Page 46 of Gunner

I nearly choke on the hot coffee. It’s perfect, the bitterness balanced out by the creamy milk. Ella and Lark just keep staring as they try and figure out how the fuck they’re going to fix this, or if they even need to.

In the silence, Diletta’s hand leaves my waist and whispers around to my back. She lifts my t-shirt and slips her hand underneath, caressing the skin of my lower back while I try to keep a straight fucking face. It’s nearly impossible as she tilts to look up at me while slowly running her tongue along her lower lip. The meaning is pretty damn clear. Audience or not, my cock is at war with my jeans, leaking inside my boxers at the thought of her getting on her knees and taking me out.

“Thank you for coming.” She looks at me as she says it, nearly slaying me and knowing all the while what she’s doing. She finally turns to address Lark and Ella properly. “I really doappreciate that you want to keep me safe, even from myself. I know you’re not trying to scare me off and I don’t feel unwelcome. And Gunner? I know exactly who he is.” Her finger skims the elastic of my boxers like it wants to dip below them as well. I’d let her do whatever she wants to me.

I am entirelyhers.

I was never asked to be a killer here. I fell into that role seamlessly when it was required because that’s what the situation called for. Kill or be killed. The rest? The scary, heartless monster. That’s the role I was born for. Diletta. She changed everything. Her laying claim to me is more than just forcing me to physically be here. She wants to reclaim my spirit. She believes that it’s not too late. She sees something that even I can’t see when she looks at me.

“He’s going back to the club to tell you everything,” Diletta speaks again into the stunned silence. “Soon, you’ll know who he is too.”

I nearly black out when that finger creeps lower, grazing the bare skin below that elastic.

Lark and Ella both frown at that. They study the two of us until I give a tight nod. “I’m heading to the club right away.” They’ll call church for something like this. They’d have to.

“Do you want to come with us?” Lark asks. “I drove over here in my car and yours is still at the clubhouse.”

“Yes,” Diletta says.

“No,” I respond sharply, at the same time. It’s in my blood to be an overprotective asshole.

Diletta rolls her eyes and smiles right into my face.

“Yes it is then.” Ella jumps to her feet, forcing a confident smile that’s so obvious she doesn’t feel. She takes Lark’s hand and together, they step further back into the kitchen, towards the front door, waiting for Diletta.

They’re not going to leave without her. There’s no disappearing for me now. It’s not that I’m running from my past, but everything has changed.

Diletta isn’t just mine now.

I’m hers.

She’s not letting me go. She won’t let me face this alone.

I’m glad for the sisterhood who will be with her, taking care of her, filling her good, pure heart up in a way that I can’t, while I’m in church with men who will decide my fate. I know Lark and Ella will keep Diletta safe when I can’t be there to watch her, but the thought of letting her out of my sight, especially right now, when everything is out of control, running straight into disaster territory, makes me feel painfully reckless.

One single fuckup that night, a hand lifted in the darkness, my way of touching what I could never touch, owning what could never be mine, has led me to here, my carefully orchestrated life crashing down around me.

Diletta drops my t-shirt and wraps her arms around my waist. She kisses my cheek again, so chaste and pure and fucking irresistible. “Finish your coffee and we’ll go.” Her eyes burn. It’s clear she doesn’t want to let me out of her sight either. But then, she nuzzles my neck with her nose, inhaling me like I’m the best scent she’s ever taken into her lungs.

“There’s no way you’re going there if you’re not on the back of my bike.” My early morning Neanderthal is extra growly.

She bites her bottom lip and nods. “I’ll go and get changed.” Lark and Ella are still there. “You don’t have to wait for me.”

They both give her warm, genuine smiles that assure me that if any of this goes sideways, Diletta will be okay. The club would have her back.

“We’ll wait,” Lark says.

“Jeans and boots, ma’am. And a warm jacket. It’s cool out right now,” Ella adds.

Diletta strokes her hand down my side and whispers near my ear, for me only.

“Everything will be fine.”

The iron conviction in that whisper makes me want to believe her.

***

Church is held in a special, private room in the clubhouse reserved specifically for our meetings. In any club, it’s where most of the major decisions get made. This is an unscheduled meeting, but not an emergency. This room has seen far too much action over the past year. I’m sure a few of the men in here would be happy never to have to gather again for anything other than check-ins on our daily operations, legit businesses, for scheduling the godforsaken community events Tyrant has a hard-on for, and other regular, boring club shit.

---