Page 41 of Tempting Fate

“Little Cherub.” Slash’s mother, Crystal, knocks on the bathroom door. “Do you need help?”

“I’m good,” I call back to her. Blowing out a deep breath, I smooth my sweaty palms down the silken material covering my thighs and do my best to put my game face on. To myself, I mutter, “Must give the people their pound of flesh.”

I unlock the main bathroom, exiting via the second door that bypasses the end of the hallway that connects the sleeping quarters to the main bar. Zeke will likely be in there, stewing as he’s forced to wait for me to grant him an audience.

“One battle at a time,” I tell myself as I step into the rumpus room that Doc turned into a make-shift infirmary.

“Cherub!” The wife of one of the few brothers I dislike pushes her way to the front of the group of old ladies crowding the room. “We were so worried about you.”

My entire body stiffens and my breath catches in my lungs when Honey takes hold of my arms just above the elbows. Her acrylic nails bite into my skin. Every nerve ending, every hair on my body, stands on end when she pushes onto the balls of her feet to plant a hard kiss on my least swollen cheek.

“Thanks,” I reply as calmly as I can.

“You stay outta trouble now,” she tells me. Letting go of my right arm, she fluffs her hair. “Poor Venom was beside himself… not a one of us could console him, but I tried—” Honey smirks at me as she runs her eyes over my bruised face. “—for you, of course. A man like yours can’t be expected to suffer alone… plus I know you’d do the same for me if I had an ex like yours to contend with.”

Her mention of Alex is like nails down a chalkboard and I want to correct her categorisation of him as my ex. We barely dated. I used him. He used me. Up until the night of my eighteenth birthday, he hadn’t even made it to second base.

We kissed a few times.

Full.

Stop.

Everything else that happened was non-consensual.

It takes me every ounce of control I possess not to give her the reaction she seeks.

But I get her message loud and clear.

She would love to add Zeke to her list of conquests.

Over my dead body…

Rallying, I smile at her as sweetly as I can.

“Of course… we must pull together in times like this.”

Nadia rolls her eyes when our gazes meet. One of the other old ladies, a regular at my Moscato and Monet parties, purses her lips as she shakes her head at the antics of the woman we’ve tried our hardest to accept into our sisterhood, even though she deliberately baits us with comments like this.

“I’m sure he appreciated your texts,” I remark as we stare at each other.

Keeping my expression from betraying my annoyance, I ignore the pain of my stitches to widen my smile. Confusion flickers in Honey’s gaze—obviously she doesn’t know that I’m aware Zeke was arrested when the compound was raided and that he rode directly from the police station to our house after his processing because Gabriel arranged for his bike to be waiting for him. Her perplexed expression morphs into outrage when I add. “Maybe he even had Siri read them to him while he was riding home—you know, after he was released by the cops?”

“He’ll have them framed,” a familiar man-bunned male offers from behind me. “We all know how much he enjoys a vapid platitude. ‘Live, laugh, love’ is definitely in his top ten.”

Giggling, I pull free of Honey’s claws and turn around to face the owner of the voice. Slash slings an arm over my shoulder and pulls me into his side. I slip my arm around his waist and lean on him. The tension coiled inside me recedes long enough for me to shrug off Honey’s goading and politely greet the old ladies who genuinely wish to inquire about my health.

Thankfully, with Slash draped around me like a protective teddy bear, no one tries to touch me. The memories of my behaviour the last time Alex hurt me loom large in their tentative approach. Each woman tries her best to make me feel their love without encroaching on my personal space. I appreciate it, even though the idea that I need handling with kid gloves rankles my pride.

The entire time I’m answering their quiet questions and assuring them that I’m all right, I’m aware Honey is glowering at me. In the three years she’s been part of the MC, I’ve never been able to work out the cause of her animosity toward me. Like, I know she finds Zeke attractive, and that her man, Joker, doesn’t mind her acting on her urges, but I’m not conceited enough to believe that lusting after my man is the only reason she goes out of her way to pick at me.

“Your soul certainly annoys her demons,” Nadia remarks when I’ve made my way through three-quarters of the women in the room. “I swear she grows horns the second you’re within breathing distance.”

“Maybe I should invite her to one of our parties?” Honey is married to the step-grandson of one of the founding six. Sure, he was previously a patched member with our east coast enemy, the Mavericks of Mayhem, but he is family of sorts at the end of the day. “I know the last time wasn’t pleasant, but if we try?—”

“If she turns up, everyone else will leave,” my best friend cautions me. “She’s fucked every old man who’ll have her—they’re not gonna socialise with a woman who’s bumped uglies with their man, old lady or not.”

Slash’s arm tightens around my shoulders. I glance up at him to ascertain the source of his sudden stiffness, only to look away when I see the sympathy in his eyes. It’s directed at Nadia, who somehow remains unaware of the rumours that her man, Bear, has sampled Honey’s wares more than once.

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