“I don’t mind rejection,” she answered. “It’s character building.”
“Too much of it can crush a man’s ego, though.”
Reese ran her gaze over Rylan’s confident frame. “Hasn’t worked so far.”
“Inside, I’m hurt,” he said playfully. “I’m probably going to need someone to check me out later. Maybe if we danced, it’d soothe some of the sting.”
Reese turned away from Rylan’s twinkling blue eyes and searched the room for Sloan, who was never far from her side. Usually lurking in the shadows somewhere, his watchful gaze fixed on her.
When she couldn’t see him anywhere, a pang of unease tugged at her insides. He must have ducked out right after he’d walked her over to the rec hall, which was odd, because Sloan rarely left her alone. Then again, it was late. He’d probably gone to bed.
The room felt unbalanced somehow without Sloan.
“Too stubborn to take a turn with me?” Rylan countered, drawing her from her thoughts.
Rather than give her the chance to reply, he took her hand and yanked her against him. Reese grabbed onto his broad shoulders by instinct, barely righting herself before he shoved one thigh between her legs and plastered their bodies together.
Her traitorous hormones instantly kicked in. The last time she and Rylan were in this position, she’d been seconds away from taking him to bed, a foolish decision that had been interrupted by the arrival of the Enforcers. The events that followed had been a total shit storm. People had died. Good people, like Arch, whose death had left his pregnant woman all alone in this world. And Kade, whose death had been the push Connor needed to join Reese’s cause.
“Get out of your head,” Rylan murmured against her cheek.
Damn. Was he reading her like Sloan did? She clenched her fingers over his shoulders, but, for some stupid reason, didn’t shove him away. “I’m not . . .” She trailed off.
“Not thinking about your next move?” he mocked. “Planning the next attack? Mentally counting all the bodies you might leave in your wake?”
His faint laughter grated. And damn him for knowing what was eating at her. Before his extended stay at Foxworth two months ago to train her people in the art of guns and combat, she never would’ve used the word perceptive to describe this man. But he’d proven her wrong during that visit. Rylan was far more observant than she’d ever given him credit for.
His rough thumb traced a path up her neck to her mouth. He rubbed her lower lip, slowly, seductively. “You need to fuck,” he whispered.
Tension gathered inside her, tightening her muscles, pulsing in her core. He was absolutely right. Sex was a surefire way to release all the volatile energy surging through her veins.
“Use me tonight, Reese.” He buried his face in her neck as he continued to rub up against her. He wasn’t moving in time to the fast-paced beat pulsing out of the rec hall speakers, but to his own slow, sensual rhythm. Each grind of his hips weakened her resolve. “Use me however you want. Fuck me however you want. Just . . . say . . . yes.”
A shiver racked her body as his warm mouth latched onto the side of her throat. He kissed her hot flesh, then sucked hard enough to make her moan.
That got her a low chuckle. “You know you want to.” He licked a path along her jaw and upward, until their lips were a mere inch apart. “We’ll burn so hot together, baby.”
She didn’t answer. She couldn’t, because her throat was clamped shut. God, of course they’d be hot together. Her entire body was close to going up in flames. The feel of his erection against her thigh made her weak-kneed and achy.
But . . . she didn’t trust herself when she was around him.
The truth was, there was a reason she was drawn to loose cannons.
Because she was one.
She was only careful because she forced herself to be, but those wild tendencies that had gravitated toward Jake lived inside her too. She was driven by base urges just like Jake had been, and she struggled every second of every day to hold on to restraint and be the kind of leader her people deserved. The kind of leader Jake had failed to be.
Rylan tested that restraint, and she didn’t like it.
Where was Sloan, damn it? Panic rolled through her as she peered past Rylan and once again searched the room. Sloan grounded her. He was the only one who—her panic faded when she spotted him near the door. A breath of relief slid past her lips.
“I’m down with Sloan joining us. The more, the merrier,” Rylan said after he’d twisted his head to track her gaze.
Sloan stared back at them, steady and reassuring. I’m here, his eyes telegraphed from across the room. Reese watched as he settled his broad shoulders against the wall, crossing his arms and resting one ankle over the other.
She turned to Rylan, who took her renewed attention as an invitation. He shifted her around so she couldn’t see Sloan anymore and nuzzled her neck again, whispering, “What’s it going to be, gorgeous?”
No.