Inked
Page 20
Then, he showed me again until we were both too exhausted to keep going.
“I need another drink,” Tamara announced.
“I’ll get it,” Braden offered, noticing mine was also low and took off for the bar.
“Damn right he will. I’m not serving anyone drinks tonight.”
I laughed, as did her date, Marjorie. It seemed Tamara had found someone who liked her sass the way Braden liked mine. I was thinking good things.
It was hard not to feel aglow with warm, happy thoughts at the moment, though. I looked around the room, spotting the bride on her new husband’s arm, her smile bright enough to be seen easily even from here.
Cassie looked stunning. When she’d come down the aisle, there was no doubt in my mind that she was absolutely what she wanted to be: the most breathtaking woman in the room. The way Jack had started tearing up, his hand covering what had to be his gaping open mouth, it was abundantly clear he knew it to be true.
Though Braden might disagree.
I’d gotten quite the reaction of my own when I’d finally emerged into the living room where I’d sequestered him earlier while I took over the bedroom and bathroom to get ready.
My dress, an emerald green A-line number with a black mesh overlay decorated with a black velvet floral pattern, looked incredible paired with the fake, black dahlia pinned in my hair and the black, elbow-length gloves I’d dug out of my collection. I’d even broken out a pair of seamed thigh-highs for that fetching little line up the back of each leg. I’d kept it simple on the shoes, opting for plain black suede heels.
All in all, the outfit packed a punch.
And from the look Braden gave me when I’d walked into the room, that punch had been right to the solar plexus.
“Jesus Christ, goddess. You really are trying to fucking kill me, aren’t you?”
His eyes kept moving over every inch of me, so I did a little turn to really show it all off.
“I told you I’d been successful finding a dress,” I reminded him.
“You also broke out a fucking baton and let me cuff you after that. I forgot about the implicit threat of turning me into a drooling idiot.”
I shrugged, checking I had everything I needed in my clutch for the day. When I looked up, he was stalking toward me, the predator awake in those eyes.
“Braden,” I warned. “We don’t have time for that.”
He caught my arm as I backed away. “Later,” he growled. “I’m taking off just that dress and fucking you in the rest of it.”
Well, who was I to argue with that?
Since we’d arrived, even while we’d been seated waiting for the ceremony to start, Braden had been incapable of keeping his hands to himself. Not that I wanted him to.
He also seemed to be taking great joy of walking around with me at his side, introducing me to all his fellow officers, though many of them had at least seen me the day Cade was captured. There was nothing but pride in the way he made those introductions, making me want to laugh at the fear I’d once had that he wouldn’t accept me as I was into his life. My man didn’t just accept me, he did exactly as he liked to say often: he worshipped me.
Though none of that kept me from being more than a little nervous at the prospect of meeting his parents, grandparents, and his brother, Elijah, in a couple weeks.
“So.” Tamara broke into my thoughts like she’d read them. “Going home to meet the family?”
Braden had mentioned that earlier, too busy talking about the trip home to notice me making big, panicked eyes at Tamara.
“That’s a first for me,” I admitted.
“And a last if he has anything to say about it,” she muttered.
Before Braden, a comment like that would have either freaked me out or set me laughing at the ridiculousness of the very idea. Now, I found it rather appealing.
“Oh, boy,” Marjorie—a sweet pixie of a blonde with a voice like a fairy princess—chimed in. “That face says he’s not the only one.”
I drained the last of my rum and Coke, choosing not to comment.
Tamara shook her head. “Avoid if you want, but you’ve already agreed to move in with him. You aren’t exactly playing coy.”
That was partly true. A few nights ago, Braden and I had hit Delilah’s with Liam, Kate, and Park in tow. There, I’d been ganged up on and all but forced to agree into moving in with Braden.
“You already sleep there every night. Your room hasn’t been touched except to grab shit from it in two weeks.” Park had thrown me right under the bus.
He wasn’t lying, though. Which was why I’d agreed that I would consider moving in with Braden. It wasn’t my fault everyone else took that as agreement. Now, I was holding out just to be difficult and they all knew it.
“I have not,” I argued, yet again. “I said maybe. If he keeps trying to go around me and get everyone else involved, he’ll be shit out of luck.”
I looked over, seeing Braden on his way back, balancing four glasses in his hands. God, he looked incredible in a suit. Though I did miss his tattoos under all those pesky clothes.
“Yeah,” Tamara scoffed. “That thirsty look makes you seem real convincing.”
Whatever. I flicked her the bird and took my drink a moment later when Braden offered it.
When he’d distributed the rest, he leaned in, lips right at my ear, and whispered, “Keep up that attitude, baby. You know how I like to fuck it out of you.”
Heat built in every part of me, desperate to have him live up to that promise. “You know I never run out,” I shot back.
“Damn right, I do.”
And I knew without a doubt that it was exactly how he liked it.
Epilogue
Braden
TWO MONTHS LATER
Jack and I were on foot, walking through the crowds of families on the closed road. Days of Hoffman was in full swing, and we’d volunteered to do a shift on patrol in the festival to keep an eye on things. So far, all had been calm. Some teens getting into shit that scattered at the first command from us, but otherwise, the event was going well.
We were reaching the end of the line, where Sailor’s Grave had their big joint set up with the other club businesses. Jess had been hard at work on it with Ember for weeks, not sharing any of that vision with me. Just yesterday they’d been here all day with half the club getting it all set up while I was on patrol, and she’d told me to go home once my shift ended rather than coming by to help.
“It’s not a secret,” she’d insisted. “I just want to see your reaction to the whole thing since you aren’t already involved.”
Which meant, as far as I was concerned, that she was going way over the top and wanted to see me surprised. My girl got off on shocking me in any way she could. Usually it was managing to look more fucking edible than I’d seen her before, but she found other ways on occasion.
“You find a ring yet?” Jack asked, playing with the one Cassie had given him on their wedding day, a habit he’d adopted quickly.
“No,” I griped.
I’d known it wouldn’t be easy to propose to Jess, though I’d thought that would be more so in preparing her for it without giving away the surprise. She might be all in with me, but that didn’t change the fact that she was a bit of a commitment-phobe by nature.
Instead, I’d found that the first hurdle of finding a ring that worked for her was harder than anything. Jess wasn’t a princess-cut solitaire type of girl. She lived every day in brilliant color, in a style all her own, and I’d be damned if I’d put a ring on her finger that was anything less than that.
Meanwhile, my mom and Grams had started inserting themselves into it, emailing me pictures of rings they were scouring the internet for in hopes of making Jess part of the family as soon as possible.
Unsurprisingly, Jess’s sass had won over the two of them in no time flat. Dad and Gramps had been sunk, too, being crazy enough to like that in a woman and passing it on to me. Even Elijah, who usually went
for sweet girls, seemed to enjoy that Jess would go toe-to-toe with him. So I had the pressure coming from all directions to make this permanent. As if I needed it.
I knew exactly what I had, and I was plenty motivated to make those vows.
If I could just find a fucking ring.
“Cassie’s been looking. Jumped right in when she pestered me about what you were planning to do and I told her. She’s got some ideas.”
Of course she did. Every fucking woman I knew did, just none of them were right.
“Have her send them to me,” I sighed. Maybe Cassie would be the one to manage it, as much as the idea of not finding it myself chafed.
“You could just ask and then pick one out together,” he pointed out.
Talk about a cop-out. “I’d never hear the end of it.” Jess would hold onto that one until her dying breath.
He laughed. “You might be right.”
I knew damn well I was. In the month since she’d moved in and redecorated, she’d started referring to it as her place, not ours because I “didn’t do anything to it.” If she picked her own ring, she’d probably go around insisting she was engaged to herself just to tick me off.
As much as I liked her sass, that would be too much.
“Jesus,” Jack muttered at the same time my own attention focused up ahead.
While most stands were simple, more attune to a farmer’s market than anything, the end of the block was festooned with a full fucking red and white striped circus tent theme. At the side of their setup was part of a public parking lot they’d requested space in to fill up with restored cars and bikes from Savage Restorations. Inside the large, wide open tent, dozens of people of all ages taking it all in.
“Your woman just doesn’t know when to quit, does she?”
“Not at all.”
We approached, seeing they’d set up a spot for all ages, including the Disciples running ring toss and milk bottle tower games, the Sailor’s Grave crew doing face paintings, and Ember manning one of those strongman hammer setups. Avery had a full line of tables covered in baked goods for sale that she and Kate were manning. There were pictures of the work done at the garage and tattoo parlor displayed everywhere.
And right in the middle of it all, greeting everyone that came through and directing them around, was my woman in a stylized ringmaster get-up.
She smiled brightly at us as we approached. “Officers,” she greeted, all fucking cheek.
“You’re putting the rest of the fair to shame,” Jack pointed out.
“Why thank you,” she replied, not hesitant to accept the praise for even a second.
“You just can’t help yourself, can you?” I asked, coming in close to get a taste of those bright red lips. She knew exactly what wearing that color did to me.
“I think it’s pretty fucking fantastic, personally.”
It was all that, no doubt.
“You going to wear that for me later?” I asked, low enough for no one else to catch it. Bad enough that one of the town’s cops had the sexy ringmaster plastered all over him while on duty.
Her teeth came out, raking over that plump red lip as she eyed my uniform. “Depends, are you going to wear that for me?”
“Anytime you want, goddess.”
“Hey!” We heard, drawing both our attention over to Carson, who was rounding the face painting area toward us. When he got close, he went on, “This is a fuckin’ family gig.”
“Nice language,” Jess snorted.
Carson grunted. “Don’t test me, girl. I’ll eat all those lemon squares before you can stop me.”
He took off with her shouting at his back, “You won’t touch them! They’re mine!”
Knowing it was a stupid move to get between Jess and lemon anything, I let her go with a quick, “I’ll be back at the end of my shift.”
She kissed me swiftly. “Love you.”
“Love you, goddess,” I said, getting a smile before she took off to defend her goodies.
I was about to go back on patrol when Park came jogging over.
“I found it.”
Taking his phone as he held it out, I took in the antique ring. In the center was a large, royal blue, oval sapphire. The brilliant color of it struck me before anything else. It was bright, bold, just like my Jess. The stone was surrounded by a halo of diamonds, with more diamonds making fluted shapes to taper down to the band. It looked like a ring that belonged on the hand of a queen.
Or a goddess.
One look and I knew he was right. That was it.
“You’re a fucking lifesaver,” I thanked him, sending the listing to myself.
“Anything for Jess,” he replied, heading back to his paint station, never one to say much.
Anything for Jess, because this mix of tattoo artists and bikers was her family, one that had welcomed me in with open arms when I’d shown them I would give her the same. I looked over at my woman one more time before getting back to work. Soon, I’d make a vow that my goddess would always have that from me.
I couldn’t fucking wait.
COMING SOON
The Sailor’s Grave Series
concludes…
Parker’s Story
Coming 2019
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Drew Elyse spends her days trying to convince the world that she is, in fact, a Disney Princess, and her nights writing tear-jerking and sexy romance novels.
When she isn’t writing, she can usually be found over-analyzing every line of a book, binge watching a series on Netflix, doing strange vocal warm ups before singing a variety of music styles, or screaming at the TV during a Chicago Blackhawks game.
A graduate of Loyola University Chicago with a BA in English, she still lives in Chicago, IL where she was born and raised with her boyfriend and her fur babies Lola and Duncan.
Website: DrewElyse.com
Facebook: facebook.com/DrewElyseAuthor
Facebook Group: bit.ly/DisciplesClubhouse
Twitter: twitter.com/DrewElyseAuthor
Mailing List: bit.ly/DrewElyseNews
BOOKS BY DREW ELYSE
The Disciples’ Daughters Series
Clutch
Shift
Engage
Ignite
Combust
Cruise
The Sailor’s Grave Series
Marked
Inked
The Dissonance Series
Dissonance
Harmony