Page 6 of Blood Revealed

Her back goes rigid and I swear there’s real fear in her eyes. “I really don’t want to talk about it right now. If you say I have to, then we’ll part ways right now.”

What kind of hell forced a woman her age to flee her home at night, no less? I want to ask but down to my gut know she’s not fucking around. I ask, she bolts, which means I bite back my need to know for the time being. “No more rash decisions, baby. Rest tonight. We’ll look on things with fresh eyes after we wake, yeah?”

“Please promise me I can trust you. I want to trust you, but the men in my life make it hard to do that.”

Fuck me. No wonder I haven’t seen her break down yet. “You’re safe with me and my brothers. We don’t hurt women. Never touched one without her beggin’ first.”

She snickers, but hey. I gotta be real. I’m a man and she’s gorgeous. I’d hit that in a second if she gave the okay, which she doesn’t, understandably, considering everything. Instead, she folds down the top blanket on the bed then sits on the edge to slip off her shoes.

Hannah pulls the sheet back and slips under, rolling to her side, facing the door. I take off my cut to drape over the chair and then sit to pull off my boots. “You want me to sleep on the floor?” It’s gross, but this woman’s been through enough. The choice is hers.

“No. It’s okay as long as you stick to your side.”

“I can do that.” I slip in under the sheet, too, rolling onto my side so I face her back.

Once we’re both settled, she whispers, “Thank you.” And with that one word, I know I’m gone. What the hell just happened?

When my eyes pop open again, I’m not alone on my side of the bed. I was the good boy I promised I’d be, but she didn’t stick to the rules she laid out. Her head rests on my chest with one arm draped over my stomach and one bent leg slung over my thigh. The smell of her shampoo and probably just her, fresh and flowers fills my nose. She has so much hair; it’s long and silky and spread over me and the pillow. Fuck. I want to fuck her, but I don’t even move. She needs to see there are men she can trust.

I lie like that, every breath excruciating, for another fifteen minutes or so before she opens her eyes slowly and smiles at me again. It takes a minute more for her to realize her compromising position.

“Shit,” she mutters, pushing herself up using the hand at my stomach. My first instinct is to keep her right there, but I let her up. She makes the rules right now. “I’m so sorry,” she says sheepishly, her eyes cast down instead of looking at me and I honestly think this is the first time this girl ever cast her eyes down. She doesn’t strike me as the type.

“None of that,” I say. “We sleep how we’re comfortable. You found your comfortable, that’s all.”

“Still…” She rolls back over to her side and she feels too far away. If Boss or Chaos heard the stupid thoughts running through my head, they’d never let me live it down. I roll back over on my side to face her.

“You hungry?” I ask because she didn’t want food last night and I’m starved.

“You wanted food last night—oh, shoot. I’m sorry. I was just so… so… rattled by that man I didn’t want to leave the room.”

“Understandable. Though, if I’m being honest, you didn’t appear rattled to me.” I heard her crying a bit, but she doesn’t need to know that. I don’t want to embarrass her.

“That’s kind of you to say, but I thought I was going to die in that cab, and I know how to fight, but he was bigger than me and I’ve seen more shit in my life than any one person should ever see.”

Fuck. I want to ask. But should I? Fuck it. “You want to talk about it?”

“No. Just—you’re in a club,” she says, then pauses before finishing. “You know the life.”

“I’ve unfortunately had my fair share of dealing with the life, yeah.”

“Then you understand.”

“Just so you know, the Lords, we’re not into that shit. A lot’s gone down I can’t get into with you, but know we’ve been cleaning up the club for the last year.”

“Cleaning up the club? That can’t be easy.”

“Sure as hell ain’t. But we do what we gotta do. None of us wants that life. Brothers at our backs, sure. The drugs and bad dealings, we’re done with.”

“That’s—That’s amazing. I want to believe you, but it’s hard.”

“I hurt you in any way?”

“No.”

“Then believe me. We’d never hurt you.”

“Well, Escalante didn’thurt—”

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