Page 18 of Ruckus

“And that night in the motel room, was that a mistake too…” She steps closer to me and I look down at the floor.

“Yeah.” I lift my eyes up from the ground to hers and she greets me with a sting from her palm.

“You asshole.” She starts heading for the stairs.

“Well hello, Miss Freya fuckin’ Adams, good to see you again,” I call out after her, stroking the side of my face where she struck me. It makes her turn around and when I notice the smile she’s wearing, it draws one outta me too. I don’t know what happened to turn her so weak, but it didn’t take me long to trigger that spark inside her again.

“And if I remember right, you were the one that couldn’t wait to cut and run the next morning. You regretted what happened so bad you upped and fucking left to join the circus.”

“Is that what you think?” She starts coming back toward me. “Ruckus, that was me savingyourass.” She points her finger atme. “Do you know what my daddy would have done to you if he’d found out you defiled his precious little girl?” She’s dangerously close to me now, close enough to kiss again.

“Cliff was never gonna find out,” I assure her. I didn’t want it confirmed that she left because of me, it makes all that happened to her since, my fuckin’ fault.

“So you don’t think there would have been more mistakes if I’d have stayed…? Come on, Ruckus, I may not have had much experience back then, but I was there that night too and I felt what we had.”

Resisting the urge to take those lips is getting harder.

“Well if you were lookin’ to go round two, you went a real stupid assed way about it, Princess.” I laugh, refusing to back down.

“Laugh all you want, but we both know me leaving hurt you. What makes you think me being back here is going to make that any better?” She looks up at me, and I have to give it to the girl, she has a point, I just ain’t gonna admit it.

“You can’t hurt a man like me, Freya. I brought you back because Wrath needs you, and given the state we found you in, I’d say you need him too.” I feel like an asshole when that fiery girl who just came back to me shrinks back inside herself. “He’s blaming himself for what happened to Willow, and I won’t have him blame himself for what was happening to you.” I cop out because what I’m telling her may be the truth, but it ain’t the whole of it.

“What happened to me was no one’s fault but my own. I was twenty years old when I left with Drew. A woman, not a child.”

“A woman because I made you one.” I glance down my nose at her body, wondering if she ever liked the way he touched her. She sure as hell liked it when I did.

“Maybe so, but like you said, that was a mistake.”

One of us needs to take a step back, being this close is gonna result in something happening. I decide to be that person.

“Like I told you before, the club’s changed. Raze is a good leader, and we’re working to fix all the shit Cliff ruined.” I remember what she said about being scared to come back here and put her mind at ease as I make some space between us.

“And is that why you really came back for me? Am I just more of the shit that needs fixing?” I can’t decide if the laugh she makes is angry or sad but it makes me wonder what she’s fuckin’ afraid of.

“No, Freya, you're here because whether you wanna admit it or not, your life is a mess. I may have saved you tonight, but only you can fix that.” She looks hurt as I grab myself some clean clothes and head for the door. “You can take my bed, get yourself some sleep,” I tell her before I open it.

“Where are you going?” she asks, suddenly looking disappointed.

“To give you some space. I’ll be downstairs if you need me.” I head out and down the stairs toward the locker room before I do anything stupid… Like kiss her again.

Iwake up to the smell of cigarette smoke and coffee, and when I open my eyes and see the industrial steel roof above my head, I sit up with a jolt.

“Hey, hey, relax.” I hear Ruckus’s voice first, then I see him sitting on the couch opposite the bed, beneath the long glass window, and I realize that I wasn’t dreaming.

“I told Wrath we should get one of those fancy coffee machines downstairs but he refused. You’ll have to make do with the black bitter rocket fuel.” He gestures his eyes to the mug on the table beside me as he leans forward and takes a sip from his own.

Willow’s dead. Ruckus came back for me. He practically killed Drew and then he…

“You sleep good?” he asks, folding up the newspaper he’s been reading and standing up. He carries his mug over to the basin, placing it inside and then pulls a shirt from the back of the kitchen chair over his head to cover his bare torso. His body is now covered in tattoos, and even bigger and muscular than I remember.

“It’s a very comfortable bed,” I tell him as I sit up and lift up my coffee. I thought I’d gotten used to the cuff I had to wear around my ankle but not having it on last night felt like heaven.

I’m about to ask him where he slept last night, when I hear someone coming up the stairs.

“Hey.” The perfectly petite and stunning blonde smiles at us both as she lets herself in and places her gym bag on the coffee table.

“Thanks for that, Mya.” Ruckus nods his head gratefully and she steps right up to him and circles his lip with her finger.

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