Chapter 8
"So..."
Why was it that just a word or two out of her mouth made me shiver?
And made my blood head straight down south?
"Where did the name 'Thief' come from?"
"That's an easy answer."
I looked up at Savior who shut his mouth.
Havoc put a hand on Savior's shoulder. "Let the man answer the question."
I heard Aryls laugh and damn it. It felt good.
It felt really good.
"Okay, 'Thief,'" she chuckled a little and used a thin comb through the hair at my temple, "why don't you tell me how you got the name?"
"Simple," I smiled, my eyes closing as I enjoyed the feel of her hands on me, "I'm good at stealing things. Or getting into things."
"Okay," she nodded as she moved around behind me. "Way to be really, really vague."
When I looked up into the big glass pane at the front of the shop I saw her eyes.
She wasn't looking back at me in the glass.
I could see the way she looked at me as she cut my hair.
It was humbling.
The way she could move her hands over him and make him feel at ease.
"The things I did to get that name? I can't really tell you. Especially not where other people can hear."
"He did a lot of good things for the club."
I could see her look up and over at Havoc.
The look on her face said that she was thinking it over.
Arlys was a girl, no... a woman who had learned the hard way that words were just that.
I could see her thinking it over.
She looked back down at my hair, making quick cuts and brushing it through with a comb.
Shit, just her combing through my hair had me hard and needy.
I adjusted my posture in the chair and Arlys' hands stopped.
I looked up in the glass and she met my eyes.
"Why did you stop?"
She lifted one sexy eyebrow and sighed. "You moved. A little warning would be great. Or you might end up with a crooked cut."
"I hardly moved." The words were out before I could stop them.
"Dude," Havoc shook his head, "you moved like you just got off your sled after half a dozen hours. I thought you were going to slide out of the chair onto the floor."
I felt like a dick. "Sorry, baby. I didn't mean to move like that."
With the comb in one hand and the shears in another, Arlys leaned in and whispered beside my ear. "You can move like that in bed tonight."
I could feel her breath against my skin.
"But maybe you could come to my place so the whole club doesn't know what you're doing to me. Hmm?"
She started to move back but I reached up a hand. I missed her by a mile. Between that cape-thing and where she was standing, I didn't have much of a chance to grab her.
She laughed as she went back to cutting my hair and I watched her in the reflection of the glass.
It was like I drinking in the sight of her, and feeling it warm me from the inside out. Knowing she was close and that she wanted me was life changing.
I couldn't help but enjoy every damn moment of it.
"Arlys?"
She turned to look at Havoc, her hands stilling near my hair. "Hmm?"
"I've got an idea if you really don't want to charge the MC members."
I turned my head and gave Havoc a look that said I wanted to knock him down to his knees.
He pointedly ignored it and kept his gaze on Arlys.
He should consider himself lucky that I was going to be at Arlys' place tonight. I wouldn't have the chance to smother him in his sleep.
"Oh? What is it?"
Havoc walked across the room and looked behind the counter.
It didn't look like he found what he was looking for and turned back with a frown. "Huh. I thought Old Man Shack used to keep a glass jar back here with suckers."
"Oh!" Arlys brightened and smiled at his brother. "It's in the cupboards behind the desk. It doesn't have any lollipops in it. I have to go to the store in case I get any kids in here."
"Do you mind?" Havoc gestured at the counter.
"Go ahead," Arlys turned back toward me and I smiled at the way she so easily fit in with my brothers.
When she reached for my hair again, I gave her a look that promised a good time later on and she had to pull her hands back. "Logan!"
I shrugged. "What?"
"You know," she lifted her chin at me, "that look. If you want me to mess up your hair so no one comes here..."
I held up my hands in surrender. "I'll be good."
The smile she gave me was... incendiary.
"I hope you won't be good... later."
My eyes widened at that, and I crooked a finger to bring her closer. "You don't want me to be good?"
She leaned in, her eyes practically eating me up. "I'm hoping you'll be bad later." She bit into her bottom lip. "I really like it when you do... bad things to me."
Fuck.
I wanted to take Arlys in the back room of the barber shop and do all kinds of bad things to her up against the wall back there.
"Found it!"
Fuck.
And double fuck.
Havoc appeared with a glass jar in his hands. "Here it is."
"Nice timing, asshole."
Savior's shoulders shook with laughter. "Cock blocking at its finest."
Havoc didn't seem to care.
"You can use this, Arlys."
Call me an ass, but I'd rather Havoc didn't say her name.
Yeah. I'm an ass.
But I didn't want anyone to get between us now that I had another chance with her.
She moved closer to Havoc to look at the big glass jar. "You think if I got some good lollipops in there, more people would come into the shop?"
I knew she was joking. It was nice to see her smiling.
And happy.
When we knew each other at first, she didn't smile much.
Especially around her father.
"We make it a tip jar." Havoc held it out to her. "Put a big label on it. Just like they do at those coffee shops. If you don't want to charge members from the club, that's your choice, but that doesn't mean we can't pay you."
Aryls looked a little weepy. I hoped it was just because she was pregnant and not because she was sad.
"You guys... You don't have to do that."
"Baby..."
"A tip jar," Savior put his two cents in, "is normal these days."
Arlys drew in a breath and slowly let it out. "I guess that would be okay."
"It's better than you not putting it out there and my brothers trying to slip you some money in your pocket." I grumbled under my breath.
Well, maybe not so much under my breath since everyone seemed to hear it.
"Okay, then." She nodded and smiled. "That's a great idea, Havoc. Thanks."
Havoc shrugged and headed to the back of the shop. "I'll wash it out for you."
Arlys played with his hair a little more, at least that's how it felt to him, and then she stopped. "Go ahead and take a look in the mirror on the wall. See if you like it."
I started to get out of the chair, and she reached for the cape-thing she'd put on me.
"You want me to take that off?"
I leaned in to her and smiled. "Sure, baby. You can take anything off me you want."
She rolled her eyes, but her cheeks pinked up. "You're incorrigible."
I got up out of the chair and moved over to the wall.
I looked good.
The trim she'd given my hair was nice.
It hadn't taken away much of my length, but it didn't look... messy anymore.
It looked...
"You look good, man."
Arlys gave Havoc a look and held a finger up in the air. "Careful, now. I don't share."
Then she held up her shears.
"Don't make me cut you."
She said it in such a sweet voice that none of us really knew how to react.
Then she made the shears move and said, "SNIP SNIP."
All three of us burst out into awkward laughter.
She was too cute when she did it which was the scariest thing about it.
If she'd said, "Bless Your Heart," I think we all would have run for the hills.
"Here," she set down the shears on a counter nearby. "Let me get these things off you and you're all done."
She unclipped the cape-thing, and took it off along with the tissue strip she'd put under it.
Then, out of thin air, there was a brush in her hand. Like a painter's brush, but more for a house than a canvas.
With a quick flick of her wrist, the brush moved across the back of my neck and I have to say I thought it was going to scratch or be a little stiff.
I didn't expect it to be soft.
It... tickled.
I leaned in closer and brushed my lips against her cheek ."Baby, bring that with you when I pick you up today. I think we can use that for a little fun."
When I backed up, her whole face was red like she'd spent the afternoon in the sun.
Her lips thinned into a white line and when she released them, she lowered her chin and whispered. "Okay. I'll wash it before you pick me up."
Now that the chair was open, Savior sat down. "My turn."
Arlys cuffed him gently on the shoulder. "There's nothing to do. Your hair is perfect right now."
Savior pointed his thumb toward his chest. "You guys hear that? I'm perfect."
Havoc groused back at him. "She's only saying that because you have that Ranger's tattoo on your arm."
Savior lifted his arm. "Is that how you knew?"
Arlys shrugged. "Guilty."
As Savior got out of the chair the front door opened.
We all turned to look and see who it was.
It was one of the men who hung out at the hardware store, Mister Roberts.
No, not Mister Rodgers. Like PBS.
Mister Roberts.
He took one look at the three of us and his gaze zeroed in on Arlys. "You the one I talked to when I called?"
She nodded and moved through us to the front, reached out a hand to greet him. "Good morning, I'm Arlys Hunt. Welcome."
I barely resisted the urge to wrap my arm around her shoulders and growl at the old man. "Mine."
Yeah, I had some issues.
Some of which we could place on her father's shoulders.
Some, but not all.
I've loved her like crazy since the first moment she smiled at me, and I wanted to be the only one she smiled it.
Now, I realize that was a little obsessive, but it didn't really change my mind.
I thought I could temper it better now.
"I'm Joe Roberts. I've been coming here for years. I guess I didn't hear that it was being sold."
Arlys smiled and sat him down in the barber's chair. "Why don't you have a seat and we can talk."
The old man smiled at her. "Okay."
She gestured toward the side table. "Let me get one of my books and you can start to look through my work. We can get to know each other, and you can tell me what kind of a cut you'd like."
The man was blushing when she turned around and I understood why.
It was something, being in her presence.
She'd always made me feel about ten feet tall when she smiled at me.
Damn, I was a lucky sumbitch.
My phone rang in my back pocket.
I'd set it on near silent before I'd stepped inside.
I could barely hear it and felt it vibrate in my pocket, so I gave Arlys a wink when she turned around and stepped outside to answer it.
"Pres?"
"Who are you with?"
"Savior and Havoc are here with me."
"Good." I could tell by the tone of his voice that he wasn't upset, more... anxious. "Bring them back with you."
"Got it, Pres." I looked at my watch. "See you in fifteen."
"There'll be someone at the gate."
"Okay. We'll be right there."
And we were. That's what we did.
That's what the Fallen Souls MC always did.
What we needed to.
To protect the club and all of the people in it.
I opened the door to find Havoc and Savior waiting for my news.
One look at me and they were waving goodbye to Arlys and heading outside to join me.
They followed me back to our sleds and as I swung a leg over, Havoc called out to me. "You planning on making it official with Arlys?"
I smiled and rubbed my hand over my hair smiling at the memory of her hands on me. "It's been official since I was in the Army, Havoc, but yeah, I'm going to bring it up the next time we have Church.
Savior sighed. "Another one bites the dust."