Chapter Four
Bones
“Hey, Bones. Who’s the backpack?” asks my brother, leaning against a workbench as he rolls a joint.
“Hey, asswipe,” I retort, shoving my heavily tattooed sibling. “This is Sunny. Sunny, this is Marcus, my brother.”
Sunny steps out from beside me and extends her hand in welcome, that trademark Daisy Girl grin I’m already obsessed with plastered on her rosy-cheeked face. “Hi, it’s nice to meet you Marcus,” she says.
My brother finishes licking his paper and rolling his joint, forcing Sunny to hang all the while his gaze remains unbroken.
“Sunny,” he finally says when I shove him again.
He reaches out and shakes the short woman’s hand, seemingly trying to take her measure.
“How did you meet Maria?” he asks, lighting his blunt and inhaling deeply with his usual swagger.
Sunny doesn’t miss a beat and speaks her truth without so much as flinching. “I just got out of a bad relationship and needed a lift,” she says, a wry smile teasing her lips as she glances at me, “and Maria was there.”
“You must be someone pretty special. Bones don’t stop for just anybody,” my brother drawls before offering Sunny a toke.
Surprising me, Sunny accepts and takes a puff, exhaling casually—as if it were something she’d done a hundred times before.
“I don’t know about that,” she says. “I’m just me.
” Her humble gaze finds the floor and her kitsch sunglasses fall off her nose, the heavy, decorative plastic frames bouncing on the concrete workshop floor.
“Shit,” she breathes, crouching to fetch them in a panic.
But when she rises, she slows down as if taking ownership of her fear.
She meets Marcus’s eye, then mine, before passing me the blunt.
My brother’s gaze lingers on her eye as Sunny puts her shades back on and his lax attitude becomes a little more rigid.
His dismissive tone shifts and in its place, sincerity steps up and I see the noble man beneath the tough and callous mask my brother so regularly wears for the Sons.
“Any friend of Maria’s is a friend of mine.
You’re welcome to the hospitality and protection of the club,” he says.
“And don’t worry. Bones has got your back.
” He turns to me and steals back the spliff.
“Don’t boggart the joint, sis,” he says, shaking his head and sucking in a deep breath before blowing it back in my face.
He offers Sunny a quick smile and a wink, then takes his leave.
“Jackass,” I gripe after him, inhaling the sweet smoke.
Sunny’s cheeks are adorably rosy as she adjusts my cuts on her shoulders to better cover herself. “So, am I right in guessing that if you’re the Vice President, then your brother is ... the President?” she asks with a wry grimace.
“Mmhm. He’s got twelve months on me, so naturally he thinks he’s hot shit,” I joke.
Sunny’s answering smile pierces the walls I’ve formed around my heart like a shard of light lancing through the gloom, and I feel a strange twinge in my chest. I clear my throat.
“So, anyway, let’s get you that drink. Then you can take a shower to cool off. You probably want to get changed too.”
“There’s showers here?” Sunny asks incredulously, a small, newfound bounce of hope in her step as she follows me into the offices beyond the noisy, music-filled workshop.
“Of course,” I answer over my shoulder. “Do you know how mad the Old Ladies of the club would be if their men came home stinking of sweat and motor oil? Besides, when you get an imperial ass-load of men together ... showers are a must. They fuckin’ stink.
” I lead the gorgeous hitchhiker to the shop’s communal kitchen and pull open the fridge, holding onto the gleaming stainless-steel door as I drop at the waist to look at what’s on offer.
“Okay,” I announce. “So, there’s Coke, beer, chocolate milk, or Fanta. What do you want?”
When an answer isn’t forthcoming, I lift my gaze to the reflection in the freezer above me.
Sunny is standing as still as a statue, her eyes firmly glued to my leather-clad ass.
A small smirk stretches my lips and I straighten, standing tall to lean against the fridge.
“Like what you see, sunshine?” I quip, cracking a smile.
Sunny’s cheeks flare as pink as cotton candy and her stance becomes defensive, as if she’d hide inside herself if she could. “Sorry,” she says, her eyes on the floor as she fiddles with the front of my cuts. “I was just ... lost in thought.”
Biting my lip to suppress a full-blown grin, I reach into the fridge and grab two drinks. “It’s easy to get lost in,” I say, revealing my smirk before I crack open her can and offer it to her.
My lovely passenger smiles, her gaze darting, and her cheeks still blossom-hued. “Thank you,” she says, accepting the frosty soda gratefully and taking a dainty sip.
I cock an unimpressed eyebrow and give her my best ‘are you fucking serious?’ look.
“It’s hot and you’re thirsty, so, drink the fuck up, sunshine,” I say, cracking open my beer.
The crisp, familiar sound is like music to my ears, and I take a deep, well-earned slug.
“Ah,” I breathe, letting out a satisfied sigh. “That’s the shit.”
Sunny smiles, the damn thing lighting up the room as well as my world.
“Thanks, Bones,” she says. “For everything, I mean. I’d still be trekking down the Interstate if it wasn’t for you.
Hell, I might have even turned around. I don’t want to think it, but it’s a long way between St. Augustine and here.
If you hadn’t come along...” She swallows hard, fiddling with her can before she takes a long drink and sighs, closing her eyes.
“There’s no way you would have turned back, Daisy Girl,” I assure her.
Putting my drink down on the nearest table, I take hers too.
Standing over her short frame, she reminds me a of buxom Disney pixie.
With her stunning long blonde hair and her gorgeous curves, she’s temptation in the flesh.
I gently remove her sunglasses and slip them into the breast pocket of my leather jacket, revealing her brilliant sapphire blue eyes and the offending bruise.
She looks so lost, hurt, and vulnerable .
.. but expectant at the same time, like there’s a glimmer of hope inside her that refuses to be snuffed regardless of how hard the wind blows.
She stares up at me like I might be able to fix all her problems, and it breaks me.
Fuck. “I see the strength in you, Sunny, and I’m telling you right now that you’re stronger than you know.
” I capture her face in my hands and press my lips to hers.
Instinctually, I draw nearer, closing the space between us until we’re body-to-body.
Without a single fuck given, I deepen the kiss, my hands leaving her face to push my cuts from her shoulders as her mouth opens to me—sweetly, uncertainly, but not reluctantly.
“Maria,” Sunny breathes against my lips like a reverent prayer, breaking the kiss to gaze up into my eyes. Breathless and teetering on the tips of her toes, she whispers. “Please.”
I know that look. I’d know it anywhere. It’s the prettiest, most doe-eyed ‘come fuck me’ look I’ve ever seen ... and I wasn’t born yesterday. I snatch up my cuts, relieve Sunny of her satchel, and take her by the hand. “Follow me,” I say.