Chapter Ten #3
Player threw his hands into the air. “Are you listening to yourself? How do you think it’s going to work when you go back to being you?
Because you can’t change, Keys, no matter how much you want to.
You like to fuck tits and ass, and you do it on a far more regular basis than anyone I know.
I’m being real with you. That woman”—he jerked his thumb toward Lyric—“falls in love with you, you’ll destroy her.
Better we run her off than you crush her down the line.
Women in love tend to want to be exclusive. ”
Keys shook his head. This was his fault, no matter how he wanted to look at it.
He had the reputation. He’d earned it. These three men knew him, and yet they didn’t.
He had struggled with coming to terms with what it would mean to make his claim on Lyric.
He also knew that without her, he was empty.
Fucking tits and ass was an empty way to live and should have told his friends just how little he cared about himself.
“You don’t get it, and I don’t blame you.
What I do blame you for is that I asked you to look after her.
To welcome her into our family. I asked that your women welcome her.
I don’t see the women, and you sure as hell didn’t welcome her.
I’ve never asked for a single favor. Not once.
You wanted a woman, I went all out to help you.
That request alone should have bought her a little bit of a friendly welcome. ”
Keys looked around the shop. He knew Lyric had loved it.
She would make this business thrive, and her salon would be beautiful.
“I’ll want the details of the fire and a reasonable explanation why we didn’t get a heads-up.
In the meantime, the three of you can go fuck yourselves.
I’ve got a long road ahead of me, convincing my only that she’s the one and that regardless of whether or not my family is on board, we’re together and we’ll make it work. ”
He pushed past Maestro and stalked down the street toward the headlands.
Lyric sat in the grass, her jacket pulled tightly around her, the hood up, covering her bright waterfall of thick red silk.
For Keys, that straight-as-a-board, fiery red said all there was to say about Lyric.
He didn’t understand how anyone couldn’t see her passion for life. That hair gave it away.
He sank onto the ground beside her, thighs close but not touching. He needed to break through the wall she’d put up. She was good at walls. She could build them high and thick so no enemy could penetrate. No matter how many fights they had, he didn’t want her to ever view him as the enemy.
“I didn’t know about the fire, Lyric,” he confessed quietly.
“I heard you, it just didn’t penetrate at the time.” She kept her head down, looking at her hands, the two fists she’d made. She wasn’t shaking. Steady as a rock.
“They blindsided both of us.” He wanted that to sink in.
“Arrogant pricks,” she hissed under her breath. She didn’t look at him, but she didn’t seem to include him in her assessment.
“Yeah, babe, they are, but I thought we agreed only one of us is going to have the temper, the gun and the foul mouth. I get that you’re pissed.
I am too. But you can’t be spewing language.
You’re smart; you’ve got a vocabulary. Think of other insults.
Get creative. Hell, we can write them all down in big letters and laminate that shit and hang it on the wall.
In fact, I know the perfect place to hang it when we put together the salon. ”
Her dimple flickered as her lips curved.
It was brief, but she couldn’t help that terrible sense of humor that enabled her to be with him.
Now that she was listening, he had to make it clear to her that they had already established the rules they had agreed on to live together.
He needed the reassurance that she was committed.
“You don’t get to run from me when you’re pissed off, whether it’s justified or not, Wildfire. We promised each other communication first. You have a right to space, but not running off.”
“I thought I communicated very well.” This time he got the side-eye. “In fact, I was quite eloquent.”
“Well, okay, gotta admit that’s true. Other than putting me in the same arrogant-prick category as those three jokers, I thought you shredded it.
I’m going to want to talk about Declan and his Russian friend.
I’ll want to know why you didn’t mention before that he’d actually caught up to you.
You led me to believe you were always one step ahead. ”
She stared out to sea. In the distance a dark bank of fog rolled and spun, an indicator of how quickly the weather changed there on the coast.
“I might have done that. But I don’t like talking about Declan. Or his hideous Russian friend.” She continued to look everywhere but at him.
Keys threaded his fingers through hers and brought her palm to his thigh. “Are you just thinking up a lot of unnecessary shit to argue with me about?”
For one moment, she turned her head toward him, and he got that dimple and the curve of her lips, but it was momentary. She turned back to watching the sea. “Yes.”
Inside, very deep, there was that bright spear of light that burst through the layers of dark and spread like a wildfire through him. His Wildfire. She was aptly named. He heaved a long-suffering sigh. “I assume you have some reason you’re going to convince yourself is logical.”
“Well, of course.” She took a moment and then admitted the truth. “l won’t try to convince myself it’s logical, only necessary.”
“Share. I can’t wait to hear.”
“There’s no need for sarcasm. You already seem to be winning every single argument we have. That doesn’t bode well for my future.”
Keys did his best not to laugh. He had crossed into some idiotic romantic realm where he could use descriptive words like adorable.
Because she was. He wasn’t just addicted to her taste.
Or that tight, silken pussy that strangled his cock.
He was addicted to her laughter. That light that shone for him. Only him.
“I made a mistake, Wildfire. It was a big one, and you got hurt because of it,” he admitted gruffly.
“Wanted to give you everything. A family. Security. Friends. Moved too fast. Like you, they mistook my using pussy for a need. It was never that. A distraction, a way to force myself to keep going when I had nothing else. Empty life. Nothing mattered to me. My loyalty to my club and momentary release from the buildup of knowing what I am—that was it, my entire life. I should have known we would be enough. No one else matters. We make the rules in our world. We decide who we let in.”
Keys framed her face with both hands and forced her to turn toward him. “Give me your eyes. Not the fucking mask, Lyric. Look at me.”
There was a brief hesitation, and his heart skipped a beat. Her vibrant green gaze met his. He bent his head to brush kisses over both eyes, the tip of her nose and each corner of her mouth.
“You get me, Lyric.” He made the statement and then took her mouth.
That mouth. Those lips. Her taste. Fresh snow and strawberries.
He would take that taste to his grave. He tried for gentle because she’d had a hell of a bad time when it was supposed to be good, but gentle never worked out so well for him.
He dragged her onto his lap and let the fire burn through both of them.
When he lifted his head, and he only did because he wasn’t going to be able to keep his hands off her, he looked right into her eyes, allowing himself to fall.
“Say it,” he commanded.
“I get you,” she whispered. “Our rules.”
She made that little moue that always put steel in his cock, but then just about everything about her did. She said it, but she didn’t believe it. He was taking it anyway.
“More like your rules. You just can’t help handing them out willy-nilly,” she added.
He burst out laughing. “There you go with your wild vocabulary.” He glanced over his shoulder, hoping they’d gotten lucky and the three arrogant pricks he called brothers were gone. No such luck. They’d been joined by Czar, Savage and Reaper. That wasn’t good.
“President of the club is waiting along with Savage and Reaper. Those two may look scary, Wildfire, but they both have women they answer to. Czar has Blythe. She’s the heart of the club and he adores her.
Openly, I might add, but he’s a force to be reckoned with.
” He caught her chin. “You up for this?”
She nodded. “As long as you meant what you said and I don’t have to fit in.”
“You fit with me, Lyric. That’s everything that matters to me. I want you happy, but I trust that you’ll get that way over time because you definitely were happy in that little nowhere town around Headed for Hell bikers.”
He stood up, reached down and drew her to her feet. “We’re very respectful of Czar. You’re my woman, Wildfire, and I’m responsible for anything you say or do, not you.”
He knew how she would react. She tilted her face and for a brief moment he caught the flash of her smile. He’d known that was coming and his heart did a peculiar twist.
“I can get you in trouble with the big boss?”
“When I said you wouldn’t be held responsible, I meant by Czar. You get me in trouble, there will be consequences.” He gave her his scariest voice, even knowing it would be wasted on her.
Czar was always an imposing figure. Very dangerous men meeting him were careful around him. He gave off a dark, brooding energy that reeked of sheer power.