“That was different,” I said eventually, my voice small in the quiet cabin.
Oktober pulled back just enough to look at me.“Different bad or different good?”
“Different… everything.”I traced the line of his jaw, feeling the scratch of his beard beneath my fingertips.“Last night felt like we were proving something.This felt like…”
“Like what?”His accent was thick now, vulnerable.
“Like you actually care about me,” I admitted.“Not just… you know, for sex.”
He was quiet for a long moment, his blue eyes searching mine.“I care about you, Mia Winters.More than I expected to.More than I know what to do with.”He pressed his forehead to mine.“Probably more than is smart, considering we’re going back to different lives in forty-eight hours.”
My stomach twisted at the reminder.“Don’t,” I said.“Don’t think about that yet.”
“I have to think about it.”But his tone wasn’t harsh, just resigned.“I’m not the kind of man who does long distance or takes things slow.I’ve never wanted a woman for my own and I’m not sure what to do with these feelings.”
“So what are you saying?”I asked, my throat tight.
Oktober shifted us so we were lying face-to-face, my head on the same pillow as his.“I’m saying I don’t want this to end when we leave here.I don’t know what it looks like yet, or how we make it work.But I know that letting you walk away without trying would be the biggest mistake of my life.”
The relief that flooded through me was so intense it left me dizzy.“I don’t either,” I whispered.“Want it to end, I mean.I didn’t answer before because I wanted to think about my answer.I don’t want to be clinging to you because I’m on the rebound.But I can’t seem to help myself.”
He smiled, a slow spread of his lips that crinkled the corners of his eyes.“Then we don’t let it end yet.We figure it out.”
“We’re pretty different,” I pointed out, voicing the obvious.
“Ja.”He reached up and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, his touch lingering against my cheek.“You’re this brilliant, ambitious woman with her whole future planned out.I’m a biker with a record.”He paused.“But when you look at me like you’re looking at me right now, I don’t feel like any of that matters.”
“I suppose it’s all in how you look at it.If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”I smiled up at him.“And I really don’t mind at all, Oktober.You’re a kind man.And it seems to me like you’ve surrounded yourself with kind people.”I caressed his cheek and the damned man leaned into my touch like he needed the contact to survive.“Considering what happened yesterday, I’ll take you and your criminal friends over Eric and Jade and their friends any day.”
“And your job?”
“You let me worry about my job.I’ll deal with anything they throw at me.”
We stayed in bed for another hour, talking and touching, learning each other in the quiet of the morning.By the time we finally dragged ourselves out of bed, the morning had turned to midday, and the light through the windows had shifted from golden to harsh and bright.
“It’s about time you two came out for food.”Hannah shoved two plates with eggs, bacon, toast, and jelly at us.“We’re leaving in thirty minutes,” Hannah said with a grin.“Eat up.We’ve already packed snacks and drinks so we’re waiting on you two slowpokes.”
I laughed when Oktober gave her a wide-eyed look of confusion.“I -- uh, huh?”
“We’re hiking.Remember?”
Oktober set the plates down on the table and indicated I should sit.“No,” he said, confusion evident in his gaze as he poured us each a glass of milk and orange juice.
“Yep.Hiking.Not going is not an option.”
“Well.”I grinned at Oktober.“I guess we’re going hiking.”
“We’ll meet you at the hiking trail by the pond.”She shook a finger at Oktober.“Do not take that girl back to bed.”
I couldn’t help but laugh.
Once breakfast was done we started down the hiking trail, following the well-worn path behind the cabins.It wound through dense pine forest that seemed to muffle sound and swallow the outside world.
We met everyone else in the clearing just below the cabins.Hannah stood with Violet, their arms linked as they examined something on the trail map.Jag and Riot were engaged in what appeared to be a competition to see who could balance longest on a narrow section of fallen log.Tiny and Penny waited on a bench.Penny had her arms around the big man’s bicep, her head leaned against his shoulder.She had such a soft, contented smile that I envied her.And then there was Knight, standing slightly apart from the group, his attention fixed on his phone with a furrowed brow that made his tattooed face look even more forbidding than usual.Lavender, his wife, stood with Ada.Lavender kept trying to look at Knight while Ada kept distracting her.
“We ready?”Knuckles entered the clearing.
“We are,” Ada said with a cheerful smile.“Knight.Get off the phone.”
