Page 35 of Double the Dilemma

“Which means nothing,” Karissa interrupted, glaring at him. “I haven’t agreed to be your Old Lady. I agreed to give a relationship a shot, that’s it. So shut it.” Then she turned to Simba and said, “And I can kick his ass, thank you for remembering. Just like I can kick yours for throwing that in his face, because now I have to deal with him all pissed off. Can we get back to the problem at hand, please?”

“You know, if you were still under my command I would have kicked your ass for all the insubordination,” Simba replied mildly, though his lips twitched.

“Good thing I’m no longer under your command, now isn’t it?” she replied sweetly. She sat back down and said to Savage, “So, now that everyone knows everything, are you all going to play nice?”

Savage gave her a dry look. “I don’t know, are we? Seems you’re running the show this time,” he remarked.

Karissa rolled her eyes and said in a high-pitched, squeaky voice, “Oh please, Mr. President, sir, can you all be the best of friends and not shoot each other? I promise I’ll be oh so quiet now and let the big strong men do all the talking.”

Multiple men laughed, and Fury’s lips twitched as he hid his smile. Savage held her gaze and pointed at her. “You and your smart ass are gonna get locked in the Box if you don’t cut it out,” he warned her with no heat behind his words.

“This is why we don’t let women into Church,” Rogue pointed out. “We’d never get shit done with all their antics.” He didn’t even react when she glared at him and flipped him the bird.

Savage looked at Simba. “I have no problem with you all staying here if you like, until you’re ready to head out,” he told them. “You’re welcome to stay as long as you need.”

“I’m thinking that we might stay in town and see about Xena’s problem,” Simba replied. “We’re here, and we have our own set of skills that could be beneficial.”

Savage looked around at his brothers, and Karissa sat back to wait. She tried not to roll her eyes as it was put to a vote, which unanimously passed. Not that she was given the option to vote, of course. Finally, Savage said, “No one has any objections. For now, we’ll put this aside, because I think we all have had enough of a morning. We’ll meet later.” He stood, and everyone followed suit.

Karissa waited until most had left before she followed, Razor tight at her back. She could feel the questions he wanted to ask burning out of him, so she braced herself for the onslaught. Before he could haul her off though, she stopped when she realized the women were all sitting in the common room, waiting expectantly for her to introduce them to the new MC.

Esme stood and gave Karissa a hard glare. Karissa fought back a wince. There was hurt there, and she was seriously wondering how she was going to make this all up to Esme when this was over. In reality, she hadn’t been a great friend. “Bitch, you have some explaining to do,” she said simply. She looked over at her old team. “Starting with who they are, why they’re here, and why we have never heard about them before. And no one is dragging you off until we have some answers.” She gave Razor a hard glare.

Karissa shrugged. “I couldn’t tell you about them before, but they’re my old team. They were mercenaries and I was a member of their team for a couple of years. They’re here because I called to ask them to help me get out of town, but I forgot to call them off when I agreed to stay and let the club help, and now they’re going to help with finding Sena too.”

Esme said nothing for a moment. She glanced at the girls, who all nodded, and then said, “Alright then, we’ll forgive you for not mentioning them. Especially since we don’t mind having some more eye candy around here to enjoy.” She grinned wickedly when Fury let out a growl at her words.

Suddenly Wren and Win stepped forward, and Karissa knew that by the wicked looks on their faces, this was going to be good. She glanced over at Rogue and saw him scowling darkly, even as he pulled Scarlett into him, and she grinned too.

Wren moved toward Simba, Taz, Warg, and Vulture, while Win moved toward Jag, Ursa, Copper, and Tiger. The men eyed the girls with amusement and wariness. Both girls looked over the men in front of them, and then they both grinned. They turned to Scarlett, and Wren said, “I think we’ve just discovered Plan B for if you ever kick Uncle Ro-Ro here to the curb, Scarlett.”

“There are a few of them I wouldn’t have a hard time calling Daddy,” Win added wickedly.

Scarlett sputtered out a laugh, while the other women, Karissa included, burst out laughing. Rogue, however, was not amused and snarled, “I’m going to tan your hides if you don’t move away from them.”

“Don’t worry, honey,” Taz said, ever the shit disturber. “We’ll save you if he causes you any trouble.”

Karissa shook her head as Rogue gave him a cold, mean glare. “I don’t know how Taz survived this long,” she announced.

Taz grinned at her. “Probably because I always had you as back-up. Maybe it’s time you joined us again. You know, to keep me in line.”

Before she could answer, Razor snapped, “I don’t think so.” Then she was hauled back and up over his shoulder. “If you’ll excuse us, me and my Old Lady have a few things to talk about.”

Karissa didn’t struggle, but she put on her meanest scowl. She was going to kick him in the nuts for this. Especially when she saw Taz’s grin. God damn it, she didn’t want to listen to his teasing for however long he was here. She was liable to shoot him. And Razor, once she gave him a piece of her mind.

CHAPTERTWENTY

RAZOR

He knew that Karissa was going to be pissed as soon as he let her go, but he didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was getting some answers, because his head was spinning. And if he was honest with himself, maybe there was a little bit of panic over the thought of her leaving. He just got her to agree to give him a shot, and he wasn’t about to let her change her mind.

He stalked into his room, slammed the door shut with his foot, turned to lock it, and then moved to the bed. He dropped Karissa onto the bed, quickly climbing over her before she could land a punch or a kick. She glared up at him as he pressed himself over her, grabbing her hands and bracketing them over her head with his. When she tried to knee him in the side, he twisted and moved his hips between hers, keeping her thighs wide so she couldn’t move as easily.

She opened her mouth, and he was sure she was going to blast him, so he put his lips over hers and kissed her with all the anger and desperation he felt. The only thing he had going for him right now was their chemistry and her words that she was going to give them a shot, but words could easily be turned into something else and he didn’t want to take that chance.

She resisted for a couple of seconds before she relaxed and kissed him back, her body surrendering under his. The kiss was hard and deep, but he refused to let her take control, even when she nipped at his lip and bucked her body against his. His cock hardened, but he ignored it. Sex was not going to be the answer this time. They needed to talk.

He wrenched his mouth away and stared down at her. She looked back at him, face flushed, dark eyes burning, and lips swollen. Her dark hair was fanned out on the comforter and she looked like every dream he’d ever had about her. His heart clenched, and he forced down the panic she might be just a dream and disappear in the daylight. So instead, he forced himself to speak.

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