Chapter Three #3
A few minutes later he returned with a glass of water and a plain white T-shirt in the other hand. At some point he’d thrown on some boxers. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he handed me the water.
I scooted up, keeping the blanket over my breasts as I drank half the glass in one go. I wasn’t too proud to admit I might have screamed enough to need the damned water. He set the glass on the nightstand.
“Here.” He tossed the shirt onto the bed beside me. “Figured you didn’t want to sleep in that dress.”
I pulled it over my head. It swallowed me whole and smelled like him. I liked it more than I wanted to admit.
“Your car’s probably already out front. Tiny wouldn’t delay once Darby or Sully asked him. You’re welcome to leave whenever you want. Nobody here’s gonna stop you. Understand?”
I nodded, throat tight for reasons I didn’t examine too closely. “Yeah. Thanks.”
The room was dimly lit. I saw the tender smile on Inferno’s face and realized no one had ever looked at me with that expression. Like I mattered and there was no other person he’d rather be with in this moment.
He tilted his head and his brow knit together in slight confusion. “You can stay as long as you like, though. If you do, I’d like it to be with me.”
I exhaled a breath all in a rush. “Yeah. I wouldn’t really want to stay with anyone else.”
He smiled. “Good.”
“Can I ask you a question before I decide what I want to do?” I stared up at him, wondering if he’d answer my questions.
He shrugged. “Yeah. I’ll answer if I can.”
“Well, I was wondering. How’d you get the name Inferno?”
“That’s an easy one. I used to be a fire chief.
Youngest chief the Pleasant View Fire Department ever had.
” The pride in his voice told me all I needed to know about how proud he was of his position.
“My real name’s Jonah Sherman, but I ain’t gone by that in a long time. ” He shrugged. “It’s just Inferno now.”
“Well, then. Maybe I’ll stay. You know. Until morning.” I nibbled my bottom lip. “You know. If that’s OK?”
“Of course, it’s OK, birthday girl.” The gentleness in his voice nearly brought tears to my eyes. “Now. Do you want to get some rest and maybe do this again later?”
I couldn’t contain my amusement, or my relief. I hadn’t realized how much I dreaded leaving until he’d forced me to make a choice. “Yeah. I’d most definitely like a repeat.” Unbidden, a yawn came, and I had to cover my mouth with my hand. “I’m so sorry! That’s so embarrassing!”
He pulled me closer to him so, once again, I lay with my head on his chest. “Just close your eyes and rest. And remember, you’ve always got a choice in what happens next, Juniper.
Just because you’re in my bed right now doesn’t mean I get to fuck you again.
Only that you can’t fuck any of my brothers. Yeah?”
I sucked in a breath, not at all opposed to the idea of him fucking me again.
The explicit declaration turned me on way more than it should.
“I can’t imagine doing what we did together with anyone else in this place.
” The whispered words left my mouth before I could censor them, but they were true.
My sexual experience had been limited to Brett and one other guy before I met Brett.
“Regardless of what it looks like, I don’t bed hop. ”
“Never thought you did, honey. I just want it known that, should you decide you want a biker in this club, I get first dibs.” His grin was positively boyish, especially when he winked at me.
We shared a smile. I reached up to stroke his cheek with my hand, needing to memorize his features in case this was the last night I ever saw him.
“Thank you, Inferno. This has been the best birthday ever.”
“You’re very welcome, Juniper.” He leaned in to kiss me, letting his lips linger before making a slow sweep of his tongue into my mouth. When I sighed and relaxed against him, Inferno pulled back.
I curled against him, and he settled his arms around me and stroked lazy slides up and down my arm with his fingers. I settled with my head just below his shoulder, over his heartbeat, and sighed contentedly.
Downstairs the party had thinned to a low murmur, bass gone quiet, just the occasional laugh drifting up through the floor. Outside, gravel settled. A motorcycle started somewhere across the lot, idled, and cut off again.
I thought about the clearance sticker on my birthday cake, still sitting on my kitchen counter forty minutes and a whole lifetime away.
I thought about the way Brett’s voice had gone so smooth and reasonable while he took my whole life apart in front of me, and how none of it felt real anymore as I lay here in a stranger’s arms, in his bed.
None of it felt like something that had happened to me tonight. Like an alternate reality or something.
The longer I lay there, the more my body loosened muscle by muscle, the adrenaline of the whole long day finally draining out in the post orgasmic bliss.
The last thing I registered before sleep took me under was his breathing, even and unhurried, and the strange, stubborn fact that for the first time in longer than I could remember, I didn’t want to sleep alone.