“Don’t talk like that,” he growls.
“Like what? Like I care for you? Like I don’t want you to leave? Like it won’t break my heart knowing that I had the only man I’ve ever wanted in my arms, in my bed, in my life, and that he’s leaving because he doesn’t want to get close to me?”
“It’s not like that and you know it.”
“Seems to me that’s exactly what it’s like. You’re afraid.”
“Like fuck I’m afraid. I have a duty, Addie.”
“I’m a person, Snake. A person who cares about you. Cares about you so deep she doesn’t even know how to describe it. I’ve wanted you since I was a girl. Watched and wanted you for years, and I know you feel the same. And now you’re going to throw it all away because of some twisted interpretation of honor? Give me a break.”
With frightening speed, he puts both his hands on my shoulders and presses me back against his bike. The cold metal against my ass makes me shiver.
He stares at me with the hollow, burning intensity of a man who has had countless brushes with combat and death.
“Your father pulled me out of a dark fucking pit. The club’s given me the purpose that’s saved my life. And my mission is to keep you safe. I know the consequences of forgetting my mission, and the scars of that failure will be on my heart until the day I die. But you want to know what? You want to know why I feel like I need to walk away?” He brings his face right next to mine. His voice burns with emotion. “Because I care so much about you that even knowing everything I know, and no matter how hard I try to control myself, I can’t help it: I fucking want you. I would throw myself into the fires of hell just to have you.”
“Then stay.”
He kisses me. A deep, fiery kiss that leaves me breathless.
“You could ruin me, Addie. Fucking ruin me. And I’d go to hell with a smile on my face knowing that I had you for even a moment.”
I see a new smile on his face, one that’s full of heat and affection, and my heart is burning with all the feelings of lust, of love, that he brings out in me.
“I’m not some defenseless girl, Snake. Let me see your gun. I’ll show you.”
With an eyebrow raised, he reaches into his belt and pulls out his gun. It’s a SIG Sauer M17, the current sidearm for the military, except the Marines, who use the M18. It’s one of the many guns my father offers for sale, and I still remember the day he brought the first of these around the house to test it out. Still remember the days we spent together on the range shooting it, just like we did with so many of the weapons he brought home.
If Snake needs to see the hard-edged side of me to be comfortable with a relationship, then I’ll show him everything. I’ll be ruthless if I have to, just to keep him in my life.
Because some things are worth risking everything for.
And love is one of them.
Locking my eyes on him, I field strip it by touch alone. Disassemble it down to its basic parts and then put it back together just as quick as I took it apart.
There’s a flicker of motion in his eyebrow as he watches, a slight widening of his pupils as he sees me strip and reassemble the weapon without looking.
I smile at him.
“I know how to shoot. I know how to fight. I’m not a fucking child, so don’t treat me like one. I like you, Snake. A lot. So much it scares me, too. But I’m not afraid of facing that fear for a chance at having you and I swear to god, if you try to walk away from me over some misplaced fear of what my daddy might do, I will give you the kind of hell he can’t even imagine,” I say as I snap the last piece of the weapon back into place and hand it over to him. “Now, seeing as I’m stark naked, I will not show you my shooting accuracy because that could wake the neighbors. So you’re just going to have to trust me that I could take your head off at a hundred yards. Now, why don’t you come inside and get back in my bed?”
“I think I can do that,” he says, leaning in to kiss me again. This time it’s tender and makes my toes curl against the cold concrete of the parking lot.
“Good, because it’s really darn cold out,” I say, smiling.
“You think you could put the wires back on my spark plugs?”
“Can’t you do it?”
“I can, but I want to watch you bend over. You’ve got a fucking fine ass, Addie.”
“If you insist.”
I do as he asks. Take my time at it, reattaching the wires with the speed of someone who needs a repair manual just to do an oil change.
“Damn, I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of your curvy ass,” he says.
“Good, because I’m not going to let you go, Snake. You’re mine.”
A pleasant rumble comes from his chest, and I take his hand as I stand up again. Lead him into the building and into my apartment. The door’s hardly shut behind us when a ringing comes from his pocket.
“It’s the club,” he says, looking at the caller ID before answering. “Yeah?”
My heart waits in my throat as I listen
