Page 18 of Savage Devotion (Savage Reign #1)

ARABELLE

T he night took an unexpected turn. I thought I was preparing for a night of girl talk, book love, and too many cookies at my place. Then Reaper showed up and demanded I move the book club meeting to his place. The note he handed over from Charli, sealed the deal.

With the first book club night now a success and officially over, I let Reaper pull me onto the back of his bike. Moments later we leave his place and ride along the back roads of Harlon.

Yesterday’s rain has cleared for the moment, and the beams of moonlight spilling down to Earth are mesmerizing.

The power of the motor between my legs vibrates up my body. It’s a new sensation to add to all the others I’m feeling. Happiness is at the top of that list.

I don’t know how long we ride. It feels like forever, yet not long enough when Reaper throttles down and points his motorcycle off the pavement.

“Have you brought me parking?” I tease, winding my arms around his middle. The night air clings to him and I love how it melds with his body heat to create this unique aura of wild masculinity around him.

We’ve come to a lookout ridge, where the parish glitters beneath us. Up here there’s not a thing in the world I can’t conquer.

I expect something smartass and cocky, but he surprises me yet again.

He runs his hands up my legs and leans back into my arms. He raises my legs to hook over his thighs and we just be for several heartbeats.

I have my arms wrapped around him, my hands resting on his chest. I reach for the ring and turn it around and around.

Silence has never been my friend. It begs me to fill it with something, anything.

“When I was twelve my father left my mother with a thirty-thousand-dollar debt and two kids who needed more than she could provide as a single mother.”

“Not all men are created equal, baby. I mean that, on a level of morality.”

His head rests on my shoulder and I lean mine against his. Sitting like this, wrapped in warmth and a protective shield, I only feel with Reaper, I pour my soul out.

“I was twelve or thirteen when my stepdad came onto the scene. He didn’t care about some other man’s child, much less two.

But I could tell he loved my mother. But by that time, she was a shell of the woman I remembered.

He cleared her debt with drug money and she gave him her loyalty all the while my older sister was pushing those drugs that paid her debt.

Before long Mom was helping him, too. Within three years, my stepdad, mom, and sister were hooked on his product. ”

Reaper stays silent, stroking his hands up and down my legs as I let the words flow.

“A couple of years later he went off to prison and she fell harder into drugs and alcohol. He kicked the habit while behind bars. She didn’t. Nor did my sister.”

“And you?”

I shrug and keep my eyes pinned out over the ledge of the cliff, not looking at anything.

“Let’s just say, the way you and your family built up your club, is significantly more different from the one my stepdad headed.

They looked at me as a game. Instead of caring for my mother or me while he was behind bars, they chased me for fun and fed her more dope.

Then the rivals, the fighting, the bullet holes in our house walls.

Nights of terror thinking that night would be my last haunt my dreams to this day.

I still wake up in the dead of night from panic attacks, from time to time. ”

Reaper stiffens in my arms and sits up. He reaches around for me and I’m on the front of the bike spread over his lap in mere seconds.

The one time I opt for jeans , I think ruefully but I can see from the murder in Reaper’s eyes that his track of mind is not in the gutter with mine.

“Where are these men now?”

I pin my eyes out over his shoulder, my past a blur of shadows clouding my vision. “The Fire Breathers. Stupid fucking name if you ask me,” I say feeling distant for a moment.

“Where are they?” he repeats. The gentle warmth of his palms cupping my face brings me back to him.

“Gone. My stepdad is in prison again, and my mom is in rehab. I left her there and split town almost two years ago with my sister. It was a spontaneous decision for both of us. We thought New Orleans would be our ticket to freedom. As for the gang, those that didn’t go down with my stepdad this time headed out. ”

“Did those men ever touch you?” his voice is laced with death. Chills scurry up my spine at the intent buried in his tone.

My gaze drifts up to his, and I stare into his bold, black eyes. “No, Reaper. I learned how to fight at an early age. I had a lot of practice.”

He wraps his arms around me and my world melts down to this moment. Right here, right now. I inhale his scent, take in the way our bodies mold to one another’s and just live in the moment.

“The night I met you, the torture in my soul dissolved. It was the anniversary of my sister’s overdose.”

“Fuck, baby. I’m damn sorry.”

He pauses a heartbeat before continuing.

“Before you, I lived with grief and pain day in and day out from my days in the military. From the days and years after when I did dirty work for men I rather not talk about. Your gentle touches and fiery kisses set something loose inside me. You healed a part of me I didn’t know how to fix. I fell asleep that night in love.”

I sit up. We are so close, that the air I pull into my lungs is the same as his.

He traces a finger down the side of my cheek. “And then I woke to find you gone and my heart broke.” His voice is tight. I can tell sharing his deeper emotions isn’t something he does often. This window into his vulnerability is humbling.

I listen, unable to form words around the lump of guilt in my throat for a long moment.

“I didn’t want to leave, but I knew I couldn’t stay. I didn’t know where I belonged then.”

“And now?” He rests a hand over our growing baby while his other slides up to rest on the back of my head.

Locked in our tiny cocoon, I peel back a tiny sliver of the metal wall I hide my true emotions behind.

I owe him the truth. As much as it hurts.

“Sometimes, when I am alone in the back of my bookstore at night, I want to just get in my car and drive away. I don’t know where I would go, but the idea of drifting away into nothing seems appealing sometimes. ”

Reaper’s whole body tenses and he hugs me to his hard, muscled frame a little tighter. “But I haven’t wanted to do that lately,” I reassure him and kiss his cheek lightly. “Our baby deserves better.”

“You are never alone. I was an asshole to not find you the second you showed up in Harlon.”

He pulls back and studies my face for a long moment. The moon has moved across the sky and the soft, silver glow leaves shadows across his handsome, rugged face.

Leaning in, he presses his forehead to mine.

“Don’t ever think you don’t belong here. I’m weak and I’m strong with you, baby. I hope you see you have a place here. With me. With the Savages.”

“Why didn’t you come to find me when I came to town?”

He pauses a moment, and for the first time I see him look sheepish.

“I couldn’t bring myself to go looking for you. What if you didn’t want to see me? What if you only wanted that one night and I served my purpose?” His words are raw and brimming with so much emotion I feel them to my core.

It’s my turn to cup his face. “Is my big, badass biker turning soft? Were you afraid I would reject you? Oh, Reaper. We were both scared. Why did you think I came here?” I peer up at him expectantly.

His gentle-sloping smirk falters like he’s going to speak, but he doesn’t answer with words after all.

His lips are on mine, devouring, taking, and saying all the words we both need to hear without a sound between us. He moves to the side of my neck and leaves behind a trail of molten heat in the wake of his hungry mouth.

My fingers are in his hair. “I picked a terrible night to wear jeans, didn’t I?”

His laugh is rough, and the rumbling of his chest against mine makes me feel whole. “We’ll make it work.” He bites down on my lower lip and he might as well have found the control buttons for my libido.

I moan into his mouth, wet heat soaking my panties.

A jingle goes off on my phone that I recognize as my security camera. “Just a sec.” I pull it out of my back pocket and bring up the feed.

Panic shoots through me.

Reaper goes on high alert at the way I freeze.

“What is it?” he demands.

My heart lurches and I nearly collapse at the site of my life going up in smoke and flames.