He coughs again, then lifts his eyes to mine.
I glance down at his throat, flushed red as my handprint lingers.
“I need to make a choice.”
“What choice?” he asks in a raspy voice.
I drag in a deep breath, lean over to snub my cigarette out in the ashtray on the dresser, then straighten and face him again.
“Someone wants to force us into some fucked up shit,” I tell him.“Someone bad.”
Cade’s eyes flick between mine, and the life in them is almost alarming.
“What are you going to do?” he asks.
I shake my head. “Tell them to fuck off.”
But as I hold his gaze, I let him fuel my fire.
“Iknowwhat to do,” I say, adding determination to my voice. “I just need to get my club on board.”
His eyes drop to my mouth, and I can’t help the smile that pulls at my lips.
Danger turns my professor on.
And as much as I need to sit down with my brothers and lay out everything Frank told me, and get them ready for what’s coming… Ineedthis. And after spending a night in a cell for my club, they can let me have this first.
I lean in and brush my lips over Cade’s, taking in the fire growing in his gaze.
“Let’s go fuck up your bed, baby. Before you burn this whole place down.”
TWENTY-THREE
My front doorflies open with a bang, and Alder pushes me through, his lips on mine in a frantic kiss as our hands tug at each other’s clothes. The need in me is growing by the second as I claw at him with desperation, and I don’t even know what I’m looking for. I just know that the big, dark, angry void inside me started to close when he showed up…
And I can’t deny how good that feels.
Alder practically rips my sweater off as he pulls it over my head, barely even breaking our kiss, and throws it across the room.
“Not this one,” he mutters before dragging my bottom lip between his teeth and taking my mouth again.
I don’t have time to even think about what that means as he pins me against the wall at the bottom of the stairs and grinds into me. Heat spreads up my spine, scattering every thought in my head so my only focus is the feeling of him against me.
My hands slip under the edge of his cut, and I push it off his broad shoulders to let it fall to the floor. Then I push him back just enough to let my eyes rake over him.
He stands just a bit taller than me, and his black T-shirt clings to every inch of rippling muscle in his chest and arms. Hisdark eyes are fixed on me as I look over him, taking in the details that make himhim. The tree tattoos on his neck, his dark hair framing his face and brushing his collarbone, his beard, which is long enough to scratch my skin just right, his ink-covered arms and hands… and the leather holster, holding his gun against his ribs.
My eyes rest on the gun, and a deep breath fills my lungs. Some kind of brutal reassurance seems to fill me every time I see it, and I’m not sure what that means.
He has the power to destroy, hurt, and break anything that comes too close. And I know he could do that to me if he wanted to.
Because when I ask… he does.
I reach out to brush my fingers over the worn leather strap, tracing it down to the gun. Then I wrap my hand around it and pull it free.
Alder just watches me as I hold it and run my thumb along the slide, feeling the cool steel and power I have in my hands.
When I lift my eyes to his, he lets out a low moan.
