Page 52 of Bad for You

His gaze lifted at that moment and somehow came straight to me. His entire body rocked back—then he was on the move, striding around the bonfire toward me.

The older biker grabbed my arm. “Hey, I’m talking to you.”

Jesse planted a hand in the guy’s chest and shoved him off. “She’s taken.”

The guy stumbled back. I’d barely noticed him. I’d only seen Jesse.

“What the fuck are you doing here, Lila?” His gaze bored into mine before dipping, taking in what I was wearing. His nostrils flared.

“You lied about tonight,” I said. “And I know you’ve been avoiding me.”

His green gaze was hard. “I had stuff to deal with.”

“Okay, so why didn’t you just tell me that instead of lying to me?”

His jaw clenched. “Let’s go, and we’ll talk.”

“Was it so you could hook up with one of those girls?”

His head jerked back and he looked around, like he hadn’t even realized there were girls with their boobs out dancing around them. “What? No,” he choked out. “Of course not.”

“Are you embarrassed of me…”

“Christ, Lila, no.”

“You want to leave?” Trix said, moving closer to me.

Jesse looked at her, then to Addie, only now realizing I had my friends with me. “You two need to leave,” he bit out. “I can take care of Lila, but you shouldn’t be here,” he said to my friends. “Grinder,” he called to a guy close by. “Walk these girls to their car. Anything happens to them, I’m holding you personally responsible.”

Grinder moved in and started herding my friends away.

“Now hang on a minute,” Addie said as Trixie tried to break away.

Jesse shook his head, looking harder than I’ve ever seen him. “Lila’s staying, you two are leaving.”

Trix looked ready to do battle and Addie was right behind her. Shit. “I’m okay,” I said to my friends. I wasn’t one hundred percent sure I was yet, but they weren’t going to back down and neither was Jesse, unless I said something. “I’m with Jesse, I’ll be fine.”

Trix narrowed her eyes. “Are you sure?”

Jesse growled, cursing under his breath, and his hard gaze cut to Grinder. “Take them to their car.”

I nodded to Trix and did my best to give Addie a reassuring smile.

“Call us if you need us,” Addie said.

“And if not, I still expect a call in the morning, okay?” Trix said.

I nodded.

Then they let the big biker herd them back the way we’d come.

Jesse looked down at me. “We need to have a conversation, Bambi.”

“Yes, we do.” My hand lifted to his cheek before I could stop myself, tracing the multicolored bruise there. “What happened to your face?”

He covered my hand, pulling it away, and threaded his fingers with mine. “Nothing. Took a hit during training.”

“Grifter!” Two girls came running up to him, both topless, boobs out for all to see. They stopped beside us and grinned up at him. To his credit, Jesse looked unmoved and uninterested, in fact his gaze was downright cold.