Page 12 of Taken By the Biker Daddies

“I can explain,” Max said as he leaned on the edge of the pool table in the basement.

Jake sat in the old recliner letting out a yawn. I grabbed the stool in the corner and dropped my ass down on it. I took my pack of cigarettes out of the pocket of my jacket, lit one and took a puff. Then I crossed my leg over my knee and looked at Max.

“Fine. Explain. As quickly as fucking possible. I haven’t had decent sleep in days.”

And I doubted I would be able to have one now after what I had just come home to.

Max drew a breath. “Three days ago, I was riding up Harrison Hill and in the middle of a downpour, and I nearly ran over a woman. That was who you saw in the kitchen.”

“You mean the one you hit second base with on the counter a few minutes ago?”

“You and Lauren were doing what?” Jake looked completely awake now, eyes wide.

Max put his hands up. “The attraction was mutual and the physical contact was consensual. And completely unexpected, trust me. Not to mention amazing.”

Jake said nothing.

“I already saw it,” I told Max. “I don’t want to fucking hear it. And I’m still waiting for a fucking explanation.”

Max turned his attention back to me. “Her name is Lauren, and I told the hospital she was my girlfriend so they wouldn’t have to call the cops.”

I took my cigarette out of my lips. “Wow.”

“As it turned out, she has no family and a case of amnesia. She had nowhere to go.”

“So you brought your fake girlfriend here?”

Max glanced at Jake. “Actually, that was Jake’s idea.”

I raised an eyebrow at the leader of Black Storm. “Really?”

That was even more surprising. I knew Max was staying away from women but he wasn’t exactly closed off to them, either. I knew I’d eventually find him with one, though maybe not one that was living with us for obscure reasons. But Jake? Well, I never…

“Really,” he answered. “Like Max said, she has no one and nowhere to go. And it was Max who sent her to the hospital. It was the right thing to do.”

I sighed, resigning myself to defeat. I had known them both long enough to know that Max, as easygoing as he seemed, had astubborn streak, and once Jake had made up his mind, that was it. There was no use trying to talk sense into either of them.

I took another puff of my cigarette. “I sure hope you guys know what you’re doing.”

Unlike me, neither of them had ever really lived with a woman before, so maybe not, but they had already made their bed. I could only hope they wouldn’t fall out of it badly.

Max nodded, a serious expression on his face. “I do.”

Jake stood up, walked over to me and gave me a pat on the shoulder. “We’ll be okay.”

Right. We’d already been through so much together. We’d survived hell. How hard could having a woman under our roof be?

Apparently, quite fucking hard.

Lauren didn’t even talk a lot like my ex-wife. In fact, she hadn’t spoken a word to me since we met. She didn’t watch TV too loud, or at all. She didn’t dress like some of the girls who came to Billie’s. All she had on was a gray shirt and a pair of black cotton shorts that covered half her thighs. She didn’t try to flirt. She was just there.

And I was completely aware of it.

As I stood on the patio smoking a cigarette, I felt on edge, like a soldier on duty. I couldn’t stop myself from looking back insidethe house every now and then, curiously watching her as she tried to find her way through the kitchen.

Just a few seconds earlier, I had caught her with a pout and her eyebrows furrowed as she stared down Jake’s jar of pickles that she had found in the fridge. After opening it, she took a sniff and made a face. I nearly laughed.

Now, she was playing with her hair as she stared at the ingredients she had gathered on the counter. First, she smoothed her hair back, gathering most of it into a messy ponytail, then she let it go, the strands tumbling down her shoulders and back. Afterwards, she grabbed a few strands of her hair then started coiling them around her fingers, letting the tips caress her cheeks like a brush.

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