by KB Winters
Dammit. I wasn’t sure earlier if she’d heard Brenna or not, but she had. “I wasn’t with any damn body,” I shot back angrily. “You want the truth or you just want to believe the worst of me?”
To her credit, Jana took a moment to think about it. She was a logical, levelheaded woman so I knew she would take the question seriously. “I’m not sure, but I am curious so tell me.”
Shit. “My club, the Reckless Bastards, we might not share a lot in common with some of the other motorcycle clubs but we’re men. There are always women, a certain type of woman who wants nothing more than to be a biker’s old lady. They are willing to do anything—anything—to become one, including sleeping with whoever is available in hopes of being promoted from a Reckless Bitch to an old lady.”
She didn’t say anything for a long time. “Wow.” She turned to the fridge and pulled out two brown bottles, sliding one to the edge of the counter for me. “So it doesn’t count?”
“It doesn’t if I didn’t fuck her. And I didn’t. Brenna came in as soon as I picked up the phone, hoping to tempt me to fuck her. I wouldn’t have fucked her anyway, but after your call I spent the next couple hours trying to find my fucking brother.”
Her demeanor changed instantly. “Did you find out anything?”
“Nope. He hasn’t called at all. The guys are getting ready for a party, but now I don’t even know if he’ll fucking show.”
Jana sighed and nodded as she walked around the counter, taking a seat across the table from me. “This isn’t about you, Max. I know you don’t want to hear that, but it’s the truth. Your brother did six years of someone else’s time and that’s not an easy thing to come back from. He might not come around for a while,” she shrugged. “Or he might be on his way to your club room right now. My guess is that he’s decompressing with the people who helped free him.”
“Shit, you’re right. Thanks.” I laid a hand on top of hers, grateful that she hadn’t pulled away in disgust. “Still, he’s cut me off completely.”
That made her pull back for some reason. “You ever think it might be because of your club?” Her words held no venom but they pissed me off all the same.
“What the fuck does that mean?”
She pushed back from the table and stood, abandoned her beer just to get away from me. “It means being associated with a biker gang might have hurt his chances to gain his freedom.” She sounded exasperated, like I was the one being unreasonable.
“We are a club. A legal fucking club.”
She shrugged. “Fine, I’m wrong. You should probably go check on the party.” And right before my eyes, I watched her shut down. Pull away from me and shutter her emotions.
“Come with me.”
“No.” she crossed her arms over her body in a protective move that spoke volumes.
“Why not?”
She sighed. “Because Max, I may not be much to look at but I am a person and I deserve respect. I doubt I’ll get that at a place where men treat women like you and your friends do. Have a good life, Max.”
I stood and followed her back to the front door where she held a death grip on the doorknob. “You can be pissed off at me all you want, Jana. I fucking deserve it. But I like you and I’m not ready to say goodbye.”
“Too bad it’s not just up to you.”
I grinned. “Maybe not, but I have my ways.” She was ready to protest, to tell me what a fucking prick I was, but before she could take a breath my mouth was on hers, tasting and teasing her lips while she tried to resist me. The minute she gasped, I slid in and when our tongues touched, she tightened her hands on my arms, hanging on. A second later she was a full participant in the kiss, licking my tongue and nibbling my lips.
The kiss was hot as fuck, making my cock hard as she rubbed up against me. I lifted her in the air and her legs went around my waist so I was nestled right against the heat of her pussy. She moaned and my hips pressed harder, eager to be closer to where she was hot and wet, and so fucking tight for me. “Jana,” I growled as my lips went to her neck, licking across her collarbone while she clung to me.
I wanted her more than I wanted anything in that moment, but I knew I couldn’t. Not with our last encounter still fresh in her mind. Despite her eagerness right now, I knew she wasn’t up for fucking. But I needed to touch her. One thumb slipped into the elastic of her panties and found her clit, fat and swollen, her pussy already drenched with desire. “Fuck,” she moaned and bit my ear.
“Jana,” I groaned again and adjusted my hold on her because I needed to hear her soft cries of pleasure, her moans and gasps. It was torture as my cock hammered against my zipper, but all I wanted was to feel her come apart on my hand.
Her fingers dug into my skin and her hips moved, fucking my fingers as they plunged in and out of her. “Oh, god. Yes!”
Fuck, those eager sounds she made. Jana didn’t hold back when it came to pleasure and she had no fucking clue how hot that was. I added another finger to her pussy, using my thumb to rub fast circles in her clit. “You’re so fucking tight, babe.”
She growled and tossed her head back. “Max.”
“Let go, honey. I’ve got you. Come all over me. Now.”
Big brown eyes stared at me, full of wonder, as I plunged in and out of her pussy and then she fell apart, trembling around my fingers. Pupils dilated so her eyes were pure black, chest heaving as she rode out her orgasm. “Damn,” she sighed. “Thanks.”
She let her legs fall down until she slid down my body. “No Jana, thank you,” I told her and licked my fingers clean. “That isn’t enough, but for today it’ll have to do.” She looked confused. Good. I was confused by it all too, but I was nowhere near ready to be done with Jana. I kissed her again, hot and hard, and intense as fuck. When I pulled back she was gasping, wide-eyed and shocked. “See you soon, Jana.”
Chapter 10
Jana
“Are those extensions?” A woman with yellowish blond hair shouted across the room at yet another Friday night art class.
I glanced up and shook my head. “Nope, it’s all mine.”
“Damn,” she pouted. “I was totally gonna ask who did them. Lucky bitch.” She grinned and shook her head before returning to her friends.
Class hadn’t yet started but the book club women had arrived about ten minutes ago and cracked open a bottle—or two—of wine, so things were rowdy already. I sat in my usual spot and kept to myself, sketching in a small pad until class began. The week had been long but productive and I really needed to blank my mind out for a couple hours, so I was happy when Moon stepped into the center of the half-circle and introduced the dancers we’d paint tonight. They were dressed in white and nude bodysuits, frozen in motion.
I pulled out my paints and began mixing when the bells above the door sounded, followed by the heavy thud of boots. Not just any boots. Motorcycle boots. I knew, before he even took the seat beside me, it was Max because my body told me. The tiny hairs all over my body stood up, electrified as my skin began to heat up. “Sorry I’m late,” he called out to Moon. “Hey,” he whispered to me but I wasn’t interested.
I kept my gaze fixed on the dancers, focusing first on the way they were connected from the collar bone to the hips. I focused on the shadows that would add depth to the overall image, gently filling in the other spots. It was harder than I thought, ignoring Max and his attempts at conversation, but I knew that I had to. As good as his body had been to mine, the rest of it was too risky. I didn’t take risks because I knew I wasn’t willing to pay for the consequences.
“There’s too much shit here,” he grumbled, struggling to focus his painting. “I know you hate me, but help me out. Please.”
It was the passion in his plea that did it, forced me to speak to him. To look at him. “I don’t hate you, Max.” I didn’t. I blamed myself more than him for how things played out. I knew better than to have expectations, but the sex was so good it made me forget. “Focus on one thing to start, like the way the
legs are entangled.”
“And then?”
I shrugged, trying to hold back a smile. “By the time you’re satisfied with it, class will be over.” He flashed a grin at me and I sucked in a breath at just how handsome he looked. I kind of missed out on the going crazy over boys part of life because I’d been in the hospital and foster care when I should’ve been kissing boys and going to school dances, so it made sense that a man as potent as Max could easily turn me inside out.
“Smart woman.”
Not that smart, I thought but I kept it to myself because being snarky wouldn’t change anything. “That’s me. Smart woman.” I was smart, not beautiful. Being around Max was too hard and I refused to let my gaze wander anywhere other than from my canvas to the dancers and to the paint. I’d nearly relaxed when Moon dismissed us for the night.
“Jana, a word please?”
My shoulders sagged, but I was grateful to Moon for the temporary distraction even though I already knew what she wanted to talk about. The art show she was hosting and my role in it. I hadn’t decided yet even though Teddy thinks it would be good for me, but I also had a feeling Max would try to talk to me and this way he might get tired of waiting. “What’s up, Moon?”
“Have you given any more thought to the show? I was thinking two sketches and two paintings.” I was preparing my next excuse when she kept talking. “Just show up and see how you feel. If you’re not up to mingling, tell me on the night and I’ll say you’re shy or something. Okay?” When she looked at me with those kind, pleading eyes that looked otherworldly with her long silver hair, I could only say one thing.
“Fine, Moon. I’ll stop by later this week with some options for you.”
Her face lit up with joy and excitement and I felt a small rush that my answer had pleased her. “Oh honey,” she pulled me into an unexpected hug that felt natural and soft and warm. I couldn’t remember the last time I was hugged like that. “Thank you so much. This will be fantastic, I promise.”
I wasn’t so sure, but these classes had given me contact with the rest of the world and in Moon, I’d found something like a friend. “If you say so.”
“I do. Have a good night, dear.” She waved me off with a knowing smile on her face that I ignored. I shouldn’t have, I realized as I stepped outside and my gaze landed on Max, looking delectable as he leaned against the brick façade, one booted foot on the wall while he stared up at the sky.
“I wondered if you’d gone out the back to avoid me.”
I laughed but the sound was bitter. “Yep, because it’s all about you Max.”
His smile dimmed. “Okay, maybe not all about me. Grab dinner with me.”
“Not hungry,” I told him quickly. Too quickly because my stomach piped in to prove me a liar. “I’m going to eat when I get home,” I quickly amended.
His lips spread into a slow, killer smile that made my entire body wing. I’d never seen a smile do that before and certainly I’d never experienced it. “Come on. I’m buying.” He took my hand and I let him because I was too weak to resist. But a girl had to draw the line somewhere.
“I’m buying dinner.”
“Let’s argue about it later, what are you in the mood for?” He tugged me closer until I was practically nestled under his arm and dropped a kiss on top of my head.
“There’s a steak and seafood place just a few blocks that way.” The place always did a steady business, but it was a higher end place and more importantly it was dimly lit. Max held me close the whole way, his hand still clutched mine as we walked through the restaurant towards our table.
He took the seat across from me and I took a moment to soak in his appearance. Max was best described as ruggedly handsome but tonight his facial hair was overgrown, giving his sharp edges more depth and darkness. It enhanced his whole brooding thing. His gray eyes looked like melted down silver and his lips were lush and pink, making it hard to look away from that bottom lip that I’d learned was imminently bitable. And thoughts of biting Max immediately brought me right where I didn’t want to be, smack dab in the middle of another fucking fantasy, or maybe it was a replay of the orgasm he’d given me last time I saw him.
His lips curled up. “I wonder what’s on your mind, Jana.” His tone indicated he did, in fact know.
I was quiet, but people often mistook that to mean I was shy. Those people were wrong and after a moment of thought, I decided to go for honesty. There was no reason not to be, since we were nothing but former lovers. “I was thinking about the orgasm you gave me up against the door.”
He blinked, choked on the beer the waitress had set in front of him, and wine for me. “Good, because I haven’t stopped thinking about it. Sometimes when I wake up in the morning, I can still taste you on my tongue.”
I swallowed hard and squeezed my thighs together, grateful for the long white tablecloth. “You’re too damn male, I swear,” I told him and I heard the frustration in my voice.
Instead of being upset or offended, Max laughed. “I don’t believe that’s a thing, but I am glad to know that I still affect you.”
“I never said you didn’t. But it’s probably best we keep that night where it belongs.”
“Right here between us?”
Damn him. My gaze narrowed and he laughed again. “No, right here,” I told him and tapped the side of my head.
“Pity. Because all I can think about is doing it again.”
A shiver shot through me involuntarily and I swallowed a humiliated groan. He just laughed, amused and filled with masculine pride at the whole situation. “Max. We can’t.”
His smile dimmed. “I know.” The air between us changed, shifted from lighthearted and shallow to serious. “I owe you an apology, Jana. A real fucking apology. You have every right to be pissed off at me, but I need you to know that it’s me, not you. As cliché as that sounds.”
“It does, but I’m listening.” I was also drinking, because I could only have this one glass of wine and right now I needed it more than the air traveling down my lungs.
His smile was grateful. “The dreams I have, sometimes they fuck me up. Bad. I appreciated the way you pulled me from that dream, it must have been fucking terrifying for you. But my reaction was, apparently, based on embarrassment.”
“Understandable.” I’d dealt with those same feelings in the years after my foster father attacked me, so I did understand. But I couldn’t get over how cold and callous he’d been just moments after we made love. No, we had sex. Maybe we fucked, I wasn’t sure but I would find out from Teddy later.
“So you forgive me?”
“Do you really need my forgiveness, Max?” I didn’t get the feeling I was all that important to him so my opinion should be irrelevant.
“I do. I like you Jana and I would hate it if you thought that careless bastard from that morning was me. It’s not.”
That much, I did believe. “Have you heard from your brother?” It was a clumsy change of topic, but I didn’t really do emotion and certainly not in public.
His gray gaze narrowed but his lips curled up as if he knew what I was doing but didn’t want to call me out. I shot him a grateful smile. “No. Not one fucking call or text to tell me that he was free or where the fuck he is.”
I could see he was getting upset about it and I understood, but his anger wouldn’t make Tate reach out any sooner. “The good thing is that he’s out of prison, Max.”
He gave me a strange look, one I couldn’t decipher. “Sometimes I think you’re too good to be true.”
That was a first. I don’t think anyone has ever thought that about me, much less ever said it aloud. I smiled as a warmth spread throughout. Our plates were empty as were our glasses, which meant dinner was over. Max would go home, possibly alone, and I would definitely go back to my place and spend the night alone. Wishing I wasn’t. “You think so?”
“I do.”
“Thanks.” I slid my bank card into the leather booklet to pay the bill and grinned w
hen his hands flexed with the desire to reach for it. “I appreciate you keeping your word about dinner.”
“I wasn’t going to,” he grumbled.
“I know,” I told him and licked my lips because my mouth ran dry at the sight of his smiling lips. “I never got a chance to just make out with a guy until we were breathless and hot and too out of our minds to make good decisions.”
His big hands tightened on the tablecloth, nostrils flared as fire swept over his skin. But the waitress returned so I could sign the bill and he had to wait. The moment she was gone, he sat forward. “Is that an invitation?”
“No, it’s a request. Can you fulfill that request, Max?”
He stood, practically knocking the chair over as he grabbed my hand and pulled me out of my chair and out of the restaurant. “Damn right I can.”
I grinned to myself. I was asking for trouble, but making memories was better than having none.
At least tonight it was.
***
I woke up slowly, struggling to stretch with the big beefy arm draped over my waist. Max. He was hot and hard, like my own personal furnace. Not that I needed it, especially after that hourlong make out session on the sofa. My body had burned up with, liquid heat coursed through my veins as I straddled him, grinding against his cock while he kissed me silly. I’m not sure that make out session would have had any place in my childhood, but it had certainly exceeded all of my meager expectations by at least two football fields.
No matter that I’d begged him to make love with me, to fuck me, he wouldn’t. He said I had to be sure, so he carried me up the stairs, laid me out on the bed and spent hours exploring my body with his mouth and his tongue. He brought me several glorious orgasms that left me weak and sated, and when I turned to return the favor, he’d simply tucked me against his body and fell asleep.
I appreciated it because Max had made me feel not only sexy and desirable, but precious and cherished. Like I mattered.