“I’m in town, I’m safe, and I still intend to meet you at the restaurant at six for dinner.”
She didn’t seem to understand the issue, and Bud said, “You’re looking at fucking houses, Nicole.”
“Right, because sometimes it takes longer to close than one might expect. I have plenty of time left at the condo, but it can’t hurt to go ahead and start looking in case this takes a while.”
“Without me. You’re looking at houses without me.” Fuck, why was she being so dense?
Her face reflected genuine surprise, and her vivid blue eyes opened wider despite her furrowed brows. “You wanted to come?”
“You don’t see us livin’ together at some point?”
“We’ve only been together seven weeks, Bud. We aren’t ready for that conversation yet!”
“Nearly two whole months, and we’ve lived and experienced more in those seven weeks than most folks do in a lifetime. You’re the woman for me. How long until you realize I’m the man for you?”
“I don’t know. A year or two?”
He shook his head. “That doesn’t work for me.”
“You think you’re going to live with me?”
“No, but I hoped you’d live with me.”
“Don’t be difficult.”
Bud’s wolf wanted to turn her over and belt her ass, but Bud didn’t trust himself to do it. The man and wolf were both pissed. One of them needed to calm down.
Bud turned, walked out the door, put his helmet on, and roared away. He needed to get away from her before he did something he’d regret.
When he was gone, Elizabeth came into view. “Wow. He didn’t know?”
“I’m buying the house, not him. He has his own house. Why should he need to know?”
“Our men need to be, you know, the man of the house. Doesn’t matter you haven’t been dating long. If he’s decided you’re his, he’ll want you with him and he’ll want to be the provider. My income pays for the extras, for the fun stuff, but Slash insists on providing the necessities.”
Nickie shook her head. “He’ll have to get over it. I don’t like this house as much as the one in Buckhead, but I like this area better.”
“I have more to show you in this area. You sure you want to keep looking without Bud?”
“Yes. Like I said, he’ll have to get over it. The caveman stuff only goes so far. I need a house before the lease on the condo runs out, so I’m going to buy one. I’ll never need anyone to take care of me, and Bud wouldn’t love me if he didn’t respect that about me.”
Two more viewings and Nickie found the exact house she wanted — and knew in her heart Bud would love it too. She hadn’t been looking for houses with him in mind, but now that she knew how he felt, she was happy to find one that met his needs as well as hers. This home was totally enclosed by a tall privacy fence, had a huge garage, lots of windows and outdoor living areas, a beautiful pool with a waterfall crashing into it, huge hardwood trees at the back of the property, and a small covered walkway to an office area. The current homeowners had it set up as a meditation and yoga room, but the original owner had used it as a home office. It had a small kitchenette with a full-sized refrigerator, an elegant little bathroom, and plenty of space in the actual office. It was perfect.
She called Bud. “I found the home I want to make an offer on. If you want to be part of this, you should come.”
“Text me the address and I’ll be there as quick as traffic allows.” His voice was tight, his words sharp. He was pissed, but Nickie hadn’t expected him to be friendly. They needed to talk, but she didn’t want to risk losing this house by waiting an extra day to make an offer.
“I’m less than ten miles from the clubhouse. See you soon.”
Not even a full minute later, Elizabeth’s phone signaled a text. “Slash says I need to make myself scarce when he gets here. I’ll go sit in my car. Let me know when you’re ready for me to come back in. It’s against the rules, but I know ya’ll won’t steal anything.” She looked at her phone again. “We have the place for another two hours before the homeowners are due in from work. If you want to place an offer, I’m going to recommend you back off about ten percent of the asking price, but I’ll run some numbers from the car and have an exact figure when you’re finished with Bud.”
Nickie felt the air pressure in the room change when Bud walked in. Elizabeth had left when they heard his bike, so Nickie was alone in the foyer.
“Let me show you around,” said Nickie. “I hope you love it as much as me.”
“No. We need to talk before I see the house. I left before because I didn’t trust myself to spank you, but that’s what’s about to happen.” He looked to the left, into the formal living room. “Pull your pants and panties down and bend over the piano bench.”
“No! I had no idea you were thinking of moving in together! You hadn’t brought it up and I wasn’t thinking we were even close to being ready after seven weeks! You can spank me for fun if you want, but I won’t bend over for a punishment spanking from you for this.”
Bud took four steps to her, lifted her over his shoulder, and the world turned upside down as he headed into the living room.
“Rosso! Dammit. No! Red! Rosso!”
He stopped walking. “Fuck. You can’t be serious.”
“Rosso! Put me the fuck down! We agreed you won’t punish me unless I agree I was in the wrong, and I wasn’t! I had no idea you’d already jumped to thoughts of us living together!”
Bud settled her gently on her feet, made sure she had her balance and turned for the front door.
“Don’t you dare leave until we’ve talked this through.”
He turned and crossed his arms. “Talk.”
“I’m sorry I hurt your feelings. I told you from the beginning — I don’t know what I’m doing, but as soon as I found the one I liked, I called you. If I’d have known how you felt from the beginning, I’d have told you before I started looking. I didn’t know, but that’s your fault for not telling me. Still, I’m genuinely sorry I hurt your feelings.”
“What if I don’t like this one? Would it matter? This is all your decision? Do I get to see the other options?”
“I’m paying for it.”
He sighed. “Shadow texted me as I arrived, says this one’s listed for a little over two million dollars, with payments of around ten grand a month if I finance it. I can easily handle half that, but my house is paid for and is worth more than a half million. I have assets I can sell worth another couple hundred grand.” He shrugged. “I should be able to handle the entire mortgage payment if it’s a house I want to live in bad enough.”
Nickie remembered Elizabeth’s advice, and heard the undercurrent of what Bud was saying. She didn’t want him buying a house she lived in, but she wasn’t opposed to them buying it together. She chose her words carefully. “If we buy it together, go in halves, how will that work? I was planning to buy it outright, and it would be awkward having you pay me any kind of monthly mortgage or rent or whatever.”
“You can put fifty percent down and I’ll handle the other fifty percent. I’ll pay it to the bank, not you.”
When she didn’t say anything, he sighed and turned to look out the window. “Look, my wolf wants to own whatever house we live in, but I get that you can afford something bigger than me, and I won’t expect you to downsize just for me if this is what you want. I’d struggled with how to handle it, but then had hopes I could buy a house you’d like when I saw your home in Pennsylvania. Why are you going bigger?” He looked around and finally met her gaze again, his green eyes troubled. Sad. “This is the mansion I assumed you had all along.”
He turned away from her again, towards the window, and she talked fast to try to assure him it was going to be okay — to let him know she was willing to take the scary fucking step of admitting she was planning her life around him being in it for a long-damned time.
“I figure I’ll be home more in the future, and I won’t be
selling it in a few years to move somewhere else. I’m putting down roots.” He still didn’t turn to face her so she walked around him, into his line of vision. “For the first time in my adult life, I feel like I’ve found home, and it’s because of you. I thought it was too soon to tell you, but I’m seeing now that perhaps it isn’t. You told me to let you know when I’d moved past thinking I loved you, and I’m there. I love you.”
“I love you, too.” He said it, but he stepped away from her to look out of a different window. “I felt as if I didn’t matter when I found out you were house hunting without telling me. Disenfranchised. Excluded. It hurt. Not just me, the wolf’s pissed and hurt, too.”
Damn. He’d done so much for her, the last thing she wanted to do was hurt him. She started to ask how she could make it right, but she knew. She knew.
Without saying a word, she unfastened her belt, unbuttoned and unzipped her dress pants, and let them slide to the hardwood floor. She slid her panties down until gravity took over and they hit the floor, and she stepped out of the fabric. Her heels clicked on the stone floor with every step towards the piano bench. With her stomach in her throat, she bent at the waist and settled her hands on the piano bench, her back arched and her bottom in the air.
“I’m sorry. Please make us right again.”
Instead of belting her, he walked to her and pulled her into his arms. “Later. Just offering yourself is enough, for now. If we buy this one, I don’t want our first memory here to be me punishing you. Let me help you get dressed so you can show me why you love this house.” He kissed her forehead. “Besides. You’re right. I didn’t tell you what was in my head so you had no way of knowing. We’re good, and I love you, too.”
This time, his eyes and body matched the words, and a wave of vertigo passed through every cell in her body. He held her tighter for a second, as if he knew, and with his wolf’s senses, he probably did. It passed quickly, and suddenly she wanted to show him the house she hoped they could begin sharing their life in.
“Good. We love each other and I went all girly. We’re in someone else’s house though, so let’s work on seeing if we want to make it ours. Help me get dressed, and then we’ll start with the six-car garage in the basement, in addition to the two-car garage by the kitchen on the main floor.”
36
Nickie had no idea where Bud was taking her, only that she was to pack an overnight bag, and they’d be on his bike.
He still liked to kid her about the seven damned suitcases, didn’t matter he’d seen her pack light several times since.
Still, it was hard to know what to take when she had no idea where they might go. She tossed in a little black dress and some cute black sandals, some shorts and tees, hiking boots, sport sandals, and some sexy lingerie. She’d wear jeans and her riding boots on the bike, so she’d have pants in case she needed them.
She considered how fast everything was moving on the ride. They had an appointment to close on their house in five days. Bud had put the word out to his brothers that his house was for sale, and three of them had basically kept outbidding the others until one came up with a number the others weren’t willing to top. The final number was a good bit more than the market price, but Bud had explained he’d thrown the bike lift in and would leave all the security measures in place, so even at that price, it was a good deal. He’d also told her there was an underground armory for all his guns and ammo, and let her know he’d need to build something similar in any new home.
Bud had easily qualified for a loan for nearly six hundred thousand dollars to make up the difference. She still had mixed feelings about him having to take out a loan for part of the house when she could easily buy the whole thing, but she understood why it was important to the caveman and the wolf. Nickie hadn’t lived in a home she hadn’t totally owned since she was in her twenties, but she was willing to make the change for Bud so they could each pay for half.
Based on the sun’s position in the sky, they appeared to be heading east away from the city. She had no idea where that might mean he was taking her. South Carolina? She didn’t know what was in Georgia or South Carolina heading this direction, and she couldn’t get her phone out and look while on the back of the bike.
An hour or so later and he pointed off to their left, and she inhaled sharply at a huge boulder showing above the trees. No, that wasn’t a boulder, it was a mountain-sized rock. She lost view of it for a while, and then it was on her right and they were driving around it. She saw cable cars passing each other as one went down and another went up, and her eyes were drawn to a huge carving on the side of the mountain. Horses, and men in uniform. What on earth?
Bud drove as far as the road allowed, went around a circle, and headed back the direction they came. She had another view of the mountain on the left as they covered the same bit of road. Five minutes later he pulled into a campground and told her he’d be back in a minute.
They were on his largest bike, with plenty of room to stow things, but her bag had gone into one of the side compartments and he hadn’t let her see into the big one behind her. Surely there wasn’t room for a tent in there? She hadn’t brought clothes for camping! Uggg.
He came out of the office with a smile, swung his bent leg to mount the bike again without kicking her, and they were off. Nickie grinned when he pulled in front of a yurt — he was taking her glamping! The best of both worlds.
She grabbed the key and ran to open the door while he got their things.
Inside was a bed and chairs you’d expect to see in an Amish store, a little futon for a sofa, and a cute kitchenette. It was quite large, at least twenty feet across and perhaps sixteen feet tall in the center, with the fabric draped above and going to straight sides with open latticework to support the eight-feet-tall walls in places. Windows could be unzipped, but there was obviously air conditioning because inside was twenty degrees cooler than outside.
Bud came in behind her and she threw her arms around his neck. “I love it!”
“Good. Let’s get settled and we’ll eat, there’s a wonderful restaurant with great views of the mountain just down the road, and then I want us to hike to the top in time to catch the sunset. There’s a kick-ass laser show after dark, but we can come back and catch it another time.”
“What is this place?”
“Stone Mountain.”
“And the carving?”
“Civil War stuff. The laser show kinda ties it all together — swords into plowshares so we can be one united country again, lots of patriotic images. We’ll be able to catch part of it if you want, but let’s figure that out after the hike.”
“Will shorts and hiking boots be okay for the restaurant?”
He rolled his eyes at her. “If you were going to need to dress up, I’d have warned you.”
She breathed out and shook her head, realizing he was right. Also, she caught the edge of some grumpiness and recognized the signs of hunger. Bud got grumpy when hungry, so she rushed to change clothes and shoes. Bud would wear his riding boots to hike, most likely, so she didn’t wonder at why he just sat and waited for her.
Any other time, he’d have christened the tent or yurt or whatever it was, but he was hungry, and food came first — but Nickie looked longingly at the sturdy table in the kitchenette and hoped she’d be bent over it later.
Some things you’re only supposed to have to do once in your life. Graduating high school, losing your virginity, proposing marriage.
Bud hadn’t thought he’d ever be doing this again when he asked Wendy to marry him at the base of a waterfall in the middle of nowhere, but here he was, fingering a ring in a little bag in his pocket and going over the wording in his head while trying to act as if his world hadn’t been turned upside down by a cute little spitfire of a woman who could take everything he gave her, and then some.
The hike up Stone Mountain isn’t difficult or especially steep, and the two cut up and joked as they walked the trail hand-in-hand. The sky was blue wi
th a few clouds in the distance, the solid hunk of granite under their feet vibrated with positive, clean energy, and Bud felt as if he were on top of the world.
Nickie turned in a circle when they reached the top, and pointed at the Atlanta skyline in the distance. “What a lovely place. It’s magic here, isn’t it?”
Bud pulled her into his arms and his heart reached out for Nickie’s. She was human, but she felt it too. Magic, energy, power. This was a true place of power, and it was where they were going to begin the rest of their life.
The sun backlit the distant clouds as it sank lower, and Bud took the brilliant, glowing spectacle as his cue. It was time.
He turned his brat towards him and looked into her brilliant, purple-blue eyes. “I know you think we haven’t known each other long, but I’ve been waiting to meet you for years. You’ve stolen my heart and my wolf’s, and I can’t imagine my world without you in it. Buying a house together is a start, but it isn’t enough. Nicolette Caroline Bell, would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
Tears threatened to spill over Nickie’s lower lashes, but she could only stare at Bud. The sky was lit up beautifully in the distance and they had the best view of a sunset she’d seen since her time in the Alps.
She couldn’t truly appreciate it though, because her brain was a whirlwind of chaos. Bud was standing before her with a ring in his hand and she needed to give him an answer.
A little voice in her head said if they’d been together a year she’d say yes in a heartbeat, so what difference did it matter they hadn’t known each other long? She was buying a house with him. Hadn’t she known this was the next step?
She’d never considered marrying anyone before. The idea of forever with anyone had made her sick to her stomach in the past, but the idea of losing Bud from her life had the same effect, now. Could she ever submit to anyone else? And would a mere whipping from some detached sadist who could barely Top her ever be enough again? It had been, but that’d been before Bud had shown her how magical it could be when someone could dominate her. Not just a Dom, but a loving, caring, wonderfully sadistic asshole Dom.
Bud (Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club Book 10) Page 31