Page 12 of Saint (Soulless Outlaws Motorcycle Club #1)

Saint

It took us another ten minutes to reach my house.

And by the time we pulled into the driveway, I saw her mouth drop open.

I chuckled, which had her eyes come directly to me, when she asked, “Where are we?”

I winked, “My house.”

She gasped, “Your house? You mean to tell me that you live in an old Victorian-style home?”

I laughed, “Hey, that ain’t fair, mon coeur.”

She smiled, “That was pretty. What was it?”

I winked at her, “Tell you later.”

And with that, I climbed out of my truck, walked around to her side, and helped her down.

Hand in hand, we walked up the front steps.

Once I had the door open, I said, “Go explore. Nothing is off limits to you. I’ll be in the kitchen or out on the back deck.”

Following my gut, I did just that, I leaned forward and placed a kiss on her forehead.

It was almost an hour later when the French doors to the back deck opened, and she said, “Now I feel bad. I fell in love with your house and made you wait.”

I winked at her, then pulled a fresh beer for her out of the cooler and handed it to her after I popped the top off, “It’s fine. Had an inkling that would be the case, dinner kept.”

And with that, I moved to the grill and took the steaks, baked potatoes, and grilled asparagus, then I asked, “Any allergies?”

She shook her head, “No. Thank goodness.”

I nodded, “How about Soraya?”

“She’s allergic to peanuts.” She told me.

Tucking that bit of information away, I set our plates on the table.

“I’m being a bad guest. I should have asked if there was anything I could do to help.” She said as she took in her plate.

I shook my head, “Baby, you’re a single mother. When’s the last time someone took care of you?”

She got this faraway look on her face, then she whispered, “Can’t recall a time.”

I nodded, “Well, that shit is going to change. Promise you that.” I told her as I buttered up my potato.

Then I asked, “So, what do you want to know about me?”

“How old are you?” she asked.

I smirked, “Twenty-three.”

Then I watched as her mouth fell open, “There’s no way, you’re twenty-three.”

I smirked again, leaned forward, pulled out my wallet, and then handed her my license, “Promise you. One thing I can tell you about me is I’ll never lie to you.”

She took my license and got that soft smile on her face, one that I had put there.

Would it be appropriate to beat my fists on my chest right now? Askin’ for a friend.

She shook her head as she handed it back to me.

“You?” I asked.

She smiled, “Twenty-two.”

I did the math then, “Had Soraya at sixteen. You were a baby.”

She nodded, “Yeah. But to tell you the truth, there is nothing I would have changed. I got Soraya out of the deal, and we are here now.”

I liked that, but I was curious.

Hell, I had been curious.

I asked, “What about her father?”

She growled, “Don’t ever call him that. Just refer to him as a rat bastard. That’s what I call him.”

I nodded, “Okay. Got it. Noted.”

Then I hesitantly asked, “How does Soraya feel about him?”

She sighed, placed her fork down, tagged her beer, and took a sip.

Once she sat it down, she said, “Tell you the truth, she hasn’t asked about him. And I haven’t brought him up.”

“Wanna tell me what happened?” I asked her, as I, too, set my fork down, then went with my gut again, and reached over the table and tagged her hand.

She looked down at where our hands were connected and said, “I was in high school. The bell had just rung, ending the day. I headed home and found my deadbeat dad had friends over. The kind of friends I didn’t want to be around.”

“So, I headed to the library because I had a report I had to work on, and when I walked in, I saw him. He looked debonair, you know. Brown hair, blue eyes, nice clothes, nice shoes.” She paused as she shook her head.

“I thought that any man who went to the library was someone who wanted to be knowledgeable. You know?”

I nodded cause I got that.

“Anyway, I later found out that he was there waiting to meet a girl he had met online. She was fourteen. I didn’t find that out until I was twenty, and the statute of limitations for that sort of thing had expired.

He had waited to tell me when he wanted to cut me down another peg. Something he loved to do.”

I growled at that, then she said, “I’ll tell you how he did that.

But not tonight. Anyway, we were together from that moment onward.

I thought I had gotten lucky. A girl from the trailer park.

Lands an older man, one who has a stable job.

I never had to worry about not having heat.

I never had to worry about running water or power.

I never had to worry about where my next meal came from.

Even though he had something bad to say about any type of calorie, I put in my body. ”

I bit back the growl I wanted to unleash, and I bit back the urge to stand up and find something to pummel with my fists. Any man who criticized a woman about what she ate wasn’t a man at all if you wanted my opinion on the matter.

She took another pull from her beer, then said, “But a week before Halloween, he came home, looked at the dinner I had made, sneered, and told me to pack my shit along with Soraya and get the fuck out of his house.”

It took everything in me to keep my ass planted in my seat, to not react.

“Since my name wasn’t on anything, I didn’t have a leg to stand on.” She said with a sigh.

“I refused at first, questioning him because things didn’t add up. But he told me that the owner of the company he worked for thought it was a bad look for the company if his top chief executive had a little family.” She scoffed

And with her next words... I was teetering on the edge of rage. “When he moved to backhand me, I ran and grabbed what I could carry and got us out of there.”

“A long time ago, when I was Soraya’s age, I had an aunt. Before she passed away, she told me about this little town and the magic it held. So, with the money I had from my job, we headed here.”

“Would it upset you if I got up and walked away for a bit?” I asked her.

She took in my features, smiled softly, then shook her head, “Of course not.”

I got up then, moved over to her, leaned down, and placed a soft kiss on the top of her head.

It took me half an hour to cool off.

And by the time I got back, I felt my brows raise.

“You didn’t finish eating?” I asked as I sat back down.

She shook her head, “No. Appreciate you not taking your anger out on me. Wanted to wait for you.”

I growled then, unable to hold it back, “That’s something you’ll never fear from me. Doubt there’s anything you could ever do that would make me even remotely mad at you. And should I ever even raise my voice to you, I want you to tell me to shut the fuck up. Alright?”

She looked down at herself, then at me, and asked, “Seriously? You’re three times my size.”

I winked at her, “Baby, the harder the man feels, the easier it is to take him down. If I ever cause you fear or pain, you have my consent to shoot me in the head.”

She froze, then she threw her head back and started laughing.

Needless to say, we talked about ourselves while we finished our cold meal.

One that neither of us seemed to mind.

And it shocked the shit out of me that even though I told her I would clean up the dishes, she jumped in to help me clean the dishes.

Little touches. Small smiles.

There was no one I wanted to clean with besides her for the rest of my life.

I checked the time and then asked her if she wanted to take a walk along Main Street to see the lights.

She shocked me by tagging my hand and saying, “Since I’m not ready for this night to end, that sounds perfect.”

And then I shared... She was laughing about the yellow device I found in the dumpster as I walked her out to my truck.

“So, you're telling me that you were so hungry, and you thought it was a banana?” She was gasping while laughing so hard I knew it was hard for her to breathe.

I nodded as I opened her door for her, “Yes, ma’am. I thought it was weird that I was getting disgusted looks while I shoved it in my mouth and tried to bite it and suck it.”

At that moment, she lost her balance from laughing even harder.

Once she had her laughter under control, I opened my truck door and helped her inside.

***

We were walking down Main Street moments later, her small hand in mine, when I shifted her, so she was to my right, and I was closer to the road.

I felt her eyes on me and looked down.

Her cute little brows were furrowed when she asked, “Why’d you just do that?”

“’Cause I’m always the first line of defense when it comes to you and your girl. Car loses control; rather it hit me than you.”

It was at that moment that she stopped dead.

Froze was more like it.

Looking into my eyes, she whispered, “Never have I ever heard a man say that to a woman, and never have I ever been on the receiving end of something like that.”

I winked down at her and said, “Get used to it.”

Then I leaned down and placed a kiss on the top of her head.

Once we reached the end of Main Street, we went up the other side.

***

We had just walked into the Robbins’ house to pick up Soraya.

Lilly and Harold met us at the door, with Lilly winking and whispering to Ophelia.

Harold held out his hand to me and narrowed his eyes.

I placed my hand in his, and smirked when he squeezed it as hard as he could.

His body language and his eyes told me all he needed to without words.

I’d better protect them.

Love them.

Cherish them.

Or I’d answer to him.

I lifted my chin.

I watched as my woman, because she was that, struggled to heft Soraya up in her arms.

I narrowed my eyes, and then, with my tone lowered, I said, “No. Not no. But fuck no.”

She looked at me, then looked at Soraya, and smiled, “Saint.”

I winked, then moved and lifted Soraya up in my arms as I whispered, “I’m here now, baby. And she’s almost half your weight. I got her.”

How was it possible for everything to feel so right?

I had no answer for that.