Total pages in book: 150
Estimated words: 142818 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142818 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Me trying to forget about him was a fool’s errand. It was clear, very clear, that we were always going to be in each other’s lives. He’d come for me, like he’d promised he would. He’d saved me. Always would.
Whether I was his or pretending I wasn’t.
And I was sick of pretending.
I didn’t want to get off the bike when it roared to a stop outside our place. But I was mindful of Sariah, of the blame she was likely feeling. The very misplaced blame.
So I got off. Elden stayed where he was.
“What are you going to do?” I asked him, rubbing my arms against the chill I suddenly felt seeing him sitting there, knowing he was going to do something I shouldn’t believe in.
I was against capital punishment.
Or at least I thought I was.
“You really want to know?” Elden asked me.
I regarded him. Was he protecting me because he thought I couldn’t handle the truth? Because he didn’t want me connected in any way? Didn’t want to taint me?
“Yes,” I told him.
“We’re going to kill him,” he replied without hesitation.
There it was.
I knew that the club was about violence. Though I was sheltered, I understood that. Had seen that. But I’d always seen these men as fathers, husbands, friends. And finally, the man in front of me as … mine.
Knowing that they engaged in violence in an abstract way was one thing. Having him say it straight to my face was another.
Maybe Elden expected me to recoil from him. Run. Beg him not to do that. Yell.
I knew for a fact that he didn’t expect me to lean forward and kiss him tenderly on the lips. He went stiff for a split second before he grabbed the back of the neck and kissed me back, not tenderly.
“Be careful,” I said against his lips. “Come back to me.”
His eyes burned with emotion. With everything. “Always,” he vowed.
Then they roared off.
Chapter Nine
ELDEN
We’d gone back to the Rhode Island clubhouse to catch some sleep, a shower and to make some plans.
I’d filled Colby in on everything that went on as soon as we made it in.
His face had tightened with anger when I told him what happened to her roommate, but his eyes danced once I got to what Violet did.
“Okay, let me get this straight,” Colby snickered. “Violet tried to fight a rapist. Alone. In a bar. Dressed as a Playboy Bunny.” He waved his hands. “No, excuse me, dressed as Elle Woods dressed as a Playboy Bunny,” he corrected like that meant anything.
I nodded.
“And she got a few good licks in?” he asked.
I nodded again, unable to speak through my fury as I thought of the bruises on her knuckles.
“She’s badass,” he grinned.
I wasn’t going to disagree with him on that one. But I couldn’t stop thinking about her, not hesitating to go up against some lacrosse player twice her size without a thought because he’d hurt her friend.
Couldn’t stop thinking about her in that fucking outfit, my reaction to her despite the circumstances. The feel of her on the back of my bike. The way she’d kissed me before I left.
She was mine. I’d told her that in the police station. I was fucking sick of fighting it. Even though I knew I had to.
I put my phone to my ear.
“Elden,” she breathed my name.
My cock twitched, remembering the way her pussy tasted. How her mouth had tasted a few hours ago.
“You good, baby?” I asked.
“Sariah’s good,” she answered. “Or better, I think. I didn’t tell her the specifics, but I told her that she’s never going to see him again.”
I walked outside, out of earshot of anyone else. “That’s good, Violet. But I didn’t ask how she was. Asked how you are.”
She paused as if confused. As if how she was wasn’t important. Because that was Violet. Her focus was on her friend, and rightfully so. But tonight had opened some shit up for her. I saw it. Heard it. It cut me to the fucking core.
“I’m fine,” she said in a frail voice.
“You don’t have to be fine,” I told her.
Her breath remained even on the other end of the phone. When I went to sleep at night, I thought of that sound. Of the rain pounding against the outside of the car when I called her. Of that steady breath. I used to think of metallic clangs.
But now I thought of her breathing.
“I know,” she whispered. “But I’m … okay. I feel good knowing he got what’s coming to him.” She cleared her throat. “Does that make me a bad person?” she asked shyly.
“Fuck no, it doesn’t,” I barked at her. “It’s impossible for you to be a bad person, Violet,” I forced my voice to be softer this time.
“You’re not a bad person either, Elden.”
My cock twitched again at my name coming out of her mouth. At her soft tone, her gentle words. The way she spoke to me like she believed I was something. Someone. Worth her time.