“Unruly teenager? I’m trying to make sure you aren’t taken again. I’m trying to make sure you’re protected! Do you even realize what I thought happened? Can you even comprehend how fucking worried I’ve been this entire time?” I shoot up from the couch, and I’m visibly shaking. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m worried or because I’m furious.
“Why do you even care so much, Falcon? It’s not like we’re more than occasionally friendly faces. We’re just two people who know each other, right? So, why do you even care?” Emotion floods Hermoine’s voice, and everything about the way she’s speaking to me right now tells me she knows damn well why I give a shit, but I’ll vocalize it for her if I have to.
“That’s bullshit, and you know it. I’ve secretly been in love with you for years, Hermoine. I’ve just been lyin’ to myself because I didn’t want to ruin our friendship. I thought our friendship was more important than me potentially fucking this up, but I don’t want to be friends anymore. The moment I found out you were missing, I realized how much you mean to me, and I can’t bear the thought of you ever being hurt again. I’m in love with you, Hermoine.”
“I . . . I thought the kiss was a one-time thing,” Hermoine admits and licks her lips nervously.
“It could never be a one-time thing with me . . . because when I close my eyes, I see you. When my mind is clear, I think about you. You are everything to me, Hermoine, and I hope you see that now. I can’t imagine my life without you in it, and I know I run the risk of fucking everything up, but I can’t pretend like you’re just a friend anymore . . . not when I feel this strongly about you.”
I walk over to Hermoine and place my hands on either side of her face. I stare down into her deep, gorgeous dark eyes and slowly inch my lips closer to hers. “Your lips are the only ones I ever imagine kissing, and I want to do it for as long as I can.” I meet my lips with hers, and after an initial shock, Hermoine kisses me back too. She’s meeting every movement, and I think right now I know how she feels about me.
This isn’t just one-sided and thank fuck for that.
I’m still pissed, but at least she’s safe.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Hermoine
He loves me?
Oh, my God.
He loves me . . .
Never in my wildest . . . well, okay, maybe in my wildest dreams, I imagined he might feel this way about me. In those brief, fleeting moments when I was lost in a world that didn’t exist, I allowed myself to think about what it would be like to hear those words fall from his lips but never did I think it would actually happen. Not once. Because Falcon has had years to confess his feelings for me, and when he never did, it was just easier to assume that I had misread things. It was safer than hoping against hope that he might have feelings for me, too.
But, no.
He loves me.
Falcon moves his hands from my face, pulling me blissfully back into the moment, and slips one into my hair to cradle the back of my head while the other wraps around my waist and pulls me closer. His tongue flicks out, teasing the seam of my lips. With his t-shirt clenched in my fists and his hard, unyielding frame molded to mine in the most delicious way, I hand over control to him, parting my lips. A single moment isn’t wasted as he takes advantage of my submission, his tongue stroking, teasing mine, and demanding more. I can’t help moaning at the desperation coursing through me, screaming for him to touch me everywhere, all at once, and he answers with a deep groan of his own as he fists a chunk of my hair.
But just as I think we’re about to move this along to something a little more X-rated, he pulls away, a pained expression on his face as he meets my eyes. His broad chest heaves as he tries to catch his breath and his gaze flicks to my lips repeatedly like he’s not sure he can’t stop himself from going back for seconds. I love the need in his warm, brown eyes. It’s the same intense sensation making me feel like my knees might buckle at any moment, and just one more sign that this is all real.
“Why did you go see your parents, baby?”
I blink at the change of topic, staring up at him as my brain takes a moment to catch up. The words should be a bucket of ice water poured over both of our heads, but when we’re like this, in each other’s arms, it feels like nothing could stand in the way of the two of us coming together. Besides, with Falcon holding me, it all feels so much easier to talk about. Still, I don’t want any of his brothers or the club whores overhearing the things I learned today, so I shake my head.
“Not here, Falcon.”
“Come with me,” he orders, releasing me to grab my hand and pull me along behind him as he trudges across the clubhouse to his room. Thankfully, things are pretty quiet today, and when we reach his door, he punches the code into the keypad, and it pops open. He stands back, allowing me to enter first, and after I take a few steps into the room, he follows behind me. As soon as the door is shut, he drags me back into his arms and spins us until my back presses against the door.
“Now, tell me why you needed to go see your parents.”
I take a deep breath and meet his eyes. “The man who broke my window at the shop and the man who took me . . . his name is Geno, and it turns out that he . . . is my real father . . .”
“What?” he hisses, his voice fading off at the end of the word as his brows knit together. He searches my eyes and drags a thumb back and forth across my cheek. “Are you telling me your biological father did all this to you?”
“Not all of it, but he did his fair share before handing me off to his men to finish the job.”
“Why?” he growls, jerking back like I physically slapped him, but I hook my finger into his belt loop, keeping him from going too far from me. When we’re like this, when he’s pressed up against me when I can smell his cologne and feel his hands on my waist, it makes it so much easier to talk about the hell I went through. He meets my gaze, confusion, and outrage in his eyes. It doesn’t surprise me, though, because a man like Falcon could never understand the kind of evil, twisted shit that goes through Geno’s mind.
“He wanted me to admit that I am his daughter, and when I told him to go fuck himself, he decided that he was going to beat some respect into me.”
Falcon just stares at me for a moment before he sucks in a breath and closes his eyes, laying his forehead against mine. “You told a man like that to go fuck himself?”
“Yes,” I whisper, nodding softly as I close my eyes and lean into him. I fully acknowledge how dumb my decisions were in that motel room, but I’m not sure that, faced with that situation again, I would do anything differently. He sighs and pulls away. As I open my eyes, I’m greeted by an admonishing look from him.
“You’re going to be the death of me, woman.”
I smile. “I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re not,” he scoffs, cupping my cheek in his hand. Falcon is trying his hardest to scold me for the things I did and the choices I made in that motel room, but even now, I can see the feelings he has for me in his eyes and feel them in every touch.
“Well,” I whisper, placing my hand on his broad chest as I try to mash down the grin on my face, “I am sorry that it’s going to send you into an early grave . . . but I just couldn’t give him what he wanted. I couldn’t let him win, Falcon.”