Page 34 of Jack of Hearts
Three days had passed since Madison had last seen Alex, but he’d texted often and called her each night from his bar. She supposed that was one negative about seeing a bar owner. Their hours weren’t conducive to dating like normal people.
Although she’d known him for almost two months now, kissed him in her bedroom, and had an intense make-out session with him on his balcony, she still wasn’t sure what they were to each other. She didn’t feel she had the right to call him her boyfriend, but she’d sure like to.
She had thought it strange that he was the one who’d put the brakes on going any further than kissing and having their hands all over each other. Wasn’t it usually the guy who pushed to have sex? She had been perfectly willing, but he’d said they needed to get to know each other better first. The man was a puzzle.
The feeling that he was hiding things from her was also nagging her. Sure, he’d answered her questions, but they’d been vanilla answers, no depth to them. She was pretty sure there was more to him than he was willing to share. Even though she believed him when he said he didn’t do drugs or deal them, he’d never exactly explained why he was hanging out with Ramon.
For that reason, she was determined not to fall for him. She dreamed of falling in love and getting married, but Alex wasn’t husband material. So she viewed him as a man to have fun with, someone she could step out of her comfort zone and go a little wild with. When they grew bored with each other, they could walk away without any drama between them. She’d never dated a man as dangerous or edgy as Alex seemed to be, and it was exciting. All she had to do to keep from getting burned was to erect a firewall between them.
She glanced at the clock to see it was near midnight, the time Alex usually called, claiming the last thing he wanted her to hear before she closed her eyes was his voice. The man seriously melted her bones when he said things like that.
Right on time, her phone buzzed. “Hey,” she said. She could hear music playing and loud voices in the background.
“Hold on a sec.” She heard a door close, and the background noise faded. “There, that’s better.”
“Are you in the office?” That was where he usually went to call her.
“Yeah. Are you in bed?”
She squeezed her thighs together, amazed at how he could make her feel when he lowered his voice, all soft and intimate. “I am. Busy there tonight?” That reminded her of what she was supposed to ask him. Lauren had asked her a dozen times when they could go to Aces & Eights.
“Very. Missing you, though. You have any plans for Sunday?”
She was missing him, too, and the three days since she’d seen him seemed like forever. “I was going to see if my mom wanted to have lunch and go shopping.”
“That’s too bad. We’re closed on Sundays, and I was going to ask if you wanted to spend the day with me.”
“Then ask.” He chuckled, and even through the phone line, the sound sent tingles of pleasure dancing through her.
“All right. Madison, would you like to spend the day with me?”
“Can I make a trade with you?”
“Uh-oh. Why do I have the feeling I won’t like whatever you’re going to say next?”
The man was too perceptive. “Because you probably won’t. My roommate’s driving me crazy. She wants to go to Aces and Eights, said if you don’t take us there, we’ll just show up one night.”
“Okay.”
Huh? Just like that? “Really?”
“Really. But it will be at a time of my choosing. There’re certain nights that belong to biker gangs, and I’ll give up spending time with you every Sunday of the year to keep you away from them. So yeah, as long as I can control when you come, I’ll make it happen.”
“Thank you. Lauren’s the one pushing for this, but I won’t deny that I’m curious to see your bar.” She was just as curious to meet his brothers, but she left that unsaid.
“So the trade’s been made. I’ll pick you up at eleven on Sunday. If the weather’s nice, you want us to take the bike?”
“Definitely.”
“Right answer. Sweet dreams, my sweet Mad.”
“Hot dreams, my dangerous man.”
“When they’re about you, they’re always hot. Counting the minutes.”
Madison stared at the phone in her hands, wishing she could crawl through the screen and land on the other side, right on top of Alex. The man had her seriously bothered, and she reached for the vibrator she’d recently named Alex.
For her Sunday date with Alex—and since it was a beautiful Florida day, meaning he would pick her up on his bike—she put on the black jeans and bright yellow T-shirt she’d bought the day before at the local Harley-Davidson store. Across the front of the shirt it read, “Wrap your legs around this.” Underneath was a picture of a Harley. She’d been tempted to take a marker and X out the wordthis, writing inAlexinstead, but that was too obvious.
