Chapter 25
TWENTY-FIVE
Bishop
“Your girl is an absolute fucking menace,” Bo complains as soon as we arrive in Grant’s upstairs extension.
“Watch your mouth when you talk about her,” Grant volleys back.
“She’s down there having the girls lick shots off a bunch of guys who look like they graduated college a week ago,” Bo continues.
“The place is full, isn’t it?”
“You’re not worried with all of those guys around her?” Bo looks at Grant and then turns to Levi. “Corrupting your poor little nun?”
“Lev’s already got her thoroughly corrupted, and Dakota’s tastes are very singular. So no, I’m not worried.” Grant motions for us to take a seat at the poker table.
“We’re sure the women are safe?” I ask, glancing at Levi, because I know he’ll want the same security measures I do.
He taps something on his phone, and the game that’s playing on the massive TV on the wall flips to a grid full of security footage. He scans through it, highlighting different sections of the footage as he speaks.
“Two guys on every door. Plainclothes guys at the bar and tables around the room. One of the bartenders is my guy. Dakota has multiple panic buttons stationed all around the bar and an under-counter gun safe on each side that can only be opened with her fingerprints.” Levi looks back at me.
“I’ve got this all on my tablet here, and several guys in the security room are monitoring the cameras throughout.
You want me to leave it up so you can keep an eye on her too? ”
“No. Let her have some fun.” I nod to the game. “Can I join?”
When I look up at the screen after I bow out of a second game and see Aspen on the mechanical bull, I know it’s my cue to take her to bed.
Or put her there, rather, so she can get a little sleep.
She’ll need it if she’s going to make it through our wedding tomorrow night.
That and some electrolytes. I say my goodnights, and Levi stops me at the door.
“See you tomorrow. Get some rest tonight yourself, yeah? No cold feet?”
“If I could sign the papers tonight, I would.”
“All right. I’ll come by in the afternoon. You can give me the rings, and we can have a drink before we send you to your fate.” Levi flashes a grin at me.
“It’s a plan.”
“Excited to finally make you my brother tomorrow. Officially, anyway.”
“Me too.”
He wraps me in a one-armed hug, a few quick pats to my back, and sends me on my way.
“Hey, gorgeous, you ready to hit the hay?” I ask, sidling up to the bar next to Aspen as she finishes the story she was telling Dakota. She looks at me, eyes wide and a little glassy, and a laugh tumbles out of her.
“What?”
“The hay. I forgot about the hay.” There’s a small fit of giggles. “Remember how it left my ass all scratched up? It was so much less sexy than I imagined it was going to be.”
I press my lips together as I try not to laugh. Drunk Aspen is much freer with her memories of us than sober Aspen.
“Yeah, honey, I remember. It was hot as fuck up in the loft too.”
“You were so sweaty, but it was kind of sexy the way it was dripping down your chest while—” Her eyes go wide, and she covers her mouth with her hand when she sees Dakota raising a brow.
“Are you telling me our very serious, very studious family matriarch has a wild side?” Dakota asks me, grinning at her future sister-in-law.
“Had,” Aspen corrects.
“Oh, she had a wild side a mile wide. She came up with things that I don’t think I’d have conjured up in my wildest dreams.” I grin at Aspen, and she gently slaps my arm and rolls her eyes.
“You were always up for it, so what does that say about you?”
“A lot of things that I don’t think I should be saying in front of family.”
“Psshhh.” Aspen waves her hand. “Dakota is a different kind of family. You should see the bachelorette party gift she got me.”
“What’s that?” My curiosity is piqued.
“I can’t show you in here. It’s X-rated. In fact, I’m not sure I can ever show you. It would probably scandalize you. It scandalized me.”
A mischievous laugh bubbles out of Dakota as she walks off to serve another drink.
“Why don’t you tell me about it on the way up to your room?”
“I was dancing!”
“It looks like you’re drinking—” I pause to take a sip, and she makes a gasping noise like I’ve shocked her. “Water. As I suspected. So I think that’s a sign dancing is over for the night, and sleep and some more fluids are in order.”
“Fluids.” Aspen giggles like she’s a teenager again, and now I know she needs more water and sleep.
“Okkkkay. Yeah. It’s time for bed.”
“I have to close out my tab.”
“I think Dakota knows where to send the bill. Let’s go.”
“But the girls,” she whines, looking out at Hazel and her friends who are still dancing the night away.
“They’re not walking down an aisle tomorrow, or they’d be in bed too.”
“This is becoming a habit, you know. You showing up in this bar and telling me I’m going to bed.”
“I can give you the full effect, carry you up there, and you can berate me on the way.”
“Okay!” She holds out her arms unexpectedly for me, and it takes me back. But I don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. I wrap one arm around her back and another under her legs, pulling her up into my arms, and start to walk to the back staff entrance.
“Goodnight!” I call out to Dakota on the way, and Aspen waves like she’s a royal on parade, another round of giggles going through her.
“Good luck!” Dakota winks at me, smirking at the state she’s put my soon-to-be wife in.
I’ll need it. This woman is trouble when she’s unencumbered by propriety. The best kind of wild at heart I’ve ever known, but I have to be careful not to enjoy it too much when she’s showing me more than I guess she’d be ready to if she weren’t letting strangers pour whiskey down her throat.
“Are you coming up with me?” Her fingers play over the chain at my neck until she pulls it from under my shirt. She studies the dog tags and the P-38 that hangs next to them.
“I’m just gonna get you in bed, Jones. Set you up with some water and things so you don’t wake up hating the world in the morning.”
“I don’t hate the world right now. That’s progress. Right?”
“You normally hate it?”
“Not exactly. But I’ve grown a little weary of it. I keep everything happy for Fallon though. Don’t worry.” She shakes her head as we ride up the elevator.
“I’m not worried,” I promise her, but I am. This woman carries too much on her shoulders.
“What’s this?” She holds up the P-38, running her finger over the edge before she lets out a hiss. “Ouch!”
“Careful,” I warn.
“Too late.” Blood blooms at her fingertip as she holds it up for me. I suck it into my mouth without thinking, and her eyes go wide at the gesture. I lick the blood clean, and she pulls it away, her brow still furrowed.
“Oh,” she says softly, like she’s found something freshly interesting.
“It’s a can opener. Or it was. It was your grandfather’s during the war. Your dad gave it to me when I went to boot camp. Said it was good luck.”
“Huh,” she whispers softly, watching as a fresh bloom of blood emerges on the shallow cut. She holds it up for me, and I run my tongue over it. She drags what’s left over my lower lip and stares. “That’s kind of hot.”
“You got a vampire kink I don’t know about?” I smirk when I set her down on her feet again outside her hotel room.
“I didn’t know about it either, but maybe? You might have to bite my neck.” She grins as I open the door for her, and she grabs my T-shirt, dragging me in behind her.
Once we’re inside, she pushes me down onto the bed and climbs into my lap.
“Jones…” I warn her.
“I know. I know. I’m drunk. We have rules to follow.”
“We do. You were very clear about celibacy. I think that’d probably go double when you’ve been drinking.”
“And you were very clear that I’d rediscover my love of being a cowgirl.
” She grins and buries her face against my neck.
The sweep of her breath against my throat and the feel of her fingers biting into my back have me so fucking tempted.
“Speaking of, I rode the bull tonight. You missed it.” She rolls her hips.
“I stayed on for seven whole seconds.” She plucks my hat off my head and puts it on her own.
Fuck. I forgot how weak I go for this woman when she’s in this kind of mood.
“How long do you think you could last if I rode you?” She rolls her hips again, and the warm feel of her seeps in through my jeans.
“You need water.” We both do. I just need to dump mine on my fucking lap.
“And you need to come, judging by how hard you are right now.”
“I made a promise to the sober version of you I have every intention of keeping.”
“She’s no fun.”
“Well, she’s the one with the keys to the metaphorical chastity device, and she’s not here, so I’m afraid we’re out of luck.”
Her lips quiver with amusement, and then she smiles in a way that goes all the way to her pretty green eyes, lighting them up like the Fourth of July.
“I like the way you follow my rules, cowboy.” She leans forward and kisses my jaw tentatively and then slowly makes her way down my neck.
“I think it earns you a small reprieve.” There’s another slow roll of her hips.
“Assuming you don’t mind walking out of here with your hat hovering over the mess I’m about to make of your jeans. ”
“Aspen,” I choke out her name when she grinds on me again, tossing my hat to the side in favor of taking her shirt off and kissing her way down my neck again. “Aspen, please.”
“You can tell me to stop. I’ll listen.” She pulls back and studies my face under lowered lashes. “But you’re facing a lengthy celibacy sentence with sober Aspen when you walk down the aisle with her tomorrow. You sure you want to say no to a lap dance?”
“I—”
“I took lessons last summer for Hazel’s bachelorette. And then after. I’m not too shabby.”
“No, you’re not,” I manage to mumble in between breaths, the kind that are getting heavier with every pass of her sweet little pussy over my jeans. “But I have a long walk to the truck.”