“What the hell, man? You have two hot chicks in your bed and this is where you decide to fall asleep?” Heat says,

“God, I need to get that house finished up so I don’t have to wake up to your face ever again,” I groan.

“Make that one hot chick in your bed,” Olive says as she drops my keys on my chest. She’s made up immaculately, her blonde hair in bouncy ringlets that sit right above her shoulders. For as much as she drank last night, I’m impressed by her ability to bounce back so quickly. “I’m gonna go downtown and open the bar up.”

I sit up on the couch and my back aches. I probably would’ve been better off on my bedroom floor.

“I don’t think that’s a great idea, Olive. After yesterday?”

“I’m taking the scare pair with me.” She points over her shoulder to Red and Tank, our enforcers, and although it makes me feel a little better, I’m not a hundred percent convinced. Those two definitely have the muscle, but she seems to turn them both into rambling idiots. I have no idea what’s actually going on between the three of them, but I have a sneaking suspicion our sweet Ollie might be a little bit of a freak. “I borrowed some prospects to clean up the parking lot. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Thank you. You want me to come down too?”

“No,” she says matter-of-factly. She walks over to the coffee pot and fills up her travel mug before dumping in six packs of sugar. “I want you to go downstairs and show that woman the best day of her life.”

I laugh.

“What’s that all about? You have a change of heart all of a sudden? You realize she’s a grown woman who can make her own decisions?”

“No, I just realized that you aren’t the worst thing that ever happened to her.”

“Well that’s reassuring.”

“Don’t make me change my mind.”

She screws the top on her coffee cup and heads for the door, Tank and Red hot on her heels.

“So what are you gonna do?” Heat asks.

I know exactly what I’m going to do. Something that I’ve wanted to do since I met her. Something that no girl has ever seen before.

“I’m taking her out to the farmhouse.”

“No shit?” he quips, raising his eyebrows. “It’s gonna be like that, huh?”

“I hope so. You think you can keep Moses out of my ass for the day?”

“I have a feeling he’s gonna need to sleep for the next twenty-four hours to recover from last night.”

I stand up and make my way to the coffee pot on the bar. The place looks pretty rough, but nothing beyond the usual. I passed out in the midst of the chaos, and judging by the bodies strewn on the pool table, in the booths, and on the floor, I’m guessing I wasn’t the only one.

Heat claims my spot on the couch, sprawling out with an emphatic groan.

“You better not fuck this up,” he warns from behind closed eyes. “She’s a good woman, Gavin.”

Coming from anyone else, I might not take it so seriously, but there’s a reason why Heat is our club chaplain. Matters of the heart are his wheelhouse. He lost his wife years ago to cancer and has kind of floundered ever since, but if anyone understands true love, it’s him.

“You think so?” I ask.

“I know so. You want to make it work, you better be willing to prove to her that you’re just as good of a man.”

I don’t know if I can. But I’m sure as hell going to try. Within seconds, he’s snoring loudly, the wheeze in his lungs sounding like something awful. I inch my way around the mess of bodies and broken glass and head to the basement to try and make good on my side of the bargain.

I hear the heavy steel door squeak open as I stand in the bathroom mirror, doing my best to salvage whatever I can from Olive’s emergency overnight bag to make my face a little more presentable.

I admit, I look pretty hot in her zip-up denim dress compared to my usual attire. She fills it out a little better than I do, I think.

I hear the springs of the mattress squeal.

“What are you doing in there?” Gavin shouts.

“Putting on some makeup.”

“You know you don’t need that shit,” he says.

“Well I wanted to be pretty for you and I’m fresh out of blood and gravel.” I stand in the doorway smiling, taking in his glorious body.

“The fuck is this?” he asks, pulling a spoon out from under his back.

“Sorry,” I say. “Ollie and I got a little wild last night while you were out.”

I straddle his lap and he wraps his arms around me, running his hands up the back of my thighs, lifting my skirt a little.

“You ate all my ice cream, didn’t you?” His dark eyes have a mischievous squint to them, and the way he’s trying to look pissed off is so sexy.

“I even put the empty container back in the freezer for ya.”

He laughs, rolling me over on my back, kissing me on the lips, and I’m already turned on by his touch. So much for getting dressed. I reach for his shirt and he pins my arms down to my sides, unrelenting with his kisses.

“Not so fast, wild woman,” he teases. “We’re going on a field trip.”

“Oh come on,” I whine. “Can’t we just spend the day in bed?”

He brushes his hand down the small of my back, cupping my denim covered ass, and I squeal.

“Let’s go,” he says, standing up, gazing over my body as I pout. “I promise we’ll take care of you soon. I just want to get out of here before the place starts waking up for the day.”

“You don’t want me around your friends or something?” I ask.

“No, they’re a bunch of a fucking perverts.”

“And what does that make you?” I giggle.

He shakes his head at me and purses his lips.

“Just you wait, Sloan.”

I sit up on the edge of the bed and watch him as he strips down, his glorious muscular body not doing any favors for my current condition. He changes into a fresh black t-shirt and some tight jeans, worn and ripped in all the right places, and I realize it doesn’t matter if this man is clothed or naked. He’s just plain hot.

“Where are we going? Am I appropriately dressed?”

“You can wear whatever you want. Once we get there, though, I expect it to be a lot less than what you currently have on.” He picks me up off the bed and unzips the top of my dress just a little bit, planting a wet kiss on the top of my breast.

“Oh yeah?” I moan, a shiver running down my spine.

“Come on,” he says. He grabs me by the hand and leads me up the steps and into the barroom. I’m a little disgusted by what I’m seeing. There are girls in various states of undress sleeping on the floor and furniture, and the air reeks of stale beer and cigar smoke.

“Is this what you were doing last night?” I ask, genuinely hurt by the fact that he picked this over me. I have to watch where I’m walking, as broken glass is strewn across the hardwood floor.

“No, actually. We had a meeting that ran late. I didn’t want to wake you guys up so I just slept on that couch.”

He motions to a green couch in the corner of the room where Heat is passed out, his bandana covering his eyes.

“Cuddled up with Heat?”

“Yeah, is that weird?” he asks, his face completely serious before cracking up. “Old guy had a rough night. I think everyone did.”

“Well I slept wonderfully,” I tell him.

“Even after a half gallon of ice cream?”

“I’ll get you more, you big baby.”

We try to navigate our way around the room without stepping on people or puddles or any other incidentals laying on the floor and out into the morning sunshine. It’s one of those confusing eighty degree September days in Pennsylvania, where you can’t quite decide how to dress because you know at some point it will probably snow. Regardless, I don’t think I’ll have a problem keeping warm. Between the way he makes my blood pump to his big strong arms he can’t keep off my body, I feel like I’m in a constant state of having a hot flash.

We walk past the shed where I patched up Clutch yesterday and a tall man with long blonde hair is backing out of the doorway, a garden hose in his hand, spraying down the floor.

“Hey!” Gavin shouts. “How’s it looking.”

“Meh,” he says. “I’ll get some prospects to deep clean ’er down later.”

The man turns to me. Blue eyes, cut jaw, incredibly handsome and obviously bearded, I recognize him from the chaos down below yesterday, but I’ve yet to meet him. I’m more concerned with why Olive hasn’t snatched this guy up for her own, yet. He is definitely not hard on the eyes.

“Oh hey, girl,” he says. “It’s nice to finally meet you.” He pulls me in for a hug. “He might pull that alpha caveman bullshit around the other guys, but I’m allowed.”

“That’s because you’re so repulsive the only way a woman will touch you is if she’s giving you a pity hug.”

“You guys sure are nice to each other,” I say, rolling my eyes.

“It’s kind of our thing. Been best friends since before we could grow a beard,” Gavin says.

“What are you guys getting into today?” he asks.

“Heading up to the house,” Gavin says.

“Oh, nice. That’s actually not a horrible idea. Maybe some of her smarts are rubbing off on you. Too bad it doesn’t work the same way with looks, you ugly fucker.”

“Your mom doesn’t seem to feel that way. Can you please tell her to stop calling me?”

“Get out of here,” he says, patting Gavin on the back. “If he does anything to irritate you my house is right down that road.” He points over his shoulder.

“Yeah, it’s the one full of real sex dolls. It’s creepy as fuck. You can’t miss it.”

“Bye, Brooks,” I say. “It was nice meeting you.”

I like the fact that Gavin has good friends and he’s willing to bring me around them. It’s so different than the way ,Arthur always kept me tucked away from everyone and everything in his life.

We walk to the garage, full of motorcycles lined up neatly in a row. He hands me a helmet.

“So where are we going?” I ask him. It’s such a gorgeous day outside, I don’t really care. Just getting to spend some time wrapped around him without worrying about the drama and chaos that has been the last few is going to be nice. I smooth my hair and put the helmet on.

“You’ll see,” he says, popping the kickstand. “Hop on, gorgeous.”