Make You Burn (17 page)

Read Make You Burn Online

Authors: Megan Crane

She sauntered back into the Priory, smiling brightly at Danielle behind the bar, whose mouth dropped open the way it had a year ago.

“Again?” the other girl asked, sounding somewhere between awe and
you’re crazy.

“It’s a tradition,” Sophie replied, tugging off her headdress and tossing it on the bar, the way she had the last time, with a dramatic little spin.

But this time around she didn’t sit down, because Ajax was behind her and crowding her the way he liked to do, his big hand at the small of her back as he pushed her forward—not exactly gently—and then through the door that led into the back hall.

He didn’t speak, but she could feel the tension in him, that simmering wild thing that never dimmed, never eased, never changed. He kept his hand on her, guiding her down the hall and into the office. His office now.

He locked the door behind him and the click of it went through Sophie like a gunshot.

“Being my old lady isn’t enough for you?” he asked, in that hard voice of his that made her whole body seem to hum. “Is that what this is?”

He circled around her like the predator he was and never pretended he wasn’t, but Sophie stood her ground. She pulled her sparkling mask off and tossed it in a lazy sort of arc toward the sofa against one wall. Then she unwound her hair as Ajax leaned against the front of the big desk, his eyes on her.

“No,” she said. “It’s not enough.”

Ajax crossed his sculpted arms over his broad chest and scowled at her. “Wrong answer.”

“I want everything,” she said, meeting that scowl with one of her own. “Every. Single. Thing. I told you a long time ago I was addicted to you.
You
claimed that was no big deal. Have you changed your mind?”

Ajax only glared at her. “I don’t know what the fuck you want from me.”

“Yes, you do.”

“I’m never getting down on my knees, babe. Unless it’s to get my face in that pussy.”

“Noted.” She widened her stance. “Is that on the menu?”

“Jesus Christ, Sophie.” He raked his hands through his hair, and he looked so deliciously harsh, so thoroughly pissed, but she knew better. She could see his thick cock pressed hard against the front of his jeans. She could see the truth in his blue eyes when he shifted that glare back to her. “I’m not wearing a fucking ring, like a house cat bitch.”

She tilted her head to one side, her eyes narrowed, and he laughed at her.

“Pick your battles, babe.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she murmured, swaying as she moved toward him, stepping between his outstretched legs and bracing herself with one hand against his rock-hard chest while she ran the other through her hair, shaking it out. “Did we agree to something?”

Ajax wrapped his hands around her hips and pulled her against him, hard, his cock an iron bar flush against her clit. Sophie’s breath deserted her in a rush.

“You know I love you, you little shit,” he growled, like it was painful, and she had to bite back the giddy thing that cartwheeled through her at that. “Why the fucking parade? Why all the drama?”

She reached up and traced that hard mouth of his, that beautiful face. “I don’t know it,” she said quietly. Deliberately. “I hope it. You’ve never said it one way or the other.”

His scowl deepened and his grip on her hips tightened. “Because you should fucking know it already. You think I shack up with random bitches? You think I’d waste this much time on disposable pussy?”

“I want you to write our wedding vows, Ajax. Really. This is like poetry.”

He shifted, pulling her tighter against his chest and standing up from the desk so he could get his face in hers.

“I love you.” It was hard. Harsh. Furious.

Perfectly Ajax in every way, and it washed through her like sunlight. As bright and as beautiful.

Sophie smiled at him, her battered hero of a biker, grumpy and gorgeous and hers. All hers, always. And now there could be no mistaking it.

“I love you, too. Don’t you like it when I say it? I know you do.”

He growled at her. “Stop talking.”

Ajax took her mouth then, in a dark, hot, insane kiss that almost made her come right there, with her riding him as he held her against his cock. He tugged her even closer and she wrapped her arms around him, and he kept kissing her, like his mouth was a weapon and he was making her pay.

And pay. And pay.

It thrilled her. From her toes to her pussy. From her wildly beating heart to the top of her head. It was better than a vow. It was everything they were in a single, endless, glorious kiss.

Then he set her away from him.

“Lose the fucking shorts,” he ordered her. “But keep the shoes.”

He shrugged out of his cut and placed it carefully on the desk beside him. He threw his T-shirt on the floor. He kicked off his jeans while she was shimmying out of her shorts, and he jerked his chin at her when she was done. Ordering her to come to him.

And Sophie was happy to obey.

Ajax slid his hands down her back, tracing over her angel wings as if he could feel them with his fingers, then all the way down to cup her ass in his palms.

He leaned back against the desk and lifted her up, spreading her thighs wide and then settling her down hard on the length of his cock. They both groaned as he shoved into her, big and hard and smooth like satin. Skin to skin, the way they’d done it for a long time now.
Perfect.

He worked her up, then slammed her back down, and Sophie let her head fall back, surrendering herself to his strength and his power and that hot glide of his cock inside her and the intense pace he set. She never got enough of him. She never satisfied that itch.

She never wanted to.

“I’ll marry you,” he told her, his voice as dark and demanding as the cock he pounded into her with such measured ferocity. “And I’m gonna tattoo my goddamned name all over you, so fuckers can see it from across the French Quarter the next time you get the urge to shake this ass—
my
ass—across Louisiana.” He moved his mouth, open and hot, along the side of her neck. “My little junkie. I’ll be your heroin.”

“I love you,” she said, or maybe she shouted it, as he hurtled her toward that sweet, hot edge.

“Oh, I know you do, baby.” And he laughed as he stopped moving, making her moan in frustration. He laughed again when she scowled at him, and tried to move her hips against him to do it herself if he wouldn’t. He just tightened his grip and held her there, so hard and deep inside of her she was shaking with it. With all the same old hunger. All that hard-edged need. “Pull those fucking tassels off. Now.”

Sophie sucked in a shuddering breath. His blue eyes were hard on hers, amused and much too aware.

“That’s going to hurt,” she said, and she didn’t care that her voice shook. That he could hear it the same way he could undoubtedly feel her quivering around his cock as he held himself there, lodged deep inside of her.

His hard mouth curved. “Oh, yeah. It will.”

“A lot, asshole.”

“Trust me, baby. I’ll make it feel better.” And Ajax laughed, that gloriously dirty laugh of his that made Sophie feel precious and loved, desired beyond measure, and entirely and utterly his. “Eventually.”

And he did.

Over and over, for the rest of their lives, that was exactly what he did.

To Rachael, Jackie, and Maisey, my favorite biker chicks. And our wonderful editor, Shauna, for loving these stories as much as we do!

PHOTO: COURTNEY LINDBERG PHOTOGRAPHY

M
EGAN
C
RANE
is a New Jersey native who had great plans to star on Broadway, preferably in
Evita,
just like Patti LuPone. Sadly, her inability to wow audiences with her singing voice required a backup plan. Accordingly, she graduated from Vassar College and got her MA and PhD in literature from the University of York in England. She wrote her doctoral dissertation on AIDS literature, mostly so she could wallow in her obsession with the remarkable multimedia artist David Wojnarowicz and her idol, the bitter and hilarious David Feinberg. After many years in the rain and subject to the whim of seasons, she followed the sun to Los Angeles, where she lives with too many pets and an artist named Jeff. She is still plotting her Broadway debut.

megancrane.com

Facebook.com/​MeganCraneAndCaitlinCrews

@megancrane

The Editor’s Corner

It’s time to go back to school and feed your reader with these fabulous Loveswept romances….

In Laura Marie Altom’s scorching new novel,
The Escort,
a broken heart pushes a rugged loner to the breaking point—until a not-so-innocent affair changes everything.
New York Times
bestselling author Kathy Clark keeps the heat on with
Deep Night,
as two adrenaline junkies find themselves fighting unexpected passion—and unspeakable terror.
New York Times
bestselling author Missy Johnson’s
Code of Honor
asks a burning question: What happens when love is undeniable—and taboo? And
USA Today
bestselling author Lauren Layne’s
Blurred Lines
delivers a sexy take on the timeless question: Can a guy and a girl really be “just friends”?

Sidney Halston’s scorching new MMA romance
Laid Out,
proves there are no holds barred when it comes to seduction. In
A Fashionable Indulgence,
the first novel of an explosive new series from K. J. Charles, a young gentleman and his elegant mentor fight for love in a world of wealth, power, and manipulation
.
Then meet Megan Crane’s Deacons of Bourbon Street, bad-boy bikers who are hell on wheels—and heaven between the sheets in
Make You Burn
.
New York Times
bestselling author Jacquelyn Frank returns with
Nightwalker,
a pulse-pounding installment in the Nightwalker series. And perfect for Highlander fans,
My Highland Bride
is where Southern sass meets Highland heat in Maeve Greyson’s scintillating new Highland Hearts romance.

New in Flirt is
Just a Little Kiss,
the next novel of Renita Pizzitola’s Crush series. Felicity knows that “Summer Boys” are only good for one thing. But what if hooking up with the right guy could lead to a fresh start?

There you have it—until next month, when September is the month to fall in love all over again, with Loveswept.

Happy Romance!

Gina Wachtel

Associate Publisher

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