Page 10 of Shadow Touched

“Whatever,” she said, shrugging, notbelieving him. No way would a man like him be faithful to onewoman. It wasn’t in a biker’s nature. “So, are you one of thoseoutlaw clubs? What do they call it … the one percent?”

“Where did you hear that term?”

“Duh. Charlie Hunnam, remember? Well, areyou?”

“I’m not going to answer.”

“By saying that, you’ve already confirmed. Ihope you don’t deal in trafficking women or kids. That’s a hard nofor me.”

He sighed. “No, we don’t deal in traffickingpeople. Man, woman, or child. My club is a little different.Satisfied?”

“Drugs?”

“Not your business.”

“Weapons?”

“Drop it.”

The waitress came back with coffee. WhileBrim drank his straight black, Leia put sugar and cream in hersuntil it was a nice light brown color.

“I see you like a little coffee with yourcreamer,” Brim said.

“Coffee has an acidic taste for me. I liketo diffuse that.”

“Obviously.”

She laid down her spoon and took a sip,smacking her lips. “Excellent.”

Brim stared at her lips for a moment beforelocking gazes with her. For a moment, the world faded. A currentzinged between them, and her heart took off racing like aThoroughbred. She reached up to rub the area on her chest. Whateverwas happening, she didn’t like it, and with a considerable amountof force, broke eye contact. Breathing heavily, she collectedherself.

The waitress came back once more to delivertheir food. Brim murmured his thanks and Leia used the distractionto fix her eggs and pancakes how she liked. They ate in silence,and she reminded herself why she was there. She needed to treat himlike a job and ignore everything else. Clearing her head, she usedthe time to begin to formulate a plan to introduce herself to hisclub. The most obvious way immediately sprung to mind, and as muchas she tried to dismiss it, she couldn’t think of another logicalreason why Brim would bring her back to his club.

“I have an idea about how to explain me toyou club,” she said, once she finished eating and sat her forkdown.

“I’m listening.”

“We need to know things about oneanother.”

“Like what’s your favorite color? Or … ifyou hate spiders?”

“Something like that. Red, by the way, andyes. Who, in their right mind, would actually like spiders?”

“Epidemiologists? Arachnophiles?”

She ignored that. “Since we need toestablish my identity in your life—”

“Your identity?” Brim pushed his plate awayand sat back, sipping his coffee.

“We’re going into a den of lions who wantsto topple the king. You bring me in without a cover story and noone is going to talk.”

“You’ve got a point,” he said. “I take ityou came up with a cover story?”

Leia nodded. “The girlfriend talk gave me anidea.”

“Let me guess. You’ll be my newgirlfriend?”

“It fits. That way you can protect me likeyou vowed and will negate them from thinking I’m… What do you callthe girls? Club pussy?” She waved her hand dismissively. “Beingyour girlfriend will make your men accept me so I can watchthem.”

---