Free Hot as Hades by Cynthia Rayne Page B

protect you.”
    With that, he swaggered back inside and she trudged after him.
    When they reached the booth, he held out a hand. “Give me your piece.”
    She gripped the handle, like her life depended on it.
    “Come on,” he coaxed and she finally placed it on the table, scowling at him all the while.
    Fetch came over with a plate of brown beans and hot biscuits. Voodoo trailed him.
     Cowboy grabbed one, split it open, and then slathered it with a pat of butter, before pouring honey on it, from the plastic bear on the table. He handed half to Daisy. “You need to try this.”
    She shook her head.
    “Come on, try it,” he coaxed.
    Daisy took a bite and then closed her eyes in obvious rapture. Few things in Texas are as good as fresh honey-slathered biscuit. “Damn. That’s good!” she said, turning to Voo.
    “Merci, ma belle .” Voodoo smiled.
    “Voo might not let you order, but his buttermilk biscuits are almost as good as my momma’s,” he said to Daisy, before appreciatively taking a bite
     “I think perhaps mine are better than your maman’s ,” Voo said, glancing at Cowboy.
     “A good southern man never talks shit about his momma’s food, brother.”
    “ Bien . Mine would skin me alive if I did,” Voodoo agreed. He reached into his back pocket and retrieved an envelope. “Almost forgot, ma belle . Here is your hotel fee.”
    “No, that’s yours. I should be paying you for today too.” She started to hand the money back, but he sliced his head to the side.
     “ Non . You are helping the MC and we take care of our friends. The club owns this place, so consider it compensation.”
    “Oh, well, thank you.” She shoved the envelope in her pocket.
    Voodoo turned to him. “If you need me, brother, I’ll be in the back.” With that, he strolled off.
    He shot a glance over at Captain, Eddie, and Elizabeth, who had all been staring at them. They hurriedly went back to their food . Damn. Gossip would be flying around the club now.
    The Horsemen were a tight knit bunch and rumors seemed to have a life of their own. They all kept tabs on each other. Sometimes, he loved being part of a community, other times, he felt like telling them to mind their own fuckin’ business.
    Daisy nodded in Voodoo’s direction. “He confuses me. One second, he’s all homey and the next, he has this ominous vibe.”
    Cowboy chuckled. “Yeah, get in line.”
    Voo could be a stone cold killer when the situation called it for it. He hid it beneath his laid back ways. He liked cooking for people, chatting them up. Frankly, he didn’t know which version was the real Voodoo. Not sure he wanted to know.
     “And what about you? You don’t seem like the biker type either.”
    “That’s the great thing about bikers; we don’t really have a type. Although, I’m different than some of them, at least the legacies. I’m not a second or third generation Horsemen, like some of my brothers.”
    “Seriously?” she asked. “I didn’t know it could be generational, like the military.”
    “Yeah, it is a bit unusual for someone to make it into the MC from the outside, especially in a club as established as this, but I did.”
    “You mentioned the rodeo. Is that what you did before you became one of the Horsemen?”
     “I grew up outside of Amarillo and my parents owned a ranch. I learned how to sit a horse before I could ride a bike.” He smiled faintly. “After high school, I started competing on the weekends and found I could make more money riding and roping than pulling a nine to five. So, I traveled around the West on the circuit.” He took a bite of beans. “I won some contests along the way.”
    Her eyes widened, and she seemed impressed.
    Cowboy shouldn’t enjoy her admiration as much as he did, but he couldn’t help himself. While screwing fulfilled his body’s needs, it didn’t do a damn thing otherwise. Sometimes a man wanted to be appreciated by a pretty girl. Been a long fucking time since a woman