Viper's Pit (Diamondbacks Motorcycle Club Book 1) (6 page)

But no matter how much she tried to delay the inevitable, bittersweet moment of release, she couldn’t hold on. It was just impossible to claim any form of self-control when Lind was inside of her, on top of her, all around her. He filled her whole world, her perceptions and sensations. And Eve gave in to him, because there was nothing else she could do.

She felt him shudder as he, too, hovered dangerously close to the edge, and she took it as her cue to finally let go. She came with a gasp and a cry, barely aware of Lind still thrusting into her as she got lost in her own pleasure. It came to her wave after wave, intense and all-consuming like nothing else she had ever experienced. Her whole body was on fire with it.

She had barely entered the aftershocks when Lind came, too. She felt him shudder and tense against her with the strength of his own release, and then he went limp against her. Instinctively, Eve reached up and wrapped her arms around him.

They stayed like that for she didn’t know how long, perfectly still and interlocked. Finally, he moved and broke the spell. He pulled back and out of her. Then, he rolled off of her and back onto the mattress. When he turned to look at her, his eyes were sparkling.

“Well, that was something,” he said, grinning from ear to ear.

She laughed. “I’ll say.”

He suddenly paled. “Shit,” he muttered, the curse so heartfelt that Eve was suddenly alarmed.

“What?” she asked. “What is it?”

“We didn’t use a condom.”

“Oh.” She breathed in relief. “That’s okay. I’m on the pill.”

Lind blew out a relieved sigh of his own and relaxed back onto the bed.

“So that was unexpected,” he said after a moment of surprisingly comfortable silence.

“The pill?”

“No.
That
. What just happened between us.”

Eve turned her head to look at him. “Was it really?” She grinned. “I think it borders on cliché.”

Lind rolled his eyes. “You really saw it coming?”

“Not necessarily,” Eve admitted. “But I would’ve had to be very oblivious not to notice the sexual tension before.”

Lind smiled. “Fair enough.” He hesitated. “Are you okay?”

Eve frowned. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
You just gave me the most mind-blowing orgasms of my life.
Of course, she knew better than to say that out loud.

“You just cheated on your fiancé.”

Eve blinked. The thought hadn’t even occurred to her before. “Shit,” she said quietly. The fact that Alan had never entered her mind once during the whole thing probably spoke volumes.

“I’m sorry,” Lind said. “I probably should’ve stopped. It’s just…I…you…well, I just couldn’t.”

Eve shrugged. “Keeping me faithful is not your responsibility. Or anyone else’s, for that matter.”

He looked at her curiously. “You don’t seem particularly brokenhearted about just jeopardizing your relationship.” When Eve said nothing, he asked, “Do you love him?”

Eve thought about it. “No,” she said, because it was the truth, and it felt good to say it. For once, it felt good to admit it freely. Her engagement was loveable. It was convenient.

“Does he love you?”

“I don’t know,” Eve admitted. “Maybe. Maybe not.”

“And you’re still going to marry him anyway?”

“Why not?”

Lind stared at her uncomprehendingly. “You’re not in love with him.”

“He’s a good man.”

“But you don’t love him.”

Eve sat up. “Look, things work differently in my world. You marry the one who’s best suited for you. It’s not about love.”

Lind looked at her like she came from a different planet. Given the situation, she might as well have. “Sounds like your world is stuck in the 1800s.”

Eve shrugged again, noncommittally.

Lind sat up to better look at her. “It really doesn’t bother you?”

“Honestly, I could’ve ended up with a worse man than Alan Sutherland. He may not be in love with me, but he’s good to me.”

“Does he satisfy you?”

Eve blinked, taken aback. “I beg your pardon?”

“Sexually, I mean,” Lind clarify. “Does he satisfy you sexually?”

“I…what kind of question is that?” Eve cried, shocked.

Lind shrugged. “Back there it felt like you hadn’t been touched in a long time. So either you guys have little to no sex, or it isn’t that great.”

Eve glared daggers at him. “My sexual life is none of your concerns.”

“It just was.” He grinned infuriatingly.

“You’re impossible!”

Eve climbed out of bed, gathered her clothes and marched to the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.

As she took a shower, she steamed as furiously, as the hot water flowed from the spray. How dare he? How dare he analyze her relationship, her life? Who did he think he was?

And what was it to him, anyway? What was it to Lind Addams if Eve Robinson married someone whom she didn’t love and who almost certainly was not in love with her?

It suddenly hit her. As she stood naked under the shower spray, her life also lay bared. She was willingly walking into a loveless marriage, and it didn’t bother her one bit. How sad was that? How empty was she? How meaningless was her life that she would not blink as it got thrown away?

She thought about the man who was waiting for her at home. (But was he? Was Alan even looking for her? Was he worried? Or was he relieved that she had disappeared and he wouldn’t have to get stuck into a loveless marriage?) Then, she thought about the man waiting for her in the other room. (Was he? Was Lind still sitting on the bed, waiting for her to get out of the bathroom? Or was he sprawled on the couch in front of whatever movie he had rented for that night, his mind already far away from the sexual—and sensual—experience they had just shared, and far away from their conversation?) It suddenly seemed completely absurd to Eve that she would even consider going back to Alan when a man like Lind had entered her life.

How could she even think about going back to her old life? And how could she even do it? It would never be the same, she knew that. Not now that she had seen what was on the other side of that line she had so often played at crossing. Now that she had crossed it for real, it seemed unfathomable to ever turn away. Even while being cooped up into this godforsaken apartment, Eve had experienced more excitement in the past three weeks than in the past three years of her life. How could she ever say goodbye to all of it?

And yet she had to. She knew that it was only a matter of time before whatever had really happened that night at the Cobra was finally made clear. It was only a matter of time before whoever was responsible for the attack on the Diamondbacks was found. And then she would be safe, and Lind would have no reason to keep her in his life any longer.

She let the hot water hit her back long after she was done washing the remains of the best sex of her life off her body. She hoped the hot spray would beat the confusion out of her, but when she finally stepped out of the shower stall her mind was no clearer than it had been when she had stepped in.

She dried her hair, put on pajama pants and a tank top, and went back out into the bedroom. Lind was sound asleep, and she watched him incredulously. How could he sleep after all that had happened that night?

She shook her head firmly.
Don’t be stupid, Eve.
This was probably just another day at the office for the Viper. She would not and could not delude herself into think that this meant the same to him as it had meant to her.

Unable to even consider getting to sleep, Eve walked out of the bedroom and closed the door gently behind her. She padded to the kitchen and made herself a fresh pot of coffee. If she couldn’t sleep, she might as well do something productive and get some more work done in piecing together all the information they had. (What little of it they did have, anyway.)

Just as she was about to sit down at the table, there was a soft knock at the door. Eve swallowed hard, heart suddenly pounding in her chest. She walked noiselessly to the front door and grabbed the gun that was on the shelf near the entrance. She didn’t know how to shoot it, but she would figure it out if she needed to.

She spied through the peephole and was relieved to see Jacob standing on the other side. She opened the door and let him in, quickly shutting it back behind her. She knew the drill by now; the less movement people noticed, the better.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, somewhat anxiously, as he followed him back into the kitchen. “Is something wrong?”

“Yes,” Jacob said. “We better move you somewhere else. Alec has found out about this apartment, and he wants to use it as a retreat for club meetings until the situation with the cartel is sorted out. He says it’ll be safer here.”

Eve frowned. “How did he find out?”

“He was wondering aloud about finding a new place for the time being and somebody remembered about my recently deceased grandpa living in Pasadena. They asked what I was doing with the apartment.”

“Couldn’t you have made something up?” Eve asked, incredulous.

“No,” Jacob said sharply. “I’m lying enough as it is.” He shrugged out of his jacket and placed it on the back of a chair at the table. “Where’s Lind?”

“Asleep.”

Jacob stared at her. For a moment he looked like he wanted to say something, but then he just shook his head. “I’m gonna go get him. You’d better start packing.”

Eve stared after him. She had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach, but she just couldn’t put her finger on it. She picked up Jacob’s jacket to reach the sweater she had left on the back of the chair underneath, and that’s when she saw it. A thick packet of bills fell from the inside pocket of the jacket and landed on the floor with a smack that might as well have been a slap to her face.

Eve picked it up and gingerly turned it into her hands. There was a note attached to the bills—a glaring yellow post-it note. Eve read it.
The rest will come after you have given us your President. There will be no mistakes this time.

Heart pounding, Eve put the bills and the jacket back. So, there were two traitors involved. One from the nightclub and one from the Diamondbacks’ own ranks. Eve could hardly believe it. And if
she
could hardly believe it, she couldn’t even imagine how Lind would feel about it.

She spun around when she heard a noise behind her.

Jacob held up his hands in reassurance. “Easy. It’s just me.”

In spite of her best efforts, she watched him suspiciously.

“Why so jumpy?” he asked.

Eve shrugged and did her best to appear nonchalant. “It’s been a tense few weeks.”

Jacob nodded. “Indeed.”

“Where’s Lind?” she asked.

“Asleep. I figured we’d let him rest and take a ride, just you and me.”

Eve swallowed hard. She tasted fear on her tongue; it tasted like bile. “Why?”

“Because,”—Jacob took a step toward her—“it really pisses me off when people go through my stuff.”

Eve’s eyes widened in alarm. She opened her mouth to scream, but Jacob was faster. He took a swing and the back of his hand cracked against Eve’s skull, sending her sprawling. The world faded to black in an instant.