I peered at him, thought about how I’d never done drugs, not even smoked a joint, never had sex in public, stolen a lighter from the gas station or kissed a stranger. I thought about how I’d left William so that I could finally live, let the darker me finally breathe, and I’d barely done that.
I took the cigarette and put it to my lips, drawing in a tiny puff. Zeus watched me, his lips already curled before I started coughing like my lungs were on fire. He chuckled deeply as he thumped me on the back with a meaty paw.
“Not for everyone,” he admitted.
“You,” I said between fits of hacking, “knew I would hate it.”
“Woman, there isn’t much I don’t know and most I learned, I learned from tryin’. Purest way to live life.”
“Why don’t you stick to the biker marauding and I’ll do the teaching,” I advised drily, tossing the cigarette to the ground to stomp on it with my bright pink flip flop.
When I was done, I stared up at Zeus with a sassily tipped chin.
He burst out laughing; throwing his head back the way King did, exposing his thick, beautifully corded throat. I was shocked into silence by the magnificence of the man and of the privilege I knew it was to see him laugh.
“Hey, old man,” King shouted from the side of the house. “Just ‘cause I’m mad at her doesn’t mean you can hit on my woman. Find someone uglier who’s willin’ to put up with your horrible mug!”
“For Pete’s sake, I am not your woman,” I yelled back, hands immediately fisting on my hips.
Zeus stared at me, humor forgotten. “Boy’s got it bad for you, teach. He’s made no fuckin’ bones about it. He wants you. In his mind, it’s a done deal. Raised ‘em spoiled but you can’t blame me. My ex-wife is a crazy cunt, so I mighta overcompensated, but he’s a good kid, a good son and brother, and one day he’ll be a good man for The Fallen. He’d make a damn good partner too, all that love and loyalty wound up in him just waitin’ to unspool and attach itself to the right people.”
“I see where King gets his poetic talent from,” I said quietly, because I wished I didn’t have to say it. “But I’m his teacher. No matter how we met, it doesn’t negate the fact that being with him would not only be unethical it would be socially unacceptable.”
“Never grew up carin’ about what people thought of me so can’t speak from experience when I say, who the fuck cares?”
“Ugh, the school board, maybe? I need this job,” I reminded him. “Not everyone can run a marijuana empire.”
Zeus’s eyes flashed. “Like your sense of humor, teach, but that ain’t something you should joke about, ya hear me?”
“Yeah,” I swallowed back my instantaneous fear. “I hear you.”
He nodded curtly, uncrossed his arms to rise fully to his impressive height and faced me. “Point is, I don’t give a fuck if you wanna be with my son. Far as I’m concerned, you’re both consenting adults and you seem like a decent broad, a little skinny for my tastes but hey, if my son likes it,” he shrugged, humor dancing in his eyes as I drew up to snap at him. “Easy, teach, I get you. Life’s tough when you care what people think. You got a job, friends who might judge you. Just sayin’ you can always get another job, new friends. The bitches at the MC aren’t bad women. You’d like ‘em. Decide you want to do this, I’ll get Maja, Buck’s woman, to give you a call. She runs the MC bitches.”
“This is the weirdest conversation I’ve ever had,” I admitted. “And, just to say, calling women bitches in 2017 is totally misogynistic.”
He shrugged one huge shoulder. “Like I said, don’t really care ‘bout those kinds of things. She’s a fuckin’ peach, changed Buck’s shit luck for the better. I think the world of her, so what difference does it make?” He watched me absorb his compelling but bizarre biker philosophy and nodded. “And, just to say, you’ll probably have more of ‘em, you stick with my son. The kid’s a piece of work.”
“Thank you, by the way,” I said quickly, sensing he was about done with me. “For yesterday. William is being surprisingly tenacious.”
His eyes swept over me. “Not so surprising.”
“That’s nice but really, he didn’t care much about me when I lived with him so I don’t really get why he cares now.”
“Men don’t like losin’ what’s theirs, especially if it’s a pretty little teacher with sass but a serious thirst to please. He’s pride hurt and a man like Willie-boy can’t stand that. I’m workin’ on something so he gets the fuckin’ picture but for now, he thinks you’re with me and, he’s a lawyer and a smart man, he’ll back off.”