Mags knew only one thing… She finally found out that she had never been kissed before. Not like this. Not like a storm just rolled through her mind and body. She’d literally melted under his touch, her legs went weak, her breathing came out in gasps. The man had undid her in under thirty seconds. He tasted like… like the best drug on earth, she assumed that to be the best description as she boldly pressed against him and gave him as good as she got.
The man could kiss and her mind filled with what else he could do. Like the way he touched her, his large hands owning her curves.
Suddenly, he pulled away.
Mags almost stumbled at the sudden loss. Not to mention her body was on fire and her mind had been wiped of all coherent thought. Gazing into his intense hazel eyes, she could see what all he wanted right there in his gaze. And damn, she wanted it too. She was wet and left wanting and this had never happened to her…EVER.
King seemed to take deep breath, then he reached a finger out to her lips and ever so softly, caressed her bottom lip.
Mags was lost for sure in the moment. It was sensual and deep the way he looked at her and the way his finger traced over where he’d just kissed the living hell out of her. If you would have asked her name at this moment, she would have muttered incoherently.
“Ok… we get you home,” he stated then tossed a powerful thigh over his bike and got on.
Mags blinked. What just happened?
The roar of his bike as it started woke her up as she startled. Ok… if he can act casual after a kiss that could melt the snow on the fucking Himalayas then she could act cool too. She turned and grabbed her hair out of the bad bun and took off the pony tail holder. She was about to sweep it up, when she caught King staring. Her arms were raised back as she had a hold of her hair and she realized her boobs were jutted out right at him.
Yes, she had this long jet black hair. Natural, as she had never put dye in her locks. She always felt it was her best feature if she had any. Yes, guys always said she was hot, but in her head, she was still that gangly girl in school that all the kids teased and picked on. But even back then, it was her hair that people stared at until one boy cut off her braids in class. She had cried all the way home. She’d inherited her hair from her mother. At least that was what old photographs showed. Well, he seemed caught up in looking at her now, didn’t he? No dismissing this like he’d just blown her off a minute ago. She then paused. Don’t play with fire Mags, you know what it gets you.
BUT…
It kind of stung when he’d acted like the kiss meant nothing, when it had mind wiped her for a few minutes. So, she left her hair down and climbed on the bike. Freedom right? They say riding a cycle was like pure freedom. So, she would let her hair down literally and enjoy the ride.
Silent, King turned the bike around and headed out. He went slowly on the side streets then he hit the freeway. When he did, he must have revved the bike up to at least sixty
Mag smirked as she could see his speedometer over his shoulder. He’d better not speed. She almost laughed, but wasn’t actually prepared for the wind in her hair feeling, or the fact it had just whipped her face like an old rope. Now, she knew better. The wind in your hair thing? It was not pleasant. She couldn’t do anything about it now, as she needed two hands to do it, so she tucked her face into his leather vest and hugged his waist. Ok, that was a bad idea. She pulled in his scent mixed with leather and it almost made her mouth water.
They rode for about twenty minutes as the moon rose higher in the night sky. Her body was lulled and she actually relaxed for the first time during this long ass day.
Finally, he turned off the freeway and slowed down.
Looking up, she saw he had taken the exit she took every day to get home. Freedom and relaxation left as anger rattled her cage now while she realized the man already knew where she lived. She held it in as they approached her street and he pulled up onto her driveway.
This time, he did not have to tell her to get off his bike as she leapt off in a scorching hurry.
King looked surprised then angry. “Hey! You don’t do shit like that! Jump off a bike while it’s still rolling. I never got to even kick my damn stand.”
“Well, I will be kicking your stand you if you don’t fess up to how you knew where the hell I live!” she shouted.
He stared at her and his eyes got that burning look as his heated gaze swept from her face on down over her body in a slow perusal of well…all of her.
Her entire body flushed. That saying of undressing a person with your eyes? Oh yeah, that was happening right now. She took a deep breath as her panties were so ruined now. “So?”
Shutting the bike off, he finally kicked his stand down. “So what?”
“Oooh!” she seethed. “You know where I live!”
He shook his head and did that graceful sexy dismount thing again. “I know everything there is to know about you, Magdalena.”
Again, her skin flushed. The way he said her name in that deep low tone. She fought not to rub the goosebumps on her arms. “And what gave you the right?” she asked.
He chuckled as he again, shook his head. “Well… that depends… the Pentagon? The Justice department or the FBI… pick one.”
Mags actually stomped her foot. “It is an invasion of my privacy!”
Staring at her, he stepped close. “You blew that when you popped up on my fucking radar, dressed as bag lady!”
She was so angry and she wanted to fight this man right here and now. Damn sick of his smirk and his pushing her around. She took a step back and raised her fists. “Come on! Let’s do this!”
He stared at her for a long few seconds and then he laughed.
“Oh, no! You do not get to laugh!” she gritted.
His laughter did slow. “Well, do I get to enjoy? Cause babe, in this stance, all I want to do is take you in inside and fuck the breath out of you.”
Mags faltered as her hands lowered. “What?”
Nodding, he admitted, “When you look like this? Your hair all wild, cheeks pink, your tits inviting my mouth…hell, your mouth inviting my mouth.”
Mags took two stumbling steps back. “Since when do you—that you want…” she couldn’t finish. He’d acted like she was a pariah all this time then kissed her… proceeded to then ignore her and now he openly admitted to wanting to fuck her?
She gulped heavily as she hadn’t expected this admission. “Well—just—go will you?”
King shook his head slowly as he advanced a step. “You challenged me, remember? You wanna throw down…” He grinned. “So, let’s take this… down.” His voice hit a deeper level than ever before.
Her breath caught in her chest. No way, he was using charm and scary tactics is time. If he got a hold of her, he would own her, at least her body and she damn well knew it now. Reduce her to a beautiful mess.
Then Mags did something she had never, ever done. She turned and ran from a man.
His laughter followed her.
The Next Morning…
“It’s Saturday night and I ain’t got nobody—”
“Stokes!”
Max gazed over at her while wearing a huge grin.
“Stop with the damn singing!” Mags bit her lip as she drove the new squad car. She usually got a kick out of his humor but not today. After that pathetic display of a yellow streak down her back last night, she really did not feel like smiling and his singing was grating on her already frayed nerves.
After she had literally hightailed it into her house, she’d heard his cycle rumble as he left. She felt like the biggest fool and a chicken shit. Embarrassed beyond any prank any kid had played on her when she was a kid. And some of those had been mean as all get out. She was picked on a lot before she came into her own and fought back. She knew it was part of what drove her to be tougher than any man and to not let anyone in either. Then she would never get hurt.
“Come on, you know you like it when I sing.”
Changing lanes, she squinted through the windshield to peer at something ahead. “What does that look like to you?”
Two very large men were standing facing each other off on the sidewalk, next to them a huge black Lincoln town car sat parked at the curb.
Max sat forward in his seat. “Um, definitely a possible assault of some kind.”
Mags made a tisking noise. “Max, what kind of assaults are possible, that you know of?”
“Well, there’s many, sexual assault, assaulting an officer, assault with attempt—”
“Ok, ok.” She rolled her eyes. “Just drop it.
He chuckled and looked ready to jump out of the car.
Mags turned on her lights and pulled in behind the Lincoln. “Dispatch, 112, possible disturbance, 12th and main.”
“10-4, 112…” the dispatcher’s voice buzzed back.
Max and Mags both carefully exited the car and headed toward the two men.
Mags immediately recognized him. King, the guy she’d run from just last night, the man that had starred in a very explicit dream she had tried hard to forget this morning over her coffee. The man she needed to avoid at all costs.
He stood as if ready to do battle just as another man got out of the black car at the curb.
Her skin flushed and she squared her shoulders. She fully intended to ignore mister bad boy’s effect on her and concentrate on her job. “Gentleman, what’s going on here?” She raised a brow at King as in not a gentleman.
King didn’t speak and he never glanced her way as his eyes remained on both men.
One of the men looked enormous like a bouncer and the other held something shiny in his hand.
“Drop whatever you’re holding!” Max raised his weapon and aimed his sights.
Mags glanced over at him, never seeing this kind of instant reaction from him before.
King seemed to nod at something or someone at the corner of the street.
Mags had to wonder if it were one or all of his brothers. But she did not look so she wouldn’t give it away.
The man he was toe to toe with pulled out a knife.”
“Sir. Drop the weapon!” Mags ordered.
The weapon wielder slowly looked over and his eyes rounded. “Well, fuck me!” He grinned. “I’d drop anything for you sugar muff, my pants for starters.”
Mags glared at him. Then she heard a low growl. She swung her gaze up at King.
He looked angrier than she had ever seen him. He looked like he was going to jump the sugar muff guy at any second.
In the next instant while staring at King’s hard expression, the sugar muff man suddenly looked a little afraid for a second and dropped the knife with a clattering to the pavement.
“I will repeat, what is this about?” she asked. As if she didn’t know. Apparently, King had found two more dealers. She just wondered if these two would know anything more than the others.
“Step away, the both of you,” Max ordered in a deadly voice.
Again, Mags’ stunned gaze shot over to him. “What hell, Stokes?”
He shook his head slightly at her but kept his weapon trained on the men. “I won’t ask again.”
The two men did as he ordered.
“Now, get into your car and leave!”
Mags just stared at her partner. What the hell is he doing? He’s letting them go.
They drove away from the curb and headed down main.
King then raised his head and nodded.
Mags knew what that was. His brothers would catch the men and no one would see it.
Max did not lower his weapon, he kept it trained on King. A fierce gleam in his blue eyes.
She kept looking back and forth at the pair of men she damn well knew were friends.
King stared back at him with a glint in his eyes too.
“Max, he doesn’t have a weapon and you know him!” she told him.
King now seemed to be muttering something under his breath.
Mags turned her head and tried to hear what he was saying. Is he counting?
Abrupt-like, King turned and took off running.
Mags’ mouth popped open.
“You won’t allude me you fucking biker scum!” Max yelled, then holstered his gun and took off in pursuit.
Mags’ blinked once or twice in shock and they were already up the alley, then heading down the next. What the hell were they doing?
She didn’t want to leave the police vehicle on this street due to vandals, so she got in and drove after them.
They would zigzag through backyards and alleyways, then she would spot them one or another in glimpses. She concluded that they were definitely headed up to the high school, so she parked the squad car in the lot. Getting out, she saw both men running like the wind from the edge of the football field. Then, she moved closer as she watched them sprinting around the runner’s track.
Max wasn’t even close to catching King. He ran with a swiftness she’d never seen for a man of his size. Wow, he could possibly even beat me in a race! Dammit, she knew it, he could beat her if he was beating Max. He could have easily caught her last night if he’d chosen to.
Moving in closer, she could hear Max yelling for him to stop or he would shoot. What? She jumped into a sprint with her handcuffs clinking. Max can’t shoot an unarmed suspect! She then shook her head. Suspect. This was King his old buddy. What was going on here? Unless he is armed and I missed that fact? Maybe…as all I could look at was him. Disgust rose in her as she remembered that kiss and what he’d said to her. Now she heard Max repeat his order.
King slowed, then finally stopped.
Mags held her breath while she took in his heaving chest. His hair looked blown back in a natural wave. He looked absolutely magnificent with a little sweat on his forehead. His eyes lively, his muscles flexing.
Max slowed to a stroll and headed closer toward the suspect.
Mags neared the two men, almost on them as they were saying something to each other.
“In five, four, three, two…one!” they both yelled and barreled toward each other.
King tackled him to the ground and Max was forced down onto his back. He looked to be entirely at the mercy of the biker. Max was a big guy and strong as a bull, so it would take someone crafty and skilled to get him on his back like this.
Mags now stood three or four feet away as she watched the all male powerful struggle. “What the fuck are you doing?” she exclaimed.
Both men halted and peered up at her.
From his positon on the grass, King took a long leisurely look at her as his eyes swept upward along her uniformed body.
Mags’ heart froze in her chest, she couldn’t breathe. Not again. She steeled herself to deflect it. Many men had looked at her, leered and stared and it had never affected her except to piss her off.
His eyes made a slow path and paused at unusual places, like her stomach for instance. No man ever made her feel like his eyes themselves just caressed every part of her. She cleared her throat, so her next words wouldn’t come out like a pitiful girl squeak. “Get the hell off of Max!”
King cocked a brow and slowly raised his hands from her partner.
She’d regained most of her composure now. She needed to know what they these two were doing. Playing fucking games when they were both supposed to be what? Lawmen?
King removed his body from Max’s.
Max sat up. “She’s hot right?” He stared straight at King.
“Smokin,’ ” King muttered.
Mags swung her gaze back and forth. “Max!”
He grinned boyishly and squinted up at her.
“What the hell is going on?”
Max stood and dusted off his blues. “Um…well—”
“He had to see if he could catch me,” King answered for him.
“What?” She lowered her gun.
“I’m sorry Mags.” Max shook his head.
“Don’t call me that…So, you,” she seethed at King. “You took off because…?”
He shrugged. “To give me cover, and maybe to see if he could catch me… this time.”
Mags blinked her eyes and reluctantly removed her gaze from his more than sexy posture of holding his hands back as his chest became even more prominent. “Explain Max.”
“Well fuck, Mags. You can put it together. He’s a biker and not… well, we had to show anyone watching that he would be arrested. And yeah, like he said. I wanted to see if I could catch him.”
Mags holstered her gun as she fought to keep her temper in check. She felt furious at her partner. “You do know we are grownups now? That playing cops and…dumbasses do not belong right?” she yelled the last part.
King chuckled.
Her blazing gaze shot over to him.
He smirked.
Fury, heat, annoyance and lots of other emotions rose up inside her all at once. “Okay, hands behind your back,” she ordered King.
“Mags? What are you—?”
“—and you shut up, Officer Stakes. I am making an arrest.”
King blinked at her once then turned around and placed his hands together.
Well, if he thought she would back down on this, he had another thought coming! She stepped forward and grabbed his thick wrist. Ignoring the tingle that shot up along her arm and straight to her nipples, she recited the Miranda as she cuffed him, “You have a right to remain silent.” The damn handcuffs would barely fit and she knew this was gonna pinch him.
“Which I won’t use,” King joked, as he showed no irritation at the squeeze of the cuffs on his wrists.
Huffing, she continued, “You have the right to an attorney.” She waited for a smart ass crack. None came, so she continued to read him his rights.
“Mags! You can’t arrest him!” Max shouted.
“I can and I am. You wanted to make this look good right?” She tugged on King’s arm. He did not move with her, so she stumbled forward. The man was a literal brick house.
He then shrugged and decided suddenly to walk on his own.
She took his arm, upper arm and realized it was almost as big as one of her thighs. She shivered at the comparison.
Max followed while ranting wildly, “Come on Mags, I know we pissed you off, but this is taking it too far!”
She ignored him as she maneuvered a very cooperative King toward the new squad car. Then when she remembered why she had a new one and that King had literally saved her life just last night, her stride slowed. Then she stopped.
King turned and stared at her. “Come on Officer Giovanni. Do this.”
She looked into his eyes as all the previous steam had been let off. She shook her head and stepped forward with the cuff keys.
He sidestepped her. “Eyes are on us. Put me in the damn car,” he whispered.
Mags blinked and forced herself to not look around.
Max walked over to the car and opened the back door, all while glaring at her.
King eased down into the seat gracefully like he did everything. “Don’t be pissed Max,” he whispered. “We have lookers on this.”
Max raised his head up, said not a word as he went around to the passenger side, and got in.
Mags did the same, she started the car and pulled out of the lot. “Ok… King,” she said. “What the fuck were you doing out on that street in broad daylight?”
“One of those men was Anvil.”
She raised her gaze and peered at him in her rearview mirror.
Nodding, he admitted, “Sugar muff fuckhead in fact. We took what you told us and tracked him down.”
Excited, Mags was holding her breath. Maybe they had finally found a link to the top! To the ones that killed her dad ten years ago.
They drove to the station and Max took King out of the car, then hauled him inside.
Mags followed but she hated all this now. What a waste of time.
Heading to the back, Max took King all the way into the far offices.
Mags followed as she avoided Felix and Lucky’s overly curious stares from the front desk.
Shutting the door behind her, she looked up at the two men.
They were standing there, just staring at her.
“What?” she asked.
“The key?” King reminded her.
She cocked her head. “Oh…” Then she made a show of searching her pockets. “Oh, shit…” she felt around in her pants pocket.
“Well fuck,” King muttered and looked over at his old friend. “Max?”
He shrugged. “Nah buddy, not my cuffs.”
Mags shook her head and stepped closer with the cuff keys in her hand. “Don’t sweat it big guy. I was just kidding.”
He stared at her. “You are a wicked woman, you know that right?”
She laughed as she undid his handcuffs. “Nah… I mean if I were, I would have kept the ruse up for hours.”
King laughed. “I bet you wanted to do just that, right?”
She met his gaze as the second cuff dropped and she caught it. “Hell yes.”
He laughed hardily.
Max stared at him, then at Mags.
Mags did not want him thinking they were cozy or anything, so she stepped back. “So, is there more?”
King rubbed his wrists. “More?” He raised his gaze at her.
“Besides finding the Anvil.”
Pausing, he seemed to study her “Maybe…”
“Ok, are you going to tell me?” she snipped.
He smirked. “You still owe me some files and notes.”
She raised her hands in the air. “Oh, so it’s like that is it?”
Nodding, he kept his eyes right on her face. “It is.”
“Wait! Hold up!” Max shouted.
They both swung their gazes over to him.
“Can someone please tell me what the fuck is going on?” Max stared at them both.
