Chapter Forty-Two
Drew
Iwas starting to think that she was keeping tabs on me and knew exactly when to show up in my life.
Every time things were about to get deep and wander off into that territory of ‘what-ifs’, there she was.
Slater had been whispering the latest news on the Navarro Rifles MC, having just got word in from one of his contacts who was always playing the snake behind their backs.
And even though I had wanted to know what was going on and where we stood, my mood had been tanking with every passing second.
Then she was there again.
Now she was in front of me, flashing me that smile of hers that was trying not to show too much or give her game away.
Her poker face was shit. Resting back on my elbows with my legs hanging off the edge of the bed, I sank my teeth into my lip and took a moment to admire her.
It was almost criminal of her to hide her body under baggy T-shirts the way she sometimes did, although that worked out well for me for now, I suppose.
The last thing I needed was a group of teenagers giving her the eye while she was clearing tables over at the diner.
There was only so low I was allowed to stoop, and going smack-down on a group of pre-pubescent boys was way beneath the level of dirt I could lower myself to.
I guess that’s one thing Tate should have been grateful for.
Clearing my throat as my eyes trailed over her, I kept my gaze away from hers, speaking quietly as it lingered on the rise and fall of her chest.
“How set were you on that shower?”
“That depends. Do you like the smell of hamburgers?” she asked with a grin, her hips swaying from side to side as though she was self conscious of standing there in just her underwear and jeans.
“Who doesn’t? Although, there is the issue of it making me even hungrier than I already am.”
“You’re hungry?” She tilted her head to the side in an attempt to look all innocent. She lifted her arm, pointing behind her with a thumb and a cheeky smile. “I can make you something.”
“Or…” I dragged out, my brows rising. “You could come over here and give me a hundred and eighteen pounds of the finest meat in the land, hold the bread. I’ll provide the rest.”
Ayda approached slowly, her jeans hugging her waist as she moved. The moment she was at the end of the bed, she leaned forward, her knees pressing against the edge. “I still don’t understand how the hell you were so exact on that. Was that in my little file, too?”
“I pay attention. Some people get more of it than others, granted.”
“I’m honored.”
My feet rose up to try and trap her in their grip, or at the very least, make her fall forward.
Trailing them up the backs of her calves, I pulled her in at the knee and pushed myself farther up on my elbows.
“I think, deep down, I always knew I’d get you to stand at the end of my bed half naked. Phase one complete.”
“That’s because you’re Drew Tucker,” she gasped with feigned reverence, lifting one hand up and under the leather of my cut, her touch gentle.
“Damn right I am.” I grinned, raising my hips as I tried to nudge myself closer.
“I always get what I want, one way or another. I just like to go the long way around sometimes.” My gaze dropped down to where her hand was hidden beneath the leather on my chest before I peered back up at her body.
I felt a weird urge to connect the two of us together in a way I’d never felt the need to with any woman before.
“Do you have any idea how hot you look to me right now, Ayda?”
The look she gave me back was wistful, her smile a curl at the edges of her mouth as she looked down at me, her lashes barely kissing her cheeks before she brought her eyes back up to mine. “I…” She shook her head, and blushed.
I ran my thumb over her jaw. “Do you?”
“Tell me,” she whispered.
“If only I was that good with words.”
Moving slowly, she straddled my hips, her body lowering farther, her hips rolling instinctively as her hands gripped my cheeks. “You’re better than you think you are.”
“Yeah?” I said through a heavy breath, my hands sliding up her waist then around to her back as I held her in place.
“So are you.” When my eyes rose up to meet hers, that rush of something unexplainable came back again, forcing the words out before I even had a chance to think about what that might mean to either of us.
“You couldn’t look better to me right now, even if you were naked, wearing nothing but my cut. ”
The pause that filled the air would have felt like it was choking me had I been sitting here with anyone else on my lap but Ayda.
There was just something about her that made shit come pouring out of my mouth without me turning it over a million times in my head beforehand.
It was when I heard her sharp breath stick in the back of her throat, and I saw her perfectly formed lips part, that I knew what I wanted to see for the first time in my life.
“You should wear my cut,” I whispered, all the humor dropping from my face as I held her gaze.
Her hands moved from my cheeks to my shoulders, her fingers tracing every crease in the leather, around every patch on my chest, with more reverence than I expected. She didn’t meet my eyes for the longest time. Her chest just rose and fell with breaths as she took in the cut.
Finally, her eyes met mine, the hunger I’d mentioned earlier shining back at me. “Isn’t that breaking some cardinal rule of the club?”
“Not when you’re the one who makes the rules, and I wouldn’t care even if it was.
” Leaning back on one arm again, my other hand pulled her closer, and it suddenly seemed so important for me to see her wearing it.
There was no reason to it. I knew it was probably too fucking soon. But I wanted it. I needed it.
Another roll of her hips and a squeeze of her thighs, and she was sitting up, looking down at me expectantly. “I… I would be honored. Gimmie.”
Sitting us both up, my hand brushed over the end of my growing beard before I shrugged myself out of my very own security blanket and watched her as she watched me, watching her. “Be gentle with it. This is more important to me than my own heart.”
She took it from me as though it was made of gold and covered in diamonds.
She wasn’t being sarcastic. I could see how lost in the moment she was as she held it and brought it to her face, her cheek touching it gently.
It took her a moment to move again, but when she did, she slipped the leather over her arm, her own eyes lost in the movement as it slid over her skin before she repeated it on the other side, shrugging it so it was level.
Her eyes were wide when they met mine. “It’s heavier than I thought it would be, but it’s soft and smells like you. ”
I expected some smartass comments to come up once she had it over her shoulders.
I expected for me to try and make light of the situation or for her to roll her eyes at the fact that I held onto a piece of leather with as tight a grip as I did.
I expected to feel a twinge of something going on when her blonde hair fell over the front of it, covering the embroidered badges of the MC’s name. I expected lots, I guess.
What I wasn’t fucking prepared for was the pain in my chest as I looked up at her.
That was pretty indescribable. My face creased as I took her in, and no matter how hard I tried to dislodge that painful lump in my throat, I couldn’t shift it for shit.
There wasn’t much I could say to try and tell her how she looked to me, so instead of saying anything at all, I let my hands do the talking and pushed myself up again.
The tips of my fingers fell inside the cut, meeting the warmth of her ribs before they curled around her skin and held her in place.
I’d seen men hand their leather over to other women before, sometimes with love, sometimes just to impress, more often than not as a fast track ticket to get laid, but I’d never seen any of the men look at their woman the way I was looking at Ayda.
I lifted my eyes to hers as my hands slid down her back until they had her ass in their grip, pulling her even closer.
“I didn’t hear a word you just said. I was too busy looking at the hottest woman alive wearing my most prized possession.”
The words hung between us, but I didn’t miss the quiver of muscles on her stomach as she tried to suck in a breath.
Her voice was quiet as she spoke, trembling with every word she pushed out in a heated whisper.
“Don’t be mad, but the way you’re looking at me right now…
” She inhaled, her eyes closing for a second before opening to meet mine. “Fuck me, Drew.”
“With pleasure,” I growled back, instantly grateful that she’d gotten straight to the point.
Gripping hold of her as tightly as I could, I pushed my mouth up to hers and attacked her with a hungry kiss.
Our breaths were heavy from the word go, and I knew I couldn’t stay with her this way for long.
Guiding her ass back and forth against me, my eyes fell closed as I got lost in that one single moment of pure fucking need for Ayda Hanagan.
It was no secret that I’d been with a lot of women, but with her on my lap and us engaged in some kind of private little cut ceremony, everything felt new.
There were several different ways this could go in my head, but as Ayda’s hands pulled me closer and she released that perfect, feminine mewl from the back of her throat, all thoughts of trying to take this slow flew right out of the window.
Within seconds, I was up on my feet and my fingers were digging into the curves of her ass as I spun us both around.
Every move she made, every kiss and slow flick of her tongue had me growing harder and painfully needy.
The demand to be a part of her wasn’t just strong, it was overpowering.
I didn’t know who I was until I guided her back down onto the bed and let my hips drop against hers.
My arm fell beside her head while my free hand pushed one side of the cut away from her, exposing her bra just enough for me to feel even hungrier. “Jesus, Ayda…”
Her hands found their way around to the back of my neck as I looked down at her body with a newfound admiration and tried like shit to take my time. But it was impossible. Everything felt impossible when I had her caged beneath me.
As my hand trailed up over her bra, my fingers grazed down the middle of her chest, following the path across her stomach until they paused on the button of her jeans.
Her body responded instantly. The way she arched her back just an inch off the bed, rolling her spine along the mattress until her ass rose, too…
it was her way of telling me that she needed this to move as quickly as I wanted it to.
“I hope you’re rea—”
My shoulders bounced and my body flinched with the fist bang against my bedroom door interrupting us at the worst fucking moment.
It was loud, it was angry and it was desperate, but with her beneath me, and my hand paused over the button of her jeans, all I could think to do was let my anger out and shout.
“Fuck off!”
“Drew. Listen up,” Slater started, his voice pushed up against the door as he yelled back.
“I swear to God, Slater. Not now. I will fucking kill you if you walk into this room.”
“Tucker…”
“GO!” I snapped back, throwing my head in his direction, unable to ignore the way Ayda’s grip tightened around my neck as she tried to pull me back down.
For a moment, I thought that had done the trick. I thought he’d got the hint and taken a hike. But when the sound of his boots hitting the bottom of the door warned me of his presence, my body dropped down onto Ayda’s and I let out a heavy sigh.
“I can’t go, bro. We need you out here, now. I’m coming in.”
“What?” I didn’t have time to put up an argument before the door pushed open and Slater stood there in the doorway.
Rolling on top of Ayda, I let my hands slide to the edges of the cut and tried to pull it closed over her exposed body.
The death glare I shot to Slater felt strong enough to knock him on his ass, but he didn’t falter one bit as he looked back at me, then down at her, raising his brows as his eyes landed on the leather.
“You had better fucking run,” I growled at him.
Slater didn’t say anything about what he was seeing, even though the flash of acknowledgement was there and I knew he understood what it meant for her to be sprawled out on my bed, wearing our brothers’ identity across her chest. When his eyes eventually lifted to mine, it was my turn to look surprised as he shook his head and let out a weighted sigh.
“If you don’t get out here now, we’ll all be running.”
My frown grew even deeper as I stared at him and tried to ignore the painful ache that was pushing up against the inside of my jeans. “What the hell are you talking about?” I asked quietly.
“I’m talking about trouble. We’ve got trouble, bro. The Emperors are back.”