Not fear of Ty. Never that. But of his club and everything it represents.
He’s almost within touching distance before his gaze slides from my breasts to my face. For an eternal moment, it’s like the world stands still, just me and him, no history or recriminations between us. And then he blinks, disbelief replacing the predator, and reality smashes back in.
“Jas?” His voice is smoky, sexy, just the way I remember, and inside I’m seventeen again—needy and desperate and overawed that the gorgeous Ty even noticed me, never mind anything else.
I’m not seventeen. And I’m sure as hell not that girl anymore.
“Ty.” My voice is cool and doesn’t betray my thoughts, thanks to years of learning how to mask my true feelings. Although, I guess the therapy helped, too. “It’s been a while.”
Not long enough. I need to leave before he sees the hunger in my eyes. Ten years is too long to still want someone, but I’ve always known that. I just don’t want him to realize it, that’s all.
Great plan. Such a shame I can’t follow it through.
…
Ty
No fucking way.
The words pound through my head, raw and brutal, as Jasmine O’Brien fills every jagged corner of my mind.
She stands there with a strange, distant smile on her face, as though it hasn’t been ten years since she walked out on me.
Ten fuckingyears. There’s nothing left to say.
“Yeah.” I answer anyway, can’t help myself. Never could, when it came to Jas.Shut the fuck up. Walk on.She’s nothing to me anymore.
“You’re looking well.”
Is she for real? That’s all she has to say to me after all this time?
I drag in a deep breath. Five minutes ago, I was checking her out, turned on by the way that plain black dress looked so damn hot on her. I usually go for the obvious, chicks who are dying for a piece of me, not women who cover everything up. The easy lay suits me. I don’t want to work for pussy. But something about this chick was different.
The irony chokes me. Yeah, she’s different all right. She’s buttoned up and out of place, and by the way I reacted before I’d seen her face, it seems the same twisted chemical reaction that hooked me all those years ago still burns between us.
I dredge up my so-called trademark smile, the one that has chicks in the club dropping to their knees. The smile that Jas once told me was the reason she first fell for me.
Her expression doesn’t even flicker, and red-hot anger blazes through me. What did I expect? That she’d beg me to forgive her? Ask for a second chance?
Drag me into the back of her car for a quick, mindless fuck?
My dick throbs, and that pisses me off more than ever. I narrow my eyes so she can’t see the lust, and ignore her attempt at small talk. “What’re you doing here?” It hits me that she must’ve come here to see me. She’s in my territory, right opposite the Hammer. Had she been about to go in? Or had she just come out?
Why?
She’s not been back to L.A. in years. Not that I’ve ever stalked her, but word gets around. I would’ve known.
“Oh.” For the first time, uncertainty flickers across her face, reminding me ofmyJas, and it’s like a punch to the gut. It vanishes in a second, and she gives me another bland, impersonal smile that scrapes along my nerves like barbed wire. “My mom passed away a few days ago. I’m just seeing to her affairs.”
My anger drains as I catch the haunted look in her eyes before she lowers her lashes. “Shit, Jas. I’m sorry.”
Her mom wasn’t that great to Jas when she was growing up, but she was still her mom, and I guess Jas loved her, even though they hadn’t seen each other in years. For a wild, crazy second, I almost pull her into my arms, the way I would’ve when we were dating. I scowl and hunch my shoulders. It’s been a long time since anyone has needed me the way she did. She was the only one who ever saw the other side of me, the side that didn’t belong to the Bastards. A dull pain grips my chest. That hidden side of me died the day she left, but some nights I’d give almost anything just so I could let down my fucking guard again.
“Thanks.” She brushes imaginary dust from her dress with the tips of her fingers and avoids looking at me. “I appreciate it.”
Christ, it’s like we’re strangers. I guess we are. Jas sure as hell isn’t the same girl I remember, who’d wind her arms around my neck and give me a sweetly innocent kiss every time we got together.
No. But I still want to plunge my hands through her gorgeous black hair, even though she’s piled it all up on top of her head instead of wearing it loose like she used to.
