He never corrected anyone, never made excuses. He was what he was, and no one could change him.
Why hide it when people already thought the worst of him?
“I’ll stop when I get what I want.”
“What is it you want?” Axel asked. “Do you even know what you want?”
He stared at his friend, waiting.
Axel opened up his wallet and pulled out a picture.
Draven didn’t need for him to open it to see.
It was the picture of the five of them together, taken during the night they stayed in the woods.
Him, Harper, Axel, Buck, and Jett.
All of them together.
When he made plans for a future that would never see the light of day.
“Do you still want to kill her?” Axel asked. “Give up. Let her live her life, wherever it is, because she’s not worth your time or effort to drag this out.”
Draven took the picture from him and stared down at her smiling face. Her head was pressed against his chest. Even though this had been ten years ago, he still felt her head as if it was only yesterday, leaning against him. The citrus scent of her. The smile that had called to him. The sweet cry of his name on her lips as she came. He’d truly believed she belonged to him. All of her, his.
It hadn’t been the case.
Taking out his lighter, he put the flame to the picture and watched as it went up.
“Draven, what the hell?”
He didn’t give it back to Axel even as he reached for it.
The only place this deserved to be was up in smoke like all of his plans and dreams. Harper, wherever the hell she was, better hope he never found her.
If he did, her life was his, and he intended to make her pay for everything.
Chapter One
Harper smiled against her pillow as kisses trailed down her back. The touch was so delicate and intimate, driving her need higher as she woke.
“Hello, sexy lady,” Ethan said.
She rolled over as he gripped her hips and sighed. He skimmed his fingers down her thighs, and seeing him do this reminded her of another time, so long ago.
Sitting up, she pushed him to the bed, changing positions. “I want to be on top.” Pushing the memories back, she smiled down at her boyfriend. She met Ethan when he came into the florist shop two years ago. He’d been buying flowers for his mother, and they’d hit it off. She hadn’t realized he’d been flirting until it was pointed out to her.
After that, she tried flirting back, giving him back what he gave her, but it didn’t feel right. No matter what she did, she always felt … fake.
Anyway, one night after drinks, one too many, she’d ended up back at his apartment, and they’d slept together. Since then, they’d been going steady until six months ago, when he asked her to move in. She didn’t have a good enough reason to say no, and so, here she was, still living with him.
It’s not that she didn’t care about him. She did.
There wasn’t a spark between them. She knew he cared about her, maybe even loved her, which was why she tried so hard to forget everything else and to just focus on him, on what he meant to her.
His cock was already hard as rock. He certainly was insatiable when it came to fucking.
Running her hand up and down his length, she smiled at him. Deep in her heart, she wished it was someone else. Another time. The time when she was eighteen years old and willing to take on four men, just to have the one. To be part of their group and have the void filled within her heart that had been left vacant with her mother’s death. Only, it had all been torn away from her. Held hostage at Alan’s deadly hands. The thought of never having Draven, Axel, Buck, and Jett in her world had nearly destroyed her. They didn’t deserve to die because of her.
The threat of death and violence was what kept her away and would always hold her back. She didn’t want Draven to die because of her, nor any of the guys. She wasn’t worth their lives.
Not for the first time, she wondered if another initiation had begun. If they had a woman between them who bore their names. The thought of another holding their names, of them falling for her, filled her with jealousy. That was supposed to be her, not anyone else. Alan had fucked that up, and she hated him for it. She’d hoped Draven would one day figure it out, and come and find her. Only now, after ten years, she hoped he was living a good life.
Ethan had once asked about the ink at the small of her back.
She’d lied. She’d told him it was the names of pets that had passed. He’d thought it was cute and weird.