Page 44 of Savage Heart

“What do you mean?” she asked, unable to keep the suspicion from her voice.

Snickering, Tessa replied, “We got you a place to stay and all the help you need until you fully recover.”

Liz arched a single eyebrow, disbelief and apprehension coiling in her gut.

“Oh? And why do I feel like I am going to hate this?”

Tess shrugged. “Because you probably will, but what choice to you have?”

Good question. Not only did she need to keep herself and Erika safe until the mess with the Bratva was cleared up, she also needed help with things as simple as putting on her shirt, pulling up her pants, and even showering. You didn’t know how much you needed your arm until you couldn’t use it, and hers was out of commission for at least four weeks.

Liz sighed, rolling her eyes at the softly smiling Tessa.

“Fine,” Liz relented. “Are we staying with you?”

Tessa snorted. “Uh, no. Fang and I just bought that fixer-upper. It has three bedrooms, but two of them have had thedrywall ripped out. The place is a construction zone. A no-go for a kid and a lady who can’t get around that easily.”

Liz huffed. Tessa and Fang had a not so easy beginning, because the man had previously lived in a mansion with five women who were all his girlfriends. He called them his Bee Hive. Once he met Tessa, however, he realized that one woman—therightwoman—was all he needed. As soon as they made things official, he put his mansion on the market, and he moved in with Tessa. Now, they bought a place together, and Liz had hoped to stay with them…even if she was a little icked about living with two people who made PDA look like soft-core porn.

“Well, I know we can’t stay with Fae and Hawk, or Skathi and Odin.” While Erika had been staying with Fae and Hawk, it wasn’t an ideal situation for a recovering woman and her kid. Currently, Erika was sleeping on a pull-out couch in the living room, but that definitely wouldn’t be comfortable for someone who had to sleep with their arm elevated—and Erika kicked in her sleep. The last thing Liz needed was for her daughter to kick her injured, still healing arm while she was sleeping. Odin and Skathi had a large home he’d built with his woman and their unborn son in mind. However, Skathi was only three weeks from giving birth, and she didn’t need the added headache of a nine-year-old and a convalescing woman in her home once the baby arrived.

“So, who does that leave?” Liz knew the clubhouse was out because her kid didn’t need to be exposed to whatever the hell those bikers got up to at night—and she especially didn’t need to see her own father fucking Amelia out in the open. How could she ever explain that behavior to Erika when she finally got around to introducing father and daughter?

Tessa opened her mouth to answer, but the door behind her opened, and Trouble strode through, all loose hips, swagger, andsmirk. His eyes were dark with unspoken words, words Liz never wanted to hear. Nothing he had to say was worth hearing.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” she asked, her voice cold and yet blazing with anger. How dare the asshole swan in like he hadn’t cut her heart out of her chest for the second time in her life?

He didn’t answer, but he did stare, as if her face was more important than the question she’d asked. His gaze drifted over her features, probably taking in the faint yellow bruising on her cheek and chin. His jaw clenched before his gaze slammed into hers once more.

Her heart lurched. Caught. She was caught in a deep, green forest that teemed with life…and fire. There, in those depths, she saw raw hunger tempered with anger, seasoned with guilt, and something else he quickly hid behind hooded eyelids.

In the back of her mind, she could hear someone clearing their throat, but it took Trouble’s deep laugh to break the spell she’d put her own self under as she’d gazed into those fucking eyes of his. How did he do it? How could he still enthrall her even after all he’d done to her?

“Liz,” Tessa intruded. “He’s, uh…sorta your…only option.” Tessa pushed away from the bed, raising her hands as if to ward off an explosion, and Trouble stood there, behind Tessa, gaze pinned to Liz over Tessa’s shoulder…waiting.

She held her breath, waiting for Tessa to get to the punchline of the very obvious and seriously unfunny joke, but when Tessa pinched her lips shut and stared at Liz apologetically, Liz knewshewas the joke.

Closing her eyes against the rising burn of frustrated tears, Liz sucked in a deep but wobbly breath, then blew it out slowly. She did this twice more before she opened her eyes. During her deep breathing, Tessa had moved closer to Liz’s injured side, and Trouble and moved further into the room until he wasstanding only feet from her. His arms were loose by his sides, but his hands were in tight fists against his thighs. The veins in his hands and forearms were pronounced, as if he were fighting to keep himself still. Under control.

Her gaze, caught on those arms, lifted with his movement as he rubbed at his beard. And his beard…it was trimmed once more, not at scraggly looking as it had been when she’d first seen him upon waking up four days ago. But the trimmed, dark blond beard had nothing on those lips. The top was plumper than the bottom, so he looked graced with a perpetual pout, one that combined with hooded eyes that darkened with desire had always melted her. And those lips…they were a drug, one she’d been addicted to from the moment he’d kissed her in Tipped, devouring her—heart and soul. Those lips that were even now curving into a wicked grin…because she’d been caught staring. At his mouth. Like a needy slut.

Ugh. She grunted, dropped her gaze, and huffed at herself and how easily she’d let those thoughts invade her mind. She was over him—had been for nearly nine years, so why was she even letting a sliver of those old feelings to return?

Refusing to be overwhelmed by the urge to stand up and kiss the hell out of him, Liz leaned back in the chair and met his gaze head on, this time ignoring his beautiful, succulent lips altogether. Men shouldn’t have such lush lips, dammit!

“Explain, because I’m about ten seconds from losing my ever-lovin’ mind.”

Amusement danced in Trouble’s eyes, and Tessa sighed, shaking her head.

“We know you can’t stay with any of the others because none of us have accommodations for a kid and a woman recovering from surgery. The other men in the club basically live at the clubhouse, and I doubt you want Erika to deal with their brand of living anyway.”

“You got that right,” Liz interjected.

“So that leaves Trouble,” Tessa concluded, shrugging, as if no other explanation was needed.

“That leaves Trouble?” Liz asked, incredulous, her gaze once more snapping to the man who was much too sexy to be in a building with cardiac patients. “But you live at the clubhouse, which means you are most certainly not an option. I know you don’t give a shit about me and what I need, but you should at least give a fuck about a kid—mykid.”

There was a beat of silence, and then, “Are you going to stop being a bitch long enough for me to say something, or are we going to spend the rest of our lives with you giving me bullshit every time I enter a room?”

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