Page 53 of Jett

“I can’t go home, so ... it makes sense for everyone.”

“Why can’t you go home?”

He lowers his gaze to my lap. “Because I don’t fuckin’ want to.”

“Why?”

He takes a step back but I wrap my legs around his hips and draw him closer. “I thought you were the one pushing for room-mates with no funny business?”

“Talk to me, Jett. Please?”

He sighs. “Guilt mostly. Everything of hers is still there. It’s funny, I wanted that house. Mia threw a fit when I bought it and moved our shit from our pokey little flat in Surry Hills to the mountains. She hated it. She hated nature, and being that far away from her friends. She hated me too, but somehow, that house is more hers than it will ever be mine. I should sell it. I’m never there anyway. I hardly ever leave my goddamn clubhouse, but I still can’t let it go. The vision I had of us being a family is there—kids, and dogs, and more fucking bikes than any man has a right to own.”

“I’m sorry you never had the chance to have that.”

“Oh, we had the chance alright. It’s just our lives were completely different. Mia never wanted kids. She had her tubes tied while I was in lock-up.”

“Oh my God.”

“Yeah, my wife was a real piece of work.”

He shakes his head and slides his hands up and down my thighs. I don’t even think he’s conscious of it, but I’m hyper aware of those rough hands against my body and I’m growing more and more turned on by the second.

“I don’t know. I mean, a woman can do whatever the fuck she wants with her body. Far be it from me to tell her to have my kid when she doesn’t want it, but she’d never said anything otherwise, you know? Maybe I should have taken the look of disgust on her face as gospel or some shit.”

“I’m really sorry.”

“I’m not. Mia would have made a terrible mother, and fuck, she was right—bringing a kid into this world, into my world? It’s selfish. I got too many enemies and a fucking club full of grown-arse men behaving like children. I don’t need no kid getting caught up in the middle of this shit.”

I nod, but inside, a part of me deflates. I don’t know why—children aren’t exactly on the cards for me either. My husband is lying in a nursing home, and I have no plans to replace him. Despite my inability to keep my hands off my boss, I meant those words I said to him. Iwon’tcheat on my husband ... again. Which means that Jett and I need to stay a safe distance away from one another from now on.

Easier said than done.

RAINE

MY PHONE RINGS ANDI throw out my arm and feel around my dresser, but I’m not met with hardwood. Or, I guess I am, just not the kind I anticipated. Instead, I’m grabbing a naked abdomen, a warm body, and a very hard penis. “Oh my God!”