SEVENTEEN
Splice
“You dare show your face after what you told me last night!” Nina announced as he came through the back door.
Since he was practically family, he didn’t bother with formalities and just got a coffee. He dragged out a stool and plonked his ass down. Tomb smirked across at him.
“Don’t you have a basement you can lock your wife up in, brother?”
“I tried once; she nearly wrecked the lodge.” Tomb mentioned the time he kidnapped his wife to save their marriage. It worked, obviously.
“Are you serious about Lisa? I mean, really serious, or are you looking to get laid?”
“I’m serious.” He sipped. “So don’t get in my way, okay?
We have history. And I’m trying to change that to ‘present’.
If you keep whispering in Lisa’s ear, she’s gonna get skittish, more than she is, and I won’t make any progress.
I doubt she’d like me kidnapping her to a cabin in the woods until she gives in. ”
Tomb barrel laughed. “You could keep it as a backup.”
“Believe me, I have contingency plans ready.” He looked at Nina again, one of his genuine female friends.
She was family, like a sister. But he was serious about what he was saying; he didn’t want anyone, least of all an influential best friend, getting in his way when he was trying to win Lisa back.
His friend’s old lady examined him silently. “Wow, okay. You are serious. I had to make sure.”
“Lisa and I have memories together. I’m not messing around with her. She was the only woman I’d ever been into in a real way. I’m not dumb enough to waste a second chance with her.”
“Our boy has matured, Nina,” Amused Tomb.
“I was mature enough for her, but something made Lisa drop me. Do you know why?” he directed toward Nina, and she shook her head.
“I only recently found out about you and her. But she didn’t say why you broke up. Were you too immature?”
He bristled. The fuck he was. He’d been all the man Lisa had needed, and though she’d never said it with words, her actions and body language had told younger Splice how crazy about him she was. He’d never been able to work out what changed her mind, and so suddenly.
“Should I find out?” offered Nina.
“No. Lisa will tell me anything I need to know herself.”
“God.” Exhaled, Nina, and then she grinned. “You’ve changed, Splice.”
“Not really. Lisa wasn’t here before. Now she is.”
“Don’t make me cry! That was so sweet. Wasn’t that sweet, Rome?”
“Sure, princess.” Agreed, Tomb, winking at his wife.
Then Nina said, chuckling. “Something just occurred to me. You’ve gone full circle by settling down with your first girlfriend.
All the bed-hopping you’ve done, and you chase your first love.
This has urban myth written all over it.
The Utah women are going to hold a candlelight vigil when they find out you’re off the market. ”
“He even deleted his little black book,” chimed in Tomb, smirking.
“You loose-lipped fuck,” Splice scowled. Hold up. Maybe Nina would tell Lisa, and it would earn him some points in his favor to know he was serious.
“I’m helping your cause. Now Nina knows you’re not fucking around and she won’t interfere.”
Splice snapped his neck around. “Don’t interfere.”
“I won’t. I like this for Lisa. She won’t accept any of my blind date suggestions.”
“Don’t set her up!” he nearly growled. He’d lose his mind and kill them all before they could even show up at her door.
He lost some of his shoulder tension. Stepping off the stool, he dumped the empty cup into the sink. “I’m out. Picking up Lisa.”
For more than a year, people in the clubhouse didn’t think Splice was really committed to being celibate and no longer wanted casual flings. They were about to see how committed he was to one woman.
The woman.
Nina was right.
He was going to chase his first love until he caught her again.
And this time, he wouldn’t so easily let her go if she dared try to leave him.
“Hey, pretty girl.”
Lisa was rocking a flowy maxi skirt and a cropped jacket when he arrived at her place. Such a pretty vibe. Looking shy and avoiding his eyes. Her blonde hair was over her shoulders, looking grabbable, and he clenched both hands at his sides so he wouldn’t reach out and touch the softness.
Lisa was also chewing as she closed the door behind her, locking up.
“Are you eating? Do you still wanna grab breakfast?” Shit, he should have gotten here sooner if she were hungry.
“It’s only fruit, a breakfast appetizer. I could still eat.” She said and Splice grinned. He loved a woman who loved food.
At his truck, he opened the door for her, and she gave him the same curious look she’d given him yesterday when he’d done the same for her. She climbed in without question as he guarded her head from hitting the roof. When he rounded the front and climbed in, too, she turned to him.
“Why aren’t you on your motorcycle?”
Splice raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t think you’d wanna be taken on the bike. Do you?”
“Well,” she pondered, and he noted she still hadn’t met his eyes yet. She was looking at his chin. Cute. And shy. “I’ve never ridden one before. It might be fun.”
She wanted to ride backpack behind him.
Something like molten lava poured into Splice’s chest cavity, warning him until he felt a hot pulse in his dick.
For a serious biker in his lifestyle, letting his partner ride behind him was a sign of ownership.
It went both ways. It was the biker telling his brethren that this person was his.
And letting them also know he was taken, too.
“Has Nina explained what that means?” he asked carefully. With his eyes on the road, he took several glances Lisa’s way as she shook her head.
“Should it mean something?”
He told her plainly and looked on as she blushed.
“Oh. I didn’t know it had a biker meaning behind it.”
“Do you still wanna ride with me, sweetheart?” he smirked, waiting for her immediate denial. It came and Splice grinned.
“You know you just challenged me, yeah?”
“How was my saying no a challenge?”
“Getting Lisa on the back of my bike is now added to my list.”
She scoffed but was smiling out of the side window. “You’re crazy.”
Crazy about the woman in his truck. Yep, he could admit that.
He’d never gotten over her in all these years.
She’d been the one person who’d owned real estate in his heart.
And the one person he’d thought about more than not.
Those feelings hadn’t even hesitated once he’d seen her again.
Like sleeper cells, they’d awoken and gone full steam ahead to claim what he knew belonged to him.
It was as though those years apart melted away, and all Splice could see and feel were the emotions Lisa brought out in him.
He took care of his mom, sure; that was family.
He had his club brothers’ backs, but that was a loyalty he chose to show to the men he trusted.
The protectiveness he’d always experienced around Lisa came from a deep place he’d never felt for anyone else before. It was instinctive, almost as if that emotion had been ingrained in his skin during factory settings before he was switched on.
He still wanted to know what went wrong back then, but the bigger picture meant he could let that go if she didn’t want to revisit old wounds, if only she gave him a second chance.
Looking sideways at how cute she was, sitting with her knees together, hands clasped in her lap, as if she were going to church.
The only church he wanted to take her to was full of sin.
Splice didn’t own a filter, so he asked her, “Are you anxiously waiting to see when I’ll kiss you, sweetheart?”
Her head reared up. “You’re full of yourself, Ryan Gold.” She tutted, and he flashed her a grin, returning his eyes to the road, almost at the breakfast place he was taking them to. “I was thinking about what food I want to eat.”
“That’s a pity. It must just be me thinking about a kiss.”
“I didn’t say you could kiss me. You’re getting ahead of yourself.”
“You didn’t deny me either. I took that as consent.”
She gave him a little huff, but said nothing, just kept staring out the window.
At the restaurant, he told her to wait for him to come around, and he helped her out of the truck. With his hand splayed at the base of Lisa’s spine, he guided her inside.
The server greeted “Splice!” with a radiant smile and sparkling eyes.
Goddamn. Had he slept with this chick? Hopefully not, but her enthusiasm seeing him said otherwise.
He was a dog for not even remembering. He put his arm around Lisa’s waist to make sure the other woman got the hint and didn’t do something dumb like try to touch him. Lisa tensed up, but he held her close.
“Do you have a table over in the corner?”
The young server noticed his body language, eyeing Lisa before she smiled. “Um. Sure do. I’ll bring menus over.”
“An old flame?” Lisa questioned as she slid into the booth, and Splice followed her, sitting on the same side instead of opposite.
“Nope,” he replied, “not that I know of.”
“Slut-puppy.” She murmured, and he laughed, leaning in so his mouth almost touched her ear. Splice grunted when he got an inhale of the decadent fragrance she was wearing. The sexy scent went right to his raring-to-go dick.
“I haven’t slept with anyone in more than a year, sweetheart. I’m practically a virgin again. Be gentle with me, yeah?”
It earned him an elbow in the ribs, and he grinned.
“You’re acting like we’re dating, Ryan.”
“Aren’t we?” he countered. “Haven’t we been getting to know each other all these weeks?” Just then, the server brought laminated menus, which Lisa bent to study carefully. Splice already knew what he wanted to eat. Because Lisa wasn’t on the table, he ordered biscuit breakfast sandwiches.
“I haven’t seen you at the bar lately.” The girl said her name was lost to Splice until he noted her name tag said Delilah.
“I’m there when I’m needed.” He kept his answer short and blunt, hoping she’d get the message. “We’ll take two coffees, one black with sugar, the other with cream and sugar.”
Her smile wavered. “Oh, yeah, sure.”