“You’re expected to be here at night unless given permission from the President or the Vice President of the club,” I said sternly. “You’re not to go out with other men while you work for the club. And as per our conversation just yesterday, you are not to leave the fucking compound without a man with you. Those ring any bells?”

“There was a man with us,” she muttered.

It didn’t surprise me that she had noticed Ham, I hadn’t exactly told him to be stealthy about his presence. “Do you have any idea how much shit you could have got into? Do you have any idea how much danger you could be in?”

She glared at me. “No, I don’t. For me to know that you’d have to tell me what was going on, and that isn’t information I’m privy to.”

“And you think you should be, right?”

“Sometimes, yeah.”

“And what makes you so fucking special that, other than my brothers, you should be the one person to be told exactly what’s going on?”

She stood up sharply. “Okay, Optimus. I get it. I’m not special. I’ll just continue to lay around the clubhouse and spread my legs for the men. Awesome. Glad we got that sorted.”

She stripped off her light jacket and threw it across the small desk in the corner of her room before turning to her dresser and beginning to remove her jewelry. With her long hair falling over one shoulder, I could clearly see the stunning blackbird that spanned across her shoulders. Its wings spread out in flight over her shoulder blades, its eyes were fierce and strong, staring straight at me.

The tattoo was originally the reason for the nickname that I used for Chelsea. But it had become more than that. Blackbirds symbolize the dark and the light phases of the moon. And for me, Chelsea has been my light when things were dark. Running a club can be hard. I have to keep my thumb on the pulse at all times, know who’s where, what’s going on and why. Sometimes I’m not even sure where the hell my head is at.

But things are different when I’m with her. It’s like a calm in the air and I feel like I can take a breath, if even just for a moment. She gives me a reason to stop and smile and she gives me the chance to just be me. Well, most of the time anyway, because right now I feel like I want to squeeze the damn life out of her for being so damn stupid.

I moved up behind her and placed my hands on either side of the dresser in front of her, boxing her in as she removed two dangly earrings that I never really liked on her anyway. They were too fancy, too much. Chelsea was beautiful but simple.

My chest pressed against her back. Her heels gave her extra height, and while she still didn’t quite match my stature, they placed her body in a much better position for me.

My mouth found her bare neck, she immediately tilted her head to the side and I felt her body shiver against mine. After spending the last week avoiding her like the plague, I was about to ruin it all. But I didn’t care. I’d been stupid thinking it was possible to keep my hands off her.

“You’re making it awfully hard for me to keep you out of trouble,” I whispered before taking the lobe of her ear between my teeth. Her ass automatically ground back against me and a soft sigh left her lips. My hands drifted up her arms and over her shoulders. “I’ll let you in on a little secret, Blackbird. There’s been a threat to the club and these guys aren’t messing around. I don’t know how close they are, whether they’re watching us just waiting to make a move, but what I do know is they’ll use whatever leverage they can in order to bring me and my club down. Including you.”

“What?” she breathed out, her body tensing.

“I’m trying my best to not give them an excuse to use you against me, but you must tempt me and push my patience, right?” My cock was hard and pressed right in between the cheeks of her ass.

A chill ran down my spine at his words. Optimus was a leader, he controlled things, he made the rules and people followed them. That didn’t change when we were in bed.

And I fucking loved it.

“Take everything off,” he said sternly, moving his body away from me.

I almost whimpered at the loss, but instead did as I was told, stripping the light fabric from my body and removing my heels. I removed my thong and bra as I walked over to him, leaving them on the floor behind me. I stood a few feet from his body, completely bared but all he did was stare into my eyes.

The bulge that strained against the front of his jeans was evident. I knew I affected him the same way he did me. He unraveled his arms, one reached down to palm his cock, the other gathered my hair into his fist at the base of my neck. He pulled, not harsh enough to cause a lot of pain but enough to make me gasp. My mouth hung open as I was forced to look up at him. His eyes burned through me. He was angry, but it wasn’t the first time we’d done this dance.

I’d defied him and now he needed to know that I was ready to follow the rules again. I would give it to him. I’d hand over my power and allow him to have control. I knew I’d done wrong—I’d broken the club rules. I now knew, that in his own way, he was just trying to protect me and keep me safe from whatever threat there was against the club. Now I needed to prove to him that he could trust me again.

“Do you understand now? Do you get why things have been the way they have?”

I licked my lips, attempting to moisten them as my breaths had become short with the excitement building inside me. “Yes, sir,” I whispered.

His eyes fired with pleasure at my answer. The grip on my hair loosened and his fingers went to my scalp, massaging away the sting he’d caused. It almost made me want to purr like a cat.

“You gonna be my good girl again and follow the rules?”

I nodded, eager to do anything to just get him to touch me.

“Mmm …” His other hand reached up to cup the side of my face and I leaned into it, closing my eyes. “Take my cut off and hang it up. I’m ready to see just how sorry you are for your disobedience.”

I nuzzled his hand before stepping around to his back. I pressed my naked body against the leather as I reached over his shoulders to grab the front of his cut. I heard a soft growl leave his mouth as I rubbed myself against him, the club patches sewn to the back nipping at my skin with their rough, worn edges. I pulled back reluctantly, slipping the leather off his shoulders and down his arms slowly.

He made his way to the bed, took a seat on the edge and began to remove his large, heavy motorcycle boots. I turned and hung his cut on the back of the bedroom door, letting my fingers linger on the leather. It felt good, soft and smooth, but worn and rough at the same time, much the same as its owner.

“Come here.”

I walked straight to him, wanting to reach out and touch him—kiss him. Optimus and I had a great balance. He wasn’t always like this, stern and strict when it came to sex. Often he would encourage me to do what I wanted, what felt good. But this wasn’t one of those nights and I could tell he wasn’t in the mood for me to take on my own advances.

He reached for the collar of his shirt at the back and pulled it over his head, dropping it on the floor before his hands reached out to me and grasped my hips. I went with the movement as he pulled me between his legs, his mouth just inches from my breasts. One of his hands slipped from my hips and I sucked in a breath as fingers ran the outline of my ass and dipped into my pussy.

I gripped his head with both my hands, attempting to steady myself. My fingers threaded through his short hair and I pushed myself back onto his fingers, forcing them deeper inside me.

“Always so ready for me, Blackbird,” he whispered, nuzzling his face against my breasts, the stubble on his jawline creating the perfect friction against my skin. “Fuck my fingers. Get yourself off.”