When he couldn’t find the spare time to ride through to Texas, he paid the prospects from that chapter to send him hourly reports. He also dropped to diabolical levels and slipped an AirTag into the bottom of her bag, allowing him to track her movements.
He glanced Sunny’s way to find her looking forward, her lips pursed so prettily.
It was the same crazy and possessiveness he’d been feeling all year, longer still.
The first time, he rode to Texas with less-than-good intentions. She’d only been in college a few months, and there he was, stalking around her campus like fucking Heathcliff on the moors. Trying to make right with the new feelings he’d been experiencing that were far from friendly. His wiring had undergone a factory reset, and he no longer understood anything.
She was his Sunny girl. His sunbeam was the best friend he’d ever had. Even when she was a pain in the butt, he’d still choose her over anyone.
But those platonic feelings hadn’t been the ones battering his chest at that moment.
They were brand new and fucking terrifying.
But the moment he saw her step out into the quad, his heart lit up, and his breath settled in his chest.
Unrepentant, he’d warned off so many boys in the last two years; he wondered if she was ever confused why she didn’t get dates.
Seb didn’t know why he craved her the way he did, but he’d had to reconcile that he couldn’t have her when she was fresh-faced, eighteen, and too angelic for him.
Not then.
But it didn’t stop him from watching over her like a demonic protector, warning off anyone he thought was a threat as the wordsshe’s minebattered around his skull on a non-stop loop.
She thought he was aloof.
That he’d rejected her.
When it was the farthest thing from the truth.
“Nothing to say?” he asked.
“What’s to say? You don’t listen, so I’ll do whatever I like.”
That was his stubborn sunbeam.
The expert way she handled him, and she didn’t even realize it.
The lengths he’d go to for her didn’t come with appropriate words.
But she was soon going to find out what he’d do.
SIX
Sunshine
Though she hadn’t planned to return to Colorado for months, it was comforting to be home.
“Thanks for collecting me,” she begrudgingly told Seb as she hopped from the truck once inside the Souls’ compound. The vast building before her was home, and she smiled despite feeling wrung out and tired from the emotional trip of being so close to the man of her heart.
“You say that like you think I’m gonna drop you off and leave.” He replied gruffly, grabbing her suitcase from the back seat. “Let’s get you inside.”
Even though it was late, a lockdown gathered people, and the courtyard was packedwith vehicles.
The compound had expanded a lot since she was a kid. Rider and Zara’s sprawling house was on the same land near the clubhouse. They’d built several smaller properties and a bigger bunkhouse for the prospects.
The clubhouse was a buzz of activity and noise, and she closed her eyes for a second, relishing the familiar sounds.
She smiled at the faces she’d missed and took hugs from those coming up to her. Cash was first, and she hugged one of Snake’s twins. She could only tell him apart from Bowie because he had a neck tattoo, and so far, Bowie didn’t.
