Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 148220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 741(@200wpm)___ 593(@250wpm)___ 494(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 148220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 741(@200wpm)___ 593(@250wpm)___ 494(@300wpm)
Saxon’s gaze never leaves mine as he gives a single nod. Gruffly he says, “We fucked up.”
“Yeah.” Christ, and I can’t breathe. I shove my chair back. “So I’m not going to let the same happen to Cherry.”
Concern furrowing her brow, Zoomie reaches for me. “Stone—”
I bat her hand away. “Just fuck off.”
Every one of them can fuck off. I stalk out of the conference room, down the stairs, with goddamn fucking Gunner right on my tail.
“You want to blame someone?” He spreads his hands, inviting me to throw down on him. “Blame me. It was my family who put you in the Cage so they could get to me.”
“Fuck off with that bullshit, brother.”
“Then blame me because I’m the reason Anna went off alone. We were all out at Jenny’s place after Red’s funeral. Every Rider—and Anna, too. There was supposed to be someone who looked out for her when she left. But because we’re all tight-lipped assholes about club business, no one told her she was in danger and that the Riders were watching over her.” His voice thickens with emotion. “She got pissed at me because I’d been lying all week about you being missing, and I ended up saying that she didn’t mean anything to me, except that she was your sister. And I hurt her so bad that she left without telling anyone. So Chef got to her. Because we fucked up. Me especially, because I meant to protect her and only ended up hurting her. So you blame someone, you blame me.”
I can’t do that. “Just fuck off,” I tell him hoarsely.
His jaw tightens, and I know the stubborn bastard would chase after me forever if he thought it would help. But nothing will help. “Don’t give up on us. We’ll have your back. We’ll help you watch over this girl. But— Christ, man. What the fuck are you even thinking of with her?”
What am I thinking? I close my eyes, throat aching. Because I don’t want the sweetness. Don’t want the softness.
But I can’t stay away. “I’m thinking the only time this goddamn rot in my chest goes away is when I’m with her. I’m thinking it’s the only fucking time that I’m not a walking corpse.”
“Ah, hell.” Gunner softly breathes the curse. He catches my face in his hands, his eyes searching mine. “All right, brother. You take whatever time you need. We’ll be here on the other side. Yeah?”
I don’t know if I’ll get to the other side. But I nod.
“And if you need anything—”
“Yeah,” I say, pulling away. Because the only thing I need right now is in the cabin ahead.
A girl who would have let me rip into her so she could pay up a debt. A girl who did me a wrong but who doesn’t really owe me a goddamn thing. Not like these fuckers did. She didn’t owe me her loyalty. And sure as hell doesn’t owe me her pussy.
But she’s offering. So I’m taking. I’ll take anything she gives.
And I’m not letting anyone take her away.
I unlock the door. Wearing one of my shirts, she comes out of the bathroom in a rush, looking tousled and flushed and even prettier than the first time I saw her. My chest empties out, fills up again with all that fucking sweetness. Just from the sight of her. Her emerald eyes widen when I kick the door shut behind me and begin unfastening my belt.
Need roughens my voice. “Get on the bed, girl, and spread your legs real fucking wide.”
Because it’s payback time.
24
Something’s changed in the way Stone looks. I don’t know what. He’s still as big as ever, so tall and broad that his presence seems to fill up this entire cabin the moment he steps through the door. His dark blond hair’s not as rumpled as before, but flattened as if he’d been wearing a helmet—and as he comes closer, the cold and crisp scent of the wind clings to his clothes. But that’s not what’s different.
My head tips back when he stops right in front of me, pulling his belt free and tossing it aside. Now that he’s standing so close with his gaze locked on mine, I see what the change is.
It’s not the way Stone looks. It’s the way he looks at me. Still hungry. Still hot. But also more. As if he doesn’t just want my pussy. As if he doesn’t just want answers. As if he wants something else now, too.
I don’t know what it is, but it does something more to me, too. Not just a shiver racing over my skin. Not just the anticipation quivering through my stomach. But a tightness in my chest, joined by the sweetest longing—and the need to give whatever it is he wants from me.
Eyes narrowing, he taps his finger against my up-tilted chin. “I see you got some of that fight back while I was gone.”