Page 77 of Crow

At least, I think she’s reassured, until she grabs her work backpack, and we hit the asphalt parking lot. As soon as we’ve walked to my bike, she stares it down like it’s a flesh sucking monster who eats all the skin off the body and lets the rest mellow as a big old meat bag.

Imaginative.

She squares down with my bike, posture so rigid that her spine could snap with the slightest breeze.

“Tarynn?”

She turns just enough that the light from inside illuminates the fresh tears shimmering on her cheeks. The golden lights pouring from the diner’s windows highlight the coppery gold tones in her hair, caressing the slope of her nose. The tears pour down silently, trickling over her lips.

I don’t even know if she’s aware that she’s crying again.

I take her hands, threading our fingers together. “Want to tell me what you’re thinking?”

“I- it’s so obvious to me that- that you must want to bail and I’m just trying to hold the pieces of me together.”

“What?” The roar echoes through the night.

I surge forward, slamming my mouth over hers. She’s salt and misery, but beneath the pain, she still tastes like herself. Strawberry sweet. I twist the strands of her hair out of the way and glide my hand to the back of her neck, cupping that vulnerable spot protectively.

After I devour her mouth, I kiss her tears away, trying to be her strength, to take her misery, to bear this all for her.

“Tarynn… Why would you say that? Why would you ever think that I would want to leave?”

She swipes at her eyes and brushes her nose with the back of her hand. “Ugh.” She sniffles. “I don’t have anything to—”

I’m already shoving out of my vest and stripping off my t-shirt. “Here.”

She doesn’t protest. She mops her face with it, twisting her hands into the soft fabric. I put my vest back on, bare chested. She blinks at me and gives me a once over, her eyes lingering on my abs before she’s able to tear them back up to my face.

“Damn, now you’re going to be everyone’s fantasy.”

“Everyone doesn’t matter. Only you.” I tilt her chin up, caressing her pulse point with my thumb. “You think that I’d leave because your family has a little bit of crazy?”

“A little? My dad pulled a gun on you!”

My thumb smooths small circles at her neck. “Tare. It isn’t the first time someone’s done that. I know you’re still so innocent, but being in a motorcycle club means that sometimes dangerous things happen. My role is to keep everyone settledand to keep the peace. Hart is a small place and we’ve done most of the hard work to make it our town, which means that there aren’t going to be turf wards or a bunch of thugs running around trying to take us out, but that doesn’t mean that there won’t still be assholes or people who want to come and try us on. Just a few months ago, Gunner got shot by a little prick college kid who didn’t like getting a verbal warning. Shit like that just happens.”

She chews on her lip while she processes that. I bracket her shoulders in my palms like I can brace her and level her, but I know that all her turmoil is on the inside.

“I’m sorry that your parents made the choices they did, but Tyrant won’t press charges. It’s going to be a hard road for your family, but that’s on them. I don’t blame you for any of it.”

She swallows thickly. “You’re not mad?”

“Why would I be mad at your for trying to live your life, reconcile with your parents, and getting shit all over by your dad, who by the way, seems exactly like the kind of preachy asshole I imagined. There has to be good people when it comes to religion, right?”

The little smile she offers is like a beam of warm sunlight. “Of course there are. But I meant, are you mad at me for doubting you?”

“We’re still new, still learning about each other. I’m not mad at you for anything. Come here.”

I turn her around so that she’s facing my bike, and I can press the hard length of my body all along hers. It’s not sexual, through being this close to all her curves is intoxicating, and if I keep it up, I’ll be as hard as stone, but I want her to know that I have her back. What better way than to literally have it?

I sweep her hair off her neck, exposing her pale skin to me. “I can’t promise that we’ll have a life filled with only goodness or that shit won’t come for us one way or the other. I can’t even promise time because no one can. But I hope that all the time I have left, I get to spend with you.”

A little sob shuddered through her. “You know what I think first attracted me to you?”

My hands are locked right under her breastbone, so I feel every shuddering inhale of her breath.

“That, like your namesake, you were wild. Free. Crazy smart.”

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