Sly (10 page)

I’d only known this girl for a day and a half and already she’d worked some spell on me. I didn’t know what tomorrow would bring or the day after that. I only knew I wanted to do anything I could to keep her in my life. I wanted her body, her soul, her secrets. I shook my head and drew her close.
 

“Fuck me, woman. You’re gonna be the death of me.”
 

Chapter Eight

Scarlett
 

Sly smiled when he slept. He dozed off for just a few moments as I held him against me. I traced the curve of his cheek, touching that sweet dimple. The movement brought him awake and for just that second, he forgot where he was. For an instant, the darkness I knew Sly Cullinan kept inside of him rose to the surface. He set his mouth into a grim line, his eyes went cold, and he balled his fists at his sides. Then he woke fully and the light came back into his eyes and he flashed me that devastating smile that set my blood to simmer. Sly reached up and pulled me down to him. The air seemed to go out of my lungs, lust in his eyes clear and present. He ran his thumb over his bottom lip where I knew he still tasted me.
 

I didn’t know if I believed the things he said. I wanted to. But when he talked about what he’d had to do to save the club, I swear I saw into his soul, or what was left of it. I’d seen that same look back at the bar last night. He was cold menace and fury, wanting to use his fists to pound the shit out of the guy who had drugged me. Sly Cullinan, the outlaw. My protector. Except he was in far graver danger from me and it made me shudder.
 

You’re gonna be the death of me.
 

“I have to get back to the Den,” he said. He sat up then slid out of the bed. My eyes followed his perfect, taut ass as he crossed the room. He was full-on smolder as he looked at me and leaned down to pick up his jeans and threw them on the chair.
 

It was late afternoon now. We’d spent the day in bed together. It was so careless of me. Everything I’d done since meeting this man had been careless. I had to remember who he was. Who I was. I had a job to do. Kagan hadn’t given me a timetable and I wouldn’t have allowed it if he did. Still, I’d had about forty chances to finish this job ... finish Sly. And yet I hadn’t.
 

“But I want to see you again. Tonight,” he said. Before I could say anything else, he crawled across the bed, and leaning forward he placed a tender kiss on my lips. I sank into it, my body betraying me. My heart fluttered and heat zinged through me, settling between my legs. I should stop this. But what would happen if I let it go on? God. My knees went weak from the thought of letting him take me again. It would be the fourth time, or maybe the fifth. I’d actually lost count. I ached in every muscle, but the thought of starting up again made me quake with desire.
 

“You mind if I grab a quick shower before I head out?” He was already standing in the bathroom doorway. “Feel free to join in.”
 

I drew my knees up and rested my chin on them. “I don’t even think I can stand upright yet. I don’t know how you can.”
 

Sly laughed and I loved the sound of it: husky and filled with sin. “We can save that for next time then. How about I swing by around seven? The guys weren’t kidding about you having dinner with us.”
 

“I don’t know,” I said. “Let’s just see how the rest of the day goes. I’ve got a few calls to make.”
 

Sly nodded but shot me a look. He didn’t mean to take no for an answer. Then he went into the bathroom and turned on the shower. He closed the door behind him, leaving me in relative solitude for the first time in almost twenty-four hours.
 

It left me with the perfect chance. Do it quick. Do it clean. My heart quickened and my fingers trembled, itching to hold my gun. There would be no better time or place.  Better here than on his turf. How long before anyone from the club would start to miss him? Dinner time was still a few hours away. Plenty of time for me to disappear into the wind.
 

“Water’s warm, Scarlett,” he called out.
 

I reached over to the nightstand and grabbed my purse. Keeping my eyes on the bathroom door, I pulled out my Glock and gripped it like a talisman, warding off the rising tide of lust I felt at the thought of Sly naked on the other side of that door. But that was just my body talking. He’d awakened some primal need in me, but now as I felt the weight of my weapon in my hands, I felt a different kind of need.
This
is who I was. This is what I was born to do. Thinking for even half a second that I could have anything normal with Sly or anyone else was a distraction. Some deep part of me resented Sly for even making me feel that normal for even half a second.  It was a distraction I didn’t need and now was the time to rectify it.
 

I checked the magazine and snapped it back into the barrel, the familiar click sending a shiver of pleasure up my spine not unlike I felt when Sly touched me for the first time. This was a different kind of craving but I enjoyed the rush just the same.
 

 I had one in the chamber. Black Talon ammo. Strong enough to drive through tissue like a knife through butter. It would be quick, clean, straight between the eyes. Sly would never feel a thing. If he saw me at all, if he even registered what was about to happen, it would be over for him before he could blink.
 

I slid out of the bed and walked to the bathroom door, pressing myself against the wall. He’d made this easier than he ever could have realized. Even if it did go wrong, and it never did, naked as I was, it would be easier to clean up.
 

It was a job. He was just a job. I closed my eyes, tried to shut my mind to everything we’d done, everything he’d said, everything that made my heart pound like it did.
 

I pushed the door open. Steam rose above the silver shower curtain. I could see the outline of Sly’s perfect form behind it. I raised my arms.
 

Sight. Alignment. Target identified. Shoot small. Exhale. Squeeze. Two seconds. Don’t blink. Boom. My heart thundered behind my breast. The small hairs along my back stood on end, my spine tingled with the promise of a different kind of release. My arms shuddered, beads of sweat dripped down my brow.
 

I blinked.
 

Two things happened at once. I dropped my arms and stepped back, holding the gun behind me at the small of my back. Sly snapped the shower curtain back and called out to me.
 

“Hey,” he said, his mouth curving into that wicked smile as I stood naked before him. The cold metal of my gun stabbed against my back. “Get in here.”
 

I smiled back at him. “It looks like you’re already done.”
 

He turned and twisted the knob. “Plenty of hot water left. Come here.”
 

I took a step back and leaned against the door frame, letting my arm drop behind the wall. “I’ll be right there.” My hands trembled and I blew out a hard breath trying to make them still.
 

As Sly turned back toward the spray of water, I slipped my gun behind the dresser closest to the wall then walked into the bathroom to join him for the fifth time ... or maybe it was the sixth.
 

Chapter Nine

Sly
 

It was well past dinner when I finally left Scarlett at the Hansen. I’d catch hell from Mo but it would be worth it. Though she wouldn’t come back to the club with me, she promised not to leave town before seeing me again. I had business I couldn’t put off another day but we had plans to meet up the next night. I had half a mind to put somebody on the hotel to watch her. I didn’t want to take the chance she’d change her mind and bolt without saying goodbye.
 

I went through the motions of the next day, taking all the appointments I’d blown off during my fuck fest with Scarlett. I couldn’t shake the feel of her body as she’d pressed herself against me. I could barely function at all, just counting the minutes until I could see her again.
 

“Mr. Cullinan!”
 

“Wait. What?” The kid at the loading dock snapped me back to reality by waving a clipboard and a pen in front of my eyes.
 

“You just need to sign here and we can start unloading the truck.”
 

“Right.” I signed the paper and the kid gave a nod to his companions so they could haul the kegs down into the bar cellar. “Thanks. Big John and Sawyer will help you if you have any other questions. Otherwise I’ll see you next month.” The kid gave me a salute, I tossed a few bills into his palm and I went back inside. I seriously had to get my head back in the game. Everyone was bound to figure out something was up.
 

Colt had just got back from his meeting with the fight club promoters at the gym. We were trying to lock down a new venue on the east coast. It was an important link in the chain to the long-term security of our franchise. Never again would the Great Wolves be dependent on connections to anyone like the Pagano crime family. Never again would we have to worry about the feds breathing down our necks.
 

“You ready to talk, Prez?” Colt yelled to me from across the bar.
 

I nodded. “Tell me the good news.”
 

Colt and Sawyer met me in my office. I sat behind my desk and they perched themselves on different sides of our conference table. Colt gave me the rundown on how their meetings went. All good. The promoters had a couple of questions and demands, but nothing that would kill the deal or that we couldn’t handle.
 

I nodded, asked a few questions, but still my mind was elsewhere. The way Scarlett looked in those tight denim shorts when I first saw her as she bent over the bike in Benny’s shop. The curve of her hip in her killer red dress the other night. How she cocked her head and licked her lips right before she asked me to kiss her. How she came to me in the shower, lust flashing in her eyes, her skin on fire before I even touched her. Fuck.  And everything we’d done after that. I had it bad for this one. I adjusted my dick in my jeans, hoping the guys wouldn’t notice. In fact, the hell with it if they did. Scarlett was hot and Colt and Sawyer would have been fighting over her if they didn’t already know she was mine.
 

“Boss!” Sawyer picked up a pencil and chucked it at my head. “What the hell’s the matter with you?”
 

I smiled “Sorry. Just got a few things on my mind today.”
 

Colt shook his head. He’d taken a seat and tilted his chair back to cross his leather-booted feet on the table. He hooked his hands behind his head and glared at me with those damn brown eyes so dark they were impossible to read. The guy looked like an honest-to-God pirate sometimes with his coal-black hair, dark brows and thick lashes. We teased him constantly and accused him of wearing guyliner. Colt, the rock-star biker.
 

“Would you just go ahead and fuck her already?” Sawyer said. “Spare the rest of us the torture.”
 

Sawyer was laughing but Colt’s eyes were still hard.
 

“Pretty sure he already did. Is that where you were yesterday? You know you had the rest of us kind of worried,” Colt said.
 

“You got some sort of problem?” I asked him, I sure as shit didn’t like his tone.
 

Colt shrugged and leaned forward, dragging his feet from the table and letting the legs of his chair slam against the floor. “Not a specific problem, no. The girl’s a knockout. No question. But something’s off.”
 

“Like what?”
 

Colt shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s just, we still don’t know what to make of what happened to you up at the cliff the other night. We’ve gotten nowhere at Benny’s place. His security tapes are nonexistent. Nobody seems to know anything. But you and I both know there’s no way your bike wasn’t fucked with, right? And then you go off and disappear for twenty-four hours.”
 

“I don’t need a fucking babysitter.” Which was true, but Colt had a great point I was willing to acknowledge. I hadn’t kept the club where it was by being careless. And I knew that bike like it was part of me. Colt was right: what happened the other night made no sense unless someone had deliberately tampered with it.
 

“We’re one hundred percent it’s nobody left over from Pagano’s crew,” Sawyer said, directing it to Colt. Sawyer had always been sort of the club diplomat. He sensed the tension between Colt and me and I could always count on him to defuse it.
 

Colt raised a brow and looked at me. “Not unless you know something we don’t. Pagano’s beef was with Dex, not you, and not even the club. That shit’s over and Dex is laying low for a little while.”
 

I said a silent prayer of relief that my VP and best friend, Dex, was out of danger and enjoying well deserved R & R. I missed the hell out of him though and wanted him back here. About a dozen times I’d nearly called him to get his take on what happened at the cliff. I stopped
myself. He didn’t need the aggravation. He couldn’t do anything about it anyway. And he’d earned some time away from club bullshit.
 

“So that leaves who, the Hawks?” Sawyer said. “Is there someone who might have had a personal beef with you, Sly?”
 

I shook my head. “I’ve been nothing but my regular charming self. Of course we can’t rule out the Hawks completely, but things have been good and quiet. And we’re not competing for turf with them anymore. Not since we’ve gone one hundred percent legit.”
 

“You’re not thinking it was an inside job?” Sawyer said it and it sent a chill through me. We’d had our share of internal club drama over the years. That’s for sure. And the price of finally getting out of illegal shit had been a steep one. My fingers still twitched with the muscle memory of putting a bullet in the back of the head of one of my own crew. No one doubted it was necessary, but that kind of thing sticks to you, no matter what you do. Still, I trusted each and every one of these guys with my life.