Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 59146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 296(@200wpm)___ 237(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 296(@200wpm)___ 237(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
He smiled. “Good.”
“Can I ask you a question before I decide what I want to do?” I stared up at him, wondering if he’d answer my questions.
He shrugged. “Yeah. I’ll answer if I can.”
“Well, I was wondering. How’d you get the name Inferno?”
“That’s an easy one. I used to be a fire chief. Youngest chief the Pleasant View Fire Department ever had.” The pride in his voice told me all I needed to know about how proud he was of his position. “My real name’s Jonah Sherman, but I ain’t gone by that in a long time.” He shrugged. “It’s just Inferno now.”
“Well, then. Maybe I’ll stay. You know. Until morning.” I nibbled my bottom lip. “You know. If that’s OK?”
“Of course, it’s OK, birthday girl.” The gentleness in his voice nearly brought tears to my eyes. “Now. Do you want to get some rest and maybe do this again later?”
I couldn’t contain my amusement, or my relief. I hadn’t realized how much I dreaded leaving until he’d forced me to make a choice. “Yeah. I’d most definitely like a repeat.” Unbidden, a yawn came, and I had to cover my mouth with my hand. “I’m so sorry! That’s so embarrassing!”
He pulled me closer to him so, once again, I lay with my head on his chest. “Just close your eyes and rest. And remember, you’ve always got a choice in what happens next, Juniper. Just because you’re in my bed right now doesn’t mean I get to fuck you again. Only that you can’t fuck any of my brothers. Yeah?”
I sucked in a breath, not at all opposed to the idea of him fucking me again. The explicit declaration turned me on way more than it should. “I can’t imagine doing what we did together with anyone else in this place.” The whispered words left my mouth before I could censor them, but they were true. My sexual experience had been limited to Brett and one other guy before I met Brett. “Regardless of what it looks like, I don’t bed hop.”
“Never thought you did, honey. I just want it known that, should you decide you want a biker in this club, I get first dibs.” His grin was positively boyish, especially when he winked at me.
We shared a smile. I reached up to stroke his cheek with my hand, needing to memorize his features in case this was the last night I ever saw him.
“Thank you, Inferno. This has been the best birthday ever.”
“You’re very welcome, Juniper.” He leaned in to kiss me, letting his lips linger before making a slow sweep of his tongue into my mouth. When I sighed and relaxed against him, Inferno pulled back.
I curled against him, and he settled his arms around me and stroked lazy slides up and down my arm with his fingers. I settled with my head just below his shoulder, over his heartbeat, and sighed contentedly.
Downstairs the party had thinned to a low murmur, bass gone quiet, just the occasional laugh drifting up through the floor. Outside, gravel settled. A motorcycle started somewhere across the lot, idled, and cut off again.
I thought about the clearance sticker on my birthday cake, still sitting on my kitchen counter forty minutes and a whole lifetime away. I thought about the way Brett’s voice had gone so smooth and reasonable while he took my whole life apart in front of me, and how none of it felt real anymore as I lay here in a stranger’s arms, in his bed. None of it felt like something that had happened to me tonight. Like an alternate reality or something.
The longer I lay there, the more my body loosened muscle by muscle, the adrenaline of the whole long day finally draining out in the post orgasmic bliss.
The last thing I registered before sleep took me under was his breathing, even and unhurried, and the strange, stubborn fact that for the first time in longer than I could remember, I didn’t want to sleep alone.
Chapter Four
Inferno
The morning peeked slowly through the blinds in thin stripes of pale golden light cutting across the bed to make Juniper seem more ethereal than she already did. Once she’d passed out, she hadn’t moved. Her weight settled against my chest, one arm flung over my ribs and her hair spilling in ringlets across my skin. I could feel each breath she took, steady and deep. Her lips were parted slightly, the red long gone. What color on her face remained was just her. Just the woman. And she was even more beautiful than she had been the night before. My arm had gone numb under her hours ago, and I didn’t give a good Goddamn.
My club-issued quarters had never felt comfortable when it was this quiet before. Usually the silence pressed and brought back painful memories. Sometimes I filled it with the television or music. Not this morning. Today the quiet sat easy and so fucking peaceful I never wanted it to end.