“Do you feel it?”
A shiver ran down her spine. Feel it? One more bite like that and she’d come just from the pressure of his thigh on her clit. “Yes.” The word escaped her lips in a moan, a plea for more, although she didn’t know what more there could be than an arousal so fierce she would give anything to come right now.
Zane pulled a condom from his back pocket, and tore it open with his teeth. Evie moved back as he sheathed himself, wondering how different life would be if they’d taken that precaution before. But then she wouldn’t have Ty or the memories of that beautiful night.
And then his hands were on her hips and he was lifting her, bracing her between his broad chest and the wall, until his cock pressed against her entrance, a delicious, tantalizing pleasure.
“Don’t stop.” She wrapped her legs around his narrow hips, trembling as he lowered her inch by inch over his shaft, giving her time to accommodate to his size. Her sex throbbed as he slid deeper and deeper until he was fully seated in her core, as close as two people could be, as close as they had been the last time they were together, except then she had given herself completely to him, body and soul.
“Fuck.” He grabbed her hips and they moved together, Evie bracing her forearms on his shoulders, trying to match his steady rhythm with her own. Unlike their first time together, their joining wasn’t slow or tender. There was no exploration, no kisses, no hesitation. It was hard, desperate, animal fucking, and she was totally on board.
Her orgasm built, climbing higher and higher, flaming her blood until sweat trickled between her breasts. Close. But not close enough.
“Zane,” she panted her breaths. “I need—”
“I got you, sweetheart.” He reached between them to stroke her clit. One touch was all she needed. One touch and she had to bite her lip to hold back the scream as she climaxed, riding his long, deep thrusts as wave after wave of pleasure spiraled out to her fingers and toes.
Zane drew out her orgasm, driving his cock deeper as her sex rippled around him. Finally, he stiffened and groaned, his shaft becoming impossibly hard before he climaxed, the throb of his orgasm sending tiny aftershocks through her pussy.
Evie collapsed against him, resting her forehead on his shoulder as she caught her breath. It felt too good to be with him like this, too right. Dangerous.
“You’re real after all,” he murmured, stroking a warm hand down her back.
“Apparently so.” She wiggled to let him know she wanted down and he eased out of her and lowered her to the floor. Now that her physical hunger had been sated, Evie didn’t know what came next or what she should do now. She crossed her arms over her chest, feeling inexplicably shy as he tugged on his jeans.
Seemingly unaware of her sudden withdrawal, he brushed a kiss over her cheek and left to dispose of the condom.
Evie grabbed her nightshirt and tugged it on, then settled on the bed with her tablet, the blanket over her legs, her back up against the headboard, giving her the distance she needed to process all that had happened.
Zane paused in the doorway, and frowned, his beautiful body making her want him all over again. Damn he was fine. Those cut indents on either side of his abs made her want to rip off his jeans and follow that V down to its peak. But that’s all she wanted. Hearts weren’t made to break more than once.
“What are you doing?”
“Trying to sort out funeral arrangements and insurance. Getting in touch with Bill’s staff. Catching up with some friends.” She feigned a laugh. “Getting out a few posts to let people know I won’t be around because I’m being hunted down by a psychotic outlaw biker.” She cringed inwardly at her very obvious and cold attempt to brush him off so soon after they’d been intimate, but he needed to get the message: they had dealt with the sexual tension between them and now it was time to move on.
“It’s not a joke, Evie. Viper is a real threat.”
“If I thought it was a joke, I wouldn’t have uprooted my life and come here.”
When he didn’t move, she tried again, clutching the tablet like a life preserver. “I’ll be up for a while. You’d best hit the couch and get some sleep.” She dropped her gaze and stared at the blank screen on her lap. There. She couldn’t be more blunt than that, but if she’d hurt him, she couldn’t tell from the low, even timbre of his voice.
“Come here, sweetheart.”
She looked up, saw nothing but concern and understanding on his handsome face Still she, pressed her lips together and stared at the screen.
“Zane. Really I—”
“Come to me, Evie.” His voice carried a hint of command, although his expression was gentle.
She put down the tablet and went to him, not because of his command, but because she was already lonely behind the walls she had so quickly put up after their intimate encounter. And because, even after all these years, Zane knew when she was afraid and hurting, knew when she needed him most.
Zane circled her with his arms and drew her into his warmth. With a sigh, Evie slid her arms around his waist and pressed her cheek against his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart.
“I’ve got you,” he whispered.
His words melted her just enough that the tension drained from her body, the walls falling down as quickly as she’d put them up. Myriad emotions assailed her, and she clung to him, drawing from his strength.
“I tried to save him.” Her words stuck in her throat. “There was so much blood. And then I stabbed Viper. He was so angry. He tried to…” She choked on her words.
Zane’s arms tightened around her, holding her firm, protecting her from the memories, whispering soft words as she shuddered against him.
“Breathe, sweetheart. Let it go.”
A tear slid down the side of her face and she took comfort in his arms. Not just because she felt so safe with him, but because she could feel him, remind herself he was real, and not just memory.
“If it wasn’t for T-Rex, Ty would be alone.”
“He’ll never be alone.” He brushed his knuckles over her cheek. “Neither will you. I’ll keep you and Ty safe, Evie. And the Sinners will always have your back.”
His hand was cool on her skin, his body warm against her. She didn’t know how long he held her, but she knew he would never let go until she asked.
“Thank you.” She tilted her head back, met his gaze as she brought her hand up and swept the long dark strands of hair from his face. So handsome. So perfect. She ran her fingers over the hard planes and angles of his cheekbones, trailing them slowly over his jaw, rough with a five o’clock shadow.
“Pleasure.”
She leaned towards him and brushed her lips against his. He responded with a gentle kiss, tracing her lips with his tongue then dipping into her mouth.
“Goodnight, sweetheart.”
She waited until his footsteps faded away and then fell back on the bed. How the hell was she going to keep this up? It was everything she could do not to run after him and tell him she’d changed her mind. He’d just shown her that the Zane she had loved—the sensitive, caring Zane who knew her better than she knew herself—was still there, hiding beneath the leather cut and the cool exterior. Part of her wanted to cuddle up to him in her bed with his strong arms wrapped around her, and feed that longing to feel safe and secure, but the other part wasn’t prepared to give up control in any other part of her life. If she let her guard down, if their connection felt too good, she would just be setting herself up for more pain when he disappointed her again. And although she felt a deep connection to Zane that went beyond the child they shared, she had lost her trust and faith in relationships.
Intimacy and connection only lead to pain. And she’d had enough pain to last a lifetime.
FOURTEEN
Try and try again. Don’t think you’re stupid if it doesn’t go right the first time. Even experts make mistakes.
—SINNER’S TRIBE MOTORCYCLE REPAIR MANUAL
Someone was watching him
.
Zane slid his hand under the cushion and grabbed his weapon. He had only just fallen asleep after tossing and turning all night on the couch, wondering what the hell had gone wrong with Evie, or whether, in fact, it had gone right.
Did he really want to get involved? He’d been on his own so long he couldn’t imagine integrating not just a woman, but a kid into his life. And what kind of life did he have to offer? If he’d thought himself unworthy of Evie back in Stanton, he certainly hadn’t improved the situation by becoming an outlaw biker. Wasn’t it better to have dealt with the sexual tension between them so they could both move on? The answer came in a heartbeat. There was no other woman for him. He’d been searching for her since the day he left Stanton, and now that he’d found her, he wouldn’t let her go.
But first, there was a threat to deal with, and Evie and Ty were under his protection.
In one smooth motion, he rolled off the couch and onto his feet, his weapon pointed in the direction of the shallow breaths that had awoken him. It took him a moment to register the face in front of him, a mini mirror image of his own.
“Don’t shoot me.” Ty covered his face with his arms. “I didn’t mean to wake you up.”
Christ. Talk about the wrong way to start the day. He placed the weapon in its holster across his chest, and fell back on the couch, drawing in a calming breath as adrenaline surged through his body. “Sorry about that. Not used to people sneaking up on me. You got quiet feet, but loud breathing.”
“Is that good?” Ty lowered his arms, his thin wrists protruding from his Batman pajamas. Good choice. Batman had always been Zane’s favorite superhero. Dark, secretive, isolated, not given to overt displays of emotion. But the whole Robin thing … he didn’t need that lame-ass sidekick.
“You want to keep your presence hidden, you got to breathe through your nose, quiet like. Become one with the room. Even then, people can sense when they aren’t alone, so standing in plain view isn’t the best plan.”
“I wasn’t trying to hide. I was just seeing if you were awake.” Ty’s eyes drifted to the gun. “Is that real? Can I hold it?”
“Yeah it’s real. Can’t protect you if I got a play gun.” He pulled the gun from its holster and removed the magazine, then handed it to Ty.
“Who are you protecting us from?” Ty pointed the gun at Zane and pulled the trigger. Sweat beaded on Zane’s brow, and he silently congratulated himself for having the foresight to remove the magazine as opposed to just putting on the safety, even as he fought the urge to dive behind the couch, an instinctive response after what seemed a lifetime of gunfights with the Jacks.
“Bad guys.” He gently pushed Ty’s hand down so the gun pointed at the floor. “This isn’t a toy. You point a gun at a man, you gotta be prepared to kill him.” His pulse slowed and he wiped his brow. Lesson number one. Kids didn’t have a lot of common sense. Or maybe his son wanted to scare him to death. So far he was two for two this morning.
“Aren’t you a bad guy? I thought all bikers were bad. I see them on the news ’cause they blow up buildings and set fires and hurt people.” Ty handed the gun back to Zane, then spun around and walked around the room, holding his fingers in the form of a make-believe gun. He aimed at the vase on the kitchen table, then the window, then Evie’s bedroom door. “Pow. Pow. Pow.”
“Sometimes people hurt you and you gotta teach them a lesson so they don’t do it again.” Zane shifted on the couch. Did Ty need to learn those lessons yet? Wasn’t he too young?
“Pow.” Ty pressed his fingers to the back of Zane’s head.
“Jesus Christ.” Zane leaped off the couch, heart thudding in his chest. “You gotta learn to be careful with weapons. Even pretend ones.”
Ty’s face fell, and his bottom lip quivered. “Sorry.”
Fuck. Five minutes and he’d already screwed this up. He handed his gun back to Ty. “Here. I’ll show you how to handle it properly.”
For the next half hour, he showed Ty how to hold and carry a gun and load the magazine. He told him about the safety and how to aim at a target. He explained about recoil and how someone without much strength would have to brace against the backward thrust after a shot. Ty caught on pretty fast, considering he was only eight years old. When he held the gun perfectly balanced, his stance relaxed and his arms braced for an imaginary recoil, Zane felt a sting of pride. His son was no pansy. He’d get him out to a shooting range and—
“What’s going on? Ty! Put down that gun.”
Maybe not.
* * *
By the time Zane reached the clubhouse, the executive board was in session. Shooter and two senior patch members were at the safehouse keeping watch. Zane had checked all the locks and run a perimeter around Sparky’s shop before he left to make sure there were no Jacks hanging around. Evie had been more bemused than angry to find Ty learning to use a gun, and after Zane cooked them breakfast she seemed to forgive him. Still, there was an undeniable tension in the air, and he wondered if she regretted what they’d done last night.
He hadn’t intended for things to go as far as they did, and although he had relished the feeling of being intimate with her again, it was the time after, when she’d come to him for comfort, that told him what he wanted to know. She needed him. And even though he’d fucked up, she trusted him with her body, and maybe even with a little of her heart.
Jagger gave him a curt nod and brought him up to speed. Tank and two of the junior patch had been out all night, hunting down leads on T-Rex. Their sources suggested Viper had an underground dungeon at his clubhouse, but because no one had ever left it alive, they didn’t have any details.
As expected, Viper refused to trade Doreen for T-Rex. Undeterred, Jagger had tabled a motion to defy National, the Sinners’ mother chapter, and go ahead with a raid on the Jacks’ clubhouse, not just to rescue T-Rex but to put down the Jacks for good.
“All in favor.” Jagger lifted his hand and all the board members followed suit without hesitation.
“We need someone inside now,” Gunner said. “We can’t wait for National’s approval. I know Cade’s been working up local Black Jack suppliers, trying to find someone who owes us a favor—”
Cade shook his head. “No luck so far. A favor isn’t worth the risk of being caught by the Jacks.”
“What about Mario?” Zane rocked back in his chair. He hated board meetings. They were the worst part of his role as VP. Give him his bike and the open road and he was a happy man, but sitting around the table, taking hours to make a decision he and Jagger could have made in three seconds, grated on him something fierce. Gunner shared his view. Always on the move, the club’s sergeant-at-arms could rarely sit through an entire meeting, and he was already on his feet, pacing the room as he spoke.
“We burned down his restaurant,” Gunner said. “He won’t be taking any risks for us.”
Zane would have killed to pace the room with him, but as VP he was forced to maintain decorum. “I had some of the junior patch check him out when we first talked about getting someone inside. The only reason the Jacks took over his restaurant, aside from the fact he’s a good cook, is ’cause he owed them fifty large that he gambled away. Even though the restaurant is gone, the Jacks won’t wipe out the debt. They still think he owes them.”
Gunner nodded, following Zane’s train of thought. “What if he offers his services as a personal chef to Viper? Once we get the intel we need from him, we give him the cash, he pays them off and we help him disappear.”
“That’s a huge risk and a lot of cash,” Cade said. “I mean, what if he cooks up a bad meal and Viper decides to off him ’cause he doesn’t like shrimp?”
“You ever have a bad meal at Mario’s?” Gunner licked his lips. “He’s a genius. The things he can do with salmon are fucking sinful.”
“Christ. We’re not interested in hearing about your kink,” Sparky said, his nose wrinkling in mock disgust.
Zane bit back a smile. “Maybe Mario shoulda thought
about the risk when he borrowed fifty grand from the Jacks.” Just like he should have thought about the risk of what he’d done with Evie last night. But she was as much an addiction for him as gambling clearly was for Mario, and one taste wasn’t enough.
Jagger drummed his fingers on the boardroom table, once a fancy dining table, now carved with the Sinner logo and stained with coffee rings. “Without the restaurant to pay off the debt, he’s out of options. He knows the Jacks will be coming to him for the money, and with all the connections they have now there’s nowhere he can run. I like the plan. Everyone vote.” All hands went up and Cade and Tank offered to pay Mario a discreet visit that afternoon.
“Don’t forget the party tonight,” Jagger said after he officially ended the meeting. “We’re having it at Sparky’s shop instead of Rider’s Bar because it’s more secure.”
“It’s not right,” Tank grumbled. “We shouldn’t be partying when T-Rex is being held prisoner.”
“I hear you, brother.” Jagger clapped him on the shoulder. “But this is the best way to get everyone fired up about the rescue mission, and to make sure we’re all still thinking about T-Rex. This party is about him. We’re gonna toast him and pledge to do what it takes to bring him back. But we’re going to need that Sinner bond to be as damned strong as it can be before we go in. I’ve made one last offer to Viper. If he turns it down and we have to raid the Black Jack clubhouse to get him out, I can’t promise all of us will come back without a few scratches.”
After the meeting broke up, Zane headed down to the basement with Dax to interrogate Doreen. Assuming T-Rex was in the Black Jack clubhouse, they needed more information before launching a full-on assault, and Doreen was the key to getting T-Rex out alive.
“These are the moments I live for,” Dax said as they descended the stairs to the basement. “Torture sessions and the time I spend with my family.”
“You’re one sick fuck.” And yet, last night with Evie … this morning with Ty … he wouldn’t trade those moments for the world. But Evie kept trying to push him away. Should he respect her wishes and back off? What the fuck did he know about being a dad? Or being in a relationship when his loyalty was to the club? Christ, it was all fucked up. Good thing he was with a brother who specialized in this very thing.
The Sinner’s Tribe Motorcycle Club, Books 1-3 Page 81
