She curls into me, her hand settling over my heart, and fuck… I swear she can feel every beat I’ve been trying like hell to hide. Ikiss her hair, long and slow, holding her steady, in the way that she’s the only solid thing in a world I keep setting on fire.
And maybe she is.
“Damon…” she whispers my name, soft, sleepy, trusting.
And that one word kills me.
Because she doesn’t know who she’s really in bed with.
Not the Vice President of Vegas Defiance.
Not Nitro.
Not the biker who’d bleed for her without thinking twice.
But the other name.
The one tied to money, power, headlines, and expectation.
The one that makes her job offer make a whole lot more sense.
Damon-fucking-Blackwell.
My chest tightens.
I can lie to enemies.
I can lie to the cops.
I can lie to the entire MC if I have to.
But lying to this woman?
To the woman who just said she loves me?
It feels as if I have swallowed broken glass.
Tomorrow is her birthday. Tomorrow she gets joy, drinks, dancing, stupid inside jokes with Sage, and me at her side like the man she thinks I am.
She deserves that.
So I’ll give her tomorrow.
And after that…
Iwilltell her everything.
Even if it blows this whole thing apart.
Because I’m in too deep to pretend this is temporary.
Because she said she loves me, and I love her too damn much to let this lie sit between us, going stagnant for long.
And because the truth is coming.
One way or another.
Whether I like it or not.
