She sighed. “I know a fighter when I see one.”
He figured he’d get further with honesty. “My guys and I came across some of the Mayhem members selling drugs to some kids down at the trail head.”
With a gasp, she braced a hand on her hip as if prepared to singlehandedly take on the bikers and drive them out of town herself.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Wish I was. Sheriff should be hauling them to jail right now.” He moved in closer. “Tell me about this soap.”
She looked into the pot as if remembering her task. “It’s a hobby.”
“What kind of soap is it?”
She pointed to the tray of hardened bars off to the side of the kitchen. Then she lifted one and handed it to him. “Here—a gift.”
He knew deep down she liked him.
He arched a brow and sniffed the bar with little purple flecks of flowers in it.
“Lavender,” she told him with a pretty blush creeping over her cheeks.
“A tough bar owner makes lavender soap in her kitchen in the off hours. Who would ever guess?” he teased.
She swatted him away and switched off the burner beneath the pot. “You must have a hobby too. Everyone has one.”
He reached for her. As he clutched onto her hip and swung her toward him, electricity zapped his fingertips.
When he brought her flush to his body, she tipped her head up. Her breaths came faster. For a moment, the only sound he heard was the thud of his own heart.
She pressed her hands to his chest. Her words came out as a rasp. “What’s your hobby, Dixon?”
His lips twitched upward at the corner. “Mine’s pleasurin’ my woman.”
Her breath hitched, and in the depths of her eyes, he saw the flicker of want. Still, she held back.
Damn, he liked seeing her fight.
“Who said I’m your woman?”
There it is. My reason for wanting her so much.
With a chuckle, he picked her up and bore her down on the empty prep table.
“I make food here,” she bit off between hungry kisses. Dixon cradled her head in his palm, keeping it off the hard surface as he plundered her mouth. Each swirl of his tongue shot her higher, left her wetter.
The man tasted of mint toothpaste and pure sin. She was about to make another mistake.
To hell with mistakes.
She didn’t come this far in life to stop taking risks now. She bought this bar, didn’t she? Even when her brothers told her she’d end up bankrupt and living at home squashed into her childhood bedroom, she plowed forward with her dream. She did what she wanted when she wanted.
Right now, she wanted this man.
Dixon hovered over her, big chest pressing her down into the stainless steel top. As he skated a hand up her hip, he caught her top on the way. Each inch of skin exposed to air felt like a heated brand.
His big palm settled over her breast.
Sucking in a harsh gasp, she arched into his touch. So long since she’d been touched by a man who knew what he was doing. He did say pleasuring women is his hobby.
The perfection of his callused fingers sent her body into a tailspin, and she hiked her thighs up around his hips. Trapping him in place where she wanted him, she kissed him with all the fever pent up inside her since the minute she set eyes on the big guy.
After probing some of her clientele, she learned Dixon was running his family’s mechanic shop. As if that didn’t hit all the high points for her, he served three tours as a Marine. And lately, he decked himself out in a leather vest, black T-shirt and worn jeans that sent thrills up and down her insides.
The triple play on her senses peeled away her last finger holding her to the edge of control.
As he kneaded her breast through her bra, he feasted on her throat, traveling between her ear and collarbone until she shook.
“Tell me you don’t want this and I’ll stop, baby girl.”
His dark tones threaded another layer of want overtop the thick fibers already knotting her insides. His eyes flashed.
“I don’t want to stop. And neither do you.” She slid her hands under the flaps of his leather vest and shoved it off his shoulders. As she stripped his shirt overhead, she grew aware of each and every swell and dip of muscle lining his torso.
He gazed down at her, that crooked smile teasing her into a whole new realm of surrender.
It’s only sex. I don’t have to throw away all my good sense on this guy.
Too late.
He yanked off her top, leaving her only in bra and jeans. He dropped his head to the crest of her breast swelling from the cup of her bra. Mesmerized, she watched the tip of his tongue swipe over the lace trim and then slip inside, questing for her nipple. When the scorching heat barely skimmed it and then he retreated, she cried out.
Panting hard, he continued to cradle her head on a broad palm. “Say you want me. I need to hear it.”
She shivered. Something about that command was…so…damn…fucking…hot.
She searched his eyes—her biggest mistake yet. “I want you,” she rasped.
In quick, sure movements, he tore off her bra, stripped her jeans over her hips and then took far too long to remove her boots.
A glance down at her own bare body had her trembling. Her pussy flooded as he simply stared at her.
“Fuck, baby girl.” He crushed his mouth over hers again. She arched into his arms, locking her ankles behind his muscled spine. With a slow dip, he ground the impressive bulge in his jeans against her aching pussy.
“Oh God, Dixon! Get those jeans off.”
He wagged his head back and forth, his grin burning through her. “I haven’t even started yet and you wanna get to the end?”
Quivering, she watched him kiss down over her breast. He captured her nipple between his lips and tugged the point even as he lapped his tongue over the tip. Her eyes shuttered on the pure intense pleasure of having a hot man kissing, licking and sucking her.
He moved to the other breast, tormenting her over and over with small grazes of his teeth. She gripped his head to bring him where she wanted him most and guided him to the other breast once again.
“Petal soft. Like a summer rose.” His murmured words rained down on her skin like poetry. All she could do was cling to his broad shoulders as he moved down her belly, dropping kisses on the way. When he reached her pussy, he inhaled deeply. “Fucking makes my mouth water, baby girl. Open for me.”
With a quake of lust, she allowed her thighs to part. His stare raked over the trim curls covering her mound, down to her soaking folds. He reached out and dragged his thumb through her slickness.
The shock of the pressure, so fleeting on her nubbin, and the callused stroke rocketed her hips off the table.
He caught her ass in his palms on the way down. A shocked gasp escaped her, followed by a cry when he dived between her thighs and covered her pussy with his open mouth.
Without wasting a second, he thrust his tongue deep, strumming her inner walls and drawing a deep groan from her lips. His rough beard on her inner thighs fueled her fires, fanning them hotter. Her insides clenched and released around his invasion, but only briefly before he drew his tongue free and snaked it up her slit to curl around her clit.
She slammed the heel of her hand against his back. He rumbled in response and sucked her bud into his mouth. Electric bliss lashed at her. She issued a long, throaty cry.