Page 82 of Iron Hearts

Striker…

My girl was cagey, and didn’t like to ask for help. It was one of her more endearing, yet frustrating qualities about her – her fierce independence. I kept trying to tell her that,yes,I understood that shecoulddo it all by herself – but that didn’t mean Iwantedher to. That I was here, and Iwantedto help.

She just wasn’t great at cooperating with me on that front – which also suited me just fine because it led to some awesome and sexy funishments. No, you didn’t read that wrong. I mean, sure, I could punish her but why punish someone for a quality that you actually appreciated? No, I introduced my kitten to the wordfunishment– which was a consequence of her not asking for help, sure – but it also wasn’t too unpleasant for her to be considered a truepunishment.

Example: she didn’t call me when her kitchen sink backed up and she needed to take it apart underneath. She should have. She wasted the better part of two whole days on the problem – battling with do-it-yourself online tutorial videos and going back and forth to the hardware store for parts, getting the wrong things and not being able to return ‘em, and a whole host of other headaches. All of which she could have avoided if I’d known the fucking problem… butnope.

I asked why her granddad hadn’t helped her out, and she’d laughed and said he was some kind of retired NASA guy and wasn’t very handy.

Could he math out a bunch of physics shit to the nth degree and bring an astronaut home out of space? Yeah, in his head, almost as fast as a calculator, but put a wrench in his hand? He would ask which end to use – so no dice, there.

So, to teach her the benefit of having me around, I taught her a lesson in just what I could do with my hands and I didn’t get tired.

I made her orgasm until she complained the next day about feeling like she’d had the worst fuckin’ ab workout in the known world rather than a series of never-ending orgasms that had rocked her shit.

So, when my phone rang in the middle of the day and her smiling face flashed across my screen, I was glad I’d just dropped the handset to my desk phone back in its cradle and that I could take her call.

On picking up, I didn’t even get so much as a ‘hello’ before one of her brother’s screaming and crying came through the line. My smile dropped right off my face and I demanded,“What’s wrong?” before she could even draw breath to speak.

“Aden got his little butt busted and is beingwaymore dramatic than things call for,” she said and I heard her blow wisps of her blonde hair out of her face on the other end of the line.

“Oh yeah? What’d he do?” I asked, leaning back in my chair.

“Flushing things down the toilet that don’t belong in the toilet – and now it’s stuck, Mom’s freaking the fuck out because we can’t afford a plumber, the boys’ bathroom isn’t working, Pops and Mimi are out of town, and it’s not like they’d be much help anyway and I’m officially over here waving the white flag. I need help. Please tell me your offer on emergency plumbing work is still good after the last fiasco?”

I was trying not to laugh, because of course it would be the boys doing and yeah – no, my girl definitely didn’t need to be dealing with icky toilets.

“I’ve got you,” I said. “I can head over in about a half an hour as soon as the shop closes down. Just let me run home and get my truck and throw some tools in the back.”

“Might not need them,” she said. “My dad’s got a garage full of everything you could possibly need for a house. He was the handy guy and could fix just about anything around here and did. I just wished I’d paid more attention.”

“Oh, hey now – don’t beat yourself up, Princess. You’ve got me for all of that now. You know I’m just a phone call away.”

“I know,” she said, but sounded both slightly nervous and I figured that was what was up.

Her mom.

She wasn’t ready for me to really come out into the light as her boyfriend. She was worried about what her mom would think, but honestly – from the little I’d seen of her mom, she seemed like a smart woman if’n a little overprotective. Which I got that.

“No time like the present to rip that Band-Aid off,” I said softly.

“Say what now?” she asked.

“Me meeting your mom as more than just your biker friend…” I said gently.

“Oh, God – you don’t think I’mashamedof you or something stupid like that, do you?” she sounded aghast.

I chuckled, and said, “No, I know you aren’t baby. Cautious; worried about how your mom is going to feel about it, I get it – believe me… I know how awkward shit can get. I’m down for whatever you need me to be.”

She sighed and it was a defeated sound.

“Right now, I need you to be my knight in shining armor on his iron horse and come slay this toilet dragon,” she said and she sounded tired.

I had to laugh.

“Toilet dragon?” I asked.

“That’s what we think he flushed, a plastic toy dragon figurine, among other things.”

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