Page 28 of What He Wants

“Demo. Whistler took off. Shooter is inside.” It was then that we heard the distinctive sound of another bike starting up. I swung around to look inside. “Fuck!” I punched the side of the building. Shooter was gone. “Goddammit! Shooter is fucking gone.”

That wasn’t good.

Chapter 12

Daisy

Two days! Two freaking days since Big John had dropped me off at the clubhouse, fucked me like it was our last time, and then disappeared without a word. I hadn’t seen him since. Thank goodness Jasmine was there, because otherwise I would have taken my crap and walked back to my house. She was just as upset that Clay had disappeared, too. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that they were together. We had questioned Hawk, since he was their president, only to be told in his cold and moody way that it was club business and, therefore, none of ours. His wife, Audra, had been sweeter about it and more understanding about our anger. She and the other old ladies had taken us under their wing and had explained how MC’s worked.

Well, their MC, anyway.

I’d learned that most outlaw clubs followed the same formula, but that each had subtle differences. The one constant seemed to be that it was better not to know about “club business” so that you would never have to lie if the law came calling. Not that any of the old ladies that I had met would ever have betrayed their men. They seemed to be genuinely enamored with those rough, dirty-mouthed bikers, and the men were just as captivated with their women. Proof of that had been shown by more than one demonstration of affection between the couples who were wandering around the clubhouse.

The couples didn’t seem to care if they had an audience during a smoldering kiss or an intimate touch, even when it sometimes caused me to look away uncomfortably. Despite these awkward moments, I had to admit to myself that thinking about Big John doing the same to me was a turn-on that I didn’t want to mull over for too long. His intensity scared me at times. I guessed that that was why he was the enforcer. From what little I’d learned from the other women, his job was to keep the peace, and to keep the club safe, by whatever means were necessary. Maybe I didn’t want to know exactly what that meant.

“How’s it going?” I jumped slightly at the sound of Jasmine’s voice behind me. She laughed. “Were you daydreaming?”

“Kind of,” I smiled, reaching for another head of lettuce. I’d offered to make the salad for lunch/dinner, and was in the kitchen next to the huge farmer’s sink, washing the veggies as I went along. “What are you up to?” Jasmine wasn’t a domestic kind of girl who enjoyed doing mundane things like cooking and cleaning, so she wasnotin the kitchen helping like some of the other women were.

“I found a job I’m good at.” I paused to give her a long, doubtful look, knowing what her background was. Her smile turned into a giggle. “Oh, come on, honey! I can tell what you’re thinking by your look. Do you really think I’d be doingthathere? I doubt these guys have a nickel between them, and besides, some of them don’t look like they bathe regularly.”

My jaw dropped with shock, and then I slowly realized that she was joking. “You’re terrible!” I chuckled.

“Had you going, didn’t I,” she nudged me in the shoulder. “That life is behind me, honey, you know that, and besides, I have Clay now. The man’s a God and a sex machine in bed. All you have to do is drop in a quarter and he just keeps going and going like The Energizer Bunny.”

I rolled my eyes. “So, what are you doing to help out?”

“I’ve been helping out with the little ones, giving their moms a break, bringing them food and drinks, I even changed one of the babies.” Once again, I paused to give her a stunned look. “I know! Who would have thought that I liked children? But I find that I do.”

“Wow. Maybe being here is going to be good for you. Maybe it will show you that there’s more to a relationship than sex.” I was cutting up celery now. “I’d like to see you happy and settled down.”

It grew quiet between us for a minute, and I knew that Jasmine was thinking about her past. She’d often stated that no man would want an ex-prostitute for a wife, much less for the mother of his children. Usually self-assured and vibrant, that was the one thing she let hold her back. She was convinced that she was tainted and didn’t deserve to find that kind of happiness.

“Stop it,” I said, tossing some cherry tomatoes into the huge bowl. “Stop thinking negative thoughts. We shape our own lives, honey, but you have to fight for what you want. If something isn’t working--” I instantly thought about my crappy life with Paul, “then you change it.” I gave her a meaningful look. “You know that.” She released a sigh and nodded. “So, you like Clay a lot, huh?”

Her face lit up. “Yeah, for some strange reason I do. It started out as just sex, but I don’t know . . .” She shrugged. “He’s different from any man I’ve ever met. Rough, controlling, intense.” She halted for a minute, as if thinking about what she wanted to say. “And he’s annoying as hell, but he gets to me. He makes me feel . . .” She paused, searching for the right word. “Special.”

I grinned. “Are you in love with him?”

Her expression immediately fell. “No! What? No way! It’s too damned soon for that.” She made a tisking sound. “Where did that come from? Gee, slow down, girl.”

“Okay, okay,” I laughed, cutting up some carrots. She was right. She and Clay hadn’t been together long enough for it to have turned into something more serious. He wasn’t exactly the kind of man you brought home to the family, but if Jasmine was happy, that was all that mattered.

I thought about Big John. The same could be said about him, but there was absolutely nothing between us. One session of smoking hot sex didn’t a relationship make. I wasn’t even sure what there was between us, other than that one moment when we have given in to what had been building between us since we’d met. Maybe now that the sexual tension had been worked out he’d be done trying to intimidate me with his intense, smoldering looks.

Yeah, he hadn’t been intimidating me.

He’d been staking a claim.

And I’d liked it.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about that now that I’d let him have me so easily.

Whew! I was getting warm just thinking about the big man. I tossed the carrots into the salad, staring down into the bowl to see if it was missing anything. If it had been up to me I would have added onions, radishes, and mushrooms, but there were children who would be sharing the salad. A pile of cucumber, celery, carrots, cheese squares, and sweet dried cranberries sat on a huge mound of lettuce. I picked up the tongs to mix everything together.

“How’s the salad coming?” Hawk’s wife, Audra, called from across the kitchen. She was removing a huge sheet of garlic bread from the oven.

“All done,” I smiled back at her. “Jasmine, can you get the salad dressings out of the fridge?”

---