Page 116 of Riot

It changed him, changed us both. Beneath the smouldering, there’s something new. It’s not fear, but an understanding that life’s fragile.

That we’re fragile.

He clung tightly to me and Seren in the weeks after the attack, and I let him. I needed him close too.

He arches a brow at me, a challenge, and I bite my bottom lip like I’m a giving him a lesson in seduction.

He smirks and turns to Mace, breaking our contact. Game over… for now. I breathe freely for a moment and rub mythighs together under the table. My underwear is damp, and I’m straining to get the relief only he can give me.

Once he’s healed.

He shouldn’t be carrying Seren like that, but this whole incident showed me that my man doesn’t listen to orders. He’s not a good patient, and I’ve given up trying to nurse him.

My gaze moves from him to my sister. It’s amazing the difference a few weeks can make. She’s lost that unhealthy pallor since her morning sickness stopped, and she’s finally started putting weight on. Her bump is noticeable under the swell of her dress, and her glow is soul-deep, like she can’t get any happier than this moment.

I love that for her.

“I don’t want to start your pulse racing,” Katie says, leaning into me, “but you’ve got a hot biker staring at you.”

I don’t tell her he’s been staring since we got here.

Dayna smirks into her straw. She’s four cocktails deep already, her cheeks flushed and her eyes twinkling. Two more and she’ll be dancing on the tables.

“Do Mace and Riot have a brother or ten? I really need some string-free fun. My vagina’s getting dusty.”

Katie snorts.

I shake my head. “The only bikers I hang out with are in the room.”

She groans. “Pity.”

“He’s been a little… overprotective since the attack.” Remembering that day churns my stomach, and for a second, I feel the blood on my hands.

We’re okay. We’re safe.

He’s still here.

“Babe, he’s at DEFCON one,” Dayna says. “If any one of your sister’s friends so much as looks at you wrong, we’re going to have pasties and silicon flying everywhere.”

I snort. “He’s not going to cause a scene at Maylie’s party.”

“No, but he’s definitely contemplating dragging you over the table and fucking you until your legs are jelly.”

Heat blasts through my veins like molten lava. The thought of him taking me like that sends my mind spinning.

“How long until you can… you know?” Dayna grins.

And my face is heating for a different reason now. We haven’t had sex yet, though not because we don’t want to.

I’m nervous, sure, but I want him to take this next step with me. I’m just scared I’ll hurt him.

But his patience is wearing thin. He wants this too and I don’t know how much longer I can hold out.

“Worry about your own dusty vagina,” I fire back.

Dayna’s laughter stutters as her gaze shifts past me, and I follow her line of sight.

A tall blond guy, lean and rough around the edges, is standing at the bar, talking to Mace and Riot. He eats up the space around him like he owns it, brooding and intense, like a loaded gun. The kutte means he’s club, but I don’t know his name.

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