he would never hurt me.
“You realize you’re overreacting, right?” I say quietly, crossing my arms over my chest.
“You have a kid, why are you out drinking with bikers?” he growls, running a hand through his blond hair in frustration. “You saw what happened at Rift. What if something like that happens again and I’m not around to make sure you’re okay?”
My heart melts a little at the expression on his face.
Behind his anger is worry . . . for me.
Everything he’s saying has already run through my head, so I know he’s not wrong in his observation. I close the space between us and rest my hand on his arm. “We were fine. Talon made sure we were. We went out for a drink. Tia and I never get to go out together because we take turns watching the kids. So it was a rare treat, and we wanted to enjoy it. I don’t really know any places other than Knox’s Tavern and Rift, so we went to Knox’s.”
I take a deep breath and continue. “I know it probably feels weird to you because suddenly I’m connected to your world, even though you don’t want me to be. And I don’t mean to. It just seems like I’m suddenly always in the wrong place at the wrong time and running into people I’ve met because of you.”
His green eyes soften but then harden a second later. “Fucking hell, Bailey. Did you fuck him? Because I’ve been looking for another reason to kill that bastard.”
I groan and close my eyes, frustration filling me. “No. I didn’t fuck him. And you know what? If I did, it’s none of your business. Why don’t you continue to fuck other men’s women and leave me alone?”
“I didn’t know that bitch belonged to that guy. She threw herself on me; sorry for assuming she was single, not an old fucking lady,” he says, sitting down on the edge of my bed and pulling me down to sit next to him. “We have a huge fuckin’ problem here.”
“And what’s that?” I ask warily, pushing my hair behind my ear.
Rake scrubs a hand down his face, then braces his elbows on his knees. Finally he looks me in the eye. “If you fuck someone I know, I’m not going to handle it very well, Bailey.”
“Rake, I—”
“When did you start calling me Rake?” he asks, something flashing in his eyes that I don’t like seeing there. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he didn’t like me calling him Rake. But that made no sense.
I shrug my shoulders. “I guess when I realized that’s who you are now.”
He was my Adam, but now he’s not. To everyone else, he is Rake, and why should he be anything else to me?
He swallows hard, making his throat work. “Fuckin’ hell, Bailey. My life was so much easier before you came back into it. I didn’t think so fuckin’ much; my life was stress-fuckin’-free.”
He looks straight ahead and sighs. “Those were the days.”
“Stop being dramatic,” I chastise, rolling my eyes. “We’re going to just have to deal with this, because I don’t want to have to stop seeing Anna and Lana.”
“Yeah,” he says, dragging out the word. “That worked so fuckin’ well last time.”
A giggle escapes my mouth. “They’re strong women; you should have expected that.”
“I know,” he grumbles. “Was hoping my sister would listen to me for once.” He slaps his thigh. “All right. You aren’t going to fuck anyone. Period. Glad we had this talk.”
He stands up, leaving me confused. “Pretty sure I never said I wouldn’t sleep with anyone.”
“Well, you can’t fuck a biker without starting shit. None of the Wind Dragons will touch you, and if you fuck Talon you’ll start a war. Oh, and if you fuck a civilian, one look at us and they’ll shit themselves. That doesn’t leave many men for you, does it?”
The bastard looks pleased with himself. Really pleased.
“You’re unbelievable, you know that? Why do you even care? It’s been years. Years. We broke up on bad terms, and now this!” I say, my voice rising with each word.
Rake stands and walks to the door, keeping his back to me. As he puts his hand on the doorknob, he whispers, “Because no matter what you did, no matter what happened in the past, you will always be the love of my life.”
With that, he leaves the room.
I don’t go after him.
I hear the front door open and close.
I just sit there, his