Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8

LONDON

Holy mother of kisses.

I let him kiss me.

Again .

It had to be the best kiss I've ever had. That's saying something cause the one he gave me at my apartment, it'd been spectacular. This kiss I can only put down to eye opening.

Diablo wants to explore things with me. I felt what I did to him as I sat astride his lap, even more, when he laid me down on the bed and kept kissing me. I think, for a make-out session, it was the most intimate thing I've ever done.

Honestly, I was close to begging for more when the knock at the door came.

Diablo hadn't been happy about it. I felt it in the way his body tensed. It grew tighter at Beast's announcement of who was here.

"Fuck," Diablo growls, dropping his head forward, eyes closed.

"Guess you better go see to whatever?—"

"You're coming with me," he declares, interrupting me, eyes opening to narrow slits. "Once I've got it dealt with, we're going to my place where the two of us can't be fuckin' interrupted again."

"Ugh, hate to tell you, but they interrupted at my apartment, and I didn't even know they knew where I lived," I grumble. "And for the record, who says I want to go to your place?"

Diablo loses the tension in his body as a smirk forms on his kissable lips. "Chiquita, you wanna go to my place as much as I want to take you there. No one is going to bother us there because they all know when I go to my place, I'm not to be disturbed. I take you there, they definitely won't fuck with me unless it's an emergency."

"What exactly do you think we're going to be doing at your place?" I have to ask. My body hums with needs I don't understand. I've never actually felt such longing like this.

That smirk of his shifts, and his eyes darken. "London, you know what's going to happen."

"Ugh, no, I don't," I say sheepishly, diverting my gaze. He wants to make something happen between the two of us. If that's the case, he needs to know the one thing no one knows about me other than my doctor, who put me on birth control, knows. "I'm a virgin, Diablo."

Diablo's head jerks back, brows draw together, and he stares at me like I've grown two heads. "You're kiddin'."

"Is being a virgin something to joke about?"

I wouldn't joke about it. It's the truth. I'm not the type who sleeps around with anyone. I want to think Diablo isn't the type of guy who would take advantage of a woman especially if he knows the truth about them.

It's not something I'm embarrassed about or ashamed of. It was my choice to wait, and if I want to be honest with myself, I know why. Or I think I know why.

Because of this man here.

Because at thirteen, during a small amount of time, I gave my heart to a boy who is now a man.

Regardless of the truth, I'm not about to tell him. Or let him cotton on to him being the very reason I moved back to Palestine in hopes of seeing him once again.

I also won't give in to my feelings for him easily. He needs to learn I won't sit idly by and let him make decisions for me.

Oh, and I can't forget that he hurt me by not calling me after I gave him my number months ago. It took him seeing me with Taylor, Craig, whatever his name is, for him to make a decision .

Diablo reaches up to curve his palm to my cheek. His eyes shifting, yet again. I didn't think it was possible to see such tenderness from a man like him, but there it is.

"Chiquita," is all he murmurs before moving, getting to his feet, bringing me with him.

Standing next to the bed, he keeps one hand on my cheek while he wraps his arm firmly around my waist.

"I know you, though you don't think I do," Diablo whispers. "I looked into you, watched you at first . . ."

"You what?" I gasp, eyes widening, but he ignores me.

" . . . then you vanished again. Thought it was for the best, but knowing now that no one else has gotten in there," his arm tightens around my waist, "there's no way I'm going to let you go this time."

" Diablo ."

I nearly jump out of my skin at the shouting of his name from the other side of the door.

"We're coming," Diablo answers, hip lip curling. Eyes never leaving me. "Looks like you're about to get a look into my past."

He never told me why he'd been on the streets, neither had Beast. But both men knew the reason I'd been.

Tension rolls off Diablo as he lets me go, takes my hand, and all but drags me to the door. Diablo yanks the door open and Beast is standing right there.

"Why didn't you tell me your bitch of a mom had been trying to contact you?" From the sounds of it, Beast is pissed with Diablo for not telling him. But is it really any of his business? Anyone's business, other than Diablo's?

"‘Cause it wasn't something I was sharing. It didn't concern anyone else," Diablo answers, shoves past Beast, and heading back to the main area of the clubhouse.

"Get the fuck out." Diablo doesn't wait to find out what they're doing here.

Upon setting eyes on the lawyer and what has to be Diablo's mother, I didn't understand it. The woman was weathered-looking. Hair a mess. Body thin. So thin she looks like a strong wind would knock her on her ass.

"Diablo," Reaper calls.

"Not the club's concern, Prez," Diablo mutters, glancing in Reaper's direction for a split second.

"Damari," the woman murmurs, tears shimmering in her eyes.

"Don't, woman, I've told your lawyer friend here I didn't want nothing to do with you. Now, get the fuck out."

The woman's eyes shimmered with tears, and she looks at me, but Diablo steps in front of me, shielding me from her sight.

"I won't say it again," Diablo grinds out.

"Brother," Beast tries, using a calming voice.

"No, she's out of here."

Slowly, ever so slowly, I reach up to touch Diablo's back as I whisper, "Diablo."

Diablo tenses, his body tight and unwavering.

"Sir, if you'll please just give us a moment," the lawyer pleads.

"I'm dying," the woman says loudly.

"Not my problem," Diablo growls.

"Please, Damari, please just give me a minute. Let me?—"

"Bitch, you don't get it, I don't give a shit what you're doing here. Or that you're fuckin' dyin'. Get the fuck out of my sight," Diablo snarls, pivots, and looks directly at Reaper. "I don't care how you gotta do it, but she's not to come anywhere near me and mine again."

I study the way Reaper watches Diablo, studying him. Finally, Reaper nods. "I'll take care of it, brother, don't worry."

"Good, I'm heading to my place," Diablo tells him, pulling me with him as he rounds his mother and the lawyer, not saying another word to either of them. He takes me straight to his bike, which makes me wonder how he got it here and me when he'd had me knocked out. It's a question I'll have to ask him later.

Much later.

Maybe after he's had time to calm down after seeing his mother. I'm not sure when the last time he'd seen her was, but it's obvious it was something he never wanted to do.

And I want to know why.