the sacred heart.
I turned off my headlights and with a sigh of trepidation got out of my car.
Loud music was blaring from inside the club. Classic rock. Bob Seger, I think. Vyking detached himself from the front corner of the building, cherry of his cigarette flaring in the dark as he came over to me.
Relief washed through me, because even though I didn’t know Vyking well, I at least knew him enough that he was familiar in this looming wave of unfamiliarity I was about to be washed away by.
“Hey, darlin’,” he said and stopped in front of me, opening his arms.
I laughed, caught slightly off guard and gave him the hug he asked for.
“Boy’s in a mood,” he warned me. “They’ve been pickin’ on him all day over you.”
“Oh, no…” I said, heart sinking.
“It’s nothin’ on you, girl. They don’t know you yet,” he said, taking a step back and holding me by the elbows to look me over. “Word to the wise, don’t take nothin’ personal, and whatever you do, don’t take nobody’s shit.”
“I’ll do my best,” I promised, but his words left a knot of dread in the pit of my stomach.
“You’ll do fine,” he said. “Let’s take you in to see Fen. I guarantee just the sight of you will put him in a better mood.”
“Okay,” I said pasting on a brave smile.
“You’re a shy girl,” he said, looping his hand into the crook of his arm. “Somehow I knew that about you.” He gave my hand a pat and led me around to the club’s front door which was standing open to let a cross breeze through. The moment we stepped in, I could see straight through and out the back door.
“Oh! Your cigarette!”
“Private club, baby. Don’t you worry about me,” Vyking grated.
We threaded our way through a pretty crowded and smallish barroom, a living room setup just inside the front door to the left, two black leather couches and two leather loveseats around a black area rug and a thick glass and wrought steel coffee table. To the right, immediately as you walked in, was a bar. Only six stools perched under it, five of them featuring a man. A happy, portly, older woman behind it wearing a black and orange tiger print caftan serving up drinks.
Vyking stabbed two fingers into the shoulder of one man hunched on his stool and it was only when he straightened did his blond, ponytail consisting of its many interwoven braids slipped back over his shoulder. That made me smile.
My smile only grew when Fenris’ dark expression seemingly evaporated the second he laid eyes on me.
He twisted on his seat and reached out, taking my hand and pulling me between his knees, his hand going one to my hip and the other to the side of my face, fingers curling around the back of my head, thumb caressing my jaw as he dragged me in for a kiss.
And boy what a kiss it was.
Fiery, passionate, possessive, and fierce. He tasted of the hops from the beer that he’d drunk and vaguely spicy. He definitely tasted all male and as I melted into his embrace, happily, while the music blared deafening around us, I dropped my hand to his thigh and accidentally where his erection was growing in the prison of his jeans.
He broke the kiss and put his lips beside my ear and growled, “If I thought you’d be into it, I’d fuck you right over this bar to let every one of these motherfuckers know you belonged to me.”
He brought his head up, pulling my forehead to his chest to help me hide my vermillion blush and yelled back at his dad, “Thanks for finding her, Pops!”
“Don’t mention it!” his dad yelled waving us off and heading down the hall toward the back door. I leaned my temple against Fen’s chest and watched him go, thankful that he’d waited for me. That he’d seen fit to escort me to his son and tell me what he had.
“How was your day, babe? You hungry?” Fenris asked low beside my ear. I smiled, the boisterous activity around us falling away as though it were just, he and I in the room.
“Long, and I’m starving,” I answered him.
“There are some things laid out in the chapel to nom on and we got steaks going on out back on the grill. Let’s go get you something to eat.”
I nodded and smiled and he let me go enough to step back so