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I was a fucking idiot who would do anything to earn my place back at her side though.
We rode through town until we hit the highway and then we kept running south until someone signaled they needed to stop for gas. When we all pulled in, Nova held onto my shoulders while she dismounted the bike and then she stood back and waited for me to join her. Once we were both off the motorcycle, I finally allowed myself to look at her, and she was fucking glowing with happiness. That ride was exactly what she’d needed.
Nova pulled me close, though I still refused to touch her, despite wanting to grab hold of her hips and yank her even closer until her body was plastered to my front. My brothers probably thought I was being an idiot, that I should have been all over her right now, but she hadn’t given me permission yet and I was not going to overstep her bounds no matter how much I wanted to.
“That’s the first time I felt like I was a priority in your life, like you gave me something that was mine alone, and something you still wanted, too.”
Well, fuck me twice. That both stung and pleased me all at once. I pleaded with my eyes again that she lift the ban on me speaking or touching her.
“You can talk to me,” she whispered while her eyes were cast down toward my booted feet. She hadn’t given me permission to touch, but I’d take the little leniency she offered.
“You are the only one, besides my mother. You will forever be the only one to ride behind me. I’m glad you enjoyed it, sweetness, because I fucking loved having you there with your arms wrapped around me.”
She pointed over her shoulder. “I’m gonna go get a drink while you pump gas.” She spun and was off before I could get a word in edgewise.
“I’ll go with her,” one of the prospects called out. He took off before I could say a word. Someone gas up the prospect’s bike, it’s on me today,” I called out.
“Did you two sort your shit? We couldn’t tell when you walked through the clubhouse.” Kip stared off at the store as he asked.
“Not yet, but I think we’re working on it. I need someone to swap me rooms at the clubhouse, man. She broke the fuck down when she looked around and couldn’t even find a single spot to sit that she didn’t think was tainted by my bullshit.”
Kip nodded knowingly. “I’ll swap with you for now, but you need to talk to Tripp. He’s been ruminating over making the upstairs suites priority for brothers who want to bring their old ladies around to the club. He wants it to remain off limits for the club girls and single guys still, but after that last lockdown it was painfully obvious we need the separation more than the club needs to have space for visitors. It’s not like those fuckers have a special place for us when we drop in on them.”
“That’s true. If that’s the case, I think it would make Nova feel a lot better about coming by the clubhouse, especially since there’s a separate lounge upstairs.”
Kip nodded again and walked off because Nova was headed back in my direction. “You enjoy the ride, sweetness?”
She grinned at me while tugging on her tangled locks. “I did, but I don’t think my hair likes me very much. It’s not quite the same as using a blow dryer.”
“No, it’s not,” I chuckled along with her, thanking whatever miracle happened that she was standing there with me and smiling.
She pulled a package apart and slipped one of those chunky scrunchie things women wore in their hair around her wrist before tucking the other one in her back pocket. Then she took the time to pull her hair up into a bun on top of her head.
“Now, I’m ready for the ride back.”
I didn’t know if it was the right time, but I wanted to reassure her anyway. “Kip is swapping rooms with me at the clubhouse for now, but I think Tripp might open up the top floor rooms for couples sometime soon. If that happens, and when you’re ready to accept my claim on you, I’ll move up there so you will have a space to come to that’s free of all the bullshit downstairs.”
She knew what I meant, but I didn’t think including the club girls in our conversation right now would be wise or welcome, even if it was to say we wouldn’t be around them as much. Nova nodded and waited for me to hop on my Fatboy before she joined me. When she squeezed her arms around me and rested her face on my back, I closed my eyes and soaked it all in for just a minute before I hauled ass back to the clubhouse and a better future with my sweetness.
Chapter 43
Nova
I held onto Knoxville’s hands as he attempted to pull up and walk. His grin was infectious and helped stave off the anxiety I felt from being around the club in this type of setting so soon after my return.
It was a huge family cookout, so the whores weren’t out and about as they normally were. Still, it felt uncomfortable being there, especially since Breakneck was in hot pursuit of me every day at school still. Today was the first time I’d been back to the clubhouse since the day we took that ride. I’d been working for Kip again and watching my nephew when I didn’t have classes. Vivian was watching him while I went to school because most days, Ashlynn didn’t even bother going home. I wasn’t sure how much more shit Kip was going to put up with where she was concerned, but it felt like he was at the very end of a lengthy rope.
My discomfort with being around the club wasn’t even about them knowing that Breakneck cheated on me before. It was about the fact that when I came here looking for my father, I’d made a mess of things by yelling at him about what a lousy lover he’d been to me. I had said all of it in front of everyone. To Breakneck’s credit, he never said one ill word toward me for doing that, which I appreciated, and wondered about. I would have thought he’d be angry over my outburst, but he had not lashed out then or since.
Then again, he had a lot on his mind these past few weeks. He had come clean to me in that letter about how Davina’s daughter might have been his and that it made him see things a lot clearer. There was something else going on with him, too. He had to leave a couple times in the middle of the classes he was auditing to try to get my attention. When I asked about it, he said that he was working with some investigators to help Kip with his Ash problem, but that he couldn’t tell me anything else yet.
“Mama,” Knoxville called out. I glanced up to see Ashlynn storming over to Kip in the middle of the cookout the club was holding to help raise money for Davina and Tripp’s daughter, Coral. I pulled Knoxville up in my arms and held him close to me, anticipating another ugly scene with his mom. I wondered how many times she would call me a whore in front of everyone, like she had done so many times at her house since I’d been working there.
“You never even said a fucking word!” Ashlynn screamed at Kip even though he was standing directly in front of her by then.
“Because I didn’t need to,” Kip yelled back at her, obviously knowing what she was talking about. From the scathing look that Ash threw Davina’s way, it became obvious what she was going off about. Poor Davina looked like she wanted to disappear, since she was standing in the circle of Kip’s family and closest club brothers. They were keeping her close while Tripp was at the hospital visiting his daughter.
“Yes, you did! I had a right to know that you fucked some stupid whore, and she could have been pregnant at the same time I was.”
