“I already knew you were. I’ve been here for a few months now. It’s not exactly a huge bathroom. You keep it in the top drawer. Why the hell are you on birth control when you weren’t sleeping with anyone?”
“I intended to sleep with tons of men. Tons of them. I didn’t think I had long to live, and I wanted to experience everything. I was going to be a wild woman. But then I started meeting them and I didn’t exactly like them enough to get all sinful and dirty with them.”
It was his turn to laugh. He was shocked when silver notes rose to the ceiling, floating up in a glittering musical display. A lump rose in his throat, and he turned back over and tightened his arm around her hips. “I don’t know whether to turn you over my knee or just kiss you until you can’t think straight and won’t ever consider that again.”
“After what we did together, I don’t think I’ll be considering other men, Savage.”
He rolled, caught her waist, flipped her over him to bring her onto his lap and swatted her hard on her bottom, then put her back into the same position so he could pillow his head on her belly. She let out a squeal of protest when he smacked her hard, but only glared at him.
“That’s not a proper answer, Seychelle. The proper answer would be, ‘I will never, ever, under any circumstances consider going off with other men, Savage. The possibility won’t enter my mind.’?”
“Is that what I should have said?”
Laughter spilled sassy little notes toward the ceiling to catch up with his silver ones, wrapping around them, intertwining like the rose sculpture she loved so much. Someday he was going to have Lissa make some kind of sculpture representing the two of them. Something beautiful she would treasure.
“That’s what you should have said. Go to sleep, you little demon. You aren’t going to be getting much sleep tonight, so be warned.”
FOURTEEN
“I don’t really understand what a run is,” Seychelle said to Lana. “Would you explain it to me? Savage is so sweet, and he’s kind of spoiled me rotten the last two weeks. Some things he explains very succinctly, and for other things I think he expects I can just read his mind. He brought up the run and said we’d be going in a few weeks, that it was important, but he didn’t really say what it was.”
She looked around the clubhouse curiously. She didn’t know what she’d expected, but not this very neat, comfortable, large space. This was the common room they all shared and mostly congregated in. The chairs were the most relaxing furniture she’d ever sat in. She wouldn’t mind trying to fit a couple of them in her Mini Cooper and making a getaway for her cottage.
“That’s our boy. Well, I don’t know about the sweet part.” Lana gave her a smile, but her vivid green eyes examined Seychelle’s face carefully. “You do make him happy.” She turned her head to look at Savage, who was behind the bar, no expression on his hard features, talking to his birth brother, Reaper, and club brother Destroyer.
Seychelle didn’t think he looked happy. She thought he looked as if he was discussing murder. If that was what the three men were doing, they were keeping their heads down and doing so in low tones. Everyone seemed to be talking about the “run,” but no one really seemed to be excited about going on it.
“Seychelle, he’s really in love with you.”
Instantly, Lana had her full attention. Lana didn’t sound ecstatic. If anything, she sounded leery. In fact, the look Seychelle caught being exchanged between Alena and Lana was worrisome.
She sighed. “What’s wrong with that? Isn’t he supposed to fall in love? Isn’t that a good thing?”
“Of course,” Alena said hastily, all the while watching Savage. “Don’t get upset. He’ll know, and believe me, honey, he won’t be happy with us for getting his chicklet upset. It’s just that Savage doesn’t just love you. He’s mad, crazy, all-in, you’re-his-world in love with you.”
“That’s the way I feel about him.”
“It’s all right if you feel that way about him, Seychelle,” Lana said. “You really are sweet. Savage didn’t get that name because he’s a nice guy. Someone looks at you wrong and he could end up in prison.”
“At this run? That’s what you’re mostly worried about, isn’t it?” Seychelle guessed shrewdly. She tapped her fingers on her thigh. “He did mention several times that a lot of different clubs would be there, and he wanted me to stick very close to him and to the other members of Torpedo Ink.”
Lana nodded. “Runs can be fun, but they can be dangerous. You’re a beautiful woman, and you’ve got the kind of body men are going to be looking at. You have a voice that draws men in. Also . . .” She glanced at Alena.