Unbroken

Forty-Eight

Skye

Hunter had broken his promise.

He didn’t come.

Something…

Something was happening.

Everything felt wrong.

I often thought about my visit at the clubhouse. I tried to understand Hunter’s demeanour, tried to think perhaps he was in a bad place there, that maybe they were stopping him from keeping to his promise.

But then I thought of how light his face was when Roy patted him on the back. There was such a comfortable ease in him as the men joked about me being there, like…like he’d talked about me, and Hunter never talked. He was a private man. He never let anyone in, and yet…theyknewhim.

Bikers may have been bad for business, but that didn’t mean they were bad people. Right?

During that time, I lived in luxury, everything at my disposal, and yet it didn’t fill the hollowness inside me. As the weeks passed, I knew I needed to get out. Being holed up in Leo’s apartment was maddening, and no amount of flowers and presents was going to change that.

Leo wasn’t around as often as he used to be, and Shane was an overbearing shadow that sometimes stood outside my bedroom door. It was too much.

Ineededout.

I expressed this one morning Leo had slept in with me. We were in bed, and he was wrapped around me, face buried in my hair as he ran his fingers down my spine. He liked to just hold me. Sometimes it was hard not to want to do more. But Leo was ever the gentleman, even in the later hours of the night when his hard cock pressed against my back as he held me; he had never pushed for more.

I loved that about him.

As he held me, stroking me, his scent all around me, I found it was hard to break the moment. But I knew I needed to tell him what was on my mind.

“Leo,” I said softly, “it’s time I get out of the apartment.”

His fingers stilled against my spine, and then he pulled back to look at me. His face was calm, but his lips turned down. “It’s too dangerous.”

“Is it, though?”

“Yes,” he said straightaway. “It is.”

“For how much longer?”

“I can’t give you an exact time.”

I exhaled slowly, frowning. “I know it sounds silly, but I can’t be kept on a short leash, Leo. At some point, you have to let me live my life.”

“What do you need to do?” Leo asked suddenly. “You decided to take classes after the new year—”

“I need a job.”

“But I can look after you just fine.” His hand flattened against my back as he tugged me closer to his bare chest. “Please, let me look after you, Skye. I need to know you’re okay.”

“But I’m not okay living like this,” I tried to explain, searching his blue eyes for understanding. “Leo, you need to give me my wings back.”

Leo’s breaths picked up. “But when you’re here, Skye, Iknowthat you’re safe.Please.”

I understood his pain and was almost tempted to pull back and give him what he wanted, but I couldn’t keep existing in fear. “Leo, this is what I want.”

Minutes stretched in silence. He eventually let go of me, his eyes buried in thought. I hated that he was pulling away—it meant he was trying to fix this. He slid out of bed and went to the bathroom. I stared up at the ceiling, clasping my fingers together, wondering what he was thinking. He wasn’t the type to push to get his way; Leo wasn’t an argumentative guy. He reasoned and he was calm, but he could be stubborn, too.