Chapter 13
Ricochet
Moving forward, I pinned her against the tree. She stared up at me with a mix of emotions flashing over her face. She wasn’t sure what to do about me. I liked that. My fingers slid over her soft skin until I was gripping the back of her neck.
Neither of us had been looking for the other, but here we were and I wasn’t about to let her run off just because what was between us was so heavy.
Especially not since she seemed to chase away the shadows that were my constant companions these days.
Being around her I was my normal self. I loved this feeling.
I’d almost forgotten who this man was, buried beneath the memories and shadows.
Before she could think to shove me away, I dipped my head down, taking her mouth with mine. Her soft curves pressed against my body and I knew I wanted to spend the rest of the day showing her exactly how much I wanted her.
Her lips moved beneath mine, but she hadn’t opened her mouth to me fully.
I bit her full lower lip, causing her to gasp.
Groaning, I slid my tongue into her mouth.
My dick swelled beneath my jeans, aching to press into her sweet body.
Her thigh was in my hand and I pulled her leg up over my hip so I could grind between her legs.
She moaned at the action, then mumbled something. She broke the kiss, panting with desire. Unable to stop, I trailed kisses over her cheek and down her neck.
“Ricochet.” My name came out breathy and soft. I wanted to hear her say it while I filled her for the first time. Wanted her to scream it as she came.
“Mmmm?”
“We can’t…”
My hand moved around to the front of her throat, my thumb stroking her jaw as I licked and sucked at the pulse there. She laid her head back against the tree, eyes closed. She was rocking against me, completely overtaken by her body's desire.
“Why not?” I growled, irritated at the idea of stopping.
“There’s people… Kids around.”
Shit. Reality check.
I’d forgotten where we were. Why we were here. She had that effect on me. Pulling back, I stared down into her dazed eyes. “Do you get it now?”
She shook her head, as though she was about to deny what she felt. Her lips were swollen from my kisses, she had a small dark bruise starting on her neck from my attention. There was no dismissing this.
“Be mine, Jordan,” I urged.
“It’s not that simple.”
My eyes narrowed and I cupped her cheeks in my hands. “I don’t know what the hell that means, but yeah, it is. I want you to be my girlfriend. My old lady. Mine.”
She licked her lips, a nervous energy returning as the fog of passion left her mind. “I’m not dating anyone right now, Ricochet.”
“Good, then I don’t need to track down any men and kill them.”
Her jaw dropped. It was clear by my tone that I wasn’t kidding.
“But what do they have to do with me?”
Her laughter broke free and she shook her head again, forcing me to drop my hands. They landed on her hips. I wasn’t ready to let her go fully yet.
“You’re impossible.” She sighed. “I haven’t had very good luck with men. Call me gun shy if you want, but I don’t jump into relationships blindly. Not anymore.”
It wasn’t easy to bite my tongue. I wanted to ask her to explain. To find out who had hurt her and put this wariness in her beautiful eyes. Instead, I listened.
“I- I feel it, too,” she finally admitted.
I didn’t need to ask what she meant. The connection between us had nearly knocked me on my ass that first day. Only a few weeks had passed, but it was a race to see who would fall first. I knew it. She knew it. The question was, why was she trying to avoid it? What was the point?
“What do you want to do about it, Jordan?” Normally, I would just take control.
I’d already tried that by claiming her. My sunshine wasn’t having any of it, so I knew I needed to change my tactics with her.
She was nervous. Probably thought I was going to break her heart.
Little did she know I’d break every bone in my body before I hurt her.
Surprise filtered over her expression, then appreciation. “Maybe we…could get to know each other. Without any pressure,” she added, giving me a pointed look.
“Sounds good.” That suited me fine. I planned on getting to know every single thing about her anyway.
I didn’t care for the no pressure bullshit, but it didn’t matter.
She was mine. I wasn’t going to let any other man near her and I planned to have her fall in love with me.
At least she was agreeing to spend time with me. The rest would happen in due time.
“We need some ground rules.” She managed to slip from between me and the tree, putting space between us.
I scowled at her, unhappy with not being able to touch her. “Like what?”
“We’ll agree to a trial period. We won’t see other people during that time-” She broke off as I growled in anger at the thought of her dating another man. “I don’t know if that was a sound of agreement, or…”
“It was.” I motioned for her to go on.
“No trying to have sex with me.”
I gave her an incredulous look. “What?”
Humor danced in her eyes as she smiled at me. “I can’t think when you’re kissing me. Touching me. Hands off during the trial period.”
“That’s fucking stupid.” I crossed my arms over my chest and pinned her with a dark look.
“Take it or leave it.”
“Fine,” I muttered. “What else?”
She scrunched up her face as she thought about her list of demands. “No lying.” She said the words so softly, I wasn’t sure I’d heard her at first.
“I don’t lie, Sunshine.”
Her eyes were fixed on the ground at my feet. “I’ve heard that before.”
It was starting to make sense now. Her not wanting to jump into a relationship, not wanting sex to cloud things. Someone had lied to get what they wanted and then hurt her.
“You have my word. I won’t lie.” I hesitated as I thought about the shit show that was my life. “There are a few things I won’t be able to tell you in regards to my club.”
“I have so many questions about that,” she remarked, “but I’ll accept it if you can’t tell me some things.”
Closing the distance between us again, I put a finger under her jaw, tilting her face to mine. “A kiss to seal the deal?”
“That goes against rule number two,” she replied.
“Well, we can’t shake hands. Not for an agreement like this.”
“Fine. One kiss.”
She made a startled noise when I grabbed her and yanked her against my body. Crushing my lips to hers, I gripped her tight.
Her hands were on my biceps, steadying herself, while I took the last kiss I knew I’d get for a while. When I let her go, her pupils were blown, and she was looking at me in a way that made my ego swell.
“We should get back to the game. I promised Sean I’d be there cheering him on.” My voice sounded huskier than normal, even to myself.
She nodded, remaining mute, but let me take her hand.
Our fingers linked together, we walked back to the bleachers.
Gwen raised her eyebrows at me as we climbed up toward where they were sitting.
I just winked at her. She’d end up grilling me later on at home.
It was a time honored tradition between us.
The whole time we watched the game—and cheered Sean on—I watched Jordan out of the corner of my eye.
She was so bright and open the majority of the time.
It made me want to murder someone knowing she’d been hurt so badly she’d pulled away from relationships.
Though, I guess I benefited in the end. It would be a whole lot harder to get her to be mine if I had to take her from some other schmuck first.
Sitting here with her almost eased the guilt of missing Riptide’s wedding.
Today was the day for my brother. I’d call him in a day or two to tell him congratulations.
I knew he wouldn’t hold it against me that I wasn’t there, but fuck it wasn’t easy being on the outside like this.
It made me wonder if that was how he’d been feeling while undercover.
He’d been secluded out there in the desert, cut off from us all.
We cheered as the game ended. Sean’s team won by a couple of points. He came running up to us—a victorious smile on his face—as we climbed down from the bleachers.
“Great game,” I told him, giving him a high five. The women from the bleachers were crowding around and I had to side step a few who tried to brush up against me. Jordan was the only one I wanted to be touching.
“Did you see my goal?” he asked, excitement making his voice pitch upward.
“I did. You killed it.” I tousled his hair as we all started walking back toward the parking lot.
“Can I ride home with Uncle Gage? Please, Mom?” Grace begged. She gave her mom what I liked to call the angel eyes. I wasn’t sure how she managed to look so sweet and innocent, but it almost always worked. At least on me.
Gwen laughed. “Sure, as long as he doesn’t mind.”
“I never mind having a gorgeous lady on the back of my bike.” My eyes met Jordan’s. From now on she’d be the only one behind me besides family.
Her cheeks pinkened and I knew she’d caught the message in my look. She studied my bike. “Is it safe for such a young kid to ride a motorcycle?”
I chuckled. “Grace has been riding with me since she was old enough to walk. I’d never do anything to put her in danger.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean it like that.” Jordan looked genuinely upset.
“Don’t worry, Sunshine. I know you didn’t. Come on, Gorgeous,” I called out to Grace. She was busy waving to her friends.
I pulled the kids’ helmet out of my saddlebags and fitted it on her head, adjusting the straps. The rest of the kids on the soccer teams were almost to the parking lot. It was amusing, watching the boys’ mouths fall open as they saw Grace scramble up onto the bike behind me.
Mothers were shaking their heads in disapproval.
It was damn near impossible to keep from flipping off the busybodies.
I didn’t want to cause any trouble for Gwen, though, so instead I blew them a kiss.
Worth it to see the scowls. Starting up the bike, I revved the engine a few times.
The kids standing around were wide eyed and looked jealous.
Grace ate it up. She waved at them like a princess as I backed the bike out and then sped off down the road. My laughter was drowned out by the engine, but I knew in that moment, I’d needed to come here. I’d made the right call. I was hopeful it would be the first of many.