Chapter 15
Charlie woke slowly, not because of any particular sound but because of the sense of space around her.
It took several seconds before she understood why the air felt different, why the ceiling above her wasn’t her own and why she was lying in a narrow bed that didn’t creak in the familiar way hers did at home.
She sat up carefully and pulled the blanket more tightly around herself while she tried to orientate herself.
Her injured leg protested when she stood, although not badly enough to stop her putting weight on it, and after a few cautious steps she moved towards the doorway and looked out over the rest of the clubhouse.
It looked completely different in the morning.
The sofas were filled with people who appeared to have fallen asleep wherever they happened to be when the night ended.
Some lay directly on the floor, while farther away a couple of mattresses held people wrapped around one another, naked or half dressed, arms and legs tangled together in positions that looked entirely natural to everyone except Charlie.
Empty beer cans stood in groups across the tables, a few bottles of spirits had toppled over and jackets, clothes and cuts lay scattered wherever they had apparently landed.
Nobody seemed particularly bothered by any of it.
When someone stirred beneath a blanket or sat up sleepily, there was no rush to cover themselves or pretend the night hadn’t happened. Nobody seemed ashamed and nobody reacted as though there were anything unusual about waking up half naked beside someone in the middle of the clubhouse.
For Charlie, however, it was completely foreign.
Strangely enough, it wasn’t threatening.
She stood there for a while simply taking it all in and trying to imagine what someone from her old life would say if they could see her now. Dennis’s voice appeared in her head almost immediately, dripping with the same contempt he had used so many times before.
Look what you’ve become.
Charlie pressed her lips together and pushed the thought away. Dennis wasn’t here. He had no say in where she was, and more importantly, he no longer had any right to decide who or what she was supposed to be.
“Morning.”
The voice from the bar made her turn.
Billy stood behind it, fully dressed and holding a mug of coffee, with a crooked smile that made it seem entirely normal to wake up in the middle of what looked like the aftermath of a minor war.
“You look like you need caffeine.”
“I... er... morning.”
Charlie tugged self-consciously at her shirt and suddenly felt both ridiculously overdressed and completely out of place, but Billy either didn’t notice or had the good manners not to mention it. He was already reaching for a clean mug.
“Reeze is busy. Serious faces, meeting, the whole fucking package. He’s alive, I promise.”
Only then did Charlie realise that she had been holding her breath, and she let it out slowly.
“Coffee first,” Billy continued firmly as he filled the mug. “Then breakfast. Or breakfast first. Or beer. Wine, maybe?”
He lifted a bottle towards her with a questioning look.
“In case you’re hungover.”
“I... no.”
Billy laughed.
“Good. Then you’re in the minority.”
He put the steaming black coffee in front of her and began rummaging through the fridge behind the bar for something edible. Charlie lowered herself onto one of the stools and took a careful sip. The coffee was strong enough to strip paint, but right now it was exactly what she needed.
“Don’t worry,” Billy continued while pulling out what at least looked like the makings of sandwiches. “It looks worse than it is. People sleep where they fall. Sometimes literally.”
“I noticed.”
He gave her a quick glance, curious rather than assessing, and pushed a plate towards her.
“So. You’re Charlie.”
“That’s me.”
“Reeze has been talking about you for months. Or, well...” Billy thought for a moment and then pursed his lips. “Staring. Sulking. Denying. Very entertaining.”
Charlie couldn’t help smiling.
“He doesn’t exactly strike me as shy.”
“Nah, not about anything else. But this?” Billy shrugged. “Fucking hopeless.”
He pushed the plate a little closer.
“Eat. You need it.”
“Thanks.”
Billy nodded, took another drink of his coffee and looked out over the room where bodies were still scattered across sofas, mattresses and the floor.
“Welcome to Wallhalla. It’s not tidy, but at least it’s honest.”
Charlie looked around again, and somehow everything seemed slightly different this time. It was still unfamiliar and far removed from anything she had ever been used to, but she no longer felt the same urge to make herself smaller or apologise simply for being there.
She had barely managed her second proper mouthful of coffee before she noticed the looks.
Two women stood several metres away near one of the tables where the remains of the previous night still sat.
They weren’t openly hostile, at least not at first, but there was something measuring in the way they watched Charlie, as though she were an unfamiliar object that had been left in the wrong place and they hadn’t yet decided what to do with her.
One was dark-haired and dressed in a way that made it obvious she felt entirely at home there. The other was younger and blonde, standing with her arms folded across her chest as she looked Charlie over without making the slightest attempt to hide her suspicion.
“Who the fuck is she?” Charlie heard the dark-haired woman say.
It wasn’t even really a whisper, merely quiet enough that she could later pretend the comment hadn’t been intended for Charlie to hear.
Behind the bar, Billy had suddenly become extremely interested in washing a mug that already looked perfectly clean. Charlie had the distinct impression that he knew exactly what was about to happen and had decided, for whatever reason, not to interfere.
The dark-haired woman stepped closer.
“You. Charlie, right?”
Charlie nodded cautiously.
“Yeah.”
“I’m Nathalie. Jesse’s my man.”
The way she said it sounded less like an introduction and more like a warning.
“Okay.”
Nathalie didn’t smile.
“So how exactly do you know Jesse?”
Charlie blinked.
“I don’t.”
“Mm. That’s what they all say.”
The blonde woman snorted and moved closer as well.
“She wasn’t here last night,” Nathalie continued, nodding towards her. “Amanda. Mark’s girlfriend. So I suppose we missed the... introduction.”
“I came in late,” Charlie replied, feeling her back begin to stiffen. “I’m here with—”
“Jesse?” Nathalie interrupted.
Charlie stared at her.
“No.”
“Right. Then it was somebody else. Usually is.”
At least now Charlie understood what they thought she was, and the discomfort crawling through her was slowly being joined by irritation. She didn’t know all the rules here and barely knew any of the people, but she didn’t like being categorised before either woman had even bothered to ask.
“I think there’s been a misunderstanding.”
“Has there?” Amanda let her gaze travel from Charlie’s face down over her clothes and back up again. “Because you don’t exactly look like... club.”
The comment hit harder than Charlie wanted to admit, probably because Amanda wasn’t entirely wrong. Charlie didn’t look like the women around her, and from the moment she had walked through the gates she had felt as though she had entered a world where everyone except her already knew the rules.
She opened her mouth to answer, but before she could get a word out, a warm hand settled against her back.
“There you are.”
Reeze’s voice was so close that she felt it as much as she heard it, and the relief was immediate.
Charlie barely had time to turn before he bent and kissed her.
It wasn’t a quick greeting and there was nothing apologetic about it.
Reeze kissed her as though the women standing in front of them didn’t exist and as though he didn’t give the slightest fuck who else in the room might be watching.
When he finally pulled back, he stayed close, his hand still warm against her back.
“Problem?” he asked calmly.
Charlie saw Nathalie’s expression change.
“No... I mean... I just thought—”
“Then you know now.” Reeze’s voice remained even. “Charlie’s with me.”
He didn’t need to say it loudly or aggressively. Nathalie looked at Charlie again, and this time there was no uncertainty in her expression about what she was seeing.
Behind the bar, Billy coughed theatrically.
“Coffee’s getting cold.”
Nathalie forced a stiff smile.
“Of course. Misunderstanding.”
“Very unusual,” Reeze replied without returning the smile.
When Nathalie and Amanda moved away, Charlie felt some of the tension leave her shoulders. Reeze waited until they were several steps away before looking down at her.
“You okay?”
“Yeah.” She smiled faintly. “Now I am.”
He leaned down and rested his forehead lightly against hers.
“Good. Because you belong with me.”
The words landed somewhere much deeper than Charlie had been prepared for, and for a moment she had no idea what to say.
Reeze didn’t seem to expect an answer either.
He simply took her hand and led her through the room towards the corridor, not roughly or forcefully, just with the same unmistakable sense of purpose that always made her follow before she had even thought about where they were going.
She understood when the door to his room closed behind them.
The kiss this time was hungrier, teeth and tongues meeting as Charlie pressed herself against him until there was no space left between them.
Reeze pushed her back towards the bed, stripped off her shirt and worked the rest of her clothes away with impatient hands, and within moments they were skin against skin, hot and breathless, moving against one another with a hunger that made everything outside the room disappear.
Reeze caught her wrists and pressed her hands above her head while his mouth travelled over her breasts and stomach, biting and sucking until colour began to bloom across her skin.
Charlie’s breathing broke into ragged little sounds whenever his tongue found somewhere particularly sensitive, and she twisted beneath him, pushing her hips against his body as impatience grew between them.
When he finally entered her, it was hard and deep enough to pull a cry from her.
The bed creaked loudly beneath them, springs and walls protesting with every movement, but Charlie had already stopped caring who might hear.
Their sounds filled the small room, his rough groans, her cries, skin striking skin and the mattress shifting beneath them.
Fingers dug into backs and hips, nails left red marks across skin, and Reeze moved her again and again until Charlie no longer had any real sense of where one of them ended and the other began.
When she came, the orgasm hit hard enough to tear a scream from her, her entire body tightening beneath him. Reeze followed shortly afterwards, his body shuddering over hers before he collapsed against her.
For a while they simply lay there in the narrow bed, hot, tangled and trying to catch their breath while the clubhouse outside slowly came fully awake.
Voices carried through the walls, someone laughed loudly and a motorcycle started somewhere farther away, but inside the room Reeze remained with one arm wrapped around Charlie while his hand moved slowly over her back.
“I have to go in a bit,” he said eventually.
Charlie lifted her head from his chest.
“Club stuff?”
“All day.”
The answer caused a small ache she had known was coming.
“Okay.”
Reeze looked at her for a moment before continuing.
“Mia and Rollo are here all day. They know what’s going on. And if you need anything, anything at all, you tell Tony. The prospect who brought your shopping.”
“Tony. Right.”
“He does whatever you ask. End of discussion.”
Charlie nodded, although a thousand questions were already fighting for space in her head. Questions about the club and the people outside the room, about Dennis and what exactly they intended to do about him, and about Reeze and whatever this thing between them had become.
She had barely begun deciding which question to ask first before he leaned down and kissed her again, softer this time.
“Ask Mia,” he murmured against her lips. “She knows most of it. The rest we’ll talk about later.”
He got out of bed and pulled on his jeans with complete indifference to his nakedness while Charlie lay there watching him. Once he was dressed, he bent over the bed and gave her one final kiss.
“I’ll be back.”
It wasn’t some grand declaration or dramatic promise. He said it simply, as though it were nothing more complicated than a fact, then walked out and closed the door behind him.
Charlie remained where she was for a while, staring at the ceiling while her heart gradually slowed.
She was alone in the room again.
But for the first time in a very long time, being alone didn’t feel the same as being abandoned.