After the Ride (Night Riders Motorcycle Club Book 2) by Kathryn Thomas Page A

her eyes.
     
    “It’s nothing,” Lauren assured her. “Hardly hurts.”
     
    “Liar,” Callie said.
     
    Lauren saw Blake glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. She thought she saw a small smile cross his lips, and she started to lean into his shoulder when he shrugged her off and looked into Callie’s eyes.
     
    “She’s good at that,” Blake said.
     
    And just like that, she went back to wanting to scratch his skin from his cheeks.
     
    “Just take care of her,” Blake said. “We got work to do.”
     
    He turned away from her and crashed into Paul.
     
    “Blake, I said—”
     
    “I heard you!” Blake barked. “And I am fucking fine. So we gonna do this or what?”
     
    Even Paul seemed to know when he was beat, and he waved his hand in the air as Blake stalked off into the shadows. Watching him go tugged at her heart, and she wanted him to turn and give her one glance to assure her that some part of this was real.
     
    But Blake kept plowing forward and made no move to get back in her gaze.
     
    “Will he be okay?” Callie asked.
     
    Paul shook his head.
     
    “She’s probably the only one that could enlighten us on that subject,” Paul said. He stepped closer and peered into her eyes.
     
    “What about it?” Paul asked. “You want to tell me what really happened when you two lagged behind?”
     
    Lauren wanted to tell someone, and she parted her lips to speak when she suddenly held her tongue. She had desire to shame Blake in front of his leader, and Callie’s presence reminded her that Paul was kind of precious to her.
     
    And maybe it is my fault. He told me not to go. But I still ran.
     
    “We… we were just sorting some stuff out,” Lauren said. “Guess he’d rather I stick close to camp.”
     
    Paul took her hand in his, and the smile that crossed his face made her gasp. Because it didn’t belong. Not in this place. Her mind flashed back to the memory that Paul was only in charge because of Joe, because Callie’s man was no longer among the living. He stepped up because he had to, and from the looks of him at this moment, he didn’t want it. There was something too soft in his stare. Maybe he seized on the threat of her people coming after her and welcomed the chance to hide in the shadows. Lauren glanced in the direction that Blake had departed, and she thought that the leaders of the Night Riders should be him.
     
    But maybe Blake didn’t want it either.
     
    Callie pressed her hand to the bruise on her face and shook her head.
     
    “Well whatever the hell happened, we need to tend to this,” Callie said. “Now you just come with—”
     
    “Are they back?”
     
    Grace appeared from the folds of the tent. He eyes were wide, and her hair was rumpled. She looked as if she had just wrestled with some horrible dream. Was she imagining that she was back in the waking nightmare that had been her life prior to the night of the auction? Or was she dreaming of what might have happened had they not returned in one piece?
     
    “You’re here!” she cried as soon as she saw Paul. “Thank god.”
     
    Grace flung her arms around his neck and clasped him close. Paul’s arms enveloped her trembling shoulders, and he gathered her to his chest as he whispered into her hair.
     
    “Right here,” he assured her. “Not a thing for you to worry about. You… hey. Hey come on now. Don’t cry.”
     
    Grace disobeyed his order and wept into his shoulder. If it was Blake, if she was Grace, the biker would have pushed the sobbing girl back and told her that he didn’t buy even an inch of what she was selling. But Paul didn’t make that move. He pressed Grace to him, and she heard Paul’s soft voice as it hit her ear.
     
    “I’m not going anywhere,” he promised. “Neither are you.”
     
    Grace pulled away from him, and she smiled through her tears as he kissed her brow.
     
    “Except with me,” he said. “Always… only with me. Okay?”
     
    As he pushed his