Zero Tolerance, page 23
I’m actually nervous.
“Lilly,” Z says in a grave way that snaps my head up. “Except for one or two of the old ladies, we haven’t had any girls over at the club since Sway’s incident. So, the guys are pretty randy. I don’t know for sure who’s been invited here tonight.” He glances away and my stomach clenches while I wait for him to finish.
“And?” I prompt.
“There’s a good chance a bunny or two I’ve…hooked up with might show up.”
I blink and stare at him.
He runs his hand over his cheek. “I’m not trying to be a dick. I don’t want you going in blind, that’s all. No one should say anything to you. But one of the girls we kicked out of our club for mouthing off to Hope ended up down here, so it happens.”
I think I actually remember Hope telling me about that incident.
“And you’re worried she might want to tell me she sucked your dick too?”
He chokes on a laugh. “Something like that.”
“Well, I’m sure she won’t be the first or last girl I meet who’s blown you.”
“Jesus, Lilly.”
Am I thrilled with the prospect of encountering a plethora of bunnies who’ve boned Z? No, but it’s not like I thought he was a virgin before we met. It’s bound to happen if I’m going to hang around his club.
“As long as it’s in the past…” I raise an eyebrow.
“Babe, I haven’t even looked at another woman since you came back.”
“Then I’ll be fine,” I assure him, because I appreciate his honesty and he doesn’t need any extra stress tonight.
“Thank you.”
He slings his arm over my shoulder, and I press up tight against him. “You’re better than fine. You’re my girl,” he says against my ear.
A shiver of pleasure runs down my spine.
Rock and Wrath approach and nod at us. “Ready?” Rock asks Z.
“Are you?” Z asks.
Rock cracks a hint of a smile. “This is your show, Prez.”
Z said the official announcement hasn’t been made yet. But obviously Z’s brothers know what Z’s been asked to do for the club.
Before leaving, Z confessed that Rock wasn’t pleased with this situation. He doesn’t like losing Z—even though this is supposed to be only temporary—and he hates these kinds of parties, so it means a lot that he’s here to support Z.
Teller, Charlotte, Murphy, and Heidi approach and I study the “Property of” patches both girls are wearing on the backs of their vests.
“Am I okay without one of those?” I ask Z.
He gives me the strangest look. “Would you wear one if I gave it to you?”
“If you wanted me to.”
He kisses my cheek again. “You won’t need it tonight. I’ll make it clear you’re with me.”
I can only imagine what that involves.
“Stick with Heidi and Charlotte.” He nods to the other guys. “We might need to talk business with some of the guys. I want you girls to stick together.”
“We will, Uncle Z, promise,” Heidi says. While she seems eager to be helpful, she also can’t stop fidgeting. As far as I know, she’s been around the club her whole life so I don’t understand the jitters. Maybe it’s because this club is so much different than the upstate one?
The party inside is loud enough to spill into the parking lot. Odd, since their leader is still in the hospital.
Two younger guys stand in front of the large wooden doors and hurry to open them for Z as we approach.
Both Hope and Trinity tried to prepare me for how different the downstate club is from upstate. It only takes one glance inside to understand what they meant. Not that Z’s club is squeaky clean, but I can’t remember ever seeing this amount of half-naked girls with their faces buried between men’s knees. A haze of smoke hangs in the air obscuring the far side of the room, so who knows what’s taking place over there.
Z said there hadn’t been any girls around the club for a while so I guess they decided to make up for lost time.
Happy voices eagerly greet us, and Z raises his hands in the air.
Charlotte comes up and wraps her arm around mine. “We’re going to the ladies’ room.”
“Thank God.”
Z tugs me back and kisses me breathless before releasing me. “Is that your way of showing the club who I belong to?” I whisper against his ear.
He grins down at me. “Yeah, Siren. So’s this.” He pulls me in for another, longer kiss, making sure to run his hands over my ass.
I’m disgusted with myself for liking the display and how little embarrassment plagues me.
Finally, he releases me and I stumble backwards, knocking into Charlotte. She laughs and tugs me along into the bathroom with her.
“No need for a property patch when your man gropes you in front of everyone,” she teases once we’re safely locked inside.
“Guess not.”
Heidi laughs, a high, strained sound.
“Are you all right, hon?” I ask.
She nods. “I’ve been to a few of these with Murphy now. Nothing new. It’s still just…weird.” She glances around the bathroom, checking the empty stalls before continuing. “Plus, I know one of the bunnies he used to bang…a lot. Still hangs out here and I really hope we don’t run into her.”
Charlotte gives her a quick hug. “I got your back, Heidi.”
“Me too,” I add.
She shrugs. “It’s not a big deal. She’s so nice, I can’t even hate the girl, you know?”
“But you kinda do anyway?”
She gives me a half smile. “Yeah.”
“She wouldn’t…approach Murphy tonight, would she?”
Heidi’s eyes narrow and she glares at the door. “Not if she wants to live.”
Charlotte chuckles and steers Heidi toward the mirror and pushes a small makeup bag in front of her. “Fix your lipstick, killer.”
Somehow, it’s even more crowded when we finally emerge from the bathroom. Louder too. The bottom rockers identify a lot of the bikers from as far away as Mississippi and others from Washington state. I had no idea their reach went so far. Most of them are what I’d expect, big, burly tattooed men. Few are as overtly sexy as Z. Or the rest of upstate for that matter.
A couple girls give us the stink-eye as we move through the crowd. None of them are wearing property patches.
“Busy night,” I shout to Charlotte.
She nods, her gaze searching the room.
I easily spot Wrath in the crowd first, then Rock. Both talking to two other bikers. I scan the room for Z again but can’t find him.
My gaze snaps to a girl who approaches Rock. Oh, Jesus. I don’t want to see anything that I’ll have to tell Hope and break her heart.
I feel bad for even thinking it five seconds later when he blows the girl off without even looking at her. Wrath snarls at her when she redirects her attention to him, and she finally scurries away.
Next to me, Charlotte chuckles. “Poor girl’s scratching at the wrong trees.”
Murphy and Teller are on the other side of the room, engaged in an intense conversation with another brother.
I glance at Charlotte and Heidi, unsure of what we should do next.
Charlotte shrugs. “Let’s hit up the bar. They’ll let us know if they need us.”
We take up three stools at the end of the bar where we can hopefully stay out of the way. The spot gives me a good vantage point to view the entire room so I can keep looking for Z.
“Hi!” The thin, beautiful blonde behind the bar slides down to our end and smiles brightly. “Hey, Charlotte.”
Behind me, Heidi groans.
“Hi, Serena, nice to see you again,” Charlotte answers blandly.
I recognize the girl. She was Murphy’s date to Hope’s wedding. Obviously, she’s the one Heidi didn’t want to run into.
Heidi handles it with more grace than I would’ve at her age.
“Uh, hi, Heidi.” Serena’s almost painfully shy, which seems odd for a girl who hangs around a bunch of bikers. Or maybe Heidi just makes her nervous. Either way, it’s uncomfortable as hell to watch.
“Hi.” I wave my hand in front of Serena to get her attention. “Looks like you’re busy tonight.”
Serena whips around, checking out the people crowded down at the other end of the bar, before asking, “What can I get you tonight?”
I groan and turn toward Charlotte and Heidi. “I don’t think I’ve had a drink since before I found out I was pregnant.”
Heidi laughs. “I’m finally old enough to drink.”
Serena leans over the bar. “Beyond the basics, we don’t exactly have a rockin’ selection back here. But I came up with a drink just for the ladies tonight. We’re calling it the Downstate Royale.”
Charlotte raises an eyebrow. “What’s in it?”
“Prosecco, raspberry liqueur, and lime juice.”
“Sold,” Charlotte says. “We’ll take three of those.”
After Serena leaves to make our drinks, Charlotte laughs. “An MC with Prosecco. I like it.”
While we’re waiting for Serena, Murphy swaggers up behind Heidi and wraps one arm around her chest and the other around her waist. He says something against her ear that I can’t make out over all the noise. Whatever it is, Heidi keeps nodding and seems to take it seriously.
When he’s finished, he looks up and gives Charlotte and I a strained smile. “You ladies okay?”
“We’re fine.” I want to ask where Z is, but I have the impression this party is more business than pleasure and I’m a big girl who can entertain herself.
Serena sets our drinks on the bar with a clink-thud and almost drops the last glass when she sees Murphy.
I reach over and snag the glass out of her hand before it spills. “Thanks.”
“Um, congratulations.” Ignoring the murder eyes Murphy’s making, Serena gestures toward Heidi. “On your engagement.”
“Thank you.”
“Well, I, uh, have to help LaLa out. If you guys need anything, just holler.”
“Murphy,” Charlotte says sweetly. “Can you please go away so we can have some girl talk?”
Heidi reaches up and pats the arm still banded around her. She takes the champagne flute Charlotte hands her and holds it up. “I’m fine. Go.”
“Don’t drink more than one of those,” he says before kissing her on the forehead and heading across the room.
Heidi squints into her drink. “You don’t think she poisoned it, do you?”
“Well, if she did, she did it to all of ours because I just randomly handed you one she set on the bar,” Charlotte says.
I raise my glass so we can all give ‘em a clink. “Here’s to living dangerously, ladies.”
Thirty-Six
Lilly
Finally, Z emerges from a side door that seems to lead into an office. Two other Lost Kings I don’t recognize are right behind him. He scans the room and when his gaze lands on me, he motions me over.
“Didn’t mean to abandon you.” He glances over his shoulder. “Wasn’t expecting another sit-down tonight.”
I don’t ask for details and he doesn’t share anything more. “I’m fine.” I hold up my glass between us. “The girls and I found the bar.”
It’s too loud to hear each other unless we yell, so he leads me into a quieter section of the party.
He settles into a huge, overstuffed chair, big enough for me to squeeze in next to him. With one hand, he pushes my hair back.
“You all right?” he asks against my ear.
I hold up my glass, which is almost finished, and he takes it away, setting it on the table next to us.
“Hey, that was my first cocktail in like, forever.”
“I need you lucid, Siren.”
His hand creeps up my thigh. The room’s pretty dark and no one’s paying attention to us at the moment, so I slide down and drape one leg over his.
“I’m thinking we should go to our room for the night.” He raises his eyebrows and squeezes my thigh. “Soon.”
“Are you tired?”
“We’re all the way down the hall and to the left, so we should have some privacy,” he continues without acknowledging my question.
“Privacy for what?” I ask, giving him a suspicious eyebrow raise of my own.
“I have plans for you.”
The arm that had been draped over my shoulders drops down. He slides his hand up under the back of my shirt and slowly traces his fingers over my skin, sending shivers of delight racing over me.
“What sort of plans?” I whisper.
He sits forward and the hand that had been resting on my leg, slides up higher, clamps down tighter.
“All night I’ve been thinking about you. How I want to strip you down, spread you out, and feast on every inch of you.”
A tremor of desire shoots down my spine. “And?”
“Tonight, I don’t have to worry about little ears hearing us.”
“There’s like a million people here tonight.”
“Yeah, but I don’t give a fuck about any of them overhearing me pleasuring you.”
He leans closer and nips my earlobe. “First, I want to get you in the shower.”
“Are you calling me dirty?”
He ignores the tease and continues. “Gonna lick beads of water from your nipples.”
Oh, God. His voice. The low, raspy tone paints a vivid picture. I can practically feel his tongue on me.
“Come here.” He fits his hands into the curve of my waist and hauls me into his lap. There’s nothing to do except loop my arms around his neck and straddle his lap. “Thank you for being here with me.”
“I don’t feel like I’ve helped you much.”
He stares at me with an intensity that makes me squirm. “You have.”
I can’t put my finger on it but, even though he’s dirty and flirty as usual, there seems to be a heaviness weighing Z down. “Are you tired?” I ask.
He answers by bumping his hips up, grinding what feels like a healthy erection into my center. “Never too tired to take care of my woman.”
“Don’t start that my woman stuff.”
He slides down in the chair more and slips his hands under my ass. “What else should I call you? Hmm?”
My stripper/exhibitionist days are way behind me, but I can’t help rubbing myself against Z. The music changes and I roll my hips to the beat, making him groan. “Keep it up, woman. I got no problem baring your ass and fucking you right here.”
I glance around and yeah, there’s certainly plenty of that going on. Knowing my friends and my friends’ husbands are lurking somewhere finally kicks my common sense into gear.
That doesn’t mean I won’t enjoy teasing Z a little. My dancing days may be far behind me, but some of those moves you never forget. I roll my hips and lift myself so I’m hovering over his lap.
“This feels a lot like giving a lap dance,” I tease, swaying from side to side. “I almost remember—”
He cuts me off by pressing his finger against my lips. “Don’t. Christ, I would’ve fucking murdered anyone who looked at you, let alone got a private dance.”
“You would’ve been terrible for my savings account.”
He reaches out and captures a long section of my hair and twirls it around his finger, drawing me closer. “You know, I worked the door for Crystal Ball back then. Occasionally, the guys and I would go over to Club Salvatore to check out the competition or whatever.”
“Because you were busy plotting out how to run our club out of business.”
He grins but doesn’t deny it. The city of Empire only has one strip club now—Crystal Ball. And it’s been that way for years. Thankfully, I was already done with school and working at my first internship when the club I worked at closed down.
Another soft, gentle tug on my hair brings me closer. “Sometimes I wonder if I ever saw you, but that’s impossible.”
“Why?”
“Because I would’ve picked you up, tossed you over my shoulder, and taken you home with me.”
I pout and trace my finger over his full lips. “The bouncers frowned on that.”
“Wouldn’t have mattered.” He stops and sucks my finger into his mouth. My breathing picks up. I can think of a few other places I’d like his mouth. He pulls my hand away, holding it tight. “It’s crazy thinking we lived in the same area and never ran into each other.”
“Until our friends hooked up?”
“Yeah.” The intensity in his deep blue eyes is almost too much for me, but I can’t look away. “I wanted you so fucking bad that night.”
Even though it’s not the best place for such a deep conversation, I’m desperate to hear more. “I felt the same way.” I laugh. “Obviously.”
He doesn’t laugh with me. “I liked talking to you too, though. You were interesting and didn’t take any shit from me.”
“And now?”
His hands slide down and grab my ass, pulling me back down to his lap. “You’re still fascinating and feisty.”
I grind into him harder and he groans. “You feel fascinating.”
“My dick’s extremely fascinated with your pussy.”
“You plannin’ to fuck right here?” Wrath rumbles from above us. “Not like you have a room or anything.”
Neither embarrassed or angry, Z laughs. I fall against his chest and he wraps an arm around me. Staring up at Wrath, he’s definitely annoyed. Well, more annoyed than usual.
Z points at him. “What’s wrong, Biker McCrankypants?”
Wrath slaps his hand away. “How much have you had to drink tonight?”
“Not much.”
Ah, maybe that’s the reason for Z’s confession.
“Unless you need me, I’m headed to my room. I want to call Trin before she goes to sleep.”
Z sits up, jostling me but keeping me firmly in his lap and looks around. “Things seem pretty chill.”
“I’m not that far off the main room. If it gets rowdy, I’ll hear it.”
“Thanks, brother.” Z glances around again. “See you in the morning.”
“He’s really not happy about being here, is he?” I ask after Wrath leaves.
