Page 135 of Fury

My pulse heated. “I’m sick of feeling, Tania. It’s nothing but a ripping in my gut, bleeding me dry over and over again.”

She jacked up on her knees on the mattress. “You’ve seen her, haven’t you?”

That image of Lenore and her baby—her husband’s baby—in the middle of that Christmas wonderland flashed in front of my eyes. Thick bile and vinegar slid down my chest, searing my insides. I jerked off the bed and slid my leathers up my legs, grabbed my tee from the floor and pulled it over my head.

“Finger!”

“Yes! I saw her.” I shoved my feet in my boots, buttoned my leathers.

“Wait—What are you—”

I couldn’t. I didn’t want to discuss, didn’t want to deal. Didn’t.

Snapping up my keys on the small table, I threw open the motel room door and stormed outside to my bike.

I didn’t want to talk about her. I couldn’t talk about her. I was still trying not to think about her. I couldn’t even say her name anymore, not even with Tania. I didn’t want to. That made the loss of her acute. More acute.

She was good where she was; a memory I’d stuffed into a bottle, corked and sealed and tossed to bob in my sea. Always in view, though.

I needed that view.

I rode off, leaving Tania and the motel behind me in a cloud of dust. I didn’t know if I’d hear from her again, but I also knew I didn’t have to explain myself. We were good that way. I’d leave it up to her.

Three months later she called me.

“I’m on a vacation in New Mexico with a couple of girlfriends. Are you...around?” she asked, her voice breathy, hesitant.

I happened to be in Arizona on a run to oversee a new meth distribution operation in the area. I could only spare maybe two hours with her at best with the riding time included. I couldn’t be under the radar too long, but I’d do it to see Tania again.

“Hell yeah, I’m in Arizona. What are you doing now?”

“I’m in the hot tub by the pool getting picked up by these men my friends like, but I can’t say I do.”

“I can be there in four hours. Can your hormones wait until then?”

Only her laughter filled the line.

“Give me the hotel information.”

Once I got into town, Tania texted me. She was in the bar lounge of a sprawling resort hotel where she was drinking with two other women and two men. I spotted her the moment I entered, my colors covered up by a thin black hoodie. She blushed, that slight smile perked up on her lips as she uncrossed her long legs, and I gestured with a slant of my head toward the bathrooms by the elevators.

She shot up from the small sofa where she sat with one of the guys who tugged her back close to him. She bent over and whispered in his ear, and his face lit up like she’d promised him a lap dance once she returned. He let her go and she moved away from him. She wore a short tight green dress that looked hot on her pale skin paired with high heels.

Rolling her eyes, she strode across the lobby towards the bathrooms, her hips swaying, making my dick come to life in my leathers. She turned the corner, and my arm shot out pulling her into the men’s bathroom. I headed for a stall, her heels eagerly clipping the tile floor behind me.

In the stall, she plastered herself against the wall and raised her arms high. She knew my drill. I locked the door and slid my hand down over her ass. My pulse fired. “Fuck, Tania. No panties tonight?”

“That’s for you.”

I yanked up her dress. “You’re totally bare.”

“That’s for my bikini.”

“I like it.” I palmed her, my hand sliding over damp, smooth skin. “You don’t want to fuck anyone out there tonight?”

“They’re jerks. My friends like them, but I’m not into drunken bonkfests. They’re really drunk too, so it’s only going to be sloppy, and they’ll probably whip out their phones and film the whole thing. Nowadays everyone thinks they’re doing a spring break video for the Playboy Channel.”

Tania talked. A lot. That hadn’t changed, and I liked it. My muscles relaxed. She wasn’t mad at me for being out of touch for so long. She still wanted it from me, and I definitely still wanted it from her. We were good. I squeezed her tits over the slippery fabric of her dress. No bra either.

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