Fuck.
“Hi, Mr. Dirty!” Lyra call from the back seat, gaining my attention, and I chuckle, seeing her waving at me.
I swear the kid is a fucking cutie.
I walk to the back door as Holly asks, “Can you fix it?” and I look at her and consider denying because her car needs scrapping, but she must read my face because she admits, “I’m not ready to part with it—I brought Lyra home in that car…”
Well, that explains it. I sigh as I open the door and help Lyra out before picking her up making her grin as she latches onto me before I look back at my darling and I bite back a grin at the look of awe on her face while my brother watches on with a soft smile. He knows I’m definitely going to claim her, the contentment and ease I suddenly felt when she showed up, coming to me with car problems that I told her last night she could, proving it.
She’s mine, they both are.
“Hi, Mr. Ace,” Lyra says excitedly noticing my brother, and Holly frowns and turns as he walks closer with a grin.
“Should I be worried that my daughter seems to know every brother? I mean I knew she kind of knew Ace but that was more than a passing greeting…” Holly asks, and I chuckle.
“No,” I reply to her, and our eyes lock, the sparks instantly flying between us. I mention, “Mama and Dad's house is always open to brothers and prospects.”
Holly’s frown deepens and she asks, “What’s a prospect?” just as my brother mutters, “Yeah, Mama’s legs were also open,” and I bite back a laugh because well, the man ain’t lying and I reply to Holly, “A prospect is a man doing grunt work for the brothers for a year before being voted into the club once they’ve shown loyalty, even myself and Ace here had to become a prospect before joining.”
“Huh, I didn’t know that,” she mutters, and Ace chuckles as he takes Lyra from me and says, “Come on, cutie, let's go and take a look around the garage,” and she goes willingly and again, Holly’s frown deepens.
She’s confused by how comfortable her daughter is here, but she shouldn’t be because turns out, our kids know fucking best.
Swallowing the fear I feel, I slowly walk over to an unsuspecting Holly before stopping just shy of our chests touching, the heat instantly beginning to spread by being this close to her and I slowly lift my hand before rubbing over her frown lines on her forehead. An electric current shoots up my arm touching her soft skin and she gasps as she looks my way, her icy blue eyes wide and I know she feels this, but she’s denying it.
Ace was right, I do have a fight on my hands.
“Let’s go have a look at your car, darling,” I whisper, and she swallows, her throat bobbing before she steps back, and I drop my arm, instantly missing her touch while the tip of my finger tingles as Lyra giggles at whatever my brother is saying to her.
“Okay,” she whispers in return and fuck me, the need to pull her into me fucking is all-consuming and yeah I’m scared shitless, I have a lot of hurt because of Mama and Cheryl but fuck, I’m claiming her, alright. In this moment, I know I can’t live without her now that I know her, now that I’ve touched her soft skin.
She’s mine, they both are.
Chapter 8
Holly
I chew on my bottom lip as Alex lifts the hood of my car and steam bellows out, making him take a step back, and I wince.
Okay, that can’t be good.
“Mr. Dirty, is the car meant to smoke like that?” I hear Lyra ask, and Alex looks up, and our eyes lock, and the spark, yep, it is still there and still scary as hell.
“No, cutie, it isn’t,” Alex replies to my little girl without looking away from me, not correcting her that it is in fact steam.
“Is it fixable?” I ask with hesitation, and he sighs, glancing down at the hissing pipe.
“It’s your radiator,” he answers, and I swallow hard and ask, “What does that mean?”
He winces as he stands straight, his muscles stretching across his wife beater making it really hard not to look down his bodywhile he’s giving me his whole attention that sets a million butterflies in the pit of my stomach, and he states, “It could mean a number of things. Your coolant pipes may be leaking and if that is the case then no problem, worse case scenarios, you’ve blown your head gasket or caused damage to the engine. If that is the case then you may as well look into getting a new car and I know you don’t want to, darling, but fixing the engine, the parts alone could come up to a cost of a used car.”
I groan and drop my chin to my chest with disappointment and the memory of Matty driving under ten miles per hour while cars beeped behind us hits me. My sole focus was my precious little girl, whom I was petrified to pick up before the memory shifts to me rushing into my uncle’s home, doing a happy dance, waving my new keys because I bought my first car from the scrapman down the street. Uncle Mathew tried to suppress his smile, knowing my parents wouldn’t approve if he celebrated with me but Matt twerking just made my day even better.
“I’ll take a look, darling,” Alex whispers, his voice nearer, and I look up to find him standing right before me and my whole body tingles, down below aching, something it has never done and a connection that I can feel deep down to my bones hits me hard in my chest.
Oh crap.
“Okay,” I whisper, not able to look away from his deep blue eyes that have me entranced, even as Lyra giggles. Alex has my sole attention, and again, fear hits me.
