Page 29 of Ash (Dragon Riders MC 3)
Sly gripped my shoulder. “I’m sure he can take a lunch break. Right?”
Knuckles slipped past Hannah in the doorway. “He’s all yours.”
Sly winked at me. “And don’t do anything I wouldn't do.”
I clicked my tongue. “Which would be…?”
He blinked. “You’ve got a point there.”
I shoved him away and he laughed before he exited my office. Then, Hannah and I were alone. She slipped into my office and closed the door behind her, so I decided to get to my feet. The last thing I needed was her sitting on my lap, standing between my legs, or sitting next to me and trying to feel up and down my leg.
Come on. She’s not a horndog.
Then again, her nipples were hard through her shirt.
“Is something wrong, Hannah?” I asked.
She nodded. “You’re damn right there’s something wrong.”
“Can it wait until I get home?”
She scoffed. “Why the hell do you think I put on pants and stormed all the way down here?”
I blinked. “Are you not even wearing a bra?”
“Oh, come on. Of course, I’m wearing a bra. I’m not some whore for bikers, Ash.”
“I never said you were. I just—”
She took a step toward me. “Why did you push me away this morning?”
I gripped her shoulders. “This conversation can wait.”
“It can’t wait. Not for me.”
I spun her around. “Well, it’s going to have to. I’m not wasting my lunch break talking about something that can be—”
She turned back around. “Oh. So, I’m a waste of time for your lunch break? Is that it?”
I rolled my eyes. “Hannah, please don’t do this. I can’t—”
She pointed up at me. “I thought you were different, Ash. I thought you were one of the good guys. The day we shared yesterday? The best of my entire life. I felt cherished and beautiful. I felt loved, Ash. And you made me feel that way.”
I reached around behind her and closed my office door.
“Can you keep it down a bit?” I asked.
Her eyebrows stitched together. “Why? Are you embarrassed at the topic of conversation?”
“No. Not embarrassed. I’m just—”
She raised her voice. “Are you scared people will find out we slept together? Multiple times?”
I leveled her with a stare. “Go home, Hannah.”
She swallowed hard. “Why are you doing this to me?”
I stalked toward her. “Go home and stay in that basement. You can’t be here. You can’t come here. And you sure as hell can’t drop in on me at work whenever you feel like it. We don’t have that kind of relationship.”
“Yeah. Just the kind where you feel you can fuck me and forget about me. Did you never discover masturbating into a sock?”
I ripped my office door back open. “Go back to my place and hunker down. You have to stay under my roof, so I know you’re safe.”
“I’m not safe anyplace where you’re not, and you know it. The safest place for me right now is here. With you. At your side.”
I narrowed my eyes. “No. The safest place for you right now is in my basement, with the security system armed down there in order to alert me to when someone crosses into the threshold of the property I own.”
She blinked. “Wait, you have something like that?”
“Yeah. I do. So, get the hell out of here and get back there so I can arm the system again. And don’t you dare leave unless you tell me where you’re going first, and I approve.”
“Who the fuck died and made you king of my life?”
“You. The second you decided to come with me to seek a better life here in New York. Now, do as I ask, or you won’t have this crew’s protection anymore. It’s your choice.”
She gnashed her teeth at me. “I hate you, Ash. I hate you so much I could puke.”
And as I watched her storm off down the hallway, my biggest fear was that she meant those words.
At least the security system lie worked.12HannahI stormed out of the bar and slammed myself back into the rust bucket of a vehicle Ash called a “car.” And as I sat behind the wheel, I tried my best not to curse his very existence up and down. How dare he feel he could talk to me that way? How dare he think I was some slave to his very presence? What the hell was so bad about me coming to visit, anyway? I mean, did he not know that the safest place for me was around him? Did he not realize that!?
“You’re an idiot, Hannah,” I murmured.
As I sat there with my eyes closed, I wondered if I had misread things. Was yesterday nothing more than a way to pass the time? Had I been nothing more than a fun little romp around in bed? That was how I felt right now, and I didn’t appreciate it. Yesterday meant something to me. Being with Ash like that meant something to me. I didn’t think I’d ever be with someone else after what I went through with my ex. I didn’t think I’d ever have it in me to take that risk again, especially with another bad boy. Yet, here I was, falling for another man in a nice leather jacket.
