He took a step closer to her. Sex Piston warily stood her ground as he moved closer, feeling his arms close around her. “I appreciate the help with the girls, but my aunt has been doing it for years and she is missing them. She lives with me and I haven’t moved her here because I had every intention of you being in my bed at night. So Fat Louise can start her job Monday without you worrying about the girls. The club will pitch in and pay for Crazy Bitch’s beauty school. Me and the brothers already handled T.A.’s ex. You were right by the way; he’s a mean motherfucker. I’ve got Popcorn watching him now.
“Caring about me won’t make you weak, Sex Piston. You’ve been fighting against the world for so long that you haven’t seen that the war’s over. Your bullies are gone, and there’s not a person whose ass you can’t kick.”
“I don’t need your help.”
“I know you don’t need anyone, Sex Piston, but I do want you to need me in your life. I need you because I need your sexy body in my bed, your sassy mouth giving me hell and the way you look at me when you think no one is looking.”
Sex Piston saw a flash of vulnerability cross his face before he smoothed out his expression. Taking a step back from her, he let her have her space back.
“I’ll think about it,” Sex Piston said stubbornly.
“You do that.” His lips twitched in amusement.
Sex Piston smoothed her leather skirt down over her hips then smoothed down her tumbled hair before adjusting her breasts in the halter-top. When she was finished, she went to the door. Her hand was on the doorknob when Stud stopped her again.
“Sex Piston?”
“What?!” She turned back around.
“Come here.”
She started to ignore him, but for some inexplicable reason she found herself going back to him. He pulled her toward him when she was within reach, giving her a sweet kiss that tugged at her heartstrings. He then released her with a pat on the ass.
“Now you can go.”
She turned on her heel, leaving him in the bedroom, not even slamming the door behind her at his arrogant attitude. The kiss had been that good. He deserved a reward.
To soothe her bitchy side, she told herself that next time, she’d make him eat his nuts if he got mushy with her again.
Chapter Thirteen
“How much longer you going to be?” Fat Louise complained.
“Give me five minutes,” Sex Piston snapped at her friend, giving a final touch to the hairstyle she had been working on for the last twenty minutes.
“All done, Susan,” she said, removing the black cape draped across the woman.
“Thanks, Sex Piston. See you next month.”
“I’ll mark you in. Thanks, Susan,” she said with a smile, placing the cape in a basket to be washed.
“Bye.” Susan waved at the women sitting around the shop, who were waiting for Sex Piston to get off.
“Finally, I thought you’d never get finished,” T.A. said, slapping the magazine down on the table.
Crazy Bitch, Killyama, T.A. and Fat Louise were all waiting for her to finish so they could take Fat Louise out for dinner to celebrate her first week at work.
“It’s not like Popeye’s is going to close anytime soon,” Sex Piston said, getting the broom out of the closet and going to sweep up the hair on the floor left behind after Susan’s cut.
“I’m starving. I haven’t eaten since lunch.”
“You’ve been snacking on chips and soda; there is no way you are hungry,” Crazy Bitch remarked, rolling her eyes at Fat Louise.
The door opening drew Sex Piston’s attention away from her arguing friends. She was surprised when Lily walked in the door.
“Your appointment isn’t until tomorrow,” was all she could think to say.
Lily grinned at her. “I know. I was nearby, visiting a home with the social worker I was shadowing for my internship. Traffic is at a standstill to Treepoint, so I’m caught in town until it clears. Beth suggested I hang out here with you guys until the road is clear, if that’s okay with you guys?”
“That’s cool,” Sex Piston said softly. With Lily, for some inexplicable reason, she and her crew always toned down their natural abrasiveness.
“We heard the sirens.” Crazy Bitch closed the cash register, placing the night’s deposit in Sex Piston’s purse. “I wondered why there wasn’t much traffic outside.”
“There is a big fire at a house. They’re having trouble getting it out. The radio said that several fire departments from three different counties are there. Police are redirecting traffic to the interstate, but there is no way to go around any of the other counties,” Lily explained.
“I wonder whose place could have caught on fire that needed that many fire trucks,” Killyama said, taking out her cell phone.