Long, powerful legs were encased in black leather pants and muscular arms were bare up to his biceps in what looked like a black t-shirt and the leather vest. Ink swirled up his arms.
She narrowed her eyes. Damn. I’m too far away to discern details. Forcing her gaze away, she accepted the tumbler from Ken.
It was best to forget the sexy biker. They might as well be from different worlds. Men like him had no interest in women like her, even if she had pretty packing on tonight. She admired his courage. It took a will of steel to go against the grain and live by your own code of ethics. But the same thing that drew her to him frightened her. He wasn’t like any other man she’d known. The regular rules of dating and polite society wouldn’t apply. She could still feel the heat of his gaze upon her. It made her feel sexy. Her heart sped and the seed of curiosity began to grow. What was he doing here in the first place? Will he make a move? If he does, will I go along with it?
Chapter Two
“Hey, Shooter, you ready to leave?”
Moose’s gruff voice stole his attention from the luscious brown-skinned woman whose gaze sent him up in flames. Pure wasn’t their typical scene. Tonight they’d been doing the Prez a favor by trailing his daughter.
Katie was a perky blonde with a banging body, though Shooter never let the Prez know he thought so. Coddled by her father and trashed by her ex-old lady of a mother, Tricia, the poor girl was a wreck. On her twenty-first birthday, she’d hit the party scene at a dead run. Drinking like the alcohol would be taken off the shelf any day and getting involved with some less than reputable characters. Considering the Lords of Mayhem were no angels, the statement said a lot.
“Katie cut out?” Shooter leaned against the bar.
“Yeah, she left with Smokey’s old lady, said they were going back to her place.”
Shooter smirked. Six foot three, Smokey was built like a linebacker and looked uptight as hell. Shooter had seen the man stare down the barrel of a .45 without batting an eye. Now a club was about to do him in?
“Feeling uncomfortable, Moose?” He grinned.
“Fuck, yeah. It’s not our kind of place, eh?” The Canadian expression earned a smile from Shooter. Even after all these years, Moose’s accent still amused Shooter.
“True enough. But I’d like to hang around a while.”
Moose narrowed his eyes and stroked his full beard. “You sniffing out some pussy?”
“You really care?”
“Eh, I just want to know if she’s got a friend.” Moose shrugged.
The word pussy seemed too harsh for the woman he’d seen. She was definitely a vagina or lady parts type. Exactly why I don’t need to be looking twice. Despite her revealing outfit, he could tell she wasn’t the kind you just fucked. Normally that meant he moved on to the next. He glanced away but found his attention drawn back to her. There was a hidden depth to her. An invisible mark that all people who’d been through some deep shit wore. The mystery she presented intrigued him.
“She’s got a few. But none of them look the slam-bam type.”
“Shit, Shooter. You scouting out old lady material?” Moose’s eyes grew to the size of golf balls.
“I’m not looking. Way I hear it, though, they tend to catch you unaware.”
“All the more reason for me to get the fuck out of here. You gonna be okay alone?”
The anxious look on the large man’s face made Shooter chuckle. “Aren’t I always?”
“Yeah, good point. See you later, man. I’m going to have fun with some obligation-free sweet butt.”
“You enjoy that—and wrap it up.”
“Don’t have to tell me. I’m not trying to be a father or have some crazy ass thinking I’m her path to ladder climbing.” Moose shuddered. “Happy hunting, hope you capture your prey.” Moose gave a mock salute and disappeared into the crowd.
Tossing back the rest of his whiskey sour, Shooter set the tumbler on the bar and signaled for another. He’d never been an individual to act first and think second. Before he approached her, he’d do a little recon.
Taking his fresh drink, he blended in with the crowd, careful to keep her in sight and his position hidden. Who knew I’d be using sniper training to pick up chicks?
Fifteen minutes later, the sway of her hips and the curve of her back summoned him onto the floor. He turned away three scorching-hot women because he couldn’t keep his thoughts, or his eyes, off her. The coy glances she sent his way woke something inside him. A primal instinct to track and claim. It reminded him of something his father said about his mother once. From the first time your mother looked at me with secrets in her eyes I wanted to learn, I had a compulsion to figure out the mysteries I knew she held. What started off as a short-term mission quickly expanded to last a lifetime, and I’ve never regretted it once. When you meet a woman who entrances you with more than her body, and draws you to her without words, you hold on to her. Because there comes a time when everything has been said, beauty fades and only the connection that brought you together in the first place matters.
He’d never understood it until now. His dick pressed against his pants, fighting to get out, and he knew the only woman it would be satisfied by stood in the center of the floor with her girlfriends.
One night wouldn’t be enough. He needed to mark her as his. He’d figure out what about her dug under his flesh along the way. It’d been years since his interest in getting to know a woman had been sparked.