6. Theo #2
A quick succession of texts buzzed through, everyone agreeing and saying their goodbyes.
With that settled, I turned and rested back against the counter, hating the buzz that churned in my stomach when I switched threads and quickly tapped out another message.
Me
You ready to go check the status of your car? I’ll be there in fifteen.
Silas had called after midnight to let me know one of his guys had hauled it in. He said he’d personally take a look at it first thing this morning.
Dude was biker through and through.
In the game as long as me and my brothers had been.
Knew him from way back in the day when we were all members of the Iron Owls MC. Silas had established his own club, Crimson Crows, after the Owls had disintegrated when our president had gone completely corrupt.
Old fury flickered beneath the surface of my skin. There’d been some rumblings that Toga, the piece of shit I’d been hunting for years, was trying to resurrect the Owls. Still in hiding but making contact with some of his loyals.
He’d always remained one fuckin’ step ahead of me.
Hell, for a long time, I’d thought the bastard had to be dead until we’d gotten murmurings of him making calls and working deals, all while remaining out of touch and out of sight.
I knew what the prick thought. He thought he was going to build an army and leave himself untouchable.
But the second I located where he was hiding, he was going to discover just how fucking touchable he was. I was going to see to it that he was looking in my eyes as I drained the blood from his body.
But since we knew the Owls being revived would be a danger to all of us, one of our oldest friends and our old Vice Pres of the Owls, Trent Lawson, had urged Silas to relocate his MC to Moonlit Ridge.
Knowing we’d all likely be targets if the Owls were breathed new life, and we all were going to need to stand for each other.
Silas and his crew were as lawless as we were. Wrought with peril.
Only thing that mattered was I knew I could trust him.
I stood there waiting for Piper’s response, and the little dots popped up and disappeared like three times. No question, she was trying to form some kind of refusal. Decided to beat her to the punch.
Me
And don’t give me some bullshit that you’ll handle it yourself.
Could almost feel the breeze of her huff.
Little Liar
I’ll be ready when you get here.
Apparently, I couldn’t get upstairs fast enough to get dressed.
Shit.
I really was fucked.
So fucked.
Standing there fifteen minutes later on that little porch in front of Unit B as she swung open the door.
Piper dressed in these snug as fuck jeans and this tight, white, long-sleeved tee that disappeared into the high waist of her pants.
The scooped neckline dipped just enough to show off the swell of her tits.
Tits that were just this side of a handful.
My fingers twitched, and my wayward gaze roved, gliding down her body like I had the right.
Over the cinch of her waist and the flare of her hips, down to snow boots that were white with fake fur that she had on her feet.
My gaze traveled right back up to that stunning face.
Hair like white flames framed it, and those ice-blue eyes sparked beneath the blinding rays of sun that slanted in as the sun climbed for the sky.
All the hope I had that I’d come to my senses this morning was shot straight to hell.
“Good morning.” It was a shaky breath from that delicious mouth that was coated in a shiny pink.
The scent of sweet, sugared cherries radiated from her skin.
Clearly, this woman knew exactly how to do me in.
“Mornin’,” I rumbled, stuffing my hands into my front pockets so I didn’t do something stupid like reach out and curl them around her waist.
Tug her against me so I could feel her heat.
“Let me grab my purse and coat,” Piper murmured, and she ducked away, moving to where her coat was slung over the back of the couch.
The couch that her son was standing on. Facing us, he held onto the back cushions and grinned in my direction.
A single dimple denting his adorable cheek, hair as white as his mom’s and his eyes just as blue.
Though his were twinkling and filled with an untainted hue of innocence.
“I is Finn!” He lifted his little hand in the air like I might not notice him there.
Like I didn’t remember his name.
Like the fear of him being hurt hadn’t shifted something intrinsic inside of me.
Against my better judgement, I stepped into the cabin, kid drawing me forward like he had a bow twined around my heart.
“Hey there, Finn. You remember me?”
“ Feo !” He shouted it as he jumped, clinging to the back of the cushions as he did.
A chuckle rolled out.
“You be careful,” Piper warned as she shrugged into her coat, “or you might fall off and bonk your head.”
“I not bonk my head.” He was all beaming smiles with his tiny, gapped teeth.
“Oh, don’t worry, we won’t let him get any bonks on my watch,” Nelly called as she came bustling out from her bedroom.
“I not fall.” He shook his head emphatically, and Piper grasped him by both of his chubby cheeks and pressed a long kiss to his forehead.
Lingering and breathing him in like she was having a hard time leaving him for only a second. “Be a good boy for Nelly.”
“ Newwy Bewwy. ” He bounced and pointed at his great-grandmother as she moved his way. Her gait was a bit unsteady, like she was guarding her left hip from an old injury.
“That’s right. You’re going to stay with your Nelly Belly and we’re gonna make some pancakes and eggs since we miraculously had a big order of groceries show up an hour ago.”
The older woman sent me a knowing wink from across the room.
I scratched at the base of my neck, looking at my boots as I mumbled, “Figured someone might be hungry first thing in the morning.”
Had sent in the order last night while I couldn’t sleep.
It wasn’t a big deal.
“I hungee!” Finn bounced again.
Piper exhaled a weighty sigh like she really wanted to say something about the groceries but was doing her best to rein the scolding.
Because her kid needed to eat, and she knew his well-being far exceeded any instinct she had to reject help. I could feel the absolute adoration she had for him radiating from her. Way her spirit billowed in the air like a blanket.
A cover for his little soul.
“We’re gonna take care of that, aren’t we?” Nelly scooped him up like he didn’t weigh a thing and carried him into the kitchen, crooning at him the entire way.
“You ready?” I asked, fully turning my gaze to Piper. Getting the damn breath ripped from my lungs.
Fuck me.
She’d pulled on this white beanie, and her hair flowed out from it, cascading around her shoulders and back. She tucked the collar of her puffy white coat that was trimmed with fake fur up close to her defined jaw.
Lips so fucking pink and parting on an unsteady breath when she looked at me.
And those eyes…
Shit.
She heaved out the pressure as she slung the strap of her purse over her shoulder. “Yeah. Let’s get this over with. Bye, you two. I’ll be back as quickly as I can.”
“Good luck,” Nelly hollered from the kitchen.
“I’m going to need it.” Piper muttered it low before she came my way.
A frisson of beauty and light.
Trying to get my shit together, I stepped out and moved to the side so she could angle by. I pulled the door shut behind us and wiggled the handle to ensure it locked.
Piper moved across the porch, stepped off the single stair, then turned toward me.
Blinding rays of sunlight slanted down from the crisp, blue sky, lighting her in a glittering glow.
A winter goddess standing in the snow.
She crossed her arms over her chest as she waited for me, agitation stirring through her body, her breaths salient in the frigid air.
“Right this way,” I told her as I came up to her side, my arm going out to guide her down the path.
She held back, a clear indication that she wanted me to go first.
Like she needed the space.
The distance.
Didn’t seem to make much difference, anyway.
Not when her energy lashed and struck against my back as I headed up the walkway ahead of her, our footsteps heavy on the stone path, the thunder of her pulse just as loud.
We wound through the trees and hit the main walkway that followed along the front side of the motel.
A few people were out and about, a handful of kids having a snowball fight along the perimeter of the parking lot, ducking into the trees, their screeches and laughter riding on the air.
I kept moving, all the way past the far west end of the motel before we hit the path that led to my cabin.
Overhead, birds flitted from the trees, their chirps and calls echoing on the stillness that radiated between us.
Her nerves only amped the deeper we got on the concealed path.
“You know this is how every horror story starts, right? Some stupid girl who mindlessly follows some handsome stranger into the woods and is never seen again?”
I swiveled around to face her, shoving my hands into my pockets as I walked backward. Didn’t try to stop the smirk that took to my mouth. “Handsome?”
She rolled those pretty eyes, her words a sultry grunt. “Of course that’s what you jump on.”
“I mean, how could I ignore a compliment from you when what I normally get is hostility?”
“I’m not hostile.” She basically stamped her foot when she said it.
I tried to contain the chuckle that rolled in my chest. “Nah, not hostile at all, gorgeous.”
She scowled, and I fully laughed as I swiveled back around as the path took a bend before it opened to my cabin in the distance.
It sat on the edge of the lake, tucked in a swath of pines and aspens. Its two-story roof pitched and its walls dark-planked wood.
A porch ran along the entire front side, and a three-car garage was to the left, the only portion of the structure that was one-story.
The back side was pretty much windows that had a stunning view of the lake, and there was a porch on that side that sat on stilts over the water, though you couldn’t see any of that from here.
The house was the single amount of peace that I had.
A sanctuary that I didn’t deserve, which I figured was why I rarely slept within its walls, and when I did, the nightmares were there to meet me.
A gush of surprise whisked out of Piper. “This is where you live?”
“This is it. Home sweet home,” I mumbled, thumbing into my phone so I could push the button on the app to open the garage door. It slowly began to lift as we followed the stone path along the front of the house to the garage.
My black truck that I’d been driving yesterday was parked in the second bay, the third with a sedan that I rarely drove.
The first was reserved for my three bikes.
My most cherished possessions.
Piper stumbled a step when she saw them, and a roll of incredulity left her as if she had just been given proof of something she’d believed all along.
Like every horrible idea she had of me had just taken shape and become her truth.
She wouldn’t be wrong.
The mayhem I’d caused at the helm of the heavy, ferocious metal back when my crew and I had ridden with the MC back in LA.
Our lives given over to depravity.
The blood on our hands was stained so deep and dark there was no chance of cleansing.
“Motorcycles.” She wheezed it.
“Yeah?” It came out a question, like I didn’t know exactly what she was implying. “You gonna tell me you disapprove?”
Those blue eyes flashed toward me. “They’re dangerous.”
Thought maybe she was directing that sentiment toward me as a person.
I was.
Completely.
And I needed to fuckin’ remember it.
Not give her a casual grin like she was being ridiculous, but I did it, anyway. “Nah, Pipes. You’re missing out. There’s no freer feeling than being on a bike.”
She shook her head. Nervously, her tongue stroked over that plump bottom lip. “I’ll pass.”
Didn’t know what the hell was wrong with me, but I stole toward her, erasing the three feet that separated us, unable to stay away.
I got smacked in the face with that sweet, decadent scent.
Cherries and cream.
I inhaled it. Wanting to suck it down and imbibe everything that she was.
The space between us shivered.
A roil of tension that blazed.
My voice dropped low as I angled down close to her face.
“Who said I was asking you? Only girl sitting on the back of my bike is mine .”
It was a scrape of possession.
Those eyes blew wide, and that tempting mouth parted on a tiny gasp.
I had the sudden, uncontrollable urge to claim it.
The air whirled around us.
A vicious, deadly hurricane.
Pain came bounding in right behind it, a dull blade that cut through my middle.
Hadn’t had a girl on the back of my bike in years, and I’d never fucking have one there again.
Needing to get my damn head clear, I stepped back.
Piper floundered, as if I had been what was holding her up.
“Let’s go,” I grunted, ripping myself from her lure and striding for my truck.
Might be a dick, but I still opened the passenger side door for her.
She remained standing in the same spot as if she was locked in the stupor that had gripped us.
A second later, she seemed to shake herself out of it. She swallowed hard and tossed me one of those adorable scowls.
Her brow all knitted up.
Nothing but a feisty little kitten.
I gestured at the seat. “Told you I planned on being nothing but a gentleman while you’re staying here.”
She scoffed though she moved, muttering under her breath as she climbed inside, “I imagine you are many things, Theo Mallin, but a gentleman is not one of them.”