Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 75003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
“Cherry-limeade. Obviously,” I said, holding out a hand until he dropped the wrapped pop in my palm.
“You passed the test.”
“Without even studying,” I agreed, taking a bite of the ice pop and enjoying the way the cold immediately soothed my sore throat. “So, what now?”
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“What you want.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you’re safe now. If you want, you can go back to your place. Alone. Or with me.” Even just the thought of that made my stomach clench. “Or you can come back to the clubhouse with me.”
“Is that even a question?” I asked. “But I do need to feed the fish before we go. And get some things.”
“Think you’re gonna need to set up a tank at the clubhouse for those fish,” he said, wrapping an arm casually around me as we walked through the lobby of Teddy’s building before making our way out onto the street.
“Or I need to move closer,” I said, letting myself lean into him as we walked.
We could work on that,” Levee said, turning to press a kiss to the side of my head.
And something about the way he said it made me hope he was thinking the same thing I was.
Which was something like forever.
And a white picket fence.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Levee - 1 Day
“Shut it off,” Jade grumbled, her voice muffled by my shirt, since she’d been sleeping on my chest.
“It’s Mackie,” I told her, running my fingers through her hair, the silken strands slipping between in a strangely comforting way.
“The bird?” she asked, still not fully awake.
“Some mornings, he likes to greet the sun. Through his megaphone of a mouth.”
“Beak,” she said, pushing up to smile down at me.
I couldn’t stop my gaze from sliding to her throat. Seeing the bruises there—darker than when we’d gone to bed the night before—made the simple joy of waking up with her get replaced with something darker.
Suddenly, I wished I hadn’t stopped pounding on that bastard, that Cato and Seeley hadn’t been able to convince me to leave him with breath still in his lungs.
“Right,” I agreed, beating back the dark mood because she’d been through enough. “Beak. There’s probably something going on in the kitchen that’s freaking him out.”
“Like what?” Jade rolled off onto her back, then stretched long and slow as a cat, making her tee slide up, exposing her pink panties and a sliver of her stomach, making my cock go from half to full mast.
“The usual culprits are the broom, vacuum, or mop.”
“So, he has something against cleanliness.”
“He does devote a lot of his time to throwing shit all over the floor…”
Jade sat up, turning over her shoulder to smile at me, the sunlight on her face making her already ridiculous pretty face look devastatingly gorgeous.
“I’m gonna go see,” she said, giving my thigh a squeeze before scooting off the bed, then leaning down to grab her shorts and shimmying them up her thighs. “I could use another ice pop.”
“I’m coming,” I said, taking a few deep breaths to remind my body that now wasn’t the time for fucking, and that we’d make up for lost time when she was feeling better.
We were halfway down the steps when we found the source of Mackie’s rage.
The blender.
“Hey, honey,” Eddie greeted Jade the second her foot stepped into the doorway of the kitchen. “Got you something special this morning.”
“You didn’t have to make anything specifically for me,” Jade insisted.
“‘Course I did. When one of our hunnies is hurt, we take care of ‘em,” Eddie insisted. “Got my official taste tester over here,” he said, gesturing toward one of the club members’ babies sitting in a high chair with several globs of what seemed like pureed fruit on the tray before him. He was happily slapping the yellow pile with enough gusto to send some of it flying into his hair.
“That’s how I feel about mango too,” Coast said, coming into the kitchen, shirtless, his jeans still unzipped. And I swear there was a fucking hickey on his lower stomach. Or maybe it was just a kiss in red lipstick. I wasn’t exactly looking long enough to tell.
“I’m making frozen fruit bowls,” Eddie said, puffing up like he always did when talking about new food projects. “We have mango bowls, blueberry, blackberry, strawberry, and, of course, the O.G… açai.”
“You are a god among men, Eddie,” Jade said, her voice getting raspier the more she spoke.
“Sit. Sample. Ease that sore throat,” he said, grabbing several bowls out of the fridge and bringing them over to the table.
Jade was no sooner sat with her bowls and reaching for her spoon before Mackie was climbing down his cage and patting across the table toward her food.
“If you gotta share, give him the açai,” Kylo said as he came into the kitchen from the backyard with an empty plate after, it seemed, going to feed the tortoise.