27. Lyla

"I'm a little exposed here." I laugh when Sage tickles me, running his fingers in the shape of a heart around my belly button.

"Are you cold?"

"No." I smile.

"Then you're fine."

"And what if someone walks in?" I glance at the door, knowing at some point last night Reed and Mason made their way back to the apartment.

I barely heard them, being mid-blackout and thoroughly fucked, but their doors closed. And now I'm completely naked, stretched out in the center of Sage's bed. He's lying between my legs, drawing imaginary pictures on my stomach, and the sheets are on the floor after we fucked them off the bed.

One touch and we turn to chaos. Limbs and need thrashing around. Sage isn't sweet like I remember. He's a beast, and I'm addicted to his desperation. I can't feel my toes, I'm so relaxed.

"No one should be walking into my room unannounced." He draws the line on the inside of my leg. "But if they do, they're getting a good look at my ass."

I laugh. "You do have a nice ass."

"No, you have a nice ass." He wraps his hands under me and squeezes the globes of my ass before he shifts between my legs.

Releasing my ass, he slides his hands around my hips, to the butterfly he tattooed on my inner thigh.

"What is it with you and butterflies?" He traces the wings from one to the other, and my stomach tightens with his question.

"They were Ellie's favorite. She said they reminded her of us because we were twins."

"Why's that?"

"Butterflies have bilateral symmetry." I reach down and move from one wing to the other. "Their wings are identical."

"But you and Ellie weren't identical."

"Not technically." We had different eye colors, and she was slightly taller than me.

Still, people who didn't pay close enough attention always thought we were.

"She said if a butterfly lost its wing, it wasn't ever really lost because the other wing was just like it." I press my lips together, remembering Ellie, and how people always called me strange, but she was just as odd as me. "After she died, that was comforting, even if it didn't make sense. It reminded me of all the ways it's possible to lose something—and all the ways to keep it."

Sage looks down at the tattoo, resting his hand over where I'm absentmindedly tracing it.

"And this always reminded me of you."

His gaze moves up, and he rolls off me, lying to face me on the bed and pulling us chest to chest. His fingers thread into my hair.

"I took the butterflies from the clubhouse and hung them up in the shop."

"I noticed."

A smile ghosts his lips. "It felt wrong to leave them there."

"I'm glad you didn't."

It might seem small and insignificant, but they were Ellie's. And the day I hung them in the clubhouse was the day Sage and I finally gave in to what we'd been circling. Of all the things in Twisted Roses, those are our secret—our truth.

"Can I ask you something?" Reaching up, I brush my fingers over the scruff that coats his jaw.

"That's a loaded question."

"Maybe. But I'm just curious." I draw the line of his jaw. "What's the real reason you didn't patch in? Was it because of what happened to your dad?"

I've been careful not to bring his dad up, but we've slowly been broaching the subject of the last time we saw each other, and at some point, we need to face this.

When I was running from the basement, one of the men who was holding us hostage came around a corner and grabbed me. Sage's dad saved me, taking a knife to the gut in the process. And even when he told me to leave him, I knew he was dying.

I should have stayed, and I don't blame Sage for hating that I didn't.

"My dad dying was part of it." He rolls onto his back, and I try to pull away because I think he needs some space, but he pulls me closer until my head is resting on his chest. "The club was my home. I was born and raised a Twisted King. It was who I was always meant to be."

"I remember." It was the main reason we couldn't get past a certain point.

"But then my dad was dead, Reed was away at school, and you disappeared." He exhales. "The Twisted Kings no longer felt like family."

Folding my hands on his chest, I rest my chin over my fingers and look up at him. "So why do you still help Kane then?"

He lifts his hand, running his thumb over my bottom lip. "Because I owed him for not getting to you and Ellie in time."

"That's not your fault."

"Felt like it." He sighs. "Either way, I let you go. He never forgave me for not bringing you back to him."

I wet my lips, regret welling up inside me.

"I don't feel bad about that, Lyla. Letting you go was the right thing to do. Even if—" He covers his face with his palms and lets out a heavy breath.

"Even if what?" I push.

"Even if it fucking hurt." Dropping his hands, he holds the sides of my face. "Besides, it worked out. I haven't been a biker in a long time, regardless of the debts I still owe. Things changed."

"Like you buying the tattoo shop?" I smile, and he returns it.

"Yeah, like that."

Sitting up, I climb onto his lap and center myself over his cock. His gaze roves my naked body as I rock against him, and he swells to steel between my legs.

I'm sore and tired, but we've missed so much time, and I can't seem to make up for it.

"Fuck." Sage grabs my thighs. "Are you trying to kill me?"

"No." I plant my hands on his chest, rolling my hips. "After all, I don't need to. If you keep fucking me, Kane will kill you before I get the chance."

He grabs my hips and flips me over until I'm on my back, and he's once more between my legs.

"First, don't talk about your dad when I'm five seconds away from being inside your pussy. And second…" He bites my neck until I scream for him. "It's fucking worth it either way."

Reaching for the nightstand, he grabs a condom and slips it on. And even if I'm sore, he brutally thrusts his cock into me like he's mad at me for tempting him. My nails dig into his skin and my back arches when he strikes my core. The sore spot that can't get enough of him.

"Sage." I grab onto him as he drives in.

"Yes, butterfly?" He wraps one of my legs up over his shoulder and shifts his hips.

"Oh—" I can't breathe. "Fuck." My lungs seize with whatever spot he's hitting. "I can't—"

"I'm pretty sure you can, Lyla." He lowers down to claim my lips.

His body moves in waves over me as he stretches my legs wide and fills me with his thick length over and over again. His tongue dances with mine, and I'm lost in the rhythm. Our bodies are crashing, burning. This entire city is going up in flames around us.

He sinks into me, and I melt.

Our past and our present strike each other and the gap between the two closes. We seal them out of existence, and we're who we are—and who we were. And no matter who either of those people are or what they've done, only one thing matters.

Us, together.

Sage bites my lip and I shiver. He pulls my climax from me with every deep movement. I'm falling into pieces, and I want him to keep them.

He lifts, and I swear his stamina is inhuman as he fucks me harder. The more I come, the more he wants it. Insatiable at the sight of me unraveling for him.

"Worn out yet?" Sage thrusts so hard my entire body shudders, another wave of my climax is on the precipice of tearing me apart.

I'm worn out, exhausted. And still, I can't help myself.

"Why? Is that the best you can do?"

"What did I tell you about that sassy fucking mouth, butterfly?" Sage pulls out of me and rips off the condom, grabbing my throat as he does. "Shut it or I'll fuck it."

He moves up my body until one knee is on either side of my shoulders, and he taps his cock on my lips.

"Open." His hand snakes into my hair, tipping my face up. "I'm going to teach these pretty lips a lesson."

I should probably be nervous, but when it comes to Sage, I can't help accepting the challenge. Slowly, I open my mouth and run my tongue around the head of his cock.

"Good girl." He shoves himself to the back of my throat and my eyes instantly water.

Tears stream my cheeks, but he doesn't let up.

I'm pinned to the bed as he holds my head in place and fucks my mouth. And it has my core clenching all over again. I can't move with how I'm positioned, and I'm at his mercy. Gripping the sheets, I blink the tears from my eyes and breathe as best I can through my nose.

Sage pumps his hips, my lips stretching around his thick cock as I try to relax my throat to take him deeper. But even as he bottoms out, his hand sits around the base, stroking what won't fit in my mouth.

"That's better." He pulses deep, and I gag around his cock, coating him in spit.

His thumbs run under my eyes, collecting my tears as he grins, fucking my mouth through it.

His cock turns to steel in my mouth, and that's the only warning I get before a rope of cum coats my tongue. He shoves in deep, still releasing as he pulls out and paints my chest. Cum drips over my breasts and mouth as he empties himself all over me.

"So fucking beautiful." Sage releases his cock and draws a path over his cum on my lips, shoving it into my mouth.

I reach for his wrist with both hands and force his fingers deeper, sucking the taste of him off them like I'm still sucking his dick. And as my tongue dances the circle around his fingers, he moans. Watching intently as my tongue drags over his fingers when he pulls his hand away.

"We might need to actually get up now." I glance down at my cum-covered chest.

"I don't know." He runs his hand between my breasts. "I like seeing you like this."

"A mess?"

"You're a work of beauty."

"And you're a beast."

Sage leans in, dipping his mouth to my ear. "From what I remember, that's what you always liked about me."