Page 8 of Storm

THREE

STORM

Storm stared toward the playroom, sitting so still he was practically a statue. It was her. The one he wanted to scold yesterday for sleeping at her desk without locking the door. For staying up too late and not eating her lunch. He had suspected she could be Little, but there was no doubt about it now. The woman was fuckingLittle.

He hadn’t caught her name when Carlee introduced Molly to her. They had been on the other side of the room, and he had been too stunned about seeing her again to think about going to introduce himself.

“You okay, bud?” Steele, the club president and Storm’s best friend, asked.

Tearing his gaze away from the arched entrance to the room, Storm cleared his throat and nodded. “Fine. I should go.”

It was usually what he did whenever the girls had a party. He would head to his apartment for the night and watch a game or something.

As he rose from his seat, the swarm of girls stomped out of the playroom, hands on their hips. Except for the receptionist. She was standing behind them, her eyes shifting around nervously.

“You’re moving?” Ivy demanded, shooting daggers his way.

The entire room fell silent. Fuck. He hadn’t planned to tell everyone yet. Only a few select guys.

When he looked from Ivy to the adorable Little girl in the back, she mouthed, “I’m so sorry.”

Now he had another reason he wanted to scold her. More importantly, he wanted to know what else she had told the girls about him. He had a feeling when he’d left the real estate office the day before that she wasn’t all that impressed by him. Most women weren’t once he opened his mouth. He wasn’t the smoothest guy.

“Why would you want to move? Do you not like us?” Remi asked in a small voice that clutched his heart tightly.

“What?” he snapped. “Why would you think that?”

Seriously, what was the big deal? A lot of the men in the club had homes of their own.

Remi rolled her eyes. Something she excelled at. “Gee, I don’t know. Maybe because you’re always grumpy to us, and now you’re moving to get away from us.” Remi sounded heartbroken.

“Remi,” Kade said gently. “Don’t make him feel bad. He’s allowed to move if he wants to. He’ll still have his apartment here.”

Carlee sniffed, and Storm was pretty sure some waterworks were about to start. He felt like such an asshole.

“Listen,” he said, sharper than he meant, making a couple of the Littles startle.Yeah, a total asshole. “I’m not moving to get away from you. I’ll still be at the compound nearly every day for work and club stuff, so you’ll see me all the time.”

“Why didn’t you tell us? We could have had a meeting about it and voted for you to stay,” Eden told him, tears forming in her wide eyes.

The fact that these Littles were so upset about him leaving was surprising to him. He wasn’t quite sure how to feel aboutthat. If anything, he thought they would have been happy to get rid of him.

Letting out a sigh, he ran a hand through his black slicked-back hair. Dealing with emotional shit wasn’t his thing. He wasn’t good at being vulnerable. The one time he’d let himself get attached, it had blown up in his face. It was better to keep messy things, like feelings, locked deep in the shell of his black heart.

“It’s not like I’m moving far. I just made the offer yesterday. I was going to wait to see if it’s accepted before I told everyone,” he explained.

“Girls,” Gabriel said. “Let’s not worry about this tonight. You’re all supposed to be having fun.”

Remi huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. “Fine. But this conversation isn’t over.”

And then, just like they stormed in, the Littles disappeared back to the playroom as dramatically.

He leaned back in his chair and dropped his head to look at the ceiling. “I don’t know why they’re upset.”

Steele stood, shaking his head. “Because whether you believe it or not, they love you, even though you’re a cranky asshole.”

“Fuck,” Storm muttered. “How can I fix this?”

Gabriel smirked. “You could start by staying for the entire party.”

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