His breath washes over my cheek, sending a tremor of need down my body. “If you’re gonna hit me, Doll. You better do it now.” The huskiness of his voice has my eyes flying up to his.

“Why?”

“Because you’re lookin’ at me like I got somethin’ you need. I can’t fuckin’ stand here and not give it to you. Not when I want nothin’ more than another taste of your sweet mouth.”

His eyes dart behind me and back to my face. “Personally, I don’t give a fuck’all who sees me takin’ it, but you probably do. So hit me. Or I’ll be tastin’ you again, Doll. And I’m not likely to stop anytime soon.”

Birds take flight, going all different directions inside my belly. I stare up at him. Was that a threat or a promise?

His dark and intense gaze tells me it’s both. He backs up a step. “C’mon . . . Make this right between us. Hit me. Give it all you got.”

I mentally shake myself from the lust-filled daze he has me under. Yes, I want him, but I also want to give him back a small slice of the pain he’s thrown at me.

“Okay.” I firmly plant my feet on the mat. I practice my punch one more time slowly. After taking a deep breath, I prepare to launch my fist at his face. But I’m hesitant. He’s already bruised and beyond handsome, and hitting him feels wrong.

“Think of it as payback for me being a dick,” he says.

Nodding, I dig through my arsenal of bitter memories of what he’s put me through since arriving here. The insults. The death stares. The disgusting jobs I’ve had to do around the club. Him siccing Taz on me.

My anger builds.

Attacking me last night was the last straw and either I do this or I need to leave. Staying will only tell him and every other biker here, I’ll put up with the mistreatment I’ve been given. And I won’t. Not again. Not anymore.

I pull in a deep breath and launch my fist toward his face. The damn glove barely grazes his jaw.

I internally growl with frustration. Dammit! I get my one chance for some payback and I screw it up. Ugh . . . Em.

“It’s all right. Try again,” he encourages.

I bite my lip.

“C’mon. Again.” His tone changes. Hardens.

Waving me forward, he grates out, “Get angry. Curse. Shout. Whatever. Just show me the part of you that’s not a fuckin’ mouse all the time.”

“I’m not—”

“You are,” he throws back.

Taz squeaks like a mouse behind me. I spin for a second and shoot him a dirty look, before rotating back to Mav.

Mav’s darkness is back. It’s hovering around him. He’s angry and I’m confused. Am I not the one being taunted and offended? Shouldn’t I be the one that’s pissed off?

“You do what we say when we say it. You’ve let me and some of the other brothers treat you like shit. You clean up after messy fuckin’ bikers and the whores that visit the club. You like that job?”

His words sting. Of course, I don’t like that job.

With all the sarcasm I can manage, I say, “Yeah, Mav. This is exactly what I dreamed of. I worked my ass off to get out of the hellhole I grew up in, because I wanted to come here and scrub cum off the floors. Clean up after bikers who are too drunk half the time to piss in the toilet.”

“Then why do you do it?”

Such a simple question. With no simple answer.

I shake my head.

“Why, Doll?” He sneers the name like he did that first day. It grates on my every nerve.

“Because I don’t have the luxury of picking and choosing what I do with my life right now. Unlike you, I’m trying to make the best of my situation. You’re not the only one trying to recover from a bad relationship. And at least I’m not sitting around sulking about it.”

Holy Hell. Did I just say that to him?

“Make the best of it? You mean, accept the shitty options you’ve been given.”

“What are you saying?”

“In a few days, you know what you’re gonna be? Our little slut. Is that what you want? To be a clubpiece? To be used and fucked and degraded and—”

“No!”

“But you’re going to, right? ‘Cause you need the money.”

I shake my head, trying to deny what we both know is true. “I told you I’d leave. You’re the one making me stay!”

“And go where? Go whore for someone else?” he growls. “Not fuckin’ happening.”

White-hot rage crawls up my neck like a live wire being hit with a jolt of electricity. I snarl. Yes, snarl. The sound comes from some place deep inside me. My fist feels like a slingshot as I hurl it through the air toward his face. I swear my bones crunch together as they connect with his solid jaw. Upon impact, his chin snaps to the side. But I keep going as I pound on his chest with both fists. “How dare you fucking judge me!”

He staggers back two steps.

“Like your life’s so perfect. You’re an asshole to everyone around you because you can’t cope with a break up. It’s been five . . . FIVE damn years, Mav. Get the fuck over her already.”

He tosses my hands off him like I’m nothing but a mosquito. “What are you doin’ here?” he snarls back.

“God, you’re a jerk. I can’t believe . . .” I kissed you.

Moving forward, crowding into my personal space, he rasps, “What the fuck is a girl like you doing in a place like this, huh?” His chest bumps mine. “Why are you here, Doll?”

I bite my lip and shake my head.

“Why?” he shouts in my face and his voice echoes off the walls.

Throwing my arms wide, I yell, “Because it’s my only option. Out there, I have nothing, no one, and nowhere to go. Is that what you want to hear? Yes, I’m a stray. I’m homeless. Penniless. No, I don’t want to sleep with a clubhouse full of bikers or a bunch of scummy men I don’t know. But I’ll do what I need to do to survive! I have no other option.”

“Why can’t you go home?”

I wince and look away so I don’t have to feel his piercing eyes. “I just can’t.”

“Why?” When I move to leave, he grabs my arms and shakes me. “Why the fuck can’t you go home?”

I fight his hold but he keeps asking the same question over and over. Why? Why? Why? He won’t let me go and the more I fight him, the stronger his hold on me becomes. I’m so enraged that the words rush unguarded past my lips. “He’ll find me!”

“Who?” He leans down and peers into my face. “Who’ll find you?”

Horrified at the knowledge that I’ve said so much, I look anywhere but at him. But Mav grabs my chin and forces me to meet his eyes.

“Don’t clam up now, Doll. Come on. Tell me. Who’ll find you? Who are you runnin’ from?”

I squeeze my eyes shut, but when I do, the last month with Warner flashes like a horror movie through my mind. Helplessness and fear ripple down my spine. A whimper escapes me and bile rises in my throat.

“Doll, tell me.” When I’m still silent he asks, “Your ex?”

I’m no longer in control of my body, because I nod without wanting to do so.

His tone drops low. “What’d he do to you?”

The iron box in my mind springs open and there’s no shutting it now. Mav wants to know everything. Fine. I tell him. I laugh bitterly, open my eyes, and meet his gaze. “You should ask what didn’t he do. What didn’t he take from me. Because the answer is my life, Mav. That’s the one thing I had left to lose and I wasn’t ready to part with it just yet.”

Mav’s face hardens. He gets my meaning because the muscle in his jaw begins to tick and his eyes swirl with emotion. Sadness. Regret. Fury. Pity.

I don’t want his fucking pity. Seeing his face riddled with it makes bubbling lava burn in my veins.

I force his hand away from my chin, and push him back. “What? Is the truth too ugly for you? Or are you just sorry that your friend won’t have the pleasure of taking my virginity?”

“Doll—”

“You want to know the rest, huh? Well the truth is my life’s never been pretty, Mav. It’s been a fucking maze. Full of trials and dead ends. I never had normal. Not even as a child. There were always drugs and creepy men. And too many days where we ate expired food out of a can because that’s all we had. My mom cut out when I was sixteen. Sixteen. I had to drop out of school to help make ends meet. Do you know how hard it is to find a job that pays more than minimum wage when you’re a drop out? It’s impossible. So yes when a rich guy bought me things and paid attention to me, I fell for him hard and fast. Until he showed his true colors and took away everything important to me. Threatened everything I cared about and wouldn’t even so much as let me out of the house unless I was by his side.”