Page 28 of Serendipity

Looking down at him was giving me a touch of vertigo, but there was no way I was going to look away first. “What kind of President doesn’t maintain the fire escapes of his goddamn Clubhouse anyway? All it would take is one molitov cocktail or whatever it is gangbangers use and your whole MC would be wiped out.” If all else fails, deflect your stupidity onto someone else. That had to be in a handbook somewhere.

Judas huffed. Goliath had wandered over to stare daggers at me. “I hate women that always need saving.”

The knife of his words hit their target. I hated that I needed saving at all. Letting out a strangled sound, I climbed back up the ladder. Stupid, stupid, stupid. The ladder groaned again, and jerked downward. My foot slipped and then I was falling. Fuck!

I wrapped my body protectively around my middle, but it was literally in a single breath before I was landing on the hard ground.

Actually, it wasn’t all that hard. Then I opened my eyes and looked into furious grey ones. Goliath had caught me?

He looked disgusted with himself, and I struggled to breathe as I registered his strong arm banded around my chest, my face pressed to his bare chest. Fear and adrenaline and lust made my skin tingle, my breathing choppy. He slid me slowly to my feet, not letting go until I had my feet planted firmly on the ground. Like he cared if I fell.

His next words dispelled the idea that the giant was warming to me.

“I should’ve let you hit the pavement. I would have enjoyed the sound of your bones shattering.”

Then he shoved me gently back, Judas’ hand shooting out to steady me, and strode out of the parking lot without picking up his shirt. Judas watched him go with lowered brows. He looked pensive, trying to solve the riddle of Goliath’s actions too.

His eye flicked to me, and he looked angry all over again. “What were you thinking? Why are you here, endangering my Club, all the people who are my responsibility if you aren’t going to take any care of yourself?”

I didn’t have any excuse. I couldn’t tell him that their fighting was mesmerizing, that their combined power drew me closer and closer like I under some kind of compulsion. I swallowed hard, trying to choke down my pride. “I’m sorry.”

He sighed heavily and walked away from me to where he had his stuff in a haphazard pile beside the building. He pulled his shirt on, picked up Goliath’s and threw it at me. I caught it, bundling it in my hands in time to see him pull back on his eyepatch. He picked up a bottle of Jack and took a long swig.

“Come on, I’ll walk you back to your room.”

I followed along behind him, watching his back muscles move beneath his shirt. He had a body made for sin. Long, with huge broad shoulders and a lean waist that led into the perfect slope of his ass. He opened the door and turned back to me, his eye widening when I wasn’t fast enough to drop a mask over my obvious ‘fuck me’ face.

He growled low in his throat again, reached out and grabbed my wrist. He pulled my body to his, despite the awkwardness of the bulge of my stomach between us, and covered my mouth with his. His

kiss was hard and punishing. He devoured me with his lips, his tongue, his teeth. It was a kiss that was meant to possess, and when my back hit the wall beside the heavy door of Clubhouse, I kissed him back. I kissed him with all the pent up anger, turmoil and lust that was raging through my bloodstream.

Then the heavy metal door slammed shut, making me jump and breaking the kiss.

“Fuck!” Judas yelled, slamming his fist against the wall beside my head. I flinched, and his eye moved back to my face. Something soft and vulnerable flashed in it. Then he ruined it by wiping his mouth with the back of his arm.

He stormed back into the darkness of the Clubhouse, leaving me weak kneed and confused by the door.

What just happened?

13

CAIN

A banging on my door had me up and alert before my mind caught up with my body. I pulled open the door, and flinched away from the feral look Judas was giving me on the other side.

“Get control of your fucking property, Cain, or so help me fucking god.”

Then he stormed down the hall and slammed his own door shut with enough force to rattle the windows.

Panic seized my body as I pulled on my jeans, tearing out of my room barefoot. I started with Sera’s room, but it was empty, the window open and the curtains fluttering softly in the night breeze.

I ran down the stairs, taking the hall that emptied out into the back lot. As I tore around the corner, I saw her. She was sitting beside the door, her body curled in on itself. She looked up with big wet eyes, looking more lost and broken than she had at any time in the last two days. What the fuck had Judas done?

“Sera?” I said softly. “Are you okay?”

She inclined her head, but buried her face back in her knees. We sat in silence for a moment more, and then I bent down and picked her up, tucking her body against my chest. She didn’t protest. It was like all the fight went right out of her. I hated it.

I bypassed her room and took her to mine, who gave a fuck what propriety said. I’d felt the power coursing through Judas when he banged on my door. I trusted and loved him. He was my friend. My Brother. But we all made mistakes, and Sera made us all a little wild. She could stay with me for the night and I’d watch over her.

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