Jewell (Biker Bitches 7)

Rory shook his head. “It wasn’t just a stuffed bear. I listened to the song after you left to go see your mother.”

Jewell felt a tide of red flowing up her neck. “You listened to all of it?”

“I heard the heartbeat at the end of the music. Your heartbeat. You were telling me you loved me without saying the words.”

Jewell tried to make light of what she had done. “Don’t expect me to be so mushy next Valentine’s Day,” she warned him. “You’ll be lucky to get a box of candy. Just because I married you, doesn’t mean I’m a sure thing. I have to keep you on your toes.”

“Speaking of which.” He watched as she put her phone back in her purse. “It was a phone call just to get the tables?”

“I called Rider. I wanted to tell him how happy I was.” Jewell saw Rory’s relieved reaction at her explanation. “You thought I called Reaper, didn’t you?”

“Not really … Maybe,” he confessed.

“I’ve told you that you don’t have to be jealous over Reaper. He was right; what I felt for him was gratitude. What I feel for you is completely different.”

“What? You don’t feel any gratitude for me? Damn, I’m going to have to work harder tonight,” he joked.

Jewell knew the joke was to minimize the jealousy he was feeling. She didn’t want Rory to feel like he was coming in second place, not ever.

“Reaper was never my might have been. From the moment I was born, there was only one man who God decided to be at my journey’s end, and that’s you, Rory. I didn’t marry you with a broken heart. I married you because you make me feel whole, as if we’re not two different parts of the sky, but the same.”

“Be careful,” he chided her, pulling her closer until she could barely breathe. “You’re getting mushy. I don’t know if I can handle it with so many people waiting for us.”

“Oh … I think you can. If you can talk me into leaving The Last Riders, get an ugly dog, and to marry you within the space of seven months, you can handle Armageddon.”

“You pretty much summed up what loving you every day is like,” he teased.

“Nope. That’s how I was before you married me,” she teased him back. “Now that I have your ring on my finger, beware.”

“Should I be afraid?”

“Predators are never afraid,” she scoffed.

“Are you a Predator now that we’re married?”

“Poor baby …” she drawled out, patting him on his chest possessively. “I’ve always been one.”

The lights of the carnival lit up the night sky. She strolled next to Rory with his arm slung over her shoulders as they walked around the fair with the Predators.

“You warm enough? The air has gotten cold.”

“How could I be cold?” Shooting him a dirty look, she tried to take off the heavy jacket he had insisted she wear before leaving the club.

“Next time, don’t wear that halter top when we’re going out, and you won’t have to wear a jacket saying you’re my property.”

“You’ve become a stick in the mud.” Complaining, she tried to shake his arm off so she could take the jacket off.

“Let’s ride the Ferris wheel,” Max boomed out from the front of the line.

Jewell tried to get in line with the rest of the Predators, but Rory used his body to turn her in another direction. “You know I hate heights.”

Jewell ducked under his arm. “I want to ride. Come on.” Taking his hand, she tugged him in line.

“I told you I was traumatized when I was riding on one these things and a fucker threw up on me from a seat above me.”

“Did Torch just say he was traumatized by a fucking Ferris wheel?” Jackal loudly laughed out behind them in line.

Jewell heard Penni hushing her husband as the line moved forward.

“If you’re making me ride this, then you have to ride the Scrambler when we’re done.”

“We’ll see.” Brushing up to him, she pressed a kiss on his cheek. “You’ll thank me later for confronting your fears.”

“Unless I get puked on again,” he grumbled as the worker motioned them forward, opening the metal latch of a seat.

Jewell made Rory go first, in case he backed out at the last second. Settling against him, she couldn’t help but laugh when the wheel started moving and she could already hear Max telling everyone to rock their seats because Torch was afraid.

Receiving a dirty look from Rory, Jewell gave him a pretend smile of sympathy, but then she couldn’t help laughing again.

“If that big goofball throws up on me after he ate the whole corndog stand, you won’t be able to sit for a month,” he threatened as their seat moved higher, intermittently stopping and going as the operator filled the seats until they were at the top and she could look down and see the whole fair spread out. Then she looked upward and saw the stars twinkling down on them.