Chapter 1
Sammy Franklin stared at
herself in the mirror. She kept hearing his voice in her head telling her as
he’d hurt her that she was fat and ugly. That she was a whore, a nasty dirty
whore. She felt tears sting her blue eyes and wanted to cry. She had known for
years that she enjoyed rough sex, even needed it to get off. Sammy had accepted
that about her needs when she was eighteen and she hadn’t looked back. At least
not until him and that night.
Sammy brushed her
strawberry blonde hair off her forehead looking at the small scar on her brow.
She felt tears slipping down her cheeks. They felt like hot brands of pain
filling her up because she wasn’t good enough. She suddenly wanted to throw
something at the mirror to watch it shatter into a million pieces. Anything to
make this pain go away, only she didn’t because she needed to get over what
he’d done to her. Other wise he won. Over the past few months a lot of things
had changed for her. Her best friend had become an old lady to a Blue Bandit’s
MC vice prez.
That shouldn’t have
changed her life, but it had, because she’d somehow been pulled into that very
same MC. They had adopted her because of Sarah and Josh, her friend and her
son. Now she was finding bikers camped out on her front lawn, following her to
work and Spangles when she managed to work up the courage to go there.
Not that she managed that
often and she hadn’t brought herself to go home with any Dom’s since that
fateful night. Sammy wiped the tears from her cheeks.
Enough.
She needed to get herself
back together. The bikers were a pain in the ass because if they weren’t
following her around they were bringing her food. It was strange really. One or
another of them would show up at Hal’s diner where she worked with food. Or
they would come in and insist that she sit with them while they ate and
insisted she eat too.
Most of the time she told
them no and went back to work. Except when they brought Animal. She couldn’t
bring herself to challenge him. He would just look at her with those dark brown
eyes that commanded her to obey and she couldn’t refuse him. He was like the
ultimate Dom. The man barely spoke and still she couldn’t seem to tell him no.
It frightened her because
she wasn’t sure that she should feel so subservient to him. He was a biker
after all. Her mother had always taught her to stay away from those types. They
were a bad element she’d always preached.
Of course, she had also
told Sammy she was a sexual deviant when she’d kicked her out after finding her
having sex with Johnny Tompkins. She’d been tied up and blindfolded at the time
and it had been a very awkward scene because Johnny had run out when her mother
had started screaming. Sammy had been tied to the bed so she’d had to listen to
her mother rant for over half an hour before she’d untied her and told her to
get the fuck out.
Sammy walked out of the
bathroom with one last look at her puffy eyes. She walked to the bed sitting
down on the edge before she peeked out the window beside her to see a tall,
dark figure lurking near the building. He leaned back against a tree and she
saw him lift his hand to wave at her.
She jerked back.
How did he always know
when she was looking? She hadn’t moved the curtain and she’d barely leaned forward.
The lights were out so she knew it wasn’t that he saw her.
He just always knew. It
was freaky, just like him.
Animal.
He haunted her. He hovered
outside most nights that he wasn’t working at the tattoo parlor. She didn’t
know why he only seemed to work three days a week. She would have sworn that he
worked more often than that when she first met him but he was here four nights
a week every week.
Sammy laid back on the bed
her mind racing over that thought. She’d never admit it but him being outside
soothed her somehow. She slept on the nights he was here and she didn’t when he
wasn’t. When she peeked out the window and the figure lurking outside didn’t
wave she knew it wasn’t him. Those nights she laid here staring at the ceiling
wishing it were dawn because then she could quit pretending that she was
sleeping. When Animal was outside though she didn’t lie awake. She felt safer,
she realized. Perhaps it was the fact that he seemed to be the ultimate
dominate.
She knew that if the man
who’d hurt her came back Animal would make short work of him. He’d be dead
before he even got anywhere near her. She closed her eyes even as her mind
raced. She wanted to get over what had happen four months ago, but she couldn’t
seem to get past it. It was frustrating because she had always been a very
sensual woman. Now she was just a scared frightened mess every time she even
entered Spangle’s, the bondage club she used to love.
She was also sexually
frustrated and a bit cranky that she’d let his abuse change the way she lived
her life. She’d tried to let Mark help her get past it. He was a man she’d been
with on several occasions in the past and trusted. Only when she’d entered the
room and seen the blindfolds, whips, and other things that used to turn her on,
she’d turned tail and ran. She had thought that she’d be able to get over what he’d done but she couldn’t.
That was the first week
that Animal had begun following her around. It was also the week that Marta,
Josh’s grandmother, had kidnapped Josh while Sammy tried to stop them. She’d
felt even less effective after that because they’d taken Josh and she’d been
unable to stop the large goons who’d taken him. Animal had come running out of
the small Café with Rebel, but they had already been in the car zooming away
with Josh.
Sammy had decided then and
there that she was going to learn to defend herself. Her first step had been
going to the gun range with Sarah, who as it turned out was a crack shot, so
that she could learn to shoot. That was three months ago, and she was getting
quite good. Not as good as Sarah, of course, but she could take out someone if
she had to. She needed to learn hand-to-hand combat now and she knew who she
wanted to ask to teach her. She had just been putting it off because she didn’t
want to ask him.
He was the only man she
could trust to do it even if she wanted to deny it. Animal was a standoffish
sort and yet he was the one she’d ask. He was the only man she could ask
because all the rest of them made her too frightened and for some reason Animal
made her feel safe. It was odd that she felt that way because the man had
little give in him. He was an Alpha’s Alpha. He seemed to exude dominance like
a scent or pheromones.
When he was around he
dominated the room, took all the focus from any other man straight to him.
She hated it.
She didn’t want to be
attracted to him because he was kind of a dick. Sammy rolled over onto her
side, punching the pillow to fluff it before she closed her eyes again. She
needed to stop thinking about this mess and get some rest. She didn’t know if
she’d be able to sleep tomorrow because she didn’t know if Animal was working
or if he’d be lurking in the dark shadows beside her bedroom window.
Animal Harris stood in the
darkness watching the silent window of Sammy’s apartment. He knew that she was
likely finally getting some much needed rest. The past two night’s he’d worked
and he knew that she didn’t sleep when he wasn’t leaning on this tree. It
should worry him that he knew that about her, but it did.
It was an odd relationship
they had. She seemed to hate him and yet she couldn’t sleep when he wasn’t
around, and she didn’t eat when he wasn’t there to make her. She’d been broken
by a fucking putz masquerading as a dominant. He knew that her trust had been damaged
and for a submissive that wasn’t a good thing. Dominate submissive
relationships had a very delicate balance to them and that idiot poser had
destroyed it. That was why she didn’t go to Spangle’s and flutter around like a
sexy strawberry blonde butterfly anymore.
Animal had watched her go
home with other men for months and he’d considered taking her to his private
room at Spangle’s. As one of the six founding members he had that privilege.
He never had though
because she’d seemed too soft, too tender for him.
He wasn’t the type of
dominant a woman went home with unless she needed the lifestyle and he was sure
every time he saw her there that she was only playing. He had been sure that
Sammy wasn’t a true submissive. Although, her reactions to him since meeting
her in person had made him begin to think that perhaps he’d been wrong.
Those reactions were why
he had talked to Reaper about cutting back on his shifts at Ink Bandit’s. He’d
told Reaper that she didn’t sleep unless she knew he was there and since Sammy
was his old ladies best friend Reaper had allowed him to cut back on his
shifts. He didn’t need the money he made at Ink Bandit’s. He made enough off
the club and his one sixth of Spangle’s. He just loved art and he was good at
inking.
Sammy was good at art too
he’d discovered a few months ago when she’d drawn a tattoo for Sarah. He’d done
the work because he’d wanted to know that he’d inked her work on her friend and
not someone else. Again, they were in a strange relationship. He ran a hand
over his thick reddish brown hair, before leaning his head into the tree in
defeat.
Stay neutral towards Sammy wasn’t working
anymore. He was becoming possessive and he was hard for her almost constantly.
She was sexy as fuck and he wanted so badly to collar her. It was fucked up
because she was still not part of the lifestyle he was. Not the dominant
lifestyle but the biker one. The whole club dynamic confused her and she seemed
to resent the fact that they were trying to take care of her. It was what
family did and that was part of the reason he’d joined the Bandits to start
with.
They looked out for one
and other even as they lived and let live. Animal shifted against the tree, his
boot propped on the rough bark. The nights out here in the dark were
uncomfortable and by the time someone else took over watching her at seven he
was barely able to stumble onto his bike and head home.
He would catch about five
hours sleep and then head over to the dinner if she was working or her house if
she wasn’t. He’d make sure she ate something because whatever that sick fuck
had done to her had made her refuse to eat. If he ever found that son of a
bitch he was going to fucking rip his intestines out and feed them to him.
Animal wasn’t sure why
Sammy being hurt made him think of doing things he hadn’t done since before
he’d joined the Blue Bandit’s. Who he’d been before he came to this town four
years ago wasn’t pretty and he’d thought he’d left that part of his life in the
dirty room on the side of route nine when he’d done something he’d regret till
the day he died.
Although, he was glad it
had woke him up and made him realize that he was following a very dark path he
still couldn’t forgive himself for it. He’d left the Headhunter’s MC the very
next morning and never looked back. He’d shown up here broken and cold. He’d
met Pansy in a bar on the other side of town. He had been returning from a run
and stopped to get a burger. Animal had been at the bar nursing a whiskey
wondering if it was worth living with the knowledge of what he had done.
Pansy had sat down next to
him. He hadn’t spoken until after his food came.
Then he’d asked “You any
good at Ink?”
“What?” He’d asked looking
at the man with dark hair and eerie light green eyes.
“Ink?” He asked point to
the tat Animal had on his arm.
“Oh, yeah. I’ve done Ink
before. Why? You need a tat?” Animal had asked thinking he could use some more
credits if he decided to stick around. He’d been doing Ink for the Headhunter’s
for over three years. He hadn’t known it at the time but Pansy had known that
already. Pansy had recognized the tattoo on his forearm of a tiger trying to
claw through the skin.
He knew because of that
tattoo who Animal was and what he was running from. Pansy had saved his life
that night and Animal would be grateful for Pansy interference for the rest of
his life.
“We’re looking for an
artist. Come by Ink Bandit’s tomorrow.” He then ate his dinner without another
word. Animal had watched him wearily but he hadn’t said anything else until he
stood to leave.
“Sometimes we have things
we don’t like about ourselves. Those things shape us into the man we could be.
Come to the shop. Might surprise you.” Then he’d left Animal looking after him
wondering what the hell the man knew about him. The next morning he had been on
his way out of town when he saw a sign for Ink Bandit’s. He’d pulled in the
parking lot and went inside. That was when he had discovered that even a broken
men could belong somewhere.
Animal shifted again
looking at the window to Sammy’s bedroom. His mind circling back to the woman
inside the room and what happened to her. He knew that she’d been hurt but no
one, not even Sarah had been able to get her to talk about it. It was making
him feel a little savage. He wanted to kill the son of a bitch. Sammy was
losing weight and she only slept when he was here, but the thing that disturbed
him most was Spangles.
Having watched her for
over six month’s he knew that her behavior about sex and bondage had changed.
She used to come into the club and dance with abandon for hours before she went
home with her preferred dominate. Mostly from a small group of three men she
was used to.
Only one night she’d tried
a new one and that son of a bitch had broken her trust and likely hurt her. He
wanted to murder the man every time she sat at the table in the corner at
Spangles, pale as a sheet, with her hands clutching a glass of whiskey as she
desperately pretended she didn’t need release although they both knew she did.
It infuriated him.
Every time he watched her
he boiled with a rage so deep he felt it in his bones. Animal looked at the
silent house, his eyes scanning the perimeter looking for anything out of
place. Only settling when he saw nothing out of the ordinary. He knew he was
getting too engaged with Sammy and he didn’t do that. Not since–well, not since
that fateful night when he’d made a mistake.
She wasn’t for him. He was
damaged and she didn’t need that on top of her other issues, but the thought of
her with another man made him feel a bit untamed and he wanted to rip the
faceless man’s nuts off. Which meant he
should turn this over to Pansy or Iron, but he couldn’t seem to do it. He’d
tried a week ago to just let them take over.
He had lasted about an
hour at home pacing and wondering what the hell was going on and if she was safe.
He ended up riding over to her place. He had walked toward this tree were Pansy
had been standing. He looked towards the apartment seeing her standing at the
window looking out. She was a few feet from the curtain and he knew she thought
whoever was out here didn’t see her but he did. Pansy had looked at him with a
nod.
“Animal,” he had said.
“How long has she been
there?” He asked knowing Pansy could see her too.
“Hour.” Pansy replied.
“She was waiting.” Animal
said realizing that she knew he was supposed to be there and she had been
waiting on him to show.
“Yep, seems to like when
you’re here. Might do you both good. You look frazzled and I suspect that’s
cause you need to be here as much as she needs you here.” Pansy told him
stepping out of the darkness.
“You know I’m not right
for her. I can’t be here for her.” Animal told him.
“Seems to me that it’s
time to let the past go and take a chance on the future. We’ve all done things.
I know I have, but at some point we have to let it go and hope that we can do
enough good to out weight it.” Pansy told him.
“Pansy, I know you think
that everyone should get a second chance but not me. I am not for her. I need
to walk away.”
Animal stared at the
window where she stood waiting. He knew what she was waiting on and he knew
that he shouldn’t give in to the urge to give it to her so she would go to bed
and rest. She needed to learn not to rely on him. But even as that thought
entered his head he lifted his hand and waved to her silently. He saw her body
relax and after only a second she was gone from the window.
“No, you’re right where
you need to be, Animal.” Pansy said before he walked away leaving Animal to
stew about his need to be here for her and the fact that he couldn’t get her
sexy ass out of his head.
Sighing, he stared at the
apartment walls that separated them and wondered what the hell he was thinking.
If he had even a lick of common decency he’d call someone else to watch her
place and forget she existed. Only he
knew even as the thought curled around inside his head that he wasn’t going anywhere.
Common decency apparently wasn’t his strong suit.
copyright Michelle Woods 2015 All rights reserved.
copyright Michelle Woods 2015 All rights reserved.
