21. Overzealous
Chapter 21
Overzealous
Whitney
A hulk of a man smiled at me when I stepped inside the motorcycle dealership. His hazel eyes practically lit up at me. He had thinning, brown hair pulled back in a low ponytail.
“You have to be Whitney.”
I returned his smile. “Yes, and you’re Terrance.”
He reached out and shook my hand. “In the flesh. Kenny tells me you need a helmet.”
I couldn’t hide my surprise at Terrance using that name. “Yes. Um, he let’s you call him that?”
Terrance chuckled and his eyes twinkled. “Few people stop me from calling them what I want.”
I nodded. “Right. I’m torn on a full helmet or something like Mensa’s half-helmet. I’ve gotten used to it, but we haven’t gone on a long—”
“I’ve got three picked out for you,” Terrance interrupted.
It struck me that he had the personality of a salesperson, but him cutting me off raised a question.
“Okay. Is this a test?”
He shot me a quizzical look. “Now, why would a beauty like you expect a test?”
I shrugged. “Mensa mentioned that you would set me straight.”
He tipped his head. “Right. You ever been to a rally?”
“No, but I’ve visited Sturgis.”
After a patient smile, he said, “If it ain’t when everyone’s there, it don’t matter. You gonna ride with him to Daytona? Or anywhere that’s an all-day trip?”
“Maybe,” I hedged.
“Helmets aren’t a dime a dozen, Whitney. Your head is just as important as your heart. Gotta take care of both. Which is why I need to know how long you plan to ride behind Kenny.”
Again, I thought we were talking about more than bike accessories. “Life can be unpredictable, but I plan to take a long ride with Kenneth.”
He laughed. “Kenneth! Does he let you call him that?”
I cocked a brow. “Few people stop me from calling them by their given name.”
He smiled, and it was bigger and brighter than any before. “I like you.”
I dipped my chin. “If we’re done with this crazy dance, and I’ve passed muster, I think I like you too.”
He chuckled. “Yep. You’re definitely what Kenny needs. No doubt about it.”
Terrance bagged my Bluetooth-enabled helmet and sent me out the door at five minutes to seven. My stomach growled as I put my Elantra into gear. We had gyros last night, but Mensa admitted to never having tabbouleh. One of Donny’s restaurants was on the way home, and I stopped.
A bike rolled in behind me, but it wasn’t the prospect. That was strange since he’d stuck close to me earlier. I locked my car, and finally saw the prospect pull into the lot.
I settled down in a booth to wait for my to-go order. No sooner had I unlocked my phone, than someone slid in across from me.
“What are you thinking coming here right now, Whit?”
My head reared back when I took in my brother, Wyatt. It was strange seeing him wearing a patchless leather cut with his hair in desperate need of a good trim. “I could ask you the same thing. Do you want your cover blown?”
“Iron’s out of town and left Rod in charge. And Rod only cares about one thing right now: finding you . He ordered the prospects to watch all three locations of DeeLight’s, but he forgot that out of their four prospects, only two were available. You’re lucky he asked me to come to this one.”
I appreciated his concern, but this was getting out of hand. I couldn’t let Rod dictate where I went or force me into hiding in my apartment. “Wyatt—”
He rested his forearms on the table and leaned forward. “You’re asking for trouble coming here.”
“I have to live my life, Wyatt. Besides, my order will be ready in five minutes.”
He sighed. “You need to lay low. Whatever went down at the mall today only made Rod more determined to take you from Mensa.”
“Great,” I muttered.
“Yeah. And tell your biker, I’m sorry I didn’t share that earlier this afternoon. I hadn’t been given my marching orders yet.”
I shook my head. “Repeat that.”
My twin leaned back. “You heard me. I caught him outside Twisted Talons, but that was before Rod went on a tear about keeping tabs on the restaurants. What the hell happened at the mall?”
I narrowed my eyes. “Oh, no. You aren’t going to redirect this conversation, bub. Why did you go see Mensa?”
He took a deep breath and stared at me.
We could stare at each other for hours without cracking – we were that stubborn.
Neither one of us had time for this, and I figured he had even less time since he was supposed to be working his case, so I broke the silence. “I don’t need you to protect me, Wyatt.”
“Tough. You’re my sister, I’ll do it anyway.”
I fought a grin. “For the record, I’m gonna make you eat those words when the right woman comes along.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Gonna be a long wait for that, sis. Back to my question, what happened at the mall?”
“Riley picked me up for lunch. We went to the mall, as we were leaving Rod came up behind us. Mensa showed and told Rod to get his hand off me—”
“He touched you?” Wyatt bit out.
My head tilted. “He grabbed hold of my elbow. Mensa wound up pinning him to the wall at knifepoint because I’m ‘his woman’.”
Wyatt frowned and turned away for a long moment. Finally, he faced me. “It sucks that I’m so conflicted about that.”
I laughed. “How can you be conflicted?”
He almost smiled. “As an FBI agent, I hate that you’re with a man who pulls a knife on someone in broad daylight. As your brother , though, I’m pleased he’d do that in order to force Rod to leave you alone.”
I rolled my eyes at that.
After years of me rolling my eyes at him, Wyatt ignored it. “You really want to be with a man like that? He’s willing to pull a knife on someone for touching you… what else is he likely to do?”
I tossed a hand out. “I know where you’re coming from with that question. But, he’s damn sure got a sense of loyalty I’ve never experienced with another man.”
“Loyalty—”
I grabbed Wyatt’s hand. “He’d never do what Ben did to me.”
His eyes widened. “No kidding, he’s not an agent.”
I shook my head. “No one’s cared about me like he does.”
“That’s lust talking.”
That didn’t just rub me the wrong way, it put things in perspective. What I felt for Mensa went beyond the realm of lust.
I glared at Wyatt. “You need to stop.”
“Or what?”
I didn’t do threats. “Or you’re gonna say something you can’t take back.”
“You’d cut me out for him?”
I knew I was falling for Mensa. It wasn’t until that moment, I realized I’d fallen in love with him. But Mensa deserved to hear it first.
“It’s serious. You know it or you wouldn’t have gone to see him.”
“Jesus. Do you love him or something?”
“He’s not as bad as you think he is, Wyatt.”
My twin shot me an incredulous look. “It wasn’t that long ago, you wanted to convince a prosecutor to indict him.”
My lips tipped up and I shook my head. “No. Get it straight. I wanted to be the one to arrest him.”
“And now you say he’s not as bad as I think he is?”
I nodded. “Yes. Wasn’t it you who said, if law enforcement is doing their job, then his record would reflect his crimes and I needed to get over my obsession?”
His eyes traveled toward his eyebrows. “Yeah, but that didn’t mean getting involved with him.”
The girl at the counter called out my order number. I slid to the end of the booth, but kept focused on Wyatt. “I hate to mention this, but Aunt Nadia said fate had put Mensa in my path. I’d love it if you could just try to be happy for me.”
He leaned forward. “It isn’t that I’m not happy for you, sis. It’s that if you make a life with him, and he is caught up in something illegal, you know damn well they’ll come after all the assets. You could lose your home, and if you got kids—”
I matched his lean. “You’re right, Wy. I do know all that, so you don’t need to remind me. The moment I catch wind he’s doing illegal shit, I’m out. Especially if there are kids involved.”
Wyatt sighed. “Promise me you’ll be careful.”
I stood. “I promise.”
“I never thought I could eat that much parsley,” Mensa muttered before sipping his beer.
We were sitting on the floor around my coffee table eating picnic style because I still had boxes on the dinette table. I swallowed some wine. “But did you like it?”
“It was… a change of pace.”
I leaned toward him. “I shouldn’t tell you this, but you sound just like my dad.”
He choked on laughter.
I put my wine glass down. “Speaking of family, I’m sorry my brother cornered you this afternoon. That was uncool and uncalled for.”
He tucked a lock of hair behind my ear. “He cares about you, so it wasn’t uncool at all.”
“Still uncalled for.”
“Not if he’s worried about you. A man like me in a woman’s life makes certain men worry. It’s all good, Whit.”
“I don’t know what Wyatt said to you, but most men would run after that kind of invasive visit.”
“Baby, I’m not most men, and if I had a sister – you can bet your sweet ass I’d be just as protective.”
My eyes slid to the side. “Pretty sure holding a man with a knife at his throat proves that.”
He had one leg stretched out straight, and he pulled his other leg up, propped his arm on his knee and tipped his beer bottle at me. “That still bothers you?”
I gathered up a couple napkins from the table and stuffed them in my to-go box. “It didn’t… until Wyatt pointed some things out to me.”
Mensa took a pull from his beer and set it down on the table. “When did he call you?”
“He was watching the location of DeeLight’s that I stopped at. Rod ordered the prospects and Wyatt to watch all three restaurants.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, he wanted me to apologize for not sharing that with you since he hadn’t been given that directive by Rod when he saw you earlier.”
“You’re not going there until this shit gets settled.”
“Now you sound like Wyatt,” I said, pushing up from the floor, grabbing my to-go box, and meandering to the kitchen.
“Whitney, you don’t need to walk into a trap from these assholes.”
I shoved my container into the garbage. “I agree, but that club can’t force me to become a shut-in.”
“Not forcing you to do that, woman.”
“Sounds a bit like it. Besides, you’ve got a prospect trailing my every move.”
He rose from the floor and tossed his beer bottle in the recycle bin. “Yeah, I’ll be tearing that prospect a new one because I should have been called the moment Wyatt sat down with you.”
“He’s my brother.”
Mensa widened his eyes. “The prospect doesn’t know that. The whole fuckin’ point of having him on you is so that I know if someone approaches you.”
I closed the distance between us and slid my hand along his t-shirt clad chest; he’d taken his cut off and hung it in the foyer closet when he came inside. “Calm down, Kenneth.”
He dipped his chin and grabbed my hand. “I’m perfectly calm, Whit. What else did your brother tell you?”
I shrugged a shoulder. “Just that the incident at the mall only spurred Rod’s determination to take me from you… so it seems you’re right on that count. He only wants me in order to fuck with you.”
“That’s not the only reason he wants you,” Mensa muttered.
I shook my head. “Whatever. He also said Iron, their president, is out of town and left Rod in charge.”
Mensa nodded. “Then he’s a bigger fuck-up, because why send prospects and a hang-around to watch Dontrell’s restaurants when he could have sent patched members?”
“He definitely has a screw loose.”
He wrapped an arm around my waist. “You done in the kitchen?”
I nodded. “Why?”
“Been a long day, I’m making us both a gin and tonic, while you cue up some music, and then it’s time to hit the bedroom.”
“Woman, why are you running those hands all over me? We both just came not ten minutes ago, but you keep this up, you’re gonna need to focus your efforts a little lower.”
Laying beside him, I stared up into his eyes. “I want to find your scar from where you got stabbed. Don’t think that little tidbit was lost on me when you confronted Rod.”
“Don’t mention that bastard’s name in bed, and the scar is on my back.”
“Roll over,” I ordered.
He laughed. “Not a chance I’m rollin’ onto my belly when you’re making me hard.” He paused. “Not unless you’re beneath me.”
I leaned up on an elbow. “I want to see your scars.”
“It’s just the one, and seriously, Whit, it’s healed. Why are you so determined to inspect it?”
I sat up. “When I love someone, I get a little overzealous when I find out they were stabbed.”
In an instant, I was on my back and he’d settled his weight on me. Mensa’s gorgeous brown eyes flashed at me. “What did you say?”
“You heard me,” I breathed.
He settled himself between my legs and bucked his hips. “So? I want to hear you again.”
“I get a little overzealous about people being stabbed,” I murmured.
“Whitney,” he said, his tone laced with authority and his gaze locked with mine.
I ran my hand along his scruffy cheeks, wondering when he found time to shave because I’d yet to see him do it. “I love you, Kenneth.”
He dropped his lips to mine and kissed me long and hard.
Sadly, he cut it short, but his serious expression captured my attention. “Been waiting for you to catch up with me, Blume.”
I tilted my head. “Catch up with you?”
He nodded. “I fell for you the night I took you to the clubhouse.”
“Are you serious?”
“Very.”
With my hand at his neck, I pulled him to me for another kiss. He took control of it, and I let my hands rove his body.
He reached down and slid a finger inside me.
I broke the kiss on a moan. “Yes.”
“Say it again,” he whispered, withdrawing his finger.
“I love you.”
His forehead rested on mine. “I love you, too, Whitney.”
I spread my legs, reached down, and guided his cock toward me.
He stared into my eyes as he drove inside me. “Your pussy feels so fucking good. Every single time, woman.”
“I aim to please,” I breathed, and ran my hands along his shoulders.
His free hand palmed my breast, giving it a squeeze. He lowered his lips to my nipple. Pure heat scored through my body when he sucked me in deep. My hips rose and the angle allowed him to surge further inside me.
“You like that,” he murmured against my chest.
“I like everything you do to me, honey.”
A deep chuckle rumbled through him as he slid his lips to my other breast.
His free hand found mine, and he pinned my hand to the bed. He repeated the maneuver with his other hand. Holding me down, he lifted his head and stared into my eyes.
“Love working your body, Whitney.”
“Yeah,” I breathed, feeling my orgasm building.
“Love making love to you,” he said on an inward thrust.
“I love it, too,” I whispered.
He pulled back and hammered into me. “And I love you.”
“Yes, Mensa,” I said.
It was the last thing either of us said, but we communicated so much more with our actions.