Thumper (Cerberus MC)

I think that if I manage to convince this woman to stay here with me, I’d have every dream answered.

Jinx walks up, handing me a bottle of water.

“How are things with Reagan?” I ask. They were getting pretty serious when I left.

“Amazing,” he answers. “She finds me completely irresistible.”

“I bet,” I say with a chuckle as I uncap the bottle of water and take a drink.

“I can give you a few pointers on how to win your girl over. The first would be to stay hidden away until your face heals. Or at least until you’re not as ugly.”

I smile, and he laughs as he walks away.

Chapter 35

Cara

I was fully engaged in the conversation we were having, and then Javier walked into the room. Now the talk around me is no more than chatter and background noise.

He’s holding the bottle of water one of the guys handed him, and I’m amazed with how handsome he is. His swollen eye is almost completely open now, and despite the discoloration of the multiple bruises on his face, I know that they’re healing. He’s a strong man both physically and mentally. I know I would’ve checked out completely if I had gone through what he did.

A light chuckle draws my attention away from him, and I blush when I find Delilah looking at me and then across the room where my attention was focused. She gives me a soft, knowing smile, but I don’t say anything to confirm or deny her suspicions.

“You know,” Gigi says as she leans forward. “Rumor is he never touched any of the girls when they had parties over here.”

“Parties?” I ask.

“Orgies,” Gigi clarifies.

I nearly choke on my own tongue. “What?”

“Gigi, stop,” Delilah says.

“What? It’s true.”

“She doesn’t want to hear about any of that.” Delilah pats my hand as if I need protecting.

I know she isn’t trying to be condescending, but this is what I hate about everyone knowing my past. I don’t want the conversations to change when I walk into a room. I don’t want people to shield me from anything.

Instead of explaining all of this, I just turn my attention back to Gigi. “You go to the orgies?”

A wide smile spreads across her face. “Jameson would kill any of the men here if they looked at me, but we have gone to a club in Denver, and people have watched us.”

“W-watched?”

“Having sex,” Gigi confirms, but then she leans back against the sofa. “We haven’t been in a while. I think I’m going to ask for a trip for my birthday.”

“And that’s my cue to leave,” Izzy says as she stands. “The last thing I want to listen to are details about my dad’s sex life.”

Several women chuckle as Izzy walks away with an overexaggerated chuckle.

“What are we talking about?” Sophia, Dominic’s youngest daughter, says as she sits down. Her belly is almost as rounded as Delilah’s is, and I have to wonder if drinking the water around here is safe.

You would actually have to have sex for that to be an issue, my head reminds me.

“The sex club in Denver,” Ivy mutters. “As always.”

“Having a healthy sex life isn’t something we should be ashamed of talking about,” Sophia says with a glint of mischief in her eyes.

She looks like the type of girl I would’ve gravitated to right after leaving Knight Salvation when I wanted to be wild, a huge middle finger to all the things those assholes tried to drill into my head.

“Tell that to Izzy,” Delilah mumbles.

“Actually, I was telling Cara about how Thumper never touched the girls at the parties here. I mean, I overheard once that he would stroke himself while watching, but he never got involved.”

“Gigi,” Ivy warns.

“No, it’s fine,” I say. “Don’t change the subject on my account.”

“She always talks about sex,” Sophia explains. “Like all the time.”

Gigi shrugs. I look across the room at Jameson as he smiles at his little girl while holding his son in his arms. The toddler looks exhausted but completely at home in his dad’s arms. I look further, my eyes going back to Javier, and I can tell he’s quickly losing steam. The longer I watch him, the more I realize that he’s not going to cut short his conversations with the various guys that stop by to chat unless he’s forced to. He’s gone from standing upright to leaning against the wall, and now I can see his eyes are darting around for a chair. The man is stubborn.

“Excuse me,” I tell the girls as I stand and cross the room.

“Are you going to force me to play mean nurse?” I ask as I approach him.

“I’m sure he’d love that,” Apollo teases as he walks away with a chuckle.

“Ignore him,” Javier says.

I hold my hand out to him, and he takes it immediately. I’m staring down at the way his thumb is tracing circles over the back so long it takes me a minute to realize a hush has settled over the group.