Chapter 10
COLT
SEVEN YEARS AGO…
Callie didn’t hesitate the way I expected. From the instant I kissed her wrist until I met her eyes, she wrapped her arms around my waist and pressed her body to mine.
I kissed her long and hard, one hand on the back of her head and the other yanking at our clothes.
She gasped into my mouth when I worked my hand into her pants and stroked her.
The adrenaline rush I’d ridden home on shifted into lust so consuming nothing else mattered.
My ribs stung but the pain remained tolerable, and with her permission goading me, I stopped caring about anything else.
I broke off the kiss long enough to tug off her clothes, throwing them over my shoulder.
Her lips were swollen already, and she licked her lower lip while watching me kick off my boots and unzip my jeans.
I barely waited long enough to kiss the side of her neck before I settled between her legs and entered her in one swift stroke.
Her head fell back, her breasts arching toward me.
I pounded into her, taking advantage of the desk’s perfect height and how it lined us up.
This was all that I knew. I chased pleasure, chased the invigorating bliss of sex.
The harder the better, in my experience.
Her fingertips skimmed my ribs and she leaned to the side. Her hair fell over her shoulder and she stared up at me through her thick lashes. “Colt.” She bent her head and kissed the edge of the bandage she’d placed. “Let me.”
I palmed the back of her head, angling her chin to look into her eyes. “Let you what?” I never stopped moving. Every stroke bottomed my cock in her pussy, and the glaze of pleasure sheened her eyes.
She blinked slowly, her lips parting. “You need to stay still or you’re going to tear this.
” A warm touch grazed my side. “Let me handle this.” A tiny smirk lifted her lips into a sassy grin.
“Let me take care of you.” She put both hands on my ribs, then slid them around to my back.
“Not that I’m not enjoying this.” Pinching my ass, she yanked me deeper. “But I want more.”
“I can give you more.”
Her smile flickered. “I know you can.”
What did she want from me? I slowed my deep, punishing thrusts and let her slide off the desk.
Hands on my chest, she pushed me back a few steps, then a few more. “Sit.”
The backs of my legs hit the chair, and I dropped.
Callie didn’t hesitate to climb onto my lap.
She straddled my legs and guided my cock into her, keeping one hand on the center of my chest as she moved in glides so slow it raised the hair on the back of my neck.
I ground my teeth to keep from groaning her name, not willing to let her see how she devastated me.
She leaned into her hand, the slight pressure of her weight not enough to pin me in place if I really wanted to get up, but I let her hold me down and ride my cock.
I framed her hips in my hands and squeezed with every stroke. I’d never let anyone take control like this. Letting her threatened to open a Pandora’s box of questions better left alone.
Callie kissed my collarbone, then the underside of my jaw.
“You feel so good, Colt. I could stay here all night, just like this.” She lifted onto her knees, then lowered all the way down.
“But I’m not going to last much longer. Good thing I can come multiple times.
” She smirked again and quickened her pace.
“What are you trying to do to me?” I almost flipped her onto her back on the desk and finished what I’d started.
The look on her face stopped me. I’d never seen that kind of care and concern directed at me, and it stopped me in my tracks.
“I’m taking care of you.” She rolled her hips and groaned.
I couldn’t stop the wave of pleasure even if I wanted to.
I blistered through my entire body, tightening my balls and hollowing out my stomach as my toes curled.
“I broke formation.” I needed to say the words, needed to hear my sins spoken into the void.
“Someone said your name, and I lost my shit.”
She kept moving, but her eyes locked on mine, and something in the depths brought the truth blasting into reality.
This wasn’t about wanting her body.
I had that.
I could have that one way or another.
This was about choosing her permanently, in a way the club absolutely would not tolerate.
I pressed the back of my head into the curve of the chair and squeezed her ass. “You look good like this.” I made the crass remark without thinking, almost hoping it would anger her enough to drive her away.
“I look good everywhere.” She lifted onto her knees again, and when she stroked downward, her pussy fluttered, the walls tightening around me.
“Damn right.”
She rode me without breaking stride, the scent of our combined arousal mingling with the underlying oil and leather that never left my skin.
“Come for me, Colt.” She slid both hands over my chest and up to the sides of my neck. “Let me watch you the way you watched me.”
I didn’t have a prayer after that. “Fuck.” I tried to keep my hands gentle, but what the fuck did I know about tenderness? I bucked my hips to meet her and threw my entire being into the feel of my balls tightening and my cock pulsing its release.
She followed me over, her head falling forward to rest against mine as she shuddered.
The rasp of our mismatched breathing filled the office. I waited for her to slip off my lap, take her clothes, and leave.
She rested her cheek against my shoulder and traced the pattern of my tattoo with one finger. “What happens if I don’t want to choose one of you?”
Ah shit. So she knew everything. “The problem isn’t sex.
” I ran my fingers through her hair and palmed her spine.
She shuddered but didn’t move away. “The problem is that you work our territory. You run transports and you’ve been seen coming and going from the clubhouse.
People are watching. They see who walks you to your bike and who doesn’t.
Not just the men, but the women too. A lot of those Old Ladies have fought hard for their place, and seeing a new girl move between three patched men is going to draw attention. ”
Callie absorbed every word.
I waited for the anger and indignation, the shouts that none of it was fair. She’d be right on almost all counts, but fairness was exactly what caused the divide.
“When three men in the same club start tracking the same girl, it gathers attention. The club girls who are worried about status start getting jealous, and that turns into gossip. Gossip ends up with some dipshit repeating the story and adding details that cause a problem our rivals can exploit. Hawk does what he can to temper that kind of chatter, but people like to talk. They like to bullshit and they love to spread rumors.”
“Yeah, I’ve noticed that.” A slight puff of air skated over my chest, her exhale curling her body tighter against mine. “Sounds like just another way to control women, to keep us under a man’s thumb.”
Why did she stay?
Why did she curl in my lap like she trusted me?
She shouldn’t.
I kissed the top of her head and forced myself to tell her the rest. “Hawk will enforce the bylaw because he has no choice. He’s not trying to control you, though I will admit a lot of the laws are shit when it comes to women.
For Hawk, it’s about authority. Presidents who let internal rivalry grow lose authority fast. If his authority ever slips, other clubs will start testing us more than they do already. ”
“Right, because a man who can’t control his woman is no man at all.
” She spat every word, her body shaking as she curled her hands into fists.
“It’s all bullshit. We should get a say in what happens.
Why is it that a woman can only be an Old Lady if the man decides it?
Why are there no female members of the club except the ones vying for a spot alongside a man? ”
“You’re part of the club.” I reminded her gently, my thumb rubbing back and forth over her spine. “Most other women only want the status of being connected with a member. You’re one of the few who have ever actively wanted a place with the patch.”
She stilled at that. “What about Diesel?”
I groaned and tightened my hold on her. What would it take to get her to stay here with me forever?
“Diesel will follow the rules because discipline is the spine of our world. It holds everything together, and men who ignore structure and let emotions rule then end up bleeding for it later.” I glanced pointedly at my cut ribs. “Case and point.”
“So you’re just a bunch of badasses with no emotions?”
I couldn’t quite pinpoint the inflection on her voice. Did it annoy her or did she understand?
“If you keep moving between us without a clear line, someone will challenge it. They’ll push back, and it won’t be gentle. The only clean way to stop the tension is for someone to make a claim. One patch. One claim. Once an Old Lady is declared, the hierarchy settles and the noise will die down.”
“So if I chose you, Diesel and Hawk would back down and that would be the end of it?”
Why did my heart take off like a jackrabbit?
I resisted the urge to pat my chest and swallowed hard to push down the rising emotions.
“Yes. If you choose one of us, the other two step back publicly and permanently. I would do the same if you chose Hawk or Diesel. Patched brothers cannot compete over the same woman and ride side by side in a fight. And being with all three of us is dangerous for everyone.”
I left it at that. There were too many possibilities for what kind of hell it could bring down on us if we kept giving in and taking Callie together.
Our one night might’ve been accepted, but they would not put up with more.
If the club didn’t turn against us as a whole, at least a few of the members would.
Then we’d have more than the Hellhounds to worry about.
Callie stood and crossed her arms over her stomach. “I still think it’s bullshit. I mean, I get it, but fuck, Colt.” She raised her hands and let them fall to her sides.
The fact she stood there completely naked while she unleashed her frustrations turned me on. I listened to every word, but I also had every intention of making better use of our time together while Hawk decided my punishment for tonight’s fuck up. There would be one. There always was.
I stood and pulled Callie into my arms, holding her close. “I know. It’s fucked up. Someday, things might be different, but for now, this is what it is. Hawk can’t just change a rule because he wants to. And if he changes this one, everyone is going to know it’s for you.”
“And I’m not worth it.” She said it so low I almost missed it. The wistful note in her voice ripped my heart wide open. Another sigh rippled through her, and she backed out of my arms, reaching for her clothes without looking at me.
Dawn crept through the blinds shielding us from the outside world, the thin golden bands glancing off Callie’s skin and making my mouth water to taste her.
But she’d had enough of me, so I pulled on my clothes and laced up my boots.
Hawk’s signature single knock banged on the door. “Colt, it’s Hawk.”
I opened the door to let him in, but he lingered in the hallway, his gaze skimming over me and going to Callie.
His jaw tightened, a familiar look turning his eyes to flint.
He’d let us go last night, but that didn’t mean he stopped wanting Callie.
“What’s up?” I forced him to face me and dole out whatever he’d come here to say.
“You’re riding out. I need you out of state for a few weeks to cool tensions with the Hellhounds.” His gaze shuttered, but not before I caught the regret as he turned on his heel. “Effective immediately.”
Fuck. I’d known it would be bad, but to have to leave the state?
I glanced at Callie over my shoulder and caught her expression shifting from shock to that same closed off look she gave everyone.
I crossed the room and settled my hands on her hips, bending to kiss her full lips.
“Don’t decide anything while I’m gone.” I turned and walked away without looking back.
I couldn’t. If I saw even a glimpse of emotion in her, I wouldn’t be able to go.
I was already tempted to tell Hawk to go fuck himself and to tell the Hellhounds to do the same.
But that gave them exactly what they wanted, and I would not do that to my brothers.