Duke (The Henchmen MC 5)

"I don't know if I like how that sounds."

He shrugged at that. "It means tonight is probably all we get to have until we figure this whole situation out. It's not safe at the compound. More so now than ever since we have no men left to protect it."

"I have to go to Hailstorm," I said, my stomach twisting a little painfully at the idea.

Duke winced a little. "Don't look so sad about it. If I can, I will come and visit."

Visit.

That sounded so formal.

I felt my lip curl slightly at it.

And it only made him smile. "Hailstorm is like a mini military. They all, women included, sleep in a barracks-style room. I don't know if that has changed now with all the women and kids shacking up there. Maybe she let them overtake the medical ward or something. But there is no privacy there. I could come to visit but all we would be able to do is hang out and talk." Sensing my disappointment and likely feeling his own, he leaned forward and placed a sweet, chaste kiss on my lips. Pulling back, he had a wicked smile. "Okay, so maybe I'll drag you down one of the dead-end corridors and kiss you until you can't catch your breath. But that would be about all I would risk there with all those men and women milling about."

"I want more than tonight," I admitted as I slid my leg up and over his hip, scooting closer and tucking my head under his chin.

His arm went around my hips, the other hand started sifting through my hair gently. "We'll have more. We just have to wait a bit."

"I'm good at waiting," I said, my tone a little solemn.

Duke's chest shook as he chuckled silently. "You'll probably knit a pair of socks for every member of Hailstorm by the time I get you out of there."

"Shut up," I laughed as he rolled onto his back and pulled me onto his chest. He reached to the side and grabbed the end of the blanket, pulling it up and over me.

In that moment, I was pretty sure I never felt safer in my life.

And it had nothing to do with the underground bunker with reinforced walls and a pile of guns.

It had everything to do with the man who was holding me.

"Tired?" he asked as my body started to go slack.

I nodded. "But I don't want to sleep and waste what little time we have."

"Sleep, baby. We both need it."

He said it, but I was sure he wasn't going to sleep.

But the events of the day crashed down on me at once, making my eyes too heavy to keep open. And my body, weak from sex, was in no mood to fight it.

I drifted off.I woke up slowly, sighing out my breath as my lazy muscles came alive. I moved my face to rub up against my fuzzy body pillow.

But I wasn't on my fuzzy body pillow.

I was on a man.

Then I woke up immediately, body jerking up and I pushed up to look down at Duke who was already awake. Or, rather, was still awake. His eyes were heavy, his skin a little pale, the circles under his eyes deep and slightly purple from exhaustion.

"Out of curiosity," he started, brushing my hair behind my ear. "Do you have some kind of hidden dream to become an exterminator?"

My brows drew together as my lips twitched. "Um, no..." I said, shaking my head. "Why?"

"Because you said 'exterminate' really loudly in your dream."

I felt my cheeks get warm as I smiled, remembering the dream vaguely. "I, ah, was having a dream about Doctor Who."

One of his brows lifted as his lips twitched. "That show about the guy with the phone box and aliens?"

"Yeah, that's the one," I nodded, feeling just a little bit embarrassed that I had actually had a dream about it at all, let alone one I spoke out in to be overheard by the guy who I had just had some amazing sex with.

Then the smile he had been trying to hold back broke free, making the skin at the sides of his eyes crinkle and his face to look so much more open, almost carefree, than I had ever seen it before. "You closet sci-fi nerd, you," he teased. "I don't know if I can date a geek. It might hurt my reputation as a badass biker."

"Really? Doctor Who is where you draw the line? Knitting like an eighty-year old is cool, but a cult classic TV show is a no-no?" I asked, smiling big because it was nice to just be able to talk to him, not about his past or the threats around us, but just talk.

"Maybe I'm into old ladies who knit."

"Yeah, you did seem quite taken with my grandmother," I small-eyed him, but I couldn't keep my smile in.