Chapter 9 #2
Popping a bite of the lasagna in my mouth, I groaned as the flavors exploded on my tongue. My taste buds were dancing with delight. My eyes closed as I savored the first bite of what was going to be a delicious meal.
The silence caught my attention and when I opened my eyes, I had to bite back a laugh.
Smoke was staring at me, the bottle of beer halfway to his lips.
The look in his eyes wiped the humor from my mind and suddenly it was hard to swallow.
He stared at me with an intensity that said he wanted to explore my body with more than just his eyes.
If I didn’t break his stare right now I was going to let him.
That thought brought me back to the night a month ago when he’d done exactly that, only in his bed. The man had a way with his tongue. I swallowed the bite of food before I choked on it.
“What…do you do? For work?” I asked, scrambling for something to talk about before we both went up in flames from the heat between us.
“Most of the time, I work for the club in our bar. The building next door.” I nodded. I’d seen it each time I’d been here. “But right now I’m working on one of our construction crews.”
My eyes fell to his hands. They were strong and he looked like a man who used them often.
I loved tough hands on a man. My father had been a teacher for his entire career, but that hadn’t meant he’d been soft.
He was into restoring old cars. During the week, he’d be decked out in his khakis and button down shirts, but on the weekends he’d always had grease on him.
It had taken Mom years to convince him to move to Florida after he retired.
Especially since Keely and I still lived here in Tucson.
Eventually, he’d given in and they’d moved.
It was easier on Mom. She got terrible migraines, brought on by the different trees and pollens that were prevalent in Arizona.
She’d lived with them for years, but now they were happily settled in their new home.
We all missed each other, but I couldn’t hold the move against them.
“We’re building a school.”
My gaze shot up to his face and I perked up in my seat. “Really?” That was something that definitely interested me. “Why is a motorcycle club building a school?”
That question seemed to catch him off guard for some reason. I thought it was perfectly acceptable, but he was mulling it over.
“Danica-”
“Dani, please,” I asked. Hearing my full name just made me think of Eli.
“Dani,” he said by way of acknowledgment of my request. “There are going to be quite a few things I won’t be able to tell you.”
That made me blink in surprise. “Ever?”
His eyes narrowed. “Not unless I make you my old lady. Even then, there will be things that are club business that I won’t repeat.”
“Okay.” It wasn’t really any of my business what he and his club did. I could understand that, though I was realizing that this club was something more than a group of guys riding bikes. I was too scared to ask him about the other thing, making me his old lady. It was too soon. For both of us.
“There will be rules that you’ll need to follow while living here.”
My brows shot up. “What kind of rules?”
“While you’re here, you belong to me.” He held up a hand as I opened my mouth. “I brought you here. I’m responsible for your safety. Everything you do, reflects on me.”
Closing my mouth, I considered that for a moment. “Okay,” I said in a tone that reserved the right to complain later.
“Okay?”
I nodded. “I can live with that, for now. I’m not planning on doing anything to embarrass you or make trouble.”
“This is a different world than you’re used to,” he told me.
“How do you know?” I asked with a sarcastic smile.
He chuckled. “Trust me, I know. There are things the other women will be able to tell you and things I’ll go over with you.
” He took a drink from the beer bottle before he continued.
“There are often men here who aren’t a part of our club.
Usually they’re here to hang out at The Bunker, our bar, but other times Lock and Rip have them around for one reason or another. ”
A muscle ticked in his jaw, as though he didn’t like the next thing he needed to say. “You’re to stay away from them.”
My brows pulled together in a frown. “What do you mean?”
“While you’re here, you’re mine,” he repeated. “I don’t want you associating with other men. Other than my brothers,” he clarified.
A part of me wanted to argue with him. He didn’t get to boss me around, or control me, but he was letting me live here and taking me under his protection.
So, I would do whatever I needed to not to make waves.
“Agreed.” I had been slowly eating while we talked, but now I set my fork down.
“I’d like for you to not see other women. ”
It was bold. It was demanding. It made my stomach twist into knots to even say the words. All it made him do was grin.
“Alright. I can agree to that. At least until we decide what we want to do.”
I knew exactly what he meant by that. It made me happy that he hadn’t given me any push back.
“I’m probably not going to be the most trusting person,” I admitted.
“Considering I’ve just found out my ex had been cheating on me for so long.
It’s not fair, but some of the distrust you didn’t cause is going to blow back on you. ”
“That’s fine. I’m a big boy. I can handle that.”
Yes, he is. I fought not to lick my lips as I remembered back to what he looked like naked. Nothing about him was small.
“Besides. When it comes to my woman, I can be possessive as fuck. You’re going to have to deal with that. It’s only fair.” He shot me a smug look.
Again, I bit back the question. Was I really his? For now, I was. That was the parameters we were laying out. Even if I wasn’t, I didn’t want another man. It was a miracle that I even wanted this one after how Eli had treated me.
We fell into companionable silence, lost in our own thoughts, as we finished dinner.