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Rooster took my hands and kissed my knuckles.
“And would you do me a favor?”
“Of course. Anything.”
“Stop flirting with Mack,” he replied lightly.
I raised my eyebrows, a smile spreading across my face.
“It’s just friendly conversation.”
He narrowed his eyes. “It’s flirting. A little bit. Even if it doesn’t go anywhere.”
I grinned and slid my arms around Rooster’s waist.
“His Irish accent is pretty sexy though. God, I bet his dirty talk is amazing.”
Rooster grumbled with an annoyed look.
“I’m serious, Lou.”
“Oh, believe me, I am too,” I replied, laughing. I took Rooster’s hands from my hips and placed them against my ass. “But I think you need to remind me that I belong to you. Just one more time.”
Rooster lifted me onto the edge of the bathroom counter without hesitation, pushing his hips between my knees.
“I intend to remind you every day for the rest of our lives, darlin’.”
***
Rooster’s auto shop was closed for the day when we finally showed up. His whole club was there—nine men in all—lingering in the garage, settled in chairs, lobbing an old, abused baseball back and forth between them.
“I was beginning to think you’d changed your mind and bailed on us, brother,” Tank said, clasping Rooster’s hand in a firm grip by way of greeting.
“You can’t blame a man for getting distracted,” Mack said, perched on the edge of a workbench. “Especially when he has a woman like Lou to keep him company. If Lou and I were hanging out, I certainly wouldn’t be spending any time with you ugly bastards.”
I glanced at Rooster with a playful look and slid my hand into the back pocket of his jeans to reassure him that I wasn’t going to rise to Mack’s bait. Not this time anyway.
“If you were hanging out with my girl,” Rooster said. “It would be the last thing you ever did.”
Mack just grinned at him, unmoved by Rooster’s warning. Rooster gestured to his club.
“Lou, you’ve already met some of these boys. For the rest of them, there’s our President, Brewer. Our Sergeant at Arms, Crow. That beast of a man lurking back there is our muscle, Bear. And last but not least is Axel. He’s another man too pretty for his own good, so keep your distance.”
“I think I heard a compliment in there somewhere,” Axel said with a smile worthy of an old-fashioned Hollywood star. “Rooster, don’t make me blush.”
“Shut up.”
Mack piped in. “Am I the other pretty boy you’re talking about? I had no idea you felt that way about me, Rooster. You know flattery works wonders with me, brother.”
Rooster gave a long-suffering sigh. I ducked my head, smothering a giggle against his shoulder. This is what he’d always wanted—a family, a place to belong. His own family had been volatile, scattered, a broken home where he wasn’t welcome with an alcoholic father and a mother who never wanted him in the first place. Rooster acted out, his motorcycle serving as the only haven that gave him peace of mind.
Now he had a club of brothers who dropped everything to support him when he asked for help. I was proud of him, happy for him, but it was bittersweet too. I wished he’d found this in Baton Rouge. I wished we’d found this together.
Brewer directed his gaze to me. “Rooster said you were having some trouble.”
He was a big man with a dark beard and a seriousness to his tone that made me wonder if he knew how to smile.
“It’s my husband, Jed. I want out of the marriage and he refuses to let me go. When I packed my things and headed up north to stay with my grandmother, it seems he sent some of his men to tail me. They slashed my tires.”
