Page 26

Joelle

The biker was an asshole.

A purebred, leather-wearing asshole of the highest caliber.

Tired of reading the same line because of lack of concentration, Joelle closed the Kindle app on her phone. Wishing it was a physical book so she could slam it shut for better effect. She was feeling restless. No surprise there.

It had been a hell of a few days.

Her family home exploded, but thankfully, there were no fatalities, and her mom was okay and staying in their townhouse, heavily guarded.

And then the cherry on the shit sundae. She had to overhear Diamond telling his biker friend she wasn’t his type.

For days since that night, she’d woken each morning pissed off.

Hurt, but worse, mortified that he even had to qualify it to his friend. He was probably embarrassed she was even pregnant by him.

But unlike another type of woman who might have gone off the deep end by throwing a tantrum at every turn, Joelle hadn’t done that.

She’d been treating Diamond with cordial civility.

If he spoke to her or asked a question, she replied.

But she no longer sought him out.

The day after, he’d tried to address it.

“About last night,” he’d said when she walked out of the bedroom after not sleeping a wink. She’d held up a hand to him and told Diamond. “There’s no need. Can I fix a cup of ginger tea?”

And that was all that was said about it.

Days later, she was climbing the walls.

Diamond wasn’t home much, but when he was, all she saw, felt, and smelled was him. He’d brought her clothes from home, and she was grateful for that, but she needed to go somewhere else.

Sadie and Molly wanted her to stay with them, but she gently declined. Having all her money was pointless if she was trapped in an unwelcome condominium.

Once Diamond went for his morning run, she sat on a breakfast bar stool to make a call.

“Do you have any suites available? Immediately, if possible. Oh, you do! That’s great.” She smiled. “Can I book...”

The phone was plucked out of her hand, and Diamond, staring at her, pressed the button to cut the call.

“What did you do that for? That was rude! I’ll have to call them back. Can I have my phone, please?” The rude biker ignored her outstretched hand.

“A suite where?” his voice came out in a dark rumble. Standing in his running gear, she avoided moving her eyes away from his face because the form-fitted workout muscle tee and running shorts could turn a statue on.

Sadly, knowing she wasn’t his type didn’t make her any less attracted to the biker. Blame it on the hormones. It had to be. They were raging lately. A gentle breeze could turn her on. That he was right there made it worse.

“The Cedar Regency.”

“No.” he bit out.

“What do you mean, no? This isn’t your decision to make. I’m leaving today.”

“Try again, Bluebell.”

“Why are you even here?” she snapped.

“I live here.” His eyebrows folded in a little deeper.

“Funny. I meant, you just went for a run.”

“And you waited until I was gone to book a hotel.”

“It’s time I left.” She answered.

“Says who?”

“I say. I’ve overstayed my welcome. You only agreed to take me in because of the situation. You could hardly tell my father no while his house had just fallen on him.” She huffed, brushing her hair from her face.

“That’s enough.” He exhaled an angry sound, and before Joelle knew it, Diamond was towering over her, grasping her chin, holding it firm so she couldn’t pull her head back from his touch. He forced her to look at him.

She was in agony being near him, but not being able to touch his chest.

“I’ve given you enough time to sulk. Now you get to listen.”

“I have not been sulking!” she hissed. And he jostled her chin a little.

“It’s time to listen, Bluebell. And you hear everything I say, not translate shit in your female mind until it’s all twisted up.”

Of all the nerve.

She’d turn her fucking ears off, see how he liked that.

Her heart was beating so fast it wouldn’t be a surprise if Diamond could hear it rattling around inside her ribcage.

“You heard me say you weren’t my type.”

“We don’t need to talk about that.”

He shook her chin again, so light it was almost playful. “It’s listening time now.”

“Fine,” she grumbled.

“Did you hear me tell Axel I wasn’t your type, either? I’m not a stick-in-the-ass country club fool with a Ferrari and a house in the Hamptons. I’m a biker, a criminal. I use my fists often in my line of work. You’re so far out of my fucking league, Joelle. I should be shot just standing near you. That’s what I told Axel, because he was grilling me about you.”

She attentively listened while her mind buzzed with questions and emotions.

Diamond released her chin but remained near, his mammoth chest almost touching hers.

“We’re having a baby together, Joelle.”

Yeah, of course, the baby. She frowned. He would try to be a nice guy because of that.

“But the baby has nothing to do with my feelings for you.”

Oh.

He looked so severe, his brow furrowed, and his usually smiling mouth pulled into a straight line. “I want you to hear exactly what I say next, Joelle. And to know it has nothing to do with our baby. It’s all about me and you,” he stated seriously. “We might be from different worlds, two people who never would have ordinarily met. But if we were at the same bar one night and I saw you, I would’ve been inside you ten minutes later.”

Oh.

Her world tilted, and Joelle didn’t know if she was breathing.

Diamond wasn’t finished.

“It wouldn’t matter where it was. In a bathroom stall, in the alley around the back where I could make you all dirty, or in a dark corner, as long as I got my hand up your colorful skirt. It would have happened, Joelle. We’re not each other’s types on paper or in lifestyle, but that doesn’t mean jackshit when the chemistry has scorched us down to the ground from day one.”

Lord. When that man declared his attraction, he went in and didn’t leave a crumb behind.

Was the floor swaying?

“And if you weren’t so determined to run away from me, we could have been fucking the bad mood out of you for days.”

Sweet goodness in a cookie jar. She flatlined right there in Diamond’s cozy kitchen. Unsure it was her turn to talk, she struggled to move her tongue. It was currently bone dry and clinging to the roof of her mouth.

“You were coming home with me that day regardless of your father asking me first. Even if I had to toss you over my shoulder, you would only end up in this house. And had he got in my way, he would have had to fight me to prize you out of my arms. Bluebell? I fight dirty when it’s something I want.”

Oh.

So this was what an out-of-body feeling was. Joelle was on the ceiling looking down at the woman, hearing the hottest declaration from the most sizzling and sweetest bodyguard biker.

Diamond dropped his head, and she stole a breath, anticipating a kiss, but he still had things to say.

Sheesh, she thought men didn’t like to express their thoughts and feelings?

“As for you leaving. That is not happening. If you want to stay in a hotel, somewhere bigger than here, I will take you somewhere else, but we will go together. You could have been buried beneath the rubble at the estate, Joelle. Has that even crossed your mind? It’s all I’ve fucking thought about. I need you close. I need to be near you, so I know you’re alive.” His voice shook like thunder, and Joelle reacted, trembling down to her toes. “I would have dug through brick by brick to get to you, Bluebell.”

It was one of the most significant declarations.

She was so hyped it felt like her skin was charged with electricity.

“You and me, I can’t explain any of it. And if all we are is co-parents for our bubba, it won’t stop me trying to get under your skirts, Joelle.” He confessed with a raspy voice that was so sexy she had to press her knees together because, yeah, she was growing soaked and aroused. “I’m done trying to do the right thing. I wanna do the dirty thing all the fuck over you.”

Damn those pregnancy hormones. She’d read the second trimester was the horniest time, and boy, was it not wrong.

“Ten years down the line, if I was dropping our boy off from football practice, and I saw you framed in the doorway, looking so fucking edible that my mouth watered, I’d wait until our kid was out of sight, and I’d corner you, Joelle. Like a dog in heat, all I’d need is to scent you, and I’d be ready to go. That’s how bad it is for me.”

The silence was palpable before she forced her lips to frame some words.

“Um, can you explain what this means?”

He smiled—smirked, more like. “It means we have an insane amount of chemistry bouncing between us, ready to set fire to every inch of us. You feel it, Joelle. And I’m gonna chase it. I won’t hold back now. I don’t give a shit if the world thinks I’m wrong for you. Or we’re not a match on paper. I’m gonna chase you so fucking hard until you’re mine. And I keep what’s mine, Bluebell. You need to get right with that, because there’s no escaping me.”

Oh. Well.

She exhaled and squeezed her knees even tighter.

She didn’t expect him to back up and then trek to the front door, where she jumped down from the stool and followed. He was stroking his eyes the full length of her body, and when he reached her face, she nearly died on the spot from the amount of lust staring back.

“As mad as you’ve been this week, you’ve been eating me up with your eyes, Joelle. And if I hear you pleasure yourself tonight, I will kick the door down. Do you get me? Do you feel how insane I am about you? I will hold your legs apart, and my mouth will be buried between your thighs so fast, licking all your arousal until I’m drunk on you. But if you wanna watch me stroke one out in the shower while I groan your name, walk into the bathroom any time.” He smirked like he was swapping recipes, not stirring her blood to a raging boil. “I’ve looked it up. I know you’re horny as fuck right now during this trimester. If you need a hard and willing body to use and abuse. A very hard body, Joelle, for the biggest railing of your life, I’m right here.”

And with that, he pulled open the door, told her he was going for his run, and left her there, with her mouth gaped open, her hormones a screaming mess, and her panties so damp, she had to change them. When her legs regained function.