With the Colonel’s Help: A Pride and Prejudice Variation

“Not sure this is a good idea.”

I wasn’t sure if I was talking about actually going forward with my birthday party tonight or the skirt that Raven was currently wearing.

God knew I was going to lose control in front of everyone there with her dressed like that.

Woman looking like the only place she belonged was on the back of my bike.

Wearing this black leather miniskirt that came up high on her waist and a lacy black tank with her bra showing underneath. She had on those same five-inch heels she’d had on the first night I’d had her. When we’d crossed that line there’d been no coming back from. The ones I’d promised that I was going to fuck her in one day.

The long black locks of her hair were done in cascading waves, and they draped down her bare shoulders, caressing all that soft flesh.

She peered back at me through the mirror where she was applying mascara, the makeup she’d already applied covering the bit of her bruising on her left forehead.

But it was her ass perched in the air where she was bent over the counter that sent a cyclone of greed spiraling through me.

The woman was pure mind-bending temptation.

Body a lure and that heart a magnet.

But it was those inky eyes that nailed me to the spot.

So dark and mesmerizing they held me like a trap.

A thunderbolt of lust gripped me by the guts, same way as it always had, though now, everything was different.

“I already told you that I’m going to spend the entire day celebrating you, and I’m not about to stop. Besides, all the Lawsons came from Redemption Hills. We wouldn’t want to disappoint them, would we?”

She pouted a little as she painted her lips with red stain.

“You could have called it off.”

“Not a chance.” She turned and sauntered my way, and she tipped her face up my direction. “It’s your first birthday I’ve gotten to spend with you this way, and we are going to make it memorable.”

“You think it hasn’t already been memorable? You think it’s not already carved on me forever? Spending the whole damned day wrapped around you, taking this tight body again and again?”

Heat flushed her flesh. “I think it started out pretty good, and now we’re going to end it with a bang.” Then she softened. “Everyone wants to celebrate you. Not just me. This family loves you.”

Looping an arm around her waist, I tugged her close, gazing down at my girl who swayed in my arms. “You stick to my side the whole fuckin’ night. Don’t want you out of my sight.”

“You act like I’m going to have a problem with that.” She fiddled with the collar of my shirt, pointed black nails scraping at the bottom of my throat.

A groan rolled in my chest. “Don’t know how I’m supposed to keep my hands to myself tonight…not when I want them all over you.”

I needed to tell River, and I needed to tell him soon. All of it. Both about Raven and the way I’d been hunting the monsters in the night. The lies I’d been telling. The betrayals I’d cast.

He might hate me, but I couldn’t go on keeping it from him. I loved and respected him too much for that.

Guilt tried to wind up into my conscience, but Raven just pressed her chest against mine and sent me a sly grin. “By knowing that the second you get me home, you’re going to be having me in any way you want me. By knowing I’m yours, even when the rest of them have no clue. By knowing that’s the way it’s always going to be, no matter what anyone else has to say about it.”

My smile went gentle, and I brushed back a lock of her hair as I gazed down at her. “Endless.”

Her gaze softened and she whispered, “Yeah, Otto. Endless.”

Night covered us in a blanket as we took the winding curves down the mountain. The roar of my motorcycle filled the air, the metal vibrating beneath us and the wind whipping through our hair. Raven’s arms were locked around me, and her heart beat a steady, beautiful rhythm against my back.

Her aura all around.

Her spirit consuming.

Her love abounding.

Didn’t think I’d ever felt better than right then. This moment in time when it was just me and her, no boundaries around us, just the freedom that we’d found in each other.

I slowed when we made it into town, and I took the couple turns required to get onto Culberry Street as I headed toward Kane’s.

The gravel lot was already packed when I made the left into the club, and I wound my bike through the mess of cars and trucks to the front where a slew of bikes were parked in a row. I came to a stop then planted my boots on the ground so I could walk the bike backward to park it next to River’s.

I killed the engine.

There was no missing the frenetic energy that filled the atmosphere, the music that thumped from within the club seeping out through the thick walls, something wild and untamed driving the mood.

Or maybe it was just the excitement I could feel roll through Raven that spurred it, the woman eager as she unwound herself from me and swung off my bike.

Pure fuckin’ vixen where she stood at the side of it smiling my direction as she unbuckled her helmet.

A knockout who’d gone and sucker punched me.

No reserves left, I was at her mercy, nothing but a beggar at her feet.

“Are you ready for the best night of your life, Otto Hudson? I mean, there’s little chance it won’t be considering you’re spending it with me. I am kind of a blast.”

A grin cracked the edge of my mouth, chest feeling light as I climbed off my bike. It brought me to tower over her, this gorgeous woman with a sly smirk playing over the delicious curve of her lips.

“Oh, you’re a blast, all right, Raven Tayte.”

“I aim to please.”

The woman was intoxicating.

Entrancing.

I was probably a little too close to her when I leaned in and rumbled in her ear, “And please you do.”

Chills lifted in a wave across her skin, and she edged back with a grin. “Then it seems we have something in common.”

“Oh, Little Moonflower, think we have plenty in common.”

She raked her teeth over her plump bottom lip, her expression shifting to this gentle thing as she fiddled with a button on my shirt.

Took everything I had not to kiss the hell out of her right then, but somehow, I managed to straighten. “Come on, let’s get inside before I change my mind and take you home.”

I ushered her around my bike, my hand just barely resting on the small of her back as we treaded over the loose gravel to the entrance of Kane’s.

Ty and Jonah were manning the door, and they let us directly through.

Inside, the club was cramped, people packed shoulder to shoulder. A country band played onstage, and the dance floor was crowded with couples two-stepping beneath the strobing lights, the reflection from the stained-glass windows high above glinting over their faces.

I sent a smile down at Raven as we angled through the crush, heading toward the booth at the very back.

Our crew was already there behind the rope that sectioned off the area that contained three high-top tables and the big horseshoe booth.

Kane saw me first, and he lifted his tatted arms out to the sides as he called, “Ah, the birthday boy has arrived. It’s time to get this party started.”noveldrama

The rest of our crew looked our way.

River and Charleigh. Theo and Cash. Plus the whole family from Redemption Hills.

Sienna, Raven’s friend from the café across the street from her shop, was there, too, standing at a high-top table chatting with Charleigh.

A round of hoots went up. “Ah, the man of the hour.”

I lifted my arms high, letting the lightness take me over. It wasn’t like I was one to reject the finer things in life. Always ready for a good time. Only that definition had shifted a bit, the finer things in life standing right next to me.

“That’s right. The fun may now begin,” I shouted as I lifted the rope so Raven could duck under it.

Everyone gathered around us.

River first, with his hand outstretched, shaking my hand hard before he pulled me in for a clap to the back. “Happy birthday, brother.”

“Thanks, man.”

Theo edged forward next. “Happy birthday, old man.”

A rough chuckle got out of me. “Fuck off, asshole. You’re only a year younger than me.”

“Might as well claim it, Otto. It’s called wisdom,” Trent Lawson said as he strolled up with his wife Eden tucked under his arm.

Owed Trent a ton of gratitude. The way he’d stood beside me when all the shit had gone down with the rest of the Owls. Wasn’t long after that when the MC had fallen apart after his father, the Owls’ president, had tried to take him out.

Trent and his brothers had ended up in Northern California in Redemption Hills, not that far from here.

When we’d left Los Angeles so River could find a place to raise Nolan, Trent had convinced us to come here. Had been sure it’d be a good place for Sovereign Sanctum to fly under the radar.

“That’s right. Pure wisdom right here,” I said.

“Pssh,” Raven said from beside me. “I guess since it’s his birthday, we should go ahead and let him believe that.”

“Watch yourself, now,” I warned, cutting her an eye that promised wicked things.

Could see the thrill roll through her limbs. She hid it behind a coy grin. “Okay, old man.”

She emphasized what Theo had said.

“Can you believe this nonsense? Look at her, busting my balls,” I razzed, hooking a thumb in Raven’s direction.

“She always was the smartest one of the bunch,” Eden said as she came forward and gave me a hug.

I squeezed her back. “Ouch. It appears this is a roast rather than a party.”

“I’ve always said our family’s love language is giving each other shit.” Raven’s smile was wide.

Love.

It pulsed inside of me. A heavy current that swept me off my feet.

The rest of the crew from Redemption Hills came up to wish me happy birthday.

Jud and his wife Salem.

Logan and Aster.

Milo and Tessa.

“Glad you all made the trip out here to celebrate with me.”

“Wouldn’t miss it, brother,” Jud said. Dude was a giant, a mountain of strength. Cool as could be, too. All of them with sordid pasts but hearts of fuckin’ gold.

“Means a lot.”

“Like we’re gonna miss a party like this,” Trent said as he snagged a bottle of dark whiskey from the table and passed it over to me.

I took a big swig from it and let the warmth glide down my throat and pool in my stomach.

From the side, I felt the searing burn of Raven staring up at me.

Yeah.

Best birthday ever.