Page 14

14

Reagan

The way Jesse claims my lips isn’t sweet. There’s nothing polite about it. One moment, I’m staring into his eyes, and the next, his mouth brutally lands on mine.

His kiss is firm.

One of his hands digs into my hair while the other snakes my waist, pulling me against his hard body. The full plane of his strong muscles presses flush with my body, and my knees buckle. But I don’t fall as he grips me tighter, lifting me so my toes barely graze the floor.

A growl hums through his chest, and I catch myself grabbing his leather cut to pull him closer. I lose this battle between responsibility and desire. Naive enough to let myself enjoy this sliver of pleasure, knowing heartache is knocking just on the other side.

Jesse’s hand drifts down to my ass, unapologetically. His fingers sink into my skin as he tightens my body against him. The hard outline of his cock rubs me through his clothes.

He doesn’t just kiss me—he wipes my brain cells from existence.

I skate my fingers up, brushing them against his strong jaw as he tips my head back to kiss me deeper. I slip my hands to his throat, capturing every vibration of his hum. Feeling the tenor of his growl. My arms wrap around his shoulders, and my core throbs.

Jesse lifts, but just before I wind my legs around him, he freezes. Our lips still. My feet dangle.

The hands making me float slowly and carefully set me back down, returning me to earth as he pulls his mouth away.

His forehead hovers over mine, blue eyes blinking wildly, like he’s trying to decide something. The lust-filled haze starts to fade, and I sense doubt creeping in.

My tongue skates my bottom lip, catching his attention. And even if he doesn’t mean to, his hands tighten their grip.

“Jesse?”

Confusion and embarrassment lace my tone. It’s impossible to bury as he takes a step back, widening the gap between us. He’s made no secret of what he does in this room, and the flat-out rejection is cold and clear.

“Sorry.” I step back, not actually sorry at all, but he clearly is. “We should—”

“Want to get out of here?”

“It’s almost two in the morning.”

“I know.” He steps back, relaxing his shoulders .

I’m torn between what we’ve just done and the fact that he put an end to it. Still, I find myself not ready to let this go just yet.

“Okay.”

He nods; his throat works with his swallow. And then he does something even more surprising than kiss me. He takes my hand to lead me out of the bedroom.

My fingers lace through his, and I can’t explain it, but something is just so… right.

The party escalated in the short time we were in his room. At a glance, I don’t see Luna and Ghost, but I do meet stares with the woman who was talking to Jesse earlier. She frowns when she sees his hand in mine, and that tinge of jealousy tangles with all the other conflicting emotions I’m trying to wrangle. Nothing good will come from feeding that doubt, so I look away.

Jesse doesn’t so much as glance at the scene as he leads me toward the front of the clubhouse. This is a regular day for him, and that alone should give me pause.

“Where are we going?” I ask when we finally breach the threshold, and he releases my hand.

“For a drive.” He leads me to his truck. “I had to get out of there.”

He brushes his fingers through his hair, and I wonder what shook him because I don’t think it was the kiss.

Instead of circling to the driver’s side, he walks to mine and holds the door open for me, avoiding my gaze when I climb in.

But I can still feel him watching me. I can feel him all over me. Every inch of my skin he touched is in flames .

When he climbs in on his side and starts driving, the vibrations of the tires crunching against dirt and rock force my attention to the pressure between my thighs.

We take the main road that leads off the property, but instead of passing through the gate, he turns left, following the long fence line that wraps around the Twisted Kings compound in the opposite direction of the neighborhood. I never realized how much land the club owns until tonight when the drive feels endless as we travel flat desert. It isn’t until the clubhouse is nothing more than a pinprick in the distance that he pulls to a stop.

Jesse climbs out first, circling to my door and opening it for me. He grabs a blanket out of the back seat and pops the tailgate, stretching the blanket over it to give us something to sit on. It’s thick and soft as I hop up, my feet dangling in the air as I stare into the endless night.

“Do you drive out here often?” I lean back on my hands to look up at the thousands of stars.

With no light pollution to drown them out, I see every one. The galaxy has never felt so far away. Or so close.

When Jesse hasn’t answered my question, I look over and see that he’s staring at me.

He clears his throat. “I come out here when I need to think.”

“It’s beautiful.”

“Yeah.” But still, he hasn’t looked up.

“Are you okay? You seemed a little shaken after…”

The kiss .

It’s pathetic that I can’t say it when I can still feel it. My lips are probably bruised with how rough and needy he was. I’m used to being kissed like I’m sweet or fragile. Jesse kissed me like he wanted to see how rough I could take it.

“I’m fine.” His thumb brushes the back of mine. “I didn’t like kissing you in that room.”

“So you brought me out here?”

He shrugs, and for a second, my pride is hurt that he didn’t want to add me to his list of conquests. But then it hits me: He didn’t want to add me to his list of conquests.

I’m naive enough to wonder if it didn’t feel right because there’s something more between us. And when I look in his eyes, I’m pretty sure I’m right.

“You brought me out here to kiss me?” I can’t hide my smile. “I didn’t take you for a romantic, Jesse King.”

He smirks. “I’m not.”

A hint of fear flecks his bright-blue eyes. A bleeding artery spilling out his truth.

“Well, we’re out here now.” I glance out at the empty desert then back to him. “So, are you going to kiss me or not?”

He tucks my hair behind my ear. Not dropping his hand once he does. His fingers pause on my neck, where my heartbeat meets my skin. Where my truth meets what I’m refusing to admit to myself.

I angle my chin up, and he dips down to claim my lips like he understands.

My need.

My desperation .

That’s all this is—all I can be for a man like Jesse King. His barriers are too high to climb, and I’m too tired to try. So instead, I sink into this comfort and pretend it won’t change anything.

I lie to myself as he pulls me up onto his lap, and my knees dig into the bed of the truck on either side of him. I block out the whispers of warning as his fingers bury into the soft flesh of my thighs.

If only he felt less temporary.

“Fuck, Reagan.” His mouth moves down my jaw to my throat.

I tip my head back, and his teeth nip at my shoulder.

“We shouldn’t do this.” He’s mumbling, but he doesn’t stop. “You shouldn’t let me touch you like this.”

My fingers grip his thick shoulders as he nips at me again. That bite. That sting of heat that shoots straight to my center starts a pulse in my core.

“Are you going to stop then?” I rock my hips. Taunting him . “Are your morals so high you won’t defile the nanny, or are you going to show me what all the fuss is about?”

His blue eyes meet mine, narrowing. “You can’t help yourself, can you?”

“I—” I open my mouth to answer, but he stands up with me in his arms, spinning me around and laying me back down in the bed of his truck, cutting me off.

“Testing me.” He teases my lower lip with his tongue as he leans over me. “Teasing me.” He skates his mouth along my jaw and neck. “Tempting me.” He slowly trails his tongue down my chest to the peak of my nipple .

The fabric of my dress is thin enough to feel the warmth of his breath through it as he kisses the peak. My hands fly to his hair. Needing more. Desperate for all of him.

“Keep running that fucking mouth, Reagan. I dare you.” His hand drags up my thigh, under the hem of my dress, so his thumb skates dangerously close to my center. “There’s nothing I’d like more than to show you exactly what I’ll do if you push me to my breaking point.”

His body inches closer, shoving my knees apart. His hand teases the spot that’s aching. But he won’t give me the relief I need as he holds back.

Jesse leans over me, watching and waiting for me to back down. The problem is, I’m in too deep. This is wrong, and I can’t stop myself.

So I grab his wrist and pull his hand between my legs, letting him sink his fingers against my damp core to show him everything I’m not brave enough to say out loud. The sound that rumbles in his chest as he grips my center makes me deliciously wet, and I grind my pussy against his hand.

“You dare me, huh?” I roll my hips, lifting onto my elbows to bring my mouth to his ear. “Let’s see what you’ve got then, Legacy .”