RIDING DIRTY (Steel Titans MC Book 4) by Franca Storm (best books for students to read txt) 📗

my duffel bag. “I know that’s what you were doing, packing for the mission.”

“Slade, I’m crucial to this and—”

“Don’t matter. I can’t risk you or the baby. I just fucking can’t, Willa.”

Shit. He had no idea just how crucial I actually was to the mission, or how close I was to ending it all. I hadn’t told him yet. Now, with this reaction from him, I knew telling him was completely off the table.

“Nothing is going to happen, Slade. Relax, okay? I’ll be careful.”

He scrutinized me for several moments.

Unlike Freeman, though, Slade didn’t fall for my façade. He knew me. So, he went on pressing his case, realizing he hadn’t won. “I lost this once, because I was a damn fool. I ain’t gonna lose it this time, because you’re being a fool.”

“Wow. That was harsh.”

“I gotta be with you when it comes to this kind of thing.”

Well, he wasn’t wrong.

“Willa!”

“Fine!” I yelled back, throwing up my hands in exasperation. “I’ll be careful. Extra careful. I promise I’m not going to let anything happen to me or the baby.”

“I’ll be holding you to it.”

“All right, you do that.”

His severe expression broke, that gentle side of him sneaking through.

Stepping up to me, he reached out and cupped my cheek, telling me softly, “We just need to hang on a little while longer, and we’ll be free. We’ll be at peace and have a real life.”

I smiled. “I know. I can’t wait.”

“Me neither,” he said, grinning.

Moving closer, I looked up at him and said, “So, all that stuff about cuffing me to the bed…”

“Ah, I was just pissed. I didn’t really mean nothing by it.”

I slid my hands up and down his arms. “I was going to say that I wouldn’t be opposed to that when we get down and dirty.”

He screwed up his face.

Huh. Not the reaction I was expecting, from him, of all people. Given what I knew of his exploits, the whole bondage thing seemed to fit right in for him. “You’re not into that?”

“Not with you.”

“Why not?” Something occurred to me and it got my back up right away. “Because I’m pregnant? If you think for one second that I’m going to accept you treating me differently and like I’m fragile, or—”

“Willa, if you really want to do it, I’ll do it. For you.” He stroked his thumbs over my cheeks, warming me, sparking my nerve endings to life. “It just ain’t gonna be my go-to. With you, I don’t want the restriction of none of that. I want you free, your body responding naturally, all the fucking way. I want that wildness. It’s real special and a hell of a turn-on. It shouldn’t be tamed.” He leaned down and whispered hotly at my ear, “I want you all fucking over me, woman.”

His words heated my blood, turning me on fiercely.

I fisted my hands in his tee and jerked him to me. “I’ve missed being all over you, baby.”

He had me squealing in the next second as he swept me up in his arms and carried me to the bed. “Time to fix that, darlin’.”

***

I slung my duffel bag over my shoulder.

I’d barely made a sound as I’d finished packing it. I hadn’t been able to do it last night after Slade had caught me and I’d given him a believable explanation that had reassured him.

In truth, he’d been completely right. I had been packing for a mission. But seeing his reaction last night had made it clear he wouldn’t have been on board with what I was doing, what I needed to do.

The club didn’t know yet, but I had the location on Will Decker, the commander of the militia working for Freeman. They couldn’t know. Slade couldn’t know. Any action they’d take on their part was a risk, because it was going the outright aggressive and offensive route. It was their only option.

But it was different for me and I’d found another way.

I just knew that they’d never accept it. Well, Slade wouldn’t.

He wouldn’t want me to make the sacrifice. But it was my sacrifice, my choice to make.

And it would fix everything.

My hand on his bedroom doorknob, I shot a look back at him.

Sound asleep, he looked so peaceful. So carefree. So free of everything.

It was so very far from the truth, though.

He was pained, burdened, and haunted.

It just fueled my determination to go through with my mission.

I’d fix it.

I’d fix everything.

I was the only one who could.

So, I was going to do what I did best.

One last time.

33

~Slade~

 

UN-FUCKING-BELIEVABLE.

That was what she damn well was.

And not in a good way this time. Nah, what she’d done here was another level of bullshit altogether. How the hell had she reconciled this?

It burned even deeper after she’d looked me right in the eye last night and sworn that she’d be careful from now on, for her and the baby’s sake.

And now she’d pulled this? Going after Decker alone, trying to sort things alone? Again. We were supposed to be a fucking team, the team. Her doing this had just set us back so many goddamn steps.

I’d never been raging with fury and terrified at the same time before. But that was what she’d brought out in me tonight.

I scanned the note she’d left on my bedside table for the fourth time in the last fifteen minutes since I’d woken up to find her gone from my room.

Slade,

 

I know how to end this. You and the club can’t do what needs to be done. It has to be covert. It has to be diplomatic. Most of all, it requires leverage. I have that. It’ll be over before you know it. No violence involved. No high-risk action. I’ve got this. Sit tight and I’ll be back within a few hours.

 

Love you,

 

Willa

She’d time-stamped the note like the intense control freak that she was, so I knew she’d only been gone an hour at the most so far. Still, that woman could get into