Chapter 6 Letty
“Idon’t need you to follow me around all night,” I snap at Gage after we enter the first house on our graduation party list. “You can go back to whatever shit kept you busy and was more important than me.”
His eyes flare. “Leticia.”
Using my full name isn’t going to get him anywhere.
I’m angry. Hurt. And feeling defiant. I nearly lost myself in his touch at the restaurant until I remembered he chose not to be with me the last two years, and I still had no explanation from him.
Making me come during Homecoming was the only time I got to see him, other than the Vipers’ clubhouse.
Why?
“No.” I spin around, shoving him back into the nearest wall. “You can’t just walk back into my life and pretend the last two years never happened.” I have to yell to be heard above the music, which annoys me further.
Ava stands beside me, her arms folded across her chest, and nods. Her bitch face is on. “That’s right.”
He slides an arm around my waist and pulls me into him, putting our bodies flush. His head lowers, and the heat of his breath tickles my ear. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”
“Now?”
“Right fucking now.”
“Where?” I ask, knowing we can’t discuss anything with all the distractions in this house.
“Let me take you for a ride. We can talk at the park.”
“I’m not leaving Ava.”
He frowns, then nods his agreement. “Okay. We’ll stay here and talk across the street where I parked my bike.”
“Fine,” I agree and turn to Ava. “You going to be okay? Want me to stay?” I will if she doesn’t feel comfortable.
“No, you go on. I need a drink.” She winks, pats my cheek, and leaves in search of alcohol.
She can handle herself. I don’t worry about Ava. Her brother takes her sparring nearly every week. I pity the idiot who tries to mess with her.
Gage guides me through the house until we’re outdoors. We stay silent until we reach his Harley. There’s no real privacy, but there’s also no one around. They’re all inside at the party.
“Start talking. Now.”
He sits on the seat and scratches the back of his neck as he faces me. “This won’t be easy to hear.”
Those words don’t alleviate any of the anxiety already starting to build, churning in my gut. “Just say it.”
He opens his mouth to reply when I shake my head.
“Wait. We need to go further back. I want to know,” I swallow, gathering my courage, “why you ignored me after that first night we spent together.” That one perfect night. Everything changed for multiple reasons, and it all originated back to that day. “Did you regret it?”
“Regret? Fuck no.”
He says it so fast that I know he isn’t lying.
“Then?” I ask, letting the question hang.
“Letty, I fucked up.”
I already knew that.
“I shouldn’t have spent that night with you, but I couldn’t stay away. Not after,” he pauses, frowns, and then turns his head to stare out into the street. “Not after that day in the cafeteria. Do you remember?”
Cafeteria? The lunch line?
He notices my confusion. “Fuck.” Gage sighs and reaches for my hand. “You bumped into me in line and knocked the food off my tray. I got pissed.”
Oh! I forgot all about it. I remember noticing his thunderous expression, but when he turned and saw me, he walked away without saying a word. “And?”
“I didn’t expect to look over and see a gorgeous girl with long brown hair and the prettiest blue eyes. It surprised me. I had to walk away because I didn’t want to cause a scene.”
Okay?
“And then I didn’t see you again for weeks. We didn’t share any classes. I planned to talk to you, but it didn’t happen until the Homecoming party.”
Yeah, I remember. So what? “You’re not making sense.”
“That’s when I knew.”
“Knew what?”
He looks like he’s struggling to answer, so I keep talking.
“Did it mean nothing? Were you using me, Gage? Something to brag about to your friends? Just a hookup you wanted to forget? Is that why you ignored and humiliated me at school afterward?”
“No,” he growls, finally looking at me. “During that weekend, I found out something about my father. It ruined everything.”
“What?” I pull my hand away.
“He was dating the woman designing his office, and things had grown serious. When he said her last name and mentioned her daughter, everything clicked. I knew what it meant.”
That he couldn’t face public scrutiny about who his dad dated? Or that I was related to the woman his father was sleeping with?
“And that was what?” I ask, needing clarification.
“I needed to put distance between us.”
“Wow.”
Gage shakes his head. “You don’t understand yet.
I didn’t want to make things awkward, Letty.
My dad never went into detail before that day.
I didn’t know that Cynthia had a daughter, or that she attended the same school I did, until that night.
The same fucking day that we watched the sunrise. Fuck.”
“The same day?” I repeat as he frowns. “That doesn’t seem like a coincidence.”
What if Mifflin had his son followed? A security detail? The Blades are rich. They own half this town and are deeply rooted in its foundation—a lot of old money and political ties. Blades have been mayors and senators.
The Blade lineage doesn’t mix with poor blood like my family. But that doesn’t make sense because he married my mom. I’m confused. This isn’t making sense.
“I wanted more, and I had to walk away. It was too dangerous with you, Letty. It only got harder when they became engaged. I couldn’t fuck around with the girl who would become my stepsister. I was ordered not to involve my family in scandal.”
Scandal? “I see.”
“Those were my father’s words, not mine, Letty.”
“So, he knew about us? The night we shared?”
“Yes. He never admitted it, but he didn’t have to because his reaction proved it.”
“He spied on you.”
“He did.” Gage stares into my eyes with a pain I’ve never seen before now. “I didn’t want that scrutiny to fall on you, Letty. I pushed you away.”
“I’d say it was more than that, Gage,” I reply, swallowing down the sudden lump in my throat.
I back up several steps, and he watches me with a frown.
Gage didn’t have to humiliate me in the process.
Or let his brothers ruin my reputation. It didn’t matter that I was a virgin.
Everyone at school believed the vicious rumors spread about me.
“I know. Fuck, Letty. I know I hurt you.”
I don’t deny it.
“I ignored you because I didn’t trust myself to do the right thing.”
“So you decided to be an asshole instead? Let your brothers treat me like shit?” I can’t keep the venom from my voice.
“No. It wasn’t like that.” He spears a hand through his hair. “I beat Liam’s ass for spreading those rumors. Didn’t you see Theo’s broken nose?”
I blink, trying to remember. They both came to school with unexplained injuries and said it happened at football practice.
“You could have told me. It would have changed so much.” I wouldn’t have hated him.
Maybe it wouldn’t change my broken heart, but at least I had a reason for him pulling away from me.
“Letty, it doesn’t change a damn thing.”
“What doesn’t?”
“The wedding. I don’t care if you’re my family because they exchanged rings and made a vow. That’s their fucking decision, and like them, we can make our own.”
Woah. “What are you saying?”
He pops to his feet and strides toward me, hauling my body close to his. For a few seconds, our breaths mingle before he lifts me, and my legs naturally circle his waist. Without a word, he sits on the seat of his bike again, holding me flush against his chest and groin.
His breath sounds ragged as if he just ran a mile.
A war rages in his eyes for a heartbeat, maybe two, and then he lowers his head until his mouth hovers only an inch above mine.
“You’re the only one I want, Letty. You and no one else.
Not since that night. You’ve haunted me for two and a half years, but not anymore. I’m done with ghosts.”
“I don’t know what that means.” I can see his control slipping. His eyes darken, and that amber color reminds me of rich honey. His body cages me in as he tightens his arms around me.
“It means you and me. Fucking forever, Letty. All or nothing.”
“Gage,” I begin, but he doesn’t let me finish.
Our mouths collide. The kiss is hard and hot and demanding, and I feel sucked into the vortex that is Gage, forced into his will, but this time I’m a willing, eager participant.
God. He consumes me. His scent. His raw sensuality. The lust in his eyes and the fever in his kiss.
I want all of it, every bit of him, and I don’t care that we share a last name because Mifflin insisted on me changing mine. It doesn’t fucking matter. Gage is right. This is about us, not our parents.
He groans into my mouth, thrusting his tongue inside, sucking and twirling, and taking until my fingers pull on the hair at his nape, forcing him to let me breathe. His lips brush mine with every exhalation. And those eyes strip me bare, revealing more secrets I don’t care to find out yet.
The feeling that rises within me is so raw and real that I know the reason I’m so frustrated and annoyed by him is because a part of me loves him too. How can I love someone that I swore to hate?
My palm slides to the spot over his heart, and I feel it pound beneath my fingertips.
“No one else does that to me. Only you, Letty.”
“But you still left me,” I whisper, stuck on that detail. He could have come back at some point and explained what happened. I would have listened.
“I didn’t,” he admits. “I’ve been your shadow this entire time.”
“What?” But that’s not possible.
“I was ordered to keep my distance, but I didn’t abandon you, Leticia. I protected you the entire time and waited until I could tell you the truth. But my fucking heart?” He places his hand on the left side of my chest. “It beat for you every minute and never stopped.”
God. There was a time I would have given anything to hear words like those from his lips. Now? Two years later? I don’t know if they’re enough.
“Gage,” I whisper, my voice catching because this doesn’t seem real. “Who ordered you to stay away?”
He leans back enough to point at the leather vest he wears. I scan the patches on the front—Blaze, Summit Hill Vipers.
“I’m in a motorcycle club, Letty. What my club president says is the law. What he orders is fucking gospel.”
“Biker code,” I realize. I heard of it on television and in movies. I didn’t know it was a real thing.
“Yes.”
“Because of our parents?”
“No, beautiful. It was the age difference. No underage pussy. Sorry.” He winces. “I was nearly nineteen, and you were barely sixteen. I never should have crossed that boundary at Homecoming.”
“Do you wish you would have stayed away?”
“No,” he answers with a growl as his head dips, and he glides his nose along the line of my jaw before trailing his tongue lightly over the skin. Without warning, he attacks my neck. Nipping. Licking. Sucking. Open-mouthed kisses trail along my throat and move down to my collarbone.
I can’t help arching my body into his, rolling my hips, needing more contact, more everything. “Gage.”
“Yeah?”
“Let’s get out of here.”
He doesn’t respond, but his hands grip my ass and squeeze. I can feel how hard he is since my core is smashed against his groin. Lust fogs my brain.
We’ve waited so long to be together. I don’t have any patience left. I’ve stayed a virgin, and I know it’s because I’ve always wanted Gage to be my first. I just didn’t acknowledge it until now.
“Letty, baby, I fucking want you so bad.”
“Then why aren’t we riding this motorcycle to someplace private?”
He groans. “Gonna be the death of me.”
“Why is that?” I’m genuinely curious.
“You have no idea what you do to me, beautiful.”
I really don’t.
“You said it’s all or nothing,” I remind him. “Which one do you choose, Gage?”
“All,” he growls.
“Then be my first, Gage.” I palm his cheek as I stare into his eyes. “But please don’t hurt me and make me regret it.”