Rodeo (Marked Skulls MC Book 2) Read online

  “Fuck this,” I muttered under my breath and kicked the door with my foot. It rattled and I realized that the chain lock had been pulled into position. So, she was clearly inside.

  “Open the fucking door!” I raged and I didn’t care who else could hear me. I kicked the door again and it rattled once more. Next, I threw myself against the door and this time it caved. One more time and it was going to break open.

  I was seeing red. All I cared about was getting the information I needed out of the woman on the other side. At whatever cost.

  I flung myself into the door again, and this time, it did more than rattle. The door broke open, sending the chain lock flying inside.

  With my jaws clenched and my fists bunched up, I swung open the remaining section of the door and stepped in.

  I didn’t expect to see her. I didn’t expect to see a woman who looked like her on the other side.

  She was standing in the middle of the room, clutching herself tightly and shivering from fear. There were tears streaming down her cheeks, she was bawling her eyes out.

  She was a voluptuous woman, with thick thighs and wide hips. The blouse she was wearing stretched tightly over her juicy swinging breasts, and her jeans were tight on her legs, accentuating the curves of her hips and her butt. She had the most exquisitely tanned olive skin, and beautiful wide dark eyes. She was raven haired, with her hair messily tied up in a bun on the side of her head.

  I had stopped in my tracks when I saw her. I had been pissing mad a moment before that. I couldn’t feel a single thing on my body, even though I had just broken a door down and burst through it. Now, I suddenly felt tongue-tied, like I couldn’t move. Just watching her standing there, with tears streaming down her cheeks was enough to immobilize me.

  “Please, don’t hurt me,” she cried and clamped her hands over her mouth. I gulped. My throat had gone dry. Fred was still at the back of my mind, I remembered why I was here but I couldn’t get the words out of my system.

  I had caused this. I was the one who had scared her and never before in my life had I felt so suddenly weak. I wanted to pull her into my arms, I wanted to hold her to my chest and stroke her hair. In a matter of seconds, the tables had turned on me. I didn’t want to hound her for information, I wanted to protect her.

  I stepped towards her slowly and she grew rigid and gasped.

  “No! Please…I don’t know anything. I didn’t see anything,” she cried and took a step away from me.

  I stretched my hands out towards her. I needed her to see that I wasn’t holding any weapons.

  “It’s okay, it’s all right. I’m not going to do anything,” I said and took another step. It was like I was a hunter and she was the prey. I knew that if I made one wrong move, she could slip out from my hands. I was trying to back her into a corner so that I could calm her down.

  “No, please no!” she squealed, and I noticed the way the tops of her cheeks had turned red. Her cheeks were damp from all the crying.

  “I’m not going to do anything. Nice and easy now,” I said and stepped closer to her slowly. She was shivering like she was freezing. I felt a strong sense of guilt in my heart. This woman deserved to be protected, she didn’t deserve to be scared out of her wits like I had just done to her.

  “No!” she screamed when I took another step, and before I knew what she was going to do, she had whipped around from me and was running into her bedroom.

  ***

  She had run into the bedroom and I chased after her. Suddenly, I was panicking that she was going to try and jump out of the window to get away from me!

  “No, please, no!” she squealed and I saw her reach for her cellphone on the bed. I knew what she was about to do, she was going to call the cops.

  I strode into the room as she dialed the three numbers with shaking fingers. She looked up and saw me approaching her and let out another cry. I saw the sheer fear in her eyes. I wanted her to stop running away from me, to stop being afraid of me, but she was refusing to just calm down and listen.

  I reached for the phone, walking right up to her and I snatched it out of her hands. She squealed but couldn’t do anything.

  “You have got to stop,” I said, looking her straight in the eyes and then I slid her phone down the pocket of my jeans.

  She watched me doing it and clamped her hands over her mouth and let out another cry.

  “I told you, I’m not going to hurt you,” I said, trying to hold her gaze but she ducked and tried to swerve around me. I grabbed her by her waist and pulled her back in front of me.

  When my hand touched her body, I felt a sizzle. Even though she was afraid of me and trying to run away from me, I couldn’t help but be attracted to her. I plonked her down in front of me and placed my hands on her quivering shoulders.

  She couldn’t stop crying.

  “Look at me, look up at me!” I barked while she blubbered. She slowly raised her eyes, her long dark eyelashes were damp from all the crying. Her cheeks were flushed and her red cherry lips were quivering. I had to do everything in my power to not kiss her right then.

  “What is your name?” I asked and she took in a shallow shaky breath.

  “Okay, you can call me Rodeo. What should I call you?” I said, still holding her tightly by her shoulders.

  “Jordan,” she spoke meekly. She was still shaking, but at least now that I had gotten her talking, she was crying a little less.

  “Okay, Jordan, tell me you believe me that I’m not going to hurt you,” I said, looking at her intently. Her dark eyes were wide and watery. I could see that she was trying her best to not burst into another volley of tears. She wasn’t going to respond.

  “I’m going to take my hands off your shoulders, but you have to promise that you won’t run or scream or cry. I’m not going to hurt you, I promise,” I said. I knew I was speaking like I was speaking to a child, but I had no other option. I had to get her to trust me. That was the only way this was going to work.

  “Do you promise?” I asked her and finally, Jordan nodded her head. Her hair had come undone from the bun she had tied, and the dark raven strands fell in waves around her slender shoulders.

  “Okay, that’s good,” I said, and slowly, I let go of her. She sighed loudly from relief but just like she had promised, she didn’t run or make a sound. I stepped away from her, but her phone was still in my pocket. I lifted my hands up in the air.

  “See? Not doing anything,” I said and she clasped her hands together, then lifted up her shoulder and turned her face to dab at her damp cheeks. She was beautiful and looked vulnerable as she stood in front of me. She had no idea how badly I wanted to protect her. She thought that I was going to harm her.

  “Okay, I’m sorry about the door. I shouldn’t have broken into your apartment like that. I needed to talk to you,” I said and she shook her head wildly. Her nostrils were flared and I could sense another burst of tears coming on.

  “I don’t know anything to talk about. I haven’t spoken to the cops. I’ve told them nothing. I didn’t see anything!” she was screeching as she spoke and I took in a deep breath and nodded my head.

  “It’s okay, Jordan, just relax. I know you haven’t spoken to the cops. One of them is a friend of mine and he told me that you didn’t tell him anything,” I said and that seemed to calm her down.

  “Then why are you here? I promise I won’t say anything to anybody. I’ll leave this apartment, I’ll move out of this place. I’ll do anything, just leave me alone!” she was crying again and I had no choice but to step towards her again.

  “Jordan! Hey, hey!” I called out to her and she clamped her mouth shut, with tears still rolling down her cheeks.

  “You said you’d trust me. I’m not here to hurt you. I’m not here to silence you. I’m just here to ask you a few questions about what you saw, that’s all,” I said. She pursed her lips together, her nostrils were flared—she was trying to stop herself from crying again. Then slowly, she started to take steps aw
ay from me till her back was against the wall of the bedroom.

  “I don’t know who to trust, I don’t know what to believe,” she said, in a soft meek voice. I gulped as I stared at her. I didn’t want her to feel this way. I wanted to do everything I could to make this feeling go away. I wanted to keep her safe, and even though I didn’t think that I could hate the Dark Legion any more, now I did. I was fucking furious at them for putting her in this position.

  Chapter 4

  Jordan

  I felt like my whole world was crumbling down around me, and I had nowhere to run. The man in my bedroom now had me cornered. I had my back up against the wall and he was standing in front of me, glaring at me.

  Under any other circumstance, I would have acknowledged the fact that this guy was smoking hot. He was tall and heftily muscular. His sandy blond hair was long and he had tied it in a tight ponytail at the back of his head. His beard looked scruffy, the kind of soft roughness that would have made my skin tingle. I felt a desperate urge to run my fingers through his beard now.

  He was staring at me with his deep blue eyes. His face was chiseled, his nose was long and strong, and when he’d grabbed me, I’d felt the strength in his arms. He had a leather jacket on, and old rugged looking jeans and dusty boots. There were tattoos all over his neck and crawling up the front of his hands. On his fingers he had chunky thick rings, and he was a man who could have easily overpowered me by now.

  But I wanted my mind to stop going there. I needed to stop thinking about how sexy he was, because even though he wanted me to trust him, I didn’t know if I could.

  “Jordan,” he said my name softly and took a step towards me again. I had nowhere to go. I was trapped. Every inch that he came closer to me, I could feel my body shuddering from a mix of desire and fear. I had been afraid of him, I was afraid of what he wanted from me, that he was here on a mission—to kill me.

  But he could have easily accomplished that by now if he really wanted to. I knew that too. He had ample opportunity. He was way stronger than me and I’d noticed the gun tucked into his belt already. What was stopping him from killing me? Other than perhaps the fact that he really wasn’t here to harm me.

  “I need to know what you saw,” he repeated himself. He was standing close to me now, close enough for me to just lean forward and rest my head against his chest. I didn’t know this man, and I didn’t know what he wanted from me but I couldn’t stop imagining resting myself against him, feeling the strength in his arms as he held me.

  I had been exhausted and scared ever since the shooting. I hadn’t had a moment’s peace. What I wouldn’t have given, just to let it all go—just to forget about everything and go back to leading my usual life.

  “I didn’t see anything,” I said again, afraid that this might be a trick. How could I trust him? No matter how hot he was, and no matter how strongly he insisted that he didn’t want to hurt me—this was a man in a leather jacket, tatted up and he had just broken down my door and snatched my phone away from me.

  Rodeo shook his head slowly.

  “You don’t trust me still, do you?” he asked, and his blue eyes glittered in the dim light of my bedroom. All the curtains were still pulled on the windows, my room was still shrouded in darkness.

  I jutted my chin up in the air in defiance. I had no means of protecting myself, I had no defense against him. Technically, he could do anything he wanted to me, and I was surprised that he wasn’t using violence yet.

  “I don’t know you, I don’t trust you, and besides, there is nothing to say,” I told him. Rodeo clenched his jaws, his eyes were focused on me. His gaze dropped from my face to my heaving breasts. He watched them rise and fall, and the more he looked at me, the more I wanted him to keep looking.

  There was a rush of conflicting and confusing emotions inside me. I was sexually attracted to this man who I was afraid of at the same time. I had never experienced anything like this before. I was forcing myself to keep looking at him, to meet his eyes.

  “Jordan, I know you saw the shooting. I know you saw the man on the bike who pulled the trigger. I need you to stop lying, and I need you to trust me and tell me everything you saw,” he said.

  Rodeo had taken another step towards me. My hands were clasped behind me on my butt, I was pressing myself back against the wall as he drew closer to me. I could feel the heat radiating from his body now, I could smell his raw masculine scent. I had to crane my neck to look up at him as he towered over me.

  “I am not lying to you. I saw nothing,” I said. I wasn’t about to give in so easily. Whoever he was, I knew that staying silent about what I saw was the best policy. The less I got involved in this, the better it was going to be for me.

  Rodeo’s eyes scanned my body. I could see him undressing me with his eyes. I could see that he liked what he saw, and it made me salivate just thinking about him on me. I tried to stop my brain from going there, to stop fantasizing about him naked. I was still in danger. I was still afraid of what he might do to me, but I couldn’t stop my body from reacting to his presence. He was an inch away from me, and I felt like I had stopped breathing by now.

  “Jordan, the man who was shot was like a father to me. I need to find out the identity of the shooter so that I can find him and kill him. Do you understand?” Rodeo hissed.

  ***

  “You know the man who died?” I asked, my mouth falling open. Rodeo searched my eyes and then he nodded his head. It hadn’t even occurred to me yet, that Rodeo could be from the other side. Seeing his leather jacket and his tattoos—I had immediately assumed that he was from the same group as the biker.

  “I need to find the man who killed Fred,” Rodeo said.

  “Fred,” I said the man’s name in a daze. Nobody, not even the cops, had told me the name of the man who had looked up at my window. Whose eyes I had looked into just seconds before he got shot by the biker. I gulped and licked my lips, before I met Rodeo’s eyes again.

  “But I didn’t see anything. All I know is that someone got shot outside my apartment building,” I said to him.

  Rodeo stared at me, there was an expectant look in his eyes before and when he heard my words, he let out a deep breath. His breath shook some stray strands of my hair on my face. There was a twitch in my soul somewhere because I knew I had just disappointed him.

  But, I was too afraid to say anything, I was too afraid of telling him the truth. What if Rodeo was lying? What if he made up all this about Fred just to get me talking? It was too big a risk for me to take, even for a guy who was making me wet between my legs.

  “Jordan, you’re still lying to me, but you know what? That’s okay,” Rodeo said and then I watched, frozen to the spot as he reached out his hands and placed them on the base of my neck. My skin sizzled from his touch. I wanted him.

  A chill ran down my spine, and instinctively, I jutted my hips out towards him. I didn’t know what I was doing, why I was behaving this way—all I knew was that I wanted this man, against my better judgement.

  “I can see that you need some time,” Rodeo was speaking softly. His eyes searched mine, and his large warm hands slowly stroked the base of my neck. I gulped, I felt enchanted by him, like I was under some sort of spell.

  “I’m sorry for breaking into your home, I’m sorry for scaring you. I get that you need to digest all this,” he said and then he leaned his face closer to mine. His hot breath was falling on my face. I couldn’t move. I didn’t want to move. I wanted him to take me, even though my brain was screaming at me to just run away.

  I opened my mouth to speak, watching him closely. Rodeo shook his head and then he lifted a forefinger up and pressed it gently to my lips.

  “You don’t have to say another word right now. I’m not going to force anything from you,” he said and the top of my tongue grazed against his finger, I tasted the saltiness of his skin. My body was covered in goosebumps and I didn’t know what to do with myself. There was a grin flickering on Rodeo’s face now. He ha
dn’t moved his finger away when he felt my tongue on his finger.

  “You just need to relax,” he said, in a deep soothing voice. He drew his finger away from my lips and his hands travelled down from my neck to my waist. I gulped and knocked the back of my head against the wall. Whatever he was doing to me, was working. I was totally under his power now, and he didn’t even have to use force.

  I felt his hands trace the shape of my hips, then travel to the back—he had my butt in his hands and he squeezed. I fell forward on to him and my hands reached out for his shoulders.

  Rodeo smiled as he looked at me then.

  “You can tell me to stop whenever you want,” he said in a deep guttural growl. I didn’t want him to stop. I wanted him to keep going. I wanted to know what he was going to do next. I looked down and saw the tent in his jeans. He was definitely well endowed because his cock was jutting straight out in his pants.

  I looked up at him, and his eyes were on me.

  “Do you want me to stop? I know this is highly inappropriate,” he said and I shook my head. If he stopped now, I would have burst. I could feel the wetness spreading between my legs, my nipples were pebbled and sensitive under my blouse. Rodeo had taken complete control of my body.

  “Good,” he said, and with one swift movement, his hands were on the buttons and zipper of my jeans and in the next second, he was peeling it down my legs. His hands roamed over my exposed thighs, the insides of my legs and swiftly his fingers searched out the spot between my legs.

  I gasped, clinging on to his shoulders as his hands flicked and stroked against my wet throbbing pussy.

  “You’re already wet for me,” he growled and brought his mouth close to my ear. I moaned lightly as his fingers rubbed against my slit, slipping and sliding in the juices that had made my panties wet.

  “I just want you to feel better, sweet Jordan,” Rodeo said and with a flick of his hands, he had pulled my panties down too. I was pinned to the wall now, naked from the hips down and his fingers were stroking my pussy.