When he did, I leaned in and up and whispered, “It was hot.”

His lips twitched again.

That was hot too.

Hot!

“Right,” he stated. “Seein’ as you’re hammered, this might not penetrate but I’ll say it anyway. You lookin’ like you do, wearin’ that dress and bein’ Lawson’s woman, he is not gonna want my hands on you. Unless, say, you were lookin’ like you do and filled with bullets. So, to keep your man happy, my advice is you should attempt to ambulate. You start to go down, I’ll catch you. Deal?”

Gwen bumped into me when she leaned into me and I tore my eyes away from the hot guy to look at her.

“I think this is good advice,” she slurred. “Mitch is sweet and trust me, Hawk can be sweet too. But even if I was wearing sweats and had ratty-assed hair, he would lose his mind if any man touched me. Mitch may be sweet but he’s got that in him. I can tell.”

I nodded to Gwen thinking that what she said was true. Mitch felt pretty intensely about me, in this dress and out of it. I didn’t think he’d take the news that a hot guy had carried to his car very well.

I turned to Hawk. “I’ll attempt to ambulate.”

“Good call,” he muttered, his eyes going to Gwen and his lips twitching again.

Totally…

Hot!

Then I heard him ask softly, “Sweet Pea, tab?”

“We haven’t paid, baby,” she answered softly.

Ohmigod!

He called Gwen “sweet pea”.

He could be sweet.

Hawk headed to the bar and I turned back to Gwen and declared, “He’s the second love of my life.”

Elvira and LaTanya both burst out laughing again but Gwen’s slightly hazy eyes grew more than slightly dreamy and she whispered, “He’s the only love of mine.”

I liked that for her. She was gorgeous, definitely. But she was also very funny and really sweet. If I was still classifying, she’d be a firm eleven. She deserved a dangerous hot guy. Totally.

“I like that for you,” I whispered back, she focused on me (kind of) and smiled.

“Think Hawk’s in the mood to move so you got ‘em, suck ‘em back,” Elvira ordered then did as she told us to do and slammed back half a cosmo. After, she put her glass down and declared, “He gets back, Hawk on the move, we gotta be ready to roll.”

I took her direction, quickly sucking back the rest of my cosmo. Hawk was a commando and although gorgeous, definitely scary. If he was in the mood to move, I wasn’t going to give him any lip.

He came back while we were all getting up and snatching our purses. Being awesome and becoming even more awesome, he pulled both Gwen and my chairs out as we pushed up.

A gentleman.

Totally the second love of my life.

Once I gained my feet and ascertained my legs were going to support me, I looked up at Hawk. “How much do I owe you for the tab?”

“On me,” he replied.

“No, really, I had four cosmos. How much –?”

His black eyes focused on me and I shut up.

“On me,” he repeated firmly.

“Okey dokey,” I muttered.

He grinned.

My nipples started tingling.

Then he kept talking. “You get to the truck, got a folder for you.”

I blinked up at him.

Then I asked, “Pardon?”

“Melbamae and Lulamae Hanover?”

I felt my lips part but I didn’t reply.

I didn’t need to reply, he read my face.

“Sent a man, he had a word. Did some diggin’, created a file. They give you shit, which would surprise the fuck outta me if they do, my man reported he was thorough, then you turn that file over to your attorney and you’re golden. Yeah?”

I pressed my lips together so I wouldn’t burst into drunken tears.

He was sweet.

“Mara?” he called then prompted, “Yeah?”

“I’ll make you one of my barbeque chicken pizzas,” I blurted and that was when I got his smile.

And it was a nice smile.

A really nice one.

He had two dimples.

Two!

Holy cow.

Gwen who was standing beside him, her arm tucked through his, leaned around him and told me, “Cabe’s body is his temple. You want to give payback, buy him a big vat of protein powder or a coupon for a lifetime supply of cottage cheese.” She grinned. “But I’ll take the pizza.”

“You’re on,” I whispered then I looked up at Hawk. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Hawk’s deep, attractive voice replied quietly.

Yep. So totally the second love of my life.

“Yo!” Elvira called. “We goin’ or can I order another cocktail?”

Hawk’s gaze sliced to her and I bit my lip.

Elvira raised her brows. Hawk shook his head.

Then he started walking.

Without a word, the girl gang teetered behind him and Gwen.

We were ten feet from the door when my purse rang. In my inebriated state, I slowed and clumsily pulled my phone out of my purse. I slowed more when I saw on the display it said, “Mitch calling.”

I took the call and put my phone to my ear.

“Hey honey,” I answered.

“Hey sweetheart,” he replied and I got a heart flutter, breasts swelling, legs tingling and nipples hardening all at once. “Done here. I’ll swing by Club and get you.”

I shook my head and put my hand to the door that had swung closed behind LaTanya.

“Hawk just showed. I’m walking out the door now,” I pushed it opened, stopping and looking out into the parking lot to locate the others and I saw they were well ahead of me. I started to hasten my step as I walked out the door and went on, “And I’m walking to his truck all by myself.”

Mitch’s voice was trembling with laughter when he asked, “You’re what?”

“I’m walking…”

I trailed off and stopped walking when I heard the screeching of tires close. My head turned to see a car coming into the parking lot at high speed. This shocked me but it also alarmed me because it appeared it was coming right at me. Vaguely, I heard the roar of motorcycles, not one but several. But this didn’t register because seeing that car racing toward me, I didn’t think of anything but getting out of the way.

So I got out of the way, drunk and running on high heels which, by the way, was not easy.

The car came to a screeching halt while curving and cutting me off so I had to stop too as I heard Hawk’s voice shout, “Mara! This way. Run!”

One of the doors to the car opened, a man came out, he was big and scarier than Hawk but not in a good way and I pivoted on my foot and started running toward Hawk.

Another car was coming in at high speed from the other direction. It cut me off from Hawk who was running toward me and I awkwardly had to take last minute evasive maneuvers. My ankle turned, I wobbled and I threw both my arms out to stop myself from going down. My heart was racing, my adrenalin pumping and my mind was blank of anything but surprise and fear.

Then suddenly from out of nowhere there were motorcycles everywhere.

Everywhere.

Shooting through the two cars, all through the parking lot and, as I continued to stagger, one shot right toward me.

Before I could avoid it, I was hooked at the waist by something strong and solid and couldn’t hold back my, “Oof!”

Then my ass was planted in front of the rider.

“Hold on,” a gravelly voice ordered.

“I –”

“Hold the fuck on!” the gravelly voice barked.

Even as we kept cruising, I turned to face him, my arms sliding around his middle. His arm around me went back to the bike handle and he must have given it some gas because we shot out of the parking lot.

Oh God.

What was happening?

“What’s happening?” I asked.

“Keep quiet and stay calm. You’re safe,” he answered as, from my vantage point of looking over his shoulder behind us I saw the rest of the motorcycles line up behind ours.

“Safe? Safe from what? Who are you?” I asked and tipped my head back to see a strong jaw, a partial view of a goatee and longish dark hair curling around a muscled neck and his ear.

“I’m Tack.”

Oh boy.

“President of a biker gang Tack?”

His chin tipped down slightly but not enough for me to get a good look at him before his eyes went back to the road and he muttered, “See Lawson’s told you about me.”

“Uh –” I started.

He cut me off. “Motorcycle club.”

“What?” I asked.

“Chaos isn’t a gang. It’s a club.”

From the firm tone of his gravelly voice sounding over the roar of the motorcycle I noted that, clearly, this was an important distinction.

Right.

“Um…sorry,” I murmured.

“Just keep quiet and hold on,” he ordered and I thought this was good advice seeing as I’d never been on a motorcycle. I also didn’t know you could ride on a motorcycle like this. It didn’t feel very safe though he seemed in command.

Still, probably better if he had nothing to concentrate on but the road and making sure we didn’t crash and die since neither of us were wearing helmets.

We roared onto Speer Boulevard then we turned and roared up University Boulevard then another turn and down we roared on Alameda then another turn and more roaring down Broadway and then we turned into the enormous forecourt of a mechanic’s garage.

He parked in front of a long rectangular building and all the bikes roared in beside us like they practiced this formation often and they were the motorcycle equivalent of the Air Force Thunderbirds.

It was then that I realized somewhere along the way I’d lost my phone and purse.