“He’s asleep, and he’s good before you ask,” he grunted. “Cherry’s been watching him.”
“The girl who brought me clothes?”
Maverick nodded. “Yeah, she’s a good woman. I told her what happened and she took off on her break to bring you them.”
Wow, that wasn’t what I expected. “Thank her for me?”
He nodded, and got back on the bike, helping me back into position. When I sat away from him, he turned his head to the side, and I slipped down, pulling my arms around his midsection again. This time, when he turned the ignition, I was ready for the thrum between my legs, but it was no less thrilling than the first time.
The entire ride, I was holding on, and imagining what my life would be like if he was mine. It was a dangerous thought to have, especially with how I already knew my secret was going to cause him to react.
Better to cut ties when I was better and find a better life for me and Van.
Away from Sydney.
And the Ironborne.
And especially the Shackled Sons.
Maverick
The second Tavi stepped into my apartment, I felt a strange shift in my chest. One I didn’t like the feeling of. She looked…like home.
No. Fuck. No.
This was why I never brought women here. It was my safe space, away from the clubhouse, away from anything connected to me. Mari and the kids hadn’t even been in here.
When she’d held onto me on the bike, I had felt the second she had let all her anxiety go. She’d held on tight, but she’d relaxed into me, and it felt so damn good. It felt right. I was thankfulfor my jeans today, or it would most definitely show how much I liked having her on the back of my bike.
“This is yours?” she asked, looking around.
“Yeah. No one will know you’re here.”
She nodded, almost as if she were lost in her thoughts. I took her hand and led her through to the bedroom. “You can stay in here,” I told her. “I have a smaller room down the hall, that can be for Van if you need to sleep alone, or if you’re up to it, he can sleep in here with you. Whatever you want.”
“Where will you sleep?” she asked me as she looked into my soul with those deep brown eyes that made me want to peel her clothes off and feast on her for days.
“Clubhouse,” I replied, my voice coming out strangled.
“I don’t want to put you out,” she said, her eyes shifting and breaking the spell she’d cast over me.
“No, this is safer,” I said, gruffly.
She bristled, and I wondered if I had overstepped. I just wanted her to be safe. She came to me for a reason, but I didn’t want her to be uncomfortable.
“I’m not locking you in. I would never do that, Tavi. I just want you to be safe until I can figure out what to do about your jackass husband.”
“Will you kill him?” she asked me, her voice steady, and yet timid all at the same time.
I cupped the side of her face, drawing her eyes up to mine. God, I could get lost in those depths of deep, dark chocolate all night long. “Is that what you want? You want me to kill him for you?”
“Yes,” she said, firmly, resolutely. And it almost did me in.
“Then yes,” I told her, my thumb moving over her bottom lip. “I will kill him for you.”
She sucked in a deep breath, and I felt the pull to claim her lips. To seal the deal with a kiss, when I felt my phone ring in my pocket.
God-fucking-dammit.
