“There’s my perfect little psychopath.”
Her eyes light up, just as they always have, as I say it.
I don’t even need to look in the mirror to see what it is. I already know that she’s branded me just as I have her.
“There.” She smirks. “Now we match.”
“Like I haven’t been walking around for weeks now, marked by you.” I laugh out, sitting up from the desk. The slight stinging comes from the wound as she hands me a towel that had been sitting next to the couch in the office.
“That’s different. No one knows that’s my blood.” She laughs again, but I grab hold of the towel and before she can let go, I pull her over to me again.
She’s standing between my knees again as I look the few inches up at her eyes. “Everyone knows you’re mine, so who’s else’s would it be?” I growl out, not sure where the territorial urges that I’ve been having for her for the past few months… fuck, the past few years, have been coming from.
“But I’m not yours.” She matches my glare.
“Fine, everyone knows you’re my girl.” I say it like there’s a fucking difference.
She laughs to herself before leaning in to me again. “Better be careful Zane, sounds like you’re figuring out what feelings are.”
Perhaps it’s not afiguring outsituation.
She attempts to pull away, but I just tighten my grip on her. There’s so much that I should tell her, so much that I should admit to myself, but I can’t. I can’t bring her into all of this. I can feel her softening under my touch the longer I keep her close to me. I can see her eyes letting the pain show through. This is the look which always causes me to leave. Causes me to run. I know what she wants, even if she won’t admit it to herself. And in the dark hours of the night, I know what I fucking want, too.
I’m convinced that she knows how I feel. How could she not?
“Tatum…” It comes out in nearly a whisper, but I trail off as I watch her shake her head.
“Stop.” She pleads, before shaking her head faster this time as if it will clear out the thoughts and then she lets herself laugh, almost as if she’s pushing away any ounce of emotion that she may be having. “I don’t think most of us know what you mean by that.” She smirks at me, letting her hand come to my chest. “Because plenty of men still hit on me.”
“And you go out with plenty of them.” It’s not a question, because I know she does, and who am I to stop her? She’s right. Most of us, myself included, have no fucking clue what I mean by that. All I know is when I say it, it feels right.
“Why shouldn’t I? Does being ‘your girl’ mean that I’m not allowed to fuck other men, even though I have to hear all about the girls you fuck daily?” I furrow my eyebrows, curious about how she has to hear it. “You want nothing serious? That’s fine, I don’t either.” I see a brief flash in her eyes, almost like she’s lying about that. I should tell her that’s not the case, I should explain to her, make sure that she knows, but fuck, I’m not even sure if I know. “We live our own lives, and when it’s convenient, we fuck. Neither one of us expects anything else.” Her eyes give her away as she lies to me.
I just stare up at her, confused. Never has Tatum lied to me.
She laughs, and it surprises me as she pulls away from me again, this time walking over to the door. “Don’t be a hypocrite.”
“Tatum, stop.” My voice sounds almost pained.
And she does. Slowly, turning around and looking at me, pleading with me to say something… something to keep her from walking out of the door.
But I can’t tell her, I can’t say what I want to, and we stare at one another for far too long before she shakes her head, turning to open the door and leaving.
Go fucking after her.That voice screams in my head, but I know I can’t. I sigh as I turn, moving back to the seat and sitting down, the slight stinging as I do it.
Looking down, I pull the kutte away from my body and can already see the trickle of blood from where she ran the blade across my skin.
There’s a knock on the door as I look up and Linc walks in.
“Dad called. They need us.”
We ride out to LA, ready. I’m not exactly sure what Ro needs help with, but whatever it is, I’m in.
When we pull up to what was once a church that the club had made into their clubhouse when I was a kid. I never realized how comical the whole thing was until I got older, and it still makes me laugh whenever I come here.
Linc walks into the clubhouse behind Axe and I. We nod to the club as we pass by, walking back towards Ro’s office.
He’s on the phone when we walk in but he quickly hangs up.
