I smirked. “The limping is on me—we had some stuff we needed to work out, if you feel me.”
“Bedroom stuff?” Casa asked, leaning forward, eager and horny as always. “You tried anal yet?”
Gauge sighed. “What is it with you and assholes, brother?”
“You don’t know what you’re fuckin’ missing!” Casa laughed. He glanced over at Dom. “This man knows what the fuck I’m talking about, am I right?”
Dom scowled at him and lit a cigarette. “Shut the fuck up.”
Casa smirked and looked back at me. “So? Anal. I can show you where to get a big-ass strap-on dildo from, and then what you do is—”
“I’m good,” I cut in, not needing or wanting to hear anymore.
“Your loss, motherfucker,” Casa tutted, sitting back in his chair.
“I’ll take my chances.” I turned back to Shooter, ignoring the snickering around the table. “She’s gonna be okay. I’ve got it handled. And I want you to know, Prez”—I glanced around the table—“I want all of you to know that we both appreciate the chance you’ve given her to prove herself and her loyalty. The shit that went down was bad, and I blame myself for some of it because I didn’t show her how shit was around here—and that’s on me. But it’s done now, Belle is here to stay. She’s my old lady now.”
“Never thought I’d hear you utter those words,” Rider said, a smile on his face.
“Neither did I,” I agreed, and everyone laughed.
Shooter stood up and raised his glass and everyone followed suit. “To Beast and Belle,” he said. “To her making a good man out of you.”
Everyone laughed at that too, and for the first time in my life, my heart didn’t feel empty. Maybe I didn’t believe in happily ever afters, but this was as close to one as I could ever imagine.
“Okay, next order of business—the prospect,” Gauge said with a scowl. “He ain’t gonna cut it.”
“Nah, kid’s too soft for this life,” Casa agreed. “He wants it, wants it real bad, but…”
“I’ll handle it,” I said, and Shooter raised an eyebrow at me. I held my hands out. “Need a new project anyway, so why not him?”
Casa chuckled and I shot a scowl at him, which only made him laugh more. “You’re like Bette fucking Midler taking the kid under your wing.”
A few men chuckled, and then surprisingly Gauge shook his head and frowned. “That doesn’t even make sense.”
“What doesn’t?” I asked.
“The song is about the other woman being the wind under her wings…so that would make the prospect Bette and Beast the other woman.” He said it so matter-of-factly that the room was stunned into absolute silence.
“Barbara Hershey!” Rider said, snapping his fingers. “That was the other woman’s name.”
The room erupted into laughter again, and even I found myself laughing right along with them.
*
Belle was sitting between my legs on the grass outside the clubhouse. The fire pit was burning brightly enough that we could make out the people moving around us, but people farther away were just dark shadows. Her head was leaning back on my chest and her hands were stroking up and down my legs and fuck me, she smelled good. Like sin and seduction. Like heaven and hell. Like peaches and pussy. Fucking delicious.
“You need anything?” I asked her for what seemed like the hundredth time that evening. She was still pretty quiet, but she was beginning to come back out of herself. It was hard not to in that place. The women were good women, even the sweetbutts, and the men all respected her after everything she’d done that day, and they made that clear to her.
“No, I’m fine.” She turned her head to look up at me, the light from the fire catching in her eyes.
“You let me know when you do and I’ll get you whatever,” I said, not being able to tear my gaze away from hers. God, but she was pretty. So pretty it made my chest ache.
She smiled. “I’ll be sure to let you know.”
I reached down and cupped her face in one hand before pressing a kiss on her mouth, my tongue darting into her warmth to slide across hers. She moaned against my lips and my dick hardened in my jeans, pressing into her back. When she pulled away she was smirking at me.
I swiped my thumb across her swollen bottom lip. “You be sure to do that.”
