"That's your name!"

"The fuck it is! You call me Hunter!"

"Are you for real?"

"Katie..." he warns me.

"Fine then, Hunter. Perhaps you should run to the hospital because I think you've had a stroke! Or you're just fucking insane!"

"You got that right, lady. Loving your ass has drove me completely insane."

"Don't say that," I tell him, my voice so quiet, I'm not sure he can hear me. I just know that when he uses those words, it hurts. No, that's wrong. When he uses that word, it injures me.

"Don't say what, Katie? That I love you? Don't you get it, sweetness? I fucking love you. I love you so much it's keeping me from strangling the fucking life out of you right now."

"Will you stop?" I scream, unable to hear that from him. His face jerks back like I've hit him, and I decide to just let out the rest. "I trusted you! I was letting my guard down, trusting you with the two things in this world that mean more to me than anything. They're the only reason I'm still alive! And you used me, planning to-"

"Planning to get them back to Skull. My God, woman! Did you even see the hell on his face when he saw Gabby? Did that even register, or are you and your sister so selfish that you think this is all about you?"

His words cut me. He doesn't know. He doesn't have any idea. He couldn't. I turn away from him then. A car comes up behind us and this time they don't go around. They just sit there with their hand on the horn, blaring it continuously.

"I'm going!" Torch yells, then finally jerks it down into drive, slamming his foot on the gas.

I just keep staring out the window and feeling like I might not survive this.

Silence. That's all it's been since our mini-screaming match. I say mini, because I'm pretty sure it's going to get much worse before I break through the walls she's trying to erect between us. I wish I knew how to get through to her. Some magical formula which could just end this shit. I don't. All I have to give her is the truth. I hope that's enough, because she sure as hell ain't going anywhere.

We get about halfway home when I decide to stop for the night. I pull into one of the big chain hotels. It's going to take a soft king-size bed, a Jacuzzi, and anything else I can find to make her happy. She's still not talking to me, so fuck it. I'll leave her chained to the arm-grip handle and get out. Her voice stops me right before I close the door, surprising me.

"Torch. Make sure you get two beds," she says.

I don't answer. There's no reason to. She's out of her fucking mind. She's sleeping with me tonight. No. Hell no. I'm sleeping inside her tonight.

Once I get us checked in and parked up, I unlatch her from the handle and help her out of the car.

"Can you walk?"

"I'm fine," she huffs.

I frown, but I'm too fucking worn out from the day to argue much with her. I latch her to my wrist and basically pull her with me to the back entrance. We get into the elevators and the minute the doors close, Katie decides to talk.

"You're such a fucking asshole."

I pinch the bridge of my nose and close my eyes, trying to remember why I wanted her to talk in the first place.

"Katie, don't push me anymore," I warn her. "You won't like what happens." I'm at the end of my fucking rope.

"Let me go, Torch. You have what you want. Just let me go."

"You'd leave your sister and niece behind?" I ask, pissed off and biting my fucking tongue to keep from asking her how she could leave me behind.

"No, but I'll get to your club on my own."

That does it.

"So it's me you'd leave behind. The fucking man who put everything on the line for you. The man who's dick is good enough to use, but nothing else."

"Don't do that! You don't get to do that. You don't have the right."

I push the button to stop the elevator. I grab her hand and hold it over her head, which lifts her other one, since it's still cuffed to mine, and I push into her tightly so she's trapped by me and the wall, unable to move.

"What don't I have the right to do, Katie? Tell me. Shouldn't I be upset because the woman I love is running from me and trying to push me away?"

"You don't get the right to act like I'm the one hurting you! I never promised you anything more than I gave you. I never used what we had together against you!"

"That's right, sweetness. You never promised me anything more than your pussy, right? That's all you ever invested. How can you use anything against me? I mean, all I was to you was a real life vibrator."

"You're overselling yourself," she hurls back. "My vibrator is better."

"We'll just see about that." My hand goes to her pants to undo them.

"What? What are you doing??" she shrieks.

"Giving you one last time to compare the two," I snarl back, pushing her clothes down over her hips.

"I am not making love to you!"

"Making love has nothing to do with what I am going to do to you."

"You're crazy! If you do this, it's rape!"

"And you're full of shit," I tell her, undoing my pants.

"I'm serious! Don't do this, Torch!"

"Stop calling me Torch!"

"It's your name! Stop it! Oh my God!" she hisses, trying to run away from me when I push my fingers through the lips of her pussy. Hot, wet heat gathers on my hand immediately. She's fucking drenched and I've done nothing.

"You might be saying no, but your body sure as fuck isn't," I tell her, my voice firm but quiet. "You're so wet, it's painted on the inside of your thighs."

"The bellboy we met in the hall was hot. It's all for him."

"Well, since he's not here, I'll just take it," I tell her, and for some reason, I'm smiling. Maybe it's because I thrust my fingers into her at that exact moment and my lips swallow the gasp that leaves her lips.

Hunter's fingers thrust into me at the same moment he takes my mouth. His tongue wraps around mine and I try not to kiss him. I truly do. But, he's right. I do want him. I've wanted him from the first moment I saw him at the bar. I may always want him. I think my fate has been sealed.

He says he never means to turn me and Beth over to Colin, and I even believe that. Maybe I'm a fool. Maybe I'm completely and utterly fooling myself, but I believe him. So, maybe that's why I kiss him back. Maybe I just need his lips on mine and his tongue in my mouth. Who knows?

All I know is that with one touch, he sets me off. I pull on my hands, wanting them loose so I can touch him. He doesn't let me, though. If anything, his hold tightens. He breaks away from my mouth, and I'm panting when he looks at me.

"Give me the words, Katie."

"I hate you," I tell him, even though I don't, even though I'm pretty fucking sure I'm utterly and completely in love with him.

His fingers still inside of me, I tighten my muscles on them, nudging him with my hips to try and get more. I squirm, twisting and trying to get him to move. Nothing works.

"The words, sweetness, or this is all you get."

"You're an asshole."

"I know."

His easy acceptance trips me up. I wasn't expecting it.

"You hurt me."

"I know that too, Katie, and I'm so fucking sorry."

Something else I wasn't expecting from him. It annoys me that he's being this way. I don't want it. It would be easy to walk away from him if he remained an ass and all of this just boiled down to sex. With that, I might be able to forget what we shared the night before I left. The night before his words... destroyed me.

"Are we going to have a heart-to-heart with your fingers inside me?"

"If that's what it takes," he mutters.

"I'd rather you fuck me."

"That's going to happen too, eventually."

"You let Skull hear things I told you. Just you. You betrayed me."

"I was just trying to reach Skull, sweetness. I thought, if he could hear the reasons behind Beth's choices, then... Fuck! I don't know what I was thinking. I was trying to help. I needed for Skull and Beth to be okay, because-"

"Because?" I prompt, knowing that what he says matters. What happens between us hinges on what happens here in this elevator.

"I'm not giving you up, Katie. I'm not letting you go. If I have to keep you chained to me for the next twenty years, that's exactly what I'll do."

"What does that have to do with Skull and Beth? We aren't them!"

"Exactly! You would give the world hell and face anything head-on with me. Beth didn't do that. That's on her. Her choices destroyed Skull, and the shit he's pulling, that's on him! They're tearing each other apart and I wanted to try and fix it because I knew!"

"Knew what?" I ask, softer this time.

I'm confused and wondering how in the hell we are having this conversation with his fingers still inside of me and my pants down around my knees.

"I knew you would choose her," he finally answers. "I wanted to try and fix it so I could still be part of your plan. I knew you'd be just like Beth. You'd choose her over me. Hell, I gave you my all that night in the hotel and you still wouldn't tell me you loved me. You still wouldn't hold onto me. You ran. Maybe I'm wrong," he says, taking his hands away.

My body instantly misses his fingers, but I try to concentrate on his words. I need to hear them.

"Maybe we are just like them," he goes on, "because you ran, just like her..."

He drops his hands, letting go of my free one. He unlatches the handcuffs, then stuffs them in his back pocket. I stare at him a minute, rubbing my wrist. Then I look at him, really look at him. My cocky biker with the horrible t-shirts and the easy smile. The eyes with wicked promises glowing in their depths. All of that is gone and, in its place, is just a man. A man who, even though his brother has what he wanted, is still trying to be with me. A man who claims he loves me, even when his side has won. A man who claims to love me when he's seen me at my weakest.

A man who... I love.

He reaches over to start the elevator back. Now is decision time. Do I keep running? Do I repeat the mistakes that my sister made?

My hand goes to the elevator and I stop it again.

"What are you doing?" he asks.

My hands go to his belt, undoing it and unlatching the button and zipper on his pants. I push them out of the way, thanking the stars my man is a free-baller.

"Claiming you," I answer, my eyes watching his as I stroke his cock.

It might be my imagination but I thought I saw a tremor run through his body.

"Get off your knees, sweetness. You'll hurt your leg."

"Stop worrying. My leg is fine. I'm loving on my man."

"Am I your man?" he asks.

I keep stroking him, but I angle my head under him so I can run my tongue over his balls and suck on them, toying with them. His balls are already hard and the heated skin sends waves of need through my body. "Katie?" he asks, his voice quiet and full of desire, of need, of something else... something more tangible.

I release him from my mouth with a pop, then use my hand to rub his balls one last time before I lick my way up his cock. My eyes are on his the entire time. When I reach the head of his cock, I slide my tongue around it, gathering his pre-cum.

"Katie," he prompts.

"The only one I'll ever want. I'm not running, Hunter. Not anymore."

I slide my mouth over him, taking him inside. I keep going until my lips meet my hand, which circles the base of his dick. I use my tongue to love on his dick as I take him all the way in, licking the large vein that seems to be pulsing. Slowly, I move back up, releasing his cock from my mouth. Even more pre-cum slides from his head and leaks down on my hand as I move up and down the hard length of his shaft.

"Sweetness..."

I move my tongue back down, using his pre-cum and my mouth to make his dick shine, coating it. I look up at Hunter. He's watching everything I do. His hands are in my hair, but he's not demanding; he's letting me play.

I suck him all the way back in my mouth, making his huge cock disappear and hollowing out my cheeks. I repeat this and use my hand to stroke as I go back and forth, working in unison. His cock is so wet now, strands of pre-cum stringing from the head of his cock to my lips. I watch his face as my tongue gathers them into my mouth, all while my hand keeps stroking him.

"You taste so good, Hunter."

"Jesus, sweetness..."

I use my lips to kiss his head, my tongue sliding between them to curve into the small opening and demanding more of his pre-cum. I tighten my hand on him and continue to stroke. His hand tightens in my hair, silently demanding more. I don't give into the urge to give him what he wants. Instead, I flatten out my tongue and use his hard cock to paddle it, slapping the dick so it spanks my tongue. His heavy cock bounces back and forth, pre-cum splattering on my lips and the side of my face.

"Mmm..." I moan around him as I take the head and suck in more of his taste. His body quakes as the vibration of my voice hums against his dick.

"Jesus. Fuck!" Hunter growls. His head goes back against the wall of the elevator. "Seeing my cum on you... It's a fucking dream come true, sweetness. You're mine. Tell me you know that," he all but moans out.