Her skin tingled and her mouth became as arid as the Sahara Desert as she fought the urge to rake her gaze down his body. She wished she could only see him as a complete asshole and nothing more.
Unfortunately, for some reason he had an appeal she couldn’t resist.
He was like catnip to her inner kitty.
Her reaction was stupid and dangerous and she’d already made that mistake once. She couldn’t make it again. She had too much riding on it.
She only wanted what was best for her son, and the cocky man standing before her…was. Not. It.
A man who couldn’t keep his ass out of jail. And not because he was a biker. Simply because he was Zeke. Or, as that patch on his chest declared: Trouble.
“Why are you here?”
“Know why.”
She pretended she didn’t. “I’m not interested in getting back together, Zeke. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Like I told you the other day, I have a son to raise and I need steady in my life, not turmoil.”
“We were always fuckin’ dynamite together, Ky.”
“We sure were. Until that last explosion. The one in which you lit the fuse.”
His jaw shifted. “When the fuckin’ smoke cleared, you were gone. You fuckin’ ran. Apparently, with my kid, too.”
“I wasn’t running. I was being smart, Zeke.”
“Ain’t smart to take a kid away from his father.”
“I never said you’re his father. But even if you were, have you looked in the mirror? Hell, have you looked at your rap sheet? It has to be longer than a CVS receipt.”
“What the fuck,” Zeke grumbled. “Might not be fuckin’ perfect but better than not havin’ a goddamn father at all.”
“Your opinion.”
“Yeah? Well, my opinion should fuckin’ count!”
Someone was getting testy.
“Again, when it comes to Ledger, only my opinion counts. And let’s talk about your unnecessary and rude comment at the jubilee when you said it didn’t take me long to move on. I’m assuming you didn’t mean Glen, but how Ledger came about. Now, let’s talk about how many womenyou’vehad in the last four years.” She lifted a palm. “Truthfully, I don’t care how many. I’m sure you can’t remember them all, anyway. But that’s not the point. The point is, while we were together, you should’ve kept your dick in your pants. Or respected me enough to break up with me first. You couldn’t even do that, Zeke.” She internally cringed when she heard a whine creeping into her voice.
To deal with Zeke and not let him push her into saying stuff she’d regret later, she needed to remain level-headed.
She needed to remember he had a powerful biker army behind him. She did not. She only had her immediate family. The family who had not been happy she’d been with Zeke in the first place.
The “I told you so”s had been relentless after she got her heart broken. Then they drowned her in disappointment once she revealed she was pregnant.
Finding out she was going to become a mother had been a shock. Not only to them, but for Kyra, too. She had been overwhelmed, scared and regretting her bad decision to be with a man child.
She had needed time and space to not only wrap her head around how her life would change, but to also make a solid plan on how to raise a baby on her own.
She was proud she’d been successful at it so far. All without any help from her family.
And while her family might not like the fact her life plans had taken an unexpected turn, now that she was back in town, they loved spending time with Ledger.
“Admit I fucked up. Regretted doin’ it. But you didn’t even give me a fuckin’ chance to make it up to you.”
She tipped her head to the side. “Tell me something. Did you finish in Bunny’s mouth that night? Or as soon as I caught you and walked away, did you realize your mistake and stop her from continuing?”
His lips pressed into a thin line and he dropped his head.
