Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 75833 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75833 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
The words sank into me, heavy and healing.
He leaned down, brushing his lips against mine—soft, deliberate, nothing like the rough demand I’d expected. I melted, the fight leaving me.
His hands slid over me, not rushed, not greedy, just steady. Like he was proving every word he’d just said.
By the time he laid me back against the pillows, my body trembled with something that had nothing to do with fear.
I didn’t need to question anymore. I didn’t need to doubt. He was here. He was mine.
And when his mouth claimed mine again, I let go of everything else.
He moved slow, unhurried, like we had all the time in the world. Every kiss, every brush of his hands over my skin, stripped away the pain of earlier, replacing it with something warm and consuming.
I’d thought he’d be rough, that the fire in him would burn me down. Instead, he was careful, steady, his touch gentle.
When I gasped his name, he hushed me with a kiss, whispering against my lips, “I’ve got you, Mel. Always.”
The world narrowed down to just us—the sound of his breathing, the weight of his body, the way he held me like I was precious.
It wasn’t about proving anything, or taking, or claiming. It was about giving. About showing me I didn’t need to cry myself to sleep anymore.
By the end, when I was curled against him, spent and shaking, I realized I found my place. My home was right here with him. It all simply felt like home.
I must have drifted, because the next thing I knew, his voice was in my ear again, gravelly but soft.
“You don’t ever doubt me again, you hear?”
I nodded against his chest.
“I’ll handle Maria tomorrow. She’s gone. And if I gotta carve it into the walls of the clubhouse to make you believe, I will. You’re mine, Melody Holton. My old lady.”
Tears pricked my eyes again, but this time they weren’t from pain. They were from something deeper, something I hadn’t let myself hope for.
I pressed closer, whispering the only truth I had left. “I hear you.”
His arm tightened around me, pulling me into the safest place I’d ever been.
And for the first time in a long time, I fell asleep without worries.
16
THRASHER
I was at my desk in the garage going over logistics for a run when Tiny said my name standing in the doorway.
“Thrasher.” From the threshold, voice even, eyes steady. “Got a minute?”
“Yeah. Always, brother.”
Tiny entered the office space leaning against the wall. That big frame of his looked settled, like he’d already decided the thing he brought and just wanted to say it right.
“What’s goin’ on?” I wondered.
He exhaled once through his nose, a man opening a valve.
“I wanna marry Lyric.”
No wobble in it. Just the brick of the fact set on the table.
“Yeah?” I said, because a man deserves his own words echoed back before you tell him what you think of them.
“Yeah.” He checked my face like you check the sky before a ride—habit, not fear. “Figured I should run it by you. Any opposition from the club?”
“None.” I didn’t have to think on that. “You’re good for her, she’s good for you. Old ladies should be chosen by the men who’ll carry ‘em, not by a room. Nobody here’s gonna kick dirt on your door for choosing right.”
His shoulders let down an inch I bet only I would notice. Then he lifted a brow and added, “Maybe you could prepare Melody. I don’t want her to kick me in the nuts. Lyric says she’s overprotective and I heard she broke Maria’s nose”
He barked a laugh—fast, loud, the kind that comes from the chest. “What they got out of fucked with their heads. Lyric said Melody feels shit deeper than most but hides it all away. I don’t want her to think I’m taking Lyric from her. But never felt like this before, brother.”
“Fair. I’ll see what I can do for you.” I responded thinking about the way Melody did tuck away into herself rather than wear her emotions on her sleeve. The reaction she had to Maria shocked me but I couldn’t lie and say I wasn’t in love with it. If someone said that shit to me about her, I’d get jealous too.
I couldn’t define what we had like Tiny was with Lyric, but I did know there was something different about her. I also knew there wasn’t another woman around that I craved the way I did Melody.
“They have a bond. It’s like brotherhood level. No one is gonna come between me and my brothers, I don’t want Mel to think I’m doing that with Lyric.”
“She’ll come around,” I said, a corner of my mouth tipping.
He nodded, then thumbed his jaw like there were details to chew. “I’m not doing a circus ceremony. I’ll tell ‘em at church after I give her the ring, then we keep it close. Want you as my best man, Enzo. Want the club in it, but nothing over the top. Lyric ain’t like that.”