Chapter Twenty-Eight
Cove
A week later…
T hings are strained.
Since coming back to Tulsa, Dragon has been avoiding me and I don’t know why. Is this thing between us over? Has he finally let go of all his Night Giant baggage but dropped me somehow in the process?
Bitterness sours my gut.
I don’t understand.
We were fine after we met up with Koyn. Mitch was fine. They rescued him from the river thanks to Koyn’s quick actions. The family reunion with Dragon, his brothers, and his parents was tearful and moving. Lindsay catered in enough food to feed an army to celebrate the success while Filter and some of the guys disposed of the bodies. Me and Dragon stayed for a few days with his family and got to just…be.
It was nice.
Really nice.
I like his family a lot and him…well, it’s a helluva lot more than like.
Which I thought he felt too.
So why is he avoiding me?
“Where’s my baby brother?” Stormy sings as she enters the clubhouse.
I groan to see her in her short cutoff denim shorts and a tight black tank top. She has a shit fit if Calla wears anything remotely risqué but prances around barely clothed despite the fact she’s a mom now. It’s fucking disgusting.
“What do you want?” I grumble, turning my back to her so I can pour her a drink at the clubhouse bar.
“A better fucking attitude, that’s what,” she snaps back in that big sister tone that never fails to grate on my nerves.
“I meant what to drink?”
“Just a Coke. I think I might be pregnant again. Better be safe.”
Whipping my head around, I glower at her. “What? Already?”
Her grin is devilish. “Copper has his ways…”
“Sick. Say no more. Please. I fucking beg of you.”
“You’re always such a prickly pear, Cove. What the hell? I thought that once you started getting laid, you’d chill on the attitude.”
She heard through the gossip grapevine of the Royal fucking bastards that I was seeing Dragon. At first, she bitched me out, and then she was just…okay with it. Almost like she expected it. Which was annoying because I didn’t expect to fall for Chase Thomas aka Dragon. And I did. I fell hard. For what?
I fill her a glass with ice and Coke before shoving it across the bar top toward her. “Where’s my niece?”
“Bermuda has her. I swear she likes him better than she likes her own parents.” She huffs and gestures at me, frowning. “Seriously, you’re upset. I came out here to talk to you. Tell me what’s wrong.”
I swallow hard, dropping my gaze to my boots. “I don’t understand where everything went wrong.”
“With Dragon?” Her voice is soft and gentle. Motherly. It makes my heart clench.
“Maybe I was just a fuck and nothing more.”
She sighs heavily. “Oh my God. Boys are so pathetic. Did you even try talking to him about it?”
I flip her off and glower at her. My mouth opens with a retort, but she’s right. I’ve sat in the clubhouse pouting rather than tracking him down to demand he talk to me.
“Where is he?” I croak out.
She laughs. “Where is he always?”
With Katana. His best friend. I’m not jealous. I just want to talk to him and touch him and kiss him. We haven’t had sex since the night before everything went down over a week ago.
Do I disgust him now?
Because Night Giant was groping me and almost fucked me?
“Can’t you bother someone else? Like Filter?”
Poking that wound never gets old. She drains her Coke glass before slamming it down on the bar top.
“Filter and I came to an agreement,” she says icily. “If he hurts Calla, I’ll have my dogs eat him alive.”
Hansel and Gretel, though intimidating Dobermans, aren’t exactly the human-eating types. They’re more likely to lick you to death.
“Mmhmm.”
“You’re a sassy bottom.”
I gape at her in horror. “Brenda!”
She cackles at being called by her real name, knowing she got to me. “For fuck’s sake, Cove, everyone knows you’re the bottom.”
“Y’all don’t know shit,” I spit out.
“Dragon staked his claim on you. Plus, with all the trauma he went through, I don’t really think he’ll ever let someone top him.”
“For a straight woman, who happens to be my sister, you’re awfully smug about your knowledge into my relationship.”
“Power bottom,” she says, ignoring my snappy words. “I think he’d be into that. You two actually make a really adorable couple.”
Not anymore.
We’re not anything.
He’s putting distance between us and I’ll be alone.
Pain radiates in my chest. I rub between my pectorals, hoping to release the ache inside me. Stormy softens and reaches out her hand.
“Honey, come here.”
I go to my sister and take her hand. “I hate you.”
“I know you do, but you love me too. Just like I know you love Dragon, which is an incredible feat because he’s not exactly easy to like, much less love.”
I don’t love Dragon.
Liar.
Jerking my hand from her grip, I let out a heavy sigh. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It does. Stop being such a baby, Cove. You’re a man now. Be the sassy bottom you are and go claim your top!”
I don’t know what the fuck she’s been watching on television or reading in her kinky sex books or talking about with Hadley, but she’s getting on my last nerve.
“Bye, Brenda.”
She fishes a keyring from her cleavage, and I cringe. “Here. Take Filter’s bike. I stole it when he had his tongue down our sister’s throat.” She smirks at me. “Seriously. Get your ass down to the lake.”
Maybe I’ve been avoiding the inevitable. Maybe he and I both have. Maybe it’s like a bandage. It’ll hurt a lot worse if I peel back the edges rather than yanking it off in one tug. If he doesn’t want us to be together, that’s fine. I’ll survive.
Liar.
You won’t survive.
It’ll fucking gut you, you lovesick idiot.
Snapping up the keys, I throw her a wave. “If doing this gets me out of this bullshit heart-to-heart, then fine. Don’t be surprised if I move into your love nest, though, if this all goes to shit.”
Her antagonizing grin transforms into a sweeter smile. “You’re my family. You’ll always be welcome at my home. Don’t be such a drama queen, though. The world isn’t always seconds from imploding.”
I stride out of the clubhouse, not listening to anything else she has to say. Sneaking into the garage at the main house, I find Filter’s bike—because he’s a fuckface for sleeping with Calla and deserves to get his bike stolen—and fire up the engine. Bermuda peeks his head out the door, gaping at me. I flip him off because fuck him too.
The cruise down the winding roads to Lake Keystone does nothing to calm my nerves. With each passing mile, I grow more and more pissed off. We’re a good couple, dammit. We’ve been to hell and back and survived. In bed, we’re on fire, but outside of it, the connection remains, sparking whenever each other is near. Fuck Dragon for pushing me away.
I park next to Katana’s bike at the dock where Dragon keeps his boat. He’s been restoring this houseboat with Katana according to the gossip mill that is the Royal Bastards. I’d been too stubborn to come down and take a look until now.
As soon as I shut off the engine, I can hear Dragon’s laughter. It’s so carefree and happy. My stomach twists and tears sting my eyes. I want him to be like this, but I wanted to be there with him. Was I just a phase?
Blinking back the pain clawing at my eyes, I focus on my boots, putting one foot in front of the other. I won’t be deterred or back out from fear of the unknown. I’m going to face him—this, us—head-on.
I stumble to a stop when I spot him. Squatting on the dock beside the boat, a paintbrush in hand and a cigarette dangling from his lips, Dragon is a sight to behold. All of the tattoos on his arms and back glisten in the sunshine. I can see the crack of his ass peeking out of his black jeans. He’s gorgeous, which makes this more difficult. There’s almost a boyish quality about him with his dark hair hidden beneath one of Bermuda’s ballcaps that’s flipped backward.
God, he’s so hot.
And mine.
Whether he likes it or not.
“Dragon,” I bark out before I lose my nerve. “We need to talk.”
He glances over at me, a smirk tugging at his perfect lips. His green eyes greedily drink me up, which confuses me. I don’t understand the avoidance when it looks as though he could devour me with his stare alone.
“So talk, Baby Prospect.”
“You’re avoiding me.” The hurt in my tone is embarrassing and I hate I can’t hide it. “Why?”
His humor fades and his features harden. I gulp down my nerves as he rises to his full height. He flicks the cigarette to the deck and stomps it out before tossing the paintbrush into a bucket.
He’s coming for me.
A thrill shoots down my spine, finding its way to my cock. It thickens and strains against the denim it’s imprisoned in.
“Avoiding you,” he mimics, the taunt in his tone heating my blood. “More like, I was busy, baby.”
Baby.
The relief that courses through me nearly has me falling to my knees. I’m such a predictable sap.
“Busy doing what?” I demand, craning my head up as he comes to stand right in front of me, towering over my smaller frame. “Tell me.” I poke a finger into the center of his chest. “Tell me what was so important that you didn’t want to see me.”
Okay, so maybe Stormy is onto the whole sassy bottom thing…
“Are you done throwing a bitch fit?” Dragon asks, humor glittering in his green eyes.
“No,” I say, fighting the tremble in my bottom lip. I’m on a roll now. “I’m not. You don’t get to do this to me. To us. You don’t get to be busy and avoid me. You’re my goddamn boyfriend and this is not okay!”
His large palms reach up to cradle my face. He strokes his thumbs over my cheeks. I melt against him, needy for his touch and affection. Warm lips ghost over mine, urging a moan from me.
“It was supposed to be a surprise but someone chose to be bitchy and ruin said surprise.” He kisses me hard. His words are annoyed, but his kiss is anything but. “Now you have to help.”
Help?
He pulls away and takes my hand in his. I’m forced to follow him back over to where he was working. Dragon’s Baby. The words are painted on so carefully and with such perfection it steals my breath away.
“Guess that’s my cue to leave,” Katana says from the boat. He hops down onto the deck. “I’ll tell everyone you two will miss dinner.” He winks at us and bumps fists with Dragon.
His departure is silent, as per usual with Katana, and the only reason I know he’s no longer near us is because the engine on his bike rumbles a few seconds later. Dragon tugs me onto the boat, nearly bouncing on his toes with excitement.
“What is this? You’re going to live here?” I ask in confusion.
He shoves me against a floor-to-ceiling cabinet once inside and licks my neck all the way up to my earlobe. “No, baby, we’re going to live here.”
My mind scatters in a thousand different directions.
“Wait? Are you asking me to move in with you?” I gape at him. “Dragon, what the hell? I thought you wanted to break up!”
He nips at my earlobe, tugging hard. “Did you forget that whole ‘you’re mine’ part? I didn’t stutter, baby. Clear as fucking day. You. Are. Mine.”
“But…”
“But nothing. Now you get to help me and Katana finish the renovation. Bet you wish you would have reined in the bitchiness a little while longer.”
I try to shove him off of me, but he pins me with his hips. His dick is hard as it rubs against my own aching erection. “I hate you so much.”
He grins, wide and beautiful and powerful enough to light up the entire world. “I love you too, Cove.”
I’m stunned to realize this isn’t a joke for him. His emotions are unguarded on his face. We’re not a passing phase. We’re so, so much more.
“I don’t hate you,” I admit. “I don’t think I ever did.”
He kisses my mouth like he needs the words to survive. I don’t want him to have to forage for them, though. I want to feed them to him one by one like grapes from a vine.
“I love you for some reason,” I murmur. “I need you. You’re mine.”
His lashes flutter against his high cheekbones and he rests his forehead to mine. “This is our home now. I wanted a place that was for us. Neither of us has really had much of a life. It’s time to change that.”
Jerking him to me, I hug him tight, burying my nose against his sun-warmed flesh, inhaling his masculine scent I adore.
“Okay,” I agree. “Let’s do it.”
“I wasn’t asking, baby.”
“Well, I was tellin’ anyway.” I tug at his belt as I seek his lips with mine. “Just like I’m telling you now that you’re going to fuck me. Right here in this kitchen.” I grin against his mouth. “I’ve been told I’m a sassy bottom.”
He growls, nipping at my jaw. “By fucking who?”
“Stormy.”
His laughter warms me to my soul. “I mean, I think she’s onto something, but I prefer bitchy bottom. Has a nice ring to it. In fact, maybe I should paint over the boat name—”
I silence his teasing by shoving my hand into his pants and gripping his thickness. “Hush, boyfriend, we have a houseboat to christen.”
“If the boat is a rockin’, don’t come a knockin’.”
“Oh my God. That’s such a lame fucking dad joke. Did Owen teach you that one?”
He snorts. “Fuck off, BP.”
The jokes get discarded like the clothes on our body, at our feet and forgotten. Dragon consumes me whole like he’s done from day one. He’s fire and I’m timber. I want to burn only for him.
Buried deep inside me and his teeth digging into the flesh on my neck, I imagine a long future ahead of us. Many, many more days like this. Sex, love, maybe even a family one day. Whatever I can get with Dragon feels like more than I deserve.
It isn’t until we’re both spent and are sprawled out on the bed in our little houseboat that I relax. This is my life now. Him. Us. And it’s all I could ever want.
“Love you, baby.”
Hmm, I want a lot more of those.
What can I say? I’m a greedy boy.