“Hm?”
“Your bed’s not much better.” Her eyes lower from mine down my body. “But the view makes it worth it.”
I struggle with being treated like a piece of meat, my worth no more than for my biker looks and hard body, just a man here to fulfill a fantasy, but with Tessa, even when she says stuff like this, I know it’s not true. I’m under her skin as much as she’s under mine.
I plop down beside her. The single bed makes it a tight fit, so I scoop my arm around her middle and tuck her still-warm ass against my cock. I’m hard again instantly. Fuck. Not since my early twenties has my dick been so insatiable and it’s all because of the fiery woman pressed against me.
Tessa wiggles closer and I brush her hair aside to kiss her neck.
“Case?”
“Hm?”
“Tell me about your time in the Satan’s Ransom.”
For a second panic hits, but then I realize I don’t want secrets between us. “How do you know about Satan’s Ransom?”
“I learned everything I could about you, you’re my nemesis.”
“Do you always let your ‘nemesis’ take you on the floor?”
“Okay. My former nemesis.”
I chuckle and then, I tell her everything. Even the part about me struggling with my guilt over betraying the brotherhood and the bad shit I had to do undercover and its effect on my ability to see myself as a good man. What I don’t talk about, though?
Reece.
I’m not ready yet.
“That’s why you said you’re not a badguy, rather than a bad guy?”
Hitting me right in the gut with my words from that first night, I reel at her insightfulness.
Grunting, I close my eyes as she rolls to face me.
“Look at me.”
I open my eyes.
“You’re neither. Not a bad guy, nor a badguy. They should have pulled you out. It was too long. You were in too deep. If you didn’t feel like this, I’d wonder if you were a sociopath.”
I huff a dark laugh, looking past her. “Mack was my informant before I went under. He tells me the same thing. Reminds me that I saved lives.”
“Mack?”
“My contractor.”
“He was arealSatan’s Ransom member?”
I nod. “Eighteen years patched.”
She frowns, narrowing her eyes. “I’m guessing he got immunity?”
“He did, but that’s not why he agreed to be my informant. Or later brought me in as a prospect.”
“Oh?” She rises to prop her head in her hand.
“His niece overdosed. Savanah was just seventeen. One of the Ransom’s dealers sold her a few pre-rolled blunts for a party. It was only supposed to be weed but it was laced with fentanyl. It wasn’t the first time he’d done this either. The guy wasn’t careful or particularly concerned about cross-contamination. My partner and I were staking out the dealer’s place, trying to connect him to Satan’s Ransom.” I roll onto my back, putting my arms behind my head, wanting an excuse to look away from Tessa and her empathetic eyes.