Point of Freedom (Nordic Lords MC #3)

by Stacey Lynn

  It didn’t help.

  Jaden watched me, slight smirk on his lips, but his eyes never left mine. I couldn’t read his look.

  “I’m not trying to start a fight. It’s the last thing I want tonight. I just want to understand why you’d do that when you ignored for us so long.”

  Especially since after the last time I saw him, he’d been staring at my newly pierced nipples as if they were that night’s dinner. And dessert. And next morning’s breakfast.

  He seemed to catch the wicked thoughts in my head because he crossed his arms over his chest, tilted his head. His smirk grew. He shifted, resting his hip against the counter. The move looked relaxed, but the intensity in his eyes told me he felt differently.

  “This really what you want to talk about tonight? You want to get into what happened at your place? Or why I decorated Sophie’s room? Why you curled into my lap earlier today and fell into my arms tonight and let go of all the shit you’re holding in?”

  He leaned forward, bracing himself on the counter with one hand as his arms fell from his chest. When he spoke again, his voice was rough, deeper. “Do you really want me to stand here and explain what being around you does to me?”

  My eyes fell from his eyes—straight to his crotch. I caught the bulge behind his denim and jerked my eyes back up. Volcanic heat hit my cheeks as Jaden watched.

  Oh God. He totally caught that.

  “No.” I snapped it quickly and turned away, gripping my beer. I had to get away from him. I’d had a feeling my presence around him did the same thing his presence around me did. The straining denim told me I was correct.

  But no way was I getting into that now.

  “Can’t expect me to not get turned around you, Jules, when I know what you feel and taste like when you’re coming against my tongue.”

  Holy shit! My eyes snapped to his and I quickly looked away when I saw his eyes trailing my body in another perusal. But his eyes stopped on my chest, and I knew exactly what he was wondering.

  I collapsed into his couch, pressing the cold beer can against my flushed cheeks and forehead.

  “Stop, please.”

  He pushed off the counter, making his way to me with the smoothness and stealth of a panther. I watched every long, muscled limb move with grace and ease until he took a spot on the opposite side of the couch.

  “I think I made my point, anyway.”

  Oh hell, had he ever. My entire body thrummed with a need I desperately wanted to ignore.

  He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees, and then dropped his head, running his hands through his hair.

  “Besides, we have more important shit to talk about. Like Rob.”

  Rob. Disgust filled my stomach at the sound of his name. “Don’t want to talk about that, either.” I shook my head. No way.

  Silence sounded good. A beer to make me drowsy, drunken in silence with UFC reruns on television in front of me. I didn’t know the fighters, didn’t want to know—didn’t even want to sit and watch men beat the shit out of each other, but all of that was a better option than telling Jaden about Rob. Or what that pink room meant.

  Jaden read my mind.

  “Have to, Jules. We need to know what we’re dealing with and last I heard, Xbox hadn’t been able to find out much about him.”

  “He wouldn’t, either.” Because I knew. I knew Rob’s dad covered up a multitude of his sins behind the veil that came from having a dad as one of the best defense attorneys in the country. Rob could do anything he wanted—and get away with it.

  The thought chilled me to my bones, and I shivered.

  “Jules.”

  I blinked, shaking my head. “Not tonight. I can’t talk about him, Jaden.”

  He pulled a face, but nodded. “All right. Then we can talk about that room I made for Sophie. Why I avoided you for the last two weeks, and what I feel, knowing that you’re in my apartment right now.”

  “Rob,” I quipped. Lesser of two evils, absolutely. “I’ll talk about Rob.”

  Jaden chuckled and I couldn’t help but look at him. Big mistake.

  His brown eyes narrowed on me instantly and he shifted so we were facing one another. I felt the heat between us prickle instantly, leaving needle pricks all down my arms.

  “Is it that bad?” His voice dripped like warm honey from his tongue: thick and smooth, a bit of sweet. “To know the effect you have on me?”

  He was playing a game. Had to be. No way did Jaden want me. My brain lost the ability to think before speaking as one word fell from my lips.

  “Terrifying.”

  I looked away, stared out the window and felt him move. I didn’t see him, I just felt the tension shift in the room until Jaden was sitting on the coffee table in front of me. His knees spread wide so they surrounded me and his hands went to my knees.

  I jumped from the contact.

  “Jules, look at me.”

  I didn’t. My teeth went to my bottom lip, and I bit down until I felt the slight sting of pain. I fought back tears that suddenly wanted to fall. My eyes already felt too raw, too dry from the crying I’d done all day.

  This was too much.

  His closeness, his honesty, and damn it, the way he felt when he touched me—like he cared.

  I shook my head.

  “Rob hit me.” The words slipped from my lips, and I again cursed my ability to think before I spoke.

  A deep, animalistic growl rumbled from Jaden. “Already figured that out.”

  “Yeah, well, he did it. A lot.” I ran my hands through my hair, already feeling like I was going to throw up again. Which would be awesome to do it in front of Jaden—again. “But it didn’t matter, because regardless of how many times I went to the hospital, or how many times I tried to file charges or restraining orders, they never went through.”

  Jaden tilted his head to the side, cracking his neck. “Not sure I follow.”

  “Rob’s dad is a defense attorney, definitely the best in the state of Arizona, most likely the most sought-after criminal defense attorney in the Southwest. He gets called into cases all over the country to consult. And I don’t want to talk about what he did to me, or why I let him do it for so long…” My voice trailed off and I paused. I couldn’t think or talk about Rob without remembering the last time he’d hit me, or the way he’d promised I could never leave him. Had it not been for his incessant calling and stopping by at random times to see me at my apartment, I might not have ever came back to Jasper Bay.

  “Jules,” Jaden said quietly. Lethally quiet. When I looked at him, his lips were pulled into a twisted, wicked grin. And not the good kind of wicked. His eyes gleamed with something unidentifiable. I figured it was the excitement of death. “You don’t have to be afraid of him anymore.”

  “I know.” I choked over the words and tried again. “I know I don’t, but that doesn’t change the fact that Rob could get away murder. Literally. His dad has every statement I gave to the police, every medical file on my injuries buried so deeply that Rob thinks he can do whatever he wants and his dad will cover him.”

  Jaden leaned in closer. His hands slid from my knees to my thighs and he yanked me so I was sitting at the edge of the couch. I tried to ignore the way his secure handling of me made me feel all hot and bothered—just inches from where his fingers lay on my skin.

  “I think you’re forgetting who we are, and that we have charters all over the country. Men have been called, and trust me, he won’t get away with this.”

  I wanted to believe him. Wanted to trust that whatever had happened with Jaden weeks ago, whatever he’d said to me tonight—all of it—was the God’s honest truth, but I’d been tricked and deceived enough.

  I was strung too tight and too exhausted to give him much credence.

  But I also lacked the energy to argue or disagree.

  “Okay.”

  His lips pursed as if he didn’t believe my trust in him or his club, but he let it go. Then he leaned in closer; his hand
s started moving again until they were wrapped around my hip bones.

  His thumbs moved slowly back and forth, over the black skirt I’d worn to work.

  Heat pulsed through my body. Everywhere.

  “Jaden.” I shook my head, looked down at his hands.

  His hands squeezed my hips and then his breath was at my ear, his slight stubble scratching my cheek. “I’m only going to say this once. Don’t think I’ve said it in my entire life, but I’m sorry for being a dick to you. Sorry for taking my eyes off Sophie and not protecting you the way Scratch would want me to.”

  Scratch. Emotion clogged my throat.

  My breath hitched as his lips moved from my ear to my jaw. He didn’t kiss me, just lightly ran his lips down my skin until I shivered beneath him. His touch, the scent of him mixed with whiskey, clouded my judgment.

  I opened my mouth to speak, when Jaden kept talking, pulling away from me slightly. “I also don’t give a shit about Scratch right now, don’t care that you and Sophie are his. All I care about right now is that you’re in front of me. I’ve wanted you for years, watched while my brother got you instead, and I’m tired of waiting to have you.”

  My head spun.

  It was too much to take in.

  Although I liked the sound of all of it.

  Wanted me. Jaden? God. How had this happened? Yet I couldn’t deny it, either, because I’d wanted him ever since I got back to town… just kept brushing it off as some fucked up thing with him reminding me of Scratch.

  But he didn’t anymore. He was harder. Rougher. Tougher. Jaden was a force bigger than anything Scratch could have ever been.

  Scratch was a biker, but kind and carefree. Jaden got all the rough parts of the Dillon family, and over the years had sharpened the roughness to jagged edges and sharp looks.

  They were nothing alike.

  The way Jaden touched my body, whispered dirty words against my skin, left my body craving something it’d never felt before.

  I didn’t have time to react before Jaden’s hands gripped my hips and pulled me toward him. I gasped, straddling his waist on the coffee table, and my ankles instinctively wrapped around his hips.

  “Wha—?”

  My confusion and shock was cut off when one of Jaden’s hands cupped the back of my neck, pulled me to him, and then his lips were on mine.

  Hard. Fast. Demanding.

  He parted my lips and thrust his tongue inside, not giving me time to consider stopping him. Not that I wanted to.

  I instantly melted into him. My hips shifted against him on their own accord and my hands flew to his shoulders, gripping him, pulling him closer to me just as he was holding me against him.

  A mewl of desperate need escaped my lips. Jaden swallowed it instantly as our tongues wrapped around one another. His fingers dug into my hair, gripping it and tugging, tipping my head back.

  He growled into my lips. The deep rumble went to straight to my core, which now felt soaking wet against my swollen, tender skin.

  It also shocked me back to reality.

  Because what the hell was I doing?

  I ripped my mouth off Jaden’s, both of us panting, and his eyes opened—searing me.

  “What the fuck?” he asked as I scrambled out of his hold and to my feet.

  My hands flew to my hair and I shoved them back, clasping my fingers together at the back of my head.

  “Jules.” He stood. His breath heaved and his erection was evident.

  I couldn’t help but look—didn’t bother trying to hide it, either, as I moved quickly to the other side of the couch.

  “We can’t do this.” I pointed at him, trying to stop him. “Not tonight.”

  “You want to tell me why the hell not?”

  “Because.” I slapped my hands to my thighs, exasperated. “Sophie’s in the next room, and the last time I let you do something to me, she woke up and you took off.”

  “Won’t happen again.”

  I shook my head. “Maybe. Maybe not. But this is crazy, and my day—God, Jaden.” I spun around, headed toward the whiskey. A shot would help calm me, even if it burned my vocal chords in the process. What kind of shitty mom was I? Making out with a jerk when my daughter had been kidnapped. The full stress of the day fell onto my shoulders. “It’s not right.”

  I shook my head, terrified of what I’d see if I looked at Jaden.

  I reached the counter and grabbed the bottle of whiskey when it was suddenly ripped out of my hands, slid down the counter, and Jaden’s arms were at my sides, caging me in from behind.

  And damn it all, his breath was at my ear. Again. His tongue licked my sensitive skin and I felt lust pouring off him in palpable waves. Thick, needy waves. I felt every inch of him when he pressed up against me from behind.

  “What happened last time won’t happen again.”

  I swallowed, losing the ability to think. My eyes stared at the whiskey bottle, wishing I had superhero powers that could vault it through the air into my hand, or drain the entire bottle without having to touch it at all.

  We said nothing else. All I could hear was our mingled, harsh breathing as I fought to calm down. Fought to forget what his lips felt like, how the bulge in his jeans felt against my core, and what it felt like to be taken by someone who was so strong and powerful, my body simply moved and shifted however he wanted.

  It was so damn hot.

  “I need to check on Sophie.”

  His hand clamped down on my hip, pinning me against the counter. “I’m only saying this one more time, but what happened last time won’t happen again.”

  He sounded so serious, so sure of himself, I lost all doubt that he actually meant it.

  I relaxed into his hold, chewing on my bottom lip until his grip loosened enough for me to turn around.

  When I did, he smirked.

  “Let’s say it doesn’t,” I said. “But I’m a mom, Jaden. A single mom, and the last time we were alone you had me pinned against a wall where Sophie could have easily seen me. And that shit’s not cool—at all. I can’t keep making out in living rooms where my daughter can see me.”

  He opened his mouth to say something, but I cut him off. Based on the glint in his eye, it would be totally indecent. Probably something I desperately wanted, too, but I couldn’t afford to be stupid when it came to Sophie anymore.

  “I need to check on her and go to bed. Can we just… talk about this some other time?”

  He smiled wide. It stretched from cheek to cheek but didn’t reach his eyes. Then he nodded. “Sure Jules, we can talk about this another time.”

  I started to smile but was immediately caught off guard when he pressed his lips to mine again. He was like a ninja, moving faster than I could have anticipated. He kissed me forcefully again, his hands cupping my chin and my cheeks.

  I didn’t bother resisting. I rolled onto the tips of my toes, my hands flew to the back of his neck.

  And I let him devour me.

  When he pulled away, my entire body trembled beneath him.

  One side of his lips lifted into a grin. “Goodnight, babe.”

  I stood on shaky, wobbly knees and watched Jaden head to his bedroom. My hands held me up by the countertop behind me as I watched him disappear, and it took minutes—maybe hours—for me to find my secure footing again.

  I went to the bedroom where Sophie slept, climbed in behind her, and tugged her close.

  She rolled into my arms, making quiet sucking sounds with her lips like she still used her pacifier, even though she hadn’t used it in months, and sighed.

  The sun was just beginning to rise when I finally closed my eyes, hoping like hell I hadn’t just made another huge mistake by falling for the wrong type of man.

  But it couldn’t be helped. By the time I’d replayed every single one of my interactions with Jaden over the last few months—the change in how he was today and tonight, a vast difference from the past—I knew it was too late.

  I was already gone.


  When I woke up, the bed next to me was cold, although my body was hot and sweaty from the nightmare that had awoken me: Sophie screaming in my ear as a gloved hand ripped her out of my hold, yanking her into darkness.

  I shuddered at the memory of screams, the reality that it was a dream calming me only slightly. I jolted up, throwing back the covers and checking over the edge of the bed to see if Sophie had fallen off the floor.

  It took me another minute to realize the sun was shining brightly into the bedroom, and I was in a bed with a hot pink comforter. A small bag of neon colored blocks sat in the corner next to a bucket filled with… princess books?

  My instant panic at not finding Sophie next to me began to subside as I remembered where I had fallen asleep.

  Jaden’s house. Where Sophie and I were safe.

  I inhaled a deep, trembling breath and pulled my hair off my neck. Using a band I kept on my wrist at all times, I quickly threw it up into a messy bun and climbed out of the bed.

  When I did, I saw a T-shirt and pair of athletic shorts folded neatly on the floor. Based on the Viking helmet, skull, and crossbones, I instantly recognized the Nordic Lords logo.

  Glancing down at my own wrinkled button-up shirt and black skirt I’d worn to work yesterday, I gingerly reached down to pick up the clothes.

  They smelled like Jaden. A familiar warmth began trickling its way through my body.

  He’d left clean clothes for me.

  The very idea of him doing something so nice, so caring, had a quiet giggle escaping my lips before I could stop it.

  Quickly I threw on the clothes, cringing at the thought of having to keep dirty underwear on, but didn’t stop to think about it too much before I quickly remade the bed.

  I smiled even wider as I realized Jaden had bought this stuff. He’d made a room for Sophie—as small and sparsely decorated as it was, he’d made the effort. Even in the weeks he’d avoided us, he’d bought her stuff, wanting her in his place.

  The thought was too large to continue considering without coffee.