Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Muscle n’ Blood
I t was more than just a million memories that came rushing back to Nova as Linc kissed her. He was flirty and commanding. Keeping his tongue to himself, for a second or two. When the tip of his tongue slid along her bottom lip, Nova felt her soul tapping out. Right then and there she would have jumped off a building if Linc told her to.
Dangerous… so fucking dangerous…
A logical part of her brain screamed about the motorcycle club. The outlaws. Their rules. The same part screamed about this room. The smell of other women. That neon-green thong.
It had Linc’s dried cum in it!
And there were other pieces of women’s clothing around the room. Nova wasn’t stupid. She’d seen stuff. But they weren’t together. This wasn’t… anything…
Linc kissed her deeper. He pulled his mouth away and their lips breaking apart echoed around the room. Nova’s head and heart swam a little thanks to the vodka. She never drank this early. Like this. Her pocket suddenly began to vibrate.
“My phone,” Nova whispered.
Maybe it’s Nick! Maybe he’s back home and I can leave this place!
Then again Nova wasn’t sure if that was possible. To just walk out the front door of the clubhouse. She knew she couldn’t even drive off the lot because the gate was shut again. The second Nova looked at her phone screen, all those plans were erased.
“It’s my mother,” Nova said.
Linc backed off and let Nova take the call. She took a few steps and swallowed hard. Then she answered.
“Mom,” she said.
“Where’s my Nicky? Did you find him? Are you looking for him?”
“I didn’t find him yet, Mom.”
“What the hell are you doing?”
Her mother’s voice punched Nova’s eardrum. She moved the phone from her ear and cringed. And she felt embarrassed. Her mother was drunk already.
“Mom, I’m working on it,” Nova said.
“Oh yeah? What exactly have you done?”
Nova looked at the floor and saw another thong. This one pearl white. Nova started to question herself.
“Are you there? Nova! Don’t you dare ignore me! Are you even looking for him? You never loved your brother, did you?”
Nova turned around. She couldn’t look at the thong anymore. She couldn’t feel… Her thoughts vanished when she saw Linc standing without a shirt on. His leather cut on the bed. His T-shirt on the bed. Standing there, leaning against his dresser, beer bottle in his right hand.
Muscle… so much muscle …
And then bandages on his left shoulder. White bandages that were a little dirty with a crimson hue.
“Novaleigh!”
“I have to go, Mom,” Nova said. “I’ll find Nick. I’ll take care of it.”
Nova hung up as her mother screamed into the phone. She found breathing a little bit harder to do. Linc took a drink from his beer bottle. Nova thought her heart was going to just pop.
Instead, a rush of emotion tickled between her legs. Her inner thighs didn’t tremble but they tightened. She felt a tightness in her chest too. More specifically, her breasts. More specifically than that— her nipples.
They knotted. They ached. Signals from her nipples to between her legs bounced back and forth, colliding in her lower belly, leaving her hips restless, leaving her ready to offer herself to Linc. She now understood the collection of thongs and bras and the smell of sex in the room. All logic fled her mind.
“I got shot last night,” Linc said. “When you called and I didn’t answer? There was a doctor digging a bullet out of my shoulder.”
This is how his life is. This is normal.
Nova spoke to herself in her mind as she moved closer to Linc.
This was dangerous. The way these guys lived. Getting shot? A doctor digging the bullet out of his shoulder? That implied Linc didn’t go to a hospital like a normal person injured in such a way.
“You can’t tell me anything else,” Nova said. “I get that.”
“I can tell you anything I want, darling,” Linc said.
For some reason, that comment turned Nova on just as much as seeing Linc shirtless.
“We were set up,” Linc said. “There was an ambush on me. In hindsight maybe I should have figured it out. Not sure if they meant to kill me or just send a message. I survived. Obviously.”
“That’s insane, Linc,” Nova blurted out.
She covered her mouth. She knew that was out of line.
Linc reached for her. He took her right wrist and clamped tight with ease. He pulled her hand toward his shoulder. Nova gasped. Her stomach felt a little bit queasy. She didn’t like blood, violence and death and…
Yet here she was in the belly of the beast. In the clubhouse of a motorcycle club. Not just any motorcycle club either. SOFRAW.
Sins of Fire Real Anarchy West.
Linc placed her hand to his shoulder. Her hand shook.
“I’ll find your brother,” Linc whispered. “But you have to go along with everything.”
“You keep saying that to me, Linc. Should it make me nervous?”
“Very.”
Nova pressed her hand harder to Linc’s wounded shoulder. Her fingertips gently began to curl. She caught herself starting to peel the bandage. It resisted against Linc’s hard skin. He nodded for her to keep going. Nova fought off feeling grossed out and stripped Linc of the bandage.
She gasped at the sight of the wound. The hole. The bullet hole. The nasty looking color around it too.
“You’re sure that’s okay?” Nova asked.
“Yeah, darling. I’ll be fine.”
Linc took the bloody bandage from Nova and walked to the bathroom. Nova looked at herself in the mirror above the dresser. She wanted to keep drinking to settle her nerves some more. But…
In the reflection of the mirror she saw the shirtless Linc walk out of the bathroom with a fresh bandage. She studied his body. His muscles. Tattoos that weren’t there last time she saw him. She remembered his naked skin back in the day. Not a droplet of ink touching him. Now… everything was different.
Nova didn’t help place the new bandage on Linc’s shoulder. She did watch him though. Her mind flirting with her— he’s touching himself! Oh, Nova, look at him touch himself! Look at his muscles flexing! Look at how strong and tough and mean he is! This is what you need!
“Linc, I have to go to work,” she said. “Unless we’re going to go find Nick…? Is there a plan yet?”
Linc reached for his T-shirt. Nova wanted to scream No! Don’t do that! Instead, she marveled at sight of his body as he lifted his hands over his head and put the T-shirt on his body. Muscles flexing and twisting, tightening and… Nova almost had to wipe drool off her mouth. Linc next put his leather cut on.
“Work?” Linc asked. “What kind of work?”
“Believe it or not, I still write stories.”
“Yeah? I guess we both chased our dreams, darling.”
“Except yours worked out. You’re where you want to be.”
“You’re not?”
“I deliver food, Linc,” Nova said, feeling deflated. Her cheeks turned bright red. “The writing thing is… pending.”
“You drive around using one of the apps?”
Nova nodded.
“Alone?” Linc asked. “At night? What neighborhoods?”
“Wherever it tells me to go, Linc.”
He suddenly closed in on her. His eyes flared. His nostrils flared. Nova felt scared but only for a second. Linc didn’t like the idea of her driving around like that. Nova hated herself for a second as she felt seen and protected. She bit her bottom lip with no idea of what Linc’s next move might be.
It was exciting and terrifying at the same time.
Nova knew she couldn’t drive at the moment. The vodka swirled in her head. The sips of beer only added to it. Linc’s outlaw kisses made her mouth tingle. And her entire body ached for him. He was like this gigantic fantasy come to life.
Except there was no escape here. There was no waking up. No realizing you were in bed with a decent guy who worked a normal job. Who had his finances and future in place and hung out with his buddies on Thursday night for wings and a couple beers. Nova swallowed hard.
“You’re not working today or tonight, darling,” Linc ordered.
Not spoke. Not said. But ordered.
“Linc…”
“I’ll cover whatever you would make,” he said. “You need a bill or two paid, I’ve got you covered. Your mother short on something? I’ll take care of it. I told you, walking into this room… I’ve staked my claim, Nova.”
Nova nodded.
Linc touched her chin to make her stop nodding. “No, darling, you can’t nod. We’re going to leave this room together. Hand in hand. And I’m going to leave my mark on you. My ink.”
“Ink?” Nova whispered.
“I’m going to tattoo my initials on you, Nova. That’s the only way to prove my claim. And then you’re mine. Got it?”
Nova’s knees wobbled and the room started to move. She begged herself not to pass out. Her body was clean . Natural. The only marks were random freckles handed down by Mother Nature (or whoever designed that stuff on people). Her ears weren’t even pierced.
She blinked fast. The urge to cry hit her hard. Linc’s face remained like stone. Cold, hard stone. Mean. Evil.
Nova wanted to ask what would happen if she didn’t let Linc tattoo her, but she kind of already got the hint and knew. If Linc didn’t claim her, one of the other bikers would. Plus… she needed to find her brother…
Nova closed her eyes for a second and exhaled a slow breath.
It’s just his initials, she told herself. Two letters. That’s it.
As Nova started to nod, another thought came to her.
Where exactly on her body was Linc going to tattoo his initials?