“’Kay,” I agreed, rubbing my nose over his slowing pulse point. “I’m good with that.”
His hand still on my hair, he gave my neck a little squeeze, as if he knew I wasn’t, but he was grateful to me for saying so.
“You about done?” Molly called out from the half-open screen door on the back porch. “Food’s getting cold.”
“Oh, my God,” I cried out in embarrassment, tilting my head into the crook of Nova’s arm where his laugh shook through me.
“Coming now,” I shouted after swatting him in the chest.
“Actually, we just did,” he teased then threw his head back to laugh uproariously at my shocked expression, his mirth rolling through the flowered meadow for the entire neighborhood to hear.
“I cannot believe they knew we were out here,” I moaned as I pulled away to right my dress. “How fucking embarrassing.”
“Hey,” Nova said on a chuckle, catching my hands and bringing them up to his lips for a brief kiss on each of my knuckles. “We’re grown ass adults. Molly and Diogo aren’t gonna say shit. Sure, Milo, Oliver, and Huds will crack some jokes, but c’mon, it’s not like you aren’t used to their ribbin’. And you know Ares won’t say anythin’ even though he’ll shoot you one of his thousand-yard stares.”
“True,” I muttered as he stood and offered me a hand up. “Still, I’m not relishing the thought of going in to see my foster family with their son’s cum leaking down my thighs.”
“Mmm,” Nova hummed wickedly, slinging an arm over my shoulder and touching his nose to my hair as he began to lead us inside. “Is it wrong I think that’s hot?”
A reluctant laugh spilled from my lips. “One hundred percent wrong, but you wouldn’t be you if you weren’t.”
He winked at me as we ascended the back steps then smiled broadly at his mum as she held the door open for us.
“You have flowers in your hair,” she said mildly to her son. “And while I’m sure Lila put them there, I have a feeling she did it in a different way than when you were young.”
Nova laughed freely, his grin so wide it was blinding in the honey light spilling out from the house. He ducked down to give her a gentle hug then swaggered into the house, already calling out into the dining room for his brothers.
Molly stilled me with only a tender, maternal look and a soft hand on my arm.
“Never seen him so carefree,” Molly whispered, her face infused with love and a gentle understanding that made me want to cry. “Lord knows I want happiness for that boy. But you’re my only girl, and there will always be a special place in my heart just for you. I know you have a lot of love to give, Lila, just… just make sure you don’t put all of it in one basket, okay?”
I smiled weakly at her as she opened her arm to give me a side hug and lead me into the house that had been my home since I was seven years old.
I didn’t tell her it was already too late.
I’d lost my heart to Nova before I’d even known what love was.
NOVA
It’d been fuckin’ ages since we’d thrown a real banger at the clubhouse, but Z had decided, and rightly, that the club’d been through a shitstorm over the last year, and we needed to cut loose.
When you told a group of bikers and their Old Ladies to cut loose and throw a ragin’ party, they fuckin’ delivered.
It was craziness, loud and fuckin’ chaotic revelry.
The entire lot was strewn with lights the hang-arounds had set up, huge crates filled with ice and stuffed with domestic brews, massive speakers set up between buildin’s so the sound of rock drowned out the silence of the deep night.
Some of the brothers from the Quebec City chapter were in town after completin’ a long run through the prairies deliverin’ guns, and those motherfuckin’ Frenchmen were always down for a good time. A few of them had some of the girls dancin’ on the picnic tables in front of the clubhouse, and Lila was there, not dancin’, but laughin’ as Cleo was taken for a spin, and Lion coaxed Harleigh Rose into some kinda country boy two-step.
There were biker bitches everywhere, too, just lookin’ for a shot of danger from any of the men in leather who’d give them a taste straight from the source. Normally, I’d be in the thick of that, tangled up in one or two girls ’cause I liked the feel of them, they liked the sight of me, and therefore, I usually got the pick of the litter.
Not tonight.
It wasn’t easy stayin’ away. I got the pouty looks, the trailin’ hands, and whispered invitations, but I stayed free of them.