Page 19 of Hero: Claimed

Levi holds the storm door open for me while pushing open the solid door. We walk in together, his hand pressed to the small of my back, the way an actual couple would join a group.Duke and Caitlin have the cutest house. Walls of suede and a big, comfy denim sofa that sits like a hundred people. Okay, that might be an exaggeration, but it’s big. Accents of dusky blue to match the denim, rose and gray on the draperies, the throw pillows, lampshades. I’ve never lived in a place this classy—ever.

Caitlin walks up to greet us carrying her son. “I’m so glad you two could join us.”

“Your home is beautiful,” I tell her at the same time Levi places a hand to her shoulder and bends in for a quick cheek kiss.

Then he says, “Where’s the birthday girl?”

“I’m here, Hero.” And that’s as much as we hear when a fireball of a child, the exact replica of Caitlin, as far I can tell, hits Levi’s legs so hard, she practically levels him. The sturdy, sexy-strong man takes a step back in order not to fall. He bends down to pick her up.

“Hey, princess. Happy birthday,” he says, kissing her cheek, too, then swooping her onto his back, he carries her into the living room. I know I’ll never have kids because I don’t want to be a single mother and what man is ever going to want to make babies with me? But holy hell—ovaries goboom! And if that isn’t enough, when he sets her down on the sofa, it’s only to pull a small antique-looking deep blue velvet box from his pocket to hand it over to the little girl. Only, he opens it first to reveal a delicate gold chain with a teardrop of milky-green dangling. Jade. He’d found her a delicate jade necklace and I can’t help wonder if that was one of the reasons he wanted to go to the flea market today.

She presses her closed fists to her mouth as if trying to hold in her excitement, but the draw of beautiful jewelry proves too muchand. she. squeals. Eardrum-rupturingly loud. Little Diesel jumps in his mom’s arms, wailing.

Duke plucks him from Caitlin to cradle and cuddle him. Talking softly—well, biker soft, because he’s got this deep, gruff voice that’s literally unable to gosoft, soft—and settling the boy.

My attention back to Levi and Jade, I tell him, “It seems she likes your gift.”

“Ourgift, bird. It’s from the both of us.”

“I didn’t even know you were picking it up,” I protest in a tight whisper.

“I forgot to tell you about it, but no doubt at some point you’ll buy a gift for one of the club kids and put my name on it, too. It’s how these things work.”

How does he know how “these things work”? Levi doesn’t seem the type to have delved into the pool of adult relationships. The first day I met him he had a naked woman in his bed.

Leaning deep into my body space, dipping his head as if he’s about to kiss the hinge of my jaw, at the last minute, he pivots to whisper in my ear, so close, his lips brush the lobe, and tingles shoot up and down my neck. “Please.” It’s almost too soft for me to hear and does crazy things to the rest of my insides, too.

Before I do something really embarrassing like sighing one of those swoony-girl sighs, I glance around the room to get my wits about me and notice we are most definitely the center of attention. That sobers me up real quick. To finish this up and get those eyes off us, I press an (almost) genuine smile to my face and answer, “Sure.” Then I look to Jade. “Happy birthday, sweetheart.”

Her returning smile is bright and beautiful. “What’s your name again?” she asks me.

“Brinley. I’m Brinley Brown.”

“And you live with Hero, right?”

“I stay with him,” I answer.

She furrows her brow as if she doesn’t understand my answer, and being—what?—six or so, she wouldn’t. Levi, however, slides his arm around my shoulder. “Yeah, she’s my old lady, Jade.”

I almost laugh at the way Jade’s eyes shoot to me looking like, ‘Why didn’t you say that inthefirst place?’I think I would have laughed if not for him already drawing enough attention to us with that comment.

A few more women I haven’t met yet make their way over to us, all giving hugs to Levi. Apparently, he’s popular with all ladies, including the very much taken old ladies of the club.

The first one to hug him turns to introduce herself. “Hi,” she says. “I’m Trisha. Everyone calls me ‘Trish.’ I’m Sneak’s old lady.” Then she points over her shoulder to Sneak, in case I don’t know who she’s talking about. But I’ve seen him around the clubhouse. I wave at him and he does a little half-wave back.

Trish is a pretty thing, tall and lean with kind of narrow hips considering most of these guys like a bit of curve to their women and despite having had a baby. Her outfit says anything but ‘I’m married to a biker.’ Between the platinum blonde pixie cut and her fuzzy sweater, tight pants, white, go-go boots, and dark eyeliner and mascara, she looks like she landed here as part of the 1960s British invasion. Sneak, on the other hand is tall and lithe with zero visible tattoos. Zero facial hair. He’s handsome, but not handsome enough to stand out in a crowd.

“She’s a school teacher,” Levi whispers to me. I can see this. “Sneak works with me, but sometimes for club business he needs to blend into the background.” I’m curious as to the kind of ‘club business’ he gets into that would require him to blend in, but I suppose that’s a topic for another time.

“Good to meet you, Trish. I’m Brinley.”

“Oh, girl… I know who you are. When I heard Hero got himself an old lady, you know I was all over that news.”

I laugh uncomfortably, murmuring, “Good to know.”

“And this sweet lil’ thing is our daughter, Briar Rose,” Trish finishes.

“Hi, sweetie,” I say to the baby. She looks maybe a year old. Though calling her ‘sweet’ seems a bit of an understatement. The little girl has a cherub face, these brilliant blue eyes that match her mothers, but the same wavy brown hair as her dad. Her features may change as she gets older, but it appears Briar Rose has inherited all the best qualities of both her parents.

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