Page 5 of Love Gamble

I grind my teeth together as the woman plays with her hair and stares up at him. She looks nothing like me. She’s a fucking Barbie, and I look like the chick fromBrave.

He should have just said that I wasn’t his type at all. Or maybe that’s just my insecurity speaking. I have no reason to be angry, but I am. For some reason this has caught me off guard, maybe because he’s never brought a woman around me before, or even flirted with one in front of me.

I reach for the handle to open the door, pulling on it harder than necessary.

“What are you going to do?” Bella asks, concern in her tone.

“Nothing,” I force out, even though every instinct in my body is telling me otherwise. Deep inside I want to go and grab him, and ask him what the hell he’s doing, and maybe shake some sense into him. “He’s not mine. He can fuck who he wants.”

And I don’t get to have a say in that. He can be with whoever, and I don’t get to have an attitude about it. Or at least that’s what I’m telling myself.

“Corey,” she calls out gently as I get out of the car. She does the same and catches up to me as I walk by them to get inside.

My eyes catch his and hold in the moment I pass them, like we’re in a slow-motion movie.

I don’t know what he sees in mine, but he winces, slightly.

I guess I don’t have the poker face that I thought I did. I’ve never been one to go where I’m not wanted.

And I’m not going to start now.

Chapter Three

Damon

If looks could kill, I’d be lying on the floor in a pile of ash. Bella doesn’t even wave at me like she usually would, and we’ve been friends for years. I guess I know whose side she’s on.

I don’t know what I was thinking not sending Melinda away the second she showed up here. The truth is I haven’t been making the best decisions as of late. I’ve been stressed as shit and needed some release, and things with Corey are not going to happen, for so many reasons—including her brother River, who I kind of need to get along with right now.

Add that I’m working to try to beef up security while the Lost Lions MC is lurking, potentially ready to start a war with us. Oh, and then the other things, like Corey being ten years younger and how dating her would be in strict contrast to my new role at the club as sergeant at arms. The job puts me in one of the club’s most dangerous roles, and after what she went through, the last thing she should be doing is dating someone who will always put her at risk.

Oh, and also the fact that I’m a hot mess.

“Who is that?” asks Melinda, arching her brow as the front door slams shut.

I met her at the bar a few days back, and she seems pretty fun. Fun, easy, casual, exactly what I’ve been needing. Well, that’s not true. She seemed like the second-best option, and I know it makes me an asshole for even thinking that. Desperation had me thinking with the wrong head, especially after not fucking anyone for so long. It was a coincidence she was taking over Julianna’s office space, and a tie-in with the club I would have avoided if I had known.

“Women who live here,” is all I say, because Melinda doesn’t need to know every bit of information. And if I’m being honest, I didn’t even invite her here today, she surprised me by following from the office to give me the lunch she made. Yes, I’m aware that’s a big fucking red flag.

“Listen, I’d prefer it if we didn’t meet here. We’ve only just met recently, and my family is all here,” I say, rubbing the back of my neck. “So next time, just call me.”

“Oh,” she says, blue eyes going wide. “Of course, I’m sorry, I didn’t think. I just went after you when I saw you had forgotten the food. I better get back to work anyway.”

She gives me a kiss, winking at me as she walks to the road where she parked her car.

“Fuck,” I whisper as I finish unloading the last of the boxes and then head inside, where I find Corey slamming cupboards in the kitchen, with Bella sitting at the dining table, softly speaking to her. Bella pauses when she sees me, so I have no idea what was being said. Corey pulls her head out of the pantry to see why Bella has gone quiet, her beautiful hazel eyes narrowing when they land on me.

“What?” she asks, scowling. “What do you want?”

“Nothing,” I say, shifting on my feet. I don’t want to assume that she’s so upset because she saw me with another woman, but that really is the vibe that I’m getting right now. “Are you okay?”

I grimace when the words leave my lips. Yes, I want to know if she’s okay, but asking is only going to make her angry—the last thing she’d want is for me to have noticed that she’s pissed off right now.

She purses her lips and slams the pantry door shut. “Why wouldn’t I be okay?” she asks, glaring at me dead in the eye.

I’ve never seen the similarities between her and her brother, in looks or in personality, but as she stares me down, an intense aura of violence surrounding her, I can see how they’re related.

I shrug and bite my bottom lip as I think how to word this without setting off the already ticking bomb. “I don’t know, you just seem a little angry, so I just wanted to check in on you.”

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