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BISHOP
The night air was warm and calm, disturbed only by the faint hum of crickets in the distance. The porch light above the doorway cast a soft glow out onto the garden as I leaned back into the old sofa, taking a long drag from my cigar and making the tip glow brightly in the darkness.
I held it for a few seconds, feeling my body instantly relax before exhaling a plume of cigar smoke into the night air.
It was my place to find a little peace every now and then.
Away from my duties at the club as a president, brother, mentor, father, and protector.
It wasn’t often I did anything that wasn’t in the club’s or my family’s best interest.
That night was different.
I’d given in.
And I didn’t regret a single moment of the past few hours exploring Shay’s body, committing it to memory and declaring it mine.
Calli would be shocked, maybe even a little mad, but I’d prove to her that this was more than just a hookup. This wasn’t just Shay and I fucking around. Having Shay around had filled a gaping hole I wasn’t even aware had opened. It wasn’t just the cooking, the cleaning, or the way she had begun to mother my men.
It was the way she challenged me.
It was the way she cared so fucking fiercely.
It was her fight—one that scared the shit out of me and had me on my damn toes.
But maybe that was it.
Shay forced me out of a comfort zone I’d fallen into, and I was beginning to see what Calli was talking about when she sat me down before she left and told me she wanted me to find someone, to share parts of myself with someone, and to love again as I had before.
I’d spent so long living and breathing the club that I’d forgotten how to be anything other than a president.
“Should I get used to you sneaking out at three in the morning?” I glanced over to find Shay standing in the doorway, a blanket wrapped around her. She leaned against the doorframe. There was a slit in the blanket where the sides didn’t quite meet that exposed a sliver of completely naked skin from her thigh up to where her hands had the edges clasped at her breasts.
A sheen of sweat glistened lightly across her skin. The heat of the night was almost unbearable that I could only stand sitting out here in a pair of boxers. “I don’t make a habit out of it,” I explained, taking another drag and eyeing how she chewed her lip. “And you can stop yourself right there. I can see that mind of yours wandering. I’m not running away.”
Smoke swirled in the air as I spoke, and Shay dropped her chin for a second, a knowing smile formed on her lips. That’d been the exact thought running through her pretty little head. “Well, you feel like company then or—”
“Come ’ere,” I ordered, lifting my arm. She didn’t waste a second, shuffling over and tucking her knees up as she climbed onto the sofa. She wiggled in under my arm, and I couldn’t help but chuckle as I leaned over to the ashtray. “I’ll put this out.”
“No, it’s okay,” she protested, making me pause and look back at her. “I kind of like it. It smells sweet but also not.”
I smirked, tapping the cigar on the edge of the ashtray but not putting it out. “So descriptive.”
She rolled her eyes. “Well, Mr. Way With Words,” she started, her eyes falling to my arm and the chessboard tattoo that twisted around it. “How about you start using some of them to tell me about these tattoos?”
I followed her gaze, admiring the masterpiece I’d had done when Rook died.
I didn’t do that enough—take time to appreciate the art that decorated my skin. Most of my tattoos were memorial pieces, reminders of people or parts of my life that I didn’t want to forget, some amazing and beautiful, others dark and painful.
Both were important, though.
Both were a part of who I was and the man I’d become.
“That’s an ode to the club president before me, Rook,” I explained, and she turned those beautiful bright eyes back to me, eager and waiting for a story. The chessboard covered almost my entire bicep, the checkered pattern fading into a background of dark, stormy skies and fallen chess pieces, with two standing firm and proud at the front and center.
The Bishop and the Rook.
“I know Calli told you a little about The Valley.” Shay nodded. “Rook saved my life after they threw me out. He took me in and treated me like his son. He taught me everything I know about family, the importance of our brotherhood, and how to be the kind of man who would make him and the people around me proud.”
