The song grew louder, and I had to figure Link or Sin had turned up the volume.
As we moved around each other, I wondered if they considered it sexual. It never had been before. If anything, we’d done it to be able to dance at nightclubs without any guy trying to elbow their way in and make us dance with them.
I hated it when men did that, Lily too—for reasons that were obvious to me now—so we’d started dancing together, and to be honest, without anything loosening my nerves thanks to the baby, I needed her to back me up.
As the song came to an end, I wasn’t surprised when Sin and Link approached. A different song shifted onto the speakers, not so heavy rock, but neither was it electro-pop. I’d never heard it before, but it let me fall into Sin’s arms and sway with him before the beat started to surge, and writhing against him felt like more than just a requirement, but a necessity.
As I moved against him, I loved how his hands held me. They gripped my hips, held tight to my body so that there was barely any distance between us. The beat, though edgy, made my pulse soar, and I could feel the heat inside me from dancing turning into the heat that always arced between us.
His boner was there, digging into my hip, but he didn’t move us away or off the dance floor. Didn’t try to make me more aware of it by saying something crude.
He just let me feel it.
Let me know what I was doing to him.
And I loved it.
As I stared into his eyes when the song reached a fever pitch, I saw his feelings for me, but I felt them too.
I felt it in how he touched me and held me, how he danced with me and how he acted around me.
I never thought I’d be treated with such respect from a biker, more than any other man I’d known, but that was why stereotyping sucked. Why it meant shit. Because Sin was the best man I’d ever known.
I dug my hands into his hips in return, grinding into him as I danced, then as the music died, he reached down, pushed his face into my throat, and kissed me there, making me shiver.
His mouth moved over to my ear and he nipped the lobe. The feel of his cock suddenly became a temptation, but before I could reach between us, take advantage of how few inhibitions there were in this place where people were outright fucking in public, he rumbled in my ear, “Can I get you a drink?”
Before I could pout, Lily dragged me from his arms, and Sin let her with a raised brow and a smirk that had me grinning at him. I waved and turned into Lily’s hold, letting her drag me across the floor and over toward the hall that led to the kitchen.
The bar wasn’t that much better at night than it was in the day. The darkness didn’t hide the multitude of sins that came from furniture that had been used for fucking one too many times, a bike that somehow was perched on the wall, lots of shitty, black leather sofas, and a crap ton of stools that I never saw anyone sitting on.
The floor was gross—my feet were sticking to it—and there was a haze of smoke in the air that, surprisingly enough, was all tobacco and not weed.
When we made it into the kitchen, passing two dudes who were boning one chick, I pulled a face which had Lily shaking her head.
“You’re a prude,” she accused.
I scowled at her, then I opened my mouth to deny it, but maybe I was. “I didn’t think I was,” I replied slowly, and I knew I surprised her with my honesty, because she blinked at me a few times before she edged away from me and headed to the fridge.
When she threw a bottle of lemon tea at me, I snagged it, opened it, and then took a sip. It was hot as hell in the bar, and dancing with her then Sin had only raised my internal temperatures to a dangerous degree.
“You have to get over it,” she repeated, as she’d done when she dragged me over to the dance floor earlier.
“Get over what?” I hedged.
“The clubwhores. It’s just a part of the life.”
I scowled at her. “You know how wrong that is, don’t you?”
She snickered. “Umm, yep. I figure I do. But I don’t get why it bothers you so much.”
“It doesn’t.”
“Yeah, it does.” She pulled a face, then pointed to it. “Do I look like I’m sucking lemons?”
I stuck out my tongue at her, knowing she was saying that was how I looked when I was glancing around the place.
“The feminist in me is dying inside.”
Lily shrugged. “You think mine isn’t? But it’s not down to us, is it?”
“They want us to come here more often. Take part in more of the parties…” I shrugged. “It’s either look like that and get used to it, or not come at all and create a divisive line.”
“They’re not going to appreciate it,” Lily warned. “You just look like you’re thinking you’re too good for this place.”
My nose wrinkled. “That isn’t the way of it at all.”
“She’s right.” The voice was deep, rough, and I turned to behold Steel. I didn’t know him, but then, I didn’t know anyone here really. Not even Link, and I’d eaten dinner with him and stayed at his and Lily’s place, for Christ’s sake.
I didn’t greet him, seeing as he hadn’t greeted me. Instead, I hitched my shoulder. “Well, I’m not looking down at you.”
“Just the whores?” He hummed at that. “I can see that.”
“If you can see it, then what’s the problem?”
“It ain’t gonna change whether you like it or not.” His smirk was the opposite of Sin’s. I wanted to slap him, not kiss him. “You think you’re the first Old Lady to disapprove—”
“I don’t care that you’re fucking them,” I grumbled, taking another sip of my drink. “I care that they let you bastards treat them like shit.”
Lily huffed. “Way to make friends and alienate people, Tiff.”
I shrugged at her, then stared Steel down. “I don’t care if you like me. You like Sin, and that’s what matters. You have to know that I want what’s best for him, and as his friend, his brother, that’s all that should matter.”
Steel squinted at me for a second, then he slowly nodded before he, too, went to the fridge. Only he didn’t pull out a Coke or a beer or something normal for when there was a party going on, he grabbed some yogurt.
Some fucking yogurt.
I stared at the container for a second, surprised by his choice, but when he popped the top and began to spoon some of the concoction into his mouth, I felt my own begin to water.
Not at him, but at the yogurt.
Fuck.
Out of nowhere, I was starving.
Pushing past the pair of them, I headed into the refrigerator and looked at the contents.
I’d never seen as much food as I had at this place, and considering how many men were here and how many were fed on a daily basis, it fit, but still.
When I found the containers of yogurt, I snatched one, but then, beside it, I saw a big package of bologna.
Normally, just the smell of the pork and garlic was enough to make me dry heave, but if my mouth had watered at the yogurt, that was nothing in comparison to the bologna.
I stared at it so long, Lily ducked into the fridge with me and mock-whispered, “Are you scared to come out or something?”
Biting my lip, I forced my thoughts away from the processed meat and forced myself to stay content with the yogurt.
I was a vegetarian for environmental reasons, and it had been a long time since I’d had anything with meat. The sudden desire for that crap had me hunching my shoulders with guilt.
I tried to cut out dairy for the same reason, but I wasn’t as hard on myself with that. Doing without turkey bacon was hard enough. No ice cream? Ever? Yeah, that was far too painful a loss.
When I retreated from the refrigerator, I’d admit, my mind was on the bologna, so when Steel grumbled, “You were saying?”
I just blinked at him. “Huh?”
He scowled at me. “Is Narnia through there or something?”
I scowled back at him. “You have a shitt
y attitude.”
“Takes one to know one,” he retorted, but he was grinning at me as he said it.
I huffed, then thought back to what we’d been discussing before yogurt and gross meat—I really had to ram that home—caught my attention.
“It’s not right for them to live the way they are.”
“And who decides that? Them or you?” Steel rumbled, as he stuck the spoon in the yogurt container and began to stir it.
“Them,” I muttered, my mind still on the fridge.
Lily elbowed me in the side. “So what’s the problem?”
“My problem, not theirs.” I heaved a sigh.
“Are you okay?” She reached up and pressed the back of her hand to my forehead. “You feeling well?”
I scowled at her. “Yes, I’m fine!”
“You don’t normally give up an argument that easily.”
“Well, this is different.”
Steel tipped his head to the side. “You scared of me or something?”
I snorted. “No.”
Lily huffed out a laugh, but I knew my bluntness had always amused her. I could be diplomatic, but these weren’t diplomatic times.
“Then why did you go silent? You don’t think I can keep up with you or something? Just because you’re a fancy fucking doctor—”
Well, that had exploded out of nowhere.
I raised my free hand and told him, “Hey, I’m not a doctor. I didn’t finish my training. Hell, I didn’t even get my masters, certainly not my PhD—”
Steel’s mouth tightened. “Then why did you stop arguing?”
“Did you want me to argue with you?” I countered, confused as to what the problem was here.
When I shot a look at Lily, I could see she was just as confused, but she shrugged, evidently unsure where Steel’s irritation came from. She knew Steel and the rest of the brothers as much as I did—not a lot. Considering Donavan was an enemy of the MC, maybe it made sense that they’d kept her at arm’s length until Link had outright claimed her as his. While this wasn’t my first party like it was hers, it was the first time I’d been here as Sin’s woman, and it figured that I’d be making a shitty impression from the get-go.
Steel’s cut declared him as the Secretary, and that he was on the council told me he had clout here.
I.e., I shouldn’t piss him off.
Seemed that memo had hit my brain a little too late to be of use to me.
I cleared my throat. “There’s bologna in the fridge.”
He scowled. “Huh?”
“There’s bologna. In the fridge. I want it.”
“So? Eat it.”
Lily snorted. “She’s vegetarian.”
He blinked. “Oh.” Then his gaze drifted to my stomach, and he grinned a little, with none of that smugness that made me want to punch him in the face. “Can’t believe Sin’s going to be a dad.”
“No? How come?” These guys all did enough of what it took to get someone in the frickin’ family way, that was for sure.
“Said he’d never put a kid through what he’d been through.”
I tensed. “What did he go through?”
He eyed me warily, and I knew he was measuring his words. “Ma didn’t feed him half the time. When he showed up here, he was half scrawny and half stacked.”
My brow puckered. “Why?”
“Used to fight for food.”
Was this guy the king of one-liners or something?
“He used to fight for food?” I repeated, feeling like he was speaking to me in Mandarin.
Steel shrugged. “He was poor. Did what he had to in order to survive.”
Lily’s hand grabbed mine, and as she squeezed, I felt like my heart was doing the same.
God, Sin’s childhood had been far worse than I’d expected.
That I’d been blessed was a given, and in the face of Lily’s treatment, I knew it had nothing to do with wealth and everything to do with love, making me so goddamn grateful for my parents.
Even as pain for the loss of my dad hit me, even as pity filled me for my man, even as the need to make up for his past hit me square in the soul, he appeared, rounding the corner, his gaze darting left and right like he was looking for me. Link was behind him, and as he homed in on Lily, Sin moved toward me.
When he eyed Steel, who was back to eating the yogurt, he arched a brow at me. “All good?”
I nodded, even though it was a lie. “Yep, all good.”
Steel’s glance my way was knowing, but I ignored it and him, and turned into Sin, who looped his arms around my waist.
“It get too hot in there for you?” Link questioned me, surprising me because he didn’t speak to me that much.
I wasn’t sure if that was some unspoken rule or something. Sin barely spoke to Lily either. That would have to change if that was the case though. Lily was my best friend, so that meant Sin and Link were about to spend a ton of time together.
“Yeah, and I started getting hungry.”
Sin hummed. “You get eating then,” he directed, moving away to snag me a spoon from the dishwasher. As I popped the lid on my yogurt, I listened to Link ask Lily, “You doing okay, sugar tits?”
I rolled my eyes at the endearment, even though I saw the little sparkle in Lily’s gaze from it.
She needed someone like him. Somehow raw and crude, but warm and open, giving. Someone who’d be patient, and someone who knew what he had and was appreciative of it.
“It’s a little more sexual than I expected,” she answered with a small laugh. “But it’s all good.”
I snickered at that when she shot me a look. “You mean you didn’t expect grown ass women to drop to their knees when a brother snapped their fingers?”
Lily pulled a face. “No, it did come as a shock.”
“So why were you giving me shit about it?” I complained.
“Because whether I like it or not, they’re going to keep on doing it, and I want—”
When she broke off, her cheeks turning pink, Link pressed, “Want what, love?”
“The brothers to like me,” she admitted sheepishly, hunching her shoulder at the confession.
Though it was slightly to take the attention off her, just as I’d been doing since high school, it was also the truth as I stated, “I don’t care if the brothers don’t like me.”
Sin snorted out a laugh. “That doesn’t surprise me.”
Steel arched a brow. “You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.”
“How apt that you consider yourself a fly,” I retorted sweetly, grinning at him when he rolled his eyes. “I don’t care if you don’t like me, because I am who I am,” I clarified. “And Lily, you rock. If they don’t like you, then tough shit. I like you, Link likes you, and Sin likes you. That’s all that matters.”
Her lips twisted in a smile, but I saw, deep in her eyes, that she liked my words. “Thanks, Tiff.”
I winked at her. “Got your back, babe. Always.”
When Sin pulled me into his arms, I went with ease.
“You got mine?” he rasped, his tone deep. Soul deep.
With as much ease as I’d fallen into his hold, I stared up at him, my heart in my eyes, and told him the truth.
“Always.”
Ten
Sin
“What the hell are you doing?” Tiff squeaked as I opened the door, then, after closing it, I leaned back against it.
I shrugged. “Keeping you company.”
She scowled at me as she scooted her knees close together. “Pissing into a cup isn’t something you need company for.”
That had me snickering, but I kept staring straight ahead. “You been in here long enough that I was starting to think you’d jumped out of the window.”
“I can’t pee on command.” She winced. “I’d ask you to do it, but that would defeat the purpose.”
“Yeah, just a little,” I told her, amused as fuck. “I didn’t know you were a nervous pisser.”
“
I’m not.”
“Well, the fact you’ve been in here twenty fucking minutes says otherwise, babe.”
“It hasn’t been that long, has it?” I turned to look at her just in time to see her eyes widen with horror. “No, it can’t have been.”
“It has.” I tipped my chin to the side. “You doing okay, angel?”
She blinked at me. “Of course.”
“Nervous about the baby?”
“Maybe.” She crinkled her nose. “This just makes it all real.”
“Was real before,” I pointed out softly. “This isn’t going to change things.”
“Just feels more formal, I guess.” Tiff huffed out a sigh. “I know it’s silly.”
“We’re all entitled to be that when we’re growing humans.”
“Do it on the regular, do you?” she teased, making me grin at her. We shared it for a second, the spark of lightning that always pinged between us starting to sputter into being, even if she was sitting on a toilet in a doctor’s clinic.
“Yeah, I make it a habit,” I teased back, my lips gently sloping back into a soft smile. “I’d pee for you if I could. Just don’t think the doctor would be interested in what my hormones had to say.”
“Shame.” She heaved another sigh. “I should have drunk more this morning.”
“You drank a lot of tea,” I reminded her.
“Should have drunk double that. Maybe I wouldn’t be having issues now.” She bowed her shoulders, hunching over as she stared at her feet. “Never thought of myself as a mom.”
“Never thought of myself as a dad.”
“I could see you as a dad,” she murmured, her gaze still on her feet. “You’re very affectionate.” Her cheeks blossomed with heat as she peeked up at me. “You always make me feel loved.” She ducked her head again. “Protected.”
“You’ll always be safe with me.”
“I know.” Her lips twisted. “That’s what makes this craziness bearable. Never saw myself as a mom until you. Now it’s happening, but it’s just…it’s going to be really soon, isn’t it?”
Forgotten & Found: A Dark & Dirty Sinners' MC Boxset Page 77