Chapter Four
Corey
An hour or so later Bella finds me in my room painting, my blood still boiling after my encounter with Damon. I don’t know if he’s still at the clubhouse or not, but I regret letting him see how much he affected me. I should have pretended I didn’t care. He owes me nothing.
But I can’t seem to forget the feeling of his body against me. His touch burned my skin and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want more.
“Can I come in?” she asks, and I nod, turning my painting around so she can’t see. She sits down on my bed. “That was intense.”
“I know, I’m sorry. I don’t know why I got so angry,” I reply, sighing and putting my paintbrush down before going to sit next to her. “I made a fool out of myself, didn’t I? He’s not mine—he can do what he wants.”
“Maybe you should think about why you did react that way and be honest with yourself,” she says, arching her brow. “It’s okay to admit that you like him, and maybe you thought he was waiting for you to be ready.”
I lie back on the bed with a groan. “But I am ready! He is the one who’s been avoiding me!” I throw my hands up in frustration. “I assumed he was with other women, of course—I’m not an idiot. But seeing him with someone... I don’t know. I wasn’t expecting him to bring a woman to the clubhouse, where I live.”
I’m an idiot.
I’m ten years younger than him, and today I’ve acted that way. I’ve literally proved to him why he should never want me.
“Well...” she says, biting her lip. “With the Angels and Devils joining, it’s his home now, too. So you’re going to have to prepare yourself.” She lies back next to me and stares up at the ceiling. We will all be merging into the new clubhouse when it’s ready, a fresh start for us all as one MC.
“Whose side are you on?” I nudge her. “Has he always dated lots of women?” I find myself asking. Bella came from the Angels MC and therefore has known Damon a long time.
“Not really,” she admits. “I mean, I never really spent too much time around the MC back then, but I’m sure he’s slept around. I just haven’t seen it. And he’s never introduced anyone as his girlfriend. Maybe you should ask Julianna?”
I shrug, still thinking about Damon and that woman. The idea of him touching her makes me nauseous.
Bella keeps going, not knowing about the roller coaster of thoughts I’m on. “He’s usually pretty quiet and has always been so nice to all the women—he’s a good friend of ours. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him get angry before, so I was surprised by the steam coming off both of you.”
“I must bring that out in him,” I reply in a dry tone. “I just need to get over this. It’s stupid, and if he wanted me, he would have come and gotten me. I think I’ve just been romanticizing the kiss, and then he was determined to come with River to save me when I was kidnapped. I thought it meant he maybe did have feelings for me.”
But then he didn’t make a move after that, which I should have taken as a hint.
“You know Damon’s backstory, right?”
I shake my head. I assumed he was like every other biker here, who usually join through family or friends.
“His mother died when he was fourteen, and after that he was put into foster care. We met him when he was applying for a job at a restaurant we used to go to, and Paulie, Julianna’s dad, saw him and had a conversation. Damon was homeless and had nowhere to go since he’d just turned eighteen. So Paulie brought him to the clubhouse and made him an Angel. Changed his life forever,” she says, giving answers without me asking, which I appreciate because I’m nosy as fuck.
I didn’t know any of this about Damon, and now that I think about it, I don’t know much about him at all. It makes sense now why he considers the Angels his family.
“I had no idea,” I admit, brow furrowing. “What about his dad?”
“I’m not sure,” she replies, shrugging. “He’s never mentioned him. I’m not sure if he knows who he is.”
I ponder the new information and go down a rabbit hole in my thoughts. He has an unwavering loyalty to Julianna and now, it seems, Romeo. He’s a loner who doesn’t quite let people in. He’s kind of the equivalent of me. Except I have River.
But then I decide that I’ve spent enough time thinking about Damon, and I need to move on since he’s already done the same.
I’m not chasing after him. He’s not an ice cream truck.
“What are we having for dinner tonight?” I ask as I sit up, and she smirks at my subject change.
“We just had lunch!” she responds, and sits up with me. I start to hear music playing in the living room.
“So what? I like to plan.”
Bella laughs and smacks my leg lightly. “Julianna is making a roast dinner for everyone,” she explains, sliding off my bed and standing up. “You sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine,” I assure her, nodding. “I had my moment, but it’s done. I’m going to finish painting and then probably go for a walk or something.”
She leaves me to my own devices, and I turn the painting back around to look into familiar gray eyes.
Motherfucker.
I don’t generally have bad luck, but when it comes to Damon, it keeps following me. When I see Damon out the next day, again with his new girlfriend, I wonder what the hell I’ve done in my life to deserve this. I’d decided to go grocery shopping by myself, giving myself little tasks. But of course I’d run into Dark and Dangerous Ken and Bimbo Barbie. The only saving grace is that they don’t see me, since they’re eating inside, so I walk by the restaurant and go to the supermarket next door, getting the hell out of there.
When I arrive back at the clubhouse, Jag comes over to help carry in the bags. Jag is our resident hacker, the MC’s man for anything regarding technology. But more than that, he’s just a nice guy.
“You okay?” he asks, studying me with his intelligent green eyes. He’s wearing light jeans and a beige hoodie, the hood up, covering his brown hair.
“Yeah, I’m good,” I reply with a smile.
“You look grumpy,” he adds, taking the two bags I was trying to carry myself, adding them to his already full hands. Being that he’s a new addition to the MC, I know Jag the least, but I like him. Cute, witty, smooth. And seriously smart.
“That’s just what my face looks like,” I reply, smirking as I head inside with him closely behind me. He starts to help me unload the groceries, both of us working in synchronized silence.
“So what’s been happening?” I ask. Even though I live here, I am not really clued in on club business. I do know something serious has been going on, though. There have been a lot of secret meetings this week.
Jag shrugs. “The usual. Just another MC in town trying to cause trouble.”
Growing up in an MC, I’m used to danger, but after everything that has happened, this causes my hackles to rise.
I try to play it cool. “Is this something we should be worried about?”
“Nah, Damon thinks the Lost Lions MC will leave soon. Just need to be on guard. Hell yes,” he says as he picks up the bar of Hershey’s chocolate. “You are the best, you know that?”
“I know,” I reply with a grin, pointing to the bag still on the floor. “And I know it’s you eating all the mangoes, so I got you more of those, too.”
Jag puts the chocolate bar to his chest, then walks over and bends down to give me a bear hug, lifting me off the ground in the process. “I love you.”
Damon decides that is the best moment to step inside the kitchen, catching Jag and I looking at each other and laughing, me still wrapped in his arms.
I know how it looks, but I also don’t care what he thinks, so I don’t bother to clear anything up. At least he’s come back to the clubhouse without his girlfriend in tow.
His eyes are narrowed, and he stares daggers at Jag. “Do you want River to kill you?”
“For giving her a hug?” Jag replies in an amused and surprised tone.
With Damon’s tense jaw and clenched fists, it doesn’t look like my brother is the one Jag has to worry about. Clearing my throat, I step away from Jag and take out the last few items and place them on the table, while the two men continue to have their standoff.
Over nothing, because nothing is happening with either of them.
Which kind of sucks, because they’re both pretty hot.
Still, I’m kind of enjoying this interaction. I have to get my kicks somewhere.
Jag bites into his mango, then starts peeling it, and I’m not going to lie, I’ve never seen anyone eat a mango like that, but it’s kind of attractive. He licks the juice off his fingers, and I try not to stare. I think Jag ignoring Damon’s waves of anger only infuriates him more, and I’m here for it.
“Corey,” he seethes, turning his head to me.
“What?” I ask, my tone a little more blunt than I intend. But I’m sorry, why is he getting mad? He has no reason to be, and he should go back to his Barbie where he belongs. Okay, the truth is I’m petty as fuck, and yesterday I was jealous, but now it looks like it’s his turn.
His lips tighten.
The thing between us goes deeper than just a kiss, and we both know it. When I got kidnapped, Damon made sure he was there to save me. And I knew that he and my brother would come for me.
Yet he doesn’t want to admit that he wants me?
Maybe he thinks that I’m a liability after Rosalind, Julianna’s sister, tricked me into thinking she needed help, but knocked me out and put me in her trunk instead.
And yeah, I hate that I was that naive and had to play the whole damsel-in-distress card, but it won’t be happening ever again, let me tell you that much.
I won’t be as trusting ever again.
“Yes, I thought you’d have nothing to say,” I continue antagonizing him.
When he doesn’t reply and give me the fight I want, I go to leave the kitchen, but stop when I pass him. “How was your lunch, by the way?”
And then I walk off before he can reply.
Fuck you, Damon.