I WATCHED her. I couldn’t help it as I sat inches from her warm, slender body. I knew nothing about the woman chatting with her friends. Her voice firm, full of authority. She barked instructions, not caring in the least if she came off as a bitch. I grunted. She would get along with Vega.
Jay’s gaze slid to mine, her eyebrows raising in question.
“Carry on,” I said, waving my hand in front of me.
“So—” she turned back around “—as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted.”
I bit back a laugh. Testing the waters, I laid down, resting my head in her lap.
“Um…what the hell do you think you’re doing?” she snapped, her eyes heating with fire.
“Your meeting bores me.” I feigned a yawn.
“My meeting bores you? Well, you shouldn’t fucking be listening in on my meetings, Angel. This is club business. Just because we fucked—”
In a quick move, I sat up and cupped her chin. Her eyes widened, but that encouraged me further. “Listen, little girl,” I growled, my words coming out smooth and deep. “Just because you feel the need to boss everyone else around, doesn’t mean you can do the same to me.”
“I’m the president of—”
“I don’t care who the fuck you are.”
“Girls, give us a minute,” Jay said quickly.
“But—”
“Now,” she snapped.
After some shuffles and a couple of complaints later, we were alone. “Oh, Jay.” I tilted her head. “It bothers you that I can make you do things you never did before. It seems to me—” I trailed a finger up her bare arm, watching the skin pucker with goose bumps “—like you’re losing control. But you enjoy it, don’t you? Being in control day in and day out is tiring. Let me take that from you, baby.”
“Never,” she breathed, her pupils dilating.
“You’re lying.” My hand slid to the back of her neck.
“How do you know that?”
“Your eyes tell your story, Jay. You don’t know how to act around me. You open yourself up, and that scares you.”
“I don’t want it to,” she whispered.
Ding, ding, ding!
Lying back down, I rested my head in her lap. “Tell me, Jay,” I said, grabbing her hand and kissing her knuckles. “What do you want out of this?”
“I want… I want you to leave me alone.”
“Nope. Not gonna happen. What else?”
She huffed, her deep-jade eyes not moving from mine. “I want to know what’s going on in my club.”
“We’ll find out.”
“We?”
“You need all the help you can get.” I nipped her inner wrist. “Don’t even bother arguing.”
“Angel—”
“Go on a date with me,” I blurted.
“Excuse me?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.
“One date. If you don’t have a good time, I’ll leave you alone.”
“Why? What’s in it for you?” She reached out to touch my face but stopped, pulling her hand back.
I smiled and sat up, my gaze landing on the men I called my brothers. We were working hard on fixing the hole in the club, but little did Jay know we had been trying to find out who did it since it happened. We may have been Special Operations, but we had connections.
“Why does something have to be in it for me? Can’t I just want to go on a date with you?” I turned toward her, wrapping my hand around her wrist. Her gaze slid to the small touch, her cheeks reddening.
“I know how men work,” she muttered.
“But you don’t know how I work. Get used to me being around, Jay, because I’m not going anywhere.”
“We fucked,” Jay said, pulling out of my touch. “Nothing more.”
“One date,” I repeated. “I want to learn more about the woman that invades my dreams.”
Her breath caught. “Fine. One date.” She held up her hand when I went to speak. “But I can leave at any time.”
“That won’t happen, but you have a deal.” I cupped her cheek, placing a soft kiss on her mouth.
Jay shivered, but she didn’t pull away.
I was impressed at her control. I knew she wanted to throw a fit. Demand why I wouldn’t leave her alone. She could have me thrown out. Although her sisters were smaller than me, I had no doubt they could give me a run for my money.
“I need to deal with this club shit,” she muttered, her warm breath caressing my lips.
“What can I do to help?” Besides making you feel better and keeping you stress free. I didn’t know why, but I felt the need to keep her safe. Something had sparked between us whether she wanted to admit it or not.
Jay pulled from my grasp and took the elastic out of her long red hair. “Just because I agreed to a date doesn’t mean I want your help, Angel,” she said, all the while running her fingers through her thick locks.
She was going to make it harder than I thought. “I’m referring to the hole in your club. I’m getting it fixed for you, and I want to help catch the person who did this.”
Jay scoffed, pulling her hair back into a ponytail. “Yeah.” She tapped my arm lightly. “You’re cute, but don’t even bother. I got this.”
“Watch the attitude, woman,” I snarled. “Or I’ll fuck that sass out of you.”
“I don’t need you or anyone,” she threw at me, her eyes narrowing to hard slits. “Everyone leaves me anyway,” she whispered.
My breath hitched at those words. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Jay shook her head and rose to her feet. “Forget what I said. It’s been fun, Angel. I’ll pay you, and you can leave. Don’t worry about fixing the hole. I’ll get someone else to do it.”
Like fuck. “Jay, you are not paying me.”
“Max,” she said, ignoring me. “Grab the girls and meet me inside,” Jay told her best friend as the tiny thing walked up to her.
“Everything okay?” Max asked, her gaze moving back and forth between us.
“Yup.” Jay nodded. “I’ll be there in a few.”
Max gave a curt nod and whistled, rounding the rest of the sisters up before heading back into the clubhouse.
What Jay and I had, although short-lived, would not be over. She was hard assed and stubborn as hell but I knew she was attracted to me. Whether she wanted to admit to it or not, she didn’t want us to be over any more than I did.
***
(Jay)
Before Angel approached me, I knew he was standing inches away from me. His spicy scent hit me hard. Leather. Sex. Male. All things I loved in a man, and it almost forced me to my knees. Whatever we had had just begun, but I had to end it before my heart got ripped out of my chest once again. I couldn’t deal. The one person I could depend on was me, and that was it.
“I will prove to you that we work well together.” Angel’s words whispered across my skin.
“You don’t know me. I don’t know you. Why are you making this more difficult than it has to be?”
A deep chuckle sounded from behind me. “Oh, little girl. You want to play this game? Fine.”
My eyes widened. “Excuse me?” I asked, turning around to face the man who didn’t give up. So why was he giving up?
“I said, fine.” He shrugged. “No date. I’ll leave you alone. But I’m still fixing up your club.”
“Angel—”
“No.” He held up a hand. “It’s on me. My boys would be happy to do it.” And with that, he walked away, whistling to himself.
“No fight?” I called out.
“Nope.” He winked, a wicked grin spread on his face.
Shit.
I watched as Angel strolled up to meet the guys as they hopped out of a black SUV. They greeted each other. Deep, rumbling laughter sounded, piercing me in the heart.
Angel nodded toward me, shaking his head as his brother whispered something in his ear.
My skin vibrated.
“Jay, you ready?” Max asked, approaching me.
“Yup.” I linked arms with her, but my mind wandered back to the man standing a few feet away.
“Are you okay?”
“Yup,” I repeated. I loved Max, but there was no way I could tell her…whatever that was. A piece of me was bothered that Angel had given up so fast. It messed with my head, and I didn’t know why I cared.
“Good, cause I have some, uh…not so good news.” Max fluffed her hair which I had come to know was her way of avoiding the inevitable. Her nervous gesture made my heart skip a beat.
“What now?” I snapped, pausing.
“Your dad and his boys are on their way.”