Still Standing (Wild West MC 1)

“Okay.” I was still whispering.

“They’re gonna love you, Clara,” he told me.

I nodded, ready to believe him that I looked okay, not so sure I believed that.

I got another squeeze of his fingers. “Darlin’, they will.”

“Okay,” I repeated.

He stared into my eyes a second before he bent his neck so he could kiss my nose.

All right, now I felt better.

He lifted his head, and I smiled at him. His focus dropped to my mouth, his fingers tensed on my neck, pulling me slightly up as he bent his neck again then his mouth touched mine.

Two days and I hadn’t had that. Outside of the mini make out session on his bed that first morning, he’d not even brushed his lips against mine.

I missed it.

So much, I leaned in, and when his mouth started moving away, mine followed it.

Suddenly, his arms were around me and his tongue was in my mouth.

Oh, yes.

I missed this even more.

I wound my arms around him and kissed him back.

It was wet, it was heated, and it was effective. I knew this because I felt it starting, my knees got weak and my nipples got hard.

As ever…

Amazing.

He tore his mouth from mine, and with just one kiss, I was breathing heavy and holding on to him for dear life.

“You’re feelin’ better,” he growled, his voice rougher than normal, which was saying something.

“Yes,” I panted, and his arms squeezed gently, like he was testing me, his eyes studying my face.

“Good to know I can take your mouth without you whimpering in pain,” he muttered, his gaze locking on mine.

It was then it hit me that he hadn’t kissed me in two days because he didn’t want it to get heated because getting heated might cause me pain.

Oh yes, I definitely liked it when he was nice.

He carried on, “Tonight, we’ll see what else I can take.”

Oh.

Wow.

“Buck—” I whispered, and I didn’t know why because I had nothing to say except, maybe, “Yippee!”

He let me go, stepped back, and I watched him pull his wallet out of the back pocket of his jeans. I then watched him open it. After that, I watched him sift through a bunch of bills, all of them hundreds. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten…

And onward.

Yes, onward.

And there were several more in there.

He pulled those bills out, flipped his wallet closed and shoved it into his back pocket. Then he grabbed my wrist, lifted it, and planted the wad of hundred-dollar bills in my palm.

I stared at it.

“Have fun, Toots, but I want you to use some a’ that to get yourself a phone. Get a decent one with a good plan. They give you problems with the contract because of your credit history, you get Lorie to call me, and I’ll sort it out. Yeah?”

My head tilted back slowly, and I stared at him.

Okay, so there was a lot of money there because phones cost as much as some cars these days (slight exaggeration).

However.

“I can’t take this,” I said.

His brows shot together. “Why not?”

“It’s hundreds of dollars.”

“So?”

“It’s hundreds of dollars.”

“Yeah,” Buck said slowly, then repeated, “So?”

“That’s a lot of money.”

“Yeah,” Buck said again, leaning slightly into me. “So?”

“I—”

He cut me off. “Babe, shut your trap and go have fun.”

“I—”

“They’re waitin’, Toots, and I got shit to do.”

“Buck—”

“Clara, go…have…fun.”

He was losing patience, I could tell.

“Do you carry that much money on you all the time?” I asked.

“No,” he answered. “I carry that much money on me when my girl’s goin’ shoppin’ and she needs some cake to have fun.”

Oh my.

Yes, I very much liked it when he was nice.

“I’ll pay you back,” I whispered, my fingers curling around the money.

“Don’t piss me off,” he replied, and this time, my chin listed back.

“What?”

He took in a deep, impatient breath.

Upon letting it go, he explained.

“I don’t got time for this shit, but I’ll make things clear considerin’ I didn’t before, though I thought I did,” he said as preamble.

When he didn’t continue, I nodded to indicate I’d heard and digested his preamble.

So he continued.

“I took you on. You’re in my house, you’re in my bed, and eventually you’re at my shop. Tonight, you’re meetin’ my kids. This all means you’re in my life. I let somethin’ in my life, I take care of it. Down the line, you get on your feet, you wanna do somethin’ nice for me in return, knock yourself out. But right now, the somethin’ nice for me you could do is get your ass in the SUV with Lorie, Driver and the girls so I can get on the road and take care of business. Now, are you gonna stop bein’ stupid and go have some fun or do we gotta talk about this for the next hour?”

I wanted to talk about it for the next hour, starting with a wee bit more discussion about taking so much money without paying it back and ending with him calling me stupid.