Page 25 of Dagger

I said nothing as my legs carried me across the room in long, determined strides. Her eyes widened in surprise, and she got to her feet, taking a few steps back until she was trapped between me and the wall. “Hey,” I growled, and cupped one side of her face, running my thumb up and down the curve of her jaw. “Your skin is so fucking soft.” My words were filled with wonder as my other hand slid around to the back of her neck. Then I couldn’t wait one fucking second longer to taste her lips.

She gasped a quick second before my mouth crashed down on hers, igniting a fiery explosion of lips and tongues. Sinclair melted immediately, soft as fuck, hot and pliant beneath my palms. My head spun at the electricity that arced between us, hot and sizzling, and that’s when I knew my mistake. Kissing Sinclair right now, like this, so fucking hot from the first touch, made it impossible to stop. Her lips parted easily, inviting me to devour every hot inch of her mouth.

I groaned and pushed my body against hers, loving that she was soft everywhere I was hard. When she moaned, I nearly lost my shit, growling from somewhere deep in my chest and intensifying the kiss. I neededmore,so I ground my cock against her, pulling out another moan. That moan, soft and hungry, made me want to rip every inch of her clothes from her body, see what color her nipples were and what they tasted like. I wanted to consume every inch of her, tattoo my name all over her body with my lips.

I couldn’t do that. Not yet.

I couldn’t take this further than kissing right now. Even though it killed me, I pulled back.

She gasped and licked her lips, a faint smile on her face. “What was that for?”

“I’ve been wanting to do that since I first saw you,” I admitted honestly. “I figured now was the best time to see what those gorgeous lips taste like because I have something to tell you and I’m pretty sure you’re gonna hate me, at least for a little while.”

Her smile vanished as she took one huge step to the right, putting distance between us.

I grabbed her hands before she was too far out of my grasp, too far gone. My lips still tingled from that kiss and there was no fucking way in hell that would be my first and last taste. “I’ve been watching you.”

Her eyes widened, and this time it was a mixture of shock and fear. “What?”

I nodded. I had to tell her some of the truth if not the whole damn story. “Before I asked for your help, I checked you out. I had to, a new teacher who my daughter’s absolutely fascinated with. Given my life and my history, I had to know who you are.”

She tried to step back again, but asshole that I am, I gripped her tighter. “So you watched me instead of getting a background check like a normal person?”

“I did a background check, but that just tells me whether or not you’ve been caught, not who you are or what you’re like. So, yeah, I watched you.” My tone was defiant because even though I knew it was creepy as fuck, I didn’t feel bad about it. “But I wasn’t the only one.”

That stopped her struggling immediately. “What?”

“Yeah.” I sighed and loosened my grip on her. “A few times I watched you, I noticed I wasn’t alone. He was more brazen, standing close to your house and peering into your windows.”

Fear darkened her eyes, and she took a step back. “Few times?”

I nodded, an apologetic look on my face that I didn’t feel. “Yeah, like I said, I just wanted to see who you were as a person, but when I saw that guy, I kept coming back to see what he was up to.” I pulled out my phone and showed her the blurry image of him I’d snapped. “Do you know this man?”

She barked out a laugh and shook her head. “Considering he looks like he was photographed with a potato, no. And apparently, I don’t know you very well either.”

“So there’s no old boyfriends or lover who might want to get back with you?”

She shook her head. “No. And the last thing I had that resembled a relationship was more than two years ago. And considering he cheated on me, I doubt he’d follow me for two states.”

“This man’s been hanging around for a while now, Sinclair. I know you want to be pissed off about me watching you, but this is more important.” She was a reasonable woman, surely, she could see that.

Sinclair’s gaze hit the floor, darting back and forth as if she was processing everything I told her. “I can’t believe you knew about this for weeks and you said nothing.”

That wasn’t what I expected.

“I thought I was going crazy, feeling as though someone was watching me, but everywhere I looked, there was no one there. It was you and whoever the hell this guy is the whole damn time!” She jerked out of my grasp and put the whole damn room between us.

“I’m sorry about that. Hell, I didn’t even think you’d notice.”

She scoffed. “Because I’m some fucking idiot?”

“No,” I shook my head, “because I was being careful, always at a distance.”

“I thought I was paranoid.”

“Come with me.” I took her hand, ignoring her attempts to break free while I tugged her out of the room and into the MC office where Slate, Diesel, and Gio sat huddled together. “Guys,” I called out to get their attention in case they were talking about sensitive club matters.

Slate looked up first, his gaze landing on Sinclair first. “Hey, man, what’s up?”

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