Page 42 of The Oath We Take

“This is already testing my self-control,” she says. “I feel like the naked version of you might be impossible to keep my hands off. T-shirt and shorts?”

“I can do something along those lines. Go get ready for bed, then come find me in your guest room.”

She doesn’t ask why not her room, and I don’t tell her. But the idea of sleeping with her in a bed a different guy slept in last night makes me feel uneasy. It’s not judgement. I mean, I’ve had my fair share of women in my bed, some in the same night. I trust Ember when she tells me nothing happened between the two of them. And I wouldn’t judge her if anythinghad, because if I’d been less of an idiot and more of a thinker, I might have been able to find a way around this and she wouldn’t be in this situation today.

It takes me only a few minutes to strip out of my boots, jeans, and socks. My T-shirt was clean when I put it on after my shower, so I leave it on. I find my toothbrush and toothpaste and brush my teeth in her kitchen sink, seeing as she’s taking forever in the bathroom.

Hope she isn’t doing any of the shit girls sometimes worry about. Like shaving her bits or something. It’s gonna be hard enough to sleep next to her and keep my hands off her. If she comes into the room in some sexy sleep clothes with smooth, glistening skin and a fresh face, it’s gonna be hard not to react.

But I can’t help but smile when she finally returns because she’s utterly perfect. Sure, it’s a shorts and boxy short-sleeved shirt combo, but it’s got wild palm trees and flamingos all over it. Her hair is in a braid, and while she’s fresh-faced, she looks exhausted.

She climbs on the bed from the bottom, and I’m treated to a delicious view of the roundness of her breasts through the V-neck of the shirt. When she finally reaches the pillows, she flops forward and groans. “I love climbing into bed at night,” she mumbles against the pillow.

I turn onto my side and rub circles on her back. “Especially tonight?”

She turns her head to face me. “Especiallytonight.”

“Come here,” I say, gesturing for her to come curl up alongside me.

It takes a minute for her to move, crawl up the bed enough that she can slip beneath the blanket, and wriggle up alongside me.

When she finally gets there, we both sigh at the perfection of it. It’s like my whole physique was created just so she’d fit perfectly against my side. While there’s a foot difference between us when we’re standing, everything matches up as it’s meant to when we’re lying down.

Her head rests on my chest, her ear pressed in the dip between my pec and my collarbone. The warmth of her arm heats my ribs. I reach for her leg and hook it over my hip, before wrapping my arms tight around her.

I’m in bed with Ember Deeks. And it all feels worth it. The risk. Butcher. The club. Because sometimes the only moments that matter are the ones like this. The ones where you’re with the most important person in your life. The person you’re gonna grow old with.

For all I said we needed time to prove to ourselves this is everything we thought it was going to be, I already know it is. I knew five years ago in that fucking field.

This is for her. So I can prove to her what she means to me. To make up for the moment when I broke her heart.

And to buy some time.

I’m gonna be strategic. Maybe work to get Wraith and Catfish on my side. Introduce the idea of Ember and me as a unit to the two men I know for sure will help defend me from Butcher’s wrath.

I’m gonna need my brothers to vote against kicking me out of the club and forcing me to burn off my ink.

But all those plans can wait for tomorrow, because tonight, I have Ember in my arms. And while I need sleep, I don’t want to miss a minute of it.

I reach over to the lamp and switch it off, settling the room into darkness.

“If at any point you don’t feel like you can do this, please tell me as gently as you can,” Ember says quietly. I feel every little puff of breath against my skin.

I pull her a little closer. “I can’t offer promises about where we go from here, Em. But I promise I’ll be kind.”

She nods. “I understand. It’s just…this feels slippery. Like, if we squeeze it too hard, it’ll fall out of our fingers.”

I know what she means. I feel it too. “Then let’s promise to keep our hold tender. I don’t want to break us again, Em.”

“I suppose this is part of it, right? The leap. Trusting the other person. You don’t owe me anything more than you did back in that field, except…”

She shakes her head. I can’t see it in the darkness, but I can feel her hair brush against my skin. “Except what?”

“This time, could you be honest? Even if it’s hard to admit or something you don’t want to say. Just think of the gentlest way to say it and tell me.”

“What do you mean?”

“You liked me back then, didn’t you? It’s just, you loved the club more.”

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