Chapter 17
SEVENTEEN
STONE
I hopped down the stairs of her apartment complex and strode out for my bike.
What the fuck was wrong with her, questioning me like that?
I whipped my leg over my bike and jammed the key in.
I started it up and raced away from her apartment, making my way for the highway.
I was annoyed that she was trying to find out more about the club.
And her calling it a leather cut instead of literally anything else told me she wasn’t new to this scene.
Was she some sort of club bunny? Some sexy-ass woman that hopped around fuckin’ around with men in different clubs?
How many leather cocks had she had stuffed in that tight pussy of hers?
Thinking about other men having her before made me grip the handlebars of my bike.
I felt possessive of her. Defensive. My mind battled itself in an effort to adjudicate her from the anger I felt that was justified.
She just wants to know more about you.
She fuckin’ knew what that was on my jacket.
You think she knows anything? Fishing for information for a competing club?
Hayley isn’t like that. She just wants to be around you.
She’s fuckin’ around with someone else. She’s feedin’ information to someone.
She’s been working at the damn zoo all week. You went by there. Saw her car. Who the hell would she be talking to at the damn zoo about this?
I bit down onto the inside of my cheek. It was true.
I’d gone to the zoo every damn day this week trying to find her car.
And every time I saw it, I had the urge to sit by the damn thing until she was done with work.
Going to the zoo and parkin’ by her car was the only thing that kept me focused all damn week.
It helped keep my head on straight, despite the fact that I knew Hayley had become a weakness.
The club was in too deep for me not to focus. So, I was questioning what helped me to focus.
I cruised down Highway One, heading for the lodge.
I needed a place that wasn’t my damn apartment to clear my head.
I was very annoyed that Hayley wanted information about the club.
Especially since we’d only gotten together twice.
But her wanting that information inferred something about her state of mind that made me grin.
She missed me.
I’d never gone back to a woman twice like that.
Ever. I strapped them to my side for as long as they’d stay with me, but the second they left, they were gone.
Hayley and I parted ways that morning after our first encounter, but most women would’ve stayed in my bed and waited for me to get home.
Waited for me to tear the covers off their bodies and devour them again.
I was the kind of man that could make women cancel work and forgo all their plans just to wait for my dick while I was out and about.
But not Hayley. She had a life she was living. A life she was running. A career she was holding down.
I liked that. A lot.
The crashing of the ocean waves reminded me of our time on the beach.
I pulled over to a lookout and parked my bike, gazing out over the darkened horizon of the ocean.
I reminisced on our time at the beach. I let my cock throb hard against my jeans.
This woman had occupied every free space of my mind for the past week, and I figured fuckin’ her one last time would get her out of my system.
Help me move past her so I could focus on this Boulder shit that had everyone in my club on edge.
But all I found was the smell of her body wafting from my lips up to my nostrils.
You’re in trouble, Stone.
I didn’t even try to fight it. I knew I was.
I was being assaulted from all sides, and that assault included the beautiful vixen named Hayley.
I wanted to let her in. Part of me was pissed off at the fact that I did too.
I wanted to tell her about all the shit the club was experiencing.
I wanted to seek comfort in her body and her beautiful eyes and her wondrous voice.
I wanted to tell her about Boulder and Jett and about the shit my sister went through.
I wanted to tell her what a glorious distraction she was before rolling her over and taking her underneath me again.
But how the hell did I tell shit like that to a woman I’d only seen twice?
I barely knew her. I couldn’t just let her in like that.
I groaned as I pushed away from the lookout and kept heading for the lodge.
Why couldn’t I be like Notch and just see her as a great fuck?
Move on after a couple of times and keep gettin’ what was mine?
Notch filtered through women like underwear, and I wished I had that capacity.
That ability to not give a shit when it was important to not give one.
I thought I was good at it. But this shit with Hayley proved me wrong.
I kept on, pushing forward on my trek toward our seaside lodge.
In hindsight, I’d never been like that. I’d never been the type to hook up and walk off.
I mean, the women I had at my side over the years stayed for a spell.
Even if it was just one week or if it was as long as one year, they stayed.
And I liked that they stayed. Every woman I’d ever come across, I had loved in some form or fashion.
Be it for ten minutes or ten years, they’d earned my love and respect.
Women were beautiful creatures. They possessed things men never would.
They had a strength men never would. They had a deep-seated desire to please and maintain that men never would.
They were the most refreshing breath of fresh air. And I respected the hell out of any woman I came across.
Even if they liked to be bossed around by the big, bad wolf.
All my life, I’d been a one-woman type of guy.
And there was something about Hayley that kept dragging me back.
That kept pulling me back to the zoo just to sit by her car.
That kept forcing me to look at her card and memorize her office number.
After this whirlwind of a week, I had been ready to see her.
Ready to kiss her. Ready to fall into her and forget about everything.
The shipment came in, and Notch had received it.
He’d gotten in touch with Harry Cheng to let him know we had it.
Then, that phone call set of a cascade of events that kept the damn club up most nights.
Our clients that wanted those guns had to chase us all over the damn city.
Every hour on the hour, we were racing to somewhere new.
Racing to try and meet the next discount client to unload the guns and the heat they brought down onto our backs, all the while checking for Boulder.
For Detective Terry Woolf. Trying to make sure we kept our noses clean in all this.
It had been a whirlwind of money exchanged and cleaned.
Guns turned over and shipments cleared out.
Now, the next shipment of guns Jin Yung had forced upon us was about to dock and we had to do this shit all over again.
Hayley was a beautiful distraction from all that shit. But when push came to shove, I had to protect her from it. Even if it meant staying away from her. Even if it meant only having her car in the parking lot of her work to sit by and reminisce at.
You got it bad, Stone. Very, very bad.
The further I rode away from her apartment, the closer I grew to the lodge.
But the closer I grew to the lodge, the more I wanted to turn back and go fix things.
The more distance I put between us, the less I really wanted to.
I wanted to whip a U-turn, race back to her place, barge through her door, and scoop her into my arms. I wanted to fall right back into bed with her and fuck her beautiful body while she called out my name.
I wanted to pull pleasure from her body until she begged me to stop. Until she couldn’t take anymore.
I wanted to lay down beside her until the sun rose without a care in this cold, God-forsaken world.
You can’t worry about that right now.
I pulled my bike into the parking lot of the lodge.
Bronx’s bike was already here. Probably crunching numbers from all the damn sales we’d made this week.
Trying to figure out how much we could stick into our pockets and how much needed to funnel back into the purchase of this latest shipment.
I turned my bike off and forced myself to push Hayley from my mind.
Bronx was just the man I needed to see to help finalize the plans for this last shipment.
At least monetarily, he was. I’d have to contact Notch about the specific ports this shit was coming into. But I could do that tomorrow.
I made my way for the lodge, breathing in the scent of Hayley against my lips one last time.
Then, I wiped my lips off on my black t-shirt and walked up the steps to the front door.
Time to get some fuckin’ work done.