Page 29 of Bound By Temptation

“We have good coffee. You should come in sometime,” I told her on a shrug. No way I was giving any thought to why Ax would be there every morning.

“Sassy, I like that.”

Her words were strange in the sense that she ‘liked’ me. But it was better for her to like me than to be on her bad side.

“I’ll let you do your thing. People will start filterin’ in soon. They should leave ya alone,” she told me, letting the Ax thing go which relieved me.

“Thanks.”

Princess took off with the four men, and I was left alone with my cake.

Now this. This was normal. This was centering.

Now to just get it done before Ax decided to come. That would be a disaster.

Do my job and get going. No entanglements from the past.

Business was life, and I was doing this for my business … right?

11

AX

She’s here,was my first thought when I saw her van with Fallon’s Bakery splashed across the side along with her phone number. Why did having her phone number on the van rub me the wrong way? It did, though.

She was too easily accessible. It was her business, but still. That number staring back at me caused an alarm to blare inside of me.

“Holy shit. I haven’t seen Indie in years,” my brother Raid said, swinging off his bike. I followed, taking off my helmet and tossing it on my handlebars. “Glad she came back.”

“Why?” I asked as we moved toward the clubhouse.

“Sealed records when she was in Washington,” he said vaguely, but it was enough to pique my interest.

I stopped and turned to my brother, needing to know what the hell he was talking about. “What? Why the fuck haven’t you said somethin’ before now?”

My blood thumped through my veins. He told me everything; at least I thought he did. Yet he said nothing about Indie after she left my life. Even with her out of my life, that didn’t mean I didn’t care about her. I fucking cared way more than I probably should. But there it was, out on the table.

“Didn’t think you were still into her,” he answered on a shrug. “Checked her out when she got back to Sumner three years ago.”

I grabbed Raid by his cut and pulled him closer. “You will tell me everything. I mean every. Fucking. Thing…”

While my thoughts envisioned Raid punching me in the face for touching him like this, my body was preparing for it. He did the complete opposite, though.

He laughed. Full out laughed right in my face, taking me completely off guard which I wasn’t used to. The damn man knew too much.

Releasing him, I pushed him back. “Shut the fuck up. Let’s go. She’ll want to leave as soon as she’s done assembling, so I don’t have time for this shit right now. But you will tell me.”

“I bet she’s hot as fuck now. Back when you had her she was on her way, but now, I bet she’s smokin’.”

He was really itching for me to punch him in the eye. I felt my fist ball up, but when we opened the doors and Indie had her back to me, fussing with the cake, everything stopped. The anger and frustration with Raid disappeared.

She was in my space. My club. One place I never thought I’d see her again, yet here she was, and it was a beautiful sight.

My brother kept going, even though my feet were stuck to the floor like glue. He went right up to Indie and tapped her on the shoulder. She turned with a start, obviously focused on her work and not the world around her. Fuck, this woman turned me inside out.

It only took her a second before she recognized it wasn’t me, and her smile widened.

“Hey, Raid,” she responded, turning fully to him and tilting her head up to meet his gaze. It wasn’t cold but wasn’t completely open either.

---