“Katie! I’m hurt,” he says, but his tone says otherwise. “Besides, sweetness, considering the way we met…”
“And what are you saying?” I ask flopping over on my back, suddenly defensive.
“Throwing stones, glass houses,” he says, still not aware he’s upset me. Instead, he pulls the sheet down, exposing my boob.
I pull it back up. “Oh, please. I couldn’t hold a candle to the number of women on your bedpost.”
“Are we comparing bedposts? Because I’d rather tie you to them instead,” he complains, going back to kissing my neck, which feels amazing. Annoying, but amazing.
“Freak,” I tease him, trying to remember why I’m upset.
“Oh, you have no idea, but you soon will.” He climbs on top of me.
“I’m not sure this is a good idea.”
“Too late.”
“I’m serious, Torch. We can’t forget the elephant in the room here.”
He’s placing kisses on my neck and shoulders, working his way down under the covers to my breasts. The feel of his lips and tongue on my body nearly makes me orgasm right there on the spot.
“I know my dick is big, baby, but I’d hardly call it an elephant.”
“Will you stop?” I groan as he nibbles down my stomach. “Torch…” I hope I can be forgiven for the way my hips thrust up towards him.
He pushes the covers back so it reveals his face and looks at me. It’s annoyance I see on his face now. He lets out a hard breath and looks my face over, searching for something. I’m not sure what, and I have no idea if he has found it.
“Okay, fine,” he says with a sigh. “I get you’re hesitant here. What can I give you that will let you give whatever this is between us a chance?”
“My sister—”
“Don’t go there, Katie,” he says at once. “What’s going on with Beth and Skull is on them. They both made choices that put them where they’re at. They need to work that out.”
“She tried. You don’t—” I start to defend, but he doesn’t let me.
“She didn’t try hard enough. She should have come to him and demanded he tell her that shit to his face.”
What he says hits me hard, maybe because I don’t disagree with him. I wanted to do that very thing. Beth wouldn’t, and she wouldn’t let me. Still, Torch wasn’t there. He didn’t see the devastation on Beth’s face. He didn’t experience all of the pain and betrayal first hand…
“What he’s doing now is wrong,” I say. “Hunting us down like dogs, just to give us back to a family who never wanted us and now want revenge. They’ll kill us.”
He straightens back over my body and then flips us so I’m over top of him. His hands go to each side of my face, his thumbs brushing along my cheekbones as he watches me.
“I’m not giving you to anyone. And Skull, as pissed off and as hurt as he is…”
“He doesn’t have a right…”
“He has every right, Katie. He thought he killed the woman he loved. Killed her. He mourned and grieved for her and spent years living with the guilt only to learn it was all a lie, and he has a child he has never met. That would fuck anyone up.”
My stomach clenches at his words. I had only seen things from Beth’s side, but if what Torch is saying is true… if Skull never knew he had a child, then…
“He didn’t seem to be grieving that night at the movies.”
“The movies?”
“Beth and I had tracked you guys down when we finally got free. We went to the club. Or, well, I did. Beth didn’t want to meet Skull there. There was someone there she knew couldn’t be trusted. And—”
“Who?” he asked, cutting me off.
“I don’t know. Beth’s the one who knows, not me. That’s not the point, anyway. I went to the club, and they told me where we’d find Skull. We went to a theater in that small town and, when everyone came out, he was hanging all over some blonde. There was no grieving in sight.”
“You’re kidding me. Why didn’t Beth confront him then?”
“She tried! She went into labor!”
“Jesus Christ eating popcorn…”
“Your swear words are really weird, Hunter.” He stops and looks at me and, for a minute, the softness in his eyes is back. He even gives my lips a small kiss. “What was that for?”
“I’ll explain someday. But back to this. That woman was no one to Skull.”
“Yeah, I figured that when he sent a picture of him and his girlfriend.”
“I don’t know what kind of picture you got, but I know for a fact that Skull didn’t send it. I also know he’s never had a girlfriend. Shit, he wouldn’t even call Beth a girlfriend.”
“Whatever, I know what I saw.”
“Yes, and you just admitted there was someone in the club Beth couldn’t trust. So, don’t you think you should have checked it out a little bit better?”
“You probably don’t get this, but when you get enough men slamming doors in your face and hurting you, you learn when to fucking throw in the towel.”
“Someday, you’ll tell me all about that.”
“I doubt it, since this—whatever this is—will end soon.”
“I don’t see that happening,” he says.
“You’re deluding yourself.”