“Yeah, I don’t think that has anything to do with it, babe.” Pie turned toward me and grabbed both of my hands. “I like looking at you, Bristol. Fuck, I god damn love looking at you actually. Clothed or naked.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I’ve had a few people in my life who were only there because they wanted something from me, and since I’m fat and ugly, they think they can take what they want and then leave.”

  “And what is it you think I want from you?” he asked me.

  I bit my lip. “Uh, well, sex.” Obviously.

  “And the reason why you think that is because I only came around for sex,” he guessed.

  That was a big, fat yes. “Well, yeah, but you’re not the first, so don’t feel special.”

  “If you think I would feel special by you thinking I was using you for sex, you seriously don’t know me that well, Bri. We need to do a whole lot more talking if that’s what you think about me.”

  I sighed and dropped my chin to my chest.

  “Do I like having sex with you, Bristol?” he asked. “Fuck yes. Sex with you is the best I’ve ever had.”

  That was a nice thing to know. Sex with Pie was amazing for me, too. “Well, good.” I was not good at this conversation. At all.

  “But that’s not the only reason why I kept coming back.” He hooked his finger under my chin and tipped my head back. “I liked being with you. Your funny jokes and quick wit. Talking about everyone in the club and staying up late to eat ice cream in bed while we watched old TV show reruns. I liked all of it.”

  I loved all of those things, too. Well, I didn’t think I was that funny, but Pie seemed to think so. I tended to just say whatever came to mind, and for the most part, it was funny.

  “Then why did you keep us from the club?” I asked. “It felt like I was a dirty secret that you didn’t want anyone to know about.” Again, I had been kept a secret before, and it sucked.

  Pie dropped my hands and ran his fingers through his hair. “I know that’s what it looked like, but I can tell you that I was far from ashamed of you.”

  I sighed and moved to the edge of the water. “Then what was it?” I asked. I couldn’t think of any reason why Pie wouldn’t want people to know about us. Shame was the only explanation I could come up with.

  He paced along the edge of the water. “I didn’t want to tell anyone about us because then it would put pressure on us. It would put us under the microscope, and then you might have realized that I wasn’t good enough for you.”

  I wasn’t good enough for him? Say what? What in the hell was he talking about? “Have you looked at me, Pie?” I laughed. “If anything, you’re the one who is better than I am.” He was all sexiness and swagger while I was round and awkward. Swagger didn’t go with awkward.

  Pie turned and stared at me. “What in the hell do you see when you look in the mirror, Bristol?” he demanded. “Because I can tell you whatever you are seeing is not what you are.”

  I looked down the length of my body. I was wearing a pair of ripped jeans and a pale pink tank top. I normally didn’t like to wear anything sleeveless, but bread making days got hot in the kitchen. “I’m wearing my bread clothes and crusty tennis shoes, Pie. I’m not a beauty queen.” Far from it.

  “And you think that what I want is a beauty queen? That I care that much about looks that it’s the only thing I care about?” Pie sounded offended, and I knew this conversation was going to go bad quickly.

  I wasn’t meaning to insult him. “I’m just trying to save you from the ridicule you are going to get when we walk down the street or walk into a store together.” I had told him about the numerous people who had been mean to me. Did he not understand that if they were that way to me, they would do the same to him? He saw how rude the girl was at Mr. Speed’s the other night. That was normal.

  “Do you really think I care what the hell people think or say?” he asked.

  I laughed flatly. “I say that same thing, Pie, but when you have someone saying to your face that you are fat and a waste of space, that confidence you thought you had flies out the window, and you’re just a fat person wishing just to disappear.”

  Pie growled and shook his head. He grabbed me around the waist and pulled me to his body. “I am going to need the names of every person who has said a mean word to you, Bristol. I’m gonna beat some sense into them.”

  “You’re gonna have to take on the whole world,” I whispered. I couldn’t even tell you how many people had been mean and nasty to me about the way I looked.

  “Whatever it’ll take for you to realize that you are more than a few mean words spewed by jealous people,” he whispered.

  “Jealous,” I scoffed. “I think you might have that wrong.” I couldn’t see how he thought those people were jealous.

  Pie delved his fingers into my hair and pressed a kiss to my lips. “I don’t have it wrong at all. People are mean to you because they don’t know how to handle someone so talented, smart, and beautiful. They attack the one thing that think will hurt you.”

  “Well, they’re right,” I sighed. I closed my eyes and sighed. “I love the person I am, Pie, but when people keep telling you the same thing over and over, it only takes a matter of time before you start believing them.”

  “Then I guess I better start telling you every hour how smart, talented, and fucking beautiful you are. I don’t want a fucking twig that I’m afraid to break. I want you, and every curvy, lush piece of you.”

  “You say that now, Pie, but things are different when those people are standing in front of you, tearing you down. I can tell myself until I’m blue in the face that none of those words matter, but they do.” Man, did they matter. How could I think I was beautiful when everyone in the world thought I was hideous because of my weight?

  “You said that already, Bristol. I understand what you are saying, but you gotta know none of that fucking matters to me. You’re too fucking good for me, and I didn’t want you to realize it and then dump me. That was why I didn’t tell anyone about us.”

  “But at Mr. Speed’s, Pie,” I pointed out. “That is only the tip of the iceberg that I deal with.” In the big picture, that girl’s rudeness was just the tip of the iceberg.

  He leaned in until his lips brushed against mine. “The let me deal with it, and don’t fucking worry about me. I got some pretty thick skin, babe. Someone saying some ignorant shit about you and me isn’t going to hurt me. Not when I know the truth.”

  “And what is that?” I whispered. What was the truth that Pie knew and I didn’t?

  “I know you taste like honey, feel like heaven, and are one of the purest people I have ever met. That is what each and every one of those people sees, and they are jealous as fuck.” He pressed a kiss to my lips. “They’re jealous of the fact that they aren’t worthy of you and can’t have you. Even though you gave some of those guys a chance, they knew they couldn’t keep you. In the end, you were going to find out that even though they maybe looked good on the outside, they were ugly as fuck on the inside. So instead of you finding out and breaking up with them, they did it before you hurt them.”

  I felt a tear roll down my cheek. “You always say the right thing, Pie. You know what my heart needs to hear.” How did he do that?

  “Because I’m also one of those people who are jealous, but I know what you are, and I’m a jealous bastard who wants you all to myself.” His lips brushed against mine. “I want you for as long as you’ll have me, Bristol. Every curve on your lush body is the things my dreams are made of. With you by my side, it’ll be like I’m always dreaming.”

  “Oh, Pie,” I sobbed. “Every person who was mean and nasty to me only helped me find you. As much as I feel insecure, I knew I was going to find someone to love me.” I closed my eyes and pressed my forehead to his. “I didn’t think that someone was going to be a six-foot-two tattooed biker, but I’m damn glad it’s you.”

  “I’m fucking glad it was me, too,” he sighed. Pie’s hands glided down my back, and he grabbed the back of my thighs. He lifted me into his arms and then laid me on the grass next to the pond.

  “Do you think they have cameras out here?” I asked.

  Pie chuckled. “I don’t fucking care, Bristol. No one is going to keep me from taking you right here, right now.”

  A thrill ran through my body, but then it was like a bucket of cold water was poured over me.

  “We can see you,” Apollo called over the speaker.

  “Fucking hell,” Pie groaned.

  I couldn’t help but giggle. “Turn off the camera, Apollo,” I called. “Go call your wife or make a sandwich,” I suggested.

  “I will, but just know you are going to have grass stains all over your clothes.”

  Pie covered me with his body and sighed. “This is your call, babe. We can continue this here, or we can take it back to your room.”

  I smiled softly and traced my fingers over his lips. “How about both?”

  “Oh, Bristol,” Pie laughed. “I have a feeling you and I are going to make the whole world jealous with how much we’re going to fall in love with each other.”

  “Too late,” I whispered. “I’m already in love with you. I knew it the day I tried to not think about you. I thought about you all day, and then you rode into Mr. Speed’s like my knight on a Harley. You said all of the right things, and I knew I would spend one more night with you even if it meant you would break my heart.” I had figured one night with Pie was worth a lifetime of a broken heart.

  Pie growled. “I’m never going to break your heart, Bristol. I’m going to spend every second of my life loving you.” He brushed my hair behind my ear. “I always thought I would never love someone more than I love the club, and then you came along. I was riding along, minding my own business, and then you got me changing lanes and falling in love.”

  “Changing lanes, huh?” I laughed. That was a different way to look at it.

  Pie nodded. “If King landing in the hospital taught me anything, it’s never to take a second for granted. Sure, I could have lived my life the same way I was and been happy, but if I hadn’t changed lanes and found you, I never would have known pure happiness.”

  Pure happiness.

  Wow.

  I never thought that I would be someone’s source of happiness.

  “You’re always making my heart do flip-flops, Pie,” I whispered. “Whether you're telling me how beautiful I am with your words or your touch. I’ve never felt something like this before, and I hope it never stops.”

  “It won’t, babe. Swear on my life; it’ll never change.”

  “You know,” I laughed. “This is all amazing, but my ass is getting wet, and I think something just bit my arm.” Sex in the grass sounded like a good idea until you were laying in the grass with god knows what biting you.

  “That’s because you’re lying next to a pond,” Apollo droned through the speaker. “Your moment was romantic, but you might want to think about bringing a blanket and some bug spray next time.”

  Pie pressed his forehead to mine. “I know you love being here, but we’re going to have to seriously think about staying at either your place or my place some nights.”

  I laughed and pressed a kiss to his lips. “I think we can make that happen.” I wrapped my arms around his neck and sighed. “But right now, I think my room is safe from the prying eyes of the mafia.”

  “You are correct,” Apollo called.

  Pie closed his eyes and laughed. “Kiss me again, and then we’ll go to your room.”

  I sealed my lips to Pie’s and instantly forgot about the prying eyes and ears of Apollo. We were the only thing that mattered.

  The world was a mean place, and while Pie couldn’t protect me from all the nasty, jealous people, it was going to be a whole lot easier to live in with Pie by my side.

  After all, Pie didn’t want to waste another second together, and neither did I.

  *

  Chapter Twenty

  It means… a lot.

  Pie

  “Did you ever get a chance to come up with those recipes for the club?”

  Bristol poured a puddle of syrup over her waffle and flipped the lid shut on the bottle. “Well, I have the recipes; I just wanted to check out the kitchen in the club and make sure they’ll work. Are you guys still planning to open for three days a week?” She swiped the drop of syrup on her thumb with her tongue and grabbed her fork.

  I nodded and snagged a piece of sausage. “We all thought we would put it on hold until King was better, but he’s insisting we do it. He wants us to open as soon as possible.” We all wondered if it was the best idea, but we also thought it was good to get back into the swing of things. The club still needed money flowing in, and opening Sultry Knights gave us something to focus on other than King’s recovery.

  “Wow,” Bristol sighed. “When is that going to be?”

  “All of the girls were moved to secure housing, and the club is ready. Luna has been there getting inventory levels up for booze, and all that is left to do is get the kitchen ready.” There were other small things we needed to do, but the major things were completed or in the works. The new menu was the last thing we needed to finalize besides getting a cook. “Hopefully two weeks at the most.”

  Bristol and I had spent all night making up for lost time the past eleven days. We were going to need another few nights, too.

  “Did you find a cook?” she asked.

  So maybe there were two major things left that we needed to do. “Uh, not yet. Luna is insisting on being the one to hire the cook.” I had tried to help her, but she had threatened to crush my nuts with a sledgehammer if I hired anyone to work at Sultry Knights. She insisted the club was her baby, and she needed to be the one to hire the cook because she needed to find someone who would get along with the girls already working at Sultry Knights.

  Luna was pissed that she wasn’t involved in the decision to reopen the club, so she was going to insist on being the one who chose who to hire.

  “I think you should go to the culinary school and see if you can find someone there. I know if I would have had that opportunity when I was in school, I would have taken it.”

  I chuckled. “I guess I can’t picture you cooking in a strip club.” Hell, if Bristol would have gotten a job at Sultry Knights I bet there would have been a crowd of guys around the kitchen to get a glimpse of her.

  She rolled her eyes. “As long as I’m cooking and creating, I don’t care where I am.”

  “And that is just another thing I love about you.” But there was no way in hell she would ever work at Sultry Knights because I know Bristol didn’t believe it, but she would be hounded by all of the horn dogs.

  She blushed and cut a bite off her waffle. “I’m pretty sure everyone is going to think we are crazy that we love each other when they didn’t even know we were seeing each other in the first place.”

  “Apollo,” I called out.

  “Yes?” Apollo called through the speaker.

  “How long have Bristol and I been together?” I asked. As much as I hated Apollo and the guys watching us, this time I was going to use the cameras to my advantage.

  “Approximately twenty-nine days. I didn’t mark it on the calendar when we caught you two in the pantry the first time, but I can go back and look at the tapes if you want,” Apollo called through the speaker system.

  “No!” Bristol shouted. “I want you to burn those tapes.” Her cheeks blushed red and she waved her fork in the air. “Delete them!’ she insisted.

  Apollo chuckled. “I’ll run that by Marco, but I’m pretty sure he’s going to say no.”

  I leaned over and pressed a kiss to Bristol’s lips. “Back to Sultry Knights and the menu.” I’m sure there was quite a bit of footage of Bristol and I. Hopefully most of it the guys had turned a blind eye to.

  “Are you sure you want me to come up with the menu? I don’t want to step on Luna’s toes,” she asked.

  I nodded. “You’re a fucking amazing chef, Bristol, and Luna knows that. I mentioned to her that you were going to come up with the menu, and she was fine with it. And, at the end of the day, she works for the Devil’s Knights, not the other way around.” As much as Luna hated it, she knew having Bristol come up with the menu for the club was a good idea. She was just mad she hadn’t been the one to think of it.

  Bristol tipped her head to the side. “I don’t really know Luna that well, but I really find it hard to believe that she answers to anyone.”

  “Maybe you do know her better than you thought,” I laughed. “She really doesn’t listen to anyone unless she agrees with what they are saying.”

  “Sounds like you just need to know how to talk to her,” Bristol suggested.

  I shook my head. “She’s my sister, Bri. There is no right way to talk to her. You just say what you need to and hope to God she doesn’t blow up.” I had some to find that was the best thing to do with Luna. If you tried to tiptoe around her, it just backfired. She was mad when you told her what to do, but she was also mad when you tried to pacify her. Luna was difficult woman who was going to be a handful for whatever man decided to put a ring on her finger.

  Bristol reached up and pressed her hand to my cheek. “Why don’t you see if Luna can meet us at Sultry Knights today or tomorrow, and I can go over my ideas for the menu with her. I bet that would make her happy, but you’ll be happy too because you can tell yourself that getting me to help was your idea.”

  “Are you trying to play mind games with Luna and me?” I laughed. They would work on me, but I wasn’t too sure that Luna wouldn’t see right through what Bristol was doing.

  Bristol dropped her hand and stabbed a sausage with her fork. “All I’m saying is you and Luna might be more alike than you think.”

  “I am not like Luna,” I insisted. “She thinks she’s always right and is the only one who cares about Sultry Knights. She’s the manager of the club, not the fucking owner.” Hell, I was pretty sure Luna was determined to become a member of the damn club. It would be right up her alley to be able to demolish all of the traditions of the Devil’s Knights.

 

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