Page 22 of Colt’s Betrayal

“Still are.”

The roughness in his voice makes it obvious how much that is costing him. I reach between us and guide him to me and Colt's hands grip my hips harder as I lower myself onto him. The stretch makes my breath catch and he doesn't move. He lets me take him at my pace until I'm sitting fully against him, both of us breathing harder than we were a minute ago.

I kiss him once, then start to move and Colt swears into my neck. His hands slide beneath my top, palms moving up my back as I rise and sink over him again. There is something unbearably intimate about being able to see every change in his expression from this close. There's no frantic rush, just the man in front of me now. I roll my hips more slowly and watch his control fray.

“You going to keep letting me do all the work?” I smile, enjoying the effect I'm having on him.

His eyes narrow. “That what you want?”

“I haven't decided.”

That is all the invitation Colt needs and he stands with me still wrapped around him. I gasp and grab his shoulders. He turns us and lays me back on the bed, then follows me down. The pace changes. Not frantic, but harder. His hand catches one of mine and presses it into the mattress beside my head while his mouth moves over my throat. I wrap my legs around his waist.

“This what you wanted?” he asks against my skin.

“Yes.”

“Good.”

The next thrust drives the word out of me as a moan. Colt knows my body better after one day than men I've spent months with ever did, but this doesn't feel like memory anymore. He is paying attention to the woman underneath him now, the small changes in my breathing and the way my hips meet his when he gets exactly the pressure I need.

My free hand slides over his back and I feel the muscles shift beneath my palm every time he moves.

“Colt.”

“I've got you.”

The words nearly break me and not because they mean I'm helpless. It's because I know he does. I pull his mouth back to mine and kiss him as the pressure builds. His rhythm gets rougher as my body tightens around him, but he doesn't look away. When I come, I say his name against his mouth. Colt follows seconds later, forehead pressed to mine as his whole body goes rigid.

For a while he stays above me, breathing hard, then rolls carefully to one side and pulls me against his chest and I listen to his heartbeat slow.

“This isn't goodbye sex,” I tell him.

His arm tightens around me. “Wasn't planning on it being.”

“Good.”

He kisses the top of my head and I don't ask him to promise anything. Neither of us needs a lie before he rides out.

The compound has changed again when we step outside. There are fewer bikes and fewer men. The ones still here move with purpose, helmets in hands and engines already starting around us. Nobody explains where the others went, and I don't need them to.

Kane comes out of the clubhouse with Judge. Colt is beside me and the gun hidden where I don't have to look at it. I hate how much this feels like twelve years ago. The difference this time is that I'm still standing here. Colt turns to me. For a second neither of us says anything. Then he cups my face and kisses me hard enough that I feel it everywhere.

When he pulls back, his forehead rests against mine. “I'll see you when I get back.” There are a hundred things fear wants me to say: don't go, be careful, promise me. Instead I put my hand against his chest. “Come back.” His eyes hold mine. “I will.” Colt walks to his bike and Kane looks across the three of them as Judge swings onto his motorcycle.

“Ready for this, brothers?” Colt starts his engine.

Kane's mouth curves without humor. “Let's roll. Let's make this look good.” Three motorcycles turn toward the gate and I stand where Colt left me and watch them ride out. Loving him still scares the hell out of me, but this time I don't run from it.

CHAPTER 6

COLT

Blackwater Road narrows a few miles east of the river, the pavement giving way at the edges to gravel and weeds before the trees close in on both sides. Kane rides in front. Judge takes the left behind him and I hold the right, exactly where Chains would expect us to be. Three bikes, three Kingdom Come cuts, nobody else in sight. Except that part is bullshit.

I know where some of my brothers are because I watched them leave an hour before us. Others moved after dark through the logging roads that cut across this stretch of country, hiding bikes where they couldn't be seen from the pavement. Engines are dead now. Men are waiting in the trees and down side roads while Kane, Judge and I ride straight through the route Chains handed Perdition for his make-believe sit-down.

Knowing they're there doesn't make the road feel less exposed.