Chapter One

Dex

I was standing around my best friend’s house, listening to some chick I’d been ‘seeing’ for a couple of weeks talk my ear off about how she was going to decorate her new apartment. Like I give two fucks.

My gaze moved across the room… and I choked on my beer. It couldn’t be her. My ex-wife was supposed to be in Paris. The head chef at some fancy restaurant. That job was the reason she divorced me. That, and the fact that I refused to leave the MC she claimed was ruining my life and our marriage.

I eventually had to admit she was right about the club. But not until long after she was gone.

“Gimme a minute,” I said, raising a finger. “I’ll be right back.”

“No problem,” the sexy blonde said, winking at me. “I need to visit the restroom anyhow.” She glanced down the hall before leaning in to whisper, “Looks like the coast is clear if you wanna join me?”

No way was I gonna let some other women get me off with my ex in the same house. I might be a dirty pig by most people’s standards, but even I had to draw the line somewhere.

“Uh, maybe later, sweetheart.”

I surveyed the crowd for my traitorous friend, the one who was throwing this little shindig and hadn’t told me that my drop-dead gorgeous ex would be on the guest list. Wearing a skin-tight black dress that hugged all of her luscious curves and five inch heels that made me remember how much fun we’d had when she’d been wearing heels just like that… and nothing else.

“Excuse me,” I said, drawing him away from the crowd he’d been entertaining with a firm hand on his shoulder. “I need a minute.”

He grimaced as his eyes slid to Cora. “I guess I’m busted, huh?”

“I’m gonna bust you up, asshole.” I stood with my back to Cora, who was talking up some dude in a fancy suit sipping from a crystal tumbler. “How could you not tell me she was here? What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“I wanted to tell you,” he said, raising a hand. “But Cheryl didn’t think you’d come.”

“She’d be right.” Cheryl was Cora’s best friend and the person who’d introduced us nearly seven years ago. “You really think I wanna be in the same room with her?”

Our divorce was nasty. Some seriously ugly things were said before we finally cut each other loose.

“You’re gonna have to get used to it,” Jared said, tipping his beer bottle back. “Since she’s back to stay.”

“What?” I raked an unsteady hand through my hair. “Since when?”

“She came back last month. I guess she’s going to open a restaurant here.”

That had always been her dream. “Why here?”

He chuckled. “Why not here? It’s her home. All of her friends are here, her family—”

“Me.”

“I don’t think she thinks about you all that much anymore, buddy.”

Fuck off. “Who’s the douchebag she’s with?”

“Name’s Iain, I think,” Jared said, frowning. “He’s a dentist.”

Good, then he’ll know who to call when I knock all his fucking teeth out. The surge of jealousy was fierce and unexpected. It had been years since I’d reacted that way. Since the last time I saw a man put his hands on Cora in a bar. That was the fight that ended our marriage, when she told me she couldn’t handle my crazy jealousy anymore.

I wasn’t crazy jealous. I was possessive. She was mine. My fucking wife. And I wanted the world to know it. It didn’t help that she was a raven-haired knockout with stunning blue eyes who got hit on every time she left the house. Whether she’d been with me or not.

“Looks like a pussy.”

Jared grinned. “You’re not still jealous? I thought you hated her?”

There was a fine line between love and hate and seeing her again after three years reminded me how much I’d loved her. “Hate is a strong word,” I said, knocking my beer back.

“One I’m pretty sure you used to describe how you felt about her when you found out she was dating someone else three months after she left you.”

I had said that, but I hadn’t meant it. I was just so pissed when I thought about her spreading her legs for some asshole who didn’t deserve her. Not that I’d deserved her. Cora had been way out of my league. A girl from a good family who had a thing for bad boys like me. Judging by the dipshit standing next to her she’d outgrown that phase.

I hated to think of myself as a phase in her life. I was her husband. The man she’d promised to spend forever with… the name tattooed on that perfect fucking ass of hers.

“I want her outside.”

Jared raised an eyebrow. “What?”

I realized how that sounded. Not that I’d never fucked her outside before… with the risk of discovery. She was my dirty girl. Classy around others. Raunchy just for me.

“I want to talk to her outside. Get her out there for me.” It’s not like I could just walk up to her while she chatted with her date and demand she take a stroll with me. She’d probably knee me in the balls if I tried that.

“How do you expect me to do that?”

“I don’t know. Tell her Cheryl wants to talk to her. I don’t give a shit how you do it. Just do it.”

***

Cora

I wasn’t sorry when Jared told me my best friend needed to see me outside. I needed a breath of fresh air. This was my third date with Iain and I knew I’d have to cut him loose. He was getting too clingy, reminding me why I rarely dated these days.

“Hey.”

He stepped out of the shadows and I swear my heart stopped beating. I hadn’t seen Dex in almost three years and I could have sworn he was even sexier now than he was then. If that was possible.

“What are you doing out here?” I hadn’t seen him inside and there was no way I could have missed him. He stood out in any crowd. He was a mountain of a man. Cut in all the right places with longish black hair and blue eyes. And he’d never met a razor he liked. Not that I was complaining.

I shivered when I thought of that stubble brushing against my thighs when he went down on me.

He surprised me by slipping his leather jacket off and curling it around my shoulders. God, it smelled good. Like spice and sex and him. “Thanks.”

He raised a broad shoulder. “Old habits die hard, I guess.”

He’d always made it his mission to take care of me. And I’d never felt more cherished or protected than I had with him. Too bad we were too stupid and stubborn to realize that marriage required compromise, patience, and trust. I got that now. I didn’t then.

“You look good, Dex.” That was an understatement. He looked good enough to eat in faded jeans, a tight black button-down shirt that stretched across his huge biceps and black biker boots.

“So do you,” he said, his voice sounding husky. “Too fucking good.”

I smiled at the compliment. That was the thing about my ex-husband. Like it or not, he was always brutally honest. “I take it you didn’t know I was going to be here?” If he did he never would have come. We had too much bad blood between us. I was amazed we were so civil to each other now. But the night was young. With Dex anything could happen.

“No. Did you know I was?”

I shook my head, wrapping his jacket tighter around me when the breeze kicked up. “I should give this back to you. You’re probably cold.”

He smirked. “No, being around you still makes me hot as fuck.”

I’d forgotten how much I’d missed his brutal honesty and filthy mouth. I’d never been with anyone quite like him before or since and I was pretty sure I’d never meet anyone like him again.

“Time dulls the bitterness, doesn’t it?”

He surprised me with the question. Looking at me like he was trying to read my mind, I said, “Yeah, I guess we both said a lot of things we shouldn’t have.”

He called me a cock-tease who got off on guys panting after me. I called him a motherfucking criminal who had to push drugs to make a living. Those bitter fights marked some of the darkest moments of my life.

“I’m sorry,” he said, softly. “Those things I said to you towards the end.” He sighed. “I was a real asshole.”

“So was I.” I was glad we could be civil to each other now. Though I knew we’d never be friends, at least we could act like adults when we were in the same room together. “But that’s water under the bridge, right?”

“I’d like it to be.”

“Me too.”

He nodded. “So, the bitch you’re with tonight… that serious, or what?”

I planted my tongue firmly in my cheek, refusing to smile. “That’s none of your business, Dex.”

“I guess not.” He took a step closer, tugging on the lapels of his jacket. “You still look sexy as hell in my leather jacket, you know.”

He was standing so close I could almost taste the beer on his breath. He was the only man I’d ever dated who drank beer and the scent would forever remind me of him. Or the time he’d poured it all over me and licked it off.

I shuddered again, prompting him to wrap his arms around me. “You can’t still be cold.”

My eyes drifted to his lips. “I’m not. I was just remembering…” I knew we shouldn’t be going there, but I couldn’t seem to help myself.

“Remembering what?”

Dare I tell him? “That time you poured beer all over my tits,” I whispered. “And licked it off.”

He groaned, gripping my hips so I could feel his erection press against my stomach. “You can’t say shit like that.”

“Sorry.” I wasn’t really. Not when I saw the reaction it had on him. I hadn’t been fucked good and hard since Dex, and I had to admit I missed it. Most men were gentleman in the bedroom. Dex was a sexy beast who knew how to please his lady.

“Dex, I…”

An overdone blonde stepped out on the deck and I jumped back, feeling guilty, though I had no idea why. We hadn’t even kissed. And I didn’t know whether this woman was his girlfriend or… Shit. Maybe she was his wife. My best friend hadn’t mentioned Dex marrying again, but I’d asked her never to mention his name to me again. It was too painful to be reminded.

“Hey,” he said to her, frowning at me when I passed him the jacket.

“My name’s Amber,” the blonde said, eyeing me.

“Cora,” I replied.

“You two know each other?” she asked, looking from me to Dex and back again.

“Um, yeah.” I didn’t want to tell her the nature of our relationship since I wasn’t sure the nature of theirs. “We go way back.”

“Oh, you went to school together?”

“We were married, okay?” Dex snapped, looking frustrated. “We haven’t seen each other since the divorce and were just catching up. So if you don’t mind…”

“Excuse me?” she asked, glaring at Dex. “You were going down on me just last night!”

Dex groaned while I cringed, knowing I’d never be able to erase that picture.

“I think I’ll just leave you two—”

He grabbed my arm before I could slip away. “Don’t leave yet. We need to talk.”

“There’s nothing left to say.” Besides you should probably explain to the girl you’re banging why you were getting cozy with your ex-wife. “But it was good seeing you again, Dex. Maybe I’ll see you around.”

“You can count on that.”