“That’s nice of you,” she mumbled.
He snorted. “Yeah, I’m a complete fuckin’ gentleman.”
“I should’ve brought the bottle out with me,” she muttered, picking up her empty wine glass, sticking out her tongue and turning it upside down to catch the last couple of drips.
Jesus fuck.
She smacked her lips again and he groaned, imagining her making those sounds as she sucked his dick.
He surged from his seat, making Justice jump up in surprise and look around for a threat. “Gonna grab it for you.” He rushed toward the door, ordering Justice to stay outside with Reese, and went inside.
He located the half empty bottle on the counter, snagged it and before he went back out on the deck, he adjusted himself. He stepped outside and, as she held out her glass, he dumped the remaining wine into it, causing a little to splash on her hand.
She licked it off and he smothered his groan.
If a bottle of wine and a couple of hits off a joint didn’t disintegrate the stick up her ass, nothing would.
“Good?” he asked, because he was not good with wanting a woman who didn’t want him.
“Perfect,” she murmured, taking a sip, then leaning back in her chair and releasing a long, loud sigh.
He went back to his, settled in it and Justice came over for ear scratches. He obliged because he never denied his dog. His fingers rubbed his soft ears and Jussie let out a groan and his eyes became narrow slits.
“I never had a dog.”
“Yeah? Best thing I ever did. Had a Doberman who died of old age. My life felt empty without one, so spotted an ad about a litter of American Bulldogs. Did a bit of research on the breed, decided they were for me. I didn’t pick Jussie, he picked me. And Jury wouldn’t leave Judge alone, so he got suckered into takin’ her home, too.”
“You said Judge is your cousin.”
“Yeah, but more like a brother. Not only ‘cause we belong to the same brotherhood and are partners in business, but ‘cause he and his sister moved in with my family when they were younger.”
He could feel her eyes on him, even though he was staring straight out into the dark woods in front of the deck.
“Did their parents die?”
“Their pop did, yeah. In prison. Long story short, they both got busted. Ox was killed in the joint while doin’ life.”
“Life?”
“Yeah. For murder.”
“Damn,” she whispered. “What about their mother?”
“She got out a while ago. They want nothin’ to do with her.”
“Really?”
“Trixie encouraged Ox to use Jemma as a shield when the pigs stormed the house. She was only five at the time.”
Reese sucked in a sharp breath.
“Judge never forgave her. He heard she went back to prison, but he didn’t care enough to find out why or where.”
“Sounds like great parents.”
“Yeah, well...” He avoided mentioning the part where Ox had been the Sergeant at Arms for the Blood Fury MC at the time and was violent as fuck. She already wasn’t thrilled about Reilly being with his brothers. He didn’t want her thinking his club was the same as it was back in the day before the Fury imploded.
She took another sip of wine. “Judge runs the business with you. What does Jemma do?”
“She’s an RN.”
“Good for her. Just because we start out from shitty beginnings doesn’t mean we need to stay there. I tried to instill that into Reilly.”
Wait. What?
He guessed the wine and pot was loosening up more than the stick up her ass.
She had said she put her sister through college. She put herself through school, too. She drove a newer BMW and had a house worth a nice chunk of change. He’d been nosy and found what it was worth online. She also had her own law firm, even if it was only her and two employees. Something else he had looked up online.
In fact, he’d scoured the internet for everything he could find on Reese Porter Ackerson.
It hadn’t been much. Almost as if the internet had been scrubbed of any info on her besides her firm’s public website and some info on her being a graduate and alumni of Villanova University’s Charles Widger School of Law.
The woman was doing well in life. Usually it was easier to do when coming from a background where opportunities were plentiful and within reach. It was much fucking harder when starting with nothing and having to scratch and crawl up the ladder to success.
For fuck’s sake, while she had judged him by the way he looked, he was guilty of doing the same shit. Because of her current status, he had assumed she had come from a well-off family. But her little admission proved she hadn’t.
Even though he didn’t know the details yet, he understood her need for control and even her need to control Reilly’s life. She most likely had protected and taken care of her younger sister, just like Judge had done with Jemma.