Page 14 of Savage Lust

Riley

“We’re all family.” Dylan walked me around Archer’s bike. An old, faded vest lay draped across the handlebars. Very similar to the one I’d been given.

“That looks like…”

A striking, rangy man approached. Attractive with tattoos up to his chin, and blond hair cut short on the sides but pulled back in a tight, high ponytail. “His original cut.” He tossed a tatted-up arm over Dylan’s shoulder and kissed the top of her head.

“Love you, Dee.”

“I know.” She stopped, seemingly caught between beaming up at him and giving him a hard shove.

I chuckled. They knew each other well.

“Another brother?”

She shook her head and shrugged his arm off. He stumbled with more drama than necessary before catching himself. “No, this is Jester.”

He made a mock bow, with a grandiose gesture of his free arm. The other clutched a dark beer bottle. Import. Fancy.

On one side of his neck, a full house of hearts was splayed across like a winning hand on a table. Across his throat, fire and smoke, and on the other side, a demonic jester face. The tattoos blending together seamlessly.

When he caught me looking, he grinned and nodded to a corner of the bar where a clean, clinical tattoo station was set up. The man who sat there didn’t just have wide shoulders but rippling muscles that bulged from the t-shirt he wore. At first glance, he looked older. But he wasn’t. Behind the beard, the face was young, barely thirty, if that.

The woman on the chair in front of him, her hip being worked on, was much older. The contrast was interesting.

“Puck did everything up here.” Jester waved at his throat. “Got a shop in town, nice place. If you want any ink, check him out. Because you’re Archer’s kid, you’ll get one hell of a discount.”

I’d never thought of a tattoo. But the tequila was making a lot of things seem like good ideas. I searched the room and saw Cam standing with Dylan’s brother. He was laughing, his face bright.That’s new. All I’d seen was his brooding side. This was equal parts attractive and disarming.

To keep from thinking of all the ways I found Cam attractive, even after he’d basically assaulted me, I focused on Dylan’s brother instead. His dark hair hung shaggy over his ears and too long on his neck but not long enough to tie back like Jester’s. Were it not for the dark hair covering his jaw and chin, he’d be gorgeous. Maybe he was even with it.

A warmth spread out over my chest when I turned and got caught in Cam’s blueish gaze. He held me frozen as Jester and Dylan talked around me. I couldn’t move. All I could do was look at him and think of...things I shouldn’t. More bad ideas.

I shivered and blinked, breaking the moment.

“That one I’ll claim.” Dylan bumped me with her shoulder. “Got eyes for Jace?”

“Merc.” Jester interjected and took a swig of beer. “Her and every other chick in here.”

He pointed at Cam. “Or maybe Savage.”

I must have made a face, because he laughed. “It’s his name. Seriously, but my man lives up to it.”

“Not surprising.” I’d experienced a small amount of his fierceness.

“Don’t scare her off when she’s got to sleep at Archer’s. It’snotgoing to make her run to your place instead.” Dylan gave Jester a gentle kick to the shin.

“Is this the face of someone who would do such a thing?” He batted his lashes, feigning innocence.

“One hundred percent.” I laughed, more at ease than I had been in months. Maybe it was the company, but I was betting it was the tequila. Somewhere, my mom was telling me not to let my guard down—to get out of there.

He conceded with a wink.

Needing the conversation to be about anything other than Cam, I brushed my fingers over the worn patch that read Archer on the chest of the original vest. “He started the club, right?”

“Yeah. Him, AP, and Preacher were the first official three.” This time, he slung his arm around my shoulders. He rattled off names I would never remember. “They all came later.”

I expected him to smell like gasoline and stale cigarettes. But he didn’t. There was a woodsy, clean scent and his touch was companionable, lulling me into an even bigger sense of calm and comfort.

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