Page 333 of The Tempted

Temporarily.

I didn’t do love.

“I always pay my debts,” I replied huskily, crooking my finger, beckoning her closer.

She licked her lips, biting down on her lip before taking the steps to close the distance between us. I reached out and grabbed the hem of the t-shirt, my shirt, and pulled her against me, pressing my lips to the corner of her mouth.

“Let me know when you’re ready to collect, Kitten,” I murmured against her mouth, letting go of her shirt and inching back. “Go on, before we do something stupid.”

I didn’t tell her that by stupid, I meant asking her to stay, and her actually doing so.

She nodded, turned on her heel and walked away from me.

Smart move, Kitten.

I watched her walk away and contemplated what had just happened for a moment. I revved my engine and made a U-Turn, driving as far away from Lauren Bianci as I could.

But I wasn’t as smart as her because she never turned around and looked back. I know this because I kept looking in the side-view mirror until I couldn’t see her anymore.

Instead of going to the clubhouse I took a detour, jumping on the Belt Parkway and getting off at Fort Hamilton. I had an apartment with a killer view of the Verrazano Bridge but that’s where it ended. An apartment with a nice view. No furniture, no television—hell, I didn’t even have a refrigerator.

I should probably get one of those. I didn’t even know what I was doing there, but I didn’t want to go back to the clubhouse and hear Bones break my balls about Lauren. The truth was, I didn’t trust myself around him, and if he said anything stupid I might just lay him out.

I moved to the window, crawling out of it and took a seat on the fire escape. I pulled half of a joint out of my pocket and lit it up, taking that first long pull as I stared out toward the bridge.

My phone rang as I blew puffs of smoke out of my mouth. Goddamn it, can’t a man get high in peace? Jesus.

I glanced down at the screen and saw it was the Bulldog.

The bastard probably wanted to know why I wasn’t holding the gangsters hand as he bid his little sister farewell. I rolled my eyes and answered the call.

“Talk to me,” I answered.

“Yeah? That’s how you answer the phone these days?” Jack questioned.

“Changing things up a bit,” I said, taking another toke.

“Get your ass to the compound. You got a job kid, one that doesn’t involve looking after anyone,” he stated.

“Yeah? So what’s it involve?” I asked, as I started to cough.

“Lo Mein,” he quipped.

I guess “Jackie Chan” called and wanted to fork up the dough after all. This was a good thing because I needed a distraction, something to focus on. I needed to get my fucking patch too.

“Thank fucking God, because I’m starving,” I ground out. “See you in twenty,” I said, before disconnecting the call and clipping the joint.

Time to go do what the fuck I was made to do. No more sitting around dwelling on some girl. That shit was for pussy’s not a fucking Knight.

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