She took in a deep wavering breath, her eyes pointed at her glass. "This shit with Ryley and Dare is wrong, Gus. So fucking wrong."
The glass that had been lifted to his mouth stopped as he heard her words. "Not your affair, Dee."
"I know that," she mumbled, a trace of pink coloring her cheeks as she took a slow sip of her glass. "But someone needs to talk this shit through with you and it appears I'm the only one with the balls to do it."
"Don't wanna hear it," he said, taking his own deep swallow.
"Yeah? Well, you're gonna," she promised, setting her tumbler on the table after using her forearm to push aside a tower of pizza boxes in order to find the space to do so. She seemed to consider her words before she next spoke. "What would Maggie say?"
What the fuck?
How dare she bring up Maggie! Maggie had been his wife, the mother of his children and the woman he'd adored!
"What would she have to say about how you've threatened Ryley with excommunication not only from your family but from HMC?" Dee's voice was hard in the silence of the room, giving Gus no opportunity to concentrate on anything but on what she was saying. "Do you honestly believe Maggie would allow you to forsake your daughter all because she's fallen in love and wants a future with a good man, a solid and successful man like Dare?"
"But she's…" he blustered but was cut off.
"Maggie was my best friend, Gus. I probably know more about the doings between the two of you than most so I can say this without guilt. Maggie would've hated you for this," she proclaimed firmly. "If Dare is Ryley's choice, who the fuck are you to deny her?"
"He's a no account asshole who's just trying…" he started, but was again interrupted by the palm that Dee held up.
She stared at him and Gus almost felt Dee's eyes as they searched his face.
"What if Buddy had held the same opinion of you, Gus? Hmm? What if Buddy had said that Maggie was off-limits and couldn't be yours? What would you have done, then?"
He couldn't say a goddamn word, knowing that his voice would give him away. If Maggie's dad, Buddy, hadn't approved of the two of them then Gus would've just taken her. That’s how much he'd wanted the dark-haired, bright blue-eyed beauty tied to him. Had fucking needed her by his side. "This is different," he rumbled, finishing the last bit in the glass and standing in order to get a refill.
"No. It ain't," Dee announced firmly, up-ending her own tumbler and following him to the vanity area. "It's the fucking same, Gus."
He glanced at her in the mirror as he refilled their glasses and saw that her jaw was set as if in resolution. "Maggie would be screaming at you now, Gus, for the shit you're trying to pull."
The neck of the bottle of Patron clicked against the edge of the tumbler he was refilling as her words hit. But they didn't stop and he winced with each one.
"You don't get to tell your kids who they love, big guy," she announced. "Mags knew that which is why you had to hide Dare's letters and not tell even her that he'd called. That she went to her grave not knowing you were making a play at keeping Dare and Ryley apart."
Fuck!
"So what are you saying, Dee? That I've gotta just accept that my daughter wants a no-account, shiftless, orphaned Hellion who probably doesn't have two-cents to rub together?" he shouted, fed up and more than willing to let the woman know.
Dee rolled her eyes as she shook her head. "Damn, Gus. You are absolutely clueless, aren't cha? Dare is not of no-account, hardly shiftless and even though he may not have a biological family anymore, he has one helluva Hellion family now." She snagged the glass off the countertop and viewed the big, graying biker over the rim of her drink. "And he loves Ryley more than his own breath. How're you gonna fight against that kind of love, stud?"
He stared at the other woman's reflection as his mind raced. There had to be a way to argue, to prevent what was happening. But he couldn't come up with a single thing. Especially not since Dee had mentioned how his Maggie would've reacted at his recent actions, the restrictions he'd tried to impose.
Maggie, he knew with absolute certainty, would've ripped him a new asshole in threatening to toss Ryley out of the family based on nothing more than her choice of partner.
As if knowing that his stance had wavered, Dee pressed on. "He's a good guy. But even if he wasn't, he's Ryley's choice and you and Mags didn't raise your kids to make stupid decisions."
"I don't like him," Gus said fervently, tossing the two fingers of Tequila back as if they were water.
"You don't have to," Dee said, her voice softer as she took the half-step to get closer to him. Her hand moved to stroke his shirt between his shoulder blades even as her head tilted to rest on his shoulder. "All you've got to do is support your girl. In whatever choice she makes."
He sighed deeply, feeling the woman's hands on him providing comfort. "So it's as fucking easy as that, is it?"
Gus caught the small smile she wore in her reflection before his arm looped around her waist to turn her body into his. She buried her head against his chest before he heard her speak again.
"It's never easy, stud. You know better than that. But you don't have to be the bad guy in the scenario."
Chapter Thirty Two
Dare steered his bike to his apartment just as I'd guessed but was up and off, racing to the stairs before I'd even had a chance to lift my leg over his big machine.
"Ryley! C'mon, girl!" he yelled over the sounds of his boots on the wooden staircase. He was acting like the hounds of hell were at our heels but I couldn't see what the hurry was about. He'd made his choice (me) and we were going to (finally) be together.
Once the decision had been made, there wasn't a need for urgency. At least not in my mind. So I followed him at a sedate pace, watching my feet as they lifted up on each tread. When I reached the top, I went through the still open front door and calmly placed my purse on the small bar. I could hear him rummaging through things back in his bedroom as he mumbled.
"Where are my fuckin' suitcases?" he bellowed. It had to be a rhetorical question because I hadn't a clue where he kept dick-all. Instead, I took the time to study his environs, something I hadn't had the opportunity to do the last couple of times I'd been there. Nice dark brown sectional leather sofa that I'd learned from experience was very comfortable and more than accommodated his big frame. A massive television was affixed to the far wall. A square wooden coffee table devoid of anything other than a multi-buttoned remote and a stack of motorcycle magazines. Dare didn't have a whole lot in the way of decorations to brighten the small living room. A few things on the walls and a couple of pictures in frames on the side tables was all he had.
I went to them to better see what my man thought was important enough to display. One table held a small picture of two little boys with their arms around each other, beaming at the camera but the poor picture looked like it'd been put through the wringer. I could see the white areas where the picture had been folded into quarters, the edges dark as if someone had handled the photo a lot.
There was one of him with his council brothers in front of their rides that I was guessing had been taken within the last couple years and another of him hanging upside down from a thick tree branch by his knees as he laughed. Those were the only other pictures I spied in the room.
The rest of it, though, was nothing but Harley stuff hanging on the walls. Dare'd even framed his 'recruit' patch, something that gave me goosebumps at the realization of how much it meant to him. A person didn't frame something that was of no importance.
"They're probably in the garage," he said as he swiftly strode to the front door.
I wandered into the small kitchen and helped myself to a water bottle from the 'fridge, watching as Dare stormed back through, angling himself and more than a couple of suitcases down the hall. I followed but at a more sedate pace and with a lot less banging into the walls.
He had one of the suitcases opened on the bed as he moved between the closet and the chest of drawers. I plante
d myself next to the travel bag he was filling, trying to think of words that might calm his ass down. But I wasn't coming up with much and decided to just start talking.
"It appears you're a man on a mission." Boy did he ever, not even glancing my way when I spoke.
"What's the hurry, cowboy?" I asked, my eyes following him from closet to case.
"We just need to get fuckin' gone, sugar. I've had enough of this shit and the sooner we leave, the sooner it will all be over," he mumbled, moving back to the chest of drawers and pulling out a stack of t-shirts.
"And what shit is that? The shit of my pops? Or the shit of you thinking you're gonna leave the Hellions?" I found I'd tilted my head as my mind tried to make sense of his explanation, his actions and his attitude.
"All of it," he pronounced, zipping up the full bag which he placed on the carpeted floor before grabbing the next one.
I placed my hand on his arm in order to get his attention. "Need you to stop for a second, Dare, and talk to me." He gave me his eyes before he stood, placing his hands on his hips.
"Think we've already talked the fuck out of everything, Ryley. So now it's just you and me and wherever the fuckin' road takes us."
I took in his words and the oh-so-serious look on his face before I burst out laughing. Which earned me a deep scowl before he widened his stance and crossed his big arms on his massive chest. "What the fuck is so funny?"
I was laughing so hard, I couldn't breathe, much less talk and found myself curled down to my knees in my mirth. When I finally was able to answer him, I only had enough breath for a one word answer before my chuckles returned. "You!"
"Me?" There was a huge measure of disbelief in his voice. "You're fuckin' laughing at me?"
I could only nod but I did it hard enough to ensure he'd be able to see it.
"Seriously uncool, sugar," I heard him sigh as I tried to get a grip on my laughter. He was already on edge and I didn't want that to slip into the pissed-off arena. So I held up my hand, silently asking him to give me a moment.
Which, to his credit, he did.
"If you'd done this ten years ago, I would've been over the moon," I explained, trying to keep my voice steady. "The rush to turn our backs on our lives and just…how did you put it? Go wherever the fuckin' road takes us. But that's a little…too dramatic for us now, don't you think?"
He didn't answer except to use a hand to drag over his mustache.
"You know I love you, Dare," I said in a softer voice. "And I want to spend my life with you. But, the Hellions are your life and have been since you were what? Sixteen?"
"Fourteen," he corrected.
"Okay, fourteen then. A long-assed time no matter which way you look at it." I conceded the point. "Long enough for you to have grown roots, made them your family. So I'm wondering how long it would take before you started to resent me for dragging you away from the club and all you've built in Missoula?"
"And that's what was so fuckin' funny?"
"No. That wasn't what made me laugh," I couldn't help my smile. "It was at your determination, the sheer we-gotta-get-gone-right-the-fuck-now thingie you had going. So fierce, cowboy while you were jamming your boxers inside your suitcase." I looked at the bag sitting next to me on the bed and found my smile got bigger. "You never do anything half-assed, do you?"
I caught the edges of his mouth as he held back his own smile and gave a shrug. "You know me, Ryley. Go big or go home."
"Words to live by," I said with a laugh. "So, I'm thinking that instead of running around like a couple of headless chickens, we figure out how this is going to go down."
I knew the worst of it was over when he moved the suitcase off the bed and sat next to me on the mattress. "What are you saying? I fuckin' turned in my cut, which means I'll probably have to get another job…"
"From what I heard, Trey has your vest and you know he won't let you leave your club," I reminded him with a bump of my shoulder. "So you're still a Hellion and you still have the job I know you love."
Almost unconsciously, Dare picked up my hand and used his thumb to stroke my knuckles. I could almost taste the relief he was feeling and was glad I was able to assure him that his life, a life he'd built for himself, wasn't over. "So what's the fuckin' plan, gorgeous?"
"I'll relocate here to Missoula. I'm only renting and my directorship at Haven is up in a couple of months, which I think I can end earlier." My stomach was full of butterflies as I talked through what I'd been chewing over since Dee had suggested it. "Was thinking I might look into setting up another Honey Haven here in Montana."
His brown eyes came up from where he'd been studying our hands to look deeply into mine. "You'd do that? Move here to be with me?"
"In a fucking heartbeat, cowboy," I breathed, leaning towards him. He met me more than halfway and pressed his mouth to mine gently, almost reverently. "I think it's customary for married people to live together."
"Thank Christ!" he murmured before angling his face to kiss me more thoroughly. Just as I felt him press me back so we could lay down, he stopped.
"What about your old man, though?" he asked frowning.
"What about him? He's the one with the issue, not us." I'd already decided how we were gonna handle my pops. "As I see it, he needs to decide if he wants to be a part of our lives or not and to do so, he's gonna have to respect my husband. He doesn't have to like you, but he sure as shit has to respect you."
Dare's frown immediately morphed into a blindingly bright, delighted smile. "I like the way you said that, sugar."
"Well, it's true! I can't have him picking a fight with you every holiday…" I started before he cut me off.
"No, not the shit about your dad," he said with a embarrassed chuckle. "The other thing."
I did a mental rewind, trying to see what had pleased him so much but couldn't put my finger on it so I went a different direction. "You have the attention span of a gnat!"
"He'd have to respect your what?" he urged, ignoring my not-so-subtle taunt.
Oh, so that was what it was! "My husband." I enunciated the word carefully, drawing it out and watched Dare's eyes flare. "Mi espousa. My man. My mate. My husband."
He completed the move of pushing my back into the bed before draping himself over me. "I love the sound of that word on your lips, Ryley," he growled with his forehead against mine as his lips hovered. "But I'd fuckin' love to hear it when I'm buried inside your sweet pink."
"God, I hate that expression," I moaned, partly from the feel of him pressed against me and from his awful phrasing. "If you want to turn me on, cowboy, you gotta do better than that."
"I've got more but they're even worse, sugar," he warned, his mouth now next to my ear as one of his hands moved up my side, stopping only to cup the bottom swell of my breast. His errant thumb began a slow swipe over my suddenly plumped-in-anticipation nipple.
"Like what?" and again my words were given on what I knew was a groan.
He chuckled softly before whispering. "My hard cock inside your creamy cunt. Screwing your slick pussy short and shallow, my throbbing dick just waiting to hear you beg for more. Or even fucking myself into all your wet tightness so deep and hard, you start screaming my name as you grip and release my prick before losing complete control."
Oh, shit. He was right, those words were worse. But in absolutely the hottest way! Or was the heat from the way he'd insinuated himself between my legs, rubbing his erection against the most perfect spot as his thumb continued his assault of my now-ready-to-cut-glass breast peak while he whispered to me?
"You like that?" he asked, pulling up to look in my eyes. I realized my hips had been meeting his stroke for stroke as he'd spoken and I must've given myself away with another groan.
"Yeah. It was a'ight," I muttered, trying to sound unconcerned and breezy but failing in that attempt. "Good, but still not quite what I need." It was, freely admitted, an out and out lie.
Dare's mouth was again on mine, devouring me as our tongues d
anced and rolled even as our hips moved together. He shifted and pushed both my top and my bra out of the way in order to have a clear field for the ministrations he was showering on my bared breasts.
"Fucking turned myself on," he confessed before his tongue found a nipple and began circling it. "Even if it didn't do much for you."
I yanked at his t-shirt and he released me so he could pull it the rest of the way off. Before it had even cleared his head, my hands were roaming. Sliding up over and around all of his deliciously defined muscles.
"Toe your boots off, baby," he advised, moving off me so I could bring my legs close enough to follow his instructions. From his actions, I could feel he was removing his own footwear as well.
"You want me to take off my pants, too?" I asked, reaching for the button of my jeans.
"Fuck, no!" he shot back. "That's for me to do." He grinned into my face, his eyes hooded. "It's like fuckin' unwrapping a present, sugar. The best present in my life."
And my body's response to what he said let me know that it had been the perfect thing to tell me, given at the most perfect time.
"I love you, Dare," I repeated and felt him stop all movement.
"Can't remember ever loving anybody but you, Ryley," came his reply before he divested both of us of the rest of our clothing and did exactly as he said he'd do.
He teased me moving both shallow and slow, making me beg for more.
Then he changed it to hard and deep, causing me to clench and grip as I screamed his name when I hit it.
I counted it as a good thing when I realized he was still deep inside me and I remembered what he'd said he wanted. So I pressed my mouth to his ear, trying to get my breathing under control. At least enough so I could whisper one word.
"Husband."
Chapter Thirty Three
"I think that's the last of it, cowboy!" he heard her call from deep within the bowels of the tiny house. Telling him something he already knew.
They'd used their honeymoon to go to Spokane and clear out her place. He and a handful of the Spokane brothers had just spent the last four hours loading all her furniture and a shitload of boxes onto a Hellion Construction truck, arranging it all so they could fit her motorcycle in as well.
Taking a Dare Page 25