Author: Jaci Burton

To survive Jessie.

Tonight he’d come close to taking her, to stripping off her skimpy excuse for clothing and licking every inch of her skin, starting at her toes and ending with her sweet, sassy little mouth.

God, the things he’d like to do with her mouth.

His cock twitched. He groaned and took another long pull from the bottle of beer, hoping the icy drink would cool his libido before he had to head back to the hotel.

And sleep in the same room with her.

Where he’d hear her, shifting underneath her covers, where he could smell her, see her, be almost close enough to touch her. He really wanted to touch her. He wanted to do a hell of a lot more than touch her.

He wanted to fuck her.

And no way was he going to do that. Tomorrow, he and Jessie were going to have a talk, set some things straight. He didn’t know what kind of game she was playing with him, but it was going to stop.

They were on a mission, and there was no fucking on a mission. At least not each other. Or anyone else for that matter.

Fuck. He didn’t know what he was talking about. His brain was like scrambled eggs. He was supposed to be in charge here, figuring out strategy, studying Crush and his gang. Instead, he was hiding out in the corner of this dark cave of a bar, nursing a beer and avoiding one hell of a sexy woman because she was first and foremost on his mind.

Yeah, he and Jessie definitely needed to talk.

Tomorrow. It could wait until tomorrow.

He drained the beer and signaled the waitress for another.

FIVE

DIAZ’S TALK WITH JESSIE HAD YET TO MATERIALIZE. WHEN HE GOT back to the room last night, she was asleep, huddled under the covers, which suited him just fine. He undressed and climbed into his bed, promptly passing out. The next morning she was up and out of the room before he got out of bed.

Maybe she was angry at him. Good. If she decided to start avoiding him, it couldn’t work out better. He could concentrate on the job at hand, and not on fending her off.

Because a man only had so much control.

He found her downstairs having breakfast with Spence, who filled them in on Stephanie, the woman he’d hooked up with the night before. She was not only Rex’s ex-girlfriend, she was also Crush’s cousin. Figuring that Stephanie had an in with the Devil’s Skulls, Spence told them he decided to get close and hang tight with Stephanie, who was currently unattached and seemed to have taken a liking to him.

Not surprising. All women seemed to like Spence. Spence seemed to like all women. And if it worked for the mission, it was all good.

Over breakfast, Jessie barely spoke to him. She was civil, but not overly friendly. Avoided eye contact, scooted her chair away from his.

Yeah, she was pissed.

He should have been happy about it. Strangely, he wasn’t. He tried to joke with her but she grabbed her jacket, slung it on, and bumped her hips against Spence, teasing him about his latest conquest, ignoring Diaz as the two of them walked out the door toward the bikes.

Okay. That’s how it was going to be. And she bitched at him about how they were supposed to give the outward appearance of a couple? He rolled his eyes.

It didn’t take long for Crush to hook up with them as they wandered around the tents and exhibition areas of the rally. Jessie seemed really happy to see him, looping her arm into his and walking away with him, her platinum blond head tilted toward Crush’s dark one, whispering and laughing.

“What the fuck?” Diaz muttered.

“She’s doing a good job getting close to him,” Spence said. “He seems really taken with her.”

“He’s old enough to be her . . .”

Spence grinned. “He’s about your age, moron.”

“Fuck you.”

Spence laughed. “Jealous, huh?” Spence leaned back and studied Diaz. “This is a new side to you.”

“Do you really want to brawl with me out here, Spence?”

Spence arched a brow. “Do you really want me to kick your ass again?”

“Again? You were the one with the broken arm.”

“You needed stitches. That’s why you’re so ugly now.”

Diaz’s lips quirked. Leave it to Spence to shake him out of this mood. “The stitches were in the back of my head.”

“That’s why you have no fucking sense.”

Diaz laughed. “Smartass. Let’s go. I want to keep an eye on them.”

“You go. I see Stephanie. I’m going to do a little intel of my own.”

“Pussy is not intel, Spence.”

“That’s what you think. You’d be amazed what a woman will tell you when you’re giving her an orgasm.” Spence winked and moved off to catch up to the petite redhead waving in their direction.

Which left Diaz to follow along behind Jessie and Crush like a lost puppy, a position he didn’t like at all. Not that Jessie left him much choice since she stuck to Crush like glue while they wandered around the vendor tents, laughing and whispering to each other. She didn’t once turn around to see if he was behind her.

Which wasn’t how they were supposed to play this gig.

Yeah, they were going to have a talk, all right. About a lot of things, the least of which was her inability to follow orders. She could leave her personal feelings in the hotel room. If she was pissed at him for something, tough. This was an assignment. They were supposed to be a couple. She was doing a shitty job acting like part of one right now.

They turned a corner and Crush spotted him.

“Hey, Diaz. Jessie was just telling me about you.”

He caught up to them, acting surprised to see them. “Yeah? What was she saying?”

Jessie smiled, but it wasn’t a happy smile.

“She was telling me that you do your own work on bikes.”

He shrugged. “I’ve done some.”

“That’s not what she said. She said she’s seen you take one apart and build one from the ground up. That true?”

Diaz gave Jessie a frown. She continued to plaster on that fake smile.

“I guess. I just tinker.”

“Hey, if you ever need a job, our garage could use a guy like you.”

“Thanks for the offer. I’ll keep it in mind. Never know when I might need a job.”

What was that all about? And what else had Jessie been telling him? He needed to pull her away from Crush and have a chat with her about what she could and couldn’t say, though he thought she already knew the rules.

Unfortunately, she seemed to be glued to Crush’s hip today, because she saw something at another vendor tent and dragged Crush along to see. Crush gave Diaz a helpless look and followed. Diaz kept a watchful distance, fuming inside. He couldn’t exactly jerk Jessie away from Crush. Then again, wasn’t he supposed to be her . . . boyfriend or something? Shouldn’t he be jealous or possessive about her spending her time with Crush, hanging so close to him?

Shit. He wasn’t very good at this. He supposed if they were going to put on an act, he’d better start acting.

He stalked over to them and grabbed Jessie’s arm. “We need to talk.”

She tilted her head back, her eyes unreadable behind her sunglasses. “I’m busy.”

She turned away, but he jerked her back around. “Now, Jessie.”

Ignoring Crush, who simply grinned and nodded, he dragged Jessie away from the vendor tent. She wasn’t exactly coming along willingly, either. As soon as he pulled her far enough away from anyone who could hear, he stopped.

“What the hell are you doing?”

She pulled her shades on top of her head. “I was shopping. What did it look like I was doing?”

“Flirting with Crush.”

She arched one brow. “Hardly. I was gathering information. Isn’t that what we’re supposed to be doing here?”

“Looked more to me like you were flirting.”

“Flirting.”

“Yes. With Crush.”

“I was not.”

“We’re supposed to be a couple.”

She snorted. “Yeah, you do that couple thing so well, don’t you Diaz?” She moved to push past him, but he stopped her.

“Jessie, we’re on a mission here,” he whispered, casting his gaze around to be sure no one else could hear. “Don’t forget that. And we set it up so the two of us are supposed to be a couple. You hanging all over Crush isn’t making us look like a twosome.”

“Crush and I have a friendship started. He’s comfortable with me. We were talking. That’s it. Now if you don’t mind, I’ll go back to doing what I was doing and see if I can get him to open up to me. Unless you think I need to hold your hand, talk only to you, be only with you, which will get us absolutely nowhere in this assignment.”

She crossed her arms and stared up at him, as if daring him to argue her point.

Fuck it. Let her go hump Crush’s leg if she wanted to. It wasn’t like he cared, and if the end result was information, it was great, right? “Go for it.”

She nodded and walked away, finding Crush and greeting him with a giant smile. They whispered, and Crush looked over at Diaz. Jessie said something and Crush tilted his head back and laughed. Diaz could only imagine what joke was being told at his expense.

He could feel his blood pressure rising, the pounding in his temples, the headache beginning to form.

Diaz searched out the beer tent, determined to let Jessie do her information gathering. He’d watch the other Skulls, see if anyone looked to be doing anything suspicious.

Which was a complete bust, but at least Crush ended up finding him and sharing a beer and bratwurst with him. And that meant Jessie had no choice but to follow, which didn’t seem to make her happy.

“Having fun?” Crush asked while Jessie excused herself to go off to find one of the Porta-Johns.

Diaz mumbled something noncommittal.

“Your lady seems to be irritated with you today.”

“So it seems.”

“Hey, I read the hands-off signals loud and clear, man. She and I are just talking.”

Diaz shrugged, but his blood was boiling.

“I respect a man’s property. You have nothing to worry about.”

Yeah, right. A woman like Jessie throwing herself at Crush, letting him know she was available and interested? As soon as Diaz’s back was turned, Crush would be in her pants.

“She’s spent the entire time with me talking about you,” Crush added.

Diaz tilted his sunglasses down his nose. “I’ll bet she has.”

“No bullshit. She told me about how you build bikes, how good you are at riding and working on them, how much she admires your ability, both mentally and physically, to look at a bike and know exactly how to put it together. She really loves those Harleys. And the lady’s crazy about you, man. She can’t stop talking about you. It’s kind of annoying,” Crush finished with a smirk.

Diaz had nothing to say about that.

“I admire a woman who’s that loyal to her man, even when she’s mad as hell at him.”

He really had no comeback for that statement, especially since Jessie returned just then, sitting down next to Crush, of course. She smiled at Crush and took a long swallow of beer.

“It’s hot today,” she said. “I hadn’t expected the weather to be so warm.”

“It’ll cool off at night,” Crush said. “It usually does.”

“You do this every year?” Diaz asked.

Crush nodded. “We do a lot of bike events, but this one every year since it’s in our backyard, so to speak. We do several weekend rallies in different states, but this is our big event of the year. After this weekend, we’ll head east into the Ozarks, ride the mountain roads, hang out at the lake, soak in the fall color.”

“Oh, that should be fun,” Jessie said. “I looked at the roads on the map. Awesome riding.”