Tryin’ to remember my own damn rule.
No touchin’.
Fuck but that was provin’ harder than expected to follow.
“BBQ?” she asked, her brows twisted up in an adorable frown.
Christ, a grown man thinkin’ a frown was ‘adorable.’ What was I becomin’?
“No.” I grinned. “Gun range.”
“You’re going to teach me to shoot a gun!?” she cried out too loudly.
Sammy immediately ducked into himself and covered his ears with a whimper. Lou cringed and took a moment to stroke his back and head, leanin’ close to pepper kisses against the back of his neck until he poked outta his shell, forgetting his discomfort in favour of Lou’s kisses.
Couldn’t blame the little guy.
“Sorry, one of Sammy’s aversions is to loud noises,” she explained then giggled softly. “Unless he’s making them himself. I’ve always, always wanted to learn to shoot a gun. Dammit, I’m not wearing the right clothes for it though!”
I took in her jeans and turtleneck. Normally that much clothin’ on a woman did nothin’ for me but I’d never seen a woman fill out a shirt the way Lou did. ’Sides, the thought of pullin’ out the knife I kept in my left boot and cuttin’ it off her was a fantasy now firmly rooted in my brain.
“Look fine,” I grunted.
She giggled again. “Okay, well in that case, hell yeah, I want to go to Smoke’s Range with you.”
I bit back my smile and nodded. “Good, now give me some a those blocks so I can show these two why I’m the boss, yeah?”
Her answering smile grabbed holda my heart and squeezed.
“Zeus, Zeus!” Lou called even though I was right fuckin’ there, one foot over her shoulder watchin’ her as I had been for the past ninety minutes. “Did you see that?”
Smoke and I chuckled but I was the one to say, “You’re a fuckin’ natural, Lou.”
She glanced over her shoulder, her pretty face obscured by ugly fuckin’ protective eyewear and ear mufflers and she was still the prettiest thing I’d ever seen, gun pressed to her tricep, finger on the trigger and massive grin on her face.
“I am, aren’t I?” she said.
Smoke laughed rough and wet the way only a man who’d smoked a pack a day his whole life could laugh. He was a hard man, an MC brother who couldn’t ride much anymore but who taught all the brothers how to handle a weapon when they prospected The Fallen. He was like a dad to me, only better ’cause my dad had been an abusive alcoholic fucktard who’d cheated on my mum and took all her hard-earned money whenever he felt like it.
He liked Lou and, given the way he kept raising those wire brush eyebrows at me, he liked her for me.
I tried to ignore the old bastard, but problem was, I liked her for me too.
“Sniper rifles are way cooler than handguns,” Lou was saying to him as she took off the mufflers. “I want one of these.”
“Not near as practical, girlie. I’ll get you set up with a Sig Sauer P238.”
“Don’t I need to apply for a gun permit or something?” she asked.
Smoke and I blinked at her.
She bit her lip and laughed self-consciously. “Yeah, no, never mind. Sorry.”
“No need to ’poligize, Lou,” I crouched down beside her. “You want a permit, we’ll getcha one, yeah?”
“Yeah, okay,” she breathed, starin’ into my face as if it was the first and last sight she’d seen or ever wanted to see.
She made a man who’d felt like a monster his entire life, feel like a fuckin’ angel.
“This is serious though, Lou, so I want you to drop the rifle and practice with the handgun again, yeah?”
She nodded immediately. “What’s going on?”
I sighed as she pushed her eyewear into her hair, flipped the safety on the gun and got up to follow me over to the handgun section of the range.
“Shit’s goin’ down with another MC,” I decided to tell her. “Not the kinda thing I talk about with outsiders, Lou, so don’t get used to it but you gotta know that things might get rough for a while and I need you to be careful, yeah? Mute’s got your back and you need to let him. Fuck, even introduce him to your parents if you need to so he can get access to your house.”
She laughed. “My parents are barely home. If Mute needs to hang out with me and Bea while we do our homework, that’s cool. They won’t be around to question why there’s a biker in their house.”
“Hate that for you,” I told her, not for the first time.
“I’ve got you back now and something tells me you’ve got family to spare,” she said with a soft grin, moving her body into mine as I came to a stop before a target.
The feel of her soft breasts against my chest was excruciatin’.
“No touchin’,” I barked.
She had the fuckin’ gall to smile at me and turn on her Converse heel like the cheerleader she was to grab the pistol.
“Like this?” she asked over her shoulder, squaring her arms and leveling the weapon.
Her small pink tongue stuck between her teeth as she concentrated. It was the same pink I imagined her pussy would be when I spread it open with my fingers and dived in with my tongue.
I’d noticed a red lollipop stickin’ outta her front jeans pocket and couldn’t wait to watch her suck on it. Wished I could know if she’d taste like cherries all over.
“Zeus?”
I adjusted my half-chub in my pants and stepped closer to maneuver her shoulder, readjust her hips between my palms. The contrast between her little waist and my mitts was such a turn-on that I took an extra beat to stare down at myself touchin’ her. She took the opportunity to arch her back, stickin’ her ass up like a present wrapped in denim.
“Behave,” I ordered.
“Yes, Daddy,” she answered, humor rich in her voice.
I reached out to smack her ass, hard. She squealed, her free hand coming to rub over the hurt as she frowned at me.
“Um, ouch!”
“Don’t fuckin’ tempt me, Lou,” I warned her. “Now, you hit the inner ring of the target twice and I’ll let you ride on the back of my bike insteada Mute’s, yeah?”
Those blue eyes lit up like I’d given her fuckin’ diamonds. Without another word, she angled away from me, donned her protective gear, steadied herself and popped off six rounds.
When I dragged my eyes from the sexy as fuck sight of ’er, I noticed she’d hit three within the inner ring.
She shrugged at me as she ripped off her mufflers and goggles. “I’ve always been an overachiever.”
I threw my head back and laughed, snaggin’ an arm around her hips and draggin’ her to my side as I’d wanted to do all day. She wasn’t a short thing but anyone was little compared to me and she fit into my side just fuckin’ right.
It was gettin’ harder to believe this girl, this teenage daughter of my arch-nemesis and renowned good girl, wasn’t fuckin’ made for me.
I grinned down into her face and loved the way she blinked up at me as if I was the sun. “You earned yourself a ride on my bike.”
She shivered against me, leanin’ all her weight, all those soft curves into the wall of my body in a gesture of trust that eviscerated me. “I’ve been dreaming of it since I was seven years old.”