Chapter 26 #2
Don’t overthink it. That’s what Dayna said.
She was right. This is Nic. Not the president. Not the man who runs the club like an empire built on blood. Just the man who holds my heart in his hands and doesn’t even know the damage he can do to me.
His world, the one I’ve stepped into without meaning to, isn’t clean and it doesn’t need to be.
“I’m fine, Nic.” My gaze lingers on his swollen face. “Did you get that looked at?”
“It’s just bruised.” He kisses my temple and then pushes up the sleeves of the hoodie I’m wearing. There are finger marks on my skin, bruises forming where I was grabbed. He freezes, his eyes locked on them.
“I’m gonna kill him.”
“It wasn’t your fault.” I stroke his face, trying to ground him back to me.
“I’m supposed to protect you from this shit,” he chokes out.
“Nic, you did. You fought so hard for me.” I trail my fingers over his swollen face, my chest tight.
I don’t know what other injuries he has, but I’d guess he’s bruised in other places.
“He was police. You’d have been arrested if you’d pushed more than you did, and then what?
Morozov would have been free to take me. ”
His jaw ticks. “He’s never getting his hands on you, Keeley.” He takes a steadying breath. “I’m so fuckin’ sorry you were dragged around like that. Fuck. That shouldn’t have happened.”
“I don’t care if I flashed a few people, Nic.” My gaze slides back to his bruised face. “They treated you like dirt. The way they cuffed you and pushed you around.”
“Comes with the patch, sunshine. We ain’t exactly friends of the police.”
“Except McKay?”
“I don’t give a fuck about him.” His fingers trail over my side. “You pull your stitches?”
“No, they held. You did a good job. Ten out of ten.”
“Can I check?”
This isn’t about the wound. It’s control. He needs to feel like he’s got something back. I lift the hem and his thumb brushes over the edge of the bandage before he peels back the gauze. The gentle touch of his fingers hits me in the chest.
He’s capable of terrible things—all the guys are. I’m not stupid. I know they’re not saints. But not with me. Never with me.
He flicks his gaze at me. “You sure you’re okay?”
I’m not, but I also am.
“I’m better now you’re here,” I say truthfully.
Nic presses his forehead to mine while the pieces of him that broke in that room are trying to glue themselves back together. “Bird—”
I cover his mouth with my finger so I don’t flinch at his name, so I don’t have to scrub my skin again. “Don’t. He doesn’t belong here, Nic. Not with us.”
He grabs my face between his hands and pulls me in, his eyes dropping to my mouth. But he doesn’t close that last breath of space between us. He lingers, hovering near, but not where I want him.
“I don’t deserve you.”
“Yes, you fucking do,” I snap before I can stop myself. “Don’t you ever say that again. You’re a good man, Nic, and you don’t get to decide what I deserve.”
He stares at me like I just handed him the universe. “Fuck, sunshine. You don’t know what you do to me, do you?”
“Probably the same thing you do to me.”
He moves then. Fast and without warning. His mouth finds mine in a clash of teeth and tongues as my arms wind around his neck.
Every inch of my body feels electrified as the world drops away. This isn’t just a kiss. It’s a promise of something deeper. A future we’ve been building from the moment he pulled me out of that cage.
My knees wobble and my pulse stumbles as I chase him back with the same relentless need he’s got for me.
I melt into him, a desperate sound escaping the back of my throat. My skin is too hot, my body awake, but he takes his time, savouring this like he thinks he’ll never get it again.
Fuck that.
“I need you,” I whimper against his mouth.
“You have me.”
I fumble for his belt, my mouth still fused to his. “No, I mean, I need you inside me, Nic.”
“Keeley—”
I get the buckle undone, feeling my way with my hands because my mouth is still busy branding his. “I don’t want to wait anymore.”
“Sunshine, stop.” His fingers wrap around my wrist and when I pull back, the look on his face almost kills me. He looks like he’s about to lose everything.
“What? Nic, what’s wrong?”
“I can’t do this without tellin’ you somethin’ and I don’t know how you’re gonna look at me after.”
Don’t overthink it.
“You forget to pay your taxes?”
“What?”
“Getting a parking fine?”
His mouth pulls into a tight line. No sign of the usual half-smile he gives me when I’m being mouthy. “Keeley, I’m not a good man.”
There it is. The fear he has that I’ll see who he is beneath the patch.
Separate the man from the title. That’s what Dayna meant. But how can I? Nic is Phoenix and Phoenix is Nic. President. Man. Lover. They’re all the same.
“You’re good to me.” I press my hands to his chest. “That’s all that matters.”
“I didn’t expect…” He trails off. He looks like he wants to reach for me, but doesn’t know if I’ll let him. “I didn’t know I’d find you. If I had—” He closes his eyes briefly. “Your brother… Keeley, I—”
“My brother was a piece of shit, Nic.” I interrupt him before he can tell me anything. “I don’t care what happened between you. Whatever it was, he undoubtedly deserved it.” I close the space again, needing nothing between us more than ever now.
He’s trembling, like he thought I’d walk away if he told me whatever truth he’s holding. I stare up at him, this man who brings me food when he knows I haven’t eaten, who sits with me while I’m mid-panic attack coaching me how to breathe.
“Sunshine, let me explain—”
“No.” I put my finger over his lips. “Fuck Daniel. And I mean that sincerely. Fuck him. That raid happened so they could drag me out of here and sell me to some fucking sick bastard because of him. Everything bad that’s happening right now is because of him.
So I wholeheartedly mean it when I say I don’t care about anything about him.
This? Whatever it is between us is all that matters to me. ”
I kiss him softly at the corner of his mouth, his jaw then his lips. He sinks into me after a moment, his arms wrapping around me.
The truth is, Nic means more to me than Daniel ever could. No one has ever made me feel the way Nic does. No one has ever taken care of me like this either. In the last few weeks, Nic has done more for me than my brother did in my entire life.
And that means more than whatever loyalty he thinks I might have for a man who treated me like a product.
“I don’t want to ever hear my brother’s name on your lips when they were just on mine.” My eyes stay locked on his. “But if you want to beat yourself up for whatever you did? Fine. But do it after you’ve fucked me.”