Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 77236 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77236 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
“What are you looking for?” I asked after we ate, when I walked into the bedroom to find her tearing all her bags apart that she hadn’t already unpacked.
“My contacts case,” she said, letting out a grumble as she got to the bottom of another bag without locating it.
“Why do you need that?” I asked. “I like you in glasses.”
“No one likes glasses,” she insisted, clearly in a bit of a downward spiral about it.
“I do.”
“You don’t have to—“
“Thought we covered the whole I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it thing,” I cut her off, watching as her shoulders fell.
“I know I’m being crazy,” she admitted, sucking in a deep breath, then letting it out slowly. “I think I’m just putting a lifetime of pressure on this,” she said.
“Baby, there’s nothing to be nervous about. This isn’t a high school party full of dickheads who think they make themselves look better by tearing down the girls around them. We’re all grown-ass men.”
“Yeah, but sometimes it’s the girls who are even worse than the guys,” she admitted.
And, yeah, she’d mentioned the girls she’d gone to school with. And the nasty shit they’d said to her over the years.
Apparently, a young Siana had been all straight up and down, not a single curve to speak of all through high school. With glasses and braces. As well as, she admitted, a terrible sense of style.
“That’s not these girls,” I assured her. “The club girls are only interested in the single bikers. The wives and girlfriends of the other bikers are all good people. I can vouch for them. Not a bully in the group.”
“It’s not that I don’t trust you,” she said, but she was reaching for one of her glasses cleaner wipes, then her glasses themselves. “It’s just… old traumas, I guess,” she admitted, cleaning her lenses. “I’m sure you’re right and they’re all…” she trailed off, her gaze lifting to mine. “Hey… did you… forget to mention that your sister is going to be there?” she asked, brow raised.
Caught, I tried to play it off. “I assumed you would, you know, assume she was there.”
“You little liar,” she accused, narrowing her eyes at me as she took a playful swat at me. “I guess it was good I didn’t know until now,” she went on. “Okay,” she said, sighing. “I’m as ready as I’m gonna get.”
So we were off.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Siana
It was so incredibly loud.
I mean, I probably should have guessed that. But knowing it and hearing it were two completely different things.
The music was thumping from several interior and exterior speakers, the bass rattling your bones anywhere you walked.
It wasn’t just the music, though.
It was the people.
Raised conversations to be heard over the music, laughter, screams as women were thrown into the pool.
The club members themselves and their women made up, I don’t know, fifteen or so of the bodies around. But then there were several friends of the club. The ‘club women’ who, online, I found were usually called ‘clubwhores,’ made up another ten or so people.
As the party really got going, though, several more men dressed in leather cuts showed up. But the emblem was different than the ones the Henchmen wore.
“Who’re they?” I asked, nodding toward the men.
Alaric’s brows drew together. “Don’t know for sure. Best guess, they’re the Coral Springs Knights.”
“Coral Springs Knights?” I asked.
“Another club in the general area. Newer. But they do different work than we do, so our clubs are trying to be friendly. Mind if I go say hi?” he asked.
To his credit, he hadn’t left my side, save for to go grab me a drink.
“Yeah, go ahead. I’m okay,” I assured him, forcing a smile.
I couldn’t use him as a crutch.
Wasn’t the point of a party to, I don’t know, socialize by yourself?
“I’ll be right back,” he said, pressing a kiss to my temple, then making his way toward the newcomers who were talking to the guy who’d approached us in the range. Velle.
“I really like you with him,” a female voice said, making me jump a bit before I turned to find Saskia standing there.
I’d met her when we’d first arrived, as she’d decided to come for dinner.
And, yeah, she’d been nice. Laid-back. None of that ‘you better be nice to my baby brother’ stuff that I’d been worried about.
“He’s… lighter,” she went on. “And not in the way that has had all of us worried sick about him for over a year or two.”
To that, my brows scrunched.
“Worried about him?” I asked.
“He’d been… getting a little obsessive about food and working out. Got really skinny there for a while. He’s put some of that back on. Which, as his sister, has relieved a lot of stress.”
“Obsessive?” I asked, frowning. “I don’t think he’s been to the gym since… since I’ve been staying with him, at least.”