Opal (Rugged Skulls MC Book 2) Read online

  “Of course we will. I don’t understand how we have never found this place before, but it’s our new coffee stop—well, juice stop,” Estelle says, hiking her purse strap over her shoulder.

  “Well then, I will make sure that I look into some healthy juices for pregnant women, for when you come back. It was nice to meet you ladies. Come on, boy.” He smiles at us and directs the boy out the back, leaving us with Farrah.

  We chat with Farrah for a few minutes then leave, going our separate ways. Thoughts of Opal seep back into my brain as I drive back home. I will give him one more chance before I remove him from my care.

  Why do men have to be so stubborn?

  Seven

  Opal

  The music is blasting through the speakers and some old-school rock is playing. Finishing off my beer, I signal over to the prospect to bring me another. It’s been days since my PT session with Jodie and my ankle still hurts like crazy. I skipped out on my last appointment, but to be completely fair, the pain in my ankle and calf caused to me to not give a fuck.

  Giving the prospect a nod when he hands me a new beer, I take a pull from it and let my gaze slide over the room. Everyone is here tonight: the brothers, the old Regs and some new ones, which thankfully haven’t caused too much shit.

  Slide has Blake sitting on his lap and Rookie is currently finger fucking Elsie in the corner, not giving a fuck who sees. But that’s Elsie; she loves being watched. My gaze meets angry eyes across the room by the bar. Dezi.

  I haven’t touched her in days, and she is making it very known that she’s pissed at me for ending things with us. But I can’t bring myself to care. Bringing a joint to my lips, I inhale deep, closing my eyes and letting the smoothness of the weed seep into my lungs, relaxing my muscles and helping with the dull ache.

  “You doing okay there, brother? You’ve been smoking more of that shit the last few days,” Sarge says, taking the seat next to me.

  I shrug, taking another hit before passing it off to him, and he does the same. My gaze catches Dezi once more before she turns to Risky, giving me her back. The green is helping me give even less of a fuck right now.

  “Opal,” Sarge says, and I realize that I didn’t answer him. Shaking my head, I look at him. That’s when I see how tired he looks; fuck, he always looks tired. Sarge suffers from PTSD, nightmares mainly. Loud bangs don’t bother him as much now, but his nightmares get him almost every night.

  “It helps me, man. My ankle is fucking killing me.”

  “That the reason you haven’t been back to that sexy piece of ass of a PT trainer?”

  The way he describes Jodie makes my fist clench, I know he doesn’t know what she looks like, he is going on what Risky said. I feel need to punch him in the fucking face and that isn’t me. Thinking of Jodie makes my dick twitch in my jeans. I scowl at him and the bastard laughs at me.

  “Nah, man. Not been back. I don’t need that. I just need this and this.” I lift my beer to my lips and nod to the joint in his hand.

  “Yeah, if you say so. Man, what’s with you? This chick get under your skin or something?” Sarge asks. Shaking my head, I down the rest of the bottle.

  It’s true though. Even in the short time I spent with her she got under my skin and I wanted to know more about her. The way I reacted to her was not my usual self. It normally takes a lot to get to me, but fuck, she did.

  All amber liquid eyes, plump lips and skin so fucking flawless that she could be a makeup model. The way her lips curved up when she was trying to hide her smile when she knew she caused me pain… Devil woman.

  Shit. My jeans tighten as I think about her lips wrapped around my cock, her lipstick leaving a mark at the base of my shaft, proof that she had been there. My skin heats at the thoughts and my throat dries up.

  “Prospect. Another,” I bark out.

  “Fuck, brother, she really is getting to you, huh? You got lost in your head for a sec there and your thighs tensed. You licked your lips and you even moaned,” Sarge tells me with a grin.

  “Fuck off, you creepy bastard,” I tell Sarge, who laughs at me. My eyes widen as his words come into focus, and I look around the room, making sure no other fucker heard what he just said. “Fuck.”

  “Yeah, man. Listen, brother, you’re the one who agreed to go and see her. You are the one who wanted to make sure that your ankle was healed enough to get back on the bike. I know that Preach wouldn’t have recommended her if she wasn’t the shit, so I suggest you get sober and focused, and get back to it, yeah. She is there to help you, man,” he tells me, and I nod in agreement.

  “Good point. But are you going to take your own advice and get your head checked out? I have given you a friend that helped me when I came home. I know you went through more shit than us, but you can’t go on living like you are.”

  Sarge was captured when we were deployed. He was held for three weeks and the fuckers did some damage to his head, pretty much ruined him. Over the years, we have seen him slowly get better, but he triggers at a few things, not all related to the Army.

  “Don’t,” is all he says, well, growls at me.

  “Brother, we all love you and have got your back. We only want you to get help. The nightmares picked up again after what went down with Risky. We all hear it. You can’t live with little to no sleep, brother.”

  “I know, but fuck, man, I don’t want to go and talk about feelings and shit to some random stranger. That’s not me and you know it,” he snipes back, finishing off his whiskey. That is Sarge’s drink of choice. Whiskey and women, as he says.

  “Promise me that if it gets to the blackout point again, you will seek help. I am telling you, man, Paul was amazing. He won’t take your shit, but he will also only push you to what he thinks you can handle. Did wonders for me, brother.”

  “Maybe.”

  “Grumpy bastard,” I say to him, and he smiles.

  “Well at least I’m not here drowning in beer and weed to hide away from a sexy as fuck woman who wants to get her hands on me.” He wiggles his eyebrows at me, and I chuckle, turning away from him, which was a mistake because my gaze lands on a very pissed off Dezi.

  “Shit. Be back, brother.” I push to my feet and walk over to her. The weed and beer have taken the pain away, so I don’t limp as much. I watch as her back straightens and the anger fades from her face a little. Risky sees me coming and steps from behind the bar, heading over to Magnum and Edge, giving us some privacy.

  Dezi licks her lips before bringing her glass to her mouth and taking a drink, really pulling out the stops of seduction. I stop just in front of her, making sure not to touch her and give her any ideas. What I told her the other day stands, and I won’t back down from that. Once I’ve made my mind up, there is little to no chance of changing it.

  “Dezi,” I greet her, leaning my elbow on the bar and nodding to the prospect.

  “Ba—Opal.” She goes to call me ‘baby’, which I have warned her about before. Licking her lips, she plasters on a smile. She slides her fingers over my hand, then over my wrist, but before she can go any further, I stop her with my other hand.

  “Please, Opal.” Shaking my head at her, I lean in so only she can hear me.

  “I was raised to be polite to women and my elders. My mother would kick my ass to high heaven if she ever caught me disrespecting a woman. So, I am going to say this in the politest way I can, Dez. There is nothing going on between us anymore. Yes, I have come to you when I needed to get rid of tension, but, honey, you came to me when you needed to get off too.”

  Her eyes widen and she goes to speak, but I shake my head and keep going.

  “No, you knew what we do here. You are a Rugged Regular. That means you come here to fuck on a regular basis, and you fuck Rugged Skulls members. No promises were made. It is your choice to be here, Dezi. You knew that I wouldn’t want more from you and you agreed to that when you first got here. I told you that I don’t like to sleep with multiple women at one time, and you told me
the same, which is why you were my go-to girl, but no more.”

  I can see the hurt in her eyes, but it needed to be said. She needed to understand once and for all. When the Regs come here to the club, it’s for a good time, and at one point Dezi was here for that reason. It wasn’t until Risky arrived that Dezi started to get a little clingy.

  She slides off her stool so there is less than an inch between us. Her hands come up on my chest and go to slide up around my neck, but I take hold of her wrists, stopping the movement.

  “Stop.” My voice takes on a firm tone, but she ignores it.

  “Opal, we can be so good together. I know how you like to have your cock sucked. You have made a point to not let any of your brothers touch me when I come here, and you were pissed when I went on a date. So, you can’t say that you don’t want me anymore,” Dezi says with annoyance in her voice, but I ignore it.

  “I can and I will. Do not make this harder, Dez. I may be the voice of reason when it comes to this club, the calm, collected one, but do not take my calmness as a weakness. Do not cross me,” I grind out but keep my voice calm. This is me.

  This is how I got my road-name—well, actually it was my Army name. Not only is my birthday in October, but some of the boys I served with said that I had luck on my side, because I always went with my gut and was usually right.

  They said that I had some higher power to calm someone by just touching them, but fuck if I know. All I know is that if they believed it and they needed me to do it, then I did it. You don’t have much over there so faith becomes a big part of your life.

  “I know you want me. Has this sudden change got anything to do with that PT woman?”

  “Dezi, not—” I start, but Sarge’s voice cuts me off.

  “Oh shit, this is going to be good.” Turning to look at what he’s talking about, my gaze locks on a very pissed off Jodie, and by pissed off, I mean fucking hot.

  She’s wearing her work uniform: black leggings that show off her shapely thighs that I want wrapped around me, and her work polo shirt that hugs her chest perfectly. Her face is red with anger, and I can’t stop the grin that appears on my face.

  “So, getting your dick wet is far more important than getting that ankle healed up, Stefan? Thanks for wasting my time. If you weren’t serious about these appointments, I could have fitted in someone who actually wanted to get better.”

  “Got it, DD.” I chuckle when she frowns at me.

  “And what the hell does ‘DD’ stand for?” she spits out at me, resting her hands on her hips. Hands that I remember touching my body—well, my legs anyway.

  “Devil Doc,” I say on a chuckle, making her scowl even harder.

  “Are you freaking serious right now? Devil Doc? What are you, five?” she spits at me, and I laugh, stepping closer, but a hand on my wrist stops me.

  “Oh, fuck yes. Di—” gets shouted across the room, but I cut that little shit right off.

  “Fuck off, Slide,” I holler.

  Turning to look at Dezi, she smiles and steps around me, toward Jodie, and I know what is about to go down. Jodie’s body tenses but she doesn’t back down. That’s my girl. What the fuck?

  “He has better things to do, meaning me. So, you can leave. He will handle his recovery with someone else from now on,” Dezi says in that butter wouldn’t melt voice that really fucking gets on my nerves. I hate that fake shit.

  “Dezi,” Risky growls from her seat next to Magnum at the end of the bar. She looks at Risky then brings her gaze back to me. Her eyes twitch, and I see regret there, but it’s too late.

  “You know how I feel about drama. Leave. Take some time to decide what you want to do,” I state, not giving her room to argue. She waits a beat then turns back to the bar to pick up her phone and purse. She steps past me but stops at Jodie.

  “You aren’t his usual type, so I’m not worried. He knows where to find me,” Dezi says, then walks toward the door, but Jodie’s words stop her.

  “Honey, I think everyone in the club knows where to find you, on your knees or on your back. I am not here to get in his pants—not that they aren’t nice ones, and I can only imagine the package in there, if our last session is anything to go by. But I can assure you, you have nothing to fear from me.”

  Jodie gives Dezi her back and glares at me, only making my grin turn into a full-blown smile.

  “Dibs,” I say, winking at her. The boys burst out laughing and Risky just winks at me. I love the fact that Jodie has no clue what I just did. She frowns at me and tilts her head. Time will tell. I will ease her into it, just like I will ease into her bed.

  Eight

  Jodie

  It’s been four days since I met Opal and today was his next appointment. I had already told him and Preach that if he didn’t turn up again, I wouldn’t treat him. Being in the clubhouse with him yesterday was both daunting and exciting. I had never been inside a biker clubhouse before.

  After Preach told me where to find Opal because he missed sessions and I needed to know why, I was surprised when I walked in there; it looked clean and modern with an old twist to it. Music was blaring some classic rock that I recognized, thanks to my dad. My brother, Archie, and I were brought up with classic rock while working on cars and running assault courses. My dad is ex-military, and my brother is a military instructor. Army brats all the way.

  Checking the clock again, I see that Opal is twenty minutes late. Huffing with annoyance and disappointment, I pick up my coffee mug and head to my office at the back of the house. I have one of the camera doorbells that lets me check who is at my front door. It comes in handy when I’m working back here.

  Just as I’m about to it in my seat, the bell rings. I click the button on my laptop, and it brings up the screen. My breath catches when I see who is here.

  Opal, aka Stefan Bryant, aka the man of my very hot wet dreams for the past few nights.

  Standing outside my door, Opal is looking as fine as ever in a military green ‘Army’ sleeveless t-shirt and camo patterned shorts that sculpt to his thighs. My pussy clenches at the sight. Damn, it’s been way too long since I was with a man.

  “You going to let me in, Doc?” his voice comes through the speaker, as he smiles up at the camera above the door. Shaking my head, I hit the button that opens the door to let him into my house.

  I have no idea why I did that and didn’t tell him to meet me at the back. Having only met him twice before, and for only a very short amount of time, I get a safe vibe from him. It’s the whole idea of the club that kind of worries me. I have no clue what they do. I heard they own a few businesses around town, mainly their porn studio.

  Each to their own, I think.

  Shaking my body out like I’m psyching myself up, I walk to the front of the house to meet Opal. My hands start to sweat and my body prickles with thoughts that I get to touch this man today. It’s a shame that he hurt his ankle and not his back or shoulder. Damn, I would love to touch his muscles there.

  My steps falter as the images of my running my hands over his biceps and pectoral muscles flash through my mind. Shit, I can’t be thinking like this. He is a patient; this can’t happen.

  Reaching the small foyer, Opal is standing there looking sexy and confident, whereas I’m a heated fumbling mess with my naughty thoughts of him.

  “Hey, Doc,” he greets, his smile kicking up at the corner of his mouth. Damn, I love seeing that.

  “Stefan,” I greet back.

  Our gazes lock and we stand staring at each other for a beat. If I were an insecure woman, I would get a complex with the way his stare heats up and his eyes darken slightly. Licking his lips, he drops his gaze and traces my body inch by inch.

  My body is heating under his stare, to a point that I’m pretty sure he can see the sweat patches under my armpits. Hopefully he can’t detect that I’m breathing faster under his intense gaze.

  Knowing I need to end this standoff, I clear my throat, forcing him to look me in the eye. I quirk an e
yebrow at him and he smirks at me.

  “So, are we going to get this session started, Doc?”

  I huff and turn to walk away from him but call over my shoulder, “Make a move, Mr. Bryant. We don’t have all day. You only have me for an hour.”

  I realize my mistake when he hits me with his comeback.

  “Oh, Doc, the things I could do to you in an hour,” he says, and my body responds like it never has before, not even with Roy. Damn, I’m in trouble.

  We walk in silence through my house, past the pool and over to the clinic.

  “Fuck me, how did I not see that pool the other day?” he asks from behind me. The hairs on the back of my neck stand to attention because I didn’t realize he was that close.

  Oh, the dirty thoughts of this man behind me; the stubble on his jaw scratching the back of my neck as he…

  No. Do not go there, Jodie Simms.

  “Not sure, but it was there,” I say, as I reach the door to the clinic, but when I turn around, I see that Opal has stopped and is staring at the pool. Why does this man always do things that make my inner slut imagine dirty images of him and his gorgeous body?

  Now all I can see is Opal climbing out of the pool with tight shorts on as the water runs down his body, over his pierced nipples and the valleys of his abs.

  Stop it.

  I chastise myself. I know that Opal isn’t a registered patient, but he is still a patient.

  “Stefan,” I call to him. He turns to me, giving me a sexy grin and nods to the pool.

  “Can we use this today?”

  “I bet that smile gets you everything you ask for, doesn’t it?” The question is out before I can stop it. Damn it.

  He stalks over to me, keeping his gaze locked on mine. The gap closes between us and my heart rate picks up with each step he takes. My palms become sweaty again.