Hard Core (Hard As Nails Book 3) by Hope Conrad Read Free Book Online Page B

want you. I want you to take me, hard and fast. But we can’t.”
    His eyes flare and he steps closer, so that the heat of his breath lands against my neck. It’s hot. Too hot. Too dangerous.
    I put my hand on his chest, impeding his advance if only slightly. I look over my shoulder, to make sure nobody is watching, or even worse, listening.
    He takes a shaky breath. “If you don’t want me to touch you, then you can’t tease me like that. My control is negligible where you’re concerned Alyssa. Now all I can think about is fucking you, hard and fast. Then slow and soft. And every single way in between.”
    I lick my lips, badly wanting to know what he’s talking about. “Why don’t you meet me at the end of the night? Follow me home on your bike.”
    “What if I say no?” He smiles, telling me there’s no chance of him doing that.
    “You’re not going to say no,” I say, and part of me wonders why. He’s larger than life; I’m just trying to survive. But the sexual chemistry between us is burning a hole right through my common sense.
    “I like the confidence. You wear it well.” He leans down and whispers in my ear. “You should wear it more often.”
    “Get to work,” I say, but not before I impulsively turn my head and nip at his earlobe, making him hiss in a breath. I push him away, then head toward the dressing room to make sure Marley isn’t there.
    “I like bossy women.”
    “Yeah, yeah.” I wave my hand and keep walking.
    But there’s a smile on my face and I can’t seem to wipe off even as my mind warns me I’m heading deep into dangerous waters. Already I feel safer just knowing that Axel is here. But feeling that sense of safety comes at a cost, because it requires depending on a man for something, and I don’t have a good track record with men, or much of a record at all, to be frank. In fact, if history is any indication, it will be me who ends up taking care of him. And with each passing day my father is in the hospital, I grow more and more terrified that the care I can give someone isn’t enough. That I’m on the verge of losing someone special to me.
    Last night, Axel blew my mind. He took me on a journey of sexual awakening, and I missed him as soon as I opened my eyes to find him gone. I wanted him, and by his sudden appearance at the club, it’s as if I’d conjured his return.
    It’s a dream come true.
    And eventually, every dream has to end.
     

Chapter Nine
     
     
    Axel
     
    I keep my eye on Alyssa at all times throughout the night, but the later it gets, the more bodies that crowd the club. And each extra body is another body I have to keep my eye on. I must remain alert at all times; I’m looking out for all the women who work in the club, but I don’t even try to kid myself. My main concern is protecting her, and it has nothing to do with feeling protective of women in general. I’ve been able to do that in the past without getting personally invested. Without feeling that my very life depended on my ability to keep another person safe. I learned a long time ago the kind of suffering that can occur when I let a woman too close.
    With Alyssa, I think of all I’ve lost. But I also think of all I can regain.
    Once you’ve lost something you can’t get back, you do one of two things. You give up on getting close to people at all or you only stay close to a select few. I’m close with my friends Slate, Davis, Jericho, and Street. Even a couple of guys from the military. I’d fight like hell to make sure I didn’t lose them.
    And I know the same is true for Alyssa.
    I don’t know her very well. Not yet. But I know that I absolutely cannot fucking lose her.
    I straighten from the bar and walk the perimeter of the room, watching her as she carries a tray of drinks to a table in the furthest reaches of the club. Then I see it. A man in a white T-shirt and jeans with work boots—who shouldn’t have been granted entrance to the club according to the dress