Page 7

Stud

“O h no. I see that look on your face, Stud. Hands off Gianna. She ain’t gonna be one of your girls. I’ve already got her fixed up with a doctor.”

I smirk and pull Gianna in closer to me. “You want to go out with this doctor?”

“Um…I.”

“Do I need to kiss you again?”

Gianna stares blankly at me.

“Babe.”

“Since when did my sister become your babe?” Chaser shoots me a dirty look.

“Since you called me to give her a tow.”

“This mean we’re even then? ”

“What?” Gianna gazes back and forth between us. “Hello. Its my car. Don’t I have a say in this?”

Chaser and I both bark out resounding “no’s” at the same time.

“Are they always this way?” Gianna questions Jelissa.

“You get used to it after a while.” She shifts the little boy to her other hip.

“Your car is fucked,” Dutch announces as he squeezes into the kitchen to refill his thermos. “Got it into the garage. Your insurance will probably total it, but it’d be more to fix it than what its worth.”

“That’s great,” Gianna mumbles.

“You can use my car for work until you find something else,” Jelissa volunteers, and I guess that makes sense since she lives with her and Chaser, but I have a better idea .

“When do you work again?”

“Tonight.”

“I’ll give you a ride there and pick you up after.”

“That’s nice, but I can drive myself.”

“No offense, but you put your car in a ditch last night,” Dutch pipes in.

“No one asked you,” she snaps and pushes my arm off her shoulder. “It’s not my fault the weather was shit and a deer jumped out in front of me.”

“Calm down.”

“Don’t tell me to calm down. Ugh.” She stomps her foot and turns to Jelissa. “Can you take me home please? I need to do laundry and take a shower.”

“I can take you.” I wink at Jelissa as she shakes her head at Gianna and me.

“No. ”

“I can take you,” a soft familiar voice calls and Gianna goes stiff next to me. Fucking Maxi.

Jelissa gets a hard look on her face. “We got it covered.”

Chaser shoots her a look that says, ‘get the fuck gone.’ Maxi holds her palms up and out.

“Come on, Maxi. This here is a private party.” Dutch practically shoves her out the kitchen.

“I hate her,” Jelissa announces, but it isn’t any secret. When she was pregnant with Erik, Chaser cheated on her with Maxi’s sister, Trixie. Caught them in the act. Shit wasn’t pretty.

Jelissa ran Trixie out of town but Maxi stayed.

Rebel should have sent her packing too, but the men have taken a shine to her, and she normally stays out of shit.

I think she likes to remind Jelissa that Chaser stepped out on her.

Shit ain’t cool. Prez won’t be thrilled when I tell him she’s stirring the pot with an Old Lady .

“You ready to eat, little man?” he grabs his son from his wife and trudges over to the mountain of food set up at the breakfast bar.

Jelissa flashes Gianna a weak smile that says, ‘we’ll talk later,’ and picks up a plate.

“You hungry?”

“Nope.”

I lean down to whisper in her ear so only she can hear me when I say, “Cut the attitude or I’m gonna take you over my knee in front of the whole club.”

Gianna scowls at me but keeps quiet.

“That’s my girl.”

“I’m not your girl.”

“Babe, don’t fight it. You and me—we’re happening. I want you in my bed, because this foreplay we got going, has me turned on, and I can only imagine how explosive it’s gonna be between us when you give it to me in the bedroom.”

Her cheeks bloom a bright shade of red.

I stroke her jaw with my knuckles. “That’ll be the color of your ass later if you keep throwing me that sass.” Before she can say something smart, I cut her off with a kiss.

“Fuck, man. Stop molesting my sister at breakfast.” Chaser shakes his head at me.

I let go of Gianna and she moves off to get a cup of coffee.

I let her go for now and fill my plate with enough food for the two of us.

When we go back out to grab a table Maxi is out of sight.

Good thing too because Jelissa looks like she’s itching for a fight.

Maxi would be wise to steer clear for a long while if not forever.

One day she is going to catch her in the wrong mood and get her ass beat if she doesn’t watch it.

“Give him to me so you can eat.” Gianna takes her nephew and fuck me if the sight of her holding a baby doesn’t have my chest getting all tight. Sweat beads across my forehead.

“You okay?” Jelissa touches my arm lightly.

“Yup.” I suck in a breath and push away thoughts of marriage and babies, filing them away for later.

The thoughts have never entered my mind until today.

And yet as I cut into my stack of pancakes and while unable to tear my gaze from Gianna and Erik those thoughts keep battling their way to the surface.

“You need to eat something.” I shovel the fork between her lips the moment she parts them.

When Gianna smiles at me in return I know I’m completely fucked.

This woman has me, and she doesn’t even know it yet.

Not even fucked her, and I want to make her mine.

I must be crazy.

Chaser looks at me and laughs. “You’re fucked, brother.”

Don’t I fucking know it .

Gianna either doesn’t hear him or is choosing to ignore the conversation. She doesn’t refuse the forkfuls of pancakes and sausage I’m feeding her either.

“What time is your shift?”

“Why?”

“Because I want to know.”

“But why do you want to know?”

“I have an errand to run and want to know how much time I have before I need to pick you up once I drop you off at your brother’s.”

“I can catch a ride with Jelissa.”

I shoot Chaser a look and he grins. “Actually, honey, don’t we have to go by the bank to do that thing?”

“What thing?”

“You know the thing. ”

“Oh…” she finally catches on. “Right the thing yeah. Sorry, G, you’re gonna have to go with Stud here.”

Gianna covers Erik’s ears. “Oh for fuck’s sake. Not you too.” She glares at her sister-in-law.

“You need anything out of your car, babe?”

She glares at me then answers, “My purse.”

“Let’s roll.” I grab the kid and plop him in Chaser’s lap.