I turned around and melted into his arms, burying my face in his chest. His huge biceps encircled me, and I felt tiny in his embrace. Safe.
“You’re not okay,” he said. “What’s going on?”
I breathed in deeply, inhaling his scent—the fucking leather—mixed with the saltiness of the ocean air. My body reacted in ways completely in contrast with my brain. “I just miss you.”
He broke our hug and sat down on the sand, pulling me down to his lap. I straddled him, and his arms folded around my back.
“I missed you, too, sweetheart. But this isn’t what’s troubling you.” He traced the sunken lines under my eyes. “You’ve been having those nightmares again?”
My lips pursed as I nodded. “The only time I don’t get them is when I’m sleeping in your arms.”
“You know there’s nothing I’d want more than to sleep and wake up with you next to me.”
Me, too. But the direction he was steering the conversation wasn’t something I liked to deal with at the moment. “How long are you staying?”
“Enough to celebrateHalloween Bloody Valentine’s Dayand the weekend after.”
I grinned. Not only did he remember our nerdy party, but he was going to stay with me for whole five days.
He gazed at me. “I can stay longer if you’d like.”
“Sure. Stay as long as you can.”
“You know what I mean.”
What he implied was loud and clear, but I really didn’t want to go there.
“It’s not impossible, Cammie,” he pressed.
“We’ve had this conversation a million times already.”
“So what’s one more time?”
Persistent son of a bitch. I should just get up and close the subject, but my feet wouldn’t move and my hands refuses to stop feeling him up. Why was I glued to his lap, adjusting myself to feel more of the erection swelling in his jeans by the second?
He took my hand and kissed it. “Talk to me, sweetheart. You still have concerns about the club?”
I blinked, nudging myself out of the spell he put me under. “That’s an interesting word. The Night Skulls is a club now?”
His lips twisted, and his gaze drifted to the waves.
“Listen, Dusty. I know that you have to stay with the gang to protect your mother. What you do with them is your business alone, and I’d never ask you to leave.”
“Mama doesn’t need protection anymore. Maybe in the beginning, yes, but that was months ago. Everything is settled now. Roar is long forgotten, and no one dares cross me or her.”
Forgotten to them but not to me. It didn’t matter that he was dead. Everything that piece of shit did to me and my family haunted me. Literally scarred me for life. “Can we just postpone this talk?”
“For how long? I’m tired of driving two hours back and forth only to see you for a few days every month.”
“It’s four hours not two.”
“Not on my bike, and don’t change the subject. I told you I’d leave and come here with you. I don’t understand why you keep saying no.”
“Well…”
“Well what, Cammie? Why don’t you want me here?”
“Because I’m scared.” The words fell out of my mouth. I immediately regretted them.
