“Axel,” she sighs against my back.
“Yeah, baby?”
“Where are we?” she asks, her question throwing me for a loop. I thought her next words would be to take her home.
“My granddad’s lake house,” I tell her.
She squeezes me from behind again before getting off the bike and standing next to it. Her dark hair is wild and tangled from the ride over, and I can’t help but find it sexy.
“The club knows about this place?” she asks.
“Nope,” I reply, and she smiles.
Seeing her light up at me has my chest deflating with relief.
She takes a step closer to the bike, one of her hands gripping my shirt while the other is flat on my chest. “Thank you for being there tonight. I don’t know what would’ve?—”
“Darlin’, if you start talkin’ about what those motherfuckers could’ve done to you I’ll turn around and shove that pipe so far up that blond jerk-off’s ass it’ll be coming out of his mouth,” I snarl.
“Okay,” she says, her hands not leaving my chest as she looks around at the back of the house and the dock by the lake. “I didn’t take you for a lakehouse kind of guy,” she teases.
“It was my granddad’s dream. I don’t use the place much,” I admit, feeling a bit like a fuckin’ sap, and missing the old man.
“Show me around?” she asks.
I nod my head, and as much as I don’t want her hands to leave my chest, they have to in order for me to get off the bike. Once I know the bike is upright, I hold out my hand to her, and she takes it. It’s a warm summer night, the kind where it feels like the air is drenching your skin. It makes Lily’s feminine scent even richer. While I don’t spiral over her scent like an Alpha would, just knowing that it’s her signature gets me hard.
The frogs are bellowing and the bugs are fuckin’ everywhere, including lightin’ bugs that dance around as we make our way to the dock. The music of the night is the only thing we hear along with our footsteps as we walk to the end of the dock. She slides her sandals off, sitting down on the edge and I follow suit.
I haven’t felt a moment this quiet in a long time. When I look over at Lily, a dark piece of untamed hair is sticking to the sideof her pretty face. I let this moment sink in, committing every detail to memory. It’s a blink-of-an-eye type of memory, but somehow I know I’ll cherish it forever. Just a man and a woman sitting together, taking in the summer night.
I never thought I could feel like this, like I would crave a softness in my life, but it’s clearer than ever that I need it. I need Lily’s soft smile, touch, and heart in my life like I need to fuckin’ breathe. The idea of her being taken away from me, bonding with some trust fund pieces of shit… it makes me sick.
I know she can’t just be mine, and I’ve been wrapping my small fuckin’ brain around that fact. But right now, on this dock? We’re the only two people in the world that exist, and I can live with that.
“What are you thinking about?” she asks softly, her legs swinging above the water freely.
“Too much,” I respond, instead of spewing my fuckin’ heart out.
I can’t. I can’t give her everything until I know she’s mine to keep. I’ve gotta work with Tate, to either get rid of the Prez or have someone else at the gavel, making the club less of a dictatorship. At the very least, I need to help Lily find other possible packmates so we can stand beside one another.
Lily and I alone can’t change her fate. I’m not naïve.
“I’m thinking about how nice this is,” she admits. “This is the kind of date I would have liked to have.”
“Watchin’ me beat the piss out of some guys?” I question teasingly, and she laughs.
“I enjoyed that more than I probably should have. But no, just this… no fancy dinner with stupid small talk, no trying to impress someone you don’t even like. Just existing beside someone else and loving every moment, even the quiet ones,” she says. I can’t look away from her. The moon shines againsther skin, and all I want to do is scoop her up, savoring these quiet private moments with her forever.
“You said it way more fuckin’ eloquently than I ever could,” I joke, feeling out of my depths.
She bumps her small shoulder against mine, and I lean in as we both stare out at the soft moving water, the moon’s reflection glinting against the lake.
“What if we never went back?” she whispers. It’s so soft I almost think I imagined her saying it.
“You really want that?” I ask her seriously.
She sighs and shakes her head. “No, I love living at the compound. I love my family and the people. I think we both know that we belong there,” she states, and I nod my head. “Are we being crazy? We hardly know each other, but I can’t help this tug I feel towards you.”
