Taking a Dare - A Hellion MC Novel (9 page)

Anymore than Dare could help bringing his mouth to
hers thereby ending their laughter and their talking but taking
them in a direction it seemed they'd always been destined to
go.

*.*.*.*.*

One minute we were laughing at a shared remembrance
and the next his lips were on mine as if it was the most natural
thing in the world. It sure felt like it was with the easiness of
how our mouths initially touched without hesitation or any measure
of reluctance on either side. And maybe because the kiss started
when our laughter ended, it was sweet. Soft and gentle. Although it
didn't stay that way for long.

The press of our mouths soon changed to something
that was more yielding yet demanding all at the same time. And that
included a gentle sucking in between the wet gliding passes as our
lips moved against each other.

It was slow.

It was deliberate.

And it was everything a 'welcome back' kiss should
be.

Becoming even more so as he licked his way inside my
mouth until his tongue suavely caressed mine with such slow, lazy
passion, I moaned aloud. I felt his mouth firm and knew he was
trying to restrain a grin at the noise I'd made, but I couldn't
help it. Any more than I could help how my hands had wandered up
and threaded themselves in his hair, holding him to me.

Or how his arms had wrapped themselves around my
waist, pulling me until we were pressed chest to chest. That was,
until he twisted and brought me to partially lay across his lap,
taking our endless kiss even deeper and allowing the intensity of
it to grow.

I couldn't tell how long it went on for. It could've
been simply minutes or even hours for all I knew or cared. But it
was like our mouths had ten years to catch up on and were
determined to get it done all at one time…all with one kiss.

And still it went on, gaining momentum while turning
hot and sexy causing us to swallow each other's moans and groans
even while hands grew restless to feel and to touch. Soon the
wanting turned to need and we again shifted our bodies, craving
more contact, seeking more areas to caress and have stroked.

When we did finally come up for air, I found I was
flat on my back on the tabletop with Dare leaning over me one of
his thick thighs shoved between mine and he was pressed tight into
my side. I was using a huge bicep as a pillow and felt his other
hand on one of my ass cheeks between the leathers and my panties.
One of my hands was still twined in the hair at the back of his
head while the other was underneath his t-shirt, rubbing the smooth
skin of his back.

I wondered if my face showed the same evidence of
desire as his did with half-hooded eyes, swollen but well used lips
and flushed cheeks. If my heavy breathing bordered on panting like
his did. Or if my hips movements on his thigh where I was rubbing
myself on him was echoed in the hard, thick length he was grinding
against my hipbone.

"I need to go, cowboy," I whispered as his lips came
back to sweep over mine.

"Christ, what you do to me," he mumbled thickly even
as he moved his hand from my ass to sweep his palm over my side,
his thumb grazing my breast. Looking deeply into my eyes, I felt
the tension between us ramp up again. "Ten years, Ryley. Ten
fuckin' years I've waited to kiss you again."

My grin only mirrored his but his fervently murmured
words hooked and landed in every throbbing part of my body.

"Come home with me, sugar." It was a supplication,
pure and simple in its request.

My eyes searched his face again and I felt my arms
tighten around him. I wanted to. God knows how I yearned to. At
that moment, I would've followed Dare anywhere just to remain with
him in order to finally
be
with him.

I couldn't though, not until I'd taken care of a
couple of issues. When Dare and I got together I didn't want
anything, not one goddamn thing, to stand between us.

"Can I take a rain check on that, cowboy?" I asked
and watched the intensity in his eyes dim a bit. "I'm not saying
no—just not tonight. Okay?"

He didn't saying anything for a couple of heartbeats
which was long enough for me to realize he didn't like my
answer.

But, it was the only answer I could give him at that
moment. "That was one helluva kiss though. Been saving it for ten
years, huh? Was it worth it?" I wanted to get us back to the
lighthearted fun rather than leave him with his boxers in a
bunch.

"Maybe. Maybe not," he chuckled as we untwined and
sat up, both of us adjusting our clothes. "Guess we'll need to
fuckin' do it again just to see, yeah?"

"Horn dog," I teased, swinging my legs off the table.
The loss of his body heat was the reason for my shivers. At least,
that's what I told myself.

"Temptress," he shot back reaching to steady me but
his arm slid further around and he pulled me into his chest for a
tight hug. "Don't want to let you go, sugar."

I leaned my head against his chest and gripped him
tighter. "Yeah, cowboy. I know."

I didn't want to let him go either but there was no
way I could take it further with Dare without resolving the shit in
my life first.

March.

Then my dear old dad and the control I'd let him have
over me and my life.

Chapter Nine

"Baby?" Dallas called from somewhere around Trey's
chest. They were both replete with their night's doings, him on his
back and her curled up alongside him, head on his pec.

"Right here, Tex," he replied on a yawn.

"Overheard something weird tonight."

"Weird, how?"

"As in that Gus guy talking to Ryley about Dare,"
came the sleepy reply.

"Gus is, was and will always be a fucking asshole."
Trey had no problem in naming the other Prez for exactly what he
was.

"No, baby. Listen. He was telling Ryley to stay away
from Dare, saying our boy was shit and that Dare had caused their
family a lot of trouble." Trey heard a deep sigh before his fiancée
and love of his life continued speaking.

Fucking Christ!

That goddamn, motherfucking asshole!

"How could he do that, baby? She's his daughter for
god's sake! You can't tell a grown woman who they can or can't be
interested in!" Dallas's temper was very evident in her words. "I
can't imagine my parents ever even telling me we couldn't be a
family because they didn't like you. And for Gus to talk about Dare
like that? Our Dare?"

Trey could feel his own temper rising, knowing Miller
and Mary wouldn't ever consider giving their Lally grief over her
choice in men. "Gus came to me earlier and told me to get rid of
Dare too. Told me that Spokane would give Missoula support as long
as Dare was out of the picture. Even told me to send Dare's ass to
Sheridan until Spokane went home if I couldn't get rid of Dare
completely."

"Completely? You mean like…"

"Yeah, honey. Gus wants me to pull Dare's cut." It
was Trey's turn to sigh. "Shit went down years ago and I don't
think Gus or his son, Leif, have ever gotten over it."

"And it has to do with Ryley and Dare?" Trey could
almost hear the gears in Dallas's head spinning as she tried to put
all the pieces together.

"Yeah. Yeah, it does," he admitted. "Though why that
bit of happening has echoed in their house for all this
time..."

"What are you going to do, Trey?" she interrupted,
turning her face up to his and he found himself, as he did every
time, lost in her nickel-colored gaze. He moved his hand, the one
that had been drawing aimless patterns on her back, down to her ass
as he thought over his options.

"I'm gonna do what I do best, pretty girl. Let my man
make his own decision," he offered on a rumble, knowing it was
gonna be one of the hardest conversations he'd ever had. "He has a
right to know what's doing and to figure out what he wants to do
for himself."

She scooted herself up his body until her face was
level with his.

"You are the most amazing man I've ever met." Her
face, only partially seen in the moonlight, matched her tone in
sincerity. "I love you, Trey."

Without a blink, Trey rolled his woman onto her back,
again situating his hips between her creamy thighs. "Then show me,
Tex. Show me how much you love me."

"With pleasure, baby…" came the mumble in their lip
on lip action.

*.*.*.*.*

When I pulled out of the Hellion parking lot, I'd had
every intention of going to Lock's. But the Escalade seemed to have
a different mind and I found myself pulling into the Rosemont.

I wasn't really surprised by how I'd decided to have
it out with my dad. It had been brewing between us for a long time.
A looonnnggg-assed time. And as I adjusted my purse on my shoulder,
only marginally aware of how my boots thudded against the motel's
asphalt, I considered what I was going to say to him.

"That's room 210, miss," the clerk's tinny voice
announced through the double glass as I'd slipped two twenties into
the sliding drawer and shoved back his direction.

"Thanks," I murmured without thinking and held onto
the strap of my purse as I ascended the stairs.

I just needed to get to the bottom of this, make my
old man understand that he didn't need to control me every second
of every day. That I was a grown-up woman and could take charge of
my own life.

It was a reasonable argument.

A logical one.

And something I knew he'd never go for—not in a
thousand years.

Shit!

I did the soft, socially acceptable three knocks on
room 210's door.

"Who the fuck is there?" came the shouted challenge.
"Can't you see the do not disturb sign? Fuck!"

"It's me, Pops," I called out, trying to keep my
voice soft knowing the other Hellions that'd made the run were in
residence on that floor. "I need to talk with you."

"Christ, Ryley," I heard him bellow in an exasperated
tone. "Shit! Give me a second."

There were murmurings and rustlings with even a door
slam before my dad opened the front portal wearing nothing but a
pair of jeans, his hair loose on his shoulders.

"What is so motherfucking important you gotta show up
in the goddamn middle of the night to talk to me about!" he
bellowed irately even as his hand waved me into the room.

Parking my purse next to one of the wooden chairs
next to a battered table, I turned to him and answered, "why does
me being with Dare bother you so much?"

I watched him run a hand through his hair as his eyes
darted to the closed door of his bathroom. "Because he's a shit,
girl. No family, nothing of his own. He's a lowlife and a brother
that only knows how to cause trouble."

"That's not true." The words were out of my mouth
before I could even think them through. "He's got a great job with
the HC. He's a manager and is responsible for—"

"Don't give a shit what he's in charge of, Ryley. He
almost destroyed you before and you know it!" My father's voice was
no longer in the bellowing range but had escalated to a
full-throated roar. "I got you away from him before and I'm not
fucking letting him hurt you again!"

I could feel my eyes blinking as I tried to think of
how to counter his words. "He didn't almost destroy me. It was me,
Pops, me and my reaction that caused all the upset…"

"Bullshit!" This was said so loud even the big
picture window covered by the drapes rattled in its tracks. "I
brought you here so you could see what a piece of crap that boy
turned out to be. You're March's girl now. Stick with the program
and everything will be okay."

I could feel my eyes narrow as my mind tried to make
sense of what he was saying. Really? He thought that by making me
come to Missoula that I would see Dare and realize that the love of
my youth was crap and that March was my man?

Seriously?

"That's not how my heart works, Pop," I challenged
and even I could hear the stubbornness in my voice.

"But that's how it needs to fucking work, princess,"
he ground out equally as determined.

We eyed each other for a time before I decided he'd
already made up his mind and wasn't going to change it. At least
not that night. My stomach was in knots at the possibility that he
never would, not when it came to Dare.

Grabbing my purse I stood and stepped to the closed
door across the room. "Need to use the bathroom then I'll get outta
your hair."

"No! Ryley, wait," he said, jumping towards me as I
turned the knob on the door. As it opened, I saw Dee wrapped up in
a bed sheet and pressed against the side of the tub.

"Oh," I said, trying to keep my jaw off the floor and
the shock from my voice. "Hey, Dee."

"Ryley," she offered with a shaky grin.

I closed the door and set my purse on the counter.
"Need to pee, if that's okay."

"Have at it," she said with an imperial wave towards
the commode.

I unzipped my leathers and began to wiggle them down.
"Guess you heard, huh?"

"Hard to miss, baby girl," she rejoined.

I sat myself down before turning my eyes to her. "You
and Pops, huh?"

"Yeah," she breathed, her cheeks flushing with her
words as her eyes looked at anything but me.

"This the first or the first I've heard of it?" I
questioned, winding the toilet paper around my fingers.

"Uhm," came her soft reply.

"Okay. The first I heard of it," I determined aloud.
I stood and pushed on the handle, filling the silence with the hard
flush of the toilet. Yanking my pants up and zipping them, I eyed
her. "The old man works for you?"

All I got was a soft nod in reply but then she tacked
on, "don't like his attitude about you and Dare, though."

I washed my hands while holding her eyes. "Me either,
Dee." Stepping towards her, I gave her a hug. "Glad your giving
Pops some of the Honey-sweet."