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Ryder cut his eyes from Jenna to Gate, “Yeah.” He finished his beer and tossed the bottle. Then he hit Jenna with a chin lift and followed Gate toward the stairs to his office.
Talon watched Jenna watch him go. When Ryder disappeared in the loft, Jenna turned her eyes his way.
“Tearin’ you up, isn’t it?” Talon whispered.
Jenna looked around the room. Deuce running the table on Tex while Tex ran game on a groupie at the pool table. Tank and Hatchet throwing darts at a bullseye. Lucky sitting at the other end of the bar with a couple of co-eds laughing at his jokes. Prospects Ink and Ruger hauling in cases of beer. Linda yelling from the kitchen like a short order cook. Cash balancing some sort of ledger.
“You have so much history here, I’m not sure I belong,” she said, sliding off the stool and pulling her bag onto her shoulder.
Talon stepped closer, “Don’t leave.”
Jenna scanned the room again and then looked up, and Talon saw her eyes go the color of emeralds. “Why should I stay?” she asked.
“Because I want you to,” Talon answered. “Because you need to feel safe and protected tonight. And because I know if I don’t nail this down with you, some kind of way, you’ll walk. And I’d never be able to blame anybody but myself.”
She searched his eyes, looking for answers that swam just below the surface of their blue depths, and chewed her lip.
“If all you want is talk and sleep, that’s what you’ll get,” he went on. He could see the strain around her eyes, her shoulders tight.
He took her hand in his. “Come on,” he said softly.
And she let him lead her toward the hallway.
Talon noticed the pool table and dart board went quiet when they walked by, and he thanked God his brothers didn’t resort to their usual cat calling.
He nearly had her in the hall when she tugged on his hand. He stopped and looked down, but he didn’t let her go.
“Do you know how many men I’ve let into my house?” she asked.
Talon didn’t know the answer to the question, but he knew he didn’t like where the conversation was headed. So he took a breath. “No, princess. I don’t.”
“Four. In over ten years. And I’m about to walk down this hallway with you, and all I can think about is how many women are back there in that room, watching me take the same walk they did.”
She paused, and Talon felt his heart in his throat that she was about to turn him away.
But she went on, “And the thing is, I’m going to do it anyway. But I’m going to be so pissed at myself if you make me feel stupid again.”
And that’s when she broke.
And the tears came.
Talon knew he had about two seconds to get her away from his brothers before they closed ranks around her, protective bastards that they were.
So he hauled her up into his arms and started for his room.
When her arms went tight around his shoulders and her face hit his neck, her tears soaking his skin, Talon growled. There was no other word for the sound of pure pleasure that rumbled up from his chest.
Once Talon made his room, he kicked the door closed and locked it before he carried Jenna to the bed. He sat down still holding her and leaned his back against the headboard, legs stretched out front, with her sprawled across him.
She just burrowed closer.
So he held tighter.
When she was done, she raised her head and gave him her tear stained face, mascara smudged, lip gloss gone, and Talon had never seen anything more beautiful.
So he gave her all the honesty he had. “Nobody out there has ever been where you are right now. And nobody else ever will be again.”
Jenna dipped her forehead to his chest and drew in a shuddering breath.
