Page 9 of Savage Fire

All his Bees were stunners, women any man would want on his arm or in his bed—but they were his alone. They’d signed on the dotted line to be part of his life, live in his home, and get fucked by his fat cock.

Not that he’d been fucking any of them lately. As much as the thought of being with one of them was an easy thought—mental muscle memory—it didn’t get the rest of him…going.

His cell vibrated again. He looked. It was a picture of Tessa sitting at one of the booths with Skathi, Fae, and Dr. Liz. Tessa was smiling, her head thrown back in laughter, her expression open and happy.

His chest tightened at the sight, warmth spreading through his body and out to his limbs, lighting him up from the inside. Shit. If just her smile can rock him like that, what would total possession of her feel like?

Determination rocketed along his bones. He would know all of her smiles. He would know, intimately, everything there was to know about Tessa Grimes.

Grinning, his heart racing, he texted Jack back:

I’M COMING.

Tessa tossed back another shot and wiped at her mouth. That was shot number three, and she planned to multiply that by…err…math no good. Basically, she planned to get fucked up.

If the women around her would stop talking about shit that made her sober up.

Goddammit!

And she’d rather be hammered so she wouldn’t remember seeing Slick and Toke double-teaming Rosa by the pool tables. Or Trouble getting his cock sucked by Amelia while he fingered Daisy.

She noticed, though, that Liz was pointedly not looking in his direction…though he was looking in hers.

“I don’t see the big deal,” Fae said, shrugging one shoulder while leaning the other against Skathi. Beside Tessa in the booth, Liz nodded hard enough to shake the seat. She was obviously feeling the effects ofhershots. No fair!

“The worst that can happen is you have a crappy date. The best that can happen is that you’ll discover that he isn’t as bad as you think he is. Then, you two can finally stop lighting the room on fire whenever you’re in one together.” Fae blew out a long-suffering breath. “It’s getting so exhausting watching you two dance around each other. He pulls, you push, he flirts, you snark. You run, he pursues….”

Fae tilted her head, narrowing her eyes at Tessa, who suddenly wanted to be anywhere but right there. In the booth at the clubhouse drinking with women who were talking too loudly. Tessa could swear she heard a few snickers from the peanut gallery of bikers all lazing around the bar.

“It’s like a real-life telenovela, with all the spicy Latin lover seducing the fiery woman vibes. Aren’t you exhausted?” Fae asked, heaving a sigh, as if she were the one put out by the conversation.

Skathi pursed her lips, her eyes flashing knowingly. “Tessa has always done what Tessa wants to do, and if she doesn’t want to take Fang up on his many, many, many…manyoffers, she doesn’t have to.”

Tessa, catching on to Skathi’s tone, rolled her eyes.

How the hell did they get on the subject of Fang anyway? To her, he was a non-topic. There was no talking about, thinking about, fantasizing about, day dreaming about, or even wondering about Javier “Fang” Lopez. The man was trouble.

But that’s your favorite!She slapped that inner voice, and pinned Fae with a glare.

“Why are we talking about this?” she asked, her voice high-pitched and a little whiney. Must have been the tequila. Yeah…she’d blame the tequila. “The man talks a good game, but we all know that he couldn’t keep his dick in his pants to save his life. That’s the lifestyle, right? Bikers bang whatever hole they want. Monogamy is a foreign word to them.”

And God, how she wished that weren’t the case. The Fang that had saved her, stayed with her, and held her when she cried had been a man she could have fallen for—hadalmostfallen for. Then…she saw him in the grocery store, two days after he’d finally left her couch for good after promising her he would be there for her when she needed him. She’d called him that morning to invite him to dinner that night. He hadn’t answered her text but she understood that if he were busy doing club business, he wouldn’t be able to get back to her. But he’d always told her that if she wanted him, all she had to do was let him know and he’d come running. That all she had to do was text him, and he’d be there. So he hadn’t answered the text, but…she’d hoped he’d be at her condo at 7PM. She’d even smiled about, wondering what a night with him as something other than her biker nursemaid would be like. Had even gone so far as to hit the grocery store to get the ingredients for homemade enchiladas, knowing that he’d said they were his favorite. It was at that grocery store, however, that she discovered what kind of man he really was.

There, in the produce section, was Fang. A bombshell blonde—skinny, tall, big tits, small ass, big hair, small waist, latched on to him, was kissing all over his neck as they browsed the fruit. His thickly muscled arm was around her, he was grinning at her, murmuring into her ear, making her purr into his. But that wasn’t what ruined every last positive thought she had about him. No, it was the fact that while he was letting the blonde rub herself all over him like a skank cat in heat, he was eye-fucking the top-heavy brunette across the aisle. And even that wasn’t the end of it. After she’d forced herself to finish shopping—mostly ice cream, cookies, and wine—she’d hurried into the parking lot…only to see Fang withanotherwoman kissing all over his neck, her super tiny skirt barely covering her ass and cooch as she attempted to climb him like a raccoon up a phone pole. The guy was such a fucking player that he couldn’t even be “faithful” to his one-night stand in the time it took for him to leave the motherfucking grocery store.

She hated to admit it, but she’d been crushed. It was clear that his evening hadn’t included eating enchiladas with her. It was clear he’d ignored her text because he’d had other plans all along. It was clear she wasn’t really the kind of woman he wanted—if the Playboy centerfold-slash-showgirl Barbie doll, the long-legged brunette with the big lips, and the short, curvy brunette exhibitionist was his type.

He’d nearly convinced her that she meant something to him.

Thankfully she’d seen the truth before she’d given in. Before she’d given him something she could never get back.

Over the next several months, she’d acted like the man didn’t exist, because to her he didn’t. He’d had the fucking audacity to act confused when he’d finally gotten back to her about her dinner invitation.Two days later. He’d smiled, teased her, then actually asked what time he should be there. Like she was going to just jump at the chance to have him overtwo days aftershe’d sent the text. Then, he got angry when she’d told him to fuck off and never talk to her again. Then…he’d gottendetermined, like her anger was some sort of aphrodisiac.

Since then, he’d dogged her like a motherfucking turd on her shoe.

Skathi, who’d been nursing a club soda with cranberry juice, clicked her tongue. “You could say the same about Odin—”

“Or Hawk,” Fae interjected.

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