Free Blaze: Kings of Hell MC by Leah Wilde

the clothes spilling out over my suitcase. He grabbed the gown I’d just set on top and pulled it next to the suitcase on the bed. Then, he moved through, tossing some clothes on the floor and setting others on the new pile next to the luggage. At the end of it all, I had a week’s worth of clothes, and Gage zipped up the suitcase.
     
    “You’re ready,” he said in his commanding, matter-of-fact tone. “Is there anything else you need to do before we can go?” he asked.
     
    I looked around the apartment. “I’ve got everything I need. You’re talking like I won’t be back at all until we’re finished,” I said, sounding a little sadder than I wanted to.
     
    He sighed. “Ideally, no, you won’t be back until we’re done, but if you really need to come back at any point, let me know, and I will bring you back here if we’re able to come back at that time.”
     
    I tilted my head. I wanted to ask him why I wouldn’t be able to come back, but I decided to let it slide and trust him. Besides, if he could imagine a situation that would keep me from being able to come back here from Kings of Hell HQ or his place, which I still hadn’t seen, I wasn’t really sure I wanted to know what it was.
     
    As he pulled the Suburban out of the parking spot in front of my apartment building, he turned to me and asked, “Why is it that a research fellow and successful professor like yourself still has such a tiny apartment?”
     
    I shrugged. “I never really gave it much thought. I mean, you’ve seen my books. They’re everywhere.”
     
    “Yes, they are.” He laughed. “What does that have to do with the size of your apartment?”
     
    “I just spend all my time studying and working. I never really thought about needing a bigger apartment.” And I hadn’t thought about it before. For me, my apartment was all I needed. When I was home, I was reading or working. When I wasn’t home, I was either at work or visiting my mom. My apartment really just served a need. It offered me a place to sleep, eat, and bathe.
     
    “I was just wondering. It seems to me that if you’re more successful at work, you would want a bigger, better place. That’s all,” he added.
     
    “Yeah, it’s just not one of my priorities,” I explained. “I have student loans, my research projects, and other expenses to worry about. My apartment is the only thing simple and cheap in my life, and I like that. I feel like it keeps me centered.” I hoped my explanation didn’t sound like a total crock of shit.
     
    “Let me ask you this,” he started. “What about guys?”
     
    I groaned. “What about them?” There weren’t many guys. In fact, what I had thought of as desire in the past was probably just sheer physical need. I felt like with Gage, I was finally starting to understand was true desire was. If what I felt for him was how it felt to want someone, then I hadn’t wanted anyone else in my entire life.
     
    “How does it work when you have guys over?” he asked.
     
    “I don’t,” I answered quietly, turning away and looking out the window at the nighttime cityscape passing us by.
     
    “I’m sorry?”
     
    “I said I don’t usually have guys over.”
     
    “When was the last time you had a guy over at your apartment?”
     
    “Tonight,” I said with a smile, teasing him.
     
    “Before tonight.”
     
    I looked back out the window and didn’t say anything.
     
    He didn’t pursue it any further.
     
    Soon, we pulled into the parking deck behind his apartment building. It was a tall glass building. It didn’t look like apartments at all from the outside. From the outside, it looked like a tall office building, but as we entered through the parking deck, it quickly became obvious that the outward facing windows were all apartments.
     
    We took the elevator up to his floor. As he unlocked and opened his door, I was floored by the exquisite beauty of his view of the city. When we walked in, he flipped a light