"Of course," I say, reaching down and smoothing out an imaginary wrinkle on my black skirt. The outfit I'm wearing today is eerily similar to yesterday's: black skirt and matching suit jacket, pale blue button-down, black kitten heel pumps. I even have my hair up in the same, tight bun.
"But first, let me fix that for you," Royal says, his voice teetering on the edge of a growl. Those sexy inked up fingers of his slide from his jeans pocket and reach out, pulling the black clip from my hair before I can even process what it is that he's doing.
Brunette waves tumble around my shoulders and slide across my brow as I blink back my shock and risk a quick glance at Kailey. She's staring at me like I've grown a second head.
"Aren't you a virgin?" she whispers, like that has any relevance to the situation. For the record, I'm not, okay? I lost my virginity when I was sixteen years old. God, Kailey can be such a … a bitch.
"What are you doing?" I ask as Royal takes a step back and hooks my clip to his pocket, like what he just did was no big deal. In the world I come from, people don't just reach out and touch each other's hair. It's an intimate sort of a thing, isn't it? Or maybe I'm just being prudish, I don't know.
"Doing? Just pulling the shades up on your pretty, love." Royal makes a clicking sound and the wolf dogs' ears perk up as they move away from me and my sister and start to follow him. I glance over at my sister again, but she's staring at Royal's tight ass as he moves away.
"I set up a meeting for Friday," I tell him as I struggle to catch up, taking three steps for every one of his. Surprisingly, Royal notices and slows down, matching his pace to mine. "With Janae," I add, in case there was any doubt I was telling the truth.
"I know what your dad's getting out of all this," he begins and my heart sinks a little. Business. But of course he wants to talk business. What else did I think he was going to say? We met yesterday; we're complete opposites. There's literally nothing between us but business. "But nobody from the mayor's office has ever asked me what the club's getting out of our agreement."
"No," I respond, my heart rate slowing as I adjust to the conversation. Yes, my hair's fluttering around my face in the breeze, the taste of salt kissing my lips, but I can do business. It keeps me calm and comfortable, in my zone. "Because that's not important. Mr. Rentz," I say and pause when Royal tosses me a weird look. I know it's odd that I call my dad Mr. Rentz, but it helps people take me more seriously. Imagine saying Daddy this and Papa that to your arrogant asshole male coworkers.
I clear my throat and start again.
"Mr. Rentz isn't concerned with the club's business," I begin, reciting part of a practiced speech, one that I'd cooked up exactly for a meeting like this. First time I saw Royal, it all flew right out my ears and disappeared on the breeze. This time though, I've got my head on straight. Last night was a bit of a wake up call; I won't make the same mistake. As of right now, nothing's happened. Imagine if I had actually had sex with the guy?
Good God.
"Mr. Rentz sure seemed concerned with club business when he sent the feds our way," Royal says, his voice shifting dangerously. By the time I realize what's happening, we've turned a corner at the end of the road and my back's to the brick wall of the shop. Not a half mile behind Royal, the earth drops down in a series of dips and swells, dotted with small trees and tangles of blackberry bushes, until it dips into the navy blue of the sea.
"The feds?" I ask, blinking up at him. He's not even touching me; it was just his presence that caused me to back up into the wall. "Like the FBI?" The FBI's always sniffing around outlaw MCs, looking for some way to nail them to the wall. It's notoriously difficult. Usually they can snag a few of the low ranking members, but they never get guys like Royal. "My dad … " I feel my brows furrow, but force myself to take a deep breath. Royal's leaning over me now, his arm against the wall above my head, his gaze focused down on my face.
He looks unassuming, but I can taste the danger in the situation. I'm not sure what happened to cause the shift in his personality, but it's a little bit scary.
"Mr. Rentz doesn't care about anything-anything-but this town and looking good for his friends. He wants to get re-elected, sure, but that's as far as his political ambitions go. I can promise you, he doesn't know or have anything to do with anyone in the FBI."
"You sound pretty confident for a Deputy Mayor," Royal growls, sliding his left hand up and over my hip. A small gasp escapes my lips before I can fight it back, keeping my gaze focused on the sea behind him, refusing to look at his face. The Pacific Ocean roils and froths, throwing up white foam against the rocks. It's beautiful to look at, but it's also deadly.
Like Royal McBride.
"There are some perks to being the mayor's daughter," I whisper as Royal's hand slides up my side. I should tell him to stop, to back off, but a part of me, long buried and aching, doesn't want him to let go. I almost wish … No. No, I can't have anything to do with this man outside of city business. "Royal," I begin, but his hand grazes the edge of my breast and even through the suit jacket, I can feel him. My nipples harden into peaks and my back arches.
"That's a good girl," he growls, tilting my chin up and dropping his mouth to mine. Before I can even think about protesting, his tongue is diving between my lips, unleashing a surge of fire in me that burns straight through my inhibitions.
I lift my hands up and wrap them around Royal's neck, drawing a groan from his throat that I feel against my mouth. My back arches even more, pressing my breasts against the biker's hard body while his right hand drops down and slides around my waist.
I can hardly breathe. Hell, I'm not sure that I even want to. Royal's kiss … this is the kind of kiss you only get once in a lifetime-it's a promise of fire but also a promise of pain. He tastes like risk and rawness and everything I've ever wanted but never had.
Brutal.
Our kiss is brutal and pummeling and completely unexpected.
My knees feel shaky and I give my weight over to Royal, letting him hold me up as his left hand reaches down and yanks the fabric of my button-down out of my skirt, running his cold calloused fingers up my warm side.
"Boss."
The sound of an unfamiliar voice startles me and I jump, pulling back against Royal's touch as our mouths part and I suck in a heaving breath.
The look on his face is murder.
I watch as he turns to glare at a man with a thick brown beard and a black dragon tattoo that curls down his left arm like a snake.
"Sorry to bother you," he says though he doesn't sound sorry at all. "But we have a problem."
Royal sucks in a massive breath, his eyes flicking back to me.
Refusing to meet his gaze, I turn away and start tucking my shirt back into place. If Kailey's still here … God, she'll know. She'll take one look at me and she'll know.
"What kind of bloody fucking problem?" Royal snaps as I slink away around the corner and start walking as fast as my heels can carry me. Time to get the hell out of here and regroup. What the heck just happened back there? I almost screwed a stranger against a wall!
I run my fingers through my hair and make a beeline towards my car. Unfortunately, Kailey's still there, flirting with some blond guy near the gates.
"Hey you."
A woman's voice catches my attention and I pause, twisting my skirt back into place and glancing over towards the deck of the clubhouse.
A slender brunette with a wild purple streak in the front of her hair is glaring at me from the bottom step, one hand curled around the railing, her makeup thick and dark like a rock star's, dressed in leather and a blue halter that she manages to pull off even though it's not quite ten in the morning.
"Can I help you?" I ask, reaching up to smooth my bun out of habit. Oh yeah. No more bun. Instead, I fluff my hair and take a deep breath, trying to smile as pleasantly as I can. Truthfully, my mind is nowhere near my body right now. I think it's floating somewhere out in space, dazed by the memory of Royal's body pressed tight to mine.
"Actually yeah, you can."
She comes down the last step and moves toward me in a pair of black platform heels. Her arms are literally covered in tattoos from shoulder to wrist, swirls of hearts and rainbows and butterflies. She's pretty, but a little scary, too. And she looks pissed.
I do not have time for this.
I keep smiling anyway. Well, until she gets way too close to me, invading my personal space bubble and leaning close to my ear.
"Stay the fuck away from Royal."
"Excuse me?" I ask, reeling back and giving her a look that's got to be pretty similar to the one Kailey threw at me when Royal pulled down my hair. "I'm sorry, I think I misheard you."