Chapter Twenty-Two
BETH DIDN’T SAY much on the ride to his house. Saint tucked her into her car’s passenger seat and texted Gator to pick up his motorcycle later. Gator agreed to deliver it to the house in a few hours, with Rizz’s help. Beth was too distraught to ride home on the back of his bike safely.
He held her chilled hand and didn’t try to make conversation as she stared out the window, lost in thought. She needed this time to absorb everything that happened tonight.
Copper’s face, when Saint strode into the clubhouse, would stay with him for a long time. Shock, betrayal, and hatred. A man he’d respected and admired since the first time they met stared at Saint as though he were no better than a deranged serial killer.
That fucking hurt.
But it had to be agony for Beth.
How had Copper found out? There’s no way Beth told him.
At the very least, she’d have mentioned it so they could run through the pros and cons.
Plus, she’d seemed as stunned as Saint by the course of events.
He refused to believe Gator spilled the beans.
As mouthy and unpredictable as that crazy man was, he’d never out Saint that way.
So who? Did someone see them together? It didn’t seem possible.
They were beyond careful, spending all their time behind closed doors.
He sighed. It was a question for later. Now he had to figure out how to comfort Beth.
When they arrived at his house, she broke contact and left the car without a word. He followed up to his front door, then inside, all without talking.
“I’m going to take a shower,” she said, finally breaking her silence. She spoke in a flat, lifeless tone and carried herself as though beaten down and exhausted. After her announcement, she walked straight into the primary bathroom.
Ten minutes. He’d give her ten minutes before barging in and demanding she tell him what was happening in her head.
As he listened to the shower turn on, he went to his bar cart and poured himself a healthy shot of tequila. After downing it, he poured another, this time a double. They both needed something to dull the edges of pain and shock.
After another minute, his phone chimed with a text from Gator.
Gator: It was Melody.
Christ, Melody was the one to tell Copper. Of course, she fucking ratted them out.
But why? What the fuck did she gain by blowing up so many lives?
What a shit show.
He pinched the bridge of his nose and breathed in and out, trying to calm the raging storm in his bloodstream.
The first order of business was to console Beth.
They could worry about Melody’s motivation and how to fix this catastrophe later.
He set his phone on the back of the couch and stripped his clothes off right there in the den, leaving a pile for later.
Then he grabbed the glass of tequila and walked naked toward his en suite bathroom.
Beth had shut the door, which she didn’t usually do.
More often than not, they showered together, but even when they cleaned up separately, she left the door open.
He loved watching while she was in his shower.
Light and steam came from the bottom of the door, while the sound of rushing water called to him.
He reached out and twisted the doorknob.
It turned with ease. At least she hadn’t locked him out.
“Thank fuck.” He’d tear it off the hinges if he needed to, but it wasn’t his preference.
Warm steam engulfed him as he entered the space.
He fanned it away with a few swipes of his hand.
As the room cleared, the sight before him cracked his heart in two.
Beth stood in the center of the shower, her back to the spray and her face buried in her hands.
Her shoulders shook with the force of her sobs.
Fuck no. This was unacceptable.
Saint opened the walk-in shower door and stepped into the warm stall with Beth. She didn’t so much as glance up when he moved in front of her, showing how lost she was in the sorrow.
Fuck, he hoped he never had to hear the gut-wrenching sound of her crying again.
“Baby…” he said, in a low tone so as not to startle her.
She dropped her hands and peered up at him with her gorgeous, red-rimmed eyes filled with gallons of sadness and pain.
He couldn’t keep from touching her a second longer. He set his drink on the built-in ledge, then wrapped his arms around her and cradled her against him as she wept. Her body jerked every few seconds as her breath hitched from the force of her sobs.
“I’m so sorry,” she eventually whispered, voice agonized.
What? She was sorry?
“Christ, Beth, what the fuck are you apologizing for?” he asked as he gently moved her a step back. He smoothed wet strands of hair off her forehead and handed her the glass of tequila. “Drink this.”
She swallowed half in one gulp, eyes locked with his. His dick stirred when her lips hit the glass, then thickened as her throat swallowed the liquid. “Your turn.” She handed him the glass.
“I already had some. That’s for you.”
“Please,” she said, still offering it to him. Her eyes darkened with need. “I want to taste it on you.”
His gut clenched, and his cock went from semi to rock-hard.
An army of soldiers couldn’t keep him from fulfilling that request. He brought the glass to his lips and poured the rest of the tequila down his throat, staring at her as he swallowed.
Then he set the empty glass back on the shelf next to his shampoo.
Beth raised on her tiptoes, and he grabbed the back of her head, pressing his mouth to hers. He immediately plunged his tongue inside, giving her a taste of the tequila on him and tasting it on her as well.
She moaned and hooked her leg around his thigh, rocking her pelvis into his. He kissed her until his lips felt bruised and his head dizzy from the heat and lack of oxygen.
As soon as their lips separated, she spoke again, “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m so fucking sorry.”
Every word was a goddamn dagger to his chest.
He kissed her again. First, her lips, then each cheek, her eyelids, and back to her addicting mouth. “Stop,” he whispered against her lips. “Do not fucking apologize to me, Beth. For fuck’s sake, I should be apologizing to you for fucking up your family.”
She dropped her head to his chest as she shook it back and forth, mumbling something he couldn’t make out.
“What’s that, baby?” he asked as he dug his thumbs into the tense muscles in her neck.
“I don’t think I’m worth it.”
He stilled as fury crawled across his skin. Not at her, ever, but at every fucking person and circumstance that made her believe something so goddamn wrong. “What?”
“You’ve lost so much tonight. As angry as Copper is, tomorrow I’ll still have my family. But you’re losing everything, Saint. Everything. I can’t possibly be worth that. If you walk away now, you can still have the club. I’m just one person. I’m not worth losing all of your brothers.”
He cupped the back of her head as he stared down at her.
“I want you to listen to every fucking word out of my mouth, Beth. Listen and hear it. The entire world could crumble to dust, and as long as you’re still here, I’ll be a happy man.
You are worth every goddamn thing. There is nothing I would not do, nothing I would not leave behind for you. ”
She blinked. “For us.”
Hell yes. That’s what he wanted. Having a passel of siblings meant he’d never be alone in life, but having a front row seat to Makenna falling in love made him realize he’d been missing something even more important. A person who was his. Just his.
“That’s fucking right. I love you, Beth. Nothing that happened tonight or will happen tomorrow changes that. You are who I want.”
Her eyes widened, and for the first time tonight, she smiled. It lit her green eyes until they glowed. “I love you too.”
“Fuck.” He cupped her face and kissed her again, hard, but briefly.
“What do we do now?” She ran her hands over his back down to his ass. “What do we do, Saint?”
“We show ’em. We show them it’s real. We’re not leaving, we’re not hiding. We show them this is as real as any of their relationships. I’ve found my ol’ lady, and you’ve found your ol’ man. Simple as that.”
A mild lie, of course, but they both knew getting the club on board wouldn’t be simple and were willing to pretend for a while.
He slid his hands down to her ass, kneading the globes as she pressed into him. The water warmed her slick skin. He could do nothing more than touch her like this for the rest of the night and be in heaven.
“Okay, we show them. I guess that’s our only move right now. I’m not ready to talk to my dad yet. Maybe in a few days, after we’ve had time for our emotions to simmer.”
“Hmm, a few days with you all to myself?” He nuzzled her neck, licking the drops of water that cascaded across her skin. “I can try to suffer through that, I suppose.”
She chuckled and playfully shoved his hip. It wasn’t her usual happy laugh, but tonight he’d take what he could get. Any emotion other than sadness counted as a win right now.
Beth ran her hands up his chest, stopping to flick his nipples, sending a zing straight to his cock. “I don’t want to talk or think about this for the rest of the night. I just want to think about you and me and how good your cock feels inside me.”
He still had questions, mainly why the fuck Melody chose tonight to ruin their lives.
Waiting until the morning to find out wouldn’t change anything.
“Sounds like a perfect-fucking-plan to me. But first…” He grabbed the expensive shampoo she kept in his shower and squeezed a dollop of the citrus-scented gel into his hand. “Turn around.”
Beth complied, and he set about washing her hair, taking much longer than was necessary to massage her head. She rested against him, groaning with pleasure as he kneaded her scalp.