I went to Matt’s room, intending to take a shower, but I remembered that I had a suitcase full of some of my clothes and other items in the back of Raven’s car. But now that I was alone again, what energy the deli meat had given me seemed to evaporate, and I dropped down onto the edge of the bed.
Falling onto my back, I kicked off my borrowed shoes and curled up in the middle of the mattress and closed my eyes. With each deep breath I took, I could smell Matt, and that calmed my racing thoughts. I was torn up after finding out about Steph and him, but when it came down to it, I didn’t care enough about it to let him go. It hurt—hurt until my very body ached with it—but being without Matt would have hurt worse.
The sound of the door opening forced my eyes to lift. Matt slammed the door closed behind him. Seeing me on the bed appeared to surprise him, but as he looked down at me, most of his tension seemed to melt away. “Hey, baby. If I’d known you were back, I would have come down sooner.”
“I’ve only been here a few minutes.”
“I don’t like you going out by yourself like that. Next time, wake my ass up or take one of the guys with you.” He pulled off his cut and tossed it at the only chair in the room. Scrubbing his hands over his face, he sat on the edge of the bed beside me. “Santino’s guys might not know you’re with me yet, but they’re probably watching who comes and goes.”
I hadn’t thought about that, hadn’t even given it a moment’s pause during the time I had been out earlier. I had been too anxious to get the meeting over with my father, then too upset to care about my own safety at the thought of having to give Matt up. Now, I realized it was stupid not to think that whoever had blown up Matt’s truck was still out there, ready to attack and hurt the MC any other way they possibly could.
“Sorry,” I muttered. “It won’t happen again.”
He fell back beside me, his jaw clenched, his eyes on the ceiling. I could tell he was upset, but all I could do was lie there and look at him. I ate up the sight of how strong his chiseled jaw was, how long his lashes were, the dark stubble on his jaw and chin, and the side of his Cupid’s bow mouth that I could see. His neck was thick, veins standing out along it and his arms. Without his cut on, his chest looked massive underneath his thin gray T-shirt.
He was darkly Adonic, and just looking at him had my heart pounding against my rib cage. “Tell me what’s on your mind,” I urged as I put my hand on his chest.
Both his hands covered my much smaller one, but his touch was gentle, belying the strength that was simmering just below the surface, wanting to be let loose on the world. “I can’t talk about it, babe. Not yet.”
That stung, but I knew if it was MC-related, he wouldn’t ever tell me. “Oh,” I muttered and moved to pull my hand free. “Okay.”
“Rory,” he started, his hold on me tightening.
I stood, forcing him to release me. “I got some of my things from my dad’s house. I need to get them so I can take a shower and give Raven back her clothes.”
He shot to his feet. “I’ll get them,” he offered. “They’re in Raven’s car?”
“Yeah… Thanks.”
After the door shut behind him, I went into the bathroom and started the water for my shower. I barely waited for the water to warm up before I was standing under the spray, letting the powerful jets bite into my tense muscles. I leaned my forehead against the wall of the shower, closing my eyes as I tried to put the day out of my thoughts. Tears spilled from my eyes, but I refused to let myself sob.
I didn’t hear the door open, but the rush of cool air into the steaming shower had my head snapping around. The water flooding down onto my scalp masked the fact that I had been crying as Matt shut the shower door and pulled me into his arms. I went willingly, my lips meeting his halfway as I accepted his hungry kiss.
I wanted him to erase every thought of him with Steph that had tortured me all day long. Wanted him to love me and make me feel like I was the only woman he had ever—and would ever—touch. His hands caught my ass, grinding his rock-hard cock against my stomach for a few seconds before lifting me. My legs wrapped around his waist, my hands holding on to his shoulders for dear life as he pressed me back against the wall under the spray of the shower.
Water cascaded down his back, and it felt like we were hidden from the world with it acting like a waterfall.
Matt entered me quick and hard, but I was ready for him. My body opened to accept him, welcoming him home like it had been years since I had last felt him deep inside my body rather than just hours. I clung to him as he pounded into me, making my ass bounce against the tiled wall.
“Look at me,” he commanded in a voice rough with the feral need I saw shining out of his blue eyes when I lifted my lashes to meet his gaze. “You are mine, and I’m yours. I always have been. Always will be. Nothing will keep us apart. Not your damn father, and not that fucking bitch Steph.”
I jerked at the mention of her name, anger rising in me. Raven must have told him what I had asked earlier. Damn it. I hadn’t been ready to talk about Steph with Matt. Not yet, maybe not ever. Because I didn’t want him to think about his time with her.
And now he was talking about her while he was fucking me.
I beat my fist against his chest, once, twice, but he didn’t even flinch. “Don’t say her name while you’re inside of me.” I pushed at his shoulders, wanting him to release me, but his hold on my ass only tightened, and he thrust into me deep and hard, making my breath catch.
“I’m sorry I fucked her,” he growled close to my ear. “I’m sorry if that hurt you.”
“If?” I half snarled, half sobbed.
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking straight right after you left. Wasn’t thinking, period. I missed you so goddamn much, baby. It was killing me, driving me fucking insane, because I didn’t know if you were safe or not. Didn’t know if your bastard of a father had hurt you or what. I was pissed and hurting, and when I saw her, all I could think of was getting back at your father and that motherfucking DA.”
“Stop,” I sobbed. “I don’t want to hear this.”
“I got drunk, and I stayed drunk, Rory. I was fucking wasted when I did what I did with her, but it meant nothing, and I hated myself when I finally came to my senses. Maybe you weren’t here, but in my soul, you were still mine and I was fucking yours. Even then. My insanity lasted for all of two days, and then the red began to clear and I got rid of her. I couldn’t even look at myself in the mirror for weeks afterward.”
I closed my eyes to block out the tormented look on his face, but I couldn’t shut it out. Could see that same lost and tortured look on his face after I had left him.
“I loved you then, and I love you now. And I’m so fucking sorry I had sex with Steph, that I hurt you by doing that.” He kissed my shoulder, then my neck, making me shiver and clench around his cock that was still rock hard as it sat deep inside my body, unmoving. “I would change it if I could, but I can’t, baby. I fucking can’t.”
I pressed my forehead to the center of his chest. “I always knew you wouldn’t stay celibate. You’re not a monk, Matt. I just… It’s hard to digest when the proof of who you were with while I wasn’t here is shoved down my throat like my father did today.”
“I’m sorry, babe.” Slowly he began to rock into me, keeping the pace steady but no less mind-numbingly delicious. I tried to fight the pleasure, tried to keep my body from melting more and more, but it was hopeless. He knew exactly how to make my body respond to him, how to draw out every little whimper and sigh.
“I love you, Rory. Only ever you. Don’t think of that bitch. Don’t ever think of her because, until Rave told me about her just now, I had completely forgotten about her. She means nothing. No one—fucking no one, girl—means anything to me but you.”
“But it hurts,” I cried, my nails biting punishingly into his shoulders. “It hurts so bad.”
“Fuck, I would take it away in a heartbeat if I could. Don’t let this ruin us, baby. Don??
?t let this come between us.” He stopped moving, his cock completely still inside of me, which drove me a little closer to the edge. “I won’t lose you over her, do you hear me?”
My head fell back against the tile, and I looked up at him with tears clinging to my lashes. “You won’t,” I whispered. “Because as much as I hate the thought of you with her, I can’t let you go. I love you more than I love myself, and I can’t give you up. Ever.”
Relief filled his enthralling eyes. That look, and feeling how hard he was inside of me, told me without words that he loved me, that I mattered the most to him. That was all I needed right then. What I would always need.
Chapter Seventeen
MATT
I WAS STILL TRYING TO catch my breath a long while later as Rory lay on top of me on our bed. She was still gasping, her body still trembling from the force of the last orgasm I had just given her only a few minutes before.
As my heart began to settle into its normal rhythm, I stroked my hands up and down her spine. “So you saw your dad today?” She nodded. “Did you run errands for Raven?” She shook her head. “You should have fucking woken me up, Rory.”
She lifted her head. “Why? You going with me would have only made that meeting more stressful for me.”
“Why?”
“Because he uses you against me!” she cried and rolled over onto her side on the mattress facing me. “It’s what he did today. He threatened your freedom, wanted me to break up with you or he was going to have Campbell charge you for the rape of Steph and her slutty friend Casandra.”
Regret at ever having touched Steph hit me in the gut again, but it didn’t stop me from being pissed that Rory had faced her dickhead father without me. Rory was mine, and that meant I protected her, not the other way around.
“Just to clear everything up regarding those two bitches, did you fuck Casandra too?”
I caught her chin and forced her to look at me. “No,” I told her honestly. “I didn’t touch her. But Tanner had some fun with that one. I think he actually invited a few of the brothers over and had an orgy with her in our living room. I was drunk off my ass at the time, so I can’t say a hundred percent for sure, though.”
Her face scrunched up in disgust, but I saw the relief she wanted to hide. “Your brother was gross.”
“He had his moments,” I agreed, feeling the loss of the man who’d had my back every day of my life, all over again. “But until I met you, I wasn’t any better, baby. I wasn’t a good guy, and all I cared about was having fun.” I didn’t want her to think I was some hero she should put on a pedestal. Until I met her, I hadn’t cared what I did or who I did it with. But when she walked into Hannigans’ on a dare, she turned my life upside down for the better.
She was silent for a long moment, but then she blew out a frustrated sigh. “The past is the past. I don’t want to talk about it, don’t want to think about you with anyone but me.”
“You’re the only one that counts.”
“Good.”
“Now, tell me what happened with your dad today.” Her lips pressed together, and I knew she had been hoping I had gotten too distracted to bring up her father again. “Campbell and Bates haven’t shown up to arrest me, and I sure as fuck am not letting you leave me. Which means you must have handled things with your father.”
She lifted her shoulder in a casual shrug. “We came to a mutual understanding that satisfied us both in the end. He won’t bother us again, I promise.”
“That simple?” I frowned, knowing there had to be more to it than what she was saying. Derrick Michaels was too full of himself to let it go so easily.
“That simple,” she said with a sly smile and sat up. “I’m starving. I haven’t eaten much today. Can we go and see if the chili Raven was making earlier is ready?”
When I heard her stomach growl, I gave in and dropped the subject of her father for the time being. I would get it out of her eventually. If her father really was out of our lives, then there was no rush.
***
It was late when Uncle Jack came back from checking out Boomer’s apartment. I was sitting on one of the couches in the main room with Rory, Flick, Gracie, and Hawk when he walked through the door. As soon as he entered the clubhouse, every brother in the room went silent. The old man’s gaze found mine, and he gave a nod in the direction of Bash’s office.
I kissed Rory quick and hard before getting to my feet. Hawk followed me as I climbed the stairs two at a time to get to my cousin’s office. I walked in as Raven was leaving, but as soon as the door closed behind her, Uncle Jack was talking.
“It had to have been him,” he said to Bash, who was already seated behind his desk. “The place was littered with paraphernalia that could be used to build a bomb. That bastard could have a few with him for all I know.”
My skin began to crawl with the need to slaughter Boomer. He had been a prospect, but he’d still been like a brother to me. I had trusted him—my fucking brother had trusted him, goddammit!
“Any leads on where he might be heading?” Hawk asked.
“One or two. No fucking way he would go back to the Texas charter. Even if Snake is a piece of shit, he wouldn’t welcome Boomer back after he blew up another brother.” Uncle Jack popped his neck left and right, as if gearing up for a fight. “I have my narcs keeping their eyes open. A few are sticking close to Santino’s compound as well.”
“Santino isn’t the one we gotta worry about,” Hawk grumbled. “It’s Enzo Fontana. We gutted his brother looking for Jr. back in New York. He’s the one who wants our heads.”
I didn’t give a fuck who was behind the bombing. I just wanted to make someone bleed, wanted to hear their screams as I flayed their skin back from their muscles and poured salt into their wounds.
There was a double tap on the door. Bash called for the person to come in, and Trigger walked into the room. My tension skyrocketed. “What is it?” I demanded.
“It took a half-dozen calls, but I finally got some answers on the prospect. He was helping the cartel get drugs across the border down in Texas and skimming a little of the profits and the products off the top for himself. The Colombians put a hit on him, so he decided to come this way.”
“No fucking wonder he’s under Santino’s thumb. They own his ass now,” Bash gritted out. “Santino has just as big a hard-on for those bitches as he does for Vitucci. He’s just pissed because he doesn’t have the manpower or the balls to play with the big boys, let alone the men.”
I crossed to my cousin’s desk and slammed my fists down on top of it. “I want Boomer. I don’t give a fuck about Enzo or Santino or the goddamn Colombians. I get that motherfucker. He’s why Warden and my brother are dead.”
Bash’s eyes flicked with electricity, but he gave me a grim nod. “He’s yours. But you do nothing until after the memorial tomorrow. We take the day to respect the dead, and then and only then can you take him out.”
I gave him a nod in appreciation.
“I want Jet and Hawk with you when you go looking for him.”
“Not me,” Hawk spoke up. “Gracie has been too sick lately. I’m not leaving her.”
“Then me,” Bash said without a pause. “Me and Jet.”
“I don’t care who comes, as long as you stay the fuck out of my way when it comes time to put a bullet in his brain,” I told him point-blank.
“You have my word,” my cousin assured me.
After taking care of a few more things, we all left Bash’s office. Rory was still sitting where I had left her half an hour before. Raider had taken my place beside her, with Quinn on his lap, leaving no room for me. Rory stood up when I crossed the room to her.
“Everything okay?” she asked in a quiet voice that only I could hear.
I gave her a stiff nod. “I’m good.”
“Holy shit!” Raven yelled out and came running out of the kitchen.
All eyes were on her as she grabbed the remote and turned on the huge flat screen moun
ted on the wall. “You guys aren’t going to fucking believe this,” she said to the room at large, but her eyes went to Rory after she found the right channel.
It was the local news, and one of the three news anchors was standing outside of the mayor’s office building. “…no news as to what’s behind the sudden resignation of Mayor Michaels…” My gaze shot to Rory, but she kept her eyes locked on the television. “…but sources speculate that he will be putting in his bid to run for governor at the end of the year. A special election will be held next month to fill the position, and we already have confirmation of two of the candidates. District Attorney Royce Campbell will be stepping down so he can put in his bid for the seat, and the other is our very own Jacob Jenkins.”
“Yes!” Gracie squealed. “I knew he would do it.”
“You knew about this?” Hawk asked.
“Oh, it was just something that came up at work today. He asked me not to say anything because he was undecided about running or not.”
“Well, he’s going to get my vote,” Flick said from where she was still seated on the couch.
“What did you do to convince him to give up his job?” Raven demanded with a bewildered look on her face, pulling Rory’s gaze from me to her.
“Does it really matter?”
“No, but I’m curious. I don’t think you just asked him to pretty please go away, and he gave in out of the goodness of his heart.”
“I’d rather not talk about it,” Rory muttered, turning away from everyone, including me. “Just be thankful that he’s leaving.”
“Oh, I’m beyond thankful,” Raven assured her. “I think everyone in this room is thankful.”
“Yup,” a few of the brothers called out.
“Fuck yeah,” Bash and Jet both seconded from behind me.
“Thanks, Rory!” a handful of men called from across the room. “You’re our new best friend, babe!”
I had no fucking clue what was going on, but my gut was telling me that my girl had done something life-changing to get her father to agree to resign and leave me alone. I didn’t like it. She didn’t need to play her father’s games for me. I could take his ass on any day of the week.