Page 115 of That Girl is Trouble

“I just mean you need to unwind.”

Moving his other hand to my backside, he lifts me onto the counter. “Jumpin’ In” by Oh the Larceny starts to play over his living room speakers as he jerks me tight into his chest. “We’re saying the same thing.”

His lips are on my neck, his hands wandering over my waist and hips and under my T-shirt. Fireworks pop off under my skin when he takes my mouth and immediately deepens the kiss. It’s a harsh kind of kiss. The kind that hurts a little.

It’s impossible to pull away, because I’ve never been all that good at saying no to something that feels good. I rip off his sweater and shirt and trace my fingers over his abs and chest as I wrap my legs around his hips. It feels so good I don’t notice that the music’s stopped.

“What the fuck?” a deep voice booms from behind us.

He tears his lips from mine, and we both go still.

Graves stands in the open doorway, a look of utter shock on his face that matches the one my sister wears as she stands frozen beside him. It’s dead silent as we all stare at each other, and I can’t help but break it.

“Uh. Hey…” I say slowly. “Surprise?”

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“You’re fucking her?” Graves snarls as he stalks into the kitchen. The look in his eyes is erring on the side of murderous.

I quickly jump off the counter and slip between the two bikers before they can start throwing punches.

“Whoa. Easy, Jack.” I shove my hands into his chest.

The guy is a solid wall of muscle, and he pushes forward until he’s practically nose to nose with the biker at my back and I’m all but sandwiched between them.

“How long?” he asks, teeth gritted.

“You can direct your questions about my sex life to me,” I say to him.

“This is between me and him,” he snaps. “Answer. Now.”

Axe sighs. “A while.”

Triss crosses her arms over her chest and glares at me. “When you were living here?” she asks. The bite in her tone says she’s already holding back her anger, and that knowledge has me struggling to keep my own temper in check. Can’t she just for once let me explain before she gets all judgy?

When I don’t respond, Graves reads into the silence and takes another threatening step forward. “You bastard. She was fuckin’ sixteen!”

“Seventeen,” I correct. “And it wasn’t like that. Not… exactly.”

“You wanna do this in here or out in the lot?” Graves asks, fury in his eyes as he shucks off his cut and tosses it onto the counter.

Axe lets out a deep chuckle and snags his T-shirt from the floor. “Wherever you wanna get your ass kicked is fine by me,” he says, tugging it over his head. “Might want to move out of the way, Kitty Kat. Your big brother’s about to have a temper tantrum.”

“Are you two serious right now?” I ask, my focus jumping between them.

Graves is all fury—fists clenched, shoulders tight, jaw set. Axe, on the other hand, is relaxed. His usual hardened features have been replaced with a taunting smile like he’s just begging to be punched in the face.

Men.

The second I step out from between them, Graves lunges, his fist immediately connecting with Axe’s jaw.

“Jesus!” I yell as Axe jerks back, his body hitting the fridge with a hard thump.

Graves punches him again and then again—face, ribs, back, whatever he can reach. And Axe takes it like he said he would, doing nothing more than blocking a blow here and there. I flinch with every grunt, every jab.

I glance at Triss for help, but she merely shrugs, giving me a small this is what he gets kind of smirk that makes me want to smack her.

Axe takes another hard hit in the face, and he stumbles back, his eyes looking a little dazed as he reaches for the countertop to steady himself. “You done?”

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