Page 71 of Crow

“You beast! You’re drowning me.”

He pivots me around with my hips in that sweeping motion we’ve perfected, digging his hands in his hair because it’s thick and long, and the water never rinses out all the shampoo properly without his help.

“Raven?”

“Hmm?” He stops, water and soap running all over his face. A bunch of suds trickle down the bridge of his nose.

“I feel like we’ve been living in a bubble, a little bit. It’s a wonderful bubble, and I think that you and Crow—that you’ve… that you’ve been…” I swipe my hand over my face, more to try and compose myself than to clear away water droplets. “I think you’ve been waiting for me to tell you that I’m ready. I see the bikers from your club all the time at Patti’s. I know it’s not the same. They’re rowdy there, but the real debauchery must start when they get back to the clubhouse on those nights. I know that it’s wild and there’s heavy drinking and there are women and… I know you think that I’ve been sheltered my whole life and you’reright. But… I like riding on your bike. I like having you and Crow in my life. It’s starting to feel like… like you’re everything.”

He ducks back under the spray when it’s clear that I need a minute. He pops back out, grabs the shampoo, and takes his time working it through my hair. It’s long and he has to go back for more before there are even suds. Washing my hair is a huge production. Even in the summer, it takes forever to dry.

“When I go to school, I’ll meet a whole bunch of new people and hopefully, I’ll be able to make some good friends, but I thought about what you said, about the club’s old ladies wanting to take me for lunch or dinner one night. I think that I’d like to do that sometime. I don’t know if I’m ready for the clubhouse yet, but I’d really like to meet the people who make your club a family.”

“Hmmm.”

I don’t press, stepping under the water to start the laborious process of trying to get all the suds out of my hair. After a good rinse, I find Raven studying me and give him a reassuring smile.

“I know it’s probably extremely wishful thinking, but it would mean everything to me if one day, you’d be able to think of my parents as family.” I gather up my hair and start twisting it to wring it out. “Honestly, at this point, I’m not even sure what I think. There would need to be so much growth, from all sides. I don’t know if there’s a middle that can even be found.”

Raven pulls me into him, slamming out bodies together. His hot tongue swipes over my bare arm and up my shoulder, licking up water droplets before his hot mouth latches onto the side of my neck, teeth grazing my sensitive skin.

There’s no possible way that I can take having him inside of me without ruining myself, but the full body shivers try to convince me otherwise.

“I’m the club’s enforcer. His rough voice is so sweet in the shell of my ear. “I’m good at making the shit go away. Keeping order. I wish I could do that for you.”

He brushes all my hair away from my neck so he can continue to lick and bite me. He’s careful not to mark me, even though I know that he probably wants to. If I was him, I couldn’t honestly say that I wouldn’t want my parents to see those small stamps of need.

I smooth my hands up his shoulders, tangling my fingers in his wet hair. “I need you to know that my freedom, my life, and my happiness are on me and me alone. I’m the one responsible. It’s not dependent on my parents ever approving of my life in any way. They don’t have the power to change my mind.”

His tongue traces the shell of my ear. “I know, babe. I trust you.”

By going there, I’ll probably only make things worse, but I want to try. I feel that it’s the right thing to do.”

“They don’t know real happiness.” He pulls back, drinking me in. I lose myself in his eyes, the softness of his face in this moment, unguarded and sweet, just for me. “Real happiness isn’t following a prescribed set of rules, counting on your own control and austerity to save yourself from some unknown. Happiness is being on a bike, riding straight into the wind. It’s staring up at the stars on a cloudless night. It’s men who are there for you, even when you doubted they would be—brothers who have your back. It’s sinking into a good bookand both losing and finding yourself, the perfect cup of coffee first thing in the morning, dog snores that go all night long. It’s finding that person that makes your soul and your brain feel at peace when all you’ve ever known is war.”

We’re already pretty much smushed together, but I collapse into him, losing myself in his hard planes, melting into him. I rest my cheek on his shoulder, warmth flowing from me, my heart heavy and near to bursting. “That’s such a beautiful way to put it.”

We stay that way, holding each other, pressed so tight together that not even water can slide between us, until the shower starts to get cold.

Raven wraps me up first, sliding a thick black towel around me and getting a smaller one from the cupboard under the sink for my hair.

He does all of it naked, looking painfully hard.

I swallow hard at all his male beauty. “What do you want for breakfast?”

He smirks at me. “You.”

“What else?”

“Pizza. And you.”

Raven hates regular breakfast foods. Crow doesn’t eat in the morning at all. “Pizza I can do. There’s one in the freezer.”

“Awesome. Pop it in the oven, I’ll take Connie out and get her fed, and then I’ll put you up on the counter and eat your sweet pussy. I owe her an apology, given how Crow fucked her raw last night.”

“Holy god.” I smack his chest. “If anyone’s eating anyone, it should be me taking care of you.” His towel is practically an eight person tent.

“Excellent. I can be your breakfast.”

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