Hyde's Absolution (Sydney Storm MC 4)

Taking a step away from me, he gestured towards Mum. “Lead the way.”

This thing with Hyde was taking a new turn. I’d expected him to take Mum’s invitation as his cue to leave. I hadn’t thought he’d want to stick around and get cosy with my family. And yet, there he was—following my mother inside my house as if it was the only place he wanted to be.

Chapter 19

Monroe

I had to give Hyde full points. He was handling my mother and sister like a pro. They’d grilled him for the past hour on everything from his thoughts on shower sex to his family, to life as a biker. He’d somehow managed to satisfy their curiosity without really giving them solid answers. I figured his muscles and voice had them under the kind of spell that allowed him to get away with not giving them the sort of information they were actually looking for.

My father watched the conversation silently. I knew he’d be picking apart everything Hyde said and did. Dad didn’t take it easy on any guy I dated, and it seemed he was more wary of Hyde than he’d been of any man I’d brought home.

As Savannah shared a funny story from something that happened to her during the week, Hyde leant close to me and said, “Any chance we can move this party along to the part where everyone goes home?”

“You really think we’ve got any hope of getting my mother to leave? You’ve won her over. She’s here for the long haul.”

His eyes searched mine. “You’re not shitting me, are you?”

I grinned. “No. I think it’s safe to say you’ve probably never met a woman like Angela Lee.”

“You’d be right there. You girls always share such personal information with each other?”

“Oh, you have no idea. My mother likes sex as much as I do, and she likes talking about it just as much.”

“What are you two discussing?” Mum demanded to know. She was way past her alcohol limit for the night and was veering into smashed territory.

“I think this party is over, Mum.”

“Yeah, me too,” Tatum said. I could always count on her to take my back.

Mum pouted. “We were just getting to know Hyde.”

Dad stood and motioned for Mum to follow suit. “Plenty of time for that, Angela.”

I packed up some pizza for them to take home and did my best to get them all out the door. I was as desperate to be alone with Hyde as he was. Dad, however, had other plans.

As he and Mum made it to the front door, he turned and looked at Hyde. The way he looked at him told me that whatever he was about to say wasn’t going to lead to anything good. “What’s your surname, Hyde?”

“Dad,” I warned, but I knew it was futile. He’d been hanging for this conversation since he arrived back with pizza. I was surprised he managed to wait this long for it.

Hyde’s gaze remained steady on Dad. “McVeigh.”

“Your mother named you Hyde?”

“No.”

Dad planted his feet wide and crossed his arms. “You this cagey with everyone?”

Oh good Lord.

“Colin—” Mum started, in the same warning tone I’d used, but Hyde cut her off.

“Yeah, it’s a practice I’ve learnt over the years so that people can’t fuck me over. You and I get to know each other better, it’ll be a different story.”

Dad took that in. He seemed less than impressed, but my father wasn’t stupid. He knew when to push the point and when to back off. “You start spending time with my daughter, we’re going to be revisiting that a lot sooner than you might think.”

Hyde surprised me when he nodded and said, “Agreed.”

Dad grunted in response but didn’t say anything else. The two of them simply stood there sizing each other up. It was a waste of time in my opinion, and I wasn’t even sure why Hyde bothered. It wasn’t like he and I were pursuing anything other than hot sex.