The mood in the room burned with an intensity that I was fast associating with Scott.  His words stunned me and I was speechless for a moment.  My brain raced to process what he’d said because it was not even in the ballpark of what I’d ever expected to hear from him.  If you’d told me that Scott would tell me he wanted me in his life, I would have laughed at you.

Everything I knew about Scott jostled for attention; his temper, his honesty; his compassion, his loyalty to those he loved, his fierceness, his bossiness, his protective streak, and I knew without hesitation that I wanted him too.  He wasn’t perfect, and I had no idea where we’d end up but I wanted to take a chance on something that could be beautiful.

I walked over to where he was and took his face in my hands.  “I can handle that shit.”

He groaned and his mouth smashed down onto mine in a rough, passionate kiss.  His hands pulled my hips into his and I felt his erection.  I ran my hands through his hair and inched my body as close to his as I could get.  Being with Scott was thrilling and I knew that I could handle any of his shit so long as I had him in my life.

I could have stayed like that forever but Scott broke the kiss and pulled away from me.  “I’m counting on it, babe, because we’re about to hit a shit storm.”

“Talk to me.  Tell me what’s going on.”

He blew out a breath before continuing.  “My club has some enemies and one of them saw me with you the other day and then again this morning.  They haven’t come out and made threats against you but I take their actions alone as a threat.  I can keep you safe while we deal with this but I can only do that if you drop out of sight for awhile.”

“What does all of that really mean?”  Drop out of sight for a while?  I wasn’t sure where he was heading with this.

“Babe, it means exactly what you think it means.  The guy that’s made this threat is a nasty motherfucker and I take everything he says and does seriously.  Deadly fucking seriously.  What I want you to do is stay at the clubhouse until this is dealt with.  You good with that?”

“How long do you think I’d be staying at the clubhouse?  Because I can’t leave my mum to deal with the café by herself.”

“I don’t know how long this will take.  Could be a couple of days or more.”

“Then I’m not okay with staying there.  I can’t just put my life on hold like that.”

“I’m not asking you to put your life on hold; just to drop out of sight for a little while so we can keep you safe.  I can organise help for your mum at the café.”

“No, Scott, she needs someone who knows the café.”

He was getting agitated.  I could tell by the vein popping in his neck and the way he was rubbing the back of his neck.  It was too bad though; I wasn’t bailing on my mum when she needed me.

“I know I said I wanted you, and I fuckin’ do, but Christ, you’ll be the fuckin’ death of me, woman.”

I stood my ground.  “I’ve laid down and let too many men walk all over me in the past, Scott.  I won’t do it again.  Maybe you need to be the one to decide whether you can handle that shit.”

He didn’t even think about it; he just growled, “Babe, I can handle that shit and more.”

Butterflies took over my stomach and his growly voice set my nerves alight with excitement.  I smiled at him.  “Good, because there’s a lot of baggage for you to sort through.”

As we stood watching each other, we were interrupted by a knock at my front door.  I moved to go and answer it but Scott put his hand on my arm and shook his head.  “Wait here, I’ll get it.”

I didn’t say anything but on the inside I was rolling my eyes.  Seriously, if someone was coming to get me, why would they knock on the door?  I moved out of the way and let him go and be my caveman.  A moment later I heard Cassie’s voice and laughed out loud.  “Thanks for saving my ass, Scott.  You’ve got to watch out for Cassie cause you never know when she’s going to pull her ninja moves out and try and hurt you,” I yelled out.

He came back into the room with a scowl on his face.  “I can tell that you’re taking this seriously.”

I took pity on him because he really did look annoyed and I knew that he was just trying to look out for me.  “Sorry.  Just trying to lighten the mood,” I apologised, and then ignoring the surprised look on his face, I waved my hand between the two of them and said, “Scott, meet my best friend, Cassie.  Cassie, meet my caveman, Scott.”

Her eyes widened.  I hadn’t had a chance to fill her in on anything that had happened the last few days.  She was a good friend though; she didn’t quiz me on it in front of Scott.  That would be girl catch up time conversation.  Instead she asked, “What have I missed here?  What’s Scott saving you from?”

“Just some biker stuff that’s going on.  Now tell me, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?”  I was trying to give her the hint that I wanted to talk to her about this in private.

She picked up on my message and smiled at me in that knowing friend way.  “I haven’t heard from you in a little while so I thought I’d drop in and see how you are.  Your mum told me you had the day off.”