Page 14 of Wild Night

“You and Ivy?” she asks, and if I’m not mistaken, there is some excitement in her voice.

I’m not sure if she should be excited at all. She doesn’t know the whole story. She doesn’t know that I’m married and on the run from said husband. Pressing my lips together, I shrug a shoulder.

“He’s really smart,” she whispers. “He’s an attorney.”

My eyes widen at her words. “A what?” I hiss.

Dakota giggles, and for just a split second, I’m taken back to the past. Decades ago. When my sister and I would talk about boys. When she would giggle the exact same way. Although back then, I didn’t always understand why my sister would giggle.

A lot of the memories are fleeting because of our large age difference, but some of them are still right there in the forefront of my mind. I looked up to my sister, wished I could be her, and wanted to run away with her.

I hoped and prayed, wished and pleaded with God and whoever would listen that my sister would come back and takeme away. She never did. I never saw her again, but I can see her now in Dakota, and that’s something almost magical.

“A criminal defense attorney,” Dakota breaks me out of my thoughts about the past. “They call him Ivy because he graduated from an Ivy League law school.”

Shit.

So he’s totally legit.

I open my mouth, then snap my lips closed again. I’m not quite sure what to ask past that. All I can think about is that maybe, just maybe, my luck has changed. What are the odds that I would fall into bed with an attorney who is also part of a ruthless motorcycle club? And I know that they’re ruthless because I looked them up before I got in my car and drove away from California.

A warm palm presses against my lower back and a shiver of excitement slides up my spine. My belly flips then flops before it’s filled with butterflies. It’s him. I know it is because of the way he makes my body feel when he’s near.

I’ve known this man for less than twenty-four hours, and I can already sense his presence. It should not be this way. I don’t even know him. But as I turn my head, I tip it backward slightly and look up at him.

His eyes find mine, and he winks.

God.

What that simple wink does to me. Clenching my thighs together, I wonder if anyone else can sense just how much he turns me on. If they do, they’re polite enough not to say anything, at least to my face.

Dakota’s eyes glitter as they shift between us. I’m not sure how to respond to that. She is full of unabashed hope, and I can’t dash that for her. If I did, I would have to tell her that I’m married to a lying psychopath who I don’t even know. I’d haveto tell her that I’m just like her mother. I’m selfish and pick the wrong men. That there is something inside of me that’s broken.

I can’t do that to her, not when she’s so damn happy. She made it out. She broke the cycle. She has a whole family around her, people who absolutely adore her. She has a best friend, she has another woman she works with at a bakery, and she has a baby.

I’ve never had a best friend. I’ll probably never have a baby. And I’ll never have a man who treats me as if I am a precious gem. It’s not in the cards for me, but she’s risen above, and she did that with zero help.

She did that because she’s just that freaking wonderful.

I’m not that great.

The most I can hope for is a chance to not worry about Lucian Whitmore coming back—ever.

CHAPTER SIX

POSEY

Dakota and Bullet leave,although she drags her feet and makes me promise that I will stay here and wait for her to come back from her honeymoon. I make that promise and hope like hell I can keep it.

But when they’re gone, that’s when Ivy turns toward me, his eyes finding mine and holding my gaze for a moment. He doesn’t say anything immediately. Sucking in a breath, I watch him, waiting for him to continue.

Maybe I’m waiting for him to pick me up and carry me away.

Yeah, that’s it.

I want it.

“Ivy,” I rasp.

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