He could only imagine how much Spec wanted to shake a better explanation out of him.
“Hot, that one, huh?”
“What?” Pulse turned toward Spec, who jerked his chin in Talia’s direction.
“You’ve been staring at the sexy lawyer lady since before I came over.”
What? No, he wasn’t. “I’m not staring. Just thinking about shit.”
“Shit, like her tits in that tight dress? Maybe her ass. She’s got a good one. Squeezable.”
His eyebrow arched. “Liv know you’re checking out other women’s asses?”
Spec threw his head back and laughed. “If it helped get you a woman, she’d be fine with me stuffing one in my trunk and kidnapping her.”
He blinked. “What? What the hell are you talking about?”
“Brother, you have no idea how badly those ol’ ladies want you wifed up.”
“Fuck off. They do not give a shit about that.”
“Oh, I’m serious, man, they do. They are plotting and planning, so watch your back. Maybe I should say watch your ring finger.”
“You’re crazy.”
His gaze drifted back to Talia, and he felt the same stirring in his groin he’d felt the night before. He wasn’t blind. The woman was sexy as hell. She had curves, an ass built for squeezing like Spec said, and a rack he could get lost in for hours. But the confidence she radiated drew his and probably every man’s eye. Talia was a gorgeous, intelligent woman, and she carried herself like she damn well knew it.
Sexy.
If his life hadn’t blown the fuck up last night, he’d be all over that, but he had more important things to think about than his dick. Talia got him out of a sticky situation yesterday, but the DEA wouldn’t give up. They wanted an inside player in the MC, and they wanted it to be him. Despite his former life as an undercover agent, Pulse wasn’t a rat. He’d never willingly hand over his brothers. If the DEA thought he would, they were in for a rude awakening. The only question was how badly they’d fuck up his life as punishment for not playing along.
He’d cut all ties with his former life when he walked away years ago. After four years undercover, he’d had few friends and family connections left outside the agency, but now he had none—no ties to his past. It gave the government little to use as leverage, so they’d threatened to out him to his current MC. If it came to that, he’d leave before they got the chance.
The only way they could possibly manipulate Pulse would be if they went directly after one of his club brothers or their ol’ ladies, but he doubted they’d be stupid enough. They wanted to destroy the club from the inside, not start a war.
“Hey,” Spec said as he nudged Pulse with his beer bottle. “You good?”
“I’m all right. Hardly got any sleep.” He shrugged. “Just feeling off.”
“Look, Pulse, it’s no secret you’re quieter than most of us fuckers and keep to yourself more, but you know we got your back, right?”
“Yeah, of course.”
“No, brother. I mean, we really got you. No matter what the fuck it is. We can handle whatever hell comes our way.”
He cocked his head.” Even if I beat the shit outta some poor working girl?” He’d meant it as a dark way to break the tension, but his stomach twisted with disgust even as he said the words.
Instead of recoiling, Spec nodded once. “Even then.” Then he smirked. “But I know you, Pulse. Even though you’re a private bastard who doesn’t like to share shit, I know you’d never lay a hand on a woman. You’d have never made it far with this club if you were that kind of dickbag.”
“Yeah.”
“I’m just tryna say that you don’t need to keep your distance, Pulse. Whatever you got, we can handle.”
He met Spec’s gaze once again. “How do you know I got something?”
Spec grunted. “Cuz we all do, brother. It’s how we all found each other. We’re a bunch of misfits with truckloads of past trauma.” He slapped Pulse on the shoulder and then ambled off, probably in search of his woman. It had been at least ten minutes since he’d had his mouth on her. He was probably getting the shakes.
He needed to shake off this funk. There were things to be done to protect himself and his club, and he couldn’t get his ass in gear if his head were lodged up it.