Page 14

W aking up slowly, I stretch my arms above my head, hitting the wall. My body feels deliciously sore, making me smile.

Last night, Hayes and I had sex. It was everything I could have ever hoped for and more. I spent so long wondering what it would be like, but nothing I could imagine would have ever come close to reality. Even now, it feels so surreal.

Opening my eyes, I turn my head and find his side of the bed empty. Reaching over, I frown when I find his side of the bed cold. How long ago did he get up?

The Hayes I know was so far from a morning person it wasn’t even funny. He would gladly sleep until noon if you let him. Did he get out of bed because he couldn’t look at me any longer? Did he change his mind about how he feels about me? Does he regret what happened last night? My heart aches at the thought. Surely he doesn’t, right? Last night was a long time coming and something we both wanted, or at least I thought it was. I know being with him is something I’ve always wanted, but maybe I read the room wrong. Maybe he had sex with me because he felt like he had to.

Oh god, did I take advantage of him?

No, there’s no way. Hayes isn’t the type of man who would do something he doesn’t want to do.

There’s only one way to find the answers that I need. I have to talk to him.

Reluctantly, I get out of bed, slipping on his shirt I had on last night and my shorts. I make my way out of his bedroom and head down the hall. Despite this place being occupied by a bunch of bikers, the floors are clean under my bare feet. The main room is empty, so I make my way to the kitchen. No one is around, but there is a pot of freshly brewed hot coffee on the counter. After searching the cabinets, I find two coffee mugs and get us both some coffee.

He has to be in his office. Coffee in hand, I quietly make my way through the clubhouse toward his office. When I see him sitting behind his desk with the door open, relief hits me.

He didn’t leave me alone completely.

“Hi,” I say quietly.

Hayes looks up and smiles when he sees me. “You’re finally awake.”

I kick the door shut behind me and walk toward him. “I am,” I say as I set a cup in front of him then lean against his desk next to him. “When did you wake up?”

“Six this morning,” he says as he places his hand on the outside of my thigh.

“When did you become a morning person?” I ask as I take a drink.

Hayes waits until I’m done and takes my cup from me, setting it on his desk, before he pulls me into his lap. Slowly he kisses me good morning until we are both breathless.

He rests his forehead on mine. “Sorry, I had to do that.”

“Never be sorry for kissing me,” I tease, making him chuckle.

“To answer your question, the military made me a morning person.” He pauses. “Or should I say they just created someone who can live on little sleep. My internal alarm clock won’t let me sleep past six a.m. anymore.”

I crinkle my nose. “That’s so early.”

He rubs his hand from my knee to my hip. “How did you sleep?”

“Better than I thought I would. You?”

“Like the dead, and how are you feeling?” He brushes a finger across my cheek.

“Are you asking if my pussy is sore?” I tease.

Hayes chuckles. “Yes, I am.”

“I’m sore in the best possible way,” I tell him. “I hated waking up alone, though.”

His hand flexes on my hip. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. Just wake me up next time or leave a note.”

“I think I can do that. Next time.” He smiles at me.

He leans forward and nips my bottom lip, making me whimper.

“Tell me, what did you think about last night?”

“It was perfect,” I tell him softly.

“I agree. I only had one regret,” he says, making my heart drop.

“What do you regret?” I ask hesitantly.

He cups the side of my face, making me look at him. “That I didn’t take my time and do all the things I wanted to you.”

Relief fills my veins, and I smile. “Surely you know I enjoyed myself.”

“I know you did. Fuck, the way your pussy gripped my cock and didn’t want to let go.” He groans as his cock twitches under my ass.

“Did you mean it when you said you had dreamed about us having sex?”

“Baby, you’ve been the star of every fantasy of mine since the first time my cock got hard. It’s always been you.”

“Want to know a secret?” I ask as I trail kisses along his neck.

Hayes tilts his head back. “Tell me.”

“The first time I touched myself, I thought of you. It was your fingers and mouth I dreamed of.”

“Fuck me, baby, tell me you locked the door,” he says as he grinds his hips into me.

“No, but I can.”

I go to move, but Hayes holds me in place. “Fuck it. These bastards should know not to open my door.”

He moves me so I’m straddling his waist. Instinctively, I grind myself down onto him, making him groan.

“Goddamn, I can already feel how hot you are,” he hisses as his hands flex on my hips.

“I can’t help it. You turn me on.”

“Thank fuck, baby, otherwise we would have a problem.” He grabs me by the back of my head and kisses me deeply.

I can’t help but rock my hips against him, trying to get a little bit of friction. When it becomes too much, I pull back.

“I need you.”

“I got you. Stand up.” He taps the side of my thigh.

I slide off his lap, and his hands start to push down my shorts when there’s a knock on the door. Hayes drops his head onto my stomach and groans. Laughing lightly, I run my hand through his hair.

It’s adorable how disappointed he is right now.

“Answer it, Hayes,” I tell him. “You’re the leader.”

He shakes his head. “I know, but I’d rather devour you.”

Another knock comes.

“I’d rather that too, but we have plenty of time for that. They need your leadership. Tend to your men. I’ll be here waiting.”

“You mean it?” he asks.

I nod.

I did mean it. Last night changed everything for us. I’d wait forever for Hayes.

Fuck.

I take a deep breath, willing my dick to go down.

“Yeah?” I yell out.

“Savage, I found something you will want to see,” Dex says, muffled through the door.

“Of course he finally found something right when I was about to sink inside of you,” I mutter against Bailey’s stomach.

I feel her silently laughing as her nails scrape against my scalp.

“Let him in. The sooner we find out what he has, the quicker we can get back to what we were doing,” she says quietly.

I wish I was so confident that was the truth. Whatever he found is likely going to pull us away from here.

Grunting, I back away and pull her back into my lap. “The least you can do is cover my raging hard-on,” I mutter against her ear. “Come in,” I tell Dex.

He opens the door and peeks his head inside. “Sorry for interrupting. Is now a good time?”

I open my mouth to tell him it’s not, but stop when Bailey pinches my forearm.

“What’s up? This club related?” I say instead.

His eyes shift from Bailey and back to me. “This actually involves the both of you and that guy you had me look into.”

“You found something on Phillip?” Bailey asks, perking up.

“I did. If you don’t mind, I would rather discuss this in the chapel,” he says, still not crossing into my office.

“Sure thing,” I tell him.

I tap Bailey’s thigh and she stands. Getting up, I take her hand in mine, and we trail after Dex into the chapel. I make sure to shut the door behind me before moving to the table. I pull out a chair for Bailey.

“Thank you,” she says softly as I take my seat.

“What did you find?” I ask Dex, who stays on the other side of the table, almost as far away from us as possible.

He clicks a few buttons on his laptop that he has hooked up to the projector. When he sits, I know that he came in here before he ever sought me out and wiped down the chairs and table with disinfectant.

I can’t imagine living my life petrified of some simple germs. Then again, I guess to him they aren’t so simple.

“Okay, so it took me a while, but I finally cracked into this. See, he had code embedded into an image that led to a file,” Dex rambles.

“Dex, I just need the details of the file, not how you got them,” I say, cutting him off.

Bailey jams her elbow into my side, making me grunt. “Be nice.”

“It’s fine, Bailey,” he tells her before hitting a few more buttons, pulling images up on his screen. “Inside the folder was a gold mine. We knew he was running an illegal poker ring, but what we didn’t know was that he made most of his money by extorting money from women.”

“How was he extorting them?” Bailey asks as she rests her elbows on the table, placing her chin in her palm.

Dex winces. “He was drugging women, then taking photos of them naked. Most of his victims were women of status. Think prominent mens’ wives and daughters.”

“So he was threatening to go public if they didn’t pay,” I say full of disgust.

“Are you sure we’re talking about Phillip?” Bailey asks, disbelief in her voice.

Dex scrolls through until he finds what he’s looking for. He pulls up an image of Phillip in bed next to a woman who is clearly passed out and naked. “I took the liberty of blurring her body to show you. She doesn’t need to be disrespected any more than she already has.”

“That’s sweet of you to do, but I don’t understand. Why is he doing this?” Bailey says.

“That was easy to figure out once I got in here. Turns out the accounts we had access to weren’t his main accounts. I also dug into the family’s financials, and I found out that they are destitute. Like, about to foreclose on their homes and file for bankruptcy.” Dex says.

Bailey shakes her head as she leans back in the chair, completely shocked.

“Has Laura mentioned any of this to you?” I ask.

“No, not a thing. She offered to pay my going rate, but I refused to let her since she’s my best friend,” she says softly.

“I don’t know if it’s any consolation, but Laura’s financials are the only ones in good standing. As far as I can tell, she’s doing everything right and has no idea what her brother and family are into,” Dex tells her.

Bailey laughs sarcastically. “I guess that’s something.”

“Okay, so if you unearthed Phillip’s real financials, did you find him?” I ask.

Dex shakes his head. “He hasn’t tried to use any money since the night before he went missing. Unless he has another hidden money stash that we haven’t found yet, I really think he might be dead.”

“How did he even have the accounts we knew about if he was so broke?” Bailey asks.

“There is a woman in his building named Sandra Jones. He got her to co-sign on his accounts. He’s been wreaking havoc on her credit, and the money he keeps putting into his personal bank account comes from a business that doesn’t actually exist based out of the Cayman Islands. He’s taking some of his extortion money and putting it in there a little at a time to keep up appearances,” Dex tells us.

Bailey groans and drops her head onto her arms. “How the hell am I going to break all of this to Laura?”

“You don’t have to tell her if you don’t want to,” I tell her as I rub her back.

Bailey looks over at me, her head still resting on her arms. “If he was your brother, would you want to know?”

I nod. “Yes.”

“Exactly. She deserves the truth.”

Dex clears his throat, making us both look his way. “Based on what I was seeing, I took the liberty of setting up fraud detection on Laura’s name. If her brother or her parents try to open anything with her information, she will be notified.”

“Thank you,” Bailey says softly.

Dex shrugs. “It was nothing.”

Bailey shoots him a look that says he’s full of shit.

“Is there anything else?” I ask, trying not to laugh at the way Dex shifts under her glare.

“No, that’s it for now. I’ll keep digging.”

I stand and pull my girl up.

“Thank you,” she tells him.

He dips his head as we head out of the chapel.

“So I guess this means picking back up where we left off will have to wait because you want to go track down Laura,” I say as we head back toward my room.

“No, what gave it away?” Bailey deadpans, making me chuckle.

This girl.

Even when shit is glum, she can make me laugh, and I fucking love it.