Sheena surveyed the crowd at the Gold Mine. She didn’t know much about biker life, and although she’d spent the last five years in Las Vegas, she’d never ventured into the bar right off the Strip that was owned by the Serpents MC.
She wedged herself through the crowd of well-wishers until she was next to her best friend, Daisy. “Can’t believe you’re really married.”
Daisy flipped up her hand where an exquisite diamond ring and wedding band flashed under the lights. Joker, her new husband, leaned in and circled his arms around Daisy’s waist. “I can’t believe this beautiful woman agreed to marry a thug like me.”
Joker’s voice was laced with love, humor, and shots of tequila. Since they’d entered the bar, the drinks had flowed freely, and everyone was buzzed. Joker’s words reminded Sheena of all the couple had been through over the last few months. After outsmarting a drug lord in Miami and almost losing his son in the crossfire, Joker and Daisy deserved some peace and happiness.
Daisy kissed her new husband full on the lips, then wriggled out of his hold and leaned into Sheena to be heard over the ear-splitting music. “Have you had a chance to check out some of the guys here. Super hot.”
“You’re a married woman,” Sheena shot back, knowing full well that Daisy was playing matchmaker.
“It’s time for you to move on.” Daisy and Sheena’s gaze drifted across the crowded bar to Seth, standing apart from the crowd, brooding.
“I know,” Sheena agreed. “I’ve given him chance after chance and he never takes the bait.”
“His loss.”
Sheena silently agreed. Back in the day, she, Seth, and Daisy ran some of the biggest cons in Vegas. When their boss had gotten arrested for tax evasion, Daisy fled to Miami for a while.
Seth and Sheena got out of the game, donning pirate costumes instead, and waited tables at the Pirate’s Cove, a theme bar on the Strip—complete with pirate ship decor, pirate music, and a gang plank that she would’ve gladly jumped off. It was mind numbing, low-paying work with a boss who didn’t question the severe gaps in her work history—gaps that she had no intention of explaining to anyone, ever.
The only illegal act she indulged in now was charging the ridiculous prices for the fruity drinks. A big step down from the luxurious life of a high-end con woman.
Sheena had grown to love the desert city that saved her and allowed her to bury her East Coast identity while carving out a brand new life for herself.
* * *
Twenty minutes later, Cobra pulled up outside the Gold Mine determined to put his depression on hold and celebrate Joker and Daisy’s wedding.
He entered the bar with the usual fist bumps from the regulars and the rest of his biker buddies. A welcome fit for the president of the Serpents MC’s Las Vegas chapter, although most times he felt like a fraud, not the outlaw biker with the fuck-you attitude they all expected.
Cobra joined Joker and Daisy at the long table they’d set up for the newlywed couple. He flicked his wrist, and two waitresses appeared at his side. “Another round.” He motioned around the table. “Fuck, bring two more rounds. We got a lot to celebrate.”
Whoops and cheers rang out until Cobra waved his hand around. “Shut the fuck up.” When the hooting subsided, Cobra turned to Joker and Daisy as the waitresses placed shot glasses in front of them, then stood and raised his glass. “Here’s to the married couple. I don’t know how an ugly motherfucker like you landed such a babe, but congratu-fuckin-lations.”
The brothers pounded on the table until Joker grabbed Daisy around the waist and hauled her onto his lap. As they gazed into each other’s eyes, even Cobra could see the connection. Joker kissed his bride deep and long while his hands roamed over her body.
Joker and Daisy did the deed Vegas style. She’d surprised him by setting up the ceremony at a drive-up chapel with a Harley-Davidson officiate. A fitting venue for an outlaw biker, even though Joker’d sworn off the outlaw part. He’d come out to Vegas with Daisy after his New York club fell apart. Cobra liked Joker’s kick-ass attitude and commitment to family, even offered him a patch with the Serpents, but Joker claimed he wanted out of the life. Cobra wasn’t buying it.
Either way, Joker had clearly met his match with Daisy. She went toe-to-toe with him, and the way she came through for him here in Vegas definitely proved she had his back.
What would it be like to feel that way about a woman or to have a woman feel that way about him? Better question, what the hell was wrong with him and all this damn deep thinking lately? Fuckin’ ridiculous.
In true biker fashion, the party geared up fast, and after a few shots, Daisy’s friend, Sheena, and some of the other women took over the dance floor with moves that made his dick want to jump out of his jeans. But it wasn’t the sinful moves Sheena was popping, it was the almost innocent expression on her face, as if she didn’t realize just how fuckin’ sexy she was or that she was giving every guy in the room blue balls, including him.
Since Cobra ran Ecstasy, a high-end strip club owned by the Serpents, he was usually immune to women’s bodies and the way they moved, and it had been a long damn time since watching a woman dance gave him this kind of a reaction.
What really bugged him, though, was the magnetic way his eyes followed her every move. He’d never been affected like this by a woman before, and he couldn’t decide if it was because she was hotter than hell or that she was either intentionally or unintentionally ignoring him.
Cobra hated waiting—waiting in traffic, waiting for a phone call, waiting in a line—but waiting for a woman to notice him? Nah, that was bullshit. Women came on to him and definitely didn’t ignore him, but there were some things that just couldn’t be controlled, some things that got under his skin. It was like the old saying about people always wanting what they couldn’t have, and since Cobra was used to having it all, this scenario was messing with his brain.
Some whoops and fist pumps drew Cobra’s attention to the back of the bar, where one of the girls had stripped off her top and climbed on top of a table. Yeah, not a party until somebody got naked.
He shifted his gaze to Joker and Daisy making out in the corner. Cobra smirked as he made his way toward them, then plopped down next to Joker and shoulder-butted him. Yeah, he was being a prick.
Joker untangled himself from Daisy and narrowed his eyes. “You enjoy being a dick?”
Cobra flashed his shittiest smile. “Yeah, kinda do.” His gaze wandered to Sheena on the dance floor. A few of the other girls followed the topless chick’s lead, but not Sheena. Even with all her clothes on, she still remained the sexiest woman out there.
Joker leaned in. “Instead of eye fuckin’ her like a puppy dog, why don’t you talk to her?”
Cobra dragged his eyes away from Sheena’s bangin’ body and glared at Joker. “The fuck?”
The annoying cocksucker was right. He’d had eyes on Sheena from the first time he’d seen her with Joker and Daisy a week before the wedding. The way her wild tangle of jet-black curls fell around her face? Damn. He’d asked Joker some indirect questions, but his friend had been evasive. Just as well, she wasn’t part of the biker life, and with all the shit he had going on, he didn’t need any more complications.
Celebrating Joker and Daisy’s wedding had thrown him and Sheena together again, but waiting for a woman to take notice that he’d been tracking her for hours pissed him the fuck off.
“You’ve been scoping her out all night.” Joker raised his chin. “Stop acting like a pussy, and go for it.”
This was his place, his territory, and if he wanted something, he’d take it—one way or another. The waitress brought over more shots. Cobra downed his, slammed the glass onto the table, and pushed away from his chair. He stormed across the dance floor, snatched Sheena by the arm, and lead her to the bar.
When they got to the bar, Sheena yanked her arm out of his grasp. “There are subtler ways of getting someone’s attention.”
“I’m not into subtle.” Cobra flagged down Rattler, tending bar, then turned to Sheena. “What do you want?”
“I’ve moved on to water.”
Cobra screwed up his face. “Bring two shots of tequila and leave the bottle.”
“Right, boss.” Rattler spun away, and a few seconds later, two tequila-filled shot glasses and an uncapped bottle sat in front of them.
“Do you enjoy being a dick?”
Cobra did a double take. “Shit, you’re the second person who’s said that to me tonight.”
“You know what they say, when more than one person tells you something, it must be true.”
Oh shit, he loved a woman with fire. Before the night was over, he would have Sheena under him, screaming his name and begging him to never stop.
“C’mon, let’s celebrate Joker and Daisy’s true love.” The sarcastic lilt he added to his voice got her attention.
“And I suppose you don’t believe in anything as sappy as love.”
Cobra smiled at her sass and tried to think of another way to piss her off because the way her eyes lit up when she was dishing it out sent a jolt right through his gut.
“The only thing I believe in is the here and the now.” He challenged her, pinning her dark, almost-black eyes until she looked away and focused on the bar top.
“We need limes and salt.” Sheena motioned to the tequila. “If we’re going to do this, we should do it right.”
Cobra’s mind immediately locked on those pouty lips of hers sucking on a lime or maybe sucking on his—
“Don’t you agree?” Her teasing voice jarred him out of his sextasy. He would’ve loved to palm his dick and push it away from the irritating zipper of his jeans, but there was no way he could make that move discreetly.
Cobra slapped his palm against the bar. “Hey, Rattler, salt and limes.” Two seconds later, they magically appeared.
Cobra zeroed in on her pink tongue as she licked the back of her hand, then sprinkled salt on it. She grabbed up a lime wedge and paused. “What’s with the snake names? Cobra … Rattler?”
“We’re the Las Vegas Serpents.” The last thing he wanted to talk about was the history of the club or the fucked-up way it got its name.
“So, everybody has a snake name?”
Cobra pointed to her shot. “Why don’t we save the history lesson for later.”
Sheena eyed the shot glass, then downed it in one.
She motioned to his. “I’m not doing this alone.”
Cobra slammed the shot, circled his hand around her wrist, sucked the salt off her hand and lingered. “Hmmm.” He snatched up a lime and sucked out the juice. “Best fuckin’ shot I’ve had in a long time.”
“That’s because you did it right.”
“Nah, doin’ it right would be you laid out on this bar and me sucking that tequila off that sweet skin of yours.”
She rolled her eyes. “Are you always such a charmer?”
He rubbed at the stubble on his chin and let her have the last word. “Joker says you live in Vegas.”
“Been asking around about me, huh?” She waggled her eyebrows.
“I like to know the people who are in my bar.”
“Your bar?”
“Owned by the Serpents MC, and since I’m the president …” His fingers were aching to reach out and touch the wild tangle of curls that brushed against the swell of her breasts. “How come I’ve never seen your sweetness in here before?”
“Not usually a fan of bikers or their bars.” She pointed to the back of the room. “But since Daisy married one …”
“What’s the matter? We too wild for you?”
“No, more like too prehistoric. I’m not into men who think they can own their women.”
“Whoa.” Cobra threw up his hands. “Let’s back this up. I ain’t looking to own anything but my bike.”
“Fine.”
“Yeah, fine.” Cobra poured two more shots and held one up to her. “Why don’t you tell me what’s with the guy at the other end of the bar who keeps giving us the fisheye?” Cobra jerked his chin in Seth’s direction.
“I’ve got absolutely no idea.” Sheena ran her fingers through her hair.
Cobra had no intentions of getting into any drama tonight, but he’d play along for now. He slung his arm around her shoulders and leaned in. “So, maybe it’s time I show you that not all bikers are the same.”
She laughed at his innuendo and her lush hair brushed against his stubble.
When she raised the shot glass, a male hand circled her wrist. “Don’t you think you’ve had enough?”
The guy finally decided to grow a pair.
“What’re you, her fuckin’ babysitter?” Cobra sneered.
Sheena drew in a deep breath. “Relax, Seth, I’m fine.”
“Yeah, relax, Seth.” Cobra pulled Sheena in closer. “In other words, get the fuck outta my face.”
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