Page 52 of Bishop

Still filled with bloodlust, Matty dragged German a few feet and Ox had to get involved. “Settle down, Bishop. You just got out of jail. You can’t be that eager to go back.”

I shakily came to his side. “Matty,” I spoke quietly, “please stop. It’s okay. I’m fine. He didn’t hurt me.” Not physically, at least.

That did it. Matty stopped fighting and turned back to me. Wordlessly, his arms encompassed my whole body and squeezed so tight I thought I might burst.

“Get out of here,” German advised. “You don’t want to be around when the cops question us. They’ll be on your ass like flies on shit after just setting you free from your six-month state-sponsored vacation.”

Silently grabbing my hand, Matty hauled me toward the door. I didn’t fight him. I didn’t even have the strength to. His bike, a shiny metal beast that looked every inch as lethal as he did at this moment, awaited us.

Reaching into his saddle bags, he pulled out a spare helmet and fit it onto my head. Next, he shrugged off his leather coat and forced my arms expertly inside. Bad timing or not, I couldn’t ignore how adroit he was at dressing a woman. Tamping down my jealousy, I thanked him and zipped up the coat.

Shoving on his own helmet, Matty surged onto his bike and yelled, “Climb on behind me and hold on tight!”

Doing exactly as he’d advised, I threw my leg over the motorcycle and he kickstarted the deafening engine into life. Behind us, I could hear the wailing of sirens. The cops had just pulled into Magpies as we were speeding down the opposite road. We’d missed them by mere seconds.

I’d never ridden a motorcycle before and it was equal parts terrifying and exhilarating. Grateful I’d chosen pants tonight and not a dress, I held on to Matty’s waist for dear life.

After driving for what seemed like an hour but was probably only twenty minutes, Matty pulled off onto a dirt road. Well, road was probably not the right word for it. It was more like a well-trodden path.

When we were surrounded fully by trees, he put on the brakes and cut the engine. Lowering the kickstand, he slung his long leg off the bike. Dragging off his helmet, he gently lifted off mine.

Using the moon’s light to inspect my face, Matty looked over every inch of me with surgical precision. When he was satisfied that I wasn’t bleeding or bruised, he said, “Tell me everything that happened from start to finish.”

“I don’t know what happened,” I said, my shaking beginning anew with the memories of what I’d just so nearly escaped. “One minute Amelia and I were dancing, the next these scary men were telling us we couldn’t leave the bar. They told Boots that he could go, but we weren’t allowed to. When Boots told them that wasn’t going to happen, they dragged him outside the bar, and Maze and Ace, they…,” my voice faltered and it took a moment for it to stabilize again. “They said they were going to do terrible things to us,” I said, sanitizing their comments without sugarcoating their intentions.

Matty was shaking now too. But his trembling wasn’t from fear. It was from rage. Threading his fingers through my wind-tousled hair, he braced his forehead against mine. “I want you to know the Watchmen are never going to touch you again, Evie. I swear it! I’m going to kill every last one to make sure of it.”

A few tears escaped my eyes despite my trying to hold them back. “Please, Matty, don’t say that.” As fond of the idea as I was of Maze and Ace meeting a painful end, I didn’t want their blood on Matty’s hands. I simply wanted this all to be over. For me and Amelia to be safe from future abuse.

Matty’s full lips thinned. “It’s a done deal, Babe. The second those Watchmen scum put their hands on you and Amelia, they sealed their own fate.”

“I don’t want you to go back to prison,” I blurted, realizing how terrified of that outcome I was.

The beautiful biker smiled darkly. “You don’t have to worry about that, Babe. I don’t plan on getting caught.”

My hands shot up to his thickly muscled shoulders and my fingers bit into his skin to let him know I was serious about my next words. “Promise me you won’t do that!”

Matty rubbed his nose against mine in a gesture my mother used to call “Eskimo kisses” when I was young. “I promise not to get caught,” he returned, clearly skirting around what I’d just said. “But after what they did tonight, Babe, the Watchmen have it coming. And not just from me. From my whole damn Club. Fucking with Devil women is an act of war, Evie. Hell’s about to rain down on those bastards, and I’m going to be the first demon through that door to teach them a lesson about what happens when you make the mistake of bringing a man’s fight to a woman’s doorstep. Those cocksuckers have no one to blame but themselves. They might have survived tonight. But, as far as I’m concerned, they’re all just dead men walking until we settle this score.”

My brain was whirring around in circles. My heart was racing. My skin was on fire. My nerves were tingling. And, Lord help me, I’d never been more turned on in my entire life. I don’t know if it was the adrenaline of the fight or my unnatural attraction to this man before me, but my libido was lit up brighter than a decked-out tree on Christmas Eve.

The look in Matty’s amazing aqua eyes told me he meant every word of his honorable speech. I could also see that, like me, he was fighting the adrenaline surge. I felt it humming through his whole body like I’d felt the engine of his bike between my legs earlier. When he began to curse out the Watchmen some more, I knew there was only one way I could bring us both down off this high that was spiraling us out of control.

Roughly tangling my fingers in his hair, I dragged Matty’s lips down to mine. Our mouths collided with a brutal force. Our tongues fought like they were locked in mortal combat. My hands hungrily reached for the hem of his shirt, demanding its offensive presence to disappear.

Like he, and it, were on fire, Matty ripped the white thermal up and over his head. As though I’d given him the permission he’d so desperately craved, he reached for mine.

All too willing to bare myself to his touch, I let his coat slide to the ground and tugged off my scrap of a top. With shaky fingers, I unclasped my bra and my nipples immediately hardened to sharp points.

Matty’s head dipped down to my breasts as he focused his full attention on those sensitive peaks. “You’re so perfect, Evie,” he groaned, in between licks and love nips. “I don’t deserve you, but I’m fucking grateful as hell that you’re mine!”

His words touched me deep inside, causing the flesh between my legs to pulse and constrict almost painfully with need. When my hand slipped between our two bodies, I found the bulge in his jeans and began to rub and knead it aggressively. When I whimpered with that need and tried to free it, Matty chuckled thickly.

“You want something, Babe?” he teased, thrusting his hips into my greedy hand.

I looked at him with more confidence than I’d ever had in my whole life and said, “I want everything you have to give me and more!”

I’m not sure who this woman was that had just surfaced, but I liked her. And so did Matty.

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