Page 76 of Through The Woods

Chapter Twenty-One

“You did good, honey.”

A burst of pride filled my chest as I turned around and saw Charm standing just a few feet behind me. “Yeah?”

It had gone off without a hitch—I’d come a long way in the last few months. These bikers had become my drug—taking care of them my new hobby. And the crazy thing was that I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.

Charm reached out and grabbed onto one of my dark locks, as if anchoring me. “You did a kick ass job.”

It hit me—my longing for blow diminished whenever he was near. With that, something shifted and I knew that he felt it too because he closed the distance between us, taking my face in his calloused hands. “Thank you,” he said, just above a whisper.

I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I think it’s me who should be thanking you. Everything—all of it—was for me?”

He nodded and I looked down at my feet, trying to gather my thoughts into something more than blubbering gibberish.

“Are you mad?”

I blinked slowly and looked up, as if seeing him for the first time. His light brown eyes were half open as if he was under the influence. His beard was unkempt, with each hair fighting to go in a different direction. He was wild, and I found I didn’t want to tame him. No, I wanted to run free alongside him. To share space with him.

Finally, I shook my head. “Anger isn’t even close to what I’m feeling.”

Confusion was closer to the truth.

He stepped closer. “When you told me that the only thing holdin’ you back was the girl in the picture, I felt something I ain’t felt in a long time. Hope. I thought that I’d give you space, let you see the truth for yourself, but I can’t seem to stay away when it comes to you, honey.”

“What about you having ‘zero interest in being my man?’ That was just a few days ago; surely your opinion didn’t change in three days?”

He gave me a half smile. “Honey, I stand by what I said the other day—I got zero interest in being your man.” My face fell, but he continued, “You don’t need a man—you need a goddamn warrior. A gladiator—someone willing to risk it all to keep you safe. A protector—that’s what I want to be.”

I was wrong.

I’d compared Charm to a gravitational pull, but gravity was weak and easily defied. I could jump and break its force. Hell, airplanes did it every day.

With him, it was different.

A strong nuclear force was the sturdiest of the four forces in nature, but the effects were only felt within a close range. Yet, I felt the effects of Charm all the time, whether he was at the clubhouse or not.

It was obviously an electromagnetic force between us—two complete opposites pulled together. I’d been fighting it since I arrived, but as we’d gotten closer, it had become impossible to resist. The static electricity had built up and I was beyond caring about the zap it would inevitably bring.

“Your sister—it’s why you kept your distance.”

He ran a hand roughly over his face. “I couldn’t watch another person spiral out of control. So, I did what I could and when it got too hard—I had the guys fill in for me. I just need you to know that I’ll wait, however long it takes, but you’re gonna be mine.”

My heart pounded out a steady rhythm in my chest; a reminder that I was still alive, even though it felt as if it should’ve stopped several times over the last few minutes.

I stepped forward until our bodies were touching and looked up at him. Fire burned in his eyes, but it was obvious that he wanted me to make the first move.

The realization struck me. He was my penguin—he’d searched an entire mountainside for ways to keep me sober and had presented his pebble in the form of sunrises and textbooks. There was no use in denying it anymore.

Charm was it for me.

I was in love with him. Wholly and unequivocally under his spell. I stretched on my tiptoes and cupped my hand against his cheek before taking his bottom lip between mine. “I don’t want to wait…”

I didn’t get to finish my thought before he hoisted me up into his arms and I wrapped my legs around his waist as he strode down the hallway to his room. “Not out here.”

We made it into the bedroom and he stripped his shirt off, before impatiently untying the halter top of my dress. The room was fairly dark and I shimmied out of it, confident he couldn’t see the marks on my legs. It was one thing to know about them and another to see them up close. I shouldn’t have worried, his eyes remained on mine as he slid his jeans down, before pushing me back onto the king-sized mattress.

I smiled as his mouth made a trail from my neck down to my stomach, each hair on his face tickling my body. A small giggle escaped and he growled before pulling down his boxer briefs. “Fuck, Neve. I need to be inside of you and I don’t want anything between us.”

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