Prologue

Minx ~ Two months earlier

I left Talon and Mick happily canoodling in front of all of Brently at their engagement party. Talon was the nicest woman I’d ever met, and no one deserved this happiness more than she did. She’d come to Brently months ago to claim the inheritance from a father she thought died years ago and found love with a really great guy. A stand-up guy who’d never hit a woman or mistreat her. Who would make sure her happiness and safety was his top priority.

As happy as I was for her, I also felt a pang of longing for what she had. Not Mick, but the stability and love he represented. I wanted someone who’d look at me and see a beautiful woman who could be their forever. The problem was that my past made that difficult. I didn’t want someone to look at me and see a project to fix. A problem to correct. And for some reason the one man who got my juices flowing, also seemed to have a hero complex. I’d only met one real hero in my life, and his own crew took him down.

Not that it mattered what kind of man I wanted or needed since all the guys in Brently and CAOS saw me as a little sister or a club mascot or some other condescending bullshit. All but one and he saw me as someone who needed to be saved. Fixed.

“Got one of those for me?”

I looked up from my cigarette into deep green eyes that always seemed to be smiling, kissable pink lips that urged a girl to forget his flaws. And my weakness, silky blond hair that hung just to his shoulders and usually, a leather strap kept it from covering up his gorgeous face. “You don’t smoke.” Because Cash “CJ” Johnson was a Boy Scout, a goody two-shoes who would never do something to ruin his All-American good looks or his G.I. Joe physique.

“I don’t normally but I figured if I asked for one of your smokes you wouldn’t run away from me.” He leaned against the brick wall of Talon’s diner, Black Betty, smiling at me as though I was the answer to his prayers. I wasn’t the answer to anybody’s fucking prayers.

“Can’t take a little rejection, Cash?” I didn’t know why I was always so bitchy to him, but I couldn’t seem to help myself.

He shrugged but that piercing green gaze never left mine. “I can take it, but I don’t think that’s what you’re doing. Is it?”

I wanted to say yes. To say something so hurtful and cutting that he’d leave me the hell alone for the rest of forever. But I wasn’t a liar. “Why don’t you tell me since you seem to know so much.”

“I can’t figure out if it’s me specifically who rubs you the wrong way or any man who shows interest in you.” His gaze trailed down my body heavily as if it was his hands, and I felt the telltale signs of desire lighting up all of my pleasure spots.

Handsome bastard. “I don’t need to be fixed, Cash.”

“I’m not trying to fix you, Minx. I think you’re perfect even when you’re prickly as hell.” His lush mouth curved in a lazy grin that sent heat scrambling around my body. “I just want to know you.”

“Fuck me, you mean,” I jutted my hip to the side, full of sass, as my brow cocked into my hairline. That’s always what men wanted. Hell, I’d been taken from a park and turned out because men wanted it so bad they were willing to pay for it, to break the law to have it.

He laughed and dammit the sound was deep and masculine, and it skated all over my body, making me want to purr. “I won’t lie and say fucking you isn’t on my list, but really I want to know more about you, Minx. Take you for dinner, maybe dancing or stargazing or some shit. Then we can get to all that. When you’re ready.”

Why did he have to make it sound so good? So nice? It was the one thing about him that I couldn’t pretend to hate because it did it for me. In a big fucking way. “What if I said I’d go home with you tonight?”

“I’m a man, baby, I’ll make you scream my name all night, and then I’ll make you breakfast in the morning. But I’d still ask you to go out with me, get to know me, before deciding you hate me.”

“I don’t hate you.”

“Good to know.” He bit back a smirk. “So, about that date. Tomorrow night, I’ll pick you up at seven.”

I flicked away what was left of my cigarette and pushed off the wall. “How about tonight? Just tonight,” I clarified.

“How about we start with tonight and see where it goes?”

“No thanks. Not interested.” I turned to walk away, but he grabbed my arm and turned me back to face him.

“Yeah, I don’t believe that shit for one second.” Then his mouth crashed down onto mine, his tongue warm and soft and insistent against my lips, making it hard to breathe. Hard to remember that I should be pushing his presumptuous ass as far away as I could. Then his hands rested at my hips, and the sensation did something to me I couldn’t explain. When I gasped, his tongue swept between my lips and explored the depths of my mouth in a way I hadn’t thought possible. The kiss was electrifying. Hot as hell. It was downright fucking erotic.

I was no fucking virgin, but I had never been kissed for real. Not by a man who wasn’t simply taking what he wanted because he’d paid some asshole for the pleasure. I knew that’s not what Cash was doing. He was just proving to me that I was a coward, which I already knew. Still, the kiss turned me on more than I wanted to admit, even to myself. My body was on fire, aching with need, and if he wanted me to, I’d probably drop down on my knees right now and let him do what he wanted. What they always wanted.

Except Cash wasn’t like other men, and he pulled back. “Damn, Minx, I didn’t expect that,” he panted, eyes glazed over with lust and bewildered. “You let me know, Minx, tonight as a beginning?” He turned away and I felt a pang of sadness, maybe disappointment. But why?

“Cash.”

“Yeah?” He turned a blank expression on his face.

“Tonight, and one date. I make no promises.”

His mouth curled into a sexy boyish smile that made his dimples pop and his feet began to move. “I don’t need promises, Minx, just a chance.”

I must be crazy.