Leaning back, Sarge extended his arms across the low backrest of the booth. The man didn’t look like he had a care in the world as his eyes scanned the room. No doubt he couldn’t keep his gaze off their pretty little waitress. Next to him, Cassie was just as confident in their wager, rubbing her hands together like some evil action movie villain.
God, he fucking loved that spitfire. He’d never been one to believe in soulmates, love at first sight, or any other bullshit like that, but how the fuck else did he explain how it went down between them? Hell, they’d known each other for less than twenty-four hours when they’d entered a full-on committed relationship. Moving—fleeing—halfway across the country where they had no connections besides each other and fucking Sarge. No jobs, no place to live, him as a prospect in a new MC…shit that would have strained the strongest of relationships. Yet somehow their baby relationship not only survived its first year of life, it fucking flourished.
Viper didn’t have a single doubt in his mind that he and Cassie would spend the rest of their lives side by side. Laughing, playing, fighting, and most of all loving like crazy.
Just one problem…after twelve months of being together, his stubborn lady had yet to utter those three damn important words.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
1983 - TENNESSEE
Yes! A weekend away with Viper. No club business, no Sarge, no interruptions, and if she had her way…no clothing. They needed this time together, not due to any relationship issue, but because they’d barely had any time to themselves in the past few months. Between her working crazy hours at the reception desk of a local inn and Viper’s erratic schedule with the club, sometimes a week went by before they had a solid half hour to connect. Not to mention Sarge crashing on their couch more often than not kinda put a kink in her recently discovered love of spontaneous sex.
For all of those reasons, she was dying for seventy-two straight hours of Viper and Cassie only time. But there was one vitally important reason she’d been craving uninterrupted alone time with her man. It was time—okay it was long past time—to tell him just how much she loved him. Viper had said those words to her months ago, and it hurt him on some level not to hear it returned from her. Yet…she just hadn’t been able to voice the words even if she felt them. And she’d been feeling them almost since the start of their relationship.
Two factors had kept her from telling Viper she loved him. Fear and distrust.
At first, she’d feared Viper entered into the relationship and stayed with her out of some sort of duty or worse…pity. He’d rescued her from hell and felt responsible for her wellbeing, especially since she’d followed him to Tennessee like some kind of lost puppy dog. Viper was a good, honorable man who took his responsibilities seriously. She’d spend endless nights worrying he had a misplaced sense of duty toward her. Wouldn’t that be a devastating outcome? Fall madly in love with a man only to find out he saw her as a job, an obligation.
She’d have been crushed.
Once he’d told her he loved her, that fear had been put to rest but distrust in her own feelings had run rampant. Was she with him for the right reasons? Should she try life on her own for a while? In reality, she’d jumped from her father’s house to living with her lover following a traumatic experience.
Not exactly the stuff healthy long-term relationships were made of. Perhaps she’d mistaken love for gratitude and loyalty. It’d taken many months of soul searching, steady love from Viper, and personal growth to learn to trust her instincts, feelings, and her own mind.
Now she understood for certain what she felt for Viper was real, deep, long-lasting love.
And it was time to tell the man. Only since she made him wait so damn long, she wanted to say it at a special time in a special place.
Hence, the desire to take a little trip.
Which would now happen, thanks to Sarge making a bet he could never win.
Yay!
“Why you sitting over there grinning like you’re about to come?” Sarge asked as Cindy placed their drinks in front of them. The man was an ass, though somehow she’d missed it in those early days. He hadn’t been quite so obnoxious toward her or in general at first. The rancid attitude and constant goading of her had developed with time. Most of the time his comments rolled off her back, but lately they’d gone from annoying but primarily teasing to slightly hostile.
Viper attributed the changes in Sarge to frustrations over having to prospect a second time, and Cassie agreed, in part. The day the two men had found out about prospecting had seemed to be the catalyst for the change in demeanor, but she thought it was more. Sarge didn’t do well taking orders. He preferred to dish them out. In fact, rumor had it he left the army on less than honorable terms for that very reason.