Page 2 of Walker

“Shaina!” I hissed as the two men standing outside the clubhouse chuckled. We weren’t even through the door, and I was already mortified.

Considering I worked at a strip club owned by the S.H.E. MC, you would think I wouldn’t be intimidated walking into a party at the Aces High MC clubhouse. Still, working for female bikers had to be very different than partying with the male variety.

“Relax,” my best friend huffed. I hadn’t realized my shoulders were tensed up damn near to my ears. I dropped them back down and gave a little roll of my shoulders to further release the tension.

“We don’t bite.” A man whispered gruffly into my ear as he passed by on his way to the bar that ran along the right side of the common area in the clubhouse. As I tracked his movements, Shaina squealed and then took off across the vast room like a bullet. Her blonde curls billowed out behind her and bounced along as she skittered to a stop in just enough time to jump onto the man she had her sights on. She showed every bit of her thighs and a little bit of her ass as she wrapped her legs around the man’s waist and her skirt drifted further up her legs than would have been appropriate anywhere else.

“Are you kidding?” I called after my friend who couldn’t hear me and wouldn’t have stopped even if she could. She had her eyes on a very specific biker and once she saw him, I was all but forgotten. Since turning into a wallflower in front of the door wasn’t an option, I made my way over to the bar to my right. The biker who had whispered in my ear stood on one end with his back to the bar and a bottle of water in hand as he surveyed the scene before him.

“Are you security or something?” I asked with a tip of my head toward the bottle.

He shook his head. “Don’t make the best decisions when alcohol is involved, so I don’t touch it anymore.”

I ordered a bottle for myself, and the same man chuckled. “You won’t offend me if you order something stronger.”

“This is my first time here, and the one person I know already left me to fend for myself. I think keeping a clear head will be a wise move on my part.”

He tipped his bottle up to me in a weird salute as his dark hair flopped forward into his face. With a quick flick of his head, it was back out only to flop over once more.

I laughed at his expense as he nodded to my wrist where I kept an extra hair tie. “Mind if I borrow that?”

In response, I held my arm out to him and shivered as the very good-looking biker slid the hair tie from my wrist, over my hand, and left a trail of pebbled gooseflesh in his wake.

“Thanks,” he called while he gathered his thick, brown locks back with both hands and twisted the tie around to hold it back from his face.

“It feels like maybe you’re not used to all that hair.”

“Kept it short for a lot of years. Been trying something new. It’s a bitch to grow out.” The sheepish smile he shot my way sent all the hormones in my body into overdrive. I was a sucker for a humble, sexy man.

“Hey Walker, you ready to play with me tonight, sugar?” A barely clothed woman asked while purposely stepping between us. I turned my back on the spectacle to search the room for Shaina again. Considering I’d seen her greet Wash the way she had, it would be a miracle if they hadn’t gone some place private.

“Don’t know how many times I have to repeat myself. Never gonna happen, Tay.”

“If you claimed me, I wouldn’t be a club girl anymore.” The girl’s argument sounded wild even to me as an outsider.

“Never dated you. Never fucked you. Don’t know why you think I’d lay claim to you.”

“No one else will have you after what you did to your ex-wife.” The woman he called Tay piped up. She all but ran across the room after delivering that blow. I turned back to see the man she called Walker damn near crushing his water bottle.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Fine.” He growled out the word, making it clear he was anything but fine.

“Okay then.” I turned back to look for Shaina once again. Having an adult fun night no longer felt fun or worth the price I’d have to pay my sister for babysitting my two kids.

“Sorry, please, don’t let me ruin your night. My ex-wife is a mood-killing topic.”

“Was she that horrible?” I asked, unable to stop my curiosity in its tracks.

“No. She was sweet and always a bright spot in anyone’s day.”

“What happened?”

“Long story short, I was an asshole back then. Cheated on her instead of manning up to our situation.”

“That was a shitty thing to do.”

He nodded. “Cost me the love and respect of a good woman and nearly cost me my place in the club.”