“Not right now, Niall,” I said, shifting my gaze behind him to the gaggle of girls who were eying his ass like he was a prized bull. “The bar will get busy now the food’s done.”
He turned to see what I was looking at, and sighed as he looked back at me. “Why do you let it get to you? You know I don’t look at anyone but you.”
It should do things to me and even though secretly I loved it when he proclaimed his undying affection for me, I didn’t want him to hold me up to some impossible standard. I wanted him to have fun and stop thinking about me.
“You should go and talk to them,” I told him, surprised at how easy it had been to say. I didn’t sound bitter at all. “I happen to know Leesha likes you a lot.”
“Is that what you want, Shona?” he asked, his eyes turning darker than they had been a few secondsago. He was mad. “You want me to go and fuck another girl?”
“You can do what you want, Niall, I’m not your keeper.”
I could see his nostrils flare and his knuckles turned white where he was holding onto the bar too tight. He could make a scene if he wanted to. I knew I’d pushed him with the carefree way I told him to be with someone else.
It would crush me to know he was with someone else, but I’d never tell him that. It was stupid to feel that way. It didn’t stop me from thinking of how many ways Leesha could succumb to a tricky fate though.
Viper smacked him on the back, dragging him away from the bar. “Leave the pretty woman alone, Sav. We got business to handle.”
Savage didn’t take his eyes off me until he backed out of the clubhouse, and that’s when I let out a breath of air that I didn’t realise I had been holding. The bunnies were watching me with interest, probably wondering why someone like Savage was bothering with someone like me. He was onlytwenty eight, and I was entering my thirty third year. I’d always hated the age gap, but he didn’t care. He never seemed to play into the bullshit of birthdays and anniversaries. There was so much to love about Niall, and so much to be angry at. His inability to stay away when I asked him to give me space was a big one, and yet I welcomed him back into my bed every damn time because he made me feel things no one else ever had.
Leesha, in particular, was regarding me and probably wondering what was going on. It was no secret among the brothers what was happening, they all knew. So did Ryleigh, Orla and Morena and Maree apparently, but the bunnies remained relatively clueless. They didn’t share pillow talk with the boys they fucked, it was purely transactional. Leesha hadn’t been with us for long, and I could already tell she had her sights on a brother before she fell into thepass aroundterritory. She cocked her head to the side and sauntered over to me, popping her hips. She needn’t bother. The boys weren’t in the clubhouse right now.
“Leesha.”
“Hey, Shona,” she said, her voice almost purring. “What’s up with you and Savage?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “Nothing much, he was just letting me know about some stuff with Shauna.”
A lie. I hated lying, and yet I did it for Savage all the time.
“Hmm,” she said, not believing me. “You two seem close. I didn’t think he liked anyone other than the brothers.”
A chuckle bubbled to the surface. “I guess over time he warms up to people.”
“So you don’t like him then?”
“Leesha, I have no interest in dating anyone,” I told her. “If you like him, talk to him.”
Please don’t.
“I intend to,” she smirked at me, but I could see the aggravation in her eyes. She’d already tried, I could tell. “Is he going back with the Nomads?”
“I suppose he would be, yes,” I replied. I did everything to keep the edge out of my tone, but I could tell by her annoying smirk that she knew it was bugging me.
“I might get a ride and help relieve some tension for him while he’s there. Who knows, when we return, I might be one of the girls who gets to boss you around.”
She was trying to be cute, but I knew the women would never accept her. They never did. Bunnies very rarely ever leveled up to a wife but, sure, let her try.
“I look forward to it, Leesha.”
She tossed her hair over her shoulder and sauntered into the corner the bunnies hung out in.
“Ignore her,” Kayleigh, one of the other bunnies said, coming up to me behind the bar and helping get things ready. “She’s only new. She’ll learn the order of things eventually.”
“I don’t pay her any attention anyway, Kay. You helping me today?”
She nodded. “Yeah, she’s a little green for my tastes.”
“She’s here for a husband,” I explained.
