Page 71 of Whiskey Shivers

“Not very sporting like of me, but that sumbitch had it coming,” Cornelius muttered as he put a hand to my back to follow the rest of my boys out the courtroom.

Out in the hall, hands were shaken and out of the corner of my eye I saw Corliss raise her chin and rise off the bench in the hall. She was insistent on bein’ here, but I’d asked her to wait outside. She looked apprehensive and Cornelius, eagle-eyed as he was asked me, “That your lady?”

I nodded, and he cocked his head.

“Ain’t she that teacher?”

“Shut it,” I growled warningly as she approached.

“Well?” she asked nervously.

“Dismissed, all charges dropped,” Cornelius bragged before I could say anything.

Her shoulders sagged with relief and her arms went around me. I put an arm around her shoulders and she leaned into me.

“For as much as we pay you, you need to keep it that way,” La Croix said, wandering up with Alina on his arm from where they’d been sitting with my girl.

“Oh, ye of little faith, my friends. Oh, ye of little faith…” Cornelius chuckled and shaking his head wandered up the hall no doubt to work on something for somebody else.

“He seems nice,” Corliss said without a hint of irony.

“He’s alright,” Saint said begrudgingly, already working his tie loose.

I couldn’t wait to get out of my monkey suit myself but it was almost worth wearin’ the damn thing just to see my girl’s reaction. Mostly that she couldn’t keep her hands off of me.

I’d made a joke about cleanin’ up nice when I needed to, and the heat in her gaze had made my slacks tight in the crotch region. Made me want to clean up just for the hell of it, see what she could do with herself, and take her out for a night on the town.

It was definitely something I was looking forward to, but first… first I wanted to do this Christmas charity thing she’d turned some of the boys onto.

I didn’t exactly know the particulars. She’d put her head together with Chainsaw and Alina back when she’d stayed out in the swamp and they’d come up with something about clearing the lunch debt for the kids at our school. It’d caught like wildfire with a lot of our boys having some experience growing up food insecure themselves and it’d damn near been unanimously voted on to make it our thing this year and maybe every year if we did well enough.

Bennie was in charge of the books and he’d said things were lookin’ good. I’d been a little preoccupied with makin’ sure that we were gonna get off the hook with these bullshit charges and more ‘n that? We were explorin’ to see if we had grounds for a suit somewhere in there against the NOPD I didn’t have high hopes of that goin’ anywhere, though. Still, it’d be nice. We had an active suit going, just about anything they tried to do for the next minute while that was gettin’ resolved would look like retaliation.

There was still a lot in the air, but that was alright. With the holidays right around the corner, Christmas a comin’, things were slowing down some to let us all breathe and take a minute to focus on a thing or two at a time instead of everything all at once.

“Let’s get the fuck outta here and out of these damn clothes?” Axe asked and La Croix nodded.

“Meet up at the club in,” he checked his watch, “two, two-and-a-half hours.”

“You got it,” I said with a nod and I was a little jazzed. That was enough time to get home, and either get naked with my woman or to take her on what was bound to be the second greatest ride of her life – I’d still had yet to get her on the back of my bike and Goddamndid I want to.

The weather out there was cool, crisp, and maybe not the best for a ride – but it was also sunny and dry, and she’d do alright as long as she had some gloves on and the like.

We chatted for a few with the boys as we made our way out of the courthouse and finally broke off to make our way over to my truck. I tucked her up safe and sound in the passenger seat and made my way around to the driver’s side.

“So, what now?” she asked and I smiled.

“Now we go home, get a change of clothes, and I take you for a ride.”

A small smile curled her lips, and she raised an eyebrow, asking mischievously, “Oh? Whatkindof ride?”

“You’re a woman after my own heart,” I said with a laugh, pressing the button and starting up the truck.

Her laugh was high, clear, and bright as I pulled us out of the spot I’d backed into and headed for home.

It was everything in me to keep my hands off of her, to keep things from going further which was hard as hell with the way she kissed me and undressed me. She had this way about her – the way she looked at me, no matter how many times she saw me strip or she was the one doing the stripping she unwrapped me like a present and looked at me with this rawness this gratitude, likeshewas the one that ought to be grateful.

Wasn’t that some bullshit?

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