Harm's Way: Riot MC Biloxi by Karen Renee (best e book reader .TXT) 📕

He closed his eyes against visions of her being hot at night.

It had been bad enough an hour and a half ago when she helped him put up the plywood. She made a fantastic assistant and he didn’t know how she came by that knowledge, because her mother damn sure never lifted a finger when she’d been Brute’s stepmom. They got the plywood up, though it wasn’t as secure as he would’ve liked it, but he would get professionals on the job first thing tomorrow.

When they came inside, Stephanie had cracked open a beer with a grimace. “Sorry, Har. But desperate times call for desperate measures, which means I have to take one of your beers.”

Watching her tip her head back to chug beer was so sexy he forced himself to look away.

“And hate to tell you this, but I’m gonna have to take another shower tonight. You really should let me contribute to the water bill, man.”

He shook his head. “It’s all right, Combes. I’ll survive, but don’t count on your shower being too warm. I’ve been known to drain a hot water heater.”

Her eyes narrowed on him as she shook her head. “You’re so full of it.”

Now, they were both showered and in the living room.

“Good to know you wouldn’t steal my heavy blanket, but you’re not sleeping on the couch, Combes. You’re in my room tonight, and I’m on the couch.”

Her head tilted, so he spoke fast.

“No arguments, woman. So, go on and get some rest.”

She crossed her arms on her chest. “My futon is essentially a couch which converts to a bed, man. I should be on the couch for sure. So, you go on and get your rest.”

“Woman, you don’t know if you’ll be sitting behind a table or standing on the casino floor day-to-day. You need to be in a bed.”

Her chin dipped. “Meanwhile, I understand you’re doing custom paint jobs on bikes and small cars. You know you’ll be on your feet all day every day, so you should go rest... in your own bed.”

“Then you come with me.”

She blinked in surprise.

He liked that. Liked it a lot.

He kept at her. “Bonus for me, you say you get hot at night, so you shouldn’t steal my covers. Let’s go, or you won’t get dibs on the good side of the bed.”

“The good side?” she asked as he walked past her.

He shrugged a shoulder. “To be more accurate, any side of the bed because I’m a center-sleeper.”

She growled, and he grinned behind her back. “I should just sleep in my bed and be done with it.”

He whirled around. “You even think to sleep in that room tonight, I’ll tan your ass and enjoy every fuckin’ lick.”

Her eyes widened while color rose in her cheeks, and he saw her throat bob with her swallow.

Dammit.

He needed to put his foot down. It was his house for fuck’s sake, and if he wanted to sleep on his couch, he could damn well sleep on his couch.

“Go. Get to sleep. I’ll be in there when Sports Center is done,” he semi-lied.

She acquiesced, retreating to his room, and he grabbed a beer from the fridge.

He sat down on the couch watching talking heads argue about the upcoming college football season, but his mind worked overtime as he tried to figure out who would lob a brick into his house. And whether they were lobbing the brick into his house or if they were aiming for Stephanie.

He needed to ask her about that poker game. As she had said herself, desperate times called for desperate measures and risking an entire paycheck was a damn desperate measure. A glance at the corner of the screen told him she’d been in his room for twenty minutes.

She might still be awake. It would be better to talk about this now than in the morning.

He shut down the TV, turned off the lights and double-checked the locks on the doors before hitting his room.

When he opened his door, he nearly tripped. No woman had been to his house other than his sister and his mother. The sight of Stephanie’s dark hair splayed on a pillow and her curvy body in his bed forced him to stutter-step. The only reason he could see her at all was because she’d left his bedside lamp on for him.

Fuck, she looked good there.

He trudged into his walk-in closet and swapped his gray sweatpants for a pair of pajama pants he’d cut off at the knee. With his arm behind his head, he tugged on the neck of his undershirt, but stopped as he thought better of it.

When he approached his bed, he wondered if she were retaliating against him again. Her hair was spread over a single pillow, but her body was angled so she took up the right side and most of the center portion of the bed.

He chuckled quietly and climbed in beside her. “You actually asleep, Steph?” he whispered.

“No,” she whispered, pulling a leg away from the center of the bed.

His every instinct told him to keep his hands to himself, but something about her made him itch to hold her. Even though it might get him kneed in the balls, he slid an arm under her shoulders and pulled her to his body. His legs shifted as he situated her so their torsos and legs were even, but their groins were not in contact.

“What are you doing, Michael?”

He smiled. “About time you got something right, Stephanie.”

She chuckled. “Your name? As if. What’s the big idea?”

Her hand rested high on his bicep, pleasing him.

He exhaled evenly. “The big idea is I need to know something and I want you to be honest no matter how embarrassed or proud you might be.”

She chuckled, but this one was nervous. “Okay. Don’t know why I should be embarrassed, but what do you need to know?”

His plan to keep a certain type of distance between them was no good. Realizing that, he pulled her flush with his body, even