Chapter Twenty
Tempi
The bar was quiet.
That kind of quiet that only settled in after hours, when the floors were mopped, the chairs flipped, and the world outside faded into the hum of neon lights and the faint scent of whiskey and citrus cleaner.
I wiped down the bar with slow, lazy strokes and let the last Halestorm song echo from the old jukebox. My hips swayed to the beat, and a smile tugged at the corners of my mouth.
Twister was coming.
Swift and Gramps were out front waiting for him. Once he got here, they would leave.
I’d worked in a daze all day, floating on the memory of his mouth on mine, his hands on my body, the way his voice had turned rough and possessive when he promised he’d come back.
“I’m leaving! The hot bikers said they would walk me home,”
Britta called from the entryway.
I turned toward her, caught her smirk, and rolled my eyes.
“Try to behave,”
I laughed.
She gave me a knowing wink.
“I will as long as you manage to make it to your bedroom this time, babe.”
“Bye, Britta,”
I drawled.
“And I am never telling you anything ever again!”
“Sure, sure,”
she laughed.
“I’ll see you tomorrow.”
The bell jingled, and then it was just me again.
For about three seconds.
Boots sounded against the hardwood floor behind me.
My pulse jumped.
“I didn’t even hear the door open,”
I said without turning around.
“I ducked in when Britta walked out,”
Twister rumbled behind me.
I turned, and my breath caught. Jesus.
Black jeans, cut thrown on over a white tee that was already clinging to his chest like a second skin. His hair was a little damp, shower-fresh, but his eyes? Wild. Hungry.
He didn’t say anything else. Just walked toward me.
I dropped the rag on the counter and met him halfway.
He stopped a foot away.
I stepped into him.
“You came,”
I whispered.
“Told you I would,”
he said, low and rough.
My hand slid up his chest.
“I kept the bar warm for you.”
He growled, just once, then grabbed my waist and hoisted me onto the bar top.
Twister’s grip on my waist was solid, commanding, but there was a reverence to the way he lifted me, like I wasn’t just some girl he was screwing around with.
Like I was something more.
I landed on the bar top with a soft gasp, and my knees spread to frame him instinctively. My hands clutched at the collar of his cut and yanked him toward me.
“I missed you today,”
I whispered.
He didn’t answer with words.
He crashed his mouth to mine, all heat and hunger. His tongue swept into my mouth like he owned it, and he had the right to explore every inch. I arched into him, and my thighs squeezed around his hips. I needed more.
His hands slid up my sides as he dragged the shirt up over my head and tossed it aside. His lips followed the line of my jaw, down the column of my throat, and his hot breath skimmed my skin. I trembled as he found the soft spot beneath my ear and bit, just enough to make me whimper.
“You taste like heaven,”
he growled, his voice thick with lust.
“And I want all of it.”
My fingers fumbled with the hem of his shirt, desperate to feel him skin to skin. He helped me and pulled it over his head in one fluid motion. His chest was broad and firm, inked and beautiful, and I couldn’t help but run my hands over every ridge of muscle.
“God, you’re unreal,”
I whispered.
His mouth curved against mine.
“I could say the same, doll.”
His hands were everywhere. Sliding down my back, gripping my thighs, squeezing my hips like he didn’t want to let go. I clutched him just as tightly, and my nails dug into his shoulders.
The kiss turned urgent. Desperate. Like we were both chasing something we couldn’t name.
His fingers slid beneath the waistband of my shorts and tugged them down. I lifted my hips in response and let him peel them away. I was wearing nothing underneath.
He groaned, low and primal, and pressed his forehead to mine.
“You’re gonna ruin me, Tempi.”
“Then let me,”
I whispered.
His mouth found mine again, even hungrier than before. My body arched into him as his hands roamed, possessive, greedy, familiar. The heat between us built like wildfire, and when he pushed me back gently, he laid me down against the cool surface of the bar, and I shivered from the contrast. The wood was smooth beneath my back, but cold enough to make me gasp when it met my skin.
Thank God for a big bar.
I was never going to look at it the same way again.
Twister stood over me like a storm about to break, his body casting mine in shadow as his hands framed my hips. My legs parted for him instinctively, like my body already knew what came next.
He popped open the button of his jeans, and they dropped to the floor. He kicked off his boots.
We moved together as I turned to lay horizontally on the bar, and he climbed up between my legs.
“I need you,”
I whispered. My voice was ragged and hungry.
His eyes locked on mine, wild and intense. It was like he could see straight through my skin to the ache beneath it. His hand slid up the side of my neck. His fingers were rough with calluses but gentle in the way they cupped my jaw.
“I’m yours,”
he said, and God, the way he meant it shattered something in me.
The words hovered between us.
Then he kissed me.
Not soft. Not sweet.
It was claiming and desperate and filled with everything we hadn’t said until now.
His mouth crushed mine, and his tongue swept deep as I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and pulled him closer. His weight settled over me and pressed me into the bar as he devoured my mouth and ground against the apex of my thighs.
He stared down at me like I was something sacred. Like I was his.
“You’re so fucking beautiful,”
he murmured and trailed kisses down my neck. Between my breasts and over the curve of my ribs. His hands were everywhere, steadying my hips, brushing the inside of my thighs, stroking my skin like he couldn’t get enough.
“Please,”
I breathed, lifting my hips to meet him. “Twister—”
He growled low in his throat, and when he pushed into me, it wasn’t rushed. It was deep, slow, and deliberate. Like he needed me to feel every inch of him.
I gasped and clutched his shoulders. My back arched off the bar, and his hand slid behind me to cradle the back of my neck, keeping me close.
His forehead dropped to mine.
“You feel like heaven, baby.”
We moved together like we’d been made for this. His thrusts were strong and steady, while his hands gripped my thighs as he drove deeper. All I could hear was his breathing and his voice in my ear, “Tempi…”
God, the way he said it.
Like a prayer. Like a promise.
I was already there, shaking apart beneath him, and my nails dug into his shoulders as pleasure surged. He kissed me through it, swallowed my cries as I came undone, and then chased his own high with a deep, desperate groan that made my whole body clench again.
He collapsed against me, and his weight ground me in the best way.
We stayed like that, sweaty, breathless, tangled up on the bar as the world slowly came back into focus.
I ran my fingers through his hair and was still stunned by how easily he’d wrecked me in the best way possible.
“I’m never wiping this bar down again,”
I muttered.
Twister chuckled, low and rough, and lifted his head just enough to look at me. His grin was wicked and satisfied, but his eyes? Still soft. Still mine.
“Good. I plan on doing this again.”
“You all right?”
he finally asked, voice low and rough from everything we’d just done.
I nodded against him.
“Yeah. Better than all right.”
He exhaled hard, and the sound rumbled against my cheek.
“That’s good, doll. I wasn’t planning on this,”
he said and brushed a strand of hair away from my face.
“Didn’t think I needed anything or anyone. I’ve been leading the club, setting up shop, focused as hell… and then you.”
He looked at me like I was something holy.
My throat tightened. “Twister…”
“I’m serious, Tempi. You... you make me want things I thought I buried a long time ago. You calm the storm in my chest, even when I’m pissed off.”
A laugh slipped out of me.
“Wow. So romantic.”
He grinned.
“I’m working on it.”
I shifted and leaned in to kiss him. His hand came up to cradle the back of my head, and he held me to him like he couldn’t get close enough.
When I pulled back, his eyes locked on mine, fierce and unflinching.
“I’m not just here to mess around, Tempi. I don’t do casual. Not with you.”
“Me neither,”
I whispered, breathless.
“I don’t think I could if I tried.”
He nodded once, then leaned in and brushed his nose against mine, soft and slow. Tender.
“You saved me,”
he murmured.
“You didn’t mean to, probably don’t even realize it. But you did.”
A lump swelled in my throat, thick and aching.
“I didn’t think I believed in that shit,”
he went on.
“Salvation. Redemption. Whatever you wanna call it. But then you walked into my life, and suddenly... it didn’t seem so far off.”
My chest cracked wide open.
I curled tighter against him, heart thudding, soul bare.
And for the first time in a long time, I didn’t feel like I had to protect it.