by Deja Voss
“It’ll be a lot easier for you to keep an eye on me if I’m under your roof, huh?” I laugh.
“Listen, maybe this is just the alcohol talking, but I don’t hate you and Gavin together. The more I think about it, the more it makes sense. I really put him through the ringer the past couple months and he hasn’t even so much as looked at another woman. Lord knows they’ve tried.”
“I don’t blame them one bit.”
“You like him, don’t you?”
“It’s funny. All this time I thought I just liked the idea of him. I thought I was just going to have some nasty one-night stand with a dirty biker and we both head our separate ways.”
“He’s not like that.”
“No, he’s…” I can only think of one word to describe the last twenty-four hours. “Intense.”
“That man really likes you, Sloan.”
“No. He likes the idea of me. He doesn’t even know me.”
“You haven’t told him anything, have you?”
“I didn’t think I was going to need to. This wasn’t part of the plan.” I sigh into the empty tub of ice cream, scraping the edges with a tortilla chip.
“We don’t have the luxury of a plan here. That’s the difference between my world and your world. You have to be ready for anything. Any time.”
I think about the hail of bullets earlier today, how my first thought was how sad it was that I didn’t even tell Gavin goodbye, that our last moments together would’ve been on bad terms.
“Honestly, though, do you really think we could make this work? His dad seems to really hate me.”
“Old Moses hates everyone on the outside. The only reason he likes me is because I make them lots of money.” She shrugs. “You really do need to talk to Gavin about your shit though before there’s any sort of misunderstanding. Better he hears the real story from you before he gets a backwards version of it from someone else. You see how these people interact with the law.”
I laugh. “Or you, speed racer. What the hell are you gonna do when you have to go back into town? The cops have your license plate number, I’m sure.”
“That’s what I bought these for,” she says, grabbing her boobs.
“You’re shameless, Ollie.”
I don’t know why, but I feel closer to this girl than I have in a long time. We don’t get to spend as much time together as we used to anymore, and something about being able to goof around with her makes me feel almost normal, a feeling that’s damn near impossible for me to wrap my brain around.
“I love seeing you happy,” she says. “It’s been so long.”
“How can you tell I’m happy?” I ask her.
She rolls over and wraps her arms around me and begins snoring softly right in my ear. Not exactly the cuddle buddy I wanted, but she’ll suffice. I’m grinning from ear to ear. She’s right. I’m happy.
Chapter 20
Gavin
“What the hell, man? You have two hot chicks in your bed and this is where you decide to fall asleep?” Heat says,
“God, I need to get that house finished up so I don’t have to wake up to your face ever again,” I groan.
“Make that one hot chick in your bed,” Olive says as she drops my keys on my chest. She’s made up immaculately, her blonde hair in bouncy ringlets that sit right above her shoulders. For as much as she drank last night, I’m impressed by her ability to bounce back so quickly. “I’m gonna go downtown and open the bar up.”
I sit up on the couch and my back aches. I probably would’ve been better off on my bedroom floor.
“I don’t think that’s a great idea, Olive. After yesterday?”
“I’m taking the scare pair with me.” She points over her shoulder to Red and Tank, our enforcers, and although it makes me feel a little better, I’m not a hundred percent convinced. Those two definitely have the muscle, but she seems to turn them both into rambling idiots. I have no idea what’s actually going on between the three of them, but I have a sneaking suspicion our sweet Ollie might be a little bit of a freak. “I borrowed some prospects to clean up the parking lot. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Thank you. You want me to come down too?”
“No,” she says matter-of-factly. She walks over to the coffee pot and fills up her travel mug before dumping in six packs of sugar. “I want you to go downstairs and show that woman the best day of her life.”
I laugh.
“What’s that all about? You have a change of heart all of a sudden? You realize she’s a grown woman who can make her own decisions?”
“No, I just realized that you aren’t the worst thing that ever happened to her.”
“Well that’s reassuring.”
“Don’t make me change my mind.”
She screws the top on her coffee cup and heads for the door, Tank and Red hot on her heels.
“So what are you gonna do?” Heat asks.
I know exactly what I’m going to do. Something that I’ve wanted to do since I met her. Something that no girl has ever seen before.
“I’m taking her out to the farmhouse.”
“No shit?” he quips, raising his eyebrows. “It’s gonna be like that, huh?”
“I hope so. You think you can keep Moses out of my ass for the day?”
“I have a feeling he’s gonna need to sleep for the next twenty-four hours to recover from last night.”
I stand up and make my way to the coffee pot on the bar. The place looks pretty rough, but nothing beyond the usual. I passed out in the midst of the chaos, and judging by the bodies strewn on the pool table, in the booths, and on the floor, I’m guessing I wasn’t the only one.
Heat claims my spot on the couch, sprawling out with an emphatic groan.
“You better not fuck this up,” he warns from behind closed eyes. “She’s a good woman, Gavin.”
Coming from anyone else, I might not take it so seriously, but there’s a reason why Heat is our club chaplain. Matters of the heart are his wheelhouse. He lost his wife years ago to cancer and has kind of floundered ever since, but if anyone understands true love, it’s him.
“You think so?” I ask.
“I know so. You want to make it work, you better be willing to prove to her that you’re just as good of a man.”
I don’t know if I can. But I’m sure as hell going to try. Within seconds, he’s snoring loudly, the wheeze in his lungs sounding like something awful. I inch my way around the mess of bodies and broken glass and head to the basement to try and make good on my side of the bargain.
Sloan
I hear the heavy steel door squeak open as I stand in the bathroom mirror, doing my best to salvage whatever I can from Olive’s emergency overnight bag to make my face a little more presentable.
I admit, I look pretty hot in her zip-up denim dress compared to my usual attire. She fills it out a little better than I do, I think.
I hear the springs of the mattress squeal.
“What are you doing in there?” Gavin shouts.
“Putting on some makeup.”
“You know you don’t need that shit,” he says.
“Well I wanted to be pretty for you and I’m fresh out of blood and gravel.” I stand in the doorway smiling, taking in his glorious body.
“The fuck is this?” he asks, pulling a spoon out from under his back.
“Sorry,” I say. “Ollie and I got a little wild last night while you were out.”
I straddle his lap and he wraps his arms around me, running his hands up the back of my thighs, lifting my skirt a little.
“You ate all my ice cream, didn’t you?” His dark eyes have a mischievous squint to them, and the way he’s trying to look pissed off is so sexy.
“I even put the empty container back in the freezer for ya.”
He laughs, rolling me over on my back, kissing me on the lips, and I’m already turned on by his touch. So much for getting dressed. I reach for his shirt and he pins my arms down to my sides, unrelenting with his kisses.
“Not so fast, wild woman,” he teases. “We’re going on a field trip.”
“Oh come on,” I whine. “Can’t we just spend the day in bed?”
He brushes his hand down the small of my back, cupping my denim covered ass, and I squeal.
“Let’s go,” he says, standing up, gazing over my body as I pout. “I promise we’ll take care of you soon. I just want to get out of here before the place starts waking up for the day.”
“You don’t want me around your friends or something?” I ask.
“No, they’re a bunch of a fucking perverts.”
“And what does that make you?” I giggle.
He shakes his head at me and purses his lips.
“Just you wait, Sloan.”
I sit up on the edge of the bed and watch him as he strips down, his glorious muscular body not doing any favors for my current condition. He changes into a fresh black t-shirt and some tight jeans, worn and ripped in all the right places, and I realize it doesn’t matter if this man is clothed or naked. He’s just plain hot.
“Where are we going? Am I appropriately dressed?”
“You can wear whatever you want. Once we get there, though, I expect it to be a lot less than what you currently have on.” He picks me up off the bed and unzips the top of my dress just a little bit, planting a wet kiss on the top of my breast.
“Oh yeah?” I moan, a shiver running down my spine.
“Come on,” he says. He grabs me by the hand and leads me up the steps and into the barroom. I’m a little disgusted by what I’m seeing. There are girls in various states of undress sleeping on the floor and furniture, and the air reeks of stale beer and cigar smoke.
“Is this what you were doing last night?” I ask, genuinely hurt by the fact that he picked this over me. I have to watch where I’m walking, as broken glass is strewn across the hardwood floor.
“No, actually. We had a meeting that ran late. I didn’t want to wake you guys up so I just slept on that couch.”
He motions to a green couch in the corner of the room where Heat is passed out, his bandana covering his eyes.
“Cuddled up with Heat?”
“Yeah, is that weird?” he asks, his face completely serious before cracking up. “Old guy had a rough night. I think everyone did.”
“Well I slept wonderfully,” I tell him.
“Even after a half gallon of ice cream?”
“I’ll get you more, you big baby.”
We try to navigate our way around the room without stepping on people or puddles or any other incidentals laying on the floor and out into the morning sunshine. It’s one of those confusing eighty degree September days in Pennsylvania, where you can’t quite decide how to dress because you know at some point it will probably snow. Regardless, I don’t think I’ll have a problem keeping warm. Between the way he makes my blood pump to his big strong arms he can’t keep off my body, I feel like I’m in a constant state of having a hot flash.
We walk past the shed where I patched up Clutch yesterday and a tall man with long blonde hair is backing out of the doorway, a garden hose in his hand, spraying down the floor.
“Hey!” Gavin shouts. “How’s it looking.”
“Meh,” he says. “I’ll get some prospects to deep clean ’er down later.”
The man turns to me. Blue eyes, cut jaw, incredibly handsome and obviously bearded, I recognize him from the chaos down below yesterday, but I’ve yet to meet him. I’m more concerned with why Olive hasn’t snatched this guy up for her own, yet. He is definitely not hard on the eyes.
“Oh hey, girl,” he says. “It’s nice to finally meet you.” He pulls me in for a hug. “He might pull that alpha caveman bullshit around the other guys, but I’m allowed.”
“That’s because you’re so repulsive the only way a woman will touch you is if she’s giving you a pity hug.”
“You guys sure are nice to each other,” I say, rolling my eyes.
“It’s kind of our thing. Been best friends since before we could grow a beard,” Gavin says.
“What are you guys getting into today?” he asks.
“Heading up to the house,” Gavin says.
“Oh, nice. That’s actually not a horrible idea. Maybe some of her smarts are rubbing off on you. Too bad it doesn’t work the same way with looks, you ugly fucker.”
“Your mom doesn’t seem to feel that way. Can you please tell her to stop calling me?”
“Get out of here,” he says, patting Gavin on the back. “If he does anything to irritate you my house is right down that road.” He points over his shoulder.
“Yeah, it’s the one full of real sex dolls. It’s creepy as fuck. You can’t miss it.”
“Bye, Brooks,” I say. “It was nice meeting you.”
I like the fact that Gavin has good friends and he’s willing to bring me around them. It’s so different than the way ,Arthur always kept me tucked away from everyone and everything in his life.
We walk to the garage, full of motorcycles lined up neatly in a row. He hands me a helmet.
“So where are we going?” I ask him. It’s such a gorgeous day outside, I don’t really care. Just getting to spend some time wrapped around him without worrying about the drama and chaos that has been the last few is going to be nice. I smooth my hair and put the helmet on.
“You’ll see,” he says, popping the kickstand. “Hop on, gorgeous.”
Chapter 21
Gavin
I don’t know why, but I’m nervous as hell right now. She’s seen my good, she’s seen my darkest, but taking her out to the farmhouse is like showing her my soul.
It’s just a house. It started as a renovation project to keep my mind off of law school, keep me on the straight and narrow, pay my grandfather a little respect, but every wall I knocked down, every window I hung, every board I sanded brought me closer and closer to what I ultimately want for my life.
A home, some quiet from the chaos, a woman, a family. I feel like if she sees the place and hates it, it will probably be a deal breaker. It means she hates me too.
The way she has her arms wrapped around me, her cheek pressed into my shoulders as I slowly weave my way up the dirt road, trying to avoid low-hanging branches, it’s cute. It’s light. It’s nothing like last night. It’s like dark and dirty Gavin is out of my system.
Well, maybe dark.
Dirty is a different story.
Knowing her legs are spread around me, those perfect breasts resting on my back, it’s hard to contain the pressure in my pants. Fortunately we don’t have much further to go.
The gravel driveway leads right to the old farmhouse. I can’t believe how far it’s come since I started working on it, but it’s taking forever to get it in perfect living condition.
I park my bike and she hops off, ditching her helmet and shaking out her long brown hair. She’s so perfect, so sexy, and the way she’s pacing down the driveway, looking all around in amazement, has me feeling all warm inside.
“This place is beautiful,” she says. “Who lives here?”
“Nobody right now.” I stand behind her, wrapping my arms around her shoulders, hugging her close. “Me, soon, though.”
Me and you, I want to tell her.
I probably could be living here already if I really wanted to. I just have a little more flooring to lay, and then appliances and odds and ends, but for some reason it hasn’t felt right. Like there’s one critical piece missing to this place being my home.
“It used to be my grandfather’s house way back when. The clubhouse too. This is where it all started.”
“It’s so you,” she says. “I mean, your apartment is nice, but I just can’t picture you living underground in a glorified frat house bunker. No offense at all. It just seems like it doesn’t fit with the whole vibe of the club. You have this amazing mountain to yourselves. Why are you guys holed up like that?”
She gets it. She’s a complete outsider and even she can see my grandfathe
r’s vision.
“It’s mostly my old man’s paranoia. He likes to know what everyone’s doing at all times. He says it’s his way of keeping the club “safe” but it’s more a control thing. I never had to live in the mansion, but it was just convenient. You saw yesterday how things can go to shit real quick.”
“I didn’t see anything yesterday, Gavin, I swear,” she says, her voice timid and low. I turn her around to face me. I hadn’t really thought about what she must be feeling.
“You don’t have to say that. I’m sorry for what you saw yesterday, and I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you to talk about it. It’s just some shit I have to work on.”
She’s running her hands on my face, smiling up at me.
“Don’t be sorry.” She traces her fingers to my lips and I take them in my mouth, swirling them with my tongue until I notice that little arch in her back, the catch in her breath.
“Come on,” I say, taking her hand in mine. “I’ll give you the grand tour.”
“You’re sadistic.” She pouts.
“Maybe a little bit.” We walk up the steps to the giant front porch and I unlock the front door while she looks around wide-eyed, soaking it all in. As we step into the A-frame, the smell of cedar fills the air.
“Wow,” she whispers. “You did all this?”
“I had a lot of help.”
We couldn’t salvage most of the interior walls or flooring, so we took the wood, dried it, planed it, and used it on the exterior walls. The whole place is open concept now, with giant bay windows everywhere you look for a constant view of the woods that surround it.
“This is insane,” she says. She’s wandering around, touching everything, looking out every window.
“Still working on some of the flooring, and the bathroom is a little primitive yet. I need furniture too. And a woman’s touch to pull it all together.”
She laughs at me, shaking her head.
“So that’s why you brought me out here. For some free interior decorating advice? Joke’s on you, Gavin. I will touch you any way you want me to, but I don’t know anything about this kind of stuff.”