lifestyle fascinated me. Not enough to be brave the parties at the clubhouse Willow had begged me to sneak into with her that she got kicked out of—they were well known for not letting in underage girls.
“You’ve been quiet for a long time,” Cody said, unease in his voice. When I looked to him, his face looked different than it did at school, parties, even with his mom. He’d let his walls down. He was vulnerable with me and only me. It was a kind of treasure I’d never imagined getting.
“I was just thinking,” I shrugged.
“You wouldn’t stay with me if I patched in?” he asked, a slight tremor to his voice.
The insecurity in his voice had me moving. Pushed him flat on the bed and moved to straddle him, his cock pressed against my beautifully tender parts.
I moved so my hands clasped his neck, his gaze held in mine. “I will be with you no matter what, Cody. Nothing will change the way I feel about you.” I laid my lips gently on his. “And the fact that this news will mean you’re going to stay in Amber makes me even happier.”
He frowned. “But you’re going to go to college. You have to go to college.”
I rolled my eyes. “You sound like my mother.”
He didn’t smile. In fact, he moved us again, so I was now on my back and his naked body was pressed against mine. “I’m serious, Lizzie,” he continued. “You’re smart. All you know is this town, you deserve to see something more. You need to go to college. I’m not going to let you jeopardize your future for me.”
I didn’t like his tone. The way his eyes looked when he said this scared me. “You’re my future, Cody. Losing you is the only thing that could jeopardize my future. I’ve never wanted to leave Amber. You’re just giving me another reason to stay.”
The look stayed on his face, but he didn’t say anything.
“What does your mom say about your plan to patch in?” I asked, deciding to change the subject because it scared me in ways I didn’t want to admit.
As progressive and laid back as Olive was, I couldn’t see her wanting her only son to patch in to the town’s resident motorcycle gang. Especially if it put him in any kind of danger. Now and then there were funerals for members and they’d all died violently. The mere thought of something happening to Cody made my stomach clench and my heart climb up to my throat.
He winced ever so slightly. “Yeah, I told her,” he replied. “She took it about as well as I thought she would. At first, she thought I’d change my mind, that it was a phase. Then she got pissed. Now she’s just accepted it. I’ve let her down. But I just can’t... see anything else for me. I’m not worth anything else.”
My blood turned cold. He really meant what he’d said. I’d caught things like this every now and then, a self-deprecating remark about himself peppered into our conversations. It had been enough to bother me, but he glossed over them so quickly that I’d never had a chance to address them.
“Cody,” I whispered. “You’re worth everything. You are the kindest person I know. You are the most special person I know. What makes you even think such things?”
He paled ever so slightly, his eyes darkening.
I got the feeling that he was going to tell me something. Something that explained those comments, that undercurrent of darkness that I sensed in him from time to time.
But then it went away. He put on a mask, and the Cody I recognized returned. “I don’t know, guess it’s shit from not havin’ my Old Man in my life. But I don’t wanna talk about that.” He pressed his lips against my neck. “Actually, I don’t want to talk at all. I want to make love to my Old Lady.”
Something moved inside me. Grew. Something good. “Old Lady?” I repeated.
“Yes,” he growled, his lips moving down my neck. “If I’m going to patch in to the Sons of Templar, then you’re gonna be my Old Lady. You okay with that
I didn’t hesitate.
“Yeah, I’m more than okay with that,” I murmured.
So our future was laid out in front of us. Just like a romance novel.
Too bad romance novels were fiction.
“So what happens now?” I asked after closing the door to Cody’s room on graduation night, starting to unbutton my shirt. The act of