But I guess that’s the one thing about me that I never realized, maybe all the time I was saying I didn’t need anything, I was really screaming for someone to save me. I guess part of me needed to know that someone else cared enough and pushed past my stubbornness and did it anyway.
But one person did, and he was laying peacefully in bed. He never gave up on me. And I loved that.
“Your thoughts are very loud, peaches.” Shooter’s soft grumbles vibrated against my cheek.
“What thoughts would that be?” I chuckled.
He squeezed my side, almost pulling me tighter. “I don’t know, but the way that your hand is traveling down below, I’m wondering if they were naughty thoughts.”
I looked down and sure enough, my hand was almost at the point of grasping his cock, that was already making an appearance. I bit my lower lip, “Maybe it’s you with the naughty thoughts.”
“I have my woman, half naked in my bed. And she’s smiling this early in the morning on her day off, and all I want to do to ravage her. Yeah, you better believe that I’m fucking hard as hell this morning,” he said, his eyes still closed.
“Oh sugar, that sounds painful.” I pouted as my hand lightly stroked him through his briefs.
“Someone is being a tease this morning. I thought judging by your snoring, we’d be sleeping in,” he grumbled.
I playfully tapped his chest. “I don’t snore.”
“No, you don’t. But you definitely talk in your sleep. My favorite is when you say my name like you’re beckoning, or practically begging for me.” There was a tiny smirk on his face.
“I do not.” I pouted.
“Okay, peaches, you don’t.” He jostled me to lay on top of him. His arms encircled me, pinning me close to him. “Now, can we go back to sleep before my brothers pound on my door for some bullshit reason.”
“Shooter?”
“Yeah, peaches.”
“Are you scared for fight night?”
Shooter was always the beast within his club, the fierce protector. But even strong people have their fears, their weaknesses.
He sighed, a dash of annoyance. Not my fault that my mind started to think and when I did I went down a chaotic spiral. “For the actual fight? No.”
“Then what are you afraid of?”
“Losing you.”
“How? By your standards, you’d chase my ass if I thought about leaving. Plus, I don’t have any plans to leave you,” I said truthfully.
“I’m not afraid of losing you bychoice, I’m afraid of losing you byforce.” His voice was stern, more anger than fear.
“Oh, you sweet, sentimental, possessive man.” I caressed his cheek. “You know that I’d never allow that chance.”
“It’s not you though. The one thing I tried to warn you against this in the beginning that it’s not my darkened soul, the blood that I take, it’s the people that come with a vengeance that doesn’t see innocence. They live by the code of an eye for an eye then some.” I shook my head, “You can’t control everything.”
“I can certainly try.”
We all could try, but the odds of succeeding were never good. Shooter was a man with the means and the drive.
“Listen to me, River Brooks.” I snapped his attention back to me, “I would fight like hell. I would never try to make you feel alone again. Not if I can help it.”
“That’s why I want you by my side that night. So I know you’re there and there won’t be a risk.”
I played with his beard, feeling his walls come down, and keep showing me the side of him that soothed mine. The loving protector, the deadly killer that just wanted to be loved in return. I didn’t know what else to say. We laid there for so long. We didn’t sleep, we just felt each other’s presence knowing that we didn’t want to leave.
But soon, his door was rattled and life resumed.
