Page 23 of Misrule
“Okay, if you going to be that stubborn, Roxanne,” Mortician started, still ignoring Knox, “we really don’t give a fuck about toughening him up. He’s going to treat you with respect. That mean no fucking until he make it legal.”
“Fine,” Roxy said, going along with it for now. After a couple of days, they’d tire of babysitting Knox and her, and they’d be free to fuck and do whatever they pleased. If the guys wanted to express some misplaced code of honor, she’d let them live in ignorant bliss. “I just need to say a couple of things to Knox.”
Mortician nodded, but remained where he was, holding onto her man.
“That means leave for a minute,” she snapped.
“I’m going right over there.” He pointed a short distance away, near the entrance of the room.
“I’ll be there later tonight,” she whispered to Knox, once Mortician stepped away.
Knox grinned. “I admire them for wanting to protect you so fiercely.
“It is kind of sweet,” Roxy admitted, “if it wasn’t so fucking annoying.”
“Time up,” Mortician called.
“Later,” Roxy mouthed again as Mortician yanked Knox toward the door.
Where there was a will, there was a way. Roxy just had to show those boys that, until they tired of their game and forgot all about protecting her non-existent virtue.
Chapter Eight
“Let go of me!” Knox shouted, yanking himself out of Mortician’s grasp, halfway along the trail back to the club. Roxanne might’ve decided to go along with this insanity on the surface, but Knox wasn’t amused.
“I know you not happy, Knox, but you just have to deal with it, sinceyouthe motherfucker that first came up with a long engagement.”
“I was just annoyed. I didn’t mean that. If I had, I never would’ve proposed.”
“Oh, yeah, why the fuckdidyour fucking ass pop the fucking question?”
“I love Roxanne, jackass. Why else would I propose?”
Mortician stopped so fast, Knox ran into him. The club’s enforcer turned, looking very…enforcerish.
Knox stepped back.
“First, son, I’m not a jackass. Feel me? Don’t call me that again.”
“Digger, Outlaw, Val, and Johnnie call you worse!” Knox reminded him, annoyed he didn’t have such freedom.
“You not one of us, Knox.”
“You don’t say? That’s quite the newsflash for me.”
“You here, youalive, because of Roxanne. But you’d prefer not to be around us.”
“Can you blame me?” He wouldn’t bother to deny it. “You people are violent animals. When Roxanne’s around you, her dignity slips fifty notches. I’ve tried to fit in, but I will never agree with your freewheeling philosophy and criminal tendencies.”
“And that attitude, right there, is why you don’t get to call me a jackass. That’s why I believe you might decide to walk away from Roxanne when it gets close to the wedding. If you miss her, you’ll know how to cherish her. See her as a sweet woman to be protected and romanced; not a biker bitch to use and discard. I don’t trust your uppity ass. So no fucking. You’re giving her flowers and romance and respect, but no dick.” Mortician shoved a finger in Knox’s chest. “She love you but Bailey say her momma scared because she had so many failed relationships. Roxanne think marriage ruin relationships, but then, she told Bailey, she ruined what she had with K-P and she don’t want to do that with you.”
The words stunned Knox into silence. Roxanne afraid? That seemed incomprehensible. She was the bravest, most fearless woman he’d ever met. He’d admired her courage, her wit, her beauty.Her. “She neither wants nor needs my protection, and I’ll thank you to stop trying to turn my fiancée into a simpering mass of nerves. That’s not Roxanne. By the way, if I didn’t want her, I wouldn’t have asked her to marry me. And, in case you’ve forgotten, marriage doesn’t mean anything. I can still walk away from her.”
“You got a lot more to lose if you leaveafterthe wedding.”
“Nothing but my dignity if it comes to that. I’m having Roxanne sign a prenuptial agreement.” He hadn’t considered that before, although he knew his parents would expect it of him, to protect the Harrington interests. Listening to Mortician, however, and seeing a future filled with interference led to Knox’s conclusion that a prenup was needed. He’d stick it out with Roxanne as long as possible. When he had enough of the violent barbarians she insisted on cavorting with, he’d walk away. “A prenup is a requirement in my circles.”
“You signing one for her?”
