Chapter 18
I straighteneda salad fork just as the doorbell rang.
My heart leapt into my throat and excitement swirled in my belly.
I straightened my spine and went to answer the door.
The sight of Bones packed a punch to my stomach.
He seemed taller and broader every time I saw him.
He was devastating.
His blue eyes raked over me as a slight smile curved his lips. “Duchess.”
“Hi,” I greeted, stepping back to let him in.
He entered the foyer, standing close enough that his leather cut brushed my chest. Without a word, he grasped the back of my neck and lowered his mouth to mine.
My hands gripped his lapels and I sank into him.
His tongue slid between my lips and with his other hand, he clasped my hip and pulled me closer.
Sparks of desire erupted between my legs and just as I was in danger of collapsing and saying to hell with dinner, Bones released me.
My eyes fluttered open and Bones was staring down at me.
“You hungry?” I asked.
“Starving,” he rumbled.
Yeah, we both know he isn’t talking about food.
I licked my lips. “Shoes off, please.”
The heat of his desire banked into embers. It would take very little to stoke it into flames once again.
Bones sat on the stairs as he removed his boots.
“You can take off your cut, too,” I said. “Get more comfortable. If you want.”
He rose and without taking his eyes off me, slowly removed his leather cut. Now that his lips weren’t on mine, I noticed what he was wearing. A black button-down shirt, and a pair of jeans that weren’t faded or molded to his body from years of being worn.
“You look nice.” I took his leather cut and walked to the coat closet and hung it up.
“You don’t like it.”
“Like what?” I asked.
“How I’m dressed.”
“I just said you looked nice,” I pointed out. “But I was expecting you how I always expect you. A bit more relaxed. That’s all.”
He fell silent.
“This is the part where you tell me I look nice,” I said, trying to lighten the mood, wondering why it had darkened to begin with.
“You don’t look nice.”
“Well, that’s rude?—”
“You look sexy as fuck,” he stated. “And I don’t know how I’m supposed to keep my hands off you during dinner.”
Heat bloomed on my cheeks.
I was wearing a pair of perfectly fitted Japanese denim jeans in dark blue with a purposefully oversized green Vicu?a wool sweater that fell off one shoulder. I’d dressed down, even though the dinner was a mockup of what the charity gala would be like.
“Okay that’s a better compliment than the one I gave you,” I admitted with a smile.
“You have the whole dinner to make it up to me. Maybe you can start by paying homage to my fine attributes.”
“Fine attributes. Give me a few ideas about what these fine attributes are,” I teased.
“First, I have the jaw.” He rubbed his chin. “And my hair. Have you seen my hair?”
“I’ve seen your hair. If we slowed down a video of you shaking your head from side to side, you’d be a regular shampoo commercial.”
“Let’s not forget my manly pecs.” He puffed out his chest. “You should feel them. I can make them dance.”
I couldn’t hold it in anymore. I started to laugh, and the tenseness I had felt earlier began to dissolve.
Bones looped an arm around me and hugged me to him. “There she is.”
“There who is?” I asked.
“The woman I’m getting to know. You were so formal when you answered the door. I didn’t know if you were playing a part for the evening, or if you were hiding behind a veneer.”
“Hmm. You’re a good judge of character,” I stated. “It’ll come in handy the night of the gala. Come on, I promised I’d feed you.”
“Did you cook?” he asked.
“You’re asking if I cooked a three-course meal?”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m asking.”
“You’re adorable.” I grinned up at him. “No. I hired a chef and server for the evening.”
He raised his brows. “You did?”
I bit my lip. “Now might be the time to tell you that I normally have a chef, but that she had a family emergency. So, really the only reason you haven’t met her yet is because she’s been gone and I’ve been on my own for a little while.”
“A private chef,” he repeated slowly.
I swallowed. “I have a housekeeper, too.”
“What, no butler?” he joked.
“Stanton still works for my mother.”
He paused. “You’re serious? You grew up with a butler?”
“Yeah.”
“And his name is Stanton?”
“Yep.”
“He’s British, isn’t he?”
“Yeaaaaah.”
“Fuck, you really are out of my league, aren’t you? I mean, I guess a fifteen-thousand-dollar tux should’ve tipped me off, but this makes it really sink in for some reason.” His tone was light, but it was just another reminder of the worries that I had about having a long-term relationship with him.
“Let me show you to the dining room,” I said finally.
He dropped his arm and followed me. There were two place settings, one at the head of the table and the other just to the right of that setting.
“Damn. How many glasses do rich people need?” he joked.
I smiled. “You’ll want this many glasses, trust me. The wine helps the conversation go down.”
“Okay, I’m ready to learn how not to be a heathen.”
Bones wiped his mouth with the black cloth napkin and set it in his lap. Celeste cleared away the salad plates and took them into the kitchen. The swinging door closed, giving Bones and I privacy.
“Not bad,” he said.
I arched a brow.
“Fine, I liked it, okay?” He grinned and reached for his glass of white wine.
“I knew you would.”
Even though Bones was rough around the edges, I liked having him at my formal dining room table. He wasn’t put off by anything I was throwing at him. In fact, he was attentive and had listened intently, nodding along, answering correctly when I’d quizzed him on something I’d taught him.
“So, what were you doing last night?” I asked. “You were kind of vague on the phone.”
“I was vague on purpose.”
“Oh.” I frowned. “Why?”
“Your world has rules, and so does mine,” he began slowly. “And I was handling some business for the club. I can’t tell you what it was because we don’t involve our women in our business.”
“Our women?” I asked.
He cocked his head to the side. “You know what I mean.”
“No, I don’t actually. I mean, I think I get where you’re going with it, but maybe you should be more specific.”
“Don’t get caught up on what I said. We don’t include women in club business. Our women or other women.”
“All right. But what does club business even mean?”
“It means when I say club business, you don’t ask questions.”
“Uh, that’s not gonna work for me.”
The swinging door opened, and Celeste entered with our entrees, a filet mignon for Bones and scallops for me. Lisa poured Bones another glass of white wine and the two of them discreetly left.
Tension loomed in the air between us.
I couldn’t take my eyes off him.
“We don’t include women in club business for their own protection,” he said finally.
“Hold on, let me see if I can piece together what you’re really saying. You don’t include women in club business for their own protection because that means you’re involved in something that they need to be protected from.”
He sighed. “This is the problem with dating a smart woman.”
“Don’t,” I clipped. “Don’t joke. This is serious. You’ve got to give me something here. Some sort of explanation that I can wrap my head around.”
“Duchess, I’m sitting at your dining room table, letting you school me on napkin placement and which fucking fork I need to use so I don’t embarrass us at this charity event. The least you can do is not bust my balls and ask about what the hell I’m involved in. When I say it’s for your own best interest not to ask questions, you need to trust that.”
Blood roared in my ears. “First of all, I didn’t ask you to go to the charity event. You volunteered. You’re here of your own free will. Second, no woman in their right mind would just accept a blanket statement of we don’t include women in club business for their own protection and call it a day. I’ve got to be out of my mind for ever entertaining this idea. Thank God I’ve come to my senses.” I rose. “I’ll go to the gala alone.”
“You don’t know what the hell you want, Duchess. One minute, you’re begging me to fuck you. The next you’re ready to shove me out the door because you don’t like being reminded that I’m a biker.”
“I didn’t beg you to fuck me.”
“Revisionist history.” He rose from his chair with such force that he knocked it to the floor. “You know what the fuck I think?”
“No, and I don’t care,” I snapped. “You can leave.”
He ignored me when he placed his large hands on the table and leaned forward. “I think you know exactly what you want, but you’re too damn chicken shit to admit it. I think you’re tired of men from your mother’s circle. I think if they really knew how to fuck you, you wouldn’t be slumming it with me. But I make you feel and that scares the ever-loving shit out of you. And I think you don’t have the balls to admit that I’m all wrong for you and that’s exactly what you’re looking for.”
“Oh, so you have me all figured out, do you? Bones, the Hayden Whisperer, huh? Is that your new title?”
“Duchess, you need a good fuck to clear out all the cobwebs. You’re so damn in your head, you don’t even know how to lead with your heart.”
We stared at each other, the words we’d hurled hanging between us. He was breathing hard and his cheeks were flushed.
And then I was suddenly in his arms, my legs wrapped around his waist. His lips were on mine and his tongue plunged into my mouth.
He carried me to the other end of the table and lay me down on top of it. He bent over and kept kissing me, the anger and fear turning into molten lust.
“I’ve got to touch you,” he murmured against my mouth. “If I don’t touch you, I’m gonna go insane.”
“Yes,” I whispered. “Touch me. Please.”
His hand slid down between us to rest at the apex of my thighs. His eyes were lit with hunger and determination.
Just as his fingers began to play with the button of my jeans, the door to the dining room opened.
“Oh!” squeaked Celeste. “I was coming to see how you liked your dinner. I’ll just…yeah. Leave you to it then.” She immediately departed.
We froze and looked at one another, and then suddenly we both laughed. Bones lifted himself off me and gave me space.
“Guess we both lost our heads,” I said.
“Guess so.” He reached for his glass of wine and brought it toward his mouth.
I nibbled my lips.
He stopped. “What is it?”
“Your knuckles. They’re raw.”
Bones paused. “Yeah.”
“I noticed them earlier, but didn’t want to say anything.”
He took a long drink and set his wine glass down and held out his hand to me. “Come on.”
“Where are we going?” I took his hand and hopped off the table.
“You want to see my world? I’ll show it to you. Grab your jacket and let’s go.”