Chapter 7
Trick/Jase
I’d found myself thinking about Lauren at the oddest times over the past three weeks – while working out at the gym, alone in my bed at night, and even when turning Melina down the night she offered to suck me off.
I took one look at her bleached blonde hair, and immediately pictured Lauren’s fiery, red curls wrapped around my fist instead.
My cock – which was only half-heartedly twitching with Melina’s hand on my zipper – gave up at that point and completely deflated.
I’d made up some dumb excuse and hauled ass up to my room, spending the rest of the night with only my right hand for company.
It hadn’t helped that I’d listened to the rest of that damned audiobook and now couldn’t get the memory out of my head of Lauren calling out for that Damian asshole.
I’d looked up the guy who had done the narration with her, Nathan Downing, who thankfully looked nothing at all like the rugged, growly voiced hockey star he’d portrayed.
The dude looked more like an accountant, or an insurance salesman, giving off a distinctly nerdy vibe.
For some reason, that had made me feel a little bit better about the entire clusterfuck.
I’d thought I might have had a chance to make some headway with Lauren the evening she’d stopped by the clubhouse with a cake for Viking, but that was thwarted by Melina, who’d made a play for me right in front of her.
I’d immediately brushed her off, literally and figuratively, but when I turned back to Lauren a few moments later, the stool next to me was empty and she was across the room hugging Viking goodbye without so much as a glance in my direction.
After warning Melina to keep her distance from now on, I’d headed up to my room – alone.
I took comfort in the fact that I’d rattled her when I’d walked in on her in King’s kitchen, licking icing off her finger.
The sight of her pink tongue running across the pad of her finger, then the look of sheer bliss on her face when she tasted the homemade icing, was enough to make me weak in the knees.
I hadn’t been able to resist commenting on it, and her eyes had widened and a faint blush had appeared on her cheekbones before she whirled around and joined the ladies back in the living room.
The reaction I’d received at the diner last Wednesday hadn’t been nearly as satisfying though.
I’d flirted.
She’d shot me down.
Again.
I’d been having dinner with Hawk and Bodhi, and they’d both witnessed me going down in flames. They’d ragged on my ass the rest of the night about it, too.
I felt like I was back to square one with her, and I had no idea what to do about it.
Now, as I walked into the common room over a week later, I was pissed off, frustrated, and confused as hell about why I couldn’t get the damned woman off my mind.
The room was fairly quiet at the moment, but I knew it wouldn’t be long before it would start to fill up with club brothers, bunnies, and the assorted hangarounds who usually joined us to party on a Friday night.
I sat down at the bar and ordered a beer from Tony, the prospect on duty.
Before I’d even popped the top, I noticed Viking sitting at the other end of the bar talking on his cell phone.
“I’ll send one of the boys over right now. It’s no wonder the battery is dead. You’ve probably been givin’ it one hell of a workout. That smoke detector ain’t a kitchen timer, you know,” he chuckled into the phone before ending the call. He stood up and hollered down the bar to Tony.
“Prospect, find the other prospect and send his ass over to my niece’s place with an extension ladder. He needs to change the battery in her smoke detector. She has new batteries, but it’s the one up high so she can’t reach it.”
Viking was old-school and refused to call any of the prospects by their actual names until they were patched in and given road names. It could get a little confusing at times.
Before Tony could respond one way or the other, the old man spotted Sinner and Cowboy walking in, and ambled off to join them at the poker table.
I motioned Tony over. “Rod’s working at the gym tonight,” I told him. “I’ll take care of it myself.”
His brows rose in surprise at my offer before he caught himself and just nodded instead. “Any luck on filling the open prospect spot?”
Cowboy’s son, Linc, had been officially patched in as Wrangler recently, leaving us short on prospects.
I shook my head. “We’ve talked to a couple of guys who expressed interest, but neither one are gonna make it.
” One had been way too nervous, not even able to look us in the eye when we spoke with him, and the other only wanted to prospect because he thought he’d have access to a constant stream of pussy on tap.
“I might know a guy,” Tony offered. “I went to high school with him. Ran into him a few nights ago, and we got to talkin’ about the MC. He’s a solid guy – at least he was when we were in school. He’s just finished getting certified as a mechanic. Seems interested, and I think he’d be a good fit.”
“Talk to him again. See if he’s available to meet with the officers after Church on Sunday.”
“Will do.”
I clapped him on the shoulder, then headed out to the garage to grab a ladder and one of the club’s trucks, refusing to examine the reasons I was doing this myself, instead of handing it off to one of the other brothers.
Once I was standing on Lauren’s doorstep, I acknowledged exactly why I was taking care of this job myself.
My eyes roved over her like a caress, from the top of her head to her feet, lingering on her curves just a tad longer than would be considered socially acceptable.
She glared at me and oh-so-casually crossed her arms in front of her chest, but she wasn’t quite quick enough to keep me from seeing that her nipples were hard.
I gave a satisfied smirk at the knowledge that she wasn’t quite as unaffected by me as she pretended to be. Maybe I ought to ask her to dinner. I’d see how the next few minutes went, first, since she hadn’t been especially receptive so far.
“Hey, darlin’. I heard you need a little help.”
“What are you doing here? Um, I mean, I thought Uncle Bill was sending one of the prospects over?”
Ignoring her wary expression and forcing my eyes away from her chest before I popped a boner on her front porch, I picked up the ladder and stepped forward, causing her to step back out of the doorway to let me inside.
“None of the prospects were available, so you’ve got me instead.”
Lauren gritted her teeth and motioned upward, where the smoke alarm high up on the vaulted ceiling chose that moment to beep.
“I have a new battery right here,” she said, picking one up from a small pack of batteries she had setting on the end table next to her couch.
I set up the ladder and took the battery from her, then climbed up to change it out. I glanced down to find her standing near the base of the ladder, with her head cocked to look up at me.
“Why are you doing this?” The voice that had been haunting my dreams had a hard edge to it, which matched the frown on her beautiful face.
“I told you, the prospects were busy.”
“Yeah, but why are you here? Surely you have better things to do on a Friday evening?”
“Worried about my social life, babe?”
She gritted her teeth, then shook her head and pointedly looked away.
I swapped out the battery, then popped the smoke detector back into place before climbing down.
Lauren was still standing in the same spot, so I was only inches from her as I stepped down off the last rung.
Before she could move, I reached up and lightly cupped her jaw, brushing my thumb along her cheek to see if her skin was as soft as it looked. It was.
“It’s not exactly a hardship to spend time helping a beautiful woman.”
Her eyes widened at the contact, then narrowed a split second later as she gave me an appraising look.
“Do you ever stop flirting?”
“With you? I doubt it,” I confessed, given her a wink and dropping my hand. I figured I’d pushed my luck enough. “I heard you’re coming to the cookout tomorrow.”
She nodded, and before I could open my mouth to offer to take her to dinner, the doorbell rang.
Lauren smiled as she said, “Excuse me while I get the door. My date is here.”
What the actual fuck did she just say?
Her date???
Before I could react, she’d flung open the door and cheerfully greeted the blond asshole standing on the porch, who was eyeing her like a kid in a candy store.
The motherfucker all but drooled and licked his lips as he stared at her like he’d never seen a gorgeous woman before in his life.
He dipped his head to kiss her, and she offered her cheek as if they’d done it a thousand times before.
My hands clenched, and for a brief moment, I wished I had my trusty bat with me. Sure, I could use my fists to beat the living shit out of him, but the thwack of the bat hitting human flesh was so much more fucking satisfying. Saved me from busting my knuckles, too.
Her date glanced up then, and his eyes widened when he caught sight of me. A second later, he spotted my cut, and his eyes almost bugged out of his head. He took an involuntary step back, and if I hadn’t been so goddamned pissed off, I would have laughed.
“Dustin, this is, uh, Trick,” Lauren said. “My landlord sent him over to change the battery in my smoke detector.”
I had to give the guy credit. Once his initial shock wore off, he stepped up and offered his hand to me. I forced myself not to glare too much as I returned the handshake. I even managed not to squeeze too hard, because I wasn’t a petty asshat who would do a thing like that.
Maybe.
Probably.
“Well, thank you for taking care of that so quickly.” Lauren’s words were stilted, and I could tell she felt awkward as hell. I wasn’t inclined to make it easy on her, though, and made no move to leave.