Ellie never thought to check to see if Rex had actually left. A little after nine she heard an engine turn over in her drive and raced to the window in time to see him pulling out. When he turned his head to look back at her house, she quickly moved out from in front of the window. His face had been clearly visible, lined with worry and lack of sleep.
He stayed out there the whole night. Even after she had told him to leave, he had been worried enough about her safety to stay and keep her from any harm from her dad and his minions. He could have gone, could have left her there alone to rely on the police to come quickly enough to save her, but he hadn’t.
Within minutes, another truck pulled into her drive. She recognized the guy, an old timer from Manny’s club. It was obvious that no matter what she said, he wasn’t going to leave her unprotected.
How was she supposed to deal with all this when the way she felt and the way she thought she should feel were in conflict with each other? Returning to her desk, she sat down and opened a new document on her laptop. When she was younger and something upset her she would type it out on her old IBM, not looking at what she typed, just letting the words flow. When she was done, she would go back and read what she’d put down and see if it made more sense.
Closing her eyes, she let the words flow. Any and every thought went onto the screen. It was almost like being in a trance. When she finished, she looked at the clock. She had typed for over 30 minutes.
Words, some badly misspelled and out of order, covered the screen. It didn’t take long for a theme to appear. Despite the fact that they were nearly strangers, that his dad and hers were mortal enemies and that he had lied to her about her dad being a psychopath—she was already in love with Rex Pershing.
***
Manny sat at his regular spot, surrounded by the usual suspects and repeated the same tired lines. The speech he’d given his son earlier was nothing compared to what had taken up residence in his head over the past few years.
The first couple of years of his prison stay had been rough. He had a reputation and that reputation got tested every single day by one inmate or another wanting to make a name for themselves. More scars than he could count, broken ribs, bruised kidneys, a nose that permanently leaned to the far left and several teeth that were now made of some kind of cement were what he had to show for those first years.
He didn’t have many visitors. His son came when his foster parents encouraged it, but the visits were awkward and he always felt like he failed to show Rex that he cared about him.
Somewhere around the halfway mark he realized that most of the trouble in his life was caused by his own stupidity and rage. He could have revenge on Xander if he went about it the right way. Using his remaining time inside more wisely, he read everything he could get his hands on, learned ways to control his rage and planned out the best strategy to make sure Xander never saw the light of day again.
A commotion at the door drew his attention back to the present. A crowd had gathered at the door, blocking his view. Standing, he motioned for the others at his table to follow. People moved out of his way and he laid eyes on a tall blonde, face twisted with rage screaming at another woman who was still out of eye sight.
The blonde made a threatening motion with her arms and Manny waited to see what would happen. It wasn’t his place to step in to stop a catfight. Safer to let it play out and have them get it out of their systems. He shook his head, the man they were fighting over probably wasn’t worth a damn.
The blonde and the woman whom she was screaming at both took a step to the side. Ellie stood across from the blonde, arms crossed at her waist and an indulgent smile on her lips. That look was pure Xander and it usually meant big trouble.
He made up his mind to step in just as the blonde screamed something about Rex leaving her bed and Ellie being a fat cow. Before he could blink, Ellie had the blonde by her ears and was pulling the taller woman’s head down while raising her knee, smashing it into her face. Blood spurted from the blonde’s mouth and nose, her body hitting the ground with a thud.
Ellie saw Manny rushing towards her. Moving over the half unconscious harpy that had attacked her the minute she’d come into the club, she leaned down and got in her face before Manny could pull her away. “You should never run your mouth if you don’t have the balls to back it up. My balls are bigger than yours—and they’re real.”
Chuckles rang out all around and some of Manny’s tension eased. Still, he took Ellie by the arm and pulled her away from the circle of people, worried that someone might take up the blonde’s cause. She was the daughter of a man most people in his club despised and that would be enough for some to put a beating on her. “Come on. We’ll go to my office.”
Ellie pulled to a stop. “I need to find Rex, then I’ll get out of here. I don’t want to cause any more trouble.”
“Coming here was stupid, Ellie. What if your dad has someone following you?” Manny gestured her forward, unwilling to let her go until he got some healthy fear into her. “We’ll go to my office where I know I can keep you safe and call Rex. Okay?”
Ellie nodded and followed him down the hall. She hadn’t been in the club since she was a little kid and it was in bad shape then, worse now. It was a real shame. “Only your guy is following me.”
Manny unlocked the door and pushed it open, letting her enter before him. He closed the door behind them. “My guy isn’t trying to keep from being seen, Ellie. You can’t say the same about a spy sent by Xander.”
Ellie sat down hard on a lumpy, extremely old couch pushed up against the far wall. “This is all so surreal. Can you understand how this seems to me, Manny? I wasn’t exposed to my dad much, but I never saw him as this evil human being. Manipulative, yes. Dangerous, no. It’s like I’m trapped in some dime store mystery novel.”
Grabbing his cell out of his pocket, Manny typed in a text to Rex while she talked, but didn’t hit send. He felt sorry for the girl. He really did. “It can’t be easy to find out everything you thought you knew was a lie. The problem is, now that you know, the stakes are even higher than before.”
“I’m not happy that you two kept the truth from me.” She kept her face, and words, calm.
Her words made Manny chuckle. “We weren’t hiding the truth from you because we didn’t trust you, Ellie.” Her shocked look was all the proof he needed that he was spot on with his assessment of why she was pissed. “We kept it from you so you wouldn’t be in any more danger than you already are. I think smart people would call that ‘Plausible Deniability’”.
All she could do was shake her head. “Yeah, I guess smart people would call it just that.” She rubbed her hands over her face, tired and a little ashamed that she’d misjudged them both so badly. “Guess I’m not as smart as I think I am.”
“Ellie, you’re plenty smart. Smart but naïve when it comes to what goes on in these clubs. No one here is an angel. Not even Rex. We fight hard, we drink hard and we play hard. Most of us are good people deep down.” He sat down next to her and made her look him in the eye. “Most, but not all. Your dad, he’s bad. The kind of bad that scares good people deep down in their souls.”
Looking in his eyes she could see that he was telling the absolute truth. Manny had changed so much from the man she remembered. The angry man was gone, replaced by one who was calm and understanding. She found herself wanting to hug the rough-looking biker. “Call Rex. I have some apologizing to do.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Rex was half-awake when his cell dinged. Opening one eye he could tell it was much later in the afternoon. He flipped open his phone and through blurry eyes, clicked on the message from his dad. The words popped up and so did his attention. Jumping up, he grabbed his shirt off the end of the bed and pulled it on as he raced down the steps and around to the front of the club.
Several people tried to stop him or speak to him as he pushed his way through the Saturday crowd, but he ignored them and raced down the hallway.
He had to stop outside of the office door and try to calm his racing heart. What on earth had she been thinking? Coming here was dangerous. Still, he couldn’t wait to lay his eyes on her. It felt like he hadn’t seen her in months instead of just a few hours.
When he opened the door, he was in control and breathing more evenly. Then he saw her, sitting on his dad’s couch, smiling and laughing with Manny like they were the best of friends. “You shouldn’t have come here, Ellie.”
Manny stood up and stepped towards the door. “I’m going to leave you guys to talk.” He’d seen the hurt in Ellie’s eyes and he paused by his son to shoot him a look. He was sure that Rex got the message.
Rex closed the door behind his dad and locked it. He didn’t want any interruptions while he was talking with Ellie. She had pulled into herself and was staring at her hands. He knew his tone had been harsh and he needed to apologize for that. “I’m sorry I said that the way I did. When Dad texted and said you were here, I freaked out. What if someone from—”
She put her hands up and raised her head to look at him. “I already got the lecture from Manny. I understand. I wasn’t thinking. I’m still dealing with—everything.”
“I should have told you the truth. I thought it was for the best and I was wrong about that.” He pulled away from the door and cautiously approached her, sitting as close as he dared on the couch beside her.
“I overreacted and I’m sorry for that. Manny, he told me that you both felt it was for the best if I didn’t know. Plausible deniability and all that.” She smiled, feeling the tension leave the room. The air was clear and so was her head. Her hormones, however, were raging out of control.
Smiling back, he moved a little closer. He had been without her scent for too long. Everything about her pulled him in and made him burn. Distracted, he didn’t notice that she’d started to say something. He came in at the end of her sentence and tried to make his brain catch up. “—lied to you too. It’s been killing me.”
“Wait, what?” He made himself focus on what she was saying. “Lied about what, Ellie?”
“It’s not really a lie, per se. More like a secret.” She moved closer, laying her hand on his thigh, trying to distract him. She was pretty sure after the other night that he’d be perfectly okay with hearing what she had to tell him.
“A secret, huh?” Rex looked down at the long, scarlet-tipped fingers currently stroking up and down the top of his thigh. She was definitely trying to distract him.
“The deepest, darkest secret I have.” Leaning forward she dropped her voice and let her eyes wander over his lips. “I can trust you with that—can’t I?”
Willing to say anything at that point to get her to do more than just stare at his lips, Rex nodded his head. “Absolutely.”
She slid her cheek against his, moving her lips close to his ear. She whispered, more breath than sound. “The book that you liked so much the other night—I wrote that.”
***
“You—what?” Rex pulled back, shock making him inarticulate. Well, more than usual. “I thought you said you were an editor?”
Ellie nodded, a tinge of worry creeping in at the edges of her mind. “I write under a pseudonym. The genre of work I put out doesn’t exactly make for wanting widespread notoriety.”
He nodded, mind racing. Getting up, he paced away, his brain replaying the words he’d read yesterday at her place. His heart rate was up and his jeans were a little snug. He wondered if she knew how often she surprised him. Pleasantly surprised.
Rex could be hard to read at times and this was one of those times. Concerned, she got up and moved closer to him. “I-I’m sorry I didn’t tell you but I-I had to—” He turned and the look in his eyes had her stuttering words coming to a halt.
Neither would remember who took that first step. It wasn’t important. Rex had her in his arms and pressed against the back wall, her legs tight around his waist. He needed her, needed her scent on his skin, in his head—pressing her jaw up with his thumbs, he buried his face in the crook of her neck and inhaled her, taking her scent deep into his lungs. He wanted to make sure that he never forgot it.
Ellie held on to Rex, but didn’t move. The look in his eyes had screamed of a need so big that it had nearly overwhelmed her. She’d thought, mistakenly, that she was the one with the bigger need. She could feel his heart racing against her breast.
He wanted the taste of her on his lips. Nipping at the skin on her neck, he listened for that noise she made, that little gasp of air that always sent waves of fire zinging through his brain. Her hands fisted in the back of his shirt, pulling him closer.
Ellie wasn’t used to feeling like the world was shifting under her feet. That’s what this felt like. Something important was shifting and if he wasn’t holding her body so tightly against the wall with his own, she was sure to fall into the abyss.
The idea of having sex up against the wall was hot. The reality of it was a little more complicated. Especially when both participants were wearing jeans. The logistics of removing clothing while supporting another human being was too complicated and time consuming for the level of need he was feeling at that point. Making a swift choice, he wrapped his arms around her waist, turned and laid her on the floor, immediately pulling her shirt and bra up so he could latch on to her hard nipples.
The change of position was fast and had her head spinning and before she could clear it his mouth was on her nipples, pulling hard, making her muscles clench with need. Lust, dark and deep, roared through her system and in desperation she yanked and pulled at their clothes.
There was no finesse. Between the two of them, clothes came off and got tossed wherever. Something fell over with a crash, but neither noticed. His hands pushed her thighs wide and his fingers found her, hot and ready. His thumb raced over her clit, causing her body to arch up off the floor and a growl rumbled from low in her chest.
Despite the frantic need pushing both of them, they were quiet. The sound of rapid breaths and the occasional low moan were all that were heard. Pulling her thighs over his, Rex leaned over and slid the length of his cock inside of her. Her head tipped back and her teeth clasped onto her bottom lip to silence the scream that tried to slide up her throat.
Ellie’s hands locked around the back of Rex’s neck, pulling at him until his face was level with hers. His eyes were tightly closed and the vein in his neck was throbbing visibly. She rubbed her thumb over the spot, slowly and gently, before pressing against the vein, causing his eyes to open.
That need, that desperation, was still in his eyes, but so was something else. Something softer and fluid. Something she hadn’t seen before tonight. Before she could analyze it further, he was moving. Stroking into her body faster and faster. The quiet of earlier was broken by the sound of their flesh slapping together.
His hands gripped her shoulders hard, pulling down for leverage. Ellie gripped his upper arms and held on. She was close, so close. Remembering another time, he changed his angle of thrust and she dug her heels into the floor, matching him thrust for thrust.
Rex had moved beyond any rational thought of control. All that mattered was the feel of her heat wrapped around him and the softness in her eyes. Her eyelids fluttered and her jaw tightened just moments before she clamped down around him, her thighs locking tight around his. She was gone and taking him with her. The clenching and releasing motion of her sheath made him gasp loudly, muttering incoherently as he came deep inside her.
Her eyes opened when his forehead touched hers. Gasping, taking in each other’s breath, the moment stretched out while their bodies began to relax. Words were there, but neither of them dared speak them. It was too soon and their emotions too raw.
Eventually Ellie smiled. Happy, she pressed her lips to his in a quick, sweet kiss and pushed on his shoulders, wanting up. Reluctantly, he rolled off of her and watched lazily while she gathered up their clothes and righted the lamp his jeans had knocked over. She tossed his stuff at him, stuck
out her tongue and quickly pulled her things on.
When he didn’t get up to follow suit, Ellie put her hands on her hips and gave him a look that clearly spoke volumes against his decision to remain in his current position on the floor. “I want to go home. I want to be with you in my bed. The longer you stay here, the less time you have to be there, with me.”
That got him up and moving.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Manny was still dealing with the blonde when Rex and Ellie finally emerged from his office. He stood, silencing the screeching woman seated across from him and headed towards them. “Rex, we need to talk before you leave and yes, it’s serious. Ellie, I’m going to have someone follow you back home and stay there until Rex gets there.”
Seeing the blonde from earlier sitting at Manny’s table with an ice pack over her nose, Ellie tamped down the twinge of guilt that rose up in her chest. She hated that Manny, and now Rex, would have to deal with her, but she wasn’t ashamed of defending herself. “That sounds like a good idea.” She touched Manny’s shoulder in thanks then turned to look at a confused Rex. “Have fun. Don’t be long.”
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