“Sugar, I think Jagger and Molly want to talk to you. Bull, we’ll catch up with you later.” Dante grabbed my hand and led me through the common room but kept walking right on by the table where Jagger and Molly were at. We ended up in the back hallway by the kitchen when Dante came to a stop and gently pushed me against the wall. He pressed his body against mine and looked down at me with a stern expression.
“What’s wrong? I thought you said –“
“Just give me a minute to process this, sugar.”
“Process what?” I was completely confused, and frankly, a little pissed off at the high-handed way he was acting.
“The fact that you’ve been on the back of a bike with one of my goddamned club brothers,” he snarled, then appeared to collect himself. He took a deep breath and rolled his head from side to side as if trying to release tension in his neck, as I tried to figure out what the hell was going on.
“Look, it’s not your fault, Ella. It’s just something I need to get over.” He brought his hand up and ran a gentle finger down my cheek, then tilted my chin up and placed a fleeting kiss on my forehead.
“I don’t understand,” I said softly.
He sighed, then looked at me. “For a lot of bikers, me included, having a woman on the back of our bike is special. We don’t just let any woman ride with us. It was one thing when I knew you’d ridden before with a couple of teenagers you grew up with, but to find out that one of those guys is Bull…well, that kind of threw me a little.”
“So, you’re jealous because I used to ride with Mike?”
“You need to call him Bull now, sugar. We usually reserve our given names for someone special, too.”
I nodded, beginning to understand, and secretly feeling pleased that I was special enough to receive that honor. “So, you’re jealous because I used to ride withBull?”
He shook his head ruefully and gave me a reluctant smile, then wrapped his arms around me. “Yeah, apparently so. Jealous, possessive, territorial. All of the above. I want to rip his balls off and shove them in the exhaust pipe on his bike, so you tell me what that feeling is.”
Well, OK then. That cleared that up. “How do we fix this? I mean, I can’t exactly go back in time and erase the fact that I rode with him, even if I wanted to…which I don’t, for the record. Those are fond memories for me.”
“There’s nothing to fix, sugar, and I’m sorry if I made you feel bad. I just need to get my head on straight about it. Hell, he wasn’t even in the club then, so I’m not even sure why it bothered me so fuckin’ much. I’m in unfamiliar territory, here, so you might need to have a little extra patience while I find my way around in this relationship.”
I smiled at his quiet admission, then pulled his head down for a kiss. With a groan, he pulled me close, until Iwas plastered against his body. The kiss went deepened and would have continued had we not been interrupted by Star, who stormed by us without a word and entered the ladies’ restroom at the end of the hall.
“Shit, sugar, I forgot where we were for a second. Let me finish showing you around.”
He held my hand as he gave me a tour. I loved the amount of counter space in the kitchen, including an immense center island that was over twice the size of mine. I was in awe as he showed me the enormous walk-in pantry that was almost as big as Mia’s bedroom.
Dante laughed as I glanced around at the loaded shelves, marveling at the sheer amount of food, sodas, juice, and assorted items stored there.
“Well, a lot of the brothers live here full-time, so there’s always someone cooking or eating around here.”
He showed me the workout space in the basement, and even opened the door of the chapel so I could see it. I had remembered that he’d once mentioned that non-members weren’t allowed to enter, so I made sure to stand outside the doorway while I peeked inside. I didn’t want to be disrespectful of their rules and traditions, even if I didn’t quite understand all of them.
We eventually ended up back in the common room and sat down with Jagger and Molly to chat. In addition to Lucky, I learned that the other two men were Bodhi and Trick. When I found out that Bodhi worked at Fallen Angels, I wondered if he was the man who had returned Dante’s wallet to him. Trick managed an MMA gym for the club and used to be a fighter himself. He was now the sergeant-at-arms.
“He upholds the club’s by-laws and keeps us all in line,” Jagger explained when it was clear that I didn’t know what exactly that title meant.
“So, are most of your club brothers here tonight?” I asked Dante, leaning close so that he could hear me above the music, which someone had just cranked up a few notches.
He glanced around, then shrugged. “A little over half of them, anyway. Some of them are working, and who the hell knows where the rest of them are.”
I noticed about a half-dozen women around, some a little more scantily dressed than others. Dante noticed my gaze zeroing in on a group of four women playing pool with some of the club members. Star was one of them, and the other three were dressed – or rather, practically undressed – in a similar fashion.
“You didn’t introduce me to those ladies,” I pointed out with smirk, and Dante flicked his gaze over to the women in question.
He rolled his eyes and shook his head at me. “Those aren’t exactly ladies. Those are the other club bunnies we have right now. The one next to Star is Misty. The blonde on the other side of the table is Diamond, and the other one is Danielle, but she goes by her initials, DD.”
I eyed her impressive bustline, which was spilling out of the low-cut shirt she wore.DD…how fitting.
“There are a few other women around, but they’re what we call hangarounds. They like to hang out and party with the club.” I nodded, remembering that part from the conversation I’d had weeks ago with Michelle when she explained a little about club life.
Molly and Jagger left soon after, with her apologizing that they were leaving early.
