Rake's Redemption (Wind Dragons MC #4)(65)

“I know,” she agrees, making me laugh. “I just need to stop self-sabotaging myself. Going after men I know are trouble, or who don’t want the things that I want.”

“Do you know what you want?” I ask her, completely serious. She’s always been so blasé about casual sex, acting like she wasn’t ready for more, but maybe she is now.

“I think I’m only just figuring it out,” she admits, flashing me a lopsided smile. “And when I do, I’m going to get it.”

I shake my head at her ruefully. “I feel sorry for the poor man already.”

“Me too,” she agrees, coming over to the bed and sitting down next to me. “Is Rake still angry at you over last night’s shenanigans?”

“Furious,” I reply glumly, puffing out a breath of air. “He’s madder at Anna though, and that makes me feel even worse for some reason. I never could bear to see those two fight.”

Growing up they were all each other had, and whenever they fought it made my chest hurt. Apparently that still hasn’t changed.

“They’ll make up,” Tia says with confidence. “Just let them sort it out between themselves. Some new drama will come along and this whole Wild Men escapade will be forgotten.”

I groan, covering my face with my hands. “I can only imagine what drama will be next.”

“At least you’re getting f*cked well on the regular.” She pouts. “It could always be worse.”

Yes, yes it could.

*

I walk into a war zone.

Anna is yelling, her face bright red while Rake tries to talk to her.

He’s being ignored.

Arrow is standing in the corner of the room, arms crossed over his chest as he studies her, his face void of emotion.

I feel like slowly backing out of the room, but then Anna sees me.

“You won’t believe what he did!” she says, pointing to Arrow.

“What?” I ask hesitantly, walking to her.

“He went to the Wild Men clubhouse, called Talon out, and started a f*cking fight! In front of everyone! This is why I didn’t want to tell you, Arrow,” she says, her bottom lip trembling.

“He should have shown some f*ckin’ respect then,” Arrow snarls, pushing off the wall and stalking toward her. “I let you see him. I don’t like it, but I don’t say shit—but this is crossing a f*ckin’ line. A man does not invite my woman somewhere he knows she shouldn’t go, then what? Sit back while we all give you hell for it? I know you think he’s family, Anna, but look around you.” He looks around, his arms spread wide. “Your family is right here. And look how you’re treating us. I was so f*ckin’ worried something had happened to you; you know better than this. You know what we’ve all been through, what we’ve lost. It was a f*ckin’ selfish of you.”

Arrow storms out while we all stand there in silence.

That’s the most I’ve ever heard him speak.

Would this be a bad time to ask how Talon is?

“It wasn’t meant to be such a big deal,” Anna says, voice catching. “I just wanted to stop for an hour and wish him happy birthday. That’s it. I didn’t want to hurt anyone; I didn’t want to start any shit. I just wanted to be able to celebrate with him. I know that I f*cked up, okay? I didn’t see the bigger picture; I just saw one night of a little fun, and I’m sorry I brought Bailey with me too.”

I can actually see Rake’s eyes soften. “Go sort this out with him. You should know better than everyone how this would make Arrow feel.”

I didn’t really see the bigger picture either, but now I see just how much of a mistake we made, and I definitely won’t be doing something like this again.

Anna nods and heads in the direction Arrow left, leaving Rake and me staring at each other.

“Hey,” I say, pushing my hair back behind my ear. “You still angry?”

He comes to me and grabs me by the hips, pulling my body up against his. “You had Anna’s back. I can’t exactly be mad at you over that, even though what you both did was stupid as f*ck.”

“Talon isn’t—”

“Don’t want to hear his name right now. I’m cutting you a little slack because you’re new to this whole thing, but you need to understand how differently the night could have gone if anything happened. You do not f*ckin’ go to another MC clubhouse, I don’t care what the reason is. Anna knows better, and now so do you. Now where’s Angel?” he asks, tracing his lips over my earlobe.

“She’s with Tia and Rhett, they—”

“I need to be inside you right now. And I’m not going to be gentle, Bailey,” he whispers, making my nipples pebble. He kisses my neck, then says against my skin. “I’m going to teach you a lesson. I’m going to show you who you belong to.”

“Okay.” I breathe, almost in a daze, wrapping my arms around his neck. He lifts me up, gripping my ass and squeezing, and walks to his room. The door is opened, then slammed and locked behind him, and I’m put on the bed with my legs hanging off the edge. I wait quietly as Rake watches me, slowly undoing the button on his jeans, followed by the zipper, the noise loud in the silent room. His jeans are removed, followed by his boxers, his cock jutting out, hard and ready.