Page 14 of Untamed Crow

"I don't know," he admits roughly. "Don't know if you'd be my greatest weakness or my greatest strength. But I do know I can't let anything happen to you. Just the thought of them touching you tonight..." His hands tighten again. "I would have killed them, Emma. Without hesitation. That's the kind of man I am."

"I know," I whisper, stepping closer despite his attempt to maintain distance. "I know exactly what kind of man you are. That's what I've been trying to tell you."

"Do you?" His thumbs stroke over my pulse points, "Because the man I am will never be safe. Never be the kind you can introduce to your parents or take to dinner parties. The man I am lives in violence, breathes it, deals in it."

"And protects with it," I add. "Loves with it."

He sighs. "Emma..."

"You can push me away if you want," I say, heart pounding. "Tell me I'm not cut out for this life. But don't do it because you think you're protecting me. Do it because it's what you want."

His eyes search mine, looking for something - doubt maybe, or fear. But there isn't any. Not anymore. Not after tonight.

"What I want," he says slowly, deliberately, "has never been the issue”

"Then what do you want?" I challenge, tired of the half-truths and careful distance. "Tell me. No protecting me, no thinking about what's best. Just... what does Crow Harrison want?"

His hands slide from my wrists to my arms, his touch burning through the fabric of his jacket that I'm still wearing. For a long moment, he just stares at me, the internal battle clear in his eyes.

"What I want," he finally says, voice rougher now, "is to claim every fucking inch of you. To be your first, your last, your only. To mark you as mine so deeply that no one would dare look at you the way those Outlaws did tonight. I want to wake up with you wrapped around me," he continues, something dark and hungry breaking free in his expression. "Want to watch you read your romance novels and know that none of those fictional men could ever give you what I can. I want to teach you to ride a bike and feel you pressed against me on long runs."

His hands tighten on my arms. "But most of all, I want to keep you safe. And being with me? That's about as far from safe as you can get."

"Maybe I don't want safe," I whisper, stepping closer until we're sharing breath. "Maybe I want you."

The sound he makes is almost painful. "Emma-"

"No more maybes," I cut him off. "No more protecting me from my own choices. I want you, Crow. All of you - the violence, the danger, everything. I want the man who shoots someone to protect me and then apologizes for letting me see it. The man who offers me his jacket and remembers how I take my coffee. The man who's trying so hard to push me away even while his hands are holding me closer."

His eyes drop to my lips, then back up.

"If we do this," he says roughly, "there's no going back. No changing your mind when it gets too real. The club, the life - it'll all be yours too."

"Good," I say and watch something snap in his expression.

Chapter 6 - Crow

Her simple "good" nearly breaks my control. She's standing here in my jacket, telling me she wants all of me - even the darkest parts - and I'm running out of reasons to resist.

But there's one more thing I need to clear.

"What about Wrath?" I ask, my voice strained. "He's your best friend."

"And your brother," she adds softly.

"Yeah." My hands slide down her arms, not ready to let go but needing some distance before I do something we can't take back. Like push her against the counter and claim that smart mouth of hers. "He's protective of you."

"He is," she agrees. "But he's also the one who suggested I call you for tonight."

That makes me pause. "What?"

She bites her lower lip, and Christ, she has no idea what that does to me.

"When he told me he couldn't come to the reunion, he said I should ask you. Said you'd... said you'd take good care of me."

Something clicks in my head. That crafty bastard. All those times he's invited Emma over, made sure we were seated next to each other at BBQs, left us alone in the garage...

"He knows," I realize. "Has probably known longer than we have."

---