Page 78 of Slayin Villain
“It is yours,” I whispered.“I feel it.But even if it’s not… I’d raise them with you.”
Something cracked in him then.I felt it like a wave, his arms tightening, his breath catching.
“Don’t say that unless you mean it, Ember,” he growled against my neck, his voice thick with everything he’d been holding back.“Don’t tell me I get to keep you unless you’re staying.”
“I’m staying,” I said into his skin.“Rome, I’m yours.”
That was it.
He kissed me like a man starved.
We didn’t make it to the bed.He lifted me onto the kitchen counter, and I wrapped my legs around him like a second skin.Our mouths collided again and again, heat rising fast, years of push and pull finally snapping.
His hands were rough on my hips, but his touch was worship.When he peeled off my shirt, it wasn’t just to see me, it was to know I was his now.His lips found every inch of my skin like he was claiming it, relearning the taste of me.When he pushed into me, it wasn’t fast or hard, it was full of everything he’d never said out loud.
And I gave him everything.
Not just my body.
My heart.
My trust.
My truth.
Later, I laid in his bed with the sheets snarled around my legs, wearing nothing but one of his old band shirts that smelled like cedar, sweat, and smoke.Rome was in the other room, making some sad attempt at coffee.
I smiled as I stared at the ceiling.
I didn’t know what tomorrow would bring.Didn’t know what Villain would think when he found out I wasn’t leaving, I was staying.Claiming something real.
But for once, the uncertainty didn’t scare me.
The door creaked, and Rome stepped back in, two mugs in hand.He handed me one and crawled into bed beside me, resting on his elbow as he watched me sip.
“You look good here,” he murmured.
“I feel good here.”
We sat in that silence for a minute until he cleared his throat.“I got somethin’ for you.”
I arched a brow.“Better not be a ring, Rome.You know I ain’t that kinda girl.”
He smirked.“Nah.Not yet.But you are this kinda girl.”
From the drawer by his bed, he pulled out a worn black leather vest.I recognized the stitching, the red thread at the seams, the softness of a cut that had seen miles and war.And on the back, beneath something new, the Bastard Sons MC patch… was a small plaque stitched in cursive.
PROPERTY OF ROME
I stared at it for a long moment, fingers brushing the thread.
“You sure?”I asked, blinking fast.
“I don’t want another man on earth touchin’ what’s mine,” he said.“But more than that, I want everyone in this club to know where your heart’s parked.”
My voice was thick when I replied.“It’s with you.Always has been, even when I was too scared to admit it.”
He leaned over and kissed me again, soft this time, a whisper of what came next.
