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I laughed against his mouth, but that laugh turned to a moan when he deepened the kiss again. He shifted so I was on top and pulled his mouth from mine, laying his head back against the pillow. I dropped my legs to either side of his hips and pressed down, letting his hard length drag against my slit. He was always hard. I was starting to doubt it ever went down, but I wasn’t complaining. I’d found myself initiating more and more, finally understanding what everyone was always talking about when it came to sex. I never knew what I was missing. Now that I did, I wanted to make up for lost time, and Gunner was all too happy to accommodate me.
I pushed up until I was sitting and rested my hands on his chest, giggling when Luna jumped off the bed, probably annoyed that she was being disturbed. He put his hands behind his head and wiggled his eyebrows, making me laugh harder. “Am I doing all the work?”
He shrugged. “Thought maybe you were in the mood to play.”
He was right, I was. How the hell he knew that was beyond me too. It was like he had a line of sight straight into my mind, or maybe what he said earlier was true and he was just a great observer. No matter what, he always knew what I wanted, and sometimes, it seemed he did before I did.
I laid my forearms on his chest and leaned down, putting my face close to his. “How do you know me so well?”
“Been watching you over the last year, baby, whether you realized it or not, and I got to know you pretty well.”
I dropped my head, remembering the last year and all its ups and downs, but more than anything, I remembered Gunner. He was always around, always patient, always understanding, and I didn’t realize it because I was so stuck in my own misery that I couldn’t see anything beyond that.
I could now, though, and it was beautiful.
The most beautiful thing that had ever happened to me.
I lifted my head and looked deep into his eyes. “I wish I had got off Snake’s bike that day on the street, just like I wanted to. I wish I hadn’t been so scared of everything because that day, something inside me knew if I walked to you, I’d have the life I’d never allowed myself to hope for.”
While I was talking, he lifted his hands from behind his head and laid them on my hips, squeezing them when I finished. “If I had known what that bastard was doing to you, I would’ve grabbed you that day on the street.”
“You couldn’t know.”
“I didn’t.” His eyes blazed with intensity. “Until Luke talked about you, and we connected the dots.” His hands moved to lay on my thighs. “What you don’t know is that after we connected those fucking dots, I had a plan to get you out of that life, but you beat me to it by walking into my clubhouse.”
I smiled sadly. “Bear tried to convince me to leave Snake. He said Luke and you guys would protect me, but I was too scared.”
He ran his hands over my thighs. “I know, baby. Fuck, you were too scared to even talk to anyone except Bear for those few months, but I knew I wasn’t going to let him hurt you anymore. I just needed to get you from him in the smartest way I could so nobody got hurt, especially you.”
“The day I was discharged from the hospital, and you guys tricked me into going to Hanks for a meeting, I knew something felt different, but I didn’t understand it.” I ran my finger over the defined muscles in his stomach. “I was so angry that day. I thought I was trading one prison for another.” Tears filled my eyes, and I didn’t try to stop them. “I had no idea what a beautiful life I was walking into.”
He sat up quickly and put both of his hands on the sides of my face, lowering his until he could look right into my eyes. “I love you, Maggie.”
I smiled a watery smile when he used his thumbs to brush away the tears on my cheeks. “I love you, Ryker.”
He smiled and laid his lips on mine, this time pulling me down and kissing me slowly. He ran his hands lazily over my back like we had all the time in the world.
And we did.
For tonight, at least.
CHAPTER THIRTY
GUNNER
“We clear on the plan?” Bear asked from the back seat of the SUV.
I looked out the side window toward the Widow’s clubhouse and felt my gut tighten. If this shit didn’t go as planned, we may not walk back out. We were parked by the curb opposite the wide parking lot leading up to the door of the clubhouse. A few bikes were parked right by the entrance, as well as one parked on the very far end of the lot, but other than that, the place looked deserted. I wasn’t buying it.
“Something feels off,” I murmured.
“We’re prepared,” Pop reminded us. “Tank watched them drive in this morning. There’s only one way in and one way out. No other vehicles came and went in the past twenty-four hours.”
“Snap gone?” I asked.
“Yep.”
“They all go?”