Page 50 of Savage Fire

“But Ididleave. When I was fifteen. I didn’t know it, but my father was a powerful man. It was his bordello, and my mother was one of his favorites. When she’d gotten pregnant with me, he didn’t give a shit. He did nothing to support her or provide for me. Until he needed another soldier for his army. On my fifteenth birthday, he came for me. Jose Calderone, the leader of the Calderone Cartel.”

Her gasp wasn’t unexpected, neither was the horrified look on her face.

“Your father runs a Cartel? Are you serious? Does that mean you—”

He stiffened. “No!” he barked. “I am no longer a part of that. I left all of that behind before I came to Vegas.” At least it was all behind him until his asshole brother reached out to him. “I haven’t been that man in years.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Whatman, Javier?” she asked, far too fucking perceptive.

He sighed, mentally cursing, his blood racing through his veins, his guts twisting as fear like he’d never known—fear of losing her forever—suffocated him.

He couldn’t answer her, couldn’t take the chance that she’d rip his heart out and smash it to shit. Not now.

Leaning down, he pressed a kiss to her forehead, then on her mouth. After a moment, she melted into him, responding. His cock twitched, thickening, readying to pursue other avenues of conversation.

“Tessa,mi amor, that is enough for now. I think our time this morning would be best served pleasuring my woman.”

Her lips thinned as she pinned him with a knowing gaze.

“I can guess that what you need to tell me isn’t going to be good, so I’ll give you time to get your head together. But youwilltell me, Javier. If you’re serious, if you really want there to be more between us, I want to know all of it, every deep, dark, dirty detail.”

But would she stay with him once he told her? A woman like Tessa? No, she wouldn’t. Suddenly, he felt the ticking of time tapping away at his nerve endings.

Grabbing her face, he kissed her again and again, showing her without words that she meant so much to him.

“Have I told you yet how fucking much I love that you’re my woman?” And would be forever, if he had his way.

She laughed, meeting him kiss for kiss. “Your woman, huh? When did I agree to that?”

He kissed down her neck and over the globes of her breasts, his mouth latching on then biting one, delectable, hard, dark pink nipple. He pulled it into his mouth, licking, nibbling it, drowning in the sounds she made as she arched into him.

“You became my woman when you let me inside your body.”

Across the room, his cell pinged in his jeans pocket. Since his brothers knew he was in the clubhouse, they would come knock on the door if it were important. And the only other person he wanted to talk to was already in his arms. Whoever it was texting him could wait.

Bending to take her other nipple into his mouth, he cursed when his cell chimed again.

Shit.

It could be Jorge, and though he wanted to ignore the fucker, things were too tenuous to just let slide.

“Let me grab that and see what those motherfucking cockblockers want.” Slipping from the bed, he strode naked to his pile of clothes.

“You might as well get dressed,” Tessa remarked. “Skathi invited me for breakfast, and since she owes me for letting her man be an asshole to me, she says I can have whatever I want. I’m thinkin’ chocolate chip pancakes, bacon, and butter cookies.”

Fang chuckled; the laugh sounding forced even to his ears. He’d heard about what went down when Amelia ran her mouth about his Hive and Tessa realized his brothers had known. The Savage Raiders MC were a brotherhood, they understood keeping confidences, no matter how much it went against any personal moral compass. His brothers had warned him that Tessa wouldn’t be good with his Hive bullshit, and they’d been right. It wasn’t fair that they were branded traitors because they were being good brothers to him. He would apologize to them. They deserved that from him. That and them getting to tell him, “Told you so, asshole.”

“If you like that shit, I’ll take you to Danny’s one day soon, and you can have breakfast and pie.”

Tessa groaned, licking her lips. His sock jumped at the sight of her pink tongue on her lush mouth.

“Their pie is so good,” she moaned, smirking when she caught the action in his groin.

Narrowing his eyes at her, he shook his head with a mocking grumble. Grabbing his jeans, he tugged them on, forcing his painful erection down and carefully pulling the zipper up. Checking his cell, he noticed the text that had interrupted his morning sex with Tessa was from Stella.

Hell. What did she want? When she’d kissed him, he’d made it crystal fucking clear that he was done with her shit. She put her mouth on him and he’d practically thrown her across the room to get her off of him. He’d shouted that she couldn’t touch him, that she needed to get the fuck out. She’d been shocked, angry, but when he’d left her there at the house, he’d expected her to get the message that he was off-limits.

Swearing, he clicked on the message.

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