“You can make it up to me later. You want a drink?”
“What are you having?”
“A green demon.”
“I’ll just take a beer.”
Reaching into the cooler, Jewell pulled out a beer as Nickel took one of the stools on the other side of the bar. “Is Rider the only one back?”
“For now. The others should be back any minute. Rider said everyone else stopped at the gas station to refill their tanks. How did you beat everyone else back?”
“I was bored. I didn’t know you were on duty.”
Nickel wasn’t buying her excuse. “It wasn’t because you were exhausted after last night?”
“You know me better than that.” Jewell pursed her lips in a discontented moue. “Rory was just an appetizer.” Sashaying around the bar, she sidled up to Nickel’s side. “I need a full course menu to wear me out.”
Nickel turned on his stool to pull her between his parted legs. “Who’s on the menu tonight … besides me?” he asked, nuzzling her neck.
“Let’s see … I thought I would start off with you, then when Moon wakes—”
Jewell stiffened under Nickel’s lips when she heard the door open. The Last Riders trailed in, taking off their coats then heading over to the bar. Ember went behind the bar to start handing out drinks.
“You missed it, Nickel.” Ember recounted what happened as she handed out drinks to The Last Riders who started congregating around the bar.
“So, Rory talking Stud into selling his motorbike the reason Rider’s looking so peeved?” Nickel asked.
Ember shook her head, laughing. “No, he’s miffed because Jewell didn’t back him up, so Stud didn’t take his offer, because she basically said that Rory was better in bed than him.”
“That’s not exactly true,” Train added more salt to Rider’s wounded pride. “Jewell only said that when she asked if Shade was going to make an offer.” Train took the bottle of beer from Ember.
“What’s up with that, Shade?” Train joked. “You didn’t want to share your knowledge with Stud and Sex Piston?”
“My skills would be dangerous in the wrong hands.”
Jewell’s lips twitched at Shade teasing Rider.
Not to be outdone, Nickel couldn’t resist bragging. “Rory’s lucky I wasn’t there.”
Jewell snapped her fingers “Ahh … I forgot about Lucky. But”—she teasingly ran her hand down the length of Nickel’s thigh as she stared seductively into his eyes—“you would have been my choice if you were there.” Not bothering to see if Rory was there, Jewell arched her neck back when Nickel started exploring it.
“No.”
Jewell lifted shocked eyes to find Rory standing behind Nickel.
Surprised, Nickel raised his head at Rory’s icy directive.
“What did you say?” Nickel got out before she could.
“I wasn’t talking to you. I was talking to Jewell.” Rory slid his hand behind Jewell’s neck. Expecting his touch to be angry or harsh, she was stunned into staying still at his massaging touch.
A muscle ticked in Nickel’s jaw. “You don’t have the right to say no to either one of us.”
Rory didn’t back down. “Jewell, is it going to take Nickel and me getting into a fight to prove your point?”
Nickel would make a stepping stone out of Rory. As angry as she was, though, she didn’t want him incapacitated, either.
Slowly, Jewell removed her hand from Nickel’s thigh, raising her hands in the air. “Happy now?” she asked Rory sarcastically.
“Yes. Ember, may I have a beer?”
Jewell didn’t miss the speculative gaze Ember gave Rory as she handed him the beer.
Viper would field questions the rest of the night if the other women would be allowed the same benefit of fucking Rory as she had been given.
Disgruntled, Jewell took a sip of her drink to conceal her expression. Then, shrugging his hand off her neck, Jewell slid off the stool. “Going to find something to eat.”
“I brought you a hamburger and fries.” Rory raised a brown restaurant bag that she recognized. Her pride left at the aroma.
Carrying the bag into the kitchen, she sat at the table as Winter and Lily came up from the basement, carrying cleaning supplies. Jewell started taking out her bounty as they put away the supplies.
When they finished, they sat at the table. Jewell got up to move to the cabinet to get three plates. Divvying up the food into equal portions, she slid the plates to the other women.
“I was supposed to make dinner,” Winter disclosed as she opened a packet of ketchup. “But since Viper decided to put me on punishment detail today, he must have figured out his chance of us cooking dinner was nil.”
“They ate in town,” Jewell confirmed, glad that Winter and Viper had their own home. Viper was a friend, but she had grown close to Winter over the years and didn’t like it when they argued.
“Who brought the food?”
Jewell almost didn’t answer, knowing she was placing another nail in Viper’s coffin. “Rory brought it.”