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He was beautiful. Like something out of the magazines I studied for inspiration. Like someone who was paid to look that way. Only he was too rough for that. The bright tattoos on his neck under the shadow of a days-old beard as black as spilled ink across his jaw. The worn-in leather jacket opened over a white tee with a small Hephaestus Auto Garage logo stitched onto the breast. The tee was too tight, his muscles almost obscene beneath the thin fabric.
“Not a question you should ask a man like me without addin’ some caveats.” “Does a man like you know what ‘caveats’ even means?” I retorted sweetly, batting my lashes.
“Called Boner by my friends,” he said, so straight-faced I wondered if he could actually be serious about it. “But pretty girls call me Aaron until they learn why I earned that nickname for themselves.”
“Men do that.” “What?” “Say things they don’t mean.”
want you to get that you’re worth somethin’. First moment I saw you, I lost my fuckin’ breath to the sight’a you. Not ’cause you’re damn pretty, Blue, but ’cause a man like me knows pretty girls.
And, Blue baby, that sucker punched me. A girl like you should have a whole army’a family at your back keepin’ ya safe and makin’ ya promises they always intend to fuckin’ keep.”
“Gonna hug you now, that’s alright with you,” Aaron said, a question buried in his confident tone.
“I don’t date bikers.” “Who said anythin’ about datin’?” he countered with a roguish grin. “Fine, I don’t sleep with bikers.” “Blue baby, the way I do it, there’s no sleepin’ involved at all.”
The town itself was what King’s Old Lady, Cressida, called “quaint”, with old-style buildings on Main Street and all things associated with small-town charm.
“I get it. Lotsa people think Wrath and Priest, or Zeus, Axe-Man, and Bat are the scary motherfuckers. It’s the pretty face,” I explained, gesturin’ to my features. “That trips people up. Same thing happens to Nova and King. People take one look and think shit, but those pretty boys don’t know pain or misery, let alone how to dole it out.”
“People always assume bein’ pretty means bein’ good as if beauty can’t be evil.”
“Never met a girl like you,” he finally mused, almost to himself. “And I know a lotta girls.” I snorted. “Way to make me feel special.” His grin flashed white in the dark interior. “Got a lotta brothers shacked up with some pretty kick-ass women.”
I got darkness in me, Blue. Don’t have to tell ya that after what you saw in Beaker’s trailer. But I got light too, a fuck ton’a it. Maybe the ratio’s too close for comfort, but I thought for a second you were the kinda girl who found more comfort in chaos than in what others think is right.”
“I may be a dangerous man, but I’m the one in danger here. You walk out on me, that’ll ache in a way I’ve never ached ’fore. C’mon, Blue baby, what’s reward without a little risk?”
“The only way I’m ruinin’ this is by tryin’ to ruin you for other men. I’m thinkin’ you should be mine alone.”
Nova and Lila swayed on a makeshift dance floor, tangled together almost indecently, makin’ out as they ground their hips together in a lush, slow-kinda tango. Axe-Man, Mei, Harleigh Rose and Lion were usin’ the dart board for knife throwin’ target practice with Bea cheering them on and Priest lookin’ on impassively, probably ’cause none’a them were as good as him.
“Uh-oh,” King said, appearin’ beside me with his crooked grin. “I know that look.” “What look?” “The look’a a man who's been enchanted and never wants to break the fuckin’ spell,” he said with a laugh, squeezin’ my neck in comradery. “Welcome to the club, man.”
“Be mine,” I murmured against her lips before lickin’ into her mouth. “Stay.” “I’m yours,” she agreed before rockin’ to her toes to deepen our kiss.
Blue baby, you’re exactly the kinda trouble a man looks for his whole damn life. The kinda trouble I’d fight an entire fucked-in-the-head club for the chance to call my own. So you ever need me, you ever want me, you know where to find me. Never been a patient man, but I’ll be waitin’, ABC.
“The kinda love that redefines what it means to be alive is the kinda love that doesn’t come cheap. You gotta earn it, man, and sometimes that means bein’ patient, and sometimes that means fightin’ for it. If you really think Blue’s that woman for you, you gotta trust that you’ll see her again and ’til then gotta live life knowin’ she’d want you to be happy. Maybe that’s why she left in the first place.”
“If Priest hadn’t knocked up Bea, I’d be readin’ some serious sexual tension between you two,” I drawled to break the frisson’a tension runnin’ along the table. Nova was the first to laugh, tippin’ his chin at me in camaraderie.
“Now in the dark, tomorrow in the light. Painted in neons or sunlight or starlight, you’re mine, Blue. You get me?”
The Bear doesn’t think he’s good for anyone and definitely not for Cleo after everythin’ she’s been through.”
“You came.” “Told you I’d burn down the world for you, Blue,” I reminded her, duckin’ to press a kiss to her bloody mouth. “Nothin’ and no one could keep me from my girl.”
