Chapter 5
Iwas rock hard.
Again.
Sleeping next to my girl was heaven and hell. The sweetest type of torture I would endure for the rest of my life if I needed to in order to keep her close and smiling in a way that rivaled the fucking sun.
“Blink. Jesus Christ,” Griffin muttered as he walked up and took the spot next to me on my right.
“Shut up,” I muttered. Being horny and tired from lack of sleep due to a resting angel for the last five days seemed to make me a pissy asshole.
We just stood there. Side by side in the security room watching the screens.
“Mary’s in a good mood,” Griffin noted. The asshole had always been one of few words, but after falling in love with Marty, he was a yapper.
“Hmm,” I grunted, not that my attention was on the housekeeping manager.
Fuck no. My eyes could only see one person: my baby girl.
Her dark hair tucked behind her ears shined through the black and white screens, and if I breathed deeply enough, I could swear I could smell her soft berry scent.
Shit, all I had to do was go sniff the pillows of my room to get a hit from it.
“She looks like she’s doing good,” Griffin noted, and this time, I knew he was talking about my girl. That earned him another grunt because it seemed I’d turned fucking caveman after meeting Jessie.
“Marty thinks she’s the shit,” he mentioned, and I sighed.
I liked that she was making friends. Marty was cool as hell, sassy and feisty; she sure as fuck kept Griff on his toes, and it had been a hell of a time watching it.
I liked that Jessie was getting to know people. I was just a somewhat jealous ass.
After the first night, we got up, ate breakfast, and got ready for the day.
During our meal, we’d talked about what she’d like to do.
My princess had only worked at the school district after school in an office during high school and then at a local burger joint, so she was nervous she might not be qualified for a whole lot.
But she’d worried for nothing, because getting her a job hadn’t been tough.
Selfishly, I’d taken her to Mary. Housekeeping always needed help.
She’d been working there for the last five days, starting that same day on the night shift, and from everything Mary had said, Jessie was doing well.
But I knew it was only a matter of time until my housekeeping manager would ask about her moving to a department where we both knew my woman would shine, and I wanted to keep her away from there.
Our Elysium club on the second floor was an exclusive members-only place where people of certain backgrounds could drink, eat, and have a good ole time regardless of what they were into, without the worry of paparazzi or random cameras snapping a pic that might come back and bite them in the ass.
Jessie would be a great waitress on that floor. Her curves. Her look. Her beauty.
But there was no way I’d have her down there.
The members there were usually cool, down-to-earth people who just wanted the space to have a place to let their hair down for a night, or so to speak.
But some were a problem. Grabby, touchy, and entitled.
And there was no way I’d be able to do anything but follow her around her entire shift if she worked there.
It was hard enough staying away from her as it was while she cleaned the clubhouse and the Steel Sinners’ patched members’ rooms.
“You’re really down bad for this girl, aren’t you?” he asked. I swallowed with a nod. Down bad for Jessie wasn’t even scratching the fucking surface for the shit I felt for my baby girl. “I didn’t think I’d see the day,” he muttered. Not with judgment but honest surprise.
I tore my gaze from the screens and looked at the guy I considered my best friend, a brother from another mother.
“Why?” I asked, and that’s when Griffin grinned.
“Dude.”
“What?”
“Three months ago, you had two chicks on your lap making out with each other.” The reminder of the shit I’d done before was irritating, but I’d come to the conclusion that first night of her sleeping sweetly next to me, that everything that had happened before Jessie no longer mattered.
Good or bad, it was what had led me to her, and I knew down to my soul I was exactly where I was supposed to be in my life. Fucking finally.
“Your point?” I asked, because there was no way I would deny my past. I couldn’t. It was a part of me. It wasn’t the first time Griff had seen me with a woman or two. But it was the first time of him seeing me in love.
Love. I felt my lips move up on their own into a big-ass Cheshire cat grin. No wonder it was hard for him to believe. Shit, it was tough for me to believe it, too. He chuckled, shaking his bald tatted head.
“My point?”
“You took one look at Marty after she gave you shit and put you in your place, and you said, I want that one.”
“Fucking right, I did.”
“Well…” I shrugged, and his brows rose.
“Bud, I mean this with the utmost respect, but you’ve never taken a woman more than twice.
And I sure as fuck have never seen you pick one up off the side of the road and had her stay in your room with you.
For the last five days, need I remind you.
” He didn’t. “I won’t lie, I know Marty thinks it’s cute, but watching you dote on her at the clubhouse, glare at the guys who even say hi to her, I’m almost sure your ass was abducted by aliens out on the road or something. ”
“Fuck.” I shook my head. “You and your fucking alien conspiracies.
“Dude, a lot of weird shit happens out here in the desert.”
“Weird shit happens everywhere,” I muttered.
“She’s mine,” I said and then, because and only because Griff was my best friend, I started to explain.
“Before she stepped out of the shadows while I was smoking and… thinking…” I swallowed.
“It was like something inside me was weirdly aware of her standing off to the side. I couldn’t make her out, it was too dark in the shadows of the lot, but she was there, and I had Cowboy go inside and order food for me just in case she wanted to approach me for… whatever reason.”
“You don’t think…” His voice drifted to nothing, so my brow rose in a silent request to keep talking. “I mean this respectfully, Stone, but… you think she’s playing you?” I chuckled and shook my head.
“Hell no.” My eyes drifted to the security screens, searching for her, relaxing the moment I found her.
She was walking down a hall, pushing the cleaning cart with one of the older ladies, Imelda.
“She wouldn’t know how to play anyone,” I said out loud, more to myself than to him.
“You know what I did right before the wind blew that fucking hat off her head and I caught it?”
“What?” His brows were bunched, curiosity coming to life in his green eyes.
“No judgment?” I asked, because I never thought I would actually ever admit this to anyone.
“Fuck, this is going to be good.”
“Griff—“
“Fine, you’re no fun,” he groaned. “Come on, what?”
“I asked my mom for a sign,” I shared quietly. “The universe, whatever. I just needed… I asked the stars for a sign I was where I was supposed to be.”
“You rethinking the club?” Griff asked quietly enough for just the two of us to hear.
“No.” I shook my head. “Nothing like that. But seeing you guys, you, Cowboy, Ace, hell, even Prez falling and claiming a woman… changed things here.”
“Man—“
“Not in a bad way,” I hurried to clear up. “Just made me think I’m… middle aged. A biker. And—“
“Single?” he asked knowingly, and I nodded. “I get that,” he said. “But you sure you’re into her and not just jumping in because…”
“I’m desperate?” I asked delicately, and he shrugged.
I chuckled. “No. I just think… I think she was the answer I needed. I saw her, and something changed inside of me. Like the sight of her, the sound of her voice, rewired my heart and brain. And then…” I left it off even quieter, making sure no one else could hear, “We connect… on a deeper level.”
“I bet,” he started to tease, but the smile on his face faltered as he took in how serious I was. “Deeper level,” he repeated. I nodded.
“She’s different. I’m different with her.”
“I noticed that, too. She’s young.”
“And?” I challenged, daring him to tell me anything. Marty wasn’t twenty-two, but it wasn’t like they were the same age.
“Just be careful. You know what they say. The bigger they are, the harder they fall.”
“Man, I fell with one look,” I admitted. He blinked. Knowing me and just how serious I was, he stared.
“I see that,” he said, noting it with a nod. “Okay, anything you need, you know I got your back. If she’s your old lady, she’s your old lady.”
“Thanks, man.” I patted him on his back. “I got some shit to take care of before Jessie’s shift ends. If anything comes up—“
“You’re the first one I’ll call.” Yeah, Griff was my best friend for a million reasons, but fuck, this was what made him family. “I got you. Go do what you need. Your girl’s safe,” he reassured me.
After what had happened a couple of months ago with Marty, we’d had church and come up with someone coming in daily on different shifts to make sure they checked the cameras security usually just skimmed over while trying to keep all the other spots of the casino under closer vigilance.
Usually, it was a prospect who did it, but when Marty worked, Griff was like an obsessed stalker in there, watching her and the rest of the cleaning staff’s comings and goings.
I think it had something to with whatever kink they had of their own, but I wasn’t about to ask.
Hell no. To each their own. Especially when I had my own come to life out of fucking nowhere.
“Thanks,” I muttered and waved, hurrying to my bike.
I had a couple of errands to run and shit to buy and set up before my girl’s workday ended.
She might not know it yet, but tonight was the night.
Our first official date even though I was pretty sure we wouldn’t be leaving my room.
Daddy was a patient man, but at the end of the day, he wasn’t a saint.