Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 117379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
“Yup,” I said. “Picnic and Burke hammered it out. I don’t know what you told your dad, but he helped push it through. Good news for all of us. Means we can get back to riding and living instead of fighting with each other. You see a Jack, you don’t need to be scared of him.”
“Yeah, that is good news.”
Silence fell between us, and Em scooted a little closer to pass me the joint. Slowly I relaxed, considering Em’s little demonstration of force. I still felt the occasional twinge of pain, but the more I thought about it, the funnier the situation was.
“You fucking kicked me in the balls,” I said, looking up at the sky.
“Yup. Enjoyed it, too.”
“Maybe you don’t realize this, but usually people try pretty hard not to piss me off. Bad things happen when I get pissed off.”
“Bad things happen when I get pissed off, too. You might want to remember that.”
I snorted, a reluctant smile crossing my face. We sat in silence for a while longer, the evening air just cool enough that I wished I had a blanket. Or Em’s warm body up against mine. After a while I scooted down, lying back in the grass and looking up at the stars. For once I wasn’t totally preoccupied with sex around her, which was kind of nice.
“It’s really pretty out here,” I said finally. “You’re lucky you grew up in a place like this.”
I heard her moving, and then she was lying in the grass next to me. Not too close—we weren’t touching. But close enough I could smell that unique, flowery scent that seemed to follow her everywhere.
“Where did you grow up?” she asked.
“Hell,” I said shortly.
Silence fell again.
“I miss you, Em.”
She didn’t answer. I yawned as something dark flew over us, followed by a second shadow.
“What are those?” I asked.
“Bats.”
“No shit?”
She laughed.
“Yeah, I’m lying to you about the bats, Liam.”
Christ, I loved hearing my name from her lips. Without thinking, I reached out and caught her, pulling her over and into me. She stiffened.
“Relax,” I whispered. “You’re safe.”
She pulled away for an instant, then sighed and nestled her head against my shoulder, slowly relaxing. Just holding her in the darkness kicked ass.
“You know, you were wrong about something,” she said after a while.
“What’s that?”
“I’d make a shitty old lady.”
“How do you figure?” I asked, genuinely curious.
“Well, among other things, I have a habit of warning my club’s enemies so they can get away before they’re killed,” she said slowly. “You won’t tell anyone about that, will you? Dad would never forgive me.”
“Of course not,” I said, my voice firm. “You saved my fuckin’ life. I wouldn’t do that to you. Hell, I don’t want to do anything to hurt you. Should’ve stayed away tonight, but I wanted you to know it was all over.”
Bullshit. I wanted to see her. Touch her. Smell her hair.
“It’s hard to know what you’d do,” Em said. “You taught me an important lesson—you can’t trust guys you meet online, remember?”
I winced.
“Yeah, about that … I’m sorry. It was a dick move.”
“But you were cool with romancing me and using me to manipulate my father in the first place?”
“Well, to be fair I did it to get laid, too. Wasn’t all business.”
She gave a little snort. Not an angry snort, more of a snuffly, surprised laugh that caught her off guard.
“Are you going to erase those pictures?” she asked, finally, her voice sobering. “I don’t want them out there. You owe me—I saved your ass, I saved Skid, and I saved this precious truce of yours.”
She made a good point. But there was no way I’d erase those pictures. Fuckin’ crown jewels in my spank bank.
“I’ll get rid of them,” I lied. Shit, if that was the worst one I told today, it’d be a damned record.
“How do I know you’re telling the truth? For all I know, you’ve emailed them to your whole club already.”
“Naw, if I’d done that, it would’ve made the rounds of your club, too,” I told her. “No way my brothers would be able to resist sending them to your dad. I’ll take care of it. You never have to worry about seeing them again, okay?”
“Okay,” she agreed, her voice drifting. She was falling asleep, I realized. I held perfectly still. After a few minutes I heard a very soft, very feminine little snore.
Note to self: Pot knocks Em on her ass.
I smirked, and then it faded because not like I’d have a chance to use that information. Pretty sure I wouldn’t be seeing her again after tonight. Hell, best-case scenario, the peace would hold and I’d see her across a campfire in a few years at some kind of gathering between the clubs. She’d have an old man by then … I’d just have to deal.