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“I’d love to have you stay with me and, of course, taking a spare room is alright. How about we head inside and you can freshen up? Do you need to run into town for anything before the party?” I leave out the part about falling in bed with someone, because the thought of her doing that with another man has my anger rising. Though I would have liked her in my bed tonight and in my arms, I know she’s nowhere near ready for that.
She nibbles her lip again as she looks down at her duffel bag that I’m still carrying for her. “I have a sundress in there that I’m hoping will be okay enough for the party. I’m not even sure why I grabbed it since I’ve always tried not to wear anything that would draw attention to me.”
Doesn’t she know how beautiful she is? She could wear a burlap sack and still be sexy as fuck. My brain freezes as the rest of her words register. The last part of what she said has me instantly on edge. “Can I ask why you didn’t want to draw attention to yourself?”
“Is,” she pauses as she clears her throat as she looks at me hesitantly. “Is it okay to save that story for another time? It’s kind of a long story, and I’m not sure what time the party starts.”
Nodding, I squeeze her hand. While I know it’s a delay tactic, I let it go. I’ll get her history soon and show her she can rely on me.
“Of course, Sunshine. And we’ve got a little over an hour before the party starts. There will be some people from town coming and I think even Susie and Jordan are coming. Smoke’s sister, Nikki, is here, too. Let’s get you up to my room and I’ll show you the safe you can use. Then you can freshen up. Later tonight, we’ll get your things from my room before we go to my house.”
I wince as I realize we never asked her something and we should have. Her brow furrows in confusion when she catches it.
“Sorry, we should have asked you before, but do you have any weapons on you? We’re not saying you can’t have them depending on what they are, but if you do, we just need to know about them. Also, we don’t allow drugs anywhere inside the compound. Though if you did have any, I’m sure Bastion, Levi’s dog, would have been over here already warning us.”
She shakes her head, but I don’t miss how her eyes light up at the mention of a dog on the compound. “I don’t have any weapons, not even a pocketknife, and I told your prospect that earlier. I’ve never done drugs, but don’t know if he’ll be able to smell them on my stuff or not. Preston does a lot of drugs and he keeps my mom strung out on them as a way to control her. His words, not mine. That’s why I stuck around so long. I was saving up for us both to leave. If I could talk her into it, that is. Also, to get her into rehab if she agrees. She was a pretty good mom before Preston came back into our lives.”
My chest aches at the helpless look on her face. Fuck, if Preston is doing that to her mom, she’s lucky as shit that he didn’t try anything with her.
“So, how is it that Bastion is able to detect drugs?”
“He used to be a police force dog. Him being able to sniff out drugs has helped us a few times when we’d have parties here. Some people came here from town and had some on them. I’m not sure if they were trying to deal once they got here or if it was for personal use, but the drugs were trashed, and they were banned from ever coming back.”
“So, it’s true then? You guys aren’t into anything illegal?”
“No, we aren’t into anything illegal. We make our money from the businesses we own or have a stake in around town. Those of us that manage a business get a larger cut of the profits than those that don’t.” I don’t tell her that sometimes we have to take out the trash. I’m sure it will come up at some point, especially if Preston or Bruce cause a lot of trouble.
“What do you do? I’m guessing something outdoors since you’re so tan,” she says as she runs her hand along my arm. A shiver runs through me at her touch. Fuck, I’ve never responded like this to a woman before.
Clearing my throat, I answer her question. “Well, you’re half right. I run our construction business, Steel Construction. I spend a lot of time in the office, but I also like to be out on the construction sites, getting my hands dirty so to speak. Besides, it helps me to get a closeup view on how the projects are going.”
“Wait,” she says as she looks over her shoulder and gestures to the houses behind me. “Did your crews build these houses?”
I can’t stop the grin that pulls at my lips. “Yes, we did. We also did the expansion on the club house years ago when we added the second and third floors as well as going further back into the property.”
“Holy cannoli,” she whispers as she looks around again with her jaw dropped. “You guys do amazing work. Now I’m really curious about what your house looks like on the inside.”
My chest swells at her praise and her cheeks flush once again when her gaze returns back to me. “Later tonight, I’ll give you the tour when you’re ready to head home. I hope you’ll like it.”
Fuck, I really hope she likes my house, but if there is something she doesn’t like, I’ll rip it out if need be and redo it to her tastes.
As we near the clubhouse, all of the motorcycles parked outside start to make me nervous again. I hadn’t realized there were that many before, but my attention had mainly been focused on the bikers on the road rather than on the bikes at the clubhouse.
“Is your club really big? There are a lot of bikes here.”
Timber shakes his head. “Our club has a number of chapters all over. Some of these bikes belong to my brothers in the Junction Creek chapter. They’re almost four hours away. We’ve always been close to them, but ever since Reaper, who is the President of the Junction Creek chapter, adopted Levi as his sister, we’ve become even closer.”
A haunted look crosses his face before he masks it. I’m curious what that look was about, but now isn’t the right time. Especially since I just put off a pretty big topic myself. Well, big in the fact that there’s a lot of information packed into the whole ‘why I try to hide and blend in’ thing.
When we walk up the porch steps of the clubhouse, my nerves return full force. Timber must be able to sense it, because he gives my hand a squeeze.
“Everything’s going to be okay, but if the bunnies give you any shit, just let me know.”
How can he say everything’s going to be okay? And right now, the bunnies are the furthest thing from my mind. I’m almost positive that a certain someone doesn’t like me and doesn’t want anything to do with me.
Though to be fair, Mom really did do a number on him by lying to him and saying I died. I know I said that I was trying to get Mom away from Preston and into rehab, which is true, but I’m not sure if I can ever forgive her for keeping my dad from me. Even if he does hate me, wants nothing to do with me, and I never see him again after this. It’s not like I asked for any of this to happen.
Taking a deep breath, I follow Timber into the clubhouse. As we walk through what looks to be the main room, I can’t keep myself from blushing at the looks the other men and a few women give us when they notice Timber’s still holding my hand. I try to pull away, but his grip tightens, which makes them grin even wider.
