Last Mile (Vicious Cycle #3) - Katie Ashley Page 0,69

up out of the water. “Put me down,” I demanded.

When I glanced over my shoulder, Bishop flashed me a wicked grin. “With pleasure.” Then he tossed me into the deeper water. I had thought the water had been cold before, but there was nothing like being enveloped by it. I shot to the surface, coughing and sputtering.

“You’re an asshole!” I spat as I pushed my wet hair out of my face.

“You deserved it, cock tease,” Bishop replied as he swam over to me.

I laughed. “Okay. Maybe I did.” With all the strength I could muster, I lunged at him, dunking his head into the water. When he came back to the surface, I smirked at him. “And you deserved that.”

“Okay, I’ll give you that one,” he agreed as he scrubbed his face.

Lying back in the water, I floated for a moment, gazing up at the sky. “I still can’t believe a place so beautiful is out here in the middle of nowhere.”

“I forget how amazing it is sometimes. It usually takes someone else seeing it to make me realize,” Bishop said as he floated beside me.

Turning my head to look at him, I couldn’t stop myself from asking, “So, you bring a lot of the girls you fuck out here?”

My question was met with a scowl from Bishop. “No. Actually, I don’t.”

I glanced back up at the sky, regretting the fact that I had let myself ask such a question, like some insecure shrew. I couldn’t believe that just a few short weeks with him, and I was acting completely out of my character. I had never been the needy female in relationships. In the end, Bishop’s love life, both past and present, wasn’t any of my business. Regardless of what I was beginning to feel for him, I had to continue focusing on the task before me. “Sorry,” I murmured.

When Bishop stood up in the water, I followed his lead. His serious expression caused my stomach to twist anxiously. I expected at any moment for him to stalk out of the water and take me back to the roadhouse. But just as he always did, Bishop surprised me.

“Look, Sam, there’s no denying the kind of man I am—a man whore, a slut, a womanizer.” He drew in a deep breath. “But maybe I’m looking to not always be considered that. Just like I have professional dreams, I have personal ones, too.”

My chest tightened, and I fought to breathe. “You do?”

He nodded. “I’ve never wanted to be like some of the older men in this club who are fifty and sixty years old and still fucking every piece of ass that moves. I want a home . . . a family. I want what my old man had with my mom before he threw it all away, only to regret it until the day he died. I want what Deacon and Rev have.”

I didn’t know what to say. At that point, I wasn’t sure I could’ve said anything even if I wanted to. I just stared at him in utter awe. What must’ve been my bewildered look caused Bishop to laugh. “Guess I shocked you, huh?”

After bobbing my head, I licked my lips. “It’s a good shock, though.”

“Really?”

I smiled. “Yeah, it is. I would have to be a bitter shrew not to be affected by what you just said.” I brought my hands out of the water to cup his cheeks. “You deserve for all your dreams to come true, especially the one for a family.”

“Thank you,” Bishop murmured. He pulled me into his arms. Our wet skin fused us together, chest to chest and heart to heart. After staring into my eyes for a few seconds, Bishop brought his warm lips to mine. I moaned into his mouth. Damn, the man could kiss. It was like a lightning bolt of tingling electricity from the top of my head down to my toes. As his tongue thrust into my mouth, I ran my hands up his broad back, my fingertips trailing over the corded muscles.

In that moment, I abandoned all thoughts of Gavin and the case that had preoccupied me for so long. On a physical level, I wanted to be with Bishop for what he could give my body, not what I could do to him or to advance my career. But then I also wanted to be with him for who he was on the inside—the kindness, the tenderness, and the good heart he consistently revealed to me.