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“Can’t take a little rejection, Cash?” I didn’t know why I was always so bitchy to him, but I couldn’t seem to help myself.

He shrugged but that piercing green gaze never left mine. “I can take it, but I don’t think that’s what you’re doing. Is it?”

I wanted to say yes. To say something so hurtful and cutting that he’d leave me the hell alone for the rest of forever. But I wasn’t a liar. “Why don’t you tell me since you seem to know so much.”

“I can’t figure out if it’s me specifically who rubs you the wrong way or any man who shows interest in you.” His gaze trailed down my body heavily as if it was his hands, and I felt the telltale signs of desire lighting up all of my pleasure spots.

Handsome bastard. “I don’t need to be fixed, Cash.”

“I’m not trying to fix you, Minx. I think you’re perfect even when you’re prickly as hell.” His lush mouth curved in a lazy grin that sent heat scrambling around my body. “I just want to know you.”

“Fuck me, you mean,” I jutted my hip to the side, full of sass, as my brow cocked into my hairline. That’s always what men wanted. Hell, I’d been taken from a park and turned out because men wanted it so bad they were willing to pay for it, to break the law to have it.

He laughed and dammit the sound was deep and masculine, and it skated all over my body, making me want to purr. “I won’t lie and say fucking you isn’t on my list, but really I want to know more about you, Minx. Take you for dinner, maybe dancing or stargazing or some shit. Then we can get to all that. When you’re ready.”

Why did he have to make it sound so good? So nice? It was the one thing about him that I couldn’t pretend to hate because it did it for me. In a big fucking way. “What if I said I’d go home with you tonight?”

“I’m a man, baby, I’ll make you scream my name all night, and then I’ll make you breakfast in the morning. But I’d still ask you to go out with me, get to know me, before deciding you hate me.”

“I don’t hate you.”

“Good to know.” He bit back a smirk. “So, about that date. Tomorrow night, I’ll pick you up at seven.”

I flicked away what was left of my cigarette and pushed off the wall. “How about tonight? Just tonight,” I clarified.

“How about we start with tonight and see where it goes?”

“No thanks. Not interested.” I turned to walk away, but he grabbed my arm and turned me back to face him.

“Yeah, I don’t believe that shit for one second.” Then his mouth crashed down onto mine, his tongue warm and soft and insistent against my lips, making it hard to breathe. Hard to remember that I should be pushing his presumptuous ass as far away as I could. Then his hands rested at my hips, and the sensation did something to me I couldn’t explain. When I gasped, his tongue swept between my lips and explored the depths of my mouth in a way I hadn’t thought possible. The kiss was electrifying. Hot as hell. It was downright fucking erotic.

I was no fucking virgin, but I had never been kissed for real. Not by a man who wasn’t simply taking what he wanted because he’d paid some asshole for the pleasure. I knew that’s not what Cash was doing. He was just proving to me that I was a coward, which I already knew. Still, the kiss turned me on more than I wanted to admit, even to myself. My body was on fire, aching with need, and if he wanted me to, I’d probably drop down on my knees right now and let him do what he wanted. What they always wanted.

Except Cash wasn’t like other men, and he pulled back. “Damn, Minx, I didn’t expect that,” he panted, eyes glazed over with lust and bewildered. “You let me know, Minx, tonight as a beginning?” He turned away and I felt a pang of sadness, maybe disappointment. But why?

“Cash.”

“Yeah?” He turned a blank expression on his face.

“Tonight, and one date. I make no promises.”

His mouth curled into a sexy boyish smile that made his dimples pop and his feet began to move. “I don’t need promises, Minx, just a chance.”

I must be crazy.

Chapter One

Cash

Sitting in a beat-up old pickup truck hours after the sun had already called it quits for the day, I was sweaty and tired. And ready to get some food and go home. I’d spent the past eight hours in this fucking truck watching the border to make sure former CAOS members, Wagman and Rocky, kept their shit out of Brently. We couldn’t ban them outright, not yet anyway, but I knew the shit that went down at the clubhouse a few months back wasn’t over. Not yet.

Rocky had served with Toro in Panama when the US government wanted Noriega gone, and I knew he had a hard-on for revenge. But what Toro had done, he fucking deserved to meet the Outlaw. I couldn’t blame Rocky, hell I respected him for it. But that didn’t mean I would step aside and let him fuck up my club or my town because him and his boys went against the grain. No fucking way.

But there were no signs of those assholes today. I knew they were doing business with the cartels, transporting drugs, maybe weapons and girls, from Mexico and right through Brently. That’s the part I found unacceptable which was why I’d been out here most nights lately to keep an eye on things.

But tonight’s shift was over, so I headed to Black Betty’s to refuel. Inside I smiled when my gaze landed on the chocolate-haired beauty who’s been taking up way too much of my mind space. Minx sat alone in a booth, eating and reading something on her tablet. Damn, she was just beautiful with thick brown hair and caramel highlights, big brown eyes that held a vulnerability she’d hate to know I could see, and her lush mouth seemed fixed in permanent sad face.

She had the kind of body women paid good money for. Slim but with enough meat on her bones that a man knew she was a woman, not a little girl. Her tits were more than a handful which was perfect for me since I was a breast man. Long tan legs were always on display, and sexy ass cowgirl boots were all she wore. Our night together had been amazing. She’d been responsive as hell, and some days I got hard just thinking about it. But she still owed me a date, and I planned to cash in on it. If she thought avoiding me would make me forget, she didn’t know me very well. That was something else I was determined to change.