She shook her head. What the hell was wrong with her? If he hadn’t thought it was a mistake, he wouldn’t have given her the cold shoulder after Ryder knocked on the door. And if she hadn’t agreed, she would never have walked away.
Still, she couldn’t let him fall prey to Rex’s trap. She would have to plan her visit to the clubhouse carefully. And since she had two weeks, she didn’t have to rush. Maybe tomorrow…
Decision made, she headed back to the table and spotted Jackie playing beer pong with Hans and his almost-identical lederhosen-clad friend.
“We bought you another stein,” Jackie said as Lana slid into the bench beside her. “An alcoholic one. I was getting the feeling you were done with the surveillance tonight. Oh, and I got you a weisswurst sausage.” She glanced around and lowered her voice. “The boys here are a little lacking in the meat department, if you know what I mean. The sausage is a poor substitute but the best I could do.”
Lana hefted her stein and clinked glasses with Jackie. “Here’s to finding the perfect sausage.”
“Does that mean we’re officially off restroom duty?”
“Unless we see Rex grabbing a milkmaid and sneaking her outside, I’m done for tonight,” Lana said. “I need to have a little fun.”
Three hours and two steins later, Jackie and Lana jumped on their table with Hans and Jens, and joined the rowdy, table-stomping crowd in a sing-along version of “Take Me Home, Country Roads”.
When they reached the third verse, a hand clamped around her ankle and she caught the flash of Cerberus’s red eyes just before a massive body lifted her off the tabletop and set her firmly on the floor. Eyes wide with alarm, Jackie jumped down after her.
A firm hand on the back and a march through the crowd later, she was up against the wall with a furious Ryder staring down at her.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
She glanced over at Jackie, but her friend was entranced with the lean, hard body and breathtaking good looks of the Adonis in front of them.
“Well, we were singing until you rudely dragged me off the table.”
“That kind of…behavior is not allowed,” he spluttered.
“Well, then you’d better make an announcement because right now everyone in the hall is on the tables,” Jackie batted her eyelashes and a sultry smile graced her perfect lips. “Or, if you were planning on a group punishment, you could start with me.” She twisted her hip and patted her left bottom cheek. “This cheek first.”
Ryder sucked in a sharp breath and his eyes widened as he was hit with the full effect of Jackie, the seductive milkmaid, and the creamy expanse of her uncovered cheek. His mouth opened and closed. No sound came out.
“I think you’ve shocked him,” Lana said. “That or you’ve turned him on so much he can’t speak.”
Jackie’s lips quivered and her cheeks flushed. Lana tried to suppress a smile at the state of her usually imperturbable friend. But then Ryder, with his chiseled jaw and broad shoulders, certainly wasn’t hard on the eyes. No way would he ever prance around in lederhosen.
Ryder dragged his gaze back to Lana. “Does Ice know you’re here?”
Lana’s pulse kicked up a notch and she tried to force her alcohol-fuzzed brain into a kick-ass old-lady mind-set. Old lady. Old lady. Old lady. “Of course not,” she snapped. “I don’t report to him. I don’t tell him where I’m going to be every minute of the day. I don’t ask his permission when I go out.”
Hmmm. As natural as breathing. Maybe she was meant to be a biker’s old lady after all.
Ryder folded his arms and leveled his gaze. “You do.”
“I don’t. So just chill. Jackie and I are just here having a good time, same as everyone else. It is summer Oktoberfest, after all.”
Ryder shook his head. “You’re Ice’s old lady. ‘You’re his’ means you don’t stand on tables wearing…” he looked her up and down and swallowed hard, “…that…sexy little outfit. Especially not when the brothers are here and Ice isn’t around to keep them in line. They’ll be thinking…things…they shouldn’t be thinking. You belong to Ice and only Ice should be thinking those things.”
Jackie snorted. “I think he’s saying Ice is gonna be pissed he missed out on a fun evening. I don’t speak bikerese so it’s just a guess.”
Lana tightened her lips and glared at Ryder. Yet another biker with attitude. Yet another man who thought he could boss her around. She could hardly wait to be done with this case and get back to sitting in her car, eating celery sticks and watching men cheat on their wives. He made it too damn easy to put on the old-lady attitude—or, maybe, she’d already been wearing it.