“We had sex and you enjoyed it.”
“You did everything I said.”
“You didn’t compel me.”
“No, but I find myself thinking about it all the time. Sooner or later it’s going to be an issue. I won’t be able to stop myself. I don’t want that to happen without your full consent.”
“If you betrayed me, Absinthe, I would kill you.”
“I would expect nothing less, Scarlet, because if you betrayed me or this club, I would do the same.”
“I don’t want to be humiliated. Ever.”
“That would never happen. I have nothing but respect for you. I will always give you the option to say no to me. Or if we agree ahead of time to make it better for me, then the option will be for you to shake your head and I’ll bring you out to talk it over. We can come up with something that will work for us both.”
“I can agree on that.”
“You say yes to me, Scarlet, you’re agreeing to staying with me. It’s a permanent yes. We don’t walk away. We agree to work things out. If things get bad, we go to Czar and Blythe. If they don’t help and we can’t find a book that helps, we talk to a fuckin’ marriage counselor. I’m not going to lose you because I don’t know anything about relationships.”
“Why are you assuming you’re the one that’s going to fuck it up?”
“I barely remember having parents. We raised ourselves. Czar was our moral compass and I’m not positive he was that good. Now I’m counting on you.”
Scarlet burst out laughing. “I don’t know that I’m going to be that good of a positive effect on you. I’ve got to go back to the house and get the rest of my things.”
He smiled at her. Maybe it was a smirk. “Don’t worry about that, babe. The club did it for you to save you the trouble. You might want to give the library the song and dance about how you’ve been called away unexpectedly and very permanently.”
“I have to give a proper notice or I’ll never get another library job, and I love working in the library.”
“We’ll make it right when this blows over,” he promised. “Let me give you a real tour of the house and then we’ll go grocery shopping, out to dinner and come home.” He liked saying the word home. “You okay with that?”
“Very okay with it.”ELEVENScarlet found herself trying not to look for trouble in Caspar at the grocery store. Women gawked at Absinthe. It wasn’t his fault. He was unbelievably good-looking. In spite of several times risking looking up at him from behind her dark glasses in an effort to catch him looking at the other women, he never seemed to look back at them when they stared at him. He held her hand and seemed completely focused on her.
“We’re trying to find a decent manager so none of us have to do the job,” Absinthe said.
She blinked at him, trying to catch up with what he was saying. “I’m sorry. I was trying to decide on whether or not to be bad and get pastries.”
“Pastries aren’t bad. They’re a staple, but we don’t get them here,” he corrected. “We get them from Alena. She’s a goddess when it comes to pastries. We’ll get them tonight at the restaurant. We own the grocery store. Right now, Inez Nelson is running it for us, but she owns the one in Sea Haven. We’re looking for a manager. We thought one of us could manage it, but we’re not the actual work-on-a-schedule type of people. You have to be nice to customers and employees, it turns out.”
Scarlet burst out laughing. “Imagine that. As opposed to taking out a gun and shooting them when you’re annoyed?”
“Much too subtle. And closing down the store when we want to ride.” He brought her hand to his chest. “We found Inez frowned on that as well. Who would have thought? She had all kinds of rules. For such a little woman she can really throw all kinds of attitude.”
They had come up to the counter and Scarlet got her first good look at the “little” woman Absinthe was talking about. She was older and fragile looking, very small and thin.
Inez put both hands on her hips and glared at the biker, not in the least intimidated. “I heard that.”
Absinthe leaned over the counter and brushed a kiss on Inez’s paper-thin cheek. “You do have more rules than hell does, woman. I can’t even remember them all. This is Scarlet, moya literaturnaya ledi. I am going to marry her very soon. She’s amazing, beautiful and brilliant. Scarlet, Inez Nelson, our guardian angel. Inez helps us out as best she can when we’re trying to figure out how to get through all the business labyrinths.”