Furore (The Night Skulls MC #1)(27)

“Did he fucking hurt you?” he asked with the same fury as if he didn’t hear me.

“No, Laius. I mean, he’s built like a wall and fighting him until he pushed me into my apartment has caused some inevitable bruises, but those are self-inflicted. He didn’t hurt me. I wished there had been a more peaceful way to get me to meet him, but with how stubborn I was, it was probably the only way.”

His gaze turned pensive, and his face calmed. Then he smirked. “You fought Fort?”

I chuckled. “I tried.”

“You’re a badass, Miss Meneceo.”

I bit my lip, proud to hear it from him, and too aroused at the way he said my name. “Um…is it safe to talk here?”

He nodded once. “You chose a good table. Not the best, but it’ll work.”

“I have so many questions.”

He leaned forward, his lips parting to speak, but then he paused and looked at my mouth. “You’re so beautiful. Do you know how many times I pictured kissing you or how many times I said fuck it and almost did it right there in the middle of your class?”

I took a longer pause while my heart tried to beat out of my chest. My lips shivered, and I averted my gaze in a futile attempt to get a grip. “How long has your friend been following me?”

“A couple of weeks. I sent him to keep an eye on you for protection but without being noticed.”

“So when he was at Belle View, he was watching over me? But he didn’t say anything so no one would know who he was?”

“Brava.”

I couldn’t tell if it was genuine praise or he was making fun of me. “How do I know your friend isn’t lying about the things he told me?”

He touched my chin with his finger, inducing another shiver as he directed my face back on his. “Ask me anything.”

“Fort told me about the family that’s looking for a lost Irish girl,” I whispered. “They thought I was her, and they asked you to find out if it was true.”

He nodded.

“So you’ve been lying all this time about everything—”

“Everything I’ve ever told you is the truth. I was never gonna give you to them. I’m not like that, Jo. I might be a monster but not that kind. From the second they showed me that photo of the little girl, I wanted to protect her. All I was doing was buying myself some time to show them I was game for my boy’s sake.”

“But you were trying to figure out who I was.”

“Because I was convinced you were that girl. I wanted to know for sure so I’d make all the right moves to keep them away from you.”

“And the time you tried to make me take off my sunglasses? What if I was her? How was that protecting me?”

“No one was looking. They were all focused on their homework, and you were standing too close to me, bending over, my body was shielding you from their eyes.”

“But why?”

His tongue darted out of his mouth and licked his lower lip. “I’ll tell you the same reason I told you then. I was tired of imagining the eyes I looked into when I fucked my fist every night. I wanted to know what they looked like for real.”

My cheeks burned, and a wave of scorching heat descended down my neck and engulfed my breasts, which heaved in his face, and he stared.

“My eyes are up here,” I said, but it didn’t come out as either a warning or a complaint.

“But you’re still hiding them from me. Until you quench my thirst for them, I’ll feed my imagination with something else.”

“You’re so inappropriate.”

“And you’re not in a classroom anymore, Miss Meneceo. You’re a single woman, visiting an inmate in prison, who is single, too. What do you think the nature of such visits is, baby girl?”

My jaw hung low. “I’m not here for…that.” I protested even though baby girl caused not one but two throbs between my legs.

“Why are you here, Jo?”

Yes. Why was I here getting burned in a new hell I should do nothing but escape? Had I not had enough flames devouring me whole and spitting me flayed? Why could I not leave without seeing Laius Lazzarini one last time when I knew it’d only make me want to stay? Why was I here melting at words that would forever stir my wet dreams? Why was I here wanting, needing, them to be more than dreams? I cleared my throat. “I… I’m here to thank you for protecting me.”

He chuckled. “I don’t like to be lied to, especially when I’ve been nothing but honest with you.”

“I’m not lying.” I was only telling half the truth.

“Well, bless your heart, Jo. I stuck my neck out for you when you ain’t even that girl. I’d been fucking myself in the dark, talking to myself like a crazy man because of it. If you’re really here to thank me, a few words ain’t gonna cut it, baby. You gotta show me how thankful you really are,” he drawled like a Texan.

God, that accent turned my brain into mush. “What… How would you like me to thank you?”

“You see that table over there?” He didn’t point. He just tilted his chin toward the secluded table I wanted to sit at but was taken. I nodded once.

“Do you know what people do when they sit there?”

I blinked toward the table. I could barely see the woman who sat there, and the inmate she was visiting didn’t appear at all from here. Sweet Jesus. Now, I knew why she was wearing that sexy dress. Why did I have to be so naïve all the time? I had no clue people would… Not here. Not with all these people around. Not with the risk of being caught…or watched. I blushed hard. There was no question as to what Furore wanted.