Page 35 of Jack of Hearts
She’d also bought a pair of black biker boots, since she hoped to be taking more rides with him. The helmet he’d given her to wear had been a little too big, so she’d bought her own. A small black leather purse with a chrome buckle that clipped onto her belt loops had been a must-have, perfect for holding her wallet, hairbrush, and lipstick. Her last purchase had been what the salesgirl called a do-rag—black with red roses—to wear on her head, which would hopefully help keep her hair from tangling. So what if her credit card had taken a hit. She rarely splurged, and her card wasn’t even close to being maxed out.
With her hair hanging in one long braid down her back, and her boots, T-shirt, clip-on purse, and do-rag on, she went to Lauren’s room. “Whatcha think?” She turned in a circle.
Sitting on her bed with a cup of coffee, Lauren eyed her up and down. “Damn, girl. You are one hot biker chick.”
Madison grinned. “Cool. My old man will be here any minute, so catch ya later. May the wind always be in your face and the bugs out of your teeth.”
“God help me, tell me you didn’t just say all that.”
They looked at each other, then burst out laughing. The doorbell rang, and Madison blew her roommate a kiss before clunking down the stairs in her biker boots. She grabbed her new helmet from the foyer table.
When she opened the door, Alex pushed his sunglasses down his nose and stared at her over the rims. “Someone’s been shopping. Nice. Very nice.” He grinned. “Particularly like the shirt.”
“I bet you do.” She walked past him, and he caught the back of her jeans, pulling her to a stop.
“We’re not going anywhere before you give me a kiss.”
She glanced over her shoulder. “No. You’re going to have to earn your kiss.” To her, he’d always had a dangerous edge, yet oddly, she was able to say things to him she would never dream of saying to another man. It was liberating.
His eyes darkened as they captured hers. “You like playing with fire, don’t you?”
“I’m beginning to think I do.” She walked to the back of his bike. “You just gonna stand there all day, staring at me?”
Today, instead of black leathers, he wore jeans and a plain black T-shirt. On his right wrist were three thin black leather bands. Was there a man on earth any hotter than Alex Gentry? She doubted it. Her mouth didn’t know whether to go bone dry or to drool like a baby.
The man smirked. “You just gonna stand there and eat me up with your eyes?” He sauntered over and put his mouth close to her ear. “Anytime you want to eat me up, say the word and I’m all yours.”
Heart. Beat. Gone. Wild. Calling on her newfound liberation, she grabbed his ass ... jeez, the man even had muscles there. “Word.”
“Madison, I warned you once about playing with fire.” Before she could respond, he blatantly adjusted his jeans while holding her gaze, then slammed his helmet onto his head. “Get on,” he said, swinging a leg over the seat.
Just scoop her up from where she’d melted into a puddle on a hot sidewalk in South Miami Beach. His last two words had sounded angry, but she got that the sexual tension vibrating between them was making them both testy, which only spiked her newly discovered inner devil.
“The bike?” Did he just growl? She swallowed a grin as she buckled her helmet under her chin. After she climbed on behind him, she wrapped her arms around his waist and slid the fingers of both hands under the waistband of his jeans. “Show me what this baby can do.”
He squeezed the hands she had halfway down his pants. “Hold tight.”
That was her intention. After a glance up and down the street, he pulled out, and as they headed down the road, she leaned against his back. Although she was curious about what he had planned for today, she hadn’t asked, preferring to be surprised.
Alex hadn’t forgotten Madison’s request to teach her to defend herself, and his first stop of the day was at his friend’s gym. After parking and locking the bike, he took her hand. “Ready to learn how to fend off a man?”
“Really?” She did a little dance step. “This is awesome. I thought you’d forgotten.”
“I don’t forget a word you say, Mad. Remember that.” His friend Rock was in the ring with one of his students, and Alex gave him a two-finger salute as he led Madison to the private room he’d reserved for the next hour. He didn’t miss the blatant admiring looks the other men—most of whom he knew—gave her. It pleased him that she was oblivious to their stares. Instead, she was all wide-eyed as she watched Rock and Blake boxing.
“I’ve never been in a men’s gym before,” she whispered.
“Glad to hear it.” After they entered the private room, the floor covered with mats, he closed the door. “You’ll need to take off your boots.” He removed his, discretely dropping the gun he had strapped to his ankle into his boot before moving to the middle of a mat. “Come at me.” When she hesitated, he said, “Pretend I’m Ramon.”
Her eyes narrowed, her lips thinned, and she charged him, head down like a pissed-off little bull. He swallowed a laugh as he spun out of the way to keep her from ramming his stomach and getting whiplash. As she passed, he grabbed her from behind and pulled her against him, her back to his chest.
“Now what are you going to do?” When she tried to squirm out of his arms, he tightened his hold. “The first lesson is to stay as far away from your attacker as possible. If there’s any possibility of getting away, you run. You don’t look back, you just go.”
She wiggled against him, still trying to get away, totally clueless what she was doing to him. He decided he was an idiot for agreeing to do this. “Be still.” He was supposed to be teaching her to defend herself, not getting turned on.
“So how do I get away?” She looked up at him with those sexy green eyes.
Damn, he was in trouble. “The lesson I’m going to teach you today is how to go for the eyes, the nose, the throat, and the shin. Those are all points on a man’s body where you can cause pain.”
