Page 27 of The Other Princess

“I’m fine, Deck. Really. I’m not as concerned with the others. Crow has always put me on edge and working on my dad was nerve racking. That’s all.”

“Okay, well, it won’t be as fancy as yesterday, but I think I know the perfect place to take you since you’re so hungry.” I cocked an eyebrow up at him in question, but his only response was to lean in and place a gentle kiss upon my lips. It was such a quick gesture that I didn’t even have the chance to savor it before his lips were gone again and he’d placed my helmet on my head. Luckily he turned his back to me while mounting his bike before my lip poked out in another pout.

When we pulled into Big Gun Burger Shop a little later I had to laugh again. This was actually the place I’d last been with Deck before he left for the Army. His family had wanted to give him a sending off meal outside of the club, and this is what he’d picked. It had always been his favorite place for some reason, and now I had a sneaking suspicion it was about to be one of mine too.

~ Declan ~

Eating with Ever was a treat. She knew no shame, and didn’t have that thing that other girls and women had where they were afraid to eat in front of a guy. She inhaled her Bungalow Burger almost as fast as I put down my Inferno. I just grinned at her the entire time around each mouthful I consumed.

“Oh my God! That was so good. I forgot how much I loved that burger,” she cooed.

“When was the last time you were here?”

“When you left,” she answered and her admission sent a stab straight to my heart. “Don’t give me that look,” she carried on. “I’ve eaten out since you left, I just never got to come here again for some reason.”

“I didn’t think you were held captive in a dungeon while I was away, Ever. I’m just wondering why you wouldn’t want to experience these burgers on the regular.”

“Well, I’m sure my heart will thank me for the lengthy break, but now that I remember how much I love it here, I guess I’ll be coming back.” She appeared thoughtful for a moment as she remembered something. I wasn’t sure if I should ask what it was about so instead I figured I’d make her a little promise.

“Oh, we’ll be coming back, all right!” Her eyes lit up when I made the comment, and it struck me that she must have liked the idea of us coming back together even more than she seemed to enjoy the burger she’d just put down. Mission Accomplished, because it put the smile back in her eyes and removed the doubt I’d seen there for a moment.

“Do you miss the Army?” Ever finally asked once the silence between us started to linger. I swiped at my lips with a napkin before answering.

“I do and I don’t. It’s good to be home where I know I can trust the people at my back with anything.”

“You couldn’t trust the guys you were stationed with?”

“Not all of them, no.” When she just stared at me, anticipating the why I sucked it up and told her my story. I’d once thought it was a bit heartbreaking, but seeing Ever now, being here with her, I knew I hadn’t lost anything back then.

“I dated one woman seriously while I was away, and I’d come home earlier than expected from a temporary duty assignment to find her in bed with a man I’d considered my best friend at the time. I had come home with a ring, because I’d planned on asking her to marry me.” Ever’s eyes grew wide with surprise, and then a little cloudy as she moved her gaze away from me, dropping it to her empty plate.

“That sucks,” she whispered.

“I thought so at the time, but honestly, I think Michaels did me a favor, because I had just been infatuated with her. I hadn’t actually been in love.”

Ever scrunched her brows together in confusion before she asked, “What makes you say that?”

“Because now I know the difference.” That didn’t really clarify things for her, but as I watched her across the table from me I knew the man I’d once called a friend had done me the biggest favor of all. I’d never felt a tenth in Sasha’s arms that I felt in that moment sitting across from Ever in a burger joint. Sasha could never compare to the gorgeous woman before me. She lacked the strength, conviction, passion, and definitely the innocence that made Ever so damned attractive it was nearly unbearable.

“And you don’t think the guys from the club would ever stab you in the back, or steal your woman?”

“Hell no,” I started to state emphatically, but I lost the wind in my sails, as the look on Ever’s face pierced my heart in yet another way. The curious, wondrous emotion that flitted there made me want to swallow my initial reaction. My club brothers had stabbed her in the back while she was still basically a child. “Ever,” I started to backtrack for a moment, but she held her hand up to me to halt the words.

“No, it’s okay that you feel that way, Deck. I’m glad you have that. They’re different with the men in the club than they are with anyone else. I honestly don’t think you would ever have to worry about them betraying you, at least not in the classical way. I admire that, and I wonder what its like, but that doesn’t mean you have to feel a different way just because my experience was different. I know my place in that world,” she offered the last with a humorless chuckle I wish I could wipe away.

“Your place in that world is changing, Ev.” I wanted her to believe that, because if I were going to stick it out with the club then she would have to be a part of that too. It occurred to me, and not for the first time, that if I continued to make Ever mine that I may have to make a choice between her and the club I’d been raised in. She gave me a dubious look that I had to question. “You don’t think so?”

“I know you have faith in them, but you weren’t here to see what it was like for me. I don’t think I can believe it will change. Even after I worked on Crow and my dad today, I just…” she looked away as if searching for the rest of her words across the crowded restaurant. “I don’t trust them anymore, and doing these tattoos may offer some closure, but it doesn’t patch over the holes they left in me. You know?”

I swallowed thickly, wishing this wasn’t as difficult as it was shaping up to be. A choice was definitely going to have to be made, and if I stepped off the wrong path I stood to lose everything. The honest truth was that no matter which way I stumbled it seemed I would lose. Choosing Ever had seemed so easy, initially, but now I wondered what a life without the club would truly look like. I knew I’d be a happy man if I could spend my life with Ever, but I also knew there would be a hole in me where the club should be too. I just hoped I never had to make the choice between the two. It was becoming clear that I had been somewhat naïve in thinking the tattoo idea would be a solid fix for everything. We didn’t have much else to say as we were leaving the restaurant. I planned on having a serious talk with her when we got back to her apartment about where I saw things going for us, and how serious I was about her, until then, I was attempting to gather my thoughts so I had the perfect words to persuade her to trust me just a little more than she already had.

Once again, as I was dropping Ever off at her apartment, I received a text commanding me back to the clubhouse. This time I glanced around her street looking for something, and I found what I was looking for in the shadows between the coffee shop and a little boutique across the street. A motorcycle was nearly hidden there, and my blood began to boil. Instead of heeding the message and running straight to the clubhouse I took my time, kissing Ever deeply right there on the landing outside of her apartment. Whoever was in the shadows watching us would have a great view, and could take it back to the club. I had no doubt it was a prospect stuck on Ever-watch duty, but the fact that he was feeding the club her whereabouts when she was out with me pissed me off. It also made me rethink the conversation I’d had with Ever about trusting my club brothers. Clearly, there were some boundaries being overstepped that needed clarifying.

“I have to get going, babe,” I told her before laying another smoldering kiss on her pillow-soft lips. The whimper that came in response nearly had me forgetting my duty to the club. The only thing that stopped me was the fact that this was only our second date, and Ever had never been with a man before. She deserved for us to take it slow and for her memories of us together to not seem as though they were rushed. I pulled away from her lips once more, regretting the fact that I had to, yet warmed at the blissed out smile she greeted me with.

“Is it always like that?”

“What?” I asked, unsure of what she was getting at.

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