Author: Jaci Burton

She pulled away, much to his relief. Now he could exhale.

“Well, fill me in. I’m dying to know.” She flounced on his bed and grabbed her sandwich. “Tell me all about yourself while I eat.”

He half turned in his chair. Was she joking? “What is it that you think I’m going to tell you?”

She shrugged. “Oh, I don’t know. Since you’re a complete mystery to me, how about everything?”

Giving up, he grabbed the turkey sandwich and took a bite, chewing thoughtfully. What could he say that would get rid of her? “I was born. I grew up. I screwed up. You know the drill. I came to the Wild Riders in the same way the rest of the guys did. You’ve been around me for years. You know who I am and what I do. End of story.”

“Oh, come on. Out of all the guys I know the least about you. Why is that?”

“Because there’s nothing to tell.” Nothing he’d want her to know about, anyway.

“I don’t believe that. Everyone’s told their story about who they were before Grange dragged them into Wild Riders, what kind of trouble they were in. I never heard yours, though.”

He shrugged. “It’s not that eventful.”

“So are you going to tell me, or am I going to have to fantasize and make up my own horrible stories about you knocking off a couple of banks, terrorizing small towns, on the run from the Feds . . .”

Anything to shut her up. Even the truth. “I was seventeen. I liked to hijack money out of ATMs and use stolen cars to get away.”

She raised both brows and lifted her lips. “Really. So I was accurate about knocking off banks. You stud.”

He shook his head at her teasing remark. “Some of the ATM machine and bank cameras showed vehicles and license plates, so I typically stole a car before I broke into an ATM.”

She nodded. “Rather industrious of you. Where did you lift the ATM cards?”

“Pickpocket. Easy to grab a wallet or purse on a busy street. Business people talking or a woman distracted while shopping. And then the cars were easy to grab. I went for older model vehicles—usually beat-up, left unlocked, and a no-brainer to hot-wire. Since I used them once and abandoned them, I didn’t need them to be in top condition.”

“How did you bypass PIN numbers?”

“I know computer stuff.”

Her brows lifted. “I’m intrigued.”

She really had no idea. “I picked up things here and there. I didn’t just steal cars.”

“So, you had it made, did you?”

“I thought so. Until I got caught and tossed in jail. No money, public defender who couldn’t give a rat’s ass about me or whether I ended up in prison for life or not. When Grange showed up and offered the deal, I would have sold my soul to take it.”

“You were grateful for the second chance.”

“Eventually, sure. But not at first. You know how it is. You were the same way. At that age you think you’re hot stuff, that no adult is going to save you from yourself. All you want is out, so you can get back on the street, be independent, and do things your way.”

Jessie nodded with a smile. “I remember. Grange had other ideas, though. Didn’t take any crap from us.”

“No, he didn’t. Worked me hard from the first day and never let up. Told me it was either his way, or prison. For the first few months I wondered if prison wasn’t the easier way to go.”

Jessie laughed. “I know. He didn’t cut me any slack because I was a girl, either. Made me study, eat well, exercise, lights out early, no phone, no friends . . . all these damn rules. And here I thought I had slipped away from school. It was worse being under his care.”

“Yeah. School first, then all the physical workouts, plus shop—learning more about cars and bikes than I had ever known before. Stripping them down to the chassis and building them back up again. I learned a lot.” At first he’d hated every second of being flattened under Grange’s thumb, but then he started to respect General Lee. The man ruled with an iron fist, took no shit from the smartassed kids he’d taken under his wing. Eventually, Diaz came to appreciate three meals a day, no abuse, and being taught that if you wanted to be respected, you had to earn it and show respect in turn. He’d learned how to be a man from Grange Lee, something his own father had never taught him.

“I’d fall into bed at night—nine p.m., no less—completely exhausted,” Jessie said.

“He’d drag us out of bed at dawn. No wonder we had no problem going to bed at nine.” Diaz hadn’t gone to bed that early since he was five years old. But working under Grange’s laws made it easy.

“I had family,” Jessie said. “A hard taskmaster for a father figure, but for the first time in my life, I finally had a family who cared about me. A father, and brothers who looked after me.”

Brothers. There it was. That chasm he couldn’t cross.

“Yeah. Family is good.” He finished his sandwich, crumpled up the napkin and tossed it in the trash, then turned back to the laptop, hoping Jessie would get the hint and leave his room.

She didn’t say anything for a few minutes, but then he heard her move behind him, her breasts once again pressed against his back as she studied the laptop screen. He sucked in a quick breath, heat surging through his veins.

Christ. Just being near her sent his nervous system haywire. And she thought of him as a brother. He was such a fucking pervert. He had to get her out of his room.

“I think I can finish this up now.” He shut the lid on the laptop and pushed the chair back, forcing her to move away from him.

Jessie backed up a couple of steps, a confused frown on her face. “That’s it? You’re done with your research?”

“Yeah.” He moved to the door, hoping she’d follow.

She didn’t.

“Diaz.”

He hovered near the door. Come on, Jess. Get the hint.

“What?”

She walked toward him. He watched the way she moved. So graceful, so slow, so seductive. She stopped in front of him, tilting her head back to look him in the eyes. Her lips were parted a fraction of an inch, revealing just the tip of her tongue as she studied him.

He was beginning to sweat. His cock twitched. His heart pounded.

Fuck. He wasn’t seventeen. He was thirty-one goddamn years old, too old to let a young woman affect him this way.

She inched closer, so close that the tips of her breasts nearly brushed his shirt. His knees almost buckled.

“Why are you so afraid of me?”

He tilted his chin down and stared at her. “What?”

“You’re afraid of me. It’s obvious. You’ve been avoiding me for years. You never talk to me. I enter a room, you leave. I try to talk to you, and you mumble a few unintelligible phrases, but otherwise, you won’t engage and then you make up some excuse to get away from me.”

“That’s not true.”

“It is, too.” Her gaze swept his body, from his feet to the top of his head. “Now you’re, what? Six-two or so?”

“Six-four.”

“Fine then. I’m five-six, so you’re almost a foot taller than me. And you have to outweigh me by over a hundred pounds, if not more, so I don’t think my mere presence scares the shit out of you.”

Darlin’, you have no idea.

“I just can’t figure out what it is about me that makes you keep your distance.”

“You don’t scare me, Jessie.”

“Yeah, I do.”

She moved in on him, and he backed up a step.

“Otherwise, you wouldn’t be backing away from me. So, see, I’m right. You are scared of me.”

“I’m not afraid of anything, or anyone.”

A small smile teased the corners of her mouth. “That kind of false bravado could get a guy killed in our line of work. Everyone is afraid of something. With me, it’s cliffs—looking over one and that fear of falling. Gives me a vicious case of vertigo. Oh, and I hate spiders in a major way. A girlie thing, I know, but I can’t help it. And I’m really not too keen about sleeping alone in the dark. I like a light on. So what about you? What scares you?”

“I told you. Nothing.”

He flattened his back against the door, but Jessie kept coming, pressing her palms against his chest and leveling him with a teasing grin. “Nothing except me. Big, bad Jessie scares you.”

She was playing a game. He wasn’t. “Stop.”

She did. She had to—there was nowhere else to go unless she climbed up on him. He smothered a groan at the visual that presented. Naked, her full breasts pressed against his chest. Her legs wrapped around him, his hands filled with her sweet ass as she bounced up and down on his cock. Her pussy would be wet, tight, gripping and squeezing him until he shot loads of come inside her.

Shit. “Get out of here, Jess.”

“Why?”

He inhaled. Big mistake. The scent of her filled the air around him. Intoxicating, sensual. He went hard in an instant.

“Because you’re playing with fire, little girl.”

Her eyes went smoky. “I’m not a little girl. And I like a little heat, Diaz.”

Invitation was written all over her face, her body. Tempting. Oh, so tempting.

But that’s not what they were here for. And this was Jessie, not some random woman to fuck. It was Jessie. He had no right. She belonged to all of them, all the Wild Riders. All the guys who counted on him to take care of her. Because they all loved her.

Like a sister.

He grasped her by the shoulders, taking in and memorizing the small surprised gasp she made. He wanted to put his lips on hers, to swallow her gasp, to slide his tongue inside her mouth and taste her.

God, he wanted that bad.

He pushed her back the few inches it took to open the door and set her on the other side of it.

“Go to your room, Jess.”

He shut the door in her face, not hearing as she opened her mouth to speak. He threw the dead bolt, feeling like a coward, which he was. He turned around and leaned his back against the door, blowing out a breath.

Not afraid? Yeah, right. Jessie had called it right. She scared the shit out of him.

It took him a few minutes to regain the ability to breathe normally.

One woman. One small woman, and she sent his entire nervous system haywire. He should be able to handle her, to ignore her. But he couldn’t, because one look at her, one whiff of her unique scent and he was like a freakin’ bloodhound, salivating and on the hunt. How was he going to do this assignment, be an effective leader, with Jessie underfoot? How was he going to remain immune?

He dragged both hands through his hair, pushing off from the door to pace the small confines of his room.

Priorities. Taking down the gunrunners was his objective. He’d have to compartmentalize Jessie to that place in his mind where she didn’t exist. Or jack off a lot while he was alone, to ease the stress of having her near. His cock twitched, aching for touch, but it wasn’t his hands it wanted. It was Jessie’s. Her hands, her mouth, her pussy.

Tough. His dick was just going to have to suffer, because he wasn’t going to fuck her. Even though it seemed she’d wanted that tonight. She’d put one hell of a move on him. Any other guy would have taken what she’d so obviously offered.

She was playing a dangerous game with him. But Jessie was a kid. She didn’t know what she wanted. It was going to be up to Diaz to show restraint.

He groaned. This assignment was going to be like a long ride into hell.

FOUR

JESSIE PACED HER ROOM, STARING AT THE CLOCK, WAITING FOR the appropriate time to meet up with Diaz and Spence. The roaring sounds of bikers zipping up and down the street woke her early, though she hadn’t managed much sleep anyway. Her thoughts had been occupied with Diaz most of the night. She’d tossed and turned, her body on fire from being close to him.