Chapter 9

Jax

The following morning brought with it the torture of a hard-on and thoughts of kissing Holly on the threshold of Kim’s apartment building.

I ran my hands over my face and groaned as I remembered the way her hands had tightened on my shirt. I could still taste the lime on her tongue from her drinks and hear that soft little whimper she had made in my mouth.

The drive home after dropping her off had been confusing. I wasn’t sure why she had sent me away. Everything had been moving along nicely, and the way the air seemed to buzz with electricity when I kissed her had me convinced that she wanted me as badly as I wanted her.

Maybe I’d misread the situation.

“You never misread a woman,” I muttered to myself. Maybe she was the one who didn’t know what she wanted. She had just started a new life, after all, and had been with the same man for a long time. I couldn’t even begin to understand her side of things.

But I could understand mine. I wanted her more than I had ever wanted anyone.

I wanted to lay her down and fuck her right then. I wanted her legs to tremble as she screamed my name while I drank from her and reminded her what it was like to be with me.

She was delusional if she thought I wasn’t going to keep trying. It had taken me a long time to get over her the first time I let her get away. There was no fucking way in hell I was going to put myself through that shit again.

I’d fucked enough girls. I’d had my fun. And truth be told, it had stopped being fun a long time ago. I was envious of Ryder and Dani and Axel and Ellie. I wanted that, and the only person I could ever see myself coming home to every single day was Holly. It had always been Holly.

I lay in bed staring at my ceiling for another couple of minutes, hoping my erection would go away of its own accord and I could get on with my day without tempting my fate with a case of blue balls.

It wasn’t going to happen.

“Fuck it,” I grumbled, ripping the covers off and swinging my legs over the bed. I had time before I needed to be at the shop. I started the shower, and when the water was piping hot, I got in.

As the water rained over my shoulder and back, I wrapped my fingers around my cock and closed my eyes to think of Holly.

At first, all I pictured was her in the jeans she was wearing last night. Then, I imagined undoing them, nice and slow, and shimmying them down her hips and thighs before finally pulling them off her ankles.

The vision of her naked body had me hunched over and breathing hard as I worked myself over. The steam and the hot water had my mind conjuring up flashes of fucking Holly in the shower. I wanted to bend her over, spread her open, and slide my length deep inside her until she moaned and came all over me. If she was still the same girl I had ravaged six years ago, she would want the same things.

I came hard and fast, and my body sang with the release of it.

I finished my shower, skipped breakfast with hopes that Ellie would have some food at the shop, and dressed in my usual jeans and T-shirt. Then, I hopped on my bike and rode to work with my mind still a jumbled-up mess over how last night had ended.

“You are an absolute goddess,” I said, taking a bag from Ellie. I tore it open and peered inside to find a bagel with cream cheese. Ellie handed me a cup of coffee and smiled smugly as I took a mouthful. “An absolute fucking goddess. I’m starved.”

“Starved why? Your date go well last night?” Ellie thrust her hips back and forth and laughed as I widened my eyes. “What?”

“Don’t do that. It’s unsettling in so many ways.”

“What, this?” Ellie teased, thrusting her hips again.

“Yeah. That. Quit it.”

“Only if you tell me how it went last night.” Ellie leaned against the shop wall, sipped on her own coffee and waited patiently for my answer.

As I was about to tell her, the door to the office burst open and Jamie emerged, a coffee of her own in one hand and a half-eaten bagel in the other. Her mouth was full, but she gave me a smile anyway, which showcased white teeth covered in poppy seeds from her meal. I rolled my eyes at her as she joined Ellie against the wall.

“Come on, Hollywood. Spill the details.”

Ellie, like a lot of the other guys in the MC, still liked to occasionally call me Hollywood. It was a nickname I had earned due to my old business in New York City, which I had sold when Axel needed more help in the shop after deciding to take more time off to spend with his family. I’d traded in my suits and ties for denim and leather and hadn’t looked back.

Jamie swallowed and waggled her eyebrows. “Yeah. Spill.”

“It’s not all that exciting.” I took a bite of my bagel and shrugged my shoulders. “Just two old friends catching up over drinks. Not sure what the two of you gossips were expecting.”

Ellie smiled coyly. “Huh. Sounds to me like somebody didn’t get laid. That’s a first for you.”

“Ever think maybe I didn’t try to have sex with her?”

Ellie barked out a sharp laugh. “Oh, please. You? Not try to have sex? That’s just ridiculous. Neither of us is buying it.” She pointed her thumb at her chest and then at Jamie. “Did you say something that pissed her off?”

“What? No.” I crammed more of the bagel in my mouth, swallowed, and looked Ellie in the eye. “She blew me off, okay?”

“Really?” Ellie asked.

I hated how impressed she sounded.

“Really. I drove her home and made my move at the end of the night. At first, it was well received. Things were going really well, and right before we had a chance to get serious, she stopped. Said she had to go.” I sipped more coffee. “I think I pushed her too fast. She’s always been the kind of girl who needs to think things through. Not crazy impulsive.”

“So the opposite of the girls you usually hang around with?”

“Exactly.” I grinned.

“I always liked Holly.” Jamie pushed herself off the wall and dropped her now empty coffee cup into the garbage can. “She was nice.”

“You were what, ten the last time you saw her?” I teased.

“So?”

“Nothing.”

“Point is she’s nice. Maybe she’s intimidated by you.”

“Shut up.” I laughed. “She wouldn’t be. She knows me. We’re friends.”

“Jamie might have a point,” Ellie agreed.

“Oh, come off it. Holly isn’t intimidated by me. Trust me. That would be like you being afraid of me, Ellie.”

“You’re right. It sounds stupid when you put it like that.” Ellie crossed her arms under her breasts. “I could never be afraid of a pussy like you.”

“Why do I keep coming here?” I asked.

“You like the abuse. You know it.” Ellie nodded at the other half of my bagel still in the bag in my hand. “Hurry up and eat. We have a lot of work to do today. We’re still playing catch up, remember?”

“How could I forget?” I groaned as I hurried to finish my food and join Ellie as she started working on a new shipment of motorcycles.

After we’d worked half the day away, Axel arrived at the shop. He had Hanna with him, and the little girl came racing through the shop to leap into Ellie’s arms. Ellie made a big deal of seeing the little girl, tickling and teasing her, and then putting her down in front of one of the Harleys we had just finished.

Axel came and stood beside me as Ellie told Hanna about the first time she rode a motorcycle. Hanna, being barely four, listened in awe despite probably only understanding half of what was being said.

“So.” Axel shot me a look, and I already knew what he was going to ask. “How’d it go with Holly last night?”

“Why is everyone so damn curious about my dating life all of a sudden?”

“That bad, hey?”

“Get bent.”

Axel chuckled and crossed his arms. “So sensitive this morning.” I muttered under my breath about how I needed to get a new job and get the fuck away from these losers, but Axel pretended not to hear. Instead, he kept prying. “I was sure you’d both have a great time.”

“We did have a great time. It was like nothing had changed between us.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“There isn’t a problem.”

“She didn’t put out, huh?”

I threw my hands in the air. “Is it written on my fucking forehead or something?”

Axel looked confused.

“Ellie and Jamie—whatever. Never mind.” I rested my hip against the workbench and hooked my thumbs in the belt loops of my jeans. “It doesn’t matter that we didn’t have sex. That wasn’t the whole point of taking her out. I just wanted to spend time with her. See if she’d changed.”

“And?”

“She’s still the same old Holly. Sweet as honey. Hot as hell. Still too good for my ass.”

Axel slapped my shoulder. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. She’s not too good for you. She was too good for Kent. But you?” He clicked his tongue. “I don’t know, man. I’ve thought the two of you would make a perfect pair for a long time.”

I wanted to say “me, too,” but held my tongue.

Axel grabbed a rag from the workbench at our backs and flicked it over his shoulder. “I’m going to get to work.”

“Yeah, yeah, me too.”

As I went to return to my work, Jamie called me into the office. I stepped in, and she pointed at a manila envelope on the counter in front of her computer. “It was here when I came back in from having coffee with you guys. I don’t know who it’s for, so I thought I’d see if you knew about it?”

“No, I haven’t.” I grabbed the envelope and tore it open.

Inside were black and white printed photographs. I pulled them free, wondering if they were shots of a potential project for our shop. A lot of our customers had custom requests and would submit images of what they wanted their car or bike to look like. It was especially helpful for paint jobs or custom bodywork.

But these photos weren’t of vehicles.

I found myself scowling down at a black and white picture of Axel with Hanna and Ellie in Cliff Park, a small park not even ten minutes away from where we stood now. Hanna was wearing her hair in pigtails and was on the swing. Ellie was pushing her while Axel watched on. The picture had been taken from behind him.

The next shot was of Dani in her cruiser laughing while she talked on her cell phone.

My heart was hammering in my chest now, and my blood was rushing in my ears. Jamie was silent as she peered over my shoulder down at the photos. I could feel the nervousness coming from her as I turned to the next image.

Sabian smoking a cigarette outside the bar.

Next.

A gathering of a few guys all wearing our MC colors.

Next.

Jamie and Ellie sitting on a patio at a coffee shop, leaning across the table probably deep in gossip.

Jamie looked up at me. “Jax?” she whispered tentatively. “What is this?”

Next.

Me walking from my bike to the open bay doors of the shop.

“Fuck.” The growl came out of me, and Jamie took a step back.

The last thing in the envelope was a folded up piece of lined paper. Neatly written smack in the middle of the page in thick, black felt, was a simple message:

“Let’s get personal,

-TJ”

“Jax?” Jamie whispered, her hand closing on my elbow. “What’s this about? Who sent this? Are you in trouble?”

I shrugged her off. “No. Don’t say anything about this, all right? It stays between us for now. Give me a minute. I have to call Ryder.”

“Okay,” she said before retreating back into the shop.

I called Ryder. He didn’t answer. It was midday, and I didn’t give a damn if I had to call him a hundred times before he picked up.

He needed to know the truce was over and that the Black Hearts had made their first move.

The only good news?

We had the initials of the new Black Hearts leader, TJ.