Burned: Devil's Blaze MC Book 2 (19 page)

“Tell me, are you planning on making me wear one of these for the rest of my life?” Katie asks as I finish inserting the new plug, using the cloth to wipe the excess lube off my hands. This one is bigger, and she doesn’t know it yet, but what comes next has nothing to do with a toy. That isn’t what makes me smile, though. Hell no. What does that is how she automatically goes to “the rest of my life”. That’s different. Does she even know she’s linking us together long-term? I doubt it.

I pull her skirt back down. This one is longer, falling to her knee. She bitched this morning when she couldn’t find any jeans. I have them hidden. What can I say? I like what I like. She stopped bitching after I showed her the advantages of wearing a skirt. After her third orgasm on my tongue, she was more than happy with me. I’m thinking this may be my way of dealing with Katie from here on out. It’s a solid plan. My genius is never fully appreciated. I flop back on the bed and Katie, who lies on her stomach, automatically puts her head on my chest. I can’t stop myself from running my fingers through her hair.

“You’re so fucking beautiful,” I tell her.

She looks up at me, her arm loosely draped around my waist. Those damn gray eyes grab ahold of me yet again. If she knew how deep she had her hooks in me, that fear I see in her eyes would disappear.

“Don’t, Hunter,” she whispers.

“Don’t what?” I ask, confused, my finger sliding down the bridge of her nose.

“Don’t tell me lines. I don’t need them.”

“You think because I’m telling you you’re beautiful that I’m automatically feeding you a line?”

“Listen, you’re a player, I get that. But I don’t need the lines. You’ve already bagged me. For the time we have left, just—”

“You need to shut the fuck up now, Katie.”

I put a hand in her hair when she tries to pull away from me. That’s not happening, not after what’s gone down between us.

“Weren’t you listening to me at dinner?”

“Well, yeah, but—”

“Katie, there’s no buts. I’m not playing here.”

“C’mon, Torch. We barely know each other. We agreed, one week, and—”

“Hunter.”

She looks confused. “What?”

“I’ve noticed. When you let down your guard, you call me Hunter. When you’re building up walls for me to break down or planning on saying something to piss me off, I’m Torch again. Let’s clear it up right now. To you, I am now and will always be Hunter. No more fucking walls, no more jumping through hoops. Just you and me.”

“We barely know each other,” she repeats.

I pull her face closer to mine. “I don’t give a fuck.”

“Hunter, you have your club to look out for. Bethie explained to me how that works. I have my sister.”

“You’re not listening to me, sweetness. I said I do
not
give a fuck.”

“You’re being crazy,” she says. “There’s too much between us. It would make being together impossible.”

“Do you care for me, Katie?”

“You were a one-night stand.”

“Do you care for me, Katie?” I ask again.

“How are we ever supposed to make things work? I have to protect my sister, Hunter. I have to.”

I won’t stop asking. “Do you care for me, Katie?”

“Hunter…”

“Answer my question.”

“I don’t know how to do relationships!”

“Katie,” I growl.

“Yes!” she finally cries out. “Okay! Yes! I do! But … I
have
to put my sister and niece first, Hunter. Bethie risked everything for me. She saved me!”

“Sweetness, I told you that, whatever happened, Skull was not involved. You said he had a traitor who helped set Beth up before. Is it too hard to think that person is the one who sent Beth that note?”

“I’m not stupid. It occurred to me, to both of us. But, that was Skull at the movies, that was Skull in that picture, and Colin told us that Skull was working with him because he wanted his daughter, that he would stop at nothing to get Gabriella back.”

“And you can trust Colin? And not me?”

“He had a recording of Skull swearing revenge.”

My spine stiffens at this new bit of information. “You never mentioned this before.”

“I was… Shit, Hunter, I’m not even sure I’m doing the right thing, talking to you now.”

I rest my forehead against Katie’s. “I know it’s hard. I do. But I don’t want to walk away from this. I want more of you. I want all of you.”

“If you’re playing me, Hunter, I will cut off your balls.”

“I care about you. I don’t want to give you up, not ever. I don’t care if it’s been days, weeks, or months. I know that you’re
it
for me. Trust me, Katie. I won’t let you down.”

My club always came first—
until her
. Katie is an obsession I can’t give up. An addiction I crave. She’s a fire deep inside, a beautiful flame that leaves me burned with a heat that I keep wanting over and over. I will find a way to make this work. I don’t have a choice because this woman
is
my future.

Katie watches my face closely. I don’t even blink. I’ve laid it out. I have nothing to hide from her. She is my priority. Then, finally, she nods her head.

“Tell me, Katie.”

“Okay, Hunter. I don’t want to give you up, either.”

Her voice shakes and I know how hard this decision was for her. I kiss her gently, conveying the hundreds of things I’ve told her and all the things I haven’t yet. I will make this work.

I have to.

“Hunter! Let’s get going, Romeo. Shake a leg!”

“I’m coming! Geez, woman. I had to fix my hair. It takes time for this perfection,” he says, strutting out to the jeep.

I can’t help but smile, watching him. It takes me ten minutes. Hell, he’s been primping for forty. I can’t say it wasn’t worth the wait, though, especially when I get a look at his latest t-shirt.

“Seriously?” I ask him.

“What?”

His shirt is black, and on it, it has two figures in a square.  The first square is a depiction of a woman like you would see on a restroom sign with the triangle dress. Under that square, it reads:
Your Girlfriend.
The next square has a naked woman with huge tits bent over and offering her butt, and it reads:
My Girlfriend
.

“You’re ridiculous, you know.”

“Just bragging on you, babe,” he says. “What can I say?” 

I ignore him with a smirk and hand him my duffle bag that has my clothes. “Remind me again why we’re moving so early?”

“We need to make tracks, sweetness. I plan on getting you to Kentucky today.”

“I’m not sure I’m as excited for that as you are.”

He slides his hand under my hair and pulls my face to him. “I promise you, you’ll love it.”

“If you’re wrong I’ll—”

He puts a finger to my lips, hushing me. “I wish you’d quit threatening my balls. They love you. You hurt their feelings.”

I smile despite the worry and stress I’m feeling. “I’ll see if I can make it up to them later.”

“I don’t know. They’re pretty upset. Still, a tongue bath might help them. They respond to physical attention.”

“You’re a freak.” I place a gentle kiss on his lips. “Now let’s go for food. I’m hungry.”

Torch fake sighs. “Your wish is my command. Too bad you didn’t wish for me to bend you over the hood. That would’ve been more fun,” he complains, throwing our bags in the back of the jeep. He walks me over to the passenger side and helps me climb in, then secures the seatbelt around me like I was a little child. It should annoy me, but instead, I like it. I feel like he’s trying to take care of me and I’ve never had that.

Thirty minutes later, we’re pulling into a small restaurant that has a big sign up advertising breakfast twenty-four hours a day. He helps me to my seat, then slides in beside me instead of across from me.

“Couldn’t we talk better if you’re over there?” I ask, pointing to the empty seat.

“I like feeling you close to me. Plus, I can’t sit with my back facing the door, sweetness. Too many years of training have taught me not to do that.”

“I could—”

“That would leave
your
back exposed and
me
unable to protect you. Not happening. Besides, you’ll like me eating next to you.” He dips his head down and his lips find my ear. “And eating
you
.”

“Pervert.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” He laughs, his teeth nibbling on the side of my neck.

“Hunter,” I whimper, because I like it and don’t want him to stop, but we’re in the middle of a restaurant—yet again. “You can’t be horny. There’s no way, after the morning we had. Not to mention the night before!”

“You bring out the animal in me, Katydid,” he murmurs near my ear. “What can I say?” 

The waitress comes and takes our order and saves me from responding, which is good because I have no idea what I would say. Once we’re alone again, Torch pulls me around so I can face him in the chair.

“Tell me about Gabby.”

His question surprises me, but Gabby is a topic I love to talk about, so I immediately warm up to the conversation.

“She’s amazing. She has these dark eyes that I swear glow they’re so beautiful. And her laugh. I don’t think there’s a more beautiful sound in the world. She’s quiet. I’ve never seen a child her age so quiet. She watches everything, takes it all in, you know? Plotting and determining. It’s kind of scary, considering she’s just two.”

“Does she talk? What are her favorite things? Tell me.”

I laugh, he seems so eager. Who would have thought he’d want to know about a child?

“She does talk,” I admit. “I mean, not a lot. She’s only two. But she says ‘mom’ and she calls me Kay-Kay. She knows ‘juice’ and ‘nuggets’. She’s always climbing, and she loves when people draw. She watches, entranced. I swear she’s going to be a famous painter someday.”

“You sound like a proud aunt,” he says with a strange look on his face. His hand had been under the table, but he brings it up to run his thumb over my lip.

“You okay?” I ask, sensing something different from him.

Before he can answer, the waitress sets our food down in front of us, breaking the moment.

“Your leg seems better today,” he says, changing the subject after he gets settled. Talking about my leg makes me tense up, as always, so I don’t answer him. “Katie?” he nudges me.

I sigh, staring at my fork for a while before finally answering. “It’s fine. I just … used it too much the last few days.”

“What does that mean?”

“Do we have to talk about this?”

“I want to know. I can’t protect you like I need to, or even take care of you, if I don’t know what’s wrong. I’ve seen the scarring, so I’m assuming the leg isn’t going to get better. I just want to understand.”

“You’re a nosey asshole, anyone ever tell you that?” I huff.

“You’re so sweet.”

I roll my eyes, take a breath, and decide to give in and tell him. I don’t especially want to, but I figure, if this makes him react differently to me, it gives me just one more reason not to trust him. Since I’ve caved and pretty much agreed to try to build something with him, it’d be good to know if there’s a reason I shouldn’t. Right? It’s like hedging your bets; you can’t just jump in with both feet into the lake without knowing how deep it is, because you might drown. Bethie and Gabriella are counting on me, so I can’t drown or let them get hurt, no matter what my hormones want from me.

“My leg doesn’t have anything to do with my scars. I grew out of whack. One leg is like an inch or so longer than the other, and my back and hip is… misaligned. It’s no big deal.”

“So the pain comes and goes? There’s nothing they can do?”

The pain is
constant
, but I don’t tell him that. My leg is a weakness and I’m not about to reveal it.
I can’t
. I’m also not telling him that my father could’ve taken me to a doctor when I was young and still growing, and help correct things. There’s no point.

“No. It is what it is. Most of the time, I barely know it’s there,” I lie. “My father and grandfather hated it, though,” I admit. “They saw it as a defect and blamed my mother’s blood.”

“Jesus, the family you grew up in,” he growls.

“It was a laugh a minute,” I agree. He doesn’t even know the half of it. “My father couldn’t stand to look at me after he found out. That’s when he started looking for Beth. If I couldn’t represent him in the family as the perfect daughter, perhaps my sister could. So, in a way, all this mess is my fault.”

“Bullshit. Your father is a twisted piece of work, Katydid.”

“That’s one way to put it.”

“How did you get the burn scars?”

“You’re just full of questions today, aren’t you?”

“Humor me.”

“The snake wanted Bethie away from Skull. Roger came up with a plan and needed my help to see it through.”

“The snake?”

“Oh, sorry. My
grandfather
. My father might have been evil, but he couldn’t hold a candle to that bastard.”

“How—”

“I think I’ve had enough of this episode of ‘Ask Katie Anything’. How about—”

“Katie. I need you to get up and go to the back of the room where the restroom is,” Torch says, and it’s like someone flipped a switch. His entire body is rigid and his tone is dominating.

“What?”

“Do it now, Katie, and don’t look behind you,” he says, his voice tense.

“Hunter.”

“Do it now, sweetness. I’ll meet you by the bathrooms,” he tells me again, this time giving me eye contact, but I can tell there’s no room for arguments. I swallow nervously, wondering what in the hell is going on, and do as he ordered.

I pray my family isn’t about to catch up with me.