delicate circles on his back, marveling anew at the feeling of his built muscles underneath the smooth skin and how good it felt. I had begun to think that I would never get him in this situation ever again, and it was even better than I had thought to prove myself wrong on that score.
I thought of asking Jed all of the questions that I knew I would have to eventually. Questions of him and Kat, of what they meant to each other, what they’d done with each other. How he could possibly trust her when she may have tried to kill me earlier that night.
There were things I needed to tell him, too, like about the safe that he had probably already discovered at the headquarters.
I said nothing about any of it. Instead I let myself treasure and enjoy the time that I had with him.
Eventually he rolled off from on top of me, and I snuggled up to his chest. It was almost dawn, but I needed sleep and I wasn’t going to ruin the chance to have it with the man that I suspected I was falling in love with.
SHOWDOWN
A night of pleasant dreams ended with an abrupt crash as Jed climbed out of bed. I sat up, blinking the sleep out of my eyes and stretching. The pang in my hand reminded me of the injury I’d sustained the day before.
“Jed? What are you doing?” The clock blinked a doleful eight o’clock. We’d only been asleep for around three hours.
“I need to get moving,” he replied. “I have to get out on patrol and catch this son of a bitch.”
“Don’t you think you’d better get a full night’s sleep if you’re going to be tearing around after a maniac? Who knows the next time you’re going to have a chance to catch any sleep at all?”
He picked up his shirt and threw in on over his shoulders. I mourned the loss of his visible torso. I hadn’t gotten as good of an eyeful of it last night in the pale light as I would have liked, although my fingers still tingled with the memory of what it felt like.
“I can’t, Leslie. The club needs me. And the town needs me, you never know what this guy will do next. If he came after you, he could go after any of the people that we watch over.” He turned to leave. “I’m going to leave some men here with you to watch outside, so that you don’t get caught off-guard again.”
I grumbled and got up from bed, stretching more fully. My nude body soaked up the sun that danced through the gaps in the drawn blinds. “At least let me come with you then.”
He turned back to say something, and then caught sight of my body on display for him. He opened his mouth but didn’t manage to get anything out for a few seconds. I couldn’t help but grin broadly at the look on his face.
“You don’t have a bike, Leslie. You wouldn’t really be able to go on patrol.”
“Oh, come on, Jed, that’s just an excuse. Look what happened to Nathan last night, you are way more vulnerable on a bike than I am in my car. Beside, I’m a federal agent, I know how to take care of myself.”
He winced a little. “Regardless, Leslie. As you said, full sleep is important, so you should stay here and rest up so at least one of us is running on a full tank. Besides, you really need to take care of your hand, it looks like it’s pretty bad.”
He was right. The appendage throbbed. I should have gotten it looked at yesterday, but events had just spiraled further and further out of control.
“Fine.” I pulled him close and kissed him hard. “But you better fucking look after yourself, otherwise I won’t ever forgive you. I don’t want to be waiting for you to wake up in the hospital again.”
He grinned. “Biker’s honor, I swear that won’t happen again.”
He left, and I watched him go. There wasn’t really a lot that I could have done out there anyway. Neither, for that matter, could he. Thinking that they would somehow come across and catch the killer by driving around towns in small groups was wishful thinking to the nth degree. There just wasn’t a lot else that they could do
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