Page 29 of Steel

“If you’re a good girl or not.”

Her cheeks burn with her blush now, and I really shouldn’t enjoy finding out how much Tempe likes being called that, but it has my blood pumping hot through me.

Tempe rolls her shoulders back. “Guess you’ll have to wait and find out.”

A devious smile ticks up in the corner of her mouth, and I’m so fucking tempted to put this girl on her knees and tame her smart little mouth. But she climbs in the truck and avoids my gaze as I shut the door behind her.

She’s fearless when she should be scared.

Outspoken when she should be quiet.

Tempe is a spark blowing in the wind, hovering over the sagebrush, ready to light my whole life up in flames.

8

Tempe

Jameson grabs Austin’s bagout of the back of the truck, and I try not to notice how his arms flex with his grip. The same way I tried not to breathe him in when he stood so close I could feel the heat radiating off him. It was like the earth in the middle of summer, all while he held my door open.

This man throws my senses off balance.

Studying Jameson from the other side of the truck, I can’t figure him out.

He doesn’t trust me, but he’s helping me.

He hates how I talk back, but it cracks through his cold demeanor.

He doesn’t seem to care what people think of him, but he still tries to hide the fact that he smokes with cinnamon gum and cologne.

Nothing about him makes sense, and I wish my mind would stop nagging me to figure him out.

Jameson circles the truck with Austin’s bag slung over his shoulder, and his gaze pauses on where a sliver of my stomach is showing. It’s clear this curiosity goes both ways, but we won’t act on it.

I know better than to let myself go there with a man like him, and his immediate scowl is proof he hates himself for showing interest.

Still, something about Jameson intrigues me. He adjusts his cut and his T-shirt stretches with his strong shoulders. A man bred from danger, and yet, he makes me feel safe.

He shouldn’t.

If he decides I’m the enemy, I have no doubt he’ll make me suffer.

“Let’s go.” Steel tips his chin at the house.

It’s nicer than I expected for being located on the Twisted Kings compound. The gray siding is highlighted with white shutters and brightened by the flowerpots on the porch.

There are a few houses on this stretch of dirt road, but they’re spaced apart, and it’s quiet out here. Off at a distance, I can make out the clubhouse in the desert, but it’s far enough away that I can’t hear anything. There’s room to breathe. It’s desolate, but I don’t mind it.

“This is your house?”

“Yep.” He unlocks the door and waits for me and Austin to walk in before following. “But I don’t crash here often.”

“Of course you don’t,” I mumble.

“Meaning?”

I didn’t think I was loud enough for him to hear me, but I’m starting to learn there isn’t much that Jameson misses.

“I’m just not surprised.” I shrug. “No time to stay in your actual house when the clubhouse is so… convenient? You forget half my DNA came from a man like you. God forbid you care about something more than the Twisted Kings for five seconds.”

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