Chapter 15
My cheek was pressedagainst something warm and hard.
Something unfamiliar.
My brain was mush, but my hand moved of its own volition and began exploring what was beneath me. I glided my fingers across skin and muscle, and yet I still refused to process the truth.
It wasn’t until my hand came into contact with an erection and Bones let out a low groan that I realized I’d been groping him.
I flung myself off him, but in my state of panic I didn’t realize the covers were tangled around me and I hit the floor with a resounding thud.
“Duchess? Are you okay?”
It was my turn to groan. “Yeah, I’m okay.”
Morning sunlight streamed through the windows. I’d forgotten to close the curtains the previous night and now I was seeing Bones on display. Inches of rippling muscle and ink.
“Stop looking at me that way,” he said, his voice husky and his eyes darkening with desire.
I bit my lower lip. “What way?”
“Like you want to lick me from head to toe.”
A vivid picture formed in my head and refused to dislodge.
“Uh. Sorry about the groping. I forgot you were in bed with me.”
“Never apologize for groping me. You can grope me anytime, anywhere.” He raised his brows. “You getting up off the floor any time soon?”
“Oh. Yeah.” I scrambled up, wincing when I put weight on my knee. “So, uh, did I have any nightmares last night?”
His gaze was intense. “Two. Do you remember what they were about?”
“Don’t remember,” I admitted. “Probably about the…” I made the sign of a gun. “Did I scream? Yell? Kick you?”
“You whimpered. You finally slept soundly around four when you threw yourself across my body and cuddled close to me.”
I covered my mouth in embarrassment.
“Don’t sweat it, Duchess. I liked being your emotional support animal.” He flashed a grin, but it suddenly died.
“What?” I asked.
“You don’t have any coffee.”
“Oh. Yeah, I don’t.”
“I’m not gonna survive the day without coffee.”
“Right. Well, thanks for…whatever this was. I’ll see you Wednesday.”
“You got plans today?”
I blinked at the rapid change in conversation. “Yeah, I have plans today.”
“Cancel them. I’ll take you for a ride on my motorcycle.”
“Tempting, but I can’t cancel plans.”
“It’s not work,” he said. “So, blow it off.”
“How do you know it’s not work?”
“You didn’t set an alarm.”
“So?”
“So, if it was work, wouldn’t you set an alarm?” he asked.
“I have a good internal alarm clock.”
“Do you work?”
“I—no. I don’t work,” I admitted.
“What do you do with your days? How do you fill your time?”
“Lots of ways. I brunch, I shop, I?—”
“Bullshit.”
“Bullshit? Why are you calling bullshit?”
He still hadn’t moved from the bed and instead of getting up, like he had originally intended, he fell back against the pillows and situated his forearm underneath his head. “I call bullshit because in the short time I’ve known you, you’ve never pretended to be shallow. So, I know you don’t fill your time with useless shit. Be honest, what do you actually do?”
“What do you do?” I demanded. “You didn’t set an alarm either. Doesn’t seem like you have anywhere to be.”
“I work at night.”
“Doing what?” I pressed, my hands on my hips.
“Security for Chaos…and a few other things.”
My gaze narrowed. “What other things?”
“Things.”
“You want me to blow off my day to spend time with you, but you can’t be honest about what things you’re involved in?”
“Club things.”
“Vague things.” I sauntered past the bed toward the bathroom. “I’m taking a shower. I’ll see you Wednesday.”
Before I could get two steps, Bones launched himself off the bed, grasped my arms and hauled me toward him. I landed on top of his hard, warm body, but he wouldn’t let me stay there. Instead, he rolled us over, pinning my arms above my head. He stared down at me and then his gaze landed on my mouth.
“How can you be this sassy without any caffeine?” he asked.
“Practice.”
His lips crushed mine in a devastating kiss.
My fingers curled and my body softened. I cradled him in the V of my thighs.
He was hard and ready, and it made my blood pump though my veins. All rational thought fled my brain and my hormones were suddenly in control.
And they wanted Bones inside me.
Deep.
Hard.
Now.
Bones lifted his mouth and pressed his forehead to mine. He gently released my wrists, freeing me.
My hands wandered down his toned back and then rested on the curves of his ass. I urged him closer, and he shifted. And even with my layer of clothes between us, I felt him at the juncture of my thighs.
“Duchess,” he growled.
“Bones,” I whispered, lifting up and peppering his jaw with tiny kisses.
“We can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’re not ready.”
“I’m ready,” I insisted.
I thought he was going to kiss me again, but disappointment ricocheted through me when he lifted himself off me.
“Take a shower,” he instructed. “You’ll feel differently after you shower.”
I looked at him in confusion.
His gaze softened as he leaned forward and cradled the back of my head. “I know you don’t understand. And that’s why we’re not doing this. Not yet. You just went through something traumatic and you don’t trust me.”
My eyes drifted to his erection. “I trust you.”
“Fuck, you’re killing me, Duchess. What’s changed from last night to this morning?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then nothing’s actually changed. And when your head clears, you’ll realize that.” He kissed me briefly. “It’s probably a good idea if you don’t blow off your day to spend time with me. I won’t be able to keep my hands to myself.”
“This better not be a game,” I said quietly. “You’d better not be stringing me along, playing hot and cold until I beg you to sleep with me and the moment I do, you’re gone.”
“This isn’t a fucking game, Duchess. And if it was all about fucking, it would’ve happened the night we met.”
I glared at him. “Arrogant.”
“Confident.” His gaze narrowed. “This isn’t a game.”
“Then what is it?”
“Something more,” he muttered.
I swallowed. “Maybe you should go.”
“Yeah, I should.” He rose from the bed.
I curled my knees up to my chest and watched him slowly put on his clothes and pick up his pistol. With each piece of clothing, he donned the armor of being a biker. Gone was the man who’d held me through nightmares I didn’t remember.
“What time Wednesday?” he asked.
“Seven.”
He nodded once and then he was gone.
After I made another love match between a terrier mix and a sweet elderly widow, I met Charlie at our favorite sushi restaurant.
“I think I’m in over my head,” I said to her the moment we sat down.
She frowned. “Why’s that?”
“He shows up on my doorstep last night with tea to help me sleep. And then he stayed the night because I asked, and this morning he said he wasn’t going to sleep with me until I was ready.”
“Normally, I’d say steer clear because this is like total love-bombing. However…”
“However?”
Before she had a chance to reply, the server arrived. We ordered quickly, getting the same thing we always got. As soon as the server left, I repeated, “However?”
“However, Savage said something to me last night—and I don’t think he knew what he was saying. It was a throwaway comment, but it kinda stuck with me.”
“Well, don’t keep me hanging,” I said, reaching for my decaf green tea.
“He said his brothers have been falling like dominoes,” she said slowly.
“I don’t follow.”
“Like, falling in love or whatever. Finding their Old Ladies. And Old Ladies? Who wants to be called old?”
“Okay,” I said. “That’s not really anything to be concerned about.”
She sighed. “I know. But it was like, the way he said it. Like one day his brothers were all going along, happy as you please, nailing anything that walked, and then the next moment they were in love and making commitments and stuff. He said he didn’t think he’d live to see the day that Bones would fall for someone and then he started singing ‘Another One Bites the Dust.’”
“It’s not love,” I insisted. “That’s crazy. This is infatuation on both ends.”
I thought about how intense it had gotten this morning. Bones had been wrong, though. After my shower, I’d still wanted him. But it was definitely a relief that he hadn’t been there when I’d gotten out.
My head was all screwed up over it.
“Yeah, infatuation,” she drawled.
“Don’t say it like you don’t believe me.”
“I’ve never seen you this way.”
“What way is that?”
“When you were with Tyler, it was like you were there, but you weren’t really there. You weren’t invested. Not the way you are with Bones.”
“Invested how?” I demanded.
“I don’t know. You just look…you look like you can’t stop thinking about him. Like you’re thinking about the next time you’re going to see him even though we’re having a conversation.”
“I’m seeing him Wednesday night for dinner.”
“And then he’s taking you to a wedding. A wedding. He’s a biker, Hayden. Do you think bikers take random women to weddings of their club brothers?”
“I don’t know what they do.”
“Savage didn’t ask me to go,” she said.
“Are you upset about that?”
“No. Because I don’t want to go to a wedding with him. And he has no interest in going to one with me.”
My phone rang and my stupid heart leapt. I hoped it was Bones.
Damn it.
I fished the cell out of my purse and saw a number I didn’t recognize. I immediately silenced it.
“Not Bones?” she asked.
I sighed. “Not Bones.”
“You seem sad about that.”
“Shut up, Charlie.”