Page 19 of Pirate

Sophia: It’ll be a YOU problem when I stop giving you access to my body.

Pirate: Nice try, wench. You like what I do to your body too much to deny me access.

Sophia: Fuck you! You’re on notice, Pirate. Stop leaving bite marks all over me!

Pirate: What time are you back tonight?

Pirate knew from overhearing Jasmine and Jumper talking earlier that Jazz was taking Sophia, Amanda, and Zoe out for cocktails tonight.

It was several minutes before Sophia answered, during which Pirate and Keys both took additional shots.

Sophia: Around 11:30.

Pirate: I’ll text you when I’m on my way.

He looked up from pocketing his phone to see Keys staring at him. “What?”

“I don’t get it,” the younger man repeated. “You claim you don’t see her that way, but you were clearly just texting her from the goofy smile you had on your face. I just don’t get it.”

Pirate wasn’t sure how to explain it either. Sophia was a paradox wrapped in an enigma. She turned him on like no other woman ever had and yet she pissed him off like no other person on the entire planet could. Helovedhaving sex with her and the fact that they could both explore their kinkier sides with each other, yet he had no desire to do the lovey-dovey crap that he saw all of his married club brothers doing with their ol’ ladies.

He certainly didn’t see Sophia as his ol’ lady.

“We can fuck without any strings,” he pointed out to Keys.

Keys shook his head, pushing his new glasses back up the bridge of his nose. The kid had not been happy when Steel had practically ordered him to the eye doctor and he’d come back with glasses. The guys razzed him constantly—all good-naturedly of course—calling him Four Eyes and threatening to change his road name. That had gone on for several days until Scotty had proclaimed loudly that Keys and he were now twins because they both had glasses. After that, no one had dared to say anything derogatory about Keys’s glasses, not wanting to upset Scotty. Pirate had a sneaking suspicion that Keys had put Scotty up to it to get the others to stop picking on him but had no proof. Besides, even if he did, there was no harm from it. Scotty liked that he was now as smart as his “Uncle Keys”.

“I don’t think I could do it. Have sex with the same girl and not develop feelings for her.”

Pirate leaned on his pool cue. “What do you mean? You had sex with the Honeys all the time.”

Back when the club had Honeys, that is. They’d just surpassed their sixth month of no longer having that position. Yelizaveta was the club’s new housekeeper—and wasonlya housekeeper. Frankie had originally been hired as a housekeeper but had taken over caring for the club kids as a nanny. The club’s new prospects, Viktor and Darrin, were also responsible for pitching in whenever Yelizaveta or Frankie needed something. Mitch, the club’s third prospect, was about to be patched over.

“That’s different.” Keys’s cheeks flamed red.

“It is and it isn’t,” Pirate pointed out without drawing attention to Keys’s obvious embarrassment. “I’m certainly not sharing Sophia with any of our brothers.”

Keys added some chalk to the tip of his pool cue. Pirate had a feeling it was more to buy time than actually needing more chalk. “It’s also different because you’re not sleeping with anyone else either.”

Pirate’s eyebrows drew down. “What makes you say that?”

Keys looked up at him and then back down at the table. Sometimes it was hard to remember that Keys was so much younger than the rest of them because he was so much smarter. The kid knew absolutely everything about computers, but he was only twenty-three. Pirate knew that Keys had been Navy Intelligence, but didn’t know why he’d left or how long he’d served. Since he was already a club member by the time Pirate prospected, Pirate knew Keys couldn’t have put in the minimum four years of a military contract.

But it also wasn’t his place to ask. If Keys wanted to tell his history, then he would. Until then, it was his life and he had a right to his privacy.

One thing Pirate did know about Keys with absolute certainty, though, was that the man got very flustered around women. It was probably a good thing that the club had the Honeys for a time. It had been speculated around the club that Keys had been a virgin prior to his patch-in party.

“Those girls came over to ask if the dart boards were free and you barely looked at them.” Keys bent over the pool table, took his shot, and sank his last stripe ball. All he needed to do was to sink the eight-ball and he’d win the game.

It wasn’t that surprising. Many of the brothers refused to play with Keys because he was able to do that geometry math that helped him see all the angles he needed to win. Pirate liked playing pool, win or lose, so he was one of the few who would still play with Keys. He just no longer put money on any of their games.

Pirate glanced over at the bar where the two women Keys had been referring to were now sitting. Ranger was leaning against the bar from the serving side with a wide, flirtatious smile on his face. The two women were cute. Mid-twenties with short skirts and loose sweaters on, despite the cold March night.

There was no doubting what those two were here looking for.

“Ranger’s got them,” Pirate said without malice.

“Yes, but you could have if you wanted to. They were clearly flirting with you when they came over and you practically ignored them.”

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