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“What’s the matter, big man? Afraid of a little woman. Show me what you’ve got,” she taunted. She was working herself in a circle around me, but at the same time, she was coming closer. She was doing it in a way that, unless you paid attention, you wouldn’t notice.

“Ladies first,” I replied calmly.

“Oh no, my dad taught me better.”

I knew what I was about to say was a low blow, which would infuriate her, but I said it anyway.

“If he taught you so well, how did your sister get taken?”

There was a flash of pain on her face. Then she masked it. However, she didn’t lunge at me like I expected. Instead, she had a comeback for me.

“If you and your brothers took care of your sister, then she wouldn’t have been taken and raped. That tells me how good you aren’t.”

“Touché. We always regretted that we hadn’t worked with her more. Just like you regret having your sister live away from you. Did she hate her life here so much she had to leave, or was it to get away from you?” I asked cruelly.

That remark made her break. She let out a battle cry and came rushing at me. I will say her moves were terrific, and she was super fast. Whether she was throwing punches or using her feet and legs, she showed that she had skills. I felt the power when I blocked them. She wasn’t holding back much, only enough not to kill me, or at least I hoped so.

Time flew by as we fought with our best moves and expended our energy. Any time one of us got the other in a submission hold or down, the other found a way to get out of it. I was about to think we’d be at it all night when she gave me an opening. I took it, and we ended up on the floor, with me applying a chokehold to her. She couldn’t get out of it, but she kept struggling. We were both tired but unwilling to stop.

“Keeley, submit. I don’t want to choke you out,” I snapped at her.

A strangled “fuck you” came out of her.

Seeing she wasn’t giving me a choice, I tightened my hold. She would’ve continued if I had let her go, but it was getting us nowhere. As soon as she sagged in my arms, I let go. Crouching on my feet, I gently rolled her over onto her back. It made me sick to see her that way. I ran my thumb along her cheek and down to her lips.

“Wake up, Keeley,”

A few moments later, her eyelashes fluttered, and then her eyelids snapped open. She focused on me and glared at me. I eased away and offered her my hand. She ignored it, rolled onto her side, and then got to her feet. She put distance between us. I hated the way I’d won. I wondered if she’d still kick me out. She could call the police to take my ass away. I wasn’t sure how she’d react. I’d pushed a lot of buttons with her. Keeley moved until she was able to sit in one of the chairs. She spoke curtly.

“You have five minutes to say whatever you want, and then you need to go. I have work in the morning, and I’m tired.”

“It’s gonna take longer than five minutes. Tell me why you left for Spartanburg alone and without telling me. You never mentioned you planned to go there in any of our talks.” I sat across from her.

“You’re right, I didn’t. It wasn’t your concern. You came here under false pretenses. It doesn’t matter that I know that they were for a good cause. At the time, I felt something was off, so I kept it to myself. Obviously, you knew or found out since you beat me there. You’re right. I came to the hotel and saw you with her. I figured you were busy and didn’t have time to go with me. I didn’t want to wait, so I went to the airport, hoping I could get an earlier flight out. I did. You know the rest.”

“I know everything that happened from there forward, but I don’t understand why you were so mad at me when I arrived. The only thing that makes sense is it had to be because of Rose.”

“Fine, it was because of her! You were here to help find my sister, not to be sleeping your way through the female population, getting your cock wet! If I wanted that, I could’ve asked a ton of men to help me. You weren’t taking it seriously, so it pissed me off,” she snarled.

“I was and still am taking it very seriously, Keeley. I’ll let you know that I didn’t sleep with Rose or anyone else while I’ve been here. Did I think about it that first night you saw us? I admit I did. But in the end, I couldn’t. And tonight, she and I were clearing the air about how I left her the other night. She was upset with me. We weren’t negotiating for me to spend the night in her bed.”

She shot to her feet. “I don’t care if you sleep with her, as long as you’re doing your job. Now that we’ve cleared that out of the way, you need to leave. I’m ready for bed. We’ll talk when I’m not busy. I’ll be working for the next three days, so I don’t expect it to happen until then. We’re swamped right now, and I don’t see it stopping.” She took a couple of steps toward the door. I halted her with my words.

“You didn’t ask me why I didn’t sleep with Rose or anyone else. You should ask.”

She glanced over her shoulder and shrugged. “It’s none of my business why you sleep or don’t sleep with someone.” Those were her words, but the fire in her eyes told me it mattered.

I hurried to her, catching her and bringing her against me before she could stop me. She tried to wiggle, but I held her there. She wasn’t fighting like I knew she could.

“I didn’t touch her because she wasn’t who I wanted. I didn’t want her naked on my bed, her body spread out so I could feast on her in every way imaginable. She wasn’t who was disturbing my sleep, making me dream erotic dreams, or making me hard as a rock just at the thought of her. If I’d fucked Rose or anyone else, it would’ve been a disappointment. The woman I want is a feisty, independent woman who’s tough as nails. A woman named Keeley is consuming my thoughts.”

I didn’t give her a chance to say anything before I kissed her again. This time, she responded faster and got aggressive. She nipped my lips with her teeth and sucked on my tongue. My erection, which had only partially deflated, was back to full and throbbing. She tried to get her arms loose, so I let her. They came up to grip my back. Her nails bit through my shirt. I groaned. While I loved to command a woman in bed, I didn’t mind her getting aggressive with me. It made the surrender sweeter. Something told me Keeley would be the sweetest ever.

I don’t know how long we were lost in desire before one of us broke the kiss. We were panting, and we were staring at each other, stunned. Her tongue licked her bottom lip. I groaned.

“Don’t do that, or I’ll kiss you again. As much as I love this, we have to quit and talk. This complicates things.”

She put a couple of inches between us, as far as my arms would allow. She pressed her hands on my chest.

“Beau, I don’t know what got into me. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have kissed you. This does complicate things. In fact, they make it clear that if I’m to work with the Dark Patriots on this, I need someone else to be my main contact and partner. We need to call your bosses and tell them to assign someone else to come here.”

I scowled and gave her a slight shake. “Over my dead ass will someone else take my place. This is my duty, and I won’t back off until we solve it. I get that this is unexpected and scary for you. It’s the same for me, but I’m not running from it, Keeley. I can’t let you run, either. It’s too important.”

“Why is it important? It’s sexual attraction. If we stay away from each other, it’ll go away.”

“No, it won’t. And it’s important because I’m almost certain that you and I are destined to be together. I’m not talking about an affair and then done. I mean, as in forever. We get married and have a family. You learn to love my world, and I learn to love yours.”

She gasped and then held her breath. Her eyes were open wide, and I saw flashes of disbelief, interest, lust, and more flitter across her face. What I didn’t see was disinterest or hate.

“Breathe, baby. Take a deep one,” I whispered when she didn’t breathe on her own.

It took a couple of moments before she inhaled a shaky one. Then there were more. Once she was breathing again, I maneuvered us to the couch. I brought her down to sit next to me. Our bodies were still touching. I couldn’t allow her not to be.

“God, please. Say something. Tell me you’re drawn to me like I am to you. That I’m not alone in feeling this way,” I muttered.

“Beau, oh God, I don’t know what to say or do. You know that even if I am attracted to you, it will likely end in us being nothing together. Lust shouldn’t rule us. Sexually, yes, I’m drawn to you. I’ll even admit that it hurt to see you with that woman. But these kinds of relationships never end happily ever after, in a permanent relationship. I’m not a woman who engages in affairs or one-night stands.”

“You’re wrong about not knowing any that end in happily ever after. You know of four of them. Undertaker, Gabe, Griffin, and Sean all did. Well, Sean’s was much longer, but that was because he was a dumbass. I can show you dozens that started similar to ours, and they all ended with them together and happy. Fuck, I’ll take you to meet them. We’ll start with the Dublin Falls Warriors. You can meet my sister and see how happy she is. There are two dozen successful loving relationships there. You’ll see we don’t just have male-female couples.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“The Dublin Falls group has two pairings, with two men to one woman. One of those trios has the men all about their woman. They have nothing sexual between them. Another trio has the men sexually involved with each other and the woman. One couple is two men together. They don’t discriminate. It’s actually beautiful.”

Her mouth dropped open. “Bikers actually allow that?”

“They do in the clubs I’m friends with. Not all are that modern and accepting. But my friends’ philosophy is that love is love, and who cares how it comes?”

“But that has nothing to do with you and me.”

“Yes, it does. I’ve traveled all over the world. I’ve had one-night encounters, affairs, and, at times, girlfriends. None of them lasted. But I can tell you this. Not a single one of those women ever affected me the way you do. I saw your picture before I came here, and I was drawn to it. After meeting you, I found there was more than your looks that captivated me. It’s you, all of you. You’ve caused me more angst than any of the others, too. Christ, woman, tell me I’m not the only one feeling like this,” I demanded.

Several heartbeats of silence went by before she answered me. I was almost sweating. She bit her bottom lip, gave me an uncertain look, and then answered.

“Beau, you’ve had me tied in knots, not knowing if I was coming or going since the moment I met you. Yes, you make me feel sexual things, but you also confuse and aggravate me. Thinking of you with someone else made me want to swear, cry, and throw up. No man has done that to me. I guard my heart carefully. After what happened to me, I don’t let men close easily. And when I have, they’ve ended up not being what I thought they were. I don’t trust my ability to pick men. Everything you say sounds good, but it could all be a lie or go up in flames. I don’t want to be hurt. I’m at the age I want to have a family, but I don’t want to jump into something that ends up being wrong for me.”

“I don’t want to do that either, but I honestly don’t see us ending up that way, Keeley. Is it the worst time right now, with the investigation into finding your sister and those who took her? Absolutely. But life will pass you by if you wait for the perfect time. At least agree to see where this goes between us. Spend time with me whenever you can. We’ll continue to ensure that Kensington is our focus, but we can do more than one thing at a time. And you’ll swear that you won’t ask the Patriots to send someone else to take my place. I can promise if you do, I won’t leave.”

She let a tiny giggle slip out. The tentative happiness on her face told me she was about to say yes. I wanted to shout to the world, but I waited.

“Okay, we can see if this is anything more than lust, but that means you have to back off right now. I can’t think, and I wasn’t lying. I am tired, and I need to get some sleep for tomorrow.”

I reluctantly pulled away and said goodnight. It was even harder to go to my car after saying goodnight. She gave me a brief kiss on the lips, which I accepted. As I drove back to the hotel, I counted the minutes until I could see her again. Now that I had her open to it, I would press my every advantage. I didn’t plan to end this assignment without Keeley being mine.