“Fuck me, you’re trouble. Have been since the day I saw you,” he said, but his eyes tracked the newcomers as they intimidated another group into giving up their booths. “You could tempt a saint into sinning.”
I bit my lip, unsure if I wanted to admit how hard I’d been trying all these years to do just that. “Wouldn’t bet on that. I haven’t succeeded yet.”
“I’m no saint.”
Oh, but he was wrong.
Standing wearing faded, old jeans in the way on his could, the soft fabric molded to his thick thighs, his high, tight ass, his white tee pristine against his tan and that too fit well, hugging every delicious contour of his chest so that it was nearly indecent. He was a North American idol, vital and strong, righteous and just, virile but principled. If all that wasn’t saintly, I didn’t know what was.
“Seems that way from this side of the table,” I taunted, digging at him because I hated him for being so beautiful and so not mine.
He sighed roughly and ran a hand through his dishevelled hair. “Wanting you was never the issue.”
I snorted. “Wasn’t it?”
“Jesus Christ, Rosie, this isn’t the time or place.”
Emotions whirred in my gut, the longing and the lust, the frustration and the unjustness of it all, but as usual, I couldn’t find the words to parcel such huge feelings into neat little boxes. So, I got angry.
“It never fucking well is,” I hissed at him. “You’ve been spewing that shit for years. You’re a man, you want a woman, you fuckin’ take her if she wants you back.”
Danner gritted his teeth, his eyes darting over to the group which Laken had joined. We needed to go over to join them soon or they’d notice the slight and take insult, middle of a pool game or not.
So, when he started stalking by me, I assumed that’s where he was headed. Instead, he powered past me, his hand snatching out to grip my wrist and drag me behind him.
“Lion,” I whispered harshly in protest.
But I followed him. I followed him, because I had all my life and I knew I always would.
He dragged us down the hall to the bathrooms then farther around the corner to Bernadette’s office at the back.
“Danner, what the—” I started to ask, but then I pushed up against the paneled wall and the long, hard length of his body was pushed up against me.
“You want proof you drive me fucking crazy,” he rasped, his forehead pressed to mine, one hand at the back of my head to cushion it from the wall and the other clenched tightly to my ass. “You need me to do something stupid like kiss your sweet mouth in the back of this shit bar while men who’d be happy to kill us are steps away just to prove to you I’d do anything to be near you, on you, fucking in you?”
“Yes,” I said the word like a curse. “Yes.”
The hand on my head fisted in my hair and yanked back so my face was tipped and my lips were parted on a gasp.
“Anythin’ for you, Rosie,” he said, a savage benediction. And then, he dipped his head and plundered.
I hadn’t had his mouth on mine in over three years, and even then, it had only lasted minutes. Still, I’d played that one experience over and over in my head like a reel until the film was warped and spotted with use and time.
Nothing could have prepared me for the feel of his lips on me in that moment.
He shaped my mouth with his, stroked my tongue and bit my lip hard enough to make it ache before soothing it with a long, slow suck. I loved the way he tasted, hot like burning whiskey I wanted to swallow down. I was addicted to the way he felt pressed to me, the iron hard length of him pressed to the aching apex of my thighs, his hand in my hair both causing me pain and preventing me from it.
It was the most beautiful moment of my life, and I was lucky, I’d had a lota really beautiful moments.
There was a crack and a bang as one of the bathroom doors swung open into the wall around the corner. Danner tore his mouth from mine but didn’t pull away. Instead, instinctively, he curled over me, the hand at my head pressed me under his chin, his back forming a broad shield between me and whatever threat he thought we faced.
And somehow, that was even more beautiful than the kiss.
“Just the bathroom,” I told him quietly.
I felt his sigh, but he remained curved around me for another long beat before he stepped away.
We stared at each other.
His green eyes were dilated with lust, the pulse in his strong throat jumping so high I could see it from where I stood even in the dim light. My eyes dropped lower and stuck on the sight of his cock, so thick and long against his thigh trapped in those soft denim jeans.
It took everything in me not to drop to my knees right there and mouth his through the fabric.
“Harleigh Rose,” he said sharply.
I closed my eyes instead of looking up at him. His moment of insanity, I knew, was over. He’d come back into his right mind, a mind that loves order and discipline and hated chaos and rebellion. A right mind that hated everything I stood for.
Was it wrong that one day, I wished he would drop off the deep end of sanity for good and fall right into my arms?
“Rosie,” he said again, his voice softer but the word so much more painful.
“Right,” I said, opening my eyes to see him reach for me, his beautiful face crippled with indecision. “Think I won that game, eh officer?”
“Don’t be hard with me.” He narrowed his eyes and took another step closer, but I slid against the wall away from him and started to back away. “You always throw up thorns the second I get close to the heart of you.”
God, he was lovely. I wished as I’d only ever wished for him, that I was born a different kind of girl.
But I wasn’t the good girl to his good guy and I never would be.
If Lionel Danner wanted me, he’d have to come to me, over to the dark side where outlaws ruled, sinning was route, and love was blind.
He’d have to be the bad boy to my bad girl.
And I knew, the kind of guy he was, that would never happen.
So, without saying another word, I turned on my heel and fled.
I had never willing entered a police station in my entire life, but I guessed there was a first time for everything. It was after my classes the day after my bizarre double date with Danner, Laken, and Wrath, and I’d decided to take matters into my own hands, mostly because, after I’d left Danner, I’d joined the Berserkers crowd and learned something of value.
I knew Danner wouldn’t involve me in the investigation if his life depended on it, but I figured his colleagues would be only too happy to risk the life of a biker bitch with a rap sheet if it meant bringing down the biggest source of illegal firearm smuggling in the province.
I was proved right the minute I told the receptionist my name and reason for being there. Minutes later, I was set up in a room with a large black man named Sergeant Renner and a very beautiful female officer by the name of Casey.
“So, we’re just supposed to believe you’re doing this out of the goodness of your heart?” Renner asked, his arms crossed over his chest, a scowl affixed to his face.
Clearly, he was playing Bad Cop.
I shrugged. “The words ‘good’ and ‘my heart’ don’t have much in common, but we can go with that if you want to be poetic. I’m here because I want to take down the Berserkers. Does it really matter why?”