Dakota Read online

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  The raucous caused by his patch brothers were nothing new with drinks spewing from every corner of a clubhouse that’s cleaner than any one they’ve visited in years.

  “Nice place here,” he says to Tucker, who was well past his cut off point and was sitting in a bar stool next to his own.

  “Yeah. Says there’s four rooms with double beds and then there are six actual apartments here. Full bathrooms in each. But you, Atticus, and Tristan can stay with me at the main house. Plenty of room there too,” Tucker says before puffing on his cigarette.

  “Your sister gonna be okay with that?” he asks.

  “Atticus opened his big mouth?” Tucker says.

  “Nah. Just walked in on her and Kyle getting into some shit and overheard.”

  He actually sees the slump of Tucker’s shoulders. “She’ll be fine with us there,” the man answers. “She knows how things are with this life.”

  Doesn’t mean she has to like having strange men traipsing around in her house but hey, who was he to question that out loud.

  Jessa suddenly pops her head up from between Tucker’s legs, her hand wiping her lips. “What’s wrong?” she asks the man.

  “Not right now,” Tucker says, pushing the girl away and then zipping himself up. “Why don’t you go entertain someone else.”

  “Hard to do when they have fresh meat to drool over,” Jessa says before straightening herself up.

  “Don’t ever let me hear you or anyone else call my sister fresh meat again. Do you fucking understand me?” Tucker growls at Jessa.

  “I-I’m sorry. I-I didn’t know,” the girl says before she hurries off to her group of sluts. Probably to spread the word.

  He turns his attention to find Minx at the other end of the bar and his eyes drink her in. She couldn’t be taller than 5’2” and couldn’t be more than 110 pounds. Her long black hair was in a tight ponytail, yet still falls down between her shoulder blades. Deep grey eyes like that of Tuckers, except hers were set on a heart shaped face and Tucker’s face was covered with a beard. His sight settles on her soft-looking lips, set into a grin at the moment. Her fucking dimples. Damn! He was always a sucker for those. But her deep dimples just about slew him when he’d first seen them in the bar in town.

  Kyle, Atticus, and Tristan were huddled around her as Boone tries to show her one of his corny ass magic tricks.

  He gets out of his seat and heads over to his group of brothers standing with Minx. Her back was turned to him now and he can see her slim and creamy neck. She was wearing a black tank top and he can see that her skin was just about flawless. He must have had too much to drink because just the soft brush of her hair against his leather cut made his dick twitch. He was standing so close behind her, his shadow practically casts a cover over her.

  What would Tucker or even Atticus do if he’d just brushed his fingers through her hair? Just once. That’s all he needed. That’s a lie. Something deep inside said he wouldn’t want to do it just once. And it’d probably start with combing his large fingers through but it would stop with her hair wrapped around his fist.

  “Hey Dakota,” Kyle greets him, causing her to turn around too quickly and bump right into him. She stumbles back and he catches her by the waist before she tips over.

  Fuck. Her waist was tiny. His hand was holding her up, resting there on her hip with her round doe-eyes locking with his.

  “Careful,” he teases her.

  She composes herself and steps back from him before she turns around to face the group.

  “You look like you can use another shot,” Atticus says to him. The man was oblivious to the electric current emanating between Minx and him.

  Boone finishes pouring into the shot glasses and the guy was handing it out. Minx takes two from Boone’s hands and turns around to hand one to him. He intentionally brushes her soft fingers with his large and rough ones.

  Fuck! This was probably the best foreplay he’s ever participated. Shit. Except, he didn’t think she even knew this is foreplay. Can it be foreplay? Foreplay meant he’d have her pinned under him in bed with his dick buried deep inside her right? Shit. Could he do that? She’s Tucker’s sister.

  She tosses her shot back, her eyes never leaving his face. He does the same, his eyes locked onto hers. Yes. Definitely foreplay.

  He puts his shot glass on the bar and she surprises him by reaching up with her slender, creamy hand and sifts her fingers through his long beard.

  “Wow. That’s a lot softer than I thought it’d be,” she says before she smiles and her dimples slay him across the clubhouse again.

  “You should see all the products he’s got in his saddlebags just to take care of it. Worse than a bitch with her hair and makeup products,” Tristan says from behind them.

  Surprising him yet again, her fingers tug his head down by the beard and she’s on tiptoes until her nose is in his beard. He can hear her taking a big sniff. He just about kisses her head when he catches wind of her vanilla fragrant.

  “Smells peachy,” she says, laughing before she lets him go and then takes a step back.

  “Yeah...don’t go around smelling the other beards around here unless you want to get familiar with the scent of ass and pussy,” Kyle tells her.

  “Eww! That’s just disgusting!” she says.

  Thank god he hadn’t eaten any of the club sluts’ pussies, he thought to himself. Some of his other brothers were crazy about that shit. Not him though. He preferred to keep that for someone special except he couldn’t remember when the last time he’d come across someone special enough for it.

  “So, did they pick you up from North or South Dakota or is your name really Dakota?” she asks him.

  “My name’s really Dakota. Dakota Macks,” he answers, leaning against the bar so that he wasn’t so much towering over her.

  “Macks?” she asks before she turns around and looks at Tristan.

  “First cousin,” Tristan answers her unasked question.

  She reaches her hand back up, cocking her head to one side and was tangling her fingers into his beard again. Holy fuck! Why did it feel like she was leading him down a rabbit hole right now? The best part? It didn’t look like she had the tiniest bit of a clue what she was doing to him. There was no seduction in her eyes or allure in her smile. Just a real smile and soft bright eyes full of goodness.

  “Opie Winston! THAT’S who you look like!” she tells him. “But your beard’s darker.”

  “Who?” he asks. Great...she was luring him into her web while she was thinking of someone else.

  “He does, doesn’t he?” Kyle says. “He’s one of the characters in that Sons of Anarchy show.”

  She pulls him down by the beard again, closer until he was eye to eye with her.

  “Don’t worry. He was my favorite,” she whispers to him. So close, her breath was kissing him. “Besides, you look better. I bet you’re taller too.” He wasn’t sure if she was flirting or just playing. Whatever it is, she’s got him. Hook, line, and sinker.

  She let’s go of his beard and he wanted to reach out to grab her hand and put it back.

  “Why do they call you Minx?” he asks with a grin. “You don’t look like the type...”

  He was lying. She was definitely a minx. Sexy and seductive. He just didn’t know if she knew that.

  “Ask Kyle and Atticus,” she answers.

  Kyle starts laughing before Atticus speaks. “When she was eight years old, she must have heard someone calling their old lady a minx or some shit. The following Christmas another old lady got a mink coat from her old man. Mercy here went missing for a couple hours because she was hiding in a closet and crying. She thought the coat was made from human minx versus mammal minks. Kyle made it worse but telling her some shit about how they farm women minx for that specific purpose.”

  “I had nightmares for weeks because I was so scared my mama was gonna end up a coat and wailed every time my dad called her a little minx,” she tells h
im.

  “I got an ass whooping by my pops because they thought I’d managed to hypnotize her to cry every time she’d hear the word,” Kyle finishes.

  He laughs at the story and she flashes her dimpled smile at him again.

  Lord have Mercy on my dick!

  “I’d always prefer calling her Mercy,” Tristan adds on.

  “You knew her too?” he asks his cousin.

  “Of course. Atticus and Tucker were my best friends,” Tristan answers.

  “Tris used to make me sneak him some of my papa’s beers. He’d hold my stuffed animals hostage and threatened to wash them,” she says with a laugh.

  “Don’t know why that would be such a big threat. They were all fucking dirty as shit,” Tristan teases her.

  “It wasn’t the threat,” Kyle adds in. “It’s because Tristan was her first crush!”

  “KYLE!” she yelps.

  Great. Her first crush just happens to be his cousin. Even though she wasn’t but a kid, that had him jealous. Jealous! What. The. Fuck.

  Tristan walks over to her side. “Well, now. If I’d known that. We’d be married and had half a dozen kids by now,” Tristan says before he growls and playfully gnaws on her shoulder.

  She shoves Tristan off and laughs. “It was a tiny, itty bitty crush. I’m soooo glad I didn’t end up with a savage like you,” she says.

  Tristan laughs and gives her a playful shove.

  “What’s your problem?” his cousin asks him before slapping his back. “What’s with the fucking scowl?”

  He didn’t even realize he’d been scowling. Minx turns around and cocks her head to the side at him. “I know that look,” she says.

  “You do?” he asks.

  “Uh-huh. That’s a hangry face,” she says. “I bet you’re hungry.”

  “Maybe,” he says, ridding himself of the scowl.

  “Hey, Minx! Your ride’s good,” that Austin kid yells over at her.

  “Thanks, Austin!” she replies with a thumbs up.

  “Why are you on a crotch rocket?” Atticus asks her.

  “Come on,” she says, waving for them to all follow her.

  She leads them through the clubhouse into a dimly lit garage. She walks over to the wall and flips the switches for the rest of the overhanging lights to brighten up the place.

  “Fuck! This is nice, Minx,” Kyle says in awe of what looked like a fully stocked bike shop.

  “You guys are welcome to use anything. Just replace the oils that you usurp,” she says. “The matte black Fat Boy in the corner is mine too,” she points and tells Kyle. “Maddox and Austin both have the Sportsters next to it. The others are customer’s drop-offs.”

  “Customer’s?” Tristan asks. “Didn’t notice any signs out front.”

  “We’re not a full-blown shop right now but we do have all our licenses. We just help the travelers that run into trouble during their mid-life crisis road trips,” she says, gliding her hand over the seat of her Suzuki GSX-R600. “This is just more comfortable and quicker for when I need to get in and out.”

  “Wanna take her out for a spin?” she whispers to him. For a second, he was hoping she was asking to take her out for a spin. Her as in Minx. Because FUCK YEAH would he want to! “Maybe we can take care of your hangry issue,” she says. “There’s a diner not too far from here that serves up a mean late night T-Bone steak and eggs.”

  “Only if you ride with me,” he tells her.

  She seems to think about it for a moment and he wonders if he was pushing on her too hard. But she shrugs and smiles back at him. “Fine. But if you drop my bike, I’m kicking your ass,” she says.

  ◆◆◆

  The sounds of talking and roughhousing wakes him up to find he wasn’t in bed alone. Matter of fact, whose bed is he in? How much did he have to fucking drink last night? Most importantly, who’s he got pinned in between his arms, keeping his chest warm? His routine was fuck and leave. He didn’t do sleepovers.

  A whiff of vanilla scent from the dark hair underneath his chin gave him his answer. Minx. Lord have Mercy! Did he get what he wanted last night only to be too drunk to remember what the fuck happened?

  Fuck! But her soft, tiny frame pressed up against him felt too damn good to let go.

  “Yo, Dakota!” he hears Atticus calling out. “You up, man!”

  Minx stirs in his arms. She murmurs something he couldn’t make out and he slowly removes his arm from around her to turn onto his back. She follows along, placing her head on his shoulder and snuggling closer into his neck. Her arms and legs lying over him now.

  Fuck yes!

  He checks his watch. Damn. It was already past 1pm. He checks himself and sees that he wasn’t naked. He still had on his wife beater and his boxers. Minx was still in her black tank top but had ditched the leather pants for a pair of cotton shorts. His hand runs over her smooth, bare leg. Damn, she was soft.

  He scans his surroundings. Past 1pm and the room was still mostly dark thanks to what are probably blackout curtains. They were probably in Minx’s room. It was cozy and it felt personal. No pictures on the walls though but it was still feminine and had many of her knickknacks. Her bed was definitely too small for the both of them.

  “DAKOTA!” Atticus yells out again from what sounded like the level below.

  Minx whimpers from the noise and turns over, her back to him. As gently as his giant body can possibly move, he slides off the bed and finds his jeans on the floor. Slipping into them and then into his socks, he picks up his boots and quietly leaves the room, leaving behind his cut and everything else.

  He finds the stairs and tramples down before sitting on the last step and putting his boots on. He can smell coffee coming from somewhere in the house and follows his nose. He walks into the kitchen, hands threading through his long reddish hair before wiping down over his face and then down to his ruffled beard.

  “Which room did you sleep in?” Tristan asks him from his seat at the kitchen table.

  “Got any more of that coffee?” he asks his cousin, ignoring the question.

  Nothing happened between him and Minx. Most likely. Dumbass. But he didn’t know if his club President’s baby sister is off limits or not. Though he hadn’t seen the two siblings say two words to each other since leaving the bar.

  “Tucker stayed at the clubhouse last night,” Atticus tells him. “But he wants some of us to roll out to the next county over and let the Hellhounds know that we’re in town. It won't take long for Reapers to get the word and things might get ugly when that happens so better let our friends know.”

  “Sure,” he mumbles as he searches for a mug.

  Some of the guys were heard even before they walk into the house. Noisy fuckers. He was hoping maybe he could go back and climb into bed with Minx but that seemed highly unlikely now.

  CHAPTER 4

  Minx

  “Shit,” she whispers before throwing her phone back onto the night table. Travis, Reaper’s enforcer, had been calling her for the past two hours and she’d slept right through it.

  She sits up in bed and notices the leather cut laying in the chair by the door. Dakota. Shit. She vaguely remembers stumbling up the stairs with the giant of a man after they’d gone out for a late night bite and probably one too many drinks. At least, one too many for her since he was able to get them both back home safely.

  Did they...? She looks down at herself. Doesn’t feel like they did anything. And she was pretty sure with someone his size, she would definitely feel something. Sore would be the word to best describe that feeling.

  “Dummy,” she says to herself before plopping back onto the pillow, pulling the sheet over her head to hide the flush she can feel creeping over her body.

  Flirting and bringing home a man she’d just met wasn’t something she did. Okay...she didn’t bring them home at least. And it wasn’t often. Just twice. Since she turned 18 and Maddox and Austin had saved her, she’s had two...yep...just two one night stands and zero dates, le
t alone boyfriends.

  The damn giant of a man was fucking hot and swoon worthy with his reddish hair and beard, his inked sleeves and eyes as dark green as the fields outside her window. Gold...there were hints of gold flecks in those eyes too. And the insta-attraction was freaking ridiculous. She’s either been without a man for way too long or she’s read way too many bad boy biker romance novels on her Kindle. Secretly reading them of course. The last thing she needed was for Maddox or Austin to find out. The jokes and taunts would be endless.

  She turns over onto her side, pulling the other pillow in between her arms and she swears she can smell Dakota on it. Matter of fact, now that she was under the sheet, she can smell him on herself. A little peachy and a lot of Dakota. Dammit. She’d just met the guy and he’d already spent the night in her bed. She didn’t sleep with men...she didn’t sleep with anyone. It was just how it was after everything that happened to her.

  You’ve got it bad, Mercy.

  Frustrated, she hops out of bed and heads for a quick shower. She needed to meet with Travis in an hour. Today was her day with Bianca and Tricia and she didn’t plan on missing out on the four hours every other week she was allowed with them.

  Once she was out of the shower and dressed, she opens the door to find Kyle just about ready to knock.

  “Hey, you’re up,” he says. He gives her a one over. “Going somewhere?” he asks.

  She checks to see if anyone else was in the hallway before pulling him in her room and then shutting the door.

  “I have to go meet Travis,” she tells her friend. “And today, I get to spend my four hours with Bianca and Tricia.”

  “Mercy, you have to tell Tucker. We can help!” Kyle says to her. She knew he was serious by his usage of her real name.

  “I know that! Just...let me have today. Let me talk to Tricia and tell her first.”

  “Fine. Do you go alone or do one of your boys ride with you?” Kyle asks.

  “I have to go alone. It’s one of the rules.” Probably because Diaz thought it might take more time for her to kidnap two people alone on a motorcycle. That was the other rule. She can’t show up to the spot with a vehicle. Two wheels only.