Chapter Seventeen
Cash
I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing. But the taste of her lips had me wanting more. I let my hands roam over her body. She was so fucking small, but she had curves in all the right places.
Her round ass filled my palms and as I squeezed, she released a moan that went straight to my dick. I pulled her hips against my aching cock, and she whimpered.
Every sound she made told me she wanted me as much as I wanted her. But when I reached for the snap on her jeans, she pulled away and stopped me.
“Wait.”
“I’m sorry,” I panted, trying to get my breathing under control. I reminded myself she was young. Then I searched her face. “Are you a—”
“A virgin?” she asked and then threw her head back and laughed. I didn’t like the sound of that fucking laugh. I growled and pulled her close.
“Tell me you’re a fucking virgin.”
“Cash—”
“I don’t care if you fucking lie. Just tell me no one else has ever fucking touched you. I don’t want to leave you to go hunt those fuckers down and kill them. King would be pissed.”
“Are you a virgin?” she asked. She tilted her head to the side as she waited for me to answer.
“Fuck, yes.” Then I smiled as she giggled.
“Sure you are.” She hopped up and walked toward her bike.
“Where the fuck are you going?”
“I have to get back,” she said as she held out her hand.
“Baby, there is no way you’re pulling me up off the ground.”
I saw her shiver when I called her baby, and I had to adjust my dick before I had permanent fucking zipper marks on it.
“I need my key.”
“Come to the clubhouse with me.”
“I can’t,” she said, shaking her head.
Hefting myself off the ground, I stalked toward her. “Why not?”
“Because I can’t. Not yet.”
“So, you are here for Amber.” I ran a hand through my hair, and Rose crossed her arms over her chest and scowled at me.
“Why are you so concerned about Amber? Are you fucking her? Afraid she might leave and take her pussy with her? Just give me my goddamn key.”
“Hey, what the fuck just happened? No, I am not, nor have I ever fucked Amber. But she’s family.”
“She everyone’s fucking family,” she mumbled, turning away from me.
I turned her back around and asked, “What do you have against Amber?”
“Nothing. I’ve never even met her.”
“Then what’s with the shit attitude all of a sudden?”
“Nothing. It’s stupid,” she dismissed, looking away.
“Rosie, fucking talk to me.”
“It’s too soon. I know nothing about you, but I just...” She blew out a breath, and I got it.
“I know. It’s too soon, but it’s too fucking big to ignore.” I pulled her against me, and I groaned when her arms went around my waist. She was so fucking small.
I grabbed her ass and lifted her up. Her legs went around my hips as much as they could, and I held her against me as I looked into her eyes.
“We’ll take it slow.” My forehead rested against hers. “Meet me here tomorrow. I promise we’ll talk.” I kissed her again and groaned when her arms held tight around my neck.
She pulled back this time and asked, “What time?”
“Where are you staying?” I asked, ignoring her question with one of my own.
She dropped her legs from my hips, but I didn’t let her down. Instead, I lifted her higher and wrapped my arms around her thighs, holding her against me.
I could get fucking used to carrying her around. Like a little mouse in my fucking pocket.
“I can’t tell you.”
“Rosie,” I warned.
“Not yet. Slow, remember?”
A heavy sigh slipped through my lips and I conceded, “Slow.” I kissed her again, thinking I would never get enough of her soft lips. I didn’t want to let her go.
“Cash,” she murmured against my lips. “I have to go.”
“No,” I argued as I deepened the kiss.
Eventually, I would have to get back to the clubhouse, so I set her on her feet and gave her the key to her bike. “Ten o’clock.”
“Morning or evening?” she asked over her shoulder.
“Morning, Brat.” I swatted her ass and said, “I’m not waiting more than twenty-four fucking hours to see you again.”
She walked back over to me and crooked her finger until I leaned down. Up on her toes, she leaned into my lips for a little more than a second before she rushed off to her bike and rode down the hill.
I watched until she was gone and then stepped over to the edge.
Looking up at the sky, I said, “I don’t know if you sent her here.
But I think she might be it. Despite what you might have thought, I fucking loved you, Rach.
No one will ever take your place. But I think this little pixie might just fill the holes in my soul. ”
We’d been meeting on the mountain every morning for over a week. Rose stopped at Trudy’s and brought us coffee and pastries. We spent a little time talking, and a lot of fucking time with her on my lap, my straining dick against her pussy and my lips devouring hers.
“Can I ask you something?”
“You can ask me anything,” I said as my lips trailed over her neck. God, she was fucking delicious. I couldn’t wait to get my face between her thighs.
“It might be club related, I’m not sure.”
I lifted my head and looked into her eyes. “Ask. If it’s club business, I’ll tell you.”
Her eyes dropped to my chest. She was nervous about whatever she wanted to ask about. I wouldn’t lie, that made me fucking nervous too.
“A few weeks ago, I met one of the old ladies at Trudy’s. She had two little girls.”
I exhaled. “Ellie.”
“Yea. Her little girl, Chrissy, asked about going to the clubhouse, and Ellie said no. It sounded like maybe they weren’t allowed. And I was wondering why.”
I closed my eyes and rested my head on the rock we sat against. Lifting Rose off my lap, I stood and walked to the edge. I didn’t want to answer this question.
It felt a little too much like Rachel was behind the questions. I knew that was bullshit. Rose had never met Rachel. She had come to Diamond Creek months after Rach died.
“I’m sorry. It’s none of my business.”
“No. It is,” I said, turning around to look her in the eye. “It’s my fault.” When she didn’t ask why, I turned back to look out over the town and continued, “When Rachel’s aneurism burst, she didn’t die. She was put on life support but declared brain dead.”
“Oh, Cash.”
I felt her behind me, but she didn’t reach out. Instead, I held my hand out for her. When she took it, I pulled her in front of me and pressed my chest to her back.
“When the doctor came out to tell us she was gone, he also told us that Ryder was her next of kin.”
Her gasp was so quiet I almost missed it.
“Were they...?” She didn’t finish the question, but I knew what she was asking. The same thing I had asked for five fucking years.
“They both swear they were never more than friends. They grew up together. There were four of them and it’s a long fucking story, but two of them left town, and Rachel and Ryder were all each other had left. I trusted Rachel, one hundred percent. I didn’t trust Ryder.”
Looking back, I could see it was my own fucking trauma that made it hard for me to believe them both. When you grow up knowing no one believed a word you said, you tended to project that shit onto others.
Wouldn’t Haizley be fucking proud of me?
“When she died, Ryder was married to Ellie. And the two of them are so fucking in love that it’s sickening at times.
Deep down I knew he wasn’t after my girl.
They always said they had a brother/sister relationship.
I was hurt when I found out I wasn’t her next of kin.
She understood what being an old lady meant.
But she didn’t trust me to make the decisions for her. Instead, she trusted him.”
“What decisions?” she asked as she squeezed my arms that were wrapped around her chest.
“To donate her organs.” I laid my chin on her head. “I didn’t want her cut up. Didn’t want to take her off the vent. Hell, I didn’t want to let her go.”
“What did you do?” she asked and turned in my arms, looking up at me.
“I threatened to kill him. And I meant it. He knew it; the whole fucking club knew it. I’m the reason he won’t let Ellie and the girls come to the clubhouse.”
“You have to make it right, Cash.”
“I know. I just don’t know where to start.”
She pulled me in and laid her face against my chest. “I’m sorry is a great opener.”
I felt her smile against me, and I laughed.
God, it felt so good to laugh again.
“Come to the clubhouse.”
“Cash, I can’t. Not yet,” she said as she pulled away from me.
“Why the fuck not?”
She looked at me over her shoulder, a sexy fucking grin on her face, and I kid you not, she said, “Club business.”
“Club business?”
She shrugged and turned around to face me. “You have your club, and I have mine. I can’t share anything with you without permission from my president.”
Grabbing her by the waist, I pulled her forward and kissed her. “You have any idea how fucked up it is that you just pulled ‘club business’ bullshit on me? Now call Valhalla and get permission. I want to bring you home.”
“If you liked that, you’re gonna love this. No.”
“What do you mean, no?” I asked, pulling back to look down at her.
“I mean, no. As in, nope, nada, never gonna happen. Val won’t give me permission to share anything. Would King give you permission to share with me?”
She had me there. I wouldn’t be able to share most things with her, and she knew it. She accepted it. It was the one thing Rachel and I fought about. She hated that I kept club shit from her.
“Fine, I’ll let it go for now. But I want you there. I want you to meet my brothers. I want them to meet you.”
“You should talk to Ryder first. If he and Rachel were that close, he needs to know about me before he gets blindsided.”
“That fucker deserves to be blindsided, like I was.”
“Did he know?”
“Know what?”
“About Rachel? About her aneurism, that he was next of kin. Any of it? All of it?”
My shoulders slumped, and I admitted, “No. He found out the same time I did.”
“So, he wasn’t the one who blindsided you?” She looked away before asking the next question. “Have you been back to see Rachel? Told her about me?”
“No. Not yet.”
“Have you told anyone about me? Other than the girl at the cemetery.”
She didn’t think I noticed the eye roll when she mentioned Grace. But I did, and I fucking loved it.
“You jealous, Rosie?”
“No,” she scoffed.
“Grace belongs to King. There’s nothing to be jealous of.”
“I’m not jeal—”
I cut her off with my lips pressed to hers. Her jealousy was hot. Rachel never got jealous. I was the jealous bastard in the relationship. I wouldn’t make the same mistake this time. I would just kill any fucker who tried to make a move on Rose.
“I told my shrink. Which reminds me, I gotta go see her.”
Her eyebrows furrowed. “You see a shrink? Why?”
“King ordered me to. She’s the SAA’s old lady. I told you I didn’t handle it well when Rachel died.”
“Is she helping?”
I shrugged. “Not sure if it’s her or you.”
Her smile was beautiful. It was so fucking bright.
“Maybe it’s both,” she said.
“Maybe it is.”