“I guess so. Although Ajax and Blue don’t really care about shit like that. They’d expect me here anyway.”

She frowned, and little creases appeared on her forehead. He guessed she was about to make a comment on that, but instead she asked, “When do you want me to start drawing your bike?”

He shrugged as he laid two mugs of steaming coffee down on the table and pulled out a chair to sit. “As soon as possible, I guess.” Unspoken again was the fact that his days here were numbered.

“Today? You can bring it into the courtyard and I can draw while I work. People will love it.”

“I don’t want anyone touching my machine,” he growled, and then took a slug of coffee.

She smirked. “Don’t worry, baby, I won’t let anyone touch your toys.”

“Are you mocking me?” He raised an eyebrow, amused. And if he were honest, turned on. Again. Usually girls fawned in his presence; rarely did they poke fun at him, but Billie doing so only made him hot and hard.

She grinned back and then lifted one shoulder. Her shirt slipped down in the process, giving him a glimpse of the bare, tanned skin of her shoulder, and he forgot all about being teased. Thought about tasting her instead.

“Are you sure you have to open the gallery today?” He unashamedly looked his fill down her body.

“Travis!” she scolded. “Do you think about anything else?”

“Not much,” he admitted. Although the truth was until he’d met her, he’d been in a bit of a dry spell, more focused on his work than women or sex. But now that he’d broken the drought, he couldn’t get enough.

Shaking her head, she put a plate down on the table in front of him and his nostrils flared at the aromas coming from the simple dish. She’d thrown some chopped tomatoes, cheese and something green into the scrambled eggs and it looked far healthier than anything he usually digested. Still, it smelled amazing, and when he forked a bit up into his mouth, he almost moaned as the flavors melted on his tongue.

Billie sat down across from him, a smaller plate of eggs in front of her. “You like?”

He nodded, too busy eating to speak. He liked the eggs, he liked her and he liked the normalcy of sitting down to eat with someone more than he cared to admit. Was this what being in a relationship would be like? He could imagine what his brothers would think if they were flies on the wall right now. They’d think he’d gone soft in the head, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. Billie was good company—in and out of bed. He should stop acting like a woman, stop thinking so much and just damn well enjoy what was on offer.

They ate in comfortable silence until Baxter came back inside and starting nosing around Billie’s feet. “No walk today, sorry,” she said, glancing down at the sad-looking pup.

“How often do you walk him?” Travis asked.

“I try to take him out most mornings, but it’s more because he doesn’t have a garden to run around in and to give me some exercise. He likes the outing, sure, but he’s not the kind of dog that needs too much exercise.”

As if to prove the point, Baxter slumped down onto the floor next to the table, rested his head on his front paws and then promptly fell asleep. Travis found himself reaching down and ruffling the dog’s head.

Billie smiled, then stood and reached out to grab his empty plate.

“I’ll get this,” he said, gesturing to the table. “You go open the gallery. I’ll clean up here, check my email and then bring the bike around.”

“You sure?”

He nodded and then stood to join her, unable to resist pulling her in for a quick smooch. She tasted delicious, even better than her cooking, and if her eggs were anything to go by, that was saying something. Her mouth opened for him and she sighed as he slipped a hand around her back and cupped her perfect ass. If he tried hard enough he reckoned he’d be able to convince her not to open the gallery today, but common sense landed at the last moment. Quite aside from the whole Priest issue, this wasn’t a holiday and he still had his own business to keep afloat, so he reluctantly let her go. But he couldn’t help slapping her on the ass as she turned toward the door.

Her laugh wafted over him in her wake and he grinned down at the slumbering mutt. Baxter roused as Travis cleared the table, looking up at him with those big, sad eyes as if he were the reason Billie hadn’t taken him out walking. Realizing that was likely the case, Travis felt sorry for him and found him some bacon in the fridge. He tossed it down on the floor and while Baxter ate, he went to fetch his laptop and then set up office on Billie’s kitchen table.

For a couple of hours he dealt with emails from clients and focused on his real job, but by lunchtime he was ready for a break. He found Billie in the gallery busy with a couple of potential buyers, so he snuck past and out onto Bourbon Street. His stomach rumbled and he grabbed a couple of burgers from his favorite fast-food joint, before heading back to The Priory to collect his bike.

Ajax was sitting by the bar when he arrived. He nodded toward the paper food bag in Travis’s hand. “You brought me lunch? How thoughtful.”

“Get your own burger,” he said, giving the other man the finger as he stalked past.

Ajax chuckled. “Guess you got lucky after all.”

Travis grinned at the accurate observation, knowing that as long as he was on board with hunting Priest’s murderer, Ajax couldn’t care less who he was fucking. He nodded at Sophie as he passed the office on his way out the back, then climbed on his bike and rode the short distance around the corner to the gallery, before disembarking to roll it into the courtyard. Billie still had customers, so he parked the bike in the space they’d agreed on, dropped her burger on the desk and then went back inside, where he shared his own lunch with Baxter.

“Don’t tell Billie,” he whispered, as he dropped a chunk of his beef patty on the floor. “Don’t want her thinking I’m soft.”

Chapter 12

Billie knew she was living a fantasy that probably wouldn’t go on forever, but she decided she might as well enjoy it while it lasted and worry about her broken heart when it ended. Over the last week, she’d felt like she’d become closer to Travis than she’d ever been to anyone in her life. She worked in the gallery, chatting with customers and scribbling with her charcoal during the day while he spent long hours at his computer, doing his legitimate work and also the not-so-legitimate stuff he needed to do in the hunt for who murdered Priest, but at night they couldn’t get enough of each other. It wasn’t simply physical—although yes, there was a lot of that as well—he also confided in her about his mission. He confessed his task was to hack into the computer records of everyone associated with the Ministry, and he told her more about the Deacons and the animosity between the two clubs than she guessed he was supposed to.

But that’s what she liked so much about Travis. Well, one of a growing list of things. He was his own man. Yes, he was back in town at Ajax’s command and working alongside the others for one particular purpose, but he was doing it his way. And spending as much time as he could with her in the process. Yet, despite all this, Billie knew the flimsy line that connected them would snap the moment he wrapped up his business with the Deacons. Late at night, she sometimes lay in his arms imagining that this meant as much to him as it did to her. That he was falling in love with her in the same crazy, wholehearted way that she was falling for him. Sometimes—when they talked over dinner or post sex—she even believed it did, but despite the bliss she couldn’t shake the feeling that it was only a matter of time before she lost him.