Page 175 of Preacher Man

They live happily ever after, maybe? Or at least go home so she can climb her mountain of a man and bang his crazy brains out. She smiled, liking this plan. The hard pipe against her hip said he would like that plan as well.

Very slowly, more carefully than she’d ever done before, she’d lowered her guard, and let herself love Preacher. What a feeling, she was high. It was there for anyone to see, she would love him wholly, completely, without reservation or safety net. The power was his to treasure or use that love, but she wasn’t worried.

She loved a man who had done more for her in the space of a month than anyone else ever had in her entire lifetime and he’d asked for nothing in return. It wasn’t movie love, they both had scarred hearts and cracks, this was real heart pounding dizzy love she was feeling and she didn’t know what to do about it.

Oh, wait, yeah, she absolutely did. Grinning she wrapped herself around him, chest to chest, that laugh of his was sheer love.

“If this ends in you taking dirty advantage of me I will hardly complain at all, beautiful,” he told her squeezing her ass, a smirk playing around his mouth. So, cocky. So, hers.

“I might. I just might, Asher. If you’re lucky.”

“I’m damn lucky.” Hands held her up under her butt, their breaths mingled. Funny, she felt damn lucky as well.

Actions were what counted. Words could easily be turned into lies, those twenty-six letters strung together were meaningless to someone like Ruby with trust issues.

Actions held all the power of truth, to make a person -her in particular- believe in something unbelievable and when it was a man like Preacher, the outside skin said he must surely be unreliable, deceitful even down to everything that came out of his mouth and if not for taking a chance she would probably still believe that wrongly about him.

He not only showed with actions just where his head and heart were at, he’d never lied. Her uncle Silas, on one of his more coherent days, would say you must wade through the shit to reach the best days of your life. It was always just one of those sayings she brushed off, the ramblings of a mentally disturbed old man, never resonating with her.

Until now. Until she believed it wholeheartedly. Preacher was her own personal aloe Vera. He’d soothed all her life’s burns and made it better again.

“Thank you.” She told him smiling, their noses bumping together.

“For what?”

My life. Getting me Sebastian. Helping me through the darkest grief. Being at my side. Loving me. Caring for me. Protecting me. For being the one person who didn’t leave. For being mine.

“Everything,” she said. No truer words.

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

“This is what being in love with a biker feels like … kinda gassy.“ – Ruby

The small white carton of orange juice Zara had dropped off with his lunch earlier stalled midway to Rider's mouth. He was fucking parched having worked nonstop for six hours on a bike that had been, more or less, dead on arrival last night but he'd got the little shit back up and running at a cost of nearly eight grand. He might be back broken but the shop was up in profit and he had a very happy customer who would more than likely come back and recommend the RS shop to his friends and family.

But his stupefied look was nothing to do with money as Rider slow-blinked at the sight walking through the Renegade Souls main entryway.

Several other brothers came to a standstill. One elbowed the other, another chin-jutted like they were all looking at the same alien striding in.

Mass hallucination maybe? Nah, a smirk kicked up a corner of his lip, he knew who this was. Preacher hadn’t shut his trap about his old lady’s nephew since he came to live with them. Last he’d heard, all was going well for the new family. He’d barely seen his road captain all week.

Preacher strode slower to compensate for the little person at his side stretched up on his toes holding two of Preacher's fingers.

Preacher with a kid. That was some A-grade cute shit right there, looked like he’d taken to fatherhood instantly without a hitch. Rider was pleased as fuck for his brother, he'd seen more times than not the inner struggles Preacher had going on in his mind and how it manifested, to see him with a slice of happy, well Rider wasn't the sappy type, but it was good to see one of his boys in the good. Now if only he could take to fatherhood as easy. Rider’s own chest concaved with nerves as each passing day he watched his Icy's pregnancy progress. His girl was stunning with her tiny belly poking out, but he had six months to worry about just how well he'd do. He wouldn’t be his own father, that was a fact. Rider would do the opposite of parenting that Ajax Marinos had done and everything would be golden.

The kid, Seb, trotted to keep up with Preacher heading Rider's way, his little eyes going everywhere trying to see everything at once. Rider grinned watching his reactions to all the guys hanging around. He noticed the swearing had quit, just as well, Preacher would likely crack a skull or two. With his muddy brown hair in a bowl cut almost in his eyes, dressed in clean denim overalls and a blue Spider-Man t-shirt beneath it with white kickers, Seb looked like any cute kid you'd see in the street. Little did the kid know just who he had on his side now. He couldn’t do better than Preach and Ruby for parents. They’d do alright by him, he surmised silently, watching the new father and son. But Preacher with an actual kid though. Rider’s mouth twitched.

Okay, that would take some getting used to seeing, he smiled at the boy as he walked beside a man who had always insisted kids were germ freaks and he'd rather have a hernia on his dick than be caught dead with one.

So, unless Preacher was dead and he'd dragged the whole club to hell with him, the mighty had fallen spectacularly. But then, Rider knew what the love of a good old lady could do so he had no room to joke around. Maybe he would. Would be worth it because the fucking mighty had fallen hard. Snake would dine on this shit for months to come.

Rider straightened his aching spine, ditched the carton on the edge of the bar, arched his brow when he caught Preacher's eye. A hand coasted to his jaw as he smiled at the little boy.

"New career move, Preach? Didn't see you for the nanny type, just need one of those frilly umbrella things now."

"Parasol. Don't ask how I know that shi--stuff. Hey, Prez." His mouth quirked and they slapped hands and the unusual kept on rolling when Preacher went down to the kid’s level eye-to-eye. Obviously shy, Seb sidled up to Preacher, putting both arms on Preacher’s shoulder, looking up timid and curious towards Rider. "This here is Seb, he wanted to see where I worked. You wanna say hi to Rider, big man? Go ahead, it's okay, this is the prez I told you about."

Wide eyes looked up at him. "Pwez? wif his bike?"

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