Page 55 of Raiden

“Fuck.” Raiden disengages from me and slaps a hand onto Gunner’s shoulder, genuinely surprising the hell out of him. Hesteps back awkwardly, immediately shaking loose of the touch. Raiden’s hand flexes and he drops it. “Nothing’s changing. You’re a part of this club. You’re my brother, no matter how messed up you might be. We’re a family and it takes all kinds here to make this club a good thing. Doesn’t matter what happened before or what you have inside of you. You’re here and you’re an Angel. The past is just the shit we live with and try to balance out. We all have shit going on. You’re no worse than anyone else, you’re just wired different. You got that? We’re Satan’s Angels, brother, we stick together, and we watch each other’s backs. I trust you with my life.”

“I…” The words settle and sink and Gunner’s features harden from disbelief to his regular mask. “Yeah.” The coldest blue eyes I’ve ever known rake over me and settle, building up ice in my stomach. “She’s a bullet straight to your chest, but she’s good for you. She’ll become a part of you, carved into your flesh, inked into your soul. Love’s probably like that. Like getting taken out by a weapon you never saw coming. It kills you, but it’s right.”

It’s just as well that I can’t see Raiden’s face right now. Mine heats painfully, but it’s nothing compared to the ache of longing in my chest and the mystification settling like fog in my head. Love is a heady word.

Gunner watches me, studying me, trying to understand. “If it’s anything like this club, it’s worth hanging onto. Nothing matters more.”

He walks off, steps eaten up by the music. Was it that way before or did we just not hear him coming?

“Good talk,” Raiden calls. “Strange talk,” he mutters to me, shaking his head. “What the fuck?”

“I don’t know.”

I claw him back to me, dragging his face down to mine. He’s not taking any other chances with interruptions to our privacy. Not that we thought about it before, but we need the solid walls of his bedroom in a big way now.

We were going to get there eventually, but the interaction with Gunner speeds things up.

Raiden picks me up, arranges my legs around his waist, tugs my dress down to cover my ass, and carries me there.

He gets the code punched in and the door slammed shut, sets me onto meet feet, and it’s game over for our clothes.

We tear them off, zippers screaming, seams ripping, shoes flying.

After we’re naked, Raiden slows down again. He’s good at controlling the fire in him. Much better than I am. My flames are overpowering, but his are a careful study in concentration.

I like the way he focuses on me, eyes hot on my body.

His hands are even better, cupping my breasts, stroking down my waist and my ass, a dance of seduction right from his fingertips.

He looks like the kind of man who’d want to own a woman. His cropped hair, tattoos, fierce features and hard expression are enough to scare anyone, unless you’re into that. I wasn’t before and probably would never be again. It’s not his aura that I’m into. I’m not one of those women who gravitates to danger because she just can’t help herself. It’s just him. I married him and then I started to fall.

I’m falling now because he’s the opposite of rough. He’s kind and considerate. He knows about my past and he does nothing without permission, even if it’s just a silent hesitation before I take the lead and show him that I’m fine.

It’s utterly consuming, that heady sensation of being cherished. I’ve never had a man put my needs before his. Never had one truly appreciate me for my mind, my talents, my skills. Tits and ass, that’s pretty much what I’ve always been, even to the smartest man. But this man? He appreciates me down to my soul.

He once accused me of casting a spell over him.

I think it’s the other way around.

“Are we thinking or are we fucking?” Raiden asks, but not unkindly. He tips my face up and kisses me gently, pulling me deeper into his vortex.

“Can’t we do both?”

“My cock and manly pride are extremely injured that you’d even ask that question.”

“You don’t think about sex?”

“All the time, but not while I’m doing it. I like to just enjoy it when I’m in the moment.”

“Goodness. Just a moment.”

He tackles me gently to the bed, catching me when I fall like the mattress might do me real harm. It’s a perfect mattress. No springs, no age, probably expensive. He still breaks my fall.

He tucks my legs around his waist, but changes his mind, hauling them up to his shoulders and spreading them, openingme way the hell up to him. “Gorgeous,” he breaths reverently, like he’s in front of an altar in some church.

If he was the god I was worshipping, I might be more inclined to go to one for the first time ever. Blasphemous, but true.

“This is going to take more than a moment, so you’d better brace yourself.”

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