by Parker, Ali
Frank sighed. “I owe you an apology, Owen.”
I turned toward him and tried to hide my bewilderment. An apology? From old man Snow? Was I in an alternate universe? I knew the chances of getting a girl like Evangeline were slim to none for a guy like me, but to have her father say he owed me an apology was totally out of left field.
“Sir?” I asked, confused.
He gave me a tight-lipped smile. “You make her happy, Owen. And that’s all a father wants for his baby girl. And when I cleared the mud out of my ears and started paying attention, I realized something very important. My daughter hasn’t been this effervescent in years. I think I tried to convince myself it had nothing to do with you. But I was in denial. It has everything to do with you.”
I wasn’t sure what to say. This was uncharted territory for me. So I kept my mouth shut and watched Evangeline with Victoria as they inched forward in line toward the bar. People stopped to talk to her frequently, and she greeted them with her dazzling smile, clasped their hands, and hugged some of them.
She was in her element.
“Just so you know, I’ve fired that lunatic Aero,” Frank said.
That made my eyebrows creep upward. “Really?”
Frank nodded. “Yeah. When I found out what he’d done—” Frank paused, clicked his tongue, and shook his head. “Well, that’s not the sort of person I want to be associated with my company. And it’s definitely not the sort of person I want anywhere near my Evangeline. Thank you for breaking his arm.”
I laughed.
The sound seemed to catch Frank off guard, and I held a hand up to apologize. “I’m sorry. I just never expected words like that to come out of your mouth, sir.”
“Me neither,” Evangeline’s father said. Then he smiled slyly. “But it felt kind of good to say them.”
I chuckled and nodded. “It felt good to break his arm, too.”
“I bet.”
Then he did something that really surprised me. He put a hand on my shoulder. “Are we good, Owen?”
“We’re good, sir.”
He nodded. “May I speak my piece one last time before leaving it to rest?”
“Say what you must.”
“Please take care of her. I know where you come from. And I know what you’re capable of. The fact that Matthew Aero was in the hospital for four days after his run-in with you can attest to that. I don’t want my baby girl going down a dark path. If things ever start to spiral, you’ll cut her loose. Right?”
I studied the hard lines of his brow, the tightness in his jaw, and the desperation in his eyes. “I will, sir. I’d let her go before I ever put her in danger. You have my word.”
He squeezed my shoulder. “Very well. Let this be the last we ever speak of it. Come find me later. We’ll have a drink.”
And just like that, the conversation was over. Frank slipped away into the crowd and left me reeling in the aftermath of words I never thought we would exchange.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” I said to myself. That was going to take some time to process.
Evangeline popped up by my side and grabbed the sleeve of my suit jacket. “Owen, are you all right?”
“Yeah,” I said, grinning sheepishly as I rubbed the back of my neck. “Yeah. I’m good.”
I was better than good.
Evangeline stepped aside and revealed Victoria, a beautiful blonde with pink cheeks and a nervous smile. “This is Victoria. Victoria, this is Owen.”
I offered her my hand. She held hers out, and wanting to make a good impression, I pressed my lips to her knuckles. “It’s a pleasure to meet you Victoria. I’ve heard a lot of good things about you, and I’m glad we finally have the chance to meet.”
She giggled like a high-school girl and turned an even brighter shade of pink. Then she leaned over to Evangeline. “You weren’t lying. He is cute.”
Chapter 30
Evangeline
I closed my eyes as I breathed in the crisp fall air.
It smelled like maple and soil and rain.
Owen held me tighter, and I nuzzled my chin under the plaid blanket Quinn had draped over me a few minutes ago when I started to get chilly.
We were sitting around a firepit in Axel’s backyard.
I’d met a ton of people tonight, many whose names I’d already forgotten, and I was more than a little overwhelmed.
But I was also incredibly content as I sat in Owen’s lap and listened to the conversations transpiring around the fire.
“Least likely to win a fight?” Quinn asked, pursing her lips and pressing her forefinger to her chin thoughtfully.
Everyone had been playing a game around the fire of “least” and “most likely to”, and I hadn’t participated much since I didn’t really know everyone. The game started many arguments, but everything was all in good fun, and I was soaking up as much as I could.
“Liam,” Jax said, pointing his chin toward Liam who sat in the chair beside me and Owen.
Liam scoffed. “Why does everyone always vote for me for that one? Just because I’m the youngest doesn’t mean I can’t fight. Fuckers.”
“Yeah, it does,” Jax said confidently.
The man beside him, a brooding devil with dark skin and thick black eyebrows, cracked a grin in Liam’s direction. “Don’t fight it, little one. You’ll get tougher with age.”
Snickers moved around the fire.
“Who’s that again?” I asked, leaning back to whisper in Owen’s ear so the others didn’t hear me. I didn’t want them knowing I was already forgetting their names.
“Sabian,” Owen said. “He’s nicer than he looks. Trust me.”
I nodded. Sabian was definitely a menacing-looking man. Then again, most of them were.
Especially Ryder Moretti, who sat a few chairs down from Sabian. He had his woman, Dani, sitting beside him, and their fingers were entwined as their hands hung between their chairs. They looked like the king and queen sitting there like that, like this was their domain, and we were their subjects.
Which I supposed we were in some sense.
Rhys, sitting on the other side of Liam, knuckled the young man in the shoulder. “You’re a champ, Liam. I’ve seen you in action. I know what you can do with those fists of yours. Right, Owen? Back me up here?”
“A new Jet Li in the making,” Owen mused.
“Don’t inflate his ego,” Jax muttered.
“I’m telling the truth,” Owen said. “I’ve fought side by side with him. I’d trust him to have my back.”
Jax nodded at Owen. “Who gets your vote? Least likely to win in a fight. Go.”
Owen grinned like the devil. “Ryder. He’s all soft after becoming a daddy.”
The men and women around the fire burst out laughing. Even Ryder laughed at his own expense, and I got the sense that the polar opposite of Owen’s statement was true.
I’d bet money that Ryder could fuck them all up with one hand tied behind his back. He was the president, after all.
“Most likely to win in a fight, then,” Jax said.
Owen tipped his chin down the circle. “Quinn. Hands down.”
Quinn beamed and sat up a little straighter. “That’s the smartest thing you’ve ever said.”
I loved the camaraderie around the circle. These men were brothers, and the women were as much a part of the crew as they were. It was obvious.
Everyone was welcome here. I felt perfectly at ease in Owen’s lap. Even though I was a bit shy, it had nothing to do with who I was with. It was simply due to the fact that I didn’t really know any of them.
Not yet, at least.
I suspected many of these people were going to become close friends in no time.
Another man piped up, whose name I’d forgotten, and I looked to Owen as he spoke, who told me his name was Aiden. Aiden asked, “Most likely to get caught jerking off.”
I laughed, and Owen squeezed my thigh before declaring, “Derek!”
Everyone nodded thei
r agreement and burst out laughing, except for a man with a thick auburn beard and a head of hair slicked back. “Bullshit. I might beat it more than you fuckers, but I’m not dumb enough to get caught.”
They all booed him, and Derek waved them off, his scowl morphing into a smile as the group grew louder and more obnoxious at his denial.
“All right, all right,” he said, holding his hands up. “Let me lay one on you. Most likely to suffer from premature ejacu—”
“Owen,” I said.
I hadn’t even thought before I spoke. I just saw the humor in it, knew Owen would laugh, and his name tumbled from my lips.
I was right.
My vote was a hit.
The men slapped their knees and laughed, and the women giggled until their sides hurt. I joined in on the laughter as Owen tried to defend himself but was drowned out by the sounds of our hilarity.
“I’m sorry,” I said, gripping his shoulder. “I didn’t mean it. I just had to.”
“She meant it,” Liam said beside us.
“Butt out,” Owen barked, but he smiled.
More laughter ensued around the circle.
I cupped his cheek. “I didn’t mean it like that. You know how much I like your—” I stopped talking as I remembered everyone else around us and swallowed. “Erm.”
“How much you like his what?” Liam waggled his eyebrows at me.
I licked my lips. “Never mind.”
Owen gave my ass a squeeze, and I leaned against his chest and pulled the blanket up to hide my face.
“Well,” Ryder said, his deep booming voice demanding silence. He got to his feet, and I peered over the edge of the blanket at him as he looked around the circle. His gaze settled on me. “I think that settles it. You’re one of the family, Evangeline Snow. Welcome to the club.”
Everyone lifted their drinks to me.
I blushed and stammered under the attention and was grateful it didn’t last long. When conversation resumed, I pressed my mouth close to Owen’s ear. “Did I just become an MC member?”
Owen chuckled and shook his head. “No, Angel. There’s a lot more involved than that. But you got the stamp of approval from the president. He trusts you. And you’ll be welcome at all events. Business related or not.”
“Really?”
Owen nodded and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “Really.”
The laughter and the sounds of everyone chatting around us faded away, and all I could see was Owen. All I could feel was his warmth that we shared under the blanket. The scent of his bergamot and cedar cologne mingled well with the crisp fall air, and I breathed in a deep breath of him and nature.
“There’s something I want to tell you,” I said. “Something I’ve wanted to tell you for over seven years now.”
Owen ran his fingers through my hair. I had all of his attention, and I had to stay focused on what I wanted to say so I didn’t get lost in his green eyes. “What is it, Angel?”
The smile that stretched my cheeks was impossible to stop. “I love you, Owen McCully. I love you so much it hurts.”
Owen’s grin matched mine, and he cupped my cheek. “I love you too, Angel. Until the day I die.”
He gave me a soft kiss, and then another, and then his tongue was in my mouth.
The others gave us our moment. Nobody interrupted. Nobody made jokes. And I had the feeling that everyone else’s hearts were just as full as mine.
And it was glorious.
The End
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About the Author
Ali Parker is a full-time contemporary and new adult romance writer with more than a hundred and twenty books behind her. She loves coffee, watching a great movie and hanging out with her hubs. By hanging out, she means making out. Hanging out is for those little creepy elves at Christmas. No tight green stockings for her.
She’s an entrepreneur at heart and loves coming up with more ideas than any one person should be allowed to access. She lives in Texas with her hubs and three kiddos and looks forward to traveling the world in a few years. Writing under eleven pen names keeps her busy and allows her to explore all genres and types of writing.
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The Parker’s Wicked Playground
Owen
Lost Breed MC Series #9
Copyright © 2018 by Ali and Weston Parker
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
The novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and plot are all either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons – living or dead – is purely coincidental.
First Edition.
Editor: Eric Martinez
Designer: Kellie Dennis, Book Covers By Design
