We both ignored him, Alex pulled back to stare at my face, hands at my neck.
“You look great, G. Happy,” he told me quietly, eyes full of pride.
I felt my own well up with tears. “I am, A, I’m doing so good, and I didn’t think I could get much happier, but you guys just proved me wrong.” I beamed at him, wrapping my arms around his muscled body once again.
“What the fuck?” a very pissed off male voice asked from behind me.
I released Alex to see Cade, Brock, and Bull staring at Alex and me with varying degrees of anger. Bull’s face was blank as usual, but his eye seemed to be twitching. Brock’s face was hard, but his gaze was on Amy who had walked down to join us, holding hands with Ryan, who, had obviously forgotten about his Vuitton because he was gawking at the three bikers before him. I didn’t blame him, three fine male specimens encased in leather just meters away? It was a lot to take in.
“Jesus Christ, Abrams, get back inside the fucking house and put on some fucking clothes,” Brock barked, ignoring Alex and Ryan, striding towards Amy.
She put a hand on her bare hip, eyes narrowing at the approaching biker. “Seriously? Do not order me around like some caveman, asshole. It’s a bikini, and I’m pretty sure a little thing called Feminism happened about fifty years ago, giving women the right to wear whatever they want and not have to listen to arrogant pricks.” She finished by yelling in his face when he got to her.
I bit back a laugh at how familiar this conversation was to the ones I regularly had with Cade.
He ignored her, wrapping his hand around her wrist and dragging her back into the house, while she fought him and cursed him.
Ryan watched with a raised eyebrow, a grin threatening the corner of his mouth, obviously amused. Alex hadn’t been. I had to hold him back when Brock grabbed Amy, whispering in his ear to reassure him he didn’t have to take on three big men to protect us. Which he would, in a heartbeat.
“I’m so going to like it here,” Ryan declared, joining Alex and me, oblivious to the hostility radiating off my boyfriend.
“Ryan, Alex, I’d like you to meet my boyfriend Cade and his friend Bull,” I said carefully. “And Cade and Bull these are my best friends Ryan and Alex.”
I was trying to think of a subtle way to inform Cade they were my very gay best friends, as I knew he was getting jealous, but Ryan took care of that. He pushed forward, shaking both of their hands, looking like drool might drop out of the corner of his mouth.
“Seriously, Gwen told me about you guys, but I totally thought she was exaggerating. If I wasn’t, like, madly in love with this one,” he pointed with his thumb to Alex, “I would move here, like, tomorrow.” Ryan grinned at them. “Now let’s get this party started! I brought Dom, which I hope hasn’t been broken by the careless throwing around of my luggage.” He gave a pointed glance at Alex, turning on his heel to grab his bags.
Cade stayed put, face unreadable. I suddenly panicked at what his reaction would be to my two very gay best friends. He came from a small town, was in a motorcycle club and was a serious macho man to boot. I couldn’t imagine him being ready to wave the rainbow flag. Shit. Surprisingly, he stepped forward, pulling me to his side and firmly shaking Alex’s hand.
“Nice to meet you, bro, any friend of Gwen’s is a friend of ours,” he said sincerely. I let out a breath of relief when Bull followed suit.
“Good to meet you too, Gwen has told me a lot about you, I’m looking forward to getting to know you better,” Alex replied carefully, sounding a lot like a protective older brother, and eying Cade’s cut skeptically.
“Hello? Very expensive champagne that needs to be drunk here?” Ryan called out from the porch, shaking the bottle, saving me from passing out from testosterone overdose.
“We better get inside and open that wine before my little queen throws a tantrum,” I joked, pulling Cade, and gesturing to Bull and Alex who walked in front of us, conversing about who knows what. This would be interesting.
“So, he owns a strip club?” Ryan exclaimed loudly, the results of our drinking session causing his voice to increase multiple decibels.
“Ry, inside voice please. I would rather you didn’t inform the entire bar,” I scolded.
Ryan waved his hand. “Puleeze, honey, this is a small town, I bet you were the last to know. We have to go there.” He decided, getting up on unsteady feet.
We were in Laura Maye’s bar again, having a girls’ night. Ryan obviously counted as a girl, and Alex was watching some game with Cade and the boys. Football maybe, hockey, or baseball? I honestly didn’t know, my ears glazed over at the talk of sports. But I was happy they were all getting along so well and that everyone had taken the gay thing without comment.
Rosie and the girls were meant to be meeting up with us later, but Amy and I had wanted time alone with Ryan first. I had decided to abstain from telling both him and Alex about the me getting kidnapped thing. Considering everything that was going on, I didn’t need that little gem of information in the mix.
“I second that,” Amy chimed in, finishing her drink and grabbing her Prada. “Let’s go and check out these girls that Cade has to ‘check in on.’” She finger quoted the last bit.
“Let’s skip past the fact that you are both insane, and just land at the fact we are meant to be meeting Rosie and the girls any minute and none of us are sober enough to drive.” I stayed seated, toying with the olive in my martini.
Amy pulled out her phone, fingers moving at lightning speed. I was impressed, I’d lost the ability to text after my third cocktail.
“Two birds, one stone. Rosie is picking us up and taking us to the strip club,” she declared, clearly pleased with herself.
I groaned as the two of them pulled me out of the chair.
“This is a terrible idea you guys. There’s nothing to gain by going out there, and we always get into trouble whenever you both agree on a plan after martinis.”
“Oh, come on, you know you’re curious about this place, we need to do the recon. Don’t tell me it hasn’t been driving you insane.” Amy crossed her arms, daring me to argue.
I felt deflated. It had been gnawing at me knowing Cade was involved in a place where beautiful women took their clothes off in front of him.
“And name one time that we got into trouble with martinis,” Ryan challenged, arms crossed.
“You almost got me arrested for stealing that cop’s hat.”
Ryan rolled his eyes “Almost. But didn’t.”
“Plus you ended up dating him for like a month and we got to bypass traffic whenever we were with him,” Amy chimed in.
Fuck. Bad example. The traffic thing had been handy.
“You got us banned from the Ivy for a year, Amy’s dad had to pull strings to get us back in,” I gave them another one.
Ryan rolled his eyes. “Totally not our fault. How were we meant to know that guy was married? And that his wife would be a biter?”
“Come on, Gwennie, you know you want to,” Amy interrupted.
I blew out an exasperated breath. “Fine, but we’re just looking then leaving.”
“That’s my girl!” Amy clapped her hands. “And we have to have at least one drink.” She ushered me out of the bar before I could argue.