Craving Lily (The Aces' Sons 4)

“Get up, you wuss,” Rose ordered, reading my mind. “It’s not like you’re a hideous beast.”

“Thanks,” I groaned as she pulled me to my feet. “That’s reassuring.”

She dragged me into the bathroom and shoved me in front of the sink with little fanfare.

“See? Beautiful.”

I clenched my jaw as my brown eyes watered. I looked almost the same as I had before. Thank God. My cheeks had lost the baby fat they’d had before, making my cheekbones more prominent, and the little bit of a unibrow I’d had was plucked away, but beyond that, I looked like… me.

Chapter 7

Leo

After a week and a half on the road meeting up with some contacts and protecting a shipment into Montana, I was ready for beer and a bed. Even when things went smoothly, going on those runs was exhausting. Some of the guys lived for it, loved getting away from the daily grind and their wives for a bit, but it had never been like that for me. I loved being on my bike and planned on doing it every day for the rest of my life, but the human part of the runs wore me the fuck out. Talking to people and making nice wasn’t my strong suit.

Thankfully, we rolled into the clubhouse midday, so there weren’t a ton of people around. The guys in the garage didn’t give a shit that we were back and most of the women and kids who spent time on the grounds were at work and school.

“Hey,” my dad called out as I strolled through the door. “How’d it go?”

He stood from the stool he’d been sitting on and gave me a quick hug. He always hugged me when I got back. It wasn’t the way my mother hugged me, though. It was more of a quick check that all of my parts were in working order and there weren’t any new holes that shouldn’t be there.

“Went fine,” I replied as he let me go, pulling away to round the bar and grab a beer out of the fridge in the back. “Nothin’ to report. Montana hasn’t heard anything new about the Russians or Sokolov.”

“Shipment get where it needed to go?”

“Yep.”

“Good.” He sat back down just as my Gramps shuffled in the front door.

“Thought you were back, boyo!” Gramps called out, smiling through his messy beard. “All’s well?”

“Yeah, Gramps,” I replied, meeting him at the edge of the bar so he could pull me into a hug. Gramps’ hugs were more like my mom’s.

“Poet,” my dad called out. “You hear anything?”

“Not a word,” Gramps replied gruffly. “Quiet out there.”

“Fuck,” my dad mumbled. “Gonna go talk to Casper.”

“You stink,” Gramps said cheerfully after my dad had gone. “Go bathe.”

I laughed and agreed with him, slapping him on the back as I made my way toward my room. I didn’t keep a place outside the club. Sometimes, I stayed in my old bedroom at my parents’ house, but for the most part, I lived fulltime at the club. I didn’t see any reason to waste money on a place when I didn’t have a woman or kids. It seemed smarter to just bank the extra cash I didn’t spend on bills or my bike. I figured that someday, if I needed it, I had cash on hand if I wanted to buy a house or something. I liked keeping things simple. Plus, some of the trusted chicks at the club made extra cash by doing laundry and cleaning the bathrooms and main room, so it was a pretty sweet set up.

Twenty minutes later, I was clean and in bed, with a few fresh beers on my nightstand and beautiful silence surrounding me. Finally.

A knock on my door had me groaning in irritation as I stood up and swung it open.

“What?” I barked, my mouth falling open in surprise when I saw Lily standing in the hallway.

“You—” She threw her hand in front of her face.

“What? What’s wrong?” I looked around the hallway, but no one else was there and I couldn’t hear anything coming from the main room.

“Clothes,” she choked out. “No clothes.”

I glanced down at my boxer briefs in confusion. It’s not like I was free-balling it.

“The hell are you talking about?” I asked, losing patience with her. “Did you need something, Dandelion?”

Later, I’d see the scene in slow motion, the way her hand dropped away from her face and her eyes had tracked up my chest until they’d met mine. The second I came to the realization that she was looking at me. The way my gut had twisted at the realization and the split second of embarrassment as her gaze found the scar on the side of my face.

But right then, it all happened in seconds, and I was left standing there completely speechless.

“Surprise,” she said awkwardly.