PROLOGUE
“Did you talk to him?”
“Hmm?”
“Preacher...” That familiar blush crept across her bare chest as she tilted her head back and let out a needful sigh. “Did you talk to him?”
I didn’t answer.
Answering would mean I would have to move my mouth, and at the moment, I was doing my damnedest to make my lady come. She was sprawled back on my bed with her knees up and her back arched, and if her ragged breath was any indication, I was succeeding in my endeavors.
I hoped it would be enough to disrupt her train of thought, so I kept at it. Teasing and tormenting in the way that I knew got to her the most. I almost had her to the breaking point when she suddenly inched her hips back, breaking the latch on her clit. “You didn’t, did you?”
“Come on, baby. Do we really gotta talk about this now?”
“Yeah, actually, we do.” She rolled to her side before reaching down and grabbing her panties from the floor, hastily jerking them up her legs. “This is just a waste of time.”
“I don’t know. I thought we were making pretty good use of time until about two seconds ago.”
“You promised.”
And just like that, my dick went limp, and my hopes for a sated, restful afternoon shot out the door.
Damn.
“You make it sound like I had a choice in the matter.”
“You did!”
“I didn’t.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You don’t get it.”
“You’re right. I don’t.” She threw her hands up. “You have an entire life filled with people you clearly love and want to protect, but you won’t share them with me. I just get little snippets of stories or pictures on your phone, and that’s not fair.”
“It’s complicated.”
Devin was a five-foot-ten absolute stunner with a mouth that could cut me down just as fast as it could make me beg. I’d never met a woman like her. She was headstrong and had a drive in her to succeed in whatever she wanted. Didn’t matter how hard or out of reach something might’ve been. If she wanted it, she was going to go after it.
And for just over two years, I was what she’d wanted.
She loved me hard and loved me good. Better than anyone had before, and I wanted her. God, how I wanted her.
But God liked to look down on me and laugh at the fuckery that was my life. He knew when he sent her walking into that bar with that short damn mini-skirt and barely-there tank top that she was a cop, and I couldn’t have her.
Most men wouldn’t have cared that a smoking hot chick like her wore a badge, but I wasn’t most guys. I was a member of one of the most notorious MCs in the South, and I’d fought hard to get there. I couldn’t jeopardize their lives and mine by bringinga cop into the fold. It wouldn’t just be dangerous. It would be a betrayal, and even though I loved her, I couldn’t let that happen.
She leaned in and rested her head on my shoulder. She would never say it, but she was hurting. I could feel it in my bones, and it killed me that I couldn’t do anything about it. “I love you, Jameson.”
“I love you, too.”
“Then, why haven’t you talked to him?”
I didn’t answer right away.
I just stared across the room like I was trying to think of the right thing to say. My gut twisted as I dragged my hand over my face. "This isn’t the right time, Devin. There’s too much shit going on."
