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I fixed a bagel with cream cheese and grabbed a juice before going to sit on the couch. I almost sighed in relief when Jake sat down and launched right in.

“I gotta tell you where my head was at. Yeah?”

“Okay.”

“When you came into Hyde that first day, you looked so fuckin’ good. When you finally looked me in the eyes, you were all innocent and wide-eyed like you didn’t know how fuckin’ sexy you were when your tongue licked across your lips. Then you started talkin’ and you were sweet. But when you started talkin’ about tattoos and music, I was sure you were an act.”

I frowned, experiencing a weird mix of turned on and pissed. “I’ve always been me.”

“I didn’t know that. I thought you were just out to get with one of us. You had the men eatin’ out of your hand. No way could any chick, let alone one that looked like you, be so perfect. Not without fakin’ it to try to get somethin’.”

Pissed off began to take the lead. “That’s not what I was doing.”

“Exactly. You just kept bein’ you. You weren’t tryin’ to get with me ‘cause of who I was. Hell, you didn’t even know me or that I owned Hyde. You’re so far from connivin’ and schemin’, it’d be funny if it weren’t so fuckin’ appealin’. You make a man face the internal battle of whether he’d rather protect you so you never lose that sweetness or corrupt you so he could enjoy your wild side unleashed.”

I looked down at my shorts, picking at an imaginary thread. “Which do you want?”

Jake curved his hand around the side of my neck. Using his thumb on my jaw, he tilted my head up so I was looking at him. “I wanna bring you down low to my level. I get off picturin’ makin’ you so dirty, so wild, so fuckin’ bad that it has to be good,” he rumbled.

Holy.

Fuck.

I want that.

Badly.

“I see your lips part, and I know you like what I’m sayin’.” Lowering his hand, he sat back. “Which just makes me want to go further. To show you every fucked up thought I have, the ones that make my dick go hard picturin’ doin’ it all with you. To keep pushin’ and pushin’ and pushin’ until you want nothin’ to do with me.”

“Why?” I breathed. It was safe to say I was a bit freaked out. I was also more than a little turned on.

As ina lotmore.

“Fuck, Piper, I’m thirty-four and you’re twenty. Every time I think about you, I feel like a dirty old man. I’ve never made excuses for the life I’ve lived—”

“I’ve never asked you to. There isn’t anything wrong with it.”

“Fuck yeah there is. I’m dirty, baby. If you knew what was in my head you wouldn’t look at me the way you do. You wouldn’t believe how much longer I’m spendin’ on the creeper under a car, feelin’ like a fuckin’ creeper, ‘cause I have a hard dick from thinkin’ about you. Or how many cold showers I’m takin’. Or when the cold showers aren’t workin’…” His voice trailed off with a shoulder lift.

It’s a good thing I’m not a dude or I’d need a car to hide under right now.

“Let’s just say you wouldn’t want me on your couch, in your house, hell, in your life. That’s why I thought you should be with a guy your own age who’s good. But when I think about you respondin’ to someone else the way you did with me, of them tastin’ that sweetness and gettin’ your wild it feels like I’m losin’ my goddamned mind. When Kase came into my office yesterday and I bit his fuckin’ head off about some stupid shit, he started yellin’ back.”

“What’d he say?”

“He knew what was in my head. He told me someone else would get you soon and I’d regret it. After I fucked up, Gage and Jet would’ve been all over you but they’re on tour. Rhys goes for what he wants and he isn’t gonna back down. I knew I had to do some—”

“Is that the only reason you’re here?”

“What?”

“You’re just trying to stake your claim before someone beats you to it?”

“Fuck no. I just had to pull my head outta my ass.”

“And you were successful in your head-ass-ectomy?”

“About this at least. That’s why I came out last night. I missed you, and wanted to see you. When I saw you dancin’ with Rhys, I tried to remind myself you could do what you wanted. I know if you would’ve pulled up here with him or anyone else, though, it wouldn’t have mattered what I was tellin’ myself. I’d have thrown the fuck down. Someone touchin’ you? No. Rhys? I love him like a fuckin’ brother butfuckno.”