by Bijou Hunter
The twins literally fucking swoon at his cuteness. I just pat his head like I would my dogs’ if they said something so sticky sweet.
“You’re my favorite nephew tied with Jett.”
“River’s son will never compete,” Avery says, playing with her son’s floppy hair.
“Of course not. The kid lives in an unflushed toilet. No way will I visit Eamon often enough to feel comfortable with him touching my pets. That’s special stuff for these three.”
“Soon to be four,” Savannah coos and rubs her stomach again.
“We’ll see,” I say, shrugging. “Your daughter might suck, and I’ll have to keep her out in the yard when you visit.”
Growling dramatically, Savannah imitates a pissed bear so well my dogs bark at her.
“Stop riling them up before we walk over to your house,” I mutter.
“So, you’ll come?”
“Sure. I’m bored a lot now that my home is finished and the clubhouse is running perfectly. I need a diversion, and Alyn is busy.”
“I feel special,” Avery tells Savannah at the front door. “We’re her second choice after Alyn.”
“Don’t crap on her,” I say, and Io repeats the best word in the sentence. “Not everyone gets another version of themselves to be best friends with.”
Of course, the twins hug, forever basking in their good fortune. While they flirt with each other, I convince the crotch goblins to help me get the pets ready. First, we check the food and water bowls for the cats. Second, we put leashes on the dogs.
“Who’s walking with me over to the house?” I ask.
“They can’t walk that far,” Avery insists.
“I can,” Jett says, but his mom only frowns harder.
“I’ll carry him if he poops out on me.”
While the twins share a concerned look, I head for the door with the kids behind me.
“I’m leaving now. You two figure out your shit and meet me at the round one’s house.”
“Hey,” Savannah bitches.
Avery decides Jett can come along with me. She shoves a hat on his head, so his nose won’t burn. Io and Pollux want to follow the third corner of their triad. Avery is physically unable to tell her daughter no, so she gets a hat for Io. Savannah is a copycat and does the same with Pollux.
The twins don’t trust me and also suspect the kids will get tired during the six-block odyssey. So, Avery drives very slowly next to us while Savannah fans herself in the SUV. Two blocks later, Io and Pollux join them on the very slow trip. Jett struggles after another two blocks. I kneel down and have him climb on my back. He’s a good kid and doesn’t kick me during the final part of the journey.
As we arrive at Savannah’s spiffy ranch, I accept I really must be lonely if I’m willingly hanging out with the dork twins, their whipped men, and three crotch goblins.
Is loneliness the reason I can’t stop thinking about Sam? Or do I have an itch only the handsome motherfucker can scratch?
THE CHAPTER WHERE THE CRACKERJACK SPEAKS TO GOD
THE CHARMER
This morning, Caesar claims I don’t need to walk Raimi and him to the bus. He also didn’t want me taking out the trash the night before or answering the house phone.
“Are you embarrassed by me?” I ask as Raimi hides in the bathroom like yesterday morning before school.
“Naw.”
“Then, why don’t you want me coming along?”
“It’s not that,” he says, staring at his feet. “I just don’t want you thinking you have to. Like we need help or whatever.”
“I hadn’t even considered if you could handle shit. I only wanted to be around you and Raimi.”
Peeking up from behind his long bangs, Caesar mumbles, “I meant we don’t need help with the chores.”
“The club has me on vacation or something to that effect. Without chores, I don’t have much to do.”
Caesar smiles tightly. “Yeah.”
“It’s okay, you know?” I say as Raimi finally emerges from the bathroom. “Having me home won’t change everything. Unless that’s what you want.”
Caesar studies my face with the blue eyes he inherited from me and I got from my mother. He doesn’t react to my words. Instead, my son takes Raimi’s hand and starts down the stairs to the front door. I consider letting them go without me. Maybe it’d be for the best. My parents don’t walk them to the bus, but Teigh used to do it.
I follow the kids outside. Not because their mom did, or I figure they need me to. I do it for the same reason I do most things—because I want to.
When the bus stops for the kids, Raimi finds my gaze and stares panicked until Caesar tugs her up the steps. I wish I knew my kids well enough to understand why she looks terrified, and he seems tense.
“How is Raimi doing at school?” I ask Pricilla back in the house before she goes for her morning walk with Fred.
“Good. Her grades suffered after Teigh died, but they’ve leveled out.”
“Does she need help with studying?”
“Oh, I don’t think so. Fred?” she asks my father, who stretches in the living room.
“I tried to help a few times. Still got plenty of learning left up here,” he says, tapping his noggin. “But Caesar helps her, and I didn’t want to step on his toes. Young men need to feel in charge of themselves.”
Patting my dad’s back, I let the topic drop. My parents lack the ability to sink down and get comfy in dark territory. Instead, they always find their smiles. If Caesar and Raimi are struggling with something, I’ll have to get the details straight from them.
After my parents leave for their walk, I clean up my room downstairs. I think of heading to the club’s gym to work out, but I can’t be sure I’ll have time to get back and shower before lunch at Nev’s house.
Restless, I don’t know what to do with my day. I get the impression people expect something from me without them feeling the need to share what that something might be.
I end up riding around Idyllwild and then Pema for a few hours. I check out the new Reapers-owned hotel—The Solar—where Brick lived for months before moving into the fire station turned duplex.
In my youth, I took a few gals to the hotel back when it was called The Love Cave. They always acted like the screwing meant more if surrounded by tawdry décor and in rooms named after made-up romances. I certainly didn’t fuck better while thinking of Heathcliff or Rhett Butler. Still, I wasn’t one to crap on a gal’s parade.
Brick living in that hotel always made me chuckle. Even passing by the now swankier setup today, I find myself laughing. For most of his life, Brick lacked sentimentality, never doing anything frivolous for people. He was often a steel wall, unwilling to bend. Then, Avery Majors came along and turned him into a door open to all kinds of new adventures.
Soon, I ride past their new duplex. When I was a kid, I came to this fire station on a field trip. Now, the building is where Brick lives on one side with Avery. Maverick and his woman call the other side home.
I pass by the former Reapers’ clubhouse—Belly Up—still in business. Eventually, I find myself riding past the dump I spent most of my free time back in the day.
Stained Kidney was where my former president and I drank our first legal beer. Garbage—Terry to those who knew him back in the day—and I grew up together. He was a fun kid with a goofy sense of humor. The guy couldn’t get enough of fart jokes. But his personality turned sour during his teen years, and he lost the fun part of himself.
Yet, I still considered him a friend. After all, I tend to let things slide, and him being an asshole never fazed me.
Garbage died when the Reapers took over Pema. I’d been in prison back then, too. I managed to miss the deaths of two of the most important people in my life.
If I were around when Cooper Johansson came to Pema, I could have sweet-talked Garbage into standing down. My old friend was an asshole, but he knew no one was loyal to him like I was. If I said something, he could take it
as the straight truth.
But I wasn’t around, and Garbage challenged stronger men. Apparently, Vaughn Majors killed him with a single punch.
Helluva thing to hear while locked up. A man I knew for most of my life was gone. I’d been sad for a time, too. But there was no denying someone as sour as Garbage was lucky to make it to forty.
Sweet talk wouldn’t have saved Teigh. Maybe the drugs fucked up something inside her long ago. She was never all that healthy, not even after a decade clean. Or perhaps it was only bad luck. Still, she deserved to see our kids grow up.
I’m thinking of Teigh when my hog pulls into the driveway at Nev’s expansive ranch house. This place once belonged to a surly shit-stain named Chuck. I don’t remember much about him besides he managed to inspire my good-natured father to raise his voice. Fred never told me what Chuck said, but I sensed an obscene comment was directed at my mother.
Chuck’s dead now. Brick claims Nev killed him, but the official word was the asshole died of autoerotic asphyxiation gone wrong. During a video chat with my parents, they literally blushed when trying to explain the specifics of the local man’s death.
Since then, Chuck’s house got spruced up plenty. Nev changed out the three garage doors with those snazzy barn-looking ones. The old white siding is freshened up with dark gray. The landscaped yard is the best on the block. I even notice a dark-stained portico added to the front door.
Nev owns some pricey tastes. Brick swears there’s something in the Ellsberg water that makes these bikers and their families weird. Based on how crazy he is about Avery, I assumed he meant that comment as a compliment.
As soon as I turn off my Harley, I hear dogs barking inside the house. I climb off and stroll to my left toward the front door, which opens before I reach it.
Nev looks fantastic in a black T-shirt and faded blue jeans. Her long blonde hair is damp as if she recently got out of the shower. Once my brain imagines her wet and soapy, my dick responds accordingly.
I tug free my mirrored sunglasses and enjoy the view. Nev smiles in the cocky way she gets. Meanwhile, her little black-and-brown dogs run around my legs and bark.
When she only stares, I ask, “Am I early?”
“I have no fucking idea,” she says and erases the space between us.
Her hands caress my face as my lips cover hers. For the first time in years, I enjoy the taste of a beautiful woman.
Nev presses her body against mine, wrapping her arms around my waist. She isn’t planning on going anywhere quick, while I’m a man unwilling to rush through life.
Her lips free themselves once before returning. My hands slide down her back and rest on the curves of her hips. We could stick around like this for the rest of the afternoon without me minding one bit.
Nev, though, finally forces herself to back up and gesture for me to enter.
“I got ahead of myself,” she says, faking as if she’s sheepish about her lust.
Letting Nev pretend she doesn’t know exactly what she’s doing, I reply, “That’ll happen.” I walk past her into the house and add, “Best you make a move rather than me.”
“How come?”
“Heard you’re lethal,” I say, taking in the sight of her home and learning a whole lot about her with just one glance around the living room.
Nev’s furniture is colorful, but the walls remain off-white. The wood floors are multicolored, probably to disguise any damage from the dogs’ nails. There’s a large round pillow in the middle of the room. Can’t imagine she curls up on it, so that’d be for the dogs, too. A large TV covers one wall, and two dozen plants hang around the back windows.
“This place sure gets good light,” I say, having been curious about how a young woman would fix up Chuck’s place. “Always figured it was too much space for one asshole.”
“Did you know him?”
“A little. Gave him a bruised rib cage once. We weren’t friends, though.”
Nev grins at my comment. I wait for her to admit she offed the asshole. The Majors family is apparently real comfortable with their violent natures. Rather than fessing up, she watches me and wears a soft smile on her sweet lips.
“I’ve imagined you in my house since the first day at the bar,” she admits. “I can’t believe it’s finally real.”
With Nev sounding so young, I find myself wondering if she’s bitten off more than she can chew with me.
“Are chicken and mashed potatoes okay for lunch?” she asks while I join her near the small kitchen off the large living room.
“I’m up for anything you make,” I say and then add, “We both know I didn’t come here for the food.”
Nev licks her lips. “I’m not even hungry.”
“Pricilla made me a big breakfast.”
“Your mom loves to cook,” she says as my fingers slide across her bare throat. “Just like mine.”
Talking about mothers shouldn’t be the thing to set my skin on fire. Except I need to know Nev owns a soft part of her heart before I can let her inside mine. Since the moment we met, I knew her naked against me wouldn’t be enough.
Nev lifts her lips to meet mine, and I enjoy another taste of the sexiest gal I’ve ever seen.
Nev’s fingers dive under my old gray T-shirt, finding sensitive flesh. Sighing against her lips, I’ve missed the touch of a woman. But this one is nearly too hot to handle.
Stepping back, Nev watches me with her earthy green eyes. I feel her trying to take control, orchestrating how she wants this situation to go down. For a second, I feel like a doll she plans to place just right in her dollhouse.
“It’s been a while,” she says, but I sense those aren’t the words she wants to share.
Nev studies me, struggling with something. I don’t rush her. Just watching Nev Majors is sexy as hell. Her gaze releases mine as she frowns down at the orange cat scenting her leg. When the fat furball comes to me next, I struggle not to step away. I’d be lying if I wasn’t relieved when an allergic Teigh couldn’t get Raimi a cat years ago.
“Do you not like cats?” she asks, challenging me.
Nev wants to start trouble. Seeming uneasy, she might have really bitten off more than she can chew. At twenty-five, she has a whole lot of living to do to catch up to where I am. Or she might be uneasy about dating a convict or someone’s dad. There are a million possible reasons why she’s gotten squirrely. I just know her gaze holds me back.
“I don’t hate them.”
Nev smiles at my answer. Instantly, the edgy coldness seeps from her gaze. She steps over the cat and returns to my arms.
“Back in Ellsberg,” she says as her hands slide up my chest, “no one really cared what I did. But since I flung myself at you two days ago, I feel people judging me. Or at least expecting me to follow a script.”
“People mean well,” I say, brushing hair from her face. “But their opinions won’t matter much when you’re at the end of your life looking back. Regrets will be the dealbreaker.”
The last bit of frost around Nev’s demeanor thaws, and she kisses me again. I wrap her against my body, letting my heat reassure my little ice princess.
I feel Nev handing over control. She’s more passive now, allowing me to set the pace. I passed a test in her head. Don’t blame her for making me jump through a few hoops. Her family values power. A woman like Nev likely dominates most men.
Right now, she views me as worthy of handling shit. I take the compliment and my time. A few years without pussy might make many men rush their way into bed and inside a beautiful woman. But I’d rather savor her sweet lips.
I don’t track how long we stand wrapped together, tasting each other. I kick my boots off at one point. She runs her hands through my hair at another. A cat finishes eating, and another one takes its place.
Nev’s face is flushed, and her gaze dazed when my lips leave hers. She watches me with such warmth I don’t know how I’ll ever get this woman out of my system if she shuts us down.
“Not
to complain, but I need to get out of my jeans before I injure something permanently.”
Taking my hand, a smiling Nev guides me to one end of the house, where the master bed waits.
Her gaze reveals hesitation again.
“You know you can always say, ‘Not yet,’” I suggest, and her expression instantly hardens.
“I’m not a child, and this isn’t my first time. I’m also capable of kicking your ass.”
Grinning, I tug off my shirt, and Nev’s demeanor softens immediately.
“Knowing you can tell a guy no isn’t the same as trusting him not to pitch a fit,” I say as I rest the shirt on a corner chair. “You and I are strangers. I figured you might like knowing I’m more than willing to wait.”
“But you’ve gone so long without a woman,” she says in a sarcastic tone.
I chuckle at her attempt to start trouble. Nev blinks rapidly, trying to figure out the situation. I’m unsure if she’s confused about my reaction or her need to crap on today’s fun.
As if to prove she’s willing to play, Nev slides off her T-shirt to reveal what my fingers discovered earlier.
“I knew what I wanted before you got here,” she says, revealing the bare skin of a woman with a plan.
“Then, why are you fussing?” I ask, cupping her face. “It’s not those people and their opinions, is it?”
“You have too much power,” she mumbles, nearly pouting. “And I have no idea why.”
Staring into her eyes, I say with complete sincerity, “You do the same to me. Been that way since I saw you. Doesn’t have to make sense. And I’m not wasting time by fighting the inevitable or asking questions about why.”
When Nev smiles, all her squirrely ice princess crap drops. A lesser man would be startled with how quickly she shifts gears. I don’t need Nev to make sense any more than I need to understand why she makes my heart beat in a new way.
Our lips meet, and my fingers skate across her soft red nipples. Nev moans approvingly against my mouth. Her fingers graze my nipples before lowering to pop the button on my jeans and unzip me. Now, it’s my turn to moan approvingly as her hand slides inside to stroke my thick erection.
