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  “Nothing to talk about, huh?” Buster says with a smirk.

  “Oh, shut up,” I tell him, trying to fight back a smile and failing.

  “I like seeing a real smile on your face. I’ve missed that.” I know what he means. I’ve put on more fake smiles recently than I care to admit.

  “I have too,” I tell him. He leans over and bumps my shoulder with his.

  “Can I get y’all another drink?” Lolita asks us.

  “Yes, please,” Buster replies to her.

  “I’ll take one too!” Rivet shouts, suddenly beside me.

  “You sure know how to make an entrance.” I laugh at her. She shrugs with a smile. Lolita is getting busier. She drops our drinks off and goes to get drinks for someone else.

  “What did you do with Clutch?” Buster asks Rivet. She points over to the pool tables.

  “He found Diesel and Shade,” she replies, grabbing her drink and makes her way over to them. I shrug and go with her with Buster following. Tink and Shade are sitting at one of the pub tables. Rivet and I sit with them.

  “Wanna play teams?” Clutch asks Buster and Shade.

  “Yeah, why not,” Shade says, getting up from the table. I look around the room and don’t see Raze or Saint anywhere.

  “So, what are y’all gonna do now that you’re back?” Tink asks both Rivet and I.

  “Not work at that piece of shit diner that we worked at this week,” Rivet exclaims.

  “I honestly haven’t thought about it. I’ll probably stick close to Jager for now,” I tell them. I want to spend as much time with him as I can. I need to be there for him. Rivet gives my hand a squeeze. “But enough about that for tonight.”

  Tink starts talking about things that have happened since we’ve been gone. Telling us about the prospects and the new cut bunnies. I unintentionally tune her out and watch the guys play pool. I get in my head again, and start thinking about everything that happened Arizona. I’m so wrapped up in my thoughts I don’t even notice Raze walk up behind me.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Raze

  After Minx went inside, I started thinking maybe I fucked up. Saint sits down next to me, and then Buster comes to sit with us too.

  “We had words earlier, but I gotta make sure. Are you serious about wanting to get to know Minx?” Buster asks me. I turn around and lean my elbows on the table, facing him. “Because she doesn’t need anyone else fucking with her head.”

  “What exactly do you mean she doesn’t need anyone else fucking with her head? Who is fucking with her?” I bite out. If there’s someone fucking with Minx, they’ll have me to deal with. Saint turns so he’s straddling the bench and is looking at both of us.

  “Calm down, Raze. No one is currently fucking with her. The last guy she dated in Arizona hurt her pretty bad. I won’t go into detail, it’s not my story to tell. I’m sure she’ll tell you when she’s ready. And when she does, we’ll talk. Judging by your reaction to that, I’d say you are serious about her,” Buster says to me. The thought of someone hurting Minx, even if it was just breaking her heart, has me clenching my jaw.

  “She loves hard and fiercely, if you’re lucky enough to earn her love. She’s also the strongest woman I’ve ever met. She’ll call you out on your bullshit and she never lets anyone walk all over her no matter the circumstances.” Most of this I already learned about her just from the last 24 hours.

  “Thanks, man. I respect you sitting down and talking to me. It shows how much y’all care about her. I think it’s good for her having family outside of the club,” I tell him. I hold my hand out to him. He grabs it and shakes my hand.

  “Anytime,” he replies. “I’m going to go check on her. I’ll see you around.”

  With that, he gets up from the picnic table and heads inside to find Minx. I feel Saint staring at me.

  “You really are serious about her, aren’t you?” he asks with a grin. The past four years, I’ve never chased a chick. I’ve never cared to get to know them either. It’s always been hit it and quit it.

  “Yeah, I really am,” I tell him honestly. I start thinking about what my next move is going to be. Then it hits me.

  “I need to talk to Prez,” I say out loud. Saint looks at me confused and I just brush him off. I stand up and head inside. I can feel Saint following me. I walk inside and see Minx sitting at the bar talking to Buster. They both look over to us before Minx turns back to the bar. I think my girl is nervous. My girl. That sounds good. I walk up behind her.

  “Are you alright, Kitty?” I whisper in her ear. She nods and I give her a light kiss just below her ear. “I’ll be back for that kiss we didn’t get.”

  It kills me to walk away from her right now, but I’m on a mission. I check his office and sure enough, that’s where he is. The door is wide open, but I knock on it anyway. He looks up from his desk and waves me in.

  “Come on in, Raze. What can I do for you?” he asks. I close the door behind me to try to block some of the sounds out. I move to sit in one of the chairs in front of his desk.

  “Sir, I actually wanted to talk to you about Minx,” I say to him. He cocks an eyebrow, giving me a look as if he’s telling me to continue. “I respect you and her, both. If she’ll have me, I’d like your blessing to date her. To see where this goes. The pull I have to her is stronger than anything I’ve ever felt.” He looks at me for a minute. At first I think he’s going to tell me to go to hell. What he says surprises me.

  “Most men wouldn’t give two fucks about having my blessing to go for her. I respect you coming to me with this. You know what will happen if you were to hurt her in any way?” he asks me.

  “I can only imagine. She has a lot of non-blood brothers that would be out for my blood,” I respond and he laughs.

  “Oh, son. It’s not them you would have to worry about. She’ll kill you herself if you hurt her. But if she doesn’t, then yes. She has a lot of family here. I trust you, Raze. I give you my blessing to pursue my daughter. Don’t fuck it up,” he tells me. I smile like a fucking kid in a candy store.

  “Thank you, Prez. I won’t.” I leave his office.

  “Well, how’d it go?” Saint asks as I walk out. I smile at him.

  “Better than expected. Now to go find my girl,” I reply.

  We walk into the main room. I look at the bar and she’s no longer sitting there. I scope out the rest of the room and find her by the pool tables. From a distance, she looks like she’s into the game Buster and the guys are playing. As I get closer, I see she looks zoned out. She’s in her head thinking about something. I walk up behind her and smile at Tink and Rivet.

  “Hey, Kitty,” I say, placing a hand on her back. “How’s it going?”

  “Oh, it’s going,” she says smiling, but the smile doesn’t reach her eyes. I turn her chair so she’s facing me. I move her legs apart and stand between them. We lock eyes.

  “I came to collect,” I tell her with a smirk.

  Her eyes light up and she looks at my mouth. I brush a strand of hair behind her ear and cup her face in my hand. I lean in and brush my lips against hers softly. I rest my forehead on hers and look into her eyes.

  The light has grown to a fire in her eyes. She grabs the back of my neck and smashes her lips to mine. I weave my hand under her hair and softly pull, tilting her face up for better access. She gasps and I take the opportunity to explore her mouth with my tongue.

  Our tongues dance together and my cock throbs. I give another soft tug of her hair, and then pull away, breaking the kiss. She’s left panting, her lips swollen and still wet from the kiss. She has a smile on her face and this one definitely reaches her eyes.

  “Get a room!” Tink teases. I can’t take my eyes off Minx. That kiss sealed my fate. She’s got me wrapped around her finger, but I won’t admit that out loud. I give her a small kiss on the tip of her nose.

  “Do you want to go back outside by the fire with me?” I whisper in her ear, and then look at her face again. I need to
get her alone but I don’t want her to think I’m just trying to get into her pants. I just want her all to myself. She gives me a shy smile.

  “I have a better idea.” She grabs my hand and leads me outside. Instead of walking toward the fire pit, she’s headed toward her house. At first, I think she’s going to take us inside. She surprises me and takes me around to the back of the house, where there’s a pallet swing bed. This definitely looks like somewhere Minx would spend her time.

  “I hope you don’t mind. I thought this would be a good place for us to be alone. We won’t have to worry about being interrupted here.” She looks up at me, her eyes sparkling like the stars.

  “As long as I can have you all to myself, I’m good,” I place a kiss on her lips.

  I pick her up and place her on the swing before sitting next to her. There’s a light breeze making it a little cooler than what’s normal for a summer night in Texas. Minx shudders and I pull her into my side. She nuzzles into me and lets out a sigh. Nothing has ever felt more right than this right here.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Savannah

  When Raze asked me if I wanted to go back out to the fire pit with him, my first thought was I didn’t want us getting interrupted again. Then I remembered the pallet swing in the backyard of the house. As soon as I thought of it, I knew I wanted to bring Raze to it.

  Once we got to the swing, I started to second guess my decision. Then he told me he was good as long as he can have me all to himself. If I didn’t know any better, I would think this was all a little too good to be true. But if he fucks up, he not only has me to deal with. He has just about a whole club of brothers, plus Buster and the guys.

  There’s a bit of a breeze tonight, making it a little chilly. The wind blows just right and makes me shudder. Raze notices and pulls me to his side, keeping his arm around me. He’s so warm and smells amazing. I snuggle into him and sigh. I don’t know how long whatever this is will last. I do know I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts.

  “What’s on your mind, Kitty?” His mouth is right next to my ear.

  “Just thinking how this is a great ending to such a crazy day,” I chuckle.

  “How are you feeling after today?” He starts rubbing his calloused fingers slowly up and down my arm. Today has been such an emotional day. I have felt just about every emotion possible.

  “Exhausted. It’s been an emotionally draining day. I can only hope tomorrow won’t be as busy.” Raze grabs my hand as I’m talking. I subconsciously start rubbing his thumb with mine. As nervous as Raze makes me, he has a way of calming me without even trying. He gently rocks the swing back and forth.

  “All that we’ll need to worry about tomorrow is the BBQ. And going to see Jager, if you want,” he says, giving my hand a quick squeeze.

  Before I know it, the rocking has me falling asleep.

  The next morning, I wake up in my bed. The last thing I remember is talking with Raze on the pallet swing. He must have carried me to my bed. I look down and see that I’m still in last night's clothes. I smile thinking about how it felt laying in his arms.

  I look at my phone to see what time it is and see that I have a few unread text messages. I open my phone and shake my head, still smiling. They’re all from Tink and Rivet. Reading the texts, they were just giving me shit for running off with Raze and are demanding I talk to them today about what happened between us.

  I decide to get up, shower, and get dressed. When I’m ready, I make my way downstairs. I walk through the living room and see Raze asleep on the couch. He looks so peaceful laying there. I go into the kitchen and raid the cabinets and refrigerator for something to cook. I end up making some bacon, eggs, and of course, coffee. As I’m finishing up, Raze walks into the kitchen.

  “Good morning, sleeping beauty,” I tease him and he grins at me.

  “Morning, beautiful.” My cheeks heat up and I turn my head so he won’t see me blush. I fix us both a plate of food, while Raze makes us both a cup of coffee. We meet at the table and sit down.

  “How’d you sleep?” he asks.

  “Great. Thanks for carrying me to my bed. You could have just woke me up,” I tell him.

  “I could have, but I figured I would let you sleep. I know you needed it.” He smiles at me.

  “Well, I appreciate it. How was the couch? Was it comfy enough?” It’s my turn to question him.

  “It was much better than sleeping on the floor at Tink’s,” he laughs, making me laugh too. “Really though, it was like sleeping on a cloud. Nicer than my bed.”

  “It’s a nice couch. Be prepared to be interrogated by Tink and Rivet today. They were texting me all night but I had left my phone here,” I tell him. I take a sip of my coffee and moan. Liquid gold.

  “You really need to not do that,” Raze says, almost in a growl. I look at him with wide eyes.

  “Do what?” I ask innocently.

  “Moaning,” he starts, not making eye contact. “When you ate the pancakes yesterday, and just now when you took a sip of your coffee. I’m trying to do things the right way with you, but hearing you moan like that makes my dick hard.”

  I didn’t even realize I had done it. The coffee just tasted that good— as did the pancakes. Though, hearing him talk like that has me crossing my legs, trying to dull the ache between them.

  “What do you mean you want to do things the right way with me?” I question.

  “I mean, I want to get to know you. I want to take things slow, even if you make it hard as fuck.” I giggle at that and he smiles before continuing. “I don’t want this to be some one-and-done thing. We may have just met, but I feel something for you. And even though it scares the hell out of me, I want to see where this goes.” He pauses and looks at me, holding my stare. “I want you to be my girl.”

  I gasp. “Are you being for real right now?”

  He nods. “Yeah, I even talked to Prez last night. I wanted to have his blessing before moving forward.”

  I laugh and he looks at me confused. Oh my god, he’s serious. Growing up, the guys at school avoided me because of who my dad and brothers are. I would have to date guys from two towns over and even then, it was hit or miss if they knew my family. I would start lying about my name just so guys wouldn’t run off. They always found out though— until I moved to Arizona. That’s a whole other story though.

  “What made you ask my Pops for his blessing?” I ask him.

  “Well, he’s your Pops and my Prez, and I respect him a hell of a lot. Also, because I have a lot of respect for you too and I wanted you to believe that I’m serious about this.” He motions between us. “I’m not the relationship kind of guy, but you make me want to be.”

  I get up from my seat and move to sit on his lap. I wrap my arms around his neck at the same time he wraps his arms around my waist.

  “No one has ever been that serious about me before. Not even the ex I was with for over a year.” Raze growls at the mention of my ex. I place a kiss on his lips. I feel his erection against my ass and hold back a moan.

  “You know,” I say, lightly running a finger up and down his neck. He closes his eyes as I do, like he’s trying to hold back. “We don’t have to go too slow.”

  I kiss the soft spot on his neck just under his ear and his grip around me tightens for a brief moment.

  “But right now, I have to go to the clubhouse and see what we need for the BBQ.” I jump off his lap and he groans.

  “Oh, Kitty. I’ll make you pay for that little stunt. Just you wait.” He has a fire in his eyes burning brighter than I’ve ever seen.

  “Is that a promise?” I tease some more. He grabs my hand, pulling me back to his lap.

  “You have no idea.” His lips crash to mine. My lips tingle at the intensity. His kiss alone lets me know how hungry he is for me. I’ve never been turned on so much from just a kiss. He slows the kiss before stopping and placing a kiss on the tip of my nose.

  We clean up breakfast and go over to the clubhouse. As
soon as we walk in, Candy— the head cut bunny, comes waltzing up to Raze.

  “Raze, baby, did you miss me last night?” she draws out. I make a noise I’ve never heard myself make, but it sounds like a growl. I walk away into the kitchen. I hear Raze mumble something to Candy as the door closes.

  “Where the hell have you been?” Rivet asks. Her face is lit up with a smile, knowing I was off with Raze for the rest of the night.

  I grin at her. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

  She sticks her tongue out at me, and then looks behind me to the kitchen door opening. I already know it’s Raze following me in here.

  “Kitty,” Raze stops when he sees Rivet. “Hey, Rivet.”

  She waves to him then goes to check the inventory of the fridge. She busies herself and tries to play it off like she’s ignoring us. I know better. Rivet is always listening.

  “Kitty, can we talk?” Raze has a trace of humor in his eyes.

  “Nope.” I pop the p with some attitude. I’m not talking to him about Candy, or the fact that I growled at her. I move to the counter to get a pad of paper and pen out of the drawer. “I gotta make a grocery list for the prospects.”

  He looks to Rivet, and then looks to me. “I’m going to shower and change. We’ll talk when you’re done.”

  He winks at me and walks out of the kitchen. As soon as the door shuts, Rivet is by my side.

  “Girl, spill.” I roll my eyes at her.

  “We haven’t done anything but talk and kiss,” I tell her. She gives me a knowing look and I cave. I tell her about taking Raze to the pallet swing to talk. About falling asleep cuddled up to him on the swing. Then I finally tell her about our conversation over breakfast and running into Candy.

  “I’ve never liked that bitch,” Rivet says. She’s a year older than us and was always such a bitch to us in school. All the guys fell for her sweet and innocent act— which is how she got the name Candy and ended up a cut bunny.