Page 16

Rebel

I woke up curled protectively around Lacey’s lush form. Last night had been an amazing breakthrough for us. I honestly thought she was going to be pissed that I crawled all up in her former relationship and her parents’ personal lives.

I had considered not telling her about her ex or her mom’s friend, but I was glad I came clean about all that because her reaction told me one simple thing. She trusted me to make appropriate judgment calls when it came to looking out for her and her parents. Earning her trust had felt like winning the fucking lottery.

Nobody got me like Lacey did. She not only understood me, she also liked me as a person and if I wasn’t mistaken, I think she saw us as having something long-term. Imagine a good, wholesome woman like Lacey seeing me as good enough. I mean, I knew deep down inside that I was, but getting overlooked by women who had their act together for my whole life was beginning to mess with my head. That little nagging voice in the back of my mind was starting to tell me that all the women in the world couldn’t be wrong.

Truth be told, it was starting to give me an outright complex. I hadn’t wanted to believe I wasn’t good enough, but that was the logical explanation and the reason I had been such an ass when Lacey blew me off the first time, I approached her. Granted, it had been a ham-handed approach on my part, but at the time it seemed to support the idea that I wasn’t enough for nice women to take an interest in me.

Now, by embracing me so quickly, Lacey had proven I was right all along. Fuck that little voice all to hell. The last thing in the world I needed was self-doubt plaguing my every step. I worked hard, was there for my club brothers, and saw that my grandmother was taken care of. I had nothing to be ashamed of. Lacey saw through all my self-doubt and personality quirks. She saw the real me and I was so thankful for the chance to get close to her that I was never gonna take her for granted.

***

I must have fallen asleep again, because I was woken by my phone vibrating from my pants on the floor, so I leaned down to grab it out of the pocket. I would have preferred to ignore it in favor of staying close to Lacey, but there was too much going on in my life with my gran and the club to just ignore texts and calls. When I checked, it was a text from Storm letting me know that the cops had finally released the office from being an active crime scene. I sent him a ‘thank you’ and put the phone on my bedside table. I personally felt that they held off releasing the crime scene because Storm and I had been a bit of a pain in their asses about doing a proper investigation. Even our contact at the police department wasn’t about to speed things up, so we’d gotten our attorney involved to see if he could work his magic.

Lacey turned over and burrowed down closer to my side. I shoved my hard cock aside and twisted my hips to keep from seeming insistent the very second she opened her eyes. Because it’s not very gentlemanly to wake someone up with a raging boner pressed against their ass.

She yawned, “What time is it? It can’t be morning already.”

I pulled her close again and murmured, “It’s seven.”

“Too early,” she groaned.

Her behavior made me smile. “Most of the brothers get up early because Storm’s burned it into our minds that if we don’t get moving, we’re burning daylight.”

Her head tiled up to look at me. “What does that even mean?”

I lean down and kiss her on the forehead. “It means, ladybug, that we only get so many hours in a day and it’s a bad idea to waste any of them. I guess it stems from being in the military.”

“I need more sleep,” she muttered.

I gave her a quick kiss on the lips and told her, “Why don’t you sleep in? I’ll go down and get coffee and breakfast started.”

“Stay right where you are. You’re warm and snuggly.”

“Yeah, I am both of those things. However, unless I get a cold shower, we’re gonna end up going another round or two and I know you probably don’t want that because we went at it long and hard last night.”

She sighed, “Fine, if you’re getting up, so am I.”

“Cause you don’t want to waste time sleeping when you could be with me, right?”

She rolled over and stared up at the ceiling. “You got me on that one. Storm’s right. Wallowing in bed alone is no way to start the day.”

“Want to grab a shower with me?” I asked playfully. “We can fool around.”

That got her sitting up and rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. Damn, this woman was too precious to ever think about giving up. She slid out of bed and just as she started stumbling towards the bathroom, I heard her say, “Last one to the shower ends up on their knees.”

I bolted out of bed, but my ensuite bathroom was close, and she had a head start. Truth be told, I wasn’t trying too hard to be first because the thought of having my mouth on her this morning sounded like the perfect way to start my day. She might have made it there first, but I was right behind her. I had to admit that she looked stunning all naked and laughing with her mess of bed hair. I liked her like this, happy, contented with me, and carefree.

We fell into the shower, still laughing and joking with each other. Since the plan was to fool around, I set the temperature to warm instead of hot. Lacey immediately grabbed a squirt of body gel from my pump dispenser and begin soaping up my body. Not being born yesterday, I knew exactly where this was going. By the time she got to my cock, I leaned back against the shower wall and let her stroke me to her heart’s content. I’d showered with women before but never had a sexy shower, so this was yet another thrilling new experience to share with her. It didn’t take me long to shoot my load all over her breasts again.

When she lifted her arms up and tilted her head back to wet her hair, I swear she looked like a finely chiseled Greek statue, only with arms. I immediately took the opportunity she so generously provided to return the favor of soaping up her body, beginning with her breasts.

After rinsing her off with the shower head, I dropped to my knees and continued to worship her body like she deserved. Hearing her moan and make sounds of pleasure made my chest swell with pride. When she came all over my tongue, I lapped it up. Everything about Lacey, from her company, to the way we were together, was amazing. I was falling hard and fast for her and being genuinely in love for the first time in my life was turning out to be better than I ever imagined it would be.

We got dressed and I made a quick breakfast of coffee and some muffins I had bought a day or two ago which were still okay. I made a mental note to go grocery shopping—if Lacey was gonna be staying over here regularly, then my typical bachelor fare of ramen noodles, yesterday’s take-out pizza, and whatever leftovers I’d snatched from the clubhouse grill just wouldn’t cut it. Then we headed straight to the office to assess the damage and begin the cleanup. I remembered it as being a mess but between the detectives and the forensic team it was a total wreck.

Wandering around from room to room, Lacey looked like she was about to cry. “What in the world did the police do to our office? It’s worse than after the break-in.”

Putting my arm around her, I answered, “They had to look for clues, which involves looking through the desks, cabinets, and closets, as well as dusting for fingerprints.”

“It’s going to take days to set things right,” she said with tears in her eyes. “My parents would lose their minds if they saw all this. My mom was always so particular about making sure everything was nice and clean.”

It was frustrating that we went from having a truly wonderful day to Lacey seeing her family business trashed by people who should have known better. It honestly did feel a bit like the cops added insult to injury by the way they handled the investigation in general.

I tugged her closer. “It’s not gonna take days. I’ll get some prospects to clean the place up and you can take a little time to shop for replacements for the things that can’t be salvaged. How does that sound?”

She slowly nodded, pulling her eyes from the mess surrounding us to look at me.

“That sounds like a really nice offer. Do you think they’d be willing to help us out?”

I snorted a laugh. “Trust me, they’ll be fucking thrilled. Give me a minute to send out a text.”

She pulled out the laptop that I’d insisted we bring from my place. “I’m going to try to clear off my desk and get to work ordering what I know we need at this point. What’s the password for your laptop?”

I grinned at her, trying not to look roguish. “The password is laceyisaperfect10.”

She frowned, “You’re joking, right?”

“No. I’m not. You’ve been on my heart and mind for a while now.”

She moved closer and used her free hand to pull me down for a kiss. I enjoyed every second of it. She pulled back with a mischievous little smile turning up the corners of her mouth. “I’ll be changing that password to lacey’ssmokinghotbikerreallyrocks. Assuming that isn’t too many characters.” Gesturing with one hand, she added, “And assuming that it’ll let me use an apostrophe.”

Giving her an indulgent smile, I responded, “I think the limit for computer passwords is usually a hundred and twenty seven characters and you can use special characters, even an air comma should be okay.”

“Two things. Firstly, I’m impressed you know all that. And secondly, what’s with calling an apostrophe an air comma?”

I shrugged with one shoulder and glanced away. “It what I used to call an apostrophe when I was a kid.”

She chuckled, and shook her head, “I like it when you share things about yourself with me and that was an adorable share.” Pulling her thumb back over her shoulder towards her office, she told me, “I’m gonna be in my office if you need me.”

I started to tell her that I wouldn’t need her, but that sounded rude in my own mind. Instead I said, “I’ll always need you, so it’s good to know where to look.”

She launched herself at me, gave me a hard kiss and then turned around and headed towards her office.

I shoved my hands into my pockets and toed a piece of debris on the floor out of the way as I thought about what just happened. This was really happening. I was opening up—almost effortlessly—to the one woman who truly seemed to care about me and wanted to know about me. And she seemed to like me all the more for it.

It was with a sappy smile on my face that I pulled out my phone and got to work pulling prospects in to help out. I started by calling Storm.

“Good morning, Rebel. I assume you got my message?” Storm was the kind of man who liked to get straight to the point. I respected and admired him for being a straight shooter.

“Yeah, Prez. I got your message. We’re at the office now and the place is a real mess.”

“The intruders trashed the place, right?”

I remembered telling him all about that. “Yeah, and the cops tossed the entire place during their investigation. I was wondering if we could spare some prospects to help me clear up?”

“Sure thing, brother.”

“Great. Who were you thinking of sending?”

“Rodney, James, and Eric. Is that enough or do you think you’ll need more?”

“Nah, that will be fine. We’ve got a large dumpster out back that several offices use. It’s normally pretty empty because offices don’t generate the kind of refuse that restaurants and retailers do.”

“I’ll send them with a pile of trash bags and cleaning supplies.”

“Thanks, Prez. We’re gonna need all the help we can get to get this place back in shape.”

“Whatever you need, we’ll get. Give them an hour or so to gather up supplies, load up, and get to your place, okay?”

Grateful for the club’s support, I responded, “Will do. And thanks again.”

There was a slight pause and then Storm asked, “Did you run down the particulars on the information Hacker found?”

“Yeah, all of it turned out to be unrelated. Zoe and Lacey like at least one of her former employees for the break in. That’s where I’m gonna look next.”

“Let me know when you’re ready to pay them a little visit. I’ll get Grit and Celt to come along for the ride.”

“I’d be a pretty shitty brother if I couldn’t handle a couple of former employees with no history of violence by myself.”

“True, but why take a chance? One of them could pull a weapon, you never know how people will act when they’re accused.”

“I get that. You’re giving good advice right now and I will let you know when I can free myself up from this mess to get back to solving this crime, since Griffinsford’s finest are apparently too incompetent to get things done.”

“Ain’t that the damn truth, brother. I gotta run. Zoe’s calling me.”

“Catch you later, Prez.”

When the call ended, I got busy clearing up. I found some trash bags in the front closet along with the vacuum cleaner and started filling bags and carrying them out to the dumpster. I was on my fifth bag when the prospects came strolling through the front door with their arms full of cleaning supplies.

“Where do you want this stuff, Rebel?” Eric asked.

“You can dump it here, near the closet for now.”

James made a sound of surprise, “Storm wasn’t joking when he said the office was trashed. It looks like a tornado tore through this place.”

“Just regular assholes,” I responded. Though whether those assholes were cops or the fucker who broke in was debatable.

Rodney asked grimly, “Where do you want us to start?”

I pulled out another trash bag and tossed the roll to him. “I think the best thing to do would get rid of all the debris first and then concentrate on cleaning. That fingerprint powder is a bastard to get rid of, I once dropped a toner cartridge for the copier machine in my office and spent months trying to get it out of the fucking carpet.” My eyes went to Eric who had been trying to wipe it off with his sleeve and now the entire bench was smeared in black. I heaved out a sigh, it was gonna be a long, long day. “Lacey’s ordering some replacement items, so we’ll need to collect those later too.”

Rodney tore off a trash bag from the roll and tossed it to Eric. “I’m on it, Rebel.”

The other two sounded their agreement. I was grateful for their help and volunteered, “If we can clear out a place to eat, I’ll order us some lunch here in a few hours.”

They perked up at the mention of food and we all got back to work. By the time noon rolled around, we’d cleared up and everything was looking way better. I walked into Lacey’s office and asked, “What are we doing for lunch?”

She glanced up from her computer, appearing far happier than when she first arrived. “How about pizza?”

I nodded, “Sounds good to me. If you call it in, I’ll pick it up and grab some beer for the prospects, you know, it’s the least I can do for them pitching in to clean up this mess.”

“Absolutely. This isn’t a formal workday and even if it was, they’re not employees. If having a nice cold beer lifts their spirits, I say let’s go for it.”

That’s my Lacey, always such a straight arrow. Good thing too. I considered it one of her finer qualities. “Great.” I walked up to her desk and looked down at her. “You seem to be in a really good mood. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that you’re not as distraught as you were when we arrived and all.”

I didn’t even have to finish my thought because she volunteered, “I’m in a great mood because my folks just left to take my dad to that experimental treatment program. We’re both thrilled that he didn’t kick up a fuss and are hopeful that something good will come of it.”

I walked around and gave her a big bear hug. “That’s great news. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. If there’s anything I can do to support him better, just let me know.”

“Aww, you’re so sweet. You’ve been wonderful and my dad adores you.” Her expression fell for an instant, but she recovered quickly. “Most of his friends dropped him when his Alzheimer’s got bad. He talks about you like you’re his new best friend.”

I couldn’t help the smile that took over my face. Squatting down beside her chair, I reached out and cupped the side of her face. “I’m really glad to hear that. I’ve told you I honestly enjoy spending time with your old man. He’s pretty amazing.”

“I couldn’t love you any harder right now if my life depended on it.”

My face would not stop smiling for anything. Hearing her say she loved me was never gonna get old. It filled the small hole in my heart that had been empty my whole life.

I deadpanned back, “Yeah, we’ve had a good run of it the last few days.”

She nodded enthusiastically, “I just wish the rest of our lives could be just like this.” Glancing around at her now clean office she amended, “You know, except the whole breaking in thing. I could do without any more of that.”

I cupped her face in my hands and assured her, “The rest of our life can be whatever we decide to make it. And once we catch whoever broke into the office, I’ll make sure he’s in no condition to do it a second time.”

Her eyebrows flew up and she shook my hands away. I let my hands to drop. She leaned forward slightly, “Or we could just have them arrested.”

My expression went blank as I tried to sound casual. “Yeah, or that. I mean, anything’s possible, right?”

She frowned, alerting me that my response had not been quite as smooth as I had hoped. “You’re not a very good liar.”

“Yeah,” I agreed gamely. “My poker face sucks.”

Her hand came up to caress my cheek and then she yanked my ear slightly harder than I thought was necessary under the circumstances. “Lucky for you, I like that you’re a terrible liar. It means you haven’t had much experience with deception.”

I jerked my head to the side to make her let go of my ear. “Damn woman, no ear pulling. You ain’t my momma.”

“Lucky for you. If I were, you might end up getting spanked for trying to lie.” She had a naughty little smirk on her face, so I was pretty sure she was making a sexually suggestive comment to the man who had just given her four orgasms in the last twenty-four hours.

I jerked back and stared at her for a minute. “Did you have a no flirting in the workplace rule at one time? I guess a couple of turns on my glorious cock can be life altering but I didn’t know it would get you to violate your own rules.”

She swatted my shoulder. “I’m never gonna be able to win with you, am I?” Before I could answer, she gestured towards the door. “Amscray. I’ve got work to do. I’ll call in the pizza order to our usual place and it should be ready by the time you get there.”

“Tetchy when I mention how much you like my cock, aren’t you?”

Truth be told, I knew I was being annoying and that I should stop while I was ahead, so I got to my feet. “Sorry about slipping back into bad habits. Don’t know what got into me.”

Her expression turned from annoyed to indulgent again. “I’ll be the first to admit that old habits are hard to break.”

I leaned down with one hand on each arm of her chair and told her, “You’re worth changing for, you know that, don’t you?”

She shot back, “Maybe I don’t want you to change? It could be that I love you just the way you are, with all your quirks and idiosyncrasies.”

“Doubtful, but a man can hope.” I gave her a quick kiss and then headed for the door. “I’ll be back with food shortly.”

“I’ll bring in some chairs and we can all eat in my office,” she called out as I was walking out the door.

***

I made short work of picking up pizza, chips, and drinks. When I got back, Eric was waiting for me at the curb and helped me carry in the ridiculous bounty I’d procured. I’d had my eye on Eric for a while. He was the one prospect who always went the extra mile. I made a mental note to talk to Storm about patching him in. It was time that all his hard work paid off for him.

I found that Lacey was as good as her word. She had pulled in enough chairs for everyone and arranged around her desk. The two less-motivated prospects were sitting around, shooting the breeze with her. That was fine. I was sure she’d invited them because it seemed unlikely that the prospects would have both invited themselves. She opened the pizza boxes and handed out the paper plates and napkins the pizza place had sent with the pizza. I made sure everyone had a cold beer and even Lacey popped one open. Everyone was in good spirits, and we all got back to work afterward.

Lacey and I talked for a while longer and I invited her to spend the night with me again. I was gratified at how quickly she agreed. My life was getting better by the second and I felt like she was as into me as I was her.