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  “Might need a new manager,” he murmurs, studying me, his eyes dropping to my lips. God. My heart. “What did you ask for?”

  His voice is husky.

  Being so close to him, it’s making me body feel some strange things. The urge to shuffle closer, to feel what it would feel like to be wrapped up in him, is intense. So intense I shuffle a little further away.

  “I don’t bite, sweetheart.”

  He looks amused.

  I flush. “I’m not convinced of that.”

  He laughs.

  It’s a perfect sound.

  Dammit.

  Damn him.

  I don’t even know him!

  I nervously continue by answering the question he asked. “I wanted a girl in my band. She doesn’t want to allow it. I’ve got enough people already, granted, but this girl … I can’t explain it. She’s incredible. She’s partially deaf, but she feels the music, and she plays the piano unlike anyone I’ve ever known.”

  “Does sound incredible. What makes you want her so badly?”

  I shrug.

  “Truth, sweetheart.”

  Damn. He’s good. It’s as if I’m a book, blown wide open, pages flapping in the breeze, and he can read every single one of them.

  “She made me feel some sort of … spark. Inspiration, maybe. Passion, perhaps. Something. Something I hadn’t felt around music in a long time. She made me want to write songs again, to sing them, to put heart back into them. I’ve lost myself, she made me feel like maybe I could find myself again.”

  He stares at me for a moment, then in a husky voice he says, “Then it sounds like she’s worth fighting for.”

  I nod. “Try telling my manager that.”

  “Maybe instead of telling her, you should show her.”

  I glance at him. Why didn’t I think of that? Susan might not want to listen to what I have to say when it comes to Amalie, but if she heard her play, if she heard us play, she might just change his mind.

  “I’d say you’re a genius,” I say, my voice soft. “But I don’t know you and so that would be creepy.”

  A low chuckle. “There’s somethin’ about you, Scarlett Belle. Somethin’ I feel around you, that makes me feel the same way your friend makes you feel.”

  My cheeks get warm and my heart races. I swear little butterflies are dancing in my belly.

  “I’m sure a biker like you can find that anywhere, I mean, you’re so free. There are no barriers for you.”

  He falls silent for a moment, then says in a low, almost broken tone. “Barriers don’t have to be objects, darlin’. Barriers can be simply your own heart. No matter how far you travel, or how many people you meet, none of it can penetrate if the barrier is around your soul.”

  God.

  Damn.

  My heart clenches.

  “Maverick?”

  “Hmmm?”

  “Can I use that in a song?”

  He looks to me. “Whatever you want, darlin’.”

  “Maverick?”

  He chuckles. “Yeah?”

  “Why are you following me?”

  He glances at me, his eyes hold mine and I can feel his words, long before they penetrate. “Because your eyes are the same as mine. Your voice speaks the same pain. I’m drawn to you. I don’t know why, but I can’t seem to be able to back off.”

  Something warm washes over me. “I don’t mind.”

  “No?” he says, one side of his mouth lifting in a smile.

  “No. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a friend. So, if you want to follow me and talk to me, I won’t say no. But don’t go coming up with some elaborate plan to kidnap me for money. I might be small, but I can fight. I promise.”

  His eyes flash and he laughs, low and deep. “Noted, darlin’. How about we just stick to friends?”

  I smile and nod, his eyes drop to my lips again.

  “How come you’re not riding with your club? Not that I know much about that, but aren’t you supposed to travel in big groups or something?”

  His eyes skitter away and his jaw goes tight. “I’m on my own right now. A nomad, I guess. Needed … time.”

  The way he says that sparks my curiosity. But I don’t know him, and it isn’t my place to ask a perfect stranger to feed me his deepest, darkest secrets. God knows I wouldn’t want to share mine.

  “Are you still friends with your club?”

  At that, he grins. “Friends. That’s a way I’ve never heard it put.”

  I blush. “Well, I don’t really know what exactly you are.”

  He keeps the grin. “I’m still part of the club, yeah. I’m just takin’ some time out. No bad blood there. I’ll go home one day.”

  “And where is home?” I ask.

  “Denver.”

  My eyes get big. “Me too.”

  His eyes hold mine, and something passes between us.

  “Guess we might just be able to be friends after all, hey?”

  There goes my heart again.

  And my stomach.

  And my stupid brain.

  This stranger is captivating me. Little by little.

  And I know nothing about him.

  -5-

  MAVERICK

  I can’t look away.

  I’m trying. Fuck knows I’m trying. But every time my eyes fall on her, sitting on the bench, her soft blond hair blowing in the breeze, her little body shivering from the cold, her cheeks pink … There is no fucking way I can look away. Shit, I don’t even want to. I could stare at her all day and never get bored, never tire of watching the blood rush to her cheeks when I look at her lips, or listening to the soft sound of her voice, like a damned bell dripping in honey.

  “Should get you back home,” I say to her, watching her skin getting bumpy from the cold. “Your manager is probably losing her mind right about now, and I’d imagine she’s gone from sniffer dogs to the entire city looking for you.”

  She laughs, soft and sweet, and it rings through the night. “You’re probably right. It wouldn’t surprise me if any moment a team arrived here. She’s probably got some secret tracking device planted on me.”

  I chuckle. “In that case, I better ride you home.”

  Her cheeks flush, and I grin. Ride her home. Sounds fucking sweet, even to my ears.

  “Maverick?” she asks, turning to look at me.

  “Mmmm?”

  “Do you have a phone?”

  I nod. “Yeah, darlin’.”

  “Can I give you my phone number?”

  I study her, holding her eyes. “Nah.”

  She looks immediately hurt, and I reach out before I can think, running my fingers under her chin. “Let’s not jinx this. I’m goin’ to show up, and be around, when you need to me to be. Okay? Lettin’ fate handle this one.”

  Her eyes twinkle. “I think I might use that in a song, too.”

  I grin at her. “C’mon, darlin’, we need to get you home.”

  She exhales, closes her eyes, tips her head back, and just breathes for a few minutes, the wind whipping her hair back. I try to implant this picture in my head, how fucking incredible she looks, how innocent. My dick twitches, and I already know it’s going to be a long ride home, with her tiny body pressed against mine, her perfume flowing in, invading my senses. I palm my cock, trying to push it back down, then I stand. “C’mon.”

  She opens her eyes, licks those fucking beautiful lips, and stands. We make our way to the bike, and I swing on, waiting. A few moments later, she throws her leg over and snuggles in behind me, her arms going around my waist, her body pressing so close to mine I can feel every soft inch of her. She presses her cheek to my back, and fuck if I don’t want to lift her off this bike, lay her on the grass, and fuck her until she’s panting my name.

  Instead, I start the bike and let its rumble radiate through the night.

  Just before I take off, she taps me on the chest. “Maverick?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Ride hard. I like the
way it makes me feel.”

  Fuck me.

  I think I just fell in love.

  ~*~*~*~

  SCARLETT

  I don’t want the night to end.

  For the first time, just for a little while, I felt nothing but warmth in my chest. A feeling that ran deep, washing away the built-up tension I have been living with for so long. Being with Maverick, talking to someone who isn’t just there because of my fame, feeling the freedom the motorcycle brought me freed something inside of me.

  And now, as we’re nearing my hotel, I know that’ll be wiped clean. It’ll be jerked out of me and in its place will come the all too familiar dark spot that seems to be growing bigger and bigger in my soul. Maverick pulls the bike into a dark alley around the corner a few blocks down from the hotel. Then he stops it. “I can see the hotel from here, I’ll watch you go until you’re safely inside. I can’t walk you in, much as I’d love to.”

  “That’s okay,” I say, reluctantly sliding off the motorcycle and turning, staring at the big man who is still straddling it, eyes trained on me, intense and deep.

  “You goin’ to be okay?”

  I nod. “I’m not looking forward to going back in there, but I’ll be okay. Thank you, for tonight. I needed it, more than you could probably imagine.”

  He studies me, then says in a low, husky tone, “I think maybe I needed it more than you can imagine.”

  There’s so much pain in his eyes. I wish I had the time to sit down and let him tell me what put it there, but I don’t. I exhale slowly, and say, “I hope I see you again, biker.”

  He laughs. “You will. Be good, yeah?”

  My heart sinks a little, but I flash him a smile, and then I raise my hands in a peace symbol. He grins, huge, and my heart does a funny flip flop. He too raises his hand and gives me the same symbol. A huge part of me wants to stay with this mysterious stranger, to leap onto the back of his bike, forget my entire world, and just run away.

  But that’s just a fantasy born from the aching deep in my chest, the one that drives me to think thoughts that I know will never, ever be possible.

  “Goodnight, Maverick.”

  He studies me, then gives me a lazy, half smile. “Goodnight, darlin’.”

  Then I turn and walk out onto the sidewalk and back to the entrance of my hotel. When I reach the front doors, I can hear and see commotion inside. I’m stepping into a lion’s den, so, I turn and look back to see my savior standing on the footpath, arms crossed over his big chest, watching me. I smile. He smiles.

  Then I step inside.

  “There she is!”

  I hear a barrage of voices and focus on Susan who spins around, tossing the phone she was holding in her hand to some poor man standing beside her, and comes rushing over toward me. This isn’t going to be pretty. I brace myself for the explosion that’s coming, and it is coming, judging by the deep red that her face is right now. She looks like she’s going to bust a top. And I probably deserve it.

  “Scarlett!” Her voice comes out like an icy whip, low and deadly. “To your room. Immediately.”

  I don’t argue, I walk straight to the elevator and get in, pressing the button up to my room. Susan comes in, standing beside me, and it doesn’t slip my notice that she doesn’t say a single word, but you can feel the tension in the elevator. You could cut it with a knife, it’s so thick. Which tells me one thing—when I get into the room, she’s going to lose her ever-loving mind.

  I inhale, bracing myself, and when I do, I catch a whiff of Maverick. It flows in and goes as quickly as it comes, but for a moment, I’m captured by it. By the masculine, leathery smell that has somehow clung to my skin. My heart stretches, at least it feels like it stretches, and I inwardly smile. Tonight was the break I needed, the freedom I have so desperately needed to feel.

  The door opens right into the penthouse suite, and both Susan and I step out. The moment the doors are closed, she turns and looks at me, seething. “What the hell were you thinking?” Each word comes out like a whip, like a poisonous snake ready to strike.

  I inhale again, letting it out slowly. “I needed space.”

  Her face goes red.

  Shit’s about to get real.

  “Space?” she screeches. “Space!”

  Oh, boy.

  “You have a man out there who only very recently stopped stalking you and following you around the country side, he’s dangerous, you know he’s dangerous, and yet you so casually walk out of the hotel without protection because you disagreed with what I said?”

  Her words hit me right in the chest.

  Mostly because they’re right.

  When I left the hotel tonight, I didn’t think about him. I didn’t even stop, for one single second, and think that he might be watching and that he might have taken the opportunity to make a move.

  My skin prickles and my heart starts racing wildly.

  “You didn’t think of that, did you?” Susan yells, ignoring my silence. “You didn’t think that you could have been putting your life in danger going out there and allowing yourself to be exposed like that. And that’s only the beginning …”

  My heart is beating so loudly I can feel it in my head.

  I close my eyes.

  My palms start sweating.

  I feel like I’m going to vomit as a memory invades my mind, claiming my body, freezing it to the floor.

  His fingers graze over my cheek. It isn’t affection. It’s warning. Threat. Danger. His grey eyes lock on mine, his dark hair falls over his forehead. To onlookers, he would be a loving man stroking his girlfriend’s cheek. To me, he’s a viper, spitting poison into my veins. I look up at him, forcing my bottom lip not to tremble. His calloused finger glides down my cheek and stops at my chin, where he firmly grasps it, tipping my head back further.

  “You’re going to do what I say, Scarlett. Aren’t you?”

  I nod.

  Of course I’ll do what he says.

  The three cracked ribs, bruised abdomen, and pain in my stomach will make sure of that.

  That’s what happened last time I didn’t do what he said.

  “I’m in this now, do you understand?” His voice is so calm. He’s so clever. So cunning. He doesn’t need to raise it. He doesn’t need to get angry. The man is as smart as he is dangerous, a combination which terrifies me.

  Once, I thought he was just a nice guy. I fell for him. We dated. Then I started getting suspicious when he kept disappearing. When he kept interacting with dangerous looking people. Then I found out he was selling drugs. Big drugs. Not just the mild stuff. And I tried to get out.

  There was no way that was happening.

  He made sure of it.

  “I understand,” I croak, my fingers trembling, goosebumps crawling up my arms.

  He squeezes my chin, just slightly. He won’t squeeze it hard enough. He won’t mark my face for the world to see. As far as everyone in my crew knows, he’s an amazing man supporting my dreams. They don’t see what happens behind closed doors.

  “There you are.”

  Susan walks into the room, and his composure instantly relaxes. He doesn’t jerk his hand away from my face, he simply tips my head back and brings his lips down over mine, as if that was exactly what he was doing in the first place. The moment his lips touch mine, I cringe. I hate their rough feeling. I once liked his rugged edge. Not so much now.

  “I was just leaving, Susan.” He smiles, dropping my chin and giving me a look that warns if I open my mouth, I will suffer.

  “Lovely to see you. Will you be joining us for tonight’s show?”

  “I’m afraid I have to work, but don’t worry, I won’t be far.”

  His eyes meet mine again.

  Why can’t she see the deadliness behind them? The threat? For someone so smart, Susan is so blinded by the charm dripping off him.

  They all are.

  All of them except me.

  “I couldn’t protect you before, Scarlett.”


  Susan’s voice is softer now, snapping me from my trance. I swing my eyes in her direction and hold them. I feel bad for her. In that, I really do. She didn’t know what was happening, none of them did, and when I first told her, she didn’t believe me. It was only when he nearly took my life, that she realized I was telling the truth and took action. I know she lives with that guilt. I know that’s part of the reason she’s so hard on me.

  “I’m sorry,” I say, my voice soft. “I didn’t think of that, and it was selfish. I don’t wish to fight with you, Susan. You know I respect you as my manager, but I’m asking you to respect me, also. I want Amalie on my team. I only ask that you come and watch us play, just once, and at least consider it.”

  She studies me, long, intensely. “If I agree to that, will you agree that you won’t disappear again, like you did tonight?”

  I nod. “I promise.”

  “Okay, well, tomorrow we’ll watch you play. For now, I need some rest and so do you. You have a show tomorrow night in San Francisco.”

  I nod, she nods, and then she disappears from my room.

  I go over to the window and stare out at the bright lights of the city.

  Will he follow me to San Francisco?

  I hope so.

  -6-

  MAVERICK

  “Any news?” I ask Mal as I kick back in my motel bed later that night.

  “Nope. We can’t track the fucker. He’s well hidden. And he’s smart. He’s got everyone else doin’ his dirty work. I’m sure he’s linked to the attack on the club. I just can’t fuckin’ find him.”

  I exhale, pushing the fucking god-awful memory of that day out of my head.

  “I’ll come home soon. I’ll help. Send me anythin’ you have. I can still help when I’m on the road. You got Koda onto it?”

  “Yeah, he’s trackin’, but like I said, the man is fuckin’ smart.”

  “We’ll find him, Prez, and when we do, we’ll gut him throat to navel.”

  Mal laughs. “Like the way your twisted mind thinks, brother.”