Page 138 of Wife Number One

They’d all let me think he’d died that night on the side of the road.

They’d all lied.

Tears spilled down my cheeks.

In an instant, he cupped my face, his thumbs wiping away my tears. “Don’t cry,” he murmured. “Shit. Please, baby. Please don’t cry.”

He’d never called me baby before. But there, in that moment with my chest splayed wide open and everything inside me splintering into pieces, it was the sweetest word I’d ever heard.

I couldn’t stop the tears.

He wasn’t who they thought he was.

He was the man who’d saved me. Who’d kept me and my daughter alive. He was the man who’d connected with me on such a soul-deep level I’d named my daughter after him.

He wasn’t real and yet he was right there, his heart beating too fast beneath the press of my palm against his chest.

“You need to go,” he told me. “Hawk will be waiting outside, and if you’re too long, he won’t think twice about coming in here searching for you.”

My fingers clenched in his shirt, and I shook my head frantically. I couldn’t lose him again.

But he was right. Hawk was waiting for me on the other side. Waiting to take me home. Waiting to do things to my body I hadn’t even imagined possible.

Red hot rage poured in, freezing the lust and desire.

Everyone had lied. Hawk. Rebel. War. Bliss. Had they all known and just said nothing? Thinking me the stupid brainwashed woman who didn’t deserve to know the truth so she could make her own decisions?

Hayden’s gaze locked with mine. “I know you’re staying at the clubhouse. Pack a bag for you and Hayley Jade and meet me. I’ll come to you, tonight. Late. I have a way of getting in.”

He couldn’t do that. He’d be risking his life.

He gripped my face harder. “Say no and I’ll walk away.”

I should have said no. I should have let him go.

But my lips didn’t move. My heart was too busy beating its way out of my chest and my brain was locked up in thoughts of the past, when this man had been the only thing keeping me alive.

“Don’t say no, Kara. Say you’ll meet me. At the back gate. I’ll tell you everything. We’ll work something out. Just fucking say yes. Please.”

I couldn’t say anything.

Hawk was a liar.

And Hayden was still alive.

39

HAWK

Kara’s face was flushed when she came out of the bathroom, her skin wet like she’d had to splash water on it to cool down.

All I could think about was her in there, fingers buried deep in her pussy, muffling her cries while she came, and the fact she’d been so turned on she hadn’t even been able to make it home so I could do it for her.

I gave her a cocky grin. “Feel better?”

She didn’t say anything, just walked past me.

I frowned and followed her, catching her gently by the elbow. “Hey. Are you okay?”

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