Chapter Fourteen
“You are not chickening out!” Marisol yelled.
Despite the volume control on her phone, the order was still loud enough to make Elena wince.
“How’d you—” She looked back towards Medina’s to see if her best friend was stalking her from the taco shop she had just left. “Are you a witch or something?”
“I’m not a witch,” Marisol huffed. “I just know you’re a pussy.”
“Pffft.” Elena followed up the raspberry with a snort for good measure. “I’m not a pussy.”
“Ha!” her now ex-best friend laughed in her ear. “Prove it. Go to the restaurant and meet your three bikers. I dare ya. No, wait. I take that back. I double dog dare you. ”
Elena rolled her eyes. “Real mature, ‘Sol. What are we, twelve?” Her pace slowed as she approached her favorite downtown Thai restaurant. “And stop calling them my bikers.”
“’Lena, from what you told me earlier, those guys are definitely your bikers. Take a hit off your pen, chill the fuck out, and go have fun.”
“I can’t believe you’re encouraging this,” she grumbled, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk. “Mamma J would be so disappointed.”
“That’s exactly why I’m encouraging this!” Marisol admitted without shame. “I’m catholic, so I live vicariously through you. You know this!”
“You’re crazy,” Elena chuckled as she started walking again. This wasn’t the first time she’d heard that line. ‘Sol had used that excuse since their teens.
“I’m honest,” her friend defended. “My mom would lose her shit if I came home with more than one dick.”
“I know that’s true.”
“If you won’t do this for me, do it for you. You need to get laid. How long has it been now?”
“Ugh,” she groaned, unable to remember if it was early last year or the year before. Either way, the hookup hadn’t been worth the effort she’d put into getting ready for it. The next day she decided to ditch real dicks and just buy a fancy vibrator. It had cost her a pretty penny, but she’d had zero regrets—until now. She had a feeling her previously beloved rod-o-pleasure wasn’t going to be nearly as satisfying now.
Not when all she could think about was her three, big-dicked bikers.
“Fine. I’ll go.”
“Yay!”
She rolled her eyes at Marisol’s cheer.
“Don’t get too excited,” Elena warned. “I’m not saying anything’s gonna happen.”
“Boooooooo.”
“Seriously?” she laughed as her friend continued with the annoying sound for an excessive amount of time.
“I’ve never been more serious in my life, ‘Lena. If anyone deserves the devotion of three men, it’s you. Now get off the phone and go get ‘em.”
“If you follow that up with a ‘yeehaw’ I’m hanging up.”
“Party pooper.”
“Oh my god.” Elena stopped in her tracks. Standing outside the restaurant, were her three deliciously hot bikers. “They showed up.”
“Of course, they showed up,” Marisol said with a giggle. “Why wouldn’t they?”
Elena blinked. Where should she start?
“I can think of a few reasons,” she whispered unable to keep a flood of insecurities from running through her mind. The first one being that she wasn’t their type—according to the photographic evidence she’d seen. Elena wasn’t even close. Her legs were short, she had more than one chin, and her curvy bits had succumbed to gravity a long time ago. If she were to lay on her back, her tits were in her armpits. She was the total opposite of the bombshell in their phone.
“Stop it right now,” her best friend ordered. “You are an amazing woman and I’m not saying that just because you’re like a sister. You’re funny, smart, gorgeous, and a million other things I don’t have time to list, ‘Lena. You’re a fucking catch.”
“Sure, I am,” she mumbled, going along with the pep talk her friend was determined to deliver.
The scenario Marisol was spinning sounded like something straight out of the dirty books they read. Realistically though, shit like that didn’t happen. That’s why those books were always in the fiction section.
“You got this, bish.”
“If you say so.”
“Just keep an open mind.”
“I will,” she answered despite knowing it was already a lost cause.
Her brain wouldn’t let her keep an open mind even if she tried. She’d been through too much shit for that to happen, starting with her fucked up childhood. The emotional trauma her parents had doled out on a regular basis made sure of that. There was no shaking the abandonment issues that stemmed from her past.
Nobody wanted her—nobody ever had.
“Have fun and call me later,” Marisol ordered, pulling Elena out of her head and back into the present.
“Love you,” she replied, startled to find herself surrounded by big, bulky, bodies.
How the fuck did that happen?
She gulped.
With them this close, she couldn’t think of anything other than the tantalizing smell enveloping her. The scent of leather and cloves teased her nose, varying degrees of each radiating off the trio. These guys were pure temptation to her senses, one whiff at a time.
“Hi,” she sighed, unable to form a more coherent greeting.
She needed to see if her favorite candle shop had something similar to the delicious smell—that way she could inhale and moan all she wanted without looking like a weirdo.
“Who do you love?” Pax rumbled with a frown.
“Huh?” Elena looked towards the other two men, hoping to find some clarification but was surprised to see they were also giving her the skunk eye. Now she was really confused. “What’s going on?”
“Who were you talking to, sugar?” Vinyl asked. His expression softened a bit. “Was it the Medina girl?”
“We’re not girls,” she corrected with a frown. She wasn’t quite sure what exactly was happening right now, but the vibe was intense. Pax looked ready to crawl out of his skin, Vinyl was eyeballing her suspiciously, and Tanner was a combo of both.
Then it hit her.
“Did you think I was talking to some other guy?”
“Were you?” Tanner asked, a look of hurt flashing over his face before disappearing just as quickly.
“Not that it’s any of your business but no, I wasn’t.”
She rolled her eyes as all three men visibly relaxed.
“We’re two seconds into this date and you’re already driving me crazy,” she mumbled.
Weirdly, they were also managing to turn her on.
She knew it wasn’t necessarily an appropriate response to their jealousy, but she couldn’t help it. As much as she hated to be ‘that girl’, the attention was flattering. The idea that these three wanted her for their own was as potent as a shot of alcohol. It made her all tingly.
Not that she was about to tell them that.
“And I don’t see how it’s any of your business but yes, I was talking to Marisol.”
“Good,” Pax grunted. He reached for her free hand. “I was worried there for a second that we were going to have to kill someone.”
She rolled her eyes but let him tug her in the direction of the restaurant. Vinyl took position on her other side, slipping his fingers through hers. The moment that link was made, Elena became incredibly aware of the picture they created.
It was obvious to anyone watching that she was with these men—all of them. The realization hit her like a two by four to the face.
Everyone local to Lawrence knew the lifestyle the Iron Seeds MC embraced, so it wasn’t a secret or anything. She’d just never in a million years thought she’d be on this side of the fence. Strangely, the second looks weren’t making her feel shameful; if anything, it made her wish for a third hand so Tanner could be included in the connection.
“I hope you’re hungry,” he said, holding the door open for her to pass.
Elena had a feeling he wasn’t talking about food and Tanner confirmed as much when he leaned in close. The heat in his eyes was unmistakable.
“I know I am.”