in the wake of my touch.
I don’t think I’d ever affected someone so thoroughly before, and I really kind of liked it. I liked it a lot.
“For example, violence is sort of a way of life for us. We don’t hide from it. We don’t shrink from it. A motherfucker needs his ass kicked; we kick it.”
“Okay, hypothetically, why would a motherfucker need his ass kicked?” I asked and Fenris chuckled, touching the bottom of my chin with a crooked forefinger, pulling down on my bottom lip gently with his thumb at my language.
“Kiss me with that dirty mouth,” he said and his voice was warm with a low, seductive heat.
I kissed him gently, chastely, but leaned back up out of reach and arched an eyebrow expectantly.
“A lot of reasons. Disrespecting me, one of my brothers, my property.”
“What, like touching your bike or something?” I asked.
He nodded. “Or you,” he said and I blinked, an abrupt laugh sneaking out of my throat before I could stop it, but on second thought…
“I’m not your property, I’m a woman.”
He smiled and nodded, giving me a little swat on the ass beneath the blanket.
“My woman, for all intents and purposes at the moment,” he said.
I softened a bit at that, a fission of anxiety trilling down my spine at his words. I mean, it sounded really nice, but it also sounded way too soon. I mean, wasn’t it?
“What?” he asked cautiously at the expression that flitted across my face.
Honest to a fault, I told him exactly what I was thinking. “You’re sure it’s not too soon?” I asked softly.
He smiled and said, “There’s another good example. That’s you thinking like a citizen all the way. I don’t give a fuck what anybody else thinks, baby. You’re a treasure. Beautiful, gracious, smart, and kind. One touch from you soothes the rage and pain…” His hand slid along the side of my neck, fingers wrapping around the back, fingertips pressing and kneading at the spot at the base of my skull where all my tension, nervousness, and fear tended to hide.
I closed my eyes as he worked some of those things out of me with gentle fingertips and basked in the warmth of his startling compliment.
“What do you and the club do?” I asked softly.
“A bunch of random shit, mostly legal. Some of it should be legal.” He lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “A bunch of it I can’t and won’t tell you.”
“I don’t like the idea of secrets,” I whispered.
“It’s not about keeping secrets from you, baby. It’s about keeping you safe.”
“Safe from what?” I asked, and put my hands lightly to his chest, pushing back just enough to let him know he had better answer that one.
He breathed in deep, in through his nose and out through his mouth in a great sigh.
“Arrest, mostly.”
“You aren’t into anything serious like illegal drugs, are you?” I demanded.
“Define illegal drugs,” he said carefully.
“Meth, coke, heroine?” I listed the worst offenders off.
He shook his head. “No, none of that shit.”
“Illegal guns?” I asked.
“Nope, none of those either,” he said, and he met my gaze, dead serious. “Most of what you would consider an illegal drug is shit we hold for personal use, and I’m talking shit like Molly, none of it in quantities that could get any of us busted for selling.”
“You do it?” I asked, worried.
He shook his head. “Nah, worst I do is weed to mellow out, and they legalized that shit so…”
I nodded carefully. “You hurt people, though,” I whispered.
“Only if they really fucking deserve it, but I’m not going to lie to you. Yeah.”
“That’s really scary,” I confessed.
“Why?” he asked, cocking his head, scanning my face, genuinely trying to understand.
“What if you get mad at me?” I asked quietly and couldn’t look at him. He chased some of my hair behind my ear and turned me to face him, to look him in the eyes.
“Never going to happen. I’ll go outside and break shit. Butcher some goats, maybe yell, maybe scream, but I will never lay a hand on you. If I did, my brothers would beat my fucking ass and rightfully so.”
“They would?” I asked confused. “Why?”
“Part of the club’s creed, the rules. No women, no children.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning we aren’t animals. We’re men, and we’ll act like men, no matter what anybody says or thinks of us. We know what we’re about. We don’t hit women; we don’t beat our children. Our vocab is a little different from the citizenry of the