While he was distracted, I rushed around him, but the guy grabbed my shoulder. “Did I say you could leave? Not done with you, sweetheart.”
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Jessa said.
“Why’s that?” Cracker bit out.
“You motherfucker,” Manic roared, shoving through the crowd.
Jessa aimed her thumb over her shoulder. “That’s why.”
Cracker let go of me and lifted his hands. “She’s not wearing your patch, she’s fair game.”
“Wrong. I fucking told you what would happen if you touched my old lady,” he growled.
The guy paled. “Now, hang on. I just assumed, I didn’t think—”
Manic grabbed the front of his shirt and slammed his fist into Cracker’s face, once, twice, a third time, then turned to me, the now half-conscious biker still hanging from his fist. “Okay?”
I nodded, stunned.
Manic shook with fury as he looked down at Cracker. “You come near her again, I’ll put you in the ground, asshole.” Then he dropped him and strode to me, took my hand, and towed me across the room.
He carried on out a door, heading outside, and I rushed to keep up.
There was a bonfire out here, bikers sitting around it, some with women on their laps, but all the women out here were wearing property patches.
Manic was breathing heavily and pacing about.
“Manic?”
His head snapped my way.
“Levi,” I quickly corrected.
His nostrils flared and he tugged me into his arms. “You can’t walk away from me like that, Addie.Fuck. You know that.”
I did know that, but I’d let my emotions get the better of me.
His jaw worked. “I want to go back inside and smash that fucker’s face again.”
“I’m fine,” I said quickly. “He was getting pushy, but—”
Manic growled his grizzly bear growl. “What the fuck were you thinking?”
“That I wanted to dance, and that I didn’t enjoy being a third wheel.” I hadn’t meant to say that last part. And there was more coming, and I couldn’t stop myself from saying it because I was confused and irrationallyjealous. Cracker was a dirtbag, but the things he’d said, I’d let them get to me. “Did she like having her ass spanked as well?” I said, and it came out bitter and snarly, and I hated I’d let that slimy bastard in the clubhouse get in my head.
Manic stilled, then slid his hand around the side of my neck and tilted my head back, rubbing his thumb over my lower lip. “You jealous, cupcake?”
I tried to pull away, but he wouldn’t let me. “I know my experience is limited, but I could give you some details about the guys I’ve fucked, if you like?” I fired at him because seeing him with Francine, and all those beautiful half-dressed girls, had made me think about afterward. After we went our separate ways. The women he’d be with, touch, kiss, hold. “Would you like to know how much I enjoyed it, what positions we did, how many times I came? ’Cause I can share that with you if you want.” I was lashing out, something I’d done for a long time after I’d lost my family, something I did when I was trying to protect myself. I recognized it now, but still, I couldn’t stop.
“If any of the guys you fucked came anywhere near you, I’d fuck them up as well,” he snarled. “I didn’t ask Francine to come over. And you couldn’t have missed that I’d sent her away.”
The wind was knocked from my sails. Suddenly, I felt like an idiot. “Sorry.” I crossed my arms. “I overreacted. It’s not like we’re actually, you know, together. You can do whatever you want.”
He shoved his fingers through his hair. “For fuck’s sake, Addie.”
My gaze shot to his. “What?”
He stared down at me, his chest heaving.