Page 20 of Retribution
“Are you done?” Dakota glanced at his half-finished food and eyed all of her clean plates. In her defense, she hadn’t eaten so much since she’d high-tailed it out of Idaho Falls.
“I’ll get boxes,” he said.
“You want to take the leftovers with us?”
“Sure. Why not?”
Cobra got up and Dakota watched him, ogling his ass as he took all that strong and tall muscle behind the counter and grabbed some Styrofoam containers. No one even batted an eyelash at the gesture. Clearly, he did come here often, which gave her pause given the fact that he made his lifestyle seem, well, nomadic. Wasn’t that the point?
Ugh, why the hell was she even investing this much thought into it in the first place? They were ships passing in the night. They’d probably be sharing space for a week or two, at most, before she was able to find her own place and get back on her feet. So there was no need for all of … this.But damn, if he isn’t sexy with his hard body and dreamy green eyes. And those tats. Fuck … I want to look at them real close.Her breath came quickly through her parted lips with almost a hissing sound.I need to stop thinking about him. We’ll be out of each other’s lives in no time. I don’t need to get to know him.At least, not super in-depth. They didn’t need to bare each other’s souls or something.
And judging by the way her body reacted to Cobra, even a tentative friendship was out of the question. Besides, once she got a place of her own, Dakota didn’t even know if she’d see him again, or if she even wanted to.
Cobra had been in prison and she could only imagine what landed him there. He’d been an enforcer in a notorious motorcycle club. He was also much older than anyone she’d ever gone out with before. Dakota wrung her hands. There were so many factors in the equation, and all of them spelled danger with a capitalD. After spending so many years running scared, she craved tranquility, so she wasn’t in the market for a good-looking biker who exuded raw sex and danger.
Dakota scraped the scramble eggs off the plate and into one of the boxes Cobra handed her.
“When do you start at the tattoo parlor?”
The change of subject was a clear shift and she paused to push away her thoughts and come back into the moment.
“Tomorrow.”
“Do you want a ride to work?” Cobra licked his thumb after sticking it in some of the food going in the boxes, and for a moment she just stared at it before it popped out of his mouth. “Did you hear me?”
Crap, I need to get a grip.
“Uh, yeah, that would be really nice. Thanks.”
“Yeah.”
Dakota didn’t follow up with any more conversation because now that he was revealing some things, she was suddenly very aware of being in way over her head. Dakota felt oddly closer to Cobra than she had earlier that morning, and she didn’t like it one bit. Even though he didn’t live his life by society’s rules, she wasn’t as wary of him as she’d been when he offered her a ride. When she thought back to the people she’d known an awful lot about, she wanted to puke. They were fake and hiding behind a mask of respectability. And the worst was Taylor: how he’d hurt her without even one iota of regret.Don’t think about that asshole. Don’t. Please … don’t go there.
“You flinched,” Cobra’s voice chased the shadows away. “You good?” He stood off to her side of the booth with the bag of leftovers in one hand.
Dakota smiled and grasped his hand. “Yeah, I’m good.” His skin was warm and cool at the same time—if that was even possible. She wanted to bring it to her face and feel the roughness of his skin against her cheek.
“Fuck, darlin’,” he mumbled.
Her eyes snapped to his and something about the way his gaze moved over her face made her stomach dip. Maybe it was how his touch sent sparks through her, but suddenly Dakota wasveryconscious of him, very aware of the raw power of his masculinity.
“Did you wanna slice of coconut cream pie to take with you, hon?” Tess asked, breaking the moment Cobra and Dakota shared.
“Yeah. Thanks.”
Tess glanced over at Dakota. “You want a piece too?”
She slid her hand off of his and look past him. “Do you have any blueberry?”
“We sure do, hon.”
“That’s what I’ll have.”
“Gotcha. Be back in a minute.” Tess rushed away.
Dakota slid out of the booth then brought her hands above her head and stretched. From her peripheral view she saw Cobra watching her movements.
“Here you go.” Tess handed a plastic bag to Cobra. “I’ll see you”—she pressed her pink-tipped finger into his chest—“later, hon.” She threw him a quick smile then hurried off.
“You ready to go?” Cobra asked, his voice sounding gruffer than usual.
Grabbing the two boxes from him, she nodded. As they walked toward the cashier, his hand grazed hers and sent a line of awareness from the tips of her fingers all the way up her shoulder as her temples buzzed from the contact.
I don’t even know him. But look what happened when I trusted a man I did know. This is just crazy.But the thought of Cobra’s strong arms around her, keeping her safe and protected, sounded like the best plan in the world at that moment. A voice in the back of her head kept telling her that she should run hard and fast in the opposite direction, but there was a gentleness she saw behind Cobra’s rough and tough armor he wore all of the time.But I thought Taylor was sweet and loving. And I got in the car with those two clean-cut guys. I’m far from a good judge of character. I should just move on to another town. Disappear.
Instead, Dakota slid on the back of his bike and wrapped her arms around his deliciously muscled torso reveling in the heat of him. She hoped he didn’t notice that her fingers were shaking as she tried to get herself together again. As adamant as she’d been about getting to know him, the closer they got to each other, the harder it would be to resist the pull that drew her to him. The mystery that oozed from every dangerous pore of his body captivated her.
Dakota knew she was flirting with danger, but there was something about Cobra that made her want to stick around and get to know him better, even though her logic screamed against it.
