BILLIONAIRE BIKERS: 3 MC Romance Books (50 page)

She blushed.

“Seriously, Miss Donahue, we have experts in that kind of thing.”

“I’m sure you do. And I’m sure you’re an expert at your own kind of thing,” she said. He shot her a dismissive look. “Ah, we can dish it, but we can’t take it.”

“Whatever,” he said.

She went back to the closet and pulled out the bathrobe. However, she knew that to put it on meant she had to drop the throw that was wrapped around her.

Her expression gave her thoughts away. Instead, Lucas walked up to her and snatched the throw from around her; but, before she could react, he took the robe from her hands and put it over her shoulders.

She looked at him, speechless. He stood close, and she thought he would kiss her again, but instead he turned and walked out the door. “All secure,” she heard him say to Brighton.

Yes
, she thought.
All secure except for my heart
.

Checking out more of the contents of the chest of drawers, Audra found a pair of sleep pants and a shirt, which seemed like it would be warmer than her nightgown, so she put them on and lay back down on the bed.

The drama of leaving behind everything familiar, the plane trip, and the
incident—
as she thought of it now—started to hit her. Plus, all the drama of getting acquainted with her new surroundings and the people who would be her constant companions and watchdogs fell on her like a giant weight.

Taking it in all at once was too much. Instead, she tried breaking it down into more palatable pieces, but she found nothing appetizing at all—except, perhaps, for her encounter with Lucas.

Suddenly, all the pieces began to dance and taunt her. Isolation—forever! They had told her that after the trial, if there ever was one, she would have to be under the witness protection program. That meant a new identity, a new far away life from her home, and never having contact with any family or friends. If the guy was never caught, it would be even worse.

They had driven home the fact that the only people who had ever been killed while under witness protection were those who refused to follow the rules—those who thought that just one phone call or one email wouldn’t hurt. Once you fell afoul of a crime syndicate, especially one as far reaching as the San Martes cartel, your life was pretty much over, dead or alive.

Those precious seconds when Lucas pressed up against her created something other than fear to make her heart beat wildly. It was the only tiny comfort or relief that had come her way in months. Human touch had never been so important before.

She’d had a boyfriend, of course, but it had been a casual relationship, and she’d had no real hunger for touch. They had what she thought was good sex. However, compared to the electrifying few seconds with Lucas, she wondered now what good sex really was. In everything that she and her girlfriends had talked about or anything she had experienced, she had never imagined the heat.

She needed to stop thinking about it, but she knew that thinking about the other things would just depress her. She sort of understood why people took up drinking or drugs. She didn’t want to think about the possibilities or the impossibilities. She didn’t want to think at all.

# # #

Lucas lay in his bed the next night, tossing and turning. He never slept the first night anywhere because his brain was constantly assessing the surroundings, but by the second night, he was usually tired enough to sleep for a few hours anyway. He had turned in early, leaving Brighton and Bill to divvy up the night’s watches.

Truthfully, he just wanted to be alone with his thoughts. He tried to reason out his reaction to Audra logically but failed. Since Elena, he had slept with a dozen women, some of whom he loved for a while. However, no one made him feel the way she did.

With most women, he saw them, sized them up, approached them, wooed them, won them, and then they were together for however long it suited either of them. But in both Elena’s and now Audra’s case, it was as if he was drawn—inexorably and magnetically—to them. They overwhelmed his brain, dominated his thoughts, and left him feeling constantly anxious and aroused—feelings he couldn’t afford in this situation.

With Elena, it had been different, at first. He wasn’t with the department then, so giving in to all of those feelings had been welcome. But after he had joined, after so many times away, the feelings had become a shortcoming. Those anxious, aroused feelings caused him to be unfaithful and ultimately caused her…. He tried to push the thoughts away.

His thoughts turned to better times—when their son was conceived out of a long night of heat and passion after he had just returned from an assignment. It was better for her because she had another legitimate outlet for her affections while he was still trapped inside a raging heat, a powerful jealousy, and a desperate longing to be with her. It had always been easy for him to seduce a woman, making it easier to drown his lust; but, the second it was over, he felt empty, and he longed to be home beside Elena again.

Why hadn’t he just quit? There were a million things he could have done. Elena would have been content with him being a mechanic or a shop-owner or just about anything, as long as it meant he could have been home by her side. However, he had been swept along by the tide of accolades, allowing his ego to get in his way, and not seeing what destruction he was wreaking on their marriage. And then….

No!
He wouldn’t go there. He couldn’t allow himself to go there. He couldn’t replay it over in his head again—the beginning of the end to the end of the end.

His thoughts turned to the boredom that stretched out before him over the days, weeks, and months ahead. Usually, when there were three, one of them could get away for short periods. However, unless things changed considerably over the next few weeks, he didn’t see that happening. Brighton seemed green and sort of goofy, and Taylor seemed a bit too laid back. Lucas would have to be ever on guard, awake or asleep.

No matter how much he tried to plan or work anything out, thoughts of the encounter with Audra kept intruding. Touching her had been so delicious. He couldn’t get enough of her mouth.
How the fuck am I supposed to just put it out of my head?

He could feel himself swelling at the memory of the encounter. He finally admitted he wasn’t going to sleep anytime soon; so, he got up and pulled on his jeans with a sleeveless undershirt and padded out into the hallway. Just as he was about to pass her doorway, there she was in silky sleep pants and tank top with the robe open atop it.

As soon as she saw him, she clutched the robe closed. He had to bite his tongue to keep from smiling. Bill sat, looking up at her.

“Where are you going, miss?”

“Uh, just to raid the kitchen cupboards.”

“Ah. A midnight snacker, just like my ex-wife. What’s your favorite snack?” said Bill.

“Something they probably don’t have: dried pineapple and papaya slices,” Audra replied.

Bill grimaced, making her laugh. He got up, but Lucas waved him off.

“I was on the way to the kitchen myself. I’ll accompany her. You can take a break, if you want.”

“Fair enough,” Bill said. “I’ll go have a smoke and a look around.”

Lucas and Audra walked side-by-side in silence, yet their proximity sent sparks between their bodies. He instinctively drew back and motioned for her to go ahead of him.

The delicious sensation still tingled at the base of her neck, and she could almost feel his heat at her back.

She stepped quickly down the stairs, rounding the door into the kitchen. Without losing any momentum, she went directly to the snack cupboard and opened it. To her surprise, she found a small package of assorted dried fruits which included pineapple and papaya and a can of almonds, pistachios, and cashews.

Having retrieved them, she wasn’t sure what to do. She could just race back up to her room.

“Would you like some coffee?” he asked.

“Not this late,” she said, “but I could use a cup of tea, I guess.”

He walked across the room and picked the right cupboard the first time.

“What would you like,” he asked, “Lemon verbena, lavender, tulsi…?”

“How about…wait, are they loose teas?”

He nodded.

“Cool. How about lemon and lavender together?” she suggested.

“That sounds good,” he said, pulling two glass jars full of tea leaves from the cupboard.

She narrowed her eyes. “You’ve been here before.”

He nodded. “For a few weeks several years ago with another witness,” he said.

Oh, she thought. This is routine for him.

“He wasn’t nearly a charming as you, though.”

“I’m charming?”

Now he’d stepped in it, and he couldn’t think of a quick comeback. “More charm than the old goat who was ratting on the mob.”

“Gee, thanks,” she said.

“No problem.”

She sat down at the table while he put on a tea kettle. He didn’t exactly seem the domestic type, but she supposed making tea wasn’t that big of a deal.

He sat down opposite her, and she busied herself opening the package of fruit. She got it open and offered him the first pick.

He plucked out a piece of pineapple, but grimaced upon tasting it. “Too sweet!” he said.

“Good contrast to the nuts,” she countered.

Then, they sat in silence, the kettle starting to hiss as the temperature rose.

“More charming but not nearly as entertaining.”

“What?” she said, not believing her ears.

“He kept us going for hours with his stories,” he said.

“Us?” she asked.

“Me and another deputy.”

“Oh, well. Sorry to disappoint you.”

He shrugged. “Bill’s from the South. Maybe he has some good stories.”

“Don’t you?”

“Don’t I what?”

“Have any good stories.”

“Oh, I’ve got plenty of stories, just not ones that you’d likely want to hear. Come to think of it, you wouldn’t have appreciated the old man’s stories, either.”

“This is going to be hellaciously boring, isn’t it?” Audra asked.

He just nodded, and she laughed. The tea kettle was getting ready to whistle.

“Turn it off now,” she said. “Herbal tea doesn’t need a full boil.”

“Oh,” he said. “That may not be entertaining, but at least it’s educational.”

“I can be both entertaining and educational, given the right opportunity.”

She was mortified as she heard the words come out of her mouth.

“I’m sure you can,” he said.

An awkward tension hung in the air between them.

She got up. “Let me fix the tea,” she said. “What kind did you want?”

“Will the lavender help me sleep?”

“It should. You said there was tulsi, too, right?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Tulsi and lavender are a great combination for sleep. Lavender relaxes your body, tulsi relaxes your mind.”

“I’m impressed.”

“What?” she said. “Women know these things.”

“Not all women, I bet. Just the more interesting ones…er…the more educational ones.”

She turned her back, so she could smile without him seeing her. She rummaged through the cupboards for cups and found two glass tea infusers, as well. She spooned the tea into the infusers and poured the hot water over them, then offered the lavender and tulsi one to him along with a cup.

“You’re not going to pour it for me?” he asked.

“You said I wasn’t going to be your slave,” she replied.

“Correction. I said you weren’t going to be my sex slave,” he said in return.

“Too bad,” she said.

“That’s what you said last time. Just a few hours ago, remember? What are you trying to do to me?” he said

“Just having a little fun,” Audra responded.

“That kind of fun I don’t need,” Lucas said.

“I just meant having fun
teasing
you,” Audra said, emphasizing the word
teasing.

“Well, Miss Educational, didn’t anyone educate you on what happens to a woman who’s a chronic tease?”

The fun had gone out of it now. It was threatening and completely uncalled for. Her jaw dropped, reflexively, and he stood up.

“Tea time’s over,” he said. “I trust you won’t be taking any detours and that you can make it back safely to your room?”

She barely nodded her head, still in shock. What the hell had caused that reaction, she wondered. She noticed, however, that he took his tea with him.

# # #

When he got back to his room, Lucas dropped down onto the side of the bed, putting his hands over his face and shaking his head.  It had been too cozy. What should have been warm and relaxing had, instead, made him anxious and angry. But wasn’t tense and angry what he wanted? Why did this have to be so goddamned complicated?

She’s just a woman. She’s just a woman. She’s just a woman like any other woman
, he told himself.

Shortly after, Bill knocked at Lucas’s door.

Lucas came to the door with a surly look about him.

“Can we talk for a minute?” Bill asked in a low voice.

Lucas looked down the hall. “Where is she?”

“She’s back in her room.”

Lucas stepped back from the door and motioned Bill in.

“Something’s making the hair on the back of my neck stand up,” he said.

“Outside?”

“Yeah. No insect sounds. No frogs. I can hear them way down the line, but nothing close. Then, I heard a sound like something bumping in the breeze, only there’s no breeze.”

“Why are you in here telling me this instead of getting Brighton and taking a look?”

“Brighton’s gone.”

“What? I can hear the movie playing in the entertainment room.”