For years she’d ignored the background static of her life, pretended that she was simply somewhere else. In high school she’d put her head down and plowed through her classes, ignoring the insults of the boys she’d once chased and the girls who’d never liked her. She’d smiled her way through graduation when her mom had worn a tube top that prompted catcalls from her classmates. After school she’d dyed her hair back to its natural brown and changed her name and taken a job in Aspen, and that had been the end of it. She’d been done.
Except that it wasn’t done. Jane had started over, but she hadn’t gone far enough.
She should have moved to Denver. New York. London.
Why hadn’t she gone farther?
She knew why. Arrogance. John McInnis Architecture had been her very first job. It had been a stepping stone. A way to save money for college. But she’d been good at it. Really good. She’d worked her way from file clerk to receptionist to personal assistant to Mr. McInnis. It had been invigorating, being good at something. Being respected. Being deferred to. Pride had filled her like a drug.
She’d worked for Mr. McInnis for three years before he’d retired and recommended her to help start Quinn Jennings’s new office. Then her fate had truly been sealed, because Mr. Jennings had given her a small stake in the company as a starting bonus. Her transformation had been complete. She’d become a businesswoman. An office manager. A partner.
And if she occasionally ran into people from her old life, it didn’t matter. They didn’t see her. She wasn’t that girl anymore. She’d let herself be lulled into thinking she was safe. The static had been reduced to a faint hum. The sound of a television turned on in the next apartment.
Until now.
Chase watched her patiently. She didn’t want to tell him. But even dressed as she was, he didn’t seem to recognize the truth about her. He didn’t point and call her a slut. To him, this person was the disguise.
She took a deep breath and blurted out, “My brother Jessie’s in trouble.”
“Jessie,” he said, frowning, as if he’d never heard of her brother. Thank God.
“He’s in trouble and I’m trying to help him out of it.”
“What’s going on, Jane?”
She bit her lip, thinking. “You can’t tell anyone.”
“I’m the soul of discretion.”
Jane glanced nervously around. Jessie’s two best friends were still there, living it up, totally unconcerned with their friend’s incarceration. What jackasses. They were a little blurry to her, but she could clearly see the way they laughed and pushed each other and hooted at every girl who strolled past. Within thirty seconds of approaching them, Jane had been propositioned in the least appealing way. Hey, you ever taken it from both ends at once?
Good God. There wasn’t an ounce of subtlety between them. They didn’t seem capable of stealing car stereos, much less dealing drugs.
“My brother Jessie’s been arrested. I think the police are trying to set him up for something he didn’t do.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes. I was hoping his friends might know something. Or I thought they might give something away. They’re obviously Dumb and Dumber.”
Chase craned his neck to see where she was looking. “Those two guys you were dancing with?”
“Yes.”
“You want me to see if I can strike up a conversation?”
Did she? Jane considered his offer carefully, but the further she moved down this insane path, the more ridiculous it seemed. She’d clearly come here tonight out of a crazed need to do something. Anything. Even if it meant dressing up like a floozy and flirting with losers and pissing off her stepdad.
A distracted waitress slapped two plates on the table and hurried away.
Jane sighed. “No, thanks. Mac was right. This was a stupid idea and I don’t know what I’m doing here. I’m tilting at windmills.”
“You’re what?”
“Flailing. Uselessly.”
Chase ignored his burger and reached for her hand. “This is why you were so upset yesterday, right? I wish you’d told me. I’ll help if I can. You seem a little out of your element.”
Did she? Well, that was really nice of him to say. “Thank you.”
He let go of her hand and reached for the greasy burger. “So why do you suspect the police are setting him up for something?”
“They found him with stolen goods, but they’re asking him questions about a woman he doesn’t know.”
“That’s it?”
She shrugged and pushed a French fry around on her plate. “Innocent people get convicted all the time.”
“You think so?”
Yeah, she sure did.
Jane finally took a bite of her burger. Salt and fat flooded her tongue, an abrupt reminder that she’d skipped lunch today. Her body went limp with relief. Maybe she hadn’t been thinking clearly. She hadn’t slept well since Saturday. She’d been skipping meals to make phone calls and do research. Now she was trying to help her brother by starring in a bad movie about the good girl who goes undercover.
How utterly idiotic.
Her eyes burned with sudden tears, but Jane simply closed them and chewed. Every bite left her feeling a little stronger, a little more clearheaded. She couldn’t trust the police or the D.A. to treat her brother fairly. But there had to be a better way than this. There had to be.
“Hey, are you okay?” Chase asked.
“I…” She opened her eyes, praying that no tears had escaped her control. They hadn’t. “I think I am, actually. Thanks.”
“So you don’t want me to escort you around the bar in hopes we can overhear a criminal confession?”
Jane narrowed her eyes. “Are you making fun of me?”
“Only because you have hamburger grease on your nose.”
“Oh. Crud.”
“Also, you look very cute, dressed like that and saying things like crud.”
“Shut up,” she demanded, though she was laughing when she said it. And just a few minutes ago she’d been on the verge of crying. Maybe it was the comfort food. Or maybe it was Chase. He was the human version of comfort food. Bad for her. Delicious. A physical reminder of her past. Warm and filling. Relaxing.
He reached toward her with a paper napkin and swiped at the end of her nose.
“I’m a mess,” Jane groaned.
“No, I got it.”
“I mean I’m a mess. A real mess.”
“No way. You’re the most together person I’ve ever met.”
“Clearly I’m not.”
“Jane,” he scoffed. “You’re smart. You’re calm. You’re professional and capable and a total office badass. You scare big construction guys into behaving like frightened schoolgirls, and you’re what? Thirty?”
“Twenty-nine.”
“Sorry.”
She waved off his cringe. “I’m not professional and capable now.”
He flashed a grin. “No, but you are pretty amazing.”
Jane automatically glanced down to her chest, then looked up to find his eyebrows rising.
“That’s not what I meant. But, um…bravo.”
“Oh, God.” Mortification heated her cheeks to instant fire.
Chase burst out laughing, and suddenly Jane was laughing, too, leaning against the table and laughing and trying to keep her cleavage from becoming indecent exposure, all at the same time.
She was on a date at a biker bar with an inappropriate guy. She was eating a greasy hamburger in slutty clothes while her brother was in jail. And she was having fun.
Jane started on her fries. When she looked up a few moments later, she found Chase frowning at her plate. “What?”
“I’m trying to figure out your fry selection process.”
“My what?” She laughed.
“Your selection process.” He gestured toward her plate. “You’re picking through those fries like you’re looking for something specific. What is it?”
�
��Um…” She looked down at the fry she was holding. She’d never thought about it before, but she supposed she did have a fry hierarchy. “I like the short ones first. They’re perfectly crispy but tender on the inside. Then the long ones. Still crispy on the edges, but maybe too soft toward the middle.”
“Then what?”
“Then I move onto the long fries with narrow, crunchy ends. If you break the ends off, they’re fine. After that, it all breaks down according to my desperation. How do you choose fries?”
“Me?” He leaned forward, eyes narrowing with concentration. “I study the pile…”
“Mmm-hmm.”
“And then I eat all the ones on top first. The ones on the bottom come last.”
She rolled her eyes. “That’s pitiful. You’ve got no standards.”
Chase shrugged. “I like my fries like I like my women—hot and ready to be eaten.”
“Oh, God.” She managed not to spit out her mouthful of fries, but after a quick sip of Coke, she looked at Chase and found him wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. Then she was lost. She laughed so hard she snorted and had to hope the sound was lost in the guitar solo screeching through the speakers. They were protected a bit by the high backs of the booth, but not nearly enough. She might not have outgrown her taste for men like Chase, but she’d definitely outgrown her love of guitar rock.
Once her laughter died, she threw a hopeless look toward Jessie’s friends. She hated to walk away from this scheme, but knew she had to. “You want to get out of here?”
“Now?” Chase asked. “Well, I’d file an official complaint about the length of this so-called date, but I’ll give you a pass, considering.”
“I’m sorry. I just want to go home and change.”
“It’s fine,” he said. “Let’s get you out of here.”
She took his hand thankfully and let him lead her out. Even over the music she heard one of Jessie’s friends shout, “Hey, babe, where ya going?” Chase squeezed her hand tighter—offering comfort or just feeling pissed, she couldn’t tell.
The darkness surprised her when she stepped outside. It was later than she’d thought, and Jane was damn grateful for Chase’s presence when she was forced to stroll past a rough-looking group of guys. These were real bikers, not guys who liked to ride Harleys on the weekend. She recognized the skull insignia on the jackets, marking them as a gang from Grand Junction.
The men stared at her bare thighs but didn’t say a word, and Jane didn’t protest when Chase walked her across the dark parking lot toward her car.
“Jane, what are you planning to do?”
Her shoulders tightened. She had no idea what she was going to do. Who could she turn to for advice? Chase was the only one who had even a clue who she really was.
They stopped next to her car, and Jane cleared her throat so she could speak past the rising anxiety. “No one knows about my family, Chase. I…” Disloyalty was an ugly feeling, but she wasn’t going to deny her flaws. “I love them, but I’m not like them. I don’t want anyone to know. I don’t want my brother’s legal problems affecting my career.”
“I won’t say a word.”
She glanced up at him, wishing he could help her in some way. Wishing she were the kind of person who knew how to ask for help.
“You can trust me,” he said.
She shook her head against the warmth of his words. “I hardly even know you.”
Though his expression was hard to make out in the dark, his shoulders cast a big shadow when he shrugged. “You know what you know.”
Well, that sort of meant nothing, but he was still right. So far, he’d been a really good guy, despite his tattoos and boots and fascination with explosions. He might not recognize Don Quixote, but he did know how to worry over a woman’s safety.
Jane crossed her arms and leaned against the door of her car. “You don’t know anything about the law, do you?”
He was quiet for a moment. His boots scraped against the gravel when he shifted. “Not much, no. My dad was a cop a long time ago.”
“I don’t know what to do.” Saying it should have made her feel weak, but somehow she felt a little better. Or maybe that was the way Chase’s shoulders got bigger when he shifted toward her.
“I can’t say I know, either, but you’ve got to have at least one person you can talk to.”
“Like you?”
His head cocked to the side. “I already know your secret, and you clearly need to bounce ideas off someone. I can be the person who says, ‘Maybe going half-dressed to a biker bar isn’t the best way to help your brother.’”
She reached out her hand to give him a scolding little shove, but he didn’t move. Chase was solid, in more ways than one. And Jane was tempted in more than one way, too. “I don’t want to be accused of leading you on….”
“You mean if you reach out to me I might think you’re my special gal and make a pest of myself?”
She smiled. “Something like that.”
“I’ll try to control myself.”
Hard music leaked out of the bar, offsetting the romance of the starry sky above her. The night might be beautiful, but the setting was dark and seedy.
She thought of the way Chase had confronted Mac, with bared teeth and clenched fists. The threats he’d snarled as he’d tried to protect her, a woman he barely had a connection to.
“Is your ear all right?” she murmured, reaching toward his head. She ran a finger down his temple, afraid to touch the injury itself.
His voice dropped a notch. “I think I’ll be okay.”
His stubble rasped against her fingertips, and the feel of it sent shivers deep into her skin. It was dark and he was big and rough. She didn’t even need to think of what he’d done to her last Friday night; she was wet already just from the sight of his wide body looming over her in the faint neon glare of the bar.
Curving her hand around the back of his neck, Jane pulled him down, happy to note he didn’t need much pulling.
His hands spread over her shoulders as if he’d been thinking of touching her for a while. His lips pressed hot and hungry against her mouth. The taste of him was a shot of adrenaline. Every nerve in her body sprang to life, and now she was definitely remembering what they’d done on Friday.
When his tongue plunged into her in a familiar rhythm, Jane knew she had to have him again. Had to. It wasn’t desire, it was need.
Everywhere he touched was naked skin. Her shoulders, arms, back. His hands moved restlessly over her, calluses adding just the right friction. Jane snuck her hand beneath his T-shirt to feel his skin, too, and in the dark it was as if they were naked already, clasped together, arching and sighing.
His groan rumbled into her as his mouth angled deeper. She moaned her own encouragement when one of his hands slipped down the front of her shirt. He cradled the weight of her breast, thumb stroking over her nipple. Oh, yes. Oh, man. He deserved a reward for his initiative.
Jane rubbed her hand over the front of his jeans, pressing against the bulge there. Apparently he was surprised, because Chase jumped in shock, bumping his nose into hers.
Laughing, she stroked him, then snuck her other hand down the back of his jeans to press her nails to his tight ass.
“Christ,” he hissed, fingers tightening on her breast. His free hand swept up her thigh. The skirt was too short to provide any barrier at all, and Jane didn’t even have time to draw a breath before he plunged his hand into her panties and slipped his fingers along her wetness.
“Yes,” she whispered. “Yes.”
He pushed one finger in, the pressure arching her back along the curve of the steel behind her. She fumbled blindly for the button of his jeans.
“Not here,” he rumbled.
“Yes, here.”
“I’ll take you home.”
“No.” The button finally gave in to her clumsy hands. “I can’t wait. Please.”
“Not here,” he insisted, but she wanted it here. She wanted it in a par
king lot, in public, against a car with the background music of a trashy bar as the soundtrack. She wanted to be used, wanted to feel that cheap rush of need and desperation.
“Jane,” he said, “Anyone could—”
She stopped his stupid argument by wrapping her hand around his naked cock. The words died a rough death in his throat. “Fuck me, Chase. Right here.”
“Goddamn it,” he groaned as she stroked him. Despite his curse, he plunged another finger into her and kissed her to stop her sharp cry.
The truck next to her suddenly chirped, its lights flashing briefly. Jane gasped, but Chase didn’t react. “Get in my truck,” he growled.
“I don’t want to go—”
“I’ll fuck you here if that’s what you want, damn it. Get in.”
His crude words thrilled her, and Jane let him move her the few feet to the passenger door of his truck. She followed him in and slipped off her panties so she could straddle him. While he was still sliding on a condom, Jane nudged the straps of her tank top off and pushed it down to bunch at her waist before climbing atop him.
She took him deep and true with one hard drop of her hips.
“Christ,” he whispered, his hands squeezing her arms too tight.
Needing to feel the way he filled her, Jane didn’t move for a moment; she just closed her eyes and breathed. The music filtered through the windshield, muted but still there. A pack of bikes roared out of the parking lot. She opened her eyes to find their headlights flashing close enough to make her breath hitch. The close call made her sex beat harder.
Jane squeezed her thighs and began to ride him.
Chase drew in a hard breath. “God, you’re beautiful.” The neon limned his face in red.
She rose slowly, marveling at the length of him as she slid up, then filled herself with him again. “You’re perfect, Chase. Just perfect.”
His mouth closed over her nipple, cutting off her ability to speak. She could only groan and sigh as he gripped her hips and set the pace he wanted.
This wasn’t the first time she’d had sex in the parking lot of Ryders. As a teenager she hadn’t been wise or choosy, and she’d gotten more stupid with every wine cooler she’d finagled from the wolves at the bar. So no, this wasn’t her first time being used in the parking lot of Ryders, but it would clearly be the best. Because Chase was the kind of guy who took his pleasure in pleasing a woman. He wouldn’t try to get by with a quick finish and halfhearted “Thanks, babe.” He meant to make her come, and Jane meant to oblige him.
Lead Me On Page 9
