Page 10 of Beast

Probably exhausted.Between a day at work and the drama that followed, it was amazing she was still conscious.I scooped her up in my arms and stepped out onto the bathmat.Reaching over, I grabbed the biggest towel I could see and wrapped it around her.I carried her over to bed and laid her down on it.

Dripping my way back to the bathroom, I disposed of the condom, picked up a second towel, and dried myself off.Glancing out at the bed, I could see Piper propped up on one elbow, watching me.

“You know we shouldn’t be doing that, don’t you?”I toweled my hair dry and tossed the towel aside.One of the nice things about hotels was the room service.Used towels magically disappeared to be replaced by clean folded ones.

“Why not?We’re both single and enjoy it.”She frowned.“Are you afraid Drake will find out and come after you?”

“Hell no.He’s done for as soon as we find him.He comes after me, saves us the trouble of looking for him.”I strode over to the far side of the bed and pulled the sheets down.“But I never screw around with clients, and I don’t think this is what your father had in mind when he hired me.”

“He hired your club.Or company.Or whatever it is.He didn’t hire you specifically.Besides, why would he care?It’s none of his business who I sleep with.”

She had to be kidding.I could just imagine how I would react if I found out some old fart was playing hide the wiener with one of my daughters.I’d probably kill him.If he was lucky.“He’s not going to be pleased to know you’re fucking a biker who’s this much older than you.”I climbed into the bed and sat up, pulling the sheets over me.“Not to mention the fact that he’s paying me.”

“You’re not that old.”She tossed her head, and all that wet hair flowed around her face.“And I’m almost twenty-five.You can’t be that much older than me.”She sat up and tossed the towel on the floor before she swung her legs over the edge of the bed.

“I’m thirty-four, so yeah.I’m that much older.”I held up the sheets so she could climb under the covers with me.

“Age is just a number.”She rolled onto her side and squirmed back toward me.

I draped an arm over her and spooned up against her.Nuzzling her neck, I whispered, “I’m only sleeping in the bed with you because it makes it easier to protect you.”

A soft chuckle escaped her.“Yeah.That’s why.”

Chapter Three

Piper

I awoke slowly, feeling pleasantly warm.I’d rolled over at some point during the night, and I was draped halfway across Beast, with one leg tangled between his.My head was cradled in the hollow of his shoulder, and he had one arm wrapped around me, his hand brushing up against my breast.

I lay still, my eyes closed as I savored the feeling of being safe, of having someone other than myself looking out for me.But would it be enough?The mob wasn’t known to let things go.

Maybe I was overthinking.If I left the state, moved to the other side of the country, maybe Drake would decide I wasn’t worth the effort.From what I knew from movies, the mob ran just like any other business, with an eye on the bottom line.Why pay to axe someone who’d moved that far away?I’d just have to make sure my agent never booked me into a gig in California.

Not that bookings were coming in thick and fast these days anyway.Making it as a singer was about more than having talent.You needed connections, exposure, and a whole lot of luck.I didn’t have much of any of those, and if I bailed on the one gig I’d been offered I might as well give up.But what choice did I have?

“You awake?”

I realized Beast’s eyes were open.“Yeah.Just being lazy.”

“Get a little more rest.Tinker has a gym down on the main floor.I’m going down and do some lifts before breakfast.I’ll be back in an hour or so.”

“You could just stay here and do some push-ups.”I could feel his stiff shaft poking against my belly.“Feels like you might be into that.”

He wrapped one arm around me and rolled us both.Suddenly on top, he grinned down at me.“I was going to be a gentleman and let you sleep, but I’ve changed my mind.”

Over an hour later, he sauntered downstairs, and I got up to get dressed for the day, still feeling the pleasant aftereffects of our morning activity.

Unfortunately, I’d run away with literally just the clothes on my back, so I had nothing clean to put on.I made a mental note to ask Beast to stop somewhere so I could pick up at least a change of under things.Luckily, I did have a hairbrush in my purse, and the hotel bathroom had enough supplies for my morning routine.

Beast hadn’t returned by the time I was done, so I ventured out of the room to find him.A sign in the lobby pointed the way to an exercise room down a long hallway.I paused outside the room’s glass door.A shirtless Beast had his back to the door as he worked on some kind of machine with lots of cables and pulleys.The muscles in his arms and shoulders bulged as a series of weights slid up and down in opposition to his movements.

Just watching him made my breath hitch in my throat.

From here, I could see the intricate tattoos on his back.I recognized one as the club patch that he had on the back of his leather jacket.I’d have to ask him what the rest of them meant sometime, but right now I was content to drool over his well-honed muscles and the way he worked those weights without breaking a sweat.The man was gorgeous.Sexy as hell.He had a rugged beauty that sent flickers of heat dancing down my spine even after all the times he’d made me come last night and this morning.

He was right.My father probably wouldn’t be thrilled to find out we were hooking up.We were both adults, though, engaging in normal adult activities.The fact that Beast was a little older than me just made him all the more attractive, a primal gut-deep reaction on my part.He had experience, and he knew just how to please a woman.He was all sleek, well-honed muscle, with scars that hinted at an ability to fight and win.I need that right now, needed to know he was capable of protecting me from Drake and his minions.

Okay.Beast had a couple of daughters and that could be awkward, but it wasn’t like we were planning a serious relationship.Once we got to Georgia and I was out of danger, we would go our separate ways.No harm, no foul.Chances were, neither my father nor Beast’s kids would ever know about our relationship.In the meantime, I intended to enjoy it.

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