Shifting Minds (Skull Shifters MC Book 2)

by Tricia Wagner

  Chapter Four

  I sit here staring at the teddy bear in my hands. I think about what Jason had to do to win it and a smile spreads across my face. I was such a sucker. Even though I didn’t make it too long into the day he had planned, he took me to the carnival in town. After we left there, he had apparently ordered lunch and ran into a local restaurant to grab it. He took me to a place that he says is sacred to Brantley. He had to get special permission to take me there, and I knew immediately that this is where Brantley and Melanie had their first date, and they also got engaged here. It was beautiful. I was sprawled out on a blanket and we had just eaten sandwiches that were amazing. I actually felt like I wanted to pop the button on my shorts.

  I look over to Jason who has now laid down on the blanket. “I brought dessert, too.” I let out a grumble so he knew I was full, but then he says, “Swedish fish.” My eyes get big. “No. You didn’t.” I look to him and he’s smiling letting me know he definitely did. I pull myself up to a sitting position, “If I have to ride home with my pants unbuttoned I will, but I’m eating some Swedish fish.” To this he laughs and I grab at the package he pulls out of the bag he brought. He pulls back and I give him a pouty face when I don’t get them. I’m not even kidding, he bites my lower lip and I am stuck on the fact that he just did that I forget about the fish. “You just bit my lip.” He smirks, “I hate it when you pout.” I pout again, “Why?” He smiles, “Because I always give in.” Oh. Well then. “Can I have some fish now, so I can forgive you for the biting thing?” He pulls me in by the back of my head and just when I think his lips are going to touch mine he pops a Swedish fish into my mouth. I pull back because I almost let him kiss me and I chomp at the little fishy. He has a look on his face that tells me he knows that I almost let him kiss me. I close my eyes and take in the taste that’s going through my mouth. As usual, with my favorite candy, I let out a little moan.

  I hear a frustrated growl and I snap my eyes open to a furious Jason. “You don’t fight fair.” My mouth pops open, “What are you talking about?” He gets close and says, “You almost let me kiss you, then you sit back and moan in your mouth like that?” I snap my mouth shut and then my sass kicks in with, “Are you kidding me? I do that every time I eat Swedish fish. You know this. It’s not something you can stop.” It was his turn to stop talking so I take that as my cue to stand up. It was time to end this little love fest.

  I start to head down the pathway and I’m stopped by a hand pulling me by my good hand backwards. I slam into Jason’s body and just stand there facing away from him. “I thought you did it on purpose.” I shake my head and he gets close to my ear, “I’m sorry. Please, come back and just finish the day with me. Here.” I sag into his body and go back over to the blanket. As soon as we sat down and he gave me another fish his phone started to ring. I look to him and he pulls it out giving me a “one-minute” look. He stalks over to the side of the woods answering, “Yeah?” I smile at his shortness. “You kiddin me?” Great. He swings his eyes back to me, and I just sit there looking at him as he says, “We’ll be right there.” I throw my head back and roll my eyes.

  I hear him hang up his phone, but I don’t look at him. I just grab my Swedish fish and stand up. I start walking down the path and he catches up quickly, “Soph, just hold up a second.” I turn and face him, “Is this club business.” He gives me a nod, “Do I have to be put on lockdown?” He smirks, “Uh. No?” I shake my head at him, “Don’t act like that isn’t something we’ve had to do twice now in the time I’ve known you.” That shut him up and I say, “Exactly.” With that I head straight for his truck. The bike was unfortunately a no go with the cast and the pain pills right now. He helps me into the truck, because I can’t do it on my own. I sit there facing the window and he throws me off by saying, “Are you gonna ask what’s going on?” I shake my head no. “Why?” I look over at him, “Are you going to tell me?” He raises an eyebrow, “When have I ever kept anything from you?” That’s true. “Well, there was that one time…” He cuts me off with, “While it was happening I couldn’t tell you. I let you in the second it was over.” That was true. This is why I snapped my lips together and looked out the window without another word. “Are you gonna ask me why?” I turn to him, “Why?” He sighs, “I can’t tell you.” My mouth pops open, “J!” He smirks, “No, I’m messing with you. I have to get to the clubhouse though.” I wait for him to keep talking and when he doesn’t I say, “Okay, and?” He sighs, “I just need you to come hang out while I have this meeting. As soon as it’s done I can give you the details.” Why on earth did he want me to ask then? I continue to look out the window and I see that we get close to Brantley and Melanie’s.

  There are a ton of bikes here and Jason interrupts my thoughts with, “Melanie isn’t here, so I need you to wait in my room. Cool?” I nod and he must’ve seen me because he gets out of the truck and comes over to help me down. I, not so gracefully, exit the truck and he sends me to his room. I start to look around, because we haven’t been together for a couple months, so I don’t want to know, but I want to know what he’s been up to. I go over to his nightstand and of course see that he’s replenished his supply of condoms. I plop down on the bed trying to convince myself that I don’t care. You’ve been dating someone else for three months, Sophie! Get yourself together here. Although, I never slept with him, so there’s that. Sigh. I wasn’t going to win this argument in my head. I fold to the side I can sleep on and let myself fall right to sleep.

  I feel someone rubbing the top of my arm, up to my shoulder. I let out a whine because my whole body was hurting. “Please, it hurts. I just want to sleep.” Then I realized I had no idea who I was talking to. I open my eyes and see Jason sitting on the edge of the bed. Shit. I go to sit up, but I’m not kidding my arm was killing me. “Does it hurt, baby?” I nod, “It really does. Why are we still here?” He is literally pulling me into his arms to comfort me, “It took longer than I expected. Let’s get you home and into bed with some medicine.” Thank God. He carries me out and into the truck. I keep my eyes closed trying not to focus on the pain, but epically failing. I try not to wince at every bump he hits because I know he’s trying to be super careful. We finally pull into my house and he gets me inside. I see there are bikes behind us and now pulling into the driveway. Apparently, they’re with us because Jason just keeps walking. He gets me upstairs and then runs to where I assume he’s getting me medicine. He makes me take two which isn’t what I wanted, but I was hurting so I took them anyways. I guess whatever was going on would have to wait until tomorrow, because I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow.

  Chapter Five

  I peek my eyes open, and I feel like I am hungover. The sun is shining and I am once again sprawled all over Jason. How does this keep happening to me? Why do I like it so much? I start to push off of him and his arm gets tight, “I just got to sleep, please done leave yet.” I sag into him, because I really don’t want to get out of bed. I need to start setting some limits though, “Why aren’t you in the spare bedroom?” I gently rolls us so I can see his face, “We talkin about this now?” On one hand, I wanted him to sleep because he was tired. On the other hand, I needed my sanity back. “Do you mind? If not, I can get up and you can finish sleeping.” He brings his hand and brushes it over the sensitive spot on my cheek, “If you wanna do this now we sure can.” I sigh, what was he going to say? “I’ll take that as a yes. I’m not in the spare bedroom, because I always sleep better when I’m with you. At some point, you’re going to realize that the only place you’re meant to be is right here in my arms. When that time comes I don’t want to regret the time that I’ve spent here. The only way I would regret it is if I were anywhere else other than where I am right now.”

  I’m looking into these eyes. Eyes that are so full of hope and promise. Why can’t I just let myself have this? All of my reasoning’s come flooding back and I jump to protect myself, “Jason, all of that is really sweet, but I can’t do this. L
ook at the position that I’m in right now. I can’t see clients, I can’t go anywhere without an armed escort, and don’t think I didn’t notice the entourage last night. That's the life you lead. How can you ask me to be a part of that?” I can see that my question actually pains him, and I feel bad, but he needs to understand where I’m coming from.

  He pulls me up so now we’re face to face and says, “I always told you I was selfish. Sophie, I have never had feelings toward someone that I feel toward you. The extra protection is precautionary, because I have to head out tonight. You’ll have guards, but it’s not because anything was threatened. It’s more for my peace of mind. Shit went down yesterday, a new drug dealer decided he wants our Club as his nesting ground. For obvious reasons, we aren’t down with that. We have to make our presence known there tonight, and I’m not comfortable leavin you yet. So in my place is twenty guys.” My mouth pops open, “It takes twenty guys to replace you?” He shakes his head, “At least double that, but I didn’t have the man power to spare right now.” I take in a breath and let that feeling fall over me.

  He cared enough to order that much protection for me. “I see you’re shocked at this, and I gotta know…why? Why would any of that surprise you?” I didn’t really have an answer for this, but I attempted one with, “I…I don’t know…I guess I never thought it mattered to you that much.” He squints his eyes, “Soph, didn’t I show you how invested I was in us? I did everything I could to be sure you were comfortable around my brothers, I’ve been here waiting for you to realize you are supposed to be with me, I tried every way I could think of, to show you how much I cared, you just didn’t see it. You chose to ignore it.” I did. I avoided it like the plague. I mean we were together until all the crazy stuff started happening for Melanie, and then I just freaked out. “I saw it.” It was a whisper, but I said it, “I just didn’t know how to process any of it, so I avoided it.” He smirks at me as his hand cups the bottom of my face, “You’re not tellin me anything I don’t already know.” Oh. “Why are you asking then?” His thumb does a brush over my face again and I’m so caught up in this moment that all I want him to do is kiss me.

  He doesn’t do this, instead he says, “I wanted to be sure that you knew you were doing it.” I close my eyes. He totally had me. I felt him super close to my face. I knew that if I opened my eyes I would see the look on his face that told me he wanted to kiss me. Stupidly, I wanted to see it. I opened my eyes and as I did I saw just that. His piercing eyes had me in his gaze and my body had a mind of its own. My head tilted a little and his body instantly reacted. His lips gently brushed mine as my body moved into his further. It was then, that I decided this was going to be the best kiss I had ever had with Jason Valtowski. It was in that same moment, that the doorbell went off. His body went tense instantly, and our lips were still barely touching as he says, “I swear to God it better be an emergency.” I feel my smile come onto my face and I can still feel his lips right there.

  He still hasn’t moved and at first I thought he was just going to kiss me anyways. Then the doorbell went again twice. He looked me dead in the eye and said, “Don’t lose this look. Please.” I didn’t respond, I just let him roll out of the hold and head toward the doorbell. I sat there staring at the space he used to fill and try to get myself up out of bed. I struggle at first because everything hurts, but I manage and get into my closet. I find a simple T-Shirt to throw on and I get it on a little easier today. Luckily or unluckily I had slept in my bra, so I didn’t have to worry about that. I get my pants on and ignore the bed hair that I have going on because I can’t put it up with one hand and I head downstairs.

  Maybe Jason can put my hair up for me if we have company. I come down around the corner and stop when I hear, “I insist that I am able to see her. She needs to know her options.” It was Marshall. What was he talking about? “She doesn’t need an option from you, because I’m taking care of it. I told you before to stay away from her, and if you don’t, I will tell her everything I know about you.” My mouth pops open, what does he know about Marshall? “You wouldn’t.” This was Marshall, so obviously there was something to tell. Jason replies with, “The hell I wouldn’t. What do I care?” That was enough of this, “How about if you just tell me now?” I swing around the corner and Marshall’s eyes get huge. I look to Jason and he’s smiling, “Babe, nice hair.” I glare at him and say, “I was going to ask you to put it up for me.” His smile gets bigger and he comes around behind me taking the hair tie off of my wrist. He messes with it a little bit, but I can tell he’s successfully gotten it into a bun on top of my head. Nice. “Marshall…did you want to let me in on what’s going on, and how the two of you seem to know each other?” Marshall shakes his head once in the negative, “I need to get going. I have an appointment.” Before I can even object to him leaving, he’s gone.

  Jason goes and shuts the door locking it quickly and turning to me, “Babe, are you hungry?” I shake my head, “I want to know what’s going on.” He completely ignores me and says, “I’ll make some waffles.” I look around, is this real life? “Um. I know you can hear me, and I want an answer.” I follow him into the kitchen where I kid you not he pulls out the stuff to make waffles. “J, I don’t want waffles. Are you gonna answer me?” Nothing. He just keeps working on the task at hand. That is until he goes to get out the waffle maker, and I stand right in front of the cabinet. Ha! He doesn’t say anything, in response to me being in the way he literally picks me up by the waist and moves me. “Jason!” Yes, I’m yelling at this point. He grabs the waffle maker and turns it on so it will heat up. I take my good arm and swing it at him, just to get the point across, and he stops it when he sees it out of the corner of his eyes. He has my fist in his hand and looks at it and then to me. Woops. “Were you just going to hit me?” I nod. “It’s my life, this clearly has an effect on me and I want to know what’s going on.” He lets my fist go and sets it down at my side, “You aren’t ready for all that his story entails.” What? “You just get to decide this?” He nods, “Yeah. I do.” I scoff, “What right do you have?” He’s so in my space right now, I’m getting distracted.

  He has his arm around to the small of my back and he’s inching me closer into his body. “Quit doing that!” He smirks, “Doing what?” My eyes get bigger, “You know exactly what you’re doing. Please. Just tell me what’s going on.” I see him close his eyes and he says, “Go sit on the couch. I need to make a call.” What? “J! Seriously?” He nods, “Seriously. I can’t do it. It’s not mine to give and the guy who needs to tell it just left. Let me make the call while I make you waffles.” This meant that it was bad. I don’t say anything I just turn and head over to the couch where I plop myself down.

  I hear him on the phone, but his words don’t register. What could possibly be going on, and how do Marshall and Jason know each other? Jason comes back into the room and says, “Come in here and eat while we wait.” I look up to him and nod as he takes my good hand and pulls me into the kitchen. I plop down at my table that looks out a window and he sets a plate down in front of me. With two huge homemade waffles. “Are you crazy? I can’t eat all of that.” He slides it to the side and puts a plate in front of me with one. Oh. I slap on some butter and some maple syrup before I take the first bite. I love homemade waffles, and this is just one more way that Jason is showing me that he paid attention. I dig in and love every minute of it. I finish three quarters and find my stomach upset. “I can’t eat anymore. I just think I’ve had so much medicine in me, and not enough food.” All he does is nod and take the plate from me. I turn to him, “Should I be nervous?” I hear him sigh, “I didn’t really want you to know about any of this. At least not right now. It’s gonna hurt, Soph. I think you’ve been through enough for right now.” I look up into his eyes and I can feel the tears welling up in mine, “Is my imagination worse than what this is?” He takes my hand and pulls it to his lips, “Unfortunately, Soph, I think this might be worse than anythin you could’ve come up
with.” Shit. “I don’t want to know. Please. I give in.”

  I pull my hand back and I get off the couch and up to my bedroom before Jason can catch me. I don’t know why, but I go into my closet and curl into a little ball underneath my hanging clothes. I just sit there with my cheek to my knees and my mind goes a million different places. I still can’t come up with a horrible scenario, where Marshall isn’t what he seems. Did I fall into a bigger mess that I had even realized? Sophie, you’re hiding in here and you could’ve known the answers to all of these questions. I want to scream. I was such a baby! I hear the door open, but I don’t hear him get close. It took a minute and then I see Jason crawling onto the floor. I’m looking at him and I know he can see the tears in my eyes, “Soph, come here.” He indicates for me to come into his lap and because I’m in the mood that I am, I comply. I curl right into him.

  That’s the one thing about him being so big and me being so little. He could always make me feel so secure. “Baby, I need to make this better for you. I know I said that I think it might be worse you knowin, I didn’t expect you to not want to know what is going on. Marshall’s here. He’s going to tell you what’s going on, but I’m gonna be right here for you. It’s not gonna be easy, but were gonna get through it all. On top of that, you won’t have to worry about your mind wandering.” I don’t say anything. I just settle further into his lap and put my head down. “Soph, come on. As much as I love you being in my arms, we gotta get up and head down there.” I don’t say anything, but I do unfold and stand up.