Free Rose (Road Kill MC #3) by Marata Eros Page B

and it makes me want to suck her lips into mine, doing my own nibbling.
    I point out the most amazing part of the room configuration. “The key is, his room will be on the other side of the condo.”
    She pivots to look at me, rolling her eyes.
    I laugh, towing her to what could be Charlie's room. She's already said yes, but she needs to see it to believe it.
    Rose swings open the bedroom door at the other end of the penthouse suite I own outright.
    Whoever says crime doesn't pay was a dumb fuck.
    “Oh!” Rose exclaims, rushing to the window. Lights glitter from the west hill, and her eyes move to the huge park and stadium just a few blocks away.
    “Lots of Little League and shit happen right here. Walkable from the condo.”
    I move behind her, wrapping a forearm around her neck.
    I know when she finds my knot board hanging on the wall in a huge picture frame done in clear Douglas fir.
    “Oh my God—Noose.” She whips around, hair scattering over my T-shirt.
    “Do you? Wow.”
    I gaze at the knots, each one carefully executed and under glass. The frame glows with a warm amber hue. The knots are glued to blood-red velvet, and the different twines stand out in stark neutrals in all varieties from bright white to a creamy tan. Some have stripes. All are deadly.
    “Can you do all these?”
    Rose doesn't see me nod; her back is to me.
    “Yeah.”
    She turns, eyeing me up. “There's like fifty knots there.”
    I nod.
    A nervous laugh bursts from her lips. “Can you do more?” Her voice holds awe.
    I shift my weight, looking away. “Yeah.”
    “How much more?”
    My gaze moves back to her. “Enough.”
    “O kay . So much secrecy.”
    “Necessary,” I say, wrapping my arms around her and kissing the top of her head. I inhale Rose's smell and close my eyes.
    I could just hold her with me forever, just like this.
    “What about your parents?”
    “Yeah. My parents. They won't relent, Noose, as long as we're together. They'll make a place for Charlie in their lives, but they can't afford to love me if they think they're going to lose me.”
    “We could tie the knot,” I say, surprising myself.
    Rose turns slowly. “You don't mean that.”
    I inhale deeply then let it out slow. “I don't say shit I don't mean.”
    Rose skewers me with her silence. When she speaks, I like that even less. “We're moving too fast. You can't marry me for my parents’ acceptance, Noose.”
    I would do a lot to chase the pain from her eyes.
    “I don't even get points for my pun?”
    A sad smile comes and goes. “First, you want me to move in with you, then you talk about getting married like those choices are solutions to problems instead of what you really want to do.”
    “Bottom line, it's the same difference.” Why can't women see that when a man loves them, part of that love is to solve problems they can't?
    “Not to me.” Rose backs up. “I want this.” She waves a hand around, encompassing the condo. “But I only want what you really want.”
    I feel Rose slipping through my hands, and it makes me fucking crazy. I step into her space. “Don't, Rose. Don't do this. Don't shut me out.”
    “It's over, Noose. Drake's got Charlie. He's won. His threats didn't work, but that club? The motorcycle gang he belongs to? They figured out the money so my nephew will be his, even if it's not in his best interests. They don't care about Charlie as a human being. He's just a pawn of ownership.”
    That's a no-shitter. But what Rose says strikes me the wrong way. “Let's get something crystal clear here, Rose.”
    She steps back, creating space.
    Uh-uh. I back her up into the wall, her head inches away from my TV-screen-sized knot board.
    “Road Kill is not a gang. Hell—gangs are the douches we're trying to keep out of our territory.”
    “Are you saying you do nothing illegal?”
    I shake my head, my eyes narrowing. “You know we do.”
    “Okay.” She flips her palm over. “So explain the difference. Because Chaos Riders