Chapter 28 - Camile #2
“Dad said you were struggling,” Vani says, linking her arm with mine.
I hang my head, my face warming. “Yeah, I guess. It’s not been easy, being here with all these men.”
“I get it. I grew up in a place like this, remember. Try going to speak to Smokie Saul when you’re thirteen and just got your first period, but don’t know where to get any pads because all the ol’ ladies were out on a girls’ day and I had no one else to ask.”
I widen my eyes at her. “Oh, my God, you didn’t?”
“I did. He was good about it, too. Took me to the machine in the ladies’ room and fed it with coins until I had what I needed.”
“You didn’t go speak to your mom?” I ask.
Vani shrugs. “She was on the girls’ day out. I grew up with the MC, so most of the guys felt like family anyway. At least, the older members did. Dad wouldn’t so much as let the younger ones look at me.”
“Yeah, I can tell he can get pretty protective.”
She laughs, tossing her long dark hair down her spine. “You can say that again.”
“It must be nice having him so much nearer.”
She nods. “It is. It’s great. I really hope he’ll stay here at this club, so I can always have him close by.”
“Merde,” Saint mutters under his breath.
The twins are French and both speak that as well as English fluently.
Vani digs him in the ribs with the elbow not linked through mine, and he rolls his eyes good-naturedly.
I cast a surreptitious glance their way. They’re both astonishingly good looking, but Lex is quite casual, whereas Saint looks like he fell off a catwalk during Milan fashion week.
“I’ll go visit with my dad for a bit up at the house, and then maybe we can grab a bite or something?” Vani suggests.
“A bite would be great. Your dad’s not at the house, though. He’s at the clubhouse, in his office.”
She turns and gives me a strange, lingering look. “Oh, right.”
“He said to tell you he’d catch up with you when he’s done.”
“When did he say this?”
“Just now, in the office.”
Vani stops walking. “You were in Dad’s office? Just now?”
I’m not sure why this is such a big deal, and I nod hesitantly.
“What gives?” Lex raises a questioning brow to Vani.
“The only women allowed in his office when I was younger were either Mom or me.” Vani appraises me much the way some of the sweetbutts and ol’ ladies have.
I don’t know what to say. It’s like I’m supposed to be sorry or explain, so I do. “I went in there to ask something, and he ordered me out. It’s not a big deal.”
She gives a non-committal hum. “Well, since he’s busy, how about you show me where you’re staying now?”
“Sure.” I glance over at the men. Are they wanting a tour, too?
Zane scribbles something on a small pad from his back pocket and shows it to the others.
“Yeah,” Lex says, “let’s do that.” He looks to Vani. “We’ll go and play some pool in the clubhouse, let you girls catch up.”
I’m relieved at the suggestion. It would have felt kind of awkward being in the house with the guys, too.
Vani says bye to her men, and the two of us keep going until we reach the place that’s currently on loan to me.
“This is nice,” Vani says, appraising the front.
“Yeah, could do with a little color, though. Maybe some flowers in the window boxes and some planters on the porch. Not that I’m planning to stay that long, of course. Once things settle down, I’ll either come back to the college or go and join my mom and brother.”
“You need to graduate first,” she says in alarm.
“I know, and I want to, but it’s… complicated.” I don’t want to tell her about my money worries.
I let us both into the house and guide her from room to room, pointing out the obvious… this is the kitchen, this is the living room…
She looks around. “Well, it’s… modern.”
I laugh, thinking about how she has her home decorated back at the college. It’s full on, French inspired, I think. Definitely nothing like this.
“I guess we can’t expect bikers to have much taste.”
“Hey,” she protests. “I’m a biker… kind of.”
I wince. “Sorry.”
“Show me the bedrooms,” she says.
I lead her along the hall and into my room, or at least the room I’ve claimed as my own for the moment.
Something is on my pillow, and my stomach lurches. Shit. I lunge for the item, but Vani gets there first.
“Isn’t this my dad’s?”
She holds up a huge t-shirt with a band called Motley Crew on the front. I swallow, hard, and my face burns. “Um, yeah. He lent it to me to sleep in.”
That’s a lie. I stole it from his house when I’d been there. It smells like him, and as pathetic as it seems, having him so close has soothed me. It’s about the only way I can get any sleep, and I refuse to feel guilty because my entire world has been torn apart.
“Why did he do that? I packed a whole heap of your clothes, and I know I grabbed pajamas. Why didn’t you wear those?”
The heat drains through my body, out of my toes, and is swiftly replaced by an icy chill. “I-it was the first night. I didn’t have any stuff here then.”
“But you could have given it back to him by now. Why is it on your pillow?”
A flash of moments of me with Jack scroll through my head, and I feel so guilty it’s as though I think Vani can see them on my face.
“I-I don’t know,” I stammer.
“Bullshit. You think I don’t know why girls sleep with a guy’s t-shirt?”
She’s glaring at me.
“I don’t want your dad, Vani.”
It’s such a lie I almost expect to get struck by a bolt of lightning.
“Yeah, you do,” she says quietly.
She’s not wrong, but also, she’s not being very nice when my entire world has been torn apart. I close my mouth firmly and hold her gaze, hating this but not willing to make it any worse by saying the wrong thing.
She turns away with a heavy sigh. “Fine, I’ll go find him and ask him what’s going on.”
Still with the t-shirt clutched in her hand, she runs from the room, her footsteps pounding down the hall. A moment later, the door slams.
“Vani, wait!” I yell as I race after her.
My heart is beating so hard it’s making me dizzy. My arms and legs don’t feel like they belong to me. I run out of the house and look left and right, trying to spot my friend… well, probably ex-friend by now. I see her in the distance, heading toward the clubhouse.
“Vani, please stop!”
At my voice, she picks up speed, and I give chase.
I can’t let her tell Jack about finding the t-shirt without coming up with some kind of explanation.
God, I feel so stupid and embarrassed. He already treats me like a child half the time, and now he’s going to find out I’ve been sleeping with his t-shirt like some lovelorn teenager.
Vani reaches the clubhouse and vanishes inside.
I want to cry. I don’t want to go in there, knowing Vani’s men are also in there to support her, but I can’t let her speak to Jack without putting across my side of the story.
While she’s not wrong that I want to fuck her dad so badly it feels like I might actually die from unrequited desire, she also needs to know that nothing has happened between us.
Of course, that’s all been down to Jack, so she has every right to never want to speak to me again, but I have to make sure she understands that she can’t be mad at her father.
He hasn’t done anything wrong. All he’s done is take care of me.
I burst into the clubhouse to find everyone standing in the bar, including the club members who were in the meeting I interrupted—Ace and Ghost, and Saul. Vani is in front of her father, crying and waving the t-shirt around. God, please let the ground open up and swallow me whole right now.
Jack spots me, and his line of sight moves from his daughter, over her shoulder to where I’m standing, shaking and on the verge of tears, too.
“I’m sorry,” I blurt. “I just wanted something to sleep in. It didn’t mean anything.”
Vani throws me a look of pure rage over her shoulder. “Stop fucking lying!”
“Jack,” I say helplessly. “Please, tell her the truth.”
The moment the words leave my mouth, I wonder if that’s even possible.
What if he was the one standing behind me last night, with one hand wrapped around my jaw and the other deep inside my pussy while we watched two other people fucking?
If so, there’s no way he’s going to be able to do that. Is there?
I guess I’m about to find out.