Elle scrambled for her dress as he scrambled for the words to say. With a silent curse, he glanced down at the note still crumpled in his hand as his mind, body, and heart all warred against each other within.
"Please, Elle, don't … " Honey trialed off as she hastily shimmied into the silky dress, once more making his mouth go dry at the sight of her, a bittersweet pang in his chest when she wouldn't look at him. She used her golden blonde hair like a curtain, separating them, keeping her expression hidden from him. "Damn it Elle, just … just look at me," Honey pleaded, throwing out the words in a desperate bid but she didn't bite.She continued to look at the floor, at the ceiling, at anything but him. It tore his heart out, not being able to see her dark eyes, not being able to read the emotion in them. What was she feeling? What was the little minx thinking? Knowing Elle, it could be anything.
"It's wrong. And that's, you know what Honey, that's okay. You don't have to say anything else," Elle muttered and Honey had to clench his teeth to hold his lust fueled temper in check.
"No. Not wrong, baby. You were the one who said that, not me."
"You didn't have to, Honey," she hissed out, turning away from him and he reached out quickly before she could slide past him, drawing her back tight to his front just so there could be no mistake.
"Elle, you can feel for yourself just how right I think this is," he growled against her ear and had to squeeze his eyes closed as he felt her shudder against him. "This isn't about … us. This is something else. This is … " he shook his head, his fist tightening around the note, "I don't know yet, to be honest, but, please," Honey leaned close again, drawing his mouth in a sweeping kiss across as much of her delicate, swan-like neck as he could reach, "Please, believe me when I say this could never be wrong. Nothing between us could ever be wrong, Elle."
"Honey, I – " Her words cut off as she turned in his arms and for one brief, shining moment her eyes were warm and open and inviting on his. But the next instant she pulled back again, drawing away from him. "I have to go. I'm sorry Honey, I just … I have to leave."
Honey sighed, knowing that there would be no arguing with her. Not with that stubborn tilt to her chin that she got when she had her mind set on something. It would take a herd of elephants to get Elle Watson to move from her path once she'd decided on it. And God forbid if she'd made a promise. He'd be more worried about the elephants, then.
She started to leave, but he stopped her one last time, dropping his jacket around her bared shoulders.
"Don't go out through the front," he said gruffly, looking over her flushed cheeks, kiss-swollen lips, and tousled hair. Those pricks would take one look at her and fall all over themselves trying to get to her. Gently, Honey swept one stray lock of blond hair behind one ear as he struggled with all the things he wanted to say, but he was out of time. "Go through the back door and around to the parking lot. The side gate's unlocked. You should be able to get through unseen."
Elle's expression softened at his words as she huffed out a sigh of relief.
"Thanks, Honey, I'll see you … I'll – " she paused, taking a deep breath, "Goodbye."
"Bye, baby."
She gave him one last look, barely more than a glance out of the corner of her sweet, dark eyes and then she was gone, slipping through the door to disappear as if she'd never been. But he could still smell her on him, could still feel the incredible softness of her skin under his fingertips. He could still taste her.
He stared at the spot Elle had just been for a long minute, his thoughts tumbling and turbulent, no end and no beginning to the argument that ran in circles through his head. What had just happened? Something had definitely just happened because he had walked into this office one man, the old Honey, and now he felt … different. In a way that he couldn't explain, that he couldn't put into words.
Honey could never remember feeling this way before. As if his whole world had been dark clouds and then suddenly a ray of sunshine had burst through, illuminating everything. His hands tightened into fists as he tried to make sense of it, make sense of the sudden lightness that filled him. And that's when he felt it. The note. It was still crushed against his palm. Sitting there like a ticking bomb just waiting to go off.
Slowly, he held it up, carefully smoothing it out again on the top of the desk. He could still feel the heat from Elle's body radiating from it and he cursed again, a string of low spoken words that he meat with all his heart. But if his suspicions were right, then he didn't have time to wait. Honey re-read the hand scrawled not once, and then again, and then one final time. There was no other thing it could mean.
It hit him like a ton of bricks, like a dead weight falling on him from the top of a three story building. The Dirty Cruisers was his home, it was his family. It was his life and it had been for ten years. And he held proof in his hand that someone was trying to tear it all apart. And it what made it worse was that it was one of their own. Viper.
The note was proof that Viper was planning a coup to take down Joel and become the next president of the Dirty Cruisers himself. Honey snorted out loud at the thought. As if Viper, that snot nosed, nasal son of a bitch had the brains to run an operation like this. He thought everything was riding into the sunset with guns blazing. He would learn soon enough that there was a hell of a lot more to leading than that.
He had to tell Joel.
Fuck. Honey knew that his president, and friend, had his suspicions but this would be a blow to him. He loved this crew as much as Honey did and he knew how much it would hurt him. It would cut him to the bone. But he'd have to put a stop to it before it was too late.
A loud, clattering noise caught his attention and Honey jumped, before swearing at himself. He took a bare second to get himself back in order. Every time he moved, Elle's scent reached him, filling his lungs with thoughts of her, memories of her lush curves and the breathy moans that had fallen out of her sweet mouth when he'd made her come.
"Come on Honey, get your shit together!" he growled at himself as he zipped and buttoned his dark denim jeans. He grabbed the note, once more clenching it in his fist, and rushed out to find Joel.
***
Elle looked back once at the door she'd just walked through but she didn't stop. She couldn't. Because if she stopped, she knew in the next instant she'd be back there, begging Honey not to stop. Begging him to – she shook her head vehemently, trying to dig her thoughts back out of the gutter but it seemed they'd taken up permanent residence there.
She could feel it happening, the waves of anxiety, the feeling of claustrophobia that always came before the panic attack hit. But it was different now, not as intense. And oddly enough, whenever her thoughts trailed back to Honey and what had just happened between them, the anxiety lessened, melting away to be replaced with lust and desire and need. A dizzying combination that she didn't understand.
Elle still couldn't believe that she had done that. That it had been her standing there in front of the mirror, begging him, saying those things. She shook her head again, but this time for a different reason. It had been … freeing. Liberating. For those too brief, wonderful moments, she had felt like someone else. Someone normal. Someone real. Someone who wasn't afraid to see what they want and then take it.
She let out a soft, disbelieving laugh. But it had been her. She could still feel Honey's touch, could still taste his kiss. Could still remember exactly the way it felt when he was inside her. Elle shuddered at the memory, in desire or embarrassment she wasn't sure. Her emotions were so tangled up it was impossible for her to sort out where one started and the next began.
She was just nearing the back door when a noise stopped her. Voices. There were voices coming from the other side. Elle crept closer, pricking her ears to listen but the words were muffled and she couldn't pick out more than one in every three of four. But that was enough to tell her that they were talking about Joel, Carla's boyfriend and the president of the bikers. And the talk didn't seem particularly friendly, either.
Without thought, she moved as close as she could, her ear nearly pressed against the door but its heavy steel blocked out most of the sound. She gasped as it started to open, her heart in her throat as she tried to back away but there was nowhere to hide. It was just an empty, open hallway.
The panic was back now in full force like a drug rushing through her veins, freezing her where she stood but then another noise sounded, loud and from the direction of the main bar at the front of the clubhouse.
"Shit! We're missing all the action."
"Come on, Buck. They're starting without us!" The reason why the voices had sounded familiar hit her hard. It was that … that degenerate Buck and his sniveling crony. Elle closed her eyes as the door closed again, the sound of their hurried footsteps receding as they ran the other way around to the bar.