Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 103637 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103637 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
“But I won’t do anything. He’s straight and just being an ass, saying I’m prettier than his ex and all that.” Okay, so he was bragging a bit, but it had been a tough two weeks.
“Of course he’s saying that if he wants to get into your pants. Jesus. Just think for once, Arden, please.” She exhaled. “Look, I gotta go dancing now. If you absolutely cannot wait to see a stylist, ask Rain to take you. Pay her or something.”
Arden got to his feet and walked along the dusty road. “I fucked up my life haven’t I?”
He could hear shuffling as she gathered her things in the apartment they shared in Reno, which now felt so endlessly far away. “You made it difficult. I told you Luke was bad news. But no, you had to think with your dick,” she said in frustration.
“He seemed nice…” Arden kicked an invisible rock.
“No, he didn’t. He seemed hot and dangerous. He proved to be exactly what was on the box, so please learn from this. I really gotta go, but if you need to call me about anything important, I’ll always answer. Bye!”
Arden managed to say half a goodbye before he got cut off, but his mood was plummeting fast. Luke had seemed like Arden’s dream come true three years ago. Older, sexy, he’d showered Arden with gifts and excitement. But Kaley was right in saying that he’d never been perfect. Luke lots of demands, and was jealous even when they had relationship breaks, but to Arden that used to be a sign of masculine confidence and added to Luke’s appeal.
Too bad Luke had proved himself to be a complete and utter cunt. Arden should have just run away from danger, gone into a public place and called the police, but in the heat of the moment, panicking for his life, he’d hit Luke over the head with a lamp. Now he was stuck in exile, hoping cops didn’t find out about his crime once the body was discovered.
He hated Luke so much.
Arden walked past the gym owned by Mother Heller and was nearing the MC compound when Rain appeared like a godsend, walking alongside her pretty Italian wife, who pushed a double stroller with the twins.
She was the opposite of Arden. Where he tried to emulate an angelic softness, Rain was the coolest of biker chicks, just as tough as her brothers, even if smaller, and he trusted her to protect him if she said she would. Whatever had transpired with Kaley years ago, the two of them were still friends, and Rain had been Arden’s ticket into biker protective custody.
The money he’d stolen from Luke after smashing his head in had surely helped motivate her whole club too.
“Hey, Rain!” He jogged up to them with his best smile but lowered his voice when he noticed the twin girls had dozed off. “I was hoping you’d have a few hours free this evening?”
Mona, who’d been away when Arden had first come to live at the clubhouse, was as pretty as he’d been told. Small, with luscious breasts and a pretty face, she instantly drew attention, even in the presence of someone as attractive as her spouse.
Rain frowned and combed back her short hair, standing with her arm around Mona’s shoulders. “What’s going on?”
“I was hoping you could take me to this one mall in Reno? I’m dying to get my hair done…”
Rain shook her head. “Sorry. Got my wife back after two weeks, I’m staying home. But if it really can’t wait, go ask the guys. They know to not give you any shit.”
“Ask Leo,” Mona added. “He’s the nicest and lives with his husband near Reno, so he’ll be going back there anyway.”
Arden thanked them for their suggestions and walked on, but his shoulders sagged. He’d seen Leo around, and had found out about the guy’s bisexuality on his first day here, but had felt too intimidated by Leo’s stony exterior to approach him.
There was that weird atmosphere where they were both aware of each other but never spoke even when occupying the same space. Arden got the sense that Leo didn’t want to fraternize with him, as if that could somehow affect the way others saw him as a gay man. Ridiculous macho posturing.
But desperate times called for desperate measures, so Arden passed the two buildings that made up the clubhouse and headed for the garage where Leo was hard at work. He was used to being the freak show, but in a town as small and boring as this one, nobody seems to have gotten used to his presence yet. The gawking was making him uncomfortable at this point, especially that the vast majority of people who hung around the club never attempted to speak to him, so he focused on the concrete slabs making up the surface of the yard.