I let out a huff, taking plate after plate and dumping the food scraps in the trash. Then I deposited them in the sink for a quick rinse before they went into the sanitizer.
My hands dipped into the sink, taking the sponge to scrape off the extra debris. The warmth soothed my cold hands, and I let out a small hum at how good it felt.
The same heat I’d felt many times tonight filled the side of my face. It grew more intense. My entire body was reacting to how powerful the heat was becoming. I let out slow breaths until someone behind me reached around and pulled my sudsy hands from the sink.
I was quickly turned and pushed up against one of the many metal shelves. Their hips pushed into my lower body, their erection settling on my stomach. My hands were pushed over my head while their other hand cupped my lower back to pull me into their body.
My eyes instantly closed, feeling the warmth, the longing of what I’d wanted for so long but could never have. The heat of their breath tickled down my neck while their nose followed quickly after it until it rested on my collarbone.
A low growl escaped their throat and my legs pressed together tightly as I waited to open my eyes once again.
“You’ve been ignoring me…”
Chapter Two
Delilah
Hissmilebroadened,revealinga set of brilliantly white teeth. His smile was so wide, the wrinkles around his eyes grew more pronounced. The radiance that emanated from his eyes was enough to make me smile again.
I could never stay angry at the biker who had somehow stolen my heart. He made life seem so much brighter than the shadows that he usually hid in. He was a man who rarely let anyone in, and I was happy to say I was slowly chipping away the cold, outer exterior he clung to so firmly.
But how long would it take? It’s been almost two years of knowing the man, and I felt like I barely knew him. He didn’t know me very well either, if I thought about it, but the attraction between us was undeniable.
Since the first time he’d put his arm around my wrist and led me away from a potential job and brought me to the Iron Fang, I knew I was in trouble. His warmth wiggled its way through my body and straight to my heart.
He put my brain into a fog. I couldn’t think straight. Hawke was a walking red flag—everything your family and friends would have warned you to stay away from.
I was stupid, foolish. I knew that very well. I used to think I was a woman that could change a man just like in one of those silly romance stories that thought a bright smile could cure all.
At least I knew now that wasn’t true. A smile doesn’t cure anyone.
I should have known from the start. The way these men had seen darkness, not even the brightest light could penetrate the darkest of ashes covering them.
Why I thought I could be his light while his darkness hid me from my own demons, I would never know.
But that’s just how life was. I broke the rules, I fell for the bad one, and now I was going to face the consequences because I was done. Hawke was the shady biker who’d given me no commitment to belong to each other. For all I knew, he could have slept with a woman every night after I returned to my apartment and went to sleep.
But I didn’t want to think about that. While he was with me, I wanted to think he was mine, and I was his. I was weak in that regard. The taste of sin that I couldn’t say no to. I couldn’t help but long for his touch and crave his words of affirmation, claiming he cared for only me.
“Me? Ignore you? You’re kinda big. You’re hard to ignore.” I playfully swatted Hawke’s hard chest, feeling his nipple piercings beneath his shirt.
He wore his cut, his vest that had the MC’s club logo on its back. On the front, his name was patched on the right side with wings spread over the name.
I stepped away from him, ignoring the urge to place my lips on his, and put my hands back in the water to finish my task. He trapped me though, and placed his body right behind me, his tanned arms resting on the sink. When I tried to move, he moved his nose near my neck, tracing it downward until he took in one large whiff at the nape.
“You always smell so good,” he murmured into my shoulder.
I set the dish down; it splashed in the water before I twirled around with my wet hands. I tried not to smile, feigning annoyance, and wiped my hands on his shirt. “I didn’t put on perfume,” I said, my nose mere inches from his. I smirked at him. “You just smell the sweat of a hard-working woman.”
“I know, and I like it that way. Never put any of that girly shit on. It messes up my nose.” Hawke’s thick fingers wrapped around my waist, and I giggled like a schoolgirl, wrapping my arms around his waist, too.
Despite being of average height, I felt so small compared to him. Hawke engulfed me, towered over me, and I didn’t feel in the slightest bit scared about it. He was my protector, well, all our protectors of those who worked in the bar.
That was his primary job when he wasn’t working for the MC; he was the bouncer for the bar.
“I really need you,” Hawke muttered, his nose tracing my check. “I need to taste those lips.”
His broken, raspy voice turned me into butter. The urgency to speak with him about concerns that had plagued me over the month faded away. My selfish side, my needy side wanted to give into this, but was that really being fair? To me?