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And I wasn’t sure I had the power to keep it from completely crumbling.
TWENTY-FOUR
TREVAN
Elena Mercer was trying to destroy me. Demolish every guard and reserve and barrier that I’d set into place.
She stepped out of her bedroom fifteen minutes after telling me she needed to freshen up before we left for the compound.
The black dress she donned might have been simple. A scoop neck and cap sleeves. Flowy and not really form-fitting.
But it was fucking short and with those sweet legs of hers exposed, it made it feel obscene.
None of that was what fucked with my mind, though. It was the little red apples dotted all over it that screamed forbidden fruit.
She’d paired it with a pair of Docs, and there was something about it that made her look both docile and badass.
A biker princess, I supposed, and the title definitely fit.
She gave me a little curtsy when she found me standing there with my mouth gaping open.
Call it a fucking miracle that I didn’t have drool dribbling out the side.
But what was dribbling out was the flustered word, “Apple.”
Only my wayward tongue would trip over it.
Shyness skimmed along her edges, that jaw working and those eyes peering over at me. No question, she didn’t know where we stood after what had gone down in her bed this morning.
Not any more than me.
Because I wanted to pretend it was no big deal like I’d told her.
Natural.
Rationalized away. Chalking it up to a dream.
But there was nothing rational about the way I was feeling right then.
“What do you think?” She swished the flowy skirt, sliding into the easiness that we normally maintained. “I mean, I know black isn’t exactly my signature color. I guess maybe growing up with all you bikers I wanted to go the opposite or something? But there is something about this one that feels really cute, right? Honestly, the apples were calling to me. I saw it and was like, ‘That’s me!’”
“Yeah, really cute.” I muttered it under my breath.
A bastard’s temptation because my fucking fingers twitched with the need to kneel in front of her like I’d done outside the breakroom, but this time when I slipped my hand up the back of her thigh, I’d take it further.
Slip them between her thighs and—
The vision hit me so hard that it felt like an ice pick being driven directly into my brain.
I deserved it.
Deserved the physical pain the sight of her standing there evoked.
“Brinley is going to freak out when she sees me in this dress. She was the one who insisted I get it.”
Not half as bad as I was right then.
“You don’t mind having to head back to the compound again tonight?” I somehow managed to force out of my throat.
