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I swallow hard at her words.
The protector.
Yes. I do miss that.
I miss having a man in the house. Tag annoys me, and his dad, who isn’t the cuddliest of creatures, they’re both alpha males, and me and my mom always felt safe having them in the house. There is something about a man’s presence in the home that I will always crave. Maybe it stems from my own childhood after my father left, I’m not sure. But there was always something missing until my mom married Terrance.
“You’ve got me there,” I say.
“Or to see the look on his face when you give him a child,” she goes on.
I give her a look. “We don’t need your happily ever after ruining it for the rest of us,” I say, half-joking.
“I’ll drink to that,” Casey says as we clink our glasses again.
Manny went to get more drinks and Deanna, Summer, Jas and Payden are somewhere between ordering our food and on the dance floor.
I idly wonder what Tag really thinks about me being here or if he even gives a shit. Summer told me she let him know about tonight, and his nostrils flared when she did.
She’s not dumb; she knows there is something between us and a reason why we can’t.
It’s not just the idea that the two of us enjoy bickering or playing hard to get.
I’ve no idea how our parents would react if they found out. I think for the most part they’d be horrified, as well as most of the clubhouse. I wouldn’t want to be ridiculed or have Tag be a laughingstock. As much as he is respected in the clubhouse, there is still that element of respect within the ranks, and I know that Tag wants to keep his reputation intact.
Something that just makes me want to eye roll even more.
I still don’t know who he thinks he is trying to tell me what to do. Goddamn beast of an asshole.
Yet, as much as I continue to deny it, what I can’t deny is how I felt on the back of his bike.
Man, it felt good.
Not just the rush of adrenaline and feeling the straight pipes rumble beneath me, but everything. Him. Being wrapped around his body. His strength. His scent. Everything about him sings to me even when I know it shouldn’t.
“Don’t look now,” Manny says in my ear when he comes back with the drinks. “But lover boy is here.”
My eyes go round. “What?” I mouth, annoyed and surprised at the same time as I look around, trying to spot him.
“Tag’s in the bar area. Don’t worry, he can’t see you from here. He also told me not to say anything, but come on, like I’m gonna keep my trap shut.”
“Why is he here?”
He gives me a pointed look, and I shake my head.
“No,” I say. “He’s not here for me.”
“He had some bullshit story about checking shit out for the merger. If the Rebels decide to buy in, then they’ll own this joint.”
I roll my eyes. “There goes all our fun.”
“Didn’t seem too thrilled you were here, baby cakes. Safe to say the big guy has a thing for you in a major way.”
Hearing Manny say it thrills me, even if I know that Tag would never have given off those signals. I mean, he came to collect me off the side of the road because he’s obligated. Not because he wanted to.
Now he’s here snooping on me? Jerk.
“Guess what? I don’t give a shit what he’s thrilled about. He can go to hell, for all I care.”
