Page 26 of Cutter's Hope

Hope pushed off of my chest and sat up, I popped open a cabinet door and pulled down one of my tees for her and she arched a brow before taking it.

“Neon orange is so my color,” she remarked sardonically.

“Beggars can’t be choosers, Baby,” I teased, “Your clothes are out there with them.”

She rolled her eyes and pulled it over her head and I really liked her in my shirt. I slid to the end of the bed and stood up.

“Aw Christ, man! Put on some fucking clothes,” Pyro griped.

“My boat my rules, no one said you had to look,” I pulled on my pair of shorts from the night before and asked, “What time is it?”

“Just after eleven, you got somewhere you have to be?”

“After a fashion,” I went up my short, narrow hall, making a pit stop in my water closet before hitting the living room. Hope was leaning against the wood paneling by the water closet door when I came out, a slightly amused look on her face before she ducked in to use it herself. Pyro’s sour expression made me chuckle.

“Didn’t expect her to hand you your ass last night did you?” I asked.

“Nope,” he said plaintively.

“Going to be any bad blood, man?” I asked.

“Nope, she got me fair and square and hasn’t said a word about it, I’m good so long as she doesn’t make fun.”

“Afraid she’s going to bruise your ego more than your melon?” Marlin asked from the couch, booted foot propped next to my open but dark laptop.

“Boots off my table,” I said interrupting whatever Pyro was going to smart back. Hope appeared in the mouth of my narrow hall, long legs crossed at the ankle as she leaned, arms crossed, against the wall. Her face was impassive but I had her number now, she was waiting to see how things were going to play out.

“Leave it to you, Dude,” Pyro said, flopping down on the other end of the couch and looking Hope over appreciatively. She inclined her head in his direction but remained neutral. Nice to know she could take a dude checking her out as a compliment; but I still wanted to slap my buddy upside the head for doing it. That was my woman, and no, I didn’t even question the possessive jealousy swirling in my veins. Nor was I going to be a brutish cave-douche about it either. Hope told me to fuck off? Off is the general direction in which I would fuck. Still, the way her deep dark eyes swept over me spoke of two things, one, she wasn’t done with me yet and two, she was uncertain. Both could be addressed later.

Right now, Marlin was speaking to Hope, “You know we don’t take kindly to anybody pointing guns in one of our brother’s faces, we take even less kindly to you pointing one in the Captain’s face,” he said coolly, but the edge of hostility in his blue eyes was pretty fucking unmistakable. I wanted to step in front of Hope, protect her, but I locked that instinct right in its box. My girl could handle her own.

“Sorry about that,” she said but her tone said she was anything but. She was giving Marlin a solid calculating once over. Marlin was doing the same to her. I had to admit she looked good wearing just my shirt, with the wild freshly fucked look going on that I’d put on her. She had a pretty solid bruise at the corner of her mouth, blossoming in sickly brown and purple along her delicate jaw from where I’d clipped her the night before. I grimaced inwardly, I didn’t like that one bit but it couldn’t be avoided.

“Uh huh,” Marlin’s eyes traveled from Hope to me, “Only you can have a woman pointing a gun in your face one minute and screaming your name the next,” he said and it almost sounded like he was complaining. I grinned at my second in command.

“That’s just great,” Hope griped and her posture was markedly stiffer than it had been the moment before.

“Sorry, Sweetheart, you pointed a gun in our Captain’s face, the man don’t go nowhere without some kind of shadow otherwise what kind of club would we be?” Marlin arched his eyebrows but Hope kept him fixed with that neutral look of hers.

“Man, she don’t know shit else about how a club operates,” Pyro said with surprise.

“What was your first clue?” she asked.

“That dumb assed expression you got on your face,” Pyro growled back.

“Uh huh,” Hope raised one eyebrow and pushed off from the wall, she wandered over to my recliner and dropped into it, slouching, her gorgeous long legs stretched out in front of her but artfully splayed, knees together, none the less. I wanted to put Pyro’s eyes back in his skull backwards for the lingering look he gave them.

“Out,” I ordered my men, both of them looked up at me sharply.

“Captain?” Marlin queried.

“Seriously, Hope and I got some business with the SHMC up north, fill you boys in after, go back to The Plank.”

“Whoa, ain’t happening, Cap. We’ll be up on deck but fuck that! We aren’t leaving you alone with an unknown quantity.” Pyro shot Hope a dirty look. Hope stuck her tongue out at him.

“Yer an unknown quantity,” she said like a petulant child and Marlin and I both cracked a smile and slight laugh. It was cute as hell. Pyro even smiled, caught off guard.

“Look chick, no offense but you got some moves, and you used them against us,” Pyro said.

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