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“But …” I dip my tongue out to wet my cracked lips and furrow my brow when my confusion refuses to let go of me. “Why’s he here?”
“You don’t know when to let shit go, do you, Kid?” Jax’s heavy hand lands on my shoulder in an unexpectedly punishing pat that knocks me forward a step. “I’m gonna go case the scene. Be good, Princess.”
“Me?” Cedar scoffs. “Iwasn’t the one grappling strangers.”
“Right,” Jax snaps on a chuckle and spins on his boots. “Gotta go clean up my mess.”
“Dad,”Cedar calls to his disappearing back, but growls when his trek doesn’t stop.
Silence stretches over the space except for the small AC unit blubbering in the incessant heat in a desperate attempt to keep up.
“I’m gonna give you two a minute.” The little goth receptionist disappears after Cedar’sdadand leaves us all alone.
I stand there, with cracked open knuckles and half my shirt, staring at Cedar while she sinks her teeth into that plump bottom lip and pretends not to stare right back.
She thinks I don’t see it.
She thinks I miss the way her eyes travel over my exposed chest, leaving hot trails in her wake only to dart away long enough to make me question my sanity.
Then back again, higher this time, like her gaze is stroking its soft touch down the ink on my neck.
The air … it fucking crackles like a venue pumped to see As Above play for the first—or the hundredth—time with each pass of her sight over my skin.
Cedar is the only woman who has made me stop and look more than once. The only woman to make my skin both hot and chilledat once, while also making my heart both race and settle into a rhythm. The only fucking woman to have me unloading in my fucking pants in the middle of an empty tattoo parlor all on my own.
So when I stalk forward with a filling cock and pinch her chin to tilt her head back, I meet a set of eyes so blue I’d swear they captured the depths of the ocean in the sunlight from beneath the surface.
And a twitch.
It’s subtle. Barely there.
But one of those beautiful, lined eyes gives a jerk that has my heart pounding for a different reason, and my hands itching all over again.
“Cedar,” I start, leaning in close enough that I taste her breath on my tongue. “Tell me why he’s here.”
She forces a hard swallow down her extended throat, her tongue darting out to wet her lips in a way that catches my cautious, yet turned on eye.
Raising a hand, Cedar wraps her slender fingers around my wrist, the heat from her touch like a caress down my spine, and her lips part on a breath I’d rather catch than let loose.
I don’t. But I really fucking want to.
“He’s, um …” Clearing the lower octave from her throat, she shakes her head.
“Don’t.” I hold her gaze, and her chin when she goes to pull away from me. “Don’t you dare shut me out. Not again.”
“Why not?” Her words challenge me, but her tone is breathy and all kinds of sexy, that sends my head into another tailspin.
I could go with the façade Cedar’s put up. Dismiss the shit like she does and pretend that it doesn’t exist. Just go on about the night with a smile and ignore the way she tries to hide her flinches. Focus on how hot she is with the red lips and how feisty she is with everyone else.
But I can’t.
I won’t.
“Because I need to know why you jerk every time I get close to you.” I hear the change in my own voice when her eyes widen at my words and her nostrils flare with a deep breath.
Her dismissive scoff that follows makes my jaw firm, and my grip on her chin slips right into cupping her jaw to hold her close without forcing her. She’s soft in my grip, but lightning against my palm that shoots straight to my aching and confused cock.
“So?” Pressing our foreheads together, I let my gaze float between hers.
