by Lora Leigh
Ava shifted and leaned over the table, whispering. “Probably not something you want broadcast to the entire place.”
Lacey waved her hand and sniffed. “Oh, who cares. Bunch of prudes, anyway. So, did you and Rick get it on?”
Who was this person?
“I don’t think Ava’s interested in giving you the details of her sex life,” Rick said, saving Ava from having to tell her best friend that she was being too intrusive.
“Why not? Oh, I know, because Ava rarely even has a sex life.” Lacey snorted.
Ava’s face flamed, and she fought hard to retain her concern for her friend. “Lace, have you eaten yet?”
Lacey’s gaze flitted around the room, as if she’d just now discovered she was in a restaurant. “Oh. No. I’m not even hungry.” She laughed again. “What time is it?”
“Ten.”
“That early? What the hell am I doing up? I thought it was like … afternoon or something. I think I’ll go back to bed.” She pushed back from her chair and stood, then walked away without saying good-bye.
Ava watched her go, concerned more than ever about Lacey’s increasingly bizarre behavior.
“She always that disjointed?” Rick asked.
“No.”
Rick leaned back and leveled his gaze at her.
“What?”
“You’re worried about her.”
“Yes, I am.”
“Why?”
“Because who you just saw is not the Lacey I’ve always known.”
“Yeah. Who is she?”
Ava watched Lacey disappear, then blew out a breath of frustration.
“I wish I knew, Rick. I really wish I knew.”
Because the way things looked now, it was much worse than Ava had originally thought. She had thought it was just love that had changed Lacey from studious to flighty.
Now she feared it was more than that.
And a lot worse.
NINE
Rick studied the concern on Ava’s face, and wondered if her friend Lacey was the primary reason for Ava being with the Hellraisers.
Not to irritate her father, not because she was involved in drug distribution.
But because she was concerned about her friend.
He’d have to walk a fine line here, but he intended to find out. And he hoped that Ava was in the mood to talk.
“Let’s head on out of here.” He pushed his chair back and stood. Ava followed.
“So tell me, what’s different about her?” he asked as they headed toward the elevator.
She stepped inside, waited while Rick pushed the button and the doors swooshed closed, then turned to him, seemingly eager to unload her concerns on someone. He was glad to be that person.
“She’s frenetic. All over the place. Lacey used to be calm, organized. And shy. Oh so shy. Does she seem shy to you now?”
Rick laughed. “Uh, no. Not from what I saw in their room last night.”
“Exactly. Everything about her changed after she …”
“After she what?”
She hesitated. “I don’t want to make you mad.”
He cocked his head to the side. “How could you make me mad?”
“It’s about Bo.”
“You can be blunt with me about whatever you want, Ava, including Bo. Say what’s on your mind.”
“Everything changed after she met your cousin.”
The doors opened and they started down the hallway toward their rooms. “And you think it has something to do with Lacey hooking up with Bo.”
“Yes. As soon as she started dating Bo, her entire life changed.”
She handed her key to Rick and he opened her door. Ava slid into the chair near the window and Rick took the chair on the other side of the small table. Sunlight streamed into the room, highlighting her hair and face. She didn’t turn away like she had something to hide, instead leaned into the light like she was soaking up the warmth.
“Tell me how her life changed.”
“She quit school. We were in the master’s program together, and she dropped out with only one year to go.”
“Was she struggling?”
Ava let out a short laugh. “Not at all. Lacey was an ace student with plans far into the future for both her academics and her career as a psychologist. But after she met Bo and started riding with the Hellraisers, everything changed.”
Rick shrugged. “People grow up, Ava. Sometimes that happens. What they thought they wanted when they were younger is sometimes altered when they get a little age and experience in them.”
“I realize that. But not Lacey. She knew what she wanted to do, what she wanted to be. She was focused, had short-and long-term goals. She knew on Monday what she was going to do on Friday.”
“A little anal?”
Ava managed a slight smile. “A little. But I’ve known her all my life. I know how she thinks, how she acts. The woman you saw downstairs isn’t anything like her.”
“And you think that has something to do with her relationship with Bo?”
Ava worried her lip, hesitating.
“You can talk to me without worrying I’m going to go running to Bo. I don’t tell him anything.”
She nodded. “I think joining the Hellraisers had everything to do with her change in personality, but I don’t think it’s just Bo.”
He didn’t want to ask leading questions, so he just let the silence drift between them and gave her time to think it out.
“Her eyes were so glassy. And we knew they were smoking pot last night.”
“Yes.”
She waved her hand in the air. “But that wears off. And it wouldn’t account for her frenetic behavior. She’s been sniffling a lot. Her nose is irritated.”
He knew where she was going, but he wanted her to say it.
“I think she’s taking drugs.”
“Really.”
“Yeah.” She looked down at her hands for a while, played with the cuticle on one of her fingernails, then swept her gaze back up to Rick. “She never even liked to take acetaminophen for a headache, Rick. So how could she make such a drastic change?”
Now he knew he’d have to say something. “Drugs alter people’s perception of things.”
“Do they? I don’t know. I’ve never known anyone who took them.”
“I’ve known plenty of people who have. It changes them.”
She wrapped her arms around herself and stared out the window. “I don’t know what to do for her.” She looked at him. “I mean, I do, from a professional standpoint. But she’s my friend.”
He nodded. “It’s different when it’s someone you’re close to. You lose your objectivity.”
“So what do I do?”
“You can’t make her stop taking drugs if that’s what she’s doing. All you can do is talk to her, see if she’ll open up to you, then try to make her see the reality of it.”
“I know all that. But I want her to stop. Right now. Selfishly, I want her to be the old Lacey—the one I grew up with, the one I’ve been friends with since we were kids.”
“That person is gone, Ava. That’s the first thing you’re going to have to accept. Time and experience changes a person. You’ll have to learn to live with Lacey as she is now, and move forward.”
He saw the shimmer of tears in her eyes and wished he could wipe them away. But if Lacey was on drugs, then what he’d told Ava was the truth. Only Lacey could help herself. Ava could only be there to support her. Deep down, Ava knew that. It might take her a while to come to grips with it, though.
She sighed. “How did you get to be so wise? You’re almost like a counselor yourself.”
He laughed. “Me? Hardly. I’ve just been on the streets a long time. Seen a lot. Know when to get involved and know when to back away. Sometimes you can lend a hand, and sometimes just an ear. You learn to recognize the difference.”
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
She went over to him and sat o
n his lap. “For being willing to listen. We don’t know each other all that well. And I don’t have many—any—friends. Except Lacey. We used to confide in each other. There’s been a void in the year she’s been out of my life. I hadn’t realized until now how much I’ve missed having someone to talk to.”
“Maybe you need to broaden your circle of friends.”
She wound her arms around his neck. “It’s not that easy for me.”
He slipped an arm around her waist, liking the feel of her sitting on his lap. Comfortable. Too comfortable, actually. He’d fallen into an easy rhythm of talking to her, listening to her.
“You have another friend already and it wasn’t so hard, was it?”
Her brows arched. “I do?”
“Yeah.” He kissed her, a light brush of his lips across hers. He didn’t want to take it further than that because he knew once he started he wouldn’t stop. Not when he liked kissing her so much. “Me.”
Her lips lifted. “Is that what we are, Rick? Friends?”
Warning bells clanged, loud and clear. Did she want more than that?
Did he?
No. He didn’t. It wasn’t in his nature. In his lifestyle. In his future.
“Yeah. We’re friends.”
He saw the light dim in her eyes, wished he hadn’t been the one to put it there, but he wouldn’t give her false hope.
“I can’t be what you want me to be, Ava. All there can be between us is what there is right now.”
“Which is what? Sex and friendship?”
He smiled. “What’s wrong with that?”
She sighed. “Nothing at all. I’m hardly an incurable romantic looking for a happily ever after, so you don’t have to worry about me.”
It was sad that she wasn’t. Weren’t women supposed to be out there looking for the man of their dreams?
Or maybe those kinds of guys didn’t exist. He just knew he wasn’t one of them.
She leaned into him then, laid her head on his shoulder, and, goddamn, it felt good. There was something about holding Ava in his arms that was unlike holding any other woman. Maybe because she wasn’t like the other women who’d passed in and out of his life before. She was solid, steady, knew exactly what she wanted out of life—and what she didn’t want. And rather than being closed off to new experiences and things that might be a little scary, she opened herself up to them, took a chance on being hurt. She was an adventurer, even if she didn’t know it.
For the right guy, she was perfect.
He just wasn’t the right guy.
He wrapped his arms around her and held her, expecting nothing.
But he sure got a hell of a lot in return.
More than he’d ever expected. And maybe he could offer her something. Comfort. Take her mind off her friend.
He tilted her back and she lifted her dark lashes, looked at him with eyes that made his gut clench and his dick harden. She must have read his mind, because she reached up, caressed his cheek with her soft hand, and rubbed her thumb across his bottom lip.
He kissed her, and she sighed into his mouth. A sigh of surrender, of giving herself to him. She told him by leaning into him and sliding her tongue against his that this was the kind of comfort she wanted. No hesitation at all. The way she seemed to melt into him made him tighten his hold on her with a fierce possessiveness he’d never felt for a woman before.
He’d felt lots of firsts with Ava, and none of them were good for his long-term outlook. But he wasn’t going to think about any of that right now. He was going to think about Ava’s breasts pillowed against his chest, her full lips sliding across his, and those sweet sounds she made that made him rock hard in record time.
He dipped her over his arm and ran his hand over her breasts, absorbing the sound of her gasp as he scraped his palm back and forth on her nipples. Wanting more of that, he raised her shirt, released the clasp on her bra, and freed her breasts, then lifted her just enough to fit one soft peak into his mouth.
Ava fisted her hand in his hair and held on tight while he sucked her nipple. Her body writhed against him, lifting and rocking, and she made this sound that drove him crazy—a purring sound that came from deep in her throat, almost like a soft growl.
Every time he thought she was calm and soothing, she taught him something new about her.
Ava could get riled—sexually wound up like a wildcat. And, oh man, did that turn him on. His balls tightened feeling her squirming against him, knowing all he was giving her was his mouth on her nipple, and knowing she wanted a hell of a lot more than that right now.
He released her nipple and lifted her upright on his lap, then pulled her shirt off, followed by her bra.
“Stand up.”
It wasn’t a request, but he couldn’t wait any longer. Fortunately she didn’t seem to mind. She stood and watched while he unzipped her jeans and jerked them down to her ankles.
“Goddamn boots,” he murmured, but didn’t take the time to sit her back down to remove them. Not when he wanted her—just like this. He slid his hand between her legs, felt the wetness there. And her legs quivered.
He wanted her really ready for him. He pulled her by the hips and drew her against him, then leaned between her legs to take a nice long lick of her sweet pussy. This time she let out a soft moan and laid her hand on the back of his head, her fingers curling into his hair.
God, she was hot, tasted like butter, and he could lick her like this all day. The way she responded, arching her hips forward to feed him her pussy, gave his hard-on a punch that made him ache all over to be inside her.
“Yes,” she whispered, her voice laced with a hard edge of need. “Right there.”
He gave her exactly what she asked for, swirling his tongue around her clit. He tucked his finger inside her pussy—damn—so hot and wet. He finger fucked her, slow and easy, just like he licked her, listening to her gasp, moan, whimper, and, oh man, he really loved those sounds she made. They made his balls quiver. He lifted his head and used his thumb on her clit, taking a moment to gaze up at her face. Her expression was tight, pained, her lips parted as she panted hard and fast. Her hips were thrust forward, undulating against his hand as he worked her pussy and clit with his fingers. He leaned in and licked her again, took her clit between his lips and sucked.
She exploded, crying out, pushing her sex against his face as she came. Her pussy convulsed around his finger in tight contractions. He held on to her, licking her until her tremors subsided.
But she was still shaking all over.
He knew the feeling. So was he.
He lifted her then, his patience long gone, and laid her on the bed, taking only a few seconds to yank her boots and jeans off. He grabbed a condom, unzipped his pants, pulled out his cock, and crawled on top of her.
She was ready, her legs spread, her arms wide open and beckoning to him.
He dragged her hips to the edge of the bed and slid inside her, felt her close around him, her pussy gripping him tight. He gritted his teeth to keep from shooting off right then. She’d gotten him so hot so fast he was ready right now. But he wanted her to come again.
He held his arms rigid so he could watch his cock go in and out of her, could watch her pussy lips grip his shaft every time he thrust against her.
“Come on, ride with me,” he said, pulling out and sliding inside her, forcing himself to take his time despite the need to fuck her hard.
She grabbed his arms and dug her nails in. The pain only ratcheted up his pleasure, made it even harder to maintain control. But he did, because with every thrust she tightened around him, the look on her face told him she was getting closer. He leaned down, pressing their bodies together. He swept his hand under her ass to lift her up, and ground against her.
“Rick. Damn. Yes. Just like that. I can feel it against my clit.”
He loved when she talked to him, told him what she needed.
She bent her knees and gave him more access, and this time he couldn’t hold ba
ck. He drove inside her hard, letting out a guttural cry when his orgasm ripped through his body like a rush, blinding him to anything and everything but the feel of Ava’s body shaking underneath him, the sounds she made making him shudder against her as he lost control and gave everything up to her. He drank in her loud cries with a kiss, his tongue dueling with hers as they went over the edge together.
Spent, sweating, he could only take in deep gulps of air with every breath. They slid onto the floor and Rick pulled Ava on top of him, hoping like hell he hadn’t hurt her. He’d had her in such a tight hold at the end he was afraid he’d crushed her.
She lifted her head and he swept her hair away from her face, hoping he wouldn’t see anger or fear there.
Instead, her lips curled in a smile. “Well, that was fun.”
He let out a short laugh. “You surprise me.”
“Yeah? How?”
“Sometimes you seem so straitlaced, like I have no idea what you’re doing hanging out with a bunch of bikers. Other times, like this, you’re so wild and out of control.”
“Really?” She grinned. “Hmm, maybe I’m a woman of mystery.”
He cocked a brow. “Maybe you are.”
“Good. I like that.”
“In other words, you aren’t going to tell me which one is the real Ava.”
She sat up. “What fun would that be?”
What fun indeed? He had to admit he liked her just the way she was. He’d never known another woman like her. Maybe it was because she was wholly unpredictable.
Which didn’t make his assignment any easier, because as soon as he thought he had a handle on why she was here and what she was doing, she surprised the hell out of him. She was innocent one minute, a wild vixen the next. And he still had no idea who she really was.
As soon as they cleaned up, there was a knock on the door. Rick went to look at the peephole. It was Bo and Lacey, so he opened the door.
“Oh, you’re here, too. Hi,” Lacey said as she brushed by Rick.
Bo nodded and walked in.
“What’s going on?” Rick asked.
Bo yawned. “Nothing much. Late start today.”
“Long night?”