Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 142728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
A deep, sexy groan rumbles against my back. One of Dex’s heavy hands clamps over my hip, stopping my movement. “I don’t think you want to do that right now.”
Is he kidding? “Why? As I remember, we fit together really well this way.”
“Shhh.” Dex’s warm breath tickles over my neck and shoulder. “I think I heard your sister up and about.”
Shit! How could I completely forget? “What? Really?”
“I meant to leave but ended up plastered to you all night.” He trails his lips against my neck and teases my earlobe between his teeth.
As if on cue, Libby taps on my door. “I’m leaving for school, Em!” she shouts. “Since Dex’s bike is still in the driveway, I assume he’s in there with you. Morning, Dex!”
Dex rumbles with laughter, shaking the whole bed. “Morning, kid!”
“Oh, Jesus,” I gasp. Louder I shout, “Have a good day, pudding!”
She mutters something I can’t make out and stomps down the stairs.
“God, what am I doing?” I cover my face with my hands and slide under the sheet.
“What’s wrong?” Dex asks, peeling the sheet back and prying one of my hands away from my face.
“Nothing. I just don’t have guys sleep over. My sister’s still a teenager. I want to set a good example. Not—”
“Hey.” He pries my other hand off my face and cups my chin. “I’m not ‘guys.’ I’m not some rando one-night stand you brought home from a bar.” Hurt twists his voice into a low rasp.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that you were. I trust you around her.”
“Whoa.” He pulls back, staring at me with a curious frown on his handsome face. “What does that mean?”
“She’s a teenage girl. I don’t just let any man around her.” It’s way too early to have to think this hard. “The last ‘boyfriend’ I actually dated was inappropriate around her.”
“Inappropriate how?” he asks in a deadly tone.
“I can’t quite explain.” I press my hand against my stomach. “It was a feeling in my gut. He’d ask her about boys, and if she had a boyfriend. Tell her how pretty she was. He’d go out of his way to hug or touch her. She was like eleven.” I grind my teeth together as the old anger bubbles up again. “The last red flag was this fucking see-through shirt and miniskirt he bought her as a ‘back-to-school’ outfit.”
“What the fuck?”
I’m so ashamed I let someone like that near my sister, I can’t look him in the eye. “Libby, thankfully, thought it was ugly, so she gave it to me.”
“And then what?”
I lift my gaze. “I kicked him to the curb.”
“He go willingly?”
“More or less.”
His jaw ticks. “Where is he now?”
I cock my head. He’s seriously considering hunting down a guy I broke up with years ago, isn’t he? “I don’t know. Last I heard, he moved to Denver.”
“Still not far enough way.”
“I haven’t heard from him since.” I shrug. “I told him I’d call one of my dad’s old cop buddies if I ever saw him again.”
It had been a lie. None of them had reached out to me in years by that point.
Dex stares at me. “Forgot your dad was a cop. I can’t believe none of them tried to help you after he died.”
I glance away. That’s not a topic I want to go near.
He snorts. “If we have a brother who dies, the club takes care of their family. We don’t leave them to fend for themselves. But everyone calls us the criminals.” He shakes his head in disgust.
The angry urge to defend my dad’s friends comes on hot. But as fast as it bubbles up, it ebbs away. After the funeral and goodbyes, no one had cared about what happened to Libby and me. No one but our aunt.
“Even if they did something bad?” I ask. “You still take care of the family?”
“Bad, how? Against the club?”
“Uh, yeah. I guess.”
His gaze shifts to the side as if he’s searching for the right answer. “Yes,” he finally says. “Depending on the circumstances and how close the family was to the MC, we still take care of them.”
“That’s loyalty beyond the grave.”
“When I say the club is my family and I call someone ‘brother,’ I’m not just throwing those words around.”
It’s starting to sink in. If I’m going to be with Dex, that means I better start learning more about his club.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Emily
After work, I’m finally able to visit Serena in the hospital. Actually, I duck out a few minutes early so I can skip the rush hour traffic around Empire Med. I suppose I could’ve waited until Serena gets discharged, which I thought she would’ve been by now, but she seemed to really want me to visit when I spoke to her this afternoon.
Even though I already threw her a baby shower months ago, and I have more stuff for her at my house, I hate the thought of showing up empty-handed. I duck into the drugstore next to the hospital and search the shelves for something useful she might have forgotten to bring.