Burnout: A Legal Heat Novella (8 page)

“You ready for me, babe?”

“God, yes.” She angled her hips, trying to get him where she wanted him to be.

“You gonna play the one-night card on me again?”

She whined and rocked against him. Too much talking. Not enough fucking. “Maybe not this time.” She didn’t have a chance to qualify her statement before he slid his hard length inside her with one sharp thrust.

Finally.

Her breath caught in her throat, and her legs clenched around him, her moan of pleasure echoing through the alley.

“My baby likes my cock.”

Sophie wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder, breathing in the scent of his leather cut and the faint musk of his cologne. “God, yes.”

“Say it.”

“I like your cock, Ace.”

He drove deeper inside her. “Tell me you want it.”

“I want your cock inside me.” And then, because she couldn’t believe how easily the words had spilled from her mouth, she said, “Fuck me with your big, hard cock, Ace.”

Ace grunted his approval. “I like hearing dirty talk coming from your sweet little cop mouth. Fucking gets me off like nothing else.”

“I like to hear no talk coming from your yapping mouth.” She levered herself up with her arms and sank down on him, taking him so deep her eyes watered with the pleasure-pain.

Ace groaned and hammered into her, slamming her back against the rough brick wall, over and over, until her need had coiled so tight the barest touch would set her free.

“Ace…”

“I got you.” Slipping his hand between them, he circled his fingers around her clit, light at first and then with firmer strokes, until finally, he brushed over the top with the pad of his thumb and pressed down hard.

She went off like a rocket, her muscles contracting as wave after wave of pleasure ripped through her body. Ace’s thrusts became faster, urgent, until finally he stiffened and released into her with a deep-throated groan. For a long moment, they didn’t move. Chests heaved together. Bodies cleaved together. Hearts beat together.

And then reality came back in a rush. Public place. Indecent exposure.

Illegal.

“I’m going to get suspended if anyone finds out about this,” she murmured.

Ace kissed her forehead and picked up her clothes. “I’m not telling.”

“I can’t believe what we just did.” She tugged on her clothes while Ace zipped up. “I can’t believe the things I said….” She straightened and frowned. “You’re a bad influence. Next time I say good-bye, I’m going to mean it.”

“Then we’d better get busy,” he said. “We’ve got a lot to do before then.”

*     *     *

Ace placed a hand on Sophie’s lower back and walked her into the bar. Jackie waved from their table, but he wasn’t in a mood to share. His little cop had a deliciously dirty wild streak, and he wanted to find out just what made her tick.

He led Sophie to the counter and checked his phone before ordering their drinks. “We’ve still got a bit of time. Spook says the movers are slowing down. He doesn’t think they’re used to hard labour.”

“And you are?”

Ace ran his thumb along the line of her jaw. “Yeah, babe. I am. Grew up being bounced around from one foster home to the next. When I realized stability wasn’t in the cards, I started working so I could get myself out. Not proud of the things I did, but I worked damn hard and saved up enough to get out and pay my way until I hooked up with Hades MC.”

He winced inwardly at the gloss he’d put on what had been the most difficult time of his life. After being separated from his brother, Sam, and at the mercy of the street gangs, Ace had become a drug mule simply because the gangs wouldn’t touch him if he was carrying a dealer’s product. He gave up the drug trade after losing two friends to drug overdoses and earned his keep in underground boxing matches. His success in the ring had attracted the attention of the president of Hades MC. Once Ace had been introduced to the biker lifestyle, with its creed of honour, brotherhood, and loyalty, there was no turning back. He had found what he had always been looking for—a family, a tribe, and a place to belong. Only now, with the old club gone, and his friends dead or in jail, he realized something had always been missing. His biker family had bonded through friendship. Not love.

“You ever think about doing anything else?” She took her drink from the bartender and gave him a smile that had Ace gritting his teeth. Sophie should be smiling at him and only him, and if that smarmy bartender didn’t back off…

“Not that I’m saying there is anything wrong with being an outlaw biker and committing crimes that could get you sent to prison,” she continued, clearly unaware that part of him was calculating how fast he could get over the bar and how much damage he could do with one well-placed punch in the bartender’s face. “But maybe you have other… skills.”

Yeah, he had skills. And he wanted to get her alone and on a bed so he could put them all to the test. “I like to build stuff,” he said, wisely deciding not to share that thought. “Before I joined Hades MC, I was a carpentry apprentice. I did the course at BCIT right after I finished grade ten, but I dropped out before I finished the last term. After I joined Hades MC, I helped renovate the clubhouse with a senior patch named Arcade who had his journeyman certificate. Learned more from him than I did during my entire apprenticeship.”

Ace nodded his thanks when the bartender slid his Guinness across the counter and made himself scarce. Arcade had tried to convince Ace to leave the MC and go straight. He’d seen something in Ace that Ace couldn’t see—potential, a future without guns or death or bloodshed. But Ace hadn’t been interested in giving up the closest thing to a family he’d ever known. And by the time he was ready to listen, Arcade was gone—killed in a drug deal gone bad.

Fuck. He didn’t want to dredge up those memories. Not here. Not now. Time to change the subject. “You ever think about being something other than a cop?”

Sophie shrugged. “Um… no. My mother was a real estate agent. She wanted me to follow her into the business, but I’m not a salesperson. I’m a straight shooter, and I don’t think it would go over to well if I told people just what I thought of the homes they were trying to sell.”

“Straight shooter?” He tugged on the waistband of her jeans, dragging her close. “Then be straight with me. What’s a cop doing with a one percenter in a biker bar on the wrong side of town?”

She lifted her glass to her lips—a blond ale from a local microbrewery the Rogue Riders had taken an interest in after the owner came to them needing protection from a couple of local thugs who were running a small-time protection racket.

“I don’t know.” She glanced down and then up again, her gaze warm with sensual promise. “I guess I’m having a bit of fun. My ex was a bit… stifling. At first I liked Ryan’s attention because my parents were very focused on work and Jason was always off doing his own thing, but then he became obsessive. He always wanted to know where I was; he showed up when I went out with my friends; and once he physically tried to stop me from leaving the house when I was going to a party.”

“You’re a cop…”

Sophie shrugged. “I think that’s probably why he never really got physical with me. I almost broke his wrist that one time he grabbed me. But he was so apologetic afterwards. He explained it away by saying he just loved me so much and he was worried because the party was in a deserted area. He always had a good reason for his behaviour. I’m not immune to psychological games just because I’m a cop. I stayed because I loved him, and I’m not embarrassed about that. Once you get emotions involved, logic flies out the window. You lose perspective. But it won’t happen again. I’m done with relationships and all the complications that go with them.”

Ace didn’t know what to say, so he kept his mouth shut. He’d locked up his emotions a long time ago when he realized that there was never enough love to go around for a foster kid with an attitude problem. As a result, although he enjoyed the company of women, he’d never stuck around to form any kind of long-term attachment. Even Jackie, whom he considered a close friend, knew enough to back away after he’d made it clear after their one night together that he wasn’t interested in anything more.

While they waited for their drinks, Sophie pulled out her phone and checked the messages. “I still haven’t heard from Jason,” she said. “It’s not like him not to answer my texts. I’m worried about him after what happened last night.”

Ace lifted his Guinness to his lips and took a long sip, hoping she’d wait a few more days before she checked on her brother so he had time to find him. If she was worried now, she’d flip out if she saw Jason’s house. He’d sent a few Rogue Riders to check on Jason this morning, and the house had been totally and utterly destroyed. Either the Red Dragons had torn it apart looking for Jason or they’d caught him and destroyed it as punishment for what they perceived to be a broken deal. Either way, Jason was in serious trouble, and Sophie was at risk if they connected her to him. The Red Dragons didn’t care about guilt or innocence—they would go after any blood relation to collect a debt. And if they found out she was a cop…

“I need to swing by Jason’s place on the way home.” Sophie tucked her phone away. “It’s not like him to not get in touch.”

“Fuck.” Of course Sophie wouldn’t let it lie. And he couldn’t tell her what was going on. Not only had he promised Jason he would keep quiet, he couldn’t risk her going to the police. The Red Dragons would kill Jason if they got wind of a police investigation. In their minds, an underground player like Jason would only be of interest to the police if he had a connection, and a connection meant betrayal.

Sophie frowned and Ace bit back a groan. Had he said it out loud?

“You don’t have to come with me,” she said.

“Yeah, babe. I do.” And not because he was pretty damn sure the Red Dragons would be watching Jason’s house, or because he had given his word to protect her. He wanted to spend more time with the woman who had wrapped her soft, sweet body around him in bed and then buckled on a belt full of weapons and kicked him out of the house. For the first time in his life, he wanted more than just one night in bed, more than mind-blowing sex in an alley. And if he had to fight the Red Dragons to keep her safe, then he wouldn’t stop until every last one of them was dead.

“O
h my God.
What happened?”

Sophie clapped a hand over her mouth as she surveyed the utter devastation in Jason’s house: floorboards torn up, holes in the walls, doors ripped off cupboards, and every drawer upside down on the floor. The partition wall between the kitchen and dining room had been totally demolished, and the back windows had all been smashed. But it was the bullet holes peppered over every surface that almost stopped her heart.

Ace kicked at a shard of glass. “Not sure. I’ve had a couple of the guys checking into it since this morning.”

“This morning?” Sophie whirled to face him. “You’ve known about this all day and you didn’t tell me?”

“You were working.” He wasn’t about to tell her he had followed her all day on her patrol. Despite the fact she was a cop riding in a cop car with a dweeb cop partner beside her, he’d given his word to Jason, and that meant keeping her in sight 24/7. “Didn’t want you to worry.”

“Worry?” Her voice rose to a shriek. “I’ve texted Jason at least a dozen times today. I’ve left messages. You
knew
I was looking for him. How could you not tell me his house was vandalized? Maybe he was abducted. The odds of finding someone go down exponentially with every hour they are missing, and you’ve kept this from me all day.” She pulled out her phone. “I’m calling this in.”

Ace snatched the phone from her hand. “The police won’t be able to help you. We need to keep this under the radar.”

Sophie glared. “My brother is
missing
. Last night, when you took me home, he was scared. I should never have left him alone. And now, someone’s shot up and destroyed his house. Doesn’t take a genius to add it all up. He’s in trouble. The police can help. I can help.”

“There’s a lot you don’t know about what’s going on.” Ace held the phone out of reach, and Sophie’s vision went red.

“Can the condescending crap. If there’s something I need to know, then tell me. And give me the damn phone or I’m going to do some serious damage that would render any future communication between us pointless because you’ll have no teeth.”

With a shake of his head, Ace tossed the phone on the kitchen counter and walked through the rubble to the patio doors. His feet crunched over the broken glass as he eased the door open and stepped outside. Sophie grabbed her phone and followed him out into the cool evening, her blood boiling.

“What don’t I know? I’ll need every bit of information to give to the police.”

He leaned against the fence and folded his arms. “Which is why I can’t tell you. Plus, he doesn’t want you to know.”

Her heart skipped a beat. “You talked to him?”

“At the party. He figured you would go crazy if you knew what he was doing. Sort of like now. Women tend to get emotional about this kind of thing.”

If ever there had been a time in her life she wanted to hit someone, this was it. Goddamned outlaw biker. She should have known that behind the sexy smile, the hot body, and the protective charade lay the heart of a chauvinist. But what did she expect? Women weren’t allowed to become members of outlaw clubs. They could only be “old ladies,” “sweet butts,” “back warmers,” or “house mamas,” serving and supporting their men.

I’ll show him emotional
. Her palm itched to strike him across the face. But common sense and her training kicked in. Aside from the fact he was bigger, stronger, and faster than her, she wouldn’t lower herself to what could be considered excessive use of force, nor would she allow him to gain the upper hand. The entire scene just reaffirmed in her mind that she needed to handle things the right way. If the police had been on the case from the beginning, no doubt they would have already found Jason, and because of Ace, she’d lost valuable time.