Obsession (Sons of Judah MC Book 2) (2 page)

Putting her hand on his arm, she squeezed. “I like arrogant men.”

He grinned at her. “Sure, love. I always knew that.”

She turned her attention to the screen as the movie began. Whatever else she had to say about him, one thing was very clear—he was easy to be with. She looked forward to spending more time with him. When she was around him, her life turned interesting—and that was all she wanted.

Chapter Two

Marco was shaken when he saw Ned. Although he didn’t say anything to Stacy because he didn’t want to upset her, Marco was more than a hundred percent sure that Ned wasn’t as unaffected by the revelation as he pretended to be. He was pissed off. It was with an effort that he didn’t show his true feelings, but Marco read them in his eyes.

The man was going to come back, and he was going to make trouble.

But Marco didn’t believe in borrowing trouble. He already got way too much of it in his line of work. Right now, all he wanted to do was enjoy his time with Stacy. She was a delight in every possible way. While her words amused him, her presence disturbed him. The scent of her assailed his nostrils. His lips ached to roam over every inch of her skin, but of course he controlled his desire with a momentous effort. They were having a good time, and he didn’t want to spoil her enjoyment. It was obvious that she was having the time of her life; it seems it was quite a long time since she experienced such a mundane activity. Rather than think about this situation, he tried to concentrate on the movie.

Much to his surprise, he actually enjoyed the movie. Marco liked romantic comedies, but he hadn’t wanted to admit it to her. It didn’t go with his image of the tough guy, but she’d caught on pretty fast. The woman was smart, and he enjoyed interacting with her. When the movie came to an end, he picked up his empty popcorn carton. Hers was still half full.

“You didn’t like it?”

“We should have shared one,” she said as they made their way to the exit. “We’re going to have dinner now.”

“Of course.”

“How will you eat?”

He patted his stomach. “Don’t worry about my appetite, love. I can handle a steak right now with no problem.”

“Steak? I was thinking more of grabbing a pizza. There is an Italian place outside, and their pizzas are to die for. I just love the thin crusts they make. The whole family is from Italy. Of course, they have been here for three generations now, but they still retain the culture and the…” She turned around to look at him. He was standing a few feet away, glaring at a couple of men who were lounging against a pillar. “What happened?”

“Wait right here,” he said in a harsh voice. Marco strode forward. The two men belonged to the Romans, a rival bike club that was involved in a series of fights with Marco’s club for a long, long time. What the hell were they doing here? He strode over and glowered at them.

Looking unperturbed, they stared right back. “What?” said one of them.

“Funny. I was about to ask you that.” He closed the gap between them so that he was standing right next to one. “Didn’t see you inside so you weren’t watching the movie.”

“We don’t like love stories, dude,” sneered one.

“He doesn’t like them either, but he was doing it to please his girlfriend. Nice lady, by the way. Way too cute for you. Haven’t seen her before,” said the larger of the two.

He was definitely cockier than the other. Marco considered planting a fist in his face, but he didn’t really want trouble in front of Stacy. Sure, he was comfortable taking on two of them, but he didn’t want to subject her to a brawl. This was a part of his life, but she wasn’t used to it. “Shut your mouth. If you look at her again, I will tear out your eyes and put them in your palm.”

“Man! He is a feisty one. Wes told us that you wouldn’t come easily.”

“What the fuck do you mean?”

They both straightened. “Wes wants to talk to you, man to man.”

“Whatever he has to say, he can say it to Brandon.”

Simon, the other chief of the Sons of Judah, was the one talking to them in a bid to maintain some peace among the two clubs. This wasn’t Marco’s domain, and he didn’t want to rush into an arena that wasn’t his to begin with. Brandon and Simon wouldn’t like such a move, and he didn’t want to piss off anyone in his club. Moreover, he liked to follow the rules, and one of the simple ones was to let everyone who was assigned a job do it. This wasn’t his duty, and he didn’t feel the need to comply with their demands.

“He wants you to come in and have a conversation. No fight. No issues. Just a straight talk, and you can then decide what you want to do,” said the bigger one.

He was tempted. Perhaps he could sort out this mess. This war had gone on for too long, and Marco wished for it to come to an end. There was a time when he knew Wes. Before he joined this bike club, Marco used to hang out with Wes and his crowd in a bar some nights. It was a casual sort of thing, and although he considered joining them, he didn’t like Wes’s confrontational attitude and stayed away from them. He might be able to use that friendship to diffuse the situation, but he was quite sure Brandon wouldn’t approve of his taking matters in his own hands.

“I don’t think so.”

“Hey! You’re going to regret it,” said the same guy. “Wes doesn’t like to hear no.”

“In that case, he’d better get used to it. I am not coming.”

Marco turned to leave, but the guy grabbed his arm. His fist clenched, but he glanced at Stacy who was eyeing the whole scene with eyes that were as wide as saucers.
Damn it! Not in front of her, not now.
“Take your hands off me.”

The man did as he was told. Perhaps he realized that he’d crossed some kind of a limit because he grimaced. “Sorry about that. We don’t want a fight. Wes only asked us to bring you in peacefully.”

“I am not going peacefully or otherwise so tell him to mind his own business. I don’t want anything to do with your club, and if he has anything to say to me, he should send the message through the proper channels.” Marco walked away. Although he was scared they might follow him, he was glad that they backed off.

“What was that about?” asked Stacy as soon as he reached her.

He grabbed her hand and tugged her along. The sooner they got out of this place, the better it was. He didn’t want her to be embroiled in his trouble, and those two men were asking for it. If they approached him again, he would have to teach them a lesson. Much to his relief, the men strode away, and he left the mall with Stacy. They made their way to the pizza parlor, but the earlier euphoric mood had vanished. She was quiet, and so was he.

After they ordered, he leaned back. She took out her phone, checked her messages, and then placed it back in the bag. Then, she wiped a hand over her hair and glanced around. “Pretty quiet, isn’t it?”

“You can ask me questions about that incident.”

“Oh!” She opened her mouth and then closed it. Tapping her fingers on the table, she studied him. “It’s just I thought you might not like it if I poked my nose into your business.”

“I am not a mafia gang leader and my job isn’t highly secret. Shit! Look,”—he leaned forward—“I know that this is new territory for you. Frankly, it is for me, too. Most of the women I have dated—ever since I joined the club—have been the ones who have hung around bikers. They know the score. In fact, most of them are onto the gossip and sometimes supply information to the chiefs. You’re…not like that. You’re different, and I appreciate that.”

“My ex-husband’s job might have been white collar, but there was a lot of shit going on in his life. I was told not to interfere too much, and I understand that men don’t like to talk shop at home.”

“I am not like your ex-husband.”

She raised her hand and then dropped it on the table. “Sorry. I didn’t mean…”

“It’s alright.” He ran a hand through his hair, feeling more flustered than ever before. “It’s been a hell of an evening. Frankly, I’ve been a little uneasy ever since I saw Ned. He wasn’t too happy about seeing me either. And then those men…. The thing is I don’t have issues if you want to ask questions. As long as it doesn’t breach the confidentiality I owe my boss, I don’t mind talking shop.”

“So who were those men?”

He almost smiled at the curiosity in her eyes. She was relishing this, as if it was the most exciting adventure of her life. He didn’t blame her. But of course for him, it was just another ordinary day and a normal incident. “They belonged to the rival club.” He filled her in on the intricacies of biker club etiquettes. “I couldn’t go and talk to their boss until I have permission from mine, and that was just something they didn’t want to understand.”

“Maybe they want you to go against your boss.”

“Why would they?”

The waiter came with the pizza, and they both dug in. He admired a woman who could eat a pizza with as much enjoyment as she ate a three-course meal at a fine restaurant. “They might want to lure you into their club, and the best way for that to happen would be for you to be kicked out of this one.”

He shook his head as he scooped up a slice of pizza. “It’s not as cloak and dagger as it is made out to be in books and movies. We’re pretty straight-forward people. If they wanted me to join, they would have sent that message to me.”

She shrugged. “Just a thought.  Hope you guys solve this problem soon enough.”

“It will take some time,” he said. “This battle has been brewing for some time, and I don’t think it’s going to be over in one day.”

“Don’t you get scared sometimes?”

“Yes, I do,” he admitted honestly. He gazed at her as she ate her pizza. Her creamy skin glowed in the light, and her soft, pink lips looked so inviting. He wanted to dive in and taste her along with the pizza. The woman damn near stole his breath away by simply being who she was. His body ached to be with her, and he reminded himself to be patient. She was going home with him tonight, and there was plenty of time to make love to her.

Was she as impatient as he was?

He couldn’t quite tell. Marco was just glad to have her in his life. It was the first time that he was with someone whom he considered special beyond words. That was the reason why he’d kept her as a secret for so long. His friend Simon wanted to meet her, but Marco was stalling. Once the news got out that he was dating Ned’s ex-wife, things might take an ugly turn, and he wanted to avoid that. Of course, now that Ned was in on the secret, there wasn’t much time left.

“Don’t you think…?” She leaned back and then shook her head. “Nothing.”

“No, tell me what it is.”

“Nah, it was nothing.”

He studied her. It was obviously something important because she wasn’t quite meeting his eyes. Over the weeks that he knew her, Marco had learned to read her body language. She wasn’t looking at him, which meant she was avoiding something, and he wanted to know what it was. “Tell me,” he asked. “Please,” he added for good measure.

She sighed. “Don’t you sometimes wonder what would have happened if you picked another profession?”

“Like maybe a police man?”

“You didn’t have to compare to something completely opposite to yours, but I can totally see you in a job that requires you to meet people or even to deal with suppliers. You could have gotten a job easily enough in any organization.”

“I barely completed high school. My parents wanted me to complete college, but I just wasn’t into studies.”

“There are plenty of people who are doing great stuff without getting college degrees.”

“Don’t say Steve Jobs. The poor guy has been held up as the poster child for those who mess up their childhood and make it big later on. Plus, I don’t have his brains. He was ahead of his time.”

“He made the times fit his vision of the world, and that’s saying something. But sure, he is just one of the examples. You could have started a business.”

“And what would that have been?” He enjoyed the theoretical debate. Sure, sometimes he wondered if there was something better out there, but he loved to ride his bike, and it was difficult to find like-minded people out of the club. He had found many great friends, and he liked his life. Yes, there was danger in it, and he was sometimes worried about getting involved in something way over his head, but so far he kept to the right side of the law. He might have broken some bones and paid a price for it by going to jail, but it wasn’t ever anything serious.