Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 77505 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77505 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
“The fuck—” Saint started, catching himself and whipping around.
“You out of your fucking mind?” Colter snapped, taking a threatening step forward.
In my periphery, I saw Syn straighten and start heading in their direction too.
“Do you have any fucking idea how hard I’m trying with her?” Colter said, making me stop mid-stride. “How fucking delicate this shit is?”
“I was just—”
“I don’t give a shit what you were trying to do. It wasn’t your place.”
He took a threatening step toward Saint.
Saint straightened but held his ground.
I was sure fights were a part of their club. In my experience, it seemed like bikers needed to fight on occasion to blow off steam.
But Colter was almost vibrating with rage. A lot like that night back at the motel in Shady Valley when he had a man by the throat.
The difference was that this wasn’t some random guy he could walk away from and never see again. This was his club brother.
“I swear to God, Saint, if you fucked this up—”
“Hey,” I said, finally moving to wedge myself between them.
Saint went back a step, giving me the space to press a hand into Colter’s chest.
“Hey,” I tried again, my voice softer. “Look at me,” I demanded.
Colter’s gaze cut downward, and I watched some of the anger leech from his eyes. But his jaw was still ticking.
“He didn’t fuck up anything.” I saw the uncertainty on his face, the way he wanted to believe. But I hadn’t exactly given him a reason to. “Colter, he just… he cares about you.”
“Caring about me doesn’t involve going behind my back to talk to you.” He was answering me, but glaring over my head at Saint.
“Listen, the only person who is probably going to fuck this up,” I said, pushing my hand harder into his chest, “is me.”
“Don’t say that,” Colter said, finally looking back at me.
I could feel Saint moving away, saw Syn taking Sugar and doing the same.
“Come on. You’re thinking it too. You practically just beat that fact into Saint.”
“That’s not what I said.”
“It’s what you meant, though. This is ‘delicate’ because of me. You have to try so hard… because of me.”
“I didn’t mean it like that,” he insisted, the anger washing out of him, leaving something raw and vulnerable.
“Yes, you did.”
“Dylan…”
“I get it. I’m… difficult. And dense and… what else did he say? Defensive and dumb—”
“That fucking—”
I grabbed his wrist as he tried to storm past me again.
“Stop. For fuck’s sake. I’m trying to… communicate and shit here, okay? This isn’t easy for me.”
Colter turned back, watching me with that intense gaze he gave me whenever I was being open and honest with him. Or when he was deep inside me and moving slow and gentle. It always disarmed me, made me feel weirdly safe even in my most vulnerable moments.
“Okay,” he said, nodding.
“Whether you like what he said or not, he wasn’t wrong.”
“You’re not dumb, Dylan.”
“In general, no. About this kind of thing… maybe. Definitely.”
“You’re not dumb just because this is new for you and you don’t know how to handle it.”
“And he’s not wrong about me leading you around by the dick when you—”
“Oh, I’m gonna fucking kill him.”
“Tell me you haven’t thought about it.”
“About what?”
“About me using you for sex. When I know you want more.”
Colter’s head ducked at that. “I’m not gonna lie to you. We both know I’m in this. And that I’m hoping you might be too. But if this is only sex to you, trust me, baby, I’m not complaining about being used.”
“Ugh. Why do you have to be so freaking nice all the time?” I grumbled, throwing up an arm.
“Look,” Colter said, sucking in a deep breath. “You can’t make your decisions based on what you think I want.”
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“That’s not your problem. That’s mine, if it comes to it. All you have to worry about is what you want.”
“And if I don’t know what I want?”
“Then I’ll happily continue to get led around by my dick while you decide.”
“Don’t joke.”
“Dylan, when it comes to fucking you, I am very, very serious. Now come on. You forgot to test your sugar this afternoon.”
He slung an arm around my shoulders, curling me into him, making it hard to walk along with him. But I didn’t want to move away.
As we made it back to the hotel room, some part of me was slowly starting to accept that I might always want to be at his side.
It was terrifying.
It was also… intriguing.
But no decisions could be made until this job was done.
And as I bummed around with Colter in bed that evening, I had no idea I was just hours away from watching someone wrap a belt around his throat and strangle him.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Colter
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Saint said when I glared at him while we waited for Syn to finish saying his evening goodbyes to Sugar, and Dylan tested her sugar again after having to dose herself with insulin when she’d underestimated the carbs in dinner and had a spike. “You’re pissed at me. We gotta have words. Maybe you want my face and your fist to connect. But I’m not sorry about it.”