Author: Jaci Burton

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 fuck.”

“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.

“Wow,” she said over Pax’s shoulder. She’d always wanted to come to Bike Week, but had never found the time to make it. Now she saw what she’d been missing all these years. Wall-to-wall bikes and people crowded the sidewalks. Bikes were parked in the center of the street and at the curb as well as on the side streets. Thousands of them, in fact, more than she could ever hope to count. Shops were open and vendor tents were crammed in every available location. The smell of food cooking came from every corner, the loud beat of music pulsating from the open doors leading to the bars. Teresa scanned the vendor signs as they slowly rode by. Anything you wanted could be found here, from T-shirts to tattoos to bike accessories and biker clothes. And beer. Lots and lots of beer.

Though Main Street was only a few blocks long, it was packed with bikers, which made the street seem much bigger than it really was. Sturgis did a great job accommodating the masses that descended upon their tiny town every year.

They finally found an available parking place and climbed off. The sun was already beating on them and it was warmer down here, so they shed their jackets to walk around. Teresa noted immediately that AJ and Pax flanked her, one on either side as they made their way along the vendor booths.

Was it for protection or a show of possession? She wasn’t sure, but she liked it. And judging from the envious looks she got from other women as they walked past, she should consider herself one lucky woman.

If only they knew what she wasn’t doing with these guys.

Yeah . . . all those things she should be doing with them. She’d barely gotten started with AJ last night, and that had been all one-sided. As soon as she’d spotted Pax, she’d frozen up.

But what should she have done? Invited him to join in? What might have happened then?

That thought stayed with her as she scanned the crowd, looking for the Fists. As much as she’d have liked to visit every vendor tent and shop on every block, she knew that’s not what they’d come here for. She turned her attention instead to the bikers, who were just as interesting to watch as all the vendors and scenery. They came in all shapes, sizes and colors, and various states of dress . . . and undress.

Teresa’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head when she saw what some of the women wore. Or rather, didn’t wear. Some wore jeans and skimpy bikini tops, or ass-bearing shorts. Some wore no tops at all, just brightly colored Xs pasted over their nipples. Teresa was beginning to wonder if she’d stumbled into an outdoor strip club by mistake.

“Seriously?” she mumbled out loud as a woman walked by in shorts that bared the bottom half of her ass cheeks, and no top on, her boobs jiggling as she strutted across the street. “Don’t women fathom that it’s sexier to leave something to the imagination?”

AJ laughed. “It’s a free-for-all here. Some women like to let it all hang out while they’re in Sturgis.”

“Obviously.”

She glanced at both the guys to see if they were ogling the half-naked chicks that seemed to surround them. Surprisingly . . . they weren’t. Like her, they focused their attention on the bikers, no doubt doing what she was doing—scouting for the Fists.

“I can’t believe you two are passing up all this naked female flesh.”

Pax slid his arm around her waist. “Why do we need to look at other women when we’re with you?”

She tilted her head back to stare up at him, thinking he was making a joke. He wore sunglasses, so she couldn’t see his eyes, but he wasn’t smiling. Was he serious?

He was. Wow. She had no snappy comeback for that kind of testament.

“Well. Thank you.”

AJ draped his arm around her shoulder. “Besides, there’s no better looking woman here than the one between us right now. Even fully clothed.”

She looked to AJ. “Yeah, I’ll bet you say that to all the girls.”

“No. Just you.”

Dammit. If they kept this up, she was going to get serious about these two. No wonder they had no trouble wrangling women. Devastatingly good-looking and charming, too. How could any woman resist?

How could she resist?

After walking the entire Main Street, Teresa’s feet were tired and she decided all the bikers looked exactly the same. They’d begun to blend together in this mile-long blur of black leather and white T-shirts. And it was hot outside. She needed a drink. There were too damn many people in this place, and crowds and heat didn’t mix well.

“This is getting us nowhere,” she said, stopping in the middle of a crowded sidewalk.

“You look tired and thirsty,” AJ said. “Let’s go in one of the bars for a drink.”

She nearly collapsed against him in gratitude. “Great idea.”

The first bar they hit was a giant hot spot on the corner, already packed despite it being just shy of noon. Being a bar owner, Teresa knew that when it was time to party, bikers liked to drink no matter what time of day it was. They pushed through the doors and were blasted by raucous rock music and a pack of people that made Teresa envious.

Now she was beginning to feel at home. Cool air-conditioning greeted them, and they wound their way through the thick crowd, Pax leading the way. He grabbed her hand and pulled her along, AJ laying his hand at the small of her back as he took up the rear.

She was really starting to like being sandwiched between two tall, muscular men. Her own personal bodyguards. And more.

They rustled up seats at the bar and ordered drinks. Teresa wanted soda and AJ and Pax ordered beers. She soaked up the atmosphere in the huge saloon, always on the lookout for new ways to spice up her own bar.

This place was chaotic and jam-packed. Sure, they had a captive audience with it being Bike Week, but still, she liked the way it was run. The décor was vintage, right down to the scratched and worn surface of the bar top and the smell of sawdust, beer and sweat. But it was lively, the music was roaring, and even better than that, there were three bars servicing patrons. And on top of the bars were women dancing. They wore skimpy bra tops with shorter shorts and leather chaps under them, or little miniskirts with bikinis underneath. All the girls were clean and damn good-looking, which led Teresa to believe the owners knew exactly what they were doing. Put enough bars in here to fulfill the customers’ needs, put good-looking women on top to dance and draw in customers, and while the customers were ogling the women, keep the alcohol flowing with plenty of bartenders.