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“Fuck you, Mae,” he growls. “It wasn’t like that. I wanted to protect you.”
We all turn to stare as Mystique comes into the room, dripping from her shower and naked, not even a towel covering her beautiful body. My eyes almost pop out of my head, and she smiles guiltily at me. “Sorry, I didn’t hear you guys come in.”
“Clearly,” mutters Piper.
“It’s fine. We’ll leave you to it.” I turn on my heel and stomp towards my room. I didn’t want to party in the first place, and now, I feel even less in the mood.
“I honestly don’t think anything is going on between the two of them, Mae,” Piper says. “He looked just as shocked as we did.”
“You know what, I don’t even care that she’s in his room naked. She’s trouble, and she’s trying to wriggle her way in there with him. By letting her shower in his room and always having her hang around, he’s asking for it. He takes her on something so secret but leaves me here, what message is that giving her?”
There’s a banging on my door and I know instantly it’s Ace. “Mae, open the fucking door.”
I pull it open, and Ace is breathing heavy, a sign that he’s pissed. “I’m gonna shower and then we’re gonna go downstairs and party.”
“I am not partying with you. TakeMystie.You seem to want to take her everywhere else.”
He pushes past me and drops a fresh set of clothes on the bed. “I want to take you.”
He disappears into my bathroom, and I hear the shower turn on.
“As tempting as it is to peek a look at our naked President, I’m gonna leave you two to fight it out. Try not to mess up your makeup.” Piper kisses me on the cheek and leaves.
I watch sulkily from my spot on the bed as Ace dresses, all traces of blood gone. He smells good, and I have an internal pep talk to remind myself that just minutes ago, he was covered in another man’s blood.
He holds out his hand. “Let’s go.”
“I’m not in the mood to party, Ace. Can you even understand why I’m so mad with you?”
“Walk or I will throw you over my shoulder.” He isn’t kidding around—he has a dark look in his eye.
“I get you wanted to protect me, that you felt this overriding need to control the situation, but to take her and not me, that was a shit move, Ace.”
He sighs, suddenly looking tired. “I need to protect you. I couldn’t back then, but I can now. I told you I’d be overbearing and I’d drive you crazy, but you said you didn’t care. You said I should try. So, here I am, Mae, I’m trying. I’ll get it wrong, but I don’t think I did this time. I don’t care that Mystique might lay awake remembering every splatter of blood for the next month, but I care that you might. Lorenzo is dead, it doesn’t matter how, and it doesn’t matter who was there. I took care of that for you, so you didn’t have those images. I wasn’t trying to push you out or put her first.”
I hang my head. I know it wasn’t his intention, but it still hurts. “I’m still mad. You need to distance yourself from her. You might not see it, but she’s trying to worm her way into your heart.”
He gives a lopsided smile and holds out his hand, “Are you gonna walk or should I carry you?”
Once downstairs, he shakes hands and greets various other bikers. Some of them we don’t often see because they’re based elsewhere. I go to move away from him, but he snakes his arm around my shoulders and pulls me back to him. “People will start to ask questions, Ace,” I hiss. It’s a moment I’ve waited for, but it feels weird, especially as we’ve still not discussed last night.
“Good.” Ace pushes a drink into my hand and then continues to talk to Trucker. I spot Mystique across the room chatting with Queenie. She watches us, occasionally looking back to Queenie, but always returning her stare to us. Ace finally finishes his conversation with Trucker and then pulls me towards the bar. “Stay there, don’t move,” he orders and then pulls himself to stand on the bar top. He whistles to get everyone’s attention.
“Thanks for coming,” he begins as the chatter dies down. “You’re probably all wondering why I called you here. After the last few weeks, things have been tense, and I thought we could all do with some good news.” He jumps down from the bar and stands next to me. “I’m not getting any younger, so I thought it was about time I took claim to a fantastic, amazing woman.” I stare at him in disbelief, shocked that he’d do this without speaking to me. There’re a few cheers among The Rebellion. “Mae wasn’t on my radar. We’ve always been friends, and she’s the one I’d go to if I couldn’t handle shit, so I don’t know why it took me so long to see it. She’s everything our kind of men need in an old lady. So,” he smiles down at me, “meet my old lady.”
He takes my hand and holds it up for everyone to see. The room erupts with joy, and we’re enveloped in hugs as I’m pulled from Ace and spun around by various men. My heart hammers in my chest as I’m congratulated. My mum wraps me in her arms. “Are you okay with this?” I ask.
“I’m happy if you are.” She smiles, kissing my cheek. “He’s a good man, Mae, and he’ll take care of you.”
“I wasn’t expecting him to do that,” I mutter. “We still have so much to sort out.”
She hugs me again. “After all the bad stuff you’ve been through, it’s nice to have something positive. Enjoy it, Mae. Stop looking for the bad in it. You can sort everything out as you go along.”
Ace joins us, kissing me on the cheek and wrapping his arm around me. “You thought I’d forgotten about last night and what I said to you?”
I nod. “Maybe.”
“You can stop worrying about other women. I’m all yours, baby.” He places another kiss, this time on my lips. “I love you.”
