by Lila Rose
He paused, met my gaze, and smirked.
“I can’t help it,” I blurted.
He chuckled. “Good to know.” He dropped the washcloth to the floor and readjusted my pants. “You might wanna change. Your boxers are wet.”
“Uh-huh” was all I could say.
He smiled. “Fuckin’ cute. We gotta talk before I get.”
Was he going? My stomach clenched. Was this a hit-and-dash moment?
“Hey,” he called. “Fuck, come here,” he said, but before I could move, he picked me up and set me on his lap.
Oh wow. He was strong.
“Jesus, you’re small.”
“I think you saw I wasn’t small—”
He burst out laughing. He leaned down and kissed my neck. “I wasn’t talkin’ about your dick, Lucas. Just how short you are. So easy to move you around.”
My face and neck burned with mortification. “Oh,” I muttered.
He gripped my hair and tugged my head back so I would look at him. “Christ,” he murmured before he kissed me again. Groaning, he pulled away. “You’re addictive. But I gotta head off soon because I gotta be up early for my shift at the Polished Pussy.”
“Um, okay.”
He smiled. “Wishin’ I could stay and lay with you.”
My head jerked back in surprise. “You do?”
“Hell yes. What this is, what’s started, isn’t endin’. We just gotta take shit slow. It’s new territory. I wanna know you before others can see what we got. Understand?”
I licked my lips. “I think so.”
“It’ll do, for now.” Wade’s hands moved to my waist. When his grip tightened, I gave him my attention again. “You got school tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
“Are you workin’ after?”
I shook my head. “Not until Thursday night.”
“All right. I’ll try and catch you tomorrow, but I’ll have to see how things are at work and the club. Unless you don’t wanna see me?”
“No, I want to,” I said too quickly and witnessed Wade’s smug smile.
“Good.” His smile faded. “We get us sorted before others know, yeah?”
“Yes, Wade.”
“No seein’ that jackass.”
I rolled my eyes. “We go to the same college, have a class together.”
“Then you set him straight.”
“About?”
He flared. “About you not wantin’ to see him again.”
“Um, okay, but it’s fine as friends, right?”
Something crossed his face as he let out a breath. “As long as he doesn’t touch you.”
My eyes widened. A part of me liked his possessiveness, where a smaller part said it was too much. For now, I would let it rest. I wanted to please him. He wanted something more with me. He wanted me… but would he crush me after a week? A month? Would he realize I wasn’t worth the trouble? When it came to it, would he really want people to know we were something?
My head ached from all the thoughts crossing my mind.
“Hey,” Wade said. “Where’d you go?”
I shrugged. I couldn’t tell him my fears. Insecurity was never attractive, which I knew I was, but I’d never had a relationship…. Could I even call this a relationship? Was Wade telling me we were dating? Was he my boyfriend?
“Lucas,” Wade clipped low. “Whatever you’re thinkin’, stop. We’ll take each day as it comes. You willin’ to do that with me?”
Was I?
I wanted to try, but worry had me keeping my mouth closed.
“You’re worried,” he stated, reading my mind. “Talk to me, Lucas. We need to be straight with each other.”
“You’ve only ever been with women?”
“Yeah,” he said, almost hesitantly.
“I’m a guy.”
He snorted. “Know that.”
“Are you sure this is what you want?” I had to ask, or else I would worry for the rest of the night.
“Fuck yes. Want nothin’ more in my life but this.”
“Then why—”
“The text?” he asked and frowned.
I nodded.
“Because I’m a dickhead. Because you gave me the best goddamn kiss of my life and it scared me. I wanted to protect you because I was mixed up in the head. But, Lucas, I want to try this with you. I’m gonna fuck up, you might need patience, but I’ll try my damn best.”
Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.
I wasn’t going to tear up like some idiot, but what he’d just said warmed me throughout, and my emotions clung to him some more.
Dropping my head, I thumped it against his shoulder. “Okay,” I whispered.
“Yeah?”
“Yes.”
“Good, now kiss me before I leave,” he ordered, and my dick jerked in my pants.
Since it was what I wanted as well, I did as I was told and kissed him, letting him know in the kiss how I knew I would miss him.
Chapter Thirteen
Wreck
I scrubbed a hand over my face as I walked into the compound. I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face from thinking about Lucas. Even when I didn’t get much sleep and had kept fighting with myself to go back to him. I couldn’t, though, because Saint would be there.
Christ, I hadn’t been this fucking happy in a long time. It wasn’t that I was just happy, and this was going to sound pathetic, but it was as if a hole inside of me I hadn’t known about had been filled by Lucas.
It’d killed me waiting last night to see if he wanted to give this a chance without telling anyone. I knew he’d have his doubts. I was a bastard to begin with, but there he was taking me up on my offer to see where this would go.
Shit.
Lucas was mine.
I grabbed my phone out, wanting to reach out to Lucas before I walked into a room full of brothers.
Me: When do you get home?
Lucas: Who is this?
Me: Me.
Lucas: Me who? Sorry, I don’t have your number in my contacts.
Well, shit, he must have deleted it after I was a motherfucker.
Me: The man who made you come last night.
Lucas: OMG, Wade! I’m in a classroom full of people. You can’t say stuff like that.
Me: Why? You don’t like it?
Lucas: It’s not that… I like it a little too much.
Me: You getting hard?
Lucas: Yes! Great, now my face is on fire and people are looking at me.
Me: I’m not laughing. Save my number. Promise I won’t send shit texts again.
Lucas: Okay.
Hell, if he’d been around me saying that, I knew he would have said it in a whisper. Now my dick was stiffening, and it definitely wasn’t the time.
Me: You didn’t answer my question. When do you get home?
Lucas: Don’t get grumpy.
I pulled my brows together. Now, why would he say that?
Me: Lucas.
Lucas: Wade, it’s okay, I just have a study date after class I forgot about.
Me: Date as in date, date?
Jesus, I sounded like an idiot, but I needed clarification.
Lucas: NO. Not a date, date. We get together and study.
Me: Who. Will. Be. There?
Lucas: If you relax, I’ll tell you.
Me: I am relaxed.
Lucas. Sure you are. Do you have a tight grip on your phone?
Fuck. Maybe I had, but he didn’t need to know that.
Me: Lucas, tell me.
Lucas: Fine, West will be there, along with Lani and Gregory.
Me: Fuckface is going? Did you tell him?
Lucas: I haven’t seen him to tell. I won’t do it over the phone. I’ll let him know.
Me: Where’s this study date?
Lucas: Library, so it’s out in the open WITH other people there.
Lucas: Wait. Don’t you dare think of showing up.
Smiling, I didn’t answer. It would be best not to lie at the start of
the relationship.
Lucas: Wade! Answer me. Do not show up!
Lucas: Wade!
Me: Got to go, got church with the brothers.
Lucas: Wade, don’t think I didn’t notice you didn’t say anything! On a side note: you go to church with the others???
Chuckling, I shook my head.
Me: Not church, Lucas. It’s a meeting with all of us but it’s called church.
Lucas: Oh. All right, have fun in church.
Me: Talk soon!
Lucas: Can I just say I like texting with you. I like talking with you and looking at you. I also like where this is going with us.
Christ, my heart gave a hard thump in my chest, and my gut was dancing around like a girl’s. He made me feel, and it was fucking good.
Me: How’s the blushing going now?
Lucas: It’s bad.
Me: Wish I could see, and Lucas, I like all those things with you too.
Lucas: I’m glad, but you still can’t come to the library. Promise, please.
Laughing, I shook my head.
Me: Later.
Lucas: Wade (whatever your last name is) I can handle this.
Me: It’s Williams, and I know you can.
Lucas: I feel like you left off a but at the end. However, there shouldn’t be a but.
There was one hell of a big but on the end, and it would be: but I was still going because even though I knew he could handle it, I still wanted to be there as backup, and I didn’t want fuckface to even try to touch him.
Lucas: I’m sighing right now. Anyway, have a good church meeting. Don’t reply to this text because then I’ll want to reply because I like to be the last one to respond and I’ll feel like I need to respond more if you write back to me. And I’ve rambled, but you’ll have to get used to this. Plus, my teacher is now getting suspicious. Bye!
Goddamn, he was cute.
Still grinning, I walked into the room church was held in to find everyone was already there.
“Look here, brothers, Wreck’s smilin’. Do we need to worry?” State, our vice president, taunted.
“Fuckin’ A we need to worry. Can’t remember the last time I’ve seen it,” Country, our president, added.
Saint joined in with “Someone got himself some.”
If he only fuckin’ knew who it was with. Then again, I wanted to live longer so I was glad he didn’t.
I scowled. “Shut the fuck up,” I snarled.
The brothers laughed, but it was Death who said, “There he is. For a moment, I worried you were a Stepford wife.”
Asshole, he knew exactly who I was smiling about.
“Can we get this meetin’ started?” I asked, taking a seat at the long oval table next to Death.
“You got somewhere to run off to?” State asked with a smirk. I shot him the middle finger. He laughed and then nodded to Country.
Country lifted the gavel and smacked it down. “Shut the fuck up, everyone, church is startin’.” He took a breath and leaned forward. “Brothers, can’t fuckin’ say enough about how proud I am of our club. The new charter is runnin’ smoothly so far. Our businesses—Polished Pussy, Meat ‘n’ Eat, Fitness For You, and We Got You, Protection Agency—are boomin’. Shit is lookin’ good. We need to keep this shit up, but I’m not damn stupid. I know things can’t be good forever. We need to stay vigilant. Quake, anythin’ we need to know about those motherfuckers?” Country meant our rival club that wanted to deal their coke in our territory. We didn’t deal in drugs or guns. Yeah, we smoked some pot, we had guns to protect ourselves, but we wouldn’t sell any of that shit. Country wanted our family protected from that crap, and he made sure of it. In whatever way we could. Sometimes it was ways that were illegal, but we got stuff done and made sure to anyone else watching, it was clean. Made sure the cops stayed off our backs. Especially since there were some detectives who had a hard-on for Country and wanted to end our club in any way they could.
It wouldn’t happen though. We wouldn’t allow it.
We may deal in pussy, but even that was clean. It was a legal business where we were located in Nevada. Hell, there were other brothels around, but since we opened and we had women who were stunning, we’d been run off our feet. Men traveled from all over the world to get themselves some. I co-owned it along with Saint, State, and Country. Death owned and ran the security business, and Quake owned five butcher shops around. All brothers helped out and worked within the club or businesses. We ran a tight ship, and it was looking great for us.
Country nodded after Quake finished going over things. “Thanks, Quake. We’ll be sure to keep our eyes open. Right, movin’ on. Saint, you said you had an idea for Polished Pussy,” Country said.
“I do. Been thinkin’ of addin’ guys to the list instead of just women. My bro made a point that not only are guys interested in gettin’ themselves some, but it could be good for the married women. Some husbands would even pay to watch their women with men.”
Country shared a look with State, then said, “Sounds good, but we’d have to make sure whoever we hired is willin’ to swing both ways.”
“Sure, we could find some bi guys as well as gay ones.”
Someone laughed. “You could get your brother to test out the gay ones.”
A hand dropped to my arm. I realized I’d been ready to jump across the table to strangle Hemp for that suggestion. Luckily, Death caught my attention with his hard grip.
“You can fuck right off, Hemp. You say anythin’ about my brother, I’ll kill you,” Saint warned.
“I’ll back you up. The kid’s a good one,” Tech added.
“I’m positive Wreck and I’ll help as well,” Death said.
I would be the first to take the fucker down if he said more about Lucas. Suddenly, I didn’t give a fuck if he knew I wanted to be with Lucas. I’d rather take all the shit, so Lucas didn’t have to deal with any of it. When the time came for it to be out, I’d make sure that happened. Lucas didn’t need any crap from anyone. Especially a brother.
Hemp’s hands came up. “Sorry, brothers, just messin’. Didn’t actually mean it. I wouldn’t even say shit to your bro, Saint. Met him last night and know he’s a good kid.”
“He is,” Saint grumbled. “And if any of you dickheads have anythin’ to say about him being gay, I won’t stand for it, let that be known.”
“Relax, brother,” Country said. “No one will say anythin’. We ain’t bigots here. Each to their own and whatever makes them happy for fuck’s sake. If anyone does have a problem, they keep it to themselves. Yeah, brothers?”
There was a chorus of agreements, and it settled my anger a little. I still wanted to smack Hemp around though.
Once the meeting came to an end, I walked out and knew Death followed me. Knew he was going to say something, so I made my way to my room. I entered with Death still on my tail.
Turning, I watched him shut the door and lean against it. He was smiling. I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest.
“Guess you and Lucas worked things out.”
I pulled up my brows. “What makes you say that?”
“The smile when you walked in, the rip-you-apart look you shared with Hemp.” He shrugged. “Easy to pick up, really.”
“Only because you knew where I was goin’.”
“That’s true. You gonna tell me what the go is?”
I hesitated, unsure if Lucas would want me to say anything. Hell, we were only starting out. “Just gonna see how things go.”
“But you like him?”
“Jesus fuckin’ Christ, are you seriously askin’ this?”
“Yep.”
“I’ll quote Lucas, my personal life ain’t any of your business. Or anyone’s.”
He snorted. “Fair. But you sure this is what you want? I mean, really think about this, Wreck. I can see Lucas makes you happy, I can see you like the guy, but think outside your box. You were into women before him. Will this last? Will Saint be all right with it? I don’
t want to see either of you hurt, brother.”
I ground my teeth together. He wouldn’t understand. I’d fought with myself for a fucking month and got nowhere but an ache in my head and chest. I couldn’t step back now, not when I had him. I couldn’t give Lucas up. Was that being selfish? Maybe, but I could tell from his looks, his touches, he wanted me and wanted to try this between us as much as I wanted it.
“I want this. Lucas wants this. We’re goin’ to see where its goin’, no matter what anyone says. The fuckin’ first time I saw him he appealed to me like no one else had. I can’t make sense of it, but it is what it is. I won’t fuckin’ fight this anymore.”
His smile grew, then he laughed. “Congrats, brother, and good luck.”
I took a deep breath to calm myself. “Thanks.” I nodded. I removed my vest and tee, then pulled out a warmer shirt.
“Whoa, brother, I know you’re into guys now, but I ain’t there.”
Snorting, I told him, “Fuck off. Gotta head out.”
“Goin’ to see your man?” Death teased.
He was being a dick, but I wouldn’t say no to Lucas being mine. “He’s got a study date with a few people.”
“One of them that guy he went out with?”
“Yes,” I hissed.
Death chuckled. “Want any help?”
“It’ll be fine.”
“Can I just come for entertainment purposes?”
Fuck it. “Sure.”
“I’ll go grab a jacket and meet you out front.”
“Death?”
“Yeah, brother?”
“Thanks for acceptin’ this, for havin’ my back.”
“Always, brother. Can’t help who you like. Hell, I can see the appeal. Lucas is damn good-lookin’.” His hands shot up when I scowled at him. “But, brother, he ain’t my type.”
I paused from pulling on my vest. “You got a type? Are you into guys?”
Death shook his head. “Nah, brother, but I’m one who can admit there are men out there that are damn good-lookin’. Not as good as me, of course.”
I scoffed. “You sure your head will fit out the fuckin’ door?”
He opened it, stepped out, and grinned like a fucking fool. “Well, see that.” He winked. “See you out front.”
