Chapter Twenty-Nine
Pike
The party raged all around me and I stood there with a cold beer in my hand, watching it all unfold. There were smiles all around, lots of laughter and celebrating the end of one of the longest shit shows in MC history. Drinks flowed and music blasted through the speakers.
Everyone had come to party. To celebrate our victory and the effective end of the Ghost Riders while we mourned the loss of Angel. The wives and girlfriends were here. The whores. And all the brothers, old and new, decked out in MC gear, had shown up.
Chloe and Gemma were free. Free to live life however they wanted. Free to leave, if that was what they wanted. The thought of them leaving caused my heart to seize up inside my chest, but I wasn’t sure what the right thing to do was. A good man, a supportive man would let her go, right?
That wasn’t me. I was a selfish bastard who wanted Chloe in my life and in my bed every fucking day. I wanted to hear Gemma’s sweet giggles and see that dazzling smile every time she saw me. I wanted them both.
My girls.
T-Bone approached with an amused smile, pressing a fresh beer against my palm. “You gonna tell her, or are you gonna be a pussy about it?”
I slanted a look at my best friend who smirked like an asshole.
I knew what he was doing dammit, and it was working.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Maybe this whole thing was just situational?” That shit sounded like a lie even to my ears, but the thing was, it could’ve been.
“Emotions were running high, and we were forced together in that small, intimate cabin.”
T-Bone nodded, not in answer, but as if he was giving my words serious consideration.
My brows shot up. “Nothin’ to say?”
“Just thinkin’,” he said slowly, watching the party as it unfolded in front of us.
Finally, he shook his head. “I hear what you’re sayin’ man but it’s bullshit.
” He turned to face me, his gaze gravely serious.
“She put herself in the line of fire to save you, Pike. Once she knew you’d been taken, a switch flipped behind her eyes, she found her strength and her courage.
She came up with this plan and decided to go head-to-head with a group of men who spent three years trying to kill her kid.
All of that to save you.” T-Bone took a long swig of beer and then sighed dramatically.
“Don’t sound situational to me. She’s in just as deep as you are. ”
He was right. The Chloe I met months ago was scared of her own fucking shadow. She jumped at every noise, avoided eye contact and had no idea how strong she was. But she found herself when it mattered. Because I mattered. My breath caught in my fuckin’ throat. “Shit man, I love her,” I admitted.
“No shit,” T-Bone shot back with a shit-eating grin on his face, as if he knew it all along. “You haven’t taken your eyes off her all night. You’ve tried but brother, you failed.”
He was right about that. She’d joined the party late wearing a pale pink sundress that showed off all of her best parts. “She’s not ready.”
“Bullshit,” he called again with a laugh-snort.
“I saw you at the cabin, Pike. Your heart was breaking listening to her cry and apologize for being a burden. Do us all a favor and claim your woman.” He patted me on the back and walked back to Faith, whispering in her ear and making her blush. And smile.
I want that.
It wasn’t something I’d given much thought to, a woman for the long run. A kid. A family. I figured I’d have a woman warm my bed when I wanted it but never doing the whole husband and dad thing.
Until now.
Until them.
I scanned the party again until I found Chloe sitting at a table with Peyton and Harper.
She wore a small, almost wistful smile but her eyes told me she wasn’t really there.
Instantly I knew where she was, back in that fucking cabin.
I got two fresh beers from the bar and crossed the space until only the table stood between us. “Hey.”
Her smile went all the way up to her eyes when our gazes connected. “Hey. How are you feeling?”
I shrugged and took a seat, nodding my thanks when the women gave us privacy. “My ribs aren’t broken, just bruised as fuck so… not bad?”
She nodded, blowing out a heavy breath as if she’d been holding it in. “I was so scared, I thought they were going to kill you.”
“Yeah, me too.” I rounded the table and popped the cap on the second beer, setting it in front of her before I took the seat right beside her. “We need to talk.” My tone was serious, and she didn’t miss it.
With a nod and a hard swallow, she nodded. “Okay.”
I had no fucking clue what I wanted to say to her but then the words tumbled out.
“What you did was crazy as fuck. It was reckless.” I took one hand and gripped it a little too tight.
“It was also the most selfless fucking thing anyone has ever done for me.” I blinked, staring off into the distance to get my shit under control.
“I’ve been running from my emotions probably since the day we met.
This thing between us, it shouldn’t have happened. That’s what I told myself at first.”
Tears pooled in her eyes, and she nodded, but she said nothing.
“I told myself it was just lust. Crazy, hot as fuck, out of this world lust. I told myself it was just the heightened emotions of Ash’s death and being on the run. But every fucking word I said to myself was a lie.”
Something flashed in her eyes and that gave me the courage I needed to keep talking.
“I don’t know what kind of cosmic joke the universe was playing when it put us together but goddammit I love you, Chloe.
I can’t pinpoint when it happened, but I know that feeling in my gut when I think about being without you is love.
I know that warmth I get when I even fucking think about earning one of your gorgeous smiles.
I know that you make me feel good and that making you feel good makes me feel good, which is something I never gave a fuck about.
Until you.” I inhaled deeply and let it out slowly, putting my beer down to take her other hand.
“You make everything better just by being there, Chloe. You and Gemma.”
She stared at me as if she didn’t understand the words, a look of pure shock on her face.
Then, she blinked.
Once. Twice.
And two tears slid down her cheeks in a straight line. “Say it again.”
I smiled, sliding closer until her hands rested on my chest. “I love you, Chloe.”
She shook her head and wiped away her tears, but I caught the way those full lips curved into a smile.
“I love you, Pike. So, so much.” She pulled our hands from my chest and brought them to her mouth, kissing my knuckles like she thought I was something precious.
“You brought me back to life when I was doing nothing but surviving. You made me feel things when I thought I’d never feel anything but fear. ”
“Fear. Anger. Frustration.”
She nodded. “Sadness. Guilt. Lust. All of the emotions,” she added with a watery laugh.
“You made me feel again and more than that, you showed me my own strength. You gave me the courage to be strong, and I will love you forever for that act alone. But you healed me. You showed me that men could be good, that bikers could be good.” She pressed her lips to my knuckles again.
“Your gentle strength, the parts of me you helped me reclaim, I’m not sure how I can ever repay that. ”
I swallowed around the big ass lump of emotions that had lodged in my throat. Who the fuck knew a woman could make a man feel shit so deeply? “I don’t need you to repay me. Watching you become the woman you should’ve always been, is enough for me. I just have one request.”
She licked her lips, a slow smile trying to break free. “What’s your request?”
“That you love me forever.”
“Yeah,” she sighed heavily. Her smile grew even bigger as one hand went to my face where her fingertips danced along the days of growth on my jaw. “I can definitely do that.”