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But he just shrugged that away.
“You and me,” he said to Sylvie. “We have a date on the couch tomorrow to watch She’s The Man.”
“What?” she asked, her brows pinched as she looked at him.
“Female soccer player’s team gets cut. So she decides to disguise herself as her twin brother at his boarding school to get on that soccer team. Where she falls, in male costume, for her teammate. Hijinks ensue. It’s a classic,” he insisted.
“If you say so,” she said, but her eyes were warm. “I’ll be there,” she added.
With that, he was gone, and I flicked on the TV for some background noise as she picked at her food.
“Shut up,” she said, giving me small eyes as I watched her shove all the snack cakes into the top drawer of the nightstand.
“I didn’t say anything,” I said, smirking at her. “You want to hoard food like a squirrel, that’s none of my business.”
“If I take it back to the kitchen, Dezi is going to eat it.”
“Can’t argue with that,” I agreed.
She put her tray of half-eaten food on the nightstand before curling up on my chest, giving me a tight squeeze.
“Thank you for coming to save me,” she said, voice small.
“Looked like you were doing a pretty good job saving yourself,” I told her, my hands stroking down her back.
“Right. Hiding in a shed,” she scoffed.
“Hey, the image of you holding that rake pole was terrifying,” I said, my smile slipping into my voice. “Five-feet-two inches of honey-badger rage.”
“I need to get to self-defense classes as soon as possible.”
“Not gonna argue with that. Think it’s important. But you won’t need it. Not letting anything like that happen to you again.”
“How can you prevent it? I’m fantastic. I could have fifty more stalkers in my lifetime,” she said, and I had a feeling she was leaning on humor because she was feeling raw again.
“A hundred, at least,” I said, playing along. “But I’d make sure they never got close to you.”
“It is nice to have a big, burly biker boy…” she trailed off at that last word. “Guy around,” she decided.
“‘Case this isn’t clear yet, I’m your man,” I told her. “Makes you mine too. And I protect what’s mine,” I reminded her. “So does this whole club.”
She gave me a tight squeeze at that, but when she spoke, she tried for light again. “It’s pretty much the only reason I’m with you. For the club benefits,” she teased.
“And the orgasms,” I suggested.
“Right. Yeah, can’t forget those. They’re very important,” she agreed.
We fell silent then, both of us lost in our own thoughts.
Until, eventually, we both fell asleep.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Sylvie
You wouldn’t think that a club full of rugged men would make you feel like you were wrapped up in a warm hug after a bad day, but that was exactly what it was like the following morning.
I woke up to Voss handing me a cup of coffee, and telling me he had to “handle a few things,” but that Brooks and Sully were around if I needed them.
Figuring those “things” might have to do with, well, the murdering of my kidnappers, I figured I really better not question him about it further.
Maybe I should have been conflicted about that whole thing. I mean, there was no denying the evidence of it on him. His shirt had been splattered. His knuckles were busted open.
I didn’t ask about it.
Maybe one day I would.
But it was all too fresh, and I wasn’t sure I wanted any more unsettling images in my mind. Not just yet anyway.
Rolling out of bed, feeling my thighs burning, reminding me of the running, and how I needed to exercise more to avoid the jelly legs.
Not that I planned to have to run for my life again, but, hey, just in case.
“Heya, buddy, you feeling better?” I asked, kneeling down in front of Irwin’s enclosure. He was sitting on top of one of his rocks under his basking light that I’d left on all night, worried about the sub-par conditions he’d been kept in for weeks. “Want some more food?” I asked, reaching for the containers of bugs stacked up next to the cage, and dumping more than a healthy handful in there.
I had to get him more of the greens and eggs after I ventured out of the room.
It felt wrong to look so… not battered, because I felt it. In my body, in my soul.
Sure, I had the cut on my temple, but it had scabbed over during the night. There was a little black and blue around it, but nothing too striking.
Exhaling hard, I brushed my teeth, pulled up my hair, then climbed into my uniform for the day—a pair of my leggings and one of Voss’s big hoodies.
“Hey, there, sweetheart,” Sutton greeted me in that charming drawl of his. “How you feeling?”
