Duke by Zahra Girard

Author:Zahra Girard [Girard, Zahra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-01-16T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Jennifer

“I’m going out to run some club business and then I’ll get us some breakfast. You want anything?”

I blink away sleep — wincing as I feel my black eye protest at moving, and I sit up in bed, feeling more refreshed and rested than I have in a long time.

It takes a second for the reality of where I am to set in. I’m in his bed, I’ve broken my rules, and I’m a lot more okay with that than I ever thought I’d be. Yesterday, in all the right ways, he was every bit the man that I remembered and fell in love with. But different as well. More mature. More focused. More self-aware and understanding of what we had all those years ago. It’s enough to make me feel regret. Not for sleeping with him, but that it took these ten years of pain for him to grow into the kind of man I could love wholeheartedly.

Regret that I still haven’t forgotten my purpose.

I’m here to ruin him, after all.

My heart squeezes inside my chest.

“Is something wrong?” I say.

Duke shrugs, then smiles one of those slanted and easy smiles that always throws me off balance. “Nothing, Jen. I think Bull just wants to ream me a new one for this place not being open yet. So, what can I get you for breakfast?”

“Where from?” I say, body still both aching and glowing at the same time.

“Java Jazz. I want to check on Cindy. One of her son’s friends wound up in the hospital the other day. Some kind of drug thing. The MC kind of keeps an eye out for her and her son, Tommy, so I want to make sure they’re OK.”

I sit up and look at all six foot three inches of him, the tats that twine around his arms and blanket a chest that I could spend hours looking at, and the caring expression that comes over his rugged face as he gets closer to bed and looks down at me. He’s the same man I remember, and yet so different. He wasn’t lying yesterday when he told me he still gives a damn. And, I’m starting to feel like, as much as I try and fight it, maybe I wasn’t lying, either.

“I’d like something, yeah. Coffee, mostly. And maybe a bite to eat. It doesn’t matter what it is, I’m not that hungry, but I’m going to need something after last night. I’m exhausted.”

He nods, then, instead of leaving, he sits down on the bed beside me and puts a hand on my leg. “We should talk about last night.”

I arch an eyebrow, both surprised and wary at the sudden turn. “Talk? More? Are you sure you’re Duke and not kind of impostor?”

He clenches a fist momentarily, then shakes his head. “Yeah, I am. Look, you and I both know we can’t have what we had before, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to keep seeing you and find out where this goes.

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