“If she does, you can always come to my room. My door is always open,” she said, gliding her fingers up his arm with a sultry look to her face.
Shade walked around her, opening the door. “The only door I’ll be walking in is the one she’s behind.”
Jewell walked up to him in the doorway. “I guess the other brothers will have to pick up the slack,” she joked.
“I think Rider can handle the job himself.”
“I think so, too.”
As they laughed together, Shade noticed Lily’s eyes kept glancing over to them. He thought he might have seen a spark of jealousy, but he couldn’t be sure.
He walked across the room to her workstation where Raci was talking to her.
“Ready?” Shade asked, coming to her side and touching her arm.
Lily jerked away from his touch. “Yes.”
Lily turned to the door, ignoring him. Oh, yeah, she was jealous.
She went to the front door and he followed behind her, watching her flouncing ass as she went up the path angrily. He still couldn’t believe she was jealous. Maybe Raci had said something?
On their way to the clubhouse, Train and Kaley were standing in the middle of the walkway, blocking them from passing. He could hear Kaley’s big mouth as he walked up the path.
“Please, Train, talk to them.” Her voice was pleading against Train’s stony face.
Shade frowned. Viper was supposed to make it plain and simple that she wasn’t ever going to become a part of The Last Riders.
Lily tried to pass the arguing pair, and Kaley’s reaction at seeing her wasn’t pleasant.
“This is all your fault,” she said hatefully to Lily.
“Excuse me?” Lily asked, coming to a stop.
“Shut up, Kaley. It’s not Lily’s fault you didn’t keep your mouth shut,” Train said.
“No one would have cared if she hadn’t been nosing in, like my sister.”
“Miranda was worried about you,” Lily protested.
“Miranda was just jealous. I was getting plenty of sex and she wasn’t.”
Her harsh words had Lily taking a step back, coming into contact with Shade who had moved closer to her. When his arm slipped around her waist, Lily tried to move away, but he held her still.
“That’s not true,” Lily tried to reason with the angry woman.
“It is true. Neither one of you would know how to have sex other than lying on your back and spreading your legs. And I doubt if you would even lower yourself enough to do that, Lily.” She nodded at Shade. “He’s fucking wasted on you, but he’ll get tired of your shit, and when he does, he’ll go back to fucking anything with a cunt.”
“Lily, go on up to the house,” Shade said calmly, his arm leaving her waist.
Shade waited until Lily was out of ear shot before he turned his gaze on Kaley. “Why are you here?”
“I wanted to talk to Train. I like it here, Shade. If you want me to stay out of Lily’s way, I will. I’ll even pretend to like the stupid bitch if you want me to. I don’t have to become a member as long as you guys let me hang around. I’ll do whatever you want.” She ended with the seductive promise.
“You want me to handle this?”
Train hesitated. “I brought her in, so I’ll take care of it.”
“Do that, before I do,” Shade said grimly.
He didn’t turn around when he heard Kaley’s sharp cry. The stupid bitch had underestimated Train. He always fooled everyone into thinking he was the easy-going one, which was true, but he had a button which shouldn’t be pushed, and Kaley had pressed it a long time before. Train wouldn’t lay a finger on a woman, but he would have no problem taking out anything she cared about.
One time, a prospective member had grown too attached to Train and had given Raci a black eye after she had seen Train fuck her. When the Last Riders had thrown her out of the club, everyone had thought Train wasn’t even angry at the woman. Shade had known different and wasn’t surprised when he heard her two brothers and cousin were in the emergency room with broken ribs and lacerations. Each of them had both of their eyes blackened after he had broken their noses. They never heard from her again.
Shade opened the door to the basement to see Lily already on the mat, working out in black leggings and a T-shirt which actually fit. He was glad to see he had gauged her size correctly, although he had asked Winter to buy them for her, knowing she wouldn’t take them from him.
“I’ll be right back,” he told her as he went to get changed.
When Shade returned, she got into position. They always did a set of maneuvers, switching it up occasionally when she became bored. Shade made one of his practiced moves and Lily responded with more force than usual, almost managing to knee him in his privates.
“You’re getting better. You almost got them that time,” Shade complimented her, well aware she wanted to make him a her.
She had been trying to knock his nuts off since they had begun her defense lessons. He often wondered if it was all men in general or if it was only his nuts she wanted to hurt.
Lily gritted her teeth as she circled the mat, trying to get behind him. “You haven’t seen anything yet.”
Shade lifted his brow at her assertion, but he decided to take it easy on her. Lily’s newfound confidence was hot as Hell.
That time, when he came for her, Lily responded unexpectedly, using a move he sure as shit hadn’t shown her.
She used both of her fists to hit him between the shoulder blades after he let her wiggle away from his hold.
“What the hell?”
“I’m supposed to pretend you’re attacking me, aren’t I?” she asked snidely.
Shade’s good humor disappeared. He was going to paddle that ass, which was driving him crazy, when he managed to get ahold of her.
“Yes, but I want you to learn to stop an attacker, not piss them off.”
“As long as it works and I get away, that’s all that counts,” Lily said smugly.
“Is that so?” Shade said, placing his hands on his hips.
“Yes.” Lily kept facing him, not letting him have her back like she usually did.
“Did Kaley go home?” she asked, her eyes a turbulent, violet storm.
Shade had started moving toward her, but his momentum stopped at her words. “Yes.”
“Do a lot of women try to join?”
“Yes.” Shade was beginning to get her message of anger, giving her a wary look. He didn’t like the vindictive expression on her face.
“I bet that’s fun for the men. Don’t the women members resent the new members?”
“No. Why, are you interested?” Shade asked, making his move against her.
That time, her foot shot out, and she managed to nail him in the stomach, causing him to have to catch his breath from the force of the kick that had fucking hurt. He had always been careful not to hurt her, while the little witch staring back at him was filled with pleasure about doing what no one else had been allowed to get close to accomplishing.
Lily walked around the mat, gloating about her success. “You’re getting slow, Shade.” She bounced from foot to foot. “And, no, I’m not interested. You and the other men can have all the women in Treepoint who want to join your club. I won’t be one of them. I plan to find me a man who can appreciate one woman.”
“That’s a joke.” Shade said, deciding to make her angry enough to drop her guard.
“What do you mean by that?” Lily stopped bouncing.
“That you would ever let a man touch you. Tell me, how do you intend to catch a cowboy or any man when you have no intention of giving them anything? I bet Charles’s balls are blue around you, but I’m sure he finds one of his daddy’s waitresses to relieve him.”
“That’s not true. Charles is a gentleman.”
“He likes his cock sucked as much as any man,” Shade taunted.
“You’re disgusting!” Lily screamed at him, turning to leave the mat.
?
??What’s the matter, Lily? What really set off this little temper tantrum of yours?”
When Lily didn’t reply, Shade blocked her path, wanting the truth from her before she ran away.
“Move.”
“Make me. I’m already shocked as shit you haven’t run to your corner like a scared little girl,” he taunted, determined for her to face both of them with the truth. She was fucking jealous!
Shade almost shouted for joy. You were only jealous over something you cared about, something you didn’t want to share with anyone else. She had to care about him to be jealous, right?