by Nina Levine
Hailee had this kind of gentle yet spirited soul I’d never known in a woman before. Not that I knew her that well yet, but even if she tried to hide from the world, she’d never be able to. Her inner beauty shone just as brightly as her outer beauty.
“You’ve never met a man who fit that category because I’m that man for you.”
She processed that for a beat. “I don’t know that I believe in knowing someone is the person for you straight away. I thought the last guy I was in a long-term relationship with was the one for me. Turned out that after two years of living with him, I didn’t know him at all. And instead of giving me a lifetime of happiness, all he gave me was self-doubt and a fear of falling for the wrong man again.”
Her gaze had drifted to the ground as she spoke, and my gut told me this asshole had fucked her right up. Tilting her chin up, I said, “What did he do to you?”
Her eyes met mine and she swallowed hard. “I don’t really want to talk about this tonight,” she said in a half whisper.
I moved closer to her. “Hailee, what did he do?”
She blinked a few times and her body stilled. I wasn’t convinced she was going to give me what I wanted, but then she opened her mouth and shared a piece of her soul with me. One of the many pieces I’d be fighting to own from here on out. “He started to change just after we’d been together for two years. Like, he’d lose his shit if I came home from work late, or he’d pick a fight with me after dinner and then go out for the entire night, not coming home until the morning and refusing to tell me where he’d been. His moods swung all the time until the point where I didn’t know what to expect from one hour to the next. He would go from him telling me how much he loved me to him belittling me and telling me I didn’t deserve anyone in my life and that I should be lucky he chose to stay with me. It got to the point where I decided we needed a break. I wasn’t sure if I was going to leave him all together, but I did need some time away from him to think straight.” She paused for a moment and took a few deep breaths before continuing. “That day… the day I told him I needed some time away… he beat me so badly I couldn’t go to work for a week.”
“Motherfucker,” I swore. Pulling her into my arms, I kissed her head and said, “Men like that don’t deserve to breathe.”
She clung to me for a while. When she pulled away, she said, “No, they don’t.”
“You left him after that?”
She nodded. “I called my brother for help. I was living in the UK at the time and had no money to fly home. He flew to me, sorted Mickey out and then brought me home. And while I’ll always be grateful for what he did for me, he’s been a pain in my ass ever since. He’s so damn overprotective now when it comes to men I date that he scares most of them off.”
“I like him already. That’s exactly what I’d hope a brother would do for you.”
She raised a brow. “Yeah, you wait until you meet him and then tell me what you think. I bet you’ll agree with me soon enough.”
“Okay, so let’s get one thing clear here. You’re my woman.”
She smiled. “Is that your way of telling me you don’t want me to see anyone else?”
“It is. It’s also my way of telling you that from here on out, I’ll be picking you up from work every day and dropping you off, too.” I placed a finger against her lips when she attempted to argue with me. “And that Sundays are to be reserved for me. I don’t care what we do so long as we do it together.”
Her eyes widened. “Umm, no, that’s not gonna happen, bossman.”
“Which part of that?” I had to work hard not to grin at her reaction. I fucking loved going head-to-head with her.
“All of it.”
“Uh, yeah, it is.”
“No.” She shook her head emphatically. “There’s no way a guy I’ve just met is gonna tell me what I can and can’t do.”
“So you’re saying that after we’ve known each other for some time, you’ll allow it?”
Her forehead scrunched her disapproval of everything I was saying. “Don’t try and twist my words.”
I grinned. “Okay, try and word it again. At which point in our relationship do you think it’d be acceptable for me to demand a few things?”
“Never!” Fuck, I was working her up. And in turn, she was working my dick up more than she already had on the way over here.
“Right, I’m glad we’ve got that settled,” I said as I moved towards her house.
She grabbed hold of my arm. “Wait. We haven’t settled anything.”
I halted my progress and looked at her. “We have. We’ve worked out that you’re gonna fight me all the way, which for the record, I’m already getting hard about.” Dipping my mouth to her ear, I added, “I’m not the type of man to give up when I want something, Hailee. And I just told you how much I want you. So fight all you want, but this relationship is going to happen, and I am going to demand things from you.”
12
Hailee
I watched Devil laugh as my grandmother told him something funny. He had the most infectious laugh I’d ever heard, and my lips curled up into a smile simply from the sound.
After his declaration outside when we’d arrived, the one where he tried to lay down the law with me about having his way with bossing me around, we’d come inside to find Jean struggling to pull the roast from the oven. Devil had quickly taken over and had also settled my grandmother at the kitchen table with a drink of water. That had earnt him brownie points. And then I’d all but forgotten being mildly irritated with him when he proceeded to finish cooking dinner.
Who knew bikers could cook? Not me. But it had been confirmed when I took my first bite of the honeyed carrots he’d made. I mean, what biker even knew to honey carrots?
“Hailee, cat got your tongue, dear?”
I stared at my grandmother who’d just asked that question, breaking into my thoughts. “Sorry, I was just thinking about something.”
“What?” Gran always did ask the hard questions. Well, not hard so much as intrusive.
I decided to share my thoughts. Glancing at Devil, I said, “Who taught you to cook? Specifically, who told you that honey and carrots go so well together?” Looking back at my grandmother, I said, “That’s what I was thinking.”
Devil grinned. Always with the sexy grin that caused my brain to go fuzzy. “My mother and my sister.” He winked as he added, “Specifically, it was Lee who taught me about carrots and honey.” That wink shot heat straight to my core. God, how I wanted to rip those clothes off him and—
“Lee’s your sister?” My grandmother asked, cutting into my dirty thoughts.
“Yeah. She’s a year younger than me but was the kind of kid who hounded Mum to let her help cook from the age of three. Mum got pneumonia when I was thirteen, and Lee took over the family cooking. Part of that was roping me and my brother in to help.”
“You’re close to your sister, then?” Gran asked.
Devil nodded. “Yes, ma’am.” He pulled out his wallet and flashed a photo at her. “That’s Lee’s daughter, Skye. She’s just turned one.” I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen a man beam so much while talking about his family. And yet, I knew from a previous conversation that he hadn’t seen his parents for fifteen years, so I wondered what his family looked like these days.
I leant forward. “Do you see them often?”
Regret clouded his features as he shook his head. “No. Lee and her husband settled in Tamworth where we grew up. I haven’t been back there since I left home, so the only time I see them is when Lee comes to Sydney. And that’s probably only once a year. But we Skype, so Skye knows who I am.”
Silence fell over us for a moment. I didn’t know what to say, because he appeared sad about not seeing them often. And that was an emotion I was yet to meet in Devil, so it required a moment of thought on my behalf as to how to approach it.
My grandmother, though, jumped right on it, changing the subject completely. “Hailee tells me she doesn’t
know your real name, young man. Is that correct?”
Oh. God.
“Gran,” I chastised her, hitting her with a dirty look.
She gave me the look she reserved for when she intended to ignore my plea. “Hush, Hailee. If a man wants to see my granddaughter, he’d better be offering up his name. I need to know who has my baby out at night in case anything happens.”
And there it was.
Jean Archer showed her love in cantankerous ways that I both adored her for and argued with her over. She was just like Aaron—she’d never stopped worrying about me since I arrived home from England.
Devil’s face turned serious, and I knew that he knew where she was coming from, too. He nodded. “My name is Dominic Ford.”
Dominic.
His name sat on the tip of my tongue. It totally suited him.
“Thank you, Dominic,” Gran said as she stood. “I’ll be right back.”
Watching her hobble out of the room, he frowned. “Is she okay?”
I sprinkled some salt onto my veggies. “She’s starting to have some health problems and has fallen a couple of times lately, but mostly she’s doing great.”
Looking up from my dinner, I caught the thoughtful expression on his face. Warmth flooded my belly that he not only seemed genuinely worried about a woman he’d only recently met, but that he’d also taken the time to help her, answer her questions and begin getting to know her. Not one other man I’d dated had ever done that. Sure, they’d feigned interest in her, but to them, she was just an old lady who was part of the package with me.
“She needs a railing put on those front steps,” he said, “And does she have a rail in the shower? I can organise that too if you need it.”
“Wait. What?” I’d been deep in thought and was sure I must have missed something he’d said. “Did you just say you’d install some railings?”
“Yeah, I’ll get some of the boys to help me. We can probably swing by in a couple of days and do it.”
I held up my hand to stop him talking. “Devil, you don’t need to do that. And besides, I’d have to clear it with the landlord first.”
“Who’s your real estate?”
I stared at him in silence while I contemplated everything he’d just said. “You’re going to take charge of this, aren’t you? If I tell you the name of the real estate, you’ll just go and sort it out with them?”
“Hailee, your grandmother is unsteady on her legs. She needs help, and I can give it to her,” he said as if he thought he had to defend his choice. Which he didn’t.
Still staring at him, I smiled. Huge. And my heart burst open a little more. He had no idea what he’d just done. Standing, I moved to where he sat and kissed him. Long and hard. When we came up for air, I said, “Thank you.”
He reached for my hand and held me in place before I could move back to my chair. “I feel like you’re thanking me for a whole lot more than a couple of railings,” he murmured, his eyes holding a question.
I slowly nodded and folded myself into his lap, my arms looped around his neck. “My grandfather screwed around on my grandmother and left her when I was only young. Her daddy had left all his money to my grandfather, thinking he’d look after her forever. But when he left her, he took everything. She had to move in with us just so she could afford to live. When he died, he left his money to my father, and I thought she’d be okay after that.” I took a breath before continuing. “However, when Dad passed away, Mum got everything. I’m pretty sure he assumed she would continue to look after his mother, but Mum treated her awfully. Mum gives me a small amount of money each month to care for Gran, but it’s nowhere near enough. I’m drowning in bills, and every day I wake up not knowing how I’m going to care for my grandmother as she gets older. I also don’t have a lot of spare time to organise stuff like this. You offering what you have is a huge load off my mind.” My voice choked on that last sentence, because even though I’d said he’d taken a huge load off my mind, that didn’t even begin to cover it.
I knew that for a man to offer this at the beginning of a relationship meant that there’d be more like this to come. And that right there caused my emotions to jump all over the place.
Before Devil could reply, my grandmother joined us again. Taking her seat at the table, she said, “The man’s a keeper, Hailee.”
Devil’s smiled, but he didn’t say anything. Didn’t offer a cheeky reply. He simply kept quiet and waited for me to speak. The space I’d started to clear for him in my heart grew a little. I liked that he seemed to understand my emotional response to what he’d offered. That he understood my need for a moment to get my thoughts under control.
I pressed my lips to his again for a brief moment. “I’m beginning to think he is, too,” I said softly when I ended the kiss.
As I moved back to my seat, Gran said to Devil, “We use that little real estate on the corner near the pub.”
“The one near the meditation studio. And it’s Brett who we deal with there,” I threw in.
“I’ll contact them tomorrow,” he said.
My grandmother engaged him in a conversation about gardening after that. Time in the garden was one of her loves, and she would talk anyone’s ear off if they gave her the space to do it. Devil gave her that space, and while I listened in for the first few moments, I quickly drifted away to thoughts of him and all the things I didn’t know about him yet. I couldn’t wait to get to know everything.
13
Devil
I eyed Hailee apologetically as we stood in her hallway. “I’m sorry, darlin’, but I’ve gotta go.”
We’d finished dinner just over an hour earlier and had been watching television with Jean since then. Well, Jean had been watching television; Hailee and I had been fighting to keep our hands to ourselves while her grandmother was in the room with us.
“It’s all good. You should go and help your friend out,” Hailee said.
Nitro had called to ask me if I could head over to Monroe’s place and check on her. He’d received a garbled message from Tatum about something to do with Monroe and couldn’t get hold of her to find out what it was.
My phone buzzed with a text.
Nitro: Take Hyde with you. Just heard from Tatum. There’s some asshole threatening Monroe.
Me: Is Tatum there too?
Nitro: No, thank fuck. Although she’d probably take the guy down given half a chance.
Me: True. Hyde’s on his way. I already phoned him.
Nitro: Let me know when you’re done.
I slid my arm around Hailee’s waist and kissed her. “Thanks for dinner. I’ll text you when I’m done and see if you’re still awake.” I didn’t think she would be because she’d yawned her way through the TV show.
“Okay,” she said, but as I moved to leave, she grabbed a handful of my shirt and held me in place. “Be safe.” I heard the concern in her voice.
“There’s nothing to worry about. Nitro’s just overprotective.” I wasn’t sure, though. Nitro might have been extremely protective of Tatum and Monroe, but he wasn’t the type to worry easily. However, I wanted to put Hailee’s mind at ease.
She let me go and said, “I’ll talk to you later. And, Devil… thank you for humouring my grandmother and watching television with her.”
I smoothed her hair back off her face. Fuck, she had no idea how far gone I was. “Hailee, I want to know every little thing about you, and part of that is your family. I’d have gone to Mars with Jean if that’s what she wanted.”
Her eyes lit up, and I knew I’d said the right thing. I hadn’t been stretching the truth, though. Not that lying was my thing with women, but I’d been known to smooth the truth over a little in my time. With Hailee, I didn’t want to chance fucking this up.
She shooed me away with the flick of her wrists. “Go, before I beg you to stay.”
On the way to Monroe’s place, it struck me how different Hailee was to all the other women I’d dated. She hadn’t sulked or tried t
o stop me from leaving. There was none of the guilt trips I was used to from women. And she’d been more concerned for me than she’d been disappointed I had to leave. It was a fucking refreshing change.
Hyde was already at Monroe’s by the time I arrived.
“Just got here about two minutes ago, brother,” he said. “You hear anything else from Nitro?”
I nodded. “Yeah, apparently someone was threatening her.”
“Okay, you want me to take the back?”
“Sounds good.”
Hyde headed around to find the back door while I investigated the front. I couldn’t hear any yelling or arguing and all seemed to be okay. So, I knocked on the door and waited to see if Monroe answered.
She did, after she checked me out through the curtain and unlocked a bunch of locks on her front door.
“Thanks for coming, but the guy’s gone. He did, however, do something I think you might be interested in seeing and hearing about,” she said as she motioned for me to enter.
I stepped inside her tiny home. It was one of those brick boxes that probably only had two bedrooms and not much living space. But, she’d made it homely, and I found myself drawn to the framed photographs lining her walls. That, and the crazy wallpaper. I wasn’t sure, but I could have sworn I saw cats on the wallpaper in her lounge room as we passed it.
She led me into her very retro kitchen. Between the aqua coloured stove and fridge, to the red-and-white chequered floor, to the zany, weird multicoloured ornaments she’d filled the room with, I didn’t know where to look first. Not until a guy came into view. And then all my attention zeroed in on him.
Before I could say anything, Hyde entered the kitchen, too. My gaze met his. “You pick the lock or break the door?”
“Fuck,” Monroe muttered, looking at Hyde. “Tell me you didn’t break my door.”
