Page 16 of Tico

“Pyper, go with Reese and Daemon and get what you need,” Ember tells her. Even though she doesn’t take her eyes off me, she catches Pyper’s silent, questioning look and the corner of her lips twitch. “You can get two books.”

Pyper squeals, hugging Ember before running off to the other side of the store, Reese and Daemon trailing after her.

“Ember,” I start and she cocks an eyebrow at me as she crosses her arms over her chest.

“Tico,” she replies with a hard edge to her voice.

She doesn’t back down back down from me. Her shoulders are squared, her chin lifted, and a part of me enjoys the fact that she’s going toe-to-toe with me. Despite that, the urge to demand that she listen to me rises again, but I force the urge down. Somewhat. There are things she needs to consent to if we’re going to protect her.

“Don’t run off like that again. We don’t know if the Chrome Vipers know you’ve come here because of Daemon. We can’t protect you if we don’t know where you are.”

She visibly bristles and narrows her eyes at me. “I’ve been controlled my entire life, Tico. I willnotbe controlled again. I will not be a doormat nor will I be steamrolled into something. I didn’t escape one cage just to be thrust into another.”

“I’m not trying to control you, Vicious, I’m trying to protect you, but I can’t do that if you run off.”

“Then maybe you should have talked with me instead of assuming you knew what we needed or wanted. Instead of assuming that you knew what was best for us.”

I clench my jaw, not believing I’m about to say these next words. Thank fuckmis hermanos(my brothers) are notwithin hearing distance because I don’t want them hearing this. “I know and I’m sorry. I’ll try not to let it happen again, but there will be times when I tell you to do something and I expect you to listen. Especially in regards to protecting you and Pyper or when we’re around the club.”

She blinks in surprise up at me and her shoulders relax slightly. Her mouth parts in shock and my traitorous body responds to her. My mind supplies images of her sucking my cock and it takes a huge amount of effort to derail those thoughts. At least for now.

Her lips twitch again andchingar(fuck)…I think I know what’s coming.

“Did the big, bad, biker President just apologize?”

I grunt as I wrap my arm around her shoulders pulling her into my side, and as I do, I get a whiff of her perfume. Something floral which has me even harder than I was before.

“Don’t get used to it, Vicious.”

She laughs and fuck does the husky sound go straight through me, making my dick twitch again in my jeans. She leans into me for a moment, andchingar(fuck)…the feel of her body against mind just feels right.

I follow her through the store as Ember picks out things they’ll need, trying to get the most bang for her buck. My fingers twitch, wanting to tell her to get whatever she wants, but from what Daemon said, she probably won’t accept my help. Not yet anyway.

As she shops, her gaze keeps going to Pyper who is still looking through the books. She has multiple stacks sitting on the floor surrounding her and more than once, I catch the pain in Ember’s eyes and the heartbroken look on Pyper’s face as she tries to choose two books out of what she’s picked out.

“We had to leave almost all of her books behind,” Ember says, her voice strained and when I look down at her, I find herstricken face once again watching Pyper. “She loves reading. It was her way of escaping the shitshow that was our life.

Maybe there is something I can help with. “Let me help with this.”

She looks up at me, her eyes shiny and fuck does it almost bring me to my knees.

“Por favor(Please).”

She blinks rapidly to keep the tears from falling. A moment later she gives me a jerky nod before turning away and discretely wiping her eyes, which I don’t comment on.

Walking towards Pyper, I catch the list of prices for the books on the side of the bookcase. For paperbacks, the most expensive is three dollars and for hardback, it’s five.

I crouch beside Pyper and when she looks up at me, she tries to hide the indecision in her eyes, but she still clutches two thick books to her chest.

“These two,” she whispers but longing is written all over her face as she looks at the stacks of books around her.

I look at the colored stickers on the spines of the books she’s stacked up, mentally adding them up. Then I look up at the shelves, noting similar series and titles that she might like as well. Reaching into my cut, I pull out my wallet and hand her two hundred dollars.

Pyper shakes her head, leaning away from me as her eyes flick over to her sister in worry. “I can’t,” she whispers.

I find myself smiling in response. A real fucking smile. Daemon looks at me in shock which then turns to approval as he dips his head in thanks. I know with the way he was watching Pyper sort through everything that he was planning to come back and get the books she has stacked around her.

“I talked to your sister, and she said I could do this for you. Consider it a welcome home present. Use it to get the books youwant. Then, we’ll make sure you have enough bookcases to hold them all.”