“Time’s got nothin’ on the depth of a wound,” he snapped, then rolled his shoulders to release some of the tension. “Didn’t mean to bite your head off. Never reacted well to women gettin’ hurt.”
I didn’t curb the impulse to reach over and squeeze his hard, denim-clad thigh. “Mr. Wise Guy, eh?”
A tiny smirk. “People usually don’t accuse me’a bein’ wise. More like stupid.”
“Was it stupid of you to pry off that guy Beaker’s fingernails?” I asked. “He could press charges.”
A deep, smug chuckle. “Beaker wouldn’t know how to press charges against someone if he was hit in the head with a law book. Besides, he fucked with family, I fuck with him.”
Hearing the vehemence of his loyalty caused something to pang in my chest. What would it be like to have Aaron at my back? Safe, I thought.
And God, I yearned to feel safe.
“You don’t seem real fazed by my show’a violence.” He dropped a hand to cover mine on his thigh and tangled our fingers in a casual way that belied how intimate it felt. His heavy rings were warm from his skin.
“Criminals, remember? I’m not as innocent as I look.”
“You look like a wet dream,” he murmured, bringing our joined hands to his mouth to plant an open-mouthed kiss on the back of my hand.
“Stop.” I tried to tug my hand out of his grip, but he wouldn’t release me. “You don’t need to say things like that to me.”
He shot me an incredulous look. “Does anyone ever hafta say somethin’ nice about anyone? It’s not ’cause I feel you’re owed the words, Blue. It’s ’cause I feel moved to say them.”
His words prompted something to squirm uncomfortably in my belly. I wanted to tell him he was stupid or crazy, that his flattery was false, but how could I when he seemed so sincere?
“Blue,” he said, tone heavy so the word dropped in my lap. “You’re so goddamn gorgeous I’ve been hard since we kissed in the parkin’ lot. You know how difficult it is to run with a fuckin’ boner?”
Laughter exploded from me, rich and warm spilling out of my lips into the car. I was aware of him grinning at me, shooting little glances my way as if he justhadto watch me. As if I was beautiful doing it.
And oh God, how did I resist a man like this?
Why would I want to?
When I finished, the smile still wouldn’t leave my face, and our joined hands were back on his thigh, his thumb rubbing back and forth on my palm.
“Well, aren’t you gonna say somethin’ nice about me?” he quipped with a goofy grin.
I rolled my eyes, but there was too much humour in my tone to curb. “I thought you said people should only compliment others if they feel moved to do it.”
“Damn,” he groused, then grinned when I giggled. “Love the sound’a that laugh.”
“What now?” I asked because I felt giddy with lingering adrenaline and warmed through with vivid attraction for this man with the roguish grin and soft, dark eyes.
“We take this loot to a friend’a mine and get it off our fuckin’ hands.”
“You seem to have a lot of friends willing to do a lot of favours for you,” I noticed.
Another smile, this one slow and wide. “Yeah. Yeah, I do. And now, you’re gonna know them too.”
BLUE
When we pulledup in front of The Fallen MC headquarters in Entrance, my heart plummeted to the pit of my stomach and anchored there, a heavy, pinching weight.
It was obvious now that I thought about it.
Aaron might not have been wearing a leather jacket with club patches when he entered Evergreen Gas at the beginning of our night, but the rest of it—the tatts, the swagger, the way he’d systematically disarmed and beaten down the robbers, and that tangible charge of erotic danger surrounding him—all lent itself to an outlaw biker.
I should have known ’cause I’d grown up with them.
