He was f**ked up and confused and not the right man for her.
He finally broke the kiss, knew he had to or he wasn’t going to stop. Breathless, he opened his eyes and looked down at her, at the way her raven hair looked wild and untamed as it framed her face, the way her eyes sparkled like emeralds, the way her mouth tempted him as she swept her tongue across her bottom lip.
She still had her hands under his shirt, her palms splayed across his back, her fingers dancing across his skin. He was on fire, his c**k hard as steel and pressed against her. She had to know the effect she had on him.
“Thanks. I feel better now.”
She frowned. “You think I kissed you to make you feel better?” He pulled away from her. “Breakfast is getting cold. Let’s eat.” “No. Let’s not eat. You think that was a pity kiss?”
She balanced her hip on the end of the kitchen table, right where he’d taken a seat. She had a great ass, long legs, and damn she smelled good. And her hair all messed up gave him the impression of bed. He’d have liked to swoop her up and take her there and have her show him a little more pity. His dick wasn’t going to ignore her for much longer. He took a scoopful of eggs onto his fork and swept them into his mouth.
“Pax.”
“Your eggs are cold.”
“I seriously don’t care about that.” She pushed the table back with her hip and straddled his lap, effectively cutting him off from his breakfast. Her hot body made contact with his aching dick and he couldn’t help but put his hands on her hips, his fingers flexing against her soft flesh.
“Teresa . . .”
“When you kissed me in the hot tub last night, were you pitying me?”
He frowned. “Hell no.”
“Just now, when I kissed you, it was because I wanted to. I have never in my life kissed a man because I felt pity for him. And I sure as hell have never kissed a man the way I just kissed you because I pitied him. And if you can’t tell the difference, then you aren’t half the man I thought you were.”
She pushed off his lap, moved to the other side of the table and started eating her eggs.
Pax studied her for a few seconds.
“They’re probably cold.”
She waved the fork in his direction. “I told you I didn’t care if they were cold. And they taste incredible. What did you put in these eggs, anyway? You would have made a great chef.”
Her compliment shouldn’t feel good. He was a badass biker with a history of theft and jail time, and if he hadn’t had his ass rescued by General Lee he’d probably still be in prison. He didn’t get all warm and gooey from a woman’s compliment.
Usually.
“Thanks. And it’s my secret egg-making recipe, so I can’t tell you what’s in them.”
She snickered. “Oh, I see. Next time I’ll just watch you.”
“No, you won’t. It’s why I get up before everyone else. No one knows my secrets.”
“I do now. At least some of them.”
He lifted his gaze to hers, saw only warmth and compassion in her eyes. “Yeah, well, about that. I don’t know why I spilled my guts to you. I never tell anyone about that.”
“Does AJ know?”
“Yes. General Lee—he’s our boss at the Wild Riders—made all of us talk to each other in detail about our pasts when we first signed up.”
“Sounds painful.”
“It was, but he was right. It brought us all closer, made us realize how alike we all were. That’s how AJ and I got to be friends. What we went through was similar—both had fathers who hated us, mothers who weren’t there for us when we really needed them. Plus we were the same age, shared the same interests. We started hanging out together and got tight.”
“Easy enough to do when you share a similar trauma.”
“Yeah. It was nice someone had my back for the first time in my life. And I know AJ always will. Just like I’ll always be there to protect him. We’ve been best friends ever since.”
“I’m glad AJ had someone like you.”
“Well, it’s not like I’m in love with him or anything,” Pax said with a laugh.
“So your sharing in the bedroom doesn’t include doing anything with each other.”
Pax snorted. “Uh . . . no. We’re fully hetero. We like to put our full attention on the women we’re with, make them feel special.”
“I can imagine they do.”
Was that jealousy in her voice? Nah, couldn’t be. “Haven’t heard any of them complain.”
“What if they fall in love with one of you, or both of you? Then what happens?”
He shrugged. “Hasn’t happened yet. We don’t let it happen.”
“In other words, you don’t stick around long enough for it to happen.”
He owed it to her to be honest. “Yeah.”
“Have you ever thought about long term, down the road, what if it does?”
“What if what does?”
AJ shuffled in barefoot, wearing unbuttoned jeans and no shirt, his hair mussed up from sleep. He stumbled to the coffeepot and grabbed a cup, filled it and grabbed a chair, then yawned.
“Morning, AJ.”
He smiled at Teresa. “Morning. What are you two talking about?”
“She’s asking what will happen if we fall in love with one of the women we f**k.”
“Oh.” AJ raised his brows. “That answer will require a lot more coffee than I’ve had. I bow out.”
Teresa laughed. “Coward.”
He raised his cup to her. “You got it.”
After breakfast, they cleaned up and got dressed. They were going to ride into Sturgis and check things out in the daylight. Teresa put on her jacket and climbed on the back of Pax’s bike. He liked feeling her behind him as they skirted the winding road toward the town.
Being on his Harley was the best part of any day. The chill in the air spiking against his face made him feel alive, and the Black Hills beckoned him. He wanted more time to explore the mountain roads.
But right now their target was lower ground and where all the action was—Sturgis.
TERESA TOOK IT ALL IN WITH AWE AS THEY ENTERED MAIN STREET. How they could fit a half million bikers in a town normally populated by five or six thousand people was beyond her ability to understand.