Harlow

“Stop this truck. Stop this truck. Pull over.”

I was sifting through what the fuck just happened and I knew one thing. I had stepped in a viper’s nest of biker gangs. I’d killed a Hawk, I’d made love to a Saint, and I’d put myself at the center of something dangerous. I was just trying to get my dogs to their families.

I really couldn’t sort through it in any sort of sane way, except I needed Kade and everything associated with him out of my fucking truck!

“If I leave you and this truck, you’re dead within an hour.”

“Really? Ever since you showed up, I have had one near death experience after another. I think I’ll be much safer if you get out of my life. Immediately.”

I cringed inside at the fact that I had not only let Kade come to my rescue, I’d let him make love to me. Even the passing thought of it had me suppress a shiver in my core. The one time I let my hormones take over and turn into a puddle of idiot, it turns out to be life or death.

I looked at Kade. His jaw was set and the soft sides I’d seen with Tookie and with me was gone.

“I’m not getting out of your truck, or your life, for that matter, so you may as well get that straight.”

“I am going to call the cops, just like I should have in the beginning.” Goddamnit, why had I worried about keeping Rudy a float? I had squelched my common sense for the dogs and for Rudy.

“Going to the cops? You just killed a man if that Hawk is telling the truth. And you have a truck full of illegal weapons.”

Kade’s voice was low and calm but there wasn’t any mistaking that he was in charge. I didn’t have a chance in hell of getting him out of my truck or life right now. But I was still struggling to try to gain some control.

“And you knew about it the entire time. You’re a fucking liar!”

“Yes, I lied.”

I was a fool that much I knew. And I was livid.

“So is the badass biker with rage issues the real you or is it that guy who helped me with the dogs? I’d love to know.” I was poking a hornet’s nest, that’s what it felt like. But I was angry, confused, and there seemed to be no explanation for all that had happened in the last few days.

“I will answer your questions, as much as I can, and you’re going to get me over the border.”

“Why the hell would I do one thing that you said after all this?”

“Because I am going to get you out of this and keep you safe.”

“I think what you’re trying to keep safe is illegal guns. You don’t give a shit about me.”

I saw him wince at that. Good. Maybe he didn’t like thinking he was the bad guy. But in the last hour, I’d gotten real clear that all these men were bad guys.

“I care about you, more than you know. Now calm the fuck down and clean up.”

I lost my shit. I was enraged. He was giving me goddamn orders like that after I saved his ass after he’d smuggled guns under my nose? He cared about me? – that was ridiculous! I was ridiculous.

I grabbed his arm and jerked it from the steering wheel. I kicked at his legs. The truck swerved. Kade put up his arm and I hit at it with my fists. I had no idea if actual words were coming out of my mouth but I was yelling. That much I knew.

“Jesus Christ, Harlow.”

Kade took my tirade like I was an annoying insect. He pulled the truck off the road and brought it to a stop. I took the opportunity to open the door, and I ran. We were miles from anywhere, anyone.

I had lost complete control of my emotions and my situation, so I ran.

I heard Kade behind me, chasing me. Was he trying to stop me, save me, kill me? I didn’t know and wouldn’t bet on any of the possibilities.

His hand reached my arm, and he pulled me back.

“Harlow. Stop. Stop,” he said, and I thrashed against him.

“You fucking liar,” I yelled and he pulled me into his chest. His arms were strong around me. He was solid against my body, which felt like it was flying into a million pieces.

“I know. I am. You can’t run off. I’m not going to hurt you. I’d never hurt you.”

He was smoothing my hair with his hands; he was settling my flailing with his strength. And dammit, my body reacted to his touch. It remembered, even if I was trying to block it out, how good Kade felt against my skin.

I was wrapped in his arms, writhing, and somewhere the writhing away from him turned into writhing to get closer. I felt my mouth on his and he kissed me back, hard. I was a wild animal still, but my instinct to run had changed into need.

I clawed to get closer to Kade, and he took my unhinged emotion and channeled it into something savage between us. Kade’s lips were hard on mine as his tongue invaded. I leaned back and his hands gripped my ass. It hurt but only in a way that made me want more. His lips trailed down my neck, and I felt them on my nipple. Raw need was turning every inch of me into a place I wanted Kade to be.

We fell to the dusty ground. I felt Kade’s hands pull down my jeans. My t-shirt was in shreds. I kissed his temple, his jaw, his ear, and I felt his fingers sink into my sex.

“Kade!” I thanked God we were on a deserted stretch of road with no car, no person, in any direction. I yelled his name into the air as I felt him pulse. It was driving me insane. He pulled out and I was momentarily bereft.

“Come on.” He lifted me up and carried me in his arms back to the truck. I climbed in and he after me. He sat on the passenger seat and I ripped off every stitch of clothing that kept me from him. He pulled me on his lap and I straddled him. He was massive and I felt every inch of him in the softest parts of me.

“Kade.” This time it was a sigh as I rocked my body on top of him. I chanced a look at his face. His eyes were trained on me, as I lost all control. I felt Kade’s hands on my hip bones and then one slid back to my ass. The other hand at the base of my head, supporting my spine that now seemed made of sense and electricity.

He pushed me closer, sealing our bodies together in a way that had me screaming out for release. I rocked harder on him and his motion matched mine.

“That’s it, that’s it,” he said and then leaned in and kissed my neck, pulling me closer.

“Yes, yes,” I whispered and felt every cell in me trained on his heat in my center. I came hard in the midst of all the emotions that swirled around me.

Kade made that growling sound that I’d heard before and balanced my frantic response to his hands, his cock, his lips.

He matched his climax to mine. It had happened in the space of fewer than five minutes: me running, him catching me, and me losing myself to the attraction I had for him.

My limbs went from taught and coiled to liquid. I held tight to him. Part of me hated him, hated myself for giving in to my body this way.

“Kade, please don’t hurt me. I can’t stay away from you.” I was begging him. I realized as my body tried to make sense of the pleasure that Kade gave me that I was powerless to stay away from it. I didn’t want to. I wanted him again and again. From his smell to his touch to his voice. Everything about Kade had me wanting to surrender.

“I will never, ever hurt you.” He slid me around and cradled me on his lap. I was as vulnerable as a human could be, naked, at his mercy, and happy to be so. Even if this was the stupidest thing I’d ever done.

“I don’t want to fight you. But the guns, you knew all along why they were chasing me,” I said, and it was true.

“You don’t have to fight me. I’ll tell you everything. Shh...” he reassured me, knowing that, for the moment, just holding me was what I wanted. What I needed.

“Okay.” He smoothed my hair and then trailed kisses on my shoulder.

“I’m going to keep you safe. Period. You just have to trust me.”

“I do.” And I did. I may be doomed, I may be stupid, but I was Kade’s. I hadn’t planned to fall in love, or lust, or whatever this was, but it was happening. It had happened.

I had always kept my head around men. I had always made calculated decisions that factored in only what I planned to do for my animals and for the karma bank I was trying to balance. I had never just let shit fly like this.

But there was no denying that I was going where Kade said I should go. I was trusting that he didn’t want to hurt me. I was relying on the fact that he was standing between me and those asshole Hawks. All this was my body trusting his body.

My body and soul wanted Kade, and no matter how illogical or wild the rest of it was, I was here.

I was with Kade. I still had questions. And I had a million worries about where this truck was going next.

“You’re the most important thing in the world to me. I don’t know how it happened but it happened for me at the truck stop. Right away,” Kade whispered it in my ear. I felt the soft hairs on my arms stand up.

I knew he was speaking his truth.

“You’re cold. Come on, hide in the back. We’re going to get to a motel.”

“Yeah, a shower would be nice, and a bed.”

“Coming up.”

Kade and I assumed our now familiar places in my truck.

I couldn’t think anymore tonight. I couldn’t argue. I needed to rest.

I needed a few hours of safety to figure out if I was doing the right thing or making a mistake that would get me killed.