Chapter 3 #3
Liam laughed and ruffled her hair, even though she hated it when he did that. She wasn’t fucking four years old! “He’s not mad, sis. Though, he might murder me when he finds out I texted the club to tell them how easily my baby sister took down our illustrious leader.”
A growl from the doorway had both siblings turning to see Ghost standing in the frame.
He wore running shoes and jogging shorts…
and nothing else. Her breath hitched as a different warmth flowed through her body, commencing at her core and radiating out like a sunburst. Holy fuck!
The silkiness of her bra rubbed against her hardening nipples, and a groan nearly escaped.
Was this man fucking allergic to shirts or something?
Liam didn’t appear deterred, despite how pissed off Ghost looked at his words.
Becks didn’t fully understand the motorcycle club lifestyle.
She supposed she got the need for brotherhood after Liam left the military, but a motorcycle club?
He swore they weren’t outlaws and she knew he had a valid job managing a bar…
She just didn’t get it. And if he did have to be in a motorcycle club, couldn’t it be one that was closer to where their widowed mother lived?
Despite the near decade separating their ages and the physical distance between them as adults, Liam and Becks did talk every day—or tried to.
Sometimes life got in the way, but they were always there for each other.
Becks didn’t know their sperm donor outside of tales.
She hadn’t been born yet when he’d been arrested, and she knew that Liam’s overprotectiveness during her entire childhood and teen years derived from his torment and trauma at the hands of their fucked-up sperm donor.
She didn’t mind. When she’d been about eleven or twelve, she’d started to push back more.
Even though he was in the military, he was always in her business, and especially as a preteen, she’d resented that.
Her mom and dad sat her down and told her everything.
She’d known that her dad wasn’t her father biologically and that her mom had been married before.
She’d even known that her birth father was in prison.
They hadn’t hidden any of that from her, especially after her sperm donor was released.
However, they hadn’t told her the extent, the brutality, of what her mom and brother had suffered through until she was older.
Seeing those pictures of her mom and brother, battered and broken, had quelled any resentment she felt towards her older brother’s overprotectiveness.
It was awful, learning the past she didn’t share with them, but in many ways, it brought her family closer.
She loved her dad all the more for seeing past her mom’s trauma and loving her for the woman she was—and to take in two kids that weren’t his own on top of that? Yeah, her dad had been awesome.
When Liam had been deployed, she wrote to him every day, telling him everything about her life, her friends, and even the boys she liked. That last part was just to get him riled up, because she had to have her fun too.
That constant communication continued as she graduated high school and college.
Even though she was traveling for school and then work, she was still a single woman on her own in the big, bad world.
She liked knowing that her older brother was out there keeping an eye on her, just in case.
Ritchie sometimes accused her of being more communicative with Liam than she was with him, and maybe he had a point about that.
She was trying to get better at reaching out to Ritchie for help over her brother.
It was also another reason why she was grateful Cameron, Liam’s girlfriend, had to work and couldn’t attend the wedding.
She didn’t want all her wedding pictures to feature a woman she doubted would be in Liam’s life permanently.
Cameron might make him happy, but she could tell that Liam wasn’t in love with her.
It was their casual ‘on-again, off-again’ relationship.
Which might work for some people, but not her brother.
Becks knew Liam had some hang ups, but had no doubt that when he found the right woman, she would barge her way into Liam’s life, breaking down all his walls.
Cameron just wasn’t that girl. And if she was what Liam needed in his life right now, then that was great. Still didn’t mean Becks wanted her in her wedding pictures, nor did she want to make nice with the woman who had been texting on her phone during Becks and Liam’s grandmother’s funeral.
When Liam had been promoted—she didn’t know if that was the right ‘motorcycle club’ word, but it was the one she was going to use—to enforcer within his club, Becks had been his first phone call. Even before their mother.
Becks knew that Ghost, the very shirtless, tattooed man, currently glaring at her brother from her bedroom doorframe, was the club’s president. She supposed that was a big deal, but sort of attributed it to someone declaring themselves class president.
Looking at him now, though, Becks found herself entranced.
Other than her father and brother, she’d never met a man who oozed authority.
And she’d only ever seen Liam or her dad be authoritative in their jobs.
Liam had learned his love of pranks and good humor from their father, who had been a practical joker by nature.
But Ghost? Holy…crap… It was like the man demanded attention and respect with every breath he took, like his very being was the epicenter of any room he stepped into. No class president she’d ever met had that kind of authority. Hell, even her boss didn’t, and he was the richest man she knew.
When Liam had called her to ask if he could bring Ghost with him, she hadn’t been sure at first, not wanting to have another Cameron situation, but then Liam confided in her how overworked and stressed Ghost was since becoming the club’s president.
She could see it now, the tightness in his shoulders.
She had the insane need to make him laugh, but before she could say or do anything, Ghost snapped at Liam, “Go get dressed—and tell Keys if I see so much as a single broken nutshell in the clubhouse following our return, he’ll be going in the ring with me next.”
Ghost was not as tall as her brother, and Liam had wider shoulders, but Becks had no trouble believing that getting into the ring with Ghost would be very dangerous.
Ranger snapped a mocking salute, sent her a wink, and then hurried from the room.
Leaving Becks and Ghost alone, with only several feet separating them, while she was in her wedding dress and he was barely wearing anything.
They stared at each other for a long, long moment.
Becks wasn’t even sure she was breathing.
Her heartbeat raced as her body heat rose.
She got the distinct impression that he was studying her like one might an abstract painting at a gallery.
Then he turned and left the doorway.
No words were spoken—and yet, Becks felt like something had just happened. She didn’t know what, but it felt monumental. Her legs wobbled on her heels, and she had to catch herself on the edge of her dresser before barely making it over to her bed.
Sitting down, she looked around her room, needing to find anything she could to distract herself.
But her room didn’t feel much like hers anymore.
Boxes and boxes lined the one wall with her entire life’s belongings, ready to be moved after the wedding.
Only essentials remained, which would go into the empty suitcases waiting by her empty closet Saturday morning before they headed to the church.
It was the wedding, that was it. She just… She just needed to get through the wedding and then everything would feel right, better.
She and Ritchie would start their life together, and Becks would stop feeling like the ground was about to fall out from under her with every step.
It would be fine.
It would all be fine.