Page 27 of Shine: Sins of the Father (Evil Dead MC: Second Generation #8)

Shine—

My eyes sweep over the woman whose face has haunted my nights for so damn long. She looks beautiful standing there. Almost as pretty as the first time I ever laid eyes on her.

She seems stunned to see me, so I guess she didn’t know we were coming. Is that panic I see on her face?

I glance around the room and find her father, Wolf. Guess he still doesn’t know, or he’d be stalking over here to beat the shit out of me.

I’m shocked that secret hasn’t come out yet, especially since Reckless managed to drag it out of her. Guess Daddy doesn’t know she snuck up to the cabin without his permission.

We’re thirty feet apart, and the place is crowded, but it’s like a magnet is pulling me toward her.

Reckless says something to me, and I smile and nod, like I’ve got a clue what he said. We’re in a clubhouse full of people, a party going on, and it’s like it’s just me and Fiona in the room.

And suddenly, Harley’s in my face, smiling and looping her arm through mine, urging Reckless and me to join her and the girls at the pool table.

Fuck, I’ve got to play it cool, or I’ll give us away. How in the hell am I supposed to pretend everything in me isn’t interested in only her?

Pretend she’s just another face? Impossible.

“Shine, this is Melissa and Tori, and this gorgeous beauty is Fiona.”

I tip my head. “Hey.”

“Fiona, Shine was just saying how he’d like a tour of the clubhouse. Be a dear and give him one, will you? I’m sure he’d love to see the fighting cage.”

Wait. What?

Fiona’s nervous eyes move between us. “Um, sure. It’s down this hall.”

“I’d be glad to show him,” one of Reckless’ brothers rises from a chair, but Reckless puts a hand to his chest and shoves him back.

“Sit down, Cody.”

I feel like I’m being set up. Fiona looks just as surprised, but I know all too well she’s good at playing along.

She leads me through a door and into a hallway. Once the metal door slams shut behind us, I realize how dark and quiet the hall is compared to the main room. Light bulbs at twelve-foot distances illuminate circles of light dotted down the linoleum floor toward another set of doors at the end.

I hadn’t realized how huge this place was.

Fiona clicks down the hall in her sexy heels, and I trail behind a step, watching her ass as she walks.

We get to the end and push through the double doors and into a cavernous dark space that looks like it once was a manufacturing floor, but all the equipment is long gone. I see a spotlight across the room shining on an honest-to-God MMA cage.

She leads me to it and lifts her hand. “This is it. The guys hold fight nights about once a month. They bet on the outcome. It’s all kind of barbaric if you ask me, but…”

Her voice trails off, and she drops her hand. I take in the cage, not really as interested in the damn thing as I am in her.

“So, you’re not a dancer named Desiree from Sonny’s. I guess you had a laugh about that one.” There’s bitterness in my voice I can’t hide. Maybe I don’t want to hide it. I’m still pissed about being lied to by this woman.

“I want to apologize. I’m sorry about that. I was just…”

“Just what?”

“Trying to protect myself.”

“Right.” I turn and hook my fingers in the chain link of the circular cage.

“I didn’t know you were coming tonight,” she whispers.

“Well, it was a surprise party. Daytona said we were heading to Cali, and I had no way to get out of it.”

“Is that what you wanted? To get out of it?”

“Don’t like being lied to or being made a fool of.”

“That’s not what I was doing, and you’re no fool, Shine. Not at all.”

I turn to face her, fold my arms and lean against the cage. “Do you know when the real Desiree told me you were connected to the club, I thought you belonged to one of my brothers. I thought I’d fucked someone’s ol’ lady. Do you know how bad I felt? How pissed I was?”

“I’m sorry. I never meant for any of that to happen. Everything just spun out of control.”

“Do you know when I asked Reckless who you were, he warned me off you?”

“Did he?” she whispers, looking away.

“But lately, it seems like he’s plantin’ seeds in my head about us, like he’s pushin’ this thing between us.”

“Is he? I believe Harley Jean is doing the same thing.”

“Odd, don’t you think?”

“I suppose.”

“So why would they do that?” I swear by the subtle shift that flickers across her expression that there’s something I don’t know. “What’s goin’ on, Fiona?”

She shrugs. “Harley told me if her father, Crash, could get over her being with a brother from Nevada, why couldn’t mine?”

“Why, indeed?”

“Because my father is overprotective, reactive, and likely to fly off the handle. You don’t mess with my father.”

“Nobody’s messing with your father. It’s his daughter I’m interested in.” That gets her attention. Her eyes widen, and her mouth parts, and she stares into my eyes until I’m sure she sees straight to my soul.

“Still? Are you still interested in me?”

Goddamn. Does she really need to ask. But there are a million reasons I should walk away, and yet, I can’t.

I tilt my head, studying her before I reply.

What is it about this girl that has me thinking it’s worth the risk just to have her again?

What is it about her that makes me not give a damn who her father is?

But there is one thing holding me back. One huge thing.

“How could I ever trust you again, sweetness?”

Her eyes slide shut, and she lowers her head.

“I suppose I deserve that, but I’ve apologized and explained why I did what I did.

” Then she lifts her head proudly, her cute nose in the air.

“But if my apology isn’t enough, if you can’t get past it”—she lifts a delicate shoulder—“then we have nothing more to say to each other.”

With that haughty pronouncement, she whirls to leave.

Goddamn, this girl’s a spitfire. And I have no intention of letting her slip away again.

I grab her upper arm, and spin her around, catching her other arm and hauling her against me.

Then I cover her surprised mouth with mine and do what I’ve wanted to do again since the day I dropped her off at Sonny’s.

Her lips are soft, and she submits so sweetly, melting against me with her luscious breasts pressed to my chest. Her palms stroke up my cut and slip around my neck, pulling me closer, letting me know she wants me just as badly as I want her.

My hands run over her back and ass, tugging her hips against mine so she feels how hard she makes me. I break our kiss to let us both gasp in a breath, pressing soft kisses over her face in a trail to her ear.

“Goddamn, Fiona… I’ve thought of you a million times. Every day we’ve been apart.”

“Me too,” she gasps. “God, how I’ve missed you, Shine.”

“Is there someplace we can go? Your place, maybe?” I ask, all the while wondering if it’s crazy to pursue this insane attraction we have.

“Is that really what you want?” she asks, staring at me, her eyes half-lidded with desire.

“Fuck, yeah. I want to feel you under me again. I want to hold you and taste every inch of your sweet body.”

She pushes back and digs a key out of her bra, holding it. “Harley gave this to me. It’s the key to Reckless’s room. She said they weren’t going to use it.”

She’s Wolf’s daughter. He’d kill me if he knew, but it still doesn’t stop me from taking that key from her fingers. “Lead the way, sweetness.”