Page 71 of Nikolai (Kansas City Reapers)

“What’s he like?” Sully chortled around his bite of food before swallowing loudly. “He’s a character, that one.”

“Yeah, he is,” Jax interjected.

“Imagine, if you will, if one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse was a Hemsworth brother—with the arrogance to boot,” Sully explained with a chortle of laughter.

“Sounds like a bit of an asshole, if you ask me,” I scoffed. I raised my glass to take a drink. Just as I was about to take a sip, I felt Niko’s hand beneath the table shift on my leg, sliding towards my inner thigh. With a finger, he tapped twice, lightly.

Instinctually, I spread my legs a little wider. He tapped my inner thigh again, insistent. Fighting the urge to blush, I spread my legs wider, careful not to nudge Deacon’s leg to my right.

“You’re right about that,” Deacon replied. “Carrick is a total ass. But he’s a good man under it all. A hard worker, too. After all that we’ve been through together,” he said as he gestured around the table, “I’d trust that man with my life.”

“Cheers to that,” Jax agreed wholeheartedly. My mind could barely stay focused on the conversation. Niko’s hand slid further up my thigh, finding its way under the edge of my summery dress. I spread my legs a little wider with a smirk on my face, knowing what he was about to find.

Sure enough, as his hand slid higher still, his fingerssearched for the edge of panties that were just — not there. I smiled to myself as I took another sip of water, not daring to let my eyes pivot to him as I heard him groan low in his chest.

Game. Set. Match.

But just as soon as I felt I had won the battle, he reminded me that his goal was to win the war. His fingers delved between my folds, finding my clit with fingers that were entirely too accurate, teasing the little nub as he sat there eating his food as though nothing were happening.

The chatter around the table continued without me, as I had grown uncomfortably silent. It was all I could manage, keeping my lips tightly shut, and trying my hardest to not make a sound as he drove me crazy with his circling, flicking fingertips.

The chatter dissipated into silence, each of us filling our faces, and I tried not to moan as Niko’s fingers worked me closer and closer to orgasm.

“So are you from here originally, Maddy?” Jax asked, surprising me as I was working diligently to keep my face completely stoic through my impending orgasm.

“What?” I asked, my voice raspy and hoarse.

“Lost in thought?” Jax teased as he scraped his plate with the side of his fork, unwilling to let even a single morsel of the delicious casserole go to waste.

“Something like that,” Deacon muttered under his breath, his eyes catching mine for a split second. But that split second was all it took for me to realize that he knewexactlywhat was going on under the table. A heated blush flooded my cheeks as Niko’s hand pulled away from me, ending my bliss and sending me into aching agony.

“What was the question?” I asked, clearing my throat and taking another sip of water. What I really wanted to do was press the cool glass against my heated forehead. Better yet, I wanted to pull Niko from this table and haul his ass upstairs, where we could continue the little play he had begun.

“Are you from here originally?” Jax repeated, wiping his mouth on his napkin before relaxing against the back of his seat.

“No, actually,” I answered, realizing I still had two bites of food left on my plate. I was not about to let this good food go to waste.

“Really?” Niko asked, turning to me with a look of confusion.

“Nope. I’m actually from up north, a small town near the Iowa border,” I answered, after finishing those last two bites of food. They were every bit as good as the first bites, though they were a touch colder now.

“You don’t strike me as a small-town girl,” Deacon muttered, rising from his seat to gather plates up.

“Don’t worry about the dishes, man. I’ve got them,” Sully fussed, quickly rising from the table.

“Hush, Sully. You made the food. Let me do the washin’,” Deacon drawled, leveling the big man with a look that mirrored many I had seen Niko throw — mostly my way.

“Fine.” Sully begrudgingly sat back down in his seat, throwing Deacon a look of frustration at being fussed over.

“So, you’re from up north, Maddy?” Deacon continuedas he carried the dishes to the sink to rinse and load them into the dishwasher.

“Yeah. A small, rural town,” I answered, finally relaxing back into my own chair, much as the rest of the guys had.

“Didn’t like small-town life?” he asked.

“Not one bit. It was a friendly town to grow up in, mind you. Great community, amazing support of the high school and college.”

“College town, huh? Trenton or Maryville?” Jax asked, his eyes darting back and forth in that characteristic way he had any time he was recalling information from that prodigious memory of his.

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