Page 23 of Her Outlaw Biker
I lean down to kiss her on the forehead. “I’ll be fine, sweetheart.”
“Don’t go,” she says again, her voice barely audible. “Just for tonight…stay. Please.”
My hands still over the gear I’m packing. For a second, I forget why I’m even doing this—why there’s blood in the air and smoke in our wake. All I feel is her. Soft. Warm. Fragile in a way that makes me want to shatter anything that threatens her.
I look down at her. She’s completely bare, eyes wide and vulnerable, lips parted. Her skin glows in the dim motel lamplight, dewy from our shower, her hair hanging in wet waves over her shoulders. One look, and my resolve’s a crumbling wall.
“Little bird…” I reach for her, pulling her against me, burying my face in her neck. She smells like vanilla and rain, and it floods my senses, making me weak in a way that terrifies me. She tilts her head back when I start kissing her throat, breath hitching.
“I need you,” she says, breathless.
I crush my mouth to hers, a groan escaping from somewhere deep in my chest. She clings to me, her fingers fisting my shirt as I walk her backward until the backs of her knees hit the bed. We fall together in a tangle of limbs and heat.
I yank my shirt off, unbuckle my belt, but I don’t go further. My cock is straining, begging to be inside her again, but time isn’t on our side. I press my hips into hers, grinding slow. She gasps,rolling her hips to meet mine, desperate for more. I slip a hand between us, fingers sliding through her slick heat. She’s so ready for me, it nearly undoes me.
“Ghost,” she moans, her head falling back, eyes fluttering shut.
I tease her, just enough to hear her cry out, just enough to feel her fall apart again under my touch. I want to mark her with my hands, my mouth, make her forget we ever had to run. She wraps her legs around me, and I swear if I stay one more minute, I won’t leave. I’ll bury myself so deep inside her we’ll forget the world exists.
But I can’t.
I can’t let her get caught in the cross fire I’m walking into.
I kiss her hard, one last time, drawing out every second of it. Her lips tremble against mine. Her fingers trace the scar on my ribs like a silent prayer.
“I’ll come back to you,” I murmur, brushing my forehead against hers. “I swear it.”
Her voice breaks. “Promise?”
I press a kiss to her lips. “I’ve never meant anything more.”
I pull away before I change my mind, grabbing my gear and heading for the door. Just before I leave, I glance back.
She’s sitting on the edge of the bed, clutching the sheet to her chest, eyes locked on me like I’m the only thing anchoring her to the earth. That look follows me all the way out into the night.
If not for anything else, I swear I’ll make it back tonight just to tell her that I love her.
Chapter Nine
Clover
Somehow the silence after he leaves feels worse. It’s too quiet. Too still. Like the world is holding its breath. The air outside the cracked window smells like blood and death…or maybe that’s just all in my head.
I press my hand to the glass, hoping to feel something—wind, noise, him. But there’s nothing. Just the heavy, hollow absence of Jack Maddox.
I stand up again, restless. My bare feet sink into the worn motel carpet as I move back and forth across the room. My fingers keep reaching for my phone even though I know there’s no new message. No missed call.
No Ghost.
I hate this.
I hate this feeling of helplessness.
“God, what time is it?” I murmur to myself, glancing at the cheap wall clock. Three forty-seven.
He said he’d be back…that he’d definitely come back to me. That there was a plan.
But all I heard was goodbye.
