Chapter 13
13
TAMARA
I couldn’t sleep. The bed was far too empty without Talon. Even wearing one of his shirts and clutching his hoodie didn’t help. I kept staring at the door as though he might walk through it at any second. But he didn’t.
Every minute that passed without Talon made me wonder what was happening. If he was okay.
Eventually, I gave up trying and slid out of bed. After tugging on a pair of sweatpants and comfy socks, I padded down the hall. The big lounge area was softly lit with a couple of old lamps and had a low murmur of voices coming from the TV. I wasn’t surprised to find a few of the old ladies curled up on the black leather couches with knit blankets and half-finished mugs of hot drinks.
Sadie looked up from her seat, her slightly rounded belly pronounced under a big black T-shirt that her husband Hunter had probably given her. “Trouble sleeping?”
I nodded, hugging myself tightly. “The waiting is so hard.”
Dahlia was sitting next to Sadie and patted the cushion beside her. “Come sit. It’s easier when you have company. Molly has the twins, so I can wait here for Kye. We take turns during club business.”
I sank down next to her and let the warmth of the room settle into my bones. Sheila sat across from us in an armchair, her knitting needles clicking steadily. She glanced over at me with a motherly smile. “You want tea? Or some hot cocoa? I made some in case I found you girls waiting here on your men.”
I shook my head and whispered, “Thanks, but I’m okay.”
“You look like you’re gonna vibrate out of your skin,” Sadie murmured gently. “You love him already, don’t you?”
I blinked fast, the sting behind my eyes catching me off guard. “I think I did the moment I saw him. I just didn’t admit it until now.”
“You’re not alone in that,” Sheila reassured me with a soft smile. “Savage proved to be just like his club brothers when he met you. When an Iron Rogue finds their one, they choose them with everything they’ve got.”
“I wish I’d been brave enough to tell him how I felt before they left,” I admitted. “What if something goes wrong?”
“Then he’ll crawl back bloody just to hold you,” Dahlia replied without hesitation. “Just like Kye would do for me.”
The room quieted after that. Eventually, someone draped a blanket over my legs and dimmed the lights.
I curled up on the end of the couch, hugging Talon’s hoodie to my chest and breathing in his scent. Only then did the knot in my stomach loosen enough for sleep to finally find me.
I wasn’t sure how much time had passed when a hand brushed against my cheek. I jolted awake, heart leaping before I was even fully conscious.
“Easy, baby,” a rough voice murmured. “It’s just me.”
Talon was back.
I blinked, trying to shake off the fog of sleep, but the second I saw his face, the knot in my chest unraveled so fast that I almost couldn’t breathe. He crouched beside the couch, his palm cradling my cheek and his eyes locked on mine like I was the only thing in the world that mattered.
“You’re okay,” I whispered, reaching for him with shaking fingers.
“I told you I would be.” His voice was low and tired as his thumb swept under my eye, catching the moisture I hadn’t realized was there. “Didn’t I promise to come back to you?”
I nodded before throwing my arms around his neck and burying my face against his shoulder. He was warm, solid…and everything I needed.
Talon stood in one smooth motion, lifting me into his arms as though I weighed nothing. I didn’t care that we were in the middle of the lounge with people around us. It didn’t matter to me if anyone saw us as I curled into him and held on.
He carried me down the hallway and back to our room without saying a word. The door clicked shut behind us, and then I was in his lap on the bed, straddling him, my knees on either side of his hips. I cupped his face in my hands and took in every inch of him.
“You scared the hell out of me,” I breathed.
“I hated leaving you,” he rasped. “But it was necessary.”
I leaned in, brushing my lips across his. When I started to pull back, he tangled his fist in the back of my hair to hold me close as he deepened the kiss.
I was breathless when he finally let me go, but I still managed to whisper, “I love you.” The words tumbled out in a rush before I could second-guess them, but I had no regrets about saying them. “I didn’t say it before, and I should’ve. I don’t care if it’s too soon because I love you so much.”
His eyes darkened, and a deep growl rumbled up his chest before he devoured me like a man coming undone. His kiss told me he felt the same, but when he finally ripped his mouth from mine, he gave me the words too.
“You better,” he growled. “I love you so fucking much, Tamara. Never lettin’ you go.”
Talon shifted us slightly on the bed. One arm remained wrapped around my waist as he reached toward the nightstand and pulled open the bottom drawer. When he turned back to face me, he held something in his hand.
My breath caught the moment I realized what it was. My name was right there, stitched on the front of the black leather vest. And on the back, in stark, unapologetic letters: PROPERTY OF SAVAGE.
“Oh my goodness,” I breathed.
He held the vest out to me. “Fox gave this to me yesterday. But I didn’t want all the shit with the clinic overshadowing makin’ you my old lady.”
“Talon,” I whispered, my fingers trembling as I reached out to touch it.
“You already wear my shirt, sleep in my bed, and hold every damn part of me. Everyone already knows you belong to me.” His voice was thick with emotion in a way I hadn’t heard before. “But I wanted to make it official.”
I swallowed hard. “Even without the property patch, I was absolutely yours.”
“Still need you to wear it,” he murmured. “Because you’re mine, and I want the world to know it.”
I blinked fast, my chest aching with how much I felt for him. “This means I'm your old lady now?”
His grin was slow and dark. “No, baby. That happened the second you let me touch you like you were already mine.”
I laughed through the tears threatening to spill. “Okay, but now it’s stitched in thread, too. So nobody can miss it.”
“Damn right, it is.” His expression shifted, eyes turning fierce again as he pulled me against his chest. “You’re mine, Tamara. That doesn’t change. Not ever.”
Talon leaned in and pressed a kiss to my temple, followed by my cheek, then the corner of my mouth. They were soft touches that made my breath hitch. But when I turned my head and brushed my lips against his, the tenderness between us snapped into something else entirely.
He growled low in his throat and flipped me onto my back, pinning me with the weight of his body. “You’re mine.”
“I know,” I whispered, heart pounding. “And you’re mine too.”
“Damn fucking straight.” He kissed me hard and deep. It was a claiming, his tongue sweeping into my mouth while his hand slid beneath the hem of my shirt to splay over my bare stomach. He pulled back just enough to look down at me, his thumb tracing lazy circles against my skin.
“I’m gonna put a kid in you,” he murmured, his voice rough. “Might be tonight if I haven’t already done it. Soon, you’ll be full of me, wearing my ring, my patch. Every fucking thing I can give you. All of me.”
My breath caught, and I didn’t even try to stop the rush of emotion that flooded me. Talon didn’t make promises he didn’t intend to keep, so I knew I could count on the future he described.
“Your ring?”
He brushed his thumb over my finger. “Already ordered it, just waitin’ on the jeweler since I wanted the sapphire to be a perfect match for your eyes.”
I loved that he had put so much thought into my engagement ring. There were details to figure out, like me leaving Lainie without a roommate, but I had no doubt that we’d work it all out. Together.
“I want all of it,” I whispered, not trying to hide everything I felt now that we both knew where we stood with each other. “You and me. Babies. Building a family.”
His eyes burned hotter. “You’ll have it.”
He kissed me again, slower this time. Like he had all the time in the world to remind me who I belonged to…because he did.