Page 81 of The Kings of Kearny

I finished buckling myself in and turned toward Jakob. His hands were on the steering wheel, knuckles white, leather creaking beneath his grip. The muscles of his arms popped. His eyes were shut, jaw clenched as he breathed through his nose. He looked like a man on the brink of committing murder, and the only thing keeping him in the car with me was his death grip on the wheel.

Uh-oh.

I reached out and grabbed his shoulder. It felt like iron beneath my palm. “You’re okay,” I said, trying to think of some way to talk him back from the edge. “You did so well in there. Stayed calm and rational even when he was a dick. That was good thinking with the subchapter in Georgia. I think Eva will like it too, and she’ll help convince Daniel that it’s a good move, especially considering their daughters will be safer there until things blow over with your dad.”

He turned his head just enough to glance at me, and I went still in my seat. Somehow in the past few days, I’d forgotten how dangerous this man was. It was hard to focus on his ugly reputation for violence when he kept kissing me breathless. The look in his eyes made me want to sink down and try to make myself into as small a target as possible, and I wasn’t even the focus of his rage. God help Daniel if he ever pushed Jakob too far.

Instead of shrinking away, I leaned forward and pressed my forehead to his. “Hey,” I said. “You did it. You found out who Redding is and thought up a way to keep Daniel and your dad from going to war with each other. I’m really proud of you.”

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and some of the tension beneath my palm began to ease away.

“Seriously, Jakob,” I went on. “I don’t know how you did it. I would have gone off on Daniel within the first minute we were there. You have every right to be pissed. I hate the way he speaks to you.”

Jakob cracked his eyes open again. The ice in them had melted enough that I didn’t feel like he was about to freeze me in my seat.

“Wanna go back in there and defend my honor?” he said.

I rolled my eyes. “Har har.”

His lips twitched. “Maybe read him the riot act over his mistreatment of me?”

“Stop,” I said, but I was relieved that he was cracking jokes.

His eyes creased at the corners. “You sure you don’t want to go beat him up? He’s pretty hungover. You might only have to yell hello at him again before he caves.”

I grinned. “You caught that pettiness, huh?”

He nodded. “I’ve never seen you so perky before.” He let go of the steering wheel with one hand, leaving a perfectly preserved set of indents on it.

Yikes.

Those deadly fingers slid into my hair, surprisingly gentle as they curled around the back of my neck. His gaze dropped to my mouth. “You got a sadistic side I don’t know about?”

I leaned into his touch, wanting to keep him distracted, happy that lust was an easy way to change his mood. “I must because I keep having this fantasy about tying you up.”

His eyes warmed as they met mine. “Come away with me after we fix this, and I’ll let you tie me to anything you want.”

Just like that, my apprehension disappeared. Desire coursed through my body. My God, theoptions. A chair. The bed. Hell, maybe we could rent an older place, and there’d be exposed beams that I could string him to, arms strained overhead, unable to do anything but thrust as I dropped to my knees in front of him and—

“You got that look in your eye that makes me want to fuck you in public,” Jakob said.

“I’m imagining all the things I could tie you to,” I told him.

The wicked grin that spread over his face in responsedid thingsto me. “So you’ll come away with me?”

I nodded. After all this stress, we both needed a break, and God help me, I wanted to escape for more than a weekend of wild sex. I wanted to spend time with this man, get to know him away from the club, find out who Jakobreallywas.

He leaned forward and pressed his mouth to mine in a toe-curling kiss. “Then let’s get this shit over with so we can get out of here,” he said when he pulled away.

The engine turned over with a throaty growl, and Jakob stepped on the gas, tearing out of the Kings’ driveway. I breathed a sigh of relief as we turned onto the main road, feeling like we’d all just dodged a bullet. Maybe literally.

“He’s not wrong,” Jakob said.

“Who, Daniel?” I asked.

He nodded, shifting through gears as we picked up speed. “My father is overreaching. Working through Reddingdiddestabilize Kearny. Our hard rule is no drugs, and he broke that rule just to make Daniel look weak. I’d be fucking pissed too if I were him.”

“Yeah, but does Daniel have to be such a monumental dick about it?” I asked, throwing my handbag into the back seat with a little more force than necessary.

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