“She don’t think it’s good enough for you.”
“Not for me. For my degree. One she paid for, mind you. I disappointed her in a couple of different ways.”
“Need to make your own mistakes.”
“I know she realizes that but I guess when your sister was close to being bludgeoned to death and sitting in a hospital bed hooked up to machines…” Reilly sighed.
“Yeah, the mother of all motherly instincts kicked in.”
“I was all she had… Well, until Deacon.”
“’Til all of us,” he corrected her.
“Yes, that’s probably one reason why she relented to me staying in Manning Grove, becoming a part of the club and working at the garage. She realized how much of a tight family the Fury was. Something we never had before since we only had each other. Okay, I had her. She never really had me to help her. I was a burden.”
“Jesus fuck, woman, not once have I ever heard Reese say you were or are a fuckin’ burden and you know that woman’s opinionated as all fuck and not afraid to say shit. She fuckin’ loves you. ‘Cause of that, she’s protective of you. She’s like a momma lioness protectin’ her damn cub.” He blew out a breath. “What the fuck, I can’t believe I’m defendin’ her, but it’s true. Everybody sees it and gets it. Here’s the thing, we all gotta take care of each other. Blood or not. For some of us, the club’s all we got. Someone needs somethin’, we gotta step up and step in.”
“Now you know why I insisted on coming along with you, why I didn’t want you to do this alone. When someone we care about needs something, we need to step up and step in to help.”
She just snared him with his own goddamn words, proving why he shouldn’t have fought her coming along.
She was so much smarter than him. He was sure plenty of people assumed by her being a hot, young blonde that she was some sort of airhead. She was far from that.
She was the complete fucking package and some man, someday, would be lucky to get stuck with her.
“It’s also why you went back to the storage unit to finish what I couldn’t.”
“You could’ve done it, Reilly, but there was no point in puttin’ you through that if it ain’t necessary. But push come to fuckin’ shove, you woulda buckled down and got it done. Got no fuckin’ doubt about that.”
“I’m glad you think so,” she murmured.
He tucked a thumb under her chin and lifted her face until their gazes locked. “Don’t think so, know so. Known you long enough now. Seen you in action. Know what you’re capable of. You ain’t stupid and you definitely ain’t foolish.”
“There you go sprinkling me with that powdered sugar again.” She grabbed his cheeks between her fingers and squeezed them together. “Too damn sweet.”
“Woman, I ain’t fuckin’ sweet! Stop sayin’ that shit,” he growled, jerking free of her grasp. He quickly smothered a smile when she laughed. He was relieved she was no longer in that weird funk.
And now she wasn’t, they could move on. To other things…
Like much more pleasant shit.
But first, she might be hungry. He sure was. For her and for food in his stomach. “Wanna know if you’re up for eatin’.”
“When am I ever not up for eating?”
When you’re in a zombie-like state, he answered in his head. But now that sass was back. “What are you in the mood for?”
She smiled up at him. “You.”
“Well, ain’t that funny. Hungry for you, too. But we’re gonna need real food sooner or later. Ain’t eaten since breakfast.”
“Hard to resist the delicious meal before me.”
He ran a hand down his own chest. “That’s right. Ain’t no snack, I’m a satisfyin’ meal that’ll fill you up.”
She rolled her eyes. “All right. Let’s not go too far now.”
In response, he rolled over her and took her mouth. It was a while before they both came up for air.
And for food.
It was all worth another sleepless night.
Chapter Twelve
Reilly wiggled against the hot steel pipe pressed into her ass crack. She had no idea what time it was but knew Rev hadn’t gotten enough sleep since she had slept the afternoon away and he had not. After banging one out after he returned yesterday evening and then pigging out on takeout from a local Chinese restaurant, they spent a couple more hours taking their time with each other.
Sleep-deprived or not, Rev seemed to be revving to go again.
Reilly groaned as she stretched her tired and sore muscles, then rolled over to face the naked, ready man next to her…
Whose eyes were closed.
She gently nudged him to his back, slid over top of him and pulled the sheet over their heads, creating a cocoon around them.
Whether he was faking sleep or not at this point, she didn’t know and, honestly, didn’t care. This morning she was going to give back what he’d given to her. Quite a few times. And very satisfactorily, too.