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Wesley parked and straddled the bike while taking out his cell, acting as though I wasn’t on the back of his bike at all. It needled my nerves, but I pushed it away and dismounted, using his shoulders and the foot peg to keep my balance. Laura pulled in next to us and put the car in park. I stared at the front door, feeling my stomach twist into a knot.
“What is this place?” Laura asked, sounding gentle as she exited with Max and came to stand next to me.
Looking over the humble one-story cabin, a smile tilted my lips in an effort to find the joy in this scenario.
“This was my dad’s cabin. We used to come out here when I was a kid and camp.”
I wouldn’t mention the significance the cabin had to Wes and me. No one needed to know about that, and I certainly wasn’t going to dredge up old memories.
Max began to bark at a rodent hanging out near a tree and suddenly took off in a gallop toward it. Laura went after him, leaving me all alone with Wes. He had cleared his bike and strode toward the front door.
Dad’s old cabin was made from logs my grandfather had cut down with his bare hands. It had an old red tin roof and a chipped green front door. All of it was in disrepair, including the half porch that used to be fully enclosed and was now mostly only framed, the screens ripped and tattered. The rocking chairs that once sat side by side under the covered porch were rotted and covered in mildew.
“It’s not in the best shape, but at least you’ll be safe,” Wes muttered while unlocking the door and pushing inside.
I followed him, coughing into my shirt as I cleared the threshold. There was a thick blanket of dust on everything, along with a generous scattering of cobwebs. The place had been overlooked and forgotten, and while there was a small piece of me that wanted to cater to it and bring it back to life, the memories were too much.
“Wes, I can’t stay here…just let me stay in town at the motel.” I’d risk it at this point, if he didn’t want to be responsible for us, which it seemed as though he didn’t.
His eyes scanned the space, as if he was trying to see what he could fix. He dipped low and grabbed the back of a chair, righting it until it sat on all four legs, then he dusted it off with a rag from his back pocket.
“It’s fine. Just a little dusting and you’ll be good.”
He was ignoring the real issue, which I knew I hadn’t stated, but like hell would he force it out of me.
I turned toward him and gripped his elbow, so he’d look at me.
“Why do you care if I’m safe? You want me out of your life, remember? Wouldn’t it move faster if the Death Raiders found me? You’d get your clubhouse then.”
His gaze dropped to where our skin made contact. I’d assume he wasn’t affected at all if it wasn’t for the way his eyes widened or the way his lips parted when he focused on my hand.
“How could you even ask that?” His voice came like a whisper, caressing my heart in a way it had no business touching.
Shaking his head, he shifted out of my hold and took a step away.
“You hurt me, Callie. Broke my fucking heart seven years ago, and sure, it took a while to get over you, but rest assured, I did get over you. But I also promised your dad if you were to ever come back, I’d ensure you were safe. I don’t owe you a place in town, or anything else, but I will always be sure you’re protected.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to argue that he’d broken my heart by joining the club. He knew we’d never recover if he did. It was the one request I had made of him when he started getting close to Killian and my dad. He promised me, even after I tried to make it work. I knew deep down we never would. Not when the road would always lead back to where I came from and how I grew up.This fucking place.
“Please, Wes. Just lift the ban and let me stay in town. Anything but here.”
Suddenly he turned around, pinning me with a hard gaze.
Then, within a single breath, Wes was pushing me back toward the wall until he was towering over me, pinning my hands above my head. My shirt rose with the movement, and the brash way he handled my body was somehow so familiar it made me dizzy.
“Are you that much of a pretentious princess that you can’t stay in a dusty cabin?” His nose skimmed my cheek, his knee moving in between my legs until his entire body was flush with mine. “Or is it that you’re remembering our time here together…maybe that night I first fucked you?”
My arms being suspended didn’t hurt, neither did the way my body was being pinned to the wall. But going back to that night, and all the nights after, was akin to dragging a knife down my chest and tugging my heart out. Of course I didn’t want to think of any of our nights together. But he was wrong—I wasn’t thinking of our first time here; I was still thinking of our last.
I pulled at his hold to try to end his line of questioning, but he held firm, his other hand moving to my hip.
“Do you remember what you would say to me when my head would disappear between your legs?”
Why was he doing this? I didn’t want to think about it. It burned me to remember, to go back, when all I had been doing was trying to move forward. He was also acting as though all we did was hook up here. He was completely ignoring that we’d made this place a home.Our home.
I shook my head defiantly.
“You don’t want to remember how you begged me to fuck you?” His knee pressed harder in between my thighs, taunting me to tilt my hips and engage with the friction he was providing.
