Her Double Mountain Outlaws (Blackthorn Mountain Men Book 8) Read online

  Caleb numbed his with booze and drugs. He met me and I was an angry mess. I met him and he was almost a full-blown junky—strung out, doped up, and with mostly whiskey and cocaine running through his veins. Two messes like us? Well, we should have been dead a hundred times by now. But there we were, still kicking.

  It was art that saved us both.

  I’d been drawing forever, and when I bumped into the guy who’d been spray-paint tagging up the same alley I liked to paint in one night, we started talking. That was eight years ago, and we’ve been closer than brothers since. He got me out of the fights, and I got him clean. That was the worst ten days of either of our lives, holding him down while he sweat and screamed out his demons, detoxing the hardest way possible.

  But Caleb was strong, and he beat it, even if breaking up with heroin took him through hell and back.

  And after that, the two of us just kept moving. We’d been in Vegas for a while, both of us working our way up at the Crossfire Tattoo Parlor as apprentices and then full-on tattooists. Tattoos numbed the pain. Tattoos were healing for both of us. Cathartic. We needed that.

  But eventually, we found ourselves here, on Blackthorn. Ryker, an old buddy from Vegas, had moved here with his little girl. We ended up following him a bit later, working at his bike shop that he and one of his old buddies from his motorcycle club days opened here. We’d worked hard, we’d saved and finally, we’d opened our own tattoo shop, Outlaw Ink.

  We’d started new lives, and we were happy here. The business was going well, we’d gotten to know other people who lived here, and we’d both at least sort of made peace with knowing Kennedy was off limits to both of us. We couldn’t get close to her like that, because as good as life was going, Caleb and I both knew the past would someday try and find us.

  …And that night, it had.

  I knew it was a hired gun who’d kicked in the back door of the parlor that night when we were closing and tried to mow us down. Caleb had caught the bullet as we dove for the piece we kept behind the register. The guy winged him alright, but Caleb had managed to be a whole lot more accurate, putting one between the guy’s eyes before he crashed to the floor.

  The hospital was out. We probably would have made it in time, but it was the questions that would have come later that we both wanted to avoid. After all, Blackthorn was supposed to be a new start for us—a break and severance from our old outlaw days. But like I said, we still had plenty of demons over our shoulders and plenty of skeletons in the closet. So, when the hospital was out of the question, my first thought had been Kennedy.

  I mean, shit, how much harder would it be to operate on an outlaw than a golden retriever, right?

  “Thank you,” I said quietly, nodding solemnly as I met Kennedy’s gaze. “I mean that. You saved his life.”

  She smiled, shrugging. “The bullet missed anything important and lodged between the two ribs. He’s really lucky, you know.”

  I just nodded, my eyes still drinking her in before they caught on something, and I stood. Kennedy stiffened, blushing as I moved towards her. Her eyes darted over my face, her lip catching in her teeth as I closed the distance between us.

  “Uh, hang on, we—”

  “Hold on.”

  I grabbed a paper towel from the wall-mounted roll behind her and brought it to her temple to dab at the little flecks of blood I’d spotted. She blushed again when she realized what I was doing.

  “Oh, that.” The blush bloomed red across her cheeks, and slowly, I felt the corners of my lips turning up.

  “See now I’m just curious what you did think I was going to do.”

  Her only reply was to get even redder in the face, the flush creeping down her neck as she chewed her lip. Fuck was she tempting. I’d been close to her a few times, but never like this. Never this close and definitely never this alone with just her. The scent of her shampoo curled through my senses, and when her breath caught, the soft sound seemed to echo in my ears.

  Kennedy swallowed, still blushing as she looked up, those big baby blue eyes darting over my dark ones.

  “I—nothing,” she stammered.

  We’d flirted before. I’d held back. But right there, that close to her, with her scent captivating me and her nipples rock hard against her shirt and those very kissable lips all pouty and wet and tempting right there for the taking?

  Fuck… this was approaching dangerous territory. This was approaching a point where I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to control myself. And when I saw that flash of heat in her eyes, and the way her tongue darted out to wet her lips as her pulse thrummed in the hollow of her neck, I could feel my cock swelling as my heart started to pound.

  “Tell me,” I purred.

  Kennedy blushed. “Nothing, I thought for a second that… it’s nothing.” She started to turn away, but before I could stop myself, my hand reached out to gently cup her chin. I groaned inside at the touch of skin on skin. I’d never touched her like this before.

  “You thought I was going to kiss you.”

  I didn’t need words to know I was right. Because Kennedy was one of those girls who, for as fucking knocking gorgeous as they were, just didn’t seem to get just how much of an effect they had on a guy. She blushed like she’d been doing the last two minutes straight, that lip caught between her teeth again. I was still right up against her, and when I dropped my hands to either side of her, holding on to the counter at her back, she swallowed thickly.

  “N-no, I didn’t think that,” she said quickly. Way, way too quickly.

  Fuck, this was too much. I was too close, and she was too fucking tempting, and my cock was way too hard for me to stay there with her. But it was like I was bound to her—like I couldn’t make myself walk away no matter how much my brain screamed at me to do just that.

  Our eyes locked, the beast inside of me growled, and slowly, I felt my control start to shatter. Kennedy licked her lips—pink, pouty, and glistening so fucking invitingly. I heard the growl in my own throat, and when her breath caught sharply and when her body started to arch towards me almost like it was moving without her control, it was like the rest of the world started to fade away.

  I moved in slowly, screaming at myself to stop, that bringing her into my world was wrong, and reckless. But the closer I got, the more I tuned that voice out until the only sound in my ear was a dull roar as my lips moved to centimeters away from hers.

  And suddenly, the spell broke, like a baseball through a plate glass window. Kennedy jerked away from me, shaking her head, sucking in a breath of air as her eyes darted wildly to mine.

  “What the fuck is wrong with me?” She breathed, almost like she was talking to herself.

  “Kennedy,” I groaned. I started to move for her again, but she shook her head, stopping me.

  “No, that…” her head kept shaking as she bit her lip. “No. Landon, we…” she darted a finger between us, swallowing thickly. “We can’t do that.”

  “And why’s that,” I growled.

  “Because…” she trailed off, biting back… something as she looked away. “Because.”

  “‘Because’ feels like a real shit reason to not kiss you, sweetheart,” I groaned. The corners of her lips turned up as her big bright blue eyes swiveled back to me.

  “Because you’re… you’re a…”

  I arched a brow. “A tattooist?”

  She rolled her eyes, biting back a grin. “I mean besides that. Before that.”

  My look hardened. It’s not like we’d ever filled Kennedy or really many people in around here about our pasts. But it also didn’t take a genius to put the pieces together.

  “I left that life behind.”

  “Did you?”

  Her eyes darted meaningfully from me to the doorway, where I turned to follow her look to see Caleb lying asleep on the operating table.

  My jaw tightened. “I didn’t say it left us behind.”

  I grinned, but her mouth went tight. “Well, there you go.”

  “You got a thing against kissing bad boys?”

  Kennedy swallowed, her cheeks reddening. And I swear, I watched her hips do that thing again where they arched towards me, as if they had a mind of their own. Her breath caught again, and I groaned as I saw those nipples pucker against the cotton of her t-shirt.”

  “Or maybe,” I growled, leaning in, my eyes burning right into her. “Maybe you’ve got a thing for kissing bad boys.”

  She gasped as I moved close again, my lips closing the distance between us.

  “Landon…”

  “Kennedy.”

  “We… oh fuck,” she whimpered quietly, the softness in her words making me groan as my pulse raced and my cock swelled in my jeans.

  “Tell me no one more time, sweetheart,” I groaned, my body shaking as I tried to hold on to my control. “Say it one more time and I’ll walk away. But you need to say it, or I won’t be able to stop myself from kissing you like I’ve been wanting to fucking kiss you since the second I saw you.”

  Kennedy moaned, swallowing, her eyes wild, scared, but fierce as they darted across my face.

  “I-I…”

  “I’m counting to three.”

  “Please,” she whispered, panting, and I swear I could see her restraint crumbling.

  “One.”

  She shivered, her breath coming faster.

  “Two.”

  “Oh fuck.”

  We never got to three, because right after two is when both of us broke.

  I groaned as she pressed herself into me, our lips crushing together as she melted into my chest. My big arms circled her, holding her possessively as I fucking lost myself in her lips. My tongue found hers, and her soft moans teased through me like flames, burning me, setting me on fire. I growled, p
ulling her tighter to me, kissing her hard enough to bruise as my cock pulsed against the front of my jeans.

  I pushed her back into the counter, kissing her fiercely, like she was mine to claim. Her hands gripped my t-shirt tight, and when I felt her hips rock against me, I groaned as I started to fall.

  Caleb grunted from the other room, and it was like flipping on the lights during the last dance.

  Kennedy gasped sharply, shoving herself away from me, panting, her cheeks red as her eyes darted to mine.

  Fuck.

  “Uh-uh,” she whispered, her eyes wild as she shook her head. “No, that… no, Landon—”

  “Kennedy—”

  “This can’t happen,” she whispered, slipping out of my arms and slowly backing away. Caleb made another sound, and she glanced past me, her brow furrowing for a second before we both watched him drift back to deep sleep.

  “I—I need to go.”

  Before I could even say a damn thing, she was whirling, storming across the room and grabbing her bag and marching right for the back door.

  “Fuck, Kennedy—”

  “You guys can stay here tonight,” she said quickly, not looking at me, her voice all business. “Keep a watch on him and keep him hydrated. I’ll check on the wound in the morning.”

  She pushed the back door open and took one step out before she paused, her shoulders heaving as she panted. Slowly, she turned back, her eyes flitting to mine for just one froze second.

  “I just…” she swallowed, biting her lip. “I just can’t, okay?”

  And just like that, she was out the door and gone, leaving me wondering just how the hell I’d managed to fuck that up so badly.

  Shit.

  3

  Kennedy

  I took a slow, deep breath as I slid my key into the front door of the clinic. The lock turned, and I shivered, something hot teasing through me as my lip caught between my teeth.

  …Holy fuck, what the hell had I done the night before?

  Ignoring the part where I’d pulled a bullet out of a gorgeous, tattooed outlaw of a man I barely knew. Ignoring the part where his equally gorgeous, equally tattooed, dangerous, hot, mysterious, and unknown friend pressed me not to involve the police or a hospital about the whole thing, there was that kiss.

  Okay, both kisses, to be honest. Yes, I knew the first one where Caleb had kissed me on the operating table was probably more from a place of joking around, or just him being out of it from loss of blood. Kissing Landon had been different. That kiss had been… yikes. Sizzling. Scorching. So, so wrong and forbidden. I mean, hot or not, I knew trouble when I saw it, and Landon Jacobs had trouble spelled across his forehead in neon. Hell, so did Caleb.

  I knew they were different kisses, but I also knew they’d both sunk deep inside of me. After I’d run out of the clinic like a crazy woman, I’d spent the whole freaking night tossing and turning, my mind playing out both kisses over and over again. Because even if Caleb’s was a joke kiss, it’d seared into me the same way Landon’s had.

  Good God, I kissed two men last night.

  I blushed as I stepped into the dark lobby of the clinic. I knew it was almost comical that it was the freaking kisses that were sticking out to me as “wild” and not the whole “don’t involve the cops while you extract a bullet” thing. I knew it should have been the second one keeping me up that night. But it was the memory of those lips that had my heart racing long past midnight. It was the memory of those hands holding me, touching me, pulling me closer.

  Both of them.

  I shivered as I turned on the lights, glancing around.

  “Hello?”

  The place was silent, and I frowned as I pushed open the door to the hallway that led back to the exam rooms and the big open operating room.

  “Landon?”

  I ducked my head into my office, and then the storage room, then bathroom, my brow arching as I realized the place was totally empty. Finally, I pushed open the double doors to the main back room where I’d pulled the bullet out of Caleb and stopped short as I realized it was also totally empty. Empty and spotless, I might add. All the tools I’d left out were clean and drying on the rack by the sanitizing station. The blood was gone from the floor and the table. It was like the night before hadn’t even happened.

  Oh, but I knew it had. My lips still had the memory to prove it.

  I took a shaky breath as I headed back to my office, turning on my Keurig coffee machine and sinking into my chair. Simon yowled from my feet, purring as I reached down to ruffle his ears.

  Okay, last night had definitely happened. I’d definitely kissed, or at least been kissed by both of the hot, dangerous, illicitly tempting men who ran the tattoo parlor up the street. And yes, I knew that was basically entering fantasy-land territory for pretty much any straight woman ever. But then, something knotted inside of me—something that made me pause, and swallow thickly, and tap my fingers against the desk nervously as the night kept replaying through my head.

  Because Landon and Caleb weren’t just gorgeous and tattooed and rough in that sexy romance-book way. They had a past, and while I didn’t outright know it, I could put two and two together, especially after last night. The tattoos, the rough glint in their eyes, the fact that they knew Ryker—the former president of a pretty serious motorcycle club—from their old lives.

  No, Landon and Caleb, however fantasy-inducing, had a past. And I knew that past was trouble.

  …And I’d learned my lesson the hard way about involving myself with men with rough, troubled pasts. Nick had come from a “rough” upbringing, and he’d just used it as a weapon to excuse away his shitty behavior. Him hitting me wasn’t his fault, not when he had a “bad time” growing up. Him stealing my prescription pads or pain meds to sell or use himself and put my entire veterinary license at risk wasn’t because he was a junkie and prick, it was because of his “rough” time in life. At least, that’s what he kept saying, through every abuse and every breach of trust.

  And look, I knew Landon and Caleb weren’t Nick. But I’d barely made it away from him, and after a year and change living my new and abuse-free life, I knew I had one rule: no “bad boys.”

  No tattoos, no dark pasts, no motorcycles, no dark, gorgeous eyes with promises of bad decisions you’d love to regret later. Nope, no thanks.

  The Keurig machine dinged with my finished cup of coffee, and I felt my cheeks redden as I rolled my eyes at myself.

  Right, like it’d been “rules” that’d kept me single and totally celibate since I’d left Nick. It wasn’t at all the fact that I’d run off to a remote mountain town with my sister and spent most of the last year throwing myself into my work and slowly becoming more and more and more of a “forever single” cat lady.

  Simon prodded my leg, as if driving this point home.

  “Hey, no bad boys, Simon,” I muttered, wagging a finger at him. “I know all about that dark past of yours, mister. Don’t even try and play that smooth card with me.”

  Simon stared at me, licking his lips once before he pushed against my leg and strolled off.

  “This is SO why you’re single,” I muttered to myself, groaning as I sank into my chair and sipped at the steaming hot coffee.

  I knew I had things to do, but my mind stayed locked on the night before. Yes, there was the harrowing experience of patching up a bullet wound, which had been a little touch and go for a second or two. But really, I knew it was the kisses—Caleb’s surprise one, his lips on mine and his hand cupping my jaw as I melted against him. And then Landon, possessively pinning me to the counter and growling into my lips as my whole body came alive.

  I shivered again at the memory before I glanced up at the clock on the wall. We didn’t technically open for another three hours. And even though I’d told myself it was to get paperwork done, I knew I’d come in early in hopes of being able to see Landon and Caleb, even if just to check on Caleb’s stitches and pain level.

  As opposed to… what else?

  I blushed at the dirty thoughts in my head, shaking them away as I gulped at the coffee. Yeah, I’d been way too long.