Page 95 of Stag

“You doing okay?”

I nodded, cradling the cold glass in my fingers as I marvelled at how different my life was. I thought I was happy before, even if I felt a little penned in by an overbearing sister, but this was happiness. Sharing a room, and a bed, with the man of my dreams, being surrounded by caring family, who proved that blood was irrelevant when it came to who you could rely on or trust. My life felt fuller than it ever had, like I’d waited this whole time to find him.

“Is it weird that I’ve never been happier?” I watched his face morph from concerned to practically beaming with pure joy.

“Really?”

I nodded, hiding behind the glass for a few more sips of rapidly warming water. Stag pumped his fist then laughed, got up off the bed and did a silly little dance, somewhere between a rain dance, and a jig, before he joined me again. He was laughing at himself, but that joy seemed to be intensifying. He suddenly sobered and glanced towards the door.

“Sorry,” I read as he spoke to someone other than me.

“I think Henley’s rethinking his kind offer,” he said with another laugh.

“The dance was adorable though. Maybe if he saw it for himself… Let me get my phone and we’ll vid-” He silenced me with his lips, heating me up in an instant with his hot lips, his talented tongue, and the way he was holding me to him, with one hand threaded through my hair at the nape of my neck. Yes, this. This is why I’m so happy. This man.

So why the sudden icy cold shock that pulled us apart with another little scream from me? The glass of water, the one that’d still been half full, and as it turned out, was still cold enough to shock the hell out of me.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Iswear Henley went and begged the Pres for us to move in asap, because the next afternoon we received a call to say my room was ready. That left me to sit and stress about whether she’d go with me. After all was said and done, this move was more permanent than our current situation, so did that mean the rules would change? Temporary cohabitation was one thing, but if we moved into my room at the clubhouse together, that was a more permanent one. Would it even be enough for her? She deserved luxury like this, not a one bed flat in a biker clubhouse.

“Our room’s ready,” I said to Henley as he joined me in his living room, dropping onto the other sofa with his drink. Claudia was working in his office, since he’d offered for her to use it, and Glory was in her art studio, so it was just us.

“Yeah? That’s cool.”

Shifty fucker. I could see it in his eyes. This was his doing, but who could blame him for wanting us out? We were a real pain in his ass last night.

“Sorry again about last night. Bet that’s why you wanted us out so fast.”

Henley shrugged a shoulder. “It’s about damn time the place was ready. Did you all just sit on your asses while I was gone?”

“I’m just saying, thanks for everything, but I know we drove you mad last night, so I get it.”

“Brother, you’re not hearing me. Yes, you were a fucking nightmare last night, but it’s okay. I get it. I’ve been known to be rowdy at nights too-”

“Ugh, stop talking-”

“- and we knew the clubhouse was going to be ready soon. Probably sooner if I’d been here, but whatever.”

I grinned at him, because this wasn’t going anywhere, but at the same time, I felt like we’d connected in a way we hadn’t really in the past. I’d tried, but I wind people up, and he’d tried, but I thought he was a pretentious twat, so it’d never really gone well.

“You guys didn’t fuck on my kitchen counters, right?”

Huh? Record scratch moment. Did he really just ask that? And wow, how did we not fuck anywhere other than the bed?

“The… what?”

He smirked. “Just need to know if I’m stripping the counters out and redoing the kitchen.”

“Well, we did it in the sink, on top of that fancy coffee machine, and oh… in the dishwasher.”

He tossed a cushion at my head.

“Dickhead. You’re kidding about the sink, right? How the fuck would that even work?”

I leaned back in my seat, feeling like a fucking man for once, because I was having sex banter with one of my brothers, and I actually knew what I was talking about now. I wasn’t just bullshitting. I had real experience. Not that I’d tell him stuff about Claudia, but this banter felt right now.

“Brother, if you don’t know, I can’t teach you that. I will say it’s all about the angles.”