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“No.” She snorted. “But that would be fun. What I meant was, these guys, they kinda…”
“Kinda what?”
“Know. I mean, they know when they want a woman to be their Old Lady. They claim fast and don’t care for societal norms. It’s part of the club culture.”
“Viper hasn’t claimed me.” I rolled my eyes. “We’re sleeping together. That’s it. Just for as long as I live at the clubhouse. He doesn’t want something long term, and neither do I.”
“He can’t take his eyes off you,” she said. “When he thinks you’re not looking, it’s plain as day he can’t stop staring.”
“Yeah, because he wants to get into my pants, which isn’t hard to do because I want him just as badly.”
“He talks to you. I mean, really talks. Like opens his mouth and uses words.”
“So what, I’m the Viper whisperer? I’m hissnakecharmer?”
Willa laughed. “You’re good, I’ll give you that. But what do you know about him? Like, have you talked about your pasts? Your family? Anything?”
“Some things,” I admitted. “Not a lot. I don’t need to know a lot.”
“Need and want are two different things.”
I didn’t feel comfortable sharing with Willa that Viper slept with a knife under his pillow, or that he’d pulled it on me. It was a major red flag, and if I’d been rational at all, I would’ve stopped sleeping with him immediately and disappeared from the clubhouse.
But red just so happens to be my favorite color.
I knew there were things Viper wasn’t telling me. Just like there were things I wasn’t telling him.
I was afraid that if we opened up to each other, I meanreallyopened up to each other, we’d both be traveling down a path neither of us wanted.
Permanence.
Chapter21
“This is so fucking cool,”I said when we walked into Waverly’s workshop. There were several pieces of furniture in different states of completion. Tools I had no idea how to use were strewn about.
“Waverly, Dylan, Sailor, and Waverly’s best friend Jessica run a furniture flipping business,” Willa explained. “They’re doing pretty well, too.”
“Wow. I’m super impressed. Your sisters are bright, aren’t they?”
“Yeah. Only, Sailor isn’t my sister.”
“No? Is she Duke’s sister?”
Willa shook her head. “Sailor… We’ve kind of unofficially adopted her and she stays with us. We take full responsibility for her.”
“It takes special people to do something like that,” I said. “Opening your home to a teenager.”
“She’s a good kid.” Willa shrugged. “I’m glad we could help.” She absently rubbed a hand across her flat stomach.
“How far along are you?”
“Few weeks,” she said with a smile. “You want kids?”
“I’m twenty-two.”
“I’m twenty-four.”
“Yeah, but you’re, like, anadult. You’ve got an adult home, an adult job, a husband, and you take care of two teenagers. I don’t even have a fish.”
