Page 38 of Miguel
Tainted.
I wondered how many sweeps of a mop it would take for it to get rid of this feeling. If it would ever disappear. Or if it would feel this way now forever. Unsafe. Foreign.
We hurried outside and I took in a breath of fresh air into my lungs, not realizing until right then how cloying the place had felt.
Miguel took my arm. “Nena.” His chin jerked in the direction of his parked bike. “You’re with me.”
I glared at the shining, chrome beast, a slice of fear slipping down my spine. I’d never been on one of those before. But as I watched Cubano and Loco hop on their own bikes, I was reluctant to look like an ignorant fool. Especially as Desiree walked over to Cubano like she meant to hop on the back of his bike with him. He did seem like the lesser of two evils. She was prepared to get behind him when Mayan growled and stormed over, pulling her gently yet firmly away from his brother.
“On mine,” he said, facing her so she could read his lips.
It felt like an intimate moment as they stared at each other. Like everyone else around them had disappeared and nothing in their universe existed but one another. There seemed to be some type of significance to riding with someone if Mayan got so upset at the thought of her getting on someone else’s bike.
And Miguel wanted me to ride on his.
I looked up at him to find him staring at me. There was an intense, hungry expression on his face. The same one he got when he’d kissed me the other day. It made a bright flush rise to my cheeks. Like he could read my mind and knew where my thoughts strayed to, he smirked.
“Hop on, nena,” he drawled, walking over to his bike.
I followed nervously, watching as he threw a jean-clad leg over the ride. He held his hand out to me and sliding my palm into his felt like something I didn’t want to contemplate but found myself thinking about regardless, even as I settled behind him. He pulled me forward so my thighs were straddling his waist and hugging him close. I wrapped my arms around him, palms sliding up his chest in a gentle exploration that I wondered if I’d regret later.
But he just pulled me close, and my thoughts went wild again.
Wild with the thought of home.
Chapter Fifteen
Lorena
Thecompoundwasaslooming as I remembered it, with the massive fence circling the property, barbed wire, dogs, and young-looking men with hidden firearms guarding the front. They opened the gates when they saw us and we drove in slowly, parking in front of the clubhouse.
My thighs trembled as Miguel helped me off. I wasn’t sure it was from the ride so much as from the proximity of his body or the way his hand would reach back to grab my thigh. With me straddling the bike, my skirt had rode up. I was sure there were markings on the insides of my thighs from all the bumps in the road, but I didn’t care.
Not when he was looking at me like that.
“Come on.” He grabbed my hand, not waiting for permission before he threaded our fingers together. I barely got a chance to throw a glance over my shoulder to catch Mayan tenderly helping Desiree off his bike before Miguel was pulling me into the clubhouse.
It was quiet inside.
Last time I’d been here, there’d been music and scantily clad women crawling through the place with little shame. The ambiance was different, though not empty. Other men wearing vests like Miguel’s kept themselves busy by cleaning the place up. They looked up as we entered, but didn’t say a word in greeting to anyone.
It almost felt normal, if a little morose.
“Come on.” Miguel tugged at my hand, guiding me towards a stairway and leading me to the top. There was a hallway of doors, some closed and opened. Miguel led me towards one at the very end of the hall, procuring a key from his pocket and opening it. He let me go in first, and my eyes curiously took in the room. It was bare but clean, with simple furnishings like a bed, a dresser, and a nightstand. There was another door, one I guessed led into a bathroom.
“You can stay in here,” Miguel said, his voice soft in what suddenly seemed like vast space.
My heart pounded along with the tempo of his words. My throat felt heavy and the crushing weight of the day threatened to cave in on me.
“Desiree and I can share the bed,” I whispered.
Miguel snorted. “This ismyroom, nena.”
“Oh.”
I’d figured. He had a key, after all. But if he was implying what I thought he was… My heart thundered at the thought.
“I need to be with Desiree. She was really shaken up.”
