Dev reared back, looking Cash in the eyes, ignoring Joe. “Take me home?”
Gladly. He looked around the room for a back exit. “How do we leave here?”
Dev rolled his neck then his shoulders, scrubbing a hand down the length of his face. “I promise there ain’t no one in the clubhouse until I come out. As much as they like to watch each other fuck, that doesn’t apply to us.”
Something in Dev’s gaze looked calculating. Not of a man who had taken the same leap into love as Cash. His soaring heart dipped as he played back their verbal exchange. Dev hadn’t responded to Cash’s confessions. His biker wasn’t in his same mindset.
No. His heart crashed as he realized what he had done.
Of course, the case, the job. Dev had agreed to get Cash into this room. Their sexual chemistry was over the top. They had put on a show for his brothers.No.
A short pant of breath escaped. Rejection made him unsteady.
Dev gave his shoulder a light shove. “Stop lookin’ at me like that. I heard what you said. We can see how it goes. But when you walk out of here, don’t look all sad. Walk with a limp. Make them believe I tapped your ass hard and rough. I’ll handle the rest.”
Hurt blanketed Cash, descending with remarkable speed and accuracy. His heart broke. He nodded, trying to find some inner pride in order to have this breakdown in private later.
The pain must have reached his eyes. Dev was on him, pushing him back several feet until his ass hit the large wood table in the center of the room.
“Stop lookin’ all hurt. I don’t like it. You got in my fuckin’ head, is that what you need to hear? You fuck me so good you make me crave you. When those fuckin’ green eyes land on me, it makes all this okay, and it’s not okay, but you make it feel okay.”
When Cash held his tongue, trying to pretend those words were anything close to the sincerity of the love he offered, Dev’s brows drew together, his palms encasing Cash’s cheeks, forcing their faces closer.
“I can see how we fit. I can’t tell how all this is gonna work, but I can see we fit together like missin’ puzzle pieces. It’s all I have to say right now. It needs to be enough becauseI heard you. I got it. But you hurt me real bad. I’m not givin’ it all back to you right now.”
The stare held until Dev used his palms to nod Cash’s head.
“Say it’s enough for now.”
“I don’t know if I should hang up or say goodbye. It seemed rude to just end the call, but inappropriate to hear all this. I suggest whatever is happening should probably leave that room and happen inside this building,” Joe suggested with a bit of urgency lacing his tone. “Shanna’s up here. She says Dev doesn’t have his phone on him.”
“Where’s your phone?” Cash asked.
Dev smirked, still all in Cash’s personal space. “I protected you. I told you there were no recordin’ devices in here. I knew what we were gonna do. My necklace and phone’s with my cut. I got you.”
“I’m ending the call,” Cash said to Joe. After everything he’d been through, how had he not considered Dev’s recording devices?
Dev went for the lube and paper towels as Cash’s indignation with himself reached an all-time high. He pushed off the table in complete internal meltdown mode. “What the hell am I doing? I’m in the middle of Satan’s den, confessing my love for the first time in my life. What the fuck are you doing to me?”
Chapter 34
“Fuck is my word,” Dev said, chuckling under his breath.
Cash had no idea how Dev found any of this funny. It wasn’t. Far from it. In a not too distant past, Cash’s peers viewed him as the utmost professional. His presence on a case was sought after for how he handled himself in the field.
He pressed his palms into his eyes, hoping to mash some sense into his brain.
Dev went for the door leading to the clubhouse, pressing an ear against the thick wood. After several seconds, he cracked open the door to peek into the clubhouse. With an attitude full of confidence—technically just normal Dev—he widened the opening, sweeping his hand out to encourage Cash to precede him. “Told you. Nobody’s comin’ in the clubhouse until we leave.”
His biker locked the door and tossed the paper towels in a trash bucket by the sofa in the clubhouse. The lube was placed back on the end table in easy reach of anyone else in need. They both finished dressing. Dev shoved his necklace in the pocket with his cell phone. Neither spoke as Dev reached to clasp his hand. Taking the offering was instinctual for Cash, even after several long minutes where he’d utterly berated himself.
Dev took the lead, guiding him out of the building. Just barely past the threshold, the multifaceted biker became the showman, the over-the-top bad boy, whooping loudly toward the partygoers.
“It’s official. You missed your shot. He’s off the market, boys. He’s mine.” Dev kept their pace steady, his hand tightening around Cash’s as he headed back to the chair where Cash’s jacket lay over the back. Dev put on the performance of his life by grabbing Cash’s cock through his jeans for the club to see.
To the club’s credit, some did give a halfhearted whoop along with Dev’s blustering, as if Cash were a prime grade selection of beef. He reached for his things from the lawn chair.
“Give me the keys to your bike, smooth talker,” Cash said when Dev took over the zipping of Cash’s heavier jacket. “You’re a lot to handle.”
