AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"What am I going to do?" I whisper, sinking down into my chair once the front door slams behind him. Tears spill down my cheeks, grief welling up hard and fast. He's my only family, and I feel like I'm losing him.
You need to leave, little one. If you don't, he's going to drag you down with him.
I reach in my pocket and pull out the business card Andreas gave me last week. It's wrinkled beyond repair. I've kept it in my pocket all week, afraid if I left it out, someone would find it and know that he was here. I told myself to throw it away a thousand times, but I couldn't.
Every time I'd think about throwing it away, I'd think about his lips on mine or the way his arms felt around me, and I'd just…slip it back into my pocket. I'm not even sure why.
We're from two entirely different worlds.
We have nothing in common.
He's my brother's enemy.
But I don't think any of that matters because, right now, I desperately want to see him again. And not because I need his help either. I just…really want to see him.
Please don't let me regret this,I pray.
Chapter Three
Andreas
Ishouldn'thavekissedher.
I should have put her on the back of my bike and gotten her the hell out of there.
Fuck. Why didn't I demand her number?
I pace around the living room, those three thoughts playing on an endless loop in my mind just like they have every other damn day for the last week. I'm slowly losing my fucking mind over Catriona Grady. Actually, scratch that. There's nothing slow about my descent into madness. I'm not sinking one level at a time like Dante traversing hell. I stepped off the ledge the second I set eyes on her and have been in a freefall ever since.
She's a beautiful little blonde with the greenest eyes I've ever seen. She had my dick hard as soon as I heard her voice. And then I got my hands on her. Every inch of her is soft and curvy, just right for a man like me to sink into. Feeling her up against me had me ready to come unglued.
And then I looked into her eyes. She was made for night, but she isn't moonlight, ephemeral and constantly changing. She's the sun, vast and unyielding. The kind of light that burns bright and hot, eclipsing everything else. My entire universe reordered itself in that moment, stationing her right at the center of it.
I can't even explain it. I'm thirty-one years old, and I've never felt anything like that before. Ever. Realizing she isn't mine and I have no claim on her…my heart actually fuckinghurts. Knowing she's tangled up with the Hell's Vipers has every protective instinct I have screaming in fury. I want her here with me, where I know she's safe.
But short of kidnapping her, there's not a whole lot I can do besides wait her out. Like with Autumn, she's skittish, nervous. God only knows what lies her brother and the Vipers have filled her head with about me and my brothers. If I push too hard, all I'm going to do is make her bolt. Or tip my hand to her brother and drag my brothers into a conflict we're trying like hell to avoid.
If patience is a virtue, I better be a motherfucking saint soon.
Staying out of Copper Creek is taking every ounce of restraint I possess. I know Catriona will come to me though. I've never been more certain of anything. She looked at me like she felt the same thing I did—the stirring of something deep and powerful, a desire to be closer to me that she couldn't explain. It spooked her, but she felt it.
I just have to wait for her to get curious enough to want to feel it again.
She's stubborn, but I didn't expect it to take quite this long. I may have to shackle myself in the basement if she resists much longer. Otherwise, I'll be showing up in Copper Creek again.
Cash is already pissed at me and Giant both for poking around over there in the first place. Not that I blame him. We let a teenager get the drop on us. Had she been one of the Vipers, our night would have ended a hell of a lot differently than it did.
One of these days, I'm going to stop letting my best friend talk me into doing stupid shit with him. Preferably before it gets us both killed.
"Fuck," I groan, grabbing the remote and clicking on the television.
"Please tell me you aren't about to watch Skinemax," Autumn says from behind me.
I turn to see her grinning at me from the bottom of the stairs, her hair in a messy bun on top of her head. Her pajamas have little ducks all over them. She always did love the damn things. I think they're part of the reason she fell in love with saving the world. She used to cry at the Dawn commercials.
"Skinemax?" I arch a brow, not entirely sure I even want to know.
"You've been cranky all week," she says with a shrug. "Porn is basically a happy pill. You should take like six of them and wake up less crabby tomorrow."
