Unattainable (Undeniable, #3)(62)
Deuce’s eyes cut in Eva’s direction. “Babe,” he bit out. “No f*ckin’ shit. I feel for the kid, you know I do. Been takin’ care of her as much as she’ll let me but the truth f*ckin’ stands, she ain’t old lady material. Her endin’ up with Cage means she’ll be where you are now and she ain’t got the right attitude for it. She’s still spittin’ mad, probably always gonna be too. Can’t have my club and my boys’ families fallin’ apart ’cause Tegen don’t know her f*ckin’ place.”
“She loves your son, Deuce,” Eva said softly. “Always has. Doesn’t that count for something?”
Cursing, Deuce slammed the water off and stepped out of the shower. Reaching over the counter, Eva snagged a towel from the rack and tossed it in his direction. He dried off quickly and tossed the towel to the floor. Crossing the small distance between them, Deuce placed his hands on either side of Eva and leaned forward.
“Don’t count for shit,” he said gruffly. “Not here, babe. You love the man, you love the life. Simple as that. You know this f*ckin’ shit.”
“And what if he loves her, too?”
Deuce paused. “You f*ckin’ shittin’ me? Cage? You think he’s hard up for that little shit?”
Eva shrugged. “I think he could be. From what I saw, I think he’s nearly there.”
Not good. The last thing he needed was his only son falling balls-deep into something with a crazy hippie. Next thing he’d know, Cage would be running off to San Francisco wearing flowers in his hair or some stupid shit and then what? He’d be handing his club over to Ripper?
Fuck that bullshit. Ripper got his baby girl and that was all that f*cking * was getting.
If what Eva said was true, that Cage was about to get caught up in a * full of quicksand, he was going to squash that shit. Right the f*ck now.
“Come here, babe,” he said, hooking his hands underneath Eva’s arms and sliding her forward. “You want dick, you gotta five-minute window before I start snorin’.”
Eva pressed her lips together and her eyes danced with laughter.
“I love you,” she said, giggling.
He snorted. “Babe. Yeah.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
At the edge of town, the drop-off point, Dirty shut off his engine but remained seated on his bike. He wasn’t sure he was going to be able to keep his shit together. Not when he came face-to-face with Mooresville. Not after spending an entire weekend and then some seeing Ellie smile, listening to her laugh, watching her sleep from his makeshift bedroll on the floor, just taking it all in. Her light snoring, her sleepy-sounding murmurs and leg twitches, her kicking the sheets off, allowing him to see her T-shirt riding up her body, exposing her smooth stomach.
He hadn’t slept in days, afraid of having another nightmare and attacking her again, but he didn’t care. He was too wrapped up in her, shocked, confused, out of his mind, thinking constantly about the sound of his real name, the movement of her generous mouth as she said it, the feel of her wet skin under his hands, the pleading look in the alleyway.
He wanted to f*ck her so bad it hurt. It hurt because he was terrified. Scared to death.
He’d been raped by a woman, raped by a man, and he’d raped women.
He’d never been with a woman. Not in the way other men were with women.
And he’d never kissed a woman.
Ever.
Fuck him, forget kissing, he couldn’t stand being touched. The thought of Ellie touching him…like that…gave him an erection from hell even as his skin crawled, rippling with disgust.
Yeah. Fuck that shit. Him and Ellie; that was never going to happen unless he dosed her. Which he was not going to do.
What he was going to do was make sure Mooresville either went to ground or kept his motherf*cking distance.
Because, the one thing he did know for certain was that he didn’t want Ellie to leave. He wanted more smiles. More laughter. He just wanted to be around her. Or at least in the same town as her.
Maybe he could take her for a ride sometime…on the back of his bike.
“Fuck you!”
Dirty glanced over and found Cage up in Cox’s face, shoving the brother backward.
“Fuckin’ touch me again, little boy,” Cox growled. “And I will end you.”
Cage’s nostrils flared wildly. “Fuckin’ end me, you stupid spic motherf*cker, f*ckin’ do it!”
“I’m gonna end both of you if you don’t shut the f*ck up!” Deuce roared.
Dirty rolled his eyes and looked away. Cage had been straight-up out of his mind ever since he’d woken up Tuesday morning and found that Tegen had snuck out in the middle of the night. He’d been drinking excessively ever since, picking fights and just plain being miserable.
Fucking women drama. Dirty shook his head. Maybe he should be glad he couldn’t be in any sort of normal relationship with a female. If the couples around him were examples of what relationships were like, he sort of felt lucky. He damn sure wasn’t emotionally equipped to deal with crazy bitches like Kami, Tegen, or even Danny, because as normal as she seemed, she’d killed a woman. Put two bullets in Ripper’s ex-girlfriend. Something like that definitely constituted as woman-crazy.
“Dirty.”
He glanced up to find Deuce standing beside him.