Jack of Hearts (Aces & Eights Book 1)

by Sandra Owens

  There he went again, touching her. He really, really needed to stop doing that. The heat from his hand was like sticking a marshmallow in a fire and watching it flame. That was how her skin felt where his fingers curled around her arm—all marshmallowy and burning hot.

  “What?” she snapped.

  His eyes widened. “Have I done something to annoy you?”

  There was a loaded question. Yes, Alex, you have annoyed me. You touched me. I’m afraid you implanted your scent in my memory for all time. You talked about books with me, and that made me weak in the knees. You like your women stupid and beautiful. You . . . you . . . He’d never kissed her and she was thankful he hadn’t, while at the same time she was sad about it.

  “I want to go home,” she said.

  Sympathetic black eyes peered down at her. “Yeah, Ramon’s an ass, and I don’t blame you.”

  Uh-huh, that was the reason she was going with. “He is. I’m going to plead a headache, then leave the three of you to your fun.”

  “Can’t say it will be fun without you, Madison.”

  Oh God, she wished he’d stop saying her name with that sexy emphasis he put on it. Nor did she believe him. And she didn’t doubt that sometime around midnight, after he’d wrestled his dumb date away from Ramon, Alex and the I-might-be-stupid-but-I’m-every-man’s-dream woman would be tangled in the sheets.

  Who cared? Not her.

  Madison groaned as she flipped her body. She’d tried falling asleep on her left side, then on her right, and now she was flat on her stomach, no closer to sleep than an hour ago. Every time she closed her eyes, Alex was there. Seeing him in something other than his leathers, she’d literally lost her breath for a few seconds. No man had ever caused her to have those kinds of heart palpitations before, not even her last boyfriend, the one she’d thought she loved and wanted to marry.

  Madison punched her pillow in frustration. “Damn you, Alex.”

  “And damn you, Madison. You didn’t lock your window.”

  She shot up, a scream on her lips.

  “It’s me,” Alex said, gently putting his hand over her mouth. “Don’t yell.”

  Her heart was beating so fast that she pressed her hands against her chest. “You scared me. What are you doing here?” She glanced at the clock. A little before midnight. Well, if nothing else, she’d been wrong about him being in another woman’s bedroom, because now he was in hers.

  He turned on the lamp. “Why are you mad at me?”

  “Who said I was mad?” She squinted and reached over, dimming the light.

  One black brow lifted, as if he found her amusing. “You were just damning me. Must’ve had a reason.”

  Oh, let me count the ways. Although tempted, she refrained from saying it. He would want all the details. He moved to the chair and sat, as if he were visiting her in her living room during normal-people hours. As she was learning, Alex wasn’t like anyone else she knew. At some point since she last saw him, he’d changed back into his leathers, which meant he’d ridden his bike to see her. She tried not to feel any pleasure in knowing that if he’d gone home to change, he’d spent even less time with his date.

  “Did we discuss you coming here tonight, Alex? Because I don’t think we did, so go away.” If she had blinked, she would have missed how fast he moved from the chair to planting his butt—correction: totally awesome butt—on her bed, right next to her leg. If her knee inched over until it was touching his hip, it wasn’t her doing. Since when was she responsible for how her knee reacted to him?

  “After you left, I missed you.” He picked up a strand of her hair, his knuckles brushing the top of her arm, and stared at her hair as if fascinated.

  When he twined it around his fingers, she fought but lost in her effort to conceal how his touch affected her as a shiver snaked down her spine. She pushed his hand away. The man was seriously messing with her mind. Sometimes he seemed untouchable, as if he didn’t want her to know the real him. Other times, like now, she thought that if she lifted the covers, he would crawl into bed with her and hold her close.

  It was as if there were two of him: the daytime, all-business Alex, and the nighttime, mysterious and sensual Alex. He intrigued her and she hated that he did. She was a simple girl. There was more than her fair share of drama in her life between her mother, her cousin, and her uncle. She needed simple and easy, a guy who wouldn’t complicate matters any more than they already were. Alex was not that kind of man.

  He leaned his elbows onto his knees and clasped his hands, dangling them between his legs. “There are things about me you don’t know and that I can’t tell you,” he said, staring down at his feet. “I promised myself I’d stay away from you, but here I am.” He lifted his head, his eyes snaring hers. “You should tell me to go and to never come back.”

  There was a deeper message in his words than she could interpret; it was there in his eyes as he locked his gaze on to hers. A warning, but from what? And even though she knew with every fiber of her being that danger surrounded him, she couldn’t form the words to tell him to leave.

  Instead, she did what she’d wanted to do from the day she’d first met him. If nothing else, she was going to damn well know what it was like to kiss him. She crawled onto his lap, wrapped her arms around his neck, and lowered her mouth to his. He put his hands on the sides of her waist and gave what felt like a halfhearted attempt to push her away.

  “I’m trying to be noble here,” he said against her lips when she resisted his effort to lift her off him.

  She slipped her tongue inside his mouth when he opened it to speak, and he responded with a low groan.

  He wrapped her hair around his hand and tugged her head back. “You’re playing with fire, Madison.”

  “That explains why I’m so hot,” she said. He swore, then roughly pulled her mouth back to his and kissed her in a way that no man ever had. Not even trying to be gentle, he nipped stinging little bites on her bottom lip, and then soothed them with his tongue. Until Alex, she’d thought soft butterfly kisses—lips brushing against lips—were the sexiest thing ever, but his possessive demand that she let go and give as good as she got was a turn-on like no other.

  When he slipped his hand under her tank top and pressed his palm flat on her lower spine, pulling her stomach to his, she pushed her bottom down on the erection straining against the confines of his leather pants, rocking herself over him.

  He stilled. Breathing hard, he put his forehead to hers. “We can’t do this.” With little effort, he put his hands on her waist and lifted her back onto the bed.

  “I’m sorry. I forgot you have a girlfriend.” She tilted her head, eyeing him. “It appears for a few minutes there, you did, too.” Grateful her voice didn’t betray the hurt invading her heart, she pushed back against the headboard, pulling the covers up to her chest.

  “That’s not the rea—” He stopped. “Right, I forgot. That was wrong of me. I was just worried about you.” He stood. “I should go.”

  He forgot he had a freaking girlfriend? Seriously? “I don’t think you should come here again.” Even better, dump silly Taylor and come here every night.

  At the window, he paused. “I’ll be around. If Ramon messes with you again, call me.”

  She doubted she would. It was too hard being near him knowing he was off-limits. “I can handle my cousin.” Maybe.

  “Promise me, Madison.” He came to the foot of the bed and gave her a hard stare. “Promise, and then I’ll go.”

  “Fine, I promise.”

  He nodded as if satisfied, then climbed out the window. “Lock this,” he said, sticking his head back in. “Now.” And then her very own superhero disappeared into the night.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  A week had passed since Madison had crawled onto his lap and kissed him. Alex could still remember the taste of her even though he’d tried every trick in the book to forget.

  “Yo, Alex.” Court snapped his fingers in front of Alex’s face. “Wher
e’d you go?”

  “What?” He had to stop thinking of her since he obviously zoned out whenever he did. Things were heating up with Ramon, and he needed all his concentration centered on the operation.

  The woman sitting next to Alex slid her hand up his thigh, and he resisted the urge to remove it. He had willingly agreed to head out with his brothers on their Sunday night off, thinking that what he needed was to find someone to take his mind off Madison. It wasn’t working. Sure, Lisa—was that her name, or was it Risa?—was hot, and a month ago, he would have welcomed her attention. But she wasn’t Madison, and no matter how hard he tried to enjoy the feminine hand on his leg, it just wasn’t happening.

  Nate and Court had scoped out the trendy bar as soon as they’d walked in, their gazes zeroing in on the three women, obviously friends, sitting at a table near the entryway. Alex had followed his brothers, letting them do the talking. Soon, they were invited to join the women, introductions were made, and everyone was having a great time. Except him. Disturbed over his lack of interest, a first for him, he’d put forth the effort to join the fun. It wasn’t working, and for the last hour, he’d been ignoring the puzzled glances of his brothers.

  Was Madison okay? He had checked his text messages constantly, thinking he’d be relieved there wasn’t any word from her. He’d thought wrong. How soon could he get away with leaving and not getting the third degree from his brothers?

  His phone pinged with a text, and he slipped it out of his pocket, discreetly reading the message. Although he was disappointed it wasn’t from Madison, it gave him the perfect excuse to leave.

  “Ramon,” he mouthed to Nate. He stood. “My apologies, ladies, but I have an emergency.”

  “Will you be back?” Lisa or Risa said.

  “Afraid not.” He gave her a regretful smile. “I’ll grab a cab,” he told his brothers, leaving them the car since they’d ridden together.

  “I’ll walk you out,” Nate said.

  And here comes the third degree. “Ramon wants to meet up with me.” Hopefully that would divert Nate’s attention.

  “I figured.” Nate eyed him in the way that always made Alex want to squirm. “You’re off your game, Alex. Actually, you’ve not been yourself for a week or so. What’s going on?”

  Alex came close to spilling everything, because that was the effect the Nate Look had had on him from the time he was a boy. They walked out onto the street, the steamy air from a recent rain shower hanging heavily around them. Even though it was near midnight, it was damn hot. It was time to tell his brothers about Madison, but not now, standing outside a popular nightclub. The longer Alex kept Madison a secret, the more pissed Nate would be when he learned about her. His brothers knew him too well and were already aware that something was going on with him. If he didn’t explain soon, Nate would tie him to a chair and interrogate him until he blabbed all. Might as well get it over with.

  “There is something on my mind.” He raised a hand, waving at a taxi parked down the block. “Tell Court to meet us for lunch tomorrow, and I’ll fill you both in at the same time.”

  “Come up to my place. I’ll have sandwiches from the deli delivered.”

  The hand Nate had put on his shoulder was comforting, and not for the first time Alex’s heart swelled with love for his brothers. Their father had been a cruel man with a quick temper and heavy hand. The day had finally come when their mother had left, and Alex couldn’t blame her for that. He did, however, blame her for not taking her sons with her, leaving them with a man she’d seen knock them around at the slightest provocation. Most times the bastard didn’t need a reason. If not for his older brothers, Alex wasn’t sure he would have survived.

  “Great. See you tomorrow.” He opened the back door of the cab.

  “Be careful around Ramon, brother.”

  “Always am.”

  During the ride to Ramon’s, Alex tried to block the memories that had reared their ugly head, but there were times when his father refused to be banished from his mind. Like the day five-year-old Alex had dropped the heavy bucket of slop while carrying it to the pigpen. He still had scars on his back from the old man’s belt buckle. For some reason, he was more of a disappointment to his father than Nate or Court. Or maybe as the smallest boy, he’d been easier to pick on. Who knew where that bastard was concerned?

  It would have been worse if Nate and Court hadn’t dragged him away whenever their father was in a rage, all three of them hiding in the woods until their father passed out—a nightly occurrence—and they could sneak back into the house.

  Their mother had been too afraid of her husband to stick up for them, and they hadn’t wanted her to. She got enough beatings on her own. Until she’d left them, there was always a meal waiting for them when they would come out of hiding.

  And then there was his son-of-a-bitch father with his visions of grandeur, always bragging about how he was going to turn their five acres of dirt into a thousand-acre cattle ranch to breed prime Angus beef. Unless he’d been some kind of magician—which he wasn’t, just a mean drunk—there was no way that piece-of-shit land, their three pigs, a yard full of chickens, and one ornery milk cow were going to morph into a fancy ranch.

  “As soon as my useless sons get off their lily-white asses and pull their weight, we’ll have us that ranch. Cain’t do it all myself, boys” was the old man’s favorite saying. And that was when he was in a good mood, which was seldom. Most times, they were working their lily-white asses off while ducking the old man’s fists.

  The only reason they hadn’t flunked out of school every year was because their mother had been fierce about making them study and do their homework. Never mind that they could barely keep their eyes open sitting around the scratched-up, wobbly table each night while their father drunkenly snored away, passed out in his plaid La-Z-Boy.

  “I want you boys to be more than your father, and an education is the only way that will happen” was her favorite saying.

  He’d never forget the day he watched his half–Seminole Indian mother walking down the dirt road, knowing he’d never see her again. She’d gathered her sons one day when their father had gone into town, told them she loved them, but that she had to leave. When they had begged her to take them with her, she’d smiled her sad smile.

  “This is the hardest day of my life, leaving you in the hands of your father. If I take you, he will find us and kill us all. This he has sworn to do if I dared such a thing. There is a reason I must go, but you are strong boys and you will grow up to be men I can be proud of.” She had kissed each of them as tears streamed down her face. “Nathan, you will see that you and your brothers study hard and get good grades. Court, you will help your older brother protect Alex.” She’d knelt then. “My baby. This will be the hardest for you, but be brave and strong for your brothers. Can you do that?”

  Alex stared out the taxi window, remembering how he’d promised to be strong even as hot tears had flowed down his cheeks and burned his skin. He’d been seven that day, the last time he’d cried. Brave, strong boys didn’t cry, and after that, no matter how heavy his father’s hand was, he’d willed away his tears.

  That had been the saddest day of his life. The day his father keeled over and died had been the happiest. Nate had been seventeen, and having stepped into the role of mother at age eleven—continuing their late-night study sessions, keeping them fed and clean— upon the old man’s death, he had stepped into the role of father, too. He’d pushed them hard to maintain their good grades, to follow him into college, and after they’d gotten their degrees, Nate had recruited him and Court into the FBI.

  No, he hadn’t cried since watching his mother walk away with slumped shoulders, but his damn eyes were burning from all the remembering. Not in the best of moods to be hooking up with Ramon, he did what he knew how to do best. He crushed the video streaming through his mind belonging to that lost boy.

  He paid the driver, pausing as he exited the taxi to survey the newest South
Beach hot spot where Ramon had said to meet him. Purple, pink, and turquoise neon lights pulsated, screaming out the name of the club. A line of people dressed in their hottest clubbing clothes wound around the corner, hoping to get into Rage. Alex hated places like this, but work was work, so he walked up to the bouncer, knowing that because Ramon had invited him here his name would be on the list.

  “Alex Gentry,” he said.

  The man eyed his phone, scrolling down the screen with his thumb. “Yep. You can go in.”

  “Can I be your date?” a pretty brunette said, slipping out of line and linking her arm around his.

  He smiled at her. “Why not.” Once inside, he freed his arm. “Go play,” he said.

  “What if I want to play with you?” She blinked long lashes at him.

  “Define play,” he said, lifting his mouth in a half smile that he’d learned women loved.

  “I love games, if that answers your question,” she said, her gaze leveled on his mouth.

  Hell. He couldn’t do this. There wasn’t a future in the cards with Madison, but he couldn’t see her again knowing his mouth had been on another woman’s. And he would see her again, that was inevitable as she was Ramon’s cousin.

  “I’m not the man for you, gorgeous.” He gave her a gentle push. “Enjoy your evening.” Without waiting to hear a protest, he lost himself in the crowd. The place was suffocatingly packed, and while normally he thrived on this kind of action, all Alex wanted to do was go home.

  Where the hell was Ramon? The overwhelming scents of perfumes and colognes assaulted his nostrils as he pushed his way through the crowd. About the time he’d decided to say to hell with it and walk out, a beefy hand clamped down on his shoulder.

  Alex spun, caught the man’s fingers in his grip, and bent one back. “Don’t ever touch me like that again, man.” He’d known it was one of Ramon’s men, but the only way to get respect from these dudes was to be meaner than they were.

  The oversized, gym-muscled man squealed. “Damn, that hurts. Let go.”