Gutter Mind
— Face of an angel. Mind in the gutter.—
Mike. Macho Biker. Scarred. Will never love again.
Arden. Femme boy. Jaded. Will never succumb to lust again.
Mike is always on the lookout for a fresh fling, and there are more than enough chicks for a stud like him at the Smoke Valley MC clubhouse. But the pretty little thing he spots at the gas station turns out to be a boy, and that triggers all sorts of confusion.
Mike loves a challenge, so when he’s given the cold shoulder, his predator senses are set aflame! Straight or not, Mike makes a bet with his cousin and won’t settle for anything other than a total seduction of Arden.
Arden has bigger fish to fry than some biker’s petty insecurities. His last relationship has left him jaded and hurt, so he will never again succumb to the charms of a bad boy. Especially since Mike isn’t just hot, he’s freaking irresistible. Older, dangerous, and cocky, Mike will be Arden’s downfall if he isn’t careful.
But when a monster from Arden’s past reaches out his claws, the only deterrent Arden can think of is claiming Mike is his new boyfriend. So now he’s stuck in a fake relationship with a straight guy.
For Mike, what starts as a game turns out to be an awakening he’d never expected. The ice prince in lace is actually hot as hellfire, with a gutter mind to match Mike’s, and all of a sudden, his scarred heart is not as safe as he’d thought it was.
Themes: fake relationship, bet, ice prince, player, bisexual awakening, crossdressing, outlaw biker gang, self-discovery, age gap, protector, lingerie, commitment-phobe, big family
Genre: Scorching hot M/M romance, romantic suspense
Length: ~ 95,000 words (Standalone)
WARNING: This story contains scenes of violence, mentions of past abuse, offensive language and morally ambiguous characters.
A woman stood in the sunshine, facing the vast expanse of dry shrubs and pale brown hills stretching on the other side of the road. Petite yet not too short, she was the perfect size to pick up and carry around. Her legs were long and slender, like a gazelle’s, and her hair styled into two cutesy buns just above her nape. She had it dyed too—platinum blonde at the top and dipped in color at the tips, with mint on one side and baby pink on the other. Someone needed to water her or she’d dry out in the merciless midday sun.
Mike hadn’t seen her face yet and already knew he wanted to tap that.
“Who. Is. That?” he asked, quickly finishing his beer and stepping to the side in a bid to see more.
Kane exchanged glances with Shay, but Mike couldn’t decipher what the silent communication meant. Other than Kane being jealous that Mike wasn’t tied down, and could fuck whoever he pleased, of course.
“Arden. I guess you should go meet her. We hired her the day after you left for your trip with Mona,” Kane said, crossing his arms, and making the clown on his bicep scowl.
But all of Mike’s attention was on the pert ass packed into tight skinny jeans. Arden paired those with lilac high top sneakers, a studded belt in the same shade, and a white crop top that revealed the small of her back, as pale as her arms covered in colorful tattoos.
“I’m going in,” he said with a grin.
Shay snorted. “Don’t let me stop you.”
Mike guzzled down the beer, dropped the can into the trash and walked out of the store with his smoothest gait. He approached the pretty fae adjusting a newspaper in a stand at the front of the shop, and when he looked at her pristine nape from up close, his instinct told him to lick the sheen of sweat off the smooth skin.
But that might have been too much for starters, so he settled on swatting one of the round buttocks instead. “I hear you’re the new girl, pretty thing.”
She twirled around, and before Mike knew it, a slap landed on… his beard. It had been clearly meant for his cheek, but Arden hadn’t accounted for this much of a height difference. Not the tiniest girl Mike ever hit on, but she was twig-skinny, and when Mike stole a glance at her chest, there wasn’t much there to write home about. Flat as an asphalt road in a desert. But Mike was all for equal opportunities, since flat chicks gave blowjobs no worse than girls with huge racks.
Arden stepped back and frantically pulled out what Mike at first thought was a key, but then it opened into the cutest little butterfly knife. It trembled in her slim fingers with nails painted glitter pink. If that wasn’t the most adorable attempt at a threat, Mike didn’t know what was.
Arden took one more second to assess him from top to bottom, and their eyes met. Hers were pale blue, as big as a doe’s, with long dark lashes, but her expression was no less determined just because she had the face of a doll.
“Step. Away.”
Mike’s hands already went up in surrender—because a filly needed to want being ridden if it was to be any fun—but as Arden’s warning echoed in Mike’s head, his smile dropped, because he realized something.
Arden did not sound like a girl at all.
In fact, the voice that came from the plump mouth dipped in lip gloss, while not particularly low, was most definitely male. And as Mike’s gaze gravitated lower, down the little protrusion at Arden’s throat, over the planes of the chest, to the package at the front of Arden’s jeans, one thing became abundantly clear.
The pretty thing that should have been another of his conquests was a boy. Or was he? She? They? Those things could get confusing nowadays. Mike would go with he for now.
“Don’t hurt yourself with that,” Mike said, nodding at the butterfly knife.
“Oh, I know how to use it,” Arden said despite his breath hitching as if he were facing a lion. “I might not be able to kill you, but I will take an eye, you… caveman.”
Mike’s eyes grew wider, and he found himself staring at Arden’s lips again, as if his brain refused to register Kane had intentionally pushed him at someone who wasn’t on Mike’s usual menu. “Take my eye? Now why would you want to hurt such a handsome face?” he asked with a wide smile.
Arden lowered his puny weapon, but watched Mike’s every move like a baby hawk. And despite his voice, the Adam’s apple, and the cock in those tight pants, Mike’s brain refused to register that Arden shouldn’t be a sex object for him. The pretty thing even smelled like a girl. Flowers and bubblegum.
“You are… neutral to me.” Arden frowned, drawing Mike’s gaze to his eyebrows. They were cute and manicured, and the fact that the boy wore the kind of delicate makeup that gave skin a luminous, angelic appearance left Mike with a deepening sense of confusion.
