Free Blaze: Kings of Hell MC by Leah Wilde Page B

in my clothes from the night before with a note on the pillow next to mine.
     
    Julia,
     
    You fell asleep before dinner arrived. Leftovers are in the fridge if you’re hungry. Plates and bowls are in the upper cabinets next to the fridge. Silverware is in the drawer underneath. I’m sorry I didn’t wake you. I didn’t want to disturb you. I’ll see you in the morning. Don’t worry about trying to be quiet. I’m a heavy sleeper.
     
    --Gage
     
    I crept down the hallway to the living room to find Gage sleeping on the couch, just as he’d said he would, with a thin blanket pulled over his mostly naked body. I stared at the scars and the tattoos on his toned chest and abs. They told a story, a story I wanted to read with the tips of my fingers and my longing lips that hadn’t been kissed since before I could remember.
     
    He hadn’t bothered me all night, and he’d even slept in another room. This brute of a man, this sleeping beast before me, had shown the common decency to treat me with respect even though I was passed out and available to him on his bed.
     
    I couldn’t say I had known too many other men who could claim that. Even the best men I knew had their moments when their gentlemanly behavior would be forgotten for pure, primal lust.
     
    I was sure there was plenty of lust waiting to be fulfilled in that body before me. Gage was just good at controlling it. The question was, then, could I control my desire for him?
     
    And for how much longer?
     

Chapter 10
 
     
     
     
     
    “Something’s different,” Dimitri said when I sat down across from him.
     
    “What’s different?” I asked him. “What do you mean?”
     
    “I don’t know. Maybe it’s more confidence, but you’re not the same person you were yesterday.”
     
    He was right. I was more confident, but not in my ability to work with him. I was more confident in Gage. If I had wondered who he really was before, I knew now. I knew the gentleman he could be, the noble savage. Gage managed to blend his rough and tough exterior, his hard-nosed thuggish biker persona, with a caring and gentle man, while so many I’d known before couldn’t even get the gentleman part right.
     
    “Well, thanks, I guess,” I said.
     
    I shifted my weight in the chair and sat up a little straighter.
     
    “So, let’s talk.” I remembered what I’d said to Gage about using his idea of researching the Russian underground through Dimitri, and I decided to treat our interviews as research. Maybe by digging deeper into Dimitri’s history, I could get some good current information to use.
     
    “Alright, let’s talk,” he agreed, but his voice sounded like it was hiding something dark and sinister.
     
    “Do you have anything for me today?” I asked him.
     
    “That depends,” he taunted me.
     
    “Depends on what?” I wasn’t afraid of pursuing him.
     
    He grinned. “It depends on what you’re bringing me today.”
     
    “Well, I’ve got some questions of my own today,” I started. “Just some things to satisfy my personal curiosity.”
     
    “Okay. I like the sound of that.” His eyes narrowed as if he was trying to get a read on me.
     
    “I told you my name when I came in, right? Dr. Julia Danvers at the University of Chicago. I’m a research fellow and the history department chair. My specialty is Russian history and culture. I’ve made a career out of it, so instead of sitting here running over the same old drills, I figured maybe we could actually talk a little,” I explained myself.
     
    Dimitri nodded. “What can I teach you about Russian history and culture that you don’t already know?” he asked.
     
    “Organized crime.”
     
    His blue eyes focused on me suddenly.
     
    “Don’t worry, I’m not trying to get anyone in trouble or anything like that,” I assured him. “I just got to thinking last night, I don’t know a whole lot about the Russian underworld, and you can probably help me out.”
     
    “Can I