“What were we fighting about?” I asked with a grin on my face.
She looked up at me with affection still in her deep, gentle green eyes. She stroked my cheek. “I don’t know, but it’s not important now.” She rolled over onto her side and backed up to me, pulling my arm around her. “Just hold me,” she said.
And I did. I held her little body against mine, protecting her from the hard reality that waited for both of us outside that door. I closed my eyes and breathed in the inviting smell of her shampoo, and I tried to ignore the fact that we were just making things harder on ourselves by continuing to sleep together. At this point, anything that happened would just be complicated by our actions and emotions.
For a moment, though, none of that mattered, and I was able to drift off next to Julia, the one woman able to break through my walls.
Chapter 16
Julia
As Gage’s breath slowed and his heart calmed behind me, I couldn’t help but think I’d just made things worse by sleeping with him again. I couldn’t get a handle on him. Here was this big tough outlaw biker who talked a big game and wanted everyone to be afraid of him. But he turned to putty in my hands. I wasn’t complaining, though. It felt good to be desired, especially by someone as passionate as Gage.
Confident that he was asleep, I slid out from underneath his arm and started grabbing my clothes. I stood up next to the bed as I dressed and looked at his naked body. He was an example of male perfection. His body was a work of art, a living sculpture, each muscle painstakingly detailed by the masterful hands that crafted him.
I could still feel his masterful hands on my body as I pulled my jeans up from the floor and slid my bra on over where he’d gripped my breasts. I pulled my tank top down over my head. He hadn’t budged. I ran my hands through my hair, which had fallen from its ponytail during sex. I thought about looking for the tie I’d used to hold it up but figured it was probably underneath the beautiful man sleeping peacefully in the bed. And the last thing I wanted to do was to disturb him.
I crept out of the room, carefully watching my step on the floor to be sure hardwood didn’t creak under my weight. I unlocked the door as quietly as I could and slipped out of the room, into the hallway. Once there, I released my breath and started walking at my normal pace, heading downstairs to the basement.
I wasn’t feeling any better about what Gage and his men had done to Dimitri, but I felt it wasn’t my place to argue with it. I was there to do a job, and that job did not include policing the actions of the members of Kings of Hell. My sole responsibility was to get information from him.
I still hadn’t said anything to Gage about what Dimitri had actually told me that morning. I didn’t know if I would until I had more to tell him. My silence weighed on me, though. I knew if he found out what I was keeping from him before I had more to tell him, it wouldn’t look good. It would only confirm his suspicions that I was holding out on him. But the thing was I really wasn’t. I just didn’t have enough information for it to amount to anything.
When I walked into the dark room in the basement, I could see immediately that Dimitri was feeling better. He sat upright and even smiled at me as I entered the room.
“Welcome back, Dr. Danvers,” he greeted me. “I’m glad to see you didn’t leave.”
“No, I didn’t leave.” I pulled the empty chair back and sat down across from him. “Gage can be very persuasive when he wants to be,” I added.
His face lit up with revelation. “You fucked him!” He tilted his head back and cackled. “You had sex with Gage!”
My cheeks flared as I blushed, giving myself away. “I don’t think that has anything to do with our conversation,” I told him, struggling to find the right words. I didn’t want to come right out and tell him he was right.
“So, how does it feel to be another notch on his bedpost?” he teased. “Though I must say you don’t really fit in with the women I’ve seen on Gage’s arm before.”
“I’m not here to talk about that,” I told him, trying to change the subject. “I want to talk about you.”
“And I want to talk about Gage getting a piece of that sweet little tart you’ve got there,” he said, lewdly eyeing me.
I was painfully aware I didn’t look like any of the girls I’d seen with the other guys. I didn’t need Dimitri, or anyone else for that matter, to remind me. They all looked their part, with the tattoos, the leather, dark clothes, dark hair, and their dark eyes. They all had hardened faces, as if they’d seen things out there on the street, even though I was sure many of them were just putting up a front so the right bad boy would find them attractive. I knew that wasn’t me.