Licking and panting. Wet clumps of fur brushed against my face and my eyes shot open as a little yelp escaped from my throat.

“Bear! Dammit!” I heard Dante’s booming voice coming before he appeared in the doorway. I gasped at the sight of him in the daylight. He was wearing nothing but jeans, with one button left open at the top, that thin treasure trail leading right into them, leading right into the amusement ride I’d so happily ridden all night long. Damn, I thought, drinking in the sight of his tan skin, his broad, tattoo slathered shoulders, his rippling muscles that felt so good beneath my fingers. “Sorry about that,” he murmured, attempting to pull Bear off the bed. Instead, the dog plopped down on Dante’s side of the bed, and curled up next to my hip.

“This guy,” Dante growled, shaking his head. “I was trying to let you sleep…” He flashed me the most adorable half-grin and my insides melted as the events of the previous night came rushing back to me.

The bar. The bikers. The fight.

Him.

What was I supposed to do now? I wondered, as I smiled up at him. Sure, he was fucking gorgeous. Beyond sexy. Beyond fuck-able - obviously. I can’t even remember how many times he made me shiver in pleasure last night. It’s a good thing we were out in the middle of nowhere, because if there’d been any neighbors, they’d surely have called the cops with all the screaming I was doing. To say it was amazing was a cruel understatement.

He was a skilled lover - patient, giving, tender and rough at all the right times.

And these were all very, very good things.

But now, the sun was up and here we were. The next morning.

We were still two strangers, with two very different lives to go back to.

And yet, I was still stranded. Still at his mercy. I couldn’t just do the walk of shame to my car and go on with my life.

My life. Whatever that was. I knew Bella would be wondering where I was by now. She was probably blowing my phone up. I wished, for the tenth time, that I’d thought to grab my purse before we ran out of the bar. I didn’t even have access to money for a cab or anything.

I was helpless and it was driving me crazy. I wasn’t used to that. Sure, I basically lived my life under my father’s thumb, but for the most part, I was self-sufficient. I lived with Bella in a two bedroom flat in Queens and I even had a job.

“Fuck!” I said, reality dawning on me all at once. “I have to get to work!”

“Well, good morning to you, too. Work? Where do you work?” Dante asked.

“At Doris DeLuca’s.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s a dress shop. I’m supposed to be there this afternoon. Will you please take me back to my car now?”

“Yeah, sure…” he replied, grinning that sexy fucking grin at me, without moving an inch.

Shit. Part of me didn’t want to leave. Bear rolled over on his back and I reached out to scratch his belly, pulling my eyes away from Dante’s. I couldn’t handle looking at him. My nipples hardened under the sheet, my sex pulsing for more of the pleasure it’d received throughout the night.

It was a good thing this dog was between us, because if he came any closer, I was bound to start begging for another round. My body was still on fire from his touch, and I could almost still feel his hands on me, his lips kissing me, his cock inside me…

“Bear, get down!” Dante barked suddenly. The dog jumped down and ran out of the room.

So much for that obstacle, I thought.

Dante turned back to me, the same hunger coursing through my veins reflected in his dark, lusty eyes.

“I’ll take you back to your car,” he growled, his voice so low I almost couldn’t hear him. “After I taste you one more time…”

And then his hands were on me once more, pulling me to him, pushing the sheets from my bare skin, his mouth falling on my skin, so hot, so wet, so urgent, so unbelievably delicious…

* * *

Dante’s clubhouse disappeared in the rearview mirror. My arms wrapped around him tightly, and I leaned into his back, inhaling the leathery scent of his cut. I sighed, my voice echoing in my own ears, the helmet he had put on my head before we left muffling the sounds of the world rushing by.

The trees along the dirt road towered over us, a stark contrast to the clear blue sky above us.

We’d hardly talked at all since waking. Which was good, I guess. Because what do you say to someone at a time like this? I didn’t want it to end, but I barely knew him. I couldn’t exactly stay at his cabin letting him devour me for the rest of our lives, no matter how amazing that sounded.

Saying goodbye was going to be hard enough. Instead, we’d let our bodies do the talking for us. Hell, singing is more like it. He played my body like an instrument.

Part of me felt like last night was a dream. A very vivid, very pleasurable, very wild dream. The kind of dream that you never wanted to wake up from. The kind of dream that was too good to be true.

But it was true. And he was still right here in my arms, our bodies vibrating together from the powerful engine between our legs.

But like a dream, it was fleeting, and it was over, and it really was too good to be true.

I couldn’t fool myself into thinking anything different.

But fuck if I wasn’t determined to milk these last few minutes with Dante, even if it was on the back of his bike. He reached back, squeezing my thigh intimately, and I swallowed hard. He’d done that yesterday on the ride over, and yet now, it seemed to say so much more.

The ride back to Otto’s went way too fast. My heart sank when I saw the sign up above. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye, but I braced myself for the inevitable. I’d just jump off the bike, give him a quick kiss, and jump in my car. Rip it off like a band-aid. It was the only way I could think to do it. The only way that would make the pain go away quickly.

When Dante slowed his bike outside of Otto’s, I felt sick with dread.

But then we both saw them at the same time, and instead of turning, Dante kept going. My heart raced as soon as I saw them. Cops. They’d blocked off the parking lot and were swarming all over Otto’s and surrounding my car. One of them was taking pictures. A huge truck from Channel Eight News was on the side of the road and there was a huge crowd of onlookers lining the street.

“What the fuck?” I muttered in my helmet, my arms wrapping tighter around Dante’s waist as he quickly turned a corner and raced out of sight.

* * *

After driving for a while, he parked the bike next to Norma’s diner and we pulled our helmets off.

“That didn’t look good,” he said.

“What the hell was that?” I asked, my voice quivering. “Why were they around my car like that?”

“I’m not sure, but we did beat up an entire bar full of bikers. The media and cops don’t usually get involved with that kind of thing too much, though.” He pulled me into his arms and stroked my back. “Listen, everything’s going to be okay. Let’s go get some breakfast and we’ll figure out what to do.”

“Yeah, sure,” I agreed, letting him lead me into the diner. As soon as we walked in, all eyes landed on us. I put my head down as the waitress led us to a booth in the back.

“You two here for breakfast?” she asked, tapping her pen on the pad of paper she was holding as we slid in across from each other.

“Yes, please,” Dante replied.

“Coffee?” she asked, snapping her gum.

“Yes, please,” he said again. She put two cups down in front of us and slowly poured coffee into them. I looked around and saw that everyone was still staring at us.

“Why is everyone looking at us?” I asked Dante after the waitress walked away.

“It’s the cut,” he dismissed. “You get used to it.”

“Oh!” I hadn’t thought of that. I took a sip of the coffee, trying to find some comfort in its warmth. “So what was going on back there?” I whispered, doing my best to ignore the stares.

“Well, those were definitely pigs.”

“But it was just a bar fight! And it happened yesterday. Wouldn’t they be gone by now?”

“Gabby,” he replied, his dark eyes growing serious. “I guess you don’t know who those bikers were. The Iron Godz are the most dangerous club on the East Coast. They’re not to be fucked with. And we fucked with them. Hard.”

“Okay. But why the cops?”

“Not sure,” he said. Was that a glimmer of worry I saw in his eyes?

“Are you afraid of them?” I asked, a ball of frazzled nerves forming in the pit of my stomach.

“Who?” he asked.

“The Iron Godz? And the cops?” I wasn’t supposed to be afraid. I was a Loprinzi. I was supposed to tough it out, remember that I was untouchable, and keep my chin up. But my gut was telling me this was not going to work out so easily.

“Hell, no,” he said with a laugh. “I can handle anything that comes my way.”

Okay, I thought, looking over at him. His confidence was reassuring but I wasn’t so sure myself. For something like this, I needed my father. There was nobody else I trusted enough to take care of this.

“I need to call my dad,” I said, looking around for a phone in the diner. Of course, I didn’t find one because nobody has pay phones anymore these days. “Can I use your cell now?” I asked Dante, just as my eyes landed on a television screen in the corner.

It couldn’t be, I thought, my stomach dropping.

“That’s me…” I whispered, the color draining from my face, as I slowly pointed at the TV, my face staring back at me. The bar. The fight. Dante and I leaving Otto’s together. It played out before my eyes in slow motion. The sound was off, but it was close enough that I could read the caption scrolling across the bottom.

“Missing mafia princess and biker boyfriend wanted for murders of two bikers…” I read, out loud.

“What the fuck?” Dante turned towards the television, then quickly turned back to me, his eyes wide with disbelief.

“Mafia princess?” he asked slowly. “What the fuck are they talking about, Gabby?” His eyes were wide with shock.

“I guess I should have told you who my dad is…”