Page 28 of Savage Lust

I could tell by the way she kept glancing at Riley and the emotion in her voice, I’d made the right decision coming here.

“It worked out.” I gave her a look. This argument was old, she never won, and things were better this way. There hadn’t been many other options.

“Well, nice to meet you, Riley. Hungry? What do you like? I can have Sam make anything…take a look at the menu. Breakfast and dinner served all day.” She seated us and turned back to me. “Coffee?”

“Yes, ma’am.” I told her.

“What to drink, hon?” She looked at Riley.

Riley rattled off a soda and when she glanced back down to the menu, Ro’s glance darted from my bike to my guest and her brow lifted in question. I shook my head no and checked the menu myself. Another argument I wasn’t going to have.

Ro was well versed in the rules of the MC. Riding with Riley on the back of my bike meant I was staking a claim to her.

“My mom was a junkie.” I spoke without looking up. “She and Ro went to school together. Ro never had any kids, so I was her fill-in.”

Riley caught my gaze and pursed her lips with an annoyed tsk. “You’re nobody’s fill-in.”

I shrugged. “You know what I mean. She got to take me to do the fun things, like buy me school clothes, carnivals, shit like that. When I was in middle school, my mom had a revolving door of new guys—some of them more violent than others. I stayed with Ro a lot back then.” There was something aboutRiley that made me keep talking, no matter how many times I tried to shut up.

I’d never told anyone this shit. Some of this I doubted even Merc or Dylan would know.

“Figure out what you want?” Ro set down the coffee and Riley’s soda.

“Pancakes.” I grinned. I’d never eaten anything else here.

“With bacon, extra crispy.” She finished with a coral-colored grin before looking at Riley.

“I’ll do the same.” She snapped the menu shut and spoke in a mock whisper to Ro. “Do we tell him I was going to order that anyway, or let him keep thinking he did something special?”

Ro seemed to contemplate it. “Eh, he’s too cute. We let him think whatever he wants.” Then she grinned and walked away.

“Why do I feel like you’re both making fun of me?”

With a solemn, beautiful face, Riley grinned. “Aw, isn’t he cute?”

I tossed a sugar packet at her and was rewarded with a bright smile as she snatched the little white packet from the air and laughed. I was so caught up in her beauty, I didn’t dodge it when a quick flick of her wrist sent the packet smacking against the side of my face.

She could make fun of me for that too and I wouldn’t care.

eleven

Riley

This side of Cam was unexpected and surprising in the best kind of way. Sitting there, stretched out in a booth at a diner off the interstate, he was more relaxed than I’d ever seen him. His grin came easy, and he made jokes.

But the love he showed for the older woman, Robbie, spoke to my heart.

There were layers to Cam Savage, and I couldn’t help myself from poking at them and peeling them back little by little.

“Thank you,” I said, before sipping my soda through the straw.

Cam stretched one arm across the back of the booth and grinned at me over the rim of his coffee cup. “For what?”

“Not judging the ramblings of a drunk woman the other night. For not telling anyone. For being kind. I don’t know, for everything.”

“You don’t owe me any gratitude. You don’t owe anyone here shit.” After several swallows, he put the cup down.

“Just because you don’t think you deserve it, doesn’t make it…less.”

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