Page 9 of Outlaws' Dirty Secret

Dragon presses his way through the crowd to join us, noticeably tall even in a crowd of tall men. He crosses his arms over his chest as he looks me up and down, eyes pausing on my dress. His long, dark hair is damp and hanging loose, and there’s an angry cut down his right forearm that wasn’t there last time I saw him. “Well, you found us. What are you doing here, Willow?”

“It isn’t as much fun when it’syourhouse getting barged into, is it?” I fire back.

Blackout snorts.

Yeah, it made more sense in my head.

Dragon takes a step forward, putting himself close enough that I can smell the sharp forest scent of soap on his skin. “I’m asking because when a pretty girl dresses up and crashes one of our parties, every man in here is gonna assume she’s here for one thing,” he whispers right in my ear. “To get fucked. Is that it? You got an itch that needs scratching?”

The stripper behind me lets out a long, low groan that’s so heavily laced with pleasure that I nearly feel it along with her. “God damn, Lash!”

My mouth opens, but no words come out. Someone stole the air from my lungs and left me burning with curiosity and a heavy, warm sensation that I haven’t felt in far too long. Lust. But it’s too much too fast. Just being inside a place like this is already way outside my comfort zone. The idea that people might be looking at me and assuming I’m here to get my freak on is terrifying.

I knew I was a phony, wanting to write hot, smutty books, but I think I figured it would be like writing about dragons and magic. I could make it up as I went along. Maybe my ex was right. A girl who’s only had sex in the dark should stick to fade to black. How could I ever put this kind of raw energy on a page and have readers believe it?

“Willow?” Skyhigh’s voice asks from behind. “Back off man. She’s fucking spooked.”

“Shit, for someone who writes about fucking, you’re real easy to rattle.” Dragon steps back and I can breathe again.

The words dig deep into my sore spot and make me defensive. “When I write it’s about thefeelings, not the mechanics.”

“That means you’re not doing the mechanics right, baby,” Blackout says with a smirk.

“And you’d know?” I scoff.

The three of them look at me like I’m being stupid.

“What?”

Skyhigh licks his lips and a wicked gleam shines in his blue eyes. “Yeah, we would. While you’ve been a good little girl staying home and studying, we’ve been out here putting in the work. If you want a real lesson in getting dirty, honey, you came to the right fucking place.”

6

WILLOW

“Y—youthink you have something to teach me?” I step backwards and someone’s hand brushes up my leg and under my dress. “Aaaah!” I lunge away from the unknown and back into the clutches of the devils I know.

Blackout catches me with a chuckle and pulls me to his right side, arm over my shoulder. “First lesson. Dragon might be an asshole but he’s right. The minute you swished your hips in here without a man to claim you, you were fair fucking game.”

“And that means anyone can do anything they want to me?” I ask, horrified. “I don’t get a choice?”

“You had the choice not to walk through the fucking doors and play with monsters if that’s what you think we are,” Dragon growls.

“No! I just… Well, I don’t know what to think,” I admit quietly.

Before I met them, I never really thought of the bikers as individuals at all. They were just the Outlaw Sons. A band of borderline—or maybe not so borderline—criminals that moved in and slowly took over the whole neighborhood. Gram didn’ttell me much about it because she was stubborn as a mule and didn’t want to worry me, but I know from Grace that things got bad a few times. Enough that about four years ago, her family sold out and moved.

Skyhigh shakes his head. “Relax, brother. She doesn’t know shit about us, but maybe it’s time we fixed that.”

He wraps a hand around my wrist and pulls me away from Blackout to lead me towards the altar. The purple haired girl has been stripped completely naked. She has one bare foot up on the marble top, and her other leg is thrown over the shoulder of a biker whose face is buried between her thighs. She’s enthusiastically slipping her tongue down the throat of a second man, with her fingers working at his belt buckle, eager for more.

“Does she look like she doesn’t have a choice?” Skyhigh asks.

I shake my head. Looks can be deceiving, but I’d be lying if I said she looked like she’s feeling anything but comfortable in her own skin. And more free than I’ve ever felt in my life. “I can’t imagine doing something like that.”

“Not even imagine?” Blackout’s hot breath skirts over my neck. “You write books. I bet you can. Let go of every concept you’ve ever been taught about what you should or shouldn’t want. Outside rules don’t apply here. If you dropped to your knees right now and sucked my cock, nobody would fucking blink.”

Once he says the words, it’s impossible not to imagine letting the beat of the music fill my veins and feel the stretch as he pushes between my lips. “But people would watch,” I say softly.

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