Chapter 6
Tavi
“You good to go?” Maverick asked me from the doorway.
He looked as good as he did yesterday when he came to sit with me.
My doctor was an asshole and wouldn’t let me go home until today, something about concussion and didn’t want to miss anything.
I missed my son, but I knew he was safe with the club.
With Maverick. I also knew my face looked all kinds of black and blue, and I didn’t want to frighten him.
I nodded, and moved over to grab my bag that had been brought to me by a woman with fiery red hair and called herself Cherry. It wasn’t my clothes, but they fit and that was enough for me right now.
Maverick grabbed the bag before I could lift it, and held the door open for me. The chivalry was doing nothing but activate my libido. At least I still had one.
He led me down to the carpark beneath the hospital and toward his bike. A shot of excitement raced through me at being on the back of it.
“I can just get an Uber,” I said, suddenly feeling a wave of anxiety at being so close to him on his bike. I knew I’d have to hold onto him, and I was afraid that if I did that, if I got a taste, I wouldn’t want to let go.
He put my bag on the back of the bike and handed me a helmet. “Why?”
“I just…”
“Never ridden?” he asked, moving over to put the helmet on my head and fastening the strap under my chin.
His proximity wasn’t helping me with being able to respond.
I swallowed harshly, trying to lubricate my throat to speak when I saw him smile, and my knees went a little wobbly.
How could anyone be this devastatingly gorgeous?
“No,” I finally got out. “I don’t…”
“I won’t let anything happen to you, Tavi,” he said, his voice taking on a deeper tone. “You just need to hold on, think you can do that for me?”
Oh yes, yes, I can.
He jumped on the bike, holding my hand and guiding me toward him.
Lifting my leg, I winced a little at the stiffness in my muscles before I climbed on behind him, and held onto his waist. The leather of his kutte stopped me from feeling his body heat, thankfully, but to feel him under my fingers brought back flashes of that night.
When I had him all over me, I had my nails digging into his skin, his lips on mine, trailing kisses down my neck.
Shit.
Stop it.
Maverick grabbed my hands and pulled them around to hold onto his stomach. His kutte didn’t cover that part of him. I could feel just how rock hard his muscles were, warmth travelled up my arms causing my skin to prickle with goosebumps.
“Hold on,” he all but growled. His hands moved away from mine, and grabbed the outside of my thighs, pulling me flush against him. I gasped at the proximity, feeling his hard body against my front, and yet somehow, it felt like I’ve been needing to be here all my life.
When he started up the bike, I didn’t have any idea what to expect, but the vibrations between my legs were a welcome distraction from the man in front.
For a brief moment, until his hand came off his handlebar and held onto mine.
He rode through the streets of Penrith toward the clubhouse with one hand, while the other was offering me warmth and comfort.
I was…for lack of a better term, wetter than a frog in a blender. My body still ached from all the bruises, and yet, I wanted this man to throw me down and fuck me until I couldn’t speak.
We hit a flowing creek with a bridge and I knew this was Creed’s Crossing.
It was famed for being the gateway toward the clubhouse no one knew how to find.
If only he knew he were bringing the daughter of an Ironborne king behind enemy lines.
He’d probably lose it when he found out, which was why I would never tell him, unless I had to.
As far as I was concerned, I was Tavi Bainbridge, not my father’s daughter. My allegiance was to the man who had saved my son and me from a monster.
We rode through the bush for a few minutes before we came to a clearing on an old dirt road that was surrounded by trees and there at the end of the road were two large wrought iron gates that looked out of place. As we rode toward it, my heart raced.
What if someone recognised me?
The gates opened and we rode past a little shed-like building and Maverick pulled up, turning his bike off. He helped me off first, then took my helmet.
“I need to go check with someone about a job I need to do, do you want me to take you to Van and come get you after?”
“Um…I’m still…”
I couldn’t find the words.
“You’re bruised, yeah, but you’re still his Mum. He misses you.”
My heart broke at that moment. I missed him more than words could say, but I also didn’t want him to be scared of me. What if he rejected me? That would crush my soul.
“Where am I staying, Maverick?” I changed the topic, my voice cracking with the unshed emotion bubbling inside of me.
“My apartment, it’s in Emu Plains. I think it’s safer for you there, and it will be quieter than this place.”
I nodded. “Can you…take me there?”
Maverick didn’t speak for a minute, but he nodded. “Stay here. I’ll be right back. Don’t talk to anyone or let anyone near you. Just stay near my bike, yeah?"
“What if they talk to me?” I countered, a little annoyed he was trying to keep me silent.
“You’re on my bike, Tavi, no one would dare go near anything of mine.”
His smirk floored me as he ran inside.
Mine.
Fuck, I wanted to be. I wanted to be his, even though I hated the idea of being owned by someone. I wanted to be Maverick’s girl. Woman…lover…whatever the fuck term he wanted me to be.
I did as I was told, probably for the first time in my life, and I waited by his bike. There were a few bikers who walked past, but they didn’t say anything, merely glanced in my direction and walked away. Was this an everyday occurrence for Maverick, or was it just because I was on his bike?
Why was I obsessing over this?
He was helping me get set up somewhere different. That was all.
Even thinking that felt like a lie.
Before I could progress further into a state of hell in my mind, Maverick was coming back toward me.
“He’s asleep, and he’s good before you ask,” he grunted. “Cherry’s been watching him.”
“The girl who brought me clothes?”
Maverick nodded. “Yeah, she’s a good woman. I told her what happened and she took off on her break to bring you them.”
Wow, that wasn’t what I expected. “Thank her for me?”
He nodded, and got back on the bike, helping me back into position.
When I sat away from him, he turned his head to the side, and I slipped down, pulling my arms around his midsection again.
This time, when he turned the ignition, I was ready for the thrum between my legs, but it was no less thrilling than the first time.
The entire ride, I was holding on, and imagining what my life would be like if he was mine. It was a dangerous thought to have, especially with how I already knew my secret was going to cause him to react.
Better to cut ties when I was better and find a better life for me and Van.
Away from Sydney.
And the Ironborne.
And especially the Shackled Sons.
Maverick
The second Tavi stepped into my apartment, I felt a strange shift in my chest. One I didn’t like the feeling of. She looked…like home.
No. Fuck. No.
This was why I never brought women here. It was my safe space, away from the clubhouse, away from anything connected to me. Mari and the kids hadn’t even been in here.
When she’d held onto me on the bike, I had felt the second she had let all her anxiety go. She’d held on tight, but she’d relaxed into me, and it felt so damn good. It felt right. I was thankful for my jeans today, or it would most definitely show how much I liked having her on the back of my bike.
“This is yours?” she asked, looking around.
“Yeah. No one will know you’re here.”
She nodded, almost as if she were lost in her thoughts.
I took her hand and led her through to the bedroom.
“You can stay in here,” I told her. “I have a smaller room down the hall, that can be for Van if you need to sleep alone, or if you’re up to it, he can sleep in here with you. Whatever you want.”
“Where will you sleep?” she asked me as she looked into my soul with those deep brown eyes that made me want to peel her clothes off and feast on her for days.
“Clubhouse,” I replied, my voice coming out strangled.
“I don’t want to put you out,” she said, her eyes shifting and breaking the spell she’d cast over me.
“No, this is safer,” I said, gruffly.
She bristled, and I wondered if I had overstepped. I just wanted her to be safe. She came to me for a reason, but I didn’t want her to be uncomfortable.
“I’m not locking you in. I would never do that, Tavi. I just want you to be safe until I can figure out what to do about your jackass husband.”
“Will you kill him?” she asked me, her voice steady, and yet timid all at the same time.
I cupped the side of her face, drawing her eyes up to mine. God, I could get lost in those depths of deep, dark chocolate all night long. “Is that what you want? You want me to kill him for you?”
“Yes,” she said, firmly, resolutely. And it almost did me in.
“Then yes,” I told her, my thumb moving over her bottom lip. “I will kill him for you.”
She sucked in a deep breath, and I felt the pull to claim her lips. To seal the deal with a kiss, when I felt my phone ring in my pocket.
God-fucking-dammit.
Could I not get a goddamn moment of peace? It was like that night five years ago all over again.
I pulled back, as did she, the moment broken and I looked down at the call from Prez. Fuck.
Fucking grumpy ass cockblocker.