Addictive (The Houston Defiance MC Series Book 2)

and my eyes shoot open.
His eyes are darker, hooded, more intense.
I know that look.
His Adam’s apple bobs up and down as he slowly let’s go of me. “You need to rest. Why don’t you lay back, have a nap? I’ll come get you when I know more.”
I want to be out there helping. Even though his magic hands helped some with my headache, it’s still not gone completely. I know I need to take a moment to be with my own thoughts. I scoot up the bed, lying down and cuddle into the pillow. With gentleness, he pulls up the blanket, laying it over me as I reach out grabbing his hand.
He halts his movements.
“Wraith?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you. Thanks for coming to find me.”
“No matter what kind of fucked-up situation we’re in, Prinie… biker wars, your brother denying us, him going to jail, no matter what… in the end, I’ll always find you.” His hand detaches from mine, then he swipes a stray strand of hair away from my face. I move to press my cheek into his palm, but as quickly as his hand is there, he takes it away, turning for the door without saying another word.
I get it.
Zero made it crystal clear neither of us could act on the way we feel. Honestly, the way we were both behaving at the time I wasn’t sure about the way he felt, but now—now I think I do.
Wraith still cares about me just like I care about him.
So where does that leave us?
With quick steps, he walks out my door, closing it softly behind him. Wraith may have left the room, but his presence lingers. His touch. His smell. He’s everywhere, and there’s one thing I know for sure, Wraith will fight through Hell to get my brother back to us.
But when Zero returns, where does that leave Wraith and me?
Back at square fucking one.
Maybe it was easier hating him.

WRAITH
Walking out of Prinie’s room, I’m fucking anxious. Seeing her so damn vulnerable had my inner addiction itching, screaming at me. I’m so fucking sick, it kills me. The second she talked about having my hands on her I was done for, and I knew I had to leave.
Prinie is my weakness.
She brings me to life but also sends that part of me deeper into the darkness than I want to admit. It’s a constant battle being around her. Trying to keep my demons buried under the surface, so they don’t claw their way out. So, they don’t wrap their taloned fingers around her perfectly breakable neck.
Groaning, I subtly rearrange my hardening cock in my jeans at the thought of my hands around her throat, gripping it tighter as she gasps for breaths.
I need to go back to therapy.
Or maybe I need a fucking bullet to the head.
Either way, being around Prinie is dangerous.
I care about her too deeply to let what went down between us a year ago happen again.
I want to use my sexual preferences so bad, but it raged beyond control that night.
There’s no denying it.
I don’t want to fucking accidentally kill her, so I can’t be near her.
I am more than capable of harming her, this I know, my mother being a prime example, but I don’t trust myself around someone I have feelings for.
My thirst for choking the life out of someone is still there, but Prinie brings out something better in me. Obviously, she awakens that beast in me, and fuck if it isn’t hard to control myself around her, but times like right now, when she’s vulnerable and weak, it does something to me, and I never, ever want to witness her in pain.
Physical or mental.
I want to wrap my hands around her neck basking in the life that drains from her eyes for my sexual gratification, hearing the harmonious chorus of her gasping for air. But to see her in pain, actual gut-wrenching pain—no, that doesn’t sit well with me.
How fucked up does that sound?
No, what happened with us a year ago was something else. My addiction kicked in for some reason. Seeing her gorgeous neck out and proud, so beautifully on show, it’s like I lost myself in my past. I didn’t even realize I was still fucking her when I finally came to and realized what I was doing.
The red haze took over.
The overwhelming desire to do harm.
The need to take a life took hold.
I lost control.
I’m not proud of my actions that night.
Or for the days which followed.
Inevitably, I held a part in why Prinie took Koda and hightailed it the hell out and away from the club.
When I found out she’d left, part of me was fucking happy. Happy all the bickering would end—that the temptation was over—but then concern reared its ugly head. If I had trouble staying away from her, other predators might too, and that raised my hackles. I wanted more than anything to go after her, but that would’ve been obvious to Zero.
At the time, I was happy Zero sent Phantom. Though, that may backfire on me now because they’re developing a bond—one I don’t want to be here to witness.
Walking to the top of the stairs, I turn to back facing Prinie’s door. “Damn troublemaker, that girl,” I mumble, then traipse down the stairs into the main clubroom.
As I enter, all eyes fall to me.
I’m the interim president.
It’s my job now to get this shit under control
Fuck.
Walking over to Cherry, who’s being comforted by our club girl, Ruby, I grab either side of my cut in an attempt to try and command authority.
“Cherry, I understand you must be feeling crazy right now—”
“Crazy? That’s the word