“With Mace.”
Her mouth forms a small O, then she clamps her lips together. “How did that happen? I mean, I understand why. Mace is a whole lot of something hot and sexy.” She laughs at the look I give her. “What? I have eyes and he has that whole quiet, brooding protectiveness about him that makes him ten time more attractive, but I’m perfectly happy with my own sexy protector. Go on.”
“I gave him a ride home the night his bike got trashed, when I was supposed to be spending the night at your place, but you ditched me for your giant boobed friend and her need to get with a biker. Did she by the way?”
“No. And I said I was sorry about that. I thought you’d take the out and go home. Alone. I never expectedthatwould happen. How did you end up driving him home?”
“He wasn’t going back to Stroudsburg, he was staying at a friend’s house near my place.” Wave waits me out. She’s good at this. “I needed the bathroom after a long drive and drinking wine, and when I came out, he was waiting. Like you said he’s a whole lot of… something.”
“You had sex. It happens like that sometimes,” she smirks.
“Not to me. I have more self-control,” I mutter, then get up to grab another water from her mini fridge, my throat is parched. “It was over fast, and I got out of there.”
“It was bad?”
“Oh, fuck no. It was hot. Mace knows what he’s doing, let’s leave it at that.”
“Okay, I don’t need all the details. What’s got you this worked up tonight?”
“You know me, I don’t do serious.”
“Yes, you don’t need a man, not even a really good one.” Her implication makes my cheeks flush but only because I know what is coming.
“Yesterday I had to meet Mace about something your dad has me doing,” I sip the water and eye her but again she holds her tongue. What I do for her dad is strictly off limits and she knows I will never talk about it. “I didn’t go there with the intention of doing it again. My treacherous body didn’t get the memo.”
Wave laughs under her breath. “The good dick effect.”
“Something like that, or plain stupidity. So we went back to my place, but a complication occurred.”
“Cassie, as much as I love a good story, this isn’t one of your closing arguments where you need to lead me to the conclusion.”
“Eli was at my apartment when we got there.”
She is busting to say something about that, so much so she slaps a hand over her mouth, making me roll my eyes. What I am not going to tell her is what happened in the garage with Eli. I’m still trying to wrap my head around what he said that night and how it contradicted his actions last night.
He hit a nerve, a really big one. As much as I tried not to replay everything he said to me, it’s been on repeat. I’ve always known the kind of man Eli is, despite his darker side in the bedroom. He deserves better than me, he deserves someone who can give him what he craves. I can’t do that.
Even if part of me wants to. Pushing him away was the only option. Except I didn’t do that, I was falling into his eyes, into his words and then he had to go and mention Mace and the hurt and distance he created in the way he stepped back literally lanced my chest.
He walked away from me, and it shocked me that I wanted to call him back, to tell him that he’s right, I did feel something that night, something that hasn’t gone away. It’s not in me to give him what he wants, not because of whoheis, because of what he represents.
So I go and give it to Mace. That’s different, I tell myself for the millionth time. But is it? This is why I need to get it off my chest to someone who understands the place I’m at. It wasn’t too long ago Waverley despised everything to do with the club. So much so, she ran away for five years.
“There are reasons why he was there, but that isn’t relevant.”
“Considering Handlebar has wanted to get with you for months,” she stops. “Okay, I promised I won’t go there. Continue.”
“I still can’t make sense of what happened next.”
“Oh shit, did they fight?”
“It started off like that, I had to get between them.” Jesus what an understatement that is. “Mace was pissed because he was being cock blocked and Eli was mad that Mace was there. It was a mess. I thought things were going to get broken. Turns out… that was me.”
“What are you saying? Did they hurt you?”
“Not in the way you’re thinking.”
“Both of them!” she sits forward, finally reading between the lines. When I nod, she slams back on the sofa, her mouth open and closing like a fish.
