70. Chapter 70
They rode home on his bike, nothing between Lindsey and the road but a little bit of flesh. A few weeks ago, Curly, the VP of the Desert Demons Motorcycle Club, had warned her about proper attire before what would’ve been her first ride.
Tonight, Jase drove slowly. The dress that wouldn’t protect her from the ground was tucked around her legs, her hair tucked inside Jase’s leather jacket, and her head safely strapped in the helmet he insisted she wear.
They were the first to get back to the old stone house.
After she took off the helmet and shook out her hair, he kissed her.
Savored her. The taste of her mouth, the soft skin of her cheeks in his hands, the gentle slide of her tongue against his, her sweet, flowery perfume mixing with old leather from his jacket. He tugged on the collar.
“I want to see you in this,” he said. “And nothing else.”
Jase followed her gaze to her fingertips walking across the bike seat. “Right here?”
Ping! Every nerve in his body fired at once at the thought of Lindsey naked—other than his jacket, and maybe a pair of black or red high heels—straddling his bike. Suddenly his pants no longer fit.
“Right fucking now,” rumbled from his throat.
There was a wicked gleam in her eyes she didn’t flash often—no, wait. Those were headlights. Whatever wickedness might’ve been there vanished at Chloe’s ragtop pulling in behind her Wrangler.
“Isn’t she supposed to be at a hotel?” Lindsey asked.
The electric humming of naked anticipation fizzled out.
“She is,” Jase said.
“Charlie’s not with her.”
“Uh-huh,” he murmured into Lindsey’s hair. There was a chance Chloe just forgot something and was stopping by to pick it up.
“Hey, lover boy.” Chloe climbed out of the car and shut the door. He cringed at the nickname both she and Penny pinned on him. “I need to talk to you. Alone.”
“Shit,” he said. Lindsey’s dress slipped through his fingers. “I wasn’t done.”
“Why would you need to be?” she asked.
“I have to sleep in the tent tonight, remember?” Jase said. “No girls allowed.”
The way her face dropped, Jase knew she’d forgotten. He’d never been angrier at his old man than he was tonight for being stuck in a tent without her.
“Pity,” she purred. Lindsey closed his jacket over her chest and backed toward the door. “I’ll be wearing this to bed.”
His mouth hung open and a calendar’s worth of X-rated images filled his head.
“Take pictures,” he shouted.
“This is actually important,” a very annoyed Chloe called out.
“Good night, lover boy.” Lindsey blew him a kiss and, with a warning look for Chloe that Jase probably shouldn’t have found sexy, disappeared inside.
The smirk plastered on his face fell as Chloe walked up to him. She was surprisingly calm.
“I didn’t get it—why you wouldn’t even try to do this with me,” she said.
“Chloe—”
“No, I see it now.” She paused, scowling. “It’s disgusting, but…”
“Chloe.”
“She wears sundresses, Jase.”
“What’s your point?”
“She’s not what I thought you’d ever fall for.”
Jase ran his fingers through his windblown hair. “I don’t know what to tell you.”
“I wasn’t wrong though, was I? We had something.”
He nodded. “We did.”
“This baby might still be yours.”
“Charlie disagrees.”
“Charlie’s a hopeless romantic.”
“Try just hopeless.”
“Hey, at least he wants me.”
“It was never about not wanting you.”
“That’s not—” She held up her hands. “This isn’t what I came over here for.”
“Then what is it?”
“I got a message from a hospital in Dayton that can do the paternity test the day after tomorrow.” She paused. “Can you be there?”
“Day after tomorrow? Sure.”
“Charlie’s leaving in the morning to get back to the bar. He doesn’t care what the test says. If it’s not yours, it’s his anyway.”
“Okay.”
“Then I’ll be out of here. But, Jase, I need to know.” She looked at the ground. “If this kid is yours…”
“I’m not going to leave you on your own, Chloe.”
“So you’ll be there?”
He sighed and set his palms on the bike seat. “I will. I don’t know what that means exactly yet. We’ll figure it out. Together.”
“Do you think…” She still wouldn’t look him in the eyes. “Do you think you’d want to be involved? Like, would you want to be…a dad?”
A dad. Having a kid was one thing. He didn’t know why being a dad was this whole other thing he never considered. His own dad became a father with the woman he loved. What would Jason Sr. have done if he’d knocked up Billy, the Desert Demon’s leader, instead?
Jase’s life might’ve looked very different, if he existed at all.
Chloe scoffed. “You’ll pay for the kid, you just won’t see them?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t say anything.”
“You want me to make decisions about a kid who might not even be mine, and I can’t. I’ve never thought about it…about being a…dad.”
“There’s still a chance—a slim one—this isn’t your problem. I don’t get to pretend that this might not be happening to me. I have to think about it.”
“I can’t give you all the answers you’re looking for,” Jase said plainly. “No matter what happens, though, I will support you and the baby if the test comes back that it’s mine. Okay?”
He wouldn’t have seen the tears through her eyelashes if the headlights of Graham’s Volvo hadn’t lit up her face.
“Chloe.”
Car doors opened and closed, and Helen and Graham helped Luke out of the back seat.
“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Lindsey’s brother insisted. He definitely wasn’t fine, stumbling a few steps until Helen and Graham steadied him on either side.
“You’re a mess,” Helen said.
“A hot mess, though, right?” Luke grinned.
“Is your stuff in the tent?” Graham hollered to Jase.
“It’s ready,” Jase said. “I’ll be there in a minute.”
The look Graham shot him behind Luke’s back was a warning. Don’t be an idiot.
Jase had no plans to be the kind of idiot who let Chloe kiss him in the hallway at Chums while Lindsey waited at the bar with Charlie. Too much had happened since then to ever be that kind of idiot again.
After Helen and Graham hauled Luke through the front door, Jase came around the bike and put his arms around Chloe. He never meant to leave her this way. It was supposed to be clean and easy.
But it was never clean and easy, was it? Not for the women he left behind, at least.
“I’m sorry,” he said, resting his chin on top of her head. Her arms found their way around him, and he held her until she stood back and wiped the messy tracks from her face.
“This isn’t me,” she said.
“I know.”
The front door opened, and Graham appeared with a sleeping bag under one arm and a pillow under the other.
“You coming?” he called.
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m coming.”
Chloe crossed her arms over her chest and said, “You’d better go, then.”
“Are you going to be okay?”
“I’m always okay,” she said, then shrugged. “Okay enough.”
“Yeah.”
“Go, get out of here.” She waved him away. “Day after tomorrow. Write it down.”
“I’ll be there.”
She nodded and headed for her car, and Jase followed his brother into the dark.