“I’m pissed at you,” I tell him.
“What’d I do now?” he says with a sigh.
“You wouldn’t hush until I agreed to help you put doubts in Hayden’s mind. Thanks to you, I came off sounding like a raving bitch.”
“I just told you to put a worm in her ear about Beast not being satisfied working for small ass money after what he made with the club. That’s all,” he grumbles, but he does it avoiding my eyes.
“He doesn’t make small ass money, Dickweed.”
“Your pet names are so endearing, Katydid.”
“You get what you deserve, since you keep calling me a bug.”
“So, what’s Beast doing?”
“Selling custom bikes that he makes himself. I didn’t ask, I can only go by what Beth told me after Hayden went to bed, but he makes killer money at it. Apparently, he’s in high demand.”
“Shit,” Hunter mutters and I decide to take pity on him. I slide down, putting my head on his chest, wrapping my arm around him, and kissing his warm skin.
“I know you miss him, Hunter.”
“It’s not the same without him, Sweetness. If Hayden could just let him know she’d be happy here…”
“What if the reason Beast is staying away has nothing to do with Hayden?”
“What do you mean?” he asks, his fingers moving through my hair. Geez, men can be so clueless.
“Sweetheart, Beast doesn’t have the best memories here…” I begin gently.
“He has some great ones, Katie. He just needs to be reminded of them,” he says quietly. I raise my head up to look at him.
His face looks almost tortured. I know not having Beast a part of them has been hurting him and Skull for a while. I know they were struggling with guilt and that’s why I tried to do my part. I hate seeing my man hurt like this. I reach up and let the pads of my fingers trail through his beard, scratching the skin underneath and enjoying the feel.
“Sweetie, think about it. If we lost Bart or Ezzie because of shit that happened at the club…”
“Stop it, Katie.”
“I’m just saying it could happen. This life takes—”
“I said stop it,” he growls. His hands come down and press against the sides of my face. He pulls me toward him, his eyes intense. “Nothing will happen to you or our children.”
“Hunter—”
“I mean it! I don’t want you to even talk about it. You and the kids are my world. If something happened to you, I couldn’t go on. Fuck, I wouldn’t want to. I’d put a bullet into my brain.”
“If you tried that, I’d come back and ream your ass.”
“Christ. How did we get on this topic?”
“Because you need to prepare yourself that too much has happened.”
“Katie—”
“Didn’t you hear Beast laughing tonight? Did you not see the way he was with Connor and Ryker? Or with Hayden? He’s a different man now, Hunter.”
“He loves his brothers. We’re his family.”
“He can love you and still choose not to live here.”
“But if Hayden—”
“Sweetheart, that woman is so in love with Beast that she would agree to do anything that would bring him happiness. It’s not her keeping him away.”
“How do you know?”
“She told me, but even if she hadn’t… I would have known.”
“How?”
“Because I love my man exactly the same way,” I tell him.
His face had been tight. At my words, some of the tension leaves him, and his hands move back, sift through my hair and let me go.
“I love you, Sweetness.”
“Prove it,” I tell him with a wicked smile, deciding I need to get his mind off of Beast and not having him at the club.
“I’m half drunk and I’m worn out,” he says.
“What’s that mean?” I ask as he flops over onto his back.
“It means you’re going to have to climb up on top and do all the work.”
“I can deal with that,” I grin, looking forward to it.
“Take that shirt off, I want to watch those boobs bounce while you’re working my cock inside of you.”
“You’re being awful bossy for a man who’s going to make me do all the work,” I huff, already stripping.
“You haven’t seen anything yet, Sweetheart,” he promises.
That promise and the wicked glint in my man’s eyes are enough to make a woman fall down on her knees and give thanks to her Maker.
I might just do that later.
Right now, I’m finding much more fun things to do….
Skull
“It’s a good party,” I mumble, clearing my throat as I walk to the corner where Hayden is sitting eating her pulled pork.
I’ve been waiting for my shot to talk with her, needing to make sure she was alone. Beth has been tied to her. If I didn’t know better, I would think my own wife was trying to stop me from talking to Hayden. Beth hasn’t made a secret of the fact that she thinks I’m wrong about Beast. I think he’s only staying out of the club because he thinks Hayden won’t be happy here. I can’t really blame Hayden. Her type of history would scar someone soft and women in general are soft, meant to be protected. My Beth has a backbone of steel, but I don’t like the way she got it. I wish I could have protected her, shielded her. I fucked up and did not. She fucked up and didn’t let me. Water has not only gone under that bridge—it has fucking buried it. That said, it doesn’t mean the truth of it still doesn’t burn in my gut sometimes.