never get a word out. His hands cup my face, and he plants a needy kiss on my lips. Bronco tastes so good that I nearly forget where I am or that I’m holding our daughter. I feel a little stoned when his lips leave mine. His kisses are my new addiction.
“After having you in my bed, these last few days felt like a punishment,” he says, stroking my cheek with his lips. “I feel like a spoiled kid unable to wait for Christmas. I don’t want to leave here without you.”
“I’m sorry.”
“But?”
“But Desi is seeing Kenny tomorrow. Then she’s done with school, and we’ll drive up.”
Bronco wants what he wants, and he usually gets it. There are things he doesn’t like that he adjusts to, such as his sisters’ crap. But wanting me is new. I bet he feels like I do and wants to gorge himself on this feeling.
As good as things are between us, our love can’t shove Desi’s needs to the backburner. I might feel weak for Bronco in a way that’s likely unhealthy, but I’m willing to tell him no. Even if his disappointed expression kills me a little.
BRONCO
Lana looks like a vision, and I have no fucking clue how I’ll force my ass to leave her tonight. Carina seems to have grown in the three days we’ve been apart. I need them back in Elko. But instead, I’m forced to let Desi see her shithead dad and finish school she’s told me sixteen times that she did not like.
“Don’t pout,” Lana says, rubbing the creases on my scowling forehead.
“I’m not getting my way. It’s pout or throw a full-on fucking tantrum. I think I’m handling shit well, considering the options.”
Choosing to skip reasoning with me, Lana smiles at my frowning face and then rubs her lips against the V spot where my vest and white T-shirt meet.
“Lana, why don’t you take the baby inside,” River says, coming around the house. “I need to have a manly moment, and you’re sporting the wrong equipment.”
I love how Lana checks with me before going. River might run shit in Shasta, but I own this woman’s heart.
Once Lana walks inside with Carina, River steps on the porch and tries to gain a few inches of height on me. Sometimes, his dick-measuring shit is so obvious that I feel as if I’m facing off with a teenager.
“Relax, Majors. Not everything is business. I’m here to see Lana.”
His expression freezes. I sense he forgot that’s the name Maude goes by in Elko. Once the lightbulb goes off, he returns to his fake friendly bullshit.
“A little warning would be nice is all.”
“Like the time you brought the entire Shasta club to visit my sister’s restaurant when you knew I was there with my kids?”
River’s face doesn’t shift, but his eyes give away how he might not have thought his antics out so well. After all, he would never be okay with me bringing my crew to Shasta to eat at his woman’s restaurant. Young men always want to show off their dicks, but he’ll learn how retaining a little mystery is the smarter move in the long run.
“So, this is payback?” he asks, smiling in his fake-ass way.
“No. It’s me visiting my daughter and my woman. It’s me bringing Sidonie to visit her new best friend. If I warned you, you’d have a bunch of men here to intimidate my kid. Maybe one of them is the asshole that took a shot at my other kid. So, I didn’t feel as if you needed to know.”
River frowns suddenly. “Wait, you think the guy that shot your daughter is still around?”
“I have no reason not to. I know Fuse or Cum Shot didn’t pull the trigger.”
“We’ve killed plenty of guys loyal to them.”
“Utah did a lot of their dirty work, and he’s still around.”
Despite River hiding his feelings, I know he doesn’t want me talking shit about one of his loyal people. I know all about his club—who likes who, their skill sets, the weak links. Before River slaughtered nearly a dozen former Skullz last year, I knew the likely names on his kill list. Shasta isn’t nearly as locked down as Majors believes.
But there are men in his current loyal club that were once loyal to the Skullz. A few of them—like Utah—were known to do the dangerous, uglier shit.
“Utah didn’t shoot your daughter.”
“Do you know that for a fact?”
River loses control of his poker face. It’s not his fault. This