Page 22 of Rogue

“You’re probably right,” I say.

“Wanna get out of here?” he asks and waves the waiter over.

“Way to pivot the conversation and get straight to the point,” I say and laugh again.

He has the most innocent look in his eyes as he gazes into mine. “Actually, I was gonna ask if you wanted to take a moonlit stroll on the beach. Who do you take me for?”

He doesn’t fool me for a second. “A guy who knows what he wants.”

“You’re not wrong,” he says and grins. “But I’m also romantic as hell.”

He exchanges a few words with the waiter while he pays for our meal.

Truth is, I could use some romance in my life. It’s been a long time since any guy I’ve been with thought about offering me some of that. Not saying it wasn’t fun or that I regret any of it. But there’s things I missed out on.

Rogue offers me his arm as we get up to leave and I take it. Then he leads me onto the beach, the sound of waves licking the sand growing louder and louder.

Stars are twinkling overhead, the moon is making the wavy ocean glow silver. And I don’t know if Rogue is the guy with whom I should be looking for romance and all those things I missed out on, but I know I like the way holding him and being with him feels.

And maybe that’s enough.

9

Rogue

The sky over the ocean is turning white, and the sun will rise soon. We’re sitting at the end of the empty pier, our feet dangling off the edge. She’s leaning on my shoulder still holding onto my arm, her fingers interlaced with mine.

I’ve told her more about myself than I’ve ever told anyone in one night. At this point she probably knows more about me than all my friends currently do. And I have a feeling I know more about her than hers do as well.

But she hasn’t told me everything. I know that too. She always steers the conversation back to me when it gets too personal. It’s fine. It’ll keep.

When she said she’d go out with me tonight, my plan was simple. Dinner, followed by a quick drink and then back to the clubhouse. Or her place. Whatever. Just as long as I could add a couple more layers to all the ways I already can’t stop thinking about her. Namely, seeing her naked, knowing what she tastes like and the all-important seeing her come on my cock. I figured taking care of that would help get her out of my mind. Instead, I poured my heart out to her, and I’m already planning our nextthree dates. The Ferris wheel currently still and dark behind us will definitely feature in one of them. As for the sex, I’m sure that’ll be more amazing than my fantasies. Which is saying something.

I just wish I hadn’t told her so much about Angel. Women I date don’t like hearing too much about her. I tried to keep it to a minimum. It wasn’t so difficult to do that tonight.

“Will we see the sunrise from here?” she asks, startling me. She’s been so still and so quiet for a while that I figured she’d fallen asleep.

“Yeah, over there,” I say and point to the east.

“Good,” she says and burrows closer to me. “I love dawn. Especially watching the sun rise over the ocean.”

“Dawn does have this fresh and clean quality to it, I’ll give you that,” I say. “I never much cared about that stuff until recently though.”

“Yeah? What changed?” she asks.

“I don’t know, maybe it’s because the man who killed Angel now finally died in agony.”

There I go talking about Angel again and saying more than I should. She gasps.

“Death’s overrated,” she says. “So final… but I agree, sometimes it’s just the only way to live on.”

“I’ve been living on…” I say, wanting her to know that while Angel is a huge part of my life, she’s not the only part. But I can’t find the words.

“The man responsible for my family’s deaths only got six months. So, a friend tracked him down and killed him. He was coked-up when he plowed into my family, but he was also the owner of the trucking company and had deep pockets and very good lawyers.” She tells me all that in a very distant voice. Like it hurts her to talk about it still. “I didn’t ask for it. He just did it because I couldn’t sleep knowing he was out there walking free.”

“Now that’s romantic on a whole other level,” I say, not sure how I feel about it. But mostly I feel jealous. “This some Devil’s Nightmare MC guy?”

“Yeah, his name is Edge” she says. “Not sure he’d want it called romantic, that’s not what it was about. He just wanted me to feel better. But yeah, I suppose in a way it was romantic. Terrifying too.”

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