“Except tonight,” Dare said, and Shakes smacked his arm. “Darlin’, I ain’t been laid in a week. Once I close the door at our place, not opening until tomorrow. And might not do it then.”
“Oh my God, Dare, there are little ears around,” Shakes scolded and looked to where Ally and Neely were. Thank God, they were by the trailer with a few of the brothers, looking at Luna’s bike.
“They aren’t ours, so we don’t have to do any explaining,” Dare said and chuckled. “Besides, you act like we’re going to be the only ones bouncing the headboard off the wall, sugar.”
“Just a tip. The egg crate stuff people use to make their mattress softer. Cut two pieces the size of your headboard and staple one to the back of the headboard. The other, dip in the same paint color as your wall, then attach it with Velcro. Cheaper than fixing the wall all the time and cuts down on sound.”
“Got any tips when people are plain ass loud?” Devil asked and looked at Crusher and Carly. It didn’t take Luna long to realize what he was getting at even though she hadn’t heard about their first time in Crusher’s house when they left the window open.
“Well, nothing short of a ball gag, really,” she said with a straight face. Everyone looked at each other, then laughed, and Luna smiled.
“What am I going to do with you?” I asked.
“Take me home and love me.”
I grinned, leaned down, and kissed the top of her head. I forgot how comfortable she always was around people and was glad she hadn’t grown out of that. She laid her head against my arm.
“You tired?”
“A little and hungry.”
“Brax, we stocked basic stuff, and some of the other ol’ ladies made a few casseroles and set them in the fridge. Didn’t think after the trip the two of you would want to go running to the grocery,” Bailey said. “And I left you a little something on the kitchen island from my mom’s bakery.”
“Claire’s strawberry cheesecake?” I asked and cocked my brow.
“Yes.” She winked.
“Umm...cheesecake?” Luna tilted her head up at me and smiled.
“Not just any cheesecake, the best cheesecake.”
“Nice to meet everyone. Thanks for making me feel so welcome. Can’t wait to get to know everyone better. But wherever that cheesecake is, I need to be there.”
After a few more exchanges, I put Luna on the back of my bike while Roscoe and a couple brothers followed us to help unload her bike and things.
It hadn’t escaped me that I’d probably smiled and laughed more today than I had in a very long time.
Chapter Thirteen
Luna
“Some cabin,” I said as I stood by the bike and looked around the area. “It’s beautiful here.” I turned in a circle and took in the entire area. I could see at least six other cabins, well, if you could call them that, randomly placed to give the residents some privacy.
“Flirt told me that after the club bought the property, they renovated the cabins and enlarged them. They didn’t want to lose the rustic look, so they stayed true to that and built onto the original places. It took Stroker and the others a couple years to get everything done, but they did. Then he and the other leadership lived in the houses on the other side. When Flirt and the guys started making their way back, they built themselves smaller places by the pond that sets toward the back of the property and turned the original houses over to their sons.”
“Well, they did an awesome job because even though the cabins are more like houses, they still fit into the landscape. Are they all lived in?”
“Yeah, I think so. Most of the single guys live in town. The clubhouse has rooms upstairs, but those are used if someone gets drunk at a party and can’t drive. Mostly the prospects use them when they’re on gate duty. They can switch out and catch a few hours of sleep, but still be close if needed. I stayed in one of the rooms until I found a place in town. I had a one bedroom apartment. I didn’t need much space for just me. Why don’t you go inside, baby, and relax while I help the boys get your stuff carried in and your bike unloaded off the trailer.” Brax led me up the couple steps to the porch, then opened the door.
“Why would Roscoe want to move from here?” The room we walked in to was large, and everything was as rustic as the outside. Vaulted ceiling with the wooden rafters in view. A fireplace sat in the middle of the outer wall and was stone except for the mantle that matched the rest of the wood throughout the room. A few boxes were sitting against another wall, and a big ass TV was in the corner, sitting in what looked like a built-in bookcase slash entertainment stand. On one of the shelves sat two wooden boxes of similar size and color.
“Sue has a house in town, and Roscoe moved in with her. Most of the married members live in town, too.” Brax walked me to the couch. “Sit, baby. Put your feet up. It won’t take us long, then we can see what the ol’ ladies left in the fridge. While the food is heating, we can look at the rest of the inside. I’ve only been here a couple times, and only downstairs when I was.”
“Okay, sounds good.” I sat on the plain brown couch that looked out of place in the room. Brax leaned down and kissed my forehead, then went back out the front door.
Besides the couch, there was an end table, lamp, and a chair, but not much else. Brax and I would definitely need more furniture if this was where we going to stay.
I pulled my boots off, then leaned my head back on the couch and curled my legs to one side. With my eyes closed, I listened as the guys came in and went back out, either after going up the steps or plopping what they carried on the floor in the room where I was. Their voices as they talked to one another must have lulled me to sleep because the next thing I knew, Brax sat beside me with my legs stretched across his lap as he rubbed my stocking covered feet.
“You’re good at that.” I raised my arms over my head, which was now resting on the arm of the couch and stretched. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep. How long was I out?”
“‘Bout an hour and a half. You need the rest, baby. Come on, I put a taco casserole in the oven and it should be done. Let’s get you fed.” Brax ran a hand up my leg and squeezed my thigh. “Your stomach was growling while you slept. I could hear it over your snoring.” He lifted my legs and stood, then dropped them back to the couch.
“I do not snore,” I sat up and glared at him, and he laughed.
“Baby, you do. And it’s cute.”
“There is nothing cute about snoring. And I don’t so stop saying I do.” I stood and started toward the kitchen with Brax laughing as he followed.
“Think I would know since I’m the one hearing it since you’re asleep.”
“Whatever,” I said as I walked through the doorway to the kitchen and stopped.
Though the downstairs was open, the only view from the living room was the kitchen table. Which was square with only two chairs. Another thing that would have to be placed on my mental furnishings list.
“What’s wrong, Luna?”
“This kitchen makes me wish I was a cook. Not that I can’t whip up a meal, but this is meant for so much more.” The double oven, to the stove, to the three-door fridge, all of which were stainless steel, went perfectly with the brown granite countertops with matching backsplash.
“Well, sugar, you got all the time in the world to practice with new recipes.” Brax moved around me and pulled the pan out of the oven and set it on the island that separated the eating area from the cooking side of the kitchen.
“Brax, I can’t sit around every day with nothing to do. I’m going to need a job.” I pulled out one of the bar stools and sat.
“Luna, I know we haven’t talked about money. But I have plenty. Really more than enough. I invested what I inherited from my parents. I’ve got life insurance money from Stormy and BJ set back because I couldn’t bring myself to deal with it. Using it, didn’t seem right. That’s not including what was put into savings out of my military pay. And I make a decent living with what I earn as a stipend f
rom the club, which will go up with me running the gym and the massage parlor.” I watched Brax as he moved around the kitchen locating dinnerware and utensils, then setting them on the island, too. “So no need for you to work. Think of my money as our money, baby.”
“Brax,” I said with a sigh. “It’s not about money, I need to work. I’m not the laying around type. I will go batty if I don’t have something to do. It can be part-time or anything really. Black Hawk has a strip club, right?”
Brax took the stool next to me, and I started serving the food. When he didn’t respond, I looked over at him, and his jaw was clenched, and his nostrils were flared.
“What the hell has you mad? I didn’t go off on a tirade when you were telling me that you pretty much wanted me to stay home and cook.”
“You might’ve worked at the fucking strip club at Ops, but I’ll be goddamned if you work at Soft Tails. My ol’ lady ain’t taking her fucking clothes off for no one again, but me.”
I laughed, which wasn’t the right response because Brax stood abruptly and the stool tipped over and hit the floor by the force. He stomped to the fridge and yanked the door open.
“Water or soda?” he bit out, and I stifled my laughter to answer. He slammed the can of soda down in front of me and a beer beside his plate before he bent and picked the stool up, then sat back down. “Laugh all the fuck you want. But you won’t be stripping here. That’s fucking final.”
“Are you done ordering me around?” I asked as sweetly as I could without snapping at him. He’d misunderstood my question and jumped straight to the extreme.
“Probably not, but you’ll have to get over it.” He picked up his fork and started eating.
“Well, now that we have that worked out.” I chuckled, and his head whipped toward me, and the vein at his temple was protruding. “Sweetie, I didn’t mean I wanted a job stripping. But I do know the business. And I’m not talking about the strippers. There’s inventory of the bar and kitchen. Scheduling, you name it. I also know how to bartend. And if there’s nothing there I can help with, maybe one of the other club businesses could use some help.”
“Just want time with you, baby. But I’ll check for ya.” Brax leaned and kissed my forehead. “We can talk more about it later. Eat.”
“So bossy,” I said and picked up my fork and started eating.
“Yep,” he said and smiled at me, not a bit ashamed.
“Well, since you were so sweet about me letting me work,” I said, then laughed when he looked over at me and smirked. “And, you are even willing to share your money, I guess I could do the same.”
“Luna, I’m not going to use the money you make. You spend it however you want, baby.”
“Umm...Brax. Not talking about a paycheck. I’ve invested well, too. The mine the Ops owned in Riverton brought in a shit ton of cash, then more after the rights were sold. Everyone got a share. My share was...three million and some change.”
Brax had taken a bite when I said the amount and started to choke. I reached over and patted his back while he took a drink of his beer.
“Christ, woman, you don’t casually drop shit like that when people have food in their mouth.”
“Sorry, we were talking about money, and I thought I should let you know. I don’t want you to think I would keep things from you. Plus, it’s even more since I invested. And—”
“Stop.” Brax put his hand up and cut me off. “First, I’m happy you have money, a lot of money, but, baby, that’s yours. We won’t need to touch any of that to live. Might need to dip into it to send our kids to college, though.”
“Kids? As in plural?” I asked as I stopped the fork right at my lips.
“Well yeah, I would like to have at least three or four.”
Are you crazy? Is what I wanted to ask, but Brax’s face dropped, and I knew where his thoughts went.
“How come you and Stormy didn’t have more kids?” It took him a minute, and I was left wondering if he would even answer.
“She had a hard time carrying BJ. At delivery, they ended up having to give her an emergency C-section because he was too big for her to push out.” He took a deep breath and glanced down at my stomach before he brought his eyes back to mine. “After they delivered him, she started bleeding above what was normal. They ended up having to take one of her ovaries due to a small tumor that had ruptured. The way it was wrapped around the ovary, the doctors were even surprised she got pregnant to begin with.”
“Sweetie, I’m sorry,” I said and rubbed his forearm.
“She didn’t take any birth control after, but she never got pregnant again.”
My heart was breaking for him, and there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for Brax to put light back in his eyes.
“I imagine you as an awesome dad to BJ, and I have no doubt you will be just as awesome with our child. So, sweetie, you want four kids—I’m game. We can go to the crazy house together.”
“Goddamn, I love you.” I was snatched off the stool and in Brax’s arms being kissed before I knew what happened. After he kissed me dizzy, he sat me back down on the stool and then went and pulled a box out of the fridge. “Want to celebrate?”
“If that’s the famous cheesecake, you bet your ass.” Brax laughed and set the box on the island and lifted the lid. “Don’t be stingy. I want a big piece. I am eating for two.”
“How about we share?” Brax chuckled, slid the box to me, and handed me a clean fork.
I took the first bite, then moaned around the fork. When I went for the second bite, I looked up at Brax. “My ass is going to be so wide.” Brax winked.
“And I will love every inch of it.” It was my turn to laugh.
“Hmm,” I said and closed my eyes, leaned on the back of the bar stool and ran my hand across my stomach. “Ah, I’m so full. I don’t think I can force another bite.”
“Come on, we’ll go work it off,” Brax said and lifted me in his arms.
“Do we have a bed? I haven’t even been upstairs.”
“Yeah, nice and big. Only thing I bought new after I got here. I’m not exactly a small man.”
“And aren’t I lucky.”
“In about two minutes, both of us are going to be,” Brax said, and kicked the door shut and proceeded to be true to his words.
Chapter Fourteen
Ghost
“Didn’t expect you’d be anxious to get down to business this morning,” Flirt remarked as we walked around the empty building where the club’s gym would be.
“Shit, I imagine it had to do with visitors at his place,” Crusher piped in and slapped me on the back. “Carly, Sami, and Bailey hit his place this morning. I tried to hold Carly off, but was informed they needed to go early because they wanted to help Luna get settled in.”
“I’d go with just wanting to be nosey,” Speed mumbled.
“Brother, are you not the president of this club?” Jag asked and looked at Crusher. I chuckled when Crusher flipped him off.
“Hey, once shower sex was offered, I kinda lost that caring feeling about the brother’s Saturday morning getting interrupted. Am I proud of that? No. But I am relaxed.”
“Wow, you have such a big heart,” Jag sneered.
“First of all, I know I have a heart because it was pounding in my chest when Carly’s lips wrapped—”
“Enough!” Speed yelled, cutting Crusher off, and catching the rest of us off guard. “Can we act like we have dicks, instead of vaginas? I get enough of that at home. And you,” he pointed at Crusher, “may be our prez, but I don’t want visuals of what my sister does with you. Jag, you’re my brother, but you need to pull the stick out of your ass and stop snapping before one of us gets tired of your grouchy ass and snaps on you instead.”
I turned and dropped the end of the measuring tape on the floor. I walked backward while the tape rolled out, to hide the twitching of my lips. That had to be the most Speed said at one time, and the interaction between these men was always amusing. Though I w
as close to them all, there was nothing that compared to the bond they shared with each other from growing up together. It would be hard to miss even if a person didn’t know their background.
“His problem isn’t a stick, it’s blue balls or should I say frozen balls,” Coast said as he walked over and placed his foot on the end of the tape to hold it in place.
“Look who’s talking. Oh wait, you’re not because she’d have to stop avoiding you, so you could talk to her,” Jag shot back.
I looked over at Flirt, and he grinned and shrugged. Wouldn’t be the first time we had to break up a fight.
“Alright, knock the crap off. Damn, you guys have been some testy assholes lately. I was trying to give Ghost a hard time, and you bunch could ruin a wet dream,” Crusher said just as the door swung open and Ally and Neely ran in with Devil behind them.
“I donts have wet dreams. Right, Daddy?” Ally said as she stopped in front of Speed. “Momma says big girls don't wet their panties.”
Speed looked at Crusher and lifted a brow, then squatted down to Ally. I chalked the floor, then started rolling the measuring tape up and worked not to laugh while I said a silent prayer that Luna and I had a boy.
“You sure are a big girl. Uncle Russ was just telling us about when he was little and wet himself when he was sleeping,” Speed said, then stood.
“Gross,” Neely said and wrinkled her nose while she looked at Crusher. There was a brief pause, then we all laughed at Crusher’s expense while he glared at us.
I wasn’t sure who the adults were in the room, the little girls or us. What I was sure of—Ally and Neely were Karma’s payback for my brothers.
“If you as...” Crusher cleared his throat, “If we’re done goofing off, can we get back to business?”
“Please, I just got here. Goofing off is far from what I’ve been doing,” Dev said.
“What have you been doing, brother? When we were ready to leave you said you would be right behind us because you overslept,” Coast asked.
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