Page 74 of The Biker's Brother

Brandon started toward the door, but Brash stopped him.

“Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Hold on. You need to let her simmer down a little. Club’s throwing you a party tonight. You’ll have plenty of time to sweet talk the young lady into forgiving you for being you instead of the guy she thought she wanted.” Brash grinned. “Take care of business. The girl’s not going anywhere.”

Brandon didn’t look completely convinced that letting it go until later was the best course of action, but his brother deserved respect when it came to women. He’d managed to do the one thing Brand had never done. He’d created and was maintaining a long-term relationship with a woman that was giving all appearances of being of theforevervariety.

“She doesn’t like being referred to as ‘girl’. She thinks it’s demeaning.”

Brash laughed. “Okay. It’s official. You’ve got the bug. Welcome to the PW club. Don’t worry about the hit to your balls. It’s worth it. I wouldn’t have picked you for somebody who looks so… rough and tumble.”

“That’s not… It’s a disguise. But it still looks good on her.”

He knew he sounded defensive, which made Brash’s smirk grow even bigger. He didn’t know how Brash could be having such a good time at his expense when he felt so damned miserable.

He tried to get his mind back on work, but if that happened, it was going to be the challenge of the day. Maybe the year.

When Brash walked into the reception area, Cami said, “Take me back,” in an imperious way that had Brash raising an eyebrow at her.

“Yes,ma’am.”

He emphasized the word ‘ma’am’ to make the point that he wasn’t a lackey.

When they got back to the clubhouse, Cami went straight to the bar.

“Do you know how to make a Manhattan?” she asked Rita.

“Of course. I worked at the Yellow Rose before this.”

“I don’t know what that is.”

“Never mind. Coming up.”

Two minutes later Rita set a perfect Manhattan on the bar. Cami looked down at it. “You know the two cherries on top of the lemon twist kind of look like…”

Rita smirked. “Balls?”

Cami raised her eyes to Rita, then dropped both of the cherries in her mouth and made a show of crushing them between her teeth.

“Keep ‘em coming.”

“You sure? I made that stiff.”

“Not the alcohol. The cherries.” Rita smiled. “There’s a nice tip in it for you.”

“Yeah? I’ll bet.”

“No, really. Here it is. Free of charge. Don’t spend another day hanging around lying liar bikers.”

Rita laughed. “You know, being called liars? That’s not the worst thing I’ve heard said about these boys.”

Mimicking Rita, Cami said, “I’ll bet.”

Brigid sat down next to her. “Hey. Maybe you’d like a sandwich to go with that booze. Rita was just getting ready to make lunch, weren’t you, hon?”

Rita shook her head no while saying, “Oh yeah. I was just on my way to the kitchen.”

“Don’t bully her,” Cami told Brigid, who laughed.

“Nobody bullies Rita. If shecouldbe bullied, she wouldn’t have lasted half a day around here because every one of these men will try it at some time or another.”