Barely Undercover: Legal Heat, Book 2 Read online

  Chapter Nine

  Lana paced James’s room on the second floor of the clubhouse. Ryder had whisked her away from Rex’s office, telling her Ice was fine but he needed time to cool off. She hadn’t made it easy on him, but in the end he was bigger, stronger and willing to drag her by her hair if she didn’t listen.

  Just as well. She needed the time to deal with the guilt clawing at her belly. She shouldn’t have let herself get caught sneaking around Rex’s office. She understood biker culture, the hierarchy, the challenges, the constant jostling for position of top dog. She should have known if she was caught it would end like this.

  She looked around, but the room gave no clue as to the personality of its occupant. No pictures, mementos, books or magazines. Just the basics—bed, dresser, night table and bathroom. A small window overlooked the courtyard where the barbeque was still in progress.

  Her investigative instincts and an overwhelming curiosity drove her to peek into the dresser drawers where she found jeans, T-shirts and underwear, all neatly folded. The last drawer held socks, folded in pairs, and belts coiled around Harley Davidson buckles. She carefully sifted through the contents and pulled out two pictures.

  The first was a picture of her. James had taken it the day before he left. They were on the little ferry boat connecting Granville Island to downtown. She traced her finger over the beaming Lana, her hair in wild disarray from a sudden gust of wind. So happy. She didn’t remember how it felt to be that happy.

  The second picture was of a tall, slim woman with long brown hair. Her almond-shaped eyes were warm and deep. So beautiful. Her perfect oval of a face glowed. Was she from James’s past or present?

  Lana’s heart skipped a beat. Of course he’d had other lovers. He had briefly alluded to fleeting relationships when they’d first hooked up. And, no doubt, after he left her he would have had more. He was a highly attractive, incredibly fit, enigmatic alpha male. During their brief time together, she’d often wondered what he was doing with her. He needed someone calm, sedate, slim and toned like he was. Not a curvy girl weighed down with baggage and a mass of wild curls to match her temper.

  She replaced the pictures and sank down on the bed. He’d never mentioned a serious past girlfriend when they were together, so the woman in the picture was probably his current squeeze. She shouldn’t be surprised. James never backtracked on his decisions.

  A loud thud sent Lana scrambling to her feet. James stalked into the room and slammed the door behind him. Still pumped after his fight, muscles twitching under the thin cotton of his T-shirt like he wanted to have another go at Rex, he was breathtakingly gorgeous and sexy as hell. The cuts and bruises on his face only added to his appeal. A quiver of desire chased across her skin.

  “Are you…?” Anxiety pounded through her veins.

  Jaw clenched tight, blue eyes cold and hard, James held up a hand, cutting her off. Lana shivered at the raw violence in his taut face. But the question he asked wasn’t the one she was expecting.

  “Did he…touch you?”

  Relieved at being spared his anger at going near Rex alone, Lana shuddered, considering for the first time what could have happened. “Just a little shake and slam against the locker. Some hair pulling…”

  Like magic, his eyes softened. “When I heard you scream, I thought the worst. If he had…” He choked on his words. “I don’t know if I could’ve held back. It was hard enough to throw the fight after I saw his hands on you.”

  She should be appalled at his words, frightened even. Instead, the thought of James out of control stirred her most carnal desires, turning her brain to mush, igniting the adrenaline still pumping through her veins after the fight.

  God, she wanted him.

  No. Don’t do this. Her mind railed even as her body quivered with need. It had taken her almost two years to get over him. And after Jackie forced her back on the dating circuit, she’d run at the first hint of anything more than casual affection.

  And yet, here she was, desire rising through her body like the tide, heedless of the warning of her battered heart.

  Chest heaving, he lifted his hot, heavy gaze to hers and she trembled at the sensual promise in his eyes. Her mind flashed back to steamy nights, his seductive voice rumbling in her ear, his lips hot on her skin, his hands conducting her body in a symphony of pleasure.

  No. He didn’t want her. He had walked out the door without even a goodbye. She tore her gaze away, but before she could move, he had her in his arms.

  Curling his fingers around her neck, he crushed her to his body and captured her lips in a passionate kiss, plundering her mouth without restraint. Their first kiss without an audience was a savage kiss. Brutal. Wild. Unrestrained. A kiss that sent her temperature soaring and her blood pounding through her veins.

  Dangerous.

  “God…Lana. Want you. Need you.” James drove her back into the wall, pinning her with his body. Engulfed in hot, hard, sweaty male, Lana tilted her head to the side, exposing her neck to his heated lips. Her hands tightened on his biceps, her fingernails scraping his skin, as he licked and sucked down to the sensitive spot between her neck and her shoulder blade. Without hesitating, he drew the skin between his teeth and bit. Lana cried out and moisture flooded her sex.

  “You still like that,” he rasped, his voice a husky growl.

  “Hell yes.” Not only that, she wanted more. More kissing. More biting. More raging alpha male. His passion on the patio had taken her breath away. But now that they were alone she wanted all of him, damn her aching heart.

  “Don’t stop.” Lana ground her hips against his erection, rock-hard against her belly. The small movement inflamed him. He threaded his fingers through her hair, yanked her head back and growled. The raw, feral, dominating sound undid her. Her head spun. Her nipples hardened. Her insides turned liquid and her sex pulsed with need. She gave herself over to unbridled lust with a whimper.

  “Lana.” He said her name reverently, triumphantly, and then he bent his head and covered her mouth in a hard kiss that left her in no doubt she was going to get what she wanted.

  She slid her hand over his taut abs and past his belt to trace the rigid line of his cock trapped beneath his jeans

  James hissed in a breath and tore his mouth away, pressing Lana hard against the wall. “Babe, I won’t be able to stop and I won’t be gentle.”

  She pressed harder, feeling his erection thicken under her palm. “I don’t want you to stop. And I don’t want gentle. I want badass biker Ice going badass with me.”

  “Christ,” he muttered half to himself. “How the hell did I walk away?”

  He drew in a ragged breath then jerked her dress up over her hips. “Damn dress doesn’t leave much to the imagination. You had all of Hades panting after you.”

  “Right now, the only man I want to hear panting after me is you.”

  He gave her a wicked grin and held her hand to his chest as it rose and fell in a quick rhythm. “Been panting since I saw you in that dress.”

  “I’ve been panting since you kicked in the door and pounded on Rex.”

  He cupped her sex, and then shoved her panties aside, sliding his finger along her slick folds. “Watching me fight made you this wet?” He spread her moisture up and around her clit in slow, torturous, delicious circles. Lana tilted her hips, trying to get his fingers where she wanted them.

  “I told you. I like dangerous.” She nuzzled his neck and nipped gently, a move she remembered he liked.

  The deep rumble of his groan vibrated against her chest. “Babe, I won’t be able to hold on.”

  “Then don’t.”

  His gaze snapped to hers and with one sharp movement, he tore her panties away. “I’m gonna fuck you, Lana,” he whispered in her ear. “Hard and fast and against the wall until you scream my name.” His soft voice, so at odds with the dirty words he knew she liked to hear, undid the last threads of her control. She slid her fingers under his belt buckle and jerked him toward her.<
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  “Now. Don’t make me wait.”

  A thud on the door pulled her out of the moment and she froze, her fingers caught tight between his belt and the taut ridges of his abdomen.

  “Ice. You gotta get out here,” Ryder shouted, his voice low and urgent. “Fight’s brewing downstairs. Some of the brothers think you let Rex win. Rex’s boys aren’t too happy. After drinking all day, no one is thinking straight. Rex took off with the rest of the inner circle about half an hour ago, so that leaves you and me to sort it out.”

  Noooooooo. Lana whimpered softly and pulled James closer.

  James closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath. And then another. He gently tugged her hand away and released her. “Gotta go, babe. Last thing I want, but I’ve got work to do.” He straightened his clothes and turned away.

  How could he just let everything…drop? How could he walk away as if they had been doing nothing more than chatting about the weather? A shudder ran through Lana’s body as her arousal plummeted. What the hell had she been thinking? She’d been seconds away from getting her heart broken yet again, and for what? A moment of unbridled lust.

  She swallowed hard. “I’ll…get going. Leave you to business.”

  “You’re not going anywhere,” he growled. “You came on my bike. You leave on my bike. For now, you stay in my room until I get everything sorted.”

  Lana’s eyes narrowed at his cold, abrupt tone and her stomach clenched. This had definitely been a mistake and he clearly thought the same. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Why had she even thought of trusting him again? When would she ever learn? No one wanted her. She was flawed. Fundamentally damaged. Better off alone.

  “I’m not a prisoner. If I want to leave, I’ll leave.”

  “Babe, there is nowhere to go from here. Taxis won’t come to Hades. We are miles from the nearest bus stop. No one will give you a lift without my say-so.”

  “What about Kickstand?”

  He spun around and a pained expression crossed his face, but it was so fleeting she could have imagined it. “You want to leave that bad?”

  She tightened her lips into a thin line and nodded. “Yeah, I want to leave. This was…a mistake. I just got caught up playing your old lady.”

  He stilled and exhaled a long, slow breath. For several moments he studied her and then his face tightened. “Probably right. I’ll tell Kickstand to take you.”

  Her heart sank to the floor. But what had she expected? Protests? Declarations? Begging? Not James.

  She followed him out of the room and down the narrow stairway to the main floor. James took Ryder and Kickstand aside for a hushed conversation. As Lana waited, her stomach a queasy knot of confusion, Portia sauntered over to her with a cold smile on her face.

  “You sure keep busy.” Her thin nasal tone set Lana’s already frayed nerves on edge. “First you’re after Rex, then Ice. You gonna fuck Ryder too? Who’s next on your list? Bones? Diesel? Kickstand? You angling to be the next mama? Because I’m warning you, there is only one mama in this club and that’s me.”

  Drowning in a sea of self-hatred and self-pity, Lana almost forgot she had to keep up the act as Ice’s old lady. Still, having no desire to be the woman who slaked the sexual needs of any club member without discrimination, she was able to answer honestly, “Um. No. I’m a one-man kinda woman.”

  “Didn’t seem like that to me when you were hiding in Rex’s locker. Every woman here wants a piece of Rexy, but he’s mine.”

  The hair on the back of Lana’s neck stood on end. She glanced back over her shoulder and spotted James and Ryder heading their way. Time to change the topic of conversation.

  “I like your…uh…dress.” She flashed Portia a desperate smile. “I can’t wear white. It washes me right out, but it highlights your tan.”

  Portia’s eyes narrowed and she pulled out Lana’s lipstick camera just as James and Ryder joined them. “Might look better if I added a little color.”

  Damn. Had she opened it? Did she know? Heart thundering, Lana shrugged her shoulders. “You might not want to use it. I have…a…cold. Bad cold. You wouldn’t want to get sick. I’ll bet Rex likes his girls…healthy.”

  James snorted a laugh. Ryder gave her a curious glance. Portia’s lips curled into a positively evil smile and she placed the lipstick camera between her fingers and started to pull.

  “Give me that.” James reached for the gold tube and Portia let it drop. Lana’s hand flew to her mouth as her most expensive piece of surveillance equipment hit the floor with a crack. James quickly snatched it up. He stared at the camera and then shot Lana a glance that made her wince.

  Gripping her forearm, he dragged her away from Ryder and Portia and into a quiet hallway. “This yours?” He pulled open the camera and Lana nodded.

  “Same piece of equipment I confiscated from you the first time we met?”

  Heart pounding, Lana shrugged. “Actually, you never gave that one back. This one is new.”

  James’s jaw tightened and he backed her up to the wall. This time it wasn’t arousal that made her pulse race, but fear.

  “You promised you wouldn’t go near him without me.”

  “I didn’t have time,” she said, striving for a calm she didn’t feel. “I saw him meet Portia at the door. I overheard him saying he was taking her to his office. I didn’t have time to find you. I just had time to…take up a covert surveillance position before they got there. Unfortunately, I was discovered.”

  James inspected the camera and then slapped it into her waiting palm. “Did you get your pictures?”

  Lana looked at the battered and dented gold tube in her hand. “I got some pictures but I don’t know if they survived the two falls.”

  “You better hope they did,” he snapped. “You’re done here. Your case is closed. You are leaving now with Kickstand and you are never to come near the clubhouse or Rex again. Have I made myself clear?”

  Lana narrowed her eyes. She wasn’t some kid who’d been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. She was a professional. She had a job to do. Although she’d agreed to make only one visit to the club, she hadn’t agreed to stay away from Rex. Damned if she would let James interfere with her case.

  “Goodbye, Ice.” She turned on her heel and stalked away, nodding to Kickstand as she rounded the corner.

  “I didn’t hear a yes,” James yelled.

  Lana looked back over her shoulder and indulged in one last, lingering glance. “That’s because I didn’t say it.”

  Chapter Ten

  “Where is the infamous Rex?” Jackie adjusted the braids on her blonde wig and tugged down the ruffled bust of her German milkmaid costume as she followed Lana into Vancouver’s Schnitzel Club, lavishly decorated for the summer Oktoberfest celebration.

  “I hope to God he’s on his way out the door,” Lana moaned. “This is the most humiliating disguise I’ve ever worn. I feel for German milkmaids.” The dirndl-style minidress with its blue apron and explosive red skirt just barely covered her ass, and the ridiculous white cap was already askew. Her breasts were thrust out and up by the tight, black-laced bodice and highlighted by the pleats of her overly puffy peasant top.

  Jackie twirled one of Lana’s blonde braids. “I’m the milkmaid. You’re the frisky fräulein. And I think those thigh-high stockings with the giant black bows at the top are the cutest things ever.”

  “Just wait until I start tap-dancing on stage.” Lana snorted. “These shoes seem to have a mind of their own.” She stopped to adjust the strap on her shiny Mary Janes and the choker around her neck tightened, cutting off her air. Her hand flew to her throat and she ripped it off. She hadn’t been able to wear anything around her neck since leaving Levi. The choker had been a mistake.

  Maybe this was a mistake too. Watching Rex from the safety of her car was one thing, as was her trip to Hades with James at her back, but walking into a packed hall, knowing she had no protection from the rowdy group of bikers in the far corner, added a whole new level
of meaning to the word fear.

  Jackie gave her arm a sympathetic squeeze. “We don’t have to do this,” she whispered. “You can go back to your normal surveillance routine. Eventually, you’ll catch him.”

  “I’m okay.” Lana handed her the choker. “And I don’t want to pass up a great opportunity. He’s sure to get frisky surrounded by babes and beer steins. Hades already has a fan club.” She pointed to the group of dirndl-clad women hanging around Hades’s table.

  “Is James here?” Jackie asked. “The last thing you need is for him to see you and drag you out by the braids.”

  Lana made a more careful inspection of Hades’s tables. She counted at least twenty bikers, including Kickstand and a few familiar faces from the barbeque, but no James. She shook her head. “Kickstand said he’s on guard duty at the clubhouse tonight so we don’t have to worry about him. Rex is the big, scary one at the end. The guy beside him is his right-hand man, Dawg. The others close to him are Diesel, Punch, Ryder and Bones. The baby-faced guy with the golden hair is Kickstand. He’s the one who told me the Hades crew was coming here tonight.”

  Jackie licked her lips. “So cute. I could eat him all up like a schweinshaxe. This might be my best wingman assignment ever. A table full of hot biker dudes, endless steins of beer, giant sausages, pretzels, sauerkraut and God-awful oom-pah-pah accordion music. What more could a girl want?”

  “We are not getting drunk.” Lana shot her friend a warning glance. “And you can’t fraternize with the enemy. We’re here to just observe and snap a few pictures of Rex with his hands, or his dick, up a milkmaid’s dirndl. And if they do recognize me, I might have to act…different. I still have to pretend to be Ice’s old lady or I’ll have Rex’s paws all over me.”

  Jackie laughed. “Different. Gotcha.”

  They plunked themselves down at a table with a good view of the Hades crowd. Jackie flagged down a waitress and ordered two one-liter steins of nonalcoholic beer and a plate of mini suckling-pig sandwiches. “Remind me to thank that Portia woman for breaking your camera,” Jackie said, her gaze roving over the packed hall. “I’m already having a good time.”