Hard As Steel: A Hard Ink/Raven Riders Crossover (1001 Dark Nights) Read Free Page B

chest stood out like sun breaking through the clouds.
    That his hands had put a lot of that ink on her skin? Made him more possessive of her than he had any right to be.
    “Can’t chance having the wrong person notice and identify you. You don’t exactly blend in to the crowd.” Understatement of the year, right there.
    She smirked. “I can tone it down when the situation calls for it.”
    Ike immediately hated the thought. Jess was loud, vivid Technicolor in an in-your-face kinda way. Exactly the way it should be. “Not a chance. You could shave your head and wear a paper bag and I’d still know exactly who you were from a football field away.”
    “Ooh, kinky.” Her smirk slid into a sexy grin.
    Her word choice sent Ike’s brain to all kinds of places it didn’t need to be. Like envisioning Jess ass-up over his bike wearing only her ink and a pair of heels while he buried himself deep from behind, or imagining Jess with a ball gag taming that smart-ass mouth of hers while he made her come with his mouth and cock until she was boneless and more satisfied than she’d even been in her life. With black fastening straps and a red ball, the gag would match her hair. Something about that image pleased him greatly. And proved he’d fantasized about it a few times before today. Okay, a few thousand times. Whatever.
    Did he always have to be so fucking attracted to women in trouble? Because he wasn’t any fucking white knight, that was for damn sure. Cop father and friends, drug-addict-cop-killing friends, stalkerish ex-lovers who wanted more—Jess had been in one form of trouble or another for as long as Ike had known her. “Special requests or not, Jakes? Jesus Christmas.”
    She laughed, and Ike tried to ignore the way it lit him up inside. Despite her size, Jess had a big belly laugh so infectious it could make you chuckle even if you weren’t in on the joke. Sometimes it even included snorts that would set her off laughing even harder. “You’re too easy to rile up,” she said through her laughter. Finally, she calmed enough to add, “Okay, okay. I’ll be serious. Let’s see…I’d love it if you could get iced blueberry Pop-Tarts or Lucky Charms for breakfast, and, like, pepperoni pizza Hot Pockets for lunch and dinner. Oh, and diet Coke. That would be awesome.”
    Ike frowned. “Anything else?”
    Her eyes went distant for a second and then wide with excitement. “Oh, Doritos, too, please. Might need a couple of bags.”
    “Why do I feel like I’m talking to a nineteen-year-old frat boy right now?” he asked.
    “Dude, you asked what I wanted. I can’t help my junk food proclivities. I’m a terrible cook and Hot Pockets are freaking good. But wait. How are you going to get all that on the bike?”
    Ike shook his head and pulled a key ring from his pocket. “I’m not. I’ve got a truck in the garage.”
    “Oh, okay. Well, I really would come help.”
    “I know you would. Just stay put. I won’t be gone long. Use the house phone if you need me.” He pointed toward the end of the kitchen counter, where the handset for the landline sat.
    “I will,” she said quietly, looking over her shoulder toward the phone.
    Something about her tone made Ike pause, despite the fact that he could really use a breather from the sexual tension that always seemed to crackle between them no matter how unaffected he tried to act. “You okay being alone?”
    Jess made a face. “Of course. You don’t have to worry about me.”
    If only it was that easy. Especially when he could’ve lost her not twenty-four hours before. He might not want her for himself—no, that wasn’t quite true, was it? He wanted her. He’d always wanted her. But he couldn’t let himself have her because he’d never be able to give her all of him. Jess deserved a whole man. And Ike hadn’t been whole for almost eighteen years, when a part of him had died along with the first woman he’d ever loved.
    And that wanting? That’s why he