Page 14 of Single Mom's Bikers

The house is quiet. So normal. So different from the woman I was twenty minutes ago.

But my treacherous body remembers Rick’s hands. His mouth. The way he made me forget to be afraid.

I check on the girls before I go to bed. Violet’s sprawled across her mattress, one leg hanging off. Daisy sleeps curled around her favorite book.

What matters is keeping them safe and giving them a normal life. I can’t risk that for heated kisses in dark galleries.

But all I can think about is Rick Cross as I lie down on my bed. The way he touches—confident but careful. How he tastes. What might have happened if my phone hadn’t buzzed?

I find my hands roaming over my body in a bid to recreate his touches, but they don’t suffice. They never do.

6

CHASE

Monday morning hits differentlywhen you know the woman you’ve been sketching and watching undress from your window on most nights will be ten feet from your station. I’m already nursing my second coffee when Evie walks in, and holy shit.

The dress is simple enough—white, summer-style, perfect for Wolf Pike’s heat. But the off-shoulder cut shows skin I haven’t seen before. A name curls along her collarbone in flowing script, disappearing beneath the dress.

“Nice dress.” Zane’s already being Zane. “Even nicer ink. New?”

“Old, actually.” She moves past him to the coffee maker. Her tone stays light and casual. “Got it when I was young and stupid.”

“Ex-boyfriend’s name?” Zane never could leave well enough alone.

“Ex-husband’s,” she responds. Her fingers touch the tattoo briefly, like an old wound that still aches.

The lettering is amateur work. Whoever did it didn’t understand how ink settles in skin. The flourishes are uncertain, the lines too deep in places. My hands itch to fix it.

“I didn’t realize you had a lot of tattoos,” Rick says, emerging from his office, frowning at the ink like it personally offends him.

“Just a few.” Her smile doesn’t reach her eyes. “Mistakes of youth, you know?”

“Mistakes can be fixed.” The words leave my mouth before I can stop them.

Her gaze finds mine across the break room.

“Staff meeting in five,” Rick announces, breaking the moment. “Chase, try to stay awake this time.”

But sleep’s the last thing on my mind as Evie takes her usual seat across the conference table. Morning light catches the ink on her skin, making the name almost readable.Lucas? Liam?

“Quarterly numbers are up.” Rick’s voice fades to background noise as I watch Evie take notes. Last night, she left her window wide open, and the memory of moonlight on bare skin makes my mouth dry. The off-shoulder dress she’s wearing now reveals just enough to torture me—that script on her collarbone I want to fix, but also the curve of her neck I want to taste.

She shifts in her chair, and our eyes meet. Her breath catches slightly, pink touching her cheeks. Does she know I watch her every night? That I’ve memorized how she looks with nothing on?

The tattoo’s just an excuse to stare. Truth is, I’ve been half-hard since she walked in, remembering how she arched her back lastnight, taking her time with each piece of clothing. No curtains this time. She has to know someone’s watching.

Zane kicks me under the table. Right. Numbers. Business. Not the way she looked straight at my window as she undressed. Not how her skin would feel under my hands, my machine, my mouth.

“Chase?” Rick’s tone suggests it’s not the first time he’s said my name. “The new client consultation schedule?”

“Full through September.” I drag my attention back to work. “Wait list’s growing.”

“Good problem to have.” But Rick’s watching me with that big-brother look I hate. The one that says he knows exactly what—or who—I’m thinking about.

Evie takes notes throughout the meeting and is professional as always. But her free hand keeps drifting to that tattoo like she’s aware of my eyes on it.

The meeting drags for another hour. I fill my sketchbook’s margins with design ideas. Ways to cover that name, transform it into something worthy of her skin. Each time I glance up, she’s looking at me.

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