Good fucking riddance.
However, unease slithers through me as I hold the greatest treasure in my arms. If he had tracked Leeva to New Orleans—when even Digits hadn’t found her—then he definitely had the ability to know she’s returned home.
And based on the insane look in his eyes when I beat the shit out of him, he wouldn’t let her go easily. Even if he was currently unaware that Leeva was here, I knew he’d come for her if word got out of her return.
Technically, the MC laws are in both of our favor. Leevahad beenGuerilla’s old lady. However, she doesn’t wear his mark any longer, and there’s no evidence of it, which means she’s not forbidden to me.
But there’s no precedent for a case like this, and it will need to go to church for a vote. Normally, a decision like this would be the Council’s to make, but since I’m a Council member and this is a conflict of interest, it will go to a club vote.
Given what happened with Grinder, Razor would see this as an opportunity to punish me for being his son’s judge and executioner, even though it was my duty as the sergeant-at-arms. Thunder could also view this as a way to strike at Ash.
The old guard could brew mutiny in our ranks and try to sway the vote against me. And if Guerilla returns, attempting to reassert his claim over Leeva, it will only add fuel to the fire.
She stirs against me, pulling me out of my head, and I see that she’s awake and looking at me. I shift us so we’re on our sides, lying face-to-face. I drape my arm over her hip and circle my fingertips over the swell of her delicious ass. The top portion of our bodies is uncovered by the blankets, and her eyes fall to my bicep and the Recon Jack tattoo.
“Why did you go into the Marines rather than the Army, like your grandfather?”
Either she recognizes the Recon Jack tattoo as one Marines get, or she’s kept tabs on me enough to know I enlisted in the Marines, not the Army.
“It was the path I needed at that time.” I don’t tell her that when I enlisted, I had a death wish.
She was gone, and I had played a part in her devastating pain. I wanted the high-risk scenarios. The Army is a much larger branch of the military, and I could’ve ended up as a soldier in a non-combat role with a relatively low risk of danger. With the Marines, they’re often the first in during conflicts or a crisis, and I wanted—or back then,needed—the direct combat and the risk that came with it.
But I don’t tell her that.
She studies my face, knowing I’m not divulging everything because she still knows me the best, even after over a decade of absence. However, she doesn’t push it.
I brush a lock of her dark hair off her cheek. “I like your hair down. I always did.”
A ponytail I didn’t mind, but I absolutely detested the tight buns she wore for ballet.
A flash of what looks like self-consciousness passes over her face. “No longer a dancer with a dancer’s body.”
I growl, pulling her closer. “These curves…” My hand caresses her hip and runs over her ass. “These tits…” I cup one, loving the weight of it and how it overfills my hand. “You’re a fucking wet dream, Leeva. And not just to me. Did you not notice the way people looked at you at Hedon?”
Her cheeks and chest flush crimson at the reminder of the sex club, and everything we’ve done there. At the reminder of everything we’re going to do there.
She bites her lip, looking at me.
“What is it?” I ask.
“Is…” She blows out a breath. “Is Hedon off the table now…” she trails off, looking unsure.
My cock, the greedy fucking bastard, jerks to life. “It’s not off the table, no. But there’s a condition.”
“What?”
“The same that I told you the last time we were there together: I won’t fuck or even play with you in front of others; no one gets to see you like that. But more importantly, there’ll be no other man or woman who touches or fucks you. And you won’t touch or fuck anyone else, either.”
Anger erupts on her face, and she sits up abruptly. “Yeah, fuck you. Thanks for the reminder.” She shoves away to get out of bed. “I’m such an idiot. How could I forget?”
She mumbles something about being shocked and bamboozled by my sudden presence at the house.
I catch her around the waist, then pin her to the bed with my body. Tears fill her eyes, but she looks away and fights to get me off her.
Then it clicks. I remember what she had seen and thought because of what Anais had said when she came out of my private room and met Leeva coming to see her masked man.
“I didn’t fuck Anais or touch her.”
