Page 27 of Riding Free

Reaching out to her, I cup her cheek. “Babe, I know you aren’t them. I also know that you came back here asking for their help, so their support, thoughts, and opinions still mean something.”

“They do,” she exhales. “But at the same time, they don’t. Their opinions and thoughts are theirs. I don’t share them. Yes, they have helped me, but that doesn’t mean I’m forced to do what they want me to. I’m thirty years old. I’ve always done what I want.”

My lips twitch at her words. Also, I didn’t know how old she was. I like that she’s somewhat close to my age. I don’t know why it matters. It doesn’t. She could be fifty or twenty, and I would still feel the same fucking way about her.

I slide my tongue across my bottom lip. “We do this, babe, you need to know it’s not going to be easy, and it’s for life.”

“Brock?” she asks.

I can see the confusion etched on her face. “In the club, you don’t just walk away from me. We’re together, and you’re my old lady. That’s that.”

“Forever?”

“Forever.”

She turns her head. My hand falls from her cheek as I watch her stand and begin walking away from me. I let her go. She’s lost in thought, no doubt unsure about what I’ve just said to her. It’s a big decision, and though it’s easy enough for me, maybe it’s not for her.

Then, as suddenly as she stood and moved away, she spins around, her gaze finding mine across the darkness that surrounds us. “Does that go for you, too?” she demands.

“That I can’t end this?” I ask.

“That it’s forever,” she murmurs.

Standing, I move toward her, closing the distance between us. I cup her cheek with one hand, and the other I slide around her waist to pull her close to me. I like that she’s got on a short shirt so I can feel her soft skin beneath my fingertips as I curl my fingers around her waist and hold on to her.

“Some of the guys might not give a shit about promises and vows when it comes to women. But I do. When I claim a woman, it’s forever. There’s no walking away, there’s no running, there’s no hiding. It’s until both our dying breaths. No giving up, either. We work on it until our fingers are worked to the goddamn bone.”

Her breath hitches, and I want to take advantage and slip my tongue inside her, taste her, and consume her right here and now, but I don’t. This conversation is too important to just gloss over and rush to the sex part.

But we will be doing that again soon, too. Very fucking soon.

“I believe in being with one person forever, too, but, Brock, you want me to make a lifetime decision by the end of the week, and I’m scared.”

“Nothing to be scared about. I got you. I got Thea. I got you fucking both, and you’re mine.”

“Does this mean you’re ours, too?” she asks.

It’s sweet. It’s almost as if she knows the rules of club life, but I know she doesn’t. I could explain it to her right this instant, but there’s something else I’d rather do first. I’ll explain after… later.

CHAPTER

TWENTY-ONE

KEELY

Brock picks me up as if I weigh absolutely nothing. I feel like I might be a feather… you know, if I didn’t know the truth. That’s just how effortlessly he moves me. I don’t know where we’re going or what we’ll be doing, but I don’t think I care.

Then his mouth touches mine. Gently, he places me down on the ground, breaking the kiss, but I don’t want this to end. Reaching out, I grip his cut, holding on to him so he can’t walk away from me.

I want him.

I need him.

I crave him.

I’ve never been this way, never worried about sex or who I wasn’t having it with, because I haven’t had very many partners, but with Brock, I’m worried, because I want him right now. I know I’m wet. I ache in a way where he’s the only person on this earth I know who can fix it, who can assuage that ache and satiate my whole body.

I press my thighs together in an attempt to alleviate the ache there but fail, and he shakes his head once. His lips twitch, his eyes sparkle, but he doesn’t speak. I think about begging him for more, for his touch. His lips. His tongue. His… length. I bite back the whimper as it threatens to escape my throat.