“Not even close,” Edge replied over his shoulder. “But we’re pacing ourselves. Family men now. Need to protect our energy.”
Kane gave him a look. “You’ve never protected anything you didn’t intend to sharpen.”
“Exactly. Energy’s a weapon.”
I shook my head and let them file out ahead of me, the weight of the meeting settling into me as I returned to my custom bay.There was still a threat breathing too close to Saylor, a missing twin with a gift for creating disasters, and a rival MC dumb enough to think the Kings could be studied from the outside and exploited.
But now the club was moving. The Diesel Serpents had no idea what they’d stepped into when they cornered Saylor. They thought they were chasing intel. They were about to learn they’d touched the edge of something a lot sharper.
10
CENTURY
By that evening, I’d spent too many hours buried under work and not nearly enough of them with Saylor. I’d known before lunch that I wasn’t going to make it to the school when Saylor finished for the day, and the knowledge had put me in a foul mood that got worse with every hour. The rest of the guys at The Pit noticed and wisely gave my custom bay a wide berth.
It was my space, built for the kind of work that needed precision and privacy, and sat apart from the main floor, separated by a rolling door on one side and a locked entrance on the other.
I stood beside a stripped-down bike frame, checking the curve of a custom bracket I’d shaped for a customer’s rear fender, when I heard footsteps stop just inside the open bay door. I glanced up, expecting a mechanic or maybe Gauge coming to tell me some customer was whining about a timeline, but the world narrowed when I saw Saylor standing there instead.
She had a takeout bag in one hand and her schoolbag looped over her shoulder. Her hair was pulled back in a way that made me want to wreck every bit of her composure. Her clothes weremore buttoned-up than what she’d worn to the track, but that almost made it worse, because now my head supplied the image of peeling away every respectable layer until she was flushed, breathless, and saying my name like she couldn’t remember anything else.
She lifted the bag with a sweet smile. “I figured you could use some dinner.”
My lips tipped up as my eyes swept over her. “Definitely hungry.”
She must have missed my double meaning because she just hummed, “Mm-hmm.”
“You come here to feed me?” I asked with a slow grin, stepping away from the bike.
Her gaze dropped to my mouth, then lower for half a second before snapping back up. “That was the general idea.”
Then she licked her lips. Not on purpose, which made it even sexier. Her tongue slipped over that soft lower lip, and the sight hit me straight in the dick. A growl dragged out of my chest before I could stop it, low enough that her eyes widened and the hand holding the takeout bag tightened around the handles.
I crossed to the rolling garage door first and hit the control, keeping my eyes on her as the heavy metal panels rattled down behind me. I went to the side entrance next, slid the lock into place, and felt the air change around us the second the click landed.
Outside the bay, The Pit kept running like usual, but in here, it was just us and the hunger I’d been holding back since I watched her walk away from me that morning.
Saylor swallowed as I turned back toward her. Her lips parted, and she looked away like she could hide the truth from me after letting her eyes crawl over my body a minute ago.
I stopped in front of her, close enough to feel the warmth coming off her body.
Her breath hitched, and I caught her waist and backed her toward the work table, slow enough that she could stop me if she wanted and firm enough that she knew I didn’t expect her to. She moved with me, her eyes locked on mine, until the backs of her thighs hit the edge of the table.
I took the food out of Saylor’s hands and set it on the workbench beside her without looking away from her face. Whatever she’d brought me smelled good, but I needed her more.
“Food can wait. You’ve been driving me fucking wild all day, baby.”
My hand slid around the back of her neck, my fingers sinking into her hair as I pulled her mouth to mine and kissed her hard, swallowing the soft, startled sound that slipped out of her. She melted fast, one hand curling around my biceps while the other landed against my chest, her fingers digging into the cotton like she needed something to hold on to.
I broke from her mouth just enough to drag in air, then hooked my hands under her thighs and lifted her onto the table. She gasped, her skirt riding higher as she landed on the cool metal surface. The sight of her sitting there with flushed cheeks, swollen lips, and her legs already parting for me nearly took me to my knees before I made the decision to get there.
I braced my hands on either side of her hips and leaned in close, letting her feel the heat of my breath against her mouth while I looked her over with zero shame. She trembled under that look, and fuck, I liked knowing she felt me before I even put my hands where I wanted them.
“You walk into my bay looking at me like that and expect me to eat dinner first?” I rasped, letting my mouth brush the corner of hers before I lowered it along her jaw. “Not happening. I’ve been thinking about every sweet little sound you made in my bed since I woke up beside you.”
“Levi,” she whispered.
I stepped back just far enough to reach for her skirt, pushing the fabric up over her thighs until it bunched at her waist. Her skin was smooth and warm under my palms, and her panties were a delicate scrap of fabric that had no business standing between me and what I wanted.
