Page 30 of Hero: Claimed

“Good show,” he answers. “Elise, Gun, and I went in the summer. Can’t beat the view of the Falls.”

The light turns green and both Boss and I ease out, putting the town behind us in the ride up the mountain. The trees lost more of their fall leaves overnight, but as we’re almost to December, I’m surprised to see so many of them still hanging on. It’s good we got this last ride in before having to use the truck until spring.

Dutchy opens the gate for us. I ease us into a spot in front of the compound and take a moment to scan the empty homes on the lot. Brin and I need our own place—we could get an apartment, but without knowing enough about the Riot, it might be smarter for us to move to one of the places here. We’ll have to discuss it. There are some older trailers, but there’re also some newer empty ones, like the one Scotch and his girls moved into.

I must have fallen too deep in my thoughts because I feel a soft touch to my shoulder and look down to Brinley’s delicate hand, her long, shaped but unpolished fingernails. “If you don’t want us to go in at the same time…” she says, bizarrely.

“What?”

“It’s just you’ve been sitting here wearing a confused look. I thought, well, if you’d rather us go in separately—you know—so that no one knows we spent the night to—”

I cut off her words by twisting and taking her by surprise, covering her lips with my own. She fucking needs to stop this. Far as I know, we cleared this shit up this morning while lying naked on the floor of the hotel bathroom. I continue kissing her until the only sounds that come from her come in the form of little cries and whimpers.

“We’re together, bird. Thought after this morning you got it. Look, baby, I know you’re not used to men giving a damn, but that was your old life. You’re with the Lords now. We give a damn.Igive a damn.”

“I just… when you didn’t get off your bike…” she says in a voice so vulnerable, I feel it in my twitching dick.

Before answering, I wrap my arms around her waist, trapping her arms between us, pulling us closer together. “I was thinking about our place—as in getting us one. A place where we don’t have brothers stumbling around at all hours of the day and night. I wanna give you a real home. A place we can settle in as a new couple.”

“Okay,” she whispers, and there’re tears filling her eyes.

“But before we discuss that, I gotta fuck you again first.” Then I climb off my bike, grabbing her hand to help her off too, and drag her past the other bikes, inside the clubhouse, not even bothering to greet the brothers in the common.

I catch Crass’s eyes as we pass, he and Brighton leaving their room. The bastard smiles and shakes his head, chuckling.

“Fuck you,” I mumble, causing his chuckle to boom into an outright laugh, which I shut out, slamming my door behind Brin and me.

“What was that about?” Brinley manages to ask before I make it so she can’t form words other than my name.

A couple of hours later, I leave her napping in the bed. I’m gonna have to get back on the schedule for work so I can afford to get us moved into a place of our own. Blaze sits on a stool at the bar sipping a beer. He looks like shit, like he hasn’t been sleeping. I walk over to the bar and drop down on a stool next to him. All this stuff with Brinley has kept me from checking in with my boys.

“You look like shit, brother,” I say as a hello.

He shrugs. “Feelin’ it. Wound still painin’.”

“Still?” I ask, concerned.

He shrugs again.

“You talked to Caity about it?”

“Only a hundred times. Nothin’ she can do. The gunshot caused nerve damage. It’s just something I have to live with.”

I hate that for him.

“Speaking of things you have to live with,” he says, “how’s it going playin’ hero for the—”

“Careful how you finish that sentence, brother,” I warn.

He stares at me, really stares. “Fuck me, you like her, don’t you?”

Happy to get it off my chest, I sigh. “She’s amazing. It’s like—she listens when I talk. Really listens and not because she wants something from me or because she’s gathering info to hold over my head… It just comes easy with her.”

“It’s nice you found a friend, but jerking off in the shower is gonna get old, man. Unless you two have an agreement. One of those open things so you can fuck an actual pussy instead of your hand,” he says.

I narrow my eyes at him, not understanding his words. Open things? Then it hits me and I hate that those words ever left his mouth. “Never felt anything like it, being inside her. I’ve had fucking fantastic sex with women whose sole purpose on this Earth was to pleasure a man and it didn’t come close to what it felt like with Brin the first time.”

“Thefirsttime? Meaning you’ve fucked her more than once?” he asks, running his hand over his face, as if trying to come to grips with that idea.

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