Chapter 16 #2
Dark eyeliner lines his eyes, his septum pierced with a hoop, his hair is wild and unnaturally blond, and a dangling knife earring hangs from one of his ears. He’s authentically himself, and it’s everything I wish I had the guts to be.
“I like you, Crew. A lot. People have been whispering about me for years; it doesn’t bother me.
Let them stare, let them talk. I don’t care.
I want to have lunch with you. Will you keep me company?
” Crew adjusts his tongue ring between his teeth, and the action has me rubbing my thighs together slightly. I want him.
“Let’s go get you fed, then.” Crew clasps my hand, rethreading our fingers back together as we walk up Main Street toward the bright red building that says Maggie’s on a glowing neon sign.
The door chimes as we walk in together, and based on the silence that stretches and the eyes that fall on us, you’d think we just walked in completely naked.
Maggie stands with her hip popped out to the side, hands braced on the counter, with her eyebrows raised.
“Corrupting the innocent, Crew?” she says as we approach.
“Only if she’ll let me.”
And that warmth between my thighs just turned into molten lava.
“Run while you still can, Roe. Take it from me, those Heathens are nothing but trouble.”
Crew gasps from next to me, putting his hand over his heart. “Maggie! You’ve wounded me, ma’am. I’ve never done a thing to you.”
“But your patch brother sure did, didn’t he? Did he like my surprise, by the way?”
“I don’t know, let me ask him.”
“Go ahead and do that. How are you, Roe? You look good, happy.”
Maggie and I went to school together. Granted, she was two years older than me, and we never ran in the same circles, but you know, small town and all.
Crew pulls out his phone, typing something out.
My eyes roam the solid structure of his face, the bump on the bridge of his nose.
He’s so handsome. So forbidden and mysterious.
“Looks like it’s too late for you,” Maggie says with a smirk.
“What do you mean?”
Her eyes flash over to Crew, and my heart stutters in my chest. She may be right.
Crew shakes his phone, laughing at whatever he’s about to share. “Wrath says, and I quote, ‘that devil woman poisoned me.’ I fucking knew it wasn’t a coincidence.”
“Serves him right. Roe, if you ever need my secret sauce to get back at one of these fuckers, you know where to find me. Now, what can I get you two?”
I have no idea what any of that means, but Crew and I order our sandwiches and walk over to one of the booths in the back, away from prying eyes. He slides into the seat across from me, looking every bit the dangerously handsome bad boy that he is.
“What was all that about?” I ask him.
“Oh, Maggie? Wrath fucked her, then fucked her sister, and claims he didn’t know it wasn’t her. Maggie got pissed.”
My mouth falls open slightly. “Were they dating?”
“Nah, Wrath doesn’t date. Just fucks.”
I shrug. But when Crew says that last word, I can’t help but squeeze my thighs together.
My core clenches at the thought of what Crew’s like when he fucks.
I run my fingers across my lips as I remember what it felt like to have him kiss me, just moments ago, and the other day.
I’ve been dreaming about that since it happened.
The way he held my ass in his palms kept my core pressed against him.
He was so hard, and I could feel exactly how I affected him.
Crew watches me, his lips turning up on one side, his eyes squinting like he knows exactly what I’m thinking about and how he affects me.
“What are you thinking about in that pretty, curious little brain of yours, pixie?”
“Oh, uhm. Just thoughts.”
“Mmm. Just thoughts? Are you thinking about what it was like to sit in my lap with your pussy pressed against my cock while I kissed you?”
Oh, God. My face heats, and my core pulses. I shift in my seat, my panties dampening.
“You’re so pretty when you blush, Monroe.”
“You’re very skilled at making me blush, Crew.”
“Tell me about your family. There’s a lot of you?”
Good. A change in topic is very, very good. Because I’m two seconds away from crawling over the table to kiss him again.
“They’re the best. We’re all really close.
My grandparents on my dad’s side live with us, and my parents have eight kids total.
I’m the oldest, and their only biological kid, not that it matters.
Then the other seven were adopted. After me comes my sister Aurora, who’s eighteen, then my brother Atticus, who’s fifteen, then the twins—Wyatt and Miles—who are fourteen.
Lucy is twelve, Hazel ten, and the youngest, Cooper, is six.
We’re all really close.” Crew just looks at me like I hung the stars, like he’s clinging to every single word. “Do you have any family?”
His eyes take on a more serious emotion, and I anticipate the worst. “Just the club. The man you took care of, Jesse? He saved my life. I didn’t have anything before he came along.”
“I’m so sorry for your loss, Crew. He was way too young.”
Crew taps his middle finger against the tabletop. “I haven’t thanked you for taking care of him, for getting him ready and all that.”
“It’s what I do. Honestly, it’s my honor. I lost someone close to me, too. She was my best friend and taken way too young. I wonder about how her body was taken care of, and it’s important to me that I’m respectful with everyone who comes in. They’re someone special to someone.”
“I wish you’d never felt that kind of loss, Monroe.” Me too. “How’d you end up being a mortician?”
“I thought I wanted to be a nurse, and then I realized the dead are easier to be around than the living.”
Crew nods, as if he understands that completely. For the first time in a really long time, I feel seen, and it feels so good, I never want it to end.