In the yellow light of the two lanterns and the crackling fire, he saw the flush spread up her neck and into her face. “I was just so angry with Lana. I did think of her as a friend, Savage.”
She looked at him, and he flinched inside at the hurt in her eyes. He wanted to shake Lana until her teeth rattled. “I know you did, baby. I’m sorry she hurt you. I’m certain she does consider you a friend. She separates things in her mind in a way she shouldn’t. We’re all damaged. That doesn’t give any of us the right to hurt others, and we can’t use it as an excuse, but that’s the reason she doesn’t get that what she said to you was wrong. Czar is setting her straight, and she’s going to feel like an utter ass.”
“That won’t make any difference to how she made me feel,” Seychelle pointed out. “Alena is supposed to be her sister. Pierce totally betrayed her. The things she said to me had to have struck a nerve with Alena too, but she didn’t even think of that. Not for a minute.”
Savage nodded. He rubbed his hand on his thigh, watching her try to move in the jeans. She was very uncomfortable after riding all day with the denim rubbing on her sore bottom. She was about to get a lot sorer. She knew it. He knew it. His cock really knew it. Most likely, so did her pussy. She squirmed a little, but she wasn’t quite ready to give either of them the outlet they needed.
He had no idea when he looked at her, like now, with the strange light shining on her, giving her hair a glow that always made him think of her as his angel, that he would actually feel a physical sensation of an emotion. Love welling up. It was stronger than the terrible rage that was always present in his belly. That well that was inside, churning, waiting for a way to burst its way out. Her love smothered it, just covered it like a blanket.
He experienced the emotion nearly like a panic attack, with his heart pounding and his mouth going dry. He felt a little light-headed. He didn’t understand why his fellow Torpedo Ink members couldn’t see she had changed his life completely. He’d been ready to drive off a fucking cliff. There was nothing for him. Nothing. It wasn’t like he hadn’t tried to find outlets or pursued ways to “cure” himself. He was intelligent. In the end, he accepted that he wasn’t going to live much longer. And then Seychelle had virtually saved his life and his sanity. She brought him laughter and even joy. She also found what was left of gentleness and tenderness. Both those emotions were growing in him. He didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. He was supposed to be a badass, but his woman had a way of turning that around.
“Baby, come here to me.” He said it softly. Letting her know it was time. She’d feel better. She would. A release of tension. Letting it all go. The anger and hurt. That slow buildup of sexual tension between the two of them. He would feel better as well.
She shook her head. Held up her hand as if he were moving toward her, not the other way around. “They were horrible to me. I really don’t like them.”
“I know they were, Seychelle. If you come here to me, you know I’ll make you feel better. I can’t do that when you’re all the way over there.”
“You’re going to punish me,” she repeated.
“Not for anything you said or did to any of them. You had every right to say whatever you wanted to, although I will say, you were wearing my ring and my jacket, and I’ll have to answer to Czar for your disrespect in front of the club. They would overlook it, but it was in public, which means another club might have overheard.”
Seychelle froze. “I don’t understand, Savage.”
“I’m responsible for anything you do, baby—you know that. We talked about that. Czar is president of Torpedo Ink. In public, especially around other clubs, he is always held in the highest regard. I don’t start a fistfight with him at a gas station, and you don’t call him out when we’re walking through the campsites, where other clubs can hear you. It’s no big deal. You didn’t say much, and if he chews me out, I’ll take the hit. He deserved it, and he knows it.”
She bit her lip and then raised her gaze once more to his. His heart stuttered in his chest. He loved her so much. “I should have taken you home, Seychelle. What happened with Czar was on me as much as it was on you.”