Start a War (Saint View Psychos #1)(77)

I made a face. “It really wasn’t! Poor woman. She looked like she was making out her shopping list in her head while he jack-rabbited her.”

That was nothing like what I’d witnessed in the main room last time I’d been at one of these parties. “I think I’ll stick to the pros.”

“Probably a good idea. There’s other little delights for you to find in the other rooms, but we should probably check on the party. It’ll be filling up quick.”

He went to walk away, but I grabbed his arm. “Wait, Nash. Are we okay? After the other day…”

He shrugged. “I’m over it. I was hurt, but I get it. Everyone feels like a suspect. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t looking at people in a different light as well.”

His gaze flickered to my breasts for half a second before dragging back up to my face. He grimaced when he realized I’d caught him staring. “Shit, sorry. I swear, I wasn’t…”

Except we both knew he was.

“You can look,” I whispered.

He groaned and ran his hand through his hair. “Fuck, Bliss. Don’t say things like that. Not here.”

“Why not here?”

“Because everything is different at these parties. There’s no inhibitions. There’s no outside world. I could forget you’re Axel’s little sister and young enough to be my daughter.”

“So don’t look at me then.”

His eyes burned through me. “I fucking want to look at you, Bliss.”

His gaze rolled over me, slow and sexy, lingering on my breasts, my hips, my belly, and then the junction of my thighs.

I didn’t dare breathe. People milled around us, moving toward rooms with their keys clutched in their hands or sidling up to peepholes to watch what other people did behind them.

But all I cared about was Nash and the way he made me feel. I didn’t care that he was older. He was gorgeous and rock-hard beneath his tight T-shirt. His biceps popped. I wanted to stare at him as much as he wanted to stare at me.

He put one hand at the back of my neck and drew me in.

My breath hitched.

His gaze dropped to my lips, and unconsciously, I ran my tongue over them.

His mouth hovered over mine but then changed course, brushing against my ear. “Have sex with someone tonight, Bliss. Because you look way too fucking good in that not to.”

I blew out a breath as he pulled back and disappeared into the crowd, leaving me weak and turned on.

Have sex with someone.

Just not him.

It didn’t matter that he was attracted to me. I still wasn’t enough.

Straightening my shoulders and lifting my chin, I strode back out into the main room. I refilled my tray with drinks, and I did what I’d come here to do.

Work.

Sex was not on the table.

Well, it was. There was a couple going at it right on the table to my left.

But not for me.





27





WAR





“So, we’ve got everything set for Tuesday. All the clubs have been notified, and everyone is coming.”

I glanced over at Hawk while we stood in the line outside of Psychos, waiting to get in. “All of them?”

He cringed and nodded. “Yeah, man. All of them. They should start arriving Sunday.”

“Where the hell are we going to put them all?”

Hawk shrugged. “We’ve got plenty of room for camping. I ordered a couple of those portable toilets with the showers too, ‘cause fuck, having everyone trying to use the one bathroom in the clubhouse. That thing would get clogged in about ten minutes flat.”

“Food?”

“They’ll sort themselves out except for the night of the funeral. I figured we better handle that.”

I sucked on my cigarette and let the nicotine smoke fill my lungs. I blew it out so slowly it burned. But it helped relieve the pressure ticking away inside me like a fucking time bomb. “Get Aloha to smoke some meat. Heaps of it. Queenie will get the girls making some sides, but as long as there’s meat and beer, that’ll keep most people happy.” The line inched forward, and I went with it. “I can’t believe they’re all coming.”

“Your old man was well-loved. Everyone wants to pay their respects.” Hawk glanced at me. “And…”

“And they want to gawk at how I’m handling being prez.”

“Yeah. That.”

“Assholes.” We were all Slayers. Different chapters of the same club. We were supposed to be one big happy extended family.

We weren’t.

Half the men who arrived at our complex this week would shake your hand in one second, then stab you in the back in the next. Literally. Then they’d pull the knife out of your bleeding body, wipe it on their T-shirt, and use it to cut their dinner.

Some would have been genuinely upset to find out about my old man’s passing. They’d be here to pay their respects and mourn. But there’d be just as many looking for a weakness.

Because knowing other people’s soft spots was the best way to manipulate them into doing what you wanted.

I didn’t trust anyone as far as I could throw them. Especially not the men outside my own chapter.

I stubbed my smoke out beneath my boot as we reached the door. “No more club shit tonight, yeah? Let’s just have a good time. The rest can wait.”