Three
Skye
We wound up downstairs and in the pub, eating and drinking. Everyone had followed us down, and within hours, the place was crowded with bikers, women, and “hangarounds.”
There was a lot of laughter, a lot of friendly banter. Roy sat nearby, chugging his drink, smiling proudly at Hunter as he loosened right up next to me. Kyle had left the surveillance room to sit with us. He had a pretty girl named Kara in his lap who had stolen his patch and was wearing it over her waitress outfit like she owned it, and he didn’t seem to mind.
Every few minutes it felt like I was being introduced to a new face.
Names like Lance (a young curly haired prospect), and Jesse (a long time tatted member who had left the head chapter to be here, and he was absolutelygorgeous).
They didn’t question me or prod me for conversation. Rather, they listened intently to everything I did say. I felt studied from every direction, but it strangely didn’t make me uncomfortable.
These were the everyday people. Yeah, they were part of a club, too, but hearing them talk and joke and poke fun made it easy for me to relax.
This was nothing like Leo’s world of people. There was no oozing judgment; money wasn’t what made the world turn here. I didn’t feel less than.
Within a few hours, I was laughing until my ribs ached, feeling like, okay, yeah, I judged them, and I shouldn’t have. Hunter wasn’t reserved, either. He talked about his training in the garage, told me funny stories about shitty clients and the equally shitty jobs the guys made him do at the start.
“They made me polish the tools one time,” he said. “Told me to use vinegar, said it took the grease right out of the metal. Also told me I wasn’t welcome unless they were polished to perfection.”
“He actually did it,” Jesse said, running his pierced tongue along his bottom lip. “Fucking Sav brought the tools to us, and within minutes they were black again. Boy looked like we snatched a cookie right out of his hands.”
“His eyes welled up,” Kyle laughed.
“They didn’t,” Hunter retorted.
“I swear to God, I saw them—”
“Must have been the cold—”
“It was summer.”
I fondly watched Hunter as they tore him to shreds, laughing at every cringe-filled moment of his. I smiled softly, squeezing his hand to me as he argued otherwise, his gorgeous face loaded with happiness. He would not meet my eye the entire time they discussed him. He spun his beer bottle in one hand, shaking his head slightly, his lips bunching up to one side.
I leaned my body against his side, dropping my voice down to a whisper. “Are you shy, Hunt?”
He turned his head to look at me. “Just a little.”
“Don’t be.”
“Fuckers talk about me like I’m soft—”
“You got a soft side,” Jesse cut in, laughing. “It’s there.”
Hunter didn’t take his eyes off me now. “They don’t wanna talk about my other sides.”
“We’re trying to get her to like you,” Kyle joked. “You don’t win a girl over by talking about all the faces you’ve crushed—”
“Hey,” Jesse scolded, voice solemn now. “Let’s not fuck the mood up, alright?”
Hunter’s face had dropped a fraction, and I turned to look at Kyle who was staring right at me, amused and curious of my reaction. I didn’t give him one. This guy was an instigator, the type to try and wind a person up. I’d come across many in my life. I simply ignored his attention and kissed Hunter’s stubbled cheek. “I love every side of you.”
His eyes flashed bright, and then his arms came around me, pulling me over him so that I was in his lap. “This is how you sit from now on,” he told me, voice laced with possessiveness. “In my lap, in my arms—this is where you belong. You understand?”
I nodded, feeling his warmth all around me.
And for a brief moment, everyone paused to stare—to smile.