“Why? I’m sure she keeps things interesting.”
I bit my lip and pushed my hair behind my ear. “What are you doing here?”
Sighing, he shrugged. “I went for a ride and caught your scent.’ He snapped his fingers. “Just like that, I found myself here.”
“How did things go last night?” I told myself I shouldn’t ask. Making conversation was opening the door for more of a connection, but I was an idiot.
He sighed again, deeper. When he met my gaze, he seemed to close down. “Fine.”
I rolled my eyes. “Forget I asked.”
He nodded towards the house. “Nice place. Your parents did pretty well for themselves, huh?”
“It’s mine. They live in Georgia, but their house is being remodeled. Personally, I think it’s just an excuse to come here and spend more time with their new baby grand daughter. Either way, they’re blessing me with their company.”
“Your house?”
I put my hands on my hips and frowned. “Yes. My house.”
“The lingerie business is pretty good, huh?”
I laughed. “Kind of. I used to model.”
His eyes raked down my body and then held my gaze. “Huh.”
I was fully clothed, yet with the way he looked at me, I’d never felt so exposed. “Anyway. I should head in.”
I heard the screen door open and Mama’s voice. “Invite him to dinner, Charlotte.”
I felt my cheeks burn. I was going to bludgeon her.
“Charlotte?”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Are you going to invite me to dinner?”
I glared at him. “Come in if you want.”
I turned and marched towards the verandah, trying not to care if he stayed or not. It’d be best for both of us if he left. Even as I thought it, though, I found myself hoping he’d stay.
“Wait for me, Charlotte.”
Worse even than hearing that name, was realizing that I didn’t hate the way it sounded on his lips.
20
Axel
Jean and Charles Monroe were parents unlike any I’d ever known. They were the kind I’d seen on the TV shows I’d watched when I was young. Jean looked at her family like they were the whole world. Charles kept staring at the doorway leading out of the dining room, but when he did look at his wife and children, there was pride in his eyes.
They bickered. Charlie and her mom fought constantly, from the moment we stepped inside the front door, to when we were actually sitting down at the table with her brother and his mate and their cute infant daughter. His mate was the human woman from the night before, who Charlie had made such a point of protecting.
They were still bickering. Everyone else just ate their food and grinned, but Charlie and Jean didn’t let up.
I’d never been at a table where it felt so fucking much like I was with the Cleaver family, sitting next to Beaver. I would’ve been uncomfortable if they weren’t all so damn inviting. With the exception of Holt, the brother, and Charlie. Charlie was avoiding eye contact with me entirely.
“So, what do you do for a living, Axel?” Jean gently took a bite of potatoes into her mouth and then smiled at me. “That’s not invasive, is it? I don’t know how you gang boys are.”
Charlie choked next to me, while Sonnie giggled. I rolled my lips into my mouth to keep from laughing. This was insane. I was having fun. I never would have guessed it would be like this, but I was having a fucking blast. These people were a hoot.
“Mama!”
Jean rolled her eyes. “Really, Charlotte. Your dramatics are getting old. I have a right to talk to your mate.”
“Jesus, Mama. Just stop talking.”
“Charlotte!” Jean chucked her dinner roll across the table at Charlie and shook her head. “You’ve lost all of your manners. Be quiet so I can talk to Axel. Axel, right? Is Axel short for anything? Is it a nickname?”
I’d caught the roll before it could hit Charlie, so I took a bite out of it and nodded. “Nickname. I’ve worked on cars since I was little. Axel just stuck.”
Charlie turned to me. “What’s your real name?”
Holt groaned. “Shit, Charlie. You don’t even know his name?”
Sonnie giggled again. “Leave her alone, Holt. It happens.”
“Alexander. Alexander True.”
Charlie swallowed. “Alexander.”
Hearing her say my name was like putting a torch to gasoline. I was instantly rock hard. Something about my name escaping while watching her plump lips form the word rushed through me like wildfire. I tried to covertly adjust myself under the table. Charlie noticed, though, and I could smell that my arousal turned her on. Her face went bright red and she crossed her legs. The dress she was wearing rose up her thighs revealing more of her smooth, creamy skin. I swallowed loudly.
I had to get a grip on myself. I couldn’t sit across from her parents with a raging hard on. “So, yeah. Alexander. No one’s called me that since I was in kindergarten, though. I’m a mechanic. I own an auto repair shop a few hours from here.”
“Is that where your family is?”
I put my fork down and sat back for a second. Is that the kind of shit normal people talked about? I couldn’t remember the last time someone had asked me about my family. The club was my family, but I know that wasn’t what she meant.
“Besides the club, there’s no family.”
“Oh, my, your parents have passed, have they?”
“Yes, ma’am. My father died when I was in kindergarten. I have fond memories of him, though. My mother kind of went off the deep end after his death. Then, two weeks before my twelfth birthday, she dropped me off at a coffee shop with two dollars and told me to buy myself a hot chocolate. Said she’d be back soon. Never saw her again.”
Jean clicked her tongue, then leaned across the table and placed her hand over mine. She smiled gently at me and shook her head. “Well, you have a family now. You have us. Welcome to the family, son.”
I swallowed what felt like a lump of coal in my throat. “Y-You don’t even know me.”
She shook her head. “I know all I need to know. Fate doesn’t make mistakes. If you and my daughter are meant for each other, there’s a reason. Charlotte can be tough, but she’s got a big heart. She wouldn’t be matched with someone who wasn’t equally as tough with just as tender a heart. From now on, I expect you to call me Mama Jean.”
And just like that, I felt I was part of a family. Even if it was only for one night.
Charlie suddenly stood up and pushed her chair in. “I have to check on dessert.”
Sonnie climbed to her feet a little slower. “I’ll go with you.”
I sighed and looked out the window at my bike parked in the driveway. I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing there. Playing house with a bunch of nice, normal people. The guys in the club were right. Just a month before I’d been laughing at jokes about wolf shifters being mutts. I’d been crude and I’d done and said things that would have the nice, normal family sitting at the table with me grabbing their daughter and running. I was crazy to think I could fit in.
“I should go.”
Mama Jean stood up and shook her head. “You stay. I’m going to give that daughter of mine a piece of my mind. You just sit right where you are.”
There was no way I was staying. As soon as Mama Jean left the room, I stood up and stepped away from the table. As an afterthought, I pushed my chair in, and forced what I hoped came across as a smile to Charles and Holt. “Thanks for the meal.”
Holt stood up. “I’ll join you.”
I walked ahead of him, expecting the wolf to give me words of warning to stay away from his sister. Instead, what he said shocked me.
“Don’t go, man. Charlie’s a tough one, but she’s great. She needs someone like you. Someone tough. I don’t love the whole motorcycle club bullshit and if your guys approach my sister and the mother of my child like they did last night again, I’ll kill them. But, I can see the way you loo
k at her.”
I ignored the threat to the club. I understood completely his protectiveness of his mate. I hesitated and looked back at the dining room. “She doesn’t want me here.”
“Bullshit. I know my sister. She’s going through something. I’m not sure what, but as much as she doesn’t seem to want to admit it, she wants you here.”
“I don’t know.”
“She’s the best woman you’re ever going to find. She’s fiercely loyal to the people she cares about. She would’ve fought to the death to protect Sonnie last night. I don’t know what your issues are or why you wouldn’t want a mate like her, but you’d be crazy to walk away, man, I’m telling ya'.”
My bear chuffed happily at hearing that about Charlie. I was suddenly a ball of nerves, though. Staying would be making a statement. It would mean that I was making an effort to show Charlie that I wanted to be with her. The decision was huge. I didn’t even know for sure if I wanted that.
My bear once again called me a liar. I scrubbed my hands down my face. It wasn’t as easy as just sitting back down to the table. My stomach was in knots and I felt like I was going to drop from heart failure at any moment.
Showing a concerted effort to Charlie was a conscious decision to step away from the club and towards her. The club was the only family I’d ever known. I’d never put that kind of trust in a woman before. I was hearing all these things about how loyal Charlie was, and I could see it, but it was still terrifying. There was no proof that she wouldn’t be just like my mom in the end.
“It’s impossible to walk away from your mate, man. I tried. You’ll end up going crazy from it. More than that, she needs you.”
I growled and looked at him. “I’m just going to sit outside and get some air. I’m not leaving.”
He grinned suddenly and clapped me on the back. “Good choice.”
I walked out and sat in one of Charlie’s rocking chairs. The evening chill barely fazed me. Had I just made a choice? Had I forsaken my brothers?
21
Charlie
Go out there and talk to him. I’m serious, Charlotte. You’re being a brat.” Holt shook his head and gestured in the direction of the front verandah. “He’s trying.”
Sonnie was nodding her head in agreement. “Come on, Charlie. He obviously wants to work things out.”
“Sonnie’s right. You have a man trying to fight for you. Why are you so against him?”
I stood facing my family, wanting to scream at them. They didn’t get it. It wasn’t that simple. They didn’t have all the facts.
Mama Jean shook her head. “That boy needs you, Charlotte.”
I held up my hands to silence them. “Stop it. I make my own decisions. You’re all being pushy and impossible.”
Holt grabbed my arms and lifted me. I was strong, but he was stronger. He put me down by the front door and pushed me through it. “That’s being pushy.” He slammed the door and locked it. Then, he shouted through it. “And that’s being impossible.”
I stumbled a few steps out onto the verandah and hissed at Holt who was making faces at me through the glass in the door. “Asshat!”
“Everything alright?”
I glanced over at Axel and my breath caught in my throat. Sitting in one of my rocking chairs, he had his ankle resting on his other knee and he looked so relaxed and at home. He just watched me, no expression on his face to let me know what he was thinking.
I crossed my arms over my chest and sat on the railing in front of him. “Well?”
He raised his eyebrows. “Well, what?”
“That was a lot.”
“Yeah. I guess so.”
I narrowed my eyes. “My mama just invited you into to family and practically offered to adopt you. You’re not weirded out? Five minutes ago, you were talking about how you weren’t meant for settling down.”
“Five minutes ago, I was appreciating the way your thighs look in that dress.”
“Dammit.” Exasperated, I shoved my hands through my hair and swayed backwards. I overcorrected and then jerked back again to avoid falling forward, just to feel myself slipping over the railing going backwards.
I waited for the painful moment when my back would hit the ground, but it never came. Instead, warmth encompassed me.
Axel breathed into my hair as he set me back upright. “You’re a mess.”
I slumped against his chest, into his comforting warmth, and groaned. “You don’t know the half of it.”
He sat back down in his rocking chair and settled me on his lap. I tried to move, but he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me back against his body. I let my head flop to his shoulder.
I inhaled a shaky breath. “What are you doing?”
“Holding you. What did you think I was doing?”
“We shouldn’t…”
He chuckled next to my ear, giving me goosebumps down my neck and shoulder. “Just stop thinking for a minute. That’s what I did. Because if I was thinking, I’d scare myself half to death. I’d hop on my bike and ride it as far away from here as I could get. But, just stop. If you weren’t thinking, wouldn’t this feel just perfect?”
Butterflies fluttered in my stomach. I turned my head and studied him. There were so many hard lines on his face, it should’ve been harsh. Instead, it was alluring and easy to take in. Not thinking around him was a bad idea.
He smelled so good, though. His beard had grown in more and I wanted to feel it. Maybe not thinking for a little while wouldn’t be so bad.
I adjusted my position so I could see more of his face and gently stroked my hand down his beard. It was soft and I wanted to rub my face against it, so I did. I stroked my face up the side of his face and when my lips were next to his ear, I couldn’t help the shaky breath I exhaled. I felt him shudder and realized the power I had over him.
“Not thinking around you is the most dangerous thing I could ever do, Axel.” I gently pressed my lips to the shell of his ear and sighed. “It will end in a life sentence, if we’re not careful.”
I told myself to move. I told myself to pull away, but when he cupped my face in his hand, I didn’t. When he turned my face to his and stared into mine with his glowing light green eyes, I felt those butterflies in my stomach flutter up to my brain and I forgot every conviction I held. When he leaned in to kiss me, I was ruined.
His strong arms enveloped me, pulling me closer as his teeth and tongue grazed the seam of my mouth. I opened, wanting more. Languid strokes of his tongue brushed against mine as he kissed me with an intense hunger that I thought just might eat me right up. The man knew how to strip me bare. As he nipped and sucked at my bottom lip, I thought I would melt into a puddle on the floor. Even though I could feel his body harden under mine, the kiss promised something far beyond sex.
When the screen door scraped open, I jerked away from Axel and nearly fell on my ass. My brain kicked in and I realized that I was in a dangerous, vulnerable place with him.
Once again, he caught me. Pulling me to my feet, he looked down at me and one corner of his mouth lifted in a smile. “Careful, now.”
Sonnie cleared her throat. “Mama Jean wanted me to tell you that we’re having dessert.”
I pulled away from Axel and nodded. “Sure. We’ll be right in.”
“I actually should go.”
I looked back at him and frowned. “Another party?”
Sonnie scooted away, mumbling. “I’ll be inside with everyone else.”
“Careful, Charlotte. You’re beginning to sound like you care.”
My frown deepened, but I still found myself walking him down to his bike. There was a voice in my head that was playing on a continuous loop, asking me what the hell I was doing, and then there was the rest of me, urging me on. I hadn’t even protested him calling me Charlotte. Why hadn’t I protested? I liked my name on his lips.
“Your family is amazing.”
“I think the word you meant to say is nosey. Or annoying. Or certifiable.”
“Naw, I meant amazing.” He threw his leg over the bike and sat down. He made quite the image, tatted, leather-clad, muscle-bound, straddling the powerful motorcycle. He looked like the biggest and baddest of the badass bikers. The kind mothers warn their daughters about.
There was so much on the tip of my tongue. Reasons why we couldn’t be together, reasons he was wrong for me, reasons why he couldn’t come back around… Instead of all of that, I just nodded and backed away. “Be safe.”
“You work in the morning?”
I nodded and crossed my arms over my chest. Digging my nails into my arms, I forced myself to back way farther.
“Cool.”
The bike revved to life, my pulse kick starting with it. My wolf urged me to jump on the back of it and hang on to him for dear life. We’d figure the rest out later. I could leave Helen’s Corner, if I had to. I could just exist with him. My wolf pushed and demanded. Go with him. If you don’t go now, you will regret it. You may never have another chance at happiness. Go!
I lifted my hand in a forced wave and quickly turned and walked away. My wolf didn’t understand. Not one little bit.
22
Charlie
There was a cloud hanging over my head. I’d listened to Mama Jean chew me out about Axel for as long as I could the night before. She’d bashed me over the head again and again about how he needed me. She’d thought that he looked sad. There was something she was reading from him that made her think he was lonely.
I couldn’t listen to any more of it. I went to work early to avoid her harping over breakfast and found myself face to face with the man in question. Staring at him over a rack of specialty sized bras, my mouth felt like a desert. I licked my lips.
Axel walked closer to me and nodded back at the door. “I didn’t think you’d be open this early.”
I tucked my hair behind my ears and then pulled it back and clipped it up. “Um, yeah. I just… What are you doing here?”
Bear Outlaw Page 9
