Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 72756 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72756 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Summer sits on the bed, looking down at her hands. “Do you want to talk about her?”
“No.” Yes.
She ignores me, or maybe she just knows me too well. “Vivian was a sweet woman, but she was even more broken than me.”
“You? You're not fucking broken?”
“I am, but you, Devil and Preacher are helping to glue me back together.” Summer gives me the sweetest, saddest fucking smile I've ever seen.
Up until she came back into my life, the list of people I'd put my life on the line for was pretty much just my brothers here at the club, but I will fucking burn the world before I let anyone put out the light in Summer's eyes again, and if that means dealing with the shit I've been pushing down for the past six years, I'll do it.
“Tell—fuck. Tell me about my mother, sunshine. I don't know if I'll ever forgive her, but I want to understand, because sometimes, I swear to God. Sometimes I look at you and I can see you bouncing your own baby on your knee like you did Charlotte, and you would tear off your own arm before you let that child come to harm. My mother watched me walk away and not ONCE did she reach out. I was three fucking hours away. You found my number. Why didn't she?”
Summer's shoulders shake a little and she rubs her hands over her eye. “I don't know what happened to her, Crash. I want to believe you're right, that if I had another person depending on me, that I wouldn't have stuck around for as long as I did. That I would have seen through everything and gotten away like you. But I think you're stronger than you give yourself credit for. She never forgot about you.”
“Bullshit.”
“She didn't. Every morning she would make tea, read her bible, write in her journal and then search for your name. She'd hide it, but I saw her enough times to know.”
Hearing that doesn't make me feel better. If anything it pisses me off more. “Then why didn't she call me?”
“I don't know. Maybe she was afraid you'd reject her. I… please don't hate me, Jacob, but I really cared for her. She was the wall between me and my father for so many years, and I didn't even understand how much until she was gone. If she hadn't been there, I'm not sure there would have been enough of me left for you to piece back together.”
I cup Summer's chin and kiss her, tasting tears on her lips. “I don't hate you, baby. Not even close.”
“I wish she could have known about this. About us. That you got away and grew up into a strong, loyal man.”
Something shifts inside me. It's not forgiveness, but maybe acceptance. Acceptance that my mother wasn't strong enough to handle what I needed. And gratitude that my mother might never have known it, but she gave me one of the best gifts she could have.
Summer.
I kiss her again, this time harder and deeper. Her mouth opens under mine and I taste her pure fucking sweetness. The softness of her tongue strokes against mine as she presses herself against me.
“I love you,” she whispers against my lips.
“I love you too, sunshine.”
26
DEVIL
Fuck. For having been sheltered her whole life, Summer's taking to being sexy like a duck to fucking water. And when she actually asked the sluts to help her look good for us, they dragged her off to the locker room we’ve got for sluts and short term visitors. From all the giggling, I have high expectations.
And none of those expectations come close to the reality when Summer reappears. The way her top cradles her tits, with cleavage down to her fucking belly button gets me hard just seeing her come into the room. The skirt is Summer's own, but nothing like she ever would have worn before. If she bends over the right way, I'm gonna be able to tell what color panties she's wearing. Or if she's wearing any. And she's been practicing walking in heels, because the height on those chunky black boots give her just the right hip sway to get my blood pumping.
But the best fucking part is that she looks fucking happy. She could come out in a fucking muumuu and I'd still be all over her. We told her most of the girls would be dressing sexy to downright slutty, but just her presence is enough to get me hard.
She spots me and I wave her over. The common room lights are low and it's pretty packed now that most of the club has come home. The music's rockin' and the beer's flowing, but all I’ve got eyes for is her.
I’m not the only one watching. Plenty of brothers who haven’t caught on yet that she's ours are wondering if she’s a new slut, or at least up for grabs. Let them look, because that’s all they’ll be doing.