EXILE
Until Lula opened her door, I felt foolish showing up at her house. The woman remained a vision. Stripped of makeup and wearing a simple white T-shirt and jeans, she looked better than anything I’d ever seen in my entire life.
By the time we sat on her lush leather couch, I was hooked on what she was offering. Lula drank her beer while poking me with her injured foot.
To keep myself from pinning her under my body and claiming a taste, I looked around the story-and-a-half family room with its pitched roof and wall of windows. The beige-and-pastel color scheme was beachy, but the walnut trim around the windows and doors kept it from feeling overly feminine.
“Did you design this house with your ex-husband?” I asked once I dared to meet her gaze.
“No. Jarred wouldn’t have survived living next door to my parents. Pax never hid his disdain.”
“What rubbed your dad the wrong way about your ex?”
“He thought Jarred was too high on his own farts.”
“Is he right?”
Lula flashed a stunning smile. “A little, I guess. But Pax could say the same thing about me. Jarred and I were both the first people in our families to go to college. The club funded our education. It’s handy to have a doctor and lawyer on call.”
“But your ex-husband lives in Little Rock now.”
“True, but he recruited local doctors to be on our payroll before he moved south.”
“Why move at all? He’s got a daughter here,” I said, sounding overly pissed off. “His club is here.”
Lula smiled at my annoyance. “Jarred fell in love with another club kid. Alani was building her life in Little Rock, and he wanted to prove he was willing to sacrifice for her.”
“Can’t imagine leaving behind a kid,” I muttered, wanting to find fault with Lula’s ex.
Lula studied me and took a swig from her beer. Her gaze flashed to the door before returning to me.
“I don’t live a solitary life. People are always in and out of my space. That’s just how it is.”
“I get that. I share a house with my sister and her girls. If I’m home, they decide I need to be sharing oxygen with them.”
Lula offered me a soft smile. Women always thought that my taking care of Nova and the girls was a sign of good character. Maybe they were right, but I also kept my sister and nieces around for selfish reasons.
Sighing, Lula set down her beer. “My father is on his way over.”
“How do you know?”
“I can hear him in the wind.” When I frowned, Lula shrugged. “His voice meant a lot to me as a kid. If I heard him home, I knew I was safe. Now, I can pick up the pitch of his voice, even when he isn’t being loud.”
I cocked my head and listened. After a second, I thought I heard Pax Reed outside.
“Don’t take his shit too personally,” Lula said, sounding concerned. “Don’t be a dick to him, either. That man owns a special place in my heart. Jarred’s inability to get along with Pax was always a sticking point.”
“Are you threatening me?” I asked, sizing her up.
“Yes. If you make my dad hate you, you’ll never get in my pants.”
Chuckling at her bluntness, I nodded. “Well, in that case, I’ll be on my best behavior.”
Lula’s hypnotic gaze studied me in an extremely addictive way. I felt her tugging away my armor and leaving me vulnerable.
“Just in case things go to shit,” she murmured before crawling across the couch to me.
Her fingers skimmed my jaw, feeling like a promise. Her lips found mine. Lula tasted like my future.
Not trusting myself to behave, I kept my hands wrapped around my beer while Lula’s lips lingered. I enjoyed a quick tease of her tongue. Once her lips were freed from mine, she settled back on the couch and smiled.
“Now, if you piss off Pax and we never see each other again, I’ll know what I’m missing.”
“Never going to happen,” I said and stood up as Pax Reed threw open the front door.
“Where’s this dirty biker at?” Pax called out.
Though I was prepared to face off with a wild man, the sight of Lula’s daughter and a tiny dog momentarily threw me off.
The girl was a gorgeous thing like her mom.
When her gaze met mine, she narrowed her eyes and gave me a snarly bitch scowl.
I nearly laughed at how similar she looked to Lula. The Reed women owned brass balls.
“You’re the fucker from the hospital,” Pax said and strutted in an overly aggressive manner toward me. “Stalking my pretty daughter, are you, now?”
“A little bit, yeah,” I admitted and glanced down at the tiny dog sniffing my boots. “I was also worried about her.”
“Aw, look at you playing the tender-hearted bastard,” Pax snarled before winking at Lula. “Let me ask you the real question here. What’s with the fucking hat?”
“Before my mom died, she bought me a hat like this one and called me her little cowboy. I guess I keep wearing them to honor her.”
Cocking an eyebrow, Pax seemed to smell through my bullshit. “Is that a real story?”
“It has real elements to it, yeah.”
Pax’s pale blue eyes gave me a once-over, and he nodded. “You’re the Black Rainbow VP, right? Did I kick your ass back in the day?”
“That was before my time with the club.”
“Well, good. I don’t want any hard feelings between us while you make nice with my firstborn.”
Still on the couch, Lula scooped up the little dog and watched her dad give me the business. When Pax decided to back off, she smiled like a daddy’s girl proud of his restraint.
I stood in the middle of the family room, watching the three Reed family members eye me.
“You’re the one who saved my mom?” Dillon asked me.
“My club did, yeah.”
“Are those men still alive?”
Pax answered for me. “They all died of tragic accidents. Nothing to worry about, kid.”
Dillon frowned at Pax and Lula before focusing back on me. “Will they come here?”
“Those men are dead,” I told Dillon. “They’re just ash now.”
The little girl nodded, seeming to believe me. Sighing, she looked at Lula. “Can I go to my room?”
Lula nodded and watched her daughter leave. Her gaze flashed to Pax, who was texting. Her face lit up with a smile.
“He’s calling in backup,” Lula warned when her gaze found me. “Come finish your beer before they arrive.”
Once Dillon went to her room and Pax walked out front, I returned to my spot and took in the view of Lula with her black-and-white Chihuahua curled up in her lap.
“I heard a rumor your president has one of those little dogs,” I said, smirking at the thought.
“Clint and the Crimson Guard found several litters at a farm. A bunch of club members claimed puppies. This here is Xena. She’s a tiny badass.”
“Is she now?”
“We were at a park once, and a local shithead tried hassling me for helping his abused wife. Xena saw me in danger and began barking and running around his feet. The guy ended up tripping on her, giving me the upper hand. She’s a tiny hero.”
The dog stared at me with its big eyes. “Normally, I wouldn’t respect such a small, rat-looking dog,” I said, winning a pursed lip, annoyed frown from Lula. “But seeing that she’s a hero dog, how can I not respect her?”
“You’re a smart cowboy,” Lula murmured and kissed the dog’s head. “Do you have any pets?”
“My sister wanted an attack dog to protect her and the girls when I was away from home. She kept going to the shelter, looking for the meanest, scariest dog she could find. Then, one day, she brought the girls along, and they came home with a spaniel mutt that can’t even scare the birds out of our yard. ”
Lula grinned. “What’s the dog’s name?”
“The girls named him Ramen because the fur on his ears have a sort of noodle look, and they were eating a lot of ramen back then,” I said and eyed her tiny dog.
“My sister gets into moods. I’ll wake up to find her painting the living room or changing the backsplash in the kitchen.
She will start cooking weird meals or try to pick up a new language. ”
“That’s good, though, right? She’s expanding her horizons rather than getting stagnant.”
“I think she does that stuff rather than deal with what’s bothering her.”
“The shooting must have been traumatic.”
Nodding, I sighed. “Even before that, she had issues. First, we had plenty of crappy family members back in South Dakota. Then, Nova married a man who slapped her around. I talked her into therapy after the shooting. She claimed she started crying five minutes into the session and didn’t stop until her time was up.
I thought that meant therapy went well. She said she could cry at home for free, so she never went back. ”
“I tried therapy when I was in college, but I don’t like being told what to do.
Whenever each therapist suggested I change a bad habit or my way of thinking, I’d get my back up as if I was under attack.
Hell, I once bought a self-help book and couldn’t get past two chapters before I wanted to punch the author for telling me to change. ”
Chuckling, I liked how snarly Lula could get. She looked like a damn doll or one of those fashion models that spoke in a foreign accent and never ate. But Lula was more than her good looks, and I was dying to learn more.
Unfortunately, the sound of motorcycles broke our quiet mood. A few minutes later, Pax returned to the house and pointed at me.
“He’s probably already pissed all over like a deranged dog.”
Clint strolled into the room and sniffed the air. “Smells piss-free to me.”
“Don’t take sides against the family, boy,” Pax warned in a menacing tone before smiling at the tiny, blonde woman next to Clint. “Don’t cry, little Ivy.”
“I’m not scared of you,” she casually replied. “Ford said you’re such a softie that you only got to be in the club because he put in a good word for you.”
“That motherfucker,” Pax snarled and rushed out of the house.
Clint grinned at the woman before focusing on me. “You’re here on a social call, I take it.”
“Yeah.”
“That’s why Zodiac didn’t mention you riding to Little Memphis.”
“He doesn’t know I’m here,” I replied sternly. “On account of this being a social call.”
“How long do you plan to stick around?”
I had asked myself these same questions during my ride from Baton Rouge to Little Memphis. Looking at Lula, I hoped she had the answer.
“Exile and I are going to lunch tomorrow, so I can buy him a steak,” she said and gave me a sly grin. “Assuming he doesn’t piss me off, we’ll have dinner. I don’t know what happens after we swap fluids.”
“Glad you saved that for when your dad wasn’t around,” I told her, winning a wider grin from Lula. “I can get a hotel for the night.”
“We’ve got people with spare rooms,” Clint said, already maneuvering me. “I think you should crash at one of their places rather than a hotel.”
“Why?”
“To allow us to keep an eye on you.”
“Is that really necessary?”
“Tricky and his crew won’t like you riding around town. This way, if they start shit, you aren’t facing them alone.”
My ego demanded I shoot down Clint’s idea. I wasn’t scared of Tricky or the LM Jokers. But pushing back felt like a mistake. Lula was sizing up my every move, deciding if I was worthy of more than a one-time fluid swap.
Was that what I wanted here? I didn’t even know this woman. Lula had a daughter and rode with another club. She lived hundreds of miles from my home. Did I really think she would give up everything to be my woman?
And what would I even do with a woman? I lived with my sister and nieces. I was grumpy in the morning. I hated changing up my life. What was I doing here?
Before I could shoot down Clint’s idea, I glanced at Lula. All my questions were instantly silenced. This woman was special, and I wanted her. Nothing else mattered right now.