New Beginnings (122 page)

“Uh, hi,” I said when he finally stopped in front of me.

His eyes travelled over me, narrowing when they landed on the expanse of bare leg. The skirt hadn’t seemed so short at home, but now I had the urge to pull it down to make sure it was covering my butt.

“She looks great, doesn’t she, Ryk?” Nex asked, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

“Nex, why don’t you go and buy our friend Molly a drink while I have a word with my wife?”

The way he said it, as though I was his property, made me want to throw the word estranged in there just to piss him off, but I knew when Ryker got that look in his eye, it was best not to fan the flames.

When Nex guided Molly to the bar, Ryker grabbed my hand, leading me down a dark hallway that presumably led to a set of restrooms. Or a dungeon. Maybe a cell. With this hole, nothing would surprise me.

“What the hell are you doing in a place like this dressed like that?” he asked, gesturing to my outfit. “Do you know what kind of guys hang out here? What they’re after?”

“You’re here,” I said, poking him in the chest. “Is that what you’re after?”

“Would I be wearing this if I were?” he asked, flashing his wedding band.

“I’m guessing your little girlfriend doesn’t care whether you’re wearing one of those or not. She seems happy to take you any way she can get you.” God, now he knew I was jealous.

“I was just asking her to stop calling and texting me because I wasn’t interested,” he said between clenched teeth.

“Is that so?” I’d never had reason to question Ryker’s fidelity before, and I didn’t now, which was strange, since I had no right to expect it after our blowup last night.

“Yeah.” His hand landed on my hip, bringing me closer when a rough-looking biker with a full sleeve of tattoos passed us on his way to the restroom.

“Hey, Ryk,” he said, looking at us over his shoulder. “This your old lady?”

“Yeah.”

“Sweet piece of ass,” he said, grinning to reveal several missing teeth.

“Get lost, Tiny,” Ryker said, not even sparing him a glance. “Or I’ll knock your last tooth out.”

He chuckled as he pushed through the swinging door at the end of the hall.

Even after so many years, it still surprised me that Ryker commanded respect from the kind of men who would make most run for cover. Granted, he was still rough around the edges—a biker at heart, he claimed—but those edges were a lot softer than they used to be, thanks to his role as a father, he said. And I believed him. Our boys were the center of his world, which made it difficult for me to stay mad at him.

“About last night,” he said, pinning me against the wall with his muscular body. “I’m sorry if I pushed too hard.” He flattened one hand on the wall behind my head. “But damn, baby, you gotta understand where I’m coming from. I wanna be back in our bed so much it hurts.”

“I know.” I hooked my thumbs through the belt loops of his black jeans, pulling him closer. “I’m sorry too. I overreacted.” After leaving his place, I had spent most of the night replaying our conversation and feeling guilty for the way we left things. It was obvious Ryker was still feeling insecure about our relationship, and I should be trying to make him feel better about us, not worse.

“I just want us back,” he said, sinking his hands into my hair. “The way we used to be.”

“You have to know I want that too.” Actually, I wanted us to be better than we used to be, but I wasn’t going to argue semantics now. “It’s just going to take some time. It took two years the first time for us to decide we wanted to spend our lives together. Is it unreasonable to think it’ll take a couple of months before we’re ready to recommit to spending our lives together?”

He grunted. “It may have taken you two years. It took me all of two minutes to know I wanted you for the rest of my life.”

“I love you, Ryker,” I whispered, slipping my hands inside his leather jacket to circle his trim waist.

“If you love me so much, prove it.” He glanced at a small zippered pocket covering his heart. “Put those back on for me.”

I gasped when I reached into his pocket and found my wedding rings. “Are you crazy?” I whispered, slipping them back on. “You shouldn’t be carrying these around with you. What if you lost them?”

“Never gonna happen.” He curled his hand around the back of my neck, bringing me in for a toe-curling kiss. “Besides, I was gonna stop by your place when I left here tonight to plead my case. I was hoping after we kissed and made up, I could talk you into wearing them again.”

“You were gonna show up on my doorstep drunk?” I asked, propping a fist on my hip. “Begging me to take you back?”

He chuckled, running a finger down my cheek to the line of my jaw before following the contour of my throat to my cleavage. “I wasn’t gonna show up drunk, sweetheart.”

“But Nex said you were all planning to take cabs tonight, and I can taste the Jack Daniels on you already.”

He laughed, propping the heel of his boot on the wall as he wrapped his arm around my waist and brought me closer. “Mmm, you wanna another taste?” he asked, licking his lips with a wicked gleam in his eye.

Tiny came out of the washroom, saving me from a response.

“Just keep walkin’, Tiny,” Ryker growled, never taking his eyes off me.

I turned just in time to see Tiny checking out my ass. The pig. Though I guess it was my own fault for wearing such a short skirt in a biker bar.

“Ya can’t blame a guy for lookin’, Ryk.”

“Oh yeah?” Ryker asked, glaring at him. “She’s my goddamn wife, not some broad. And if I ever see you lookin’ at her like that again, I’m gonna knock you on your ass. We clear?”

“Yeah, sure,” he mumbled, ducking his head as he rushed down the hall.

Since Ryker had left his
club
in good standing, he still associated with some of the members and had the respect of all, especially guys like Tiny, who didn’t seem to be sporting any patches, indicating he wasn’t a full member. According to Ryker, a guy like that was a “hang around” until he got sponsorship from a full member.

“I guess I didn’t realize how much a part of this world you still are.”

He’d go out the odd time for beers with friends after work when we were first married, but he never wanted me to be a part of this world. It made me wonder how long he’d been coming to this bar specifically and how long he’d known the beautiful blond bartender who clearly had my husband in her sights.

“They’re still my brothers. You know getting out wasn’t easy for me. If not for my relationship with Buff,” he said, referring to the former president of the chapter, who had been like an older brother to him, “I probably would’ve walked away a marked man.”

I shuddered to think what that would have meant. He had sheltered me from his world when we first met, but I knew enough to know that few men left with the respect of their brothers. Most left in body bags after announcing their intent to leave.

It just reminded me how much he’d given up for me. “You’ve been coming here a long time?” I asked, unable to let it go without finding out whether he’d known the bartender a long time.

“Yeah, why?”

I was almost embarrassed to ask, but this man had seen me at my worst already. If he still loved me after all we’d been through, I was confident nothing I could say or do now would change how he felt. “Um, that bartender…”

“Natalie?”

“Is that her name?”

“Yeah. What about her?”

“Have you known her a long time?” I bit the inside of my cheek, barely resisting the urge to punch him in the stomach when a cocky smile spread across his handsome face.

“No, she just started here a couple of months ago. Why?”

I shrugged, though I knew pretending to be unaffected was pointless now. “I was just wondering if you’d known her when we were together.”

“We’re still together,” he said, gripping my chin. “We may not be living together yet, but you’re still my wife and I’m still crazy in love with you.”

It was my turn to smile as I tipped my lips back for his kiss. “And you told her that?”

“Yeah, I did, as a matter of fact. Now what do you say we go back out there so you can catch up with my brothers? They’ve missed you, Mac.”

I’d missed them too. “I’d love to. Let’s go.” I linked hands with him, thinking it was time to send my own message to the young lady tending bar. Ryker was most definitely off-limits.

Ryker

My brothers were flirting shamelessly with Mac as always, but I was just so happy to have her back in the fold, I couldn’t even get mad at them. She volunteered to sit on my lap when there weren’t enough chairs to go around, and I couldn’t have been more pleased with the setup.

I caught her glancing in Natalie’s direction a time or two, obviously trying to send her a message about my status, but she was wasting her time. I’d already made it clear to the pretty little bartender that my sole focus was on putting my marriage back together, not starting something with her.

“Well, would you look at her?” Nex asked, tipping his chair back as he eyed a pretty blond waitress starting her shift. She’d just secured a black apron around her waist, making the short skirt she wore under it virtually invisible.

“Don’t you think she’s a little young for you?” Molly asked, rolling her eyes.

Molly was right. She looked like she might be college-aged, while Nex was closing in on his thirtieth birthday.

“Age is just a number,” Nex said, with a mischievous grin.

“It’s guys like you,” Mac said, pointing at him, “that made me glad we didn’t have a daughter.”

Nex winked at Mac. “You know your husband was just as bad before you swept him off his feet.”

My brothers laughed before raising their beer bottles in a mock salute.

I’d wipe those smug smiles off their faces, one at a time and take pleasure doing it, if Mac wasn’t sitting on my lap, rubbing against me, reminding me of how incredible last night had been and how anxious I was to get her alone again.

“Could be I’m waiting for a pretty little thing like you,” Nex said to Mac, “to tame me the way you tamed ol’ Ryker here.”

“Don’t you mean whipped?” Seb asked, masking the last word with a cough as the rest of the table erupted in laughter.

I knew they must be three sheets to the wind already if they thought Seb’s lame-ass jokes were funny.

Before I could respond with a cutting remark that would have put them all in their place, the object of kid brother’s affection approached the table with a notepad in hand.

“Hey, y’all,” she said with a sweet Southern drawl that was a sharp contrast to the four-inch heels and low-cut top. “My name’s Jaci. Kelly has a sick little one at home, so she called me in to fill in for her. Hope you don’t mind?”

“Mind?” Nex asked, lacing his hands behind his head as he eyed Jaci up and down as though they were the only two in the room. “I feel like I should thank her.”

Mac rolled her eyes before touching Jaci’s forearm. “Pay him no mind, honey. He just got out of prison. Wouldn’t even remember what to do with a woman.”

My brothers were roaring, leaving poor Jaci to decide for herself whether Mac was telling the truth.

“Don’t you listen to her, sweetheart,” Nex said to Jaci. “Not only do I know what to do with a woman, I wrote the book.”

“Doesn’t sound like a book I’d want to read,” Jaci mumbled before plastering a smile on her face and turning to Molly. “You look like you could use a refill. What’ll it be?”

“Actually, I think I’m gonna head out,” Molly said, checking her watch. “I have to work tomorrow. Mac, are you gonna catch a cab home with Ryker?”

“I don’t know,” she said hesitantly. “Maybe I should head out too.”

“Stay,” I whispered in her ear before wrapping my arms around her waist.

“Okay, yeah,” she said, smiling at Molly. “I’ll hang out with the guys for a bit longer.”

“Nice to see y’all again,” Molly said, reaching into her purse for a few bills to cover her drinks.

“Your money’s no good here,” Seb said, curling the bills in his fist and shoving them back in her purse.

“Well, aren’t you just the sweetest thing?” Molly asked, running her palm over the stubble on his jaw.

“No,” Nex said, his eyes still trained on Jaci. “I am.”

Jaci ignored him, smiling at Molly, who winked and patted her arm as she walked by. “I can tell you’re a smart girl. You’re not buyin’ what he’s sellin’.”

Molly kissed Mac on the cheek, promising to call her tomorrow, before she pointed a finger at me. “And you, Mr. Steele, had better be good to this woman or you’ll have to answer to me. Is that understood?”

Molly could be a pain in the ass sometimes, but I knew she loved my wife and was only looking out for her. I crossed my forefinger across my heart. “You have my word.”

“What do you think, Mac?” Molly asked, looking suspicious. “Can we trust him?”

Mac curled her arm around my neck and kissed my cheek. “I think so.”

“If she’s willing to give you another chance, I guess I am too,” Molly said. “Just remember what I said.”

“You know I will.”

Jaci walked away after Seb ordered one more round for the table, prompting Nex to jump up and follow her like a dog in heat.

“What the hell is up with that?” my brother Kane asked, pointing at Nex.

Kane was only a few years younger than me, but his first love was his job. As the officer in charge of a SWAT team, I suspected most women had a hard time looking past his dangerous job, but he wasn’t asking for relationship advice and I sure as hell wasn’t offering.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen him chase tail like that,” Kane said, chuckling.

Mac pursed her lips, trying to look stern, but she was used to the way we talked about women. It’s not that we didn’t love and respect women, probably more than most men, given how strong our mama had been, but sometimes we forgot we were in the company of a lady.

“He’s only interested in her,” Mac said, reaching for her drink, “because she’s playing hard to get. You know Nex. He’s like a little boy with a toy truck. He’ll get bored in a few hours and move on to something else. Or in this case, someone else.”