakes her hand and says it rather quickly as if I caught her doing something wrong.

She is so beautiful, so pure. You can see it and smell it. This diner is a shithole and smells like asshole and cheeseburgers. But despite that, I can still smell her—so sweet.

She is even innocent in her demeanor. She’s so out of place that all I can do is laugh at the situation. “Well, I didn’t ask your name, but okay. I’m Ryder,” I say, laying on my famous panty-dropping smile. No response – she doesn’t even look up from her papers. But she gives a faint, beguiling smile.

That’s the moment I know I have to have her.

***

“Man, did you see how amazingly hot Faith is?” I ask Ziggy, shoving a fry into my mouth.

“Bro, I’m amazed you even remember that bitch’s name. You’re the worst when it comes to names, especially chicks’ names.” He smacks my arm and takes a drink of his beer.

“Fuck you, dude, she’s different.” I slam the rest of my beer and get up from the booth we’re sitting in.

“I’m gonna hit the pisser and then we need to bounce out for a few,” I tell him over my shoulder. I can’t get her smell outta my head, like the cross between a stripper and a hippy. But it’s a good fragrance, a scent that would probably smell amazing mixed with sex.
Ryder, you’re a sick fuck!

Yeah, I know I am. That’s what happens when you’re in a big rig 24/7. “Faith, Faith, Faith. Faith.” I say her name over and over, in different tones, to test how it sounds coming out of my mouth.

“Dude, shut the fuck up! You are worse than a chick,” Ziggy laughs coming into the bathroom at the same time I say her name for the umpteenth time. “Faith, Faith,” he starts mocking me.

I turn and kick him in the ass as I walk out the door. “Fuck you. I’ll meet you in the apartment. We need to get ready.”

“Yeah, yeah. Asshat!” He flips me off before he starts taking a piss.

Walking out the bathroom, I drop some cash on the table for the check, together with a hefty tip.

“Where you headed, Ry?” I hear Layla say as I head for the front door.
Sisters like to keep tabs.

“Going to the apartment to clean up and get ready to do a run to Arizona,” I call out as I sling my cut on. “We’ll be back soon.” I wink at her as I head through the door.

Faith

AFTER FINISHING MY LUNCH
and the application, I’ve got some time to kill before I need to go back there. It’s nice and sunny, so I go outside and text my brother to let him know that I am working on getting a job in hopes that I can go home soon.

I turn toward the front doors when, bam! I run into a man’s chest and am thrown back a few steps as I try to get my footing. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t see you there. I—I was distracted,” I say in a small voice.

Not entirely sure of who—or what—I ran into, I slowly look up and see a gorgeous man standin’ in front of me. He is the most tantalizing thing I have ever seen, and he’s built from head to toe. Long brown hair is pulled in a braid that flows down his back. Dark, piercing brown eyes look down at me. His jawline strong and chiseled, he looks like a Greek god that’s been dipped in ink from head to toe.

Overcome with the urge to touch him, I step back and finish giving him a onceover. He is wearing a loosely fitted pair of jeans with a band t-shirt that says “
Ozzy Osbourne
.” The shirt is stretched enough so I can make out the muscles of his arms. Tattoos peek out from the sleeve of his shirt.

Holy shit! I am in love!
Focus, Faith! Stay focused!

What I wouldn’t give to run my palm over his chest. He’s so fuckin’ hot, quite literally.

“Hello,” I hear a deep voice say as a hand waves in front of my face. He’s looking down at me with a raised eyebrow and a dimple just to the left of his mouth. If I wasn’t struggling to find my footing before, I certainly am now.

I shake my head in surprise. “Yeah. Hi, I’m Faith,” I manage to get out. Not really sure of what he said before that, but at this point I’ll bark if he asks me to.

He starts to laugh. “Well, again, I didn’t ask your name. But okay. And I’m Ryder.” He smiles at me.

God, that smile.
That smile is going to be burned into my brain for the rest of my life. He is so amazing looking, he is like every woman’s temptation and wildest dream wrapped in one.

“Well, shit.” He chuckles. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to read and walk at the same time?” Then with a serious tone, he adds, “You remind me of this girl from yesterday. She walked right into the road. Didn’t even look to see if cars were coming or anything.”

Wait a minute. He was in the truck that almost killed me!
Do I say something to him about it being me, or do I keep my mouth shut? I bite my lip and decide on the latter approach.

“Prez, ya comin’?”

Looking over I see a tall, built man with a shaved head and a beard that touches his chest. Tattoos cover his arms and neck. His body language is sending off the vibe that he’s sexy and he knows it. He is very attractive, I might add, but nothing like his friend standing in front of me.

“Yeah, Zig. I’ll be right there,” he says.

“Well, I guess I’ll see you around,” I say as I try and push past him, but he steps closer and whispers into my ear.

“I think you should stick around for a little while. I would love to get to know you. You can run into me any day of the week.” He breathes into my ear, sending a current to that little bundle of nerves in between my legs. Instantly, I feel the goose bumps and a quivering need.

My brothers and Daddy didn’t raise a fool, and the last thing I need to do is give in to this temptation and find myself in a whole different world of trouble. “Uh, no, thank you!”

“You’ll give in, babe. I promise that you’ll be mine at some point, and you’ll love it.” He licks his lip, giving it a small bite as he says, “love it,” making his sex appeal that much more tempting.

This man is going to be a thorn in my side, I can see it already.

Those eyes.
God, his lips,
I sigh to myself. His tattoos, his arms…What I wouldn’t give to feel them wrapped around me. After texting Nate to tell him that I have an interview and possible job—of course only getting an “Okay” text message back from him—I find my thoughts flood with nothing but him. He is every girl’s dream. The untouchable, the type of guy that screams “bad boy.” Sex appeal radiates from his body, fulfilling every girl’s fantasy just by walking by.