White Knuckles

by Autumn Jones Lake

  My body melts against him. “I wish we were going right now.”

  “Patience, Angel Face.”

  I groan and strap on my helmet.

  It’s a short ride to the gym. I recognize most of the cars in the parking lot since it’s too early to be very busy.

  I dismount first and Wyatt grabs my hand. “Hey, before we go inside, let me take you next door.”

  The space has been empty for months. Wyatt’s told me he’s in negotiations to buy the property next to his gym to expand Furious Fitness. I’m excited he finally wants to show me around the buildings that used to house, among other things, a spa and tanning salon.

  “I think we could offer more classes back here,” he says, pointing to the spot in question. “We’ll have one or two more offices. Bigger locker rooms.” He rattles off a bunch more improvements he has planned. I’m overwhelmed and full of pride.

  “What do you think?” he finally asks.

  The enormity of how far we’ve traveled together and apart overwhelms me. “You’ve come a long way since the surly, cocky guy who walked into my bar all those years ago.”

  The look he gives me is full of affection and heat. “Yeah?”

  “This is going to be huge,” I say, spinning in a circle in the back parking lot.

  He flashes one of those panty-melting grins he’s so good at. “I know no other way, babe.”

  “There’s my cocky Wrath.” I run over, slamming into his body, wrapping my arms around him.

  He tips his head down. “You like it?”

  “I love it. It’s amazing. I’m so excited for you.”

  “This will be good for us, babe. A lot of improvements. I’m hiring two more professional trainers to attract more clients. Murphy’s buying in as a partner.”

  “Really?” I hesitate for a second, my teeth nipping into my lower lip. I’m not quite sure how to express my feelings in a way that won’t be offensive. “Don’t be mad.”

  He raises an eyebrow. “Mad about what? What’s going on in your nutty little head?” he teases. A little more serious, he adds, “There’s nothing that would ever make me mad at you.”

  I push the words out quickly. “I’m really proud of you.”

  His lips turn up. “Why would that make me mad?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Trinity, there are very few people in the world whose opinions I give a shit about. Yours is definitely one of them.”

  He hugs me a little closer. “We’ll have the widest variety of trainers. I’m thinking of even adding yoga to keep the housewives happy.”

  “Talk to Swan. She’s looking for more classes to teach.”

  “You’re already a big help.” He wraps one of his arms around my shoulders. “Now, I want to show you my favorite part.”

  Curious, I let him lead me to the empty space that used to be a nail salon.

  “Are you planning to add mani/pedis, too?” I ask.

  His lips slide into a sneaky grin. “No.”

  He unlocks the door and pushes it open, revealing an all-empty, white space.

  “What are you using this for?”

  “Not me. You.”

  “Me?”

  His hands settle on my shoulders, gently pushing me farther into the store. “I think this space would make a perfect studio.”

  “For what?”

  “For your business. So you don’t always have to do photo shoots outdoors. You can have the right lighting and”—he waves a hand at the empty space—“whatever stuff you need.”

  “Wyatt, you think I’m ready for that?” It takes a second to process what he’s saying. “I don’t know.”

  His fingers settle under my chin, tilting my head back. “I know. You have more and more people who want your photos. More people who want you to photograph them. It’s time you have the right space for it. It’s not a hobby anymore, Trinity.”

  I stand there trying to absorb his words. Maybe because I don’t have a whole lot of faith in myself, but I still think of my photography and design business as a hobby. Wyatt’s taken me seriously since the day I told him how I spent my spare time. Went so far as to buy me all the equipment I needed. Now he’s offering me a workspace, too.

  It’s huge. To me, it’s huge. In actions and words, Wyatt supports my hobby-turned-business. It doesn’t even seem to bother him that most of my time is spent photographing half-naked guys.

  But buying me a building? That’s long-term, looking ahead to the future, faith in me. The realization makes my words stick in my throat. “You don’t have to do this,” I finally whisper.

  “Hey.” His face is calm, but there’s mischief shimmering in his eyes. “I’m going to be your husband. And as your husband, my responsibilities are more than all those crazy orgasms I give you.”

  Underneath my nervous laughter, my heart flutters. “God, you’re arrogant.”

  He nods, agreeing with me, then turns serious. “You’re really good at what you do. I want you to have everything you deserve. Want to be the one who gives it to you.”

  My eyes water, and I’m thankful for the dark sunglasses perched on my nose.

  “Thank you.”

  “It’s not finalized yet. Won’t be until the sale goes through. But I want to make sure you like it and you’ll be comfortable here.”

  “I love it.”

  “Good. You’ll be right next door, so I can make sure you’re safe. I still don’t want you meeting with anyone alone.”

  Wyatt supports this new career path of mine, but he has one hard rule he won’t bend on. I can’t meet any of my models alone. Guys he trusts, like Jake, are fine. Anyone else, he insists on escorting me or scheduling the session at the gym. “I won’t.”

  His body tenses up and he stares at me, searching every angle of my face as if he’s trying to memorize my features. “I can’t…I couldn’t be without you, Trinity.” He tilts his head. “All of this stuff is meaningless without you.” While Wyatt and I enjoy teasing each other, the roughness in his voice tells me how sincere he is.

  There’s nothing to say or do, except slide my arms around his waist and squeeze him tight. I rest my cheek against his chest, absorbing his warmth, and listen to his heart thump. “I love you so much,” I murmur.

  He wraps me up in his arms, and we stand there together for a few minutes. At some point, my hand slips down and I might take advantage and squeeze his butt a little.

  “The front door’s still open.” He rumbles with laughter. “Have some self-control, woman.”

  “I don’t have any around you.”

  I get a similar ass-squeeze, then he pulls away. “Time to get to work.”

  He closes the door and takes my hand, walking us back to the gym. My mind’s so busy trying to process everything, I don’t notice Gina, one of his regular customers, until she’s running toward us.

  As our wedding day approaches, I find it difficult not to slap most of the women who fawn all over my man. Gina is no exception.

  “Mr. Ramsey! Wait up, please.”

  He pauses, grumbling under his breath something I can’t catch.

  She rambles on about an after-school karate program she wants him to consider, never once taking a breath or looking at me.

  Wyatt finally interrupts her. “Gina, this is my wife, Trinity. You’ve met, right?”

  “You’re married?” she gasps, instead of oh, I don’t know, saying hello.

  “Ten more days.” I hug him a little tighter and pat his chest. Her eyes rake down my body, then back to my face.

  “You’re a stunning couple,” she says. “You’ll make beautiful babies.” Her lips curve into a quick smile.

  “Uh, thanks,” I answer.

  She twists toward Wyatt again and bats her heavily-slicked lashes. Who wears that much mascara to the gym for fuck’s sake?

  Wyatt tightens his hold on me and steers us toward the gym. “I need to check in with my guys, Gina. Jake’s brother, Sully, will be taking over some of my cl
asses. You can give the details to him.”

  She huffs but follows us inside.

  A few more of his regular admirers are clustered around the counter. Today, they’re busy gawking at Teller, which I’m sure he’s not loving at the moment. They turn and stare at us when we walk in. This particular group of women are lucky I’m not a typical biker’s ol’ lady, or each one would be getting a punch to the throat right about now for eye-fucking my man when I’m standing right next to him. I never call them out on their shameless flirting, because I know for Wyatt it’s only business and no matter how much they annoy me, I’d never do anything to embarrass him.

  Doesn’t stop me from wanting to lick him and declare him mine in front of each and every one.

  Hell, he’d probably like it if I did.

  Teller’s already earned his keep today by entertaining a few of my regular female clients. Fuck, do I get tired of their yammering and not-so-subtle hints. The more persistent ones stick around trying to capture the attention of the new guy.

  All the female attention has replaced Teller’s usual sour expression with a slight smirk. I can’t say it’s an improvement.

  “Where’s your buddy?” I ask after the ladies go away.

  He points toward a gang of teenage girls who seem to gather here every other afternoon. “I don’t think my sister’s going to appreciate his fan club.”

  I know for a fact Murphy can’t stand those girls, and the only reason he hasn’t tossed them out is that I told him he can’t. It’s bad for business.

  Finally, Twitch walks over to help. Murphy gives him a fist-bump and ducks away.

  “Bro, seriously, how are they good for business?” Murphy bitches as soon as he sees me.

  “They aren’t. Their parents who pay their fees are.”

  Next to me, Trinity laughs. “My husband, the hustler.”

  I don’t miss the way Teller shifts his gaze to the window.

  “They’re harmless,” I say, “and the guys appreciate them.” I jerk a thumb toward Dylan, who’s moved in like a fucking shark to offer his personal trainer services to one of the girls.

  “You running a gym or a hookup site?” Teller asks with a bit of snap in his tone.

  “Watch yourself, welterweight.”

  He scowls at the nickname but shuts his mouth.

  Trinity raises on tiptoes and presses a kiss to my cheek. “I’ll be out back. Behave, boys,” she says, throwing up her hand in a quick wave on the way out. I keep my eyes on her, watching as she stops to talk to Jake and his brother Sully.

  “You trust Jake around her?” Teller asks.

  I almost say “More than I trust you at the moment.” But it’s overly harsh and not even true, so I keep it to myself.

  Doesn’t matter what I was about to say anyway. Our attention’s drawn to Heidi, carrying her daughter as she struggles to open the front door.

  “What’re you doing here, beautiful?” Murphy asks, opening the door and plucking Alexa out of her arms. He tucks Heidi against his side and shoots a look at Teller, as if daring him to say something.

  Heidi’s gaze darts between her brother and me, and I raise an eyebrow. “You realize we actually work here sometimes, right?” I joke.

  She wriggles out of Murphy’s hold. “I know. Sorry. I…was driving—”

  “I’m messing with you, Heidi.” At least when Heidi stops by, she usually helps out, so I don’t mind having her here. Free labor and all that. Although I doubt she’ll be able to do much since the baby’s with her.

  “Why’d you bring Alexa?” Teller snaps.

  She glances at Murphy before answering. “I took her to look for a dress for the wedding. The one I had doesn’t fit now.”

  Twitch pops up, beaming at Heidi like an idiot. “Hey, Heidi.”

  Both Teller and Murphy glare at Twitch. The tension between the four of them, while funny as fuck, is nothing I want to deal with, so I leave them to work it out.

  I’m not even in my office for five seconds before Teller hobbles in.

  “What’s wrong?” I ask, scowling at his lack of knocking.

  “Nothing. They’re irritating me.”

  “Everything irritates you.”

  “You should have kicked her out. She shouldn’t have the baby here, and they don’t need to be all over each other all day long.”

  “Bro, settle the fuck down.” I can’t believe this even needs to be said or that I’m the one who has to say it. “Let them be happy for five seconds. They just got engaged.”

  He shakes his head and opens his mouth, probably to say something else stupid. I cut him off by pointing to the open door. “Close it.”

  That’s right, I sit there and watch him struggle to get up and slam the door shut.

  “Sit the fuck down.”

  His eyes widen, but he takes his seat.

  “I thought you were cool with their engagement?”

  “You don’t understand. I want her to—”

  “Teller. I love you, brother. It’s time to worry about yourself, though.”

  He opens his mouth to interrupt me, and I hold up a hand before he spits out a single word. “I respect the hell out of you for making Heidi a priority pretty much your entire life—”

  “Not enough of one apparently.”

  “Don’t interrupt me.” I stare him down until I’m sure he’s going to keep his mouth shut. “She’s an adult. And she’s Murphy’s problem now.” He glares at me. “Time to let go. Focus on yourself.” Thinking about my own sister, I realize I’m the worst kind of hypocrite. Had Faith made it to Heidi’s age, I probably would have been ten times worse than Teller. Even so, I hate seeing him make himself so miserable.

  “I—whatever.”

  “Don’t whatever me, fucker.”

  He finally cracks a smile. “I feel like shit that I couldn’t be there for her when she needed me.” The smile slips off his face. “I wish I’d fought her harder about marrying Axel, pushed her and Murphy together…done something so she didn’t—”

  “Seriously? Christ, you really are Rock’s mini-me. Quit blaming yourself for stuff you had nothing to do with”

  He glances down at his feet. “It’s hard.”

  There’s a tap at the door before either of us says another word. Trinity pokes her head in and glances at the two of us. “I’m going to run out and grab lunch for everyone. You two want anything?”

  She writes down our lunch orders, I give her some cash, and she turns to leave.

  “Take someone with you,” I say.

  I don’t miss her exasperated sigh. “It’s right across the road—”

  One hard look from me, and she rolls her eyes. “Heidi’s coming with me. Everyone else is busy.”

  “Take Sully or Dylan. They can’t be that fuckin’ busy. Sully doesn’t have any classes yet.”

  “Fine.” She huffs but leans over to kiss my cheek. “You’re lucky I love you so much, ’cause you’re a pain in my ass.”

  Before I can grab her for a deeper kiss, she darts away. She pats Teller’s shoulder as she walks out, leaving the door open.

  I watch Teller’s eyes follow her into the gym for a solid minute, then clear my throat.

  “That’s the other thing we need to talk about.”

  Slowly—too slowly for my taste—he turns my way. “What?”

  “You.” I point at the door Trinity just walked through. “She’s my ol’ lady. About to be my wife. I don’t share. The puppy dog eyes need to fucking stop.”

  For a second, I think he stops breathing. His jaw drops. But not in a guilty, I-got-caught way.

  “I-I didn’t… No disrespect. I wouldn’t—” he stammers.

  Yeah, just as I thought—he didn’t even realize he was doing it. “I know.”

  “I’m sorry, brother.” He takes a second to meet my eyes. “You gonna kick my ass now?”

  “No.” The answer comes out easily. No competitive fire gets stirred up inside me. I don’t have a shred of insecurity a
bout my relationship with Trinity. “I’m glad you…cared about her in the past. But you need to move on.”

  He maintains the eye contact. “I thought I had. I’m sorry.” His apology is brief but sincere. It’s all I need from him.

  The silence that fills the room isn’t even awkward.

  “It’s not an excuse, but I’m still so fucked up over what happened.” He runs his hand over his legs. “Not this—”

  “Keeping up with your physical therapy?”

  His head snaps up and the fierce glare returns. “Yes.”

  He’s in a bad place. That’s what stops me from knocking him the fuck out for his disrespect. Instead, I try to be patient and share my own experience. “When I was recovering from my accident—”

  “Yeah, you didn’t kill anyone in your accident,” he mumbles.

  Shit. I want to help him, but everything that comes out of my mouth seems to make it worse.

  “Brother, that’s not your fault.” The whole club knows something was going on with Teller and Mariella, and I really do understand how awful he must feel. “What was up with you two? Were you—”

  “It wasn’t like that.”

  I wait for him to add some detail, and he sighs. “You really want to hear this?”

  “I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t.”

  He slides his gaze away from me and drops his chin to his chest. “She still wasn’t right from her time with the Vipers. Lot of nightmares. When it got real bad, she liked to come stay in my room.” He swallows hard and glances at the door. “I told her I’d keep her safe.”

  A heavy sigh eases out of me. “That’s not on you.”

  He opens his mouth to argue with me, and I hold up my hand. “No. Listen, none of us were as close to her as you were. I know we don’t bring it up a lot, but we all feel bad about what happened. She was a sweet girl who did not deserve that. You can’t blame yourself.”

  “You don’t understand,” he says with a fire in his voice that’s been missing for way too long. “I’m the one who kept pushing to take her out on the bike. I thought it would be fun for her. It was too cold to be on the bike. But no, I had to have my way. Never considered I would make us an easy target. That’s on me. That’s my fuck-up.” His voice rises with each word, and I feel even worse about being so wrapped up in my own stuff that I hadn’t realized how much he’s been struggling.