Page 2 of Snarl (Primal Howlers MC #9)

Lennon

S NARL PEELED OFF the hot pink homage to Granny, revealing his perfectly sculpted, tattooed chest and abs, and for a moment I swear my soul left my body.

He had next to no hair on his chest, and I had a sudden urge to run my tongue across his body.

Maybe, if God had mercy on me, Snarl didn’t notice my jaw hitting the carpet.

Maybe if God had even more mercy on me, he’d ignore just how hot I found this man to be.

I wanted to reach out and touch the tattoos spanning his pecs, but I forced myself not to.

“Can I ask you a question?” I asked.

“Sure thing,” Snarl said, pulling his laundry from the dryer and tugging on a plain black T-shirt that fit him much better than Granny’s had.

“How is it that Granny allows you to sit in her chair? She never lets anyone sit in her chair. Not even her husbands. ”

Snarl chuckled. “The first time I sat on her couch, I almost busted the frame in two. It’s one of the Swedish flat-pack deals, that isn’t fit for Vikings despite its Nordic origins. After that near disaster, she makes me sit on the only piece of furniture that’s steel reinforced.”

“My Granny. The great solver of problems.”

Snarl then reached into the closet, pulled out a leather vest that was covered in patches, and put it on. I couldn’t make out the patch on the back, but one patch on the front read SNARL and on the opposite side, another said NOMAD.

“You’re a biker ,” I said, my blood running cold.

“I am,” he replied. “Do you ride?”

I shook my head. “Not really a fan, to be honest.” Curiosity and attraction were now giving way to fear.

“My club rides out of Monument, but I like to stay in Denver when I’m around,” he said.

“Can you tell me how it is that you and my grandmother know one another?”

“We’re neighbors and we hang out together sometimes.”

“You hang out ? My granny hangs out with a biker?”

Snarl smiled. “On occasion, yes, she does. Now, if you’ll excuse me, the sink is fixed, and my clothes are dry so I’m gonna go say goodbye to Shirley and then I’ll leave the two of you to catch up.”

“Wait a minute,” I said, following Snarl back into the living room. “I’m gonna need a little more information here. How is it exactly that a biker has managed to befriend my eighty-nine-year-old grandmother?”

“I live upstairs,” he replied.

“So, what is this? Are you a part of some dirtbag biker gang that gets elderly, vulnerable, women who live alone hooked on opiates and then supply them once they’re addicted?”

“Hold on a minute,” Snarl said. “You seem like a really nice person, and you clearly love your Granny, but there’s nothin’ shady going on here.”

“Snarly and I watch the Wheel together whenever he’s not at work,” Granny interjected. “Sometimes Jeopardy too, but not the celebrity one. Snarly says they dumb the questions down too much for the Hollywood assholes.”

“When I moved into the apartment above Shirley, she baked me welcome cookies. So, you could say that she was the one who befriended me.”

“My Granny lured you here with cookies?” I huffed, settling my hands on my hips. “That’s your story?”

“It’s the truth,” he said. “I moved in, and Shirley made me ‘welcome cookies.’”

“Why are you two talking about me like I’m not here?” Granny asked to no reply.

“Welcome cookies? What are you talking about?” I demanded. “What kind of cookies were they?”

Snarl smiled wide. “They were delicious. Chocolate chip and pistachio. I’d never had a chocolate chip cookie with pistachios in ’em before, but I’ll tell you, they were amazing.”

My head snapped to Granny. “How could you?”

“What dear?” she asked innocently.

“You made him my boo-boo cookies?” I hissed.

Snarl laughed. “What are boo-boo cookies?”

“Whenever I’d get hurt, playing with my sister, or I’d do poorly on a test I studied hard for, or a boy I liked didn’t like me back, Granny would bake me a batch of chocolate chip and pistachio cookies.

She called them my ‘boo-boo cookies.’ Now, apparently, every drifter in town gets a batch just for showing up. ”

“Drifter?” Snarl laughed. “Drug dealer, I could understand the misunderstanding, but a drifter? Is that what you think I am?”

“It says so, right there on your patch,” I replied.

Snarl pointed to the patch. “This says NOMAD.”

“Means the same thing, doesn’t it?”

He shook his head. “Not to me it doesn’t.”

“Stop being rude to Snarly or he’s never gonna ask you to go out dancing with him,” Granny said.

“Would you stop saying things like that?” I scolded.

“Yeah, Shirley. That’s not true. Come on now,” Snarl added.

“See, even the drifter agrees,” I said, starting to feel dizzy.

“No, I meant it wasn’t true that I wouldn’t ask you out dancing if you kept on giving me a hard time. You seem like fun and you’re clearly into me. So, how ’bout it? You and me at the Saddle Rack?”

“What?” I asked, trying to wrap my head around what he was saying.

“I’m asking if you’d like to go out with me tonight and trying to be funny while I do it.”

Snarl’s words disappeared beneath the din of buzzing bees and my field of vision narrowed until I slipped into darkness.

* * *

When I awoke, my head was in Snarl’s lap and my grandmother was praying out loud that God would forgive me of my sins and spare my life.

“You, okay?” Snarl asked softly as my eyes fluttered open .

I nodded. “What happened?”

“You passed out. I managed to catch you before your head hit the floor, but not a second sooner, so your ass is probably gonna be a little sore for a few days.”

“Praise God, you’re alright,” Granny shouted.

“I’m okay, Granny. Please don’t get excited. No need to drag the Lord into this.”

“She’s okay, Shirley. I was an Army medic, remember?”

Granny came into view with a plate of cookies and a glass of orange juice. “What would we have done without you, Snarly?”

“Thank you, Shirley. Set those down next to me and I’ll make sure our patient gets them. You go ahead and rest yourself now.” He smiled. “ We’ll be in before Wheel starts. I promise.”

“You were in the Army?” I asked.

“In another life,” he said with a sad smile.

“Thank you for catching me, and for the use of your lap.”

“This sort of thing happen to you a lot?” Snarl asked. “Passing out, I mean.”

I shook my head and pointed to my left bicep. “No, I had a round of vaccines just before I came over here.”

“You have some sort of contagious disease I should be worried about?” he asked.

I laughed. “No, I’m traveling to Africa to study black rhinoceroses, so I had to get a bunch of shots in order to travel. The doctor said that I might feel a little lightheaded and dizzy today and that I should—”

“Take it easy and rest, but instead of doing that, you hopped in your car, raced over here and violently interrogated a sweet old lady and a well-meaning drifter about the shady distribution of baked goods in the area.”

“You’re pretty funny for a biker.”

“Met a lot of us, have you?”

“Enough,” I replied. “I’m sorry that I called you a drifter. That was rude of me.”

“Forgiven. Now, let’s sit you up nice and slow.”

Snarl sat me up, his huge arm fully supporting me. That’s when I caught his scent. Despite his rugged exterior, he smelled amazing. A mixture of leather, sandalwood and the unmistakable scent of vanilla pipe tobacco.

“Do you smoke a pipe?”

“Only on special occasions,” he replied, looking shocked. “But I keep one with me at all times here inside my cut. How did you—”

“My grandfather. Granny’s first husband. He smoked a pipe. Whatever tobacco it is you smoke smells like the one he used.”

“You’ve got a good nose on you,” Snarl said, handing me the glass of juice.

“Something I get from Granny,” I said, taking a sip.

“Maybe that’s why she took a shine to me,” Snarl chuckled. “Because I smell like her late husband.”

“He was a sweet guy, and he loved Granny. ”

“I would have liked to have met the man in person.”

I laughed. “Oh, Grandpa would not have approved of Granny consorting with bikers.”

“Bik er ,” Snarl corrected. “I’m the only biker I know of who Shirley socializes with.”

“Oh, that’s right. You’re a nomad. Whatever that means,” I teased, biting into one of Granny’s cookies.

“Pretty simple, really. Being a nomad means I’m in a club, but I’m not pinned down to any specific charter.”

“That clears up everything, thank you.”

“Shirley told me you study animals, right?”

I nodded. “That was both harshly simplistic as well as painfully accurate. Especially given what I did earlier today.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to hit a nerve.”

“No, please go on. I study the social behavioral patterns of endangered species, yes.”

“Perfect! Just think of me as a lone wolf.”

“Bad idea. Not a sign of strength,” I said.

“What? What do you mean? Of course it is. You study animals and you’ve never heard of a lone wolf?”

“I never said I haven’t heard of them, just that they don’t really exist in the way that guys like you think they do.”

“What are you two whispering about?” Granny called out from the next room.

“We’re discussing Schrodinger’s lone wolf,” Snarl replied. “Does he or doesn’t he exist?”

I laughed. “That’s what I’m talking about. I think it’s safe to say your average biker doesn’t throw around references to Erwin Schrodinger.”

“They might if they were trying to impress an intelligent and beautiful woman.”

“Are you trying to impress me?” I asked.

Snarl nodded. “I am, but I’m more interested in what you were saying about the lone wolf.”

“Plenty of wolves break away from their packs. That’s true.

Mostly males who’ve failed at attaining pack dominance or finding a mate within the extended pack.

Usually, they do so once they’ve gotten older, sometimes to help ensure pack strength through their absence.

These lone wolves are the most vulnerable to predators and starvation and typically do not make it through their first two seasonal changes before dying.

That is, if you believe the most current research, which I do. ”

Snarl smiled. “Before you took your little unscheduled nap there, I was trying to charm you enough to go out with me tonight, but I think in the light of everything you should take the remainder of the evening off, and we can leave the dancing to another night. What do you think?”

“I think you worded that question in a way designed to get me to agree to going out with you, no matter how I answer it.”

“How about we get you and Granny onto the couch, I’ll pop some popcorn, and we can all watch the Wheel together? Unless you’re one of those people who yells out the answer before the rest of us have had a chance to figure it out.”

“Sir!” I scoffed. “What kind of woman do you take me for?”

“Okay, Dizzy. Let’s get you on your feet and then we can continue our first date in the living room under the supervision of your family.”

“This is our first date, now?” I asked.

He shrugged giving me another sexy grin. “Well, sure. You would have said yes to my invitation earlier, so all the getting to know you chit chat we just had would have happened over a few drinks instead of a possible concussion.”

“Interesting point,” I said. “If I’d said yes, of course.”

“If you’d said no, I would have kicked your young, single ass out of my apartment,” Granny said. “Now shut up, the both of you. Wheel’s coming on!”