Chapter One
Whatever you say…
Lynn
I vigorously brushed my teeth with a dollop of Zephyr’s toothpaste on the tip of my finger while I avoided making eye contact with myself in the mirror.
Lord have mercy. How in the hell did I get myself into this situation?
I hacked a wad of spit into the sink and rinsed my hand in the running water. Because you drank half a bottle of whiskey, Lynn, and then you let your lady bits do the talking.
Most people would tell you if you talked to yourself, and then you answered yourself that you’re crazy.
And they were fucking right.
I was crazy for sleeping with Zephyr last night, and now I had tipped way over the edge of crazy by having a conversation with myself.
“Leaving?”
I clutched my hand to my chest and spun from the sink. “Cheese and crackers!” I yelped.
Zephyr ran his fingers through his messy hair and looked at me with only one eye open. “Come again, darlin’?” he drawled.
Do not look at his chest, Lynn. Eye contact only. That was a hell of a lot easier said than done. I hadn’t fallen into Zephyr’s bed after taking just one glance at him. No, I had been eyeing him up for a while. Ever since he had walked into my office with Queenie and Sledge, I hadn’t been able to get the man’s piercing green eyes, chiseled jaw, shaggy hair, and tattoos out of my mind. And during the handful of times I’d been around him after that, I had to squelch my need to know how many and where all of his tattoos actually were.
I now knew. Oh Lord, did I know. My tongue had traced the outline of the skull on his chest while his fingers had been buried in my hair.
Was it hot in here? I waved my hand in my face and tried to think about the three loads of laundry and the sink full of dishes I had waiting for me at my place.
“I need to go.”
Zephyr leaned against the door frame of the bathroom and opened both eyes. “It’s early as shit on Sunday. Where do you need to go?” His voice was gravelly and low.
I could listen to him talk all day and never get sick of it.
“I have things I need to do, and I have a meeting with a patient this afternoon.” That whole sentence was a damn lie. “And I need to check in on my dad.” That last bit was true. Not that I was actually looking forward to it, but it needed to be done.
“You have work shit on a Sunday?”
My eyes darted down to his hand that scratched at his stomach. How in the hell was he so sexy doing something so mundane?
“Lynn,” he called.
I dragged my focus from his stomach up to his eyes. “Yes?” I blinked rapidly and hoped he hadn’t caught me staring at his abs.
“You really need to work today?”
“No.” Before I could remember to lie, the word was out of my mouth. “I mean yes. Yes, I have to work today. Lots of work. No rest for the weary. Work, work, work.” I clamped my lips shut and fought back the words that wanted to continue to babble out of my mouth.
“Uh, okay.” He pushed off the jamb. “Let me get dressed, and I’ll give you a ride.”
“No,” I shouted much louder than I needed to. I cleared my throat. “I don’t need a ride.”
“You drove here last night?” he asked.
I gnawed on my bottom lip. “Yeah, of course.” I didn’t even believe myself.
Zephyr chuckled. “Give me two minutes, and we’ll be out the door.”
“You don’t need to give me a ride, Zephyr.” My cheeks heated at the thought of Zephyr and the ride he had given me last night. “Erm, I mean you don’t have to drive me home.”
There, that sounded less sexual. Everything seemed sexual when it came to Zephyr. Jesus. I needed to give myself a lobotomy if I was going to keep thinking like this.
“It’s not a big deal.” He turned his back to me, ambled over to the foot of the bed, and bent to rummage through the pile of clothes. Clothes I had torn off him not even seven hours ago. He tugged on a pair of jeans and grabbed his shirt from last night to pull it over his head.
“You don’t have to give me a ride home, Zephyr. I can get a ride from…” My mind went blank when he reached up and ran his fingers through his hair again. I snapped my eyes shut and tried to concentrate. “Cab company.”
That still wasn’t what I was trying to say, but it was better than just staring at him like a dog in heat.
“Cab company?” I heard him laugh. “You really think there is a cab company in Whitmore?”
Well, no. I had lived here my whole life and knew that. “Uber!” I shouted. That was the word I had been trying to think of. I opened my eyes and pulled my phone from my pocket. “I’ll get an Uber.”
Zephyr snatched my phone from my hand, and I tipped my head back. He stood directly in front of me, and he shoved my phone in his back pocket. “I’m giving you a ride home, Lynn. You’re not going to get into the back of some stranger’s car.”
I rolled my eyes. “It’s safe, Zephyr. Go back to bed.” I needed to get away from him. But first, I needed to get my phone from his pocket. “Now give me back my phone,” I demanded.
He stepped back and shook his head. “Not happening.”
Uh, what? “What do you mean not happening? That’s my phone.”
He sat on the edge of the bed and put on his boots. “You let me take you home, and then I’ll give it back to you.”
“Or you just give it back to me right now.” That seemed like a much better idea to me.
He finished tying his boots and stood. Then he grabbed the leather cut he had tossed over the desk chair and put it on. “Let’s go.”
“You’re not giving me a ride, Zephyr.” I tried—and failed—not to think of the ride he had given me earlier…again. Focus, Lynn.
“You want your phone back…you’ll let me take you home.”
“I don’t know why you are so determined to give me a ride home.” Didn’t we have a one-night stand? We do the dirty, and then we go our separate ways. Wasn’t that how this worked? I figured for sure that was how it was going to go with Zephyr. Bad boy bikers were all about the wham-bam thank you ma’am thing, right? Maybe Zephyr didn’t get that memo.
“Because you have no way to get home, Lynn.”
I rolled my eyes. “I have a phone and a mace keychain. I’m good to go.”
My phone was filled with contacts. People I could call to come pick me up. Except for Dad and Glenna. I could not rely on those two to help me out. So, Robyn or Queenie? I really wished when I talked to myself that I didn’t say such hard truths.
Queenie was more than likely somewhere in the clubhouse cuddled up with Sledge and Gunner, and I didn’t want to bother Robyn. I also didn’t want her to pick me up because I knew she would bug me for all of the details from my night with Zephyr. Details I wasn’t interested in giving up.
“But I didn’t see you calling anyone before I took your phone,” he drawled.
Ugh. The man was infuriating because he was right. “Fine. You can give me a ride home, but as soon as we get there, you give me back my phone, and you leave.”