Truly, Madly, Whiskey(69)
She snuggled in and closed her eyes, reveling in their intimate new world, and drifted off to the sure and steady beat of his heart.
Chapter Sixteen
BEAR LAY AWAKE with a purring kitty curled against one side and his beautiful girlfriend draped across the other. He’d thought of her that way for so long that as the sun crept in through the blinds, bringing her private world into focus, he wasn’t surprised by the intensity of his feelings. He wanted to go to sleep with her in his arms every night and wake up with her every morning. He wanted to watch her creative mind at work, and cook with her, and take her on long motorcycle rides. He wanted to give her enough good memories to wipe away the bad. But tonight he had to bartend again, and if he honored his father’s demands and took on the expansion, he’d have little to no free time in the foreseeable future.
As he looked around her bedroom, his thoughts returned to last night’s conversation on the beach, and Bullet’s words came back to him.
You always do what’s right, little brother. It’s that simple.
Right for who? That was the question.
Bullet stood behind his convictions even when it was clear to Bear that where Dixie was concerned, his brother’s convictions were wrong. Did Bullet know something he didn’t? Or was he just as hardheaded as his father? He’d fight for his brothers even if the odds were 50:1. Club brothers, Truman, Quincy, blood brothers. Brotherhood was brotherhood. The difference between Bear and Bullet was that for the sake of their sister, Bear would stand up to the one man Bullet wouldn’t. And though he had no concrete evidence of what Bullet would do in a situation like his and Crystal’s, he had a feeling that in his brother’s mind, doing the right thing meant nailing the f*cker who had attacked her to the wall and dealing with the aftermath of Crystal’s heartache later.
Crystal lifted her chin, smiling up at him with sleepy eyes, and his heart swelled. If that’s what Bullet thought, he’d be wrong. Bear had made his choice and he intended to honor it. Crystal’s well-being came before anything, or anyone, else.
They’d made love for a second time in the middle of the night after they’d woken tangled up in each other. He’d waited for her to take the initiative, not wanting to come across too pushy, and she had. Stepping back from the aggressive lover he’d always been had allowed him to feel more connected to Crystal and her needs. And that had deepened their connection and opened his eyes to other parts of his life that he’d been plowing through. It was time to figure out how to do the right thing where his father and Dixie were concerned. Had life always been this complicated and he hadn’t seen it clearly until Crystal had opened his eyes?
He lifted Harley from the bed and kissed her before setting her on the floor.
“Mm.” Crystal pressed her lips to his chest. “Does my Bear need sustenance?”
“Your Bear needs to hold you.” He gathered her in his arms.
She pressed her hips to his. “Little Bear has other ideas.”
He kissed her again, rolling her onto her back and deepening the kiss. “Don’t feel pressured by my body’s reactions to my beautiful girlfriend.”
She touched her lips to his again. “Thank you, but finally being honest with you about why I held back for so long freed me from being under its thumb. I promise, if there are times that I need to slow down, I will let you know. But I have never felt happier, or more in control, in my entire life.”
“Okay, then I won’t ask again.”
She smiled. “Yes, you will. You’re my pushy, caring Bear. But hopefully you’ll learn quickly and will let me own this decision sooner rather than later.”
“You can own that one.” He pressed a kiss to her chest, above her heart. “I only want to own this one.”
“We don’t own—we are one, remember? Now shut up and kiss me so I can see if my biker boy is as good in the morning as he is in the evening.”
She pulled him into a scorching kiss, and he showed her just how incredible morning lovemaking could be.
Later that afternoon Bear was traipsing through the kitchen of Whiskey Bro’s with Dixie, thinking about Crystal and Silver-Stone and wondering why he was wasting his time coming up with an expansion plan for the bar.
“I’ll call Crow and get a handle on renovation costs.” Bear leaned against the counter watching his sister take copious notes. She tucked her hair behind her ear, revealing the colorful tats on her shoulder. Her eyes were serious and focused, underscoring the differences in their interests for the project.
“I have ideas about how to reconfigure the kitchen, and I was thinking. Maybe we shouldn’t offer dinner food. If we just offer things like sandwiches and fries, then we don’t really need a chef. It’ll keep expenses down while still offering more to the customers.”
“I agree. Catering to a dinner crowd would turn Whiskey’s into a different type of place altogether, and I’m not sure that’s what any of us want.”
Dixie closed her notebook, and he could practically hear the gears in her mind turning. After fourteen years of working in the bar, he had none of that excitement left in him, whereas every time he walked into the auto shop he got a rush of adrenaline. The shop wasn’t just a job or just part of the family business he had to take over. It was the place he could see himself working thirty years down the line, and when he looked that far ahead, other than his family, there were only three other things he envisioned. Crystal, a family of their own, with snarky girls and badass boys, and his name attached to some of the most sought-after motorcycles in the world.