Page 13 of Ride or Dies

Tucker.

Shit.

Evie scrambled off me, face flaming. She couldn’t look me in the eyes, but I didn’t blame her. She was probably embarrassed that she’d gone that far with a second Bradshaw tonight, but it wasn’t embarrassment that had me climbing off my bed and keeping my back to her. No, it was guilt. Guilt because I knew that Tucker had a huge crush on her when we were younger, and I had no idea if he still had feelings for her.

Dammit.

I ran my hand through my hair and let out a long breath. I needed to pull myself together. We had a job to do. A job that would make it possible for Evie to leave Bedford again. Which was exactly why I needed to never touch her again. She was going to leave, and my brothers would still be here. They came first.

Always.

I reached for the doorknob and hoped Tucker couldn’t read the guilt on my face.

Chapter Seven

Evie

Everything was going to be fine.

I kept repeating that over and over as I showered. Partly because I hoped I could convince myself it was true, but the main reason was so I wouldn’t think too much about the fact that I was using Mason’s shower.

And we’d made out last night.

My face burned as I remembered the way I climbed onto his lap. I was rubbing on him like a cat in heat, and if that wasn’t embarrassing enough, the instant Tucker had knocked on the door, Mason had switched it all off and left. I’d gone to sleep alone, and I woke up the same way.

“Stop,” I told myself firmly, as if saying it out loud was going to have some magical effect on my brain’s inability to just let it the fuck alone.

“It doesn’t matter that they were the two best kisses in your life.” I kept talking, counting on the noise from the shower to keep my conversation with myself private. “And it definitely doesn’t matter that now you know you weren’t building up the memory of how good your first kiss with Mason was.”

I was just grateful that Mason didn’t know he’d been my first kiss ever. The cocky asshole would never let me live it down.

I finished rinsing the conditioner from my hair and turned off the shower. As I dried off, I let my mind wander to something safe. Namely, how much nicer the clubhouse was than I’d imagined. Outside and inside, it looked like a real home, only much bigger. Well, bigger and with public sex being a common thing.

Idly, I wondered if any of the club women had ever tried to get the guys to use a better term than sluts, or if that was actually part of the appeal. I got the old lady thing, because it was at least said with respect, especially here, but sluts just made me cringe. Maybe I’d ask Jenna or Sue if the guys ever used that term around them. I couldn’t see my friend or her mom allowing it.

I was still thinking about words and their meanings, playing over the possibility of turning that into a song, when I tucked in the edge of the towel to keep it in place and left the bathroom, stepping into Mason’s room…which was not as empty as I’d left it.

“What the fuck, Evie?!” Tucker broke the startled silence as he quickly reached over and closed the door. “You want everyone to see you half naked? What the hell kinda shit did you get up to in Nashville?”

“Bite me, Tucker,” I snapped, clutching my towel closer and trying to pretend my face was hot was because I was pissed, not embarrassed.

Or turned on. Because the way Tucker was staring at me had my stomach doing flips.

“Don’t you knock?” I asked. “This isn’t your room.”

“No,” he said. “It’s Mason’s.” His eyes darkened. “Is that why you came out in a towel? You were hoping he’d be here?”

“No, you idiot.” I rolled my eyes. “I came out in a towel because, one, I forgot to take my clothes into the bathroom with me and didn’t realize it until I was already in the shower, and, two, since he didn’t sleep in here last night, I assumed that meant you guys were actually going to give me a little privacy.”

“But you did kiss him, right?”

He came toward me slowly, like a predator stalking his prey. There was no reason for it to send a thrill down my spine, but it did.

“You sat right there on the bed and kissed. Let him touch you.”

My pulse fluttered madly and, suddenly, there wasn’t enough air in the room. I wasn’t used to this with Tucker. Levi was the one who could scare me and turn me on at the same time. Tucker—even when he was an ass—had been safe. Even safer than Mason. What I felt right now was anything but safe. Except I knew this wasn’t the sort of danger that would end with me being physically hurt. No, the lust radiating from Tucker promised that only good things would come out of letting him catch me.

“He told me,” Tucker said. “All of it.”

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