Page 5 of Need (Men of Inked Sinners #3)

“Just tell me if I should pack for the bike or my other truck.”

“Bike?” I ask, both of my eyebrows shooting upward .

“Yeah. I don’t get to take her out much this time of year.”

“I’m sure.”

“But if you come, we can probably haul her with us if you like to ride.”

“I love to ride,” I tell him, but I’m not sure if I’m talking about his bike anymore—or him.

It’s as if the universe plucked my list for a perfect man right out of the sky and put him directly in my path on purpose.

“Then that’s what we’ll do.”

I stare at him, blinking a few times. Is he serious?

He can’t be. I’m a stranger, and he’s suddenly inviting me on a trip deep into the woods with no one else around us.

Usually, I would say no. There’s no way I’d do that with most men I know, especially one I just met.

But this is Oliver, my lumberjack savior, and he literally just saved my life.

He wouldn’t take me out there to kill me after all the trouble he’s been through today, right?

“What are we doing?” Aunt Daphne asks as she sets down two plates with the most beautiful burgers. “Making plans?”

“We’re going camping,” Oliver says to her as he turns the plate around, putting the burger side toward him instead of the fries.

Aunt D sucks in air between her teeth. “Sounds awful. ”

Oliver’s gaze dips to her boots. “You don’t look like the hiking type.”

“Not a day in my life. And this one—” Aunt D shoots a look toward me “—isn’t much better.”

“Noted,” Oliver tells her with a smile. “But I’ll make sure she’s safe.”

“I have no doubt,” Aunt D tells him before taking a few steps away and glancing over her shoulder, giving me a wink. “Hot,” she mouths at me.

“Now, everyone’s going to know,” I tell him as I grab the ketchup. “And I mean everyone.”

“They can come too,” he says as he grabs the burger with one hand like it’s not half the size of my head.

A pang of sadness washes over me. Was I reading too much into it? Maybe it is just a friends-type trip, even though we aren’t even that yet. “Oh no. If you think those three were too much, my cousins are worse.”

“If they’re all like you, I’ll like them,” he says before taking the biggest bite I’ve ever seen.

I imagine his mouth, open that wide, eating something else, and I need to reach for my soda, chugging it like my insides are on fire and need to be cooled.

“You okay?” he asks after he swallows.

“Fine. Fine,” I lie as every little nerve ending in my body is screaming at me to touch him or rub my body on him like I’m a cat in heat .

He takes another bite of his burger and groans, closing his eyes as he chews. My fingers curl, my nails digging into the old wood of the tabletop. Damn it. Why am I reacting this way—and in my family’s bar, no less? I’ve seen a man eat before, but it was nowhere near as erotic of an experience.

When Oliver opens his eyes, they land on me. I jolt in my chair, my hands flying to my burger because I need to put food in my mouth to stop myself from saying something completely embarrassing.

“So good,” I say around a mouthful of burger.

Oliver nods, jamming a few fries into his mouth. They’re great too. The fresh-cut ones that have crispy bits on the ends of the skinny fries. I could eat an entire plate of them with a side of cheese sauce every day of my life and never get sick of them.

When my gaze moves over Oliver’s shoulder, Aunt Daphne and Dad are staring at us.

Oh boy . This isn’t good.

I’m sure she opened her mouth and told him about the upcoming and unplanned camping trip. I’ll hear about this later, but what can Dad say? He can’t tell me Oliver is dangerous because the man literally saved my life today.

I can’t stop glancing in their direction as I keep eating and trying to carry on a normal conversation with Oliver. Before I have the last bite on my tongue, my mother comes rushing through the front door of the bar .

“Where is she?” Ma says, gasping for air like she ran a marathon, and she frantically glances around the dining room until her eyes land on me.

Great. Dad must’ve texted her when I wasn’t looking and told her everything that happened.

“My baby,” Ma says, coming in our direction with her arms open. Before I can react, she has her arms around me, burying my face in her chest. “Thank goodness you’re okay.” She rocks from side to side, making my stomach turn with its overstuffed contents.

“Ma, please stop.”

She only tightens her hold on me. “I don’t know what I would’ve done if something had happened to you.”

“Sweetheart,” Dad says from nearby, but I can’t see anything besides the color of my mother’s shirt. “You’re strangling her.”

“Oh,” Ma says, finally releasing me. “I’m sorry. I was just… Who’s this?”

I blink a few times as my eyes adjust to the light again. “That’s Oliver. He saved me.”

“Stop saying that, Lou,” Oliver says.

“Lou?” Ma’s eyebrows rise as she turns her gaze toward me again.

“He calls you Lou?”

I nod at her. “It’s my name.”

“Your nickname,” she reminds me.

“And if the guy who saved my life can’t use it, who should? ”

“Right,” she says with a curt nod. “How can we repay you?” Ma asks Oliver.

I cover my face with a hand and groan. “Ma.”

“What?”

“I have it handled.”

“You do?”

I drop my hand into my lap as I stare up at her. “We’re starting with a burger.”

“And ending with?” she asks, tilting her head with a weird look on her face.

“I’m going to organize his garage.”

Her eyebrows draw inward. “You are?”

I nod and reach for a fry. “Uh, yeah. What else would I do?”

She sucks in a breath as she drops into the chair next to me. “I don’t know. I don’t know what’s the right thing when someone saves your life.”

“Me either,” I tell her as I pop the fry into my mouth. “But I’m going to figure it out.”

“Lou, I don’t need or want anything,” Oliver says for the millionth time.

“Baby,” Ma says to him, patting his hand, “you may not need or want something, but you sure as hell deserve it.”

Oliver shifts in his seat, forcing a smile on his face. “I did what anyone else would’ve done in my shoes.”

Ma just stares at him, and the look on her face even makes me shift in my seat. “No, they wouldn’t. She knows it. I know it. And you know it.” She points her finger at each of us as she speaks.

“You can have burgers on the house for the rest of your life,” Dad says to Oliver, and I raise an eyebrow at him.

What is he doing? He’s up to something, but I’m not sure what angle he’s taking.

“That’s too much,” Oliver replies.

“Take it,” I tell him. “They won’t stop until you accept some kind of gift.”

Oliver sighs. “Thank you, sir.”

Dad’s eyes flash because he hates the proper and extremely old terms as much as I do. “You’re welcome.”

“Can we finish eating?” I ask him and my mom, because we were having a fine time before Mom walked in and lost her mind.

“Sure,” Ma says, pushing herself up from her chair as my father takes her hand. “I’ll be over there.”

“Okay,” I tell her, but it’s not as if I won’t be able to see her. I didn’t think she was going to vanish into thin air. As soon as they’re back by the bar near Aunt Daphne, I turn my gaze back toward Oliver. “I’m sorry they’re so weird.”

“I really like them.”

“Then you’re a weirdo too.”

He chuckles as he takes another bite of his burger, which is probably cold since my family can’t seem to stop interrupting us .

“So, where are we camping when you say ‘down south’?”

“Just outside of Nashville.”

My eyes widen. “Really? I’ve never been to Nashville.”

“We’ll be outside, but maybe we can go to the city one night.”

“How many nights are we going?”

“Four.”

I lean back in my chair and try to think about how long four nights is. I mean, I know, but that’s with the hustle and bustle of the city, not crickets and wildlife. “I don’t know if I can make it four days.”

“You can, darlin’.”

“I don’t think so.”

“I know you’ll be begging me for more.”