Page 12 of Blade

With only the moonlight shining in through the windows, I see the silhouette of her pretty face. “Night, baby.”

“Blade, thanks for dinner. And everything,” she whispers.

“You’re welcome,” I return quietly.

She shimmies closer in her bag until we’re nose to nose. “This is the longest date I’ve ever been on.” She giggles.

“Is it over?” I challenge, seeing that I haven’t actually left.

“Not until you kiss me good night,” she answers shyly.

With that, I touch my lips to hers and kiss her softly, sweetly. Her mouth is soft and pliant under my own, until I end our kiss.

“Night, Blade,” she murmurs, resting her head back on her pillow.

Seven

Taking Care of You

Emryn

For the first time in two weeks, I get a restful night’s sleep. Blade being here made all the difference. I’ve met my neighbors on both sides, and they’re very nice people. On my left is an older couple, Len and Margot Mercer. Len was a long-distance truck driver, and Margot worked at the local day care until they both decided to retire and spend most of their time tending to their garden. They have a magnificent yard, complete with gazebo. Margot has invited me over a couple of times for tea, and when she says tea, she means tea. Her parents came from Britain, and all her life, they had teatime at four in the afternoon. Margot has kept up the tradition, and her children are following suit.

To my right is a professional couple in their midthirties who work a couple of towns over. Both are lawyers who have opened their own practice and are rarely home, but when they are, they wave and say hello.

As lovely as both couples are, it’s still a little scary to move to a new town and sit in a house all alone. Blade went out of his way to make me comfortable, yet when I woke up, he wasn’t beside me. I rub the sleep out of my eyes and hear noises coming from the kitchen. My watch says 6:30. Blade said he had to get up early. I grab my robe off the hook in the bathroom and shuffle out to the kitchen, where Blade is busy at work making breakfast.

He looks so hot. His jeans are hanging low on his hips, and his shirt is unbuttoned, displaying his chiseled body. He sees me immediately, his smile beaming at me from across the room.

“Hey, baby. How’d you sleep?” he asks, his voice sounding smooth and sexy. My heart skips a beat, and I stumble over my words.

“Good. Great. Um, really fine.” I shut my mouth and slap a hand on my forehead. I couldn’t sound dorkier if I tried. Blade chuckles, then crooks his finger at me.

“Come here, Emmy,” he says. It seems that my legs have made the decision before my head has time to think. I’m putting my compliance down to a lack of caffeine and lingering in my sleepy haze. As soon as I’m close, he slides his arm around my waist, pulling me flush to his body. I tilt my head back, and Blade kisses me. Not soft and sweet, but just as amazing. His lips cover mine in a swift, hard kiss, then his lips brush over my cheek to my ear. “You’re fucking gorgeous. Emryn. So beautiful that I wish I could stay with you all day. Unfortunately, I have to work.” He sighs, pulling back and pointing to the scrambled eggs he has in the frying pan. “I’ll serve these up. Do you want to grab the toast?”

“Okay.” I move away from him and fill the toaster, my lips tingling from his kiss. Blade called me gorgeous. It’s not that I haven’t been called pretty before, even cute, but gorgeous, never.

Blade dishes up the eggs, and I place the generously buttered toast next to them. “I’m sorry I didn’t get up to help. This is wonderful. I tend to stick with simple meals when I’m just cooking for myself. Eggs, grilled cheese, that sort of thing,” I say.

“I’m not a gourmet. My mother told me that I have to learn to cook basic foods like bacon and eggs and pasta for my own good. She was right. I moved out on my own, and eating out gets expensive for one, and for another, I got tired of it. At the compound, we take turns making meals. Saint makes a mean chili. And since Ava and the other women come around a lot, they take pity on us and drop off food all the time,” he replies with a laugh.

“It’s good you have them. Motorcycle gangs have a bad reputation.” Yeah, I said it. It’s not that you don’t hear about the bad stuff, and most of the time, you hear more bad than good. “But the people in town say different about Satan’s Pride,” I add.

“We’re a club, not a gang.” Blade puts down his fork. “Not going to lie to you, Guard wants the club to stay out of trouble, and our businesses are legal and aboveboard in every way. It’s not always easy, though. Other clubs think we’ve gone soft and try to invade our space. They think we’ll be intimidated and back down. They think wrong. That’s not going to fly with the Pride. We defend what we’ve built. We also make sure nothing touches our club and our families. This isn’t a threat, it’s a vow. Guard will never start a war, but we will end it, and we’ll always win,” he states. Then he asks, “Does that scare you?”

“A little,” I confess.

“Why?” he asks, raising his brows. “How is what we do for one another different from what you would do for your mother and father? Families take care of each other. A good father will protect his wife and kids at any cost. Guard is that man for us, and he’s taught us to do the same for each other.”

I want to tell him that my family doesn’t exactly work that way, but Blade doesn’t need to know that Dad never wanted kids, and Mom was hoping for a replica of herself and was sadly disappointed when she figured out I would never be the belle of the ball.

Instead, I reply, “It sounds like you have an incredible family.”

“I have two amazing families. My parents and sister are great people. Dad is struggling with my decision to join Satan’s Pride, but he’ll come around once he meets the guys. He jumped to the same conclusion that all clubs cause trouble.” Blade shakes his head. “A lot of clubs help their community. We raise funds for hospitals and schools, and Satan’s Pride put this town back on the map. Guard created thriving businesses, which in turn opened up jobs.”

“You’re right. I judged, and I shouldn’t have. I should know better,” I tell him. I’ve been judged all my life. Mom tried to make me into something I’m not, and when she saw I was a lost cause in the modeling world, I wasn’t worth her time anymore. Dad was too busy worrying about the impression he makes in his social circles and didn’t give me another thought. My brother, Ryan, hit the front covers of every fashion magazine, and my parents were thrilled with his success. It hurt, but in some ways, I was better off. I was left alone and was able to focus on my business studies. And when I wasn’t studying, I was exploring my passion for photography.

It made my decision to apply my business degree to what I love easy. My father was furious as he expected me to go to work in a “suitable” firm of his choice. He had it in his head that with the contacts he had, I’d be working with a good company and meet a nice, eligible man who was destined to take over his father’s business, thus elevating our family in the social world.

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