“I mean, I’m not—”
“For lunch or dinner, whichever you prefer. Don’t be picky.”
I shut my mouth. I had to learn to recognize a good thing when it was given to me. Sonny was giving me more than a good thing here.
I started eating, slowly at first, unsure if there was a catch. When none came for a little bit, I started gorging on the food, eating as much of it as I could. I was surprised at how hungry I was; I guess sex all night had turned me into a ravenous eater right here. I cleaned out my entire plate and even grabbed an extra egg and some sausage before I found myself too full to continue.
Sonny, for his part, didn’t say anything as he ate. He didn’t look at me, but I could tell something was on his mind. There was just that unspoken silence, the kind that implies something’s waiting to be said aloud, but only one party actually knows what that is. Only when we both finished did Sonny let out a sigh and meet me with his eyes.
And when he looked up, there was not an ounce of jest or lightness to them. It was locked in, serious, and intent.
“I used to make fun of my father and our sergeant-at-arms for falling for women right before things were going to get ugly here,” he said. “I always thought it would prove to be distracting.”
He chuckled.
“And then I met you. Or should I say, I really got to know you.”
Was he about to criticize me? Praise me? I felt it could go either way. History, though, suggested this was trending toward a direction I wouldn’t enjoy. I was trying to keep an open mind, but…
“Life is about to get really hellish here in about the next…thirty-six hours or so, give or take. I always thought that having a clear mind of everything else would be best. But now, I’m starting to see why my father and Spawn have done what they did. It’s good to have something to hope for.”
“What do you mean?” I said, knowing full well what he meant—I just wanted to hear it said out loud.
“I mean you, Leigh.”
Strange how thinking you know it…and hearing it…could produce such drastically different feelings.
Time seemed to stop.
The only thing that kept moving was Sonny.
“I’ve known about you for a bit now, but I never knewyou. That didn’t happen until we had that night out, the triple date, if you can think of it like that. And when I saw you, you were fucking irresistible. Sure, part of that is how hot you are, but there’s something more to it. And when we fucked and spent the night, the least I could do was make food. But I refused to believe it would lead to anything more. I couldn’t let it.”
He sighed.
“But that was a fool’s game that was unraveled by what happened to my father and everything since. Things are about to get much worse at the club, and I always said this day would be marked by my ability to remain detached. But when I realized how bad things would get last night, my thoughts went to one person. You.”
A warm fire spread through my body. It was…intense.
Perhaps a bit too intense.
“For better or for worse, Leigh, I see now that there’s value in riding with one person, whatever those risks may be,” he said. “I will not let you be in danger. At the same time, I can never promise to remove myself from it. But if you can accept that, I want to see where this will go. I want us to go as far as we can. Are you in?”
I gulped.
It was…
Incredible.
But also terrifying.
No one had ever spoken to me like this. Not only that, it was far beyond what anyone had said to me. I didn’t think since high school had anyone expressed such attraction and interest in me, and let’s just say that Sonny seemed a hell of a lot more mature and grown up than tenth grade Sean did.
But because of that, because of how I’d never gotten much affection like this before, I had no idea how I was supposed to handle it. I had always said it was what I wanted, but now that I finally got it, I had no idea how to handle it. The idea of settling down, of being with one person…
It was both what was best for me and contrary to anything I had ever known.
And to get emotionally close, which was all but natural to follow? No one had ever gotten close to me. No one. No one had even tried, but I had just taken that as no one ever had, period.
