Page 333 of Devil’s Disciples

After taking the Encinitas Boulevard exit, I rolled to a stop at the light. The heat rising from the engine carried a hint of her perfume to my nose. A recollection of my daydream at the funeral brought a smile to my face.

“You’re a natural,” I said over my shoulder.

She pressed her chest against my back. “At what?”

“Riding.”

“All I’ve got to do is sit here.” She laughed, exhaling her warm breath against the side of my neck. “It’s not difficult.”

I winced and glanced to my side. She was close enough to kiss. I wanted to devour her but refrained from showing any emotion.

I couldn’t define it, but there was something about her that made me feel extremely comfortable in her presence. It could have been her bold attitude or quick wit. It might have been that her expressed interest allowed me to feel normal for the first time since Ghost died. Whatever the reason, I enjoyed being with her immensely.

“You’d be surprised how many can’t get the hang of it,” I assured her. “Nothing worse than getting someone back there that flops all over the place.”

She lowered her sunglasses with the tip of her finger. Her eyes gleamed with excitement. “So, you’re saying we can do this again?”

She was gorgeous, had a great sense of humor, and a magnetic personality. Denying myself the pleasure of being in her presence would be foolish on my part. But. She was like any other addictive substance. Moderation would be key. If I spent too much time with her, it wouldn’t end well for either of us, and I knew it.

“Sure.” I faced the road ahead. If I looked at her for much longer, I’d convince myself fucking her would be a good idea. It wasn’t. “If you want to, I’m sure we can figure something out.”

Her lips touched my ear. “I want to,” she breathed.

A tingling ran from my neck to my tailbone.

Unwilling to split traffic with an inexperienced rider on the back of my bike, I was wedged between two bumpers of the bumper to bumper late-afternoon traffic. At a very frustrating twenty-mile-an-hour speed, we inched our way toward the beach.

Ten minutes later, we came to a stop at the next traffic light. Despite being early winter, the heat from the asphalt and the motorcycle’s air-cooled engine made being stopped almost unbearable.

Her weight shifted against me. Having her in such proximity was wreaking havoc on my ability to resist. While trying to convince myself she had no idea what she was doing to me, I felt her breath against my ear.

“I’m so hot,” she whispered.

“It gets that way in stop-and-go traffic,” I muttered.

“It’s not the traffic,” she breathed.

My cock twitched.

The light turned green. I exhaled a long breath and released the clutch. With her, proceeding on a friendly level wasn’t going to be easy.

In fact, I feared it was going to be impossible.

121

Ally

I’d forfeited one pair of panties to him. The pair I was wearing were soaked to the point I was uncomfortable. At the rate I was going through them, I needed to invest in Victoria’s Secret stock. Soon.

It wasn’t a matter of whether I was going to throw myself at him or not.

It was going to happen.

It wasn’t his looks that captivated me, at least not wholly. He could have been repulsive in appearance, and I would have been drawn to him eventually.

Confidence excreted from his pores. His perma-squint gave him an enigmatic presence. The way he sized everyone up that was within eyeshot led me to believe he was hiding secrets.

I liked the thought of him spending his waking hours teetering on a fine line between what is undeniably good and what is perceived evil. Walking along the razor’s edge.