Hyde and Seek (26 page)

“Baby, I need it,” I said, breaking the kiss.

“Need what?” He moved slower, building my orgasm but keeping it out of reach.

“You. Always,” I panted. “But right now I need you to fuck me harder.”

Jake’s low growl vibrated against me, my slow burn turning to an inferno as his momentum increased.

I arched my neck, and his hand in my hair cushioned my head from hitting the wall. Biting my lip to muffle my moans, my legs tightened around him as I came.

“Christ, my woman looks so hot when she comes,” Jake murmured, his words making the pressure build again. “Sweet pussy, squeezin’ my dick so hard.”

“Oh, Jake,” I whimpered.

“So fuckin’ perfect. God, Piper, I love you. So fuckin’ much,” Jake groaned, pounding on each word as he came.

Tell him you love him.

Okay, catch your breath and then tell him.

Alright, fine, panic and be a coward on the off chance he said it in the heat of the moment and didn’t mean it.

Cluck, cluck, chicken.

When I undid my legs from his waist, Jake slowly loosened his hold on me and slid me down his body to stand. He stepped back to tuck himself away and arrange his clothes.

“Don’t wanna go back in.”

“Neither do I.” My heart was pounding in my near bursting chest as my stomach flipped wildly. “I’ve gotta go get cleaned up.”

Jake pressed in close, his hands going into the back of my dress to grab my ass as he kissed me hard.

He backed away. “I’ll be waitin’.”

We walked into the main room a few minutes later and stopped at the bar. With drinks in hand, Jake wrapped his arm around me. We’d barely taken a step when he was stopped.

“Hyde, how’s it hangin’?” a man greeted.

I was with the hottest of the hottest. I knew this without a doubt. However, I had to admit this man was good-looking.

Raw with a sharp edge, he was tall and thickly built. His dark hair was closely shaved and his eyes were a deep, midnight blue. Skipping over the traditional tux, he was wearing slate gray slacks and a shirt that matched his eyes.

“Long and strong, brother, long and strong.” Jake released his hold on me long enough to give him a back thumping hug before he put his arm back around my waist. “Piper, this is Lars. Lars, this is my girlfriend, Piper.”

I’d thought the label was silly. What we had was good. Perfect. There was no way that something so small and insignificant would make any difference.

I was
way
wrong.

Hearing Jake call me his girlfriend was
awesome.

“Nice to meet you,” Lars said.

I knew I was grinning huge, but I didn’t care.

“You, too.” I took his outstretched hand.

“Happy for you,” he said, still holding my hand but looking at Jake. His voice was deep with meaning when he continued. “Truly, brother. Fuckin’ thrilled.”

“You and me both.”

“Alright, I’m gonna go catch up with Kase. See you both around.”

From that point on, every time Jake introduced me to someone, he referred to me as his girlfriend. I knew my cheeks would hurt by the end of the night from smiling, but I didn’t care.

We eventually made our way over to the tables and sat for a while with Jake’s childhood friend Liz and her partner, Sammi. They owned a restaurant together where Liz handled the business side and Sammi was the head chef.

“I gotta go talk again,” Jake said, kissing me.

As he walked away, Sammi and Liz burst out laughing.

“Boy, you both have got it B-A-D, bad! I’ve never seen Jake like this. Not even with Chloe,” Liz said.

“Chloe?”

“Jake’s ex. She was years ago, but basically the only real girlfriend he’s had. Well, until now.”

“I gotta say, I’m totally diggin’ this change in him,” Sammi put in. “He looks happy. Like really happy. And he isn’t even around a car.”

“Which makes me curious what happened earlier when he looked like he was ready to kill someone,” Liz said.

“Someone was talking to me that Jake doesn’t get along with.” I didn’t want to go into detail, mostly because I didn’t want to think about it. It was done, Blake was long gone, and what followed was what I wanted to focus on.

“Who was it?” Sammi asked.

“Blake Green.”

“Oh yeah, they’re not fond of each other. Blake thinks they’re competing for chicks. They aren’t; Jake’s not like that. But if they were, Blake’s record would be dismal.”

“That also explains the growl,” Liz put in.

“Growl?” I asked.

“Yeah, he stopped in the middle of what he was saying, growled, and was already on the move when he told us to have a good evening. He jumped right off the front of the stage, not even bothering with the steps.”

“You’re kidding.”

Jake’s voice came through the speakers as he let everyone know that there was a half hour before the end of the silent auction.

When he returned to our table, he bent down and kissed the spot behind my ear. “Gotta make the rounds some more.”

“Okay. It was great meeting you both,” I said, standing.

“You, too. Stop into the restaurant soon,” Sammi told me.

“I will.”

Jake put his hand on my back, his thumb rubbing across my spine as he brought me over to another group of people.

As everyone chatted, he leaned close to my ear. “Havin’ fun?”

“A ton.”

Moving in front of me, his hands went to my neck and he ran his thumbs along my jaw. “I love you. I’ve been tryin’ to think of when to tell you, but it just came out earlier. I know I’ve fucked up, and I get it if you don’t feel the same way, I just—”

“I love you, too, Jacoby.”

I barely finished saying his name when he kissed me, soft and sweet.

Jacoby Hyde loves me.

Keep it together, Piper.

Don’t squeal. Don’t even do Jet’s thrusting ‘in your face’ victory dance.

“Jake?”

Jake tensed at the interruption, pulling up but wrapping his arms around me so tight that I almost couldn’t breathe.

I turned towards the voice and saw a tall, slender woman. Her blonde hair was cut in a fringed, shoulder length bob that highlighted her pretty features. She was wearing a black cocktail dress that showed off her porcelain skin and long legs.

“Chloe,” Jake replied.

Chloe? As in the heretofore unknown ex-girlfriend?

And she’s the exact opposite of me.

Awesome.

“I’m here with Frederick, he just went to get drinks. I thought I’d stop and say hello.” She turned to me, her eyes critical as she looked at me. “Hi, I’m Chloe. You must be the Piper I’ve heard so much about.”

“Chloe, go find your man. We’re in the middle of somethin’ here.”

“Sorry, Jake, I didn’t mean to interrupt you acting like a teenager.”

“Well, you did. And I’d kinda like to get back to it.”

“Baby, don’t be rude,” I laughed playfully up at him. “I’m sorry, Chloe. He can just be
so
greedy when it comes to his time with me.” I rubbed my fingertips across his jaw, forgetting for a second that I was supposed to be returning some bitchiness. “Anyway, it was nice to meet you. I’m gonna go get my man a drink.” I turned, dismissing Chloe altogether. “Beer, baby?”

Jake leaned down and kissed me. I knew his touch wasn’t to provoke a reaction, but just because he wanted to do it. “Yeah. I’ll come with. Don’t want to have to punch anyone else.”

A shiver ran through me when he placed his hand on my bare back.

As we walked away, I subtly looked to the side. Unsurprisingly, Chloe was glaring at us with her arms crossed. What caught me off guard was also seeing Dana staring us down with envy darkening her face.

She’s always had a thing for James. Shouldn’t she be dancing on a table or something?

The animosity was a physical feeling that hit me hard.

I took a deep breath and exhaled, letting everything go. I couldn’t control how other people felt. I could, however, control how I dealt with it.

And, tonight especially, I’d deal with it by enjoying time with my man.

When we got to the bar, Jake looked down at me, eyes searching my face. “You good?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Chloe. Sorry, babe, her man works for one of the companies that we invite. She never comes. I don’t know why she’s here.”

Oh, I know why she’s here. And it isn’t to bid on the theater tickets.

“Do you love her?”

“Fuck no. What the hell would make you ask that?”

“Do you want to take her home tonight instead of me?”

“No.”

“Then I don’t care.”

Jake backed me into the bar, his arms at my sides holding onto the ledge. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

“I like hearin’ that. A lot.”

“Good, ‘cause I like saying it.”

“Remind me never to piss you off, though. The way you handled that? Sweet as fuck, but you made it clear if she was gonna be a bitch, you’d outdo her. Instead of being pissed at her interruptin’ us, I was tryin’ not to get hard at your sweet version of attitude. So, never mind what I just said. Expect me to piss you off.”

I laughed up at him, but did it while pushing my body closer. “Don’t you have some official business to handle that would be hard to do if you were, well, hard?”

“Yeah, shit, I gotta go finish up.”

We walked towards a table near the stage where Xavier, Key, and a couple other people were sitting.

“Who’s that next to Key?” I whispered to Jake.

“Everett. They’re… complicated.”

“Wait, you mean that’s his date?”

“If Everett had his way. Like I said, complicated.”

I looked back at the table. “He looks familiar…” Suddenly it dawned on me where I recognized him from.

“What?”

“That first day in the shop, you called me babe but I didn’t know if you were talking to me. I looked around, saw a couple bikers, and figured you must’ve been talking to me because I couldn’t see any man calling them babe.”

“I take it Everett was one of them?”

“Yup. That’s what I get for judging a book by its cover. I’ve seen him with women, so is Key…”

Jake raised a shoulder and said, “Key is Key.”

When we got to the table, I sat as official introductions were made before Jake walked towards the stage.

I watched as a few women tried to stop him to talk. Based on their body language, it wasn’t the charity they wanted to help.

Xavier jerked his side towards Jake. “Piper, don’t let that shit get to you.”

“It doesn’t. He’s freakin’ hot, no woman could resist.”

“Too bad for them there’s only one woman he can’t resist,” Key said, his smile shy but loaded with affection.

I love my boys.

Jake reached the microphone and began his closing speech for the evening. As he talked, a few men approached me and asked if I wanted to grab a drink. I was polite in declining, and they were polite with the rejection.

Jake introduced the representative before returning to the table.

“Damn, be nice if I could leave my woman for five minutes,” Jake said with a smile in place, though it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Piper, you ready to go?” His fists were clenched so hard his knuckles were white, though he was trying to look calm.

“Yeah.” The day had caught up with me long ago and I was running on fumes.

I stood and said my goodbyes. Jake did a jerky chin lift to the table.

As we walked towards the waiting limo, Jake, silent and tense, kept his hand on my lower back.

As soon as the car door closed, he pulled me to him and kissed me so hard it almost hurt. After unfastening the halter, he pushed the dress down.

I lifted my hips from the seat so he could drag it the rest of the way off, letting it fall to the floor in a pool of dark purple.

Grabbing my waist, he pulled me to him. I swung a leg over his thighs to straddle him. Burrowing his head in my neck, he used his tongue, teeth, and lips to drive me wild.

“Oh God, Jake.” I pushed myself against the hardness in his jeans, wishing for nothing between us.

“I lose my fuckin’ head when it comes to you.”

“There were just as many women trying to talk to you, trying to get in your pants. Which, by the way, make your ass look awesome. If you have twenty or so more pairs, that’d be great.”

Jake sat back and smiled at me, his hands still cupping my ass. “You gotta know there’s no one I’d rather have been with tonight. Especially right now with your sweet ass on my cock. But seein’ another man tryin’ to be in my place right now, with you on their dick? Fuck that.”