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Chapter Twenty-Six

Adelaide

T ristan was sitting at his desk when I woke up, a pair of sweatpants riding low on his hips, his muscular, upper body bare. He had the club books spread out in front of him, obviously working on budgeting and paying bills that needed to be paid.

I stretched out my body, feeling that familiar soreness of being used, but at least this time, it had happened on my own terms. My movement drew Tristan’s eyes over to me. He smiled softly, and my throat closed up with more tears. Tristan’s smile no longer comforted me or made my heart swell like it used to. Now, it just made me feel trapped. “Sleep well?” he asked gently.

I nodded. “Extremely well,” I told him, meaning it. I hadn’t had any kind of decent sleep for a little over a year. Probably helped that I’d cried until I felt empty enough to sleep.

Tristan stood and moved over to me, sitting beside where I was lying. He brushed his fingertips over my cheek. My eyes slid closed as I reveled in his touch, wishing it still comforted me like it used to. Tears burned at the backs of my eyes, but I forced them not to fall.

I would not cry for something lost.

“I have to leave for a couple of days,” he informed me. I opened my eyes to look at him again. “I’m leaving River here with you.”

My heart picked up pace in my chest. River—the man that I was pretty sure I was gaining feelings for. The man who hadn’t judged me when he’d saved me.

His words rang in my head on repeat. Live for me .

“Where are you going?” I asked Tristan.

“Joey needs me at his club for a few days to deal with an inside problem.” Joey . Oh, God, I fucking missed him. “He knows you’re back, but he asked me not to bring you—not until he dealt with this problem.” I frowned, my mood dimming again. “He’ll come to see you when shit is taken care of on his end.”

I sat up, shaking my head as I held the sheet around my chest, hiding my body from Tristan, suddenly feeling vulnerable. “I’m capable of taking care of myself, Tristan. I want to come with you.” I wanted to see Joey. I needed to see the one man who’d been my rock without question.

Tristan shook his head. “Out of the question, Addy,” he told me, his voice stern.

I glared at him as I slid out of bed, beginning to slide my clothes back on. I didn’t even give a fuck that he was staring at me. I was angry. Furious.

Joey’s words whispered through my head. Hold me with you.

Well, Joey, I really fucking need you right now, and you’re not letting me hold you here with me .

“Try and stop me,” I snapped at Tristan as I tugged my jeans up my legs.

“That a challenge, Addy?” Tristan asked, quiet anger in his voice.

I tilted my chin up at him, a defiant gesture that I knew Tristan both loved and hated. “I’m coming with you, Tristan.”

He snatched my shirt from my hand, tossing it onto the bed. I swallowed thickly as he took a step closer to me. Fear spiked in my veins, but I hid it from him. I would not cower in front of him. “I’ll be damned, Addy.”

“And I’ll be damned if I’m going to be kept a fucking prisoner in this mother fucking clubhouse,” I snapped back at him. I’d been a prisoner long enough. I would not be one now.

“For the love of all that is holy, Addy, why the fuck is it always so fucking hard for you to just listen to me?!” he shouted.

I clenched my jaw and shook my head, backing down. “Fine,” I snarled, giving in and stepping back from him. That was what he wanted, right? For me to be a good old lady and shut my fucking mouth?

He sighed. “Addy—” he started, his tone softening, but I shook my head, hating him at that moment.

Trapped. I was always fucking trapped .

“I said fine , Tristan!” I shouted at him, snatching the shirt off the bed and pulling it over my head.

I stormed out of his room, shutting his room door shut behind me with a resounding slam that rattled the walls and silenced all of the voices in the clubhouse.

“Adelaide, it’s getting dark.” River stated as he stepped out of the garage office from where he’d been sorting through some of the books. His long legs carried him over to where I was currently working on a junk bike, trying to keep my mind off of the shit that I was always buried in. “I think it’s time to call this quits until tomorrow, darlin’.”

My heart rate quickened at the sound of that familiar term falling from his lips. I had noticed he never called any of the other women that name. Almost as if he reserved it solely for me.

Stupidly, it made me feel special. Special to him. And fuck, I needed to feel special to someone .

“Don’t want to be out here, River, then go on inside,” I snapped at him. I needed to work on this bike. Keeping my hands and mind busy was vital to my sanity.

If I didn’t, I was going to self-destruct.

He sighed, opening the fridge in the garage and grabbing a beer. “I can’t leave you out here, darlin’. You know that. Strict instructions from the president himself,” he reminded me, though he sounded sour about following orders. River had always struck me as the kind of man that ran by his own book. It always shocked me that he was a member of a club and not its president.

I looked up at him. “You ever thought about telling your president to shove his fucking commands up his ass?” I questioned seriously.

River barked out a laugh, his blue eyes glinting with humor. “Numerous times, darlin’, but that’s not something you do if you don’t want a damn good ass beating to remind you of your place.”

I snorted. “You ever get sick of playing babysitter?”

He shrugged. “Zyla got on my nerves a lot,” he confessed, “but you’re a breath of fresh air, darlin’.”

My breath hitched in my throat at his words. I sat back on my heels and let my eyes run over the man in front of me. River wasn’t really a looker. He was rugged, not as handsome as Joey or Tristan, but there was something about him that drew me in and made me crave him. Neatly trimmed scruff lined his jaw and around his lips, and his dark hair was shoved back on his head, needing a haircut. Tattoos littered his skin, not leaving a single part of him bare.

I couldn’t deny that I was attracted to River, that I wanted to be his in some kind of way. It was fucked up. I loved Joey. I even loved Tristan. Yet, there I was, falling for yet another man.

I was a fucking mess.

I knew River had to be from somewhere in the south because of his southern accent, and he wore flannels better than any other man there, Tristan included. Tattoos swirled over his skin, disappearing under the sleeves of his flannel only to reappear back on his neck. He was broad-shouldered, and his arms flexed with each movement he made.

Why the fuck hadn’t I made a move on him before?

Because right then, I wanted him. Fucking badly. I wanted him to claim me as his, but I knew that would be asking too much from him. I’d never seen River show any real interest in a woman.

But I would have him in any way that I could.

“River, you got an old lady?” I asked him as I grabbed a wrench from the floor, yanking my eyes from him.

“Nah. Tried that once. She divorced me six months after we got married.” He didn’t seem bothered by it though.

“That’s got to suck,” I commented as I continued taking the bike apart.

I saw him shrug from the corner of my eye. “It was five years ago, darlin’. I’m over it.”

I stood up, deciding to take a chance. Fuck it. The worst that River could do was deny me. But I wanted someone to distract me from the shit my life had become. Someone that wasn’t Tristan.

I wanted that someone to be River. If I could have this with him, I would take it. He’d shown me kindness. Shown me what it was liked to truly be cared about.

Not in the fucked-up way Joey did.

Not in the tainted way that Tristan did.

I walked over to River, swallowing nervously as I did so. He only watched me, and his blue eyes didn’t give anything away. It was a little nerve-wracking, but I didn’t let his lack of emotion stop me. “Want to do me a favor?” I asked him, stopping when I was a couple of feet in front of him.

He tilted his head to the side the tiniest bit as he studied me with an unreadable expression on his face. “Depends on the favor, darlin’.”

“Make me forget?” I quietly asked him.

His eyes softened all while they blazed with a lustful heat that made my nerve endings curl. Understanding passed over his features, and I knew right then that he wouldn’t turn me away.

He wanted this, too.

“You trying to get me in trouble, girly?” he huskily asked me as he set his beer on the toolbox next to him.

“No one has to know,” I told him. “It can be a secret.”

His eyes darkened at my words, and his brows arched the slightest bit. “We’ll keep it a secret if that’s what you want, darlin’, but I fucking want you, and I frankly don’t give a fuck who knows about us.”

Before I could respond, he gripped the back of my neck and crashed his lips to mine. His other hand gripped my hip tightly, yanking me against him. I gasped when I felt his hard, powerful frame press against my softer, bonier one, a soft moan falling from my lips as I completely lost myself in him and the need already running through me.

Gripping my hair in his fist, he tilted my head to the side, pressing hot, open-mouthed kisses to my jaw and neck, nipping lightly at the spots that made me moan the loudest.

“River,” I gasped, gripping his cut in my fists.

“You sure you want this, darlin’? I’m not going to be gentle,” he warned me, his voice husky. He drew back some to look down at my face, those gorgeous, mesmerizing, blue eyes locking on my own dark ones.

“Yes,” I breathed, feeling like I may lose my fucking mind if he didn’t finish what he had started.

“ Fuck .” His lips molded with my own again as he knocked everything off of the work bench behind me.

Tools clattered loudly to the floor, but he gave no fucks as he lifted me and set my ass on the cold metal, his lips moving back down my neck. His hands gripped the bottom of my shirt, and I lifted my arms, allowing him to pull it over my head. With quick, sure fingers, he unsnapped my bra, tossing it down on the concrete floor with my shirt.

I moaned his name as his rough, calloused hands slid over my body. I curved into him, a whimper escaping my lips as he trailed his rough fingertips around the swell of my breast. “River, please—oh, fuck!” I gasped as his lips closed over one of my nipples, his hand molding my other breast.

“You’re fucking perfect,” he rasped as he lifted his head, his lips meeting mine again. My heart swelled in my chest at his words.

He quickly unsnapped my jeans and tugged them and my panties down my legs. I quickly pushed his cut off his shoulders, and I began fumbling with the buttons on his flannel as he peppered hot kisses all over my skin. I moaned, trembling already and we’d barely gotten started. Desperation clawed at me. I needed to feel his skin on mine.

“Oh, fuck it,” I grumbled right before I ripped the damn shirt open, the buttons popping everywhere and scattering across the floor.

River’s husky laugh met my ears before he gripped my chin, bringing his lips to mine while I ran my hands over his hard chest and his rippling abs.

Fuck, he was carved beautifully.

He let me push his flannel shirt off of his shoulders, and I pushed his jeans down his legs a moment later, licking my lips in anticipation as his cock sprung free. He was hard, thick, and long. Just fucking right.

Oh, God made him absolutely perfect when he created him.

My eyes locked on his when he gripped my chin, tilting my head back. “Last chance to back out,” River warned me.

I shook my head at him. There was no fucking way that I could walk away now. He was right there. So fucking close. I didn’t give a fuck if anyone walked in on us. Someone could set the garage on fire. I was not walking away from him. From this.

We were inevitable.

He pushed me back on the worktable so that I was on my back. He spread my legs, and in one swift thrust, he was buried deep inside of me. My back arched off of the table, his name falling from my lips as I clutched at his forearms. He felt like Heaven inside of me.

“Fuck, darlin’,” he choked out, his eyes momentarily rolling back in his skull. “You feel a fuck ton better than I thought you would.”

He set my feet on the table, so my legs were bent and spread wide. Then, he gripped my shoulder, his other hand still gripping my hip, and he proceeded to ruin me for every other man.

And right then, I fell hard for him because even though he was fucking me hard, he was still treasuring every bit of my body and this moment between us.

I was ninety-nine percent sure that River was the one Joey had told me would come around and be the one for me.