by Marie James
“We’ll talk about it when all the paperwork is squared away.”
I nod my head because I know he isn’t going to budge, but he knows I’ll bring it up again. I have to get paid somehow, and since the job at the bar is ending in a couple of weeks, I knew I needed to mention it. He’ll end up giving me an appropriate wage, and I’ll be compensated enough once I graduate.
“But we need to talk about more serious stuff,” Mom says. “Have you told Rivet how you feel?”
Dad and I both smile at her. Of course the relationship conversation is most important to this woman, not the education or the job.
“She knows,” I tell her with a smile.
Mom frowns, and it’s not the response I was expecting.
“Words are always better.”
“Listen to her,” Dad says as he stands and carries his empty coffee cup to the dish washer. “She knows what she’s talking about.”
“Oh yeah?” I turn back toward my Mom. “And exactly how should I tell her?”
I’m trapped at the table for the next two hours shooting down ideas and crazy suggestions of how to open my mouth and tell my girl how I feel. Dad, the lucky, sly bastard that he is sneaks away fifteen minutes in.
Chapter 39
Rivet
After my pity party, I left the clubhouse for a ride. I didn’t plan on staying gone for hours, but that’s what ended up happening. Cannon texted more than once, and when I texted back, he wasn’t thrilled I rode alone, but he also seemed to understand that I needed some time to myself. Just count that as one more thing that makes him amazing.
He’s not going to smother me. We’ll have our time together, but we’ll also be allowed time apart, and that’s one thing I personally think is required for a healthy relationship.
But it’s been hours, and I’m missing him, so I find myself riding back onto the property midafternoon.
It’s quiet when I turn my bike off, no sounds coming from the garage or from the pool area behind the building. It doesn’t surprise me. It’s hot as hell today, and I can already feel the tightness in my skin on my forearms.
I don’t waste time heading inside, hoping that Cannon will be there and not at his parents’ house.
The second I open the front door to the clubhouse, my eyes sweep the room until they land on him.
His grin quickly turns salacious and filthy when he sees me.
Griffin pops him in the chest, whispering something to him that I can’t hear. My eyes dart to the hallway and back to him, but I don’t think I want him to follow me.
I almost told this man I was falling for him this morning. I told my best friend that falling for him was imminent, but I was wrong. So very wrong.
Falling isn’t accurate. I’ve already fallen. It’s crazy, and I know it, but somehow this idiotic man has done the impossible.
He bites his lip seductively when I start to walk across the room, and before he even opens his perfect mouth, I know what’s going to happen. I have mere seconds to decide how I’m going to respond.
“Hey, baby,” Cannon coos as I approach. “Do you want to commit a sin for your next confessional?”
Ivy and Delilah both groan at their friend.
Gigi cackles, and I do my best to keep a straight face.
“I’m not Catholic,” I manage to say with only the hint of a grin.
Hound snorts beside his woman.
“Can you do telekinesis? Because you just made a part of me move without even touching it.”
“Seriously?” Camryn hisses. “I’m not going to sew up your insides when she guts you.”
Another step closer, another lick of his lips. This is a dangerous game we’re playing, but my guys already know we have something going on, thanks to Jinx’s revelation last night at the bar. I want his friends to know too. No more sneaking around in the darkness.
“Your smile is almost as big, warm, and lovely as my cock.”
“Jesus Christ,” Samson groans, and Izzy gasps beside her dad.
“Cannon,” Hound warns, but Cannon ignores him as I step in front of him.
Griffin scoots away a few inches, surely, so he doesn’t catch a blow to the face when I attack his brother like he’s anticipating.
“Tell your tits to stop staring at my eyes.”
I don’t hear how the others respond to this last one because he stands and holds his hand out for me, and this man is the only thing I can see right now.
“Are you a shark? Because I’ve got some swimmers you can swallow.”
A laugh escapes my lips before I can stop it, and the smile he gives me is perfect. It’s everything, and I know if I look deep enough, I can see the same feelings I have for him shining right back at me.
“When I saw you, I lost my tongue,” I say looking up at his mouth. “Can I put yours in my mouth?”
“What the fu—” someone hisses when he leans close and captures my lips with his.
When the kiss is over, he tugs on my hand and all but drags me toward the hallway.
A cacophony of words follow us.
“What?”
“When did this happen?”
“She actually fell for that shit?”
“Why am I always the last to know?”
What I am able to decipher is Lawson and Griffin’s knowing laughter.
“Way to make an entrance, baby,” Cannon says, pushing me against the wall the second we’re out of sight.
“Jinx saw you leave my room yesterday morning,” I inform him.
“Grinch caught me again today.”
He’s smiling so I do too.
“Jinx told everyone last night at the bar.”
“Including Bishop.” I nod. “I figured something pissed him off last night, but I can’t say I’m mad. He needed to know.”
“I told him you’re my man.”
He presses his lips to mine, but he ends it much too soon.
“I’m a planner, Cannon. I need to know things.”
“Is that right?” He presses himself against me, and his hips driving against mine only heightens the tingles left behind from riding my bike nonstop for hours.
“I love you,” he murmurs against my lips.
“I love you, too,” I whisper, my body coming to life in a way I never thought possible. “But that really isn’t a plan.”
“Isn’t it?” He smiles down at me, and somehow I love him even more.
“I’m not going back to campus. I’m staying here.”
“Still not really a plan,” I argue.
He presses closer, the warmth of his erection straining against my body.
“Plan to see me more often. Plan to scream my name every single night that you’re home. Plan on invites to family holidays.” He kisses my neck, nipping at the delicate skin near my collarbone, and I don’t know if it’s his mouth or his words that are making me weak in the knees. “Plan on jealousy when other men look at you. Plan on PDAs all the damn time. Plan on riding bitch on my bike so I can feel these amazing tits on my back.”
I open my mouth to argue, but he squeezes the tits in question, somehow managing to find my nipples with his thumb and forefinger through my clothes. I moan, uncaring of who is listening in the living room.
“Yeah?” I finally manage. “All of that, huh?”
He shrugs, his nose trailing down my cheek until he presses his mouth to mine for a quick kiss. “And probably more.”
“And just how long is all of that going to last? How long will I have to suffer through it?”
“How does for forever sound?”
Be still my damn hardened heart.
“Sounds like a good start.”
“Why are we still in the hallway? We should be naked. I promised to make you scream my na—”
My smile falls away immediately when a loud banging hits the front door.
No one around here knocks. We all have keys. And certainly no one comes up and bangs on the door like the Feds fixing to execute a warrant befor
e a raid.
Cannon must be thinking the same thing because he pulls me off the wall and tries to shove me behind him when we round the corner back into the living room.
Jinx pulls open the front door, and a quick scan of the room before the threat materializes lets me know that every man in here just did the very same thing to the women that Cannon tried to do to me. The only difference is I’m trained to walk toward the danger not run and hide from it. I don’t blame these women, however. We’re just different people.
It’s not a threat at the front. At least not one that couldn’t be neutralized easily. Cannon and I walk closer to the other guys.
“Simone,” Jinx says and Rocker snaps around our teammate to see her.
Her face is bruised and swollen, and the front of her body is covered in blood, tons and tons of blood. Too much blood for her to be able to stand in the doorway.
“Call an ambulance,” Grinch bellows when he gets a look at the bartender I’ve only ever seen behind the counter at Jake’s.
She’s so battered, I wouldn’t recognize her if one of the other guys hadn’t said her name.
Sniffling fills my ears, and when I look over my shoulder, I see Hound urging Gigi and Izzy out of the room. Camryn steps forward, but Delilah and Ivy are heading out of the room toward the back as well.
“It’s n-not m-my bl-blood,” Simone stammers, and it seems like she’s glued in place.
“Whose blood is it?” Grinch asks.
“My husband’s,” she answers, her eyes never leaving Rocker.
“Husband?” he asks the same time Jinx asks, “Is he in the hospital?”
“He’s dead,” she whispers without emotion.
“Dead?” Grinch asks.
She nods, her eyes still glued to Rocker. He looks green, like he didn’t have a damn clue the woman was married.
“He found out about the baby,” she tells Rocker even though he hasn’t asked a question.
“Baby?”
In my head, I’m making bets on who is going to pass out first. I don’t have to wait long because Simone’s eyes roll into the back of her head. Thankfully, Grinch is paying attention, and he catches her before she can hit the ground, because Rocker has been stunned into silence.
Interested in Rocker’s Story?
Grab it HERE!
New Series Coming Soon!
Hostile Territory: A Blackbridge Security Novel
Check out the blurb:
Can you call someone an enemy if you haven’t seen them for the better part of a decade?
Deacon Black is perfectly content with the status quo—work, sleep, repeat.
Who cares if he’s rigid, structured, and set in his ways?
It’s a job requirement that keeps his men safe and his company’s doors open.
One phone call is all it takes to upend his life and land him right back into a past he has tried to forget.
Revisiting old ghosts is the last thing he needs.
Especially when the forced trip down memory lane includes the only woman he never wanted to see again.
Annalise Grimaldi hit the jackpot with her life—from her trust fund to her best friend, she has it all.
But her world comes crashing to a halt when her best friend vanishes—leaving behind an apartment in tatters and more questions than answers.
There’s only one person she can think of that can help in a situation like this.
She hates to make the call, but there isn’t a thing she wouldn’t do to make sure her friend is found.
Even setting aside her hatred for Deacon Black.
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OTHER BOOKS FROM MARIE JAMES
Standalones
Crowd Pleaser
Macon
We Said Forever
More Than a Memory
Westover Prep
One Eighty
Cole Brothers SERIES
Love Me Like That
Teach Me Like That
Hale Series
Coming to Hale
Begging for Hale
Hot as Hale
To Hale and Back
Hale Series Box Set
Cerberus MC
Kincaid: Cerberus MC Book 1
Kid: Cerberus MC Book 2
Shadow: Cerberus MC Book 3
Dominic: Cerberus MC Book 4
Snatch: Cerberus MC Book 5
Lawson: Cerberus MC Book 6
Hound: Cerberus MC Book 7
Griffin: Cerberus MC Book 8
Samson: Cerberus MC Book 9
Tug: Cerberus MC Book 10
Scooter: Cerberus MC Book 11
Cannon: Cerberus MC Book 12
Rocker: Cerberus MC Book 13
Cerberus MC Box Set 1
Cerberus MC Box Set 2
Ravens Ruin MC
Desperate Beginnings: Prequel (Book 1)
(Not a romance, but gives all of the back history on the club)
Book 2: Sins of the Father
Book 3: Luck of the Devil
Book 4: Dancing with the Devil
MM Romance
Grinder
Taunting Tony
Westover Prep Series
(bully/enemies to lovers romance)
One-Eighty
Catch Twenty-Two
