Madeline Sheehan - Unbeautifully

“Uh, hey,” Danny stammered, her cheeks pink.

Studying her, she noted that the girl wasn’t just flushed but sweaty…and disheveled. Really disheveled. As in her pink tank top was on inside out and her jeans skirt was partially unzipped.

Drawing her brows together, Eva glanced over her shoulder to the end of the hall where Ripper had paused to talk to Mick and Bucket and then she looked back at Danny. Her heart did a nosedive down into her stomach.

Danny and…

Oh my god, she couldn’t even think it, it was just too bizarre. Bizarre and…Deuce was going to flip his shit. All she could envision was bullets and blood and bodies piled sky-high.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay, okay, okay…she had to think about this…about what she going to do about this.

Yeah, right. What the fuck was she supposed to do about this?

One thing was for sure, she couldn’t leave Danny with only her brother and father in the middle of whatever mess she’d gotten herself into with Ripper.

God, how had that happened?

And what the fuck was Ripper thinking?

If Deuce ever found out, he would kill him. Kill. Him.

For the second time in the span of only a few minutes, her heart dropped.

Ripper wanted to die. He’d finally lost his very last shred of give-a-damn and jumped off the cliff of no return. She’d seen it coming, everyone had seen it coming, but everyone had been holding out hope that after enough time had passed he’d eventually pull himself together.

Instead, the opposite had happened. He’d grown worse over time, bitter and cold.

What was Danny doing with a man like him? An angry, broken, older man, who was in all probability using her to get himself killed.

She squeezed her eyes shut.

She wasn’t in any position to judge Danny. She’d made her share of mistakes over the years, some far worse than anything Danny would ever do.

And Danny was legally allowed to have sex with whomever she wanted.

But Danny was still a teenager, a deadly combination of immaturity and feelings. A big, fat, messy bank vault full of female emotion that you needed a jackhammer just to breach the surface of.

Who obviously wasn’t thinking clearly. Or at all.

“Shut up, bitch!” Cox roared, startling everyone as he appeared at the end of the hallway.

“Never!” Kami screeched, her heels clicking heavily on the cement floor as she marched after him. The second Kami caught sight of Ripper, Eva cringed, knowing exactly what was coming next.

“Ripper,” Kami purred, headed his way. “Hey, baby.”

“Stay back!” he yelled. “I refuse to get shot because of your crazy ass!”

She grinned. “You did prefer my ass, didn’t you, baby?”

Behind Cox, Danny made a small choking noise and Eva watched Ripper’s gaze shoot to her, his jaw clenching.

“Ripper!” Cox bellowed. “I’m gonna fuckin’ bury you!”

Sighing, Ripper grabbed his gun from the back of his leathers and waved it around in the air. “Either of you take another step in my direction and I’m cappin’ you in the knee.”

“You want me on my knees?” Kami said silkily. “You got it.”

“Kami!” Eva hissed, grabbing her best friend’s arm before she could get any closer to Ripper. “Stop it!”

“Christ,” Ripper muttered. “You touch me, Kami, I’m gonna put a bullet in each of those bony knees.”

Ignoring Eva, uncaring that Ripper had no problem shooting her and Cox was ten seconds from strangling her, Kami continued smiling sensually at Ripper.

“You’re so fuckin’ crazy, bitch!” Cox yelled, yanking Kami out of Eva’s grip and pinning her up against the wall.

“And you’re a fucking whore!” she screamed.

“I smiled at her, bitch! That’s all I fuckin’ did! For fuck’s sake, you insane fuckin’ whore, I fuckin’ married you! I haven’t been inside another bitch in forever!”

Kami brought her knee up straight into Cox’s balls and he went down like a sack of potatoes, cupping himself and groaning. Hands on her hips, Kami glared down at him. “Do you want a medal, Cox-sucker?” she hissed. “I already know you haven’t touched another woman! I have you followed!”

“You…crazy…bitch,” Cox gasped. “As soon…as I can…I’m gonna…fuck…you…to death!”

Kami snorted. “Promises, promises.”

“Did you two forget to take your meds today?” ZZ asked, poking his head around the corner.

“SHUT UP!” they yelled simultaneously.

Spinning on her heel, Kami stormed off, leaving Cox in a fetal position on the floor.

“I hate lockdown,” Dorothy muttered.

“Me too,” Cox said with a groan.

ZZ burst out laughing. “Dude,” he called out. “You brought this shit on yourself. You marry crazy, crazy is what you’re gonna get.”

Ripper nearly knocked over Dorothy as he stormed past them, cursing as he headed in the direction Danny had since disappeared. She supposed now that Danny had just crudely found out about Ripper and Kami, he had some damage control to contend with.

Frowning, Eva stared down the hallway after him. No, she couldn’t leave. Not in the eye of a major shit storm. If she went home now, who would be here to buffer between Danny and Deuce when the shit hit the fan? Cage? No. Cage loved his sister but he was about as articulate with emotional confrontations as his father and preferred using his fists when things got heated. Deuce and Cage would only end up beating the hell out of each other, and Ripper would still end up dead, and Danny…

Who would be here to pick up the pieces of Danny’s broken heart if Ripper ended up breaking it?

She was going to have to shelve her own problems for a while and make sure the family she loved—but was eventually going to have to leave—stayed together after she was gone.

Ripper jumped over Cox and took off down the hallway after Danny. Motherfucking crazy, ass-less Kami. Always running her mouth. Using him to try and make Cox jealous over something that happened ten years ago. And it worked. Every damn time. If that was his bitch using another dude to make him jealous, always kneeing him in the junk when she was pissed off, he’d slap the fucking shit out of her.

He found Danny fumbling with the key to her room. One glance at him stalking her way and she amped up her fumbling.

“Danny!” he growled, increasing his pace. “Fuckin’ wait!”

He caught up just as she turned the key. Grabbing her arm, he yanked her down the back hallway and into a dark corner, unseen by the cameras mounted on the walls.

“I know what you’re thinkin’,” he whispered, “but it ain’t like that. Me and Kami—”

“Shut up!” she hissed. “I heard exactly what you did with Kami!”

His grip tightened on her arm, squeezing the limb. “Don’t do this,” he gritted out. “Not now, not here in the fuckin’ club. What happened with Kami was ten years ago, Danny. What the fuck were you doin’ ten years ago?”

Her cheeks turning pink, she glanced down, refusing to make eye contact.

“Yeah, baby,” he whispered. “So cut me some fuckin’ slack.”

“Sorry,” she mumbled. “I guess I wasn’t thinking. I thought—”

He cut her off with a kiss he knew he shouldn’t be risking, not with so many people cooped up inside the club. But, shit, he didn’t want her hating on him and with Danny, it seemed need was always overpowering sense.

Her free arm slid around his waist under his T-shirt and her nails scraped lightly over his skin. He closed his eyes and kissed her harder.

“We should go to my room,” she whispered, moaning softly as his lips descended down her neck and his hands up her ribcage. “Or back in the pantry.”

They should. They should at least get the fuck out of the hallway. But he couldn’t wait that long. The dim lighting, his size compared to her, all convinced his lust-addled brain that if someone happened to come down this hall within the next five minutes, unable to see Danny’s face, whoever it was would just think he was fucking a club slut and leave him the hell alone. It wasn’t the first time he’d fucked a bitch in the hallway.

Not by a long shot.

“No,” he rasped, cupping her ass. “Now…”

“Ripper…no…”

He’d already lifted her, was pulling her underwear, still soaked from their last encounter, to the side and pushing inside of her.

“You can’t say no,” he growled, slapping his hand across her mouth. “It ain’t allowed.”

“Yes, I can,” she mumbled. “I can say…oh god…oh god…”

Male arrogance slammed into him like a battering ram and his hand tightened, further muffling her cries and whimpers. He smiled to himself; she couldn’t say no to him any more than he could say no to her.

“Baby,” he said softly during a series of small, hard, hip thrusts up into her. “Made up my mind. I’m takin’ you home with me. Sick of fuckin’ you with my hand over your mouth. I wanna be goin’ deaf hearin’ you screamin’ my name, yeah?”

She couldn’t answer but he could feel the curl of her lips underneath his hand and, fuck, if that didn’t turn him on to the point of internal combustion.

Ripper slammed his hips forward, rolling them as their bodies connected, his cock pulsing against her walls as he ground painfully into her. Eyes wide, she was panting hot, wet breaths against his hand, her heels were digging into the backs of his thighs, her nails piercing the skin on his neck.

It was so fucking hot, fucking her out in the open where anyone could find them. She was always so fucking hot, just letting him take and take and take from her, from her mouth and her body, from her sweet pussy, he took it all, he took everything, chewed it up, spit it back out, and then took her all over again.