Duke (The Henchmen MC 5)

"But what is your opinion?" I pressed, knowing I had no friends and that even though I could spend a few nights with my grandmother, I didn't want to bring whatever the hell situation I found myself in around her.

"You should stay here."

I figured he would say that.

"Will you be here?" I asked, wincing a bit at the whisper of neediness in that question.

To that, his lips tipped up and I even saw a hint of teeth too. I got the strong impression that he wasn't someone who found cause to smile often and it made the fact that he gave one to me even nicer.

"You're in my bed," he informed me.

I was in his bed.

If I was in his bed, then...

"This is your shirt too, isn't it?" I asked, fingers running over the hem.

"Fits you like a dress," he said, nodding.

"Yeah," I said, smiling a little self-deprecatingly. "I guess I'll never be a supermodel with these short stumps of mine." I paused at that, taking a breath as I looked around, realizing how little it looked like someone lived there. If he lived at a biker compound, then this was his only space. But it seemed oddly impersonal. There were no knickknacks or pictures, no piles of clothing laying about that suggested he was comfortable making a mess. "So, um, where will I be staying if I do decide to stay?"

Duke's head cocked to the side for a minute. "You'll stay here."

"But this is your..." I started to object.

"I'll find somewhere to crash."

"I can't let you..."

"It's already done," he cut me off as he moved off the bed and started to make his way to the door.

"Hey Duke," I called, stopping him. He turned back to me, blue eyes on me and I swear they felt like they saw through me in that moment. What came out next, I wasn't sure if it was out of fear or a feeling of comfort or just the pull I felt around him, but whatever it was, it came out before I could think to stop it. "Can that place you crash be here too?" At his immediate brow raise, I rushed on. "I mean like. Um, not in bed with me. Obviously." Though, he wasn't exactly the kind of man you'd kick out of bed if he found himself there. But that might have been my long-neglected sex drive speaking. "But maybe if..."

Again, there was the lip twitching, but it looked like he was trying to fight it so it didn't look like he was laughing at my bumbling. But he totally was. "I'll see what I can do about turning up a cot," he said just as the door opened behind him, bringing back Renny with the coffee Reign had none-too-subtly shooed him out to fetch.

"Didn't know how you take it, sweets," he said as he moved in, practically tossing one of the cups at Duke as he passed then setting mine down on the nightstand and reaching into his pocket where he drew out what appeared to be a small salad-dressing plastic container full of milk or cream. "So I got cream and," he said, going into another pocket and pulling out a huge assortment of sweetener packets. "The yellow, blue, and pink stuff along with the white stuff which, in my humble opinion, is the only even remotely healthy sweetener of the bunch," he said, meaning the regular sugar.

I smiled, reaching for both the cream and three of the sugar packets. "I agree."

"Sweet tooth, much?"

"Don't give me your coffee snobbery," I said, lowering my eyes at him.

"Fair enough," he said, smile easy and blinding. All the traces of the man who had been in my room a while before were gone. It was like there was two parts to the same person and one couldn't exist when the other was present.

The words split personality flashed across my mind for a second before I pushed them away. I was no therapist. That wasn't my place to assume. Maybe he was just a moody dude.

This version of Renny I liked immediately. Everything about him seemed easy, boyish, charming, and open. And I think, after growing up in a society getting more and more obsessed with deceit and secrecy, there was nothing more refreshing than openness.

"Want some food to go with that fix? No one is gonna be cooking tonight with all this stuff going on, but there's always something I can scrounge up if you're hungry."

I was vaguely aware then that Duke was still in the room, watching the interaction between us in such an intense way that I almost felt like I should feel guilty for smiling at a man he obviously loathed.

But that was ridiculous.

"I, ah, I'm fine," I said, lying. I was hungry. But it seemed like they had a lot on their metaphoric plates. I didn't need them to worry about my empty literal one. I could wait. The coffee would help.