Epilogue
I woke up earlier than Raff, finding myself still curled up on his chest, his steady heartbeat under my ear, his arm still around my hips, and his scent all around me.
I still couldn’t quite wrap my head around everything that had happened in such a short period of time. Or the fact that the craziest part wasn’t getting my money back, office sex, a break-in, an attack, a murder, or a body disposal, but a confession to Raff about my feelings.
I guess it made sense that the last one was the one I was shocked by most. Not because it was a surprise to me that I felt that way—I’d been dealing with those for a week or so already—but because I’d been able to express them to him.
But like with most things with Raff, he made it easy. He knew when to shut up and let me talk, when to make a silly remark to cut the tension, and when to say something so sweet it made my heart ache.
No, he wasn’t what I thought I wanted from a partner. He was so much more.
That said, he was clearly someone who slept in. And I’d been lying awake on him for almost an hour already.
Carefully, I inched up off of him, then turned onto my back and started to roll away.
Only started, though.
Because Raff’s body turned with mine, his arm going around my belly, his hand resting dangerously close to my breast, making desire kindle.
“Where you going?” he murmured, voice sleep-thick.
“I—” I started. But then he shifted closer and his hardness pressed against my butt and, well, I forgot not only what I was doing but what my own name was.
Seeming to sense the problem, Raff adjusted his hips, rocking them under my bent legs so the length of him slid against my cleft.
“You what?” he asked, burying his face in my neck.
“I was trying not to wake you up.”
“Sweet girl, I always want to be woken up if your pussy is going to be this wet for me,” he murmured as he rocked his hips, making a moan escape me.
His hand shifted up, closing over my breast, making my hips rock back against him.
There was no more talking then, just hips rocking, hands roaming, breaths panting, hearts pounding.
When he eventually slid inside me, it was slow and sweet, but it wasn’t long until we were both too needy for that. It was fast and hard and loud until we both cried out as we came.
In the shaky aftermath, Raff slid out of me and moved back. Reaching for my shoulder, he pressed me onto my back so he could look down at me.
His eyes were intense for a moment before he offered me that boyish smile of his. “Waking up with you has been even better than I imagined,” he told me. “You want breakfast in bed, or do you want to venture downstairs?”
“My cousin is going to be down there, isn’t he?” I asked, wincing.
“Yeaaaah. That’s one thing we’ve kind of overlooked in our conversations, huh?”
“Is he going to be pissed at you? You know, because of the club brotherhood thing.”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “And I don’t particularly care. Is it gonna be weird for you? Him knowing you spent the night with me?”
“We’re adults. And we haven’t really had the kind of relationship where he cares who I date.”
“Well, I guess there’s only one way for us to see,” he said, exhaling hard. “How are your hands and knees?”
“Achy. How’s my face?”
“Almost too beautiful to look at. Keep looking this good and I’m gonna need to wear sunglasses.”
“You’re ridiculous.”
“You love it,” he said, rolling off the other side of the bed.
That was the thing, wasn’t it? I did. I really did.
Raff rummaged around for a pair of drawstring pants for me before disappearing across the hall.
When he came back, I took my turn, using the extra toothbrush he’d set out for me and straightening my hair the best I could before joining him in the hallway.
The nervous jumping in my stomach surprised me. I mean, I knew all these people. There was no reason to feel so weird.
Sensing my unease, Raff’s arm went around my hips and he pressed a kiss to my temple before reaching to pull the freight door up when we reached the lower level.
The voices hit me first.
Slash, with his deep, gravel voice stood out. As did my cousin’s familiar timbre. But there were at least four others speaking too.
But Raff’s fingers gripped my hip, a silent reassurance as we walked into the common space.
Detroit spotted us first, his gaze sweeping over us, no doubt taking in the fact that I was wearing Raff’s clothes… and his arm was around me. Instead of judgment, though, he shot me a ghost of a smile.
When his gaze shifted to Raff, Raff exhaled. “Alright. Come on. I’m ready for the speech.”
“I don’t got one,” Detroit said as he whipped something in a massive bowl. “Watched you mooning over her for years. Figure that’s all I need to know about it.”
“Well, alright then.”
“Though I’m not happy you didn’t come to me when you were in trouble,” he said, looking at me again.
“I was embarrassed.”
“We’re family. There’s no such thing as being embarrassed.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“How you feeling?” he asked.
“I’m okay. A little sore,” I said, holding up my bandaged palms. “But it could have been so much worse.”
“She stabbed the fucker in the gut pretty good,” Hail said, nodding his approval at me. “With a screwdriver.”
“It’s what I had handy.”
“You own a screwdriver?” Raff asked, brows pinched. Because, yeah, I didn’t strike anyone as the handy kind of person.
“I found it in the back of a drawer at my old apartment.”
“Still can’t believe you somehow moved outta that apartment and into the motel and none of us noticed,” Slash said. “Or the Murphys.”
“Speaking of,” Raff said. “Are you going to tell them about this whole thing?”
“I guess I probably should. At least some of it. But not today. Today, I want whatever Detroit is making.”
Detroit was an incredible cook. But he saved most of his cooking for the club and his family now. I only got to have it once in a blue moon if he dropped a plate off to me.
“Then that’s exactly what you’ll have.”
Raff - 7 days
She came to the clubhouse and simply… didn’t leave.
I damn sure wasn’t complaining, but I was surprised. But I guess the clubhouse was definitely a step up from the motel for her.
She was treated to one of Colter’s lavish gift baskets with clothes and bath products to get her through her the first day.
Then on a morning walk, she casually went in the direction of the motel, where we stopped to gather several bags of her clothes, toiletries, and electronics.
The same thing happened the next day. And the next.
Until the motel room was empty and my room was starting to look more lived-in.
I was worried that the partying would bother her. But she worked late at The Bog and came back to drag me up to the room, enjoying the noise downstairs because it meant she could be as loud as she wanted to.
Then we would watch a movie and pass out, wake up hungry for each other, do our morning walk, then decide which adventure we were going to partake in that day.
Often, it was the search for some really good, obscure restaurants neither of us had tried before.
But one day I dropped her at the salon while I grabbed her some books about business and real estate development.
But this was a new one.
“You want to go to Tessa’s office supply store?” I asked, not sure I heard her right.
“Yeah. I need notebooks and pens and planners and maybe a whole new computer set-up. I don’t want anything I am currently doing, work-wise, to cross over with these new potential plans.”
I’d caught her poring over the books I got her while cross-referencing things on her laptop when I’d come home from grabbing some take-out the night before.
It seemed she really was going to try to figure out how to pull it off. A whole real estate development empire. With a side of money laundering to get it started.
“I love me some pens,” I said, walking over to slip into my shoes. “Let’s go on a stationary adventure.”
The thing was… it was that. An adventure. Everything with Lula felt that way. Like something new and exciting.
It was like someone flipped off a switch for all the other things I used to find fun: drinking, partying, random hookups.
Now, I’d much rather go debate highlighter and sticky note colors with Lula.
And that was the thing I’d always envied about my club brothers when they finally found the right woman—how even the most mundane things became exciting. How everything else seemed to get just a little bit duller.
I’d wanted that.
But I’d always known that I could only have it with the one woman who had resisted me every step of the way. So I clung desperately to the other shit, looking for even a small hint of what I knew I would find with her.
Now that I had her, I wasn’t wasting any chances to soak up all that joy.
“This got a little out of hand,” Lula said as she looked at the mound of products sitting on the desk to get checked out.
“Big plans require lots of supplies.”
“I don’t even have anywhere to put it.”
“Well, I have a solution for that.”
“Buy a desk…”
“Casually mention to Coach that you need one.”
She shot me a sweet smile.
“I really like your friends.”
“They’re your friends now too,” I told her, watching as her lips parted and her brows lowered. Because the concept of friends had simply never really occurred to her. She’d had coworkers, neighbors, family, and acquaintances, but never friends.
Until now.
I was happy to share mine with her.
“I guess they are,” she agreed. “I have you to thank for that, huh?”
“Nope. You have me to thank for great food suggestions, epic movie recommendations, and toe-curling orgasms,” I told her, pulling her against me. “Your friendships are all your own.”
She leaned back into me, her voice low.
“The clubhouse is full of kids,” she said, her mind on the same thing mine was. We could barely brush without being desperate to get naked.
“I got a motel room paid up for eleven more weeks,” I reminded her.
Her smile was devilish as we took our bags and made our way to the door.