Chapter 7
The Giant Who Never Touched Women... Until Her
Morning arrived beneath a blanket of fog that clung to the pines surrounding Titan's cabin.
The storm had passed during the night, leaving the air cool and clean. Sunlight filtered through the trees in scattered beams, illuminating the damp ground outside the porch. It should have felt peaceful.
Instead, the entire compound buzzed with tension.
Motorcycles came and went at all hours. Scouts reported unfamiliar vehicles circling Black Iron territory. Armed patrols doubled their shifts, while every prospect received a weapon before breakfast.
War had not officially begun.
Everyone could feel it coming.
Inside the cabin, I stood in the kitchen struggling to open a stubborn jar of coffee.
"You've got to be kidding."
I twisted harder.
Nothing.
A shadow moved beside me.
"I can."
"I don't need help."
Titan nodded once and stepped away without another word.
For some reason, that annoyed me even more.
Five more failed attempts later, I shoved the jar across the counter.
"Fine."
He picked it up effortlessly.
The lid loosened with the smallest turn of his wrist.
He placed it back exactly where I had been standing.
No smile.
No teasing.
No smug expression.
Only one quiet sentence.
"There."
I folded my arms.
"You enjoy making me feel weak?"
His gray eyes met mine.
"No."
"Then why do you keep doing things for me?"
"Because they're easy."
"I can take care of myself."
"I know."
"Then let me."
Titan leaned against the counter.
"I watched you fight six armed men with a torn shoulder."
"I didn't win."
"You didn't quit."
The words settled over the room.
Before I could answer, a knock sounded at the front door.
Hawk stepped inside carrying a stack of folders.
He stopped immediately.
His eyes moved from me...
...to Titan...
...then to the single coffee mug sitting beside the sink.
A slow grin spread across his face.
"Well..."
Titan sighed.
"Don't."
"I wasn't going to say anything."
"You were."
"I absolutely was."
He laughed.
"I've known this mountain for fifteen years, and this is the first time I've ever walked into his cabin and found a woman making coffee."
I rolled my eyes.
"It isn't what you think."
Hawk looked delighted.
"Oh, that's usually when it becomes exactly what I think."
Titan's expression remained perfectly flat.
"Leave."
"I'm trying."
Hawk chuckled as he placed the folders on the table.
"The brothers are talking."
"They always are."
"This time they're talking about you."
Titan looked up.
"What are they saying?"
"Nobody has ever seen you bring a woman home."
The room fell strangely quiet.
Hawk continued.
"Not once."
He turned toward me.
"You probably don't know this, but Titan has turned down more women than anyone in Black Iron history."
I frowned.
"Seriously?"
"Club parties."
"Charity events."
"Road rallies."
"Didn't matter."
Hawk laughed again.
"The women chased him."
"He disappeared."
Titan reached for the folders.
"We're finished."
"No, we're just getting to the interesting part."
Hawk looked at me conspiratorially.
"Do you know what the brothers used to call him?"
"No."
"The Monk."
I blinked.
"The Monk?"
"He wouldn't even flirt."
Titan pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Hawk."
"I'm helping."
"You aren't."
"I absolutely am."
He leaned closer.
"One prospect actually bet five hundred dollars that Titan had secretly taken a vow of celibacy."
I burst into laughter.
The sound escaped before I could stop it.
Titan looked at me.
Then at Hawk.
Neither of them spoke.
"What?" I asked.
Hawk smiled.
"That's the first time we've heard her laugh."
The room fell unexpectedly still.
Even I hadn't realized it.
For the first time since my world had collapsed...
I had laughed.
Only for a moment.
But it had happened.
Titan quietly looked away.
Something warm settled behind his normally guarded expression before disappearing just as quickly.
That afternoon Doc insisted my shoulder be examined again.
"The stitches are healing beautifully."
She gently tested my range of motion.
"Lift your arm."
I tried.
Pain shot through my shoulder.
I hissed through my teeth.
Titan stepped instinctively toward me.
"I'm fine."
"You aren't."
"I said I am."
Doc smiled knowingly.
"Hold still."
She handed Titan a fresh bandage.
"Help me."
He didn't move.
"I'll do it."
"You can't reach."
"I'll manage."
Doc shook her head.
"Thomas."
Titan looked up immediately.
I noticed it.
She hadn't called him Titan.
She had called him Thomas.
His real name.
The giant slowly accepted the bandage.
"I don't..."
"You won't hurt her."
His large hands hesitated above my shoulder.
"I've never..."
Doc waited.
Titan's voice became almost inaudible.
"I've never touched a woman like this."
I stared at him.
"What do you mean?"
He looked uncomfortable for the first time since I'd met him.
"I don't."
"You don't what?"
"Touch."
The single word hung between us.
Doc answered for him.
"His mother taught him something before she died."
Titan closed his eyes briefly.
"'A real man never takes what isn't freely given.'"
Doc nodded.
"He took those words seriously."
"Very seriously."
"He won't even hug people unless they initiate it."
I looked at the enormous man standing beside me.
The most feared enforcer in Black Iron.
The man rumored to have broken bones with his bare hands.
The man criminals fled from.
And he looked...
...terrified.
Not of violence.
Of crossing a boundary.
I slowly turned toward him.
"It's okay."
He met my eyes.
"You can help."
He hesitated.
"I'll tell you if it hurts."
After several long seconds, he nodded.
His fingers barely brushed my shoulder as he steadied the bandage.
They were astonishingly gentle.
The contrast caught me completely off guard.
Those hands looked capable of tearing steel apart.
Yet they moved as though I were made of glass.
Neither of us spoke.
The room became impossibly quiet.
I could hear his breathing.
He could probably hear mine.
When the bandage was finally secure, he stepped back immediately.
"There."
"Thank you."
He nodded once.
Nothing more.
Yet somehow the distance between us felt different.
Smaller.
That evening the clubhouse hosted its weekly family dinner.
Nearly every member of Black Iron gathered around long wooden tables beneath strings of warm lights.
Laughter echoed through the hall.
Children ran between chairs.
Old veterans argued over card games.
For the first time, I saw the club as more than armed bikers.
I saw families.
Husbands.
Wives.
Grandparents.
People.
But not everyone looked pleased.
Near the back of the room, several younger members watched Titan and me from across the hall.
One leaned toward another.
"I've never seen him look at anyone like that."
Another answered quietly.
"He risks the whole club for one woman."
A third frowned.
"Why?"
Titan heard them.
So did I.
He ignored every word.
I tried to do the same.
As the evening ended, I stepped onto the clubhouse porch alone.
The mountain air felt cooler now.
Titan joined me several minutes later.
Neither of us spoke.
Finally I broke the silence.
"They think I'm changing you."
He looked toward the distant tree line.
"They're wrong."
"You don't?"
"I made my choice the night I stopped on that highway."
"You didn't even know me."
"No."
"Then why?"
He took a long breath before answering.
"Because once..." His voice grew quieter.
"...someone drove past my family when we needed help."
I looked at him.
"I promised myself I'd never become that person."
The words settled deep inside me.
For the first time, I understood that Titan hadn't rescued me because he was fearless.
He had rescued me because, years ago, no one had rescued him.
And somewhere inside the walls I had built around my heart, another small crack quietly appeared.