Chapter Five
Dani
Shopping with my mom is long and dreadful like I had suspected it would be. She takes more than twenty minutes in each store when I prefer to just grab my shit and get out.
It doesn’t help that I want to spend time with Zane, which is crazy because I only just met him. I like the way he didn’t try to hide that he wanted to be with me from my father. I don’t think I would handle it well if I was someone’s secret.
I’m excited to see where this goes.
I breathe a sigh of relief when I see my mother heading up to pay for her stuff. This is the last store we are going to. The prospect who came with us’ name is Hank. He looks as happy as I am to be getting out of there.
He doesn’t complain though, which I think is because of my father. He wouldn’t want to get on his bad side. Especially since he’s close to getting his patch.
The prospects are here for a year, and then there is a vote to decide whether they are accepted to be part of the club. From what I learned, Hank’s year is done in a month. There is no guarantee that he will become a brother.
“Okay. Are you ready?” my mother asks when she meets us at the exit of the store. I roll my eyes.
“Mother, we have been ready for hours,” I say dryly.
She gives me a sheepish smile. “I can’t ignore the sales.”
I nod my head. “Oh, I know. Trust me.”
The thing that is awkward is that our last stop is a lingerie store. Although that might be exciting for some, it’s quite awkward when shopping with my mother. I didn’t want to look at anything she picked out, seeing as she would be wearing it for my father. That thought is enough to make me gag.
I also don’t want her to see anything I picked out. I may have chosen a few things with Zane in mind. I may have worn scrubs all the time, but I liked to indulge in sexy underwear.
It’s one of the few things I allow myself.
“Thank fuck,” the prospect says quietly, but we both hear him.
“What, you don’t like shopping for underwear?” I ask teasingly.
He smiles. “Oh, darling I love the sexy bras and panties women wear that I get to see in bed, but it’s like torture having to take two beautiful women to pick shit out when you know they are both spoken for.”
“Oh, I could see your point. Don’t worry, we will make sure that Zane and my father know you didn’t follow us into the change room,” I tell him with a wink.
“That would be great. Otherwise, they would kill me,” he says with a chuckle.
“We can’t have that,” my mom says as we head to the SUV we brought with us. It’s already full of bags. Hank had to make several trips to bring the bags in as we went.
It doesn’t take long to head back to the club. It’s livelier now than it was this morning. Everyone seems to be in a good mood.
I can smell that Mama is cooking something delicious.
“There are my girls,” my father says when we walk into the door. Our arms are loaded with bags.
“Holy shit, did you two buy the whole store?” someone asks with a laugh.
I shake my head. “Believe it or not, most of this is my mother’s,” I say, laughing.
“Your mom has always had a thing for shopping,” one of the brothers says.
Sometimes, it’s easy to forget that my mom knew a few of these brothers years ago. You can tell by the way she talks to them.
I head to my room with my bags and feel a presence follow me into the room.
I turn around to see Zane looking at me with desire in his eyes.
“Did you have fun, baby?” he asks, walking closer to me.
“The first couple hours I did, but then my mother decided to take a few extra hours so she could be absolutely positive that she went over every inch of the mall,” I tell him.
“It’s hard to believe I only met you a couple of days ago. I missed you like crazy all day,” he says lowly.
A small smile comes to my lips. “I know. I missed you too.”
Zane already feels like such an important part of my life. This feeling should be scary, but I don’t want to run from this. From him.
He is close enough to bring a hand to my face to tilt my chin up, and I know he’s about to kiss me. I see him glance down at my lips before he presses his to mine.
I never had the feeling of getting lost in someone’s kiss until this moment. I didn’t know what it meant, but I already knew he was different.
I feel his tongue on my lips before I open them, and the kiss is soft and sweet. It’s nothing like I expected from him.
We only break out of the kiss when there’s a shout. “Dinner’s ready!” a deep voice says. I jump back and look over his shoulder to see Viper standing at my doorway with a smirk.
“We will be right there,” Zane shouts over his shoulder.
Viper leaves, and I bring my eyes back to Zane. “We will continue this later,” he rasps.
I nod my head and follow him out of the room.
He grabs my hand and doesn’t let go as we head to the kitchen.
Everyone eyes our hands, but they don’t say anything. I don’t miss the way my father glares at our hands for a second before my mother whispers something to him.
The one person who sneers at us is Lydia. The same woman from yesterday who thought she was all that.
When she brings her eyes to mine, I feel so much hatred in that stare that I stumble for a second.
“Are you okay?” Zane asks, and I nod my head.
It’s not a big deal. I can deal with those stares. For now.
Hopefully she won’t become a problem.
Zane
I never missed anyone before, but I missed Dani like fucking crazy. I thought about her all day. I worried something might happen while I wasn’t with her, so I didn’t relax until I saw her pull up to the club.
Kissing her was just the start of what I want to do to her. For the first time in my life though, I want to take things slow.
As much as I want to fuck her, I want her to know that’s not all I want from her. I’m going at this differently than I would any other woman.
The good thing about today was that I spent a lot of time with my brother.
He took a week off of work to be here. It sucks he will have to leave again, but he promises he will be back to visit often.
Maybe, one day, we can get him to relocate here.
After lunch, Zeke went to spend time with my parents to get to know them better as well.
It feels good to have Dani sitting beside me at supper. I put my arm on the back of her chair. I can tell Prez doesn’t like it, but I’d rather not hide it from him.
This is something he’s going to have to get used to.
Dani leans into me as she eats, and I feel a sense of peace wash over me.
After supper, we head into the main room to have a few drinks and chat with my brothers.
Zeke and Dani tell us stories about them growing up together and all the shit they had gotten into.
I can’t help but feel a bit of jealous of both of them. I would have loved to have been there.
I have Dani on my lap when Lydia comes back into the room. She looks around and, once she spots me, she freezes and glares at us. Maybe she is only glaring at Dani, but anything she does or says to Dani is my business.
I glare back at her when her eyes move to find mine.
She barely takes her eyes off of me as she heads over to Tiny.
I turn away from her and try to keep up with the conversation.
“Oh gross, Dad! Mom! At least let me turn my back,” Dani shouts, causing everyone to laugh.
I look over at Prez who has Robyn straddling his lap as they kiss.
It’s not something new to see here. Heck, we have all seen and done so much worse in this room, but I can understand why she would be bothered by it, considering they are her parents. Thankfully, my parents don’t do that shit in front of me.
Robyn pulls away, blushing at her daughter’s words before getting up and leaving the room, dragging Prez behind her.
“That will take some getting used to,” Dani says with a shudder as Viper laughs.
“That’s nothing. We have all done a lot worse,” Viper says.
“Well yeah, I know it’s a clubhouse. I know what goes on; I hung around the Vicious Snakes, but it’s my mom. I never had even seen her kiss a man before. Let alone, that,” she says gesturing in the direction that Prez and Robyn went.
“She never dated?” my dad asks, looking shocked. I know he remembers when Robyn was here before.
Dani shrugs. “I mean she tried. There were a few good men, but she never went past a second date with anyone in all the years I grew up.”
“Is that because of Prez?” Viper asks.
Dani nods her head. “I know now that it is. She always told me that none of them were my father. I guess I never knew what she meant until they were back in each other’s lives. I get she stayed away to keep me safe, but I wanted her to be happy. It’s kind of sad that this is the happiest I can ever remember seeing her.”
“They were pretty tight. That’s why losing her devasted Prez. He spent a lot of time in denial, but we can all tell how much he loves having her back,” my father says.
Even I can see the changes, and I didn’t know him back then.
A brother named Crazy gets up and gets the prospect to line up a bunch of shots. Dani takes the whisky like a champ. She doesn’t make a face, which oddly makes me proud.
The music blasts from the speakers as everyone gets drunk. Dani is swaying in my lap to the music as Crazy gets up and starts dancing.
“Wow,” Dani says as Crazy pretty much does a strip dance with his clothes on. I cover her eyes with a laugh.
“Hey, no looking at my brothers,” I rasp in her ear.
A shiver comes over her body when my lips touch her ear. I lightly kiss it and see the hitch in her breath.
“How can I not look when Crazy looks like he can make money thrusting his hips like that?” Dani says before turning her head to me.
I don’t respond but give in and kiss her, which I had been wanting to do before Viper interrupted us.
She kisses me back. I can tell she wants more, but I’m not going to take this further while she’s drunk.
When I fuck her, I want her to remember and feel everything I am going to do to her.
When I pull away, we are both breathless.
“Not tonight, baby. I want to worship your body when you are sober and ready,” I whisper in her ear.
“Alright,” she says before turning back to my brothers.
“That’s so fucking weird,” Zeke says with a weird look on his face.
“What?” I ask.
“Seeing Dani kissing someone. She never made time for boyfriends and, when she did, she never brought them around me,” Zeke explains.
“That’s because you scared them all away,” she says with a laugh.
Zeke shrugs and gives her an unapologetic look. “What do you expect? If they were good enough for you, they wouldn’t have been scared of me.”
“Ain’t that the fucking truth,” Viper says grinning.
Dani shakes her head. “Always so protective,” she murmurs.
I’m fucking glad he was. I don’t want to think about her with anyone else, though I’m not stupid. I know that we all have a past. Fuck, my past has been glaring at us for the last hour.
I keep ignoring Lydia as I concentrate on the woman in my arms.
I know I am giving Dani the power to break me with how I already feel about her, but I don’t give a fuck about that.
I’m willing to take whatever she’s going to give me.