Page 43 of Savage Devotion
A sadness passes over Angel’s soft expression. I want to ask for more, but that is a conversation for another time.
We’ve barely made it a couple of miles outside of Harlon, but we are still within parish boundaries.
Angel is next out of the car and waving me off as both ladies head back to town on foot. They’ll probably call for someone to pick them up.
Meanwhile, I’m stuck and left all alone with Reaper staring me down through the windshield.
He steps out of my headlights. My door is open and I am on the hood of my car before I have a chance to start my argument.
“Reaper, you damn brute. Did you even check if the car was in park?” My fist connects with his massive pecs, but he does nothing but storm halfway across the road fisting his hair.
He pounds the pavement back to stand between my legs, the fire of hell blazing in his eyes.
“So what? A little fire and you think the answer is to just run off?”
His voice dips low with every word until the last one is nothing more than a growl. And just like that, the anger in my veins seeps out and pain and sudden realization replaces it.
“Reaper.”
He’s not paying attention. He’s in the middle of the road, looking up at the moon. In another moment I would soak in the gloriousness of his sculpted body drenched in light and thepuff of his hot breath hitting the cold autumn air. He looks animalistic. Wild.
And hurt.
I jump off the hood, and he’s on me in two steps.
He leans over me so far I’m pinned to the side of my purring car, defenseless.
I wrap a palm around his face and hold his glittering gaze with mine. I breathe in as he exhales and for a moment, I see him relax.
“I wasn’t leaving,” I say quietly. I kiss his chin, his cheeks, and his eyes when he closes them.
It takes him a moment to realize the truth of my words. As they sink in, I can feel the knots in his tense muscles relax.
“I wasn’t alone. I had the girls with me. We were riding in to save you.”
My quiet words seem to hit him as hard as an iron fist to the gut.
His expression shifts from relief to fury to downright rage.
“You what?” he roars, wide-eyed. He tugs at tufts of hair and mumbles something along the lines ofcrazy womanandgoing to get us all killed.
I have news for him, not without taking down a few of the bad guys with me. But I keep that to myself. I don’t think he can handle more of my truths tonight.
He’s off me and pacing on the road again. “And what were you going to do? Ride into Péril guns blazing? No, because you don’thave a gun and neither do any of those girls.” He throws his arms up wide, his frustration as clear as the moon above us.
I push off my car and pin him with a narrowed-eyed glare. “Don’t make me sound like I can’t handle myself, Liam Black. Just because I don’t have a gun doesn’t mean I don’t know how to find one and use it. Who says I need to own one to get the job done, anyway? Nothing is better than turning a man’s gun on him and shooting him in the balls.”
He stops pacing to glare at me. Probably trying to picture me taking aim down a barrel and knocking off a set of balls at close range. “I guess you’re speaking from experience?” He’s tempered his tone. I notice a little bit of pride and a hint of fear.
I nod and wipe at the tears burning my cheeks.
He tucks me under his chin and holds me there until our heartbeats even out. “I thought you left me. I swear right now you need to know that I will hunt you down and tie you to me the second you try to leave me, baby. I can’t live another day without you at my side.”
His southern drawl is a little thicker tonight with all the emotions. I wrap my arms around him and tip my chin up. His lips touch mine.
“And you need to learn how to trust. I told you I haven’t wanted to leave in a while. That’s because of you.”
“You can never put yourself in danger again. Not for me, not for anyone. You get hurt and this world we live in will feel my wrath. Do you understand me? Our baby needs you.”
