Page 64 of Outcast

"Nowhere. What do you want to do? We can talk or sit in silence. Your choice. Just not alone."

Somewhere in the span of minutes, she’d gone from upset, to a confident badass, then waffling with her emotions written across her face and body.

I didn't know what bothered her the most, but I had my guesses. She'd experienced so much death in a short time, and it was getting to her.

She shook her hands out as she started pacing. "I don't want to sit. I have all this nervous energy inside me. I can't get my brain to stop."

"What's going on inside your head?" I asked softly, leaning my ass back on her dresser.

She tossed her head back and laughed, but the sound was stretched, distorted from her usual exuberance. "So fucking much. While they were talking about sending guys downstairs, the only thing that went through my head was no, we'd have ten more deaths, and I can't deal with that. Not for a stupid reason. I mean, if we have to go to war with those bastards, we will, but I need to know it's not pointless. But then..." She cut her gaze at me as she kept pacing.

"Joel and Ricco made you question yourself?" I supplied.

"They made me feel like a little girl who didn't knowshit. And I do, Esteban. I've seen Javier make a hundred calls for the club. I know how to run it. I know I'm right, but damn. It just–It just made me pause. And that's all it takes, right? For the guys to lose faith in me? A second." She huffed, but then her breathing started turning erratic.

"You're right. We don't need to be sending men off half-cocked to make a statement. That's what kills people." I wanted to make her feel better, but she seemed like she was becoming more agitated, not less.

"What am I doing, Esteban?" She spun and threw her hands out. "Whatthe fuckam I doing?"

"You're following in Javier's footsteps. Whether he wanted that or not, I think you're the right one for the job. Joel doesn't have his heart in the right place. He just wants the status. You care about the men more than the club."

"The men are the club!"

"Exactly." I gave her one solid chin dip. "Want to talk some more? I got twenty-four hours for you."

"No." She forcefully shook her head. "I don't want to talk. I want to fuck. I want to forget this agitated feeling that's too much like insecurity. Because that's not me. I'm strong. I'm ruthless. A little bullheaded at times."

I laughed. More like atalltimes.

Smoothing her hands up my chest to rest on my pecs, she glanced up at me through her lashes. "I'm a hell on wheels sex goddess. I want to remember that."

My cock filled up so fast my head spun.

"You made me feel like that. You always have, but that night..."

I peeled her clothes off of her body with so much reverence, I couldn't stop just as much as I couldn't not realize that this was making love. Not fucking. I left a trail of kisses everywhere myfingers went, so fucking glad she had the lamp on so I could engage all five senses.

"You make me feel powerful, Esteban."

I gripped her hips and pulled her tight against my throbbing cock. "Say my name again."

"Esteban..." The warm, throaty voice was my undoing.

She said my name. Not Matías'. Mine. She wanted me. Matías could say whatever the fuck he wanted, but she was mine too.

Sliding my hands over her plump ass, I picked her up by the back of her thighs, guiding her legs around my waist. "You want to forget, baby?" I murmured, staring deep into her big, beautiful, brown eyes.

Biting her lower lip, she sucked in a short, quick breath. Her chest was rising and falling so fast now, stretching the material of her dress.

I loved her body almost as much as I loved her.

"Come on, Rita, baby. You want me? You want me to make you feel like no one else can?"

"Yes," she whispered.

"Yes, what?" I asked as I laid her in the center of her bed. With slow methodical detail, I tucked my thumb in the side of her shoe and slipped her heel off, then moved to her other foot.

"Yes, Esteban."

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