Page 34 of Devil's Own: Roughneck

What I wouldn’t have given growing up to have my mom care enough about any of us more than she cared about partying and getting laid, to have dinner with us in the evening.

Maybe I’d still know my sister, and my brother wouldn’t be locked up for the rest of his life.

The shower will happen, but not yet. I press the kiss harder, hard enough to let her know how much I appreciate having her here. She melts against me. Her body goes liquid in my arms. My appreciation proven, I let her go but make sure she can stand before walking away.

We’ve been on alert since moving Gee up here, but the Death Bringers haven’t made any more moves. The plan is to attack down there to take them out, but we have to let them think we’re waiting for them to make moves up here. So we’re at a stalemate until one of our clubs makes the next move.

After scrubbing myself free of oil and garage debris, I dress in sweats and a T-shirt then walk out to where Gia has the food platters and bowls waiting on the table. Fried chicken. Mashed potatoes. Green beans. Biscuits. Country gravy.

It’s all small talk and groans of pleasure from me as I devour the masterpiece she’s put in front of me until Gee leaves the table, walking back into the kitchen. She moves back over to me carrying a fucking delicious-looking cake on a cake plate that I didn’t used to own before she moved in.

“Cherry-chocolate upside-down cake… For dessert,” she says as she sets the plate down closest to me and slices me a thick square. Who knew cherry-chocolate upside-down cake was a thing? I sure as hell didn’t until she walked the platter over to the table.

“You spoil me,” I tell her around a mouthful of cake.Damn.Just like everything she makes, that shit’s good.

She smiles. “You’re worth spoiling.”

I’mworth spoiling? The woman doesn’t get the chance to slice herself a piece because I stand so fast, my chair tips backward and I lift her into my arms, carrying her into the bedroom. Once in there, I take my time spoiling her the best way I know to do it.

As we lie in the messed-up bed, breathing heavily, she throws her arm over her eyes and whispers, “Love you, Rough.” I jolt, startled, unable to move for a good minute.

It’s a good thing we’re lying down because damn, that woman—I don’t think my legs would hold me. She loves me?Shit.I’m the luckiest bastard on the face of the planet to have earned the love of a good woman like Gee. A hundred thousand thoughts filter through my head all at once while I try to come up with what I want to say or how. Fuck—I know what I want to say. I’m just not sure how to say it.

The bed moves and I turn to see my woman—the woman who just told me she loves me—trying to roll away from me. Not happening. I know why she’s attempting a getaway. She told me something precious and I spent too much time in my head processing how it felt to have a woman I’m falling in love with say those words. But it’s never happened to me before. Never felt it, never heard it. I don’t remember my own mother telling me she loved me.

Throwing my hand out, I snag her waist before she gets too far away and pull her in close. I know what I want to say now. “My name is Griffin Stockton.”

“Pardon?” she asks.

“Griffin Stockton.”

“I heard you. I’m just not sure what you want me to do—”

“You said, ‘Love you, Rough.’ That’s my ride name. It’s me, but it’s not the only me. Griffin or Griff, what my friends used to call me before the club, that’s me, too. You say, ‘Love you’ like this, when it’s us, at home—in a really meaningful moment, I want to hear ‘Love you, Griff.’”

She sucks in her bottom lip.

I raise my eyebrow, staring her down. “Well?”

“Oh—” She startles. “You want me to say it now?”

“Did you not hear me?”

Gee snickers. “Love you, Griff.”

“There. Was that so hard?”

“No,” she whispers.

“No,” I agree. “Know why?”

She shakes her head.

“Because I’m falling in love with you, too. Hell, I think I might be there already. It’s just a new feeling for me to process.”

The air in the room lifts considerably and she snickers again. “Process away.”

“Just so you know, I’m using ‘process’ as a code for fucking, seeing as the more I fuck you, the harder I fall for you.”

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